text:
Tax-funded VOA posts more one-sided attacks on Trump
BBG - USAGM Watch > Featured News > Tax-funded VOA posts more one-sided attacks on Trump
BBGWatcher March 3, 2017
Featured News, Hot Tub Blog, Trump Hit Piece, VOA Charter
Barack Obama, BBG, bias, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, journalism, Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Thurgood Marshall, VOA, VOA Charter, VOA Newsroom
BBG Watch Commentary
There have been more one-sided attacks on President Trump in recent Voice of America (VOA) news reports which extensively quote Trump's critics without anyone from the administration or among Trump's supporters being given an opportunity of responding and providing in these VOA news reports a counterbalancing defense of him as a person and defense of his policies. Two former VOA directors who had served during Republican administrations have criticized in recent op-eds, one of them published by The Wall Street Journal, the one-sided partisanship and lack of balance in the current VOA program content.
VOA is funded by all U.S. taxpayers. This is what a journalist, one of Bernie Sanders' supporters, observed when during the 2016 U.S. primaries campaign some VOA editors, reporters and commentators were already electioneering for Hillary Clinton and posted an anti-Sanders hit piece in violation of the VOA Charter:
"As broad as that mandate [VOA Charter] may seem, electioneering and hit pieces on US citizens obviously fall outside those parameters. VOA does not have the right to advocate for a particular candidate or even to attack one. That is not within its charter, nor should any US citizen have to subsidize their own defamation."
The journalist writing for the Shadowproof liberal website referred to U.S. tax-funded Voice of America, which is staffed by reporters who are federal government employees, collect federal salaries and benefits, and are managed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a federal agency, as "state media". He accused the Voice of America of "state media bias." In fact, VOA can conceivably have an effect on U.S. elections, even despite its dismal web traffic and poor audience engagement figures overall. About half of VOA English news web traffic comes from the United States. Immigrant communities in the U.S. could also be influenced by biased VOA reporting paid for by all U.S. taxpayers.
Former Voice of America director David S. Jackson wrote recently in an article in the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy CPD Blog that U.S. taxpayer-funded international media outreach outlet currently managed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) agency ($777 million in FY2017) "constantly violates" its VOA Charter, a law passed by Congress and signed by President Ford in 1976. The VOA Charter requires VOA news to be "accurate," "objective," and "comprehensive" and include a clear explanation of the policies of the United States, as well as balanced opinions about such policies.
During the 2016 presidential primaries and presidential election campaign, VOA had posted many anti-Trump hit pieces, some of them also in foreign languages. VOA management, some editors, and some reporters were so confident of Hillary Clinton's victory that on the election night they had two pre-written "Hillary Wins" programs, and none for Trump. VOA had completely failed to prepare its international audiences for the possibility of Trump's win, just as it fails now to clearly explain his policies.
One recent VOA report created a strong impression with the help of text and images that President Trump might be like Lenin, Stalin and other 20th century mass murderers because he said that biased "Fake Media" is "Enemy of the American people." It was a poorly chosen phrase, but VOA failed to explain that Trump is not about to arrest and execute journalists and murder millions of other Americans and that this is not how the American democracy works whether under Trump or any other U.S. president. The VOA report was relentlessly pushing the Trump dictator and enemy of free media narrative to an audience that has a limited knowledge of America or may already be confused by anti-American propaganda. Later, VOA enthusiastically reported that a dictator in an Asian country mentioned Donald Trump's criticism of the U.S. media to justify a further crackdown on the opposition in his country. What VOA did, however, was to inadvertently issue an indictment of its own work because the dictator cited VOA's own misleading reporting on what President Trump said and what his words might really mean in the context of American democracy — something that VOA has spectacularly failed to explain in its effort to vilify Trump. The Asian dictator was not very bright or he would have asked himself how come VOA reporters who had so courageously presented Trump to the world as the enemy of free media are not themselves immediately facing Mao-like Trump execution squads. That is how misleading and dangerous such VOA reporting is in the international context.
Another recent VOA report sent a strong message that President Trump and his cabinet members are racists who do not believe in equal rights to education, equal rights in general, or in the rule of law. No one was interviewed by Voice of America reporters and given a chance to defend the Trump administration and express views in these same reports that about half of Americans holds without most of them being racists or against legal immigration.
UPDATE: The link to the original Justice Thurgood Marshall no longer works on the Voice of America website after it was exposed by BBG Watch as one-sided and violating the VOA Charter. (The original VOA story text can still be read further in our commentary.) VOA later issued an updated story, which is slightly more balanced but still lacks a full balance and a full presentation of issues from various sides.
Even the corrected VOA report still does mention current African American Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It took VOA three days to make this partial and still unsatisfactory change.
When reading VOA news reports online or viewing VOA broadcasts, international audiences should ask themselves that if Donald Trump is such a racist and villain that some of these VOA reports present him to be, why would millions of Americans, including a surprising number of women, African Americans, Latino Americans and legal immigrants who are citizens voted for this horrible man. Are they all stupid or racists? That is hardly the case.
And if he is such a horrible man, a racist and a danger to humanity, as some VOA programs try to portray him, why would the first African American U.S. President Barack Obama invite him to the White House to visit him and his family?
President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Nov. 10, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Why would now former First Lady Michelle Obama meet with Mrs. Trump if she is married to a racist?
Shouldn't Mr. Trump's immigrant wife immediately divorce the man who was described in one VOA Spanish Service interview as being driven by "hatred and prejudice" toward immigrants? VOA director Amanda Bennett strongly praised this program during the 2016 election campaign and her then email to staff as well as praise of the VOA management team may have opened the door to further violations of the VOA Charter.
Some VOA reporters, not the same as the authors of recent reports discussed here, went even as far as to call Donald Trump an "F-word" (the first in VOA's history) and to make fun of his wife and daughter (again, the first in VOA's 75-year history).
Donald Trump's longstanding record of personal and business stands against racism, discrimination, anti-Semitism, his marriages to immigrants and multi-cultural and multi-religious families, his Jewish son-in-law and grandchildren are almost never mentioned in many of these VOA reports focusing almost entirely on his alleged totalitarian or racist miscreancies, presumably because a more balanced and more sober image of Trump, who admittedly is not perfect, would conflict with the image of Trump as a potential dictator, purveyor of "hate and prejudice" and promoter of racism in America and abroad. In addition to VOA posting one report after another vilifying Donald Trump, a few individual VOA reporters have posted obscene memes and comments about him on their social media pages.
Many of VOA reports read very much like partisan press releases. They violate the VOA Charter and VOA's previous tradition of non-partisanship. Attacking President Trump with one-sided quotes while indirectly comparing him to historical villains such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao — or to highly revered figures such as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall — has become a common technique among some VOA reporters and editors. In either case, Trump is made to look like an absolute villain with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He can't win either way. One expert described these as Satan-Jesus or Hitler-Jesus match-ups, with Hitler being a modern equivalent of Satan. VOA reporters have not actually compared Trump to Satan, Hitler (one VOA reporter posted a Trump meme with a Nazi swastika over his head, and another meme with Trump as a sexual organ — these were not authors of most recent VOA reports discussed in this commentary) or Jesus, but the intent to make Donald Trump look bad without providing any voices in his defense is quite clear.
Senior VOA leaders were repeatedly alerted to these violations of the VOA Charter, which requires balance when someone is attacked. Many VOA reporters are afraid to speak up and be identified as being pro-Trump or being racists, but we were told that senior VOA executives were made aware of the most recent non-VOA Charter compliant use of one-sided interviews. They chose to do nothing even though the VOA Charter is U.S. law because some of these VOA reports are still online without any substantive corrections or additions. In any case, it would be far too late to issue corrections now. The damage has already been done. Some of these most recent VOA reports were written by VOA journalists described as senior reporters, presumably the best the Voice of America has to offer these days.
One such VOA news report, which was posted online on February 28, was not corrected and updated with balancing interviews and quotes as of late afternoon March 3. While ostensibly about former U.S. African-American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, one of the most revered Americans who fought as a lawyer for racial and social justice in the 20th century, the VOA report is mostly an unending, one-sided, unanswered attack on President Trump and his policies.
No one denies that there is racism, discrimination and other social problems in the United States. But it is a long way from Thurgood Marshall to the terrorism travel ban. Nevertheless, the VOA report managed to create a strong link. (If other media did that they might be accused of linking Marshall to terrorism!)
The VOA report is painfully one-sided. There is no mention of the fact that many African Americans and particularly immigrants who have young children are clamoring to get into charter schools and support school choice (including parochial schools and other alternatives to the failing public schools).
As hard as we looked, there is almost zero balance in this VOA report. There is no discussion of illegal immigrants displacing African American and legal immigrant workers. There is no discussion how illegal immigration may harm job opportunities and the standard of living of working class Americans, many of whom voted for Donald Trump. There is no mention either of the current African American Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, who if VOA had interviewed him for this report, would almost certainly disagree with many of the views expressed by Trump's critics quoted in the Voice of America attacks on President Trump. Although former President Obama was mentioned briefly, the report does not note that since the time of Thurgood Marshall serving on the Supreme Court, the United States had its first African American President, the first African American Secretary of State Colin Powell, and the first African American woman as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
What we have in this and some other Voice of America reports is the obvious violation of this critical portion of the VOA Charter: "VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions."
Obviously, partisan views quoted in some of these VOA reports must be reported by VOA. They are American views. Some of these views are being pushed by partisan mainstream media, although often with slightly more balance than in VOA content. They cannot be reported by VOA without any balance, which is often the case these days.
These one-sided VOA reports are an embarrassing indictment of the quality of management at the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Voice of America these days. Even though this is our commentary, for the sake of balance, we will report that BBG CEO John Lansing and VOA Director Amanda Bennett have to say on the subject of respect for the U.S. president and the subject of balance.
John Lansing recently told NPR that "It's our job is to report all sides of a story and we have the greatest respect for whoever is the President, and their point of view is something that's newsworthy and we report that."
Amanda Bennett told Patt Morrison who writes for The Los Angeles Times: "You don't do a story that doesn't show the opposite viewpoint. If you're making a criticism of somebody, you allow the person or the institution you're criticizing to make a comment."
How these BBG and VOA executives can say this and keep a straight face is, however, truly puzzling.
It is puzzling to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents among current and former VOA journalists, some of whom are critics of President Trump but who are writing for BBG Watch not as Democrats or Republicans or Independents but as Americans (including immigrants) because they want to defend non-partisan sober journalism at the Voice of America, want to protect the VOA Charter, and want to preserve taxpayer funding for VOA's still much needed journalistic mission abroad in defense of media freedom.
