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One Sure Way to Fail at Life
If you don't know how to succeed at life, you should at least know how to fail... so you can avoid doing that thing of course.
In that vein, I came across this tweet with a quote from Tim Ferris' book Tribe of Mentors that I thought was really worth sharing.
Insightful, relevant wisdom for anyone in leadership roles whether big or small. #enjoythejourney @tferriss #tribeofmentors pic.twitter.com/iTLugtYxzJ
— Kevin Spainhour (@KevinSpainhour) April 29, 2018
This is about as true as it can get. One of things you have to learn how to do in life is to let people down. It's literally impossible to please everyone at the same time. Even if you sit on the fence, some people will hate you for being a fence-sitter.
So if you don't know what to do, at least stop trying to please everyone all the time.
Interview with BiggerPockets on why Real Estate is the IDEAL Investment
Here is the interview my brother Phillip and I did with Brandon Turner and Joshua Dorkin from BiggerPockets on why real estate, particularly buy and hold real estate, is the IDEAL investment.
And you can check out my weekly(ish) column at BiggerPockets here.
Taking on Meme Culture, Inequality Fables and Tax Myths - My Interview with Lions of Liberty
Here is my interview from a while back with Marc Clair of Lions for Liberty. We talk about the 90% income tax (which nobody paid) and how wealth inequality--while a problem--is exaggerated because people don't account for age.
The articles we're discussing are two articles I wrote for Mises.org, one on inequality here and the other on the tax rate, here.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (A Totally Not Critical Synopsis for Those Who Missed It)
So the latest Star Wars film came out on DVD a little while ago and maybe you haven't seen it? Perhaps you're not that big a fan, but feel like you're missing out because your friends keep talking about it? Well worry not, I'm here to provide a no-nonsense recap of the film's events. Read this article and you can keep up with your Star Wars-obsessed friends even if you aren't into science fiction and would rather wait until its out of the theaters.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens by ripping off paying homage to The Empire Strikes Back as the Empire's First Order's Fleet arrives at the Rebel's Resistance's base right as they are trying to escape. Fortunately, the Resistance's token white guy Poe Dameron is able to distract the space Nazi's with a Tyler Perry-esque "your mama" joke before blowing up all the laser cannons on the star destroyer because an X-wing is too small to shoot at or something or whatever.
By doing this, Poe Dameron both 1) allows the Resistance to make a bombing run on the First Order's "Dreadnought" class star destroyer and 2) adds gravity to space so that Resistance Bombers can literally drop bombs that just fall like rocks. Unfortunately, this second point turned out to be counterproductive as the Resistance loses every single one of its bombers. A fate that could have easily been avoided had they had the foresight to add some sort of propulsion device to those bombs. Oh well.
Meanwhile, Rey has found Luke Skywalker, or as Mark Hamill refers to him, Jake Skywalker. Mark Hamill's rebooted and modern character has nothing to do with the optimistic, never-say-die character who would leave his own mentor and endanger the galaxy just for an opportunity to save his friends. Instead, he plays a grumpy old man who prefers to milk space cows and mope around waiting to die like he was in some Lars von Trier film.
Rey informs Jake Luke that Han Solo is dead, which of course Luke would have already known given he's a Jedi and can sense that kind of stuff. For a brief moment Luke pretends to care before giving up again and sulking like the degenerate loser that every kid in the 70's and 80's who saw Star Wars and imagined being Luke Skywalker obviously assumed Luke would turn into.
Meanwhile, the First Order has found the Resistances' "fleet" (which despite blowing up the Super-Duper Death Star in the previous film, has been reduced from the dominant force in the galaxy to all of four ships). A CGI space battle ensues where Kylo Ren hesitates to kill his mother Leia from afar even though he murdered his father Han up close. But don't worry, some random First Order pilot blows up the bridge and ejects Leia in space. This directorial decision made sense, however, since unfortunately Carrie Fischer died in real life and can't return for the final film. Oh wait, nevermind she force flies through space back into the ship. Fortunately, this scene doesn't look absolutely, farcically, belly-laugh-inducing ridiculous. Not. At. All.
The Resistance ships have enough light speed fuel or whatever to jump to light speed one more time, but the First Order will be able to track where they go. So they hold off on jumping and fortunately, their ships are just a little bit faster, so the First Order just trails behind them waiting for them to run out of regular fuel. They do this even though in space you wouldn't need to continue to burn regular fuel because without any gravitational pull or friction, the ships would simply continue moving at whatever speed they were previously moving at with the Resistance continuing to gain ground on the First Order.
Unfortunately, Poe's antics of somehow adding an atmosphere to the entire galaxy have come back to haunt the Resistance again. Not only do the First Order's laser shots arc through space like artillery shells, but ships slow down when they run out of fuel.
Despite being faster, the Resistance ships don't gain any ground on the First Order as the movie's second of four acts boils down to the equivalent of a steam boat chase. Don't worry though, this extraordinarily convenient set of affairs is not the result of ridiculously lazy writing, Rotten Tomatoes guaranteed me of that.
Fin decides to forget how he already fulfilled his character arc of going from cowardly to courageous in the previous film, The Farce Foresakens, and like a video game you forgot to save, he reverts back to coward status. He attempts to escape from the doomed Resistance fleet but is captured by a new character brought in because the writers felt the film wasn't quite bloated enough yet.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, Leia is unconscious after her Wicked Witch of the West routine and the writer's decided to kill off one of the greatest memes of all time, Admiral Akbar offscreen. So command falls to Admiral Gender Studies who promptly tells the crew that the plan is to do nothing and wait to die.
This is a ploy though, she actually has a secret plan to escape to the ice planet Hoth to an ice planet with red salt named something or other, but decides not to tell anyone so the movie can have its run time pointless bumped up to a bladder-nuking 2 hours and 32 minutes.
I think I blacked out for a few minutes at this point, but when I came too, Rose and Fin had become friends and along with Poe, decided to embrace toxic masculinity and commit high treason against Admiral Gender Studies. They call up Sassy Orange Yoda who tells them to go somewhere to get or find a McGuffin to prevent the First Order from tracking them or something.
Fin and Rose then steal a ship and jump to a Casino Planet in search of Mr. McGuffin. At first, Fin likes it, but then Rose tells him to look closer. He uses his space binoculars to find that the people on the Casino Planet abuse CGI alien monsters. Fin, being a CGI Alien Monster Rights Activist decides to open an Al Qaeda cell with Rose. Together they murder dozens of presumably innocent people, including, in all likelihood, janitors, waitresses and cooks that were just trying to put food on their family's table.
They eventually get arrested but run into a Poor Man's McGuffin, who might be able to do what the real McGuffin could… maybe. They pass through a few view video game tropes to successfully break out of prison, get an extra powerup and get back to their ship.
They then take Mr. Poor Man's McGuffin back and sneak aboard the enemy ship. But they get caught by the First Order. They then realize that this all side adventure was completely superfluous to the plot because Admiral Gender Studies had a secret plan. Unfortunately, Poor Man's McGuffin betrays Fin and Rose and tells the First Order about Admiral Gender Studies' plan (which he had no way of knowing about, but whatever). The First Order starts ruthlessly obliterating Resistance escape pods. Despite causing hundreds of deaths through their own stupidity, none of the characters show any signs of remorse.
Back on the Jedi planet, after getting one or two pointless lessons, Rey finally gives up trying to get Luke to become a character in this film and decides to go see if Kylo Ren can flip her to the Dark Side. She meets up with Kylo and he skips ahead a little to The Return of the Jedi and he takes her to the main bad guy Snoke. This part was something many fans had anxiously awaited as there were a plethora of fan theories about who exactly Snoke is. What is his back story? What is his motivation? How did he meet Kylo Ren? How did he rebuild the Empire?
Kylo Ren then murders Snoke.
Kylo and Rey talk about Rey's parents and then Kylo Ren has a vision of who they were. This was also anxiously awaited by fans as there were also numerous theories about who Rey's parents were. Why did they abandon her? Is she related to Kylo Ren? To Luke Skywalker?
Kylo Ren then informs Rey that her parents were nobodies.
Anyways, during the first climax of the film, Rey leaves Kylo because he's an incompetent baby-face and Fin and Rose escape the star destroyer with the help of a lot of computer animators before Admiral Gender Studies commits suicide terrorism to save the remainder of the Resistance.
For the second climax, everyone shows up on Hoth 2.0 fighting a snow battle against ATAT walkers, which Rian Johnson, showing how creative and original a filmmaker he is, has moved to the end of the film instead of putting it at the beginning like in The Empire Strikes Back. A Mini-Death Star/Nano-Super-Duper-Death Star gun is going to blow up the barrier to the Resistance base. Fin tries to repeat his character arc in The Farce Foresakens by sacrificing himself to save his friends and destroy the Mini-Death Star/Nano-Super-Duper-Death Star gun. Rose foils his plan to have an arc by impossibly ramming her craft into his in a collision that almost certainly would have killed them both.
Fin somehow survives though and pulls Rose out of the rubble of her broken craft to ask her "WTF!?!?" Just after Admiral Gender Studies sacrificed herself to save the Resistance and just before Luke Skywalker would sacrifice himself to save the Resistance, Rose tells Fin he shouldn't sacrifice himself to save his friends because they need to win "with love" or something like that. It was hard to tell exactly what she said as I couldn't hear anything through the tears of laughter.
At this point, Luke finally decides to get off his ass and help out. He adds an expansion pack to allow Jedi's to create an avatar and goes down to have a pointless chat with his sister (oh yeah, I forgot to mention Leia woke up to stop Poe's pointless coup de'tat). Then Luke's Avatar goes out of the base to delay Kylo and the First Order for about 5 minutes. Despite the fact that Luke can't be hurt as an avatar, he ends up dying for some reason. Why didn't he just go to the planet and sacrifice himself in person? Academy Award-deserving writing, that's why.
Regardless, Luke has redeemed himself by teaching Rey that the force is "more than lifting rocks" and providing a momentary distraction. The Resistance is still stuck in the base though, but luckily Rey uses the force to life some rocks and they all escape on the Millennium Falcon.
As they fly away from Hoth 2.0, everyone celebrates without apparently realizing that the entire Resistance has been reduced to 12 people, three droids and one very old ship.
Don't you fear though. We then return to the Casino Planet and it shows several young survivors of Fin and Rose's terrorist attack have become radicalized. It appears that the seeds of the rISIStance have been sown.
Sexual Harassment: The Messy Issue the Media Believes is Simple
Just after graduating college, a friend of mine and I went to some dive bar to have a few drinks and shoot some pool. After taking a break to go to the bathroom, I came back to find him chatting up a pretty girl who just happened to have a, well, body-positive friend with her.
Being immediately thrust into the unwelcome role of wingman, I found myself with a particularly aggressive young lass who was dead set on taking advantage of the situation she found herself in. As I cast daggers through my eyes at my callous friend, the two girls pulled us onto the dance floor.
I believe it was at this time that she landed her first kiss on me. I managed to dodge about two thirds of them, but she got plenty in, and somehow always managed to use the tongue. I'm not sure if she just pried her way through my clinched lips or took advantage of the normal human reaction of disgust, which involves a slightly agape mouth. When I told her "I want to slow down" she noted it was "cute" and "just made her like me more." I think that was right before she gave my manhood a quick grab on her way to the bathroom.
I brushed the thought of strangling my friend's neck aside and told him to get his girl's number and then we were going to bounce. Even a seasoned wingman like myself could only put up with so much. I grabbed a beer to try and wash away the distaste before my body-positive accoster returned. I tried to make small talk, if nothing else I hoped it would stave off her attempts to slobber all over me.
"So what was your name?" (Yeah, the kissing began before this question was asked.)
"Oh, my friends just call me Buffy."
"Um… like the vampire slayer?"
At this point she leaned in and casually observed that "I'm going to do to you whatever I want to do you." I believe she thought this would be a turn on or something. Instead I dropped my beer on the floor leaving the bottle as shattered as my nerves.
This farce went on for several hours before I was finally able to convince my friend to leave. The lengths a man will go to be a good wingman…
I have told this story many times, particularly in a bar settings, and whether the audience is male or female, it has never failed to elicit a sizeable amount of laughter. Yet, as should be obvious, if the genders were reversed, this would be another horror story lauded in Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post as yet another example of #MeToo and all the horrible things men do to women.
And don't get me wrong, male sexual harassment of women is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. The behavior of Harvey Weinstein, Larry Nassar and the many others that has come out is utterly despicable. But even aside by the risk of false accusations, it would seem that something is missing from the discussion of sexual harassment. Indeed, take the genders out and the story I have noted above is as bad as at least a good number of the stories that have come out recently. And that is not the only story I have, just the most egregious. One girl in my dorms during college would literally put her hand on every guy's ass that came by. It probably happened to me about 10 times. I don't know why she thought she would get away with it, other than the fact that she basically did. No one said anything more than a polite request for her to stop.
And I know stories that are even worse than what I just mentioned. Of course, I know some for women too. But what I've heard from others, as well as the survey data on this subject seems to validate my experience as not being unique.
For example, The Partner Abuse State of Knowledge Project has analyzed over 1700 studies and found that domestic violence is committed by men and women in roughly similar proportions, although men do more harm. Regarding sexual harassment, an AAUW study in 2006 found that 62 percent of women in college and 61 percent of men had "experienced sexual harassment." While "both male and female students are more likely to be harassed by a man than by a woman," the difference isn't as large as many would think. According to the study, "Half of male students and almost one-third of female students admit that they sexually harassed someone in college."
Even more perplexing, The Atlantic reported, "sexual victimization by women is more common than gender stereotypes would suggest." Indeed, the oft-quoted "1 in 5 women are raped in college" statistic comes from a CDC study which has a weird category under "Other sexual violence" called "Made to penetrate." One would think that forcing someone to have sex is rape, but who am I to say? Anyways, here's how men and women answered for the last 12 months in 2011:
•Women (rape): 1,929,000
•Men (made to penetrate): 1,921,000
The vast majority of the men who were "made to penetrate" were by women.
I must admit that I'm not really sure what to make of all this. Some of it doesn't shock me, such as domestic abuse perpetration. But with regards to sexual assault, it sounds rather unbelievable to me. Although, as many others have noted, the questions that have routinely been asked for such surveys are so mushily worded as to be all but useless. The counts for both genders are too high and the overcounting for men is probably much more significant.
Perhaps, to one degree or another, it can be encapsulated by a friend's experience who had a bit of a nymphomaniac for a girlfriend when he was in high school. One night, he came home tired and despite her requests, told her no. Later on, he woke up to her "riding me." He pushed her off only to have her "beg for it."
"Were you upset?" I asked.
"Yeah dude, I was tired and wanted to sleep."
Not exactly the response you would expect from someone who was just "raped."
That being said, I don't want to dismiss men who have been deeply affected by such experiences. I certainly think this problem receives too little attention and assuming it doesn't bother men probably keeps a good number of men quiet. At the same time, I also don't think we should get carried away as some Men's Rights Activists have and assume these studies prove the problem is "gender neutral."
If we go back to my own experience I think it even better highlights the crucial difference between the genders. During my body-positive groping, at no time was I ever concerned for my safety. I knew both consciously and subconsciously that she could do no more to me than what I was willing to put up with. A woman in a similar situation has no such luxury. In the end, the experience was just gross, not traumatizing. One cold shower later and the event was just a good drinking story.
But we should be careful not to go so far as to assume every awkward or bumbling advances is criminal when men do it too, even if they cross the line a bit. As Claire Berlinski writes,
"In recent weeks, I've acquired new powers… I could now, on a whim, destroy the career of an Oxford don who at a drunken Christmas party danced with me, grabbed a handful of my bum, and slurred, 'I've been dying to do this to Berlinski all term!'"
She continues, "I did not freeze, nor was I terrified. I was amused and flattered..." But she notes, she could reexamine this and realize she was viciously harassed. That's what Natalie Portman has done, stating "I went from thinking I don't have a story to thinking, Oh wait, I have 100 stories. And I think a lot of people are having these reckonings with themselves."
