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Articles / Money / Financial Planning / Dreams come true: a financial case study
Dreams come true: a financial case study
By Bridges,
The problem: Clare Schwartz found that in the latter years of work that she wanted to spend more time with her family but wasn't in a financial position to be able to do so. She became a grandmother for the first time and wanted to go to Machu Picchu on a solo trip.
The solution: Lyle Greig is a certified financial planner from Bridges who predominantly advise clients on superannuation, investments, redundancy and retirement strategies and provides Clare with a forward thinking strategy.
"I first came to meet Lyle when I was looking at the possibility that I might be able to give up work - which I loved - but was really become all-consuming. I wanted to look at the idea of spending more time with my children. I also felt that while I kept teaching that it really impacted on what I could do." Clare had an unexpected inheritance and that was when she became more serious about taking control of her financial choices. "I was introduced to Lyle and I found somebody here who'd really listen to my individual circumstances and my needs," adds Clare happily.
An unexpected inheritance
"When Clare originally came to see us we wrote her a plan, gave her a recommendation on her superannuation and the way it should be invested," says Lyle Greig, certified financial planner from Bridges. "We also advised her on how to invest the inheritance that she unexpectedly received. She took some long service leave and then retired about a year later. So we wrote another plan to commence an income stream and to provide for her retirement." Roughly two years later Clare became eligible for aged pension. so once again, with a significant change in circumstances, Greig updated the plan helped Clare with her Centrelink paperwork.
Spending time with family and travel dreams
"When I retired, it fortunately coincided with the arrival, shortly after, of my first grandchild. Because my daughter and her family live away on the Central Coast, or in Newcastle, it did give me flexibility to travel. I could support her, in helpful way. The joy … it has been extraordinary." While supporting her growing family has been important, Clare also wanted to live out a personal dream. "I had promised myself, years ago, that in my first year of retirement I would go on a trip alone to Machu Picchu," she adds happily. "I think that balance of trying to live wisely within my means has not been a great problem. I think it's the flexibility, where I really value the financial advice, that comes as circumstances change and still, yes, still with my plans of travel," she adds. "I really do get a lot of satisfaction out of listening to clients like Clare who are obviously enjoying their retirement," says Greig. "I've had a small part in that retirement and helping her achieve those travel dreams."
Another exciting change
Three years ago Clare was offered a role at a community college and she decided to go back to work. "I'm still teaching at a community college and finding that, through Lyle's advice, that I can keep that parallel," she adds. "Having somebody that also realised that, hey, this is my future on the line," says Clare adding that the financial wisdom she received and the peace of mind she felt was integral to her feeling comfortable knowing she was receiving the help she needed for the long haul. "It is really important to me to be able to keep my lifestyle, my options in travel, being able to support my children as well to a certain extent where needed. I'd certainly recommend Bridges."
What dreams are you wanting to achieve? Tell us in the comments section below.
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Advisories November 19, 2013
Labor & Employment Advisory: Largest-Ever Settlement in an Immigration Case Is a Warning to Outsourcing Companies to Revisit Policies and Procedures for Securing Immigrant Visas
Eileen Scofield
In the largest civil settlement ever reached in an immigration case, Infosys Corporation has agreed to pay $34 million and submit to enhanced corporate compliance measures in response to allegations of systemic visa and immigration process abuse. Given that an enormous number of businesses in the United States make use of independent contractor services, this settlement should be on the radar of any company that outsources work that requires securing H-1B or B-1 visas, whether as an end-user or an independent contractor.
Infosys is an Indian company focused on technology and consulting that operates in 30 countries, including 17 cities within the United States. Its office in Plano, Texas, is responsible for managing its immigration procedures to bring foreign workers into the United States under the H-1B and B-1 visa programs. Allegedly, Infosys violated the visa immigration laws in several ways when it brought foreign nationals to the United States to serve U.S. clients. First, the government alleged that workers on H-1B visas did not perform services in the geographic area for which the visas were approved. Second, Infosys allegedly used the B-1 "temporary visitor" visa to bring India-based employees to the United States, not for meetings and consultations, but to fill skilled labor positions that should have gone to either U.S. citizens or legitimate H-1B visa holders. In addition, the government alleged that Infosys issued travel letters and interview instructions for the B-1 visas that were inaccurate, and included instructions to avoid certain terminology in order to deceive the consular and immigration officers about the nature of the work they were planning to do in the United States.
Because the case is settling, fewer facts will become public to let employers know the specific grounds for the government's position. Regardless of the specifics, however, the Infosys case should raise a cautionary flag for any company whose outsourcing work involves immigration visa programs. Whether one is a contracting company or an end-user, it is wise to consult with counsel to ensure that contracts are properly drafted, and that internal policies and procedures are designed both to prevent abuse or misunderstanding, and to quickly alert contractors and end-users if such issues do arise. An annual review of immigration policies and procedures is thus a healthy and recommended practice, which will help to reduce the likelihood of allegations, bad press or fines.
Moreover, while in this case, the third-party contractor (Infosys) was the target, in many other cases, it is the end-user of the contractor that is the subject of the government's investigation. Indeed, investigations of high-profile end-users, as well as lesser-profile entities, are occurring throughout the United States. U.S. Department of State staff at nearly all of the U.S. embassies and consulates throughout the world has been trained to ask certain questions of contractors to seek out inconsistencies and/or potential mistakes. Both contractors and end-users must be wary, as this increased level of monitoring and fact-seeking is leading to a concurrent increase in government investigations. As such, over the last two years, Alston & Bird has been working with clients and the visa fraud investigatory teams at a number of U.S. embassies around the world to ensure that clients have the necessary knowledge and understanding to comply fully with U.S. immigration laws.
Finally, even for those employers in the United States that abide by all provisions of the non-immigrant visa rules, it is unfortunately likely that the Infosys case will lead Congress to consider increasing fees or other regulations attached to H-1B visas. Alston & Bird will continue to monitor any reaction by Congress to these developments and be available to provide any guidance that might be needed on this important area of law.
The Department of Justice press release on the settlement can be found here.
This advisory is published by Alston & Bird LLP's Labor & Employment practice area to provide a summary of significant developments to our clients and friends. It is intended to be informational and does not constitute legal advice regarding any specific situation. This material may also be considered attorney advertising under court rules of certain jurisdictions.
Click to view Labor & Employment Advisory PDF
Email: eileen.scofield@alston.com
Mariana Loose
Email: mariana.loose@alston.com
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We're Teaching History Wrong
In history, facts are important, but lose all meaning without both the historical narrative and the historical alt - narrative(s). Sadly we have an education system that actually chooses the politically correct narrative in particular, and yes, that changes decade to decade.
I grew up learning that Germany was completely guilty of causing both WWI and WWII. Except the question of original sin was terribly unconvincing. At the same time, my father who was a Carpathian German immigrant was able to share the people's understanding from a non British viewpoint. Two viewpoints for the same facts were very helpful in developing my critical discernment.
Today we have also the narrative of the great banking conspiracy to factor in as well. This is very much a ghost up in the attic.
All this helps those facts turn into testable lines of inquiry.
The take home is that i needed those other narratives. Teachers need to present both the received and approved narrative however obviously flawed along with additional narratives including the worst examples of made up nonsense thinking. From that the student learns how to use facts to shut down obvious nonsense..
Today's students could be so much better prepared to navigate the online glut of facts and misinformation.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/we-re-teaching-history-wrong
For decades now, Sam Wineburg, a professor of education and history at Stanford, has been studying the way history is taught. His book, Why Learn History (When It's Already on Your Phone?), is about the way historical thinking—habits of mind that emphasize the careful assessment of evidence and the presumption of uncertainty, among other things—can help us navigate the information-rich environment of the web.
The book, which zips along in a chatty, essayistic mode, details the work Wineburg and his colleagues have done to see how different groups of people—students, professional historians, scientists, and fact-checkers for magazines—process information in online and analog environments. In one entertaining chapter, which we've excerpted on Slate, Wineburg dissects Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, showing how the beloved book, so often taken as "the real truth" by people turned on to history when they read it, privileges a compelling narrative over the interrogation of evidence.
Good historical thinking is by no means a magical solution to our information woes, as demonstrated by Wineburg's reports of what trained historians do while trying to navigate the web to find information about nonhistorical topics. But, Wineburg advocates, teachers of history can offer the kind of education in how to think that helps students understand all of the information they encounter online much better.
In our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we talked about right-clicking, the Trumpian appropriation of "critical thinking," and historians' frustrating and endearing tendency toward hedging.
Rebecca Onion: How does the kind of education we need in order to be smart about the internet differ from the critical thinking module I took in eighth grade, back in 1991?
Sam Wineburg: It irks me to no end [when people say,] "Well, [the education we need] is just critical thinking. We don't need '21st-century skills.' " And my response is that if we could get a necromancer to bring Socrates back to life, and sit him in front of a computer, he wouldn't know about keywords and he wouldn't know about search engine optimization, and he wouldn't know how to put words in quotation marks in Google, so that Google searches for them contiguously. And I've watched really intelligent people, Ph.D. historians with incredible pedigrees, spin themselves in circles because they lack some basic skills in search.
Think of it as a Venn diagram. So hopefully in 1991, you were taught to not decouple information from its source, and to think of the motivation and intention behind a particular document, that it wasn't self-evident information presenting itself de novo, but it came with a purpose and it was written down or said to achieve a particular aim. And that had to be taken into account when evaluating that information. And that's what I learned when I took AP history and had to wrestle with a DBQ [document-based question] for the first time. A good history teacher takes away your innocence about information.
But you didn't learn about SEO, which is not a skill, it's an awareness and an orientation—[the idea] that Google is not a being of celestial intelligence that cannot be gamed. You find naïveté about Google in a lot of different venues. Most recently a researcher at Data & Society [Francesca Tripodi] did a report about evangelicals that found that they think Google is a neutral source. They think Wikipedia is biased against conservatives, but Google is just straight information. Without realizing that, you know, Google is in a never-ending cat-and-mouse game with the people who try to game it. So that's a piece of knowledge that's important for people using the internet to fact-check or to think about the quality of information.
Here's an example of [a web-specific] skill. I've watched smart people who don't know how to right-click. And so if you don't know how to right-click, to open up tabs across the horizontal access of your screen, you're just laying window on window. And then it becomes so clumsy to look at your screen where there are 11 windows lying on top of each other! It reminds me of the aphorism, "For want of a nail…" If you don't know how to do something like right-click, you're going to have a hard time doing lateral reading.
Fact-checkers know that in a digital medium, the web is a web. It's not just a metaphor. You understand a particular node by its relationship in a web. So the smartest thing to do is to consult the web to understand any particular node. That is very different from reading Thucydides, where you look at internal criticism and consistency because there really isn't a documentary record beyond Thucydides.
Can you give an example of what you mean by a "node"? Or what you mean by fact-checkers recognizing that something exists on the web in relationship to the web?
When we asked [some historians] to find out if the Employment Policies Institute is a trustworthy source, they would engage in a close explication de texte on the site.* They'll look at its About page. If an organization can game what they are, they can certainly game their About page!
A fact-checker … will understand this organization by putting the organization in quotes, and use a smart keyword—but don't put too much stock in that keyword. It could be credibility or bias or criticism or funding. If one of the keywords doesn't work, then they don't take too much stock, they try another.
An example that comes to mind is a fact-checker who opened up seven tabs in 30 seconds. And it was SourceWatch, Charity Navigator, and then finding the organization in the New York Times, and following the links on that, all in less than 30 seconds. All of a sudden there is literally a network there, that you can situate that one node in the network in half a minute.
All this while the historian is engaging in a close read. … When you are trying to figure out "Is this a quality source?," that kind of close read before you even know where the money is coming from or who's saying it doesn't make sense.
It's interesting that in some ways historians come off as great heroes in your book, and in other places they don't quite have, as you're describing, a suspicious enough attitude toward the web. But there are other aspects of historians' thinking that can really help us out in an information-rich environment like the internet.
Absolutely. I'm literally speaking out of both sides of my mouth. … I think the chapter that's one of my favorites, the work stuck with me with vividness, is watching a group of scientists trying to read Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation and inferring that Washington was, like, this super-religious pious guy, because of essentially a bunch of deist language that they were interpreting through the lenses of their contemporary understanding of vocabulary. And it was the historians who understood that these were code words that, if they didn't mark someone as a deist, they certainly marked someone as going to great pains to avoid explicit mention of Jesus Christ, the savior, the trinity.
There's a kind of suspicion that historians take in interpreting someone else's language using linguistic codes of the present. Which I think is a humility that is applicable not just in thinking about the past, but also in talking to people across the divides that separate us in contemporary society.
I loved the note you made about the difference between "sounding critical" and thinking critically. President Trump recently said that Google is biased against conservatives. There have been a number of instances of this, where Trump or someone Trump-ish will say something that sounds critical or wise but isn't. It's hard because it almost feels like there is an appropriation of the language of critical thinking on the right that makes it hard to explain what the difference might be between that and what we are talking about.
It's not "almost an appropriation," it is an appropriation. And in this respect, the work that has influenced me the most is the work by Kate Starbird, an absolutely brilliant internet researcher who studies crisis communication at the University of Washington's College of Engineering.* And she has a paper that shows that the alt-right has, right there with Alex Jones, has appropriated the language of "Do you have an open mind? Are you an independent thinker? Are you willing to trust your own intelligence to make up your own mind when you review the evidence?"
And so absolutely, this is the language that has been appropriated by the alt-right in particular, these neo-Nazi sites and conspiracy sites that basically say, "The wool is being pulled over your eyes! But you have the power to [pose] thoughtful questions through your own powers of discernment if you have an open mind." This is the stock-in-trade of propagandists—you can go back and see the same kind of thing in work by Lenin and Goebbels: "You should trust yourself. We're not going to tell you what to believe, you evaluate the evidence—here is the evidence."
My impulse, as a good ex-academic, is to hedge about everything. And I feel like now we are living in nonambiguous times, and so I often run into a problem where I feel like I should be writing pieces that are definitive: "What you think you know about the Confederacy is wrong, and here's why." I think this time is testing us in a lot of ways, and one of the ways is: Do we keep on showing people that history is a never-ending inquiry that opens up into layers of questions? Or do we put all of that aside for a minute, because questions don't win fights?
I think what we need to explain to a general public about historical thinking is that historians establish facts. That whether there were 6 million Jews or 5½ million Jews, there were millions of Jews that were killed in Europe during the Final Solution. Why it happened, or the questions Holocaust scholars fight over, about whether it was intentional or incremental—the interpretation of it—is something that we continue to argue over. But we don't argue over "Was there a middle passage?"
And so, there's a kind of confusion of the kind of questions that historians ask, about the nature of interpretation and the nature of causality, which are never-ending. Questions like: Why did the civil rights movement succeed when other social movements failed? We give to high school students a question like: Why did Rosa Parks not yield her seat on that day? Which is a very different level of question from "Where was Rosa Parks sitting on that bus?" That's a factual question around which there is no doubt. … But why she didn't give up her seat on that day—she changed her story several times throughout her lifetime, and we can argue about it.
What we have not done, as a community [of historians], is educate the general public about what a fact is, and where our points of contention are.
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Pep Guardiola: I tried to sign Juan Mata
By Harry Edwards
Published: 13:58, 6 April 2019
Pep Guardiola has admitted he once tried to sign current Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata while in charge of Barcelona.
The Spaniard made his name at Valencia having come through the academy at Real Madrid. Mata then moved to England in 2011 with Chelsea, spending two-and-a-half years with the Blues before signing for Man United under David Moyes' stewardship.
Could Mata have joined Barcelona? Five key things to know…
Juan Mata came through the academy at Real Madrid before joining Valencia as a 19-year-old.
The Spaniard has since represented Chelsea and Manchester United, while also earning 41 international caps.
But Mata's career could have been so much different.
Pep Guardiola has admitted he wanted to sign Mata while in charge of Barcelona.
However, he could not make the move due to the number of midfielders already at the Camp Nou.
Since moving to Old Trafford, Mata has endeared himself to fans for his key performances in big matches, proving himself a reliable midfield option with the club going through a rough period post-Sir Alex Ferguson.
However, it appears Mata's time at United is running out with the Spaniard's contract up this summer and a new deal seeming unlikely.
Still capable of playing at the top level at 30, Mata is bound to attract interest across Europe with the likes of Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain reportedly interested.
And current Manchester City manager Guardiola has admitted he tried to take Mata to the Nou Camp while in charge of Barcelona.
"He's an exceptional player," he told reporters.
"One of the players I like the most – not love because I don't know him well, but one of the players I like the most.
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"From Valencia, always in Barcelona, we took an eye to try to bring him to Barcelona, but the problem was we had a lot of midfield players.
"That was a little bit the problem, but he is an incredible player. He played really well at Chelsea and United."
Mata was part of the Chelsea team that beat Barcelona in 2012 en route to winning the Champions League and brought Guardiola's time at the club to an end, with the current Man City boss taking a break at the end of that season.
The Spaniard will be hoping he can play some part in another famous victory over Barcelona, this time with United, as the two face off in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Is Mata leaving Man Utd?
With Manchester United still fighting for a top-four spot and in the Champions League quarter-finals, Mata will not have had much time to think about his future.
And speaking in January about his career past the end of the season, Mata admitted he remains unsure about what awaits him.
"I don't know," he told AS.
"I've been in England for a good while, in a league that I'm well accustomed to and where I've adapted well, but it's true that times you miss home, your family, your friends.
"But I don't know if I'll return to Spain in the near future.
"I'm calm [about the situation at United]. I'm at the fantastic club that is Manchester United, one of the biggest in the world.
"I have to think about the short term and do well from now on."
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The pushchair organiser provides a great storage solution when you've got your little one in the pram. it fits between the handlebars of your Britax stroller easily and has a large central compartment with a lid with magnetic closure, and two insulated bottle holders, one of you and one for your child! The organiser has a collapsible design so folds down with the pram (remember to take liquids out first, of course!
There are also three external pockets, very useful for all the things you didn't think you needed and all the essentials too!


