Home › buckwheat › Are You Using the Right Size Pillow?
Getting a good night's sleep is important if you want to stay healthy and happy. Buckwheat pillows provide a lot more support than standard pillows. However, in order to benefit from the additional support and comfort that these pillows provide, you need to ensure you are choosing the right size. Everyone is different and what one person finds comfortable, another might not.
How do you sleep? Stomach sleepers, side sleepers, and back sleepers are going to require different sizes and types of pillows.
What kind of fill do you prefer? Synthetic fills and down-filled pillows are going typically softer pillows than the firmer memory foam pillow.
How soft is your bed? What kind of bed size do you have? A standard pillow might be too small for California king beds while a firmer pillow might not work if you like softer beds.
What are you using your pillow for?
Do you read in bed? You may want to consider a reading pillow.
Do you want to make your bed or sofa pretty with decorative pillows and pillow shams when you're not in bed?
For back sleepers, you'll want your neck to retain it's normal curvature. Having pillows that are too high or too low can obstruct breathing and lead to snoring or other neck pains.
Below you'll discover everything you need to know about the common sizes of sleeping pillows available.
The most common pillow size is the standard-sized pillow (20" x 26"). One pillow typically fits a twin bed, while two can stretch out over a Queen or full size bed. For a king bed you would need three standard pillows.
Queen size pillows are typically four inches larger than standard pillows, though they do retain the same width. A queen size bed will comfortably fit two of these pillows. They can even often be pushed into a standard pillow case to provide a fuller fit.
King pillows are the largest of the American size pillows available. On a King size bed two of these pillows will fit comfortably. You can also use one on a standard bed if you like a lot of pillow room.
Japanese size pillows are smaller than standard pillows, ideal for those who don't toss and turn during the night. Two of these pillows would fit a standard bed, with three to four needed for Queen and King sized beds.
If you travel a lot, or if you're looking for a child's pillow the 11" x 16" sizes are ideal. One pillow will fit a child sized bed, whilst two can be used on a standard bed.
Euro pillow (25″ x 25″) is a square pillow more commonly used as a decorative accent on beds or larger sofas.
Deco pillow (20″ x 20″, 18″ x 18″, 16″ x 16″) are also square pillows used for decoration, throw pillows, or lumbar pillows.
Boudoir pillow (12″ x 16″) also act as decorative pillows or support pillows on sofas and queen beds / king beds.
Neck roll pillow (6.5″ x 13″) are sometimes back sleepers people's personal preferences, although more uncommonly used.
There are a number of things to consider when choosing the right pillow and size is just one of them. Many people make their decision based upon aesthetic reasons. For example, you may prefer the look of bigger pillows on a standard bed. Or perhaps you prefer a more delicate, minimal design? Japanese size pillows are smaller and won't take up as much room.
The amount of space on the pillow does make a difference. If you tend to toss and turn a lot in the night, a Queen or King sized pillow can provide the additional room you might need. However, size plays a much more important role than pure aesthetics or enabling you to toss and turn throughout the night. If you invest in the wrong size pillow it can actually cause a lot of pain.
When you lie on a pillow that is too big, it will push your head forward. This has the potential to push your spine forward too due to hypolordisis. If you sleep on your side, your head is pushed towards the ceiling. On the other hand, if your pillow is too small, it will flatten and straighten the spine and your neck won't be fully supported. When you lie on your side, your head will be pushed downwards towards the bed. Neither of these situations is ideal and will cause you to wake up with a stiff neck.
So if your purely choose a pillow size based upon the size of your bed, you could end up suffering with a very stiff neck. You need to focus more on your body rather than your bed. If you are petite for example, it is likely you will need a small pillow, rather than a standard size. However, this isn't always the case. Some petite people find they prefer a standard size pillow. So the key is to try out different sizes before discovering which is best for you.
There are a number of ways you can tell whether you're currently using the wrong size pillow.
If you notice any of these symptoms then you may want to consider changing your pillow to see if it helps. Obviously there may be other underlying factors contributing to your sleep problems. However, a lot of the time it is down to what pillow combination you use, but many people just don't think to look into it.
Why choose our Buckwheat pillows?
There are many reasons why our pillows are a good investment. If you're unfamiliar with Buckwheat pillows, they are basically filled with Buckwheat husks that have been American grown. Before being filled into the pillows, they are cleaned in a three-step process to ensure all dust, debris and Buckwheat flour is removed. They are 100% organic which means they haven't been treated with herbicides or pesticides. If you tend to have allergies to foam or feather pillows, these are a fantastic alternative.
No matter which size you choose, you want to ensure the firmness of the pillow fits your preferences. The great thing about our range of Buckwheat pillows is the fact you can customize the filling to ensure you achieve the right firmness to get a comfortable night's sleep. Each pillow comes with a zipper, enabling you to remove some of the hulks if you find it is too firm. You can put them back if you find you've taken too many out.
We believe you should always have a comfortable night's sleep. The size of your pillow does make a huge difference to not only the length of your sleep, but also the quality. Buckwheat hulls provide a lot of support for the head and neck and are considered a better pillow for side and back sleepers. Check out our range today to see why so many customers prefer our authentic Japanese Buckwheat pillows.
‹ Buckwheat vs Microbead Pillows – Which is Better?
Great tips! definitely helpful for someone who is looking to buy a pillow.
I bought a bamboo pillow a few days ago and it's definitely worth the money.
I no longer suffer from the allergies and I sleep a lot better too.
Thanks a lot for sharing such an informative and helpful post about using the right size of pillow. No doubt! I am so much impressed by your tips. keep posting such kind of information on your page. I will certainly dig it and personally suggest to my friends. I'm sure they'll be benefited from this website.
Hello! This is very helpful, thank you. Just wondering, will a standard pillow cover (I know a case will, but I am referring to the protective cover) fit a queen size pillow?
I'm not sure. Depends on the size and material of your protective cover.


Does an Apple car have Windows?
NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian bride walked out of her wedding ceremony after the groom failed to solve a simple math problem, police said Friday.
The bride tested the groom on his math skills and when he got the sum wrong, she walked out.
The question she asked: How much is 15 plus six?
The incident took place late Wednesday in Rasoolabad village near the industrial town of Kanpur in northern Uttar Pradesh state, local police officer Rakesh Kumar said Friday.
The groom's family tried persuading the bride to return, but she refused. She said the groom had misled them about his education.
Note to self, if ever considering marriage to an Indian bride, bring original copies of my degrees and a calculator.


This week we encounter numerous technical difficulties and push through it to discuss talk fests, what they mean and what we like in them, and then we get to review the biggest talk fest since Clerks.
Mix all ingredients together in highball glass with ice. What do you get, but a starry night sky right before the sunrise!


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Aleksandra A. Vojejkova, född 1795, död 1829, var en rysk salongsvärd. Hon var gift med poeten Aleksander Vojejkov och är bland annat känd som förebilden för Vasilij Zjukovskijs dikt Svetlana och som musa till Nikolaj Jazykov.

Källor

Personer i Ryssland under 1800-talet
Ryska salongsvärdar
Födda 1795
Avlidna 1829
Kvinnor

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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To Whom It May Concern () — десятый студийный альбом британской группы Bee Gees, вышедший в октябре 1972 года.

Об альбоме
Продюсером традиционно выступил , а также сами музыканты Барри, Робин и Морис Гиббы, сведение осуществил . Группа продолжила сотрудничество со старыми лейблами, выпустив британский вариант пластинки через Polydor Records и американский при участии Atco Records. Песни записывались в течение двух лет в нескольких студиях Лондона, преимущественно в IBC Studios. Это последняя запись группы на данной студии и последняя пластинка, созданная в сотрудничестве с Биллом Шепердом.

Альбом примечателен жанровым разнообразием — здесь встречаются классический рок-н-ролл («Bad Bad Dreams»), есть мощная баллада («»), хоровое исполнение («Please Don't Turn Out the Lights»), причудливые и психоделические песни («Paper Mache, Cabbages and Kings», «Sweet Song of Summer»), а также ностальгический романс о любви («Sea of Smiling Faces»). Участники группы никогда не относились к этой пластинке с большим энтузиазмом, однако многие поклонники очень высоко ценят эту запись коллектива, поскольку, как считается, братья выразили на ней свои истинные чувства, не подверженные влиянию какого-либо искусственного формата.

На обложке изображены музыканты, выступающие на концерте 1972 года в Японии, в то время как на задней стороне расположены фотографии, сделанные в ходе живого выступления в 1963 году. Кроме того, вложенная внутрь брошюра содержит фотографии других приближенных к группе людей, в частности, там представлены ведущий гитарист , концертный барабанщик Крис Кэрон и Билл Шеперд, дирижирующий всем оркестром.

После релиза альбом получил несколько положительных рецензий, и синглы с него оказались довольно успешными, тем не менее, в американском чарте Billboard 200 пластинка смогла подняться лишь до 35-го места, а в британский вообще не попала — это третий подобный провал за всю историю группы. Несмотря на это, в некоторых странах Европы популярность всё же была достигнута, например, десятое место в итальянском хит-параде и шестое в испанском. Общий мировой тираж To Whom It May Concern составил 175 тысяч экземпляров.