Some reexamination is important, but I could play the same card (or at least I could if anyone cared). I remember an old work colleague who used to always grab my arm and shoulder and call me "sweetheart" or "hun." Did I like this? Not particularly. But it was such a trivial offense I didn't even bother to ask her to stop.
But what if I "reexamined" these experiences?
Overall though, I do believe that men should be held to a higher standard in this regard (as well as for domestic violence) both because men are generally stronger and, it would seem, that most men aren't affected quite as badly. However, this goes completely against feminist theory of "equality," or more aptly sameness. Shouldn't men and women be treated the same?
It would seem the only way that such "equality" can be maintained is by pretending this doesn't happen to men. Sure, that requires ignoring all the surveys and studies out there as well as the testimony of pretty much every man if you actually asked them. Just try it. Ask a guy if a woman has "ever got overly grabby" with him and I guarantee the answer will be yes. So far, I'm sporting 100 percent on this question.
The evidence goes against the theory leading us back to the position that it's not simply men's avarice at play here, but a difference between the sexes. Of course, that doesn't mean we should ignore male victims. And how we address this is a question on both sides should be open to debate. Perhaps we should go back to the more structured dating arrangements of years past, at least in part.
But let's start by acknowledging the differences between the sexes, dropping the idea this is a simple issue as well as the anti-male bias and stop pretending that only men do this kind of thing.
The Claim that Immigrants Commit Less Crime is Misleading
As we have all heard, immigrants―legal and illegal alike―commit less crime than native-born American citizens. But the question as to whether immigrants commit more crime than native-born Americans is actually much messier than one would think.
Regarding illegal immigrants, a 2011 GAO study appears to show that contrary to various studies, illegal immigrants actually commit substantially more crime than native-born American citizens. That being said, legal immigrants definitely commit less.
But this comparison is an apples-to-oranges sort of affair for both legal and illegal immigration. Now don't get me wrong, most legal immigrants are good people who just want to better their lives and that of their families. Many illegal immigrants fall into this category as well. But the United States' infrastructure and civil services can only sustain so many newcomers at a time, particularly if they have relatively few skills. And with fast food joints switching to self-ordering kiosks, Wal-Mart announcing it will use autonomous "scanning robots," Amazon opening stores with zero, count'em zero employees and mostly stagnant wage growth, it would seem rather unlikely that more low or unskilled labor is exactly what the United States needs right now.
But returning to the matter at hand, it doesn't actually mean anything noteworthy to say that legal immigrants commit less crime than native born citizens. This is because, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the median age a legal immigrant becomes a lawful permanent resident is 32 years old.
As we all know, crime rates are not evenly divided amongst age groups. In fact, they are not even remotely evenly divided amongst age groups. For example, according to the Department of Justice, between 1980 and 2008 the percentage of homicides committed by each age group were as follows:
Under 14: 0.5%
14-17: 10.6%
18-24 37.5%
50-64 4.9%
65 or older 1.6%
You'll notice it's skewed rather heavily toward the 18 to 34-year-old crowd. Those under the age of 25 committed 48.6 percent of all homicides. The majority of legal immigrants weren't even in the country during that time of their life. And a further 76.6 percent of homicides were committed by those under the age of 35, which is just three years more than the median age a legal immigrant receives a green card.
A full 44.1 percent of immigrants who became lawful permanent residents did so after the age of 35.
And this relationship between age and murder is fairly consistent across a broad range of crimes. Younger people, particularly younger men, simply commit most of the crime.
Some studies try to control for this, but even they are fraught with difficulty. For example, a study by Bianca Bersani, Thomas Loughran and Alex Piquero that looked only at youths starting between the ages of 14 and 17 over a seven year period found that "Results show that first generation immigrants are less likely to be involved in serious offending and to evidence persistence in offending." But the study only looked at 83 first generation immigrants in two counties. Another study by the pro-immigration American Immigration Council found that "roughly 1.6 percent of immigrant males age 18-39 are incarcerated, compared to 3.3 percent of the native-born." Aside by the fact that it doesn't split out the highly-vetted legal immigrants from unvetted illegal ones, the study is comparing native-born Americans who were in the country for all 21 years of that part of their life to immigrants who were only in the country for part of it. And again, legal immigrants age is skewed more toward the 30's and less toward the more criminally-inclined 20's than native-born since all native-born citizens spend their 20's in the United States but only some immigrants do.
There are even more problems that permeate this entire analysis. As the Center for Immigration Studies notes, "For a variety of reasons, immigrants who are victims of crime may be less likely to report their victimization than native-born victims." This would obviously be true for illegal immigrants who fear deportation. And there are further problems with survey methods regarding illegal immigrants. As the CIS study notes, "Prosecutors are known to sometimes drop pending charges against non-citizens once ICE indicates it will deport" and a total of 816,000 criminals were deported between 1999 and 2009. Thus, recidivism is not as big a problem for illegal immigrants as it is for native born. And recidivism rates are quite high. As the National Department of Justice points out, "Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested."
Finally, I would note that even young immigrants who leave their country of birth to the United States are unlikely to bring along with them any of the "bad crowds" some may have fallen into. But that says nothing about these immigrants' children. All of these factors would help explain why the children of immigrants tend to have similar crime rates to American citizens. And given that the United States has a relatively high crime rate, at least as compared to other so-called industrialized nations, this should not exactly be a cause for celebration.
Again, it is important to stress that by far and away, legal immigrants are not criminals. Most illegals aren't criminals either (other than the fact they broke the law to get into the United States, of course). But, quite obviously, most American citizens are also not criminals. The problem is that these surveys paint a misleading picture. Given the difference in age, the majority of the crime that immigrants would have committed would have been committed in the country they immigrated from not the country they emigrated to. While legal immigrants are vetted for this (if they were caught), illegals are not. Thus, valid comparisons between the two groups are far more difficult to analyze than is generally assumed.
Instead it should be a reminder of how statistics can be misconstrued. And in a time when polls show that whites, black and Hispanics all agree that legal immigration should be reduced, it should be another reason to be skeptical of those who demand ever more mass immigration into the United States.
The Dystopian Potential for Super Fake News
This type of thing, and its obvious potential for misuse, is frightening:
Of course, the whole line about how we must "rely on trusted news sources" is pretty pathetic, especially coming from the "question authority" Left. Especially after the "Saddam's throwing babies out of incubators" lie and the "weapons of mass destruction" lie and the "moderate rebels in Libya" lie and the current "moderate rebels in Syria" lie. But the possibility of fake news getting much, much faker is frightening indeed.
As far as things go now, I would be very cautious with all news sources, albeit for separate reasons:
- Establishment News Sources: These will generally (well, sometimes) have better fact checking than alternative sources. But they are also deeply entwined with the establishment and tend to dismiss any alternative explanations as "conspiracy theories." For instance, merely asking the question "qui bono?" and wanting the OPCW to inspect the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria before attacking a sovereign nation was lambasted as a "conspiracy theory." Give me a break. I should also note, those "fact checkers" like Politifact, need to be looked at with a skeptical eye as well.
- Alternative News Sources: While these aren't tied down by their links to the establishment or large corporate interests, they have two major problems: 1) They often have an extreme ideological bias (which is true for the establishment as well, of course) and 2) They often don't have very good fact checking or journalistic training.
And both have an incentive to exaggerate and come out with "breaking news," which is often little more than speculation or clickbait.
Double and triple check stories when you're trying to find out what's true. Also, look for the criticism to see if there are glaring holes in an argument. Oftentimes, the best way I can come to a conclusion as to the veracity of a claim is to evaluate the quality of the criticism leveled against it. Unfortunately, fake news is rampant. But it's rampant both amongst the establishment and alternative news sources.
Read widely and be careful what you believe.
The Federalist Comes Around to My Position on Peaceful Secession
A while back, I made the case that the United States should very seriously consider breaking up in a peaceful and mutual secession,
"Indeed, the United States is ossifying into separate factions that seem to more or less hate each other. Some of this has to do with migration patterns as described in The Big Sort (liberals moving to liberal cities and conservatives moving to conservative cities). Some of it has to do with the huge influx of immigrants and the change that has brought to the country. And some of it has to do with the Internet and the ideological ghettos it creates. Throw in some economic turbulence and a new strain of very angry and very loud social justice warriors driving the sides even further apart along with an in-you-face, loud mouth on the other side as president, and well, you've created a very combustible mess.
"Regardless, while it's debatable how much of each of these different components has had in shaping the modern American political landscape, there's no doubt the hyper-polarization exists. The big questions to me are 1) Are we even still one country? And 2) Should we be?
"A few years back, Texas was talking about seceding. Liberals mocked them. Now California with the Calexit proposal and perhaps even the entire West Coast is at least seriously considering it. On an aside, I do find it humorous how quickly liberals have jumped on the nullification and secession bandwagon."
This is, of course, not a unique position to me. Michael Malice has made it on numerous occasions. Now The Federalist has jumped in to add its two cents,
"Divorce is hard, but it's easier than cutting the brake lines on your wife's car. It is long past time for an amicable divorce of the United States of America. There is simply no common ground with the Left anymore. We are now the couple screaming at each other all night, every night as the kids hide in their room.
"We cannot come together, but we do not have to live like this. The history of the world is nations breaking up and redrawing their borders. If we want to avoid this political divide turning into a deadly one, we should do likewise."
There really isn't anything that radical about this. Countries have broken apart numerous times in the past, think of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the break up of Yugoslavia or the dissolution of Gran Columbia. Sometimes it is very violent, but sometimes it isn't. And the sooner you get on it, the less likely violence is to come to pass.
The United States and Canada are different nations yet live in peace. As are France and Spain, South Korea and Singapore, Chile and Argentina, etc. Sometimes it's better to be apart than together for both parties sake. I think we've long since reached that point in the United States and it's nice to see people figuring that out.
My Cover of Hide Your Love Away
On a different note than say, the looming war in Syria, I thought I'd post something a bit happier. So a while back I made a few videos of me playing songs on my guitar. Maybe someday I'll pick that up again, but it's one of those things you kind of have to go all in or what's the point? Anyways, here's me playing Hide Your Love Away by the Beatles, I hope you enjoy:
Judge the Gender Pay Gap Debate By Its Critics
One of the best ways I've found to evaluate the veracity of an argument is to look at its criticism and see how persuasive it is. When the criticism of said argument is a parody of a caricature of a farce, well, that tells we you something.
So here we have the feminist Liam Kirkaldy criticizing the fact that news organizations are granting a forum to both sides of the debate on the alleged male-female wage gap. You see, some ideas are right, like his. And some are wrong. And it just doesn't make sense to even debate the obviously wrong ideas that people who aren't Liam Kirkaldy have.
"Yet it happens again and again, with Radio Four last week providing Jordan Peterson – a Canadian psychologist with strong, but unqualified views on structural sexism – with a platform to air his opinions on the gender pay gap."
I'm sorry, how does one's views on "structural sexism" get "qualified" exactly?
"...who had been invited to discuss it? For Radio Four, it was Baroness Williams, the UK's Minister for Equalities. Again, fair enough. But, rather than finding an academic specialising in gender politics, or Williams' shadow equivalent, the show decided to 'balance' her views with Peterson's, creating the impression we were hearing from two experts, with different views regarding an issue on which there's no widespread agreement."
Ahhh, an "academic specialising in gender studies..." By that, of course, you mean some radical feminist, gender studies professor? Wouldn't an economist make more sense? Or are we really to believe that some gender studies professor who thinks that gender is a social construct and also there are 57 genders, knows more about how labor markets work than an economist?
Also, what is with this lack of confidence Liam? If Peterson's views are "unqualified" and Williams views are "qualified," she should be able to wipe the floor with him. It's almost as if this authoritarian urge to shut down debate isn't about protecting the poor viewer from wrong-think, but rather the inability of those with right-think to win these debates...
"Except that's not true – there is widespread agreement – and by putting them on in the same slot, and allowing Peterson to paint the issue as a misunderstanding of statistics, they created a false equivalence. Even Peterson's introduction was revealing, with the psychologist welcomed on air for 'causing quite a splash' with his views on gender – a qualification better suited to boring strangers in a pub than informing a discussion on national radio.
"Because let's be clear, there is either a gender pay gap or there isn't, and it turns out there is. Every major political party agrees on that. Even Theresa May, not exactly beloved by feminist groups, has described the gap – sitting at around 18 per cent – as a 'burning injustice'."
How on Earth did this rubbish make it past the editors? The whole debate is WHY there is a pay gap, not whether there is one. That has always been the debate. That has always been the ONLY debate. Does Kirkaldy not understand that? And yes, the evidence is overwhelming that the wage gap exists almost exclusively for reasons other than discrimination.
"It's a topic which is easily misrepresented, particularly when commentators conflate the gap with unequal pay. Ryanair defended the fact that median hourly pay among its UK staff is 72 per cent lower for women than men by pointing out that the majority of its pilots are male, while women make up more of its cabin staff – an argument which basically amounts to saying the company pays men more than women because it gives men more highly paid jobs."
OK, he doesn't understand it. He claims people like Peterson and misrepresenting the topic while flagrantly misrepresenting the topic himself. Ryanair doesn't "give" out jobs. People apply for positions and Ryanair hires the most qualified. It is obviously not discriminating based on the job (if what they say is true), but he then changes the subject without informing the readers (or likely being aware he's done it himself) from whether companies pay men and women equally for the same job to whether their hiring practices are fair.
And by the way, since when are the stewardesses and pilots interchangeable? Are there an equal number of women applying to be pilots? Do an equal number of women want to be pilots? Should Ryanair just hire some random stewardess to fly the plane? Would you like to be on that flight?
FYI, while I assume Kirkaldy didn't even look it up, in the United States women make up 6.71 percent of the pilots and 12.43 percent of the students. If Britain is anything like the US, there's no possible way Ryanair is going to be able to hire an equal number of female pilots. Kirkaldy should be commended though, this is quite possibly the dumbest argument I've ever seen in print.
"Others point to the idea that women are more likely to work part-time, while steadfastly refusing to examine the reasons for that."
This is not relevant to whether or not women are paid less for the same work, which is what Peterson was arguing about. And some of the reasons women may work part-time more often likely have to do with disadvantages men face; like say the social pressure to make money or women finding men who earn more money to be more attractive.
"Of course, none of that means there isn't a debate to be had about the causes of the pay gap, or what to do about it, but it does mean that putting two people on radio to debate its existence is inherently misleading. In bending over backwards to avoid accusations of bias, Radio Four stumbled off balance."
Good lord Liam, no one is debating the pay gap's existence! Kirkaldy doesn't even understand what Peterson is saying or what is being debated in general but demands that his side of the debate (that he's having in his own mind with himself) be the only side that gets any daylight. What a joke.
And isn't it interesting how quickly the proponents of equality demand inequality when it comes to open debate.


