text:
Combating Covid: With no vaccine yet, preventive measures are the only recourse
The only hope for "unlocking" to succeed lies in effective containment of the virus. WIth no vaccine/cure as yet, preventive measures Are the only recourse
Since there is neither a vaccine nor a cure for Covid-19 as yet, preventive measures offer the most effective recourse.
By Gajendra Haldea
When a total lockdown was imposed across the country on March 25, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases was only 536. The key words then were "lock, lock, lock". Three months later, when the number of cases has increased by over a thousand times, the new keywords are "unlock, unlock, unlock".
Need to state motive behind query weakens RTI
Punishing risky behaviour
The absolute horror behind 'how to make corona-vaccine at home' Google trend
For an ordinary citizen, this change is not easy to comprehend. But, if the lockdown was imposed for containing the transmission of infection and for upgrading the health infrastructure, the latter did not seem visible. Predictably, the lockdown only brought about a pause in transmission, which was followed by a rapid spread of the pandemic. This gave rise to troubling issues such as the rationale of various policies and the accountability thereof.
The policy of unlocking was adopted mainly due to the need for restoring economic activity. However, it had so happened that no other country "unlocked" when infections were on the rise. A matter of great concern in the Indian situation is that while pursuing the unlocking policy, measures for containment of the pandemic have suffered. As a result, the rising infections may jeopardise the economic activity itself. In fact, the only hope for "unlocking" to succeed, lies in the effective containment of the virus, which can only happen with a great deal of concerted action by the government and the people. A cavalier approach would be catastrophic.
Since there is neither a vaccine nor a cure for Covid-19 as yet, preventive measures offer the most effective recourse. Mask wearing, social distancing and hand hygiene are the mainstay of such preventive measures. None of these cost much, but they involve a change in the ingrained personal habits that is hard to achieve. For people to adopt these, there will have to be a massive awareness campaign coupled with enforcement and levy of fines by the government.
Leaders will have to lead by example. They should never be seen to be violating these norms in public. Besides mask wearing at public places, the government should also implement social distancing in aircrafts, trains and buses as well as in various kinds of queues or gatherings. Any violation must be penalised and widely publicised.
The central government should either notify the new rules under the Disaster Management Act or promulgate an ordinance to make mask-wearing and social distancing mandatory in all urban areas and in notified rural pockets. Being at high risk, the elderly (above 65 years) and children (below 10 years) should be confined to their homes, except for medical emergencies. Responsibility for implementing these measures would have to rest with the respective state governments, but some financial support from the Centre would help.
Graded fines (eg. Motor Vehicles Act) should be imposed and collected on the spot by mobile magistrates, to be selected and employed from among eligible citizens, and assisted by five home-guards each. Forces of volunteers must be created in each ward and incentivised to persuade people to adhere to the preventive measures. At least ten crore washable masks should be distributed among the economically weaker sections in urban areas, preferably through ration shops.
Shopkeepers, bus owners and operators of other establishments should be required to close their services whenever their customers violate the said norms. They should be liable to stiff penalties for any violations on their part.
The prime minister and the chief ministers should regularly lead awareness campaigns and set examples. A massive media campaign should also be undertaken.
A quarter of the front page of every newspaper must, by force of law, carry campaign messages. Sufficient time during prime time TV shows must also be reserved for this purpose. Radio, electronic media, hoardings, handbills, etc, should be the other means of an effective communication strategy.
A government that demonstrated the requisite political will for imposing a two-month-long curfew across the country can well impose and enforce these preventive measures, which are all in the public interest.
Testing will continue to remain critical for identification, treatment, contact tracing and containment of the disease. Early diagnosis will help in timely treatment and consequent reduction in the death toll, which is the ultimate measure of the damage caused by the pandemic. Failure to create the requisite testing capacity in the past must now be addressed by making an all-out effort to ramp it up without any delay. It goes without saying that the health infrastructure will also need constant upgradation till the pandemic is controlled.
For unlocking to be successful, and for economic activity to be restored and sustained, the pandemic will have to be contained. Failure to do so would re-invite partial or complete lockdowns, as already being witnessed in some parts of the country.
As experience in several other countries has shown, containing the virus is an extremely challenging task. For example, relentless unlocking in the US is already throwing up about 45,000 fresh cases a day. On the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that preventive measures are effective in containing the spread of the pandemic.
This virus is totally unpredictable and its fury is beyond the power of any government to control. The US and Brazil are notable examples. Back home, a chief minister had recently proclaimed that he was four steps ahead of the virus, only to face the worst deterioration in his state within a fortnight. Clearly, there is just no room for politics or one-upmanship. It is time for firm action with a humanitarian approach, and the earlier the Centre and the states begin to concentrate on containing the pandemic, the greater will be the hope for our survival and revival. Or else, the half a million cases at present would soon multiply beyond control.
Author was Principal Adviser in the erstwhile Planning Commission. Views are personal
Combating Covid With no vaccine yet preventive measures are the only&nbsprecourse
1Need to state motive behind query weakens RTI
2Punishing risky behaviour
3The absolute horror behind 'how to make corona-vaccine at home' Google trend


When Jim Thiel of Thiel Audio passed away in 2009, his vacated engineering position wasn't filled until September 2013. Then Mark Mason became the company's new director of product development. Coming directly from SVS where he was responsible for their Ultra range, he'd previously worked a long stretch at PSB. The first indication of where Thiel in their new 'Mason era' is headed comes from the TM3 at your left. That's a $2'999/pr monitor ($599/pr stands) which flips the firm's trademark sloping baffle to the back. The front is vertical, the back angled. With a stacked Ply cabinet, construction has gone original Magico Mini. Drivers are a 1" metal-dome tweeter and 6.5" fiberglass woofer. Loading is vented. Basic specs are 45Hz-30kHz response, 87dB sensitivity and nominal 8-ohm impedance with a minimum 3.5 ohms. All this is from a formal press release. Not part of it but still floating on the web is the photo at your right called TT3. It's presumably a preview of where Thiel will take their next generation of floorstanders.
Let's back up in time by a few years to when Italian Quadrivio equity firm created umbrella organization Fine Sounds SpA which over a relatively short time acquired Sonus faber, Audio Research, Sumiko, Wadia and McIntosh Labs. Many industry observers expressed fear that for these hallowed hifi houses the takeover would have disastrous Gordon Gecko-style consequences. Nothing like it transpired. Au contraire. Each brand in Fine Sounds' portfolio has prospered since and retained its discrete corporate identity. For Wadia and Sonus faber in particular updated form factors revived company images. Whilst new Sonus styling admittedly underwent a radical departure when ownership first changed, last year's Olympica range is arguably as true to their legacy Serblin-era styling as is conceivable when the founder never made any floorstanders. As current CES 2014 reports show, the latest Wadia 321 Decoding Computer continues the theme of respectful reinvention. It retains familiar design cues—the milled-out logo recess on the fascia most prominent, the prior corner stanchions barely hinted at—whilst modernizing overall appearance. With this degree of tactful makeover, one should be very curious what industrial designer Livio Cucuzza might come up with for ARC and McIntosh if he is allowed to.
Which returns us to Thiel's new ownership and their considerable challenges. Jim Thiel was a staunch proponent of 1st-order phase and time-coherent loudspeakers with sloping baffles. It's what made the brand. Vertical baffles were acceptable only with dual-concentric two-way or in-ceiling speakers. The new TM3 look categorically nothing like prior Thiels. If the TT3 web shot proves factual, even the new floorstanders are set to mix up the original recipe. This illustrates the multi-layered challenges all iconic companies face when death of a founder, change of ownership, market conditions or all of these factors enforce radical change. What exactly makes a Thiel a Thiel to become not merely another entry in the endless glut of speaker options? Would Thiel have been better off hiring an engineer committed to upholding Jim Thiel's design ethos? Time will tell. Even where first transitions are rockier, change of ownership or engineering vision needn't be a bad thing. This has been amply proven by Fine Sounds' stewartship of its brands. Likewise for the new owners at Nagra Audio which is now formally known as Audio Technology Switzerland. Granted, Swiss business culture is more conservative than most. How far 'off the leash' future industrial Nagra design will be allowed to run remains to be seen. The new HD DAC certainly looks as classically Nagra as ever. Keeping our eyes on Thiel promises more radical cosmetic changes.
The need to reinvent oneself also hits the press. Despite portentous launch announcement, TAS founder Harry Pearson's website HP Soundings.com floundered less than a year later. The High-Fidelity.com blog focused on links to reviews published elsewhere. Original content limited itself to commenting on these reviews plus providing standard industry news. Now both sites have joined. High Fidelity Report is staffed by Harry Pearson and collaborator Joey Weiss plus Michael Mercer and Chris Sommovigo. It used to be seriously frowned upon to derive income from the hifi biz and moonlight as a reviewer. You couldn't for example be a paid consultant to NordOst and publish a magazine without getting fired.
Presently these Chinese walls are being questioned. Chris Sommovigo is both audio importer and cable manufacturer. He just published an intro for his first THFR review. Meanwhile aged industry legend Pearson writes 5-paragraph reviews like this which Joey Weiss completes with 'additional comments'. About possible implications, one regular on AudioAsylum's infamous Critics Corner board opined that "this website is obviously a vanity blog. HP Soundings did not make a thin dime in profit and it never will. Neither will this venture. So you can almost say there will be no chance of impropriety because it is just a bunch of grizzled veterans teaming up to blog, killing time."
Without the gift of foresight, who knows? It does raise interesting questions though. Is content irrelevant or useless if its creators don't write for profit? Should dealers, manufacturers, importers and consultants publish formal reviews? What makes a formal review?
What distinguishes 'magazines' from 'blogs' from 'forums'? Are a writer's objectivity and independence more affected if he has something to lose (credibility and its direct impact on livelihood) or works as freely volunteering enthusiast? Does being grizzled render one less relevant? Isn't it often the actual industry insiders with decades of experience who have the best grasp on goings-on? How much does any of it ultimately matter when manufacturers are free to choose whom they wish to support with review loaners; when readers are free to read and believe whomever they please; when most on-line content is free to begin with? Which publishing conventions and standards should remain in place as unassailable and essential? Which would benefit from being redefined or relaxed? This brief editorial today wasn't about proposing answers. It was nothing but a pointer to consider these and related matters for yourself. Change is definitely always afoot. What we think about it and how we react is up to us.
PS: As John Atkinson confirmed in Stereophile's CES 2014 show report here about the floorstanding Thiel prototype shown above, "... the new TT3 speaker is intended to replace the CS3.7 as the company's flagship when it comes to market in the late summer. Bill feels that with Mark now leading the engineering, Thiel can be taken to a larger customer base." On departing from Jim Thiel's 1st-order design focus, John wrote that "Mark [Mason - Ed] explained that without taking away from what Jim had achieved, he believed that while it is possible to achieve a flat time-coincident on-axis response from a multiway design with first-order filters, this can involve compromises in the three-dimensional radiation pattern if the drive-units are not coincident. And as Floyd Toole has demonstrated, the time coherence of the first-arrival sound does not compensate, subjectively, for the problematic off-axis behavior. Although Mark believes Toole is correct, he performed extensive listening tests with prototypes of the TM3 before settling on the high-order crossover that was ultimately used."


