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Q: spring mybatis transaction for two db call I'm using mybatis with Spring. I'm having an API which performs delete and then insert operation. I want these operations to be in one transaction so that if insert fails, delete operation is rolled back.
@Configuration
@EnableTransactionManagement(proxyTargetClass = true)
@MapperScan(basePackages = "com.abc..mapper")
public class ABCCoreDataConfig {

    @Bean
    public SqlSessionFactoryBean sqlSessionFactoryBean() throws Exception {
        SqlSessionFactoryBean sessionFactory = new SqlSessionFactoryBean();
        ....
        .....
        sessionFactory.setMapperLocations(
            new PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver()
                .getResources("classpath*:com/abc//mapper/**/*.xml"));

        return sessionFactory;
    }

    @Bean(name = "transactionManager")
    public PlatformTransactionManager transactionManager() {
        return new DataSourceTransactionManager(dataSource());
    }
}

Service class:
@Service
@Transactional
public class MyService implements IMyService{

  @Autowired
    private MyMapper myMapper;

  @Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)
    public boolean addRecord() throws Exception {
            myMapper.deleteRecord(id);
            myMapper.insertRecord(- - -);
      return true;
    }
}

Even if insert fails due to MySQLIntegrityConstraintViolationException, delete operation is still not reverted.
Note: delete and insert are two different method at mapper level. Therefore, we have used transaction at the service layer.
Stacktrace:
23:11:29.452  DEBUG org.mybatis.spring.SqlSessionUtils - Creating a new SqlSession
23:11:29.458  DEBUG org.mybatis.spring.SqlSessionUtils - Registering transaction synchronization for SqlSession [org.apache.ibatis.session.defaults.DefaultSqlSession@7d40dbdb]
23:11:36.685  DEBUG o.m.s.t.SpringManagedTransaction - JDBC Connection [jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1:13306/abc?connectTimeout=1000, UserName=xyz@10.0.0.0, MySQL Connector Java] will be managed by Spring
23:11:36.690  DEBUG MyDao.delete - ==>  Preparing: DELETE FROM .....
23:11:36.711  DEBUG MyDao.delete - ==> Parameters: ....
23:11:36.807  DEBUG MyDao.delete - <==    Updates: 2
23:11:36.807  DEBUG org.mybatis.spring.SqlSessionUtils - Releasing transactional SqlSession [org.apache.ibatis.session.defaults.DefaultSqlSession@7d40dbdb]
23:11:36.807  DEBUG org.mybatis.spring.SqlSessionUtils - Fetched SqlSession [org.apache.ibatis.session.defaults.DefaultSqlSession@7d40dbdb] from current transaction
23:11:36.832  DEBUG MyDao.insert - ==>  Preparing: INSERT INTO .....
23:11:36.833  DEBUG MyDao.insert - ==> Parameters: ...
23:11:36.927  DEBUG org.mybatis.spring.SqlSessionUtils - Releasing transactional SqlSession [org.apache.ibatis.session.defaults.DefaultSqlSession@7d40dbdb]
23:11:36.997  DEBUG org.mybatis.spring.SqlSessionUtils - Transaction synchronization deregistering SqlSession [org.apache.ibatis.session.defaults.DefaultSqlSession@7d40dbdb]
23:11:36.998  DEBUG org.mybatis.spring.SqlSessionUtils - Transaction synchronization closing SqlSession [org.apache.ibatis.session.defaults.DefaultSqlSession@7d40dbdb]

A: Not sure why do you want to delete the record, and reinsert, update would be a better option if possible. This relates more to the concept of transaction, here is an idea.You can do following in your mapper class.
@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)
public boolean deleteRecord() throws Exception {
// delete code here
return true;
  }

@Transactional(propagation = Propagation.REQUIRED)
public boolean addRecord() throws Exception {
// add code here
return true;
  }
}

Here spring annotation will take care of your transaction, For more information ,actually transaction uses proxy concept explained here
 Spring - @Transactional - What happens in background?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


According to the market center, entering the third day of the show, the number of businesses attending was ahead by 16% versus the previous year with gains in each of the main buying categories reflecting the expanding Dallas customer base: home/design up 21%, apparel up 21%, lighting up 15%, gift up 13%, and floral & holiday up 12%.
Dallas Market Center debuted more than 50 new and expanding showrooms during the January shows including established brands and emerging companies in home, gift, lighting and holiday/floral. In addition, more than 40 partnerships were announced with retail buying groups, trade groups and associations participating in the January shows.


Over on YouTube I've been talking about all the books I've acquired recently. As ever if you prefer not to watch the video (you not like my shiny face?) then you can read all about the books here. But I'm not putting in any pictures because if you wanted pictures you could have watched the moving ones in the video. Hah. That told you.
We'll start with the little trip to the second hand bookshop.
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is one of those giant books that looms on your reading horizon for long time. I'm not planning on reading it any time soon but wanted to have it there just in case. It's about a guy who finds a notebook in a dead man's house that tells the story of a very famous and well known family. Except nobody he knows has ever heard of it. It's weirdness inside mysteries inside strangeness.
Then I got a copy of The Great God Pan and other stories by Arthur Machen. Machen is considered to be one of the grandaddies of weird fiction. He was a key inspiration for Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle and Stephen King are among his fans. The Great God Pan is probably his best known work. At just 76 pages it's an odd victorian tale of woman who is the child of human and Pan the god of nature and mischief and base instinct. Not things known to go down well in Victorian society. I've read it many time before and thoroughly recommend it.
Then still secondhand I got a couple of Gollancz SF Masterworks. RUR & War with the Newts by Karel Capek is actually one play and one novel bound up together. RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots) is regarded as the most important play in SF history. This is where the word robot comes from and began the concept of robots that we still know today.
Floating Worlds by Cecelia Holland is set a few thousand years into the future where humans are a space going anarchist culture and at war with the Styth an alien race who live on the solar system's outer planets. We follow Paula Mendoza a young musician who must learn about the problems of power and the possibilities of different modes of culture as she seeks to broker a truce. It sounds utterly weird but is filled with explorations of some really big politically crunchy sort of questions.
Moving on I also got a couple books sent to me for free by Twelfth Planet Press. I've talked about some of their books before these 12 Planets series this one The Female Factory by Lisa Hannett and Angela Slatter is the newest. I've really enjoyed all the other books from this publisher but this one sounds most up my alley with a selection of short stories all about reproduction and genetics. Very Frankenstein indeed.
They also sent Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti which has five interlinked shorts about power and its abuse. So superheroes, lawyers, police and so on. It sounds sinister and amazing.
Onwards to library books. I got God's War by Kameron Hurley because I loved her book The Mirror Empire last year. This one is from an earlier series and tells the story of Nyx, an ex-assassin turned executioner who lives in a war-torn world that seems a mixture of science fiction, fantasy, and the grimmest darkest thriller you can imagine. It opens with the line Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, one the edge of the desert. And that's just so weird and grim and odd that I had to pick it up.
Then there's Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey. This is the fourth book in the Expanse series so I can't really give you any kind of plot description except to say that the first three books were freaking amazing. A cross between Battlestar Galactica and Firefly and Game of Thrones.
And the final library book was An Untamed State by Roxanne Gay who most of you I'm sure will have heard of from her book Bad feminist. This is a novel about a rich young woman in Haiti who is kidnapped and held captive for a long time when her father decides to resist the kidnappers demands. It's all about privilegdge in the face of poverty, about the destructive anger that appears in the face of corrupt governments and maybe about redemption.
And finally moving on the brand shiny new things.
First there's a single ebook – The Life in Papers of Sofie K. by Octavia Cade. I read and reviewed Trading Rosemary by Cade last year and loved it so this was a no-brainer. It's about a little girl raised on stories of monsters. But when she grows up and the monsters turn out to be real she if forced to ask some tough questions about what she herself might be.
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor tells the tale of three very different people who are walking along a beach in Lagos when a meteorite hits. Suddenly they are thrown together along with a visitor from beyond the stars to try and save the city. It's part science fiction, part fairytale, and part realism that sounds wondrous.
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord is about an alien society some of whom have come to a distant planet populated by human-ish sort of people who may be evolved from a common ancestor. While there they hear that their home planet has been destroyed. Now these clashing societies have to work together to both preserve the alien ways of life and also adapt to their new planet. There's a lot going on there.
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (there are cute Four Weddings and a Funeral clips in the video at this point and you're missing them) is about a travelling shakespearean theatre in a post apocalyptic society and well that's such a good premise and just about every book tuber I've watched has raved about it so here it is.
Penultimate book is Blackout by Connie Willis. Willis if you've never heard of her before is a bit of an SFF legend. She's won 11 hugos and 7 nebulas – more than anyone else, she's a SFWA Grand Master and in the SF hall of fame. So yeah big deal. This book won the 2010 hugo and it starts in the time travel labs at Oxford University in 2060 with academics going back to various points in time to study what's going on. But the labs are in chaos, two historians going back to the second world war find themselves thoroughly unprepared for the reality of the situation, and the long held belief that time travel cannot alter the course of history is suddenly called into question. DUM DUM DUM. Oh my god.
And finally there's Haruki Murakami's cutest new little book – The Strange Library. It's a fantastical illustrated weird wonderland of a story about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library. The tagline just says 'All I did was go to the library to borrow some books'. Well we all know how well that sort of phrase ends.
Aaaand now I've seen the video. I'm going to sound very shallow, but the cover of Lagoon is so pretty! I totally want to read it now.
I can't recommend enough Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, though! They're both about Oxford scholars time travelling and the time machines not working as they expected. The theory of time travel gets more intricate and crazy in newer books, so it's actually really fun to read them in order, to see how it progresses.