text:
Reading: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina turns 76
Uitvconnect : Breaking News, India News, Sports News and Live Updates > Blog > Global News > Asia > Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina turns 76
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina turns 76
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Dhaka, Sep 28 (UiTV/IANS) – Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina turned 76 on Wednesday, bringing the spotlight back on many of her success stories, including scripting a socially inclusive economic turnaround for the nation which turned 50 this year.
After efficiently tackling the challenge posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, as endorsed by top global bodies including the WHO, the country's next battle to avert the looming fears of a global recession has come under scrutiny with a singular observation — under Hasina, Bangladesh is better poised to overcome the impending crisis as compared to many other emerging and developed economies.
Hasina will also be remembered for her role in the restoration of democracy in the country by bringing down a local military regime — just like her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did with the Pakistani military junta — and then sustaining it against the persisting threats from radical Islamist forces who try to destabilise the country with violent agitations, terror attacks and systematic disinformation.
Former President of India, late Pranab Mukherjee, whom Hasina considered as her 'Obhibhabok' (guardian), once told some journalists, including this writer, to imagine what Angela Merkel or Jacinda Ardern would have done had they faced the lurking threats of assassination that Hasina faced and survived.
Considering her first term in power (1996-2001), coupled with her third straight term since 2009, Hasina is the longest-serving woman leader across the globe, longer than Angela Markel of Germany.
Mukherjee had said that when it comes to 'raw courage', Hasina is comparable to only Indira Gandhi who refused to take off her Sikh bodyguards despite intelligence warnings of a lurking physical threat after Operation Blue Star.
Maybe we can add Brazil's Dilma Rousseff, who suffered intense torture in military prison (hung upside down and beaten up frequently), before reaching the top.
Hasina is deeply religious, though her politics is firmly secular. And it is believed that her spiritual disposition is the source of her courage.
Despite being arrested without a warrant by the military-backed caretaker government, and the baseless propaganda by leading outlets like The Daily Star, the overwhelming public support enjoyed by Hasina never diminished.
From giving birth to her son in virtual house arrest by Pakistani occupational forces, to witnessing the gruesome murders of her parents, brothers and other near ones by pro-Pakistan elements — Hasina's life was undoubtedly more challenging than most other female leaders of her time.
For someone who had seen almost her entire family getting wiped out in a violent coup in 1975, continuing in politics was indeed a tough decision.
Equally challenging was the decision to return to Bangladesh six years after her family members were assassinated. Each of these decisions required not just courage, but also steely determination to uphold and build on her father's legacy and a deep faith in her destiny.
Soon after her return in 1981, Hasina had to wage a battle to free the people of Bangladesh from the clutches of military dictator General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who seized power as head of the army during a bloodless coup against President Abdus Sattar in 1982.
Till the downfall of Ershad in 1990, Hasina crisscrossed almost every nook and corner of the country to reach out to the masses. Her arduous decade-long struggle equipped her to address the needs of the people languishing even in the remotest part of the nation.
Possibly, her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's trait to travel across the nation then known as East Pakistan to rope in the masses to join the fight for freedom against Pakistan offered the lesson for Hasina that "if you want to serve the people, go to their doorsteps".
A faithful Bengali housewife with some exposure in student politics, Hasina not only returned to her country at great personal risk, but also re-organised her father's party, Awami League, before toppling the Ershad military regime.
She has ruled Bangladesh for three terms since and is now into her fourth term. "All because Allah's wishes," Hasina would say.
But analysts see in her success not only courage and determination, but also the presence of a sharp analytical mind which can plan ahead of time and anticipate challenges.
Hasina is a fast learner as well, as her policies on combating climate change would indicate.
Her detractors blame Hasina for creating a 'police state' and haul her up for 'forced disappearances' and 'extra-judicial executions', but sources close to her argue that she has no choice but to resort to tough policing to keep Islamist radicals at bay.
Comparison between Indian and Pakistani Constitutions
Number of babies born in South Korea hit record low in Nov 2022
Freezing weather kills 124 in Afghanistan
Cold wave warnings issued across South Korea

