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Home / Money / Calculators / John Abraham: the value investor
John Abraham: the value investor
13 min read . Updated: 28 Mar 2016, 07:51 AM IST Vivina Vishwanathan, P.R. Sanjai
John Abraham's business ventures are in areas he is passionate about but he does go beyond his comfort zone to include CSR activities and a fintech app
It is a still-pleasant early March afternoon and we are waiting for actor John Abraham in a room in the backyard of his Mumbai office which he calls an outhouse. The outhouse is over a water tank, and this is where Abraham has most of his meetings. It is quiet. The busy buzz of a Mumbai day is kept out by two glass walls and a wooden roof. The white cushions contrast nicely with a retro wooden clock on the table. Behind us is a brick wall painted white that displays two abstract art frames in black and white. An old Bullet motorcycle is parked outside.
Abraham walks in, clad in grey track pants, grey tee and black rubber flip-flops. The actor, 6 ft 2 inches tall, is just back from an endorsement shoot for a product for which he has been a brand ambassador for 10 years now. He's a long-term guy, we think. Let's see what he does with his money.
The 43-year-old movie star considers himself a serious investor. But he realised this only when he saw big money for the first time. "I grew up very comfortably, but when I saw a lot of money for the first time, I became cautious. Two things happen when you see a lot of money—you either splurge or become overly cautious. I became the latter," he says.
By overcautious, he means that he is careful, not tight-fisted. "For example, the first time I booked a room in a five-star hotel, though I had the money, I felt guilty. So I negotiated and got a fantastic rate, inclusive of all taxes, breakfast, dinner and four pieces of laundry. Someone will think, he is an actor, he doesn't have to look into this space. Others may know the price of everything; I know the value of everything."
The search for value continues in investments, too. Abraham is almost a text-book version of a smart investor. He breaks his investments down into two categories—active and passive.
Abraham says that with an 'active' instrument, he is looking for value asset creation. These would include his production house, equity-based mutual funds, a football team, a few start-ups and a fitness company. He is set to venture into businesses that involve corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, motorbikes and clothing.
On the passive side of his investment portfolio is real estate and any kind of rental income. He also plans to buy real estate abroad. "For example, the property that we are sitting on is mine, which is a passive investment. An example of the active side would be seed capital in a new start-up or an investment with an agent into something that has already started," he says.
In the active portfolio, the core investment is his production house—JA Entertainment—which has produced films such as Vicky Donor, Madras Cafe and Rocky Handsome. "My production house is an active investment and that is my core. Everything else will be built around that." As a businessman, Abraham says the biggest value asset he is creating with JA Entertainment is credibility. "I am trying to marry commerce with content," he says, quickly adding that he is not trying to make art films.
Of course, it's not been easy. He gives an example of Madras Cafe. "Rajiv Gandhi's assassination had deeply impacted me. I roamed around with the script. Everyone said this movie will not work. Every studio threw me out," Abraham recollects. Madras Cafe is a political espionage thriller set in the late 1980s and early 1990s during the time of the Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's subsequent assassination. The movie, which was directed by Shoojit Sircar and was reportedly made on a budget of 10 crore, released in 2013 and collected 42 crore at the box office.
Vicky Donor, released in 2012, is another example. "Vicky Donor was such a risk; people told me 'we will sign up with you but then you have to cut your fee in the next film and that cut in the fee is going to be the production cost of this film'. So we made it practically with nothing," says Abraham.
The film on sperm donation turned out to be a multi-bagger and crossed 35 crore at the box office, won critical acclaim and the national award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment that year. Its cost of production is estimated at 5 crore.
Abraham is trying to build a library of credible content before calling the Sequoias of the world. "Not today, may be tomorrow. It takes time to build that library, to understand and go to studios in Los Angeles. I think I can do it. It is important to cross over, (but) at the same time do well domestically so that there is investor faith or viewer faith in what you are doing."
Besides the production house, seed capital is also in the active side of his investment as Abraham wants to invest in and participate actively in certain platforms. "For example, my football team. Right now there is a lot of cash outflow but I feel there is a propensity for massive value asset creation." Abraham owns 90% stake in NorthEast United Football Club, an Indian Super League football franchise based in Guwahati. Abraham believes football will grow exponentially while cricket will grow incrementally or may even stagnate. "I may be spending an X amount on the team at this point of time. I know when the popularity of the Indian Super League increases, there is going to be a certain value asset creation." He will then decide whether to hive off some stake to take care of the working capital losses he has incurred over the first 2-3 years. "But that is a decision I will take at that point of time."
He strategises brand positioning on the team jersey, brand pricing and prices of tickets in the stadium for his football team. "I met Tony Fernandes (chief executive officer of AirAsia, which is a sponsor) recently and we discussed several ideas. AirAsia is starting flights into Imphal and Aizawl. I was chatting with him about how we can do liveries (space available for branding on aircraft) across the plane and sell merchandise on the plane. He asked me whether I would discuss marketing and I said yes because I am a marketing man, I understand it. I love talking about positioning my brand and NorthEast United Football Club is my baby. Also, brand coverage that AirAsia and HTC got was the highest. One of the things I do is to make sure we have the maximum ball positions because then the camera is on us," he says, and smiles.
At the other end of the active portfolio are mutual funds. "I do a lot through my chartered accountant. There was a time when I did it alone. When I was working and earning 30,800 per month, I had gone to my bank and said I want to invest in equity-based mutual funds. I believe it is the best thing to do for long-term investments. It is great for growth and not risky."
However, he is wary of investing directly in stocks. "Pre-2008, I invested in stocks. And in 2008, when the crash happened, I was one of the luckier ones who walked off with no profit and no loss. But I felt the impact. I was too young and too new in my career to be investing crores of rupees in the stock market directly. I felt I needed to be more careful. I need to play in an area where I feel a little more safe. So, I take the equity-based mutual funds route."
Abraham is also interested in being an active investor in start-ups. He says he has been dabbling on the surface and getting educated in the process. "I speak to at least one start-up every day. That is how actively I am involved in the process."
He says he could easily take that money and put it in another film. But he wants to add value to his ecosystem, and also see if he can strike gold. "I know that sounds horrible, but if I hit on the right opportunity, I could strike gold. I want to be a part of the success story. I want to be a part of the thinking machinery of that success story."
Abraham is involved in a food app, and is keen on investing in a financial technology company in the e-wallet app space. He calls the apps segment a satta bazaar (gambling market). "Out of the 10 apps, one or two may work. Hence, I go by my gut a lot. For me, honesty and transparency are probably the most important things because some of these guys are fly-by-night operators. You really need to know how to catch the right guy...."
Being an actor comes handy in spotting the right start-up from the wrong, he says. "As an actor, you are sensitive to energies. When you look at people, you can actually read them easily. You can pick up certain qualities because they treat you as if you don't know anything. And that is my biggest advantage."
Besides fintech and food, fitness rates high in his list of ideas. "I am also interested in fitness and a lot of it technology-driven. For example, you have FitStar, which is (former American football player) Tony Gonzalez's app. I actually went there to speak to him to see if I could do something. But I feel I need to get an app that is far more effective and palatable for the Indian audience."
Abraham knows that he is identified with fitness, and wants to reach his target audience. "Now that could be through a technology driven app or TED Talks. The idea is how do I reach my target audience effectively."
He owns JA Fitness, a gym chain. "I know that the fitness industry is a sunrise industry, and I also know that rentals are killing the gym business. Every gym business is a losing proposition. Now how do I monetise effectively? What is the model that I should create? Do I acquire space or get a franchise? I am still working in a space where I need to monetise, and at the same time reach out to audience."
Another area that Abraham is looking to venture into is corporate social responsibility (CSR), which he believes is going to be a path breaking initiative. Under the Companies Act, 2013, CSR rules mandate that companies with a net worth of 500 crore or revenue of 1,000 crore or net profit of 5 crore should spend 2% of their average profit in the last three years on social development-related activities.
Abraham is looking to tap this opportunity. "My wife Priya's (Priya Runchal) professor back from her college days, Sanjay Sood, who teaches marketing and media in UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), has agreed to come down and work with us on building and monetising CSR activity."
Better use of a brand ambassador is another topic that Abraham feels holds untapped value. "Let's face it: agents or agencies that are handling actors or models are just agencies. There is zero value-add. They take you to the client and tell the client that 'take this actor, he is happening.' Or, at the most he will say, 'he is young and you have a young brand.' That is not rocket science. The actor can think for himself. What we are trying to do is add a Z axis to this X and Y axis—to make it three- dimensional. We are working on it and will put it into action really soon."
Abraham plans to kick-start this initiative—the details of which he did not want to share—in May, when he will start actively approaching corporate entities. "Obviously there is a certain formulae that we want to work with—something that we can't divulge at this point of time. There is a certain science behind it. They would love it."
The Dhoom star, also known for his passion for motorbikes, has plans to invest here too. "Bikes is one area that I really want to tread into. I want to pick up old vintage bikes and do a Jay Leno and have my own garage where I will probably auction the stuff. You must have heard of a Ferrari that got auctioned for $38 million. I won't be so lucky, but if I can start from somewhere and create value from nothing...."
He points to the Bullet parked outside and says it has been designed by a friend who owns Rajputana Customs, a Jaipur-based custom bike maker. "A lot of my inputs have gone into it. I actually used to ride that bike. I like motorcycles, restoring old ones and I love to ride. That is the space I want to get into," says Abraham, who has four bikes. Someone who is really effective in that space, he says, is India's one-day cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who owns 33 motorcycles. "He is so passionate, and in Ranchi, he has the space to keep them also."
Abraham's list of ventures includes taking equity in international brands. "I am looking at taking up some equity in brands rather than a fee. These would be international brands that would come into this country to grow here. Rather than just taking an actor fee or celebrity endorsement fee, I would tie up with a brand and grow with it in the country. That is an active space because I will be sitting on every marketing meeting and agency discussion."
While the actor wants to wear many hats as an investor and a businessman, he has just one regret—investing in real estate without proper due diligence. "Not going through a lawyer when I chose certain properties that I was cheated of. In my greed for acquisition, I sometimes closed the deal before reading the contract. In that I got hurt. I don't speak about all builders, but the builder lobby can be very dangerous if you don't tread carefully. And I have been bitten more than once."
His wife Priya, an ex-World Bank employee, is helping him structure his financial portfolio. "She actually has the knowledge and vision of how we can regulate cash flow and streamline things, which I think is a big value-add."
The businessman in Abraham has his roots in a Masters in Management Studies almost two decades back. When he started working, Abraham wanted to do media planning. "In media planning I wanted to be a strategic planner and an implementation buyer. During my first interview in those days, I am talking about 1999, I said I want to be a combination of Bloomberg and (Rupert) Murdoch." He interned at ad company Euro RSCG, where he worked with V. Ramani, his guide and mentor. After that he joined Enterprise Nexus Communications Pvt. Ltd as a media planner. "When I got into Gladrags (in 1999), I was just about ready to make my transition to a bigger agency, and then I decided to walk in my underwear—and a change of profession."
But the media planner in him still touches all spheres of his life. "I try and plan my life, films and investments in a certain way so that I reach my audience in the most effective way and also position myself in their heads in a particular way. Right now, I understand them."
Mint Rich Star is a series that introduces readers to the business side of a celebrity. The series will lead up to the annual Mint Rich issue.
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He makes drinks at Trolley Square Oyster House. He's also Santa.
When he's not pouring at Trolley Square Oyster House or northbeach, Rocco Malin is making Christmas wishes come true.
A few minutes before Erika Rodriguez's eyes filled with tears of gratitude, the parking lot at the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware was silent, except for a faint buzz from the charity's impressive Christmas light display.
"After having a really horrible experience, this is the best Christmas we've had and it means a lot," Rodriguez says. Her 9-year-old son is recovering from a traumatic leg injury he suffered two months ago in a Millsboro car accident.
The 30-year-old bartender, who works at Wilmington's Trolley Square Oyster House and Dewey Beach's Northbeach during the summer, is a former U.S Marine perhaps best-known for his wacky ideas and off-centered personality.
Yes, that was him in Newark once walking to a liquor store while wearing a green "Borat"-style thong. And that's him on his newest Instagram page called Daddy Toots, where you can find Malin giggling after tooting his horn at unsuspecting drivers waiting at red lights.
But Malin's goofy alter-ego, Motorcycle Santa, is also his best, and his best-known.
Motorcycle Santa's first year ended with Malin aimlessly riding around on his bike and offering toys to random children and families he came across in Wilmington.
Ronald McDonald House of Delaware Development Director Barbara Loeslein remembers the first time Motorcycle Santa and his festive crew of merrymakers pulled up to families huddled at the charity's entrance.
"He called and said he was Motorcycle Santa bringing toys for all the kids and I said OK, but I could not believe what it really was," Loeslein says. "I really was shocked — it was something else."
When it came time prepare for his fourth year as Motorcycle Santa, Malin wasn't sure he was going to be able to personally pull off the delivery.
He had surgery — his 10th —scheduled for a few days after he was to pass out toys and donations while wearing his custom-made Santa outfit.
But Malin decided he couldn't let down those in need. Plus, he didn't want to take a year off from his philanthropic project, for which he has even bigger plans.
"You can't beat that right there," Malin said last week at the Ronald McDonald House after a girl started to cry, overwhelmed by the surprise dose of generosity. "That's what it's all about. And I've been in plenty of hospitals. I know how it can be an intimidating, stressful and draining."
It's his own ailment that led to Motorcycle Santa to reach beyond Delaware's border this year for the first time.
In recent weeks, Malin spotted a post she wrote mentioning how she was struggling financially and didn't have the money to provide a proper holiday for her two children, ages 17 and 12. She was asking people for good coping mechanisms.
Tippett says she initially felt uncomfortable about the offer — "We had a talk about pride," she says — but in the end, she accepted help when Malin promised the funds didn't come out of his own pocket.
One of Malin's final chores before flying to Cleveland last weekend was to ship a large box to North Carolina, filled with clothes and toys for the Tippett family, gifts from complete strangers in The First State.
"It was so empty under our tree because all of our Christmas money is going to the $50 every time I go to physical therapy and being able to walk again," Tippett says. "It's really rough to be a parent in this position. You just want to do what you can for your kids.
"I was in an emotional hole when I posted that and this is nothing short of Christmas magic."
Even Matt Place, Malin's childhood friend who played The Grinch for this year's deliveries, struggles to describe the adventurous drink-slinger with a man-bun.
"To describe him, pick all the adjectives that mean positive and joyful, make that one word and that's it. It's not a facade. He just enjoys life," says Place, also 30 and from Wilmington. "People ask me what's going on in that head of his and I tell them I stopped asking that question 15 years ago."
After making his first deliveries this year, it didn't take long for Place to understand why Malin transforms into Motorcycle Santa. The feeling one gets from helping others during the holidays is hard to describe, he says.
"I just met these two little girls at Nemours and I have to say it was very hard to stay in The Grinch character without getting choked up," Place says. "All we want to do is bring that smile out and help them forget about whatever else is going on, except the Christmas spirit and happiness."
He adds: "I don't think I'll ever be able to not do this. The Grinch's heart has grown 10 times today."
Malin created Motorcycle Santa in 2015. It was unseasonably warm and he went out for a ride, which he normally didn't do when the weather is colder.
"I have a lot of random ideas. I don't follow them all, but this one stuck," says Malin, who was voted "Most Random" during his high school years at Wilmington's St. Elizabeth School, where he graduated.
Since launching it, Malin estimates that he has spent more than $2,000 of his own money on Motorcycle Santa's costumes and lights, with friends pitching in to build the Christmas caravan.
No longer are the donations all from friends, family and customers. They are coming in from everywhere, including one $1,200 donation from a perfect stranger. The name that donor listed was "Peter Billingsley," the actor who played Ralphie in "A Christmas Story."
It didn't take long for the Oyster House staff to rally around Malin's idea when he started working there last year. It wasn't just the idea, but the funny guy behind it.
"The way he looks at life with his humor is different than a lot of people, but it's just so endearing," Hayes says. "He's a special piece of our puzzle, so we're all happy to support him."
To contribute to Motorcycle Santa, go to motorcyclesanta.org.