text:
When Pirates Of The Caribbean 2, One Of The Least Expensive Films In Johnny Depp Led Franchise, Emerged As The The Highest-Grossing Pirates Film Domestically [Box Office Rewind]
Box Office Rewind: Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Is The Highest-Earning Johnny Depp Film From Franchise!(Photo Credit –Poster From Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest)
Everyone loves Jack Sparrow and Pirates Of The Caribbean. The franchise led by Johnny Depp is a cult classic that will remain prominent in the history of cinema. There have been 5 instalments in the franchise so far while the future of the upcoming film remains unclear. But do you know the highest-earning movie from the lot is Dead Man's Chest? Scroll below for today's Box Office Rewind!
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is the sequel to the original from the franchise, The Curse Of The Black Pearl. The film directed by Gore Verbinski was high on buzz and starred Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, and Tom Hollander amongst other big names.
Talking about its box office, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was made on a budget of $225 million. The film recovered half of its budget just within the opening weekend as it collected $135 million. It made total earnings of $423.31 million in the domestic market (North America).
As for Worldwide Box Office, Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 raked in a whopping sum of $1.06 billion. And with that, it not only became the first film to enter the $1 billion mark but remains the highest-grossing among the 5 films.
Second on the list remains Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which was the 4th instalment. It grossed a total collection of $1.04 billion worldwide and missed the highest-grossing mark by an inch.
Meanwhile, Pirates 6 was supposed to be a spin-off starring Margot Robbie in lead. Unfortunately, the movie was scrapped and the same was confirmed by the actress.
Stay tuned to Koimoi for more Box Office Rewind stories!
Note: Box office numbers are based on estimates and various sources. Numbers have not been independently verified by Koimoi.
Must Read: Scarlett Johansson With $14.52 Billion Earnings Owns The Title Of Highest-Grossing Actor Of All-Time Leaving Behind Robert Downey Jr, Tom Cruise & Other Male Superstars! [Box Office Rewind]
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Yes! After the long cold winter, summer has come early to Ulm! Since the beginning of June, we have been having sun and temperatures up to 30deg C! I'm already so tanned just spending late afternoons swimming in our neighbourhood lake, after the kids come out of school. Heres a pic of me and the kids… lol!
Yes we share the lake with a family of swans and they can get quite aggressive! Have a look at a funny video I took of them here.
So warm temperatures and blooming flowers inspired me to make this "mixed mediums" card, along with the gorgeous inspiration picture from the challenge at Time Out. I call it mixed mediums cause it has stamping, stencilling, heat embossing, embossing paste, die cuts, water colouring…!
If you follow my blog, you know I'm not really a mixed media person, but I have been looking at my own bookmark creations above, which have been sitting on my crafting table ever since I made them for my book club 2 months ago, and they are a constant reminder that my few attempts at it didn't turn out too badly 😉 So I decided to try a mixed media card with as many mediums as I could fit in without it being too "heavy"!
I used the Stamplorations "Bloom Boldly" stencil. To colour in the leaves I used a sponge dauber and Stampin' Up inks, and gold embossing paste for the flower. As I didn't mask the leaves when adding the paste, I wasn't able to get a smooth finish on the flower, but now it just looks like light reflecting off the petals… 😉 The dabs of pinks were added in by my Zig clean color real brushes.
For the Hummingbird, also from Stamplorations, I first stamped it on watercolour paper with Versamark and heat embossed it using Wow embossing powder. I then had a lot of fun colouring it with my Zigs! I fussy cut it and stuck it onto my card.
The "Love you" die cut from Xcut added the balance I think it needed on the left, along with the pink sequin.
So I hope you like my "many mediums" card and leave me a comment to let me know what you thought! Hope its heating up where you are too.
Time Out Challenges – Isn't the inspiration pic gorgeous?
Mixed Media Monthly challenge – Its their 3rd birthday and they're asking us to use one of their past challenges as an inspiration! I went with #32 Put a stencil on it.
Artistic Inspirations challenge – Anything goes with option of stamps or stencils…and I have used both!
7 replies to Its summer in Ulm!
Pretty card, love those summer colors!
Wonderful take on the Time Out Challenge inspiration photo. So bright and cheery! Thanks for sharing with us.
Wow, your creations are beautiful! I'm trying to do illustrations on my iPad but after having seen your work, I'm thinking maybe I should try out some actual, physical painting. The only issue is that the quality of the work when it's scanned/photographed can dimish considerably… if I'm determined and careful, as you have been, it may be successful!
Oh I'm so glad if I've inspired you to try some handmade art, I'm really touched! And to tell you a secret, sometimes the photo actually enhances my work!! 😉😄 Can't wait to see what you create!


