text:
The 5 Biggest Prize Pools In eSports History
by PS4 Home October 23, 2018
Until recently, many people thought that making money from playing video games was little more than a pipe dream. Most of us could only fantasise about being video game testers, level designers, writers, or taking up any other career associated with our favourite pastime. The opportunities for making money in the video game sphere were slim, and it was the quintessential "that's never going to happen" ambition for young people everywhere.
Since the advent of eSports, the naysayers have been a little quieter on this front. The top-performing eSports teams make absolutely staggering amounts of money at each tournament they compete in, and the prize pools (which are usually shared between competing teams) are truly jaw-dropping. eSports is soon to be a billion-dollar industry, so we can only expect these prize pools to get even more impressive over time. All of this isn't even mentioning the significant returns you can make betting on eSports these days. We've gathered a list of the biggest prize pools in eSports history, to help you drift into dreamland and think about that career change.
The International 2018 - $25,532,177
Valve's The International tournament has an absolutely colossal amount of money up for grabs for its best players. The tournament is usually held around mid to late August, and sees the most successful and well-known eSports teams competing to take home the lion's share of this whopping prize pool. The International only sees players competing at DotA 2 - there are no other games played at this tournament, which isn't that unusual nowadays. This year, Team OG took home the gold, as well as a tidy $11,234,158 to distribute among their staff. Teams PSG.LGD, Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid had to make do with second, third and fourth place respectively, but the money they took with them was not too shabby either; $4 million, $2.6 million and $1.8 million respectively. Interesting fact: the top 5 most lucrative eSports prize pools are all held by this tournament across the last five years, so we won't be focusing on the other International events for the rest of this list.
League of Legends 2016 World Championship (Worlds) - $5,070,000
Some would call League of Legends "the other big MOBA", while others think it claims DotA 2's crown as the best and most prominent example of its genre. Regardless of your own feelings about LoL, there's no doubt that the game is huge, huge business. 2016's World Championship, held at the beginning of autumn from September to October, saw popular teams from around the world competing in knockout-style games to claim the $5 million prize pool. It's a pretty significant drop from The International, but there aren't many video game companies who can throw around the kind of cash Valve can. The prize pool for this event was augmented by players buying the Championship skin for mid-lane champion Zed, as well as purchasing Championship ward skins. 25% of the proceeds from those items went to increasing the prize pool, which began at $2.1 million.
DotA 2 Asia Championships 2015 (DAC) - $3,057,519
We weren't kidding when we said that DotA 2 is big, big money. This tournament takes place in Shanghai, and it's fair to say that China is the de facto home of the MOBA; it's estimated that around 75 million people play League of Legends' Ranked mode in China, making the audience share of that game around 90% Chinese. DotA 2 is able to rack up the big bucks on a regular basis in that region too. Evil Geniuses were the eventual victors of this tournament, claiming $1.3 million for their trouble. The remainder of the $3 million prize pool was split between runners-up Vici Gaming, Team Secret and Big God. Just like most other eSports events, this was a big hit on streaming platform Twitch. 16 teams went in, but only one could emerge the overall winners. The next six biggest prize pools all focus on DotA 2, so we're gonna switch things up a little and go for...
SMITE World Championship 2015 - $2,612,259
Some might consider SMITE the dark horse of the MOBA world. It's not played from the same real-time strategy-style top-down perspective as the other big hitters of its genre, and it's made by an indie game studio based in Georgia in the US. If you're not familiar with it, SMITE pits the gods of various mythological pantheons against one another in brutal MOBA-style combat. The twist here, though, is that the action all takes place in a third-person action-adventure-style perspective. This tournament was hosted by developers Hi-Rez Studios themselves, and saw Team COGnitive Prime take home the first-prize share of $1.3 million. This one was sponsored by Curse Voice, an in-house Curse VOIP client developed to replace services like Discord. Curse Voice was relaunched in 2017 as the Twitch desktop app, so it lives on in a way.
Halo World Championship 2016 - $2,500,000
Bringing up the vanguard, we have popular first-person shooter franchise Halo. The 2016 Halo World Championship centred around the previous year's Halo 5: Guardians, which was developed by second-party Microsoft studio 343 Industries after Bungie relinquished development responsibility back in 2007. The 2016 Halo World Championship took place over three days in March of that year, and saw US-based team Counter Logic Gaming rake in a cool $1 million of the prize money. As is customary in eSports events, the rest is split between the runners-up, and even the lowest-scoring teams receive a cut of the prize pool.
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text:
    <title>Home Page</title>

Hello, Eric

I like robots, and right now I am working on a life-sized BB-8. I want the BB-8 to be controlled from a website but first the bottom robot has to be put together

BB-8 is a robot from the seventh Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. He is a small ball robot with a balancing head. He is really cute and everyone likes him. I really want my BB-8 to roll this year.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Nothing feels quite as swish as putting on a killer coat over a simple outfit The best coats this year generally fall into one of four categories modern classics, puffers, faux furs, and fun coats. Theres a reason fall and winter are the high season for mens styleand its the coats The big question instantly take. Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team If you make a purchase using the. So foster parents must outfit entire wardrobes for one if not more foster kids Thats why each year, 69 News and the Salvati. Arguably the king of winter coats, this insulated wonder garment is thick enough Simple, functional and stylish, this mod. The London Fire Brigade today unveiled new gold kit including special coats for two investigation dogs From today the capi. Chilly winds and unexpected rain showers have a way of ruining your office outfit and can leave you looking soggy and crumple. She kept her hair and makeup look paired back, letting her posh outfit do all the talking white suits and white coats. Along with denim jackets and trench coats, moto jackets are an absolute wardrobe staple RELATED 28 Plaid Blazers to Buy. but may think twice after it launched the new range of coats, including parkas trimmed with real fur The new line, which wil. Comfort is paramount here, but paired with the functional elements of the outdoors, theyre ideal to wear with midwash jeans.
Related Post "Parka Jacket Outfit"