UPDATE: The link to the original Justice Thurgood Marshall no longer works on the Voice of America website after it was exposed by BBG Watch as one-sided and violating the VOA Charter. (The original VOA story text can still be read below in our commentary.) VOA later issued an updated story, which is slightly more balanced but still lacks a full balance and a full presentation of issues from various sides.
Even the corrected VOA report still does mention current African American Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
It took VOA three days to make this partial and still unsatisfactory change.
Thurgood Marshall Remembered as First African-American Supreme Court Justice, Voice of America, February 28, 2017
[The link to the original VOA story no longer works on the VOA website. After three days without any change, the report was partially corrected but is still one-sided.]
[PHOTO NOT REPOSTED]
FILE – Fifty years ago, Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
It was 50 years ago when Thurgood Marshall was confirmed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court as its 96th justice, and as the court's first African-American justice.
As February's Black History Month comes to a close, District of Columbia Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton said no Supreme Court justice was better prepared than Marshall.
"Certainly none has ever argued a case like Brown v. Board of Education — a 1954 decision that changed the country" by ruling that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, Norton said. As a lawyer, Marshall had argued the case to the high court.
FILE – Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., poses for a photograph in Cannon House Office Building rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 25, 2010.
Norton led a discussion Tuesday here at Howard University School of Law, from which Marshall graduated magna cum laude. She said, "With the current Supreme Court vacancy currently under debate, there is no better time to take a step back and examine the 50-year journey of civil and voting rights."
Racially integrated schools
Danielle Holley-Walker, dean of the Howard law school, said Marshall would want people today to remember why racially integrated schools are so important.
"If we don't have racially integrated schools, we have schools with concentrated poverty, and those schools with concentrated poverty get less resources and have less abilities to bring in teachers who have the ability to really sustain and open up our classrooms," Holley-Walker said.
There is a need to "reaffirm that we value high-quality public schools for all students, regardless of their racial and socio-economic backgrounds," she said, adding that was "one of the major causes of Thurgood Marshall's life and something we need to desperately reclaim."
The country has made progress in racial integration of public schools, but in many other areas, such as criminal justice reform, "we see ourselves in many ways going backwards," Holley-Walker said.
But Todd Cox, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, questioned the commitment of the Trump administration to public schools. New Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has said she supports alternatives to traditional schools.
FILE – President Donald Trump accompanied by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, speaks during a meeting with parents and teachers, Feb. 14, 2017, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.
"We now have a secretary of education whose commitment to education equality and education equity is questionable, not to mention her knowledge of many of the principles of federalism we rely on," Cox said. "The fact that the federal government does have, quite frankly, a role in our educational system was unclear during her confirmation hearing."
He also noted that in the past decades, "We fought very hard to make transformative change in this country, to ensure dignity, racial justice, and now we are in a situation where we are really facing a threat to our democracy from within."
Trump travel ban
Of particular concern to the NAACP, Cox said, is President Donald Trump's executive order that banned refugees and some travel from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Trump cited terrorism concerns as the primary reason he signed the temporary travel ban. But when the executive order was signed at the end of January, it created chaos in airports around the world. Immigration officers were confused as to who could be allowed into the United States and who should be kept out, even though many travelers had visas.
A court order has blocked that order for now. Trump has said he would issue a new, more detailed travel ban soon, possibly this week.
"About 28 percent of American-born Muslims consider themselves black," he said. "We stand with that community, not because they're right on the law to do so, but because this is an important part of our constituency. We can no longer decide that it's us versus them, their rights versus our rights. It turns out that their liberty is our liberty; we're all under attack."
FILE – Muslims and Yemenis gather with supporters on the steps of Brooklyn's Borough Hall during a protest against President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban on citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Feb. 2, 2017.
Cox said people need to be energized and vigilant by making sure "we are fighting hard for the rule of law and to make real and true of what the legacy of Justice Marshall has been and should continue to be: a nation founded on the rule of law, a nation that appreciates and cherishes the diversity that is representative of all its citizens, and [to] make sure that the government is held to account."
Criminal justice reform, police neutrality
Angela Rye, CEO of IMPACT Strategies and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, said, "When I think about honoring Marshall, I think we have to acknowledge where we are, and where we are is in a very tragic space."
People around the country this week remembered Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed black high school student who was shot and killed five years ago by a neighborhood watchman. That man, George Zimmerman, was later acquitted of second-degree murder charges.
Rye reminded the audience that Martin's death, which sparked nationwide protests, was the reason for the founding of #BlackLivesMatter.
"When we think about the many things that [former] President [Barack] Obama did, even if we argue that it wasn't enough to address criminal justice reform or police brutality and excessive violence-related concerns, we realize we have so far to go," she said.
Rye said the African-American community has miles to go when it comes to dealing with voting rights challenges, housing policies designed to keep out African-Americans, and justice-reform initiatives to ensure equal treatment for "black and brown in this country."
END VOA REPORT as copied on March 2, 2017
VOA REPORT ON VOA NEWS WEB PAGE (It may or may not include changes made later.): Thurgood Marshall Remembered as First African-American Supreme Court Justice, Voice of America, February 28, 2017, has been partially corrected after three days online. The original link no longer works.
Trump's Attack on Media as 'Enemy of the People' Has Historic Echoes
Last Updated: February 18, 2017 0:09 AM
[AP PHOTO USED BY VOA NOT REPOSTED HERE]
FILE – President Donald Trump looks at reporters during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Feb. 16, 2017.
President Donald Trump ramped up his criticism of the news coverage of his administration Friday, again taking to his favorite social media platform.
"The FAKE NEWS media," Trump wrote on Twitter, "is the enemy of the American People!"
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
An initial tweet put only The New York Times, CNN and NBC News on his enemies list. That message was quickly deleted, however, and replaced by an almost identical note that added two more domestic television networks: ABC and CBS.
The social media attack, the latest in a long series of Trump broadsides against the news media, came after the president had left Washington for a visit to a Boeing aircraft plant in South Carolina. The president later headed to Florida, where he is to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago complex.
President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up from the top of the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Feb. 17, 2017.
As the president arrived at the estate he has dubbed the Winter White House, social media and the networks crackled with debate about the significance of Trump calling some of the top American journalistic outlets enemies of the people, a phrase that goes back to ancient Rome and was used with chilling finality during the communist revolution in Russia a century ago.
U.S. diplomat recalls 'petty tyrants'
"As an American diplomat, I stood up to petty tyrants who called journalists 'enemies of the people,'" tweeted Tom Malinowski, former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. "Guess that's not our policy anymore."
"It is one of the most controversial phrases in Soviet history," said Mitchell Orenstein, professor of Russian and East European studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
The phrase has its roots in Latin, during the Roman Empire, but "enemies of the people" gained its most notorious associations during the 20th century, during the purges ordered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that killed tens of millions of people.
AP PHOTO USED BY VOA NOT REPOSTED HERE
FILE – Facemasks depicting former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and U.S President-elect Donald Trump hang on sale hours before Trump is to be sworn in as president of the United States, at a souvenir street shop in St. Petersburg, Russia, Jan. 20, 2017.
An "enemy of the people" in the Soviet Union was not necessarily a criminal, but more often someone stigmatized by social origin or pre-revolutionary profession. The label alone was akin to a terminal illness, and merely being a friend of an enemy of the people was a certain cause for official suspicion.
"What it basically meant was a death sentence," Orenstein told VOA.
Some see parallels in history
Stalin's crimes were exposed to the world by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in a shocking speech to the Communist Party Congress in 1956, 61 years ago next Saturday, February 25. The speech, secret at the time, was delivered to a huge audience of communist faithful who heard it in fearful silence, but Khrushchev's words were leaked to Western reporters and broadcast around the world the next day.
FILE – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev addresses a huge rally in the Lenin sports stadium in Moscow, April 10, 1958.
"For both Lenin and Stalin, journalists and intellectuals who didn't share their point of view were among the most hated enemies. In attacking them, both appealed to the people," said Serhiy Yekelchyk, an affiliate associate professor and Soviet studies specialist at the University of Washington.
"I am sure you will see in this description quite a few uncomfortable parallels," Yekelchyk told VOA.
The principal founding father of the Soviet Union, communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, was fond of "the peoples' enemies" as a label, and decades later, China's dictator Mao Zedong denounced as "enemies of the people" those who criticized the Maoist policies and commands that led to the Great Famine and the death of tens of millions of Chinese.
[REUTERS PHOTO USED BY VOA NOT REPOSTED HERE]
FILE – Security cameras in front of the giant portrait of former Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Nov. 11, 2012.
One would hope "American presidents would be educated enough to know something like that," added Orenstein, who teaches one of the few courses on communism at an American university.
Trump defenders: 'Things will adjust'
"He's got his style," Congressman Ted Yoho, a Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on CNN when asked about the provocative "enemy of the people" phrase.
"Things will adjust," Yoho predicted, brushing off the potential volatility of the tweet.
In a dispatch shortly after the second Trump tweet, the French news agency noted that while many U.S. presidents have criticized the press, "Trump's language has more clearly echoed criticism leveled by authoritarian leaders around the world."
Can radical language justify violence?
J.M. Berger, a fellow at the International Center for Counter-Terrorism at The Hague, is among those who agree with that characterization, calling Trump's language "radical."
Some of Trump's supporters on the extremist fringe "may see language like 'enemy of the American people' as ratifying violence," Berger told VOA.
The president's tweets "could also incite others who are inclined toward violence, whether because of a political ideology or mental illness," said Berger, author of several books and studies on extremist group's use of social media.
VOA asked the White House for comment about the tweet, but there was no immediate response.
END VOICE OF AMERICA REPORT
1 to 7 Likes on Facebook Posts from 912K VOA Extremism Followers — Only at USG Tax-Funded Voice of America
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Farid on VOA Persian: The ignorance all paid by your tax dollars at this very sensitive time in Iran is appalling
Respected DC-based Iranian-born American journalist criticized Voice of America Director and VOA Persian coverage of Iran
2016 Vote Alan Heil Amanda Bennett Andy Lack Barack Obama BBG bias Cold War Radio Museum Donald Trump employee morale Facebook fraud Haroon K. Ullah Haroon Ullah Hollywood Howard Fast human rights Hunter Biden Iran Jeff Shell Joe Biden John F. Lansing John Lansing Mahtab Farid Masih Alinejad Myroslava Gongadze Natalia Clarkson NPR propaganda Robert De Niro Russia Sandy Sugawara social media Soviet Union theft Twitter U.S. Congress Ukraine USAGM Vladimir Putin VOA VOA Charter VOA Extremism Desk VOA Extremism Watch VOA Persian