text:
Gender and identity
Sheriff Gordon Smith of Bradford County, Florida has put up red signs outside the homes of convicted sexual predators. April 2013. Photo by Splash News/Corbis
Natural-born paedophiles
Some paedophiles might be hard-wired to commit their abusive acts. Should that alter their crime in the eyes of the law?
Caren Chesler
is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, and Scientific American, among others. She lives in New York and New Jersey.
A 29-year-old man named Juan Carlos Castillo Ponce was renting a basement apartment in the New Jersey city of Elizabeth when he befriended his landlord's daughters, who were aged three, six and 10. While he lived there between 2000 to 2008, he would take the girls out to dinner, and became a trusted friend of the family. He would also sexually assault them while their parents weren't home, record them in their rooms through a pinhole video camera, and threaten that, if they told anyone about the assaults, no one would believe them and they would be taken away. When one of the girls finally did tell her parents, investigators recovered hundreds of DVD recordings they say Ponce made of the assaults, not just of the landlord's daughters but of other girls as well.
Ponce was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, among other things. As the judge sentenced him to 27 years in prison, calling the crime a shock to his conscience, Ponce buried his head in his arms and, through a Spanish interpreter, asked for forgiveness. But to those privy to his psychological report, his contrition might not have rung true: Ponce had admitted that when he was around children – and around these four in particular – he knew that what he was doing was wrong but simply could not stop himself.
Those admissions don't come as a surprise to experts who view not paedophilia but, rather, paedophilic behaviour as the truly dangerous thing. The distinction is critical: paedophiles are individuals with an attraction to children. Paedophilic behaviour is what happens when one acts on the urge; it is an attraction to children that one fails to control.
Now there's a growing body of evidence suggesting that paedophilia might not be a learned desire but rather an in-born biological trait, like a cleft palate or a hook nose. And lack of emotional control, a separate trait, might be biologically-based as well.
If true, the insights raise a host of issues, from culpability (If they're born that way, can they help themselves?) to prevention (Can you lock up someone simply for being a paedophile if he hasn't molested a child?). For now, legal experts seem unmoved by the argument My biology made me do it. After all, we all have urges that we control. The prevention issue, however, is more nettlesome. We don't detain people for simply having a capacity to engage in an unlawful act. They must commit a crime first. Yet can the urge to abuse children really be ignored? When it comes to paedophilic behaviour – one of the most heinous crimes – we might be entering a frustrating period in which we have a lot of good information and no good way of using it.
Until recently, paedophilia was thought to result from early childhood trauma, probably sexual abuse of some sort. But new research reveals that paedophiles tend to share unique brain structure and some unusual physical attributes. The scientist James Cantor and his colleagues at the Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto published studies in 2008 and again in 2015 showing that paedophiles had less white matter in their brains.
Reporting in the Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2015, the team found that paedophiles were more likely to be left-handed, a trait rooted in prenatal neural development; in fact, paedophiles are up to three times more likely than the general population to be left-handed, a rate similar to that observed in individuals with autism and mental retardation. In all, the Cantor team found that paedophiles manifest detached earlobes and misshapen ears, lesser physical height, lower mean IQs, poorer visuospatial and verbal memory test scores, lesser educational attainment, and an elevated propensity to have suffered head injuries before (but not after) age 13.
Cantor said he's not looking for causality. He doesn't believe there is a causal relationship between left-handedness, detached earlobes or shortness, and paedophilia. Rather, he studies these traits to determine when the paedophilia might have developed, in the same way that one might cut open a tree and examine the rings to determine its age. For most individuals, such traits are determined by genes or an infection or even maternal stress, in utero. These traits 'are clues that whatever it is we're looking for, we're not just looking for something in the brain', he adds. 'We're looking for something in both brain and body development. That's the "A-ha" with this one.' In fact, it constitutes extraordinary evidence that some people are born paedophiles, before environmental factors such as upbringing even come into play.
It wasn't until the British neuroscientist Simon LeVay found that the brains of gay men were anatomically different than those of heterosexual men that people began to believe that perhaps atypical sexual behaviour, such as homosexuality, was not a choice but rather the result of biological differences. LeVay discovered back in 1991 that the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus in the brain, a region that helps to regulate sexual behaviour, tended to be smaller in gay men than in straight men. LeVay's work was the first evidence that basic sexual orientation really was a brain phenomenon.
But it was difficult to study other groups in the same intensive way. Most of LeVay's research was done using gay men who had died of HIV, making their brains available to autopsy and analyse.
'We didn't have an analogous thing going on with paedophiles,' Cantor said. That changed about 15 years ago when scientists gained widespread access to highly sensitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines (MRI), making it easier to detect very small differences between brains in those who were still alive.
A pioneer of the technique was the neuroscientist Kent Kiehl, who examined some of the most dangerous criminals currently in jail in the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston, Wisconsin. Kiehl had access to these prisoners as part of his research, and he had a portable MRI machine that his team wheeled around the prison in a semi-trailer. Kiehl's study population, of course, had a wide array of issues, from substance abuse to uncontrollable anger; sexual deviancy was just one of them. Thus, distinguishing between brain differences that might result in sexual versus other unrelated issues remains a work in progress.
Yet other researchers have been focusing on family genetics and epidemiology. One study, published in the April 2015 issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology, compared relatives of 21,556 male sexual offenders with relatives of matched non-offender controls, and found substantial evidence of moderate to strong family risk for sexual offending among men. Having a father or a brother convicted of a sexual offence increased the odds of being convicted oneself by four to five times, compared with just 3.5 times the odds for children of male violent offenders, or double the odds for suicidal behaviour in children of individuals who committed suicide.
The problem is when paedophiles commit paedophilia. The issue is not so much the motor, it's the brakes
Anna Carol Salter, a clinical psychologist in Madison, Wisconsin who has worked extensively with sex offenders, said she's not surprised to learn that paedophilia is genetically influenced and hardwired in the brain. In her work with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, she's found that the majority of paedophiles, when faced with the threat of a polygraph, acknowledge they were not sexually abused as children – a rationale they sometimes give to explain their behaviour.
People are wired the way we are wired – and that goes for the heterosexual who is attracted to the 16-year-old babysitter or their best friend's wife. Paedophiles just happen to have a sexual attraction to children. 'Everyone has sexual impulses that they don't think it's a good idea to act on,' Salter said. The problem is when they act on them – when paedophiles commit paedophilia. The issue is not so much the motor, she said. 'It's with the brakes. It is not who people are attracted to. It's what they do with that attraction.'
In one highly publicised case, a 40-year-old school teacher in Virginia developed sudden and uncontrollable paedophilia, making sexual advances to his pre-pubescent stepdaughter and accumulating child pornography. He was removed from the house, found guilty of child molestation and, in lieu of prison, a judge ordered him to undergo treatment at a 12-step programme in a rehabilitation centre for sex offenders. But even in treatment, he kept soliciting sexual favours from staff and other clients. He was kicked out of the programme after just a few days and was headed for jail. The night before he was to go, he walked into a hospital emergency room complaining of a headache. Upon examination, he was found to have a brain tumour sitting on his orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain that regulates judgment and ability to control impulses.
As soon as the tumour was removed, the man's sex-obsession disappeared, prompting his doctors to claim that the tumour had actually caused his paedophilia. The school teacher was allowed to re-enter the sex-offender rehab programme and, this time, he graduated. He even moved back in with his wife. But 10 months later, he again began collecting child pornography and complaining of headaches. Upon re-examination, doctors found that the tumour had grown back. It was again removed and, once more, the hypersexual behaviour largely fell away.
The neurologist Russell Swerdlow, then part of the University of Virginia team that made the discovery, was heralded as having found the part of the brain that deals with paedophilia. But instead, he said, his team simply confirmed the idea that, when there is damage to the orbitofrontal cortex, people can lose their ability to inhibit their sexual urges, whatever those might be. He likened such out-of-control paedophiles to the iconic brain-damaged patient Phineas Gage, a blasting foreman on railway construction projects in 1848, who was using explosives to build a tunnel when a large iron rod went sailing through the air and impaled him in the head just above his right eye. The rod went through a part of the brain that affected his ability to control his anger. 'He maintained his intellect and was fine, and you would never know something was wrong until he would get irritated, at which point he would just be a brute,' Swerdlow, now at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said. 'The guy with the tumour knew what he was doing, but there was no physiologic feedback to stop him.'
The biological roots of paedophilia raise the issue of culpability. Should people be absolved of their sexual urges simply because they were born with them? Absolutely not, said Jessica Oppenheim, a former Deputy Attorney General in New Jersey. Heterosexual men are not allowed to have sex with women without their consent.
'It's really the same,' said Oppenheim, who now heads the criminal justice advocacy programme for the ARC of New Jersey, an advocacy group for the developmentally disabled. 'Just because it's genetic doesn't absolve me. I still have to learn to control myself.'
They need to get help, like any other addict, said Michael Haney, Executive Director of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. Just as there are alcoholics who give in to drinking and those who don't, there are paedophiles who give in to their desires, committing paedophilia, and those who don't. 'It's kind of like an alcoholic who gets in the car after drinking and kills someone. They're still held accountable for manslaughter or murder because they had choices. Yeah, they have a compulsion, maybe an addiction, but they're still held accountable, legally.'
If paedophiles can now be viewed as people with a strong biological proclivity, the legal question is whether that means one is automatically programmed to engage in this behaviour, or whether it simply means they are unusually likely to, said Robert Weisberg, a Co-Founder of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center in California. If child molestation is not an automatic result of having this trait, then it's no different than a lot of character traits that one might develop as a result of environment or genes, he said. From a legal standpoint, the only defence one could use in a court of law would be to say that this inborn trait automatically resulted in an involuntary reflex, over which one has no control, like an epileptic person having a seizure that resulted in striking someone.
And, Weisberg noted, 'that would be an almost impossible standard to meet'. A reflex is instantaneous. An act of paedophilia lacks the immediacy required for it to be viewed as an involuntary reflex. In light of the new biological component of paedophilia, the diagnosis might be viewed as a mitigating factor, but hardly exculpatory.
An insanity defence wouldn't work either, Weisberg said. While someone could be born with mental illness, the legal definition of 'insanity' involves one's ability to know right from wrong. A very mentally ill person, for instance, might feel compelled by the voice of God to kill but, if he nevertheless knows right from wrong, he will not be deemed legally insane. Those who treat paedophiles say they often know that what they did was wrong.
Nor would it help much to argue 'diminished capacity', a defence used in California by Dan White, a member of the city's board of supervisors who was convicted of shooting to death George Moscone, the Mayor of San Francisco, and his fellow supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. In what came to be known as the 'Twinkie Defence', White claimed that his brain had malfunctioned due to low blood sugar. The strategy worked to get White's charges dropped from second-degree murder to voluntary manslaughter, but caused such an uproar that California's murder laws were changed to prohibit the defence in the future. Relying on such quasi-insanity defences, Weisberg noted, is a good way to lose your case.
The new knowledge won't help paedophiles prevail in court, but can it be used to prevent them from abusing children in the first place? Some insight comes from Wisconson's Kiehl, who has studied impulsivity and recidivism across all kinds of criminal behaviour, and sees a link between self-control and the amount of grey matter in the brain. His research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2013, shows that, when people have less density in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), they are less able to control their impulses and more likely to reoffend.
To do the study, Kiehl and his team scanned the brains of 96 inmates with an MRI machine as they completed an exercise aimed at testing their impulse control. Inmates were told to press a button with their right index finger as quickly and accurately as possible whenever they saw the letter 'X' appear onscreen, but not to press the button if they saw the letter 'K'. Since 'X' came up about 85 per cent of the time, the inmates became so used to pressing the button, it took them an effort to suppress the same impulse when 'K' popped up. Scientists found that inmates with less ACC activity made more errors on the task, suggesting a correlation with poor impulse control. And since past research has shown impulsivity is a strong risk factor for recidivism, inmates who showed poor impulse control on the test were viewed as more likely to be rearrested after they were released, researchers said.
Kiehl has yet to repeat the study to look at paedophiles specifically. But even if there was an MRI indication that there was a problem at the impulse control centre of the brain, even if we accepted that was admissible in court, said by John Esmerado, the prosecutor who tried Juan Carlos Castillo Ponce, 'I don't think we can causally say they will use that impulse to act sexually against a child. The best use of this information right now would be to ensure that certain caretakers such as teachers and coaches with this indication are never alone with children, ever.'
'We can't prosecute people or hold them in state supervision if they haven't done anything wrong,' Oppenheim added. She likens the scenario to Minority Report (2002), a futuristic movie about an elite crime-prevention unit of psychics who can foresee murders and arrest the would‑be killer before a crime is committed. It could be fairer and more helpful, she suggests, to identify the paedophiles and figure out how to treat them, without incarcerating them before their impulse control breaks down and a child gets hurt.
Science is not yet advanced enough to pick out potential offenders – those who will act on their paedophilia – in advance. Yet there are ways to try to stop convicted paedophiles from reoffending. The most well‑known is the sex-offender registration and notification statutes, such as New Jersey's Megan's Law, in which the community is told when a convicted sex offender lives nearby.
Some US states have civil commitment statutes, in which people who have already committed offences undergo rigorous examination to determine whether they are still considered violent sexual predators. If so, they can be committed to a sex‑offender treatment facility indefinitely, even though they've already served their jail sentences.
'Sex offences are a very special class. There's just no tolerance for mistakes. What happens if someone you released sexually assaults someone's daughter?'
Minnesota, for instance, currently confines 733 sex offenders at two treatment facilities in St Peter and Moose Lake: more, per capita, than any other state; these individuals are retained after they've completed their prison terms for ongoing treatment. But the law permitting this is now being challenged based on claims that the offenders aren't getting treatment at all.
Others advocate parole supervision for life. Such individuals would be subject to heightened scrutiny forever. Their computers and apartments could be searched without a warrant, and they would be prohibited from living with children unless an exception has been made.
Alternatively, there are medications that can alter the brain's grey matter – for instance, the medicines already used to treat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. 'The brain is very plastic,' said Kiehl. 'If I've taught you anything during our conversation, I've just changed your hippocampus.'
But concepts such as civil commitment, lifelong parole and forcibly scanning and then medicating predators put us on a slippery slope towards violating human rights. So we continue to gather data but, until we can establish that paedophilia begets paedophilic behaviour, there might be little we can do with that information. 'We currently can't predict human behaviour. We know what factors can give us an indication that someone might be more likely than someone else to carry out a certain behaviour, but we can't predict they're going to do it. It's almost a crap shoot to make those kinds of judgments,' said Haney. 'Clearly, if we had that ability, we could stop a lot of things.'
Gender and identity Neuroscience Human rights and justice