There are big changes ahead for Dundrum village following the sale of the old Shopping Centre and its imminent redevelopment. Learn more and share your views at the Imagine Dundrum Open Meeting. Imagine Dundrum is a community initiative that has come together to ensure that local people will have a say in the redevelopment. This entirely voluntary group are holding an Open Meeting in Taney Parish Centre, Dundrum on Thursday, June 15th at 7.30pm, and people from Dundrum and the surrounding area are urged to attend.
The aim of the Imagine Dundrum group is to enable the local community to come together to influence the future of Dundrum. The group has been working as a community hub, making links and connections with people across the Dundrum area, and building local support. They have a community-focused vision for Dundrum's built environment, and want to work in collaboration with the County Council, with all interested local organisations, businesses and individuals and with the developers, to share that vision and help make it a reality.
Imagine Dundrum has already met with and begun to build a communication network with many local Residents' Associations and interested citizens, with businesses, public representatives, and all who share the commitment to ensuring that our Dundrum village will be a place that engenders civic pride and connects people.
The Imagine Dundrum group believes that any plans for Dundrum's renewal must take account of the village's history, its past economic and social development, and its rich heritage of buildings. The group wants to advocate for people-centred town planning, where every-day public spaces are designed and planned to foster and nurture thriving, inclusive communities, and where civic, community and cultural space is prioritised. They want to restore a strong sense of place and make sure that Dundrum will be an attractive and thriving place to live, work and play.
The Open Meeting on June 15th will be an opportunity for local people to hear more about the work of Imagine Dundrum, and to think creatively and share ideas about the future of our village.
Learn more about the upcoming changes planned for Dundrum village and have your say at the Open Meeting on Thursday, 15th June 2017 at Taney Parish Centre, Dundrum.