Список композиций

Участники
Приведены по сведениям базы данных Discogs.

Bee Gees:
 Барри Гибб — ведущий,  и бэк-вокалы, акустическая гитара
 Робин Гибб — ведущий, гармонический и бэк-вокалы
 Морис Гибб — гармонический и бэк-вокалы, бас-гитара, акустическая гитара, фортепиано, орган, меллотрон, клавесин, мандолина, синтезатор Муга (в песне «Sweet Song of Summer»), ведущий вокал (в песне «You Know It's for You»);
 Джефф Бриджфорд — ударные (в песнях «We Lost the Road», «Paper Mache, Cabbages and Kings» и «Alive»)

Приглашённые музыканты:
  — акустическая гитара; электрическая соло-гитара (в песнях «Bad Bad Dreams», «Road to Alaska»)
  — ударные (в песнях «We Lost the Road», «Paper Mache, Cabbages and Kings» и «Alive»)
 Билл Шепард — оркестровая аранжировка

Технический персонал:
 Bee Gees — музыкальный продюсер
  — музыкальный продюсер
 Майк Клейдон — звукоинженер

Технический персонал:
 Дэймон Лайон-Шоу — звукоинженер
 Ричард Мэнваринг — звукоинженер
 Энди Найт — звукоинженер
  — звукоинженер по синтезатору Муга (в песне «Sweet Song of Summer»)
 Джордж Пирос — , нарезка лакового слоя
 Дик Эшби — разработка концепции художественного оформления
 Майк Кейпл — разработка концепции художественного оформления, дизайн

Позиции в хит-парадах
Еженедельные чарты

Годовые чарты

Примечания

Ссылки

Альбомы Bee Gees
Альбомы Polydor Records
Альбомы Atco Records
Альбомы, спродюсированные Барри Гиббом
Альбомы, записанные на IBC Studios


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How some law schools are teaching smart contracts to students
By Academic Alliance January 6, 2018
By now, the fact that contracts can be created by artificial intelligence and agreements executed through automation has already had significant implications for the practice and business of law. But while disruptive technology may not necessarily call for pioneering jurisprudence, it often requires legal education to adapt their curricula. Many law schools across the country are therefore finding ways to discuss smart contracts in the context of traditional legal analysis.
Blockchain and Smart Contracts in Legal Education
As the concept of smart contracts takes hold, it is slowly becoming an area of interest in legal education. Although the idea of these automated contracts have been around since the early '90s, its real-world application has only recently been made possible due to further developments in blockchain technology.
Despite advances in smart contract technology, however, there are still large issues that need to be addressed, like centralization risk, usability, and scalability. It is in these situations that smart contracts have implications for the practice of law. When the metrics and intricacies of a contract are measured outside of human forces, problems can arise.
Luckily, there are many prestigious schools and rigorous programs across the country currently exploring ways to reconcile technology, law, and legal prose. From classes that explore cryptocurrency initiatives to conferences on the latest in blockchain and contract drafting, legal education is not only catching up to the automated methods of modern business but even driving it forward.
Cornell Tech is one of the schools leading the efforts to study smart contracts and their implications for law. As recent recipients of a $3 million NSF grant, Cornell created the Initiative For Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3) division. The program offers incentives like the "Five Grand Challenges" which encourages students to explore concepts like scaling, confidentiality, and compliance. At Cornell, students are taking an active role (not just an educational one) in the smart contract market.
Stanford has created a program known as the Stanford Cyber Initiative that acts as a central hub for research in blockchain technology. They pride themselves on creating and defining new fields in public policy issues surrounding smart contracts and blockchain technology.
The university offers a variety of classes, lectures, and programs on smart contracts and cryptocurrency. Stanford recently held a conference on blockchain protocol analysis and security engineering. Courses like CS 251: Cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and smart contracts are available to students and explore the aspects of distributed consensus and smart contract applications.
MIT has developed a program called the Digital Currency Initiative that focuses on cryptocurrency and its underlying technology. Students can perform fundamental research while also shedding light on the risks, benefits, and ethical quandaries of smart contracts.
In addition to educating students, the initiative fosters open-source cryptocurrency communities to help students take an active role in understanding the concepts. The program sponsors a variety of research and holds events for students like the "MIT Tech Review Business of Blockchain Conference."
Suffolk University's law school offers a unique Legal Innovation and Technology Concentration for students to focus on technology and innovation in the legal industry. This pioneering program features courses such as "Lawyering in the Age of Smart Machines," which explores technology currently employed in firms and legal departments, including DIY contract assemblers, as well as implications for technology under development.
In addition to offering tech-based law programs, some universities have launched research labs.
The University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Input Output Hong Kong Ltd. launched the Blockchain Technology Lab early in 2017. According to the university website, research collaborations will be interdisciplinary and will include computer science, economics, game theory, regulation and compliance, business, and law, with particular focus on smart contracts.
The University of New South Wales
Sydney's UNSW launched the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation late last year to explore various research topics, including cybersecurity, data governance, and the "automation of legal practice, adjudication, and decision-making," which could open the doors for research into smart contracts and related technology.
Classes on smart contracts and blockchain concepts
Some universities also offer specific classes on blockchain concepts to get students thinking about the technology and its impact on law.
Duke Law
522 Contract Drafting: The Next Generation. This course explores how to conceptualize the legal structure of smart contracts and the analytical process behind converting DFAs.
BYU's law school has embraced legal innovation and now offers a course called "Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Law" to explore "enforcement challenges regarding private payment systems" as well as other uses for blockchain technology.
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies. Teaming up with the online teaching tool Coursera, Princeton Professor of Computer Science, Arvind Narayanan teaches an 11-week online course that involves cryptocurrency and how to facilitate smart contracts.
Algorithmic decision making is never a perfect science because the salient features of smart contracts differ. The dance between legal and technical is still unfolding, as disruptive technologies continue to change the way we do business. Will computer coded instructions ever be able to capture all the elements of human interaction? We'll see, but when it comes to smart contracts, the universities on this list are the best place to start.
In addition to courses and programs, students have taken it upon themselves to learn about the implications and applications of smart contracts.
Blockchain at Berkeley is a student-run organization dedicated to serving the crypto and blockchain communities. Members include students, alumni, and the greater community. The initiative holds a range of programs centered around consulting, educating, and innovating on blockchain technology and the implication of smart contracts.
Their main site for all education related to smart contracts is called Decal. It is a forum of resources, classes, webinars, podcasts, and anything else a curious student would need to learn more about the technology.
These are but a few examples of how smart contracts and related technology are being taught to law students. Please feel free to contact the Academic Alliance with new developments in blockchain and smart contracts in legal education and scholarship.
Academic Alliance / About Author
More posts by Academic Alliance
The Integra Academic Alliance is designed to facilitate and strengthen the important symbiotic relationships with the legal and blockchain communities.
2017 © Copyright Integra
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Fine mist primes the hair for up to 35% faster blow-dries, with heat protection, anti-frizz and split-end repairing properties for smooth hair with improved manageability.
Great for fine hair to de-frizz without weighing hair down.
Directions: Shake can well. Spray onto damp hair from a distance of 15 cm before blow-drying.
Use on dry hair to smooth flyaways.


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Somaweera Chandrasiri (11 February 1909 – 11 July 1971) was a Sinhalese poet and Ceylonese politician.

Somaweera Chandrasiri was born 11 February 1909 in Mampe. He attended Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa. In 1937 he was elected to the Mampe-Kesbewa Urban Council. Although he was not a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) Chandrasiri edited and published a pro-LSSP weekly newspaper Nidahasa. He was arrested and jailed for contempt of court, whilst he was in jail he lodged his nomination papers for the country's first parliamentary elections.

At the 1st parliamentary election, held between 23 August 1947 and 20 September 1947, Chandrasiri was elected as the LSSP candidate in the Moratuwa electorate, securing 48.15% of the total vote, 3,917 votes ahead of his nearest rival. He retained the seat at the 2nd parliamentary election, held between 24 May 1952 and 30 May 1952, receiving 41.19% of the total vote.

In October 1953 he split from the LSSP and was unsuccessful in his attempt to retain the seat of Moratuwa at the 3rd parliamentary election, held between 5 April 1956 and 10 April 1956, where he ran as an independent candidate. He polled 6,559 votes (16.26% of the total vote), 12,970 votes behind the successful LSSP candidate, Meryl Fernando.

Candrasiri contested the newly created Kesbewa electorate at the 4th parliamentary elections in March 1960, where he received 11,115 votes (38.58% of the total vote) and was duly elected. He subsequently joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), and ran as the party's candidate in the July 1960 parliamentary election, where he polled 45.37% of the total vote, retaining the seat. At the 6th parliamentary election, held on 22 March 1965, he increased his winning margin to 57.87% of the total vote, over 7,000 votes clear of his nearest rival.