Learning goals At the end of the lesson, students should be able to: 1. 2. 3. 4. Define and explain biodiversity Explain the term systematic, taxonomy, classification and nomenclature Describe the important of biodiversity Explain the stages of biodiversity level.
1.1 INTRODUCTION Assalamualaikum to everyone! How are you today? Hopefully you guys in your best condition today because we are going to enter a new chapter that very crucial to understand in biological world that is Biodiversity. This topic will play as a fundamental knowledge that often use to encounter such messy problem in ecological and environment nowadays. It is important for us to get used with the term that will be stress on this chapter like systematic, taxonomy, classification, nomenclature and also biodiversity itself. However, no need to be worried in tackling with such term because as we go through, an example will be provided to ease the lesson. The global loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystem are arguably the greatest challenge our species has faced.
bio. this include diversity within species. The scientific study of the diversity of organism and their evolutionary relationship is called SYSTEMATICS.html To understand the diverse of life forms. Phylogenetic tree is a branching diagram of life that shows an evolutionary relationship among species according to their differences and similarity. and other aquatic ecosystem and ecological complexes of which they are a part. While the stage of naming. .edu/dana/160/160S11_3print.1: Phylogenetic tree Source: http://www. The easiest way to look on biodiversity is in terms of the tree of life/ the phylogenetic tree of all organisms. including on the terrestrial land and aquatic marine ecosystem. CLASSIFICATION involves arranging the organisms into groups based on their similarities. The branching of such trees reflects the hierarchical classification of group nested within more inclusive group. and closely related genera (plural for genus) are grouped in a single family. such organization like the phylogenetic tree has to be done.2 WHAT IS BIODIVERSITY? Biological diversity or Biodiversity usually referred as the variety of living organism and the variety of ecosystems they form. describing and classifying the organism is called TAXONOMY. terrestrial.1. between species and of the ecosystems". marine. The taxonomic studies range from species to kingdom in the form of hierarchy. Figure 1. plants and micro-organism. The Convention on Biological Diversity has defined biodiversity as " the variability among living organism from all sources including. inter alia.miami.78 million species of animal. Taxonomist has describe and given a name towards 1. Closely related species are assigned to the same genus.
classes into phyla.Families are grouped into orders. KINGDOM: Eg: Plantae PHYLUM: Eg: Anthophyta CLASS: Eg: Monocotyledons ORDER: Eg: Commelinales FAMILY: Eg: Poacceae GENUS: Eg: Zea SPECIES: Eg: Zea mays . orders into classes. and phyla into kingdoms or domains.
While. Linnaeus (known as a father of taxonomic system) has divided all known forms of life into plant and animal. actually. Animalia. The kingdom PROTISTA was not clearly defined in Whittaker's five kingdom system because Protista consisted of all eukaryotes that did not fit the definitions of plants. In this two kingdom system. Well that is a common misconception due to its macroscopic structure that obvious in rough eyes.2: Five Kingdom System of Organism Source: http://www. PLANTAE. This system were applied for a period of time until Robert H.1.com/EBchecked/media/107934/The-Whittaker-five-kingdom-classification-of-life . He separates prokaryotes from all eukaryotes and place them under one kingdom MONERA. In earlier taxonomic system. Figure 1. unicellular that have ability to move and ingesting food were group under animalia kingdom. eukaryotic cell with a chloroplast also were considered as a plant same like fungi due to it immobility (cannot move) factor. people might think that there is only two kingdom exist. Protista and Monera. He then.britannica. FUNGI and ANIMALIA according to their nutritional mode. This system stay persisted where taxonomist placed bacteria in the plant kingdom due to the presence of cell wall structure in their morphological structure. there are five Kingdom exist in taxonomic systems that is Plantae. distinguish three kingdoms of multicellular eukaryotes. Fungi. Plantae and Animalia only.3 TAXONOMIC SYSTEMS Usually. Whittaker argued for a system with five kingdom. fungi or animals.
org/EN/main/downloads/tnp-1.biodiversitybc. Figure 1. Those level are genetic diversity. rice and many more.1.3: Three level of Biodiversity Sources: http://www. GENETIC DIVERSITY It refer to the total genetic information contained within all individuals of a species and is measured as the number and relative frequency of alleles presents in a species. Because no two members of the same species are genetically identical. At this level.html i. . species diversity and ecosystem diversity. If there is a loss in certain genetic diversity. the better chances of at least individual posses a genetic and feature that is favor by the nature where they can survive in which those genetic material will be passed to the offspring. biodiversity is everywhere around you because each organism posses a different genetic material than others including different types of grapes.4 LEVEL OF BIODIVERSITY Biologist has separated biodiversity into three level in order to make it easier to be analyzed. it will lead towards the loss of species diversity and eventually loss in the biological diversity. each species is the repository of an immense array of alleles. The more variation in genetic exist.
5: Diversity of frog species Source: http://blogs.org/index. Figure 1.4: Rice with a various genetic diversity Source:http://irri. SPECIES DIVERSITY Species diversity is the most discussed biodiversity in public where it covers the diversity of individual in group within an ecological community.Figure 1.com/delhi/?p=13294 . It refers to the number of different species that exist in the collection of individuals.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=category&id=865:sharing-rices-geneticdiversity-responsibly&lang=en ii.thehindu.
desserts and others along with abiotic components.6: Relationship between each level of biodiversity Source: http://www. ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY It refer to the variety of biotic communities in a region like forest.html . b. Species Richness = refer to the variation of species. Species Evenness = relative abundance of species in the community. grasslands. water and nutrients. iii.utexas. such as soils. how many of species presence in the community.edu/faculty/sjasper/Bio301M/biodiversity. Ecosystem diversity is more difficult to define and measure than genetic or species diversity because ecosystem do not have sharp boundaries (too general). It involves a network of community interactions among populations of different species within an ecosystem. Figure 2. the number of individuals within species and their degree of differences with number of individuals within other species and see how close the differences in number are.Species diversity usually be measured according to this two aspect: a.bio.
Biodiversity also provide a place for relaxation and recreational purpose.1. Other than that. The presence of land plants builds soil. the ecosystem service serves by biodiversity are mentioned below: PURIFICATION OF WATER REDUCTION OF THE SEVERITY OF DROUGHTS AND FLOODS GENERATION AND PRESERVATION OF FERTILE SOILS DETOXIFICATION AND DECOMPOSITION OF WASTES POLLINATION OF CROPS AND NATURAL VEGETATION DISPERSAL OF SEEDS CYCLING OF NUTRIENTS BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AGENT PROTECTION OF SHORELINE FROM EROSION PROTECTION FROM ULTRAVIOLET RAYS MODERATION OF WEATHER EXTREMES PROVISION OF BEAUTY AND RECREATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ii. Some genetic material in crop may have a high resistance towards disease and pest attack has improved the yield of crop production in agricultural sector. soils. moderates local temperatures and wind conditions. Species from throughout the tree of life are involve in cycling nitrogen. Therefore. reduces soil erosion. Green plants with other photosynthetic organism has produce an oxygen for human and other organism to breathe. . The dispersal of seeds by dispersal agent is among the importance of biodiversity in providing an ecosystem services. SUPPORT FOOD SECURITY AND LIVELIHOOD SUSTAINABILIY. The landscape consist of various flora and fauna has its own aesthetic (beauty) value that is suitable to release a stress and tension. carbon. streams. and increases the volume of water retained in the lakes. ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Biodiversity has provide an ecosystem services that improve the quality of abiotic environment. The diversity of agricultural product give more option towards human diet which aid in pointing out certain diet for macronutrient that is more suitable for certain disease and illness.5 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIODIVERSITY i. a loss in agricultural biodiversity may lead towards the stunt improvement in human health quality. and other nutrients through ecosystem. The diversity in genetic level in food system has become a basic concept in the development of crop for food security.
The loss of biodiversity may lead to worst case scenario as it leads to the depletion of natural resources required in producing medicine.7: Food pyramid Source: http://www. Biodiversity of flora and fauna found in nature has become a stock reservoir for medicinal purposes.com/art05-pyramid.Figure 2.html Food pyramid is an example where the importance of biodiversity were applied in our daily diet. What happen if food only come form a few sources? iii.weight-loss-program. such alternative in meal would not exist and we all would be depending on only a few type of food where the sustainable security of it would be questioned as it threatened towards depletion in a faster rate. Without those diversity. . RESOURCES FOR MEDICINAL RESEARCH Most of the medication uses in the hospital to treat an illness were extracted from the flora and fauna that is widely found in nature.
Biodiversity can be separated into three level which are ________________. which is called _____________________ 6. The classification level which classes with similar characteristics are grouped is called ______________________ 2. In south Africa. In 2004. 428 in 1986 to over 6 million in 1999. Linnaeus develop a system for naming and classifying organisms. How does these level different from each other? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ . ecotourism grew three times faster than the tourism industry as a whole.iv. for example the number of tourist visiting wildlife preserves increased from 454. The classification level in which similar genera are grouped is called _____________________ 5. Besides that. Similar families are combined into _________________________ 4. Orders with common properties are combined into _______________________ 3. Quick check 1. IMPROVE THE ECONOMIC STATUS Recreation based on visiting wild places or ecotourism is a major industry internationally and Is growing rapidly. the uses of biological control agent has improves crop production in term of preventing it from pest attack without the use of chemical pesticides that is hazardous towards human health. __________________ and ________________.
___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ 7. how does those ecosystem services gives benefit towards human? ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ . Biodiversity has an important role in giving an Ecosystem services. Could you explain.


text:
Business intelligence visualization components for Keen.io

## Installation

[TBD]

## Usage

Look through the following snippets to grasp a feeling of the usage.

```javascript
// (1) Declare your Keen clients
var client = new Keen({
  projectId: '[PROJECT_ID]',
  readKey: '[READ_KEY]'
});

Keen.ready(function() {

    // (2) Define your Keen queries
    var kpi1 = new Keen.Query('count', {
      eventCollection: 'collection_name',
      timeframe: 'previous_12_months',
      filters: [{
        property_name: 'event',
        operator: 'eq',
        property_value: 'KPI1'
      }],
      interval: 'monthly'
    });
    var kpi2 = new Keen.Query('count', {
      eventCollection: 'collection_name',
      ...
    });

    // (3) Draw your scorecard
    new Viz.Scorecard('#sc01').draw([{
      name: 'KPI 1',
      client: client,
      query: kpi1,
      meta: {
        bullet: { target: 1500 }
      }
    }, {
      name: 'KPI 2',
      client: client,
      query: kpi2,
      meta: {
        bullet: { target: 500 }
      }
    }]);

});
```

```html
<html>
  <head>
       ...
      <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="assets/css/cvo-viz.min.css"/>
  </head>
  <body>
    ...
    <!-- Scorecard table -->
    <table id="sc01">
       <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>Trailing Year</th>
          <th>Metric</th>
          <th>% of Target</th>
          <th>Last Month</th>
          <th>MoM</th>
        </tr>
       </thead>
       <tbody>
       <tr data-kpi-template>
        <td class="kpi-sparkline"></td>
        <td class="kpi-title"></td>
        <td>
           <div class="kpi-bullet-value"></div>
           <div class="kpi-bullet"></div>
        </td>
        <td class="kpi-last-value"></td>
        <td><span class="kpi-delta"></span></td>
      </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
    ...
    <!-- JS dependencies -->
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.4/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/keen-js/3.2.7/keen.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery-sparklines/2.1.2/jquery.sparkline.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="assets/cvo-viz.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="my-dashboard.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>
```

## Examples

Browse the `examples` folder for complete use cases.