text:
Ted Cruz outlasts Jimmy Kimmel in grueling Blobfish Basketball Classic
Frost Week continues with Winter Carnival
Posted on Feb. 23: Marauders slam dunk, spike basketball, volleyball championship games
The Supreme Court ruled that states can legalize sports gambling. But Texas still might not play.
UT-Austin reaches deal for new $338 million basketball arena
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From ProPublica's Sports Desk: Predicting NCAA Champs Using Academic Performance
August 30, 2020 Olga PierceBASKETBALLNo Comment on From ProPublica's Sports Desk: Predicting NCAA Champs Using Academic Performance
As March Madness kicks into high gear, we will at times see the best of college athletics: good sportsman[or woman!]ship, team work, laser-like focus. But there is also a seedier underside where schools recruit players who are not academically prepared, let them play while turning a blind eye to their scholastic progress, and may eventually turn them loose with no diploma or prospects to show for their hard work.
Academic reform efforts by the NCAA have identified men's basketball as being most prone to such abuses and poor academic performance, with shockingly low graduation rates for many teams and enormous racial disparities even among members of the same team, as Education Secretary Arnie Duncan, a former basketball player himself, pointed out in a Washington Post op-ed this morning.
"Colleges and universities need to stop trotting out tired excuses for basketball teams with poor academic records and indefensible disparities in the graduation rates of white and black players," Duncan wrote.
We've decided to create the first annual ProPublica NCAA Tournament Bracket, where the teams with best academic performance win. We created it via the New York Times' handy bracket feature. Relying on academic scores results in a somewhat unlikely projected champion: Butler University. (We're not the only ones who have had this idea: Inside Higher Ed has done their own academic performance-driven bracket. Update 3/17: And we should emphasize, they've been doing it for years.)
To do that, we used the NCAA's own numbers. For every sport at every school, the NCAA calculates an Academic Progress Rate score, or APR. A perfect APR of 1000 indicates that all of a team's athletes remain in the program and are in academic good standing. An APR below 925 will result in sanctions for your program, including loss of scholarship slots or a ban from postseason play. It's not a terribly high bar — it corresponds to roughly a 50 percent eventual graduation rate according to NCAA estimates. (Here is more about the math.)
We've done this because we want to easily compare how well success in school corresponds with success on the court. As the tournament goes forward, the New York Times tool will evaluate the success of our picks, leading to all kinds of interesting potential analysis and we will keep you updated.
In 2008, an NCAA working group suggested changes for basketball programs intended to address the long-standing issues with the poor academic progress of student athletes. A similar earlier effort for baseball players had paid off. But member schools rejected the basketball reforms, in part because they were concerned about the effects on revenue.
And little wonder, with the big bucks at stake: a new Knight Commission report points out that the $400 million the NCAA has paid out to basketball teams for tournament appearances over the past five years has been distributed with little regard for the academic performance of the team. The message to schools: it pays to do what it takes to get into the tournament, even if that windfall is not passed along to the players.
In all, about a dozen teams in the tournament's 68-team field have been sanctioned because of poor academic performance in the past five years.
At the bottom of their brackets, academically, are teams that have serious problems. Two teams in the tournament, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (APR 825) and Syracuse University (APR 912), are actually currently being penalized scholarships. Birmingham's performance was so poor that it could have resulted in a ban from the tournament, but they were allowed to compete after submitting an action plan. The University of Texas at San Antonio had an abysmal multiyear APR of 885 but was also spared penalties because of "demonstrated academic improvement and favorable comparison based on other academic or institutional factors." The NCAA report is mum on why the University of California, Santa Barbara was not penalized with an APR of 902.
Teams with slightly better scores also obscure nearly total failure to ensure the success of African-American athletes. As Duncan pointed out, Kansas State gets a nearly passing APR of 924 overall, but that is because 100 percent of its white athletes have graduated in recent years, while only 14 percent of the squad's African-American athletes did.
There's another curious phenomenon, though. The schools that have the highest academic ranking overall often have less than stellar records with the performance of student athletes. There are seven teams in the tournament representing universities in the top 25 of the U.S. News & World Report rankings. None — even Princeton — has a perfect 1000 score, and the top schools' average is just 967. The University of Southern California, ostensibly the 23rd-best university in the United States, has a cringe-worthy APR of just 924.
A more direct comparison: The University of Michigan is ranked 29th by U.S. News, but it has an APR of just 956. Michigan State University is ranked 79th but has a perfect APR of 1000.
This raises the question: Are the best schools best for all their students, or are student athletes being left behind?
The Article was originally published on From ProPublica's Sports Desk: Predicting NCAA Champs Using Academic Performance.
Kin student named OUA women's basketball Player of the Year
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These Lugz Clipper oxford sneakers are so comfortable and stylish they will make Dad look and feel great! Chris loves these slip on breathable canvas shoes, combined with a durable rubber outsole for excellent traction. The gore at the top of the shoe is elastic to make them easy to slip on, plus it offers some extra flexibility in the shoe for added comfort. Lugz Clipper Sneakers are available in black pictured above as well as black/white and alloy/charcoal/white.
I know my readers out there love a good pair of Lugz so Queen of Reviews has teamed up with Lugz to offer a pair of Men's Clipper Sneakers in your choice of color to be given away to one of my lucky readers. Just enter using the Giveaway Tools widget below and be sure to show Lugz some love on facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Good luck!
I might choose the black one.
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The charcoal color is amazing! I think that would be a good choice.
I would choose the alloy charcoal white for my husband.
I like the black/white ones. They would be awesome for hubby.
Would chose the black ones.
I like the black with a black sole. Thanks for the opportunity!
The Black and white would be the pick for me.
I would choose the black ones for my husband!
I would choose the charcoal & white ones for my husband.
IF we win..big if lol..lots of entries..congrats for that and the growth.
I'd pick alloy for summer..
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COLOR: Alloy/ Charcoal/ White would be my top pick.
I would pick the Black with black soles for my husband.
My son would probably choose the Alloy/ Charcoal/ White. Thanks!
I would probably choose the all black sneakers. Lugz makes some great shoes.
I would chose the black/white ones.
Not gonna lie. The charcoal ones are pretty sweet.
I would pick the Alloy/ Charcoal/ White.
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I want a pair of black shoes. Thanks for the chance to win.
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Alloy/ Charcoal/ White looks good to me!
I am boring, but I love the Black color the most.
I am SOOOO excited! I have been wanting these for a very long time. My son is so excited. Thank you so much for this amazing giveaway and God bless to everyone! Keep entering everyone! You WILL win!
So glad to hear you are so excited. I am sure your son will love them.


Breathe – it was my destination as well as the theme for the week. Reconnecting with friends and family, running along the canal, steamy vinyasa yoga, and most importantly, two kitchen-packed Clean Food Cooking Classes, and one powerful Clean Food Primer that empowered and nourished all of us be in the present, embrace healthy choices, and share the journey – oh what a week in Pittsford, NY!
Heartfelt thanks to the entire breathe yoga community for welcoming me back into their kitchen, studio and lives. I can't wait to return this fall to teach and share even more delicious clean food and inspiration for clean living.


There exists considerable interest in the study of what individuals contribute to or cost the public purse. Such information can, for example, shed light on the effects of various factors on public finances. Studies of this type are also of interest in the context of the analysis of differences between the various forms of welfare state, and the consequences of such differences.
This working paper provides an in-depth, detailed analysis of the total amount of public costs and income transfers on the one hand, and of payments of taxation and fees to the public purse on the other, for immigrants in Germany. The study is based on an interview survey carried out by the ROCKWOOL Foundation Research Unit during the period April-August 2002. Interviews were conducted with a total of 5,669 people of Turkish, Polish, Iranian and Lebanese citizenship. Immigrants from the former Yugoslavia were also included in the study.
The study indicated a picture of fairly widespread income transfers to immigrants, and also showed that these transfers were predominantly linked to the fact that many of the immigrants were unemployed. These findings highlight the importance of integrating immigrants into the labour market. The survey also underlines the importance of having good data in order both to improve the analysis of the effects of immigration on society and to provide a better basis for decision-making in the context of integration policy.