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Exploring the attainable roots of the idealistic, social, and historic conflicts between philosophy in science and values in academic schooling.
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Supreme Court Decides Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc.
On January 20, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., No. 13-854, holding that the Federal Circuit must review a district court's subsidiary factual findings made in the course of the construction of a patent claim for clear error, rather than applying the de novo standard of review.
Teva Pharmaceuticals sued Sandoz when Sandoz tried to market a generic version of a drug that Teva claims is covered by Teva's patent. Sandoz argued that Teva's patent was fatally indefinite and therefore invalid because the patent's description of the molecular weight of the drug's active ingredient could be understood to have three different meanings. The district court received conflicting expert testimony on the issue, agreed with Teva's expert's explanation, and concluded that the claim was sufficiently definite and the patent was valid. On appeal, the Federal Circuit came to the opposite conclusion — holding that the term "molecular weight" as used in the patent was indefinite and the patent was invalid. In reaching its conclusion, the Federal Circuit reviewed de novo all aspects of the district court's claim construction, including the district court's determination of facts subsidiary to the claim construction.
The Supreme Court vacated and remanded the Federal Circuit's decision, holding by a 7-2 vote that the Federal Circuit erred by applying a de novo standard of review to all aspects of the district court's construction of the patent claim, rather than applying the "clear error" standard to the district court's subsidiary factual findings. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a)(6) requires that a court of appeals must not "set aside" a district court's "[f]indings of fact" unless they are "clearly erroneous."
The Court explained that its earlier decision in Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370 (1996), holding that "the ultimate question of claim construction is for the judge and not the jury… did not create an exception from the ordinary rule governing appellate review of factual matters" for clear error. The Court explained that when a "district court reviews only evidence intrinsic to the patent (the patent claims and specifications, along with the patent's prosecution history)," the Federal Circuit will review the claim construction de novo because the district court "judge's determination will amount solely to a determination of law." But when the district court "need[s] to look beyond the patent's intrinsic evidence and to consult extrinsic evidence in order to understand, for example, the background science or the meaning of the term in the relevant art during the relevant time period," the district court's "subsidiary fact-finding must be reviewed for clear error on appeal." In summarizing its holding, the Court clarified that because the "ultimate interpretation is a legal conclusion," the "appellate court can still review the district court's ultimate construction of the claim de novo[, b]ut, to overturn the judge's resolution of an underlying factual dispute, the Court of Appeals must find that the judge, in respect to those factual findings, has made a clear error."
The Court held that the district court's finding based on Teva's expert's explanation about "how a skilled artisan would understand the way in which a curve created from a chromatogram data reflects molecular weights" was a factual finding. The Federal Circuit erred because it "failed to accept [Teva's expert's] explanation" of the subsidiary factual issue without finding that "the District Court's contrary determination was 'clearly erroneous.'"
The Court vacated the Federal Circuit's opinion and remanded for further proceedings.
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan joined. Justice Thomas dissented, joined by Justice Alito.
Download Opinion of the Court
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FCC Commissioner Copps Calls For Stricter Broadcast Station License Renewal Standards – Could It Happen?
By David Oxenford on December 7, 2010
Posted in License Renewal, Programming Regulations, Public Interest Obligations/Localism
In a speech given last week, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called for a new regime to review the public interest performance of broadcasters – suggesting that license renewal become a more rigorous exercise for radio and television operators. In his address called "Getting Media Right, A Call to Action", given to the Columbia University School of Journalism, Copps specifically suggested a "Public Value Test" for broadcasters when they file their license renewals. If the broadcaster passes the test, the broadcaster would get a renewal. If the broadcaster did not pass – if it does not show that it has "earned" the right to "use the people's airways" – then the licensee would get a one year probation period to prove that it should keep its license. If it does not improve, then the license would be taken and given to "someone who will use it to serve the public interest."
So what would this Public Value Test look like? The Commissioner suggested that the following factors would be reviewed:
A Meaningful Commitment to News and Public Affairs Programming – an increased commitment to news, local public affairs, election debates and issues oriented programming would be reviewed according to some quantitative benchmarks.
Enhanced Disclosure – requiring broadcasters to provide more information about their programming performance, on the Internet, as the Commissioner believes that information in the public file is "laughable", and also requiring that the FCC review that information at renewal time
Political Advertising Disclosure – requiring more information about the sponsors of political ads
Reflecting Diversity – looking to increase the gender, ethnic and racial ownership of broadcast stations
Community Discovery – requiring that broadcasters be required to, in some formal way, communicate with their communities to determine local programming needs and the interests of various groups within a station's community
Local and independent programming – requiring that broadcasters provide more local and independent programming instead of "homogenized music and entertainment from huge conglomerates – the Commissioner suggesting 25% of local programming being dedicated to local and independent programs. More local PSAs too.
Public Safety – requiring that all broadcasters have a plan to address emergencies and be either staffed during all hours of operation or be otherwise able to respond immediately to any local emergency.
What's likely to happen to these proposals?
This is not the first time that Commissioner Copps has suggested the need for a more rigorous review of a broadcaster's license renewal application. During the years that Kevin Martin headed the FCC during the second half of the Bush administration, the FCC engaged in a very thorough review of the localism issues, conducting field hearings on these issues around the country, but not reaching any consensus among the various parties involved in the issues.
For broadcasters, it is good that Commissioner Copps recognizes the importance of the broadcast media, and cares about its performance. But there are significant difficulties, as recognized in the comments filed in the localism proceeding, in determining how to quantify any such obligations. One of the biggest difficulties in coming up with any objective standards to evaluate the service that broadcasters provide to their communities is the broad diversity of the broadcast community. Specific quantitative public service requirements that a TV station in New York City might be easily able to meet, might impose a crushing burden on a station in eastern Washington State, most cities in Montana or in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A Mom and Pop radio station providing the only service to a county of 10,000 in rural Nebraska is going to be able to provide a much different program service, and to have an entirely different ability to handle specific government mandates, than is a big FM in Los Angeles or Dallas. Even in these cities, a rock and roll radio station is going to be expected by its listeners to provide a wholly different experience than an all news or news talk station. Coming up with standards that try to judge the public interest value of a Senatorial election debate versus promoting a Toys for Tots collection point at a Black Eyed Peas concert in a community is a daunting task.
In the early 1980s, the FCC decided, in its deregulation of radio and later of television, that the marketplace would be able to assure that broadcasters served the needs of their communities. If their programming did not meet the needs of the community, the broadcaster would not be successful and would not be able to continue to operate. At that time, there were essentially half as many broadcast stations as there are now, and nowhere near the number of audio and video competitors that there are today from the myriad of digital sources. It is my sense that much of the wringing of hands over the state of journalism and the future of the media is driven not by empirical evidence that there are fewer outlets for information and expression, as any Google or Bing search of almost any topic, no matter how local, will produce far more information about almost any issue than could have been received from local radio, TV or the newspapers in 1983. Perhaps the concern is that there is no unified single source of that information in each community – when there was a big newspaper, a full-service radio station and a couple of television stations in every market. In the broadcast world alone, as the number of stations has grown in answer to demands for more diversity and the broader inclusion of new owners into the media, stations have been forced to differentiate themselves, serving a smaller but targeted portion of the overall market – but often a dedicated set of listeners or viewers. Where there is intense competition for viewers and listeners, each outlet today needs to be more focused on delivering the content that its target audience wants. In very few markets do you have the single full service radio station that you would have found 20 or 30 years ago.
Digital and other media competition has also made specialization more important, and increased the burden that government mandates as to the types of programming a station broadcasts would put on a station. Forcing a subset of the content providers (FCC licensees) to ignore the demands of the marketplace for any substantial portion of its broadcast day to instead meet the demands of the government will cause listeners to go to another source that is doing what they want – and that source may well be a digital media source not covered by FCC rules, and not providing any public service programming whatsoever. The end of the broadcast monopoly on audio and video programming has also dictated, in my opinion, the end of the FCC's ability to dictate what the public should be hearing or seeing on their stations. Instead, the successful stations must do what they can to meet the needs of their audience, or they will perish from competition from new and old media alike.
This is obviously a contentious issue, and there probably is no single answer as to whether the government can force broadcasters to meet some objective public interest standard. I'd be interested in reader reactions as to whether the FCC can or should embark on a proceeding to address the issues identified by Commissioner Copps in his speech last week.
Tags: Commissioner michael copps, license renewal, programming obligations for broadcasters, Programming Regulations, Public Interest Obligations/Localism, public service requirements, quantitative programming requirements, standards for license renewal