The nuclear-powered limbs and implants that made crippled test pilot Col. Steve Austin a bionic superhero in the 1970s television series "The Six Million Dollar Man" would cost a lot more than that today — most likely five times the cost.
Based on the Bureau of Labor Statistic tools, the price jumps to just shy of $29 million. Anwar Shaikh, a professor of economics at The New School for Social Research, agreed. The parts alone would cost $12,000 or so, he said, even with the rapidly declining costs of technology due to manufacturing improvements over the past 40 years.
Shaikh added that when you factor in the necessary number of doctors and the dramatic rise in surgeons' annual salaries, the cost could spiral to as much as $33 million. And with the research and development costs required to develop Colonel Austin's superpowered limbs and eye, the cost soars far beyond that.
Aside from their exorbitant price tag, the bionics that made Col. Austin's arm as strong as a bulldozer and the legs that catapulted him 30 feet in the air still don't exist. While prosthetic arms with usable fingers have been available for some time, they largely aren't able to send tactile sensations to their users' brains.
But recent advances are providing new hope for the future. According to a study published in the current issue of Science magazine, adults may soon be able to gain a sense of "touch" in their prosthetics. In addition, through the use of 3-D printing and collaborations with Lucasfilm and Disney, younger amputees can now be fitted with prosthetics inspired by their favorite characters. And there's promise that the devices are becoming much more affordable.
Engineers at Stanford University say they have created a stretchable circuit that can sense pressure and transmit that information to mouse tissue in trials. By using pressure-sensitive foils and other barometers on a clear plastic "skin," they were able to convert pressure into a digital response the brain recognizes as comparable to that found in a human grip.
Researchers say they're still early in the research process, though, and there are still several hurdles to cross. It will be at least three to five years before there's a commercially available version of the product.
But U.S. military research agency DARPA is chasing the same goal, claiming they are a bit further ahead of Stanford in the process. In September, the organization announced that a 28-year-old, who has been paralyzed for more than a decade, was able to "feel" physical sensations via a prosthetic hand after a small micro-electrode array was implanted in his brain.
The hand (developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University) uses torque sensors that detect applied pressure and send electrical signals to the brain. Wires are run from the prosthetic to the motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls movement.
"We've completed the circuit," said DARPA program manager Justin Sanchez. "Prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by thoughts are showing great promise, but without feedback from signals traveling back to the brain, it can be difficult to achieve the level of control needed to perform precise movements. By wiring a sense of touch from a mechanical hand directly into the brain, this work shows the potential for seamless biotechnological restoration of near-natural function."
Private corporations are also making notable, though different sorts of, advances in the field of bionics. Open Bionics, which won this year's James Dyson Award, an international design award for university students, is exploring the use of 3-D printing to create bionic hand replacements — a process that will reduce the cost of bionics for some patients from upward of $100,000 to only $3,000.
Based in Briston, U.K., Open Bionics 3-D-prints custom-fitted bionic hands. That process dramatically shortens the wait time for patients. Rather than taking a month or so to create the prosthetic, like traditional bionics manufacturers, Open Bionics can design, print, assemble and fit within a week.
For now, the company is focusing on robotic hands, and its techniques allow not only for flesh-colored replacements but also more customized options. And that could make bionics especially appealing for children who have lost limbs.
"[Kids] won't have to do boring physical therapy, they'll train to become heroes," reads the Open Bionics website about the announcement. "They're not just getting medical devices, they're getting bionic hands inspired by their favorite characters."
Sure, it's impressive that Col. Steve Austin could run more than 60 mph, but for today's children, Iron Man armor and having an Elsa-inspired snowflake hand could be a whole lot cooler.


