text:
Michael Creamer Vs 'The Mob'
The truth….
Category: PC 1425 Andy Collis
The Mob's Atrocious Driving!!!
Posted on 29th September 2017 7 Comments
Please take a look at the video:
Bad Driving
What's your opinion on this disgraceful driving? This manner of driving can only be one of five things:
1 Was the officer driving whilst using his mobile (texting or making a phone call)?
2 Was the driver over tired after a long shift?
3 Had a joyrider pinched the police car, as you wouldn't expect a police officer to drive like this?
4 Was he getting a blow j** from the passenger?
5 Was the driver intoxicated?
What we can confirm is that PC Neil Bebbington wasn't driving this car, he's just been done for drink-driving and we know it wasn't PC Dave Parminter as he also got banned for drink-driving.
Here is the registration of the vehicle BX14 EHU, you would like to think that this driver is prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.
Maybe John Hanson from Professional Standards would pass the video onto the CPS.
YNWA – JFT96
CategoriesCPS, North Wales Police, PC 1352 David Parminter, PC 1425 Andy Collis, Truth
North Wales ex-cop found hanged, faced charges of sex abuse of girl aged 12
Posted on 15th June 2017 11 Comments
Robert Jones Welch a retired member of The Mob, once served at Llandudno and was a former police traffic officer based at Caernarvon. Jones Welch was found hanged near his home, after facing being charged over allegations of sexual abuse on a young girl. The young girl was only 12 when the abuse was said to have started, in this case the girl will never get justice as Jones Welch killed himself which is so sad for the victim and the family.
Jones Welch's wife was also a copper Carys Jones Welch. What is quite alarming in this case, is the police tell members of the public to be vigilant in cases like this and obviously with terrorist attacks, in this case you have a man and wife who were both police officers and yet the wife has no idea of what's going on. You must ask yourself because he took his own life, he escapes a proceeds of crime? He still has a full police pension, don't you think readers of the blog, his police pension should have been given to his victim? I'm sure his wife wouldn't have been that cheeky to take his pension.
It goes without saying, we need law and order and good honest police men and women to police our streets and protect the public and there are some good police officers that serve our communities 365 days a year and do a fantastic job, you only have to look at what happened recently in Manchester and London and how quick they responded but in North Wales the records speak for themselves, corruption.
North Wales police officers stealing money, they stole mine I produced a set of accounts to Superintendent John Hanson at HQ when my solicitor was present, John Hanson wouldn't look at the accounts or the paperwork, so I made a complaint to Professional Standards regarding this matter. Superintendent Andy Jenks Gilbert took the complaint and a full investigation was carried out and it was proved John Hanson did not investigate properly, how convenient, Jenks Gilbert retired quite quickly and who took over his job? Superintendent John Hanson.
Karen Dixon from the CPS wouldn't have been informed of my money that went missing, The Mob would keep that away from her. This is separate money from the £350,000 they have just stolen from me for the trumped-up charge of mortgage fraud, Superintendent John Chapman, you know about this money that went missing and when I called your office you refused to speak to me.
I'm not going away Mr Chapman I want my money if I have to call to your house on a peaceful protest I will, as John Hanson has done his best to brush my complaint under the carpet that went to Professional Standards because Andy Jenks Gilbert knows the real truth about my money.
Gordon Anglesey retired Superintendent abused boys, Ian James Clarke raped a woman, Martyn Parmley was sacked for going on the police computer not for policing purposes, Andy Gill sacked for going on the police national computer not for policing purposes, PC David Gardner arrested a male & while this person was locked up he went and had sex with the man's partner, another Llandudno police officer PC Gary Donnelly was jailed for 18 months for sexual assault on a 14-year-old girl.
PC James Cleverly Evans was jailed for 28 months for down loading indecent images of children, PC Wyn Morris a former member of The Mob was jailed for 4 1/2 years for sexually abusing a young girl.
PC Dave Parminter bullied and assaulted children in Conwy, PC Steve Carroll another lunatic with the helicopter, his story will be told in due course. Inspector Paul Joyce the Iceland bag man, Inspector Ian Verburg "I don't know who Thoughts of Oscar is, I just want my pension because I'm moving to Fuerteventura soon to get away from all this shit, I must have looked a right plonker Michael because I sent memos to all police stations in North Wales telling all the officers not to look on your blog Michael Creamer versus The Mob" but everybody in the country is looking at it, they are coming down in the middle of the night just to check their names are not appearing on it, they are embarrassed for their children and grandchildren to see how corrupt they have been. Ian, your first wife who is a serving police officer, who lives in Anglesey she loves the site!!
DC Don Kenyon along with Jason Davenport and Nicholas Hawe, have wasted thousands of pounds on the police helicopter flying over properties I owned taking photos for a victimless crime, the helicopter cost £1000 per hour and The Mob say the helicopter is only called to emergencies.
The ex-chief constable the mad mullah Richard Brunstom, ordered Don Kenyon to send the helicopter up as part of Operation Pylon. The mad mullah, whilst a serving officer kissed a woman in Bangor, who is just a normal member of the public, next thing you know she's a copper and then became a police sergeant very fast…carrying on behind his wife's back, hmmm!!!
Don't worry her name will be revealed later on, along with a few other bobbies who thought they were having secret affairs behind their wife's back, I know who they are and I'm going to name them.
You think you can abuse your powers and stitch people up like you have done to me and my family.
Al the above as mentioned are North Wales police officers, the corruption is unbelievable we can only hope and pray that the new young police officers they are recruiting are honest and will be good police offices to serve our communities in North Wales.
It really is frightening to think how many of the above mentioned, bent officers are sex pests and have given evidence in our courts in Wales and help get people convicted, this has got to stop, one day it could be you or one of your daughters or sons who could be fitted up by The Mob.
Then we have "who ate all the pies, who ate all the pies" Superintendent Simon Humphreys, he was told 'quick Simon clear your desk if this complaint sticks you will lose your pension', his desk was cleared and he was gone through the night. This was the copper that protected the poison pen blog Thoughts of Oscar and prejudiced my trial at Mold Crown Court, The Mob knew they had done that and they had all told lies to protect themselves. The blog Thoughts of Oscar was run by 7 Bellies Nigel Roberts, the ex-secretary state for Wales David Jones MP and Dylan Moore, it was protected by Simon Humphreys and co.
Please remember readers of the blog, these evil, vile people libeled people and people have committed suicide. Conwy Council were pulling their hair out and the police kept on lying to the public and the council saying they don't know who it is they were all in bed together, nobody knew who the authors were and yet some little boy who was born in Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool on the 9th of September 1964, name Michael Creamer, he took the police on and wouldn't take no for an answer and got that poison pen blog closed down by himself, there were people that helped him and gave him information, I have thanked you, but once again thanks for your help. The Mob by now, knew they had been caught out and were trying to cover their tracks and the officers who were involved were panicking thinking they were going to lose their pensions and some officers were moved round.
I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, but I had caught them all out, they are liars, thieves, rapists and I don't know how they can sleep straight in bed at night. Have you noticed not one of them lot and there are some very powerful people here have served a writ on me for slander, none of them can because I'm telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, you know if I had slandered one of them they still wouldn't do it because it's civil and they would have to pay out of their own pockets, the Chief Constable Brunstom, the mad mullah, he's the one who couldn't even pay for his car tax!
But once again I'm telling the truth, what The Mob are very good at is spending the taxpayer's money, they love criminal cases because it doesn't come out of their pockets, remember all those helicopters Don Kenyon and Steve Carroll sent up, all for a victimless crime.
When you get your wages on Friday, check your deductions and think of them helicopter rides you paid for and everything else you've paid for the police to spend on.
David Jones ex Secretary State for Wales was sacked by David Cameron then sacked by Theresa May, he fiddled over £80,000 in expenses and was the author of the Thoughts of Oscar blog and to this day has still not been prosecuted and has not received a proceeds of crime and neither have any of the officers that committed crimes.
Shortly I will be writing to Her Majesty the Queen and to the Prime Minister, asking why North Wales police are employing so many paedophiles etc and saying not one of them has had a proceeds of crime order.
Finally read below, former top cop, Steve Curtis, Assistant Chief Constable of North Wales threatened somebody at the gun club, saying 'I will kill you' but has selective memory, as he can't recall saying this at the tribunal but he remembers using the C word, also another former senior officer Gary Ashton was suspended from the same gun club.
What do you think readers of the blog, do you think this lot sound like bullies or am I just imagining it?
Thank you for your comments and emails etc I know a lot of people keep stopping me in the street asking when Gary John and Gary Sky are going to be on here, all I can say is it's coming and I will give you a date very soon.
JFY96 -YNWA
CategoriesChief Inspector Paul Joyce, CPS, David Gardner, David Jones MP, DC 1359 Nicholas Hawe, DC 2313 Don Kenyon, Gordon Anglesea, Insp 2179 Jason Davenport, North Wales Police, PC 0489 Stephen Carroll, PC 1352 David Parminter, PC 1425 Andy Collis, PC 1651 Martyn Parmley, Police Complaints, Sgt 840 Bob Welch, Simon Humphreys
PC 1352 Dave Parminter involved in a road rage
Posted on 3rd October 2016 5 Comments
I have told you on this blog before that this man's name will keep popping up, as he's been up to all kinds over the years; you've read on a previous post all about his ex-wife Hanne Tolg Parminter, who resigned from the fire service at Conwy amid an investigation into her alleged involvement in writing for far-right websites.
Parminter and his ex-wife have been protected by their state employers, they are as bad as each other.
Emily Tolg Parminter (the daughter) was involved in an incident last year, when she was caught driving without insurance; her father Dave Parminter allowed her to drive his BMW when she was only a learner driver, not displaying L plates and no insurance, how convenient that she was let off with a warning.
Parminter himself was involved in a road rage incident where he ran over a man's foot and broke it, he got off with that aswell, it's disgraceful. I've told you before when he used to be a bobby in Conwy, he gave a few kids a slap, he got his name sprayed all over the council offices in Bodlondeb, he went to the Magistrates courts, told them he needs a warrant to search my property, that warrant was negative, all of this is on previous posts.
You also heard of him calling a code red and getting a number of police vehicles to attend Conwy Square and have me arrested for a public order offence, where I pleaded not guilty. The little garden gnome Parminter never turned up for court and I was found not guilty, he thought he could do what he liked; eventually The Mob saw through him and got rid of him.
Not so long ago he was speeding in his BMW, going through Mochdre like a lunatic, where PC 1425 Andy Collis was on duty and drove after him, pulled him over, PC Collis could smell alcohol on him, breathalysed him and as you all know it was a positive reading, Parminter tried to worm out of it with PC Collis, but Collis reported back to his bosses that Parminter's driving was atrocious going through Mochdre and he couldn't turn a blind eye to it, he was put before the courts and banned for drink driving, that's him, his wife & his daughter all up to no good.
It's frightening to think about how many people he stitched up when he was a copper, he did it to me and he would have done it to one of your sons or daughters and finally he is a friend of Nigel '7 bellies' Roberts one of the authors of Thoughts of Oscar, I have to keep mentioning the blog and 7 Bellies because the police told the public lies, saying they didn't know who was the author of the blog, when they knew exactly who it was and they used that poison pen blog to get people convicted.
There will be more to come on Parminter and his family.
The next post you will read in the next few days is concerning a police officer who was secretly recorded bad mouthing me and you will see he's committed fraud himself.
Superintendent John Chapman, I am still waiting patiently, can you try and sort my money out.
JFT96 – YNWA
CategoriesHarassment, North Wales Police, Obsessed, PC 1352 David Parminter, PC 1425 Andy Collis, Thoughts of Oscar, Truth
Apology Accepted
Posted on 4th July 2015 6 Comments
Below is a letter from The Mob about the letter sent out in error to my son after he received a fixed penalty notice from PC 1425 Andy Collis for holding a mobile phone in his hand, the letter that Mathew received was actually meant for a man in Wrexham.
We accept your apology.
All references to Mr M********* have been redacted.
CategoriesNorth Wales Police, PC 1425 Andy Collis, Truth
PC 1425 Andy Collis, clerical error!!
Posted on 21st June 2015 4th July 2015 4 Comments
A few weeks ago my son was driving through Llandudno Junction and he pulled over into the parking bay outside the florist, on the side street was PC 1425 Andy Collis waiting for prey, sitting in his unmarked vehicle.
He saw my son pull over and he had his mobile phone in his hand, now at this point you'd think he'd show some good old policing, discretion or common sense to advise my son about having a mobile phone in his hand.
Not Andy Collis, he said I'm booking you, although my son said to him 'check my phone, I haven't used it'.
Collis replied, I know you haven't used the phone, but you wouldn't have your phone in your hand on a driving test.
Question to the readers: What happens to people seen by The Mob, if they are smoking or eating a sandwich etc whilst driving??
Anyway, my son accepted the fixed penalty notice.
A few weeks later I received a letter to our house from NWP in the name of Mr E*** S******* M******* asking him to go on a course for using a mobile phone when driving, I phoned the Transactional Unit, spoke to a lady by the name of Gemma Roberts, I explained that my son got stopped a few weeks ago, I gave her his details, which she located on her computer.
I asked her how have I received this letter for a man that lives in Wrexham, Gemma apologised and said Mr M********'s letter must have been put in your envelope, apology accepted.
It's ok for us to accept an apology, why wouldn't PC 1425 Andy Collis give my son a warning for holding his phone in his hand??
PC 1425 Andy Collis, Latest Within The Last 24 Hours
Myself, Anita and my nephew Christian had been to Llandudno and were travelling home just after 1:30am this morning (21/06/2015) in my son's Mercedes convertible and if anybody knows this car then Andy Collis knows it, because he's already done a PNC on the plate and knows its registered to my son.
So he decides to pull the car over, blue flashing lights on and comes to the vehicle, said it's a routine stop at 1:30 am, asks Anita to provide a breath sample, which she did and it was obviously negative.
My nephew was sat in the back of the car and videoed it from his mobile phone , when PC 1425 Andy Collis finished, he handed Anita the tube back and said you keep that it's got your DNA on it.
http://michaelcreamervsthemob.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AndyCollis.mp4
I would like to advise any motorist who gets breathalyzed to make sure you get your tube from The Mob, because you don't know where your DNA could end up.
This blog has been showing in a chronological order the years of targeted harassment that I have suffered, these posts have been added today to show the readers that this harassment against my family & I is still ongoing.
CategoriesNorth Wales Police, Obsessed, PC 1425 Andy Collis, Singled Out
Miscarriages of Justice
http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/ Below are cases of miscarriages of justice by the British authorities, we cannot bring back hanging when the authorities keep getting it wrong.
Eddie Gilfoyle
The Birmingham Six
Sam Hallam
Sally Clark
Sion Jenkins
The Guildford Four
Barry George
Paul Blackburn
Suzanne Holdsworth
Stephen Downing
Andrew Evans
The Bridgewater Four
Stefan Kiszcko
Llandudno Traffic Warden "Where's Wally" Doesn't Know Traffic Warden Legislation
Let's Get This Song to Number One for Easter: Garry Sky the White Cliffs of Dover!
North Wales Police Officer's Son Ends Up In Court After Watching Manchester City Versus Swansea Football Match!!
Sgt. Neil Stringfellow Unlawfully Altered Dates and Signatures on Dispersal Order
International Women's Day, PC Anja Macleod the Dog Beater Keeps Her Job
Paul Conway on Llandudno Traffic Warden "Where's Wally" Doesn't Know Traffic Warden Legislation
Anon on Let's Get This Song to Number One for Easter: Garry Sky the White Cliffs of Dover!
Anonymous on Employee Brags That She Gets More Money Working Two Days For Conwy Council Than Them Lot At Tesco's Get For A Week
Anonymous on Llandudno Traffic Warden "Where's Wally" Doesn't Know Traffic Warden Legislation
Anon on Llandudno Traffic Warden "Where's Wally" Doesn't Know Traffic Warden Legislation
Archives Select Month July 2019 (1) April 2019 (1) March 2019 (5) February 2019 (4) January 2019 (2) December 2018 (1) October 2018 (3) September 2018 (2) August 2018 (1) July 2018 (2) June 2018 (1) March 2018 (3) February 2018 (4) January 2018 (4) December 2017 (5) November 2017 (7) October 2017 (4) September 2017 (3) August 2017 (2) July 2017 (4) June 2017 (5) December 2016 (5) November 2016 (5) October 2016 (5) September 2016 (4) August 2016 (5) July 2016 (3) June 2016 (2) May 2016 (3) April 2016 (4) March 2016 (8) January 2016 (7) December 2015 (5) November 2015 (10) October 2015 (8) September 2015 (9) August 2015 (11) July 2015 (18) June 2015 (23)
1627 Chris Jones
Anja Mason
Chief Inspector Paul Joyce
Cllr Julie Fallon Smith
Conwy Council
Craig Macloed
David Gardner
DC 1359 Nicholas Hawe
DC 2247 Lee Jones
DC 2272 Shaun Parry
DC 2313 Don Kenyon
DC Halford
Eryl Crump
Gary Lloyd
Gary Plumb
Gary Sky
Glyn Bellis
Gordon Anglesea
Haydn Williams
HM Customs & Excise
Insp 2179 Jason Davenport
Inspector 1642 Emma Naughton
Kymberley Jones
Meirion Jones
North Wales Police
Owner of a dangerous dog
PC 0489 Stephen Carroll
PC 1003 Halliday
PC 1298 Nickels
PC 1352 David Parminter
PC 1425 Andy Collis
PC 1651 Martyn Parmley
PC 1719 Samuel
PC 1854 Gary James
PC 1929 Duncan Logan
PC 2364 Mike Smith
PC 2538 Rob Jones
PC 2671 Nia Owen
PC 2744 Ellis
PC 3192 Adam Sergeant
PC 476 Jones
PC 500 R Shaw
PC 913 Rogers
PC Cawood
PC Dubbins
PC Liston
PCSO Sarah Curry
Richard Eccles
Sgt 1551 Anderson
Sgt 2665 Paul Bricknell
Sgt 840 Bob Welch
Sgt. 1311 Ian McMahon
Sgt. Oliver
Sgt. Williams
Simon Curzon
Simon Humphreys
Superintendent 1443 Rob Kirman
Superintendent Sacha Hatchett
Supt. Kirman
Thoughts of Oscar
PLS Solicitors are the best solicitors in the country when it comes to conveyancy, please see their website when it comes to other professional services that they provide. I would like to thank Glyn Baker and his staff for the excellent work they have done for me.
Below are Solicitors that I highly recommend for criminal and defence, Hogan Brown Solicitors of Liverpool. They are professional in everything they do, all the staff are very helpful & friendly.
I would like to thank Tuckers Solicitors for the work they have done for me and my family, Leigh Wright is the man to help you in Manchester.
I'd like to thank Guto Bebb MP and his team for the help and support that they've given me.
I would like to thank all the staff at RMNJ Solicitors for their excellent work that they've done for me & my family with all prison law issues.
Broudie Jackson Canter at Liverpool for all the work they have done for me. They are very good lawyers if you are going to bring a claim against the police or any criminal injury claims. Chris Topping uses two very good Barristers from London when bringing cases against the police, Leslie Thomas who represented Mark Duggan and also Stephen Simblet. Both come highly recommended. You will read later on this blog Creamer vs the Chief Constable of North Wales Police, January 2013, Llangefni County Court.
Below is Nigel Roberts, one of the contributors to the poison pen style blog Thoughts of Oscar, more to come about him and his friends..
I would not recommend this Llandudno firm to anybody
David Jones MP, ex-Secretary State for Wales who was sacked by the Prime Minister twice. You can listen to his tape recordings on this blog
I have never met or spoken with Ruby Williams-retired BBC reporter & Daily Post reporter, yet she had plenty to say about me. The recording will be on the blog soon.
Haydn, you earned your space on the Wall of Shame, by giving false information to HM Customs & Excise and to North Wales Police, knowing the information was false.
Peter Nolan of The Fisherman's Chip Shop, Castle Street, Conwy. You earned your place on the Wall of Shame for giving North Wales Police false information, in reporting me for drink-driving, when it was untrue.
Eryl Crump, reporter from the daily Post, you have earned your place on the Wall of Shame for printing lies and wrong information regarding my son being involved in a conspiracy to supply drugs when he was prosecuted for being 'knowingly concerned', you put a small apology in the paper. The Daily Post got the figures wrong with my proceeds of crime and did apologise for that as well.
Ahmed Jamil, another former Llandudno magistrate & ex county Councillor, appeared in court after fraudulently prescribing himself drugs
Sarfraz Ibrahim, a corrupt Crown Prosecutor who pocketed thousands of pounds to use his position to discontinue a case was jailed for four and a half years.
Llandudno magistrate David Rees 65, convicted for fraud
Lucie & Bev Hobson, mother and daughter from Conwy, you two have earned your place on the wall of shame for spreading malicious and untrue derogatory remarks around Conwy, knowing the rumours were false, nothing more than malicious gossip.
Gordon Anglesea, disgraced North Wales ex-Superintendent, freemason, father & grandfather jailed for 12 years for sexual abuse of vulnerable boys in care homes in North Wales.
Gary Plumb aka Sky, you have earned your place on the Wall of Shame when you gave evidence at my trial, you forgot to tell the jury about your background, when the truth comes out you'll be removed from PubSafe.
Gary Lloyd, you earned your place on the Wall of Shame when you gave evidence in the Creamer trial, you never told the jury about your background, you're not ashamed that you're a heavy cocaine user & a fraudster
I Gary John Jones, earned my place on the Wall of Shame when I gave evidence in Caernarfon Crown Court against Creamer. I lied under oath & I never told the court I sold drugs & love taking them
Copyright © 2019 Michael Creamer Vs 'The Mob'. All Rights Reserved. | Catch Responsive by Catch Themes


Tomorrow's technologies are flocking to hubs of innovation on the east and west coasts, while everyone else is left being left behind.
Amazon has decided that its much-vaunted "second headquarters" will be split between Long Island City in Queens, and Crystal City, across the Potomac from Washington DC.
Amazon's decision coincides with America's political tumult. Its main headquarters is in Seattle, one of the most liberal cities in the most liberal of states. Its picks – New York and metropolitan Washington – are liberal, too.
Amazon could easily have decided to locate its second headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. After all, Indianapolis was one of the finalists in Amazon's search for a second headquarters, and the city vigorously courted the firm. Not incidentally, Indianapolis is a Republican city in a bright red Republican state.
Amazon's decision wasn't based on political partisanship, but it does expose the real political and economic divide in America today.
Take a closer look at Amazon's business and you see it's not just a big retail operation selling stuff over the internet. Its real business is to get consumers anything they want, faster and better than anyone else can. To accomplish this, Amazon depends on a continuous flow of great new ideas that reveal what people want, how they consume and the most efficient ways of connecting them to the objects of their desire.
In other words, like the other leading firms of the world economy, Amazon produces and acts on new ideas rather than standardized products or services. And the best way to generate new ideas is to get talented people to interact with each other continuously and directly – keying off one another's creativity, testing new concepts, quickly discarding those that don't work, and building cumulative knowledge.
Technology isn't a thing. It's a process of group learning. And that learning goes way beyond the confines of any individual company, like Amazon. It now happens in geographic clusters. In America, those clusters are now mostly along the east and west coasts – in places like Seattle, New York, metropolitan Washington, Boston and Los Angeles. Indianapolis may be a nice place to live, but it doesn't have nearly as big a cluster of talent as do these others.
The result is widening inequalities of place. Increasingly, bright young people from all over America, typically with college degrees, are streaming into these places, where the sum of their individual capacities for invention is far greater than they'd be separately.
The ideas sparked there are delivering streams of new designs and products to the rest of the world. In return, the money pouring into these places from the rest of the world is delivering high wages, good living conditions (museums, restaurants, cafes, recreation) and unbounded wealth.
Yes, corporate rents and housing costs are soaring, as are the costs of sending kids to school (even many "public" schools are in effect private ones because nobody but the rich can afford to live in the school district). But the incomes and profits generated in these places more than make up for it. Which is largely why Amazon chose New York and metro Washington despite their high costs.
As money pours into these places, so do service jobs that cater to the new wealth – pricey lawyers, wealth managers and management consultants, as well as cooks, baristas and pilates instructors. Between 2010 and 2017, according to Brookings, nearly half of America's employment growth centered in just 20 large metro areas that are now home to about a third of the US population.
Relative to these booming mega-cities, America's heartland is becoming older, less educated and poorer. The so-called "tribal" divide in American politics, which Trump has exploited, is better understood in these economic and cultural terms: on one side, mega-urban clusters centered around technologies of the future; on the other, great expanses of relatively open space inhabited by people left behind.
Another consequence is a more distorted democracy. California (now inhabited by 39.54 million) and New York (19.85 million) each get two senators, as do Wyoming (573,000) and North Dakota (672,591). Even though Democratic Senate candidates in the midterm elections received 12m more votes than Republican Senate candidates, Republicans still gained at least one more Senate seat.
The biggest talent centers – like San Francisco, Seattle and Washington – also harbor large and growing populations of poor who have been stranded by the turbo-charged gentrification. These gleaming cities are becoming the most Dickensian locales in America, where homelessness and squalor mix with luxury high-rises and tony restaurants.
So as the American middle class disappears, the two groups falling perilously behind are white, rural, non-college Trump supporters, and the very poor inside America's trendiest mega-urban centers, who are disproportionately black and Latino. Amazon doesn't know or care. That responsibility falls on the rest of the nation.
Robert Reich's latest book is The Common Good, and his latest documentary, now on Netflix, is Saving Capitalism.


Actual Reality is simply an amazing Christian-based multimedia journey. This CD-Rom takes you on a trip through Christianity, with some of your favorite Christian music artists to be your guide.
As you navigate through the interactive menus complete with animations and sound, you'll see Rebecca St. James just pop-up in front of you in a movie theater and begin talking about Christ's life or Peter Furler from the Newsboys "beam" down in a space shuttle. Selected songs by Third Day, Jaci Valesquez, Audio Adrenaline, Out of Eden, & others are integrated into the program where you can listen to a song clip, then click on certain verses of the songs, cueing in band members or artists right in front of you to explain the meaning of the lyric. The program is also filled with many animations & video clips. The program's format makes the material good for preparing Bible Studies for youth groups & other activites. But if this isn't enough, There are at least 25 video clips from some of the best Christian artists including The Supertones, Church of Rhythm, Common Children, Five Iron Frenzy, Blackball, Fold Zandura, & many more. The only thing that could have made the program better would have been including full music videos rather than mere brief clips. Another problem is the program doesn't always work properly as it should. On some computers, the video clips on the program refuse to play while othertimes it glides along without a problem.
It's clear that a lot of time and attention went into the making of the Actual Reality program. All in all, the minds behind Actual Reality have gone above and beyond to create a truly wonderful multimedia experience.


text:
The Dark Hours
A dangerous killer strikes on New Year's Eve and Detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to find justice for an innocent victim in this thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.
Order The Dark Hours
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by Michael Connelly
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This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around November 9, 2021. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Fiction / Fiction / Crime
A Wall Street Journal and South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best Book of the Year
"A masterpiece"—LAPD detective Renée Ballard must join forces with Harry Bosch to find justice in a city scarred by fear and social unrest after a methodical killer strikes on New Year's Eve (Publishers Weekly).
There's chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year's Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. Only minutes after midnight, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party.
Ballard quickly concludes that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky and that it is linked to another unsolved murder—a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch. At the same time, Ballard hunts a fiendish pair of serial rapists, the Midnight Men, who have been terrorizing women and leaving no trace.
Determined to solve both cases, Ballard feels like she is constantly running uphill in a police department indelibly changed by the pandemic and recent social unrest. It is a department so hampered by inertia and low morale that Ballard must go outside to the one detective she can count on: Harry Bosch. But as the two inexorable detectives work together to find out where old and new cases intersect, they must constantly look over their shoulders. The brutal predators they are tracking are ready to kill to keep their secrets hidden.
Unfolding with unstoppable drive and nail-biting intrigue, The Dark Hours shows that "relentless on their own, Ballard's and Bosch's combined skills…could be combustible" (Los Angeles Times).
Listen to an excerpt!
The Little, Brown Newsletter: Giveaways, Excerpts, Author Interviews, and More
"One of this month's best thrillers… Ballard and Bosch are a great combination as they work in and around a police force that Ballard believes too often aims to 'protect and serve the image instead of the citizens.'"—Richard Lipez, Washington Post
"A thoroughly engrossing procedural… The Dark Hours offers plenty of shocking scenes and clever surprises."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
"Outstanding… Connelly is the most consistently superior living crime fiction author. The Dark Hours just reinforces that."—Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun Sentinel
"Extraordinary… [Connelly] is one of the best in the business at writing about investigations and creating intense suspense, but the relationship between Ballard and Bosch—a professional friendship that grows out of two brilliant minds dedicated to the same difficult but important work—is the cherry on top."—Collette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
"Connelly is sharp as ever... his stories always manage to explore another piece of the city's soul."—Crimereads
"A masterpiece… Meticulous about actual police procedure, Connelly makes the fundamentals of detective work engrossing while providing plenty of suspense and action."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The fourth Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch novel is the best yet… Ballard has evolved into one of crime fiction's richest, most complex characters."—Bill Ott, Booklist (starred review)
"Stellar… no one who follows Ballard and Bosch to the end will be disappointed. A bracing test of the maxim that "the department always comes first. The department always wins."—Kirkus Reviews
It was supposed to rain for real and that would have put a damper on the annual rain of lead. But the forecast was wrong. The sky was blue-black and clear. And Ballard braced for the onslaught, positioning herself on the north side of the division under the shelter of the Cahuenga overpass. She would have preferred being alone but was riding with a partner, and a reluctant partner at that. Detective Lisa Moore of the Hollywood Division Sexual Assault Unit was a day-shift veteran who just wanted to be home with her girlfriend. But it was always all hands on deck on New Year's Eve. Tactical alert: everyone in the department in uniform and working twelves. Ballard and Moore had been working since six p.m. and it had been quiet. But it was now about to strike midnight on the last day of the year and the trouble would begin. Added to that, the Midnight Men were out there somewhere. Ballard and her reluctant partner needed to be ready to move quickly when the call came in.
"Do we have to stay here?" Moore asked. "I mean, look at these people. How can they live like this?"
Ballard surveyed the makeshift shelters made of discarded tarps and construction debris that lined both sides of the underpass. She saw a couple of Sterno cook fires and people milling about at their meager encampments. It was so crowded that some shanties were even pressed up against the mobile toilets the city had put on the sidewalks to preserve some semblance of dignity and sanitation in the area. North of the overpass was a residential zone of apartments fronting the hillside area known as the Dell. After multiple reports of people defecating in the streets and yards of the neighborhood, the city came through with the portable toilets. A "humanitarian effort," it was called.
"You ask that like you think they all want to be living under an overpass," Ballard said. "Like they have a lot of choices. Where are they going to go? The government gives them toilets. It takes their shit away but not much else."
"Whatever," Moore said. "It's such a blight—every overpass in the fucking city. It's so third world. People are going to start leaving this place because of this."
"They already have," Ballard said. "Anyway, we're staying here. I've spent the last four New Year's Eves under here and it's the safest place to be when the shooting starts."
They were quiet for a few moments after that. Ballard had thought about leaving herself, maybe going back to Hawaii. It wasn't because of the intractable problem of homelessness that gripped the city. It was everything. The city, the job, the life. It had been a bad year with the pandemic and social unrest and violence. The police department had been vilified, and she along with it. She'd been spat on, figuratively and literally, by the people she thought she stood for. It was a hard lesson, and a sense of futility had set upon her and was deep in the marrow now. She needed some kind of a break. Maybe to go track down her mother in the mountains of Maui and try to reconnect after so many years.
She took one of her hands off the wheel and held her sleeve to her nose. It was her first time back in uniform since the protests. She could make out the smell of tear gas. She had dry-cleaned the uniform twice but the odor was baked in, permanent. It was a good reminder of the year that had been.
The pandemic and protests had changed everything. The department went from being proactive to reactive. And the change had somehow cast Ballard adrift. She had found herself more than once thinking about quitting. That is, until the Midnight Men came along. They had given her purpose.
Moore checked her watch again. Ballard noticed and glanced at the dashboard clock. It was off by an hour, but doing the math told her it was two minutes till midnight.
"Oh, here we go," Moore said. "Look at this guy."
She was looking out her window at a man approaching the car. It was below 60 degrees but he wore no shirt and was holding his dirt-caked pants up with his hand. He wore no mask either. Moore had her window cracked but now hit the button and closed and sealed the car.
The homeless man knocked on her window. They could hear him through the glass.
"Hey, officers, I got a problem here."
They were in Ballard's unmarked car but she had engaged the flashing grille lights when they parked in the median under the overpass. Plus they were in full uniform.
"Sir, I can't talk to you without a mask," Moore said loudly. "Go get a mask."
"But I been ripped off," the man said. "That sumbitch o'er there took my shit when I was sleepin'."
"Sir, I can't help you until you get a mask," Moore said.
"I don't have no fucking mask," he said.
"Then I'm sorry, sir," she said. "No mask, no ask."
The man punched the window, his fist hitting the glass in front of Moore's face. She jerked back even though it had not been a punch intended to break the glass.
"Sir, step back from the car," Moore commanded.
"Sir, if I have to get out, you're going to County," Moore said. "If you don't have corona now, you'll get it there. You want that?"
The man started to walk away.
"Fuck you," he said again. "Fuck the police."
"Like I never heard that before," Moore said.
She checked her watch again and Ballard looked back at the dash clock. It was now the final minute of 2020, and for Moore and most people in the city and the world, the year couldn't end soon enough.
"Jesus Christ, can we move to another spot?" Moore complained.
"Too late," Ballard said. "I told you, we're safe under here."
"Not from these people," Moore said.
It was like a bag of popcorn cooking in a microwave. A few pops during the final countdown of the year and then the barrage as the frequency of gunfire made it impossible to separate it into individual discharges. A gunshot symphony. For a solid five minutes, there was an unbroken onslaught as revelers of the new year fired their weapons into the sky, following a Los Angeles tradition of decades.
It didn't matter that what goes up must come down. Every new year in the City of Angels began with risk.
The gunfire of course was joined by legitimate fireworks and firecrackers, creating a sound unique to the city and as reliable through the years as the changing of the calendar. The over/under at roll call was 18 in terms of calls related to the rain of lead. Windshields mostly would be the victims, though the year before, Ballard caught a report of a bullet falling through a skylight and hitting a stripper on the shoulder who was toiling on a stage below. The falling bullet didn't even break the skin. But a jagged piece of falling skylight glass did give a customer sitting close to the stage a new part in his hair. He chose not to make a police report, because it would reveal that where he was didn't match where he had said he would be.
Whatever the number was, patrol would handle most of the calls unless a detective was warranted. Ballard and Moore were mostly waiting for one call. The Midnight Men. It was a painful reality that sometimes you needed predators to strike again in hopes of a mistake or a new piece of evidence that could lead to a solve.
The Midnight Men was the unofficial moniker Ballard had bestowed on the tag team rapists who had assaulted two women in a five-week span. Both assaults had occurred on holiday nights—Thanksgiving night and Christmas Eve. The cases were linked by modus operandi and not DNA. The Midnight Men were careful not to leave DNA behind. Each attack started shortly after midnight and lasted as long as four hours while the predators took turns assaulting women in their own beds, ending the torture by cutting a large hank of each victim's hair off with the knife held to her throat during the ordeal. Other humiliations were included in the attacks and helped link the cases beyond the rarity of a two-man rape team.
Ballard, as the third watch detective, had been the responding detective on both cases. She had then called in day-watch detectives from the Hollywood Division Sexual Assault Unit. Lisa Moore was a member of that three-detective unit.
In past years, a pair of serial rapists would have immediately drawn the attention of the Sex Crimes Unit that worked out of the Police Administration Building downtown as part of the elite Robbery-Homicide Division. But City Hall cutbacks in police funding had seen the unit disbanded, and sex assault cases were now handled by the divisional detective squads. It was an example of how protesters demanding the defunding of the police department had achieved their goal through unintended means. The move to defund was turned away by the city's politicians, but the police department had burned through its budget in dealing with the protests that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. After weeks of tactical alert and associated costs, the department was out of money and the result was freezes on hiring, the disbanding of units, and the end of several programs. In effect, the department had been defunded in several key areas.
Lisa Moore was a perfect example of how all of this led to a downgrade in service to the community. Rather than the Midnight Men investigation going to a specialized unit with many resources and detectives with extra training and experience in serial investigations, it had gone to the overworked and understaffed Hollywood Division sex crime team that was responsible for investigating every rape, attempted rape, assault, groping, indecent exposure, and claim of pedophilia in a vast geographic and population-dense area. And Moore was like many in the department since the protest, looking to do as little as possible between now and her retirement four years away. She was looking at the Midnight Men case as a time suck taking her away from her normal eight-to-four existence, where she dutifully filed paperwork the first half of the day and conducted minimal investigative work after that, leaving the station only if there was no way the work could be done by phone and computer. She had greeted her assignment to work the midnight shift with Ballard over the New Year's holiday as a major insult and inconvenience. Ballard, on the other side of that coin, had seen it as a chance to get closer to taking down two predators who were out there hurting women.
"What do you hear about the vax?" Moore asked.
Ballard shook her head.
"Probably the same as you hear," she said. "Next month—maybe."
Now Moore shook her head.
"Assholes," she said. "We're first-fucking-responders and should get it with the fire department. Instead we're with the grocery workers."
"The fire guys are considered health-care providers," Ballard said. "We're not."
"I know, but it's the principle of it. Our union is shit."
"It's not the union. It's the governor, the health department, a lot of things."
"Fuckin' politicians…"
Ballard let it go. It was a complaint heard often at roll calls and in police cars across the city. Like many in the department, Ballard had already contracted COVID-19. She had been knocked down for three weeks in November and now just hoped she had enough antibodies to see her through to the vaccine's arrival.
During the brooding silence that followed, a patrol car pulled up next to them on Moore's side, in one of the two southbound lanes.
"You know these guys?" Moore asked as she reached for the window button.
"Unfortunately," Ballard said. "Pull your mask up."
It was a team of P2s named Smallwood and Vitello, who always had too much testosterone running in their blood. They also thought they were "too healthy" to contract the virus and eschewed the department-mandated mask requirement.
Moore lowered the window after pulling her mask up.
"How's things in the tuna boat?" Smallwood said, a wide smile on his face.
Ballard pulled up her department-issued mask. It was navy blue with LAPD embossed in silver along the jaw line.
"You're blocking traffic there, Smallwood," Ballard said.
Moore looked back at Ballard.
"Really?" she whispered. Small wood?"
Ballard nodded.
Vitello hit the switch for the light bar on the patrol car's roof. Flashing blue lit up the graffiti on the concrete walls above the tents and shanties on both sides of the overpass. Various versions of "Fuck the Police" and "Fuck Trump" had been whitewashed by city crews but the messages came through under the penetrating blue light.
"How's that?" Vitello asked.
"Hey, there's a guy over there, wants to report a theft of property," Ballard responded. "Why don't you two go take a report?"
"Fuck that," Smallwood said.
"Sounds like detective work to me," Vitello added.
The conversation, if it could be called that, was interrupted by the voice of a com center dispatcher coming up on the radio in both cars, asking for any 6-William unit, "6" being the designation for Hollywood, and "William" for detective.
"That's you, Ballard," Smallwood said.
Ballard pulled the radio out of its charger in the center console and responded.
"Six-William-twenty-six. Go ahead."
The dispatcher asked her to respond to a shooting with injury on Gower.
"The Gulch," Vitello called over. "Need backup down there, ladies?"
Hollywood Division was broken into seven different patrol zones called Basic Car Areas. Smallwood and Vitello were assigned to the area that included the Hollywood Hills, where crime was low and most of the residents they encountered were white. This was a move designed to keep them out of trouble and away from confrontational enforcement with minorities. However, that had not always worked. Ballard had heard about them roughing up teenagers in cars parked illegally on Mulholland Drive, where there were spectacular views of the city at night.
"I think we can handle it," Ballard called across. "You boys can go back up to Mulholland and watch for kids throwing their condoms out the window. Make it safe up there, guys."
She dropped the car into drive and hit the gas before either Smallwood or Vitello could manage a comeback.
"Poor guy," Moore said without sympathy in her voice. "Officer Smallwood."
"Yeah," Ballard said. "And he tries to make up for it every night on patrol."
Moore laughed as they sped south on Cahuenga.
The Gower Gulch was the name affixed by Hollywood lore to the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, where almost a hundred years ago it was a pickup spot for day laborers. These laborers waited at the corner for work as extras on the westerns the movie studios were turning out by the week. Many of the Hollywood cowboys waited at the intersection in full costume—dusty boots, chaps, vests, ten-gallon hats—so it became known as the Gower Gulch. It was said that a young actor named Marion Morrison picked up work here. He was better known as John Wayne.
The Gulch was now a shopping plaza with the fading facade of an Old West town and portraits of the Hollywood cowboys—from Wayne to Gene Autry—hanging on the outside wall of the Rite Aid drugstore. Going south from the Gulch, a stretch of studio stages as big as gymnasiums lined the east side all the way down to the crown jewel of Hollywood, Paramount Studios. The storied studio was surrounded by twelve-foot-high walls and iron gates, like a prison. But these barriers were constructed to keep people out, not in.
The west side of Gower was a contradiction. It was lined with a stretch of car repair shops sharing space with aging apartments where burglar bars guarded all windows and doors. The west side was marked heavily by the graffiti of a local gang called Las Palmas 13, but the east-side walls of the studios were left unmarred, as if those with the spray paint knew by some intuition not to mess with the industry that built the city.
The shooting call took Ballard and Moore to a street party in the tow yard of an auto body shop. Several people were milling about in the street, most without masks, most watching officers from two patrol cars who were taping off a crime scene inside the gated and asphalt-paved yard lined with vehicles in different stages of repair and restoration.
"So we have to do this, huh?" Moore said.
"I do," Ballard said.
She opened the door and got out of the car. She knew her answer would shame Moore into following. Ballard was pretty sure she was going to need Moore to help with this.
Ballard ducked under yellow tape stretched across the entrance to the business and quickly ascertained that the victim of the shooting was not on scene and had been transported. She saw Sergeant Dave Byron and another officer trying to corral a group of potential witnesses in one of the business's open garages. Two other uniforms were stringing an inner boundary around the actual crime scene, which was marked by a pool of blood and debris left behind by the paramedics. Ballard walked directly to Byron.
"Dave, what do you have for me?" she asked.
Byron looked over his shoulder at her. He was masked but she could tell by his eyes that he was smiling.
"Ballard, I have a shit sandwich for you," he said.
She signaled him away from the citizens so they could talk privately.
"Folks, you all stay right here," Byron said, holding his hands up in a stay-put motion to the witnesses, a sign that they might not understand English.
He joined Ballard by the front of the rusting body of an old VW bus. He looked at what he had jotted down in a small notebook.
"Your victim is supposedly Javier Raffa, owner of the business," he said. "Lives about a block from here."
He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the neighborhood west of the body shop.
"For what it's worth, he has tats indicating an affiliation with Las Palmas," Byron added. "Old tattoos."
"Okay," Ballard said. "Where'd they transport him?"
"Hollywood Pres. He was circling."
"What did the wits tell you?"
"Not much. Left them for you. Raffa apparently has the gates open and puts out a keg every New Year's Eve. It's for the neighborhood but a lot of Las Palmas shows up. After the countdown, there was some shooting of firearms into the sky, and then suddenly Raffa was on the ground. So far, nobody is saying they actually saw him get hit. And you've got shell casings all over the place. Good luck with that."
Ballard shot her chin toward a camera mounted on the roof eave over the corner of the garage.
"What about cameras?" she asked.
"The cameras outside are dummies," Byron said. "Cameras inside are legit but I have not checked them. I'm told they are not in a position to be of much help."
"Okay. You get here before the EMTs?"
"I did not. But the basic car did. Finley and Watts. They said it was a head wound. They're over there and you can go talk to them."
Ballard checked to see if either of the uniforms who were marking the boundary was a Spanish speaker. Ballard knew basic Spanish but was not skilled enough to conduct witness interviews. She saw that one of the officers tying the crime scene tape to the sideview mirror of an old pickup was Victor Rodriquez.
"You mind if I keep V-Rod to translate?" she asked.
Ballard thought she saw the lines of a frown form on Byron's mask.
"How long?" he asked.
"Preliminary with the witnesses and then maybe the family when we go to the house," Ballard said. "I'll get somebody from detective services if we transport anybody back to the station."
"All right, but anything else comes up, I'm going to need to pull him back out."
"Roger that. I'll move fast."
Ballard walked over to Rodriquez, who had been with the division for about a year after transferring from Rampart.
"Victor, you're with me," Ballard said.
"I am?" he said.
"Let's go talk to witnesses."
Moore caught up to Ballard in step toward the group of witnesses.
"I thought you were staying in the car," Ballard said.
"What do you need?" Moore said.
"I could use someone at Hollywood Pres to check on the victim. You want to take the car and head over?"
"Or you can interview witnesses and family while I go."
"Give me the keys."
"I thought so. Keys are still in the car. Let me know what you find out."
Ballard briefed Rodriquez in a whisper as they approached the witnesses.
"Don't lead them," she said. "We just want to know what they saw, what they heard, anything they remember before they saw Mr. Raffa on the ground."
They spent the next forty minutes doing quick interviews with the collected witnesses, none of whom saw the victim get shot. In separate interviews, each described a crowded, chaotic scene in the lot during which most people were looking up at the stroke of midnight as fireworks and bullets cut through the sky. Though no one admitted doing it themselves, they acknowledged that there were those in the neighborhood crowd who had fired guns into the air. None of these witnesses revealed enough to make them important enough to transport to the station for another round of questioning. Ballard copied their addresses and phone numbers into her notebook and told them to expect follow-up contact from homicide investigators.
As she was wrapping up with the last witness, she got a call from Moore, who was at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.
"The victim's family is all here, and they are about to get the word that he didn't make it," she said. "What do you want me to do?"
I want you to act like a trained detective, Ballard thought but didn't say.
"Keep the family there," she said instead. "I'm on my way."
"I'll try," Moore said.
"Don't try, do it," Ballard said. "I'll be there in ten. Do you know if they speak English?"
"Okay, find out and text me. I'll bring somebody in case."
"What's it looking like over there?"
"Too early to tell. If it was an accident, the shooter didn't stick around. And if it wasn't, I've got no camera and no witnesses."
Ballard disconnected and walked over to Rodriquez.
"Victor, you need to drive me to Hollywood Pres," she said.
Ballard informed Byron of where she was going and asked him to keep the crime scene secured until she got back.
As she crossed the lot, following Rodriquez to his car, she saw the first drops of rain hitting the asphalt amid the bullet casings.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
#ifndef _SYSCALL_EXAMPLE_H
#define _SYSCALL_EXAMPLE_H

#include "syscall_interface.h"

// Declare syscalls helpers
errcode_t do_example(debug_agent_interface_t *interface, int *sys_ret);

#endif

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
"Unretiring" To Stay In The Game
Knowing when it's the right time to retire can be difficult, especially if you love your job. Even professional athletes have a hard time knowing when to walk away!
These athletes thought they were ready for retirement but "un-retired" and returned to seek new challenges or extend legendary careers. Let's look at their non-traditional retirement stories.
After the 2022 NFL season (and after missing out on another Super Bowl), Tom Brady announced his retirement, only to roll it back about a month later. His "retirement" barely lasted 40 days! After reflecting on his decision, he stated that the time will come when he is ready to retire, but it's "not now." Instead, fans can expect to see him playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his 23rd season in the NFL.
Michael Phelps is one of the most decorated Olympic athletes and claimed 22 medals (18 gold) when he announced his retirement in 2012. But, he dove into the pool one more time for the 2016 Summer Olympic games and went on to win six more Olympic medals, including five gold medals. After 16 years of competing in the Olympics, Phelps announced his official retirement. He's still close to Team USA and served as part of the NBC commentary team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Keira D'Amato was a 4-time All-American distance runner for American University when she graduated in 2006. She had a promising career ahead of her, but after a series of injuries, she was forced to take hiatus from the sport in 2009 and instead, focused on building a family and began a successful career in real estate. After 7 years off, with two toddler children at home, Keira decided to start running recreationally again just get back in shape and take time for herself. Fast forward to January of 2022, Keira D'Amato, at age 37, ran 2:19:36 to set the new American Record in the Marathon. On her return to competitive running, D'Amato stated, "I feel like I have nothing to lose. I have another life outside of this, which is very important to me. And I feel that gives me a lot of freedom to take risks and not be afraid of failing. Everything that I wish I would have [done in round 1], I'm now doing it in the second phase. I'm taking it really seriously, but I also am having more fun than I've ever had in my whole life."1
Earvin "Magic" Johnson led a superstar NBA career and retired in 1991 after announcing that he was HIV-positive. He then went on to play in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game (and earned the MVP award). He wanted to play in the 1992-1993 season, but the comeback got scrapped in the preseason. He then went on to play 32 games in the 1996 season and then retired for good. At least, from basketball. Today, Johnson is an entrepreneur, and you often read of his involvement in a number of high profile deals in a wide variety of industries.
The good news about retirement is that it's far from the end. It's merely a change in circumstances and might even be turned around if you miss the action or are offered the right deal. Retirement isn't necessarily about leisure but about using your time to pursue what moves and motivates you. Next time we speak, let's chat about what you want to get out of retirement and paths you might consider.


This beer tonight is for all the Swede's who keep emailing me telling me that there is good beer in Sweden. I know there is good beer in Sweden I've just never been able to get any! Here (hopefully) is a good bottle of Swedish beer.
Spendrups is the oldest and biggest brewery in Sweden. They have a number of sites around the country where they produce their beers, including the Gotlands Bryggeri which is their experimental brewery for new beers. In the near future there may even be a Gotlands beer reviewed... Stay tuned! But for now it's time for Spendrups Old Gold.
Spendrups Old Gold looks like you would want every single lager to look like! It's a beautiful golden colour with a three finger head of solid white foam on top. There is more than adequate carbonation rising to this head to sustain it for the entirety of drinking. The head laces the glass brilliantly. It's pretty close to the perfect looking lager, if this continues Sweden will finally have a good beer on Beer O'Clock Australia!
I was crippled with hayfever today and so really struggled with writing something to do with nose. What I could smell was lots of grassy hops. They seem to be quite bitter and from the little I can smell incredibly dominant. This would be expected from a German style pilsner. So despite not being able to smell it properly I think I may be on to a winner here.
After just one mouthful I know I've found that first good Swedish beer reviewed on here. It's quite bitter for the style with really impressive carbonation, it's so refreshing! The hops are grassy but also quite spicy and are very interesting! The malts are quite light in flavour and are biscuity. Overall it's a pretty impressive pilsner.
Nils and Aleksander I hope you guys are both happy that I've finally found a good Swedish beer and reviewed it. Seriously it's a nice lager and so much better than Pistonhead, not that that's saying alot! I actually really enjoyed this beer and am really glad I bought a 4-pack. It's a nice easy drinking lager which will probably find it's way into the fridge again over summer. It's worth a shot if you like lagers.


Play 18 holes of golf at a swanky modern complex located in a picturesque village just outside Leeds. It's only 25 minutes drive from the city centre but looks and feels like it's in the middle of the West Yorkshire countryside.
If you're planning a golf stag do in Leeds, this sprawling site will do you proud. It's got a championship course, a par-3 course, a range of features, a generous supply of bunkers, fresh tees, plenty of trees and exceptionally well-kept greens. Excellent playability and courses that offer something for improvers and experienced golfers make this particular golf centre a smart choice for the discerning stag.
Tee off, test your skills on the gently rolling greens and then stroll over to the 19th hole for some well-deserved liquid refreshment. It's the formula for the ideal Saturday afternoon.
We'll book you in for 18 holes of golf but don't hang about! This is one of the most popular golf centres in the Leeds area and the best time slots get snapped up quickly.
Bring your own clubs and lucky balls or hire them on site.
The dress code is pretty relaxed: casual wear is ok but no bare chests or flip-flops.


By amending its manual, the Allocations Committee of Pitt's Student Government Board is working to give a competitive edge to non-athletic clubs.
Nick Reslink, chair of the Allocations Committee, proposed a bill on March 1 to amend the Allocations Manual, which dictates how the group doles out money to student organizations. One major amendment in the bill, which the Board voted to pass Tuesday, adds an exception to funding caps for non-athletic clubs to the Allocations manual to compete in national tournaments.
Currently, the cap to compete is set at $5,000. Now, the Committee will judge allocations beyond the cap for these groups on a case-by-case basis when groups are invited to nationals.
"The amendment establishes the Committee and the Board can allocate more for nationals if the group has been good about shared responsibility," Reslink said.
According to Reslink, the groups typically only have one-time expenses. According to Reslink, the exception would apply only to groups that have demonstrated shared responsibility, meaning they have fundraised to share the cost of their activities.
"[The old policy] was disproportionately hurting them, so we thought it was appropriate to make the amendment because [nationals] is such a big deal," Reslink said.
The bill also includes more than two dozen other amendments to the Allocations Manual, many of which change grammar or update outdated sentences in the code.
Reslink said he proposed the changes, which are largely syntax and style issues, in order to make the allocations process between the Committee and the Board smoother.
According to Reslink, one of the major amendments limits what the groups can change for additional requests between the Allocations Committee vote on Thursdays and the Board's vote at Tuesday's public meeting.
According to Reslink, the Board faced logistical issues when groups changed requests between the meetings, which forced the Board to vote on things that were not necessarily a part of the Committee's recommendation because they had not had a chance to hear or discuss the changes.
"[The group] has to take the changes back to the Committee so the vote is truly a recommendation of the request," Reslink said.
Now, during the interim period between the Committee vote and the Board's vote, Reslink said groups can remove expenses or give documentation that may have been missing to the Board. Groups must propose all other requests to the Committee before they propose to the Board.
The Committee also announced Madeline Guido, a first-year biology major, will take over as Allocations chair beginning on April 30.