Market fresh green leafy vegetables in a cotton reusable shopping bag hanging from an old nail on an old weathered wooden panel wall. Vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower, choy sum and Chinese cabbage. Good copy space on the right of the image.


Yarrow is interesting with its flat-topped flower heads and feathery green foliage. It is not only interesting for humans to look at, but is attractive for a number of pollinators, who use it for a pollen source. The flowers seem to bloom for a long time, and can even be cut and dried for dried flower arrangements. These are perennial flower seeds, so plant yarrow seeds and know that the blooms will come back to grace your flower garden year after year.
Native to the Caucasus mountains, Gold Yarrow has long been cultivated because of its fragrant fern-like foliage, and cheerful, long lasting flowers. Gold Yarrow grows taller and blooms sooner than the other colors of Yarrow, and it is not as invasive. It is a perfect border plant, and is also beautiful en masse.
Native to Southern Europe, yarrow has been a traditional part of herb gardens for hundreds of years because of its fragrant foliage, medicinal uses, and cheerful, long lasting flowers. Yarrow can often be found in growing in dry fields, along roads, or on rocky hillsides. It can be somewhat invasive if it has the opportunity. Linnaeus named it for Greek general Achilles, who according to legend received yarrow as a gift from the gods - the general's soldiers used yarrow to stanch the flow of their blood in the battlefields of the Trojan War. In the early days of the American prairies, Native American tribes such as the Pawnee, Cherokee, and Chippewa used common yarrow to relieve pain and headaches, reduce fever, and induce sleep. Cosmetic preparations sometimes include yarrow because of its cleansing, refreshing effect. When taken internally as a tea, yarrow purifies the system and has anti-inflammatory benefits. Cosmetic preparations sometimes include yarrow because of its cleansing, refreshing effect. Medicinal use of yarrow is not recommended for expectant mothers.
Western Yarrow is one of the most common wildflowers in the western and prairie regions of the United States, as well as growing throughout Canada. Its feathery foliage is a major source of food for bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, deer, and wild fowl. In the early days of the American prairies, Native American tribes such as the Pawnee, Cherokee, and Chippewa used common yarrow to relieve pain and headaches, reduce fever, and induce sleep. Cosmetic preparations sometimes include yarrow because of its cleansing, refreshing effect.
Native to Southern Europe, yarrow has been a traditional part of herb gardens for hundreds of years because of its fragrant foliage and cheerful, long lasting flowers. Yarrow can often be found in fields, along roads, or on rocky hillsides. Linnaeus named it for Greek general Achilles, who according to legend received yarrow as a gift from the gods; the general's soldiers used yarrow to stanch the flow of their blood in the battlefields of the Trojan War. In the early days of the American prairies, Native American tribes such as the Pawnee, Cherokee, and Chippewa used common yarrow to relieve pain and headaches, reduce fever, and induce sleep. Cosmetic preparations sometimes include yarrow because of its cleansing, refreshing effect.