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Read Write Excel File in java     package demo;

import junit.framework.Test;
import junit.framework.TestCase;
import junit.framework.TestSuite;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.Cell;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFCell;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFSheet;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;

public class Readwrite {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
    {

         //Get the excel file and create an input stream for excel
         FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("D:\\Testing_Team\\Age_Validation.xlsx");

         //load the input stream to a workbook object
         //Use XSSF for (.xlsx) excel file and HSSF for (.xls) excel file
         XSSFWorkbook wb = new XSSFWorkbook(fis);

         //get the sheet from the workbook by index
         XSSFSheet sheet = wb.getSheet("Age");

         //Count the total number of rows present in the sheet

             int rowcount = sheet.getLastRowNum();
             System.out.println(" Total number of rows present in the sheet : "+rowcount);

         //get column count present in the sheet
         int colcount = sheet.getRow(1).getLastCellNum();
         System.out.println(" Total number of columns present in the sheet : "+colcount);

         //get the data from sheet by iterating through cells
         //by using for loop
         for(int i = 1; i<=rowcount; i++)
          {
             XSSFCell cell = sheet.getRow(i).getCell(1);
             String celltext="";

             //Get celltype values
             if(cell.getCellType()==Cell.CELL_TYPE_STRING)
             {
                 celltext=cell.getStringCellValue();
             }
             else if(cell.getCellType()==Cell.CELL_TYPE_NUMERIC)
             {
                  celltext=String.valueOf(cell.getNumericCellValue());
             }
             else if(cell.getCellType()==Cell.CELL_TYPE_BLANK)
             {
                 celltext="";
             }

          //Check the age and set the Cell value into excel
             if(Double.parseDouble(celltext)>=18)
             {
                 sheet.getRow(i).getCell(2).setCellValue("Major");
             }
             else
             {
                 sheet.getRow(i).getCell(2).setCellValue("Minor");
             }

          }//End of for loop

         //close the file input stream
         fis.close();

    //Open an excel to write the data into workbook
    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("D:\\Testing_Team\\Age_Validation.xlsx");

    //Write into workbook
    wb.write(fos);

    //close fileoutstream
    fos.close();