At the 7th parliamentary election in May 1970 he polled 32,332 votes (64.37% of the total vote) and 14,606 votes in front of his United National Party rival, Dharmasena Attygalle. In 1970 he was appointed the Deputy Minister of Cultural Affairs in the Second Sirimavo Bandaranaike cabinet.

In September 1970 a Tamil militant, Pon Sivakumaran, attempted to assassinate Chandrasiri by placing a time bomb under Chandrasiri's car when he was visiting Urumpirai Hindu College however the bomb exploded whilst nobody was in the car.

References

1909 births
1971 deaths
Alumni of Prince of Wales' College, Moratuwa
Deputy ministers of Sri Lanka
Lanka Sama Samaja Party politicians
Local authority councillors of Sri Lanka
Members of the 1st Parliament of Ceylon
Members of the 2nd Parliament of Ceylon
Members of the 4th Parliament of Ceylon
Members of the 5th Parliament of Ceylon
Members of the 6th Parliament of Ceylon
Sinhalese poets
Sinhalese politicians
Sri Lanka Freedom Party politicians


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Home Sport Cricket
How Keshav Maharaj can claim South Africa's best Test bowling figures on Sunday
The 28-year-old is just a few wickets away from making history.
in Cricket
South Africa's bowler Keshav Maharaj (L) celebrates with teammates the dismissal of Australia's batsman Shaun Marsh during day one of the first Sunfoil Test between South Africa and Australia at Kingsmead Stadium in Durban on March 1, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / MARCO LONGARI / ALTERNATIVE CROP
Do you know that feeling of being the only one who does any work in a group project? Keshav Maharaj is going through it right now.
The South African spin bowler is having a blinder against Sri Lanka, weaving his magic in the second Test. However, no-one else has bothered to turn up.
Can Keshav Maharaj break a record?
Maharaj claimed nine wickets in Sri Lanka's first innings total of 338. His return of 9-129 was the best post-apartheid bowling haul from a Proteas player. However, SA's batsmen just didn't deliver, and they were skittled for 124 in reply.
The hosts have piled on the misery in their second innings, and lead South Africa by 365 runs with seven wickets still remaining. The match is practically a foregone conclusion, but history beckons once more for our king of spin.
Proteas tour to India: The long hard road out of purgatory
England crowned world champions after tense tied final
Cricket World Cup 2019: Most wickets in the tournament and other bowling stats
Cricket World Cup 2019: Leading run-scorers and batting stats
What are the best Test bowling figures for a South African?
It might be game over already, but there's everything to play for in Maharaj's book. The best Test bowling figures for the Proteas belong to Makhaya Ntini. His 13-132 against the West Indies back in 2005 is the gold standard for SA's Test bowlers.
Keshav Maharaj took 9-129 in the first innings, and at the end of day two, his figures were 2-90. His current match figures stand at 11-219. Given that he's conceded more runs than Ntini did, the left-armer will have to surpass his wicket total.
Sri Lanka have seven wickets left, and Maharaj needs to take three of those to claim the national record for best Test match figures.
What are the best Test match bowling figures in history?
You're all thinking it. But unless you've heard of Jim Laker already, we've got to tell you – Maharaj cannot beat the record for the best figures Test match in the world.
That honour belongs to the English spinner, who took a dizzying 19-90 against Australia in 1956. However, Kesh could put himself second on the list if he cleans up all remaining seven wickets – he'd also have the distinction of becoming the first ever player to take exactly 18 wickets in a Test match.
Can Keshav Maharaj pull it off? Play gets underway at 6:30 SAST on Sunday. Put a pot of coffee on, set an alarm, and you might just be rewarded with a slice of South African history.
Also read: Six South African bowlers who have taken eight wickets in a Test innings
Tags: ProteasSri Lanka


625 To Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Friday, 15 and Saturday, 16 June 1888.
...ence on the new style – Cloisonnism – that Anquetin and Bernard developed. Cf. letter 575, n. 7.
Thomas bought Anquetin's study in the end — the peasant.
Anquetin had spent the summer in Etrépagny (Normandy).


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Tag Archives: Facebook
Mobile Marketing Magazine – Issue 19, March 2015 – 2015: The Year Iteration, Not Innovation is Key
Written for the 18th edition of Mobile Marketing Magazine. See the full issue here.
So the New Year hasn't quite brought the 'new you' that the mobile industry might have been looking for, instead we all seem to be focused on delivering, or perfecting, those innovations we've all been talking about since that fated 'year of mobile'.
With sales halted on the current version of Google Glass, plus wearables like Nike FuelBand resigned to the scrap heap, it's clear that smart device-makers are doing some soul-searching. Despite several new launches at CES, Apple's Watch, set to launch this Spring, is really the only wearable on everyone's mind.
But check out the Uno Noteband for something a little bit different. The device, which has just completed a successful crowdfund on Indiegogo, comes pre-loaded with Spritz fast-reading software that promises to help you read a 300-page book in 90 minutes. This might be the key to keeping your New Year's resolution to read more books, while Bond could be just the app to help you keep those promises of regular contact with family and friends, enabling you to set regular reminders to reach out to certain people, on whichever platform they want to hear from you.
It's clear the handset market is still hot though, with Chinese upstart Xiaomi sealing its position as the world's third-best selling handset in 2014, and rousing investment rumours from big players like Facebook. The company, founded in 2010, has just unveiled a couple of handsome handsets that are shorter, thinner, lighter and much cheaper than the iPhone 6 Plus.
Although failing in its bid to get a slice of the Chinese device market, Facebook just made an interesting buyout in the form of Wit.ai, which could accelerate voice-controlled functionality in the social giant' products. Facebook's enterprise efforts are also a hot tip for 2015, if businesses are willing to part with their data of course!
Behind the scenes, Qualcomm has been working hard on improving the processing power of our much-loved smartphones, and its Snapdragon 810 is now coming into production in Windows and Android devices like the LG G Flex 2. This means better data speeds, longer battery life and optimised support of 4K, or ultra-high-definition, video.
And this is perfect timing for what's becoming our all-video culture, with visual feasting set to represent 79% of all consumer internet traffic in 2018, up from 66% in 2013. With everyone from Facebook, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix, Instagram and Vice all vying your attention in this fast-growing media space, prepare for the definition of TV, the ad spend and the metrics to change dramatically.
And where would video be without, next gen video: virtual reality. Gamers are clearly the big winners in the growth of VR, and mobile games are already tipped to outsell consoles this year. But advertisers, too, will start to make virtual reality pay. Although the Tesco store walkaround was pretty awkward, companies like Chrysler are turning a 'behind the scenes at the factory' slot into a truly cinematic experience, with the help of Google Maps and Oculus Rift.
And where there's 'bells and whistles' tech, there's now a real drive to create the products and services that help every day. Covering everything from assistive technologies for people with disabilities, to 'quantified self' applications like Health from Apple, 2015 is surely the year that health products, and health data, become awesome. In Berlin, MiMi is using smartphones to help make hearing aid technologies accessible to all. Peak Vision is likewise bringing cheap eye tests to the developing world via its smartphone app.
And where there's small data, there's bigger data, the likes of which is helping smart city innovation trickle down to smart towns. MK:Smart is a £16m project currently smartening up Milton Keynes, proving that projects like this can be done on a smaller scale. The company behind this was just bought up by Huawei, while Samsung Ventures has invested in London-based IoT startup Everythng, so it's certainly a battleground to wtach going into 2015.
Keep an eye on eye-tracking and facial-recognition tech, long-tipped to come into mainstream usage, save the creepiness factor, plus even more mobile-first product customisation, like that just announced at BBC News. Mobile money, yet again led by Apple, is also likely to become 'just another thing we do' come New Year's Day 2016. But don't think about that now, there's a whole year of improvement and iteration to do first!
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Amazon, Apple Watch, Berlin, Bond, CES, China, Chrysler, Facebook, Google Glass, Indiegogo, Instagram, iPhone 6 Plus, MiMi, MK:Smart, mobile marketing magazine, Netflix, Nike FuelBand, Oculus Rift, Peak Vision, Qualcomm, Tesco, Uno Noteband, Vice, VR, Wit.ai, Xiaomi, Youtube on March 15, 2015 by kirstystyles1.
Half of Facebook Q4 Ad Revenue Came from Mobile
Mobile ads at Facebook now make up more than half of total advertising revenues, according to its Q4 2013 results.
Mobile ad revenues contributed around 53 per cent of Facebook's ad business in Q4, more than double the share it brought in a year earlier, and raking in $1.25bn (£760m) for the company.
This marks the first 'billion-dollar quarter' for mobile at Facebook, up from zero when it started monetising mobile in February 2012. Black Friday, the first Friday after Thanksgiving Day in the US, was the company's single biggest mobile ad day of the quarter, attributed to bargain hunters checking the site while out shopping.
Total revenue was $2.59bn, an increase of 63 per cent on Q4 2012, with ad revenues making up $2.34bn of that. Profit at the company reached $1.5bn, a huge growth from 2012, where full-year profit was just $53m.
Monthly and daily visitors continue to grow, despite criticism that Facebook is past it, with 1.23bn monthly and 757m daily users seen in Q4. This is slightly slower than growth seen in Q3. Active use on mobile are still climbing, with 556m daily visitors and 945m monthly visitors, growth of 49 per cent and 39 per cent respectively. The company did not break out figures for mobile-only users.
The company said app installs ads are 'generating very healthy revenue growth' and pointed to its 'interesting' test of Facebook ads in third-party apps, but said it won't have meaningful results for a while. Facebook is also making 'steady progress' with brands, the company says, and its auto-play video ad product, which began testing in December, will be key to getting more on board.
Facebook has further honed its targeting capabilities, doubling its Custom Audiences sements from 500 to 1000, and says News Feed ads generate an eight times ROI, tracked using Facebook's Offline Conversion Measurement capability.
For the first time, Mark Zuckerberg will be delivering a keynote at Mobile World Congress.
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and first published here: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/half-of-facebook-ad-revenue-comes-from-mobile/#sZKcPU5tPWjJ2x2D.99
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged ad revenue, Facebook, Q4 2013 on January 30, 2014 by kirstystyles1.
Facebook Buys Social Product Creator Branch Media
Announced fittingly in a Facebook post, Branch Media CEO Josh Miller explained that his company had been bought to form a new Conversations team at Facebook.
Branch Media has brought two different social products to market during its two-year lifespan. The Branch web platform enables users to invite others to chat about specific topics or news stories, while the free Potluck app is a social news aggregator. Miller said that these products will continue to operate as they are.
The team of nine will stay in New York and 'build Branch at Facebook scale'. The CEO said the goal of the team would be to help 'people connect with others around their interests' and Facebook is clearly keen to work out the best way of ensuring the big conversations still happen on its platform.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone is one of Branch Media's investors and TechCrunch has unearthed the post that shows the news was actually broken on his new product Jelly.
Whether the question was posed purposefully to out the acquisition or not, 'What happened Branch? The company has gone quiet', Miller was clearly taken by surprise. He added: "A more thoughtful note and details to come soon but I am writing this haphazardly from a mountain in Japan (I was tipped that the story was going to leak while on vacation)."
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and first published here: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/facebook-buys-social-product-creator-branch-media/#GZ74SkDde4vz2qdX.99
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Biz Stone, Branch Media, Facebook, Jelly, Josh Miller on January 14, 2014 by kirstystyles1.