Are new software platforms revving the engine of competency-based blended learning? This week, Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) released a comprehensive summary of Spark, a new platform built by the team at Matchbook Learning to help one of the schools it operates, Merit Prep, realize its goal of supporting blended and competency-based learning. The report looks at how Spark came about and where it may be headed in the coming years. The new tool is certainly exciting in and of itself, but it also reflects broader activity in the still relatively slim overlap of blended and competency-based approaches on the ground.
As I wrote about nearly a year ago, technology tools still lag some of the aspirations of competency-based and blended school systems. Yet Spark now joins a small but growing set of software programs designed to help competency-based schools that are using a variety of online learning programs to deliver blended instruction. Products like Project Foundry, Empower (by Educate), JumpRope, Engrade, and Buzz (powered by Agilix) orchestrate tasks like content delivery, assessment, and data dashboards in schools pursuing blended learning and competency-based education in various capacities. Other school systems are even turning to Salesforce for Education, which doesn't offer the same real-time assessment data or online learning content delivery as those mentioned above, but does allow for individual scheduling and tracking of student information in a more competency-based manner.
All of these platforms are trying to tackle new challenges that educators face as they wade into the blended and competency-based spaces. Not only do blended learning educators want students to enjoy a seamless online learning experience, but they also want up-to-date information on how students are performing in online work to inform what they teach offline. And to make these blended learning experiences fit into a competency-based progression, educators also want to be able to track student mastery on an individual basis, and advance students to new or more challenging material when they prove ready. This means that a platform may need to deliver online assessment on an on-demand basis and to track individual student progress across standards and competencies.
When I first started writing about the overlap of competency-based and blended learning approaches, I thought that the missing piece of the puzzle was a platform like Spark (or those others listed here) that could do all of the above. With the right architecture, a sophisticated platform could be the keystone that clicks competency-based assessment and blended instructional approaches into place. But as the NGLC report alludes to, the challenge facing schools like Merit Prep is not just building a best in class software platform with lots of features and functionalities. In fact, one of the greatest challenges is how this platform stands to interact with third-party online content providers.
We sometimes call this "data integration"—that is, the capacity of a platform (or more often, a human data manager or analyst) to bring together data from disparate online learning programs to create a clear, real-time picture of where a student is excelling and struggling. Integration between a platform and online learning programs will depend on various programs opening up their API's to allow platform providers to build seamless connections or "exports" between the content provider and the platform. It will also depend on data coming out of online learning programs to be reported out in a coherent, standardized language—if data from different programs is tagged in an inconsistent manner, educators won't be able to compare student performance across different programs.
But we might better call this sticking point "data cooperation"—that is, the willingness of third-party content providers not only to share their data automatically with platform providers, but also to sign onto common standards (or even microstandards) that would make the data coming out of their programs comparable to data coming out of other programs. Of course, in the short term, for content providers, this may feel like ceding competitive advantage. But as Alex Hernandez and I discussed in a paper earlier this year, demand for content providers to cooperate only stands to grow to the point that those unwilling to cooperate may lose a competitive edge down the line.
As the NGLC report described, "the [Matchbook] team worked for many months to convince providers that even though Merit Prep was a small school, creating a data export for Spark would ultimately blaze the path for other schools to make similar requests." If data cooperation is the elephant in the room, then the more platforms like Spark that begin to emerge, the more we'll be forced to talk about how to achieve more seamless integration and cooperation. Only with the right contracts and interfaces to import clear, high-quality, standardized, and real-time data will new platforms powering blended learning competency-based schools truly realize their potential.