## Components

### Scorecards

Scorecards display progress over time. They allow you to display state indicators and provide visual feedback linked to your KPIs. Having a fast and easy way to determine the status of a business metric makes it far easier to take action and make appropriate decisions more quickly and accurately.

*Screenshot*
[TBD]

*Configuration Options*
[TBD]

*Supported Keen Queries*
[TBD]

*Expected Markup*
[TBD]

### Funnels

[TBD]

## Building

Javascript

```
$ npm run-script build-js
```
Styles

```
$ npm run-script build-css
```

## Testing

```
$ npm test
```


text:
News from sovereign capital A wide array of domestic and global news stories; news topics include politics/government, business, technology, religion, sports/entertainment, science/nature, and health/lifestyle.
Apr 12, 2013, 05:04 ET Sovereign Capital Named 'Investor of the Year' at Independent Specialist Care Awards
Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, is delighted to announce that it has won the 'Investor of the Year' category at the...
Apr 12, 2013, 05:00 ET Sovereign's Astrum Education Appoints New Chief Executive and Announces New Facility
Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, is pleased to announce that the newly named 'Astrum Education Group' ("Astrum...
Mar 08, 2013, 12:57 ET Sovereign's City & County Extends Complex Care Offering With Acquisition of ISS Healthcare
Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, today announces the acquisition of ISS Healthcare Limited ("ISS") by portfolio...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
It's been quite a week news-wise: the murders in Israel, the jailing of Rolf Harris and Andy Coulson, the rebirth of the Caliphate and the extraordinary story about Leon Brittan and the missing sex abuse dossier....
...(and, golly gosh, cor blimey guv, hasn't the world of social media been absolutely abuzz about that last story this week? Can it really be true what they're saying? It's scarcely believable (but, then again, so was Rolf Harris). Some newspapers, especially the Daily Mail, are giving all manner of collaborative hints that some of it is true. If it is, the most shocking is yet to come.)
Newsnight covered all of these stories this week but, in keeping with Ian Katz's frothy tendencies (which I don't mind one bit), there were many lighter items too: The art of conversation, Caitlin Moran, Monty Python, the Tour de France, etc.
Anyone wanting to bash Newsnight as a Guardianista left-liberal w***fest (as Laura Kuenssberg might put it), may wish to check out Tuesday's edition: Caitlin Moran, Mehdi Hasan, Marcus Brigstocke!
Well, here's what they covered, how they framed it and who they interviewed:
1. The murder of the Israeli teens: "The three kidnapped Israeli teenagers are found dead in a pit on the West Bank. Hamas is getting the blame and, if history is a guide, the Israeli response will be emotional. But could it also be disproportionate? We hear from the Israeli and Palestinians." Interview with Daniel Taub, Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom & Mustafa Bargouti, leader, Palestinian National Initiative Party.
2. Rolf Harris: "Another well-loved children's entertainer turns out to be a predatory hypocrite. Rolf Harris is found guilty of sexually assaulting children. We ask: Would we notice the same crimes today?". Interviewer with Keir Starmer, Director of Public Prosecutions 2008-13 & John Cameron, Head of Child Protection, NSPCC.
3. Interview with Al Qaeda double agent: "The first UK TV interview with the Western intelligence agent who says he infiltrated al-Qaeda."
Morten Storm: "If I made a mistake or talked in my sleep or anything before those people I would have been exposed and I would have ended up being crucified"
Report featuring interview with Morten Storm.
4. Len McCluskey: "The size of your backer's cheque book matters a lot in politics and with less than a years to the general election the parties need to be sure they've got a supply of readies. Despite tensions in their relationship, as of today Labour can be confident of significant financial support from Unite, the union, who announced its plans to help pay Labour's way today. But are they really convinced Ed Miliband is getting everything right? Not quite." Interview with Len McCluskey, General Secretary, Unite.
5. The lost art of conversation: "When did you last have a proper conversation? Yes, I'm talking to you with your 'What's app?' open on your phone and your Tweetdeck up on your tablet. Researchers say new technology like that is killing the art of civilised discourse. Perish the thought! It seems many of us prefer to edit our thoughts in a text rather than engage in the unpredictable to-and-fro of a face-to-face discussion, but enthusiasts for this endangered activity are hitting back with etiquette classes and sessions of in-depth conversations between strangers".
Tuesday 1/7
1. Why are we building fewer houses?: "The dream of home ownership: The plan was going so well. Or was it? Tonight Newsnight reveals the official government documents that show house-building is set to fall. How will today's voters react to the news that when it comes to housing, they've never had it so bad? Might they blame the government?" Interview with Lord Adonis (Labour).
2. Ed Miliband's image: Interview with Lord Adonis (Labour), Rachel Sylvester, The Times & Mehdi Hasan, biographer of Ed Miliband.
3. The murder of the Israeli teens: "Israel buries the three Israeli teenagers they say were killed by Hamas. What retaliation will follow this? Mark Urban is in Jerusalem."
Mark Urban: "Israel's security cabinet is still in session and trying to decide how much of a response will satisfy its public".
Interview with Ari Shavit, author, 'My Promised Land: the triumph and tragedy of Israel'
4. Caitlin Moran's new novel: "Caitlin Moran's new novel, 'How to Build a Girl'. She's here to talk about sex, sexism and getting a sociopolitical 'freak-on'(??)" Interview with Caitlin Moran, author.
5. Is Monty Python still funny?: "Is Monty Python still funny? We send our comedy experts to the opening night of their sellout reunion".
Marcus Brigstocke: "Well, Ash and I are about to go and see Monty Python who are mostly still alive, and we're tremendously excited."
Ash Atalla: "And let's hope we make it back to the studio in time. If not it will just be an empty wheelchair and some blue suede shoes".
Interview with Ash Atalla, TV producer & Marcus Brigstocke, "comedian".
[Closing credits: Images of Esther Honig, a journalist who asked photo shops to "Make me look beautiful"]
1. What happened to a 1980s Home Office dossier on alleged child sex abuse?: "A dossier detailing alleged sex abuse involving prominent public figures thirty year ago is missing from Home Office files. The Home Secretary at the time, Leon Brittan, admitted he received it but says he passed in on to officials. Is it finally time for a parliamentary inquiry into historic child abuse?" Interview with Tim Laughton MP (Conservative), Children's Minister 2010-12 & Meg Munn MP (Labour).
2. The murder of a Palestinian teen: "Violence flares in Jerusalem after the body of a Palestinian teenager is found today. Was it a reprisal for the murder of three teenage Israelis?"
Mark Urban: "It raises the spectre of further tit-for-tat sectarian murder over the heads of leaders' appeals for restraint."
3. Labour and business: "Wooing big business: On the eve of a charm offensive by Ed Miliband, is Labour an attractive proposition?"
Laura Kuenssberg: "Does business trust Labour?"
Businessman: "Errrrrr....Pass!"
"I'll be speaking to the Shadow Chancellor". Interview with Ed Balls MP (Labour).
4. Iraq: "The Iraqi Nouri al-Maliki has offered an amnesty to militants willing to return to their senses and abandon the ISIS-led insurgency which is threatening to tear the country apart. The insurgents now hold vast swathes of territory spanning the Iraqi-Syrian border, and fighter jets, thought to be Iranian, landed in Baghdad today as the Iraqi military struggles to fight back." [Gabriel Gatehouse talks to Shia militias in Baghdad].
5. The mystery of the bodies being washed up on the Isle of Wight: "Bodies on the beaches of the Isle of Wight: Could burials at sea to be blame?"
[Closing credits: A Japanese politician apologises - for hours]
Thursday 3/7
1. British plans over Syria: "A secret British plan to intervene in Syria. Newsnight can reveal how the British military planned to train and to arm 100,000 rebels. We ask the Foreign Office minister at the time if the West missed a chance to defeat Assad?" Interview with Alistair Burt MP (Conservative), Foreign Office Minister 2010-13 & Rime Allaf, advisor to President of Syrian Coalition.
2. Iraq: "A former jihadi tells us about cells of insurgents already in Baghdad waiting to take the city."
Gabriel Gatehouse: "I've been speaking to a man who knew Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the secretive leader of ISIS, for an insight into how the group operates."
Report featuring interview with Hisham al-Hashimi, Iraqi government advisor on ISIS.
3. HS2: "The man in charge of HS2 tells us why he and his executes should be paid more than the Prime Minister." Interview with Sir David Higgins, Chair, HS2.
4. GlaxoSmithKline: "Even the biggest companies in the world don't have the power to protect themselves from scandal - not least when they're accused by one of the biggest governments in the world of breaking the rules. GlaxoSmithKline, the British drugs firm, has found themselves in rather a lot of trouble after allegations of bribery were laid at the door of its Chinese operation. The BBC's China Editor, Carrie Gracie, has uncovered some of the trail of emails that has put GSK under such pressure."
5. Tour de France: "Up hill and down dale: Steve Smith's been to Yorkshire for Tour de France fever, starting with the very basics." Interview with Daniel Knowles, Britain Correspondent, The Economist & Jools Walker, 'Lady Velo' blogger.
[Closing credits: The Watershed's 50th Anniversary, Mary Whitehouse & lots and lots of f***ing uses of the f-word from a f***-mouthed Laura ****sberg].
1. Pensioner prisoners: "Pensioner prisoners: The number of OAPs behind bars has doubled in ten years. Rolf Harris, sentenced today, fits the trend. Four out of ten of them are sex offenders. Are the jails fit to cope? And does anyone care if they're not?"
2. Hamas: "As Palestinians gather to bury their murdered teenager, Newsnight speaks exclusively to the Palestinian group Hamas". Interview with Osama Hamdan, Foreign Affairs spokesman, Hamas.
3. New aircraft carrier: "Will our new aircraft carrier save the realm, or is it a truly massive waste of money? Just don't call it 'a boat' or this man will get very cross". Interview with Admiral Lord West (Labour), First Sea Lord 2002-06 & Mary Kaldor, Professor of Global Governance, LSE.
[Closing credits: A jokey piece about bored people electrocuting themselves during a speech by David Cameron].
Labels: 'Newsnight'
The way Emily Maitlis interviewed Osama Hamdam was disgraceful: She treated him as if he was a criminal, when he was explaining that the Palestinians were the victims of an occupation in which they were being killed, injured and dispossessed by the Israelis.
Sorry anonymous.
This is Hamas...who want Jews exterminated.
How they even get a platform to peddle their anti-Semite slurry is so BBC.
I know what Hamas think-and always will do-of Jews being anywhere in the world, let alone in an area that they have long been living in...well before the deceits of Islam came a calling.
When we see some semblance of justice for the three Israeli lads, then I`ll be more inclined to worry about the murder of the Palestinian lad...as things stand, I`ve yet to see any evidence that Jews killed him...and trust the Israeli state to act impartially to bring his killers to justice, as soon as possible.
I`d far more believe that Hamas did this-or Fatah-than Jewish settlers, the timing seems awful convenient for the jihadists does it not?