/VMware / 2V0-621D / Which two vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller (PSC) configurations would accomplish this?
with both vCenter servers registered. You also need to install two PSCs in the same SSO domain with one vCenter Server registered to each PSC.


text:
Charting the Future of Manufacturing
Thomas K. Linton, a veteran executive in the semiconductor and electronics industry, has been appointed a member of the board of directors at the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), the premier business organization representing manufacturing and services companies in the US and a leading proponent of best practices in supply chain management worldwide.
Linton, a former chief procurement officer for {complink 3074|LG Electronics Inc.}, has held several senior level supply chain management positions in the electronics industry and joins a distinguished group of professionals charged with the task of directing and plotting policy initiatives championed by the ISM at a time manufacturing is itself undergoing structural changes worldwide.
I thought Linton's appointment was significant and worthy of mention here because the electronics manufacturing supply chain community will have to take some significant decisions about the role of Western nations in the industry over the next few years. Aside from the thorny subject of outsourcing or offshoring to low-cost regions, the industry will need to resolve the distribution across multiple centers of other electronics manufacturing functions, such as design, procurement, after-sales and warranty repair services, end-of-life, and the resolution of product obsolescence challenges in key industry segments such as aviation, medical, and the military markets.
The ISM has extended its services and representation beyond the US due to the shift in manufacturing to other regions of the globe. It has also transformed itself from being focused primarily on purchasing activities to the full spectrum of supply chain management operations, thereby increasing its service base and expanding to meet its members' changing needs. As member businesses have transferred production and other supply chain offshore the organization has also found it necessary to conduct many of its services overseas.
Although the ISM is best known for its monthly purchasing managers' index that tracks the health of the manufacturing and services sector, it is also very active in offering training and certification to supply chain professionals. By assisting similar organizations in foreign countries to standardize licensing and training, the ISM is ensuring that Western companies that shift production offshore are also able to recruit local professionals that can help them operate at the high levels required to maintain their competitiveness.
Here's a listing of all the 15 members of the board of directors recently appointed by the ISM:
Sidney Johnson (Chair)
, vice president, global supply management, at Delphi Corp. and executive champion for the Global Supply Management Task Team. Johnson leads a 1,300-person global team of procurement professionals that is focused on direct, indirect, and logistics as well as processes and systems and quality. His vision is to guide and enable his team to unlock the value of Delphi's supply chain. Johnson has more than 20 years of experience in purchasing, operations, quality, and lean manufacturing principles.
Jean Baderschneider
, vice president, global procurement, for Exxon Mobil Corp. She is responsible for procurement, strategic sourcing, supply chain management, warehousing, and accounts payable worldwide.
Joseph C. Black Jr.
, chief procurement officer for Aetna Inc. In this position, he leads the company's procure-to-pay activities enterprise-wide, impacting more than $4 billion in company expense. His responsibilities include supply management, accounts payable, meeting management, travel, supplier diversity, and expense policy.
Julia M. Brown
, senior vice president, global procurement, and chief procurement officer for Kraft Foods Inc. She is responsible for the procurement of all goods and services for Kraft Foods worldwide. This extends across the spend areas and includes risk management, strategic sourcing, and supporting tools and processes that drive collaboration with supplier partners.
Janice L. Davis
, vice president and chief procurement officer at Bombardier Aerospace. Davis is accountable for a global team responsible for the strategic procurement of all aerospace products and services.
Timothy R. Fiore
, senior vice president, supply management, for Terex Corp. He is responsible for managing a companywide supply management and strategic sourcing process. Using a central category management and leadership team, Fiore's group leverages the spend across 30 global manufacturing sites to more effectively manage Terex's direct and indirect spend.
Craig J. Johnson
, CEO of Musician's Friend Inc., a leading direct marketer and e-commerce retailer of musical equipment and related merchandise — the largest such company in the US and a wholly owned subsidiary of Guitar Center.
Thomas K. Linton
, former executive vice president and chief procurement officer for {complink 3074|LG Electronics Inc.}, based in Seoul, South Korea. Linton has decades of experience in both global procurement and the semiconductor industry, having built his career at companies around the world.
, senior vice president, worldwide procurement and global operations, Pfizer Inc. As Pfizer's chief procurement officer and global operations leader, Martin and her organization support all externally purchased goods and services categories across each business line, including biopharmaceuticals, consumer, nutritional, and animal health.
Nora P. Neibergall
, senior vice president at the Institute for Supply Management and corporate secretary for the ISM Board of Directors. Neibergall oversees ISM's educational program development, professional credentials, diversity, public relations, marketing, and sales efforts.
Paul Novak
, ISM chief executive officer. Novak led the Institute in a major change in its governance, the implementation of a board of directors comprising senior officers at major companies. Following this change, Novak led the organization in broadening its focus from purchasing into supply management and extending its worldwide reach.
Craig Reed
, senior vice president, supply chain management, at {complink 10965|Eaton Corp.}, a global diversified power management company. In this position, he leads global policy and functional alignment for supply chain management worldwide for Eaton.
Anthony E. Santiago
, vice president and chief procurement officer for WellPoint Inc. Santiago has sourcing responsibility for a broad range of spend categories, including marketing services and materials, IT hardware and software, capabilities sourcing, consulting, and professional services, facilities, energy, and utilities.
Ronald D. Schnur
, vice president, dairy supply and operations, for WhiteWave Foods Co. In this position, he is responsible for providing strategic, financial, and operational leadership for the dairy supply chain and operations team of 115. He also provides direct support for the Horizon Organic business unit.
Deborah Webber
, senior vice president at the Institute for Supply Management and corporate treasurer for the ISM Board of Directors. Webber is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Institute, which include communications, customer service, accounting, information systems/technology and the Website, purchasing/contracting, human resources, affiliate support, meeting planning, and corporate program development.
TagsAssociations • Business • Career • Demand • Industry World • Insourcing • International Trade • Labor & Worker Relations • Logistics • Manufacturing • Outsourcing • Outsourcing Management • Procurement • Profession • Standards • Supply Chain Management • Supply Issues • Tools • Training & Education
4 comments on "Charting the Future of Manufacturing"
Barbara Jorgensen
Organizations such as the ISM have the breadth and the width to make a difference in all manufacturing industries. Thnk about how the electronics industry has influenced the auto manufacturing industry and vice versa. While trade associations represent their members–and correctly so–the ISM reaches across those verticals to encompass the big picture. Sharing best practices across industries improves everybody's competitiveness.
DataCrunch
Bolaji, how involved would you say that the ISM and its influence had in corporate America's decisions to relocate manufacturing offshore and the overall outsourcing model?
Bolaji, thanks for the brief introduction of new ISM board directors. The profiles showing that they are well qualified in their profession and much experienced, hope they will contribute in a much greater way for the industry. We all know that the supply chain industry is expecting a drastic growth in 2011 and coming years, at the same time industry is also experiencing the drifts.
As we are in first year of this decade, the vision and mission of the direct board members have to drive the industry for the forth coming years. In my opinion, industry has to get an initial pull and drive, to take up the post recession era and hopping the new team will take care about such things.
Boalji, this is a good introduction of the ISM board members.
From the bios of these ISM members I am not worried about if they will do a great job in shaping the future of the supply chain even with all the pull and push that will occur. My concern is, will the manufacturing companies represented buy in to the collective interest or will they be self serving in order to gain an edge?
My hope is that this group will help define best practices across industries and develop policies that will help in managing risks in order to improve everybody's competitiveness.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Quint Arri (en llatí Quintus Arrius), va ser un militar i polític romà del .