text:
Duo to play concert in March
Rowan Lehr|March 15, 2016
Dr. John Fisher and Dr. Bruce McDonald will play Martin Hall on March 31st.
Dr. John Fisher and Dr. Bruce McDonald met at Texas Wesleyan in the fall of 1995, but they didn't perform together until eight years later.
Fisher, a Doctor of music, said that he and McDonald, an associate professor of religion, work well together when they perform duo-piano, which means they perform on separate pianos that face each other.
"2003 was our first performance together," Fisher said. "We're kind of a matched pair, similar age bracket and similar backgrounds. Dr. Mcdonald has an undergraduate degree in piano from the University of Texas at Austin. My undergraduate was also in piano and it was just a nice fit, so we started playing programs."
Fisher and McDonald's 11th performance together will be March 31 at Martin Hall. The program will last about an hour and include pieces by Bach, Debussy, Mozart and Gershwin.
In 2009, Fisher and McDonald released The Fisher-McDonald Duo: A Musical Posy, which features selections by Bach, Mozart and Copland, among others. Fisher said the CD is not available for purchase.
"We figured, why not?" Fisher said. "Groups that make music together record music together."
Fisher said that the two do more than just play the pieces; they also interact with the audience and McDonald offers light-hearted commentary.
McDonald said Fisher is incredibly fun to work with.
"We thoroughly enjoy doing the work and work well together," McDonald said. "It just takes time and of course time seems to be very rare these days, it's an endangered species."
Dr. Ronnie McManus, professor of Religion and Philosophy, said he is planning to attend duo's performance.
McManus wrote in an email that he has known Fisher for 15 years and McDonald for 21 years, and that he has attended every one of their performances unless he was out of town.
"My wife and I attend and there is usually a good representation of Wesleyan faculty and students," McManus wrote, adding that Fisher seems very passionate about his work and students, and that McDonald speaks incredibly highly of him.
"I'm not terribly musically inclined, but recognize some of the pieces from teaching humanities, which I have taught for more than a decade," McManus wrote. "Whenever you ride in the car with Dr. McDonald classical music is playing," McManus wrote.
Dr. John Fisher and Dr. Bruce McDonald will perform together on March 31 at Martin Hall. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Dr. Bruce McDonald
Dr. John Fisher
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Online poker has exploded in popularity in recent years and players have many choices when it comes to choosing poker sites. Many of the biggest and best online gambling sites have their own poker rooms and there are also loads of dedicated poker sites that focus entirely on the game. While it is great news that there are so many choices for playing poker online, it does make it a bit harder to know where to play. With such a wide variety of online poker sites, choosing which one to sign up at can be difficult. This page should help you, though, as we tell exactly what you should be looking for at an online poker site, and also list the best poker sites around.
The gambling sites we have listed below are, in our opinion, the best poker sites on the internet as this moment in time. These poker sites are good options for players of all standards, from outright beginners right up to very experienced players. The poker sites below all offer a large selection of different poker games, tournaments and cash games at a variety of stakes. If you are looking to play poker online for real money then we strongly recommend checking out the following online poker rooms.
One of the single most important aspects of an online poker room is the quality of the software they use. Online poker has evolved greatly as it has increased in popularity, and the best poker sites constantly upgrade and improve their software to ensure it is of the highest possible standard. The top poker sites have stable software that runs smoothly, with great graphics and plenty of customisable features. Above all else, the best poker rooms have software that is really easy to navigate and use.
A poker site is nothing unless the tables are busy and there are plenty of opponents for you to play against. The best online poker sites have high traffic, meaning that there are games running around the clock and ensuring that you will always find someone to play against. Additionally, the top poker sites have a wide variety of different games for you to enjoy, and a range of stakes to suit players of all budgets.
Because there are so many online poker sites, it is important for these sites to do what they can to attract, and retain, as many players as they can. This competition between poker sites is good news for you, the player, as the best poker sites will offer generous sign up bonuses to new customers and also reward players based on how much they play. The top poker sites have loyalty schemes where you can basically earn extra rewards just for playing online poker for real money. If you play a lot of poker, these rewards can add up to be quite substantial sums of money. Have a look at our online poker guide for more tips for real money players.
You should also take note of the banking options at an online poker site before making the decision to sign up there. Ideally, it should be really easy to get your money in and out of your poker account as and when you need to. The best poker sites provide a range of different methods for depositing and withdrawing funds, making the process as simple as possible.
The most commonly played form of poker at online poker sites is Texas Hold'em, and every poker site will have plenty of tables offering poker in this form. However, some of the other forms of poker are steadily increasing in popularity – such as Omaha – and more and more players are starting to play these alternative games. The poker sites that we have listed on this page are great options for online poker in general, but if you are looking to focus on playing a particular form of poker then you definitely need to look for a poker site that caters for you specifically.
The attributes that we have mentioned above are still the factors that you should be taking into account, but you also need to be sure that a poker site is the best option for your preferred poker game. The best poker site for playing Texas Hold'em might not necessarily be the best poker site for playing Omaha, so it is important to make the right decision based on which poker games you want to be playing.
At Best Gambling Sites, we have played a lot of online poker, at a lot of different online poker sites. As a result, we know exactly which poker sites are the best for the different forms of poker and have produced the following pages, which each contain a list of the best poker sites for the relevant poker game.
Alongside the general boom of online gambling, online poker has experienced a huge upsurge in the 21st century. It is probably the most popular peer to peer game that is played online for real money, with people from all over the world playing online poker regularly. One of the most appealing things about online poker is that is a really easy game to play. The rules and the betting rounds are pretty simple you can make all your decisions with a click of your mouse. Because online poker sites have evolved so much, the whole experience of playing poker online has been greatly enhanced.
One of the reasons for the significant growth in popularity of online poker is the fact that it appeals to such a wide range of people. You will find poker players of all ages and backgrounds at the tables, and people play the game for a variety of reasons. For many it is just a bit of fun, a form of entertainment that also offers the opportunity for winning money. Others take the game very seriously and regularly win money and some people even play poker as a full time job.
As you are playing the game against other human opponents rather than the house, providing you have some skills at the game it is perfectly possible to consistently turn a profit. This guide to online poker offers some useful advice as to how you can get the most out of playing poker online for real money.
With online poker being so popular, it is not surprising that there is a large number of online poker sites for players to choose from. There are lots of gambling sites that focus on other forms of gambling, such as sports betting or casino games, that also operate their own poker room and there are many sites that specifically concentrate on poker. With such a big range of online poker sites, you could be forgiven for struggling to know which one to play at. If you want to have the best possible experience playing poker online, then you really want to stick to the top poker sites out there.
Playing at the best online poker sites will ensure that you have a decent playing experience. The top sites tend to have better graphics, better software, a good range of different games and plenty of traffic. If you are quite new to online poker, then you may like to try out a few different poker sites and see what you prefer. We would suggest sticking to the top poker sites that we recommend though, as these all have proven track records. You can find out more in our section on the best online poker sites.
Online poker is a really competitive market place and poker sites are constantly vying with each other to get new customers, and keep those customers playing in their poker room. The top online poker sites use a variety of marketing methods to achieve this, such as sign up bonuses and loyalty schemes. At the best online poker sites you will find generous sign up bonuses on offer, and there is basically no downside to taking advantage of these. If you are planning on playing online poker anyway, then a sign up bonus is essentially free money.
Loyalty schemes also add some great extra value to your online poker play. Poker loyalty schemes can operate in a number of different ways but the basic principle is always the same, you get rewarded based on how much poker you are playing and the stakes you are playing at. The more you play, the more you get back. Some of the loyalty schemes offered by the best online poker sites can be very generous indeed and can greatly increase the amount of money you can make out of playing poker online.
Although there is a certain element of luck involved in the game of poker, it is very much a game of skill. Quite simply, if you are better than your opponents then, in the long run, you will beat them and take their money. If you are prepared to spend a bit of time learning poker strategy and improving your poker skills then it will be perfectly possible to consistently win money playing the game. Of course, if you just want to play the game for a bit of fun then you don't need to bother. However, if you want to make some money playing poker online then you'll need to put some effort in. Poker strategy has many levels, but the basics are quite easy to pick up and even just a solid knowledge of the fundamentals will put you in a strong position against a lot of opponents. There are plenty of places you can learn poker strategy online, and a number of useful books you can read.
Managing your money is important in any form of internet gambling, but it is particularly so in poker if you want to win in the long-term. Although poker is a game of skill, there is no escaping the fact that there is some chance involved. For this reason, it is likely that at some point you will experience a run of bad luck. It is important that you have a bankroll that can support the odd streak of bad luck and give you time to turn things around and get back to winning ways. You should never try and chase your losses by increasing your stakes, just be patient and stick to your game and, if you are good enough, you will start winning again.