Since buying my Nintendo 3DS XL, I have been on the hunt for some incredibly fun games. After picking up Pokemon Y and Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds, I began to crave more of that "Nintendo magic" that the aforementioned games had given me. Along comes Kirby Triple Deluxe, a character whose games I had not played since my toddler years. Although it's an incredibly fun ride, it ends all too short and left me wanting more.
The story of Kirby kicks off with Kirby awaking in his house attached to a beanstalk growing higher and higher into the heavens. King Dedede has been kidnapped by a mysterious floating spider and it is up to Kirby to rescue the King.
The Walking Dead Season 2 continues and our characters find themselves at the mercy of a madman who has them imprisoned and forced to work to "earn their keep." Like so many times before this season, Clementine finds herself in the middle of all of the action as the group relies on her to help them.
Tex Murphy is quite a guy. We last saw him getting shot with his girlfriend back in 1998. Back then, adventure games were commonplace and so was Full Motion Video, or FMV for short. Sadly, we haven't been able to discover what really happened to Tex… That is until now!
Episode 3 of The Wolf Among Us begins right where Episode 2 left off. I don't want to spoil anything but Bigby is not very happy and is rushing to try and get the killer, from the first two games, before they gets away. As this is a story in the middle of the planned storyline, it wouldn't make much sense if things went well.
Blizzard has released the long-anticipated follow-up to Diablo III with the expansion Reaper of Souls. This provides players with a brand new Act, number 5, that picks up the story where the game last left off. Players will be able to continue through Act 5 with their level 60 characters and journey against the Angel of Death Malthael.
Gunnar Optiks has unleashed a new line of colorful glasses in their Intercept line of glasses. They come in a variety of colors including Cobalt, Fire, Ink, and Ghost.
The developers at Kerberos Productions bring us Sword of the Stars: The Pit, and it's expansion 'Mindgames' - an action roguelike with a neat sci-fi flair.
The goblins have begun to attack human cities and settlements to steal sunstones and relics used to power the city and its devices. In their path destruction is seen. But these aren't any ordinary goblins.
One of the first games I booted up on my shiny, new PlayStation 4 was the Puzzle title Contrast. This was one of two free games Sony gave away as part of their "Instant Game Collection" for PlayStation Plus. Since every launch PS4 comes with a free month of the service, there is no reason to not give Contrast a try.
The NEO GEO X is a handheld and home console based on the home ultra expensive home console from the 90's. At a time when the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo were being played, users could get real arcade quality graphics and gameplay on their home televisions. This was something that was unheard of at the time.
Lets be honest here. When I heard that Vicarious Visions was at the helm of the next Skylanders game, I felt like this would be the time the series turned into a cash grab with a quick and cheap update to the title, more toys, and no focus on the actual game.
In the follow-up to Telltale Games' epic The Walking Dead Season 1, we are treated to a new tale based on Bill Willingham's Fables comic book series.
This year marks the twenty-fifth year of Madden Football. Twenty-five years, spanning a multitude of console and PC generations that is nearly as old as I am.
Atlus has waited 9 years to give us a true, numbered, sequel to Shin Megami Tensei. And boy was the wait worth it as Shin Megami Tensei IV, which we will refer to as SMT4 periodically in this review, creates a memorable experience that makes you want to play on your 3DS instead of a larger-screened console.
Sid Meier's Civilization is one of the most well known strategy games of all time. The franchise has spawned countless sequels and appeared on a variety of platforms. However, deepest, most complex titles have only appeared on the PC and Mac platforms.