    }

}

*I am getting error like [ Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at demo.Readwrite.main(Readwrite.java:31) ] .
 Can Someone please guide me for the same.
I have watched this video for reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orYZB_RUgNc
I have added two poi dependency also poi-ooxml and poi.
Waiting for your valuable response.*

A: As you comment shows that, you should send index number rather than column name,
I think 'Age' is a column name of you sheet.
 //get the sheet from the workbook by index
         XSSFSheet sheet = wb.getSheetAt(0);

please replace above line in you code and run it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
VTEX Blog - KPIs analysis and integration between e-commerce areas
EN-OLD
PT-OLD
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KPIs analysis and integration between e-commerce areas
In a career as an e-commerce specialist you can be involved with various projects and have to deal with managers, directors and CEOs of large companies. You can take part in Kickoff, Go/No Go, performance and restructuring meetings. This may lead you to the unfortunate conclusion that in reality people do not always manage operating indicators wisely or analyze KPIs. Too many managers take a narrow view of increasing revenues and are blind to opportunities for more sales. The lost opportunities can be referred to as vanish points.
Leakage points can be discovered when there is a very thorough analysis of KPIs. As an example: a store is showing a 10% increase in revenues, but with a lower conversion rate for version 53 of desktop browser X. This version generates a number of visits representing 27% of sessions, and has an overall effect of 2% on the store's conversion rate. However, this 2% can be reversed by a surgical adjustment, making small improvements that over a 6 to 12-month period can be significant.
Analysis of KPIs: key entry KPIs (Impact Zone)
A virtual store has three entry pillars. These are:
Sessions: How many users access the store?
Conversion rate: What percentage of visitors to the virtual store actually place an order?
Average Ticket: What is the average value of all the orders placed?
This is called the impact zone for a simple reason: every occurrence will affect at least one of these measures.
Conversion rate: Orders closed vs. Orders invoiced
An analysis of KPIs will show a mismatch between orders closed by a store and those actually invoiced. A low rate of invoicing orders may be a symptom of serious problems:
Credit card approval rate
It is worth watching the performance of the purchasers and the payment facilitators. A ratio of less than 80% can indicate a problem of performance with the payment connector. In these cases, you should talk to the supplier or try out other connectors.
The closer you are to the purchaser the higher the approval rate. This is because adding other agents to this chain increases the risk analysis (of the intermediary), especially when the payment facilitator also supplies antifraud protection.
Bank payment form payment rate
In very general terms, only 55% of payment forms issued are paid. The amount varies according to the sector and depends on whether the store has a discount policy for this method of payment.
In extreme cases, where the payment rate is very low, you could try deactivating this form of payment for a week. Then check whether revenues have increased as purchasers change to other forms of payment.
Online debit
This option is still not a good one for e-commerce, since the average approval rate is only 7%, due to the high level of risk for the banks. Think of it as a direct plunge into the customer's bank account. Very high risk, wouldn't you think? In some cases, this can cut revenues instead of increasing them.
Rate of antifraud rejection
This rate varies widely, depending on the segment. For publishing companies, the percentage of fraud can be zero (a very specific product) and for a smartphone store 1% (a very desirable product, with high value added and low transport volume).
The important aspect of measurement is to systematically monitor and benchmark the segment to discover the correct approval rate.
The 4 forces of the Digital Channel
There are 4 areas that offer the consumer the best possible shopping experience. These areas interact with each other and together are responsible for the channel's performance and KPI analysis. The four areas give rise to a close monitoring of the following performance indicators:
The sales area defines the product mix, taking into account sales demand, potential products and low turnover products. In this context, revenues are monitored, after giving Marketing its mission.
Marketing responds to Sales, challenging the suggested mix. It is Marketing that takes the product to the customer. The capacity of Marketing to provide qualified shoppers and a satisfactory ROI, average ticket and revenues, must be analyzed.
Note: ROI is the return on investment. A product costs R$10 with net earnings of R$3. If R$1 has been spent to sell the product, the ROI is 3, i.e. for each R$1 invested there is a return of R$3.
Logistics is the pillar on which customer satisfaction rests. Once the customer has accepted the commercial proposal, now is the time to deliver the product punctually. Under logistics, we monitor the delivery SLA, the ratio of breakdowns and the stock coverage to meet demand.
IT provides the house with its foundations and ensures that the systems respond to an order from the customer. In this case, we analyze:
A. The conversion rate and average page loading time in devices compared with browsers;
B. Systems integration (Platform, ERP, WMS, TMS, etc.);
C. Infrastructure (Availability).
Correlation between KPIs
Data is of no use if it is not compared with other data. It is by comparison and similarity that we can identify performance, trends and problems.
Once we have identified the four forces of e-commerce, we can cross-reference the indicators and see how people behave.
Suppose that in a particular month, the conversion rate falls from 2.28% to 1.99%. This affects revenues, and demands investigation.
In this case, we can analyze:
1- Whether the conversion rate has fallen for all types of traffic. If it has, the most probable cause is an IT problem.
2- If we look at IT, we find that the desktop conversion rate has fallen by 30%. Once we have established this, it is time to access the Logbook.
The logbook can be any method of recording events and activities of the 4 forces of e-commerce. A journal of campaigns realized, the record of a price adjustment in the sales area or a new configuration by IT of the versions control system.
In this example, we might suppose that the front-end development had made an implementation that affected the average page loading time and reduced the conversion rate.
Integration of the areas
In the previous section, we could see the synergy between the areas and how they relate to jointly meet the needs of the shopper. The closer they work together, the better the e-commerce results will be.
In e-commerce EVERYTHING is measured!
Information is power, and it can turn companies into major powers in the market, like Google and Facebook. Now, imagine the owner of a grocery with access to data showing the number of customers entering his store, the percentage that check a particular product and did not buy it (it aroused their interest, but something stopped them from buying), how many others left the shop because the queue at the cash desk was too long, and so on. In e-commerce, everything can be measured.
In e-commerce, you do not have customers coming in the door. But you know everything the customer does when accessing a virtual store. The possibilities are infinite.
Taking decisions
In the e-commerce business it is very common to see people taking decisions based on the opinions of others, on what e-commerce gurus say and, lastly on the A/B test. Of the three, the last is the best option. But it is more prudent still to make a decision based on a conclusion.
For instance, you can justify lower sales in February because Carnival is held in Brazil and because the month has less days (justification based on opinion). However, there are better grounds for concluding that 30% of the reason for the fall was that the competition launched a major campaign during the month, 10% was because of IT implementation problems and 60% because of Carnival and that, compared with the year before (taking seasonality into account) the fall was only 5% in the same month.
Analogy of the Fighter Plane
Air force staff met to assess the state in which fighter planes were arriving back at base. The idea was to create a way of increasing their resistance in combat.
The above picture shows the areas of the planes that received most hits. From the picture, the engineers have to decide which parts of the fuselage should be reinforced. Where do you think this should be?
If you don't look at the whole picture, you might tend to say that the wings and the tail should be reinforced. You could also suggest moving the fuel tanks, or that the pilot should lie on his side, which would not be practical.
Well, think about it: a bullet in the wing will not bring the plane down. The pictures do not show planes where bullets entered the cockpit, because these planes did not return to base.
An analysis of KPIs is fundamental for running an e-commerce business. Decisions always need to be taken jointly with the areas affected, with every detail checked and investigated.
Many virtual stores survive today because they have been in business for a long time, having started when e-commerce was still a novelty and not a necessity. This situation leveraged the brand and this has sustained the business till now. This is the blind spot where you can miss big opportunities.
Your gift!
If you have finished reading this article, we have a very useful gift for you. Make a copy of whitepaper: Password is dead – how to provide a seamless and secure check-out experience! By offering a simpler way for your customers to complete their purchases, your store can increase ROI, which is one of the most important marketing KPIs.
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There are certain times of the year that seem to be a birthday frenzy among my friends, most notably mid June, and late August. My own birthday falls in mid June, with no less than six other birthdays in the three days before and after my own. It is always very social and fun with lots of parties to attend.
This August, it occurred to me that I've never actually given a home cooked food gift to my friends. And with so many gifts to give, I thought a few nice batches of cookies would be appreciated by these sweet-toothed birthday girls (and boy!) Some cookies even travelled express post to Melbourne and Perth! I hope they survived the journey intact!
The recipe was adapted from a cookbook I have spoken about before. I used candied lemon peel for a beautiful subtle citrus flavour. The cookies had a really nice crumb and flavour, and were super easy to make. The slice and bake method gives them a nice mostly uniform shape, and an interesting cross section. I can't wait to try this recipe base with other flavourings in the near future. The book suggests orange and poppyseed, and also pecan and cinnamon, both of which sound delicious!
1. To make candied lemon peel, place water and sugar in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add lemon rind and increase the heat, boiling for 8-10 minutes until the rind is glossy and transparent. Strain the mixture, setting aside the syrup.
2. Beat butter, sifted icing sugar and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted flours in two batches, the lemon rind, milk and 1 tablespoon of the lemon syrup.
3. Divide mixture in half. Knead each half on a lightly floured surface until smooth, then roll each half into 25cm logs. Wrap each log in baking paper and refrigerate for about 1 hour, until firm.
4. Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Line oven trays with baking paper.
5. Cut the logs into 1cm slices and place them about 3cm apart on oven trays. Bake for about 20 minutes and cool on wire racks.


text:
interface BlockiesIcon {
    toDataURL(): string;
}
interface BlockiesConfig {
    seed: string;
}
declare function blockies(config: BlockiesConfig): BlockiesIcon;

export = blockies;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The hot fix downloaded, A5D004hx.zip, contains the updated files required to address the documented issues.
Do NOT extract the contents of A5D004hx.zip. The hot fix installation process will extract the contents as needed.
After downloading A5D004hx.zip, follow the instructions for applying hot fixes in the SAS Deployment Wizard and SAS Deployment Manager 9.4: User's Guide.
This completes the installation of hot fix A5D004 on HP-UX IPF.