Era pretor l'any 72 aC i va derrotar el cap dels esclaus Crixus i va matar a vint mil dels seus homes en el curs de la Tercera guerra servil. Però més endavant va ser derrotat per Espàrtac. L'any 71 aC va succeir a Verres com a propretor de Sicília, però va morir quan estava de camí a l'illa. Ciceró diu que era baix naixement i poc talent, però molt constant.

Quint Arri va tenir un fill, també de nom Quint Arri, que va ser candidat a cònsol l'any 52 aC infructuosament. Era amic íntim de Ciceró, però quan va ser exiliat, Ciceró es queixava amargament de la conducta poc solidària d'aquest Arri.

Referències

Pretors del segle I aC
Gens Àrria
Jutges europeus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
U. of I. honors Roger Ebert with lifetime journalism achievement award
Jan 21, 2014 9:00 am by Craig Chamberlain | Social Sciences Editor | 217-333-2894Social Sciences
Roger Ebert, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and co-host of the popular review program "Siskel and Ebert at the Movies," has been named to receive the 2014 Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism. The recipient is chosen by the University of Illinois journalism faculty.
Photo by Reuters
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Roger Ebert, who was a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic and journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as an influential and groundbreaking film critic on television, will be honored posthumously with the 2014 Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism.
The prize, awarded by the University of Illinois journalism faculty, will be accepted by Ebert's wife, Chaz, on Feb. 11 at the University Club in Chicago, following a reception and dinner.
Ebert, a 1964 Illinois journalism graduate who died April 4 last year, is the sixth journalist and first alumnus to receive the Illinois Prize. Ben Bradlee, Seymour Hersh, Gay Talese, Nina Totenberg and Mike Wallace won previously.
The award honors work that has consistently served as a beacon for other journalists, set the highest standards of excellence in the field, and placed the public good and public awareness before all else.
"Roger's accomplishments rank with all of those distinguished journalists," said Rich Martin, the head of the department of journalism. "As the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, the only film critic honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the author of more than 20 books, and, without question, the greatest and one of the most beloved critics of all time, he is richly deserving of this award."
Raised in Urbana, Ill., Ebert became the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967 and remained there for 46 years, until his death. In 1975 he became the first film critic to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
That same year, Ebert and Gene Siskel invented a new genre of television with their movie review show "Coming Soon to a Theater Near You" for Chicago's public station WTTW. It would eventually become the nationally syndicated "Siskel and Ebert at the Movies" and Ebert would review movies on television for more than three decades.
Ebert also was a lecturer on film for the University of Chicago Enrichment Program from 1970 until 2006 and an adjunct professor in the department of journalism at Illinois, and recorded shot-by-shot commentaries for the DVDs of "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca," "Floating Weeds" and "Dark City."
He was named a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, an honorary life member of the Directors Guild of America, and an honorary member of the Society of Cinematographers. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Screenwriters Guild and received honorary degrees from the American Film Institute, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
In 2001 he received the highest honor bestowed by the state of Illinois, the Order of Lincoln, and in 2006 he received the Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois Alumni Association.
In 1999, Ebert and his wife created Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, since renamed Roger Ebert's Film Festival, and popularly known as "Ebertfest," an annual event presented every April in Champaign and Urbana, Ill.
In 2009, the Eberts established the endowment for the Roger Ebert Program in Film Studies in the College of Media. The program will house the annual film festival, as well as other programming throughout the year.


text:
Q: how to deal with strings on a numeric column in pandas? I have a big dataset and I cannot convert the dtype from object to int because of the error "invalid literal for int() with base 10:" I did some research and it is because there are some strings within the column.
How can I find those strings and replace them with numeric values?

A: You might be looking for .str.isnumeric(), which will only allow you to filter the data for these numbers-in-strings and act on them independently .. but you'll need to decide what those values should be

*

*converted (maybe they're money and you want to truncate €, or another date format that's not a UNIX epoch, or any number of possibilities..)

*dropped (just throw them away)

*something else

>>> df = pd.DataFrame({"a":["1", "2", "x"]})
>>> df
   a
0  1
1  2
2  x
>>> df[df["a"].str.isnumeric()]
   a
0  1
1  2
>>> df[~df["a"].str.isnumeric()]
   a
2  x

A: Base 10 means it is a float. so In python you would do
int(float(____))

Since you used int(), I'm guessing you needed an integer value.

A: Assuming 'col' the column name.
Just force convert to numeric, or NaN upon error:
df['col_num'] = pd.to_numeric(df['col'], errors='coerce')

If needed you can check which original values gave NaNs using:
df.loc[df['col'].notna()&df['col_num'].isna(), 'col']

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


01:57 Timeline: The search for Sol Pais, Florida teen "infatuated with Columbine"
18:30 Extra touch adds even more fun to "Wizard of Oz"
This article was posted online by The Tribune | Greeley. Spot On Colorado collects excepts of news articles from this news source and add these in the 'Eastern Plains'-category. For mor einformation about Spot On Colorado, you can check the About Us-page.


A thirty (30) year loan offered by a private lender is one of the products that we are proudest of as it is so rare. We offer it because we believe in our customers and we want to meet their needs in a way that will allow them to succeed. Why? Because we only succeed when you succeed!