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text:
Feb. 27, 2021, 11:57 a.m.
#license #opensource
In early 2020, when international travel was still a responsible thing one could do, I gave a talk on "what makes a license successful" at FOSDEM in Brussels. I then wrote a blog post about it, got some writer's block, and never finished it. But recent interest in the topic, and specifically on what lawyers can (or can't) contribute to the success of a license, made me decide to dust it off and hit publish. You can think of this post as the questions I would ask, and the advice I would give, to anyone seeking to promote new, innovative licenses, of any sort.
Tidelift disclaimer
Tidelift believes that the best way to increase the use (and profitability) of open source is to minimize points of friction and so, when appropriate, we've criticized new licenses. At the same time, we want to empower developers to support themselves in a way that works for them.
So this blog post (and the talk before it) are neither an endorsement nor a rejection of new licenses. Rather, I hope it's a useful reference checklist that will help some folks new to the licensing space realize how big a challenge they face, while constructively helping the most dedicated reach their goals effectively.
What is license success?
In my mind, outcomes for a license that seeks to change developer behavior (as copyleft did and ethical licensing seeks to do again) can range from:
vanishing into the giant battlefield of information overload without a sound
stimulating discussion, without actually seeing much adoption
getting adopted by enough software to actually have an impact at the margins
actually changing an industry
It's entirely likely that the GPL's trick of doing #4 is no longer possible, because the industry is too vast. ("It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism," but for software…) I am perhaps naive enough to think #3 might still be possible, and this post is written with that in mind. (If you're going for #2—stimulate discussion—at least some of what is below will apply, but some will not, so be realistic if that's where you think you want to be.)
TL;DR: Movement building, or product marketing—take your pick
Here's the thing: Public-use licenses are not like other legal documents, which tend to be drafted by clients who badly need the document, memorialized, and then forgotten about until something goes very wrong.
Instead, public-use licenses are like a product: they must find (or sometimes create) a market, often with "customers" who don't know the product exists; they must evolve as the "customer" and market evolves; they must find advocates and mollify doubters (or sometimes even actively fight enemies).
These things (and more) are not qualities a legal document, by itself, can have. They're qualities of movements, or, if that word scares you, qualities of good product management. So, the question you have to ask yourself, if you're thinking about writing an innovative license, is "do I want to do the hard work of building a long-term movement?"
Drafting the document itself
Let's get this one out of the way. There have been a lot of words written (ironically!) about clarity in license and contract drafting, including by me. I do love great, clear writing! But here's the thing: drafting almost certainly doesn't matter. Or at least, "perfect" drafting is unnecessary.
GPL v2: When introduced, it was widely considered by attorneys to be badly drafted and possibly unenforceable. And yet it was hugely successful.
GPL v3 and MPL v2 were much better drafted than GPL v2, and yet have seen relatively slower adoption, each about a decade in.
There are a variety of new, better-drafted permissive licenses (Intel's BSD+Patent, Oracle's Universal Public License, Blue Oak Model License, etc.). Yet, they have poor adoption relative to the literally comically drafted WTFPL, much less "antique" licenses like BSD and MIT.
It is true that there is probably a minimum competence level that must be met when drafting new licenses. A license can't have glaring, total failures (though I have publicly written that open data licenses are borderline unworkable, and they are nevertheless powering a multi-billion-dollar industry). Despite that, I now suspect that the optimal level of time spent on drafting is closer to 1-3 intensive months than the 1-3 intensive years some recent licenses have taken.
Unfortunately, "work less on drafting" is about the only time-saving advice I'll offer in this post—the rest is a long, hard slog that will be familiar to movement (and product) builders.
Documentation and education (for lawyers)
Here's what takes the place of perfect drafting: good documentation and education. Unfortunately, this is not something you can write once and drop somewhere—it is an ongoing process, over a period of years.
The challenge here is that lawyers essentially have veto power over widespread license adoption, because of their role in corporate approval of new licenses. If they don't like or understand your license, it will go nowhere in corporate usage, and even the most firmly anti-corporate licenses typically require at least some corporate adoption to spur investment and influence for your license and the ideals it espouses.
Lawyers don't have to like the license; like a lion tamer, they're willing to take their chances if they have the right tools and the right reasons to be in the cage with the lion. But they must know the lion they're getting in the cage with, and have reason to believe they can work with the beast on its terms.
So consider:
How will lawyers learn about your license, once their developers come to them with a leading app released under your license (about which, more later)? Will it be just by reading the license, or will there be supplemental material that explains intent, context, etc.?
How will you revise and supplement that learning as your understanding of the license evolves? In other words, your drafting will have mistakes, because you're human. How will you address that once your mistakes are found?
How will you actively oppose lawyer-focused FUD about your license? Because, if you're trying to change the world, well-paid lawyers will come after your license. You will need to have time and resources committed to fight back, lawyer-to-lawyer.
GPL v2's 22,000 word FAQ, while imperfect, is the pre-eminent example of how ongoing education and explanation can work to assuage legal concerns. And it's a great reminder that a license is an ongoing, contextual work: as corner cases are discovered, and as the underlying technology changes, communicating how the sponsor thinks about the license is important.
(This speaks directly to the question of movement-building. If you can't say who will be maintaining this sort of documentation in 5-10 years, and aren't ready to make that commitment yourself, you might not be the right person or organization to be writing a license.)
Vision and evangelism (non-lawyers)
But let's be real—lawyers aren't what make or break a license, either. You're doing this because you have a vision of a better world, and you think licensing is a useful tool to help work towards that vision.
You need to ask yourself —which developers are motivated by your vision? What are they motivated to do? Adoption of innovative licenses requires individual developers to be motivated to do some work, and take some risks. Is the vision of your license speaking to the people who can do that work and take those risks? How are you teaching them about the size and nature of the risk (which may be a lot smaller than they think)? Are these developers already at known watering holes? How are you preaching to those not yet converted?
GPL v2 was backed with very effective messaging and evangelism by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation. In contrast, Stallman all but actively campaigned against AGPL v3, repeatedly stating that all network services (regardless of license) were a bad idea, and keeping network/SaaS terms out of the "main" GPL v3 despite the sea change in the industry between the release of GPL v2 and v3. Given that stark contrast, it is no surprise that AGPL v3 has mostly failed to attract any organic adoption.
This is essentially a movement-building challenge (or, if you prefer, a marketing challenge). When you go to a lawyer to help you write a license, you should already have a pretty clear strategy in mind for this.
App that drives understanding
For a license to really have an impact, you probably need an application released under that license that will be unavoidable, and therefore force lawyers, businesses, and developers to understand the license.
Linux and MySQL were of course those unavoidable apps for GPL v2. To the extent MPL v2 has been successful at all, it is almost completely because Firefox forced a huge community of people to get comfortable with it—and some became fans and evangelists themselves.
For a long time, I thought Mongo was such an app for AGPL v3, and would cause more people to learn about (and therefore eventually become comfortable with) that license. But in writing the Brussels talk that gave birth to this blog post, I realized why this apparent contradiction was not a contradiction at all: Mongo drove lots of awareness of AGPL, but very little understanding, because Mongo preferred uncertainty and lack of understanding. As a result, despite being leading users, they were not leading advocates. (This suggests that an org that wants to publish an innovative license should consider what happens when the leading app is actually hostile to the license.)
That said, it is useful to keep in mind that an unavoidable app may not be enough. The Open Database License is a useful counter-example. Open Street Map is the second-biggest open culture project, after Wikipedia, and has caused many lawyers to read the Open Database License. But the license is nevertheless not widely liked or adopted, and arguably not particularly impactful overall. This is a good reminder that even extremely successful products can only do so much if other pieces of the puzzle aren't in place.
If you're innovating to act on a moral and ethical vision of some sort, presumably you're not the first person to have that vision—or at least something like it.
What is your strategy, as a license innovator, to find and use those partnerships?
The GPL succeeded in large part because IBM made a conscious choice to use the Linux kernel, and invested in many things around the GPL as a result. Perhaps, in writing the next generation copyleft, or a new ethical license, you don't trust IBM, but consider who will be the big partner who publicizes your license (or just as likely, the leading apps under those licenses).
For example, I suspect we'll all have to take the various carbon licenses (like the Atmospheric License) more seriously when they're able to partner with one of the existing carbon divestment initiatives to help them properly define the problem, and work with existing communities (which likely include some programmers!) to drive developer engagement. In your ethical challenges, who are those partners? What knowledge can you gain from them? What existing communities can you lean on?
In a topic I can't believe I didn't have in the original talk, it's important to mention license governance. If you're just throwing a permissive license over the fence, governance matters less. If you're trying to innovate, odds are high you're going to have to make judgment calls—including possibly publishing new versions. And that requires reassuring potential users about how those decisions are going to be made, not just before the license is published but for a long time afterwards.
The governance model for a license need not be particularly complex; the reality of movements, including some of the most successful open source licenses, is that "charismatic authoritarian decision-maker" has a relatively long history of success. But in this day and age one likely has a better chance of success if one can at least explain what governance infrastructure is in place for the long run.
Scope of, and incentives for, enforcement
As I mentioned earlier, for a corporate lawyer (or even for many developers), getting involved with a new license is a bit like getting in the cage with a lion. The more assurances you have that the lion won't eat you, the better!
In license design and drafting, this speaks to clarity for the scope of enforcement. For example, if a carbon license asks "do you have $10,000 invested in oil companies?", I'm not even sure that I would know how to figure that out (since my retirement money is largely in mutual funds). So that language creates costs for me, without much impact on carbon emissions, since my investments are nowhere near large enough to impact corporate decision-making.
In contrast, imagine a license that was very specific—"the top 100 carbon-reserve-owning companies cannot use this software." That frees virtually everyone else to use the software without worry, while giving you a clear set of target, risk-averse organizations to go after.
Narrowing the scope of enforcement in that way may not be appropriate for every cause, but it's something to always consider.
Similarly, a license-based movement should also have a clear (or at least aspirational!) strategy for enforcement. If your theory is "the mass-murderers of the world have ignored justice for too long, but surely copyright licensing will bring them to their knees" … maybe you need a different theory. ? That theory could be, for example, targeting the type of company that is somehow related to your problem and who are known to have large, risk-averse legal teams. It could also involve movement partners (as I mentioned above), who may already have impact litigation teams. It could involve particularly targeting pieces of software that are web-exposed, so that you can scan the world for violations. Whatever the strategy is (and there may be many different strategies for many different movements!), it must be something, and it must be something more than just "bad people will read the license and see the error of their ways."
Which brings us to the last question: are you in this for the long run? Because you need to be.
The first versions of Apache and GPL were each rewritten before they saw truly mass adoption. Many other licenses that tried to change the world never saw mass success at all. If you're thinking of this as a one-year project, strongly consider not doing it.
TL;DR: again
If you haven't planned a movement, strongly consider not writing a license. Or perhaps the more positive version: if you build a movement, maybe you won't need a license! In either case, think long and hard before choosing licensing as the lever to change the world.


text:
New From Sean Rowe: "Gas Station Rose"
By Greg Haymes	 On Feb 1, 2017
Here's "Gas Station Rose," the first track from Sean Rowe's upcoming album, New Lore, slated for release on Friday, April 7…
THE DOZEN: February's Must-See Concerts
Song o' the Week: "Love Starvation" by Nick Lowe & Los…
Song o' the Week: Ryder Cooley & the Dust Bowl Faeries'…
Song o' the Week: Young Culture's "21 Days"
Song o' the Week: Sister Sparrow's "Gold"
Song o' the Week: "Love Starvation" by…
Song o' the Week: Ryder Cooley & the Dust Bowl…
Song o' the Week: Young Culture's "21…


Made of plated gold or plated silver with a scroll design, this ornate metal purse frame measures 5" across and and has hinged loops for a chain that you can make short enough for a hand-held purse or long enough for a shoulder bag.
Available with or without a purse chain. Sorry we do not have pictures of silver frame or the #3 twisted chain at this time. It is the only style of chain available in silver plated and is 40" long.
We have 3 designs/sizes of chain, so let us know if you want one of the other styles/lengths, if you are not getting the silver frame.