text:
Litebox Redux: State and Indianapolis Officials Hand Over Taxpayer Money, Again, to Angie's List
Today, Governor Mike Pence and Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard stood before the cameras to announce that they were giving Indianapolis-based Angie's List $25 million in taxpayer subsidies so the company could expand its near eastside campus and hire 1000 more employees.
Skeptics immediately pounced on the deal. And for good reason. They'd been down that road before and knew better.
In August 2011, state and Indianapolis officials gave Angie's List $14 million for the expansion of their campus, including $4.6 million to purchase real estate. The subsidy was conditioned on hiring 500 more employees.
Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle
The news since that original subsidy has been entirely bad. The Indiana Business Journal in May of 2013 did an expose of questionable real estate dealings by Angie's List CEO Bill Oesterle, dealings ironically that were made possible by the 2011 taxpayer subsidy. While that article is now behind a paywall, Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana reviewed the IBJ story and summarized it well:
[IBJ's Chris] O'Malley explains how Oesterle formed a separate company, Henry Amalgamated, in which he owns a 70% stake, to acquire nearly 40 parcels of property on the city's near eastside. Karl Northern owns the minority interest. That company, in turn, leased their property at premium lease rates to Angie's List for its expanding headquarters and operations. The combined assessed value of the properties owned by Henry Amalgamated is just $2.625 million; however, Angie's List is acquiring the properties from their CEO's company for $6.25 million. Oesterle defends the sale, claiming that no cash is exchanging hands, at least cash that came from his hands. That's because Mayor Greg Ballard, who has received large campaign contributions from Oesterle, was very generous with your tax dollars and gave Oesterle's company $4.6 million in incentives from the downtown TIF district after the company pledged to keep its headquarters in downtown rather than relocating to the suburbs. Oesterle allowed the value of those incentives to go to Angie's List as part of the sale.
Then in December of 2013 came news of an investor class action lawsuit against Angie's List. Welsh of Advance Indiana summarizes the lawsuit which accuses Angie's List officers of fraud:
A class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana charges key officers of Angie's List of defrauding investors who purchased stock in the company between between February 14, 2013 and October 23, 2013 by issuing materially false and misleading statements regarding the strength of the company's business model and its financial performance and future prospects and failed to disclose adverse effects on the company's prospects of becoming profitable. Named in the lawsuit are the company's CEO, William Oesterle, the company's co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Angie Hicks Bowman, current and past CFOs Charles Hundt and Robert Millard, and Thapur Manu, the recently-terminated Chief Information Officer.
The serious allegations contained in the lawsuit call into question the legitimacy of the subscription-based reviews of local service providers on the company's website because of its shifting business model, which increasingly relies on revenues it now derives from referral fees to those same service providers. According to the lawsuit, Angie's List this year began relying on offering free membership subscriptions in order to artificially boost the number of subscribers in order to mislead investors. This helped boost the price of the stock significantly during the period in question. Oesterle and the other officers cashed out many shares they owned during this period for a handsome profit. Ooesterle sold 486,400 shares of stock for more than $10.3 million, while the other officers collectively sold about $3 million of their personally-held shares of common stock "to the unsuspecting public at fraud-inflated prices."
But that wasn't the end of the bad news. Despite receiving the $14 million subsidy in 2011 conditioned on hiring more employees, in August of 2014 Angie's List laid off 97 members of its sales force.
Then in September of 2014, it was reported that Angie's List had hired investment bankers to consider a sale of the business.
Astonishingly, despite all these red flags this past year as well as that Angie's List in nearly 20 years has made a profit in exactly one quarter, what do state and Indianapolis officials do? They shovel even more taxpayer money in Angie's List's direction. The IBJ has the astonishing details:
Angie's List plans to spend about $40 million to expand its headquarters campus on the east side of downtown and create 1,000 jobs with the help of more than $25 million in state and city incentives, according to a joint announcement Tuesday.
The Indianapolis-based consumer-review firm said that the expansion of its headquarters campus would include renovating a nearby, 176,000-square-foot Ford manufacturing facility currently owned by Indianapolis Public Schools. It also would build a 1,000-space parking facility across from its campus at 1030 E. Washington St.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation has offered Angie's List up to $6.5 million in tax credits and up to $500,000 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning they cannot be claimed until employees are hired.
Of course, hiring employees and continuing to employ them is two different things, a fact that 97 employees of Angie's List recently found out.
IBJ details the city's financial commitment which is even more involved than the state's:
In addition, the IEDC said it will provide the city of Indianapolis with up to $2 million in infrastructure assistance from the state's Industrial Development Grant Fund.
The City of Indianapolis will consider additional incentives, including $9.6 million in assistance from the downtown tax increment finance district for construction of the parking garage and $6.75 million to Indianapolis Public Schools to offset the cost of relocating from the former Ford facility.
This reminds me so much of Litebox deal in which state and city officials rushed forward to offer millions of dollars in taxpayer money for a company that proposed manufacturing large outdoor TV screens at a company in Pike Township that would employ 900 people. It turns out government officials didn't even wait for a prototype to be built before offering the money. They also didn't bother to look into the background of Litebox CEO Bob Yanigahara who was exposed by blogger Welsh, and later investigative reporters taking Welsh's lead, as having a checkered record of shady
business deals.
At least though with Litebox, the red flags were hidden and required a modicum of digging to find them. The Angie's List red flags, on the other hand, aren't hidden at all. They are public knowledge. Yet astonishingly Governor Mike Pence and Mayor Greg Ballard decided even more taxpayer money should be shoveled in Angie's List direction.
Labels: Angie's List, Greg Ballard, Litebox, Mike Pence
Nicolas Martin said...
The party of small government, low taxes, and fiscal responsibility strikes again.
It's great the subsidy will allow the company to hire more than 1000 employees. The more people will get job the stronger economy is gonna be. Many people today complain on weak job market. Some people work for small salaries and often use quick cash advance loan service to stay afloat until the end of the month. They are afraid of leaving their work places because they think they will not find new jobs. Yes, the situation on the job market is not so good today. And that's why it's very good that some companies still can afford to hire new people and provide jobs.
Tangential, I know, but why does IPS own an abandoned auto factory?
Pete Boggs said...
Follow up on tangent- IPS owns a couple of rental properties / doubles in the 5100 block, west side of College Ave. Neighbors can tell you that three lettered orange trucks appear to frequent those properties for maintenance issues.