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Q: android activity backstack management My app shows some content (video,pdf,img, etc ) and within every content I can start another content. What I want is to have only "one back history".
For example, if my activity history is like this:
VideoActivityIns1->PdfActivityIns1->VideoActivityIns2
I need to go back from VideoActivityIns2 to PdfActivityIns1, but one step back is should be MainActivity of my app.
How can I do this? Any help would be appreciated

A: Each activity has activity lifecycle methods you can override to achieve the result you need. Thus, you can either launch Activity2 onResume() on Activity1 onPause(),
http://developer.android.com/training/basics/activity-lifecycle/index.html
or, invoke ActivityManager to detect and manage the other activities.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/ActivityManager.html
You can also make use of intent resolution mechanism to assign several priorities to your activities and then setup intent filters in each activity so you can start activities with a given priority in your code. You can do this either in Java or XML (though I suggest Java). Have a look at the Intent class.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


We currently offer 3 packages of support for all of our business customers. Each package includes various levels of support to ensure your digital life and technology presence is best matched for what your business offers.
Everyone uses technology in some way or another, and with every passing day, it seems to get more important and complex. Here at The Legend of Skippy, we create and manage your IT budget for you, ensuring that the services and support you need are available when you need it.
Why have we set up our business service like this? Our research has shown that most businesses don't have an IT budget, instead relying on emergency fixes and making purchases if expensive equipment fails. We've seen this process grind businesses to a halt, and it's not very efficient. By having an IT budget set aside for ensuring services are kept up and running, and if new equipment needs to be purchased to prevent disasters, it makes your business run much smoother.
If your IT setup is good, your business is good, it grows and becomes even more successful. Everyone wins!
Let's take a look at how our On-Site Support service works. For a monthly or annual fee totaling £3,000, this fee is split in half. £1,500 is set aside as your IT budget, and the other half covers our costs and services for maintaining your IT services and equipment.
Let's say you need to buy a new laptop, and it costs £400. This is within your existing IT budget, so we buy you a laptop, set it up for you, and make sure it all works. This cost is then subtracted from your budget (£1500 – £400), leaving £1100 available. The new laptop has essentially cost you nothing, as it was already covered by your existing budget.
Many services used by businesses are now also subscription based. Antivirus software needs to be renewed monthly, Office 365 by Microsoft is an annual fee, and cloud storage can also incur regular costs. These costs can be covered using your budget, meaning you can set them up and let us look after them for you at no additional costs.
What if I Use up my Budget?
That's OK, we'll have a chat with you before any costs occur that over-step your budget. If it needs to be adapted, we'll have a professional conversation with you to make sure the best outcome is achieved. This may involve either increasing your budget or making cost savings elsewhere.
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This will roll over into the next year, meaning you won't lose any part of your budget. Many of our larger clients purposefully don't spend all of their budgets every year, instead deciding to build up a fund for when large-scale upgrades are required. Servers, in particular, can be quite expensive, and it's a great feeling when one can be purchased at no additional cost to a business because they have been saving up for one using their surplus budget over a few years.
Are Services Available Outside of the Contracts?
They are but are much more cost-effective if arranged under a contract as no additional costs are involved. Prices for out of contract support start from £45 and will be quoted for upon request.
Head on over to our contact page to find out the various you can get in contact with us at The Legend of Skippy. We'd love to hear from you and are ready to help in any way we can.


On the first day that I met my instructor who ultimately helped me earn my Private License, he said something that has stayed in my mind until today. He sat me down and said, "Look. Anyone can be a pilot. They have taught monkeys how to fly. It is not difficult at all. I will teach you how to be a safe and proficient pilot, that is the part that takes work that you have to be willing to put into it."
Now that I'm attending a flight university, I have met a lot of different people who are serious in their pursuit of becoming a professional pilot. I have also met several who have dropped out of the program within the first few months. It isn't the fault of the program, or the flight instructors, but it is because these students had it in their minds that being a pilot is a way to avoid getting a "real job" and had no idea how much work they need to put in to achieve what they wanted.
I've come to learn that there is a big difference between being a professional pilot, and having piloting as your profession. You can pass a checkride or earn a rating with a little effort, but the true professional pilot continues to learn and challenge him or herself every day. You never stop learning as a pilot. There are skills that every pilot must be proficient with, such as navigation and maneuvers, but there are also several life skills that pilots must strive to achieve and exemplify.
1. Good Study Habits. A friend and I were discussing a mutual friend who seems to breeze through any portion of his training with no effort. My friend said, "He reads too much." Truly, the friend that appeared to learn so easily had just dedicated way more time to reading and learning the material than we had. Pilots are often berated with a whole lot of information in a very short amount of time. If a student can effectively learn to study and absorb the information they will have a much easier time as they work their way through their careers.
2. A Willingness to Make Mistakes. Every pilot will make mistakes in their career. It is just a fact of life. With such complicated systems and flight rules, it is impossible to not mess up eventually. It feels terrible when you do mess up, and you may wonder if learning everything is just too much for you. The only way to deal with such instances is to learn from your mistakes and move on.
3. Quick Decision Making. There is very rarely a flight that goes completely according to plan. Pilots quickly learn to expect the unexpected. It can be something as small as unanticipated instructions from ATC to an engine failure. In my Multi-Engine Ground class the other day, the teacher was talking about minimizing the typical reaction time to an engine failure. He said an inexperienced student would spend 7-10 seconds processing what just happened before they begin to act. Those can be valuable seconds, which could ultimately save your life.
4. Punctuality. Nobody wants to hire someone who is perpetually late. Being late is a way of telling the person who is waiting that your time is more valuable than theirs. Whether is be for classes, a flight lesson, or a meeting with a potential employer, you had better always be punctual and arrive prepared. It makes you look better and more on top of your priorities.
5. A Sense of Adventure. Let's face it, piloting can be a very fun and interesting way of life. The best pilots appreciate it for the fascinating profession that it is, but never forget to preform their best while in the cockpit. There are opportunities to travel many places, meet new people, and to enjoy the beauty of the world from above. Because of how monotonous training can seem at times, the ability to keep in mind why you started this journey in the first plane is essential.
I hope that this list has helped inspire you to work harder in some aspects of your life, or to reevaluate your priorities. Do you have any skills you believe a pilot should possess? Post them in the comments and let me know what you think!


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Merionoeda similaris is een keversoort uit de familie van de boktorren (Cerambycidae). De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort werd voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1991 door Holzschuh.

similaris

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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by Marv | Aug 11, 2008 | Politics | 0 comments
In a recent Times column, Gail Collins serves up the following with reference to political infidelities:
"The American public has always had an extremely pragmatic attitude towards their elected officials.and will overlook almost anything if they believe the sinning pol can deliver on the job."
Bravo! If true, my hat is off to the American public. And it is probably true. President Grover Cleveland was accused of fathering a love child while in office, but still was elected to a second term. FDR had a mistress throughout most of his terms .Rumors were rife about Eisenhower and his driver.And Bill Clinton remained very poular in spite of his sexual shenanigans and his impeachment trial.
I repeat: hats off to the American public or at least to the majority of them. To those who disagree, let me ask you a question: Which would you rather have in office, a philanderer who successfully governs in the way you would like, or a faithful fellow who leads the Country into wars, recessions, and inflation? The answer is obvious.
We are electing Presidents, not Saints.And, with all the attention we give them, all the cheering and hoopla and hallelujas we shower them with, who can blame them for believing that acceptable rules of conduct do not apply to them. After all, if vaunted Evangelical leaders and Catholic Priests cannot be trusted to uphold the rules of morality they preach to others, why should our Presidents be different?
In spite of this, everyone jumps on John Edwards. Almost all our newspaper columnists and TV talking heads turns thumbs down. I wonder how many of them are without sin. Glass houses, glass houses, glass houses!
I still like Senator Edwards and, even more, I very much like the causes he espouses.I feel sorry for his wife, but that should be a personal matter between the two of them. If she suffers from unwanted publicity.who is more to blame, her husband or the media who are mealy mouthed about her suffering at the same time they are contributing to it.
We live in a strange world. Millions of women will stand behind a husband accused of murder, but will head for the divorce court in response to a single case of infidelity.
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Civic Arena may refer to:

In Italy
 Arena Civica, Milan

In Canada:
 Nanaimo Civic Arena, Nanaimo, British Columbia

In the United States:
 Civic Arena (Pittsburgh), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 John F. Kennedy Civic Arena, Rome, New York
 Mentor Civic Arena, Mentor, Ohio
 Midland Civic Arena, Midland, Michigan
Mobile Civic Center, Mobile, Alabama
 St. Joseph Civic Arena, Saint Joseph, Missouri
 Huntington Civic Arena, a former name of the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, West Virginia
 Civic Arena, a former name of the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire

See also
 Pittsburgh Civic Arena (The Doors album)


Identica were approached by Bensons the Juicers to come up with a fresh new look for their Chilly Billy ice lollies, to help it stand out proudly as a healthier choice amidst a host of competitive products.
Every parent wants to give their child a treat from time to time, without having to compromise. Looking at the children's ice-lolly market, you'll find a noisy and difficult to navigate category, awash with a synthetic, unnatural palette, and very little in the way healthier choices.
As Chilly Billy ice lollies are made with real fruit juice, with no added sugars, colours or flavourings, we saw an opportunity to create a distinctive pack which celebrates and clearly communicates that this is a healthier choice but it something the children will still enjoy.
We used playful illustrations to bring the fresh ingredients to life based on an-off white canvas, to create differentiation between Chilly Billy and other products in its category. By introducing 'fruit stickers', which call out the product USPs, we reassured the consumer that this really is a healthier choice for the family.


Attack:  Copy - Choose 1 of the Defending Pokemon's attacks. Copy copies that attack. This attack does nothing if Ditto doesn't have the Energy necessary to use that attack. (You must still do anything else required for that attack.) Ditto performs that attack.


Do you think you could get away with murder?
Do you think, if need be, you could kill someone and get away with it?
I don't remember image macro posts becoming acceptable.
Yes. I don't see a reason why not.
muscℴvar wrote: I don't remember image macro posts becoming acceptable.
I'm half ghost and also half mirage, so i guess I could get away with it, no problems.
I have connections, so probably.
Maybe, I live close to the border.