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TWI appoints new Chief Executive
Published by Elizabeth Corner, Editor
World Pipelines, Tuesday, 18 December 2018 10:31
TWI has announced the appointment of Aamir Khalid as successor to Christoph Wiesner and the next Chief Executive of TWI. Aamir will take over the role on Friday 1 February 2019.
Aamir Khalid has worked at TWI for the past 20 years. He obtained an Applied Physics degree from University College London, a Masters and PhD in NDT from Brunel and Cranfield Universities and later an MBA from London South Bank University. Aamir spent several years in industry before joining TWI as NDT section manager, specialising in applying robotics to non-destructive testing. From here, he progressed to lead the company's non-destructive testing technology group in 2004 and became TWI Technology Director in 2010.
Aamir's recent focus has been on creating new opportunities for TWI Industrial Members through national and international collaborations, and in developing key areas of TWI's technology and training businesses in the UK and overseas. He also has responsibility for TWI's public and collaborative funding office and in the past five years has overseen the winning of over £500 million of R&D funding for TWI, its members and its partner Universities.
In 2012 he launched the Structural Integrity Research Foundation (SIRF), a knowledge transfer platform for technical excellence in structural integrity, alongside BP and the Lloyd's Register Foundation. Through SIRF he has been able to deliver the National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC) with its aims of generating research outcomes to meet Member needs and at the same time placing 550 workplace experienced postgraduate students into industry. His work to create TWI's Innovation Network has resulted in ten Innovation Centre partnerships, 24 Accelerated Innovation Programmes and four Private Technology Innovation Partnerships.
Outside TWI, Aamir is currently Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Business Board. He has been a former Director of the Manufacturing Technology Centre (part of the government's High Value Manufacturing Catapult), and is currently an Associate Professor at Brunel University London.
Speaking about his new role, Aamir said, "It is a privilege to be selected and to have the opportunity to build on the company's respected worldwide reputation. Our 70 year history as a centre for welding and joining excellence and innovation, our strong links with industry and the commitment of our people are what makes TWI an outstanding organisation to work for. I will be proud to continue the work of my predecessors to deliver the best possible benefits for our members and customers."
Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/18122018/twi-appoints-new-chief-executive/


A new Chick-fil-A restaurant is expected to open on Raeford Road at Purdue Drive early next January.
That's four months earlier than had originally been projected, said Tommy Arnold, the chain's local franchisee.
But the date won't move up any further than that. The chain has a policy of financing its growth through cash flow, not debt, Arnold said. That limits the number of restaurants it can open each year. To meet the requirements of the policy, the new Fayetteville restaurant can't open until 2014, though construction will likely start in late October of this year.
The new restaurant would give Chick-fil-A four locations in Fayetteville. The others are on Skibo Road, Ramsey Street and in Cross Creek Mall.
But the number will temporarily drop back to three soon after the Raeford Road opening. Arnold said the plan is to close the Skibo Road restaurant a few days after the Raeford Road location opens. It would be demolished and rebuilt with the same modern design as the restaurant on Raeford Road. It also would be moved to the opposite side of its current site, next to the Taco Bell. That should help traffic flow, Arnold said.
Both of the new restaurants would have double drive-through lanes that would merge into a single lane.
Inside, there will be service "pods" instead of a continuous front counter. Arnold said that design "will help us to better present our service model to customers."
The popular Skibo Road restaurant opened in 1994 and is "so out of date," he said.
Arnold said he hopes the new design will reduce congestion there.
"I know how difficult it is to navigate that whole area right there," he said. "People have to want to come there. It makes me really appreciate them."
He said the Skibo Road restaurant does more volume than any other Chick-fil-A in North Carolina and is near the top in the whole company. With nearby Cross Creek Mall adding stores and development on Glensford Drive, he expects business there to keep growing.


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← A Free Exchange of Left-Wing Ideas
Challenging UVa.'s Culture of Left-Wing Intolerance →
Will Clement Leave His Mark as UVa Rector?
Whittington W. "Whitt" Clement
The University of Virginia Board of Visitors will have some fresh blood tomorrow. Whittington W. Clement will assume leadership as rector July 1, and he will be joined by three new members appointed by Governor Ralph Northam earlier this month on the 19-person board.
The question is this: Will anything change? Will the Board reassert its control over an institution that is run by a self-aggrandizing senior staff with no regard to the interests of students and parents who pay most of the bills? Will it act to protect Thomas Jefferson's legacy and UVa's proud tradition of intellectual diversity and free inquiry? Or will the Board acquiesce to President Jim Ryan's ambition to create a monochromatically leftist faculty while tolerating a student culture of dreary ideological conformity?
I don't know Clement well, but I can say confidently that he is a dedicated public servant who will do his honest best to balance the many conflicting demands confronting the Board of Visitors.
Clement is a good Democrat, as one would have to be to secure appointment by a Democratic governor, but he comes from the establishment, pro-business wing of the party. Having served two terms in the House of Delegates and as Secretary of Transportation under Governor Mark Warner, he now heads the state government relations practice group for Hunton Andrews Kurth. A life-long Virginian and a "double Hoo" (with undergraduate and law school degrees), he has a strong sense of the university's values and traditions even if, as many believe, those values and traditions must be reconciled with the imperatives of social and racial justice.
As the functional equivalent of the "chairman of the board." Clement will play a leading rule in guiding the university into the future over the next two years. As chairman, he will provide the only effective oversight of the institution's ambitious "CEO," President James Ryan, whose personal vision may or may not align with that of the Virginia public. Here are some issues that Clement will have to wrestle with.
Should the University of Virginia strive to become one of the top-rated universities in the country or should it aim to be to be a great public university? Entertaining national aspirations means raising as much money as possible to spend on new buildings, programs and initiatives geared to increasing institutional status and prestige. Affordability and access for Virginians are secondary considerations. Middle-class Virginians don't want UVa to become Harvard-on-the-Rivanna. They want an institution dedicated to excellence, but one they can aspire to attend and afford when they get there.
How should UVa compete in the higher-education marketplace? Can UVa become a vibrant center of learning and free inquiry by hiring faculty and administrators who all share the same left-of-center world view? Should UVa become an institution where only the fine-points of left-wing orthodoxy are debated? Or should it seek ideological diversity and a multiplicity of viewpoints where a vibrant exchange of ideas takes place?
Will UVa support freedom of speech and expression for all, or only for those with favored points of view? The Board of Visitors may have formally affirmed its commitment to free speech and free expression, but the grim reality is that many students — especially those with conservative views — do not feel free to speak freely. Many faculty members demand ideological conformity. Twitter Outrage Mobs create a hostile environment for conservatives. The overwhelming majority of officially sanctioned events feature left-of-center participants. Is that the way to path to intellectual excellence?
How can UVa become more "inclusive"? In a post-George Floyd world in which literally every institution of higher learning is seeking to recruit more Black and Hispanic faculty members, staff, and students — creating a situation where demand far outstrips supply — how can UVa stand out? Under Ryan, UVa has adopted a policy of self-flagellation for its past. Has that approach endeared the university to "people of color" or do Blacks, in particular, feel more alienated and resentful than ever toward the university whose founder was a "slave-holding rapist"? Can UVa compete in the marketplace for minority talent by pursuing the same strategy — with less prestige and fewer resources — than Harvard, Yale, Duke or Stanford? Conversely, could UVa make itself more attractive in a crowded marketplace by touting the excitement that arises from intellectual diversity and a vibrant exchange of ideas?
UVa's governing body is no different from those of other universities — the president controls board agendas and parcels out self-serving information, while boards duly rubber stamp nearly all decisions. Board members must be more assertive. They must ask more questions. They must refuse to accept vague, evasive answers. They must be willing to ruffle feathers. In sum, they must exercise genuine oversight. That is Clement's greatest challenge of all.
This entry was posted in Governance. Bookmark the permalink.


This news leads to the question of what will happen to Somali women and women's organizations, their crucial projects — education, health, income-generation - as well as women leaders themselves?
The leader of Somalia's autonomous region of Puntland has agreed to introduce 'Islamic law' in the territory.
Mohamed Adde Muse said a committee would decide how best to implement Sharia to replace the current Western-based system of civil laws.
Correspondents say the move follows intense pressure from local Muslim and clan leaders. Puntland has been far more stable than southern Somalia after running its own affairs since 1998. Much of southern Somalia is now controlled by the Islamist Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). Earlier this month, Puntland denied reports its forces had clashed with Islamist militias near the border. Some Puntland leaders had threatened to join the UIC, correspondents say.
John Prendergast, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group, think-tank said the decree was intended to avoid conflict with the UIC. "Puntland authorities are trying to pre-empt the UIC's agenda before the UIC makes a major play to overtake the government there," he said.
An article by Amina Mire in which she speaks of the predicament of Somali women in the struggle for control of Somalia.


text:
OPNFV
IHS-Markit Forecast: Carrier NFV at $37B in 2021 for a CAGR of 30% from 2016-2021
by Michael Howard of IHS-Markit (co-founder and lead analyst at Infonetics)
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) MANO (management and network orchestration) and VNF (virtual network function) software revenue was $3.5B in 2016 and is expected to reach $5.9B for 2017, according to the NFV Hardware, Software, and Services biannual market tracker from IHS Markit.
NFV revenue is not all new: it includes displaced revenue and newly identified parts of existing market segments. In 2021, 49% of the NFV revenue will be new revenue from software and outsourced services, and 8% will be displaced revenue spent on NFVI server/storage/switch hardware purchased instead of purpose-built network appliances. The remaining 43% represent spend on VNF software.
"Operators around the world are planning or extending their NFV environments to customer sites on CPE (customer premises equipment), which we are calling uCPE (universal CPE). We expect operators will spend $11M on physical "uCPE" hardware in 2017, growing to $448M in 2021," stated Michael Howard, Executive Director Research and Analysis for Carrier Networks at IHS Markit.
"In our 5th annual global carrier surveys on SDN and NFV, 82% of respondents indicated they are deploying or plan to execute VNFs on uCPE located at customer sites (with 97% in COs and 85% in DCs). Because this is such a large part of operator plans and products available now, we have sized and forecast the uCPE market," Michael Howard added.
Above illustration courtesy of IHS-Markit
Editor's Note: NFV and MANO Backgrounder:
NFV Reference Architecture showing NFV Orcestrator and VNF Manager
Above illustration extracted from the ETSI NFV MANO Specification
Recently, there's been more innovation around the MANO portion of the NFV infrastructure and a recognition that MANO might need more development as a model given the gap between the MANO layer in NFV and the OSS/BSS (operations support systems/business support systems) portion of network operator businesses that handle the core orchestration and billing functions as shown above.
More NFV Market Highlights (IHS-Markit):
· Revenue to vendors and systems integrators for outsourced services for NFV projects will grow to $16.6B in 2021 with a 2016-2021 CAGR of 23%.
· NFV software (NFV MANO and VNFs) revenue will grow to $15.5B in 2021 with a 2016-2021 CAGR of 36%.
· NFV hardware (NFVI server, storage, and switches) revenue will grow from $696M in 2016 to $3.1B in 2021 with a 2016-2021 CAGR of 35%.
· Service providers will invest $2B in hardware and software for the enterprise vCPE use case in 2021, and $293M for the consumer vCPE use case.
NFV Hardware, Software and Services Report Synopsis:
The IHS Markit NFV Hardware, Software, and Services market tracker provides biannual worldwide and regional market size, forecasts through 2021, analysis and trends for:
(1) NFV hardware [servers, switches, storage and uCPE],
(2) software: NFV MANO, Virtual Network Functions (VNF) [SD-WAN, mobile core & EPC, PCRF & DPI, security, IMS, SBC & DCS, video CDN, vRouters, and other VNFs],
(3) outsourced services for NFV projects, plus NFV use case spending [consumer vCPE and enterprise vCPE].
Vendors tracked include Amdocs, ADVA, Ciena, Cisco, ClearPath, Ericsson, Fujitsu, HPE, Huawei, Juniper Networks, Metaswitch Networks, Nakina Systems, Nokia, Nuage Networks, NEC, NetCracker, Oracle, ZTE, and others.
I strongly respect Mr. Howard's work ethic and primary market research findings. While not having read this latest report, I'm sure it's excellent. However, I'm still much more pessimistic on the NFV market due to the lack of standards for exposed interfaces/APIs and backward compatibility (especially hybrid network management) with the installed base of non NFV equipment/boxes.
ABI Research on NFV Market:
ABI Research forecasts that North America will lead the NFV market, accumulating $13 billion in NFV-related investments during 2022, while Europe will experience the highest growth rate at an estimated 53% CAGR between 2017 and 2022. Early adopters claim several benefits to NFV-enabled systems, which include reductions in network CAPEX & OPEX, service agility, and reduced deployment times for new network elements.
"In 2015 and 2016, the market experienced some early successes but mostly reconsiderations and failures with NFV," says Neha Pachade, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. "Early adopters conducted proof of concept testing and NFV-integrated system demonstrations with the aim to understand the true impact of NFV in the technical, operational, and cultural domains. Our forecasts indicate that NFV will become a sizeable opportunity for vendors, although it is not yet clear whether it will cannibalize existing hardware-based product lines or create new market use cases."
ABI Research estimates that total NFV market revenues will reach $38 billion in 2022. Hardware spend—including servers, storage devices, and switches—will reduce with time, while software and services will have higher growth rates of 55% and 50%, respectively. Although the market is evolving and technical expertise is starting to mature, the standardization and multi-vendor involvement challenges will remain stagnant for the next couple of years. Software and services vendors will have opportunities to identify NFV use-cases in enterprise verticals and use these to offer end-to-end integrated systems.
"Early contracts and market trends illustrate the biggest winners are likely to be the established vendors, including Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia, as well as specialists like Amdocs and Netcracker, with systems integration becoming more important each day," concludes Pachade. "Several vendors also place heavy and risky bets on open source software, which may increase business opportunities but may also create difficult choices for them in the future, particularly if telco interest in specific open source projects fizzles out. For the time being, NFV is mostly considered as a cost-cutting exercise, since new revenue opportunities require a transformation in a much broader context, which is more likely to be driven by 5G, after 2020."
These findings are from ABI Research's Network Functions Virtualization Tracker and Forecasts report.
Posted in NFV MANO, OPNFV Tagged ETSI, MANO, NFV, VNF
Windstream Joins ONAP & Open Source Telco Movement Led by AT&T/ China
Posted on July 1, 2017 by
Windstream Communications has become a corporate member of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) Linux Foundation project, joining an open-source technology initiative for the first time.
ONAP was formed through the merger of open source ECOMP (contributed by AT&T) and Open Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O), two of the largest open source networking initiatives. It was the big hit of the 2017 Open Networking Summit as we reported in this blog post.
The ONAP Project is focused on creating a harmonized and comprehensive framework for real-time, policy-driven software automation of virtual network functions. ONAP includes participation by prominent networking suppliers and industry-leading service providers from around the world. It's primary objective is to enable software, network, IT, and cloud providers and developers to rapidly create new services which can be monetized.
The ONAP draft architectural principles, presented at their May 2017 meeting at AT&T Bell Labs in NJ, can be read here.
"Combined with our rapid advances in SDN, Windstream's participation in ONAP increases the value of our network for all of our customers, as we move to virtualization and cloud-based technologies that offer affordable and efficient next-generation services," said Art Nichols, vice president of network architecture and technology for Windstream.
"For example, not only does our SDNow solution offer automation and accelerated service delivery, but it forges the path that will allow us to deliver flexible, on-demand services across our multi-vendor network ecosystem."
"Traditionally, we have always worked with engineering groups and maybe a little bit with IT on the back side" in planning this kind of transition, Windstream's Jeff Brown told Light Reading in an interview.
"In this new world, you are blending IT and engineering and a lot of crossover resources. So, from the IT perspective, [ONAP] was called out as a group that was taking the leadership role as far as developing open standard work with other companies we have similarities with and with some of our vendors as well."
Windstream has been informally monitoring multiple open source efforts and supporting the concept of open source for some time now, Brown told Light Reading. The move to more actively engage in orchestration through ONAP was driven by the growing influence of Windstream's IT department in its transition to software-defined networking, he added.
"In any type of industry forum, whether standards-based or not, you have to make the determination of what kind of resources you can dedicate to it," Brown notes. Having just come out of meetings around MEF and proofs-of-concept for its 2017 event, he says the same discussions come up there. "We don't have groups allocated that can do that type of thing and work with vendors," he says.
Windstream is the third North American service provider to join, after AT&T and Bell Canada Enterprises. ONAP now has 17 platinum and 22 silver members. The other service providers signed onto this Linux Foundation project include China Mobile, China Telecom, Orange, China Unicom and PCCW.
Carol Wilson of Light Reading opined that Windstream is likely to start off with ONAP as more of an observer than a leader. "Although that may change over time," Brown said. The next ONAP meeting is being held in China, and Brown is unsure whether the company will send a representative as a result.
"That [long distance travel] would be highly unusual for us." Brown added that joining ONAP and getting more involved over time is nonetheless important because of the need to speed up the process of getting to industry consensus, moving faster than the traditional telecom standards process.
"It's no doubt that waiting for standards to develop in the traditional telecom community can be quite painstaking….We have seen other greenfield entrants, hyperscale companies, come in with an open source approach with no standards and make a huge commercial presence, impacting markets in a big way very quickly. That is the kind of agility and nimbleness we need to thrive in the industry."
In the long run, open source "is just a means to an end to be able to provide our solutions," he told Light Reading, enabling the telecom industry to coalesce "around things similar to what we are seeing [with] all the web-scale providers."
http://www.lightreading.com/nfv/nfv-mano/windstream-joins-onap/d/d-id/734029http://www.lightreading.com/nfv/nfv-mano/windstream-formally-embraces-open-source/d/d-id/734140
https://wiki.onap.org/display/DW/Draft+Architecture+Principles
http://about.att.com/innovationblog/onap
Open Network Summit: ONAP Steals the Show with Broad Support
Posted in ONAP, Open Source Telecom Software, OPNFV


text:
Q: SQL Server stored procedure - skip if exists, else insert I have trouble to create stored procedure to do skip for existed data and insert for not existed data.
Here is the current code:
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[PrezentaImport2]
    @CodAngajat INT,
    @Data DATE,
    @CodTipOra VARCHAR(50),
    @R1DAL NUMERIC(10,1),
    @R1ALL NUMERIC(10,1),
    @R1TOT NUMERIC(10,1),
    @IdUtilizatorAdaugare INT
AS
    INSERT INTO Prezente (IdAngajat, IdTipPostDeLucru, IdPostDeLucru, IdDepartament,
                          IdEchipa, IdLinie, Data, IdTipOra, R1DAL, R1ALL, R1TOT,
                          IdUtilizatorAdaugare, DataAdaugare)
        SELECT
            Angajati.Id, Angajati.IdTipPostDeLucru, Angajati.IdPostDeLucru, Angajati.IdDepartament,
            Angajati.IdEchipa, Angajati.IdLinie, @Data, TipuriOre.Id, @R1DAL, @R1ALL, @R1TOT,
            @IdUtilizatorAdaugare, GETDATE()
        FROM
            Angajati
        INNER JOIN
            TipuriOre ON TipuriOre.CodTipOra = @CodTipOra
                      AND Angajati.CodAngajat = @CodAngajat

Thank you.

A: Your code looks like SQL Server.  A typical method uses merge.  It looks something like this:
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[PrezentaImport2] (
    @CodAngajat INT,
    @Data DATE,
    @CodTipOra VARCHAR(50),
    @R1DAL NUMERIC(10,1),
    @R1ALL NUMERIC(10,1),
    @R1TOT NUMERIC(10,1),
    @IdUtilizatorAdaugare INT
AS
BEGIN
    MERGE Prezente as target
        USING (SELECT . . .
               FROM Angajati a INNER JOIN
                    TipuriOre t
                    ON t.CodTipOra = @CodTipOra AND a.CodAngajat = @CodAngajat
              )
        ON target.? - source.?
    WHEN MATCHED THEN
        UPDATE SET IdAngajat = source.IdAngajat,
                   IdTipPostDeLucru = source.IdTipPostDeLucru,
                   . . .
    WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN
        INSERT (IdAngajat, IdTipPostDeLucru, IdPostDeLucru, IdDepartament, IdEchipa, IdLinie, Data, IdTipOra, R1DAL, R1ALL, R1TOT, IdUtilizatorAdaugare, DataAdaugare)
            VALUES (source.Id, source.IdTipPostDeLucru, source.IdPostDeLucru, source.IdDepartament, source.IdEchipa, source.IdLinie, @Data, source.Id, @R1DAL, @R1ALL, @R1TOT, @IdUtilizatorAdaugare, GETDATE()
    END;
END;

You will need to fill in the ? with the columns that define a duplicate, and the . . . with the rest of the assignment statements that you want.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


We're missing our June Bug this weekend!! Happy Easter from the Zantingh crew in #yeg Easter Tacos are a thing, right?
@jonozantingh @iamkathleenberenice We'll take you for tacos ANYTIME!!
@nicole_zantingh Easter tacos are the best!
Yep after Acapulco mussels with Tequila More !! Dobel charcoal filtered!
@nat.a.lie___ Haha I didn't even recognize you!!
@cratzbarg You both look Fabulous!!!
Thanks for the birthday love from everyone!
@karl_french They aloud dogs there ?
@melissa1marie @coops_bigadventure it was my first time trying their tacos! SO GOOD! We should hit it up again when you are back.
@glarioza.angelz Hey Lovely, we were scrolling throught and think you're absolutely gorgeous 😍 DM us we'd love to collaborate.
Summer is #glutenfree pico de gallo & caesars @elcortezyeg . BRING ON THE SUN ! El Cortez uses fryers free from gluten ingredients & is aware of proper cross-contamination practices .
@hairandmakeup.by.jas This shot is stunning.
@marcitcreative @starlynstafford negative. Sorry so busy.
@knoblauchkevin Incredible! Was a fun venue.
Come visit me tonight. You bring the mustard, I'll bring a complete lack of shame, decency, and common sense.
@captinclit_420 Wonderful choice on restaurant!
@cwalsh780 @vrendobruno yea. Let's hang out soon!
Celebrating Chris's birthday with the boys.
You know where to find me tonight. I'll be doing my most provocative dance moves in the basement and contemplating which is more real - God, or Kraft Dinner's outlandish claims that they use real cheese. Come gingerly hold me and tell me I'm pretty.
@cwalsh780 @aquaripuss when have I ever made it weird!?


http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/2015-budget-s5.jpg Decision to scrap Public Briefing on effect of $800 Million in budget cuts to Local UW Campuses is troubling news for any taxpayer, parent or student who wants to know the true impact.
GREEN BAY, WI - The decision by Ray Cross to cancel the planned public briefing by UW chancellors on the impact of Governor Walker's cuts at this week's UW Regents meeting is troubling news for any taxpayer, parent or student who wants to know the true impact of the Governor's and Republicans' cuts to their local campuses.
At a time when most other states are investing in their public universities, Governor Walker and legislative Republicans are dismantling one of the best public university systems in the nation. UW-Green Bay is already losing some of their best and brightest professors—some of them to area colleges just down the road. UW-Marinette has seen significant cuts to academic staff and UW-Madison has fallen out of the top ten public universities in the nation.
"Clearly the nearly $800 million in cuts made by Governor Walker and Senate Republicans are having a significant and dangerous impact on our universities, the quality of higher education our students receive, and the skyrocketing increase in student loan debt," said State Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay).
Rather than hide the impact of these cuts from the public, Ray Cross and the regents should be making every possible effort to inform the public of the true impact of these cuts on college affordability, quality of learning and community and economic development. Failure to make the public aware of these cuts and their impact is only inviting more and deeper cuts in the next budget.
Legislative writer Jay Wadd contributed to this story.


text:
Italian confreres of Padre Pio moved by Filipinos' devotion
Devotees raise their hands in prayer as Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan displays the heart relic of Saint Padre Pio at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, October 8, 2018. ROY LAGARDE
By Roy Lagarde
The Italian Capuchin friars who brought the heart relic of Saint Padre Pio to the Philippines were humbly moved by the strong devotion of Filipinos, especially the youth.
Fra. Giovanni Delle Carri, one of the two custodians of the relic, said they are deeply touched by the faith of Filipinos who braved the heat, occasional rain showers and long queues to venerate the relic.
"It's a great experience, very beautiful. We are all emotional. I am emotional for the faith of this people of the Philippines, a Christian nation," Carri told Radio Veritas.
"We see the genuineness of the people, the faith, the great faith of this people that honors Padre Pio, honors the Lord through the sanctity of Padre Pio," he said.
What is more gratifying, he stressed, is the presence of many young devotees who gave their time to catch a glimpse of the heart relic.
"I am sure that the heart of Padre Pio will also touch this generation, this new generation of the Filipino people and there will be fruits," Carri added.
On Wednesday, long lines still engulfed the Manila Cathedral as thousands more people continue to queue for a chance to venerate the relic, take confessions and attend Masses.
The cathedral is the second stop of the relic since it arrived in the country last Friday.
Over the weekend, the incorrupt heart relic stayed at the National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio in Santo Tomas Batangas.
Last Monday, the relic spent overnight at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila before it was brought to the Manila Cathedral on the following day.
On Thursday, following a 6am farewell mass at the cathedral, the relic will be heading to Cebu City.
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text:
« The Promotion Chart
Proscholium Exhibition »
Chü jên papers
I was shocked to discover that my previous blog entry was written almost exactly five months ago. My silence is not due to lack of interest, much less of things to write about, but because I have had to modernise our Chinese catalogue, something which would merit its own blog entry if it were a little less off-message.
So here at last is a brief account of the set of three papers that were used in the provincial examination at Nanchang in 1902. They were exhibited together with related materials in the Proscholium of the Old Library between 22 February and 6 April. I will present the exhibition online as my next blog entry.
But first to the papers themselves. I have called them Chü jên papers not out of antiquarianism, but because on the spine of the small yellow folder in which the papers were kept, presumably made shortly after their acquisition in September 1910, are the words
3 CHÜ JÊN EXAMINATION PAPERS
They are described as follows in my catalogue, and may be seen here.
光緒二十八年壬寅補行庚子恩科並辛丑正科江西鄉試題 第壹、贰、叁場 / (清)光緒二十八年[1902]官撰
刊
3張 ; 58 x 90, 58 x 87, 54 x 86公分
Sinica 3043
Also in the folder were two letters from Arnold Foster. The first is dated 22 June 1910; it says what the papers are and offers a set to the Library. The second is dated 2 September 1910 and encloses the papers; it was evidently written in response to a reply from the Library. There are also two copies of a printed single-sheet description of the papers, with blanks where the names of the city and province should be written. These have been completed in manuscript, to read:
"… in the Examination Cells of Nan-chang Fu the Capital of the Province of Kiang-si …"
I'm grateful to my Cambridge colleague Charles Aylmer for drawing to my attention the work Arnold Foster : memoir, selected writings, etc. (London Missionary Society, 1921), which gives evidence of the provenance of these examination papers. I will quote the relevant paragraph (pp.44-45) in full, as it also sheds light on the dissemination of missionary publications:
"During the Manchu Dynasty, Triennial examinations were held in all the provincial capitals, and students, who had already obtained their B.A. degree, came from all parts of the province to sit for the examination. Out of the five or six thousand who go in for it only seventy or eighty could pass, but as this was the only door to official life, large numbers always competed. This was felt to be a unique opportunity for reaching the student class. In September, 1902, Mr. Foster and representatives from all Protestant Missions in the three cities, with Chinese Christian helpers, waited at the gate of the examination hall with packets of books to give to the students, as they left the building. Thirty-two hampers full of books were given late in the evening and very early the next morning. This was an occasion when Mr. Foster believed in free distribution. As a rule, he thought it much wiser to sell books, as being paid for, they would be valued and read. He regretted that free distribution had revived in later years, so making sales more difficult."
It must surely have been during the course of this book distribution that Foster obtained copies of the examination papers. We are not told the names of the cities in which these exchanges of materials took place, but in his letter of 22 June 1910, Foster says he got sets of papers from "each of six or seven of the Provincial Capitals of China", and that in addition to Oxford, he was making "a similar offer to the British Museum, to the Cambridge University Library, & to one other English library only."
Arnold Foster (1846-1919) was a graduate of St. John's College and President of the Cambridge Union (1870). Accordingly, he gave what is probably the finest set of papers to his alma mater. These are from Nanking, the capital of Kiangsu Province, which had the largest examination complex in China with 20,644 cells. This set has been described by Charles Aylmer on the CUL website.
The only other set I have seen is ours, which is from Nanchang, the capital of Kiangsi Province. I suppose the set given to the British Museum (assuming they accepted Foster's offer) is now in the British Library – I will try and find out. What is the "other English library", I wonder, and what happened to the other two or three sets that Foster said he had acquired?
Like ours until earlier this year, they are probably lying undiscovered on a library shelf or in someone's office. It is therefore impossible to say whether such sets of papers are rare. I can only say that the only two copies known to me are those in Oxford and Cambridge. A Google search for the title (or more sensibly, elements of the title such as "恩科", "正科" "鄉試題") does not reveal any more copies of the papers themselves, but plenty of published reports and lists of candidates, notably in the Toyo Bunko and other Japanese libraries.
This entry was posted on	11 June 2014 at 12:30	and is filed under Uncategorized.