Apparently Toddy failed the 'fit and proper' test on both occasions.
While in Cronulla, it's been reported that if Shane Flanagan – who has been deregistered from the game indefinitely – wants to make a comeback, he'd have to measure up on the fitness and properness scale.
Flano was carrying a clipboard the following season.
More recently, another former Shark passed the test – one Ben Barba.
At least, that was the implication based on the fact he was cleared to play for the Cowboys.
Well, he was registered – history of drugs, fights and whispers of domestic violence be damned – so logic suggests Barba was determined fit and proper.
Now, I'm not an NRL Integrity Unit officer, but after the incident at The Ville casino in late January, perhaps they got that one wrong?
Perhaps they got Flanno wrong as well, given he was determined to be a fit and proper person, only to be deregistered over failing to comply with the ban he copped in the first place?
And perhaps they got it wrong when they allowed Carney back in the game after he was dismissed by Canberra, given he went on to be given the boot by both the Roosters and Sharks (as I said early in his time with Cronulla, with talk of redemption flowing based on his form, "when someone stuffs his life up away from football, the football field isn't where he needs to redeem it").
Look, we all make mistakes, and the Integrity Unit doesn't have a crystal ball. But this week, Todd Greenberg intimated that the clubs should have clairvoyant powers.
When announcing that Barba was to be deregistered from the NRL – time to find a new vocation, Ben – Dylan Napa was brought up.
Greenberg was asked by a reporter whether a penalty of Napa missing games would be "harsh" on the Bulldogs, given the videos doing the rounds – not even kidding, Napa was trending on Pornhub a few weeks back (how I know that is really neither here nor there) – were filmed while he was playing for the Roosters.
"It might be, but it's not my primary concern," the CEO responded.
"It's a bit like the Cowboys. It's a little harsh on them: they are missing a player that's never laced on a boot for them. That's the real difficulty with recruitment and retention for clubs.
And that's where the brakes come squealing on.
Clubs need to look at a person's values? Isn't that what you're supposed to be doing, Todd, when you determine whether a person is fit and proper to play the game?
The message there is: we looked at Ben Barba, determined he was fine, but the Cowboys were wrong to employ him because his values aren't good enough.
Likewise with Napa: he was fit and proper to play for the Roosters for the last six years, but Canterbury should have known better than to sign him.
It's the definition of a double standard.
Never mind the fact that Paul Green this week said the Cowboys had done a bit of checking on Barba before signing him – "We did the best we could to find out how he was going over the there and it was all good," he told League Life this week – why is it incumbent upon the clubs to investigate a player if the NRL says they're in the clear?
Granted, different clubs espouse vaguely different values, but it's not unfair to assume the game as a whole would not condone what Barba did (nor, I guess, Napa, although the pair aren't in the same ballpark if the allegations against Barba are accurate).
Why bring someone's values into it if said values apparently align with those of head office – at least enough for the top brass to sign off on the player's contract?
To round things out, at the end of last month, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the Roosters had signed Daniel Anderson.
The former Eels coach was struck off for his part in Parra's rorting of the salary cap, but is making a return with the premiers in a recruitment role.
However, before he got the gig, "Anderson had to convince the NRL that he was a fit and proper person befitting registration".
But while his fit and properness is now apparently just fine, Anderson will have "some restrictions on his role" – presumably relating to recruitment and retention, which seems fair enough.
But then, if you don't trust him not to do what he did last time, why bring being fit and proper into the equation at all?
Apparently his values can't be trusted on the rules for which he has spent two years out of the game, but otherwise he's fit and proper? How does that make sense?
I've made clear previously my belief that it's not possible that everyone involved in the NRL is a great person – it's not based on mountains of personal experience (although there was that incident with the representative prop in a McDonald's), it's simple maths. Thousands of people in an organisation means some are going to be ordinary human beings.
So it's not the worst idea in the world to try weed out the dickheads by means of some kind of test.
But to dictate from on high that you know best regarding these matters, then turn around and say it's the clubs' fault for employing the people you have determined worthy of playing the game is a really weird slap in the face.


Minus the fact that the incoming governor of Imo state, Hon Emeka Ihedioha, will face the Herculean task of rebuilding its descript social and political infrastructure, no thanks to the eight years of mis-governance by the outgoing Rochas Okorocha, his real headache will be how to even start. His immediate difficulty will be how to please the numerous leaders of his party, each of whom would like to get maximum attention from him. For a party that has been out of power for eight years, after having it earlier for twelve years, it needs no exaggeration to state that the party leaders will be falling on each other over who will be adjudged the closest person to the (would-be) governor; given, especially, that the prevalent economic conditions in the country has made independent livelihood almost impossible for "professional" politicians.
If We Add To This The Fact That Hon. Ihedioha Is Seen By Many As One Who Does Not Go Out Of His Way To Please Others, It Is Easy To Imagine That His First Challenge Will Be How To Repudiate This Notion, Against The Backdrop Of An Avalanche Of Rent Seekers That Will Besiege Him And His Administration. Already, Some Of The More Visible Leaders Of The Party Have Given Signals That They Have No Intentions To Be Outsmarted In The Struggle For Ihedioha's Attention. One Of Them Is A Former Governor Of The State, His Excellency, Chief Achike Udenwa. How Did I Know?
Even a cursory reading of a recent interview the former governor gave to a national daily would reveal that that is exactly the point he wanted to make through that medium. Although Governor Udenwa spoke on other issues, it was not difficult to discover that the thrust of the interview was to sound a note of warning to his successor, His Excellency, Dr Ikedi Ohakim, to stay clear of Ihedioha. Agreed, Udenwa, perhaps like a few other leaders of the party, may not be very pleased with Dr Ohakim for abandoning the party, as it were, but verily, the immediate prompter of the attack on the latter was his early congratulatory message to Chief Ihedioha even before he was finally declared winner.
Ohakim's moves must have jolted and angered Udenwa who would most probably have read it to mean an attempt to hijack Ihedioha and his administration. As far as I am concerned, Chief Udenwa's comments on Dr Ohakim were premeditated and calculated to paint the latter in bad light. Obviously, the slant of his response to the question that preceded the attack was too loaded to leave even the least discerning reader with no other option than to conclude that there was an ambush for Ohakim.
Chief Udenwa had been asked by his interviewer to comment on the apparent similarity between the euphoria that greeted the emergence of Rochas Okorocha in 2011 and that of Emeka Ihedioha in 2019. And this is what the former governor had to say: "To be honest with you, if you remembers how Ohakim came into power when I was leaving, he was not actually the people's choice. He was a child of circumstances at the time. There were other considerations before Ohakim came in. It was a question of let us try him and see what he can do and he failed completely. He was very arrogant and did not even understand what people needed. That is why he has been contesting and failing. He cannot make it even he contest 10 times. And is the case of Roachas, he came as a redeemer because of the poor performance of Ohakim…".
Clearly, only a person that was waiting to launch this type of attack would respond the way Udenwa did. The response portrayed Udenwa as jittery, angry and panicky; and that he was just looking for an opportunity to get even with Ohakim. His resort to the history of how Ohakim came into office more than ten years ago is a clear testimony that he is still bitter that Ohakim was elected despite his stiff opposition to the decision by other well-meaning PDP leaders in the state to back his candidacy even as a flag bearer of an entirely different party. In the interview under reference, Governor Udenwa inadvertently reminded the good people of the state that it was his failure to fashion out an orderly succession plan that is at the root of the current social and political disharmony, rancor and bitter antagonism in the state.
The "circumstances" he was referring to was precisely the confusion that followed his equivocated and compromised stance on who succeeded him and from which part (zone) of the state. It was common knowledge that Governor Udenwa was supporting three aspirants for the office of the governor at the same time: Hope Uzodinma from the same Orlu zone with him; Martin Agbaso from Owerri zone and Ike Ibe from Okigwe zone. Even if he did not see any wisdom in the agitation for both Okigwe and Owerri zones to have the office ceded to either of them, in accordance to an existing Charter of Equity, it was the height to perfidy, insincerity and obtuseness for a governor to support, no matter how secretly, three aspirants at a time. As a matter of fact, it was his insincerity that led to the stalemated primaries in the PDP and which ultimately resulted in the loss of the state by the party which he led for eight years. Of course, the bitter antagonisms that followed transcended the PDP, to permeate the entire Imo polity and that has subsided till today.
Put a different language, nobody needs a soothsayer to know that Udenwa is haunted by that failure to provide leadership for the people when they most needed it. If we add this to the fact that his eight-year administration had no concrete achievements to point to – save a Secretariat that was built far below standard – it is easy to see why he is today a near-recluse, devoid of any aura and presence in the public.
Now, take his allusion to Ohakim's arrogance. In the first place, apart from that alluding to someone else as arrogant is an admission of inferiority complex, it is an alibi by people who do not have guts enough to match that of those they so accuse. Moreover, it is a language that is completely unbecoming of a person of the status of an ex-governor even one that was as ordinary as Udenwa. On the contrary, the truth is that the highly discerning people of Imo state have since discovered that what Udenwa and his ilk refer to "arrogance" on the part of Ohakim is no more than the fact that the latter has guts and that low thinkers (like Udenwa) always try to bring such people (with guts) down.
Personally, I find the charge of arrogance against Ohakim completely had to locate, outside the fact that as governor, young men like me loved his dressing sense; unlike Governor Udenwa who wore only one pair of (brown) shoes and a worn-out red cap. If nothing else, many of us saw in Ohakim's urbanity as representing a better role model than the drab appearance of his predecessor. Then, witness the obviously cheap and pedestrian allusion to Ohakim's "contesting and failing…. Even if he contests for ten times". It is the type of vitriolic that can only be associated with a young critic that is just learning the ropes, certainly not an ex-governor. As far as I am concerned, it is in this part of his response that Udenwa betrayed his envy, hatred and animosity to Ohakim.
Finally, let us briefly interrogate the last part of Udenwa response, namely that Okorocha "came as a redeemer because of the poor performance of Ohakim". Now, assuming, without conceding, that that claim is true, the question to ask Udenwa is, did Okoroacha perform better than Ohakim? This question is more so given that it is common knowledge that Udenwa was the chief architect of Okorocha's emergence as governor in 2011. Yes, there had begun a plot to prevent Ohakim's re-election – of which Udenwa was also one of the chief plotters – but a replacement was not certain until Udenwa took over the job. He dumped Senator Ifeanyi Araraume with whom he had been in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and who was its governorship candidate. Perhaps unknown to many, the final agreement to bring Okorocha onboard was signed in Udenwa's country home at Amaifeke, Orlu a few days to the April 26, 2011 governorship election.
Thus, apart from his 'bosom' friend and political ally, Araraume, Udenwa effectively betrayed the entire people of Imo state because the least that they (Imolites) had expected at that point was for the office of governor to return to Orlu after Udenwa's eight years. Needless to say, it was Udenwa who presided over the final session where the state was sentenced to the protracted inter zonal and intersectional rancor that has characterized the state since 2011. As for the issue of who, between Okorocha – Udenwa's mentee – and Ohakim performed better, the answer is there for all to see. For, on top of the perfidy of extremely poorly executed projects on the state's infrastructure like roads and buildings, Okorocha brought to the people the insult of wanting to impose his son-in-law on the state as his successor. In a bid to achieve that, he squandered the collective wealth of the people on a project he knew that would make the state the laughing stock before the rest of the civilized world. Worse, he 'bribed' the people with their own money; what we call Orikor in my native parlance. Recently, I came across a news report in which a traditional ruler in the state was suggesting that the state should perform a ritual to prevent the ugly consequences that usually follow when a person or a people profit from money stolen from them!
Judging from the result of the just-concluded governorship election, it is there for all to see that left for people like Udenwa, Okorocha would have well succeeded in his plot. It is on recorded that his son-in-law's party, the Action Alliance, won with very good margins in Orlu zone where he claims to be the leader. In Orlu local government area where Udenwa's comes from, AA defeated the closet contestant with over 5000 votes. The PDP, whose victory he now want to appropriate, did not even come a second position. My advice to the ex-governor is that he should desist from his current posturing of wanting to be seen to have installed a governor. He could not install one when he was in a position to do so to say nothing of now when he has become almost completely irrelevant in the scheme of things both in the state and the country as a whole. His recent outburst on Ohakim is uncalled for and if the incoming governor believes that he has a trustworthy ally in Udenwa, then I wish him luck.


text:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <android.support.v7.widget.CardView
        xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:card_view="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        android:id="@+id/card_item_view"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="200dp"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        card_view:cardCornerRadius="2dp">

    <RelativeLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="200dp">

    <ImageView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:scaleType="centerCrop"
        android:src="@drawable/img_big"/>

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/txt_category_name"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
            android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
            android:padding="10dp"
            android:textColor="@android:color/white"
            android:background="@color/colorPrimary"
            android:text="Rama"/>

    </RelativeLayout>
        </android.support.v7.widget.CardView>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This medical malpractice action settled during trial for $400,000, plus the waiver of hospital bills. The 56-year-old decedent presented to the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital on 1/19/92 after falling down a flight of stairs. She was diagnosed with a fractured clavicle, and a routine chest X-ray revealed a diaphragmatic hernia, where the spleen and parts of the liver, stomach, and bowel had herniated from the abdominal cavity toward the thoracic cavity. It was unknown if the hernia was pre-existing or was caused by decedent's fall. Repair surgery was scheduled for 1/23/92. No CAT scans were performed prior to surgery. A type and cross match of blood was ordered.
During the operation, there was a sudden drop in blood pressure, and the spleen was found to be ruptured. Doctors removed the spleen, decedent was stabilized, and another type and cross match of blood was performed. Fifty minutes later, there was a second drop in blood pressure, this time to 50/30. The liver was found to be lacerated (an autopsy showed a 2-3 centimeter laceration). Thirty minutes after the liver laceration, three units of blood were given. Decedent's condition deteriorated, however, and she developed uncontrolled bleeding and died.
Plaintiff argued that it was malpractice not to perform a CAT scan before surgery to determine any injuries, and contended that the surgeons were negligent for causing the spleen and liver to rupture and lacerate. Plaintiff also would have contended that decedent's blood was not properly typed and cross-matched prior to surgery, as evidenced by the typing and cross-matching during surgery, the delay in giving blood, and the evidence that some units of universal blood instead of type-specific blood were given.
Defendant contended that decedent suffered severe internal injuries in her fall, that blood was typed and cross-matched before surgery, as evidenced by the use of some type-specific blood during the procedure, and that it was medical judgment when to give the blood. Defendant was unable to state how the liver laceration occurred.
Decedent, a 56-year-old Colombian immigrant employed in the garment industry as a seamstress, was survived by a husband and eight children, the youngest of whom was 17 years old at her death. She also cared for one of her grandchildren.
Settlement for mother brain damaged during childbirth, who subsequently died (2015).


Landlords don't like lease audits. They believe they run their buildings properly and bill their tenants correctly. They want their internal information kept confidential and don't want anyone snooping around their books. They want to protect the cash flow on the building. For these and other reasons, landlords push very hard during lease negotiations to restrict tenants' ability to audit their leases.
Many tenants succumb to this pressure, figuring that there are more important issues to fight over. However, what tenants don't realize (and landlords do) is that these restrictions often undermine all of the protections that were negotiated into the operating expense escalation provisions because such restrictions make it practically impossible to verify the charges.
Let's examine some of the arguments landlords commonly make with respect to restrictions on audit rights.
Landlords argue that time limits are important because they need to "close the books" for the year and that an open right to challenge charges leads to uncertainty and risk. They also argue that it is burdensome to have a tenant look at more than the current year when validating charges.
From the tenant's viewpoint, however, short audit windows present practical problems that are difficult to avoid. First, inadequate time leads to substandard analyses. When a tenant agrees to a short window within which to contest a pass-through, there generally isn't enough time to check for anything but very basic issues. Second, short windows mean that the tenant cannot check more than one year at a time. Given that many errors are only visible by studying multiple years of expenses together, a short time restriction makes it impossible to identify these errors until it's too late to do anything about them.
With respect to the argument that the books need to be "closed," operating expenses and other costs almost always bleed over from one year to the next (isn't the operating expense reconciliation done months after the year closes?). Such formality is both unnecessary and unjustifiable. Also, landlords keep books and records for internal accounting and tax purposes for many years, so arguing that the records are unavailable is simply not valid.
Landlords often try to restrict the tenant's ability to retain a firm where the compensation is based on the outcome of the audit. Landlords contend that such contingency fee structures are inappropriate because they cause audit firms to focus on inconsequential items and become too aggressive.
Actually the reverse is true: contingency audit firms have a built-in incentive to focus on the more material issues and to not pursue issues that are small or unlikely to be recoverable. This makes them inherently more focused, more efficient and less burdensome to both landlord and tenant. Also, a tenant can easily assuage the landlord's fears during negotiations by agreeing it will supervise its auditors and that they will only act with the tenant's consent and support.
If a tenant is not permitted to retain an auditor on a contingency fee basis, the tenant must commit hard dollars to the effort. Most tenants will find this difficult unless there is something that they already know is improper. This presents a classic "Catch-22″ because the tenant needs a professional auditor's help to identify what's wrong. As a result, the tenant has no practical choice but to blindly rely on the landlord's trust and good faith. This is quite a dangerous position for the tenant, considering how much is at stake and how carefully it negotiated its operating expense provisions.
From a simple business standpoint, it is also inappropriate for either landlord or tenant to restrict the other in who it retains or how they are compensated in these or any other efforts. Restricting a tenant from retaining a contingency fee auditor is analogous to prohibiting the landlord from retaining a property management firm on a percentage-of-revenue basis because it provides incentives to drive more income from their tenants.
Landlords will argue that any audit must be done by a CPA firm. They assert that this ensures that the audit will be performed professionally and that the results will be unbiased.
This also presents difficulties for tenants, both with respect to compensation and with respect to expertise. Most CPA firms will not or cannot work on a contingency fee basis, forcing the tenant to retain them on an hourly or fixed fee basis. Furthermore, CPA firms generally focus on accounting issues and do not have the expertise when it comes to lease interpretation, market analyses or property management practices. Thus, such a restriction can significantly hamper the tenant in its ability to validate anything but the accounting aspects of its charges.
Landlords argue that their proprietary information must remain confidential. They want significant restrictions on the tenant's ability to share information with third parties. In some cases they ask for confidentiality language directly in the leases, and in other cases they ask the tenant to agree to execute a confidentiality agreement at a later time.
Most tenants would agree that such proprietary information should be kept confidential. However, tenants must be careful that the restrictions in the lease do not hamper the tenant's ability to obtain the advice it needs to enforce its lease. Confidentiality requirements should be reasonable and should be spelled out directly in the lease. They should not be deferred to a later time by language that says that the parties will agree to execute a confidentiality agreement later.
Although landlords do not like having their pass-throughs challenged or their books audited, as long as they require tenants to contribute toward building operating costs, tenants must have a reasonable means to verify that the charges are correct. Given the complexity of lease audit pass-through clauses, it is inappropriate for landlords to request (and for tenants to grant) unreasonable limitations on the tenant's ability to verify its costs.
The landlord-tenant relationship is a dynamic one that spans multiple years. Any procedural needs of the landlord are trumped by both parties' need to make corrections along the way to ensure that the business deal stays on track.
Landlord shall maintain accurate books and records for the charges set forth in the Operating Statement, the Tax Statement and any other charges imposed on Tenant for Additional Rent (collectively, the "Charges") in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles consistently applied, subject to adjustment as provided in this Lease, and shall keep copies of such records for each year including the Base Year for the duration of the Lease Term, as extended, and for one (1) year thereafter. In order to verify the accuracy and validity of the Charges, Tenant and/or its representatives shall have the right, upon reasonable written notice to Landlord and at Tenant's sole expense, to examine or have Tenant's representatives examine the records as are relevant thereto, including the general ledger, escalation worksheets, invoices, canceled checks, contracts and other supporting records. Tenant shall be entitled to make copies of such records as needed. In connection with any examination by Tenant, Tenant agrees to treat and to instruct its employees, accountants and agents to treat all information not otherwise in the public domain as confidential and not to disclose it to any other person except as may be required by law or in connection with any dispute with Landlord relating thereto. If after its review Tenant disagrees with the Charges, Tenant may send a written notice to Landlord of such disagreement specifying in reasonable detail the basis therefor, the amount it claims was not due and the amount of any refund it is claiming. Landlord and Tenant shall attempt to resolve such disagreement amicably, subject to either party's right to avail itself of the dispute resolution procedures set forth in this Lease.