Playing in online casinos provides better opportunity to play a casino game with better odds and good pay outs to online gamblers. The online casino is a venue for a comfortable casino games. With the so many benefits that online casinos have in store for their loyal online casino patrons there is no doubt why many gamblers now prefer playing in online casinos.
One of the most attractive offers that an online casino provide for their loyal regular online patrons is the many bonus offers that usually come inherent to their membership to an online casino.
For a better experience it is important for an online casino player to understand the various terminologies that online casinos commonly use with the bonuses they offer. The bonuses offered by most online casinos are usually coupled with conditional rules before an online player can cash out or use the bonus. It is important that they understand exactly what is stipulated on these conditions to make an assessment whether the bonus they can avail is really something that they want or can benefit them.
The basic terminologies applied to bonuses are what a beginner online casino player should know. This will give them better experience and will make them feel more comfortable when they are familiar with the terms applied to their casino activities. Understanding every terminologies used in online casinos makes one an informed and educated online casino player.
An online player needs to have a bankroll in order to play an online casino game. Bankroll is the total amount of money a player have in his account which include their deposit, bonuses and winnings. Upon signing an account to an online casino, online players usually become automatically entitled to sign up bonuses. Online players are only able to avail of this bonus when they meet the required number of wagers by an online casino.
Online players should realize that all bonuses always come with terms and conditions. Often it is important that an online player educate themselves with the common terminologies used when playing in online casino for better understanding on how to avail of the bonuses.
The wagering requirement in order to avail a bonus by an online player is usually increased by most online casinos in their desire to gain more profit from their players. Likewise they also make extensive variations of bonuses to become available to their players in order to cater the different preferences of online players.
The different online casino bonuses that are represented by various terminologies can be numerous with different applied principles and conditions which an online player needs to know and understand to be able to maximize the benefits they can get from the bonuses they can avail.


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IDX provided courtesy of Realcomp II Ltd., via Community Choice Realty Inc and Realcomp, ©2019 Realcomp II Ltd. Shareholders.


text:
import logging
import psycopg2

from patroni.dcs import DCSError

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

class Ha:

    def __init__(self, state_handler, etcd):
        self.state_handler = state_handler
        self.dcs = etcd
        self.cluster = None
        self.old_cluster = None

    def load_cluster_from_dcs(self):
        cluster = self.dcs.get_cluster()

        # We want to keep the state of cluster when it was healhy
        if cluster.is_unlocked() and self.cluster and not self.cluster.is_unlocked():
            self.old_cluster = self.cluster
        if not self.old_cluster:
            self.old_cluster = cluster
        self.cluster = cluster

    def acquire_lock(self):
        return self.dcs.attempt_to_acquire_leader()

    def update_lock(self):
        return self.dcs.update_leader(self.state_handler)

    def has_lock(self):
        lock_owner = self.cluster.leader and self.cluster.leader.name
        logger.info('Lock owner: %s; I am %s', lock_owner, self.state_handler.name)
        return lock_owner == self.state_handler.name

    def demote(self):
        return self.state_handler.demote(self.cluster.leader)

    def follow_the_leader(self):
        return self.state_handler.follow_the_leader(self.cluster.leader)

    def run_cycle(self):
        try:
            self.load_cluster_from_dcs()
            if not self.state_handler.is_healthy():
                has_lock = self.has_lock()
                self.state_handler.write_recovery_conf(None if has_lock else self.cluster.leader)
                self.state_handler.start()
                if not has_lock:
                    return 'started as a secondary'
                logger.info('started as readonly because i had the session lock')
                self.load_cluster_from_dcs()

            if self.cluster.is_unlocked():
                if self.state_handler.is_healthiest_node(self.old_cluster):
                    if self.acquire_lock():
                        if self.state_handler.is_leader() or self.state_handler.role == 'master':
                            return 'acquired session lock as a leader'
                        else:
                            self.state_handler.promote()
                            return 'promoted self to leader by acquiring session lock'
                    else:
                        self.load_cluster_from_dcs()
                        if self.state_handler.is_leader():
                            self.demote()
                            return 'demoted self due after trying and failing to obtain lock'
                        else:
                            self.follow_the_leader()
                            return 'following new leader after trying and failing to obtain lock'
                else:
                    self.load_cluster_from_dcs()
                    if self.state_handler.is_leader():
                        self.demote()
                        return 'demoting self because i am not the healthiest node'
                    else:
                        self.follow_the_leader()
                        return 'following a different leader because i am not the healthiest node'
            else:
                if self.has_lock() and self.update_lock():
                    if self.state_handler.is_leader() or self.state_handler.role == 'master':
                        return 'no action.  i am the leader with the lock'
                    else:
                        self.state_handler.promote()
                        return 'promoted self to leader because i had the session lock'
                else:
                    logger.info('does not have lock')
                    if self.state_handler.is_leader():
                        self.demote()
                        return 'demoting self because i do not have the lock and i was a leader'
                    else:
                        self.follow_the_leader()
                        return 'no action.  i am a secondary and i am following a leader'
        except DCSError:
            logger.error('Error communicating with DCS')
            if self.state_handler.is_leader():
                self.state_handler.demote(None)
                return 'demoted self because DCS is not accessible and i was a leader'
        except psycopg2.Error:
            logger.exception('Error communicating with Postgresql.  Will try again')


text:
Liverpool Competition
MI Dental Liverpool Competition Division One: Ainsdale in top tier for first time
Liverpool Road side's 41-run defeat of Highfield confirms promotion and all but guarantees league title
Paul Edwards
Ainsdale's Martyn Farrell Ainsdale took 6-73 against Highfield as the Liverpool Road confirmed their promotion with a 41-run victory (Roger Green)
Ainsdale will be playing ECB Premier League cricket for the first time in the club's history next season.
The Liverpool Road side's 41-run defeat of Highfield confirmed their promotion and all but guaranteed that the MI Dental Liverpool Competition's First Division title will be won by Andy Barlow's side, too.
Darren Tyms' 47 was the highest score in the home side's 201-9 declared in 48.3 overs and slow left-armer Martyn Farrell then took 6-73 as the relegation-threatened visitors were limited to 160 all out in 46 overs.
The win leaves Ainsdale 25 points clear of Southport and Birkdale but the battle for the second promotion place in still very much alive going into the final week of the season.
S&B are probably favourites after their 120-run victory over Maghull but four other clubs are still in the hunt.
And the chances of Chris Firth's team leading the pack looked pretty slim when they slipped to 44-5 at Old Hall Field before Dean Skelton's fine 57 and 59-run eighth-wicket stand with Firth saw their side post 191, a total which was far too steep for Maghull.
The home side were dismissed for 71 and remain in a three-way tussle with Highfield and Prestatyn to avoid relegation to the league's third tier.
Jackson Burns took 6-37 and Andy Warhurst 4-17 in an innings that lasted only 24.5 overs.
However, the situation at both top and bottom of the First Division would look very different had Prestatyn managed even another boundary against Sefton Park in one of the games of the day.
Gareth Boughey's 4-9 and Sampath Perera's 3-35 had seen the home side dismissed for 117 in 30.1 overs and that looked enough when the Welsh side collapsed to 34-6.
But Gareth Leonard's 47 not out revived their hopes and it needed Jameel Stuart's 3-13 to lop off the visitors' tail when they were just five runs short of victory. Sefton Park now trail Southport and Birkdale by 16 points.
Fleetwood Hesketh lost to Newton-le-Willows by 46 runs.
Things to do LiverpoolDisney inspired bottomless brunch is coming to LiverpoolIt's the perfect excuse for a singalong
Man due in court after death of 34-year-old 'assaulted' at business park
CrimeLiam O'Brien, from West Derby, is due to appear at Manchester Magistrates' Court today
Harvey Elliott plan explained after what he did in first training session after Liverpool comeback
Liverpool FCHarvey Elliott returned to team training on Tuesday but won't be considered for Liverpool's trip to Arsenal
Mystery 'explosion' and 'loud bangs' wake people in the middle of night
HalewoodPeople were confused at what the noise could have been


text:
Castle: Are You Glad the ABC Series Was Cancelled?
by Trevor Kimball, May 17, 2016
This evening, ABC aired the series finale of Castle. After eight seasons and 173 episodes, the Monday night drama came to an end. While fans of the show will surely miss Rick (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic), it turns out that the cancellation might have been a good thing for the show's legacy. SPOILERS AHEAD.
In the final moments of the last episode, Rick and Beckett were shot by Caleb (Kris Polaha). While Beckett was able to take out their assailant, the beloved couple was gravely injured. It looked like this could be the end but the finale's final moments flashed forward seven years into the future and showed the couple with their three children. A happy ending.
The final scene was an alternate ending. Had ABC renewed Castle for a ninth season, the episode would have ended quite differently — and likely not happily.
Due to budget cuts, Katic (and Tamala Jones) wouldn't have been a part of season nine. Based on the rest of tonight's series finale, it seems likely that Rick Castle would have continued on in season nine — as a widower.
Considering that the relationship of Rick and Beckett has always been at the core of the series, it's hard to imagine that many fans would have embraced that development and it could have ended up being a sad finish to a beloved series. For once, perhaps a show's cancellation was a good thing.
But, what do you think? Would you have liked to see a ninth season — without Beckett? Was the cancellation a good thing? Would you like to see the characters return some day?
More about: Castle, Castle: canceled or renewed?
Castle: Cliffhanger Ending Not Included on Season Eight DVDs
Castle: Nathan Fillion Discusses the Series' End and Season Nine
Castle: What Would Have Happened If the Show Hadn't Been Cancelled
Castle: Cancelled ABC Series Continues in Book Form
Castle: ABC Series Creator Sends Messages to the Cast
Castle, Nashville: Why the ABC Shows Were Cancelled
Castle: Nathan Fillion Reacts to ABC Cancellation
Castle: Cancelled by ABC; No Season Nine
Castle: Season Nine? ABC Reportedly Must Decide Today
Castle: Season Finale to Wrap Up 'Series-Long Mysteries'
Castle: Stana Katic and Tamala Jones Not in (Final?) Season Nine
Castle: Cancel or Renew for Season Nine?
Castle: Producers Hope Fillion and Katic Stay; Open to Spin-Off
Castle: Writers Planning for Series Cancellation (Again)
Castle: ABC Show Renewed for Seventh Season
I'm furious that once again American tv cancelled a show that has been running for years on a whim. As fans, I felt betrayed and treated like trash. On the other hand, I'm glad that they didn't continue the show without Beckett. I don't know which genius think they can continue the show without one of its two core characters, but that genius deserved to get fired from television businesses. I wish they sell the show to other tv channel that is willing to continue it, like what they did with Lucifer.
Gingerella
I AM FURIOUS WITH ABC FOR CANCELING CASTLE, IT WAS A STUPID MISTAKE!
I am furious that Castle was canceled.. No matter what ABC says it's Bull!!
lucy rigg
hell no im not glad castle was cancelled! the show is awesome, just because one or two actors want to quit, let them quit and please keep the show going,
Raquel Green
I felt that the ending was very tacky and a disservice to fans such as myself. I was shocked to learn that that was it. Actually, I thought that they (the writers) were moving toward better episodes because this one was such a big change. I was happy to see more excitement. Yes, it was okay to see that they survived (they always do) but what about all of the other characters that we've grown to love???? Again, very tacky. I am very disappointed at how Castle ended. After all, the show was called "Castle" and not Castle and whoever.… Read more »
Kristyna
I would've loved to see Beckett pregnant and go through more ups and downs with Castle while expecting their daughter and solving crimes together. This show has so many more possible stories to tell, not to mention that it could've easily led into a spin off of Caskett kids being all grown up and following into their parents footsteps or something like that with Caskett helping them out.
Maxine Madison
I am very unhappy of the cancellation. I was always eager for Mon. night
when Castle was on. Very disappointed.
No! My fiancé and I are very saddened and disappointed! We love the series! It would not be the same without Kate! They both make the show! I hope they reconsider and go another season! It's one of our few favorites!
Enjoyed the show for years but it has been getting stale lately and had lost its edge. Recent writing seemed off. The show would not have worked without Katic since she is really a bright star and fun to watch. The show would have been dull without her.
Loved the show and very upset!!!
Not happy at all. Loved the series and loved Kate and Rick together. It would have been awful to have her killed. They should have gone back to the previous writers. I will really miss this series. My Monday was all about waiting for Castle.


Don't fill in your calendars or make travel plans until you've read the weekend preview from KCBS Radio's traffic reporter Bob Pryor . His traffic tips and event suggestions cover the entire Bay Area and are available every Friday.
Things are getting back to normal after the holiday season and KCBS Radio traffic reporter Bob "Major Timesaver" Pryor is here with lots of great information about this weekend's special events and traffic.