Faye Newton and Hazel Brooks met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where they discovered a shared passion for medieval music and poetry. They subsequently worked together in the award-winning ensemble Concanentes and in the year 2000 they formed 'duo Trobairitz' to explore the courtly song repertoire of the troubadours and trouvères, which is especially appropriate to their combination of voice and vielle.
Following an acclaimed international debut at the Antwerp Young Artists' Presentation in 2000, 'duo Trobairitz' rapidly rose to success and has appeared at major early music festivals within the UK and across Europe. The duo has collaborated with the Flemish theatre company fABULEUS for performances at the Belgian International Day of Early Music and broadcast live on British, Belgian and Slovenian radio. Performance highlights to date include a tour of Slovenia, a Dutch Early Music Network tour, the Leeds International Medieval Congress and the debut performance of its 'Medieval Femme Fatale' programme at the York Early Music Festival, which was later broadcast on BBC Radio 3's 'The Early Music Show'. Their debut CD 'The Language of Love' was released on the Hyperion label in 2007 to international critical acclaim, and was the American Record Guide Choice of 2007.
Faye and Hazel are both fascinated by the medieval period and thrive on the challenge of interpreting medieval music in a way that is true to its historical roots whilst being entertaining and meaningful for a modern-day audience. They enjoy the creative process of taking a melody and a text and, through a combination of scholarship and imagination, bringing the meaning and emotion of the text to life. The duo has been praised for its 'glorious' and 'beautifully rich' interpretations (Early Music Review), and aspires to take the performance of medieval music to the highest artistic plane.


text:
Q: Multisim solution vs hand calculation I am presented with the circuit shown in the figure below.

The hand calculations are as follows:

When I build the circuit in Multisim as shown in the image below:

My calculations are not matching up with the simulation results. Im pretty confident in my hand calculations. It is the simulation I am not sure about, but I could be wrong. Can anyone see what I did wrong?

A: As The Photon suggested in his comment earlier, I was shorting out the CCCS with the 80 Ohm resistor. Below is the diagram that shows the 80 Ohm Resistor connected in series with the CCCS instead of in parallel.


Image Title: Kids Teen Bedding Comforter Sets Sheets For Pertaining To Little Girls Decor 0. Filename: kids-teen-bedding-comforter-sets-sheets-for-pertaining-to-little-girls-decor-0.jpg. Image Dimension: 478 x 478 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Sammie Flatley. Uploaded Date: Saturday - April 07th. 2018 04:56:09 AM. Category: Bedroom. Image Source: homedsgn.com.
Tap The Thumbnail Bellow to See Related Gallery of "Kids Teen Bedding Comforter Sets Sheets For Pertaining To Little Girls Decor 0"


text:
Home > Marley > Music > Vinyl >
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live Reissue LP
This Bob Marley & the Wailers, Live! album was captured in performance at the Lyceum Ballroom in London during the final U.K. leg of the Natty Dread tour. Passionate and symbiotic energies constantly cycle between the band and audience, the net result is one of the most memorable concert recordings of the pop music era.
2. Burnin' & Lootin'
3. Them Belly Full
1. No Woman, No Cry
2. I Shot The Sheriff
3. Get Up, Stand Up
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Kaya Reissue LP Bob Marley & The Wailers - Babylon By Bus LP Bob Marley & The Wailers - In Dub Vol. 1 LP Bob Marley & The Wailers - Uprising Reissue LP
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend LP Bob Marley & The Wailers - Confrontation Reissue LP Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend 30th Anniversary Edition 2 LP Set Chronixx - Capture Land


In line with the widespread adoption within the industry, all payments are made via a virtual card system. This allows us to control all spend levels and limit the funds available to the supplier to that specified on the booking.
The virtual card system delivers the card details directly in to the suppliers reservation system and alerts them to the arrival of the payment details.
The supplier has to acknowledge receipt and is prompted via fax and email until the notification of receipt is approved. If after 5 attempts no notification is received we are prompted to contact the supplier and deliver payment verbally.
The sophistication of the system also provides accurate and timely invoicing as all payments are reconciled directly to a single booking reference.


text:
7 Samodzielny Pułk Czołgów Ciężkich (7 spczc) − oddział wojsk pancernych ludowego Wojska Polskiego.

Pułk sformowany został na podstawie rozkazów organizacyjnych Naczelnego Dowódcy WP nr 58/org. z dnia 15 marca 1945 roku i nr 0107/org. z dnia 27 kwietnia 1945 roku według sowieckiego etatu Nr 010/460 samodzielnego pułku czołgów ciężkich gwardii (ros. Отдельный гвардейский тяжёлый танковый полк) z lutego 1944 roku. Zgodnie z etatem oddział powinien liczyć 396 żołnierzy oraz posiadać na uzbrojeniu 21 czołgów ciężkich IS-2. Organizacja jednostki rozpoczęta została w dniu 1 maja 1945 roku. Oddział otrzymał numer poczty polowej 84274. W dniu 10 maja 1945 roku stan ewidencyjny pułku liczył 100 żołnierzy (25% stanu etatowego), w tym 14 oficerów, 18 podoficerów i 68 szeregowych. Do czasu zakończenia działań wojennych w Europie jednostka nie zakończyła organizacji i nie otrzymała sprzętu pancernego. Na podstawie rozkazu organizacyjnego nr 00248/org. Naczelnego Dowódcy WP z dnia 14 września 1945 roku jednostka została rozformowana.

Zobacz też
 Pułki czołgów Wojska Polskiego
 Jednostki pancerne Wojska Polskiego

Przypisy

Bibliografia

 Stanisław Komornicki, Krótki informator historyczny o Wojsku Polskim w latach II wojny światowej, tom 3, Regularne jednostki ludowego Wojska Polskiego. Formowanie, działania bojowe, organizacja, uzbrojenie, metryki jednostek kawalerii, wojsk pancernych i zmotoryzowanych, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1987,
 Janusz Magnuski, Wozy bojowe LWP 1943-1983, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1985,
 Organizacja i działania bojowe Ludowego Wojska Polskiego w latach 1943-1945. Wybór materiałów źródłowych, tom I, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1958