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Shrigley Association Latest News
Details of our 2011 Reunion are now available HERE
Message from Peter Roebuck, The Chairman of the Association
THE FUTURE OF THE SHRIGLEY ASSOCIATION.
For much of the past year and more members of your Committee have been candid about the difficulties facing the Association for the future. The 2010 AGM (as reported to everyone shortly afterwards) agreed that, unless fresh individuals came forward to lead the Association, the 2011 Re-Union at Shrigley would be the last of its kind.
At that stage Mike Kilduff and I planned to attend (as we and others have done for several years) the meeting of the Scottish group of Old Boys, traditionally held in Glasgow as close as possible to Don Bosco's Feastday in January. There were hopes that the Scots might decide to carry matters forward from their own base at St. Benedict's in Easterhouse. They are a sizeable group, on average somewhat younger than the rest of us, and many of them live relatively close to one another in the greater Glasgow area.
These hopes have been fulfilled. We had a very enjoyable weekend, including a useful meeting to discuss possibilities for the future. Subsequently, they held their own further meeting, organised by John Bergin, where they agreed that they were 'keen to see the Association survive and prosper' and willing 'to do what is needed' to this end. They are to hold another meeting on Thursday 14 April. The decisions of that and any later meetings will be conveyed to the forthcoming AGM in September.
I am delighted to be able to report, therefore, that the baton has been picked up and will be carried forward from a new base in Glasgow. To what extent Shrigley, the place, will feature in future plans remains to be seen, although inevitably, given inexorable geographic factors, arrangements are likely to be significantly different than hitherto. However, the Association has won a new lease of life for which, I am confident, we will all be grateful.
Further details of the 2011 Re-Union, scheduled for 16-18 September, will be circulated as soon as they have been finalised. As we do not know if, or when, we will be returning to Shrigley thereafter, we urge you to ring fence these dates and to attend if you possibly can.
On your behalf I wish warmly to thank John Bergin and our other Scottish colleagues; and to wish them well with their future efforts on our behalf.
PETER ROEBUCK (Chairman)
Members at our 2010 reunion
Full reports will follow shortly
Latest Newsletter with info on 2010 Reunion is available HERE
COMMITTEE MEETING : EASTERHOUSE GLASGOW 07.02.2010 Reports are HERE


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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has once again had to change its policy surrounding disabled people's benefits. This time, it involves the assessments carried out for people living with severe conditions or impairments.
and where their needs are expected to stay the same or increase – will receive an ongoing award of PIP with a light touch review every 10 years.
According to the website Benefits and Work, there are currently no set times when the DWP reviews people's PIP. Claims last for fixed periods, and the department can review them at any time, or when the current award ends.
But the PIP process has been controversial since the Coalition government launched it in 2013.
The DWP brought PIP in to replace the Disability Living Allowance (DLA). But as Sarah Marsh wrote in the Guardian, this meant that people with lifetime conditions such as Down's syndrome, blindness and paraplegia who previously received lifetime DLA had to be reassessed.
Since then, as The Canary exclusively reported, the DWP has told over 380,000 people who previously got DLA that they're not entitled to PIP. The PIP controversy has been compounded by numerous stories in the press about the DWP denying it to people with severe conditions or impairments, or failures in the review process. On top of this, 65% of people who appeal the DWP's PIP decisions win their cases.
Just how the DWP will introduce and monitor the changes is unclear. When it did a similar reform in 2017 of the Work Capability Assessment as part of the Employment and Support Allowance, some disabled people's organisations were sceptical about whether it would work. And the DWP's latest move on PIP has left some of them similarly unimpressed.
The announcement by the DWP comes a little too late. By reviewing the guidelines for disabled people with the highest support needs, we could see many disabled people being denied the highest rate of PIP – as many may not meet the new guidelines. There are thousands of disabled people with a progressive condition or terminally ill who have been denied PIP altogether and have had the additional stress of appealing. This will be another excuse from the DWP to tighten guidelines to deny support. A 'light touch' will equal a sledge hammer blow and months of stress disabled people really do not need. Living with a disability day to day is already hard enough, without constant reassessments.
Disabled people should approach the DWP's latest concession with caution. It may well ease uncertainty for many people. But it will do little to dispel the notion that the department is in a chronic state of disarray – a state that no amount of tinkering around the edges will cure.
– You can also join The Canary, so we can keep holding the powerful to account.


It provides a live overview of the most important information on a physical installation and its surroundings. This includes movement of air and marine transport equipment, overview of people on location, ongoing work, weather information, status of wind turbines and substations, key information concerning production, alarms etc. Information is shown in a zoomable map and on expandable panels.


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Just another ReadTheSpirit Sites site
Evelyn Underhill
January 15, 2009 by Daniel Buttry
This year, 2014, marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, so many peacemakers are working to recover the stories of men and women moved toward peace in the midst of the overwhelming carnage known at the time as "The Great War." When that war began, the great mystic Evelyn Underhill had not thought much about such issues in relation to her faith and she immediately agreed to help with the war effort—mainly working as a translator for British Naval Intelligence. However, the horrors of WWI weighed so heavily on her that she wrote a series of heartbreaking poems about he human cost of war. By 1940, she was a committed Christian pacifist and published one of the prophetic public statements against war on the eve of World War II. Although that four-page pamphlet is now out of print, Underhill was a courageous visionary in drawing the conclusion that truly committed Christians cannot promote war.
Daniel Buttry
Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
You don't have to be peculiar to find God.
The writings of Evelyn Underhill dominated discussions about the spiritual life in the first half of the 20th Century. Her book Mysticism, published in 1911, was unmatched in publishing success for over forty years. Born in England in 1875, she had mystical experiences in her childhood. These experiences prompted a life-long journey of spiritual exploration, research, writing and discovery. She was an agnostic early on, raised in a non-religious family. Eventually her spiritual quest drew her to the Anglican Church, particularly the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church.
Though she never earned a doctoral degree herself, she became the first woman to lecture clergy in the Church of England and then received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Aberdeen University. She was a frequent lecturer at English colleges and universities, often the first woman to do so in some settings. Besides her scholarly work on mysticism and her writings about spirituality, she was a novelist and a poet. In her novels she explored the connections between the world of the spirit and our ordinary experiences, seeing their inseparability and the way divine radiance can bathe our reality. She especially taught that ordinary people could open themselves up to the divine, something that drew so many of those ordinary people to her writings. She wrote, "You don't have to be peculiar to find God."
As she studied mysticism Underhill entered into a special collaboration with the Indian Hindu mystic Rabindranath Tagore (featured in Interfaith Heroes). They not only worked together as scholars, but Underhill opened herself to learn from the mystical traditions and practices of a teacher from another religion, while maintaining strongly her own Christian spirituality. Together Underhill and Tagore studied the Muslim mystical poet Kabir. Tagore translated 100 Poems of Kabir into English while Underhill wrote an extensive introduction. Underhill wrote to Tagore afterward, "This is the first time I have had the privilege of being with one who is a Master in the things I care so much about but know so little of as yet; and I understand now something of what your writers mean when they insist on the necessity and value of the personal teacher and the fact that he gives something which the learner cannot get in any other way. It has been like hearing the language of which I barely know the alphabet, spoken perfectly."
In her last major work Underhill turned for mysticism to the experience of corporate worship. Her book Worship described, analyzed and explored the basic characteristics of worship such as ritual, symbol, sacrifice and sacrament. As with mysticism, she remained rooted in her Christian faith, but she was able to explore worship within the various traditions of Christianity such as Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Catholicism and Reformed Protestantism. She also studied worship within Judaism, learning from another tradition to shed light on her own.
For Underhill spiritual life begins with the love of God. Everything follows from that, including how we relate to others. For her the love of neighbor is a corollary of the love of God, not its equivalent. So out of her deep mystical relationship with God, she engaged the world in love, including people of other faiths who had things to teach her.
March to Pacifism
In Underhill's still widely read classics, she included no autobiographical explanation of her transition from a loyal British supporter of the war effort at the start of World War I. But she was deeply affected by the widespread loss of life in that conflict and the destructive legacy of the war in countless families. Her poetry from that period includes numerous references to remembering the vast loss of life in that conflict.
By 1940, however, when she published a four-page pamphlet with the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, she had become convinced that her faith should stalwartly reject warfare. She felt that the coming war would, in fact, prove a defining moment for Christianity that most Christian leaders were likely to fail. A number of Anglican bishops who moved to support the war troubled her enough that she publicly declared her own pacifism and her belief that all Christians should join her in this position.
Her prophetic pamphlet included these words:
"War, however camouflaged or excused, must always mean the effort of one group of men to achieve their purpose … by inflicting destruction and death on another group of men. When we trace war to its origin, that origin is always either mortal sin—Pride, Anger, Envy, Greed—or else that spirit of self regarding Fear, which is a worse infidelity to God than any mortal sin. The Christian cannot serve these masters, even though they are wearing national dress. …
"To defeat the power of evil by the health-giving power of love and thus open a channel for the inflow of the creative grace of God is therefore the only struggle in which the realistic Christian can take part. No retaliation. No revenge, national or personal. No "defensive wars." … The Church's single business is to apply everywhere and at all times the law of charity; and so bring the will of man, whether national or individual, into harmony with the Will of God. Charity means a loving and selfless co-operation of man with God; and because of this, loving and selfless co-operation between men. In this the Church has a constructive program far more complete, definite, and truly practical—and also far more exacting—than that of any political reformer; for she looks towards a transfigured world, in which the energies now wasted on conflict shall be turned to the purposes of life, and calls upon everyone of her members to work for this transfigured world. But she will not make her message effective until she shows the courage of her convictions, and makes her own life, individual and corporate, entirely consistent with the mandate she has received.
"She cannot minister with one hand the Chalice of Salvation, whilst with the other she blesses the instruments of death."
Because Underhill died in 1941, we do not know what she might have written during and after World War II. When she died, she was honored in England as a great teacher, despite her outspoken pacifism at the start of the war. Today, she is honored each year as a modern saint by the Church of England and by the Episcopal Church in the U.S. Her liturgical feast is the day she died: June 15.
Meet more peacemakers
This profile on Evelyn Underhill comes from the pages of Interfaith Heroes 2. Interfaith Heroes 2 is one of the three books that inspired this website. Learn more about Daniel Buttry's series of books on global peacemakers.
Filed Under: Christianity, Europe
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Texts and figures There are 22 products.
From Marianne design, this set of the series with both stamps and Collectables dies. The text on the stamps is Cool Dude, mister cool, Biker king, Tool Time, Handy Man, Man Made, Super Hero.
Happy Bday stands for happy birthday and congratulated on the birthday. 64 mm x 64 mm in size.
LOVE says on this diesen. And love can never be wrong? :) All diesen measures approx 6.5 cm x 7 cm.
Dies of soccer apparel from Marianne Design. Select number itself so it fits to it to get the card!