text:
https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/LSVT-LOUD-for-patients-with-Parkinson-rsquo-s-15631441.php
LSVT LOUD for patients with Parkinson's disease
Published 5:00 am EDT, Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, or LSVT, is a two-part rehabilitation program that was developed to assist patients with Parkinson's disease. Last week's article explained LSVT BIG, the part of this program that focuses on while body movements for activities of daily living. This week, we'll look at LSVT LOUD, and how it benefits those who suffer from Parkinson's disease.
Q. What is LSVT LOUD?
A. LSVT LOUD is an intensive, evidence-based treatment that focuses on one goal, which is to be loud.
Q. How does Parkinson's disease affect a person's ability to speak?
A. One of the hallmark problems that people will have is that their speech will get soft, mumbled or garbled. Often, the person with Parkinson's disease doesn't realize that their speech is affected, which causes a bit of a dilemma. Talking with a softer voice can even be one of the first signs or symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Q. Does a person with Parkinson's disease hear the rest of the world differently, or just their own voice?
A. It's only their own voice, and the way they perceive the intensity and volume of their speech.
Q. What does a patient do during an LSVT LOUD therapy session?
Heroes and Hand Raisers recognizes Teresa Quintana
A. The goal is single-focused, and it is to be loud. By doing that, you can help the patient improve their respiratory support for speech, vocal cord or laryngeal function and articulation and speech intelligibility.
Q. How does a patient with Parkinson's disease benefit from LSVT LOUD therapy?
A. Patients will have improved speech intelligibility when talking to friends and family. Often, the goal is for the patient to be able to communicate to those in their community as well, whether that be in a social setting, church or other group.
Q. How often does a patient go to LSVT LOUD therapy sessions?
A. It is an intensive, four day a week program for four weeks. While that may sound like a lot, it goes very fast, and we usually see progress immediately, after only a couple of sessions. The effects of the therapy are long-lasting. This therapy is ideal for patients in the early or moderate stages of Parkinson's disease, though it can still be effective for those in the later stages of Parkinson's disease as well.
Cindy Ruble, M.A., C.C.C.-S.L.P., is a speech therapist at MidMichigan Health.


When most people think of retirement, images of relaxation come to mind. For Nancy and Bruce Livensparger of Fire Ring Farm in Portland, CT, retirement means running a labor-intensive non-profit Community Supported Agricultural operation (CSA). Nancy was a career landscaper whose passion for organic food grew as her interest in controlling invasive species in manicured lawns waned. As GMOs became ubiquitous in the American food supply, Nancy wanted to grow as much of her own food for her family as possible. Subsistence farming on any scale is a big endeavor and she wondered if running a CSA might be the ticket to subsidizing her efforts. As an added bonus, it gets a community involved in the natural food movement. Fire Ring Farm was born.
In 2006 she signed the Northeast Organic Farmer's Association (NOFA) Pledge and decided to have an experimental CSA with only six shares; just to see if she would like it. She researched prices ranging from non-organic CSAs to organic produce at the local supermarket and factored in the cost of materials to determine a fair price for the expected fruits of her labor. The experiment was met with success and the following year the CSA doubled to twelve members and eventually reached its peak at twenty-four members. It now rests comfortably at twenty members with the remainder of the produce left for the original intent of feeding their family, including their daughter's family of four who also live on the property.
Although New England's growing season is limited by harsh winters, planning for and working on the CSA is not. Each season starts in February with a large spreadsheet of what Nancy hopes to deliver to each shareholder for each week from June to October. From there she works backwards figuring out how many seeds to plant for each item each week and when to plant and transplant them in order to have them harvested on the intended week. If that doesn't seem complex enough, she also factors in a celestial planting calendar based on the lunar cycle to plant and transplant at the optimal times for roots, flowers, leaves or fruits. Then seeds must be purchased, and soon after that they must be planted in the green house.
Fire Ring Farm received an Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) Grant which provides financial and (just as importantly) technical assistance. Nancy therefore agreed to rotate her crops and grow (non-certified) organic, as well as implementing Integrated Pest Management and recording all diseases and pests found. To help with this the USDA sends a specialist bi-weekly to help her identify the pests and diseases and to advise her on natural ways to reduce or eliminate them. Nancy also works on growing nutrient-dense crops, which requires testing the crops and soil and re-mineralizing the soil as needed. The benefits of this effort are three-fold: it produces nutrient-dense crops with complex sugars; pests interfere less because they prefer simple sugars; and the reduced damage from pests means less opportunity for disease to strike. The mineralized soil which facilitates the nutrient-dense crops is also – in theory – less hospitable to weeds; but Nancy assures me that there are always weeds. When I asked about how the erratic weather patterns of the past few years have affected the CSA, the answer was 'Not too drastically.' I realized then that the true strength of CSA is that everyone takes the risk together so that any possible catastrophe doesn't wipe out the farm. As a member for the past three years I can also say that the efforts put in by Nancy and Bruce throughout the wild weather we have had are extraordinary since I didn't notice a decrease in the weekly share at all.
Nancy believes strongly in the Community part of CSA and frequently invites members to come help plant, transplant and socialize around a bonfire. Many of the members also maintain vegetable gardens at home, which Nancy encourages and is always willing to assist with; even donating spare seedlings to those who come to help plant. At heart, she wants everyone to grow some of their own food. Nancy's dedication to expanding her own knowledge is tireless. For every crop that doesn't yield quite as well as intended, she is looking for a way to improve it next year. I am told she has new ideas for increasing onion and potato yields this year.
Membership is relatively steady with around twenty percent turnover each year and a waiting list that has gone from seventy-five three years ago to around twenty currently; most likely due to an increase in CSAs in the area. When I asked Nancy what she wanted people to know about CSA membership, she said "It's a lifestyle." It is a commitment to getting to the farm weekly and then cleaning and storing your share properly to be able to get the best and most out of it. That means at the very least going home and washing and trimming all of the produce, and putting it in Ziploc bags or glass jars to stay fresh. It could even mean canning, or chopping and freezing,or blanching, peeling and freezing – which takes a lot of effort on the front end but can keep you from eating so many peppers in two weeks that you never want to see one again. It will also allow you to enjoy your share of local organic produce into the winter.
Fire Ring Farm currently operates as a non-profit and would require more shares, land, and employees to do otherwise. The likelihood of expansion is slim since the goal was to grow food for their family and educate a community about local and organic food…and they seem to be doing that perfectly well.