text:
Unleash the Value of Open Banking and Custom APIs With Modern IAM
SAPI-G
Interfaces-and-APIs, Identity-Cloud, PSD2, Blog, OpenBanking
adam.preis December 12, 2022, 12:41pm #1
FR-SBAT-LinkedIn-1200x6281200×628 121 KB
Have you ever attended one of those industry events that tickled your mind and made you think: 'I wish I had thought of that 10 or 20 years ago?' That's exactly the way one felt coming out of the recent ForgeRock Open Banking event held at the epicentre of financial innovation in the UK — the infamous 'Square Mile' on 15th November 2022.
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Steve Ferris at a recent ForgeRock Open Banking Community event
Recently, I had the opportunity to hear ForgeRock co-founder Steve Ferris espouse the benefits of identity and access management (IAM) modernisation and its roots some 20 years ago dating back to his time at Sun Microsystems. What proved even more compelling was hearing Steve compare this evolutionary journey to the past, present, and (anticipated) future fate of the Open Banking application programming interfaces (APIs). But let's roll back the story before getting too excited.
Ascendancy of the UK Open Banking APIs
Since the publication of the retail banking report by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2016, many began to salivate over the promise of Open Banking and an API revolution in the financial services industry. Since that time, and according to the 2022 Open Banking Report from the UK Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), more than five million users now consume Open Banking APIs in the UK alone, with a 500% rise in Open Banking payments this year to July 2022.
Retail banking leaders, fintech entrepreneurs, and third-party provider (TPP) ecosystem innovators flocked to Open Banking in numbers, albeit, involuntarily. The stringent requirements of the UK Open Banking API Specifications and PSD2 Regulations have been critical in driving what has come to be known as "regulated" Open Banking APIs. And so it comes as no surprise that there's been some resistance to what Eric Christensen, Vice President of Payments, Fraud, and Financial Services at Digital River once called "an opportunity to continue enhancing and build[ing] relationships with customers." Let's explore the reasons behind this challenge.
Limitations of the UK Open Banking APIs
Delivering secure Open Banking APIs is no easy undertaking, as many traditional banking providers will attest. First, there's the raft of UK Open Banking API specifications that providers have had to align with. Since November 2018, the OBIE has released no fewer than ten iterations of the said specifications. Account Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSPs) have been forced to hire legions of highly specialised API developers to keep up with code control.
These Open Banking implementation teams have also been required to build their own Test Facilities to ensure Open Banking APIs are secured in conformance with FAPI 1.0 and 2.0 specifications. That's not the end of the story — these implementation teams have also been compelled to spin-up their own production facilities to support the deployment of the very same Open Banking APIs. And there's also the challenge of managing consent flows with outdated identity and access management (IAM) infrastructure.
For all of these reasons, the appeal of Open Banking implementations, outside the fintech world, has plummeted. Furthermore, the initial excitement amongst consumers has followed suit. A recent Yapily survey of 2,000 working professionals and 500 financial decision-makers has shown that even after all the work done over the last few years to make Open Banking work for consumers, only 51% felt that their financial providers were doing enough to support them. So, where next?
The Future of Custom APIs
A fascinating piece in FinExtra by Tatsiana Kuchminskaya, CFO at Andersen, points to research suggesting that the global API market growth will surpass USD 21 billion by 2028. The 2020-2021 RapidAPI Developer Survey shows that over 71% of respondents were planning to use APIs more widely in 2021, as compared to 2020. And it comes as no surprise that the industries leading the API pack include telcos, healthcare providers, and financial services providers.
But here's the all-important "rub" as Shakespeare would say: when and how does one capitalise on the custom-API revolution while benefiting from all the great work done on Open Banking APIs? Short of veering off on a tangent, the answer is simple (in contrast to the complexity of execution): leverage secure, extensible, and FAPI-compliant APIs to develop new value-added services on the back of comprehensive financial data.
That's great, but if only it were so simple! Naturally, valuable things in business and life are never simple. But perhaps it's not too much to ask for them to be simpler, easier, more secure, and faster? "That's a reasonable ask," as Steve Ferris would say. Especially so if financial services providers are able to bring both Open Banking test and production facilities as well as future custom API test and production facilities into one framework. This framework would be enabled by a modern IAM infrastructure that can, in turn, handle, secure, and deliver thousands of API calls across tens of millions of identities worldwide.
Perhaps Steve's evolutionary vision for both Open Banking and custom APIs will become more of a reality than a vision. And perhaps that will unlock an uptick on Open Banking investments for multiple players in the financial services industry and beyond.
Luckily, the ForgeRock Open Banking team led by Jamie Bowen has been working with leading UK financial services providers to address this very challenge. Join the discussion on the SAPI-G Community threat to learn more. Visit the ForgeRock Secure API Gateway for Open Banking webpage to find out more.
#OpenBanking #PSD2 #API #APIeconomy


THE Christmas Lights Committee in Alford is holding the first in a series of fundraising events, to help put on an even better display this Christmas.
A Scottish Music Evening is being held on Friday, May 7, in Alford Public Hall at 7.30pm. Music will be provided by members of the Scottish Music Accordion Group.
Tickets priced 6, including refreshments, are available from W and R Murray and Key Store in Main Street, Alford.
All proceeds will go towards Alford's Christmas lights.
The committee was formed last year in conjunction with Donside Community Council and to date over 12,000 has been raised.
Hundreds of people gathered in the town last December to watch the switch-on of the first ever display of Christmas lights. The ceremony was performed by Alford Primary pupil, Andriana Stronach, winner of the Christmas lights logo competition, and Sir Robert Smith MP.
Heather Pirie is a member of the committee. She said: "We really want to say a very big 'thank you' to all the local businesses, organisations and individuals who donated money to the fund."
She added: "We're hoping to have an even bigger event this year!"
Organisers would like to hear from anyone who would like to volunteer their services to help with this year's fundraising efforts, or to make a donation. For more information, call Heather on 077929 41185.