text:
Vladimir Sobotka Set to Rejoin Blues
By Mike Necciai June 20th, 2016
According to reports, the St. Louis Blues can expect 28-year old forward Vladimir Sobotka to return to the lineup in 2016-17 after spending the past two seasons in the KHL.
Army on Sobotka: "I've been told by the agent he's coming back. I haven't gotten anything official…so I'm going on what he's telling me."
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) June 18, 2016
Sobotka left North America in 2014 after signing a three-year deal with Omsk Avangard of the KHL. Based on these recent developments, it sounds as if he's opting out of his last season in Russia and returning to the NHL.
Sobotka played 97 regular season games throughout his KHL stint, recording 28 goals and 72 total points. He also added four points through six playoff games with Omsk.
Prior to departing for Russia, he played 381 NHL games between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues. He tallied 35 goals and 123 total points.
Sobotka's return is a bright spot for a team facing a few tough decisions this summer. Armstrong and the Blues are also facing the potential loss of captain David Backes and Troy Brouwer, who was acquired last summer in exchange for T.J. Oshie.
Vladimir Sobotka


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Q: How to set background image to an ClientBundle resource in uibinder (GWT) How to set background image in uibinder/java to an image in ClientBundle without using:
obj.getElement().getStyle().setBackgroundImage("url("+Images.INSTANCE.bg().getURL()+")");

Because this doesn't work in IE (FF is OK).
I think I should set the background image directly in uibinder with css @url or ...
(I am using GWT 2.0.3)
Regards

A: The docs explain this :) (note that internally UiBinder uses CssResource, so all that applies to CssResource, applies to the CSS styles you define in UiBinder's <ui:style> too)

A: ImageResource uses Data Urls and spriting. Sadly, older versions of IE support neither of these well. Data Url is not supported at all and on i.e. 7- a new copy of the entire sprite image is used for every clipped appearance of the image. So, if you have a sprite with 100 icons and use it in 100 places, IE will consume the memory of 100x that image.
Try to get away from really old IE if you can.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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For larger groups up to 30 people, I provide a heavy hors d'oeuvre service including many wonderful appetizers. This service is perfect for meet and greet functions, holiday parties, wine tastings, and open house events. See the Appetizer Menu for a sampling of my delicious "little bites".


text:
Q: Search a substring within a string using powershell I am trying to search for {json code} within the following string

(function(r,t){var a={json code};if(...)remaining js code}

I am using PowerShell, but just can't seem to crack it. Can someone please help?
I have tried the following options and just don't know regex well enough
$text1 = "<script>(function(r,t){var a={json code};if(...)remaining js code}</script>";
Option 1
$jsonvalue = $text1 -Match 'a={<content>}';
$jsonvalue;
Upon execution I get False
Option 2
$jsonvalue = $text1 -match "a=(.*)";
$jsonvalue;
Upon execution I get True
Option 3
$jsonvalue = $text1 -match "a=(?<content>.)*;if("
$jsonvalue;
Upon execution I get True with the following error
parsing "a=(?<content>.)*;if(" - Not enough )'s.
RegEx.ps1:4 char:1
+ $jsonvalue = $text1 -match "a=(?<content>.)*;if("
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (:) [], ArgumentException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.ArgumentException

A: I have a feeling that this is just a representation of your actual data. Without the actual data, here is a representation of the actual answer:
$t = '(function(r,t){var a={json code};if(...)remaining js code}'
$t -match 'a={(.+)};'
$code = $matches[1]

A little info about the regex. It looks for a={ then it matches any characters up until it finds };. It saves those as a subexpression which in Powershell can be accessed via the $matches array.


I've been silent on the Russian-U.S. adoption ban. Any words I come up with seem inadequate. It's too familiar. There was a time when I was filled with the fear that my baby would never come home. We were told his region was CLOSED. Uncertain when it would open again. At this point, we had already lost Alyona. And then, Gus's region screeched to a sudden halt. No, it's not the same. I can't imagine the real-life nightmare that these children and families are living through. But, I still remember my despair, fearing that my baby would never come home.
Why does it matter? Why is it so important to reinstate Russian adoptions, when there are millions of orphans in the world and hundreds in our own country?
In short, a child is a child. No matter where this child lives. And, the conditions that many Russian orphans live in are horrid. Unimaginable. This collection of photos is not how all Russian orphans live, but it is the tragic reality for many. If you'd like a more detailed explanation of why a family choses to adopt from Russia instead the US, I really like Bethany's. There are so many different options for adoption and it is absolutely not a one-size-fits-all sort of journey. Hundreds of thousands of orphans wait in Russia, and for many American families, Russia is the best fit for their family.
And as for the children? Is it really best for them to leave their culture and all that they've ever known? No. I don't believe being adopted internationally is the best option, if there is any other option. I cannot speak for every single Russian orphan, but for so many, being adopted internationally is their only chance. Particularly for children with special needs, like Anton, there is NO ONE else coming for them. Dasha waited years for her family to show up. Charlotte was turned down by 500 families under her mama and papa said "yes".
Adoption is far from perfect. We cannot deny the tragedies of 19 Russian children adopted by Americans. But, for so many Russian orphans, international adoption remains their only hope of a life beyond the orphanage walls, beyond the bars of their crib.
Please pray that Russian/American adoptions resume soon. Please pray for the orphans and the families who want to bring their babies home.
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Currently viewing the category: "Databases"
The Bibliography of the Hebrew Book is a bibliography of all types of Jewish literature published in Hebrew characters, including different Jewish languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino.
Do you think you understand the basic Fiscal Cliff concept but need more information to discuss it intelligently? Search blogs, twitter, and other social media on the Fiscal Cliff in Factiva. In November alone there were over 13,000 web news entries, 15,000 blogs, and 1,600 board posts on the subject!
Compact Memory is a German language database that provides PDF's of articles from Jewish German periodicals from the 18th and 19th centuries.