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Window repair work by Sash Windows Hertfordshire is just one outstanding means of increasing the effectiveness of your existing sash window, advantages involve cutting down of draught and soundproofing. Common problems found with sash windows can easily be remedied with simple repair work carried out by Sash Windows Hertfordshire. Sash Windows Hertfordshire will replace weather-strips, chains or cords, rebalance and lubricate the pulleys and then professionally reinstate the sash into their frames.
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Micah Van Hove grew up on the crossroads of opulence and poverty in small town Southern California and has been exploring the possibilities in micro-budget cinema since 2009. A director, cinematographer, and a writer at nofilmschool.com, Micah is fascinated with the foibles of youth, alienation and expectation.
Director Micah Van Hove and various cast and crew will be available for Q&A after the screening.


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The Sleeper Experience
Book nowStart your journey
Places to visit from your favourite books
Scotland's history, scenery and culture has inspired many famous authors, including Robert Burns, J.K. Rowling, J.M. Barrie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Rankin to put a pen to paper and create books that we all know and love.
Alongside other inspirational Scottish locations, in 2004 Edinburgh was named the world's first UNESCO City of Literature. We've picked out some of the top Scottish locations that appear in world famous books.
Spellbinding scenery and the birthplace of Harry Potter
The Elephant House, a small café in the centre of Edinburgh, was where J.K. Rowling first found inspiration for the Harry Potter books. After moving to Edinburgh, this is where she wrote much of the first of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, writing notes on the back of napkins when she ran out of paper.
The Elephant House is now popular with wizarding fans across the globe – not only can you enjoy a hot drink and cakes, visitors have been delighted to find drawers filled with letters and notes on the back of napkins to J.K. Rowling.
The inspiration behind Peter Pan
Kirriemuir, near Dundee, was the birthplace and childhood home of J M Barrie, the imagination behind Peter Pan. His time spent outside playing inspired his writing, with Peter Pan being written several years later.
Visit the small whitewashed cottage where Barrie grew up in Kirriemuir. The exhibition gives insight into his early life, with original costumes and manuscripts, and you can stop by the wash-house where he performed his very first play aged seven, and which provided inspiration for the Wendy house in Peter Pan.
Outlander experiences
With the fifth season round the corner, Outlander fans can travel back in time in Edinburgh. Led by Mercat Tours, this walking tour brings to life the real events that inspired the acclaimed novels and subsequent television series.
Walk into Edinburgh's Old Town to see key places in Edinburgh's history including the Tolbooth Jail, Canongate Kirkyard and World's End Tavern.
If you're travelling to Inverness, visit Culloden Battlefield, where Claire and Jamie part ways before the Battle of Culloden. Whilst in Inverness, visit Leakey's bookshop to immerse yourself in some of your favourite books. With floor to ceiling books, stained glass windows and an open log fire, this old Gaelic church is a book lover's paradise.
Dunkeld and Birnam was Beatrix Potter's annual summer holiday location, and where she found her passion for nature. This passion translated to writing, and her holiday home was where she first wrote about Peter Rabbit, providing the basis for one of the most famous children's books, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
The local area inspired many other books written by Beatrix Potter, including The Tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle, and The Tale of Jeremy Fisher, based on her exploration of the banks of the River Tay.
Visit the Birnam Arts Centre to see the Beatrix Potter Exhibition and the Beatrix Potter Garden, featuring flowers and wildlife characters that inspired Beatrix when on holiday in the area.
Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson often visited the popular natural cove beach of Yellowcraig which offers spectacular views of Fidra Island.
Stevenson's map of Treasure Island is said to be inspired by the shape of Fidra, which features a lighthouse built in 1885, rugged edges, grassy slopes and steep cliffs.
Easily accessible by public transport or a short car journey from Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station, Yellowcraig is popular with families who enjoy the area's nature trails, barbeque sites and network of footpaths.
Scottish Crime
Scottish novelist Ian Rankin set his best-selling books in Scotland, with his Inspector Rebus novels set mainly in Edinburgh. The success of Inspector Rebus books led to subsequent adaptation into a television series. Fans of the book will be familiar with The Oxford Bar, a small pub in Edinburgh which was where Inspector Rebus would visit for a drink.
Vampires in Aberdeen
Slains Castle, a 16th century castle situated atop the clifftops of Aberdeenshire and overlooking the North Sea, is said to be the inspiration for the novel Dracula. Famed author Bram Stoker visited Cruden Bay regularly for 17 years, and some of his other work including The Mystery of the Sea have been set in Cruden Bay. The gothic-style castle is where Stoker first came up with the character of Count Dracula.
Discover Sherlock Holmes' Edinburgh
Visitors to Edinburgh can see the Sherlock Holmes Statue in Picardy Place, marking the location where Scotland-born author Arthur Conan Doyle was born. Across the road from the statue is The Conan Doyle Pub, named after the author.
Step back in time to Victorian Edinburgh by joining The Real Sherlock Holmes Walking Tour of Edinburgh. Find out about where Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired as a young medical student, and who he met that inspired the character Sherlock Holmes.
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This game is one which is often listed as the greatest video game ever, which is something I would say is a bit of an over exaggeration, but I do agree that is a game which is certainly worthy of very high praise.
In this game, you take on the role of Link, just like you do in every game in the Legend of Zelda series (or, at least, one of the Links, but that's totally irrelevant to the game), and he's just a simple forest child living in the woods. Link is different from all the other children because Link does not have a fairy. The enthralling tale begins when he finally gets one... This is the start of a quest which will take him into the belly of giant fish, the centre of volcanoes and even through time! But I shan't go into any more details because I don't want to spoil it!
It features very nonlinear gameplay too, which is a nice thing, I think. There is an unchangeable storyline, and the first three main tasks have to be completed in order, but you get more freedom after that. You're also given a very full world to explore; there are loads of secret areas to be discovered, hidden objects to be found and peculiar people to converse with. There is definitely an awful lot for you to do in this game, even if you get stuck with the main story, you can just fill up on side quests which are also very fun.
I suppose the only downside some people might see, is that the graphics of this Nintendo 64 game are beginning to seem a little dated, but if you have no problem with a game's graphics (as I don't) then it wouldn't matter either way. The game also has a very nice soundtrack.
A very good game, I would rate it 9.5/10
(I do not own the copyright of the screenshot.)
Just a quick shout out to a YouTuber who keeps a funny vlog. Sometimes her videos are a little gross, but, on the whole, they are very entertaining. She often features her cute little dogs in the videos too. Here's a link to her page and here's one of my favourite videos by her:
Tetris, for the original Game Boy, is something which is really very enjoyable indeed. I'm sure everybody knows the timeless gameplay of slowly rotating the tetriminos as they gracefully fall to the ground, and hoping to get them in a straight line so that they can graciously fade from existence. But that's not the only appeal of this game.
But of course, saying all that, it's only something which will persuade you to buy a Tetris game, as opposed to THIS Tetris game. Well, let me just list off all of the things which make this incarnation of the beautiful puzzle game the one which you should buy:
-The 8-bit Tetris Theme A is amazing and very catchy too.
-There are a large number of variables to the general Tetris gameplay, but none of them alter it too much. You can merely increase the pieces speed of decent or the height that you start at.
-The game is not made too easy by additions such as the 'hold' function found in later instalments.
-A simple background of white behind the pieces, no unrelated pictures of animals (which some later games have) to distract you.
-Very basic three button controls.
-This is the version which would most probably be called the definitive Tetris.
-Also, very easy to get hold of cheaply.
Trust me; it's worth your money! While not as enthralling as a game with a large expansive world or deep storyline, I play Tetris very often indeed, so I would rate it at 9.4/10
(This game, minus its multiplayer, can be downloaded for 3DS.)
The Beatles Rock Band
This is a game which, I imagine, would be enjoyed by any fan of The Beatles. Basically, what you do, is you play their songs on a guitar or drum controller, or sing them into a microphone like karaoke. This is very fun, though there is the slight downside that these controllers are quite costy.