In SAP ABAP you can create a Material using a BAPI. To do so you first need to get the Next Material Number. This can be obtained by using the following BAPI.
If you are suing the transaction MM01 to create a Material, you can see the Material Number being assigned automatically. If you have not noticed this please run the transaction MM01 and enter the values in the initial screen. After hitting enter you will see the Material Number appear in the next screen automatically.
Let us now see the parameters that need to be passed to the BAPI BAPI_MATERIAL_GETINTNUMBER.
The Mandatory Parameters that need to be passed to the BAPI are as follows.
Enter the desired values and generate the Next Material Number. Once you obtain the Material Number, you then need to pass this number to the following BAPI.
Data: int_matnum type BAPIMATINR occurs 0.


When you add a wall cabinet to any space, you immediately add extra space to that room. By doing this, you will be able to make use of every inch of the bathroom space. This is ideal if you have a small bathroom. Once you find the right wall cabinet, you will have different compartments to store a variety of bathroom items. This will automatically help you in maintaining an organized look.
If you have a small bathroom, you can have storage towers installed in the bathroom. A good storage tower will add extra towel space, and at the same time add visual interest to the neutral bathroom.
This is another ideal storage solution for nay room. This is a great option, if you are looking to change the design of the bathroom. A good storage ladder will have different items at each level. If you are still designing the bathroom, you can paint the ladder a color that will match the rest of the house.
Another option for anyone looking to maximize on bathroom space, is using bathroom baskets. Vintage baskets are ideal to keep bathroom items such as toiletries and accessories.
If you have a very small bathroom and also don't have room for storage containers, you can easily use the space between the sink. By covering the area beneath the sink with a skirt, you will be able to create a space, which also adds visual aspects to the bathroom.
If you are looking not to spend much, you can decide to use affordable crates, which can be bought form a craft store. You can decorate the crates in a way that they will match the décor of your bathroom.
These are a few ideas when it comes to bathroom storage solutions.


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You may be able to deduct some or all of your contributions to a traditional IRA. You may also be eligible for a tax credit equal to a percentage of your contribution. Amounts in your traditional IRA, including earnings, generally are not taxed until distributed to you. IRAs cannot be owned jointly. However, any amounts remaining in your IRA upon your death will be paid to your beneficiary or beneficiaries.
To contribute to a traditional IRA, you must be under age 70½ at the end of the tax year. You, and/or your spouse if you file a joint return, must have taxable compensation, such as wages, salaries, commissions, tips, bonuses, or net income from self-employment. Taxable alimony and separate maintenance payments received by an individual are treated as compensation for IRA purposes. Compensation does not include earnings and profits from property, such as rental income, interest and dividend income, or any amount received as pension or annuity income, or as deferred compensation.
Distributions from a traditional IRA are fully or partially taxable in the year of distribution. If you made only deductible contributions, distributions are fully taxable. Distributions made prior to age 59½ may be subject to an additional 10% tax. You may also owe an excise tax if you do not begin to withdraw minimum distributions by April 1 of the year after you reach age 70½.
A Roth IRA differs from a traditional IRA in several respects. Contributions to a Roth IRA are not deductible (and you do not report the contributions on your tax return), but qualified distributions or distributions that are a return of contributions are not subject to tax. In addition, you do not have to be under age 70½ to contribute to a Roth IRA. To be a Roth IRA, the account or annuity must be designated as a Roth IRA when it is set up.


7pm, Monday, January 25, 2016, at the historic Belvidere Mansion.
There is a lot on the program. Meet our new RCHS Executive Board Officers.
Find out all the wonderful fun raising events the historical society has planned for spring.
Meet the guest speaker, Cherie Lawson, who will share with you her expertise in how to identify your ancestors in vintage family photos.
There will also be a very special surprise.


The top twelve for 2010, arranged in categories of monochrome and color, pretty much without further commentary. This marks the 5th edition of the Top Twelve. Previous year's: iv, iii, ii, i.
monochrome: ducks in the mist, arabia mountain, dekalb county parks, georgia.


text:
Q: Erro em função de atualização no Python Eu estou desenvolvendo um arquivo install.py que servirá como alternativa para instalar e criar executável de qq programa de forma simples e facil. Estou com dificuldade na função de atualização, eu chego a baixar a atualização do git mas não consigo copiar/mover para a pasta principal, os arquivos por algum motivo que desconheço, passam a serem restritos e também tornam-se executáveis. Funciona no Python2 e Python3, estou usando Linux para os testes.
Segue minha tentativa, dicas e aprimoramentos também são bem vindas:
def checkVersions():
    cv = getCurrentVersion() #Função que apenas retorna a versão instalada
    lv = checkLastVersion() #Função que apenas retorna a versão do git
    root = getPath() #Retorna o caminho até a pasta atual
    if (cv < lv):
        print ('Você tem a versão ' + str(cv) + ', enquanto a mais recente é a versão ' + str(lv) + '.')
        resp = input('Há uma versão mais recente desse aplicativo, deseja atualizar?(s/n)\n')
        if (resp == 'n'):
            pass
        elif (resp == 's'):
            import subprocess
            print('Atualizando para versão ' + str(lv) + '...')

            try:
                proc = subprocess.Popen(['git','--version'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
                print(proc.stdout.readlines())
            except OSError as error:
                print (error)
                print ('Git não instalado, deseja instalar para atualizar?(s/n)')
                if (resp == 'n'):
                    print ('Atualização cancelada.')
                    return
                elif (resp == 's'):
                    os.system('sudo apt-get install git')
                else:
                    print ('Opção invalida, atualização negada.')
                    return

            currentFolder = '/'.join(getPath().split('/')[:-1])
            os.chdir(currentFolder)

            os.mkdir(Repo + '-tmp')

            currentFolder = currentFolder + '/' + Repo + '-tmp'
            os.chdir(currentFolder)

            os.system("git clone https://github.com/{user}/{repo}.git".format(user = User, repo = Repo))

            tmpFolder = currentFolder + '/' + Repo + '/'

            print ('Copiando os novos arquivos...')
            # O Problema está dentro desse try
            try:
                for files in os.listdir(root):
                    if os.path.isfile(files):
                        if files != 'install.py':
                            os.system('sudo rm -f ' + root + '/' + files)
                #           os.remove(files)
                    else:
                        os.system('sudo rm -rf ' + root + '/' + files)
                #       rmtree(files)

                for files in os.listdir(tmpFolder):
                    src = os.path.join(tmpFolder, files)
                    dst = os.path.join(root, files)
                    if os.path.isfile(files):
                        if files != 'install.py':
                            copy2(src, dst)
                    else:
                        copyFolder(tmpFolder, root)

                changePerm(root)

            except OSError as error:
                os.chdir(root)
                os.system('sudo rm -rf ' + currentFolder)
                print (error)
                print ('Erro ao atualizar')
                return

            os.chdir(root)
            os.system('sudo rm -rf ' + currentFolder)
            print('Atualização para versão ' + str(lv) + ' concluida!')
        else:
            print('Resposta inválida...')
            checkVersions()

Funções complementares:
def copyFolder(src, dst, symlinks=False, ignore=None):
    for item in os.listdir(src):
        s = os.path.join(src, item)
        d = os.path.join(dst, item)
        if os.path.isdir(s):
            copytree(s, d, symlinks, ignore)
        else:
            if item != 'install.py':
                copy2(s, d)

def changePerm(path):
    os.chdir(path)
    for r, d, f in os.walk(path):
        os.chmod(r, 0o777)