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"Commencement" (2001) by Joyce Carol Oates
greyirish	Review	 March 3, 2018 January 12, 2019 5 Minutes
When I was eleven or twelve years old, I discovered H. P. Lovecraft in the Lockport Public Library, in upstate New York—the collection of Lovecraft stories was large and unwieldy with a distinctive font, which I can "see" vividly if I shut my eyes. The stories that riveted me immediately were "The Rats in the Walls" and "The Dunwich Horror." At once I fell under the Lovecraftian spell—subsequently I have reprinted Lovecraft tales in anthologies of "literary" stories in the hope of breaking down the artificial barriers and unfortunate prejudices between genres.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Lovecraft Unbound
Joyce Carol Oates had written eloquently about Lovecraft in The King of the Weird (1996), and curated a collection of his best fiction, Tales of H. P. Lovecraft (1997). Two of her novelettes have appeared in the Lovecraftian anthologies: "Commencement" in Lovecraft Unbound (2009) and "Shadows of the Evening" in Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror (2015). Neither is a story of the Cthulhu Mythos. Oates does not partake of the shared creative universe created by Lovecraft and his contemporaries, her works are not set in and do not expand on the setting as Tina L. Jens does in "In His Daughter's Darkling Womb" or Margaret L. Carter does in "Prey of the Goat"; she does not reference Lovecraft himself as Joanna Russ in "I Had Vacantly Crumpled It Into My Pocket…But By God, Eliot, It Was A Photograph From Life!" or Adèle Olivia Gladwell in "Hypothetical Materfamilias."
What is a Lovecraftian tale, without the Mythos and without Lovecraft?
Ellen Datlow, editor of Lovecraft Unbound, states in her introduction that she had read and enjoyed Lovecraft, but:
I've also read the multitudes of pastiches in anthologies of work "inspired" by Lovecraft, but most—for me, at least—are too obvious and bring little new to the table.
It's a fair observation, and goes hand-in-hand with Oates' remark on the prejudices of genre fiction. Lovecraft is more than just a bunch of strange and evocative names, and in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature, the Providence gentleman himself observed:
The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain—a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.
Lovecraftian pastiche may replace "bloody bones" with "eldritch tentacles" and the "clanking chains" with the Necronomicon, but the same principle applies: what writers are trying to recapture should not be the outward form of Lovecraft's Mythos, but the central mood or essence. This is what Oates tries to capture in her tale, without recourse or reference to any of the outer trappings of the Mythos.
"Commencement" is a work of weird allegory. It is time for Commencement at the University, the annual academic ritual through which graduates get their degrees. There are no names, for even though this is a special event (the two hundredth anniversary of the University), it is also somewhat timeless, a ritual repeated every year without fail. The formula of the university commencement gives the shape of the story. As the pomp and symbolism of the ceremony slowly unfolds, so too do we get a glimpse of the broader setting—advancements in human genetic engineering, cloning, hints of hard science fiction—and the themes of continuity, of the marriage of ancestral strength to contemporary progress.
Then comes the climax, the conferring of the honorary degrees. The mystery of the Pyramid, foreshadowed slowly and with a slow build up of suspense Lovecraft would have approved of, is revealed but not explained. The viewpoint character for the story is the Assistant Mace Bearer, a nameless protagonist that harkens back to the initiates of "The Festival" and "The Shadow over Innsmouth"—unsure and unready for what transpires, as the Commencement continues in its final stages of the Recessional and Disrobing, they find the central truth to all such rituals: to participate in it is to experience a profound change. Like the protagonist in "The Shadow over Innsmouth," they accept this new self that they have become.
The crux of Oates' conception is the subversion of expectations; the fact that the ceremonies of medieval universities are still used in the present day are taken as granted. Lovecraft could not have contrived a better source of robed cultists or strange rites than reality provides. What Oates adds is the secondary layer of meaning—the mystery that the outward forms hide and disguise—and then drives it how during the climax. The horror of "Commencement" is not in the visceral details of the conferring of the honorary degrees, but in the culpability of the thousands of attendees, the group acceptance and participation which normalized such bloody exercises as the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome, Madama la Guillotine during the Terror, the Salem Witch Trials, or the sacrifices of Xipe Totec atop the Pyramid of the Sun in Tenochtitlán.
Is it Lovecraftian? The University is not Miskatonic University, not as Lovecraft envisaged it. A story does not automatically become Lovecraftian because an editor includes it in an anthology. Context can color a story, suggest associations which the author might not have intended. If encountered outside Lovecraft Unbound—Oates' novelette first appeared in Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction (2001)—would it strike the reader as Lovecraftian? Without any direct allusion to Lovecraft's works, the average reader probably wouldn't make that connection. Technically, the story does not even have any supernatural element. Yet the influence of Lovecraft is certainly in the piece, with echoes of his themes and methods. Critical readers would no doubt pick up on the Lovecraftian vibe, as Datlow appears to have done, and scholars might look at Oates' own definition of Lovecraft's fiction:
Lovecraft with the fusion of the gothic tale and what would come to be defined as science fiction, and with the development of a species of horror fantasy set in meticulously described, historically grounded places (predominantly, in Lovecraft, Providence, Rhode Island; Salem, Massachusetts; and a region in northern central Massachusetts to which he gave the name "the Miskatonic Valley") in which a seemingly normal, intelligent scholar or professor, usually a celibate bachelor, pursues a mystery it would wiser for him to flee.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Tales of H. P. Lovecraft viii
This is, if not exactly a synopsis for "Commencement," at least highly evocative of the final product. It may not fulfill Lovecraft's definition of a weird tale, and readers may never know whether or not Oates consciously had Lovecraft in mind when she conceived and executed this story, it certainly shows his influence. Not with tentacles or the Necronomicon, but by reproducing in form the shape and mood of Lovecraft's stories, at least as she understands it.
So yes, "Commencement" is Lovecraftian.
Published by greyirish
View all posts by greyirish
Published March 3, 2018 January 12, 2019
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This question led me to a book, "All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood," by Jennifer Senior. Unlike other parenting books, the book was written for parents to learn about themselves instead of the kids.
I highlighted basically the entire chapter and inserted a note to every paragraph: "uh-huh," "true true," and "love this." I will try not to quote the whole chapter here and try very hard to pick only a few that could apply to even non parents.
Conclusively, the book convinces me that the reward of parenting is greater than what it costs: my autonomy, career, time, friendship, relationship to my husband, even mental health. By placing the Joy chapter after five previous chapters expounding on demanding characteristics of modern parenting, the book leaves me with definite hope and encouragement.
In the past five years, I have learned that there is something that goes to the soul level about being connected to another being in such an intimate way. Interesting thing is this kind of intimacy comes from such condition: One person is utterly dependent on me, and to take care of this one being, it takes all of my life. This is a mysterious on one hand, but at the same time embarrassingly plain thing about love.


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Q: How to modify CSS when requirements change? Suppose I'm given the requirement to generate a few pages that have tables on them. The original requirement is for all tables to be 500px.
I'd write my CSS as follows:
table
{
    width: 500px;
}

That will apply across the board for all tables. Now, what if they change the requirement so that some tables are 600px. What's the best way to modify the CSS? Should I give the tables classes so
table.SizeOne
{
    width: 500px;
}

table.SizeTwo
{
    width: 600px;
}

Or is there a better way for me to deal with changes like this?

A: Personally I like to use classes named after what I am working with such as navigation or content. If you are using class names to specify size it feels like a round about way of doing inline styles. A person coming in and looking at the css wouldn't know really what they were working with.

A: This doesn't feel to me like a CSS question as much as it's about changing requirements and CSS... or more specifically, requirements traceability in the context of CSS...

That will apply accross the board for all tables. Now, what if they change the requirment so that some tables are 600px.

That requirement won't just say "some tables are 600px wide" and if it does you need a better way to elicit requirements.
Instead it would probably be something like "tables on the HR 'staff directory' page will be 600px wide." Make the CSS rule reflect that specifically!
body#staff-directory table {
    width:600px;
}

... or "tables of search results will be 600px wide.":
table.search-results {
    width:600px;
}

You might roll your eyes and think "But then I have so many similar CSS rules!" but they've already changed their minds once, so don't be surprised when they do it again!
Those 'redundant' rules will come in handy when the client does change the requirements again and says "Tables on the HR 'staff directory' page will be 600px wide; tables of search results will be 800px wide and all other tables are 500px wide." Now those crummy, non-descriptive CSS attributes "Size1" and "Size2" have shot you in the foot.

A: I would give them classes with meaningful names instead of SizeOne and SizeTwo, but yes that is the best approach.

A: you can define classes further which override basic settings using a body class (a class given for the body tag ) or so.
for example if your table general width is set to 100 and in a particular page (with bodyclass 'page2') ,you need to have width as 50px, you can do it like
table{
 width: 100px;
}

.page2 table {
 width :50px;
}

so the second class will over ride the former for the only page which is having bodyclass ="page2" and every where else width will be 100.
It is a good practice to set a class name for the body based on section.

A: Your suggestion does require you to add a class to all your tables, existing ones as well as the new, wide ones; although you say "a few pages" and thus one would assume that there are only a few tables.
If you can consider the 500px tables as standard and 600px as the exceptions, then continuing to set a default would probably be more useful:
table
{
    width: 500px;
}

table.Wide /* or a more semantic class name */
{
    width: 600px;
}

A: If you have several different page-wide layouts, you might benefit from creating some layout classes and attaching them to your body (or other containing tag):

...