There are many places to meditate that are right in front of you.
The slim time between classes could be used to your advantage, rather than spending it filled with stressful thoughts.
Here are some tips to utilize your time for meditation through forms of breathing exercises, videos, or even by doing something that relaxes you personally.
Meditation is subjective since there are numerous ways to do it. Some ways are through writing, reading, music, etc. Even exercises and yoga are ways of tranquilizing the mind.
Also, there is always time to exercise the mind and relax the soul. There are major health benefits that should get you motivated to get involved in meditation.
For one, meditation reduces stress levels. High levels of stress can reduce the amount you sleep, increase the risk of depression, elevate blood pressure, and can make you become fatigued and light-headed.
A study found on Healthline.com with about 1,300 adults showed that meditation considerably decreases stress and also showed to reduce the chance for stress-related disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia. It can also increase emotional health.
Meditating can also decrease bad emotions like depression, based on a study that had 4,600 adults do mindfulness meditation which saw a reduction in cytokines. Cytokines is a inflammatory chemical that gets released when someone becomes stressed.
There are also other forms of meditation that can help you become more self-aware. In turn, it can help with growing as a person and enhancing one's self. This type of meditation is called self-inquiry. It makes participants think more deeply into who they are.
To do this, you'll need to empty the mind and drop the question in it like a pebble. Don't try and find meaning to it, just leave it until the tides subside. Seeing how it reacts in the still ocean of the mind.
The things that we think make us " a gamer" are just perceptions of what we experience in our day-to-day lives. However, the deeper level of thinking is up to the participant to undergo the process and question it for themselves.
Meditation also improves attention span, which was backed up by a study with resource workers. Those practicing mindfulness meditation found they focused on tasks much longer than their peers who didn't mediate.
Kyritan Kyria combines mantra and chants with repeated motions of the fingers, which researchers found out helps with memory-based tasks as well as age-related memory loss.
It can even partially improve memory in patients that have dementia. Metta meditation, also known as love-kindness, is focused on developing kind thoughts and feelings about one's self.
In time, this can spill out into giving kindness to people around them. There are twenty-two studies that back up this claim.
But in order to get the most out of it, participants have to put effort into it. Love-kindness is more effective when people put more work into it.
Metta meditation studies even found that it can improve social anxiety, marriage conflict, and anger management. There seems to also be an accumulative effect to love-kindness.
Sleep disorders like insomnia can also be remedied by mediation, and can even increase the duration of sleep time. Whilst laying in bed it can relax the muscles and relieve any tension, which helps you with dozing off faster.
It also can help with pain by relaxing the mind and clearing the senses. Meditation is very useful and clearly, it can help while in college.
Being able to sleep better, pull back some stress from your mind, and other benefits are reason enough to give meditation a try.
There are even videos that are meant for relaxing the mind that provide audio recordings of the sounds of nature such as calming seas and much more.
As long as there's a morsel amount of free time in the day, there's always time for bettering oneself mentally, physically, and academically.


text:
Das Volksstadion Greifswald ist ein Fußballstadion mit Leichtathletikanlage in der Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Die am 29. Mai 1927 eröffnete Sportstätte hat eine Kapazität von 8000 Zuschauern. Die gesamte Anlage bietet weitere Sportstätten wie Tennisplätze, Fußball- und Hockeyfelder und Basketballplätze. Das Freizeitbad Greifswald liegt nur wenige hundert Meter entfernt.

Geschichte und Nutzung
Hauptsächlich finden im Stadion Fußballspiele statt. Darüber hinaus steht es auch für Konzerte zur Verfügung. Es sind auch andere Freizeitzwecke denkbar. Früher waren die Fußballmannschaften BSG Einheit Greifswald, BSG KKW Greifswald und der Greifswalder SC im Volksstadion beheimatet. Im Jahr 1997 war der FC Bayern München bei einem Freundschaftsspiel zu Gast, dabei kamen etwa 14.000 Besucher, was bis heute den Zuschauerrekord darstellt.

Nachdem sich der FC Pommern Greifswald und der Greifswalder SV 04 Mitte 2015 entschlossen, ihre Fußballabteilungen zum Greifswalder FC zu fusionieren, finden im Volksstadion die Heimspiele des neuen Vereins statt.

Am 13. Mai 2015 wurde hier zum ersten Mal das Finale des seit 1990 ausgetragenen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern-Pokals durchgeführt. Im Endspiel vor 4500 Zuschauern bezwang Hansa Rostock die TSG Neustrelitz mit 1:0.

Stadionbeschreibung
Das Volksstadion besitzt eine Haupttribüne, bei der 144 überdachte und 1200 unüberdachte Plätze vorhanden sind. Rund um die Spielfläche befindet sich eine Leichtathletikanlage. Auf den restlichen Tribünen um das Stadion herum sind Stehplätze vorzufinden, bis auf die Plätze gegenüber der Haupttribüne. Diese werden jedoch hauptsächlich von den Gästefans genutzt. Der gesamte Bereich ist von Wald umschlossen. Eine Ausnahme dabei sind die Gebiete hinter den Toren, wobei hinter dem einen Tor der Basketballplatz liegt und hinter dem anderen einer der Eingänge. Die Spielstände werden auf einer LED-Anzeigetafel dargestellt. Des Weiteren ist auf dem Hauptplatz ein Naturrasen verlegt; auf den beiden Nebenplätzen Kunstrasen. Die Flutlichtanlage besteht aus acht Lichtmasten.

Gästefans
Für die Gästefans ist ein eingezäunter Bereich an der Stadionseite zur Wolgaster Straße vorgesehen. Allerdings wird dieser meist nicht genutzt. Daher begeben sich die Gästefans hauptsächlich auf die Gegentribüne.

Quellen
 Eckhard Oberdörfer: "Als der Sport die Wehrpflicht ersetzte", in: Greifswalder Ostsee-Zeitung, Nr. 194 vom 19. August 2011, S. 10

Weblinks

 greifswalderfc.de: Stadion auf der Homepage des Vereins
 gsv04.de: Stadion auf der Homepage des Vereins
 pommern-greifswald.de: Stadion auf der Homepage des Vereins
 volksstadion.de: Daten zum Stadion

Einzelnachweise

Fußballstadion in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Fußballstadion in Europa
Bauwerk in Greifswald
Sport (Greifswald)
Erbaut in den 1920er Jahren
Sport (Provinz Pommern)
Sportstätte im Landkreis Vorpommern-Greifswald