Anyway, you can play the game in two ways: you can either go through the story mode, which basically takes you through The Beatles career in chronological order and giving you unlockable photographs accompanied with interesting facts for each song you perform well. Also, while you play the songs, you're given nice animated videos of The Beatles performing the songs too. These videos are particularly interesting when you play the more peculiar songs, such as I Am The Walrus, which feature dream-like montages of odd and interesting things.
The other mode of playing, basically just allows you to choose which song you play, the difficulty level and whether or not you want to play alone with friends. This is the place where you'll try and beat your highscores and do well on the super hard difficulties. You'll also be playing in this mode after you finish the story, which won't take too long (not that it's too short).
What I think is a little disappointing, is the fact that there are only forty-five songs built into the disk. There are lots of classic Beatles songs included amongst the forty-five, but it's inevitable that any Beatles fan will have at least one favourite missing. You can increase the number of songs, by visiting the game's virtual shop (where you spend real money), it's somewhat annoying that you have to pay even more to get the songs though. Plus, even buying every song in the shop won't give you the full Beatles catalogue. A further downside, for you Rock Band fans, is that this game is not compatible with the other games in the series, unlike others, which can play the songs of other games, and vice versa.
Nonetheless, this is a very fun standalone game. I'd rate it at 8.3/10
As a Creative Writing student, I hear the words 'Show Don't Tell' fairly often. Now to be honest, it is a writing rule with some merit to it, after all "She told him she hated him. He didn't like this, it made him sad. He told her how he felt, then he left" isn't a very dramatic piece of writing, whereas if shown to a reader through words, it would probably be far better.
However, it seems to me that, for some, 'show don't tell' is an absolute and the only rule needed to be followed in order to be a good writer. Indeed, sometimes a single instance of a writer telling a reader, will not slip passed the show don't tell radars.
But frankly, I disagree with this rule. There are NO objective rules to art (in my opinion) and so I think it's wrong to tell people that always doing one thing will make their work good. Sometimes I like to be told rather than shown, for example, sometimes I'll enjoy a little paragraph describing a character so that I can picture them better. Besides all that, several famous classical writers tell us rather than show us too, are they wrong to do so? Have we now learned how to write 'properly' and they didn't know? I'm worried that this entry might sound a little bitter, and I don't intend it too, but I just wanted to share my distaste in the rule. After all, when show don't tell is used alone, we find ourselves with very vague and unenjoyable pieces of work!
Endless Ocean
Endless Ocean is a video game which sets out to try and recreate the experience of diving. Basically, you're give a big map of an ocean and you click on any spot, your boat sails out to the spot, then you walk around on deck (looking at any birds or things which might be on board, before diving in.
When you're in the sea, there's a large circular area you can explore around the boat, you only being able to go so far away from it (but you have plenty of space). There's no real goal to the game beyond exploration, there are hundreds of species of fish in the water (I think, quite literally hundreds) and you have to examine all of them three times in order to fill in their information in your log book, and there are also lots of exciting secret areas to find too. For example, you might just find yourself swimming through a vast underground cave... I shan't spoil any of the others though!
There is a very loose storyline about a woman who is searching for a mythical sea creature, but other than that, the gameplay is entirely open and you just choose a new place to swim about and explore every single time. The longer you explore for, and the more you do, all lead to you eventually getting improvements made to your equipment which allow you to venture into areas you otherwise could not access. You are also given the optional task of taking people down below the water to see their favourite sea creature. Plus, there's also the nice, though slightly pointless, additional feature of an aquarium, you own a giant tank which you can put a limited number of your favourite species in and then swim around with them.
On the whole, this is a very nice and open game. The graphics are very good, so the underwater wilderness all looks beautiful. There are no real constraints, you are allowed to explore where you want and when you want. The only down side is that I think it should be MORE open.
I'd rate it an easy 9/10
You may or may not know, that in a week's time it'll be the famous video gaming conference, E3. At this event they unveil all of the new exciting games that are due to be released, and also the new consoles the companies are working on, if any. I, for one, am quite excited about this and so, as a very vague kind of countdown until E3 starts, I'm going to write a video game review on here every day for a week. Although, when I got this idea I thought to myself "Hmm, not everybody likes video games, perhaps I will alienate some of my beloved readers and they won't visit for a week" and, as such, as well as the video game reviews for the next seven days, I'm going to try also to write a normal entry on Monday, Wednesday and Friday as I usually would. So today, you have still to come, the first video game review and a normal entry. Thanks for reading!
Bernard Haunts Me
One of the characters from my fictional world is called Bernard Adams Dobson. Bernard is a bad man (get it? Bernard Adams Dobson - B. A. D. - bad. Heh heh heh. Yes, it's not very serious), he's a time traveller and can move through all of space and time just by walking. As such, this bad man uses his powers in order to terrorise all corners of the universe in every period of time. Sounds pretty cool right? Right!?
Anyway, just the other night, I had a nightmare about Bernard. Basically, he hid an obscure object somewhere in Corsham, and threatened to kill the family dogs unless I found it. Unfortunately, I was unable to find this object! He had three diabolical schemes actually, but I don't seem to be able to remember the second one. Anyway, the third time I encountered him, I was taking a walk through the wilderness (with a friend of mine, I forget who), when he appeared and offered to help us find something really interesting. I told him I knew he was just planning something evil, and he agreed, but also said that my friend and I had no choice but to follow him anyway. He lead my friend and I to an old wooden shed and then held us hostage in there. The last thing I remember is running hand in hand with him (Bernard) from a helicopter... Which is weird.
Anyway, I just thought it was very interesting that a fictional character that I created could then appear in a nightmare. You, on the other hand, may not find it so interesting...
How to Make Chocolate Even Tastier
Today's post will just be a very short one, it's late and I'm feeling a little lazy. Anywho, the other day, I made quite a discovery about chocolate. For lunch, I decided to go a little wild and buy myself a 'Fiery Cheese' wrap. It tasted quite nice, but the bottom of it was wet for some reason and I really hate wet food. But the wrap wasn't all I bought; whenever I eat something savoury, I always have to eat something sweet afterwards in order to give myself some closure for the meal. Anyway, after eating this spicy snack, I had myself a bag of chocolate buttons (large ones, that is). It turns out, that chocolate tastes nicer if you've eaten some spicy food right before it; and by nicer, I mean a LOT nicer. It is lovely. You should try it.


Pending approval from Garth, I'd like the following people to be able to meet for a scene Monday. I've proposed Monday, but this is pending Garth's approval, as he must be there.
This is assuming Claudia can get hold of you at short notice.
Garth,York, and Mr. Smith will be at Tove's tomorrow night playing cards.Maybe the others can meet there?
I'm free after 4:30. The closer to 4:30 the better for me.
if you need the malk possibly give me a yell. all i know is i have to talk to two ppl to see whats up for my mon.
That works for me. What time are you guys getting together? Earlier works better for me - then we can get the scene out of the way and you guys can get back to your regularly-scheduled cards night.
I should be out, just need to have a nap this afternoon so that I'm actually lucid beforehand.


This has got to be the hottest Christmas season in living memory.
(c) really old since that song is now about an ancient time when Decembers were actually cold!
We've been comforting ourselves with ice cream. There's tubs of it in the freezer and when we go out, even more ice cream!
Vito calls it, "I cream!"
Don't worry! I didn't give Iñigo any ice cream. He did chase after my cone of melting choco creaminess. Poor baby!
How about you? How do you beat the heat?
Well, we must be lucky because it's super windy here in Davao!


Immense attention was paid to every minute facet of this design, with the use of timber and other natural materials giving the home a rustic feel and allowing it to blend into it's environment.
Make no misake, this is a high end luxury home as any other that Pars has constructed; and it is so accomplished while appearing old fashioned.
The flow of the layout caters to anybody with large open spaces, wide halls and high ceilings.
The size of the individual rooms allow for comfort and convenience whether used for sleeping or office work.
We used warm colours throughout the construction generating a soothing feeling through the colour schemes.
The finished form of this magnificent home is incredible and reminiscent of old fashioned construction, creating quite the atmosphere with a lit fireplace, and loved ones surrounding you.