Then in your CSS:
table {width:500px} /* defaults for all tables regardless of class */
body.wide table {width:600px} /* overrides for specific layouts */
body.slim table {width:300px}

It looks like a waste of time and it would be for just a table but if you're also styling images, divs, etc differently, you can save a lot of HTML markup.
#wrapper {width:500px;padding:20px 10px}
body.wide #wrapper {width:600px}
body.slim #wrapper {width:300px;padding:10px 5px}

table {width:500px} /* defaults for all tables regardless of class */
body.wide table {width:600px} /* overrides for specific layouts */
body.slim table {width:300px}

img {width:500px}
body.wide img {width:600px}
body.slim img {width:300px}

Your 99% of your HTML stays the same (very useful if you're pulling this from a database and don't want to adapt it every time you use it), you just change the body class.

A: The BEST method would be to modify tables based who their parents are. For example, certain pages should have different IDs, e.g.:

      Content

So in your CSS would be:
table {
  width: 500px;
}

#contacts table {
  width: 600px;
}

The advantage to this approach is that you're working entirely in CSS, without the need to add anything to your HTML files. Adding classes for something like this is just going to make your code more unmanageable in the future.
If your HTML wasn't written with proper cascading in mind, you're much better off adding proper IDs to elements than to add the classes to just the tables. The payoff is much greater for the work you're going to have to put in.

A: I would write it:
table
{
    width: 500px;
}

and use version control something like SVN. What your suggesting makes things incredibly complicated. Or without version control:
 table
    {
        /*width: 500px;*/
         width: 600px;

    }

Adding lots of classes defeats the object of CSS in my opinion.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
THE KID WITH A BIKE - #646
There's a scene near the very end of The Kid With aBike where the titular kid, Cyril (Thomas Doret), is riding side by side with his unexpected guardian, Samantha (Cécile de France, Mesrine [review], The Young Pope), and he asks her what gear she is pedaling in. Samantha has no idea, and only can guess looking at the gauges and levers on the handlebars. Her ignorance amuses the boy.
It also reminds me of my own biking experiences. Near the end of junior high, a few years before I could drive, I was given a ten-speed bike. It was probably nine speeds too many. No one ever explained to me what the different gears meant, much less how to shift into them. I found a setting where I could pedal comfortably, and then never touched the gears again.
The anecdote itself is completely irrelevant to examining this 2011 film from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and yet it is also everything. The pleasure of watching The Kid With a Bike [also on Filmstruck] and, in fact, all Dardenne films is the attention to personal details. Everything that happens matters to the person it happens to, and the specificity is exactly why audiences around the world, be they in the Dardenne Brothers' native Belgium or here in the United States, identify with their stories. It's the bigger things that separate us, and the day-to-day that proves we are all basically the same.
I don't identify with the love of the bike that the kid has, but I identify with his willful ignorance, his refusal to let go of an idea. In this case, that his father, Guy (Dardennes-regular Jérémie Renier, Summer Hours [review]), will come back and take him out of the group home and put their lives back together. The bike becomes a symbol of that. Cyril's father would have never gone away without giving him his beloved bike. When Samantha brings it to him and tells him she had bought it off someone who bought it from Cyril's dad, the boy refuses to believe her.
We should all hope for angels in our life like Samantha. She only meets Cyril by chance, while going to an appointment in a medical clinic in the building where Cyril's father was last known to live. The boy runs away from school and goes there looking for Guy, and when they try to drag him back, he literally grabs on to Samantha and won't let go. What this sparks in her, we'll never know. A Good Samaritan streak? A motherly instinct? Samantha agrees to take Cyril on the weekends, which proves tougher than expected when he falls in with a bad crowd. But then, Samantha is tougher than just about anybody. She stands up to the boy's father and makes him relate his own bad news; she dumps her boyfriend when he delivers her an ultimatum about her new ward; she refuses to give up on the kid even after he's stepped over a very dangerous line. Cécile de France is a remarkably versatile actor. In any role, be it the gangster's moll or the public relations woman or the simple hairdresser looking for love, she is always present in the moment. She's one of those performers that each time you see her, she seems transformed, sending you scrambling to IMDB to see why she looks familiar.
Watching The Kid With a Bike, you'll want to knock some sense into Cyril more than once. Hell, not only because he refuses to listen, but after the second time his bike gets stolen because he didn't lock it up, you just want to smack him upsdie the head. (I joked the movie could alternately be called The Persuasive Argument For My Vasectomy.) I don't know where the Dardennes found Thomas Doret, but he's excellent. The young actor has a laser-like focus and maintains his mission at all times. Cyril will not be dissuaded.
It's nearly impossible to not think of Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves [review] when examining The Kid With a Bike. It's not just the father/son story revolving around a two-wheeler, but also the fact that moral questions are raised over the need for the bike. Cyril faces a choice, and though less motivated by self-preservation than the desperate man of De Sica's film, to a young mind it would be just as important. Wes (Egon Di Mateo), the Fagin of Samantha's neighborhood, offers him the kind of masculine reinforcement that Cyril seeks, and so he makes doing bad look very good. And hell, if you can't trust your father to come through the way he's supposed to, common rules no longer seem valid.
Additionally, the Dardennes work in a similar style to De Sica. The young actor, the real locations, the simple plot, the lack of melodrama--this 2011 Belgian film is very much in line with the 1948 Italian film's aesthetics. Collaborating as usual with cinematographer Alain Marcoen, the Dardennes make no move that calls attention to itself. There are no tricky shots, no daring overheads, they maintain a grounded vantage point, which ultimately proves to be more immersive than some glossier fictional efforts, in that The Kid With a Bike is far more persuasive as a believable narrative. It is being lived, not choreographed.
Once upon a time when I was editing the Kitchen Sink-style comics of British cartoonist Andi Watson, we received a review that contended "nothing happened" in an issue. Of course, this was not true, we could outline many emotional twists and turns in the comic book, many actual events that the characters had to contend with. It just was lacking in "action." As Andi quipped, just because someone didn't get punched, it doesn't mean nothing happened. And while there is violence in The Kid With a Bike, it is story driven, not plot driven, which is a big difference. Some might say the core scenario is very little to hang an entire film on, but the Dardennes make something grand from it.
One last anecdote that came to mind while watching The Kid With a Bike: when I was in grade school I had a brown Huffy that I was pretty keen on. That is, until I got to school and was ridiculed because it had a banana seat and no crossbar on the handle. I was told this made it a girl's bike. A girl's bike befitting a boy with a girl's name, I guess. While I didn't come to blows with any of the kids the way that Cyril did (at least not over the bike), it did still come to represent a kind of rebellion for me--I rode it regardless of others' taunts--and provided my personal freedom. I could go all over town on it, much faster and with more ease than on two feet. In other words, it could get me away from those other boys whom I didn't want to hang out with anyway. Looking back, I guess it did carry a comparable power to the bike in the movie. It maybe wasn't about my father's love, but then, ultimately that's not what Cyril's represents. It's about having a vehicle to be who we are and get us to where we feel safe.
Posted by Jamie S. Rich at 10:58 AM
Labels: Dardennes, de sica, Neorealism
FOX AND HIS FRIENDS - #851
SOMETHING WILD (1961) - #850
HIS GIRL FRIDAY/THE FRONT PAGE - #849
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE - #847