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Predictions for sea-level rise this century due to melt from Antarctica range from zero to more than one metre. The highest predictions are driven by the controversial marine ice-cliff instability (MICI) hypothesis, which assumes that coastal ice cliffs can rapidly collapse after ice shelves disintegrate, as a result of surface and sub-shelf melting caused by global warming. But MICI has not been observed in the modern era and it remains unclear whether it is required to reproduce sea-level variations in the geological past. Here we quantify ice-sheet modelling uncertainties for the original MICI study and show that the probability distributions are skewed towards lower values (under very high greenhouse gas concentrations, the most likely value is 45 centimetres). However, MICI is not required to reproduce sea-level changes due to Antarctic ice loss in the mid-Pliocene epoch, the last interglacial period or 1992–2017; without it we find that the projections agree with previous studies (all 95th percentiles are less than 43 centimetres). We conclude that previous interpretations of these MICI projections over-estimate sea-level rise this century; because the MICI hypothesis is not well constrained, confidence in projections with MICI would require a greater range of observationally constrained models of ice-shelf vulnerability and ice-cliff collapse.
Sweeney, J., Salter-Townshend, M., Edwards, T., Buck, C. E. & Parnell, A. C., 1 Sep 2018, In : Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Computational Statistics. 10, 5, e1437.
Goelzer, H., Nowicki, S., Edwards, T., Beckley, M., Abe-Ouchi, A., Aschwanden, A., Calov, R., Gagliardini, O., Gillet-Chaulet, F., Golledge, N. R., Gregory, J., Greve, R., Humbert, A., Huybrechts, P., Kennedy, J. H., Larour, E., Lipscomb, W. H., Leclech, S., Lee, V., Morlighem, M. & 11 othersPattyn, F., Payne, A. J., Rodehacke, C., Rückamp, M., Saito, F., Schlegel, N., Seroussi, H., Shepherd, A., Sun, S., Van De Wal, R. & Ziemen, F. A., 19 Apr 2018, In : The Cryosphere. 12, 4, p. 1433-1460 28 p.
De Winter, R. C., Reerink, T. J., Slangen, A. B. A., De Vries, H., Edwards, T. & Van De Wal, R. S. W., 4 Dec 2017, In : Natural Hazards And Earth System Sciences. 17, 12, p. 2125-2141 17 p.
Edwards, T., 4 Dec 2017, Government Office for Science.
Gabisonia, K., Prosdocimo, G., Aquaro, G. D., Carlucci, L., Zentilin, L., Secco, I., Ali, H., Braga, L., Gorgodze, N., Bernini, F., Burchielli, S., Collesi, C., Zandona', L., Sinagra, G., Piacenti, M., Zacchigna, S., Bussani, R., Recchia, F. A. & Giacca, M., 9 Apr 2019, (Accepted/In press) In : Nature.
Stanley, C. P., Maghzal, G. J., Ayer, A., Talib, J., Giltrap, A. M., Shengule, S., Wolhuter, K., Wang, Y., Chadha, P., Suarna, C., Prysyazhna, O., Scotcher, J., Dunn, L. L., Prado, F. M., Nguyen, N., Odiba, J. O., Baell, J. B., Stasch, J. P., Yamamoto, Y., Di Mascio, P. & 3 othersEaton, P., Payne, R. J. & Stocker, R., 28 Feb 2019, In : Nature. 566, 7745, p. 548-552 5 p.
Wong, F. K., Bercsenyi, K., Sreenivasan, V., Portalés, A., Fernández-Otero, M. & Marín, O., 30 May 2018, In : Nature. 557, 7707, p. 668-673 6 p.


With feng shui you can live and rest in peace in balance.
There's a resurgence in the West with a new form of interior decoration. It's that ancient Chinese custom of aesthetics that has long been believed to use the celestial laws of Chinese astronomy to help improve life by rearranging the chi in a person's home. Whether you call it Tao of Heaven & Earth, Wind/Water or pseudoscience, the art of feng shui has often been a remedy as a holistic healing method by manipulating the space around you in order to create a spiritually comforting surrounding.
While feng shui is the practice of redirecting positive energy in one's household, few, if not many are aware that the origins of feng shui doctrine stem as far back as the Jin Dynasty (265-420). First written in the Book of Burial by Guo Pu, feng shui or Yin House feng shui is the continuing practice of seeking proper burial locations to ensure the long-term effects and consequences on a lineage and its descendants, so as to offer a family a good future and years of prosperity.
For a country like China, with its expansive topography of mountains, hills, lakes and rivers, the Chinese have long judiciously studied their surroundings, applying feng shui in both Yang Houses (living homes) and Yin Houses (burial tombs) for many years. However, it was during the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (1644-1912) Dynasties that Yin feng shui saw an increased popularity.
With feng shui consultants commissioned to scour the lands (walk the dragon), to find suitable burial spots, imperial burial sites were located to house the deceased of the ruling Dynasties. However, in order for a location to be deemed suitable for yin feng shui, consultants must take into consideration the following three principles for an auspicious burial.
3) While climatology is an important factor in choosing a burial location, it is also important to ensure the location is in favorable configuration of the four celestial animals of feng shui (the green dragon; the white tiger; the red phoenix; and the black turtle). Furthermore, the burial site must not face a straight road or a temple.
When it comes to land selection, feng shui practitioners often encourage conducting these preparations well in advance of old age or illness, to avoid familial disagreements and preemptive rushing as the process can be a lengthy. However, upon location of a burial site, feng shui consultants will then select a suitable date for the alignment, placement and burial of the casket.
Though cremation is on the rise, yin feng shui is not limited to just selecting burial location but can also be applied when selecting a location in a household for a family urn.


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Q: Connect notebook to 4k monitor at 60hz I can't find a way to connect my laptop (Notebook HP - 15ay114nl) to my 4k monitor (Samsung U28E590D Monitor 4K Ultra HD, 28", UHD, 3840 x 2160, 60 Hz, 1 ms, 2 HDMI, Display Port) at 60Hz.
Currently I've connected the two at 30hz via HDMI.
I've done quite a bit of research online to find a solution but apparently a 3.1 type C USB port is needed: I've found out my PC has a 3.1 but it's not type C (quite confusing).
How can I solve this?


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Bread & Roses Accepting Applications for Phoebus Criminal Justice Fund
Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative
About the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative
The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative provides grants to organizations using community organizing for criminal justice reform. Grantees target issues that include (but are not limited to) police accountability, racially biased sentencing policies, growth of the for-profit prison industry, criminalization of youth, and the death penalty.
The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative makes grants to community groups that are building a base for taking collective action against injustices within the criminal legal system and have a long-term vision and engage strategies that promote justice within the criminal legal system.
Who are previous Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative grantees?
The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative has supported a wide range of grantees, from Books through Bars to X-Offenders for Community Empowerment. Check out our list of recent grantees to see if the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative is right for your organization.
Does my group qualify for a grant from the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative?
The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative makes grants to community groups that:
Meet all of Bread & Roses basic funding criteria
Have a long-term vision and engage strategies that promote justice within the criminal legal system
Are led by people most affected by injustice, and build broad membership and leadership bases that can survive when key leaders step down
Understand power differences based on identity and can talk about how they are trying to challenge those power imbalances both within their organizations and in their communities
Have a shared vision for what that change looks like and can articulate that vision
Prioritize ongoing education/consciousness raising for constituents and allies that broadens their membership base
Have a plan, including short term and long term goals that are specific, achievable, and relevant to criminal justice
Are knowledgeable about other organizations working on the same issue, and are able to work in coalition across movements, issues, and communities to amplify impact
Are less likely to be funded by more traditional funders, because of their commitment to challenging power and prioritizing the leadership of marginalized people. Therefore, a grant from Bread & Roses Community Fund is critical to seeding or sustaining their work
are building a base for taking collective action against injustices within the criminal legal system and have a long-term vision and engage strategies that promote justice within the criminal legal system.
What is the award size from the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative?
Grants range from $2,000 to $6,000. Groups who have received grants from the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative in the past may reapply in the following grant cycle.
Who makes decisions about grants?
The fund was established in 2000 as a unique partnership between the Phoebus Fund family foundation and Bread & Roses Community Fund.
Bread & Roses convenes grantees, organizes site visits, arranges grant review meetings, and provides all administrative support for the Fund. Final decisions on Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative grants are made jointly by family members and criminal justice activists. Learn about who made this fund possible. Decisions are made in March.
What is the deadline for the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative?
The deadline is December 1, 2019.
To learn more and apply, click here.