Pułki czołgów ciężkich ludowego Wojska Polskiego

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Soo..Gear Up variants- you've had your say.. some of you like it and some of you don't. The question I've gotten a lot over the past week is will I pick them up when (or in regards to Australia - if?!) they come out.. I gotta say I'm pretty sure we will. We'd like to think our current Nerf blaster collection is pretty comprehensive; I'm a completionist and have pretty much picked up everything Nerf can bring out (sometimes even 2 or 3 of them), regardless of whether I actually like it:P Other than the Sonic series Deploy and the Clear Vulcan, we've done pretty well to acquire the current lineup (emphasis on current- no, no Airtech's or Crossbows..).
Although I would have liked to see more variety with blasters than just the usual suspects- I do actually like the 'alert tape'/'construction site' paint scheme, and I especially am looking forward to the updated Raider even though there is already a clear variant. The Raider is one of my favourite blasters so I don't mind owning several of them and at least three of the four Gear Up blasters will support a stock attachment so it'll be nice to coordinate amongst them (.. assuming you DO get all of the range!) I personally believe they would have done a LOT better if they repainted the Stampede, Alpha Trooper, Spectre and Barrel Break- IMHO that would have been a much more suitable "gear up VS the Vortex" line that would probably be enough of a stimulus to get people buying.
Still.. it is what it is. With all the whinging and complaining though, the one thing to remember is ultimately no-one's forcing you to buy them. Like with the 'Clear the Way's' and the 'Sonic Series', they're not replacing or discontinuing the existing line, they're a short burst run that'll be gone by September/October.
No doubt there'll be plenty of repaints in the future.. so how abouts we get in early folks; what blaster and repaint design combination would attract you to buy a variant?
Brought to our attention by 'Mr Racoon'- Some promo images of the upcoming Gear Up N-Strike line- the Recon CS-6 and the Maverick REV-6 on the Japanese Amazon. I am a lil' over the Maverick and Recon and personally think they should rotate the limited edition blaster lines (I mean seriously, HOW many Mavericks do you really want!) but at least there will be a Barricade and Raider as well.
The Lazer Tag Phoenix LTX line has been to date the best home laser tag line I've personally used; Bazookified from Tactical Tag have taken it one step further and reshelled a Phoenix LTX into a Nerf Stampede ECS. The results (especially the reload system) are AWESOME. Check out the blog for more details on this project.
Rant: Vortex shoots discs. Is this really that bad?
These days most common question in the toy blaster world is 'what are the ranges'. . Less than a year ago, fans screamed for a new clip based, automatic blaster that came with innovative attachments and utilised a direct plunger mechanism. Nerf answered with the Stampede ECS.. and people still complained due to its "decent but not awesome" performance. Disregard aesthetics, build quality, innovation- ultimately, distance is king- the message now is get a blaster to shoot further and you'll have everyone lining up with their wallets stocked with cash and a gleam in their eye...or not.
"Another awesome feature we can confirm about the new Nerf Vortex line? Most incorporate the same Tactical Rail system as Nerf N-Strike blasters – meaning that your Vortex and N-Strike accessories will be compatible with both lines. Get ready to take your Nerf collection to the next level. Keep your eyes on the page for more official info reveals on the Vortex lineup...there's much more to come."
One of our readers, "Pinky" sent us a very informative analysis of the Nerf Vortex teaser vid. We thought we'd publish it, because.. well he's done all the hard work for us:) He's broken down the blasters and matched them up with the names that we published a while ago from the German website we found. All and all, check it out after the jump.
"Hey Nerf Nation, we'll be revealing more Vortex collection details & pics here soon! Just know, the performance and power you look for from Nerf blasters holds true with the Vortex line and the N-Strike line isn't going anywhere (get ready for the ultimate Nerf collection). Can't wait for you to test out the Vortex line firsthand, in action! Hope you'll keep up the hype with us until the chance arrives on 9.10.11."
Sooo.. as we said, N-Strike'll still be around.. which makes sense with that whole "N-Strike vs Vortex" thing they were plugging at the Toy Fair..
Interesting stuff eh? What do you reckon? "Featuring never before seen XLR Disc Technology?" I'm more impressed by their 'Progressive styles" :P I'm a progressive kinda guy..
Urban Taggers + Nerf Mods + Reviews: continued..
Speedload 6: still time to enter and win!
Aussie Nerfers, we're keeping the competition open for the weekend to allow you one last chance to enter to win! You need to have Facebook and like our page, mainly so we can identify who's entry goes with who's (it's hard to validate entries on here, anyone could say "that was me!") and just caption the above image.
Most original entry that appeals to our judges will win our Speedload 6!! The entries so far have been awesome.. it's gonna be a tough decision!
Oooh looky here- 2 player Starter Pack from Amazon.
A week ago we posted the great news regarding Amazon.com and their willingness to ship Nerf to Australia. Well as always, we did it ourselves to prove that it's true and lo' and behold, today we've unpacked ourselves a Dart Tag 2 Player Starter Pack, fresh from Amazon in the US to our wondrous lil' town in Australia.
The Sharpshot was the only Dart Tag blaster we didn't have, so we were definitely looking forward to this delivery..
"Listen up, Nerf Nation, we know you're anxious to find out everything you can about the new Nerf Vortex. 9.10.11 is just too far away, and we don't want to keep you waiting.
Here's the deal. On Monday April 11th we will reveal information, photos and a video of the entire all-new Nerf Vortex line – exclusive to fans of the Official Nerf Facebook page. Think of it as a huge "THANK YOU" to each and every member of Nerf Nation. RSVP now to get all the latest updates, and be sure to tell all your friends to "Like" the page so they don't miss out!
Once you see what we have up our sleeves, you'll be counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds til you can Gear Up for 9.10.11. The latest in Nerf evolution has arrived."
More Nerf Dart Tag Promos: Sigh..
Ahhh well. One day, folks!
More details on the Speedload 6 mod to accommodate an Alpha Trooper drum.You may just say "what's the point" and "just use a Recon", but then given the kind of blog Nerf Mods + Reviews is, I think it was a worthwhile exercise. The first thing most of you ask with new blasters is "what kind of mods can you do", so it's normal for them to push the boundaries and mod where modding is possible first..so you the reader can decide if it's worth while or not.
Speedload 6: Real Dart Tag action on a Sunday night..
So much for smart casual dining tonight..
Soo.. what to do in a sleepy town on a quiet Sunday night ? Friends ask us out for dinner; I've got other ideas:) 4 jerseys, 2 Speedload 6's, a Swarmfire and Quick 16 later..
For those of you who just need your foam externally..


text:
Michaił Michajłowicz Diewiatjarow (ros. Михаил Михайлович Девятьяров, ur. 11 listopada 1985 w Czusowoj) – rosyjski biegacz narciarski, dwukrotny medalista mistrzostw świata juniorów. Syn Michaiła Diewiatjarowa – również biegacza, mistrza olimpijskiego z Calgary.

Kariera
Po raz pierwszy na arenie międzynarodowej Michaił Diewiatjarow pojawił się 17 listopada 2002 roku podczas zawodów FIS Race w Kirowsku, gdzie zajął dwudzieste miejsce w biegu na 10 km techniką klasyczną. W 2004 roku wziął udział w mistrzostwach świata juniorów w Stryn, zajmując czwarte miejsce w sprincie stylem dowolnym. Na rozgrywanych rok później mistrzostwach świata juniorów w Rovaniemi zdobył brązowy medal w biegu łączonym na 20 km, a wraz z kolegami z reprezentacji zdobył złoto w sztafecie. Trzykrotnie startował na mistrzostwach świata U-23, najlepsze wyniki osiągając na mistrzostwach świata młodzieżowców w Kranju w 2006 roku oraz mistrzostwach świata młodzieżowców w Malles Venosta w 2008 roku, gdzie zajmował piąte miejsce w sprincie techniką dowolną. W Pucharze Świata zadebiutował 25 października 2003 roku w Düsseldorfie, zajmując 66. miejsce w sprincie stylem dowolnym. Tam też zdobył pierwsze pucharowe punkty – 23 października 2004 roku w tej samej konkurencji zajął 24. miejsce. Diewiatjarow tylko raz stał na podium zawodów PŚ, ale za to na najwyższym stopniu: 21 marca 2007 roku w Sztokholmie był najlepszy w sprincie stylem klasycznym. Najlepszy wynik w klasyfikacji generalnej osiągnął w sezonie 2006/2007, który ukończył na czterdziestej pozycji. W 2007 roku brał udział w mistrzostwach świata w Sapporo, gdzie zajął piętnaste miejsce w sprincie klasykiem. Startował także w sprincie podczas mistrzostw świata w Oslo w 2011 roku oraz rozgrywanych dwa lata później mistrzostw świata w Val di Fiemme, ale nie poprawił wyniku z Japonii. W międzyczasie brał udział w igrzyskach olimpijskich w Vancouver, gdzie rywalizację w sprincie stylem klasycznym zakończył na ósmej pozycji.

Jego ojciec – Michaił Diewiatjarow również był biegaczem narciarskim.

Osiągnięcia sportowe

Igrzyska olimpijskie

Mistrzostwa świata

Mistrzostwa świata młodzieżowców

Mistrzostwa świata juniorów

Puchar Świata

Miejsca w klasyfikacji generalnej

Miejsca na podium

Miejsca w poszczególnych zawodach
stan po zakończeniu sezonu 2015/2016

Linki zewnętrzne
 Profil na stronie FIS

Przypisy

Rosyjscy biegacze narciarscy
Rosyjscy olimpijczycy
Uczestnicy Zimowych Igrzysk Olimpijskich 2010
Urodzeni w 1985


A robot, more specifically, a robot with a rather sarcastic sense of humor ends up in Equestria after a rather unfortunate incident at the test facility he resides in. What will this new land offer him? Will he live prosperously? Probably not.
Axton Coglink has just moved in from the far-off country of Austallia. Along with his family, he eventually groups up with a few young fillies who call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
Thank you for favoriting Zebrican Warlord!
Thanks for the fav on Star Eater! Thumbs up if you like it!
Thanks for the fav on my story, The Ones From Beyond.


Students will need a three-ring binder, dividers, spiral notebook, highlighters, pens, a lot of pencils, paper, and a flash drive. During back-to-school sales, please buy enough to replenish throughout the year. Wish list: kleenex, germx, & clorox wipes. (I have to pay for these things out-of-pocket.) See you in August!


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Antique Russian Orthodox (Religious) Icons One-of-a-kind-items:some18th Cen era. The item "Antique Russian Orthodox (Religious) Icons One-of-a-kind-itemssome18th Cen era" is in sale since Monday, January 28, 2019. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Religion & Spirituality\Christianity\Icons". The seller is "mhomosquito43" and is located in Corpus Christi, Texas. This item can be shipped to United States.


text:
Q: Python NodeTransformer: how to remove nodes? I'm playing around with AST manipulations. Currently I'm trying to remove certain nodes from an input AST. The NodeTransformer class is an appropriate tool for this purpose, I think. Sadly, it doesn't behave as expected.
The documetation says:
"The NodeTransformer will walk the AST and use the return value of the visitor methods to replace or remove the old node. If the return value of the visitor method is None, the node will be removed from its location, otherwise it is replaced with the return value."
Now look at my program:
import _ast
import ast
import sys

#ast transformer
class MyTransformer(ast.NodeTransformer):

    def iterate_children(self, node):
        """
        helper
        """
        children = ast.iter_child_nodes(node)
        for c in children:
            self.visit(c)

    def generic_visit(self, node):
        """
        default behaviour
        """
        print("visiting: "+node.__class__.__name__)
        self.iterate_children(node)
        return node

    def visit_For(self, node):
        """
        For nodes: replace with nothing
        """
        print("removing a For node")
        return None

#read source program
filename = sys.argv[1]
with open (filename, "r") as myfile:
    source = str(myfile.read())