text:
International Federation
for Human Rights
International Federation for Human Rights
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Terrorism, surveillance and human rights
Other regional organisations
Home [english] Issues Litigation Litigation against individuals Hissène Habré Case Chronology of the Hissène (...)
Chronology of the Hissène Habré Case
Hissène Habré Case
Chronology of Hissène Habré Case
December 1990 – President Hissène Habré of Chad is overthrown and arrives in Senegal.
May 1992 - The national Commission of Inquiry into the crimes and misappropriations committed by ex-President Habré, his accomplices and/or accessories, created in 1990 in Chad, publishes its report. The Commission drew up a list of 3 806 individuals – including 26 foreigners – who had either died in detention or had been illegally executed between 1982 and 1990, and made an estimate that the final number could amount to 40 000 dead. It recorded a total number of 54 000 prisoners (including both dead and alive) during the same period.
The Commission's estimate was that the task it had carried out only dealt with 10% of the violations and crimes committed under Habré.
26 January 2000 – Seven Chadian victims file a criminal complaint against Habré in Dakar.
3 February 2000 – A Senegalese judge, Demba Kandji, indicts Habré as an accomplice to torture, barbarous acts and crimes against humanity.
18 February 2000 – Habré's lawyers ask the Dakar Appeals Court to dismiss the case.
Read also our Questions & Answers on Hissène Habré's case
30 June 2000 – The Supreme Council of Magistracy, chaired by President Abdoulaye Wade, transfers Judge Kandji, removing him from the Habré investigation, and gives the president of the Dakar Appeals Court a promotion.
4 July 2000 – The Dakar Appeals Court rules that Senegalese courts cannot pursue the charges because the crimes were not committed in Senegal. The United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers and on torture criticize the decision and the circumstances under which it was issued. The victims appeal.
30 November 2000 – Chadian victims living in Belgium file charges in Brussels against Habré.
20 March 2001 – Senegal's highest court rules that Habré cannot stand trial because his alleged crimes were not committed in Senegal.
7 April 2001 – President Wade asks Habré to leave Senegal.
23 April 2001 – The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) calls on Senegal not to allow Habré to leave the country.
May 2001 – Thousands of documents archived by Hissène Habré's sinister political police were discovered in the buildings of the former Direction de la Documentation et de la Sécurité (DDS) in N'Djaména. The Chadian Government allowed the Association of victims of crimes and political repression in Chad (AVCRP), with the support of FIDH and Human Rights Watch (HRW), to consult these documents and use them freely.
27 September 2001 – President Wade agrees to hold Habré in Senegal pending an extradition request. "If a country that can organize a fair trial wants him – they speak of Belgium - I wouldn't see any obstacle."
19 September 2005 – After a four-year investigation, including a mission to Chad, a Belgian judge issues an international arrest warrant for Habré for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture. Belgium requests his extradition from Senegal.
Pictures taken during an FIDH mission in Chad in 2001
15 November 2005 – Senegalese authorities arrest Habré.
24 November 2005 – The state prosecutor recommends that the Dakar Court of Appeals declare itself without jurisdiction to rule on the extradition request.
25 November 2005 – The Dakar Court of Appeals rules that it has no jurisdiction to rule on the extradition request. Habré is released.
27 November 2005 – Senegal asks the African Union during its summit to indicate "the jurisdiction that is competent to try this matter."
24 January 2006 – The African Union establishes a "Committee of Eminent African Jurists" (CEAJ) to consider options for Habré's trial.
18 May 2006 – The UN Committee against Torture rules that Senegal has violated the UN Convention against Torture and calls on Senegal to prosecute or extradite Habré.
2 July 2006 – The African Union, on the report of the CEAJ, asks Senegal to prosecute Habré "on behalf of Africa." President Wade agrees to the request.
31 January 2007 – The Senegalese National Assembly adopts a law that allows Senegalese courts to prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, even when committed outside of Senegal. It later amends its constitution.
July 2007 – The Presidents of Switzerland and France are the first to promise assistance to Senegal for the conduct of the investigation and trial.
16 September 2008 – 14 victims file complaints with a Senegalese prosecutor accusing Habré of crimes against humanity and torture.
2008 – 2010 – Senegal refuses to move forward until it receives full funding for the trial, and President Wade threatens to expel Habré unless funding arrives. The European Union and the African Union send numerous delegations to negotiate with Senegal. Senegal first requests €66 million, then €27 million, and finally agrees to an €8.6 million budget.
19 February 2009 – Belgium asks the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Senegal to prosecute or extradite Habré. On 28 May, the ICJ accepts Senegal's formal pledge not to allow Habré to leave Senegal pending its final judgment.
18 November 2010 – The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rules that Senegal must try Habré through a "special or ad hoc procedure of an international character."
24 November 2010 – A donors' roundtable results in pledges of €8.6 million, fully covering the estimated costs of all the proceedings. Senegal's Minister of Justice says the meeting was the "completion of a long process of preparation leading up to the actual start of trial."
10 December 2010 – President Wade declares that "The African Union must take its case back…I've had enough of it at this point…….I am going to get rid of him, full stop."
12 January 2011 – The United Nations Committee against Torture responds to Wade's statement by reminding Senegal of its "obligation" to prosecute or extradite Habré.
13 January 2011 – President Wade rejects an AU plan to try Habré before a court composed of Senegalese and African judges, on the model of the Cambodian mixt Chambers that are trying former Khmer Rouge officials.
31 January 2011 – The African Union calls for the "expeditious" start of Habré's trial based on the ECOWAS decision.
4 February 2011 – President Wade startes: "Now, the chairman of the African Union Commission [says] we have to create a new jurisdiction, based on I-don't-know-what principle, to try Hissène Habré. I said stop. For me, it's over. I am no longer seized of this case. I am giving him back to the African Union."
24 March 2011 – Senegal and the AU announce having reached an agreement on an "Ad hoc International Court" to try Habré and agree to meet in April to finalise the Statute and Rules of the Court.
30 May 2011 – Senegal walks out on the meeting which objective was to finalise the Statute and Rules of the Court.
11 July 2011 – President Wade decides to sendHissène Habré back to Chad, where a Chadian Court sentenced him in absentia to death after an expeditious trial in 2008 for his alleged support to the rebellion's movement in February 2008. FIDH and its member organisations in Chad denounce this decision, which violates the Senegalese law and the general principles of international law.
22 July 2011 – The Chadian Government asks Senegal to extradite Hissène Habré to Belgium.
10 January 2012 - The Dakar Court of Appeals refuses the new request of extradition, arguing the documents sent by the Senegalese Government were not well-formed.
2 April 2012 – Macky Sall is elected President of Senegal.
20 July 2012 – The ICJ orders Senegal to prosecute Hissène Habré without delay if he is not extradited.
24 July 2012 – Senegal agrees with the project of the African Union, which provides for the creation of a special tribunal within the Senegalese court system, composed of African judges appointed by the African Union.
22 August 2012 – Senegal and the African Union sign an agreement creating the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese court system. The Statute of the Extraordinary African Chambers is adopted the same day.
8 February 2013 – The Extraordinary African Chambers are inaugurated. It is a turning point in the fight against impunity for the crimes committed under Habré's presidency.
23 May - 1 June 2013 - The General Prosecutor of the Extraordinary African Chambers sends a mission to Belgium.
23 April 2013 – Hissène Habré's lawyers file a new complaint against Senegal before the Court of Justice of the ECOWAS. In their point of view, Senegal does not respect the decision taken by the Court in 2010.
8-16 June 2013 - The General Prosecutor of the Extraordinary African Chambers sends a mission to Chad.
2 July 2013 – Hissène Habré is indicted by the Extraordinary African Chambers for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed within the period of 7 June 2013 and 1 December 1990.
15-16 July 2013 – First hearings of victims testimony before the investigating judges of the Extraordinary African Chambers, supported by the collective of Civil Parties lawyers.
20 August – 2 September 2013 – The execution of the letter rogatory transmitted by the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) held in Chad to hear statements from 1097 victims and approximately thirty witnesses and to hold discussions with the representatives of the victims' associations. The AEC also inspected a number of former detention sites and transferred the records of the regime's political police to the premises of the Courts in N'Djamena.
5 November 2013 – The ECOWAS Court of Justice denied Hissène Habré's petition to dismiss the proceedings against him filed by the EAC. In its decision, the Court of Justice stated that it was not competent to rule on Hissène Habré's application since the EAC are an ad hoc tribunal set up on the basis of an agreement between Senegal and the African Union; a solution recommended by the ECOWAS Court of Justice in a previous decision.
30 November - 22 December 2013 – Execution of the second letters rogatory transmitted by the Extraordinary African Chambers to hear evidence in Chad from 797 victims and 14 witnesses. The experts assisting the judges identified likely sites of mass graves.
25 February 2014 – The State of Chad applied to become a civil party to the proceedings "to provide support to the other civil parties, but only for the economic and financial aspects of the case". The Chad minister of justice stated that plundering was a war crime and that Habré "[...] had not neglected to empty the State's coffers."
15 - 30 March 2014 – Execution of the third international letter rogatory in Chad to hear evidence from 522 civil parties and 28 witnesses.
21 May 2014 – The investigating judges of the Extraordinary African Chambers ruled Chad's request to become a civil party inadmissible because the crimes Chad claimed to be a victim of did not fall within the jurisdiction of the EAC.
25 May - 8 June 2014 – Execution of the fourth letter rogatory in Chad to hear statements from 24 civil parties and 2 witnesses. Examination of the records kept by Habré's political police (the DDS) was completed and the judges, accompanied by forensic anthropologists, went to the north east (Abéché and Mongo) and to the south (Déli and Koumra) to exhume remains and locate suspected mass grave sites.
27 August 2014 – The Indictment Division of the EAC found Chad's application to become a civil party inadmissible.
4 September 2014 – Regarding the Chadian legal proceedings, Amir Abdoulaye Issa, the investigating judge in charge of the proceedings against DDS police officers, issued an order to terminate these proceedings with a view to referring the case to the Criminal Court. The Indictment Division must examine the referral.
3 October 2014 – The Judicial Investigations Division (Chambre d'instruction) of the EAC transmitted a fifth letter rogatory to Chadian authorities with a view to interrogate and indict Saleh Younous and Mahamat Djibrine alias "El Djonto," who were in custody in N'Djaména and were subsequently prosecuted by the Extraordinary African Chambers for crimes against humanity and torture.
14 October 2014 – Chad Judicial authorities notified the Indictment Division (Chambre d'instruction) of the African Extraordinary Chambers their refusal to execute the request for mutual assistance (letter rogatory).
23 October 2014 – (Chad) The Indictment Division of the of the N'Djaména Court of Appeals referred the case of the 29 former officers of the defunct DDS, 8 more than the 21 who were initially under investigation, to the Criminal Court with a view to holding an historic trial in Chad.
14 November 2014 – (Chad) The trial of the 29 former DDS police officers began before the N'Djaména Criminal Court. Twenty-one (21) former officers in Habré's police were accused of assassination, torture, abduction, illegal detention, assault and battery and acts of barbarism.
5 February 2015 – The Public Prosecutor before the Extraordinary African Chambers made a final submission for the referral of Hissène Habré for indictment to the Trial Chamber of the EAC on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture.
13 February 2015 – The investigating judges of the EAC in charge of the case ruled that there was sufficient evidence to try the ex-dictator for war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture.
4 March 2015 – The Senegal Constitutional Council rejected the request for dismissal of the case filed by Hissène Habré's legal counsel on the basis that the agreement of 22 August, under which the EAC was created, was unconstitutional; the objective being to prove that the EAC did not have jurisdiction.
4 March 2015 – (Chad) The N'Djamena Office of the Public Prosecutor asks the court to find 16 of the defendants guilty and to acquit the remaining 7.
25 March 2015 – (Chad) The N'Djamena Criminal Court upholds the sentence of forced labour for 20 defendants, acquitted 4, and withdraw the charges against 4 persons presumed dead.
6 April 2015 - Judge Gberdao Gustave Kam, from Burkina-Faso and a former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), was appointed presiding judge of the Trial Chamber of the AEC by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
20 July 2015 – The opening of Hissène Habré's trial before the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary African Chambers in Dakar (Senegal).
22 July 2015 - Day two of the trial. In the absence of Habré's lawyers, the President of the Court nominates three public defence lawyers to defend him, and announces a 45 day deferral of the proceedings in order to allow them to study the case.
7 September 2015 - The trial reopens, after 45 days. Subject to a Court order mandating his presence, Habré attends only when forced to do so by law enforcement officers.
8-11 February 2016 - Final arguments by the Prosecution, Civil Parties and the Defence are heard. The Attorney General Mbacké Fall calls for life imprisonment for Habré and requests that his assets in Senegal be seized.
11 February 2016 - After 56 days , during which 93 witnesses testified, the trial comes to an end.
30 May 2016 - The Extraordinary African Chambers within the Senegalese court system will deliver its verdict in this historic trial. It has taken more than 20 years to put the former Chadian dictator on trial. His regime is believed to be responsible for the death of 40,000 persons and the suffering of an additional 200,000 victims.
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« China drags its coronavirus victims kicking and screaming into big state pens | Win the House, investigate and expunge the impeachment »
Vermont's criminal legislators soften criminal laws
By John Klar
Vermont's "progressive" Legislature is moving to relax laws governing criminals and prisoners, while increasing regulations on businesses. The only state to suffer a credit downgrade last year, Vermont has embarked on some desperate if dubious efforts to "grow the economy."
The latest boondoggle is an effort to essentially eliminate prison for most criminals, to save money via "decarceration." Called "Justice Reinvestment II," Vermont's progressive push to push criminals back out to "work" (the streets) proposes to increase time "earned" off sentences for good behavior and count probationary periods as time served. One proposal is to give those on probation "credit" for good behavior while on probation and thereby shorten the probation period. The rationale for these reforms?
[I]ncarceration, while necessary for public safety in some cases, does not achieve behavior change and can undermine or disrupt a person's ability to obtain and maintain treatment, housing, and employment.
(Translation: "Research has shown that imprisoning violent criminals protects the public but disrupts violent criminals' lives.")
Burdensome regulations have created a horrible business climate in Vermont. Rampant taxation impacts poor wage-earners, contributing to growing despair and crime rates. Vermont's inverted "solution" is to eliminate accountability for criminals under the justification that it will help the economy. The "Justice Reinvestment II" report found that "felony convictions have grown, primarily due to increases in for assault, domestic violence, and sexual assault." Working-class Vermonters are fleeing the state because of the high cost of living; policies that favor crime and criminals are an additional "incentive" for émigrés to pack their bags.
Vermont spends huge sums getting addicts on suboxone while in prison and now expunges most criminal records. It is by some measures the #1 drug-using state in the nation, and policies that label police as racists for arresting drug-dealers will ensure that the street supply is robust when inmates are churned through the revolving door to reoffend. Vermont fathers whose licenses are suspended for nonpayment of child support will be unable to drive to work; illegal aliens are not stymied by such obstacles. One 2020 bill proposes to legalize prostitution.
Democrats seek to impose rent controls (which will drive up rents) and minimum wage increases, European-style "good cause" termination requirements, and family leave policies that will discourage businesses, reduce hiring, and spark inflation. They invoke "climate-crisis credit downgrades" as justification to launch ambitious initiatives, ignoring the economic effects of overspending and overregulation.
Vermont is weighing laws to create a "Bill of Rights" for homeless people to "prevent discrimination," even as its Legislature enacts policies that will undermine private-sector employment, spike taxes, and thus discourage property ownership. It is favoring criminals over victims, blacks over whites, women over men, illegal aliens over native-born taxpayers, urbanites over ruralites, regulators over farmers, administrators over students and patients, and legislators over voters. The state has launched all of these insane initiatives in the clarion call of social justice and "creating equity," but the result is visibly the reverse.
Meanwhile, Vermont's progressives have introduced a number of new gun laws, in one of the safest states in America. With social engineering indoctrination that ensures increased rates of taxation, poverty, suicide, domestic violence, drug use, and fiscal implosion, it is only logical for the liberal elites who are gentrifying the Green Mountain State to seize the guns of law-abiding taxpayers, lest they revolt.
Many Vermont voters perceive that Vermont's most dangerous criminals are in its Legislature. For sensible citizens, their revolt is their vote, in 2020.