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All photos: Flickr, Jeremy Price
Utter the word "hillbilly" to just about anybody and they'll immediately conjure up images of illiterate, inbred, toothless, tobacco chewing, Confederate flag-waving, darkie-lynching pig-fuckers. Some people however will also think of classic string-band country and western music, a genre created and developed by the more musically gifted among the aforementioned stereotypes. If the thought of hearing this kind of music performed live and with authenticity appeals to you, then you absolutely must go to Montreal's Wheel Club for "Hillbilly Night", the weekly Monday celebration of classic hillbilly music.
The history of the Wheel Club goes something like this; in the mid-1960s, Winnipeg-born country musician Bob Fuller came to Montreal in search of fame, or at least a few paying gigs. He began fronting a cocktail-lounge-music-type trio at a downtown club called The Blue Angel. Bob was unhappy playing music for which he had little passion in a club named after lighting your farts on fire (yes, a "blue angel" is the technical term for flatulence aflame), and eventually, with very few enthusiastic club-goers catching the trio, the unfortunately named establishment canned the other two musicians, but kept Bob as a solo act. Knowing that Bob was alone onstage with his guitar and a tear in his beer, his musically like-minded pals would bring their fiddles, banjos, and other assorted country music appropriate axes, load up on moonshine and trucker pills and join him onstage for shit-kickin', hog-callin', cousin-fuckin' jam sessions into the wee hours of the morning.
The jams were a rousing success, and a surprisingly large number of folks dug the music that Mr. Fuller and his pals were making. Inspired by this enthusiastic response, in 1966 Bob was inspired to found "The Old Time Country Music Club of Canada" (which is not really a for/non-profit foundation, just a group of people who like the same music) and the weekly "Hillbilly Night" jam sessions. From that point on, anybody with some musical talent and affinity for classic Country music could get up on stage and wail about Arkansas floods, freight train disasters, Kentucky moons and coal mines, or the heartbreak that comes when your wife (sister/daughter/cousin) leaves you for another family member.
Being a connoisseur of old-timey rural hick music and it's various stylistic off-shoots, Bob decided that a few rules were in order to maintain the musical integrity of the sounds so near and dear to his heart. His vision was one of hillbilly music enthusiasts, adhering to the conventions of the numerous sub-genres under the musical umbrella of C&W. Like the Grand Ole Opry, Bob strictly enforces several rules with regard to instrumentation: musicians can play banjos, mandolins, acoustic guitars, fiddles, string-bass, and auto-harps. There are NO drums allowed, and NO amplified instruments with the notable exception of the lap/pedal steel guitar. And performers may only play songs written before 1966, chosen from a repertoire of Honky Tonk, Bluegrass, Western Swing, and Rockabilly classics. Why are there such strict rules in place, you may wonder? The answer is simple, and if you know the difference between pre-1966 and post 1966 Country music, you know that just about everything that came after is pop-infused saccharin shit.
Since the foundation of "Hillbilly Night", The Old Time Country Music Club of Canada has moved from downtown to The Wheel Club on Cavendish boulevard in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce burrough. The decor, made up of mismatched floor tiles, folding chairs, dart boards and Christmas lights suits the willful musical and cultural time warp in which Bob Fuller, his friends and club patrons have been comfortably nestled since the mid-1960s. So, if you want to catch some genuine old time Country sounds, NOT of the variety that inspires hordes of Japanese people to don Stetson hats and cry out "We ruv Galfa Blooks!", and if you're a musician and have the balls to get onstage and sing "Your Cheatin' Heart", then drag your hillbilly ass to Hillbilly Night. Just make sure that your repertoire doesn't include any Randy Travis, or you'll be lynched from the Christmas lights while fans of REAL C&W throw darts at your corpse.
Every Monday Night from 8PM-1AM
3373, Cavendish Blvd.
www.wheelclub.wordpress.com
Steve Zincalloy
After years of intense grooming and training as part of a nimble-footed dance troupe whose sole purpose was to perform a perfectly choreographed routine to greet the messiah, Steve lost his faith and quit. The troupe became enraged by this abandonment, vowed violent revenge and Steve has been on the run ever since. He writes freelance articles to earn enough money to continue evading his would-be captors.
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I have been involved with NLP (neurolinguistic programming) for more than ten years, and have been training NLP for almost that long. In that time, I have used NLP as a window into developments in the evolution of coaching and the discoveries of neuroscience. I have developed long-term relationships with clients who return to me for training because they find that my teaching is both powerful and practical. There are many, many things I love about neurolinguistic programming and the gifts it has given me in a decade.
This week, I have listened to smart well-trained coaches who believe that any sustainable change takes at least three months, and to another smart, well-trained coach/therapist who says that research shows 3-10 sessions is the optimal length for helping someone make a desired change. Both camps insist that they get results for their clients, although the expert in brief interventions did not claim to get results for everyone. She claimed that it is only possible to get results from people who are ready to change.
Both camps claim to be client-focused (which is to say that they claim the client is the expert on his/her own life), although the longer camp seems willing to be more "directive."
How is it possible that both camps are telling the truth? Because the problem for someone who wants to change is that both camps are telling the truth, from a certain point of view.
I recently gathered some of my best friends and closest associates and asked them to bring as a gift a story of persistence. Persistence is not one of the sexier virtues, and it's one of the hardest to define. What's the difference between doing the same thing and expecting a different result (insanity!) and sticking to your plan long enough for it to work? Are you crazy if you keep hoping for something that isn't happening or are you unfocused if you abandon your goal because you don't get instant success?
It's Friday afternoon and you're looking back at a week of work. What did you accomplish this week? If it feels like nothing, look again. You did make progress and if you don't notice it, you will probably lose it. So if something is better now than it was on Monday, it's a good time to pay attention.
Paying attention to progress helps stabilize it in your mind so that it becomes part of the assumptions you take into Monday morning. It's often not enough to prevent slippage. What you need is to add a little oomph to progress so that it stays in place until you can get back to it.
Here's three ways to add oomph to your progress, illustrated with examples from my own week.
What difference does it make if work is just a little bit fun? Logically, fun is a distraction and there's no particular reason that a day with a little fun in it would be more productive than a day of focused, serious work. Practically, we all know that we're more likely to be productive if we're having a little fun mingled into our task focus. How does that work exactly?
First, it helps us remember that people are not computers and they don't work the way computers do. Our thinking is a complex weaving of reason and memory and sensory awareness and emotion. Fun can involve three of those, and that means that it's actually quite a rich form of thinking. A little fun is likely to be using a lot of your brain, and that wakes up more resources for applying to your work.
Have you ever had a day when what you wanted most was to laugh? It sometimes happens that thinking through problems and solutions is overwhelming and grinding out work is exhausting and the only real solution is to laugh. This is hard for introverts, since we laugh more easily in the company of others (we all know that laugh tracks work because the quickest way to get someone to laugh is to laugh yourself).
Several times a week, I spend time with my laughter coach. She does not charge by the hour, but she does value obedience and full engagement. My coach is my 18 month old niece. She is a giggle expert, but she has also mastered the grin and the chuckle and the bemused half smile that indicates she can sometimes suffer fools with good humour.
Influence is not always fun. Supportive influence is not always fun. If you want to communicate in a way that gets results, it will feel good overall. It might not feel good all the time.
Let's take coaching as an instance of supportive influence that can be tough on your sense of yourself and your beliefs about the world. This is not the popular view: visit any of the coaching associations or training advertisements and you won't find this caveat: This activity may break your heart or your spirit. Caution is encouraged. Nope. Instead you find definitions about 'partnering' and language around 'empowering.' Yes and.
Coaches training should ask: Do you know how to develop a strong heart, a strong head, and a strong stomach?
One of my favourite high school teachers used to say "We grow through pain." I didn't buy it then, and I don't buy it now. I look at small children and small plants. They are wonderful examples of growth. And no sane person believes that pain makes them grow faster or better. It's the sunshine the brings out the crocuses, not the ice storms.
I think we all want to believe that pain causes growth because it makes sense of pain. Since we all experience pain, it's rather nice to think that we gain something from the experience. We are even motivated to make that seem true, motivated to turn our thoughts or our actions in a new direction after pain.
One of the most effective tips I have learned after decades in post-secondary teaching and adult education is this: encourage people to applaud for one another. The form of the applause will change depending on the situation, but the effectiveness of applause will be constant across different ages and different circumstances. Applause is contagious.
What happens when people clap? It doesn't take long before they begin to smile. And not long after that, they begin to suspect that there's something worth applauding. This is true whether they offer genuine applause or whether they applaud because the leader tells them it is required. I have watched many different people under the influence of applause. Most of them look embarrassed, at first. They look like they are not sure that the applause is really for them.
This became a refrain in our house when my kids were young. I'd say: do you want to go to the park or to the library or watch Star Wars? They'd say "Don't make us choose. There are too many fun things to do."
Yes, it is a first world problem. We don't worry about having too many good choices when we are sick or stuck or broke. We worry about just one thing. But first world problems are problems too. In some ways, they are the most interesting problems. In the exhibit Massive Change, Bruce Mau asked the question "Now that we can do anything, what will we do?"
We often talk about passion as though it inevitably flares up and disappears. I wonder if passion is really fleeting. While romance certainly changes over time, there are other things that inspire passion in us.
Yesterday I had coffee with friends from my days as an undergraduate at Trent University. We last saw each other thirty years ago. (Yes - thirty years. It freaked all of us out a little). The meeting happened because we connected on Linked In. It was a case of social media doing actual good.
"The ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential."
Coaches talk people into thinking and behaving in ways that they wouldn't think or behave on their own. Their process is always about communicating through language and relationship so that their clients make changes in what they think and accept the task of changing what they do. This doesn't mean that coaches tell people what to do. The "partnering" in the ICF definition is meant to walk the fine line between having no influence and having too much.
How can you lead a conversation so that your clients discover their own best approach to their problems or goals? The best way is to DARE: to use a simple four step process that maximizes the effectiveness of the coaching relationship while minimizing the danger of undue influence and the resistance which accompanies that danger.
Often often do you catch yourself wishing you could change something about you? It can be easier to wish for change than to do the work to make it real, whether that change is personal (weight loss, addiction, or bad emotional habits) or professional (time management, diplomacy or confidence). We often know what we need but feel like it's unreachable.
The change you want will be unreachable until you reach for it. And then you need a process that will help you manage your will power and persistence until the change becomes natural. There is no road to intentional success that does not require some hard work and discipline. But the FACT process will allow you to be more effective with less suffering and no room for the self-loathing that sometimes accompanies failed efforts at personal change.
Does it happen in your work? There are many different reasons for ending up with a pile of work that bores you. It's a chore that needs to be done and you have to get through it before you can get back to doing something that engages your full attention and feels productive.
There's lots of advice on how to tackle the mountain, from taking frequent breaks, to stressing out (a little stress is productive when the task doesn't require inventive thinking) to delegating the work to someone who will love it (there are some jobs no one loves). Over my years as a teacher facing a mountain of marking, I have tried most of the advice. It has all left me convinced that sometimes a chore requires a little mental toughness and a lot of persistence.
There's a kind of rule that people stop having bodies when they get to work, at least in jobs that do not involve obvious physical labour. To be professional is to stick to ideas and tasks and objectives. That means that while we may ask "how are you?" we really mean something like "of course you are fine because you are at work." We mean this although we all have experience of the difference between working when we feel well and working when we are in pain.
How do you feel when you think about police officers, fully armed and allowed to drive, on patrol while suffering from migraine, back pain or sleep deprivation? What about when you think of your doctor or nurse making decisions or giving medication while distracted by pain? Perhaps the person marking your child's exam is suffering from a repetitive strain injury or nerve problem.
This is my challenge this week. A young friend is grieving one of those unexpected, brutally unfair deaths. I know that such deaths make us all feel inadequate and that there is always huge guilt, and I want to say to this young friend: you will survive this feeling of guilt. You will survive this feeling that you didn't say the right things, didn't do the right things, didn't pay attention to the right things. You will have this huge, gaping wound inside of you and you will make it through to tomorrow, and the next day.
There are no words to say these things. The words I wrote above will connect with you because we are not talking about you. They will connect because you can see from a distance that such things might be true, especially of someone else. They will not connect with my friend because my friend is living them. And words are slippery things when they are trying to connect with the core of your life.
There's a truism that says you are more likely to hit something if you are aiming at it. We say things like "keep your eyes on the prize" and mean that paying attention to your outcome is likely to give you both a strategic advantage and the willpower to persist until you achieve what you want. We say these things because they represent a hard lesson.
Take, for instance, a desire to be better spoken, to be able to talk in a way that impresses people more favourably. Most people try out new words or model great speakers in a concentrated effort to improve their choice of words. Ironically, their very first steps take their eyes off the prize.
I'm going to suggest that there are four things that everyone wants, and that you can chart them on a quadrant. The first axis has autonomy (control over one's own life) at one extreme and relationship (connections with other people) at the other. The second axis has living comfortably with one's body at one extreme and escaping the confines of one's body at the other. Everything that people want falls into one or more of the quadrants.
It seems that anything we want serves one quadrant at the expense of the others. If we want autonomy for our bodies (perhaps the ability to support ourselves financially), that comes at the expense of escaping the body through connection with others (perhaps through reading fiction). If we want to be physically connected (to hang out with people we like), that comes at the expense of setting our thoughts free. It's obvious that we cannot simultaneous move to both ends of the axis.