"...yet Maine's test scores have dropped."
May we please have the source for this data? What tests and what time frame?
"Maine's student-to-teacher ratio is about 11-to-1 while the ratio in similarly rural states is about 14-to-1, yet all those peer states have better student test scores than Maine."
...A source for this too, please. If this comparison is based only on mean SAT scores, it's a corrosive misrepresentation, as Maine is the only state in which every student must take the SAT as opposed to only those applying to college. It's wrong to skew statistics intentionally to advance an agenda. Fortunately, it should be a relatively direct matter for the Telegram to publish either a reference confirming the assertion or a correction if it proves to be unfounded.
Thanks, Tony. That's very helpful. I'll check out the report. I was just remembering Flanagan's similar claims on these pages on Feb 22 in which he used the specious comparison with the SATs.
Don't get me wrong. I take seriously the need to improve Maine's schools. But too many people try to make the slam-dunk case that Maine schools are both expensive and poor performing. The truth is that Maine schools perform fairly decently in comparison to states with similar incomes and it costs more per pupil to deliver an above-average education equitably in a state with lower population density. While they could and always should be better, Maine schools do pretty well. Advocates of many different political stripes want to claim otherwise to undermine the current project of public education in favor of their own particular reform agenda.
Okay, I've looked at both Flanagan's report and the source data.
First, on page three of Flanagan's slide presentation he DOES indeed make the specious and unwarranted comparison between Maine's SAT scores and the national mean without any acknowledgment that they represent different pools of test takers. This is either ignorant or deliberately misleading.
Second, Maine's scaled scores in the NAEP math exams actually ROSE during your cited interval. In 1996, Maine's 8th grade math score was 284. In 2007, it was 286.
Here is the real picture: From 1992 to 2009, Maine's 8th grade NAEP scores in math increased from 279 to 286 while, at the same time, the national average increased from 267 to 282.
More importantly, during thie period, math proficiency in Maine steadily increased at all achievement levels.
Of course we should always be working to improve Maine's schools. But readers should also recognize that those who are apparently misrepresenting these numbers are likely to be doing so for their own reasons.
I see your correspondent down on MDI questions the analysis I made in February.
1. TEST SCORES. He challenges the use of SATs because we have a larger pool due to their use as an over all outcomes test by MDOE. In my remarks, I took care to note that we were doing OK...better than average, but declining by some key measurements. I noted Dr. Silvernail's concern that "we lag national averages in SAT test scores in key areas by 30 to 40 points," but did not rely on that unfortunate fact as the exclusive basis for concern our results were slipping. If that were the only data point, he might have an issue.
But I took pains to use several troubling statistics, most of which Mr. Hubbell does not appear to contest. And while he finds some comfort in the overall rise in NAEP math scores (though significantly lagging national increases) he fails to acknowledge that by our most recent measurements, which compares us only to NH, Vt and RI, we lag our 2 neighbors who score 66% in math proficiency to our 61%, and that our relative performance in math has apparently fallen from 1st to 24th. I think that bolsters, and does not detract, from my concern that we are slipping compared to other states, notwithstanding the modest absolute increase suggested.
It is both regrettable and perhaps cynical that Maine keeps changing the standards by which it compares itself to other states, making year to year and state to state comparisons increasingly difficult. Perhaps our officials imagine that no one is interested in how our students do compared to their peers elsewhere.
2. STUDENT TEACHER RATIOS. Your inquirer asked for a source on this ratio, and I assume was satisfied with the citation to the CQ results. We get to be tenth highest in costs per student, 25% higher than the national average, because of the student/ teacher, student/employee and special ed costs. If he needs any more info on any of these ratios I'd be happy to supply it.
3. RELEVANCE OF POPULATION DENSITY. Your correspondent suggests our costs per student are higher because of our relatively sparse population density, without citation to any supporting analysis. In fact, as you know, we rank 38th among the states in population density, at 42 per square mile. But even that figure is misleading, as the 12 million acres in the Unorganized Territory have virtually no human population, so the density in the organized part of the state is actually considerably greater. But even so,of the 12 states less densely populated than Maine, taking into account every acre, EVERY ONE spend less than Maine per student, suggesting there are efficiencies we are missing.
well equipped to earn a living and become good citizens, and at a cost that is comparable with their peers in other states. I also recommended using tax dollars to ease the transition for teachers and other school employees from the current system to a more effective one. But I have no ideological commitment to what that new model might look like, other than an interest in shaping the curriculum to help students prepare for the jobs likely to be available in the American economy in the decades to come.
Your correspondent said he'd publish, somewhere, any comments he received from us to the extent we wanted. I'd be happy to see any of my points in print in any forum, and pleased to provide any of the supporting documentation underlying my analysis to anyone interested.
Thank you, David, for your reply. I am still interested in the basis of the assertion that Tony made in yesterday's Op-Ed that states with a population density similar to Maine have not only higher pupil teacher ratios (and therefore lower per-pupil costs) but also higher test scores.
Below is a table of the ten states which Ed Week rated the highest in achievement for 2009. One might always quibble about the exact ranking, but I don't think anyone would dispute that these are the states whose performance Maine should be emulating.
Only three of these states -- VT, NH, and MN -- are similar in population density. Vermont, which is most similar, actually spends more than Maine to get its top-shelf test results. New Hampshire's spending and performance is nearly identical. Only Minnesota, with a much higher overall population and a bit more wealth, manages to achieve similar results at a lower per pupil cost.
It's easy to find rural states that spend less per pupil than Maine -- Mr Flanagan lists Oregon, Kansas, Utah, Nebraska, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska. But he fails to close the loop with associating these states and their relatively poor school performance.
The only responsible conclusion is that, to compete with Massachusetts and Virginia, it costs more per pupil to give a child in Jackman, Cherryfield, or New Sweden the same educational opportunity as a child in Falmouth, Bangor, and Cape Elizabeth.
Given the war of scores shown here, I trust everyone can agree that linking teacher evaluations with student test results should still be a ways off for Maine. Although student learning is the primary goal for schools and teachers, student "achievement" is another matter entirely.
There needs to be a common understanding (preferably agreement) on what's truly important and how that will be measured OR a common understanding what's going to be measured, which is not inherently the same thing as what's important. And, as is clearly shown by the virtual dialogue among Mr. Hubbell, Mr. Payne and Mr. Flanagan, neither scenario has yet occurred.


Coconut Oil for Dogs? You Betcha!
Do you have coconut oil in your pup's first aid kit? How about your own first aid kit? I just found this great, short post from Care2.com about the health benefits of coconut oil and many of these are dog-friendly!
Here are four dog-friendly reasons to keep coconut oil around for your pet (and yourself).
Digestion: The saturated fats in coconut oil have anti-bacterial properties that help control, parasites, and fungi that cause indigestion and other digestion related problems such as irritable bowel syndrome. The fat in coconut oil also aids in the absorption of vitamins, minerals and amino acids, making you healthier all around.
Fitness: Coconut oil has been proven to stimulate your metabolism, improve thyroid function, and escalate energy levels, all of which help decrease your unwanted fat, while increasing muscle. Because of this, coconut oil has shot to popularity by being the world's only natural low-calorie fat.
Skin Care: Wanna look like you just came back from an hour of yoga? Coconut oil works wonders as a moisturizer for all skin types, especially dry skin and aging skin, leaving you refreshed and looking wide-awake. No headstand required! The fat in the oil helps reduce the appearance of wrinkles without any irritation. Coconut oil can also help with skin problems like psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin conditions. In fact, the oil is frequently used in expensive skin care products.
Four dog-friendly uses for coconut oil taken from article on Care2.com.


text:
Home News Dubai's The Junction Theatre Back In Business
Dubai's The Junction Theatre Back In Business
'The Hot Fries' featuring Salman Qureshi, Rushdi Rafeek, Osman Rohail and Alina Islam
Dubai is getting back to business – or at least the live entertainment business. Forget Zoom calls or other device-based connections. After a four-month hiatus, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, artistes across the emirates are heading back to the stage.
This weekend, The Junction reopens its doors with a steady stream of treats that will have you in fits of giggles. Here's what's on the menu.
The Junction, Al Serkal
The line-uo kicks off July 16 with 'The Hot Fries'. A line-up of stand-up and improvisational comedy that features comics such as Salman Qureshi, Rushdi Rafeek, Osman Rohail and Alina Islam. "The night will be interesting because it's a blend of formats and our sole aim is to have you laughing hard by any means necessary. As comics, we've missed the laughter and there will be a lot of pent up energy that will be unleashed," says Qureshi.
The Artistic Director and Co-Founder of The Junction, Gautam Goenka said, "We are really grateful to the support by DSS and the government of the UAE in helping us open the doors of The Junction once again. All necessary measures are in place for the shows. Therefore, we are only opening to 30 per cent of the capacity of the theatre. The audience will have to follow social distancing rules and wear their masks at all times."
The Junction, Al Serkal Avenue reopens on Thursday, July 16, in association with Dubai Summer Surprises and BookMyShow. Tickets start at Dh50.
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The ScalaKnol series attempts to share a nugget of Scala wisdom every few days or sometimes few times a day. Keep tuned. Today we would look at the Uniform Access Principle.
The principle states that the client code or the calling code should not be affected by the decision to implement an attribute as a field or a method. Hence essentially irrespective of whether the attribute is defined with a val or a def, the calling client should be agnostic of the same.
If you notice, we did not change the client / calling code even though we changed the attribute from val to def. This is the Uniform Access Principle which Scala supports. Java on the other hand does not support this principle. If you recall, in Java we have array.length. Now string is also an array but for String we have to write string.length() because it is a method and not a field.
Great article, but please add "M" to the higher paying initials ;)! I think it's fair to give a tip of the hat to Bertrand Meyer here, who already advocated for the UAP in his book (Object Oriented Software Construction) in the 80ies. This topic, and Meyer's treatment of Abstract Data Types are really worth a read.
There are some less defensible positions in Meyer's book as well, e.g. arguing for mutating setters (which weakens the UAP — what if an "assignment" fails?), and for covariant _parameter_ types in overridden methods (the first edition was released before Barbara Liskov's eponymous principle), but I think that makes for an even more interesting read ;).