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Sundance 2013: Complete Acquisitions Round-Up
Jay A. Fernandez
The 2013 Sundance Film Festival is officially over, and acquisitions activity was strong and steady throughout. Here's a rundown of closed deals through the end of the festival, Jan. 27, with more on the way in the weeks and months to come.
READ MORE: Sundance 2013: Why the Aggressive Indie-Film Market Reflects Real Promise for the Future
PRE-FEST
"jOBS" – Open Road Films, service deal only
"The Rambler" – Anchor Bay Films, rights in North America, the U.K. and Australia
XYZ Films
"The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear" – Icarus Films, North American rights
Deckert Distribution
"Twenty Feet From Stardom" – RADiUS-TWC, North American rights
Submarine Entertainment
"The Summit" – Sundance Selects, North American rights
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'There's No Rulebook for Producing': Sundance Keynote Celebrates Indie Producers
"History of the Eagles" – Showtime, U.S. broadcast rights
"Dirty Wars" – Sundance Selects, North American rights
"Pussy Riot – A Punk Prayer" – HBO Documentary Films, U.S. TV rights
Cinetic Media
"The Look of Love" – IFC Films, North American rights
UTA Independent Film Group, Studiocanal
"The Spectacular Now" – A24, North American rights
UTA Independent Film Group
"Don Jon's Addiction" – Relativity, U.S. rights
WME Global and CAA
"Fruitvale" – The Weinstein Co., English-speaking rights
WME Global
"Austenland" – Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions & Sony Pictures Classics, worldwide rights
"Concussion" – RADiUS-TWC, North American rights
"The Way, Way Back" – Fox Searchlight, North American rights
CAA and WME
"Blackfish" – Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films, U.S. rights
"Toy's House" – CBS Films, North American rights
"Kill Your Darlings" – Sony Pictures Classics, U.S. rights
"Lovelace" – RADiUS-TWC, U.S. rights
Millennium / Nu Image
"Prince Avalanche" – Magnolia Pictures, North American rights
"Inequality for All" – RADiUS-TWC, English-speaking rights
"Two Mothers" – Exclusive Releasing, U.S. rights
"We Are What We Are" – Entertainment One, U.S. rights
"Ain't Them Bodies Saints" – IFC Films, U.S. rights
"S-VHS" – Magnolia Pictures, U.S. rights
"Before Midnight" – Sony Pictures Classics, North American and UK rights
"Newlyweeds" – Phase 4 Films, North American rights
Circus Road Films
"Mother of George" – Oscilloscope Laboratories, North American rights
"Cutie and the Boxer" – RADiUS-TWC, North American and French rights
jay@indiewire.com, @writer730
thompsonannek@gmail.com, @akstanwyck
This Article is related to: Festivals and tagged 20 Feet from Stardom, Acquisitions, Adore, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Austenland, Before Midnight, Blackfish, Concussion, Dirty Wars, Don Jon, Festivals, Fruitvale, History of the Eagles Part 1, Inequality For All, Jobs, Kill Your Darlings, Lovelace, Newlyweeds, Prince Avalanche, Pussy Riot - A Punk Prayer, Sundance Film Festival, The Kings Of Summer, The Look Of Love, The Spectacular Now, The Summit, The Way, Way Back, V/H/S/2, We Are What We Are