#compile source to ast
m = compile(source, "<string>", "exec", _ast.PyCF_ONLY_AST)

#do ast manipulation
t = MyTransformer()
t.visit(m)

# fix locations
m = ast.fix_missing_locations(m)

#visualize the resulting ast
#p = AstPrinter()
#p.fromAst(m)

#execute the transformed program
print("computing...")
codeobj = compile(m, '<string>', 'exec')
exec(codeobj)

Here is the input file:
l = [0, 1, 2, 3]

total = 0

for i in l:
    total += i

print(total)

And the outcome:
visiting: Module
visiting: Assign
visiting: Name
visiting: Store
visiting: List
visiting: Num
visiting: Num
visiting: Num
visiting: Num
visiting: Load
visiting: Assign
visiting: Name
visiting: Store
visiting: Num
removing a For node
visiting: Expr
visiting: Call
visiting: Name
visiting: Load
visiting: Name
visiting: Load
computing...
6

I expected a '0', because the loop has been removed. But there is a '6' (=0+1+2+3).
Does anybody know why?
Python version: 3.2.3
ast illustration
The numbers in ( ) indicate the line number in the input program. Code for image drawing is not provided here; please ignore the "root" node. As you can see, the For loop is still there.
Thanks for reading!
Update 21.8.:
I posted a link to this question on the python mailinglist (python-list@python.org). It seems like I did too much overwriting. Without the children visitor, it works as expected.
Entire source code of MyTransformer:
class MyTransformer(ast.NodeTransformer):
    def visit_For(self, node):
        """
        For nodes: replace with nothing
        """
        print("removing a For node")
        return None

A: No, it works correctly because you removed self-written generic_visit(). As you can see in the source code of ast.py, the NodeTransformer is the child of the NodeVisitor, which has its own generic_visit() method. This method performs updating of your ast nodes and if you override this method, you should know what are you doing for. Overriding will change all logic of NodeTransformer.
If you still need to override generic_visit() (for example to print messages like visiting: <AST object> when you visit a node), you have to call parent method in your generic_visit(). So, your  method will be the next:
def generic_visit(self, node):
        """
        printing visit messages
        """
        super().generic_visit(node)
        print("visiting: "+node.__class__.__name__)
        self.iterate_children(node)
        return node

The iterate_children() doesn't affect the result in this case, but also must be removed. It forces the visitor to run over children of each node. But generic_visit() already runs over all nodes. So, with iterate_children() you visit some nodes more than once. This wastes computing time and may give errors in more complex cases.


The summer outings for 2015 will continue on Sunday 16th August with a guided tour of Knockboy/Seskinan church site with guide Dr. Nora White.
This trip is a follow up to a lecture given to the society by Dr. White last October entitled Ogham Stones of County Waterford. Some of the ancient Ogham Stones in the area were built into the fabric of the church by the medieval builders.
From Dungarvan turn off at the Master McGrath monument taking the R672 road for Ballymacarbry/Clonmel. Continue on this road for about 9km until you come to a shop at a cross roads. A very short distance further on take a right turn (L5111).
After travelling 1.5km up this road turn right at sign for Knockboy Graveyard which leads down a narrow lane to the church.
Meet at the church at 3pm, or at the shop at the cross roads at 2.50pm.
Cost: €5. Members no charge.


text:
3 Years after man's death, Mother hopes renewed reward will help find Son's killer
Rolo Production / Home / National News / 3 Years after man's death, Mother hopes renewed reward will help find Son's killer
Article Updated:	julio 26, 2019
A $20,000 reward was being renewed for information that will help solve the case of a 26-year-old man found dead in Altadena.
She left home to run errands while he did some yard work. The next morning, she got word that her son was found by horseback riders on the Altadena Crest Trail.
Detectives haven't disclosed how Marcus died because it would hurt their investigation, but hopes the reward will help her family find peace.
You know you hear it all the time on the news and when it's you, it's completely heartbreaking for my family, for my friends so we were in complete shock Helen Nieto – The victim's mother
Three years after his death, authorities still have no suspects, nor witnesses.
Detectives say when Marcus' body was found along a trail, he didn't have any of his personal belongings. Robbery was being looked at as a possible motive.
She asked that anyone with information call Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide detectives.
In the meantime, Nieto holds onto memories of her beloved son who loved sports and was thinking about a career in music.
She left home to run errands while he did some yard work.
Her beloved son loved sports and was thinking about a career in music.
Detectives haven't disclosed how Marcus died because it would hurt their investigation, but Nieto hopes the reward will help her family find peace.
I just want to know why you did it and he'll deal with the Maker. He has to answer to the Lord, not me. Helen Nieto – The victim's mother
Latebreaking news is a special report or special coverage or news bulletin
Because internet does not have the «column inches» limitation of print media, online news stories can, but don't always, come bundled with supplementary material.
The medium of the world wide web also enables hyperlinking, which allows readers to navigate to other pages related to the one they're reading.
Storyhighlights
Government proclamations, concerning royal ceremonies, laws, taxes, public health, have been dubbed news since ancient times.
A media organisation should adapt to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by changing audience behaviour in our module entitled "Newsroom evolution from digital denial to digital first".
According to some theories, «news» is whatever the news industry sells Journalism, broadly understood along the same lines.
Le journalisme d'enquête, ou journalisme d'investigation
Because each individual has a particular point of view, it is recognized that there can be no absolute objectivity in news reporting.
Journalists can collectively shift their opinion over what is a controversy up for debate and what is an established fact.
Some commentators on news values have argued that journalists' training in news values itself represents a systemic bias of the news.
Appréciation du concept de journalisme d'investigation
The challenges and opportunities presented by social media
Social media is an increasingly disruptive force on the media landscape. It challenges traditional, mainstream media to reconsider how they operate.
Social media often releases information about which mainstream media might not have been aware, and information that mainstream media might have tried to ignore.
It can offer a wider, more diverse perspective on life than that covered by traditional media.
An empowered audience
Now we look at what a social media strategy could mean for a media organisation. But first, let's look at how we got to this stage in media's development.
Media evolution
The media is in a constant state of change, or at least it should be. Technological advances, leading to changing audience behaviour, resulting in altered attitudes to consuming and sharing news, which means that a media organisation can't afford to stand still.
Innovation is needed, but only if it makes business sense. There have been many stages of media evolution over the years, below we look at three. The "broadcast AT or publish AT" model, the "engage with on our terms" model, and the "participate in" model.
The award winning Web Show features special guests
Technological Environment Business means the Development in the field of Technology which affects Business
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Select Kids' Shoes 25% Off* our in-store ticket price. Select brands & styles. Selection may vary by locations, order must be completed by August 15th, 2017 1:59 AM ET to qualify.
Central Asian or Middle East?
Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on West Asia and Egypt. Some of the countries bordering Iran and Afghanistan's north, such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, are sometimes included within the northern borders of the Middle East...…
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Ballet Beautiful by Jane Helen Bowers
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An amalgamation of a number of tenancies was undertaken to enable the construction of a Strike Bowling facility. Base building structure and services modifications including major mechanical, fire and electrical services upgrade works were necessary to meet the requirements of Strike Bowling.
The incorporation of this new tenancy space required the existing Village Candy Bar to be relocated. In order to minimise the disruption to the existing Village operations, Maben completed the construction of the new candy bar including out of hours work as required for the major demolition and associated stages.
A food court development including extensive services upgrade works was completed in the main mall. A new steel structure was erected within the mall to house the new tenancies and food court seating area.


text:
Retirement of Portland's Top FBI Agent Could Speed Up City's Decision to Rejoin the FBI's JTTF
FBI's Art Balizan
The longstanding rift between the city of Portland, Ore., and the local FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force could get resolved quicker than expected, thanks to the pending departure by month's end of the head of the city's FBI office, the Portland Mercury news website reports.
The city pulled Portland police out of the local JTTF in in 2005 in protest after the then-Mayor Tom Potter and Police Chief Derrick Foxworth were blocked from getting classified information because they didn't have a security clearance. Some residents also thought the unit was unjustifiably spying on citizens and violating state and local laws.
This past November, the city was pressed to rethink the issue of rejoining the JTTF after the FBI arrested a 19-year-old man in a terrorism sting. The man allegedly planned to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the city's Pioneer Square.
But some commission members remain opposed to rejoining, and some local skeptics insist the terrorism plot was created by the FBI sting, and that Portland was never really in any danger as the arrest suggested. A city commission vote on the issue has been delayed three times.
The Portland Mercury reports that Mayor Sam Adams may be pressed to strike up some deal with the JTTF that council members can accept because the head of the Portland FBI, who turns 57 this year — the mandatory retirement age — is retiring at the end of the month to take a job out of state.
The website wrote: "For anyone grumbling that the work on Portland's Joint Terrorism Task Force dalliance has been moving too slowly, you might be pleasantly surprised by a sudden speed-up. Art Balizan, the special agent in charge of Portland's FBI field office, is leaving at the end of the month. Which means Mayor Sam Adams will be working like hell to find a compromise with the feds and his city council colleagues before he suddenly finds himself starting over with a brand-new FBI partner.
"Sources in city hall have been bandying around the words "next week" and "very soon" when talking about when the mayor might unveil the draft agreement he's been shopping with the feds and the council. And now I know one reason why. Having to work with an interim FBI special agent, or even a new permanent agent, could slow the process down dramatically."