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Cialis VTR > Blog > Services > Online Services > Time for a worldwide tax internet for the net
Time for a worldwide tax internet for the net
At the G20 assembly of finance ministers and the critical financial institution, governors held remaining week in Fukuoka, Japan, India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman did nicely to assist the extensive idea of a virtual provider tax levied on worldwide online companies that would be shared by way of numerous countries in some share. Details of the thought are sketchy, but if it's miles standard, it would suggest that digital money-generators together with Facebook and Google will pay India a few taxes, regardless of whether or not or now not they're integrated here and record nearby income.
Though the United States staunchly opposes it, for the reason that maximum of the arena's tech majors is situated there, different nations such as Japan, the United Kingdom, and France also are in favor of working out a international deal that could permit the rest of the arena to get a "truthful proportion" of taxes. After all, a huge percentage of the net person base on which they thrive is positioned in countries that get really not anything from their business fulfillment.
Admittedly, the worldwide virtual financial system is not easy to pin down from a taxation attitude. For maximum normal agencies, the regulations of tax jurisdiction are clear. Local transactions which are fully done in the united states can be tracked and taxed. But an awful lot slips thru the taxation net. Business models for online establishments are complex, often mirroring media vehicles that rely upon sales not from their users but also from advertisers who need to reach their customers. So if cash is made on advertising and marketing aimed at an internet target audience that spans multiple borders, as an instance, it receives away while not having to pay taxes in a maximum of the nations that make up that target group.
There are different factors of value advent that can be hard to display as properly, specifically those springing up from algorithms and consumer records. Large troves of statistics can be monetized in diverse methods. Local informational "assets" have made many corporations wealthy. That they owe us something back is at the core of the argument for casting an extensive tax internet throughout the internet. The large question is: How to do it?
It turned into the European Union that first floated the concept of a shared virtual provider tax (DST). Its rationale changed to establish a not unusual machine for the taxation of online services.
Under it, any firm installation in a member country providing digital offerings in different EU states would pay a 3% DST in every member nation in which revenue is generated. That it did now not get off the ground is an indication of ways tough achieving a consensus on such matters is. On India's part, the government's 2016 advent of a 6% equalization levy turned into taxing advertisements placed by using Indian entities on worldwide social media systems. Today, all industrial entities with a "considerable financial presence" in India are predicted to contribute to u . S. A .'s coffers.
If best paltry sums had been mopped up this way, it's but a reminder of ways tough the enforcement assignment is. International corporations that follow overseas reporting guidelines aren't usually required to provide revenue and income breakups country by way of u. S. A .; this complicates tax evaluation efforts. The tough fact is that online businesses are based on approaches that go beyond countrywide obstacles. Tax-haven purchasing is commonplace, too. Unless there may be worldwide cooperation on instituting an international tax-sharing device for online corporations, this is appropriate to all; little development at the concept may be anticipated. Yet, we have to give up no longer.
Gogoi has also advised the prime minister to make tenure appointments of retired apex court judges and high court docket judges below Articles 128 and 224A of the Constitution, respectively, to clear the backlog of cases pending for years. The CJI, who wrote three letters to the PM, stated a pendency of 58,669 cases inside the pinnacle courtroom. The quantity changed to increase because of submitting greater sparkling instances. Due to the paucity of judges, the desired wide variety of Constitution benches to decide important instances concerning questions of regulation have been now not being formed, the CJI said.
You could keep in mind that way again in 1988, approximately 3 many years in the past, the judicial power of the SC becomes accelerated from 18 to 26. Then again after decades in 2009, it became increased to 31, together with the CJI, to expedite disposal of cases to keep tempo with the charge of the institution," he wrote. I request you to kindly do not forget, on pinnacle precedence, to reinforce the choose-energy inside the SC appropriately so that it could function more correctly and efficiently because it will go a long way to obtain the remaining goal of rendering well-timed justice to the litigant public," Gogoi wrote.
He said that even though the feeder cadre of chief justice and judges of the high courts has multiplied the beyond, the electricity has now not been improved proportionally within the pinnacle court. In his 2nd letter, the CJI entreated Modi to consider bringing a constitutional amendment to boom the retirement age of excessive court judges from 62 to sixty-five years. One of the top motives why we aren't capable of include the ever-developing pendency is the scarcity of HC judges.
At gift, 399 posts, or 37 percent of sanctioned decide-power, are vacant. The existing vacancies want to be stuffed straight away. However, despite fine efforts installed by using all stakeholders, it has now not been viable to appoint judges to deliver the working choose-strength anywhere close to the sanctioned judge-electricity," Gogoi wrote. The CJI additionally wrote that the retirement age of high court docket judges must be raised by using three years to sixty-five years.
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Less frequently, we catch a dialogue between two Barred owls, sounding more like a loud gang of crazed chimpanzees than a couple of birds. The strange, hilarious caterwauling lasts for a quarter hour or more, rising and falling in pitch, speed and volume. At those times, it's best to give up any hope of sleep and just enjoy the broadcast.
But we don't see these large birds very often, and when we do, it's usually at a distance. During one week this past summer, though, we had some very close views when one visited our place, drawn by the prospect of tasty songbird nestlings.
We might have missed seeing the owl, but the prolonged robin ruckus gave it away. Their loud alarm calls indicated a predator was about, but what, and where? I went to investigate, expecting to shoo away a neighbour's cat, but half way across the little bridge over our pond I came to a sudden stop. Almost within arm's reach, on the lowest limb of the willow, sat the source of robin angst: about two feet (60 cm) in height, silent, still, and eyeing me with no apparent concern.
I'm not sure how the battle ended that day, as eventually I had to get on with my to-do list. But three more times that week, a similar robin ruckus led me to the owl: in the willow again, then in a nearby Douglas fir, and finally on a branch of the Bigleaf maple that overhangs our patio.
We were glad when the big bird finally moved on. Peace reigned again in our little robin kingdom, and those gawky fledglings could get on with the vital business of learning to fly.
Here's a link to the amazing caterwauling and other sounds that Barred owls make (from Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Enjoy!
Posted by Laurie MacBride, Eye on Environment on December 15, 2013 in Animals & Wildlife, Birds and tagged animal behavior, baby birds, feathers, nature, owls, photos, predators, summer.
Oh Laurie, what a great photograph! I just LOVE owls, even though they do have a bit of a darker side due to the role they play in nature. This is such a terrific shot, great details here my friend!
Thanks, Toad! The owl was a good portrait subject for sure – no fear of me and not in any hurry to leave. Best of the season and a happy new year to you and Mrs. Toad!
Amazing capture of that beautiful (but deadly) owl. Had to laugh at that brave robin and the image of him kicking the owl in the head. Great story, Laurie. Glad you saw the owl but that he has moved on and peace reigns again!
Thanks Sherry. I only wish I could have managed to get some photos of the robins in action, especially that kick! Alas, I was hand holding my camera, and my lens is a slow one. The owl, by contrast, was easy to photograph, since it remained so still!
I wish I had taken that photo!
Well captured as always Laurie!
Thanks Susan! The owl was indeed very beautiful, despite its deadliness.


Remember a couple weeks ago I was talking about the creative person who changes his/her style and cannot please everyone in the process? I said it is no one's business but your own how you paint, what you paint, and what direction your unique evolutionary process takes you. OK that is a given. But some of us do it a little differently, so it's no wonder the innocent viewer is confused. This "being a creative artist", meaning any kind of creative person at all, is multi-faceted, and it not only goes deep, it goes very wide, and then it goes deeper again. If you were fracking for the good stuff, the core, the gem of being an artist, you'd have to go in from the side as well as going deep. Very seldom do you get a gusher, and rarely when you do, it is not just about the art. There is just so much else down there….
So – your evolution within your creativity is your journey – your adventure – and no one else will ever truly grasp your struggle with it. Some people follow a straight path, sensible and logical, one style morphing slowly into another, evolving sanely; others do not. They take the broken road. Being an artist, writer, musician (such as the ones who are in the symphony orchestra but play rock & roll for fun), of many styles, all running consecutively throughout your career is insanely different and only once in a great while at some special intersection does it feel the same as those who go in the straight line. You do move forward, but in a more exhaustive frenetic pace. I guess you could put it this way – you are evolving as an artist just fine, thank you very much, but in so many arenas that you jump from one arena to the other as they all race along neck to neck in a parallel line, often changing lanes in the same day, because you could not possibly live long enough to wait until one style runs its course before you start on another. You are too impatient for that! You need to be trying out lots of ideas at once to see which one sticks and becomes the money -maker or the emotional shaker. You are a three-ring circus, a one-man band, or in the extreme a psycho artist with your hair on fire. I actually think many fine artists of the painting variety do this, and they are on fire in a good way. If you can manage the chaos it works to your advantage since one style or avenue of creativity feeds on the other, and is enhanced by the proximity of all the other creative outlets you are pursuing. So you multi-task and you get more done than if you did not. That is the fun part.
Oh but wait…painting the canvas is only one component of the puzzle. There is still much to be done after you have dripped blood onto a canvas and bled out, giving it all you've got. The rest is all done behind the scenes in the third world sweat shop studio where YOU are the one working 24/7 with no days off. After the styles and the choices and the evolution and the actual work all fall into place, then the real work begins. Unless you have hit it so big that you can pay $$$ to have the drudgery contracted out to about a half-dozen other worker-bees, you must do it yourself in your "off hours" from painting.
For instance, if you are an artist who is also a talented writer, those gifts combined feed the way you execute and explain your art, both verbally and in print. You will need to write a distinctive Bio, an Artist's Statement, a resume, as well as keeping a detailed inventory of your work. If you are also a photographer, you can learn to correctly photograph your own art, saving hundreds of dollars and a boatload of time. If you are a computer wiz you can edit your photos and arrange them with text in your portfolio, after sizing them, cropping them, making color corrections and adjusting them for accurate brightness and contrast. If your work requires framing, well then frame it yourself or allow an enormous amount of money to have a professional do it – and allow plenty of time for that to happen. Weeks and weeks sometimes. If you understand the basics of sales and distribution, then you have a head start toward marketing your own art, or supervising the sales rep you pay $$$ to research galleries and sort through possible "good fit" retail and wholesale representation in your behalf. If you have an eye for display, you can offer an educated suggestion for how your work should be shown in a gallery situation where it must flow seamlessly from image to image. And last but not least, if you are a people person and you can bring a congenial first impression and a quality conversation under pressure, remembering names and faces and leaving a lasting impression, well then you have what it takes to be a success. Tired yet?
If your answer is YES, then move on, and do it well.
This entry was posted in art, creativity, door to our minds, painting vs writing, success and tagged Art, Lifestyle, multi-tasking with talent, Photography, the life of an artist. Bookmark the permalink.
SO well said! I have to say this is one gorgeous painting and you ARE one of those rare souls who have the ability to do it all; you live and you breathe creativity. I do think you place your very life force into your art but in doing so you have made the very act of living a work of art.
WOW you are just too kind. Talk about throwing a life force into your work…uh….takes one to know one! You are a force of nature with YOUR hair on fire.
Your energy is amazing! As is your art!