text:
Melextra JET
Translators / Traducteurs
104 Billets
Glossary 2: French Media
The following glossary of major French media outlets will be added to as and when references appear in the articles...
AFP (Agence France-Presse: "French Press Agency"): The main French news agency. It is the oldest international news agency in the world.
Arte: joint French-German TV channel with EU financial support. Mainly broadcasts art-house films and documentaries. Offers digital viewers the ability to switch between French, German and (sometimes) English.
BVA: polling and market research company that publishes influential information about voting intentions in the run-up to elections.
Canal+ ("canal plus"): premium pay terrestrial TV channel. Programming focused on recent mainstream films and high-profile sport.
Charlie Hebdo: irreverent weekly news satire magazine, (in)famous for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. 8 cartoonists and editors of Charlie Hebdo, including the Editor in Chief 'Charb', were amongst 11 victims of the shooting that took place at the paper's headquarters on January 7 2015.
Courrier international: weekly newspaper in which all the articles are collected from news media outlets outside France. The vast majority of the content is translated from other languages into French. In a sense, this project is a mirror (on a much smaller scale) of what Courrier international does in the opposite direction.
CSA: polling agency similar to BVA (above). Not to be confused with the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel, the French broadcasting standards watchdog.
France 2/France 3: major public terrestrial TV channels. (Analogous to BBC1 and BBC2 in Britain).
France Inter: major public talk radio station.
France Info: public news radio station in the same group as France Inter and France Culture.
Ifop: (Institut français d'opinion publique) polling and public opinion institute.
L'Express: weekly news magazine with a history of emphasising its political neutrality.
La Croix: Catholic daily newspaper.
La Voix du Nord: a group of local daily newspapers in the North of France with a broad readership. It was recently involved in uncovering the "Carlton Affair" in which notable local and national figures, including Dominique Strauss-Khan (DSK), are alleged to have been involved in a prostitution ring centred on the Carlton Hotel in Lille.
Le Canard enchaîné: weekly broadsheet* combining satirical comedy and investigative political journalism. (Analgous to Private Eye in Britain).
* canard means both "duck" and "broadsheet".
La Dépêche du Midi: local newspaper in the South of France, with its HQ in Toulouse. It has a radical left-wing editorial line and links to the PRG.
Le Figaro: major national daily newspaper with a centre-right editorial line. The oldest daily newspaper in France.
Le HuffPost: standard abbreviation used to denote the French franchise of the American online news agency, The Huffington Post. The French site was launched on 23rd January 2012 and is associated with the Le Monde group.
Le JDD: online version of the weekly newspaper Le Journal du dimanche, which is France's only national Sunday newspaper. It is part of the Lagardère group and therefore has close ties to the magazine Paris Match and the radio station Europe 1. It has a centre-right editorial line.
Le Monde: major national daily newspaper with centre-left leanings. Recently struck a deal with the Huffington Post to collaborate on a French version of the American news website.
Le Nouvel Observateur: weekly news magazine with a centre-left editorial line.
Le Parisien: popular daily newspaper with a centre-right editorial line. It focuses principally on the capital but sells better than most of the "national" newspapers. A popular counterpart to Le Figaro.
Le Point: weekly news magazine with a centre-right editorial line.
Libération: major left-wing national daily newspaper founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973.
M6: private terrestrial TV channel, linked to TF1. Mainly broadcasts films, light entertainment and sport.
Médiapart: advertising-free news website commited to investigative journalism, created in 2008 by Edwy Planel, former editor of Le Monde.
Minute: a far-right weekly news magazine closely associated with the old guard of the FN. It supported Bruno Gollnisch to take over the party after Jean-Marie Le Pen stepped down and remains unconvinced about Marine Le Pen's modernising agenda. Its latest attack on the "gay cabal" surrounding the party leader is part of a broader history of tension between the magazine and the party leadership, one which recently saw Minute journalists excluded from a party AGM.
Paris-Match: weekly magazine with right-wing leanings, focusing on personality-based news and celebrity lifestyle features.
Rue 89: news website with left-wing leanings founded in 2007 by disaffected staff of Libération, including the editor-in-chief Pierre Haski.
TF1: major private terrestrial TV channel. (Analgous to ITV in Britain).
TNS Sofres: polling and market research company
La « France du travail » vs « la gauche de la paresse »: comme un air de déjà vu
Le choix manichéen est aussi absurde que caricatural, mais en son temps, il a fait recette pour imposer les idées les plus réactionnaires. Retour sur une sémantique anti-gauche empruntée au fascisme.
par muichkine


From I-495, take Rte. 1 South through College Park approx. 3 miles to Rte. 410, bear right. Next light, turn left at Queens Chapel Rd. at 4th light turn left at Chillum Rd. Leasing office on right.
C K McC Conkey & Sons, Inc.
Standard Pressing Machinery Company, Inc.


text:
Q: How to correct/filter inaccurate speeds calculated from a GPS track I am working on a simple application that allows the user to do a lot of different things with a GPX file (GPS track).  Some things computed are: average speed, max speed, etc.  The max speed values I'm getting are very unrealistic, and when I look at a plot of the data, it's clear that there are spikes that represent inaccuracies.  See the image below, which was a snowboarding run I did the other day... there are two spikes of ~57mph and 70mph, which I know are inaccurate.

I'm a bit rusty on my statistics, but I know there are probably multiple approaches to filtering/smoothing/correcting this data to remove the erroneous values, while retaining the quality I desire.
What is the best approach to accomplish that goal, and why?
A quick explanation of how the values in the plot are generated: each point logged by the GPS unit contains latitude/longitude values and a time value.  Using the spherical law of cosines, the distance between any neighboring points in the track can be calculated, and that along with the time elapsed gives the average speed for the segment between those two points.  This is repeated for each set of neighboring points in the track to generate the plot above.  Obviously the inaccurate speed values are a result of positioning error from the GPS unit... if it logs me too far backward for one logged point, and then too far forward for the next point, the distance covered in that segment is calculated as much higher than it really was, and therefore so is my speed.  In the segment leading up to the highest spike in the plot above, I supposedly increased my speed from ~12mph to 70mph over a segment of 100ft.

A: Using a moving average seems reasonable. It's quick, easy, and will probably do what you want. There are lots of variations , but a simple calculation that replaces each value $v_i$ by the average of $v_{i-2}$, $v_{i-1}$, $v_i$, $v_{i+1}$, $v_{i+2}$ will probably work fine. If the result still looks too rough, expand to 7 points.


text:
Q: How to run a query with date from a form? I have a select query that returns records based on 2 dates from a form - >=Forms!frmReport!StartDate AND <=Forms!frmReport!EndDate.
The problem is that whenever the user enters the same date in the both StartDate and EndDate no record is returned even though I'm sure there is data in the table that matches the criteria. Can anyone say why the query isn't returning any information?

A: If the field being compared is rs("Date"), try
Int(rs("Date")) >=Forms!frmReport!StartDate AND Int(rs("Date")) <=Forms!frmReport!EndDate

For the Query Builder, modify your date checking field to something like this:

Replace YourDateField with the name of your field.
And if time is relevant, get rid of the field expression in the query builder, and instead compare the record's field to:
>=Forms!frmReport!StartDate AND <= iif(Forms!frmReport!EndDate = Forms!frmReport!StartDate, dateadd("d",1,Forms!frmReport!EndDate), Forms!frmReport!EndDate)

This expression says if the end date is the same as the start date add a day, otherwise just use the end date.

A: Cast the form values to just date values in your query:
>= cdate(Forms![frmReport]![StartDate]) and <= cdate(Forms![frmReport]![EndDate])

And set your field default to =date() to capture the date only, instead of =now().


First birthday in a foreign country. This is the first time I've celebrated a birthday outside of the Philippines.
First birthday as a Googler.
First birthday where I'm away from extended family. I know I have a family of my own now but I am kinda missing the celebration with my sister and father. Although I did get to hang out with them and other friends on the same day as my birthday, there's something missing there. Google+ hangouts are cool but it doesn't beat having a meal with real people.
First birthday where it wasn't really "celebrated". No pool parties, no massage, not much booze. There was the great dinner with some friends from work and that was pretty much it. I think I just need to get used to that and start down-playing my birthday from here on out.
First birthday where I really felt like I am old. 28 is a lot closer to 30 now than 27 was. Not sure if I have anything to worry about when I turn 30 though.
Having said those in the above, I'm really thankful for the past year. I think I've experienced a lot in the past year and I'm taking this milestone as a "leveling up" marker. Now its time for me to start transcending my potential and work on coming into my own -- leveraging my experiences and becoming a blessing to others as I've already been blessed by so many others I've met in this journey of mine.
Thanks to all the well wishes and birthday greetings. I'm humbled to know that there are people who care enough to greet me a happy birthday.
Here's to hopefully another year of living an awesome life.
PS. So here I am letting my beautiful wife bring our really adorable daughter to sleep while watching This Week in Google on our LG Smart TV using the built-in YouTube app. This is really something else -- I'm living in a first world country, living the digital native's dream, working in the most awesome tech company in the world. I don't think there's much more I can ask for.