When looking at the longest standing places for holistic healing in Chiang Mai besides Balavi Natural Health Center and one that is inside the moat you can't miss Chiang Mai Ayurvedic Center that opened in 1999. They have more ayurvedic twist and modalities are mostly based on that approach, but in the other hand they offer other unique alternative therapies like pyro-energen and electro-dermal screening therapies. And of course ozone sauna cabin and colon irrigation and coffee enemas are available, but they do not practice any invasive intravenous treatments. Although I had dug into bioresonance and electronic therapies before, the pyro-energen was something that intrigued me to try it as I got a little discount for giving it a go in exchange for this article. They also have small selection of some herbal products and Hulda Clark's liver flush package for sale.
The premises are not that fancy or luxurious and already a bit worn out, but prices are affordable and their staff is very friendly. One of the ladies in reception had spent long time in the USA many decades ago so communication was very easy. Unfortunately the head doctor and owner was away for many weeks so I could not arrange interview with her.
I had to do little research on the pyro-energen machine and I must say I was and still am a bit skeptical about it, but as it has been produced and sold since 1968 and is still in the markets I think there must be something to it and most of the few testimonials I found are positive. And it can be used as supportive therapy besides ayurvedic and ozone treatments 1-2 time a day so it's affordable. But if relying on that modality alone it might be better to buy the machine to your home or negotiate package deal that includes three sessions per day. There is also place in Chiang Mai such as Aden health shop to buy your own ozone generator for ozonating your drinking water for supporting the healing process, but if you want to get one before travels, this is one to check out.
For the pyro-energen treatment that is not needed though. So I went straight out there to be guinea pig again, although I had a feeling it was impossible to say whether it works on healing any serious ailment like viral infection based on only one 30 minutes session. For such cases it is recommended to use the machine 3-5 times per day. But at least I experienced what was told to be a small electric shock when touching quickly the flower next to me. I was also given pillows to protect myself from coincidentally touching some metal grid on the window behind me.
Over the course of treatment I was reading the old printed version of the manual, and to my delight, found some hilarious passages. It seems like they have found "cure" for homosexuality as well, as they claim that it is a result of "incurable disease" noticeable in uneven length of your fingers. And by using pyro-energen, as they claim, you might be able to cure that incurable disease and consequently biased sexuality and balance the length of your fingers. I know this sounds like quackery and crossing the line of non-scientific theory that I usually try to avoid not to degrade the credibility of my site, but it is so funny idea that I had to take image of it. They have since reformulated the passage on their website. However, I am interested to know if anyone has "cured" that condition with pyro-energen as I can not debunk the idea without further evidence from either side. World is full of miracles.
After the session when I took a picture sitting there at the treatment chair, I noticed the image had kind of slightly blurred corners, kind of swirly bokeh effect, but without front object, something different what normally happens when the camera has moved or shaken at the moment of snapping the picture. The Olympus camera I used has never before produced such effect. Same effect, but much stronger one, was found in one of my friends picture he took at one place in the forest here in Finland locally knows as some kind of ancient ritual site that has some weird magnetic fields around it. So maybe there was stronger electronic field around me as result of being attached to the pyro-energen machine that made the image as it was. Other images I took before the therapy with same aperture or shutter speed did not come out the same way. I don't know for sure, but it is one possibility to prove that something happened.
Given that the machine has been around for so long it was strange to find only few testimonials and references outside their own website, but I found some on Youtube that sounds reliable. Also in Spooky2 forum someone has mentioned the machine in positive light. I should investigate it's potential sometimes more diligently, buying it myself and experimenting.
Next time, if I go to Chiang Mai again, I want to try more comprehensive package with some massage and shirodhara. If you are ready to go, book you flight here.


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Q: Avoid to receive the same topic that I send I've an OpenDDS node that's both a DataDriver and DataReader. The consequence is that if the node send a topic, the same topic is received from the same node.
Is there a QoS policy that avoid this behaviour? I want that a node can receive the topic from all nodes but itself.

A:
I want that a node can receive the topic from all nodes but itself.

If you are in a situation where your data type for the relevant Topic includes an attribute that contains information about the source of the data, then you can use that attribute to filter on via a ContentFilteredTopic. Suppose that your data type has a field nodeId that identifies your node, then you can use a ContentFilter expression like nodeId <> %0 and set the parameter to your own nodeId. The middleware would deliver all updates to your DataReaders, except for those that have your own nodeId. Check out the DDS specification for more details.
Given that your application wants to ignore data coming from your own node, I would argue that your data type actually needs that nodeId as an attribute, because apparently that is information relevant for your application. So if you do not have it at the moment, you might have to add it.
If you are not allowed or do not want to add such a field your data type, you can also use another, more convoluted mechanism by leveraging the ignore_publication() or ignore_participant() methods. These are explained in the specification as well. If you want to go that route, let me know if you have questions about it.
Finally, there might be vendor-specific extensions to the API that provide you with easier ways to achieve what you are looking for. For example, see How do I get a DataReader to ignore a DataWriter that belongs to the same DomainParticipant? for a solution using the RTI product.


text:
Posted by Doug Madison on Jan 25th, 2023
Hartford Funds Management Co LLC lifted its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY – Get Rating) by 35.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,616 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the quarter. Eli Lilly and accounts for 0.1% of Hartford Funds Management Co LLC's holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC's holdings in Eli Lilly and were worth $522,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.
Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bailard Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Eli Lilly and by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 10,580 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,421,000 after acquiring an additional 627 shares during the last quarter. Inverness Counsel LLC NY grew its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and by 3.0% during the third quarter. Inverness Counsel LLC NY now owns 1,739 shares of the company's stock worth $562,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Oxford Financial Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Eli Lilly and by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Oxford Financial Group Ltd. now owns 185,296 shares of the company's stock valued at $59,916,000 after buying an additional 11,362 shares during the last quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC grew its holdings in Eli Lilly and by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 515 shares of the company's stock worth $167,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bell Rock Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Eli Lilly and during the third quarter valued at $423,000. 82.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
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Insider Activity
In other Eli Lilly and news, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 49,089 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $372.88, for a total value of $18,304,306.32. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 102,948,810 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,387,552,272.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Acquisition Corp Kearny purchased 29,992,668 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 30th. The shares were bought at an average price of $12.50 per share, with a total value of $374,908,350.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 100 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,250. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Lilly Endowment Inc sold 49,089 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $372.88, for a total value of $18,304,306.32. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 102,948,810 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,387,552,272.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 120,141 shares of company stock valued at $44,151,279 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.
Eli Lilly and Stock Up 0.0 %
LLY traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $346.43. 541,268 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,422,829. The company has a market cap of $329.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.36. Eli Lilly and Company has a one year low of $231.87 and a one year high of $384.44. The company's fifty day moving average price is $361.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.13.
Eli Lilly and (NYSE:LLY – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 1st. The company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.01. Eli Lilly and had a return on equity of 80.80% and a net margin of 20.63%. The business had revenue of $6.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.91 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Eli Lilly and Company will post 7.77 EPS for the current year.
Eli Lilly and Increases Dividend
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 15th will be paid a $1.13 dividend. This represents a $4.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 14th. This is an increase from Eli Lilly and's previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Eli Lilly and's payout ratio is presently 58.86%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several analysts recently weighed in on LLY shares. Credit Suisse Group boosted their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and from $395.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 6th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Eli Lilly and in a research note on Wednesday, October 12th. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Eli Lilly and from $380.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 14th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Eli Lilly and from $399.00 to $401.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Eli Lilly and from $395.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $384.11.
Eli Lilly and Profile
Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. It offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; and Jardiance, Trajenta, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes.
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so my heart's howls would all allay.
that this and all was not in vain.
the fear of that futility's breeze.
A rainbow touchdown in my yard.
Dear Robin, thank you for your careful reading. I am glad the poem provoked this feelings in you. Because this is linked to the recent death of my mother…although I am not religious, I am always waiting for a sign to know that she is ok now…and the rainbow appearing in my garden was one of them. I prefer to think she sent it, to let me know she is fine.
IT'S TOUCHDOWN IS IN HER YARD!
Cheers Jonathan, and glad they visit your blog too!
Your poetry is both eloquent and elegant, Eva. Wonderful verse.
Oh dear, that is some compliment, thank you so much!
Such a beautiful last line!
Thank you Eva. Beautiful and hopeful.
Thank you for your comment Jim!


Tupperware is keen on coining new names for its products. I have a soft spot for the Eleganzia range, which I always say in RuPaul's voice, but the Bake 2 Basics range is one pun too many for me. And there is a lot of 'n': Grab'n'Cut (scissors), Heat'n'Serve (microwave dish), and Sip'n'Care (baby's cup).
I also like the idea of naming the product in a way that suggests it is not just passively storing your food, but actively taking care of it. Doing the job so you don't have to. So your cake is not in a tin, but in the Cake Taker; and your sandwich is not in a box but in the Sandwich Keeper.
The Sandwich Keeper is a very humble product, almost the cheapest thing in the catalogue. It is the product I recommend to party guests who don't really want to buy anything, but who don't want to be impolite to the hostess. It feels like a classic, hence its inclusion here, but that's maybe because there is something a bit old school and retro about a sandwich made with sliced bread. You certainly wouldn't get a baguette, roll, or doorstep butty in there.
Don't underestimate the Sandwich Keeper. It is beautifully designed. There is no seal to store (or lose), because it is attached, which is a blessing. The Sandwich Keeper's compactness, slim with the rounded edges, is very pleasing on the eye and in the hand. It is a minor feat of engineering too, with what Tupperware grandly calls a "living hinge", all moulded from one piece of plastic. There are no separate pieces to fall apart, get lost, or harbour crumbs or germs. The clasp is also integral, and will not pop open when carried.
A nice feature is that it is designed with a proper top and bottom. The bottom has four little feet that keep it slightly raised above the counter top to avoid scratches. According to my product guide from Tupperware HQ, the sandwich icon etched on the top of the Keeper adds "a touch of humour", which even I admit might be pushing it a bit.
The Sandwich Keeper currently comes in the same colours as the Sports Bottle, and customers do indeed tend to buy them together for children's school lunches, no doubt packed in smart West London kitchens. On my consultant order form, intriguingly the colours are marked "Boy" and "Girl". At first glance in the catalogue, you would say "Green" and "Pink" -- but hold your horses, and look closer. In a camp flourish worthy of Eleganzia herself, the choice of colours is actually a manly "Tang" or a womanly "Fuchsia".


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You are here: Home › Western Europe and the Nordic Countries › Lesson 9: Sweden › Sweden–Music
Sweden–Music
Sweden has a proud, centuries-old tradition of Nordic folk dances and songs that accompany them. It also has a proud, decades-old knack for creating super-famous international pop stars. For a good overview, visit National Geographic's introduction to Swedish music.
SWEDISH FOLK:
Swedish folk music has a lot in common with the folk of its Scandinavian neighbors–fiddles, accordions, clarinets and a whole lot of dancing. The main Swedish traditional dance is the polska, a partner dance popular all over Scandinavia that has its origins in
the Polish royal court. The most distinct ancient Swedish folk instrument, often used to accompany a polska, is the nyckelharpa, a "keyed fiddle" that musicians play with a bow.
POP:
ABBA!! ABBA!! ABBA!!
Sweden's ABBA is one of the best selling bands of all time. Ever. In the whole universe. Formed in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early '70s, ABBA (composed of two married Swedish couples who used the first letters of their names to compose the name of their group) rocketed to international stardom after their song "Waterloo"–oh my goodness, look at those shoes…!–won the 1974 Eurovision contest. They followed up with an extraordinary string of hits like "SOS," "Mamma Mia," "Fernando," "Take a Chance on Me," and, of course, "Dancing Queen." ABBA's two marriages broke up in 1979 and 1981 and, much to the world's chagrin, the band broke up in 1983, though they have continued to sell millions of albums a year.
Comparing any other act from Sweden, or from anywhere for that matter, with ABBA isn't fair, but Sweden does have a habit of producing internationally appreciated bands. There have been many successful post-ABBA popular music artists from Sweden, such as ROXETTE (watch them perform "It Must Have Been Love" on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1991), ACE OF BASE (watch their 1993 video for "All That She Wants") and step-siblings NENEH CHERRY (watch her perform her 1988 hit, "Buffalo Stance,") and EAGLE-EYE CHERRY (watch the video for his 1998 hit, "Save Tonight.")
BUBBLEGUM DANCE:
Scandinavia is undoubtedly, and presumably proudly, the global capital of a musical genre called "bubblegum dance." What is "bubblegum dance?" Take Eurodance, remove all its dark, brooding chord patterns and its deeply profound lyrics–okay, there are none–put a smiley, bouncing polish on the package and you'll be pretty close to figuring it out. According to Bubblegumdancer.com, "Your number one guide to the world's happiest music," bubblegum dance music, which typically consists of upbeat, high-pitched female vocals and a male singing or rapping in low, quiet tones, "is often playful and child-like. Common singing topics include fantasy characters such as wizards and princesses, and songs about having fun, love, partying, and eating candy."
While Denmark has more top Eurodance acts than Sweden, such as the most famous act, Aqua, Sweden can boast the most popular–artists known as Smile.dk whose song "Butterfly," which we know from our CD, became a megahit after becoming the soundtrack of the videogame "Dance Dance Revolution." (Learn about Smile.dk via
their official website: "A Swedish pop duo consisting of Veronica and Cecilia from Sweden. Their mission is to entertain and create happiness with their catchy lyrics, upbeat sound, tender sensitive ballads, and of course the tracks are bound together by their beautiful voices!" | See a karaoke-friendly video for "Butterfly" | Visit the SmikeDK fansite, "where the sun always shines!")
By the way, BubblegumDancer.com says, as if having bubblegum dance music itself isn't great enough, there are many different "sub-categories" of bubblegum dance, such as traditional bubblegum, contemporary bubblegum, bubblegum dance speed, bubblegum macho, bubblegum satire, technobilly bubblegum, and organic bubblegum.


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By mark.v.steinbach 02.12.2013
Darwin Deez: Songs for Imaginative People
Darwin Smith, the mind behind Darwin Deez, has crafted the perfect narrative for his latest album. Since his self-titled 2010 debut, Smith has ditched the energy of New York City for a quiet escape to North Carolina. Now every publication lauds Smith's "return to his routes" and "needed change of scenery." While that's all well and good, Deez's move from NYC to NC has done little in terms of simplifying his music. While Songs for Imaginative People may be more thematically focused than his debut, the music itself is still basically a case study for musicians with ADD. It's admirable how readily Smith flirts with disaster on this record. With goofy guitar solos, off-kilter exercises in prog-rock and some dizzying lyricism, the album lives up to its imaginative billing ‒ to mixed results.
Songs… opens with a forceful, thematically rich song in "(800) HUMAN." Fit with drum kit, handclaps, and nearly every sound effect ever recorded, the song's main triumph is its effective introduction to Smith's occasionally alienating falsetto. Smith can throw his voice in a variety of directions and, at its best, resembles the airy oddness of David Longstreth's. Unfortunately it isn't always utilized effectively, like on "Good to Lose," where his speech-singing mostly shines a light on the album's troublesome songwriting, rather than elevating the song in any way. At times, Darwin Deez manages to shed its songwriting and vocal weaknesses and actually funnel both of those qualities into really strong songs. "Redshift" is a total triumph, where the restlessness of the album is completely enchanting, rather than confusing. Opening with a jazzy rhythm that would feel right at home on The King of Limbs, Smith's voice breaks out with fury, wailing some lovely, nihilistic lyrics. "You Can't Be My Girl" is, again, well-written and sincere, and naturally closes with a rousing climax that amplifies just about all of Smith's strengths as an artist.
Oddly, there is some cohesion amid this restlessness, if that's even possible. Most of the songs are built around one infectious guitar riff and Smith's nearly spoken vocals are there as a guide for every strange direction this album may take. In that way, this album almost does the impossible: it presents a twisted menagerie of sounds and styles while still not feeling very unpredictable. Smith emphatically proves that his is not a discriminating eye when it comes to musical choices. This hampers the album in that almost weakness of Songs for Imaginative People can be traced back to Smith's inability to hold back at times. With that said, such restlessness (or recklessness) is essential in defining the album's character. It may have a heart, it may have a humanity to it; but a character built on imperfection is hard to sustain for an entire album. There's a great album in Darwin Smith, but this isn't the one.
MP3: Darwin Deez "Redshift"
Buy: iTunes or Insound! vinyl
mark.v.steinbach
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