Reslink, Board President Nasreen Harun, Board member and future Board President Natalie Dall, Allocations Vice Chair Max Kneis and Allocations Committee member JJ Petti sat on a task force on Sunday, March 20, to interview two candidates.
Harun said SGB keeps the candidate's name confidential because all the interviews and meetings are private.
According to Reslink, the applicant pool for Allocations chair is always small because it is limited to people who have already served on the committee.
Reslink said he is excited for Guido to take over his position.
Guido said she wants to continue her work on the Committee with the positive changes the Committee has implemented this year, including the club sports policy, which limits the amount of money for club sports so that other groups have a better chance at receiving funding.
Reformed University Fellowship requested $1,763.68 for a conference in Florida. The Board approved the request in full.
Pittsburgh Fencing Association requested $1,345.40 for a national competition in Florida. The Board approved $316 and denied $1,029.40.
Some of God's Children Gospel Choir requested $2,225 for a spring concert. The Board approved the request in full.


text:
Nebraska Research Days virtual celebration spans Nov. 2-6
Heidi Uhing, November 5, 2020
With support from the Office of Research and Economic Development's COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Program, Shi-Hua Xiang is in the early stages of developing a bacterial delivery system for a COVID-19 vaccine that would be delivered directly to the respiratory tract as a nasal spray. Craig Chandler/University Communication
The Office of Research and Economic Development will celebrate the research and creative accomplishments of University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty and students during Nebraska Research Days Nov. 2-6. In response to the pandemic, this annual campus event showcasing research, scholarly and creative activity will be a weeklong virtual celebration.
Aimed at recognizing the impact of Nebraska Research, the celebration will engage the campus through a mix of digital features and traditional events that have been reimagined for a virtual format. The week includes annual Research Days events – including the Innovator Celebration, faculty recognition event, Faculty Research and Creative Activity Slam, Nebraska Lecture and guest speakers – plus prizes, videos, social media contests and more.
The Research Days website will serve as the hub for accessing the virtual events and digital features. Additional content will be posted on the @UNLresearch social media channels. Faculty and students are encouraged to share their celebration photos using the #ResearchDays hashtag.
Mark your calendars for these virtual events:
Monday, Nov. 2, 10-11 a.m. – NUtech Ventures hosts Andrei Iancu, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Molly Kocialski, director of the Rocky Mountain Regional USPTO. Registration is required.
Monday, Nov. 2, 3:30-4:15 p.m. – NUtech Ventures Innovator Celebration. Registration is required.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10-11 a.m. – Faculty Recognition event with prizes and videos highlighting research accomplishments in 2019-2020. Bob Wilhelm, vice chancellor for research and economic development will present. Registration is required.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 12-1 p.m. – Office of Graduate Studies hosts a Postdoc Science Slam featuring postdoc researchers presenting concise, brief videos about their work. Winners will receive a $650 prize to advance their research or creative activity. No registration required, just join the Zoom. Until then, check the Graduate Studies Facebook page to vote for the People's Choice award.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 4-5 p.m. – Faculty Research and Creative Activity Slam featuring faculty from a range of disciplines presenting their work in an interactive, engaging manner. Attendees may vote on the best presenter, who will receive a $1,000 prize. Registration is required. The presenters are:
Matt Andrews, director, Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program, and professor, School of Natural Resources, presenting "Medical Innovations Based on Hibernation in Nebraska Ground Squirrels;"
Rochelle Dalla, professor of child, youth and family studies, presenting "Family-Based Sex Trafficking in India: What I Want All of Nebraska to Know;"
Ted Dawson, assistant professor of practice of German, modern languages and literatures, presenting "German in Nebraska: Beer, Pretzels and Anti-Racism;"
Andre Maciel, assistant professor of marketing, presenting "Marketplace Stories of David vs. Goliath;"
Charles Nwaizu, assistant professor of practice, food science and technology, presenting "Speaking One Language in Food Making;"
Wayne Riekhof, associate professor, School of Biological Sciences, presenting "Hey, You Smell Nice … Wanna Swap Nutrients? How Microbes Communicate with Each Other to Connect, Cooperate and Succeed;"
Bonita Sharif, associate professor of computer science and engineering, presenting "Empowering Empirical Software Engineering with Gaze Tracking;" and
Sergio Wals, associate professor of political science and ethnic studies, presenting "Building Bridges towards Immigration Reform in the United States."
Thursday, Nov. 5, 9:30 a.m. – The Association of Women in Science is sponsoring an Awards and Recognition Roundtable for participants to learn about institutional resources that help faculty pursue external honors important in their fields. Registration is required. Faculty panelists are:
Dawn O. Braithwaite, Willa Cather Professor of Communication Studies;
Eileen Hebets, Charles Bessey Professor of Biological Sciences;
Martha Mamo, department head and John E. Weaver Professor of Agronomy and Horticulture; and
Lily Wang, associate dean for faculty and inclusion, College of Engineering.
To further highlight women in research, AWIS is inviting women faculty to share why they do research at Nebraska for use on social media throughout Research Days.
Thursday, Nov. 5, noon – AWIS keynote presentation, "Celebrating Women in Science," by Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina in space and former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center. Registration is required.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 4 p.m. – AWIS Virtual Social Bingo will facilitate new connections between faculty, staff and students in research and STEM fields. Participants who fill a bingo card are eligible for a prize. Registration is required.
Friday, Nov. 6, 2:30-3:30 p.m. – Nebraska Lecture with Joy Castro, "Writing Memoir, Writing Crime: Creativity as Sociopolitical Intervention," including a live Q&A session.
In response to the cancelation of the in-person Research Days student poster sessions, ORED will provide access to the virtual research posters created by undergraduate and graduate and summer undergraduate students earlier this year. For questions about these events, contact Lisa Maupin, events and outreach manager.


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Large interest in French 3 GW offshore wind tender
Commission de Régulation de l'Energie (CRE) France
EDF Energies Nouvelles
There has been large interest in France's 3 GW offshore wind tender with four consortia competing for five sites off the coasts of Normandy and Brittany.
The 3 GW of offshore wind could be commissioned as early as 2015 with 500-600 wind turbines representing an investment of €10 billion. A second 3 GW phase is expected to be announced in April 2012 for 2020, as part of France's aim to meet 23% of energy demand from renewable sources by 2020, Reuters writes.
The four consortia are largely made up of French and Spanish companies, and between them, they have submitted 10 bids in total, Expatia adds.
Iberdrola-consortium
Iberdrola is leading an offshore wind consortium with wind turbine manufacturer Areva, engineering and construction company Technip, design, development, construction and operation firm Eole-Res Consortium, and the developer Neoen Marine.
The offshore wind consortium has bid for the 500 MW site Saint-Brieuc in Côte d'Amor in Brittany, and the 480 MW Saint-Nazaire site in Loire-Atlantique on the Atlantic coast.
Areva would supply all the wind turbines, which would be built at its new factory in Le Havre, north west France.
EDF-EN-consortium
Another large consortium, is the one led by EDF Energies Nouvelles, and consists of DONG Energy, Nass&Wind Offshore and wpd Offshore, with Alstom as the exclusive wind turbine supplier.
The offshore wind consortium has submitted bids for four sites: Saint-Nazaire, Saint-Brieuc, Courseulles-sur-Mer and the Fécamp site.
EDF-EN says if all four bids come through, it could see the creation of up to 7500 jobs in France.
Alstom would, for example, manufacture its next-generation 6 MW offshore wind turbines at planned sites in Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg.


On Sunday night Warner Bros. release an new trailer and release date detail about Mortal Kombat's upcoming DLC new character Tremor.
Nerdz you can get the Tremor Bundle on July 28 for $8 on all platforms. A la carte options are also available, as Tremor will be sold for $5, while the Klassic Skins Pack 2 will go for $4.
The last time we saw Tremor in a Mortal Kombat game was in Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, back in the early 2000's. This will be the first he is being made fully playable though.