Fake Plastic's very own Fr. Jones and Bobby Markle shoot the breeze with Ernest Greene of Washed Out about bigger hooks, intimate moments, layered vocals, and the popularity of the chillwave movement.
You can find the review here of Washed Out's Within and Without.
FR: When you started recording as Washed Out, was there a moment where you realized that you had attained a significant level of success?
EG: I guess that depends on how you define success. For me, that was just having enough attention to get an offer to put a record out. That was all I ever really dreamed of doing. That happened fairly quickly after the initial attention I got. That was back in 2009. I think of the day I got the shipment of records from my first release. It was like Christmas morning or something- it was really cool to be able to open up the record, put it on the record player. Everything since then has been icing on the cake and it has definitely far exceeded my expectations as to where I saw this stuff going.
FR: What was your goal for the Within and Without album? How do you think your musical vision on this record is different from your earlier EPs?
EG: Well, I had a couple of years experience under my belt since making my first couple of releases. I definitely learned a lot and kind of wanted to follow through with that in the recording. I knew that I wanted to take a step forward away from some of the stuff that I had done. That meant changing things a little, cleaning things up, having just a more produced sound. I knew that I wanted the songs to be bigger and make for a more entertaining show. So I was consciously trying to write songs with bigger hooks or whatever. That was much different too. The reception I think has been pretty good. We have been on tour in Europe and we're about to go on tour again in a couple weeks with this Australian band called Cut Copy. We are going to be pretty busy for the rest of the year.
FR: Do you listen to any Cut Copy?
EG: Yea. I've been a fan of theirs for awhile. I know that their live show is a pretty big production- so we look forward to learning something from them. They've been at it for a little longer than we have.
FR: How did the recording process for Within and Without take?
EG: About six months. I had done touring for most of the beginning of 2010. I got finished in June and was fortunate enough that my wife's family has a lakehouse in rural Georgia and we were able to set up shop there. I worked through the rest of the summer and into the Fall and had most of everything written and very strong demos recorded by mid-November and then I emailed with this producer here in Atlanta named Ben Allen. We had kind of talked some before- but he had some time in December to get together so we went on a short tour for the rest of November and beginning of December and came back and finished the record at the end of December. So six months total.
FR: What type of software do you use? Do you have a favorite piece of equipment?
EG: I wrote most of the record with software and it was a combination of a few programs. The first one is called Reason. It's made by this company called Propellerhead. I've used it for a number of years and I'm really comfortable using it. And in the latter stages, we used Pro Tools- which is kind of an industry standard these days. That's something I've been using more and more. It was mainly those two programs. As far as hardware stuff- I'm looking around the room to see which to pick out, I'm sitting in my studio right now. I've got the Nord Electro which is pretty cool. It kind of emulates a lot of old instruments, like electric piano and organ sounds. It's a lot of fun to play and has a pretty authentic sound.
FR: What is the story on Within and Without's highly memorable cover image? Is it reflective of the music in any particular way?
EG: I think it's a reflection of the music definitely. We were touring around Australia as I mentioned in late November, early December and I finished most of the record and I actively had my eye out for a cover image. I was looking through this avant-garde photography magazine and stumbled across the image. It really made sense to me on a number of different levels. The first was that most of the artwork for my previous records was very saturated with colors. I wanted to do something drastically different with both the art and the music. So it made sense to do the opposite of the saturated colors that to me was this stark white, clean kind of look. Again, I think that kind of mirrors the aesthetic of the music and the change in the music- a move to a cleaner, stark sound. Also, just the content of the image, I thought made sense. To me, the record is a collection of intimate moments. I don't write with particular memories in mind- but I do write following a type of feeling the music will conjure up. So at the core I think it's emotional music. And to me, the image is an intimate moment in a completely nonsexual way- more of a romantic kind of thing.
FR: You recently performed a dynamite cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". What in particular drew you to that song?
EG: I've been a fan of the song for awhile. I think the biggest thing I liked was the chorus. Really all the vocals and melodies easily translate into my world- the long, sustained, breathy type of delivery. When I'm considering doing remixes and covers, it all just has to translate. It's hard sometimes to make that work but this song was very easy. After figuring out the vocals, it was very easy to work through and get everything else right. It's funny- we performed that for a session at XMU, the Sirius Radio Station. We weren't sure… we hadn't been notified that we had to do a cover and that was a big part of the session, they always asked artists to perform a cover. So we were kind of scrambling the day before to get something together- we were a bit nervous recording it. But I think it turned out fine.
FR: It really showcased your voice. And that's something that intrigued a lot of people. It doesn't really get featured on your albums that much.
EG: Yea. On the records, I tend to layer my vocals quite a bit. So it does get kind of lost in the mix. But I'm starting to get more comfortable with my voice- especially with the live thing. It's impossible to do all that live, so it's being a lot more out in the open.
FR: We recently spoke with Travis from Pictureplane (link) and he mentioned touring with you some time ago. What was that like?
EG: It was a lot of fun. It was actually the first tour I had ever done. And so- it was a lot of fun doing it with him. There was another band, Small Black- who, at the time, were sort of playing as my backing band. He's a great guy. He's easily the life of the party in any situation. It makes for a very fun touring experience. A lot of times if you don't have a personality like that on tour, it just gets kind of monotonous- even boring at times, doing the same thing over and over. But you can always depend on Travis to find the craziest situation happening in that city and then finding yourself right in the middle of it.
FR: He can cut a cool video too.
FR: The word is that you are currently experimenting with 70s soft rock- is that something we can expect on future releases?
EG: I'm not sure at this point. That's definitely something I've been into and we've done a couple of sessions where we sort of translated some Washed Out songs into that type of sound. It's something I enjoy doing. But it's also a bit frustrating that we've been so busy, there's little time to work on studio-type productions. We have a break in December so I'm going to start doing a little recording then. That sound is definitely in my mind but it's hard to really follow up on anything when there isn't much time to do it.
FR: In the past, you and Chaz from Toro Y Moi often get lumped together- because of the Columbia, South Carolina connection and of course the chillwave movement. How do you feel about this? How do you explain the popularity of chillwave?
EG: As far as the popularity of the chillwave movement, it's really kind of hard to understand. Number one- there was a lot of different genres coming together which might expose listeners that might not have listened to indie rock before, they might like it because it has a hip hop influence or electronic influence. There's a little bit of that going on. And also at the core, I think the music is pop music or at least leans in that direction. Most of the songs are meant to be happy, go-lucky or enjoyed on a simple level. But Chaz is a good friend of mine. I actually have him to thank for haphazardly getting my music out there because he had me featured on his MySpace page as his top friend and that's how a journalist kind of discovered my music. I definitely owe that to him. Unfortunately we rarely get to see each other because we are always on different schedules with our albums. But when we do get to hang out, it's always super fun.
FR: Where do you see the music industry going in the next decade?
EG: It's really hard for me in particular to kind of predict that because I still consider myself very new to the business. But I certainly felt like I've come up as a child of the internet and that's kind of influenced my way of thinking. And there's no doubt that file sharing, blog culture, and all that has shaped the way the business works. But I do think that it seems like Spotify is a viable way of potentially charging people for music again. My record has actually done fairly well over here in the States. We've sold almost 40,000 copies since the release. So there are people who go out and buy records. But 75% of those sales or roughly around that are digital sales- so there's no doubt that digital is the future whether it's iTunes or some kind of streaming service. It's hard to predict. There's no doubt that the physical copy will lose it's popularity if it hasn't already.
EG: My advice is to keep recording. If it's music that you're into and songwriting, just write as many songs as you can because it's through that process that you really start to do your own thing and create your own sound. I think it takes a long time to do that, so be patient. I think the power of the Internet has leveled the playing field a bit. You don't have to have a lot of money to put into promotion or anything. If the song is good, there are chances you can put it in front of people with the Internet. And if it's good enough, it will rise to the top. So be patient and work hard.


Description: The dream started out as my Mom and I and my Grandma sitting in the livingroom chatting. My Mom is currently in rehab for alcoholism so when I lucidly realized this I asked my "dream mom" how rehab was, she got quiet and then answered saying that she had had to leave early because she couldn't handle it. So I excused myself, leaving my handgun (glock 19 sub compact 9mm) on the coffee table and went to a different room to think. A few moments later my grandma followed and we started talking about my mom and rehab and so on... all of a sudden I hear a gun shot, my grandma goes running and I sit there confused. Next thing I know my grandma is calling 911 screaming she shot herself she shot herself! and I am running into the living room to check on my mom. When I get to her I begin to shake her and yell at her, I am sobbing, and then she wimpers "I'm Ok". I woke up sobbing at 1am and stayed up until 3am.