Even we know all these things, the biggest reason for not being popularized in the long run is that products are not diverse. Industrial robots have very high entry barriers for manufacturing, and products from a small number of robot companies with similar performance and price are leading the market. Similarly, very few people drive expensive sports cars, and most people drive small cars. Thus, not every robot you use needs to be an expensive robot with the best performance. High cost-effectiveness robots that can be used by more people are now very necessary.
The industry have grown by humans at a very rapid rate, but at the same time they have damaged nature, and they are going back to our descendants. Mint Robot, as its name suggests, takes the rewards of Mother Nature, which will enable us to stand and breathe, we accept it as our social responsibility, and we make great efforts to do it. Now, all paper-related forms and packages use certified eco-friendly products and use materials that can be recycled as much as possible.
Starting with these small efforts, we will gradually develop technology that can coexist with humans and the earth, and we believe that our efforts will enable us to deliver a better future to our descendants.


Apple® redefined pro computing with the launch of the all-new Mac Pro®. Designed around an innovative unified thermal core, the Mac Pro features the latest Intel Xeon processors with up to 12 cores, dual workstation-class GPUs, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory. Packing amazing performance in a stunning new design, the all-new Mac Pro starts at $2,999 (US) and will be available in December.


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WiLAN's North Star and Smart Wearable Campaigns Steadily Grow
Wi-LAN Inc. (WiLAN) subs North Star Innovations Inc. and Smart Wearable Technologies Inc. continue to add new defendants to their respective campaigns. On November 14, North Star filed suit against Integrated Device Technology (IDT) (8:16-cv-02055 ), accusing the company of infringing a group of patents acquired from Freescale. The accused products include various semiconductor memory devices. Also on November 14, Smart Wearable Technologies sued Fitbit (3:16-cv-00077) over a former Barron Associates patent. These latest suits follow WiLAN's recent announcement of disappointing Q3 earnings.
North Star's complaint against IDT asserts three patents, all of which the NPE has previously litigated: 5,781,480 (asserted against Cypress Semiconductor in May); 6,093,972 (asserted against Advanced Semiconductor Engineering and Texas Instruments in October); and 6,465,743 (asserted against Texas Instruments last month). The patents issued to Motorola between 1998 and 2002, with estimated priority ranging between 1994 and 1998, and were transferred to North Star in an October 2015 deal with Freescale that reportedly involved over 3,300 patents.
To date, North Star has sued more than 25 companies over patents acquired from Freescale. Defendants include makers of mobile devices and e-readers (Amazon, HTC, Sony), cameras (Canon, GoPro, Nikon), and televisions (Sharp); videoconferencing companies (Polycom and Vidyo); and manufacturers of semiconductors and memory chips (Cypress Semiconductor, UMC, Xilinx). For an assessment of the NPE's largest litigation campaign, see RPX Insight.
Smart Wearable's suit against Fitbit, its first new case since launching its campaign in July, asserts a patent (6,997,882) generally related to monitoring a subject based on physiological and six degree-of-freedom ("6-DOF") data. The '882 patent issued in February 2006 to Barron Associates, comprises a single-member family, and has an estimated priority date in December 2001. RPX has published a prior art search report concerning the patent, a copy of which can be accessed here.
As in Smart Wearable's suits against ASUS, Microsoft, TCL, and Tom Tom, all filed in July 2016, the NPE accuses Fitbit of infringement through provision of fitness trackers. While Smart Wearable's case against TCL appears to be winding down—the parties recently moved for a stay to allow time to finalize a settlement agreement—ASUS and Microsoft have each filed Rule 12 (b)(6) motions to dismiss (neither of which have yet been heard), and the case against TomTom is open in initial pleadings.
On November 3, WiLAN announced its Q3 2016 earnings, reporting lower revenue and net income compared to the same quarter last year. For details, see "Acacia's Revenue Soars, and WiLAN's Slumps, in Q3 2016" (November 2016). RPX periodically reports on the performance and activities of publicly traded NPEs, including WiLAN. The company's most recent Public PAE Report, covering Q2 2016, can be accessed here.


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BBC NEWS | South Asia | Sri Lanka - talks or war?
Sri Lanka - talks or war?
Sri Lanka is either on the brink of conflict or on the way to Geneva for another round of talks to resolve its civil war.
No one knows for sure yet which way it is heading. There are optimists here who say there is a possibility talks will go ahead - but they are hard to find.
An initial round of negotiations in Geneva in February was meant to halt the escalating violence that marked December and January.
The talks were significant because it was the first time the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels had met since the peace process stalled in 2003.
They were aimed at strengthening a fragile four-year-old ceasefire.
The talks scheduled for 24 April were meant to be about how that implementation has worked.
However, in the past week more than 60 people have been killed in daily attacks.
The military are being targeted but last Wednesday for the first time we saw civilians being attacked.
A market bomb in the eastern town of Trincomalee killed 16 people.
The government blames the Tigers; the Tigers issue their standard denial. Few here believe them.
The bombing led to communal violence, Tamil homes burnt by Sinhala extremist mobs.
Some 200 people have now left their homes and are sheltering in schools and churches.
There have also been incidents of abductions and disappearances of Tamils continuing in the north in government-controlled areas.
It is hard to see how exactly, if the talks do go ahead, they can talk about implementation of the ceasefire since February given this escalation.
They will be starting from square one, trying to secure guarantees just to keep the situation in a holding pattern of relative peace.
On paper this truce is in place, on the ground it is a different story.
However contemplating the island without a ceasefire is worrying.
"At least now there's the international truce observers, the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission," says Rohan Edirisingha of the Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank in Colombo.
"Without a ceasefire, however ragged, the situation would be worse, it would be no holds barred."
The ostensible reason for the talks being in limbo is the insistence of the leadership of the Tigers in the north of the island to first meet their commanders in the east, which involves crossing government-controlled territory.
They have said they will not go to Geneva until they have met their regional leaders.
Transportation issues have stalled this movement. International efforts are trying to resolve them.
However, among analysts and the international community here there is a deep scepticism that this is the only reason.
The Tigers are known for using brinkmanship to try to push the other side into concessions.
Some here see the transportation issue being used as a delaying tactic to avoid going to Geneva.
The Tigers have a de-facto state now, albeit one that is divided. Any settlement based on granting them autonomy in areas they control now might seal those borders forever, quashing their dreams of a united, and also larger, independent homeland.
The violence blamed on the Tigers is perceived as a strategy to force the government's hand.
No one believes either side wants a return to all-out war.
The government cannot afford it, although there is speculation that elements within the administration believe the army could militarily defeat the Tigers and perhaps war would provide a final resolution.
The Tamil Tigers may push but the thinking is that an all-out conflict would not suit their purposes.
The break-away rebel faction led by Colonel Karuna, which left the Tigers in March 2004, has been a constant thorn in their side.
It has undermined their power base in the east and their claim to be the sole representatives of the Tamil people.
The Tigers accuse the government of allowing Karuna's faction to operate in the government-controlled areas and provide them with support.
This is a claim the government denies, but again few here believe that denial. This is seen as the crux of the real issue.
Diplomats and analysts say that as far as the Tigers are concerned, until there is visible action against the Karuna group they are reluctant to move forward within talks.
However working on the philosophy, my enemy's enemy is my friend, analysts say it would be foolhardy for the government to take any action against Karuna.
So Sri Lanka carries on with neither peace nor war.
Talks can at least open the way for dialogue and keep a shaky ceasefire in place, but ultimate stability rests with a belief that both sides really want it.


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Babylonia areolata is een slakkensoort uit de familie van de Babyloniidae. De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1807 door Link.

Babyloniidae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia