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Review: Get Out
Jordan Peele's Get Out is most appealing because it busts through the shackles of hopelessly milquetoast race-themed Oscarbait persistent to this day, and not only the old standbys like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?. Get Out also ousts and decentralizes more modern fare like Hidden Figures for their contentedness to coast on shuffling black historical figures into the relatively unchanged narrative structure gifted to white historical figures for decades: down-and-outs persist, struggle, and triumph. By thrusting African-Americans into this all-too-American success narrative thrumming with national mythologies of potency and virile capability, Hollywood only allows this agency-narrative to continue unabated as the dominant acceptable lexicon for black characters in film. If you are black and not a scathingly regressive stereotype in a film, essentially, you better be a success story, operationalized to validate America's go-to narrative of assimilating all races into its fetishization of "opportunity" as an opiate keeping discussions of real equality at bay.
Now, Get Out is not exactly Langston Hughes or John Coltrane insofar as making a case for a unique African-American aesthetic voice not only unsettling existent artistic ground but venturing out into untested territory with an artistic form that destabilizes the rules. Peele does not seem to have any interest yet in developing the ever-elusive black film aesthetic, if it exists. No, Get Out is largely content to deal in terms of content. It is, as they say, an Important Movie because the subject matter it deals with has been so underserved in film history, so it gets a little slack for being, artistically, merely on solid ground. Ideally, now that the first blow has been struck, the rivers of truly great mainstream black-directed, black-written cinema with an essentially caustic attitude toward race in America can flow.
Of course, the operative word there is "mainstream". Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, and many others have been turning over the rocks hiding America's racial problem for decades, utilizing their LA Rebellion film collective as more than a mere parenthetical aside to the boots-on-the-ground fighters of social justice. Tomes have been written about the possibility of constellations of style and sensibility that constitute black literary, musical, and painting aesthetics, and, although cinema's representational quality makes overt aesthetic slightly less welcome in the medium, filmmaker's like Dash and Burnett have at least crept in the direction of a filmic style – a way of depicting being – that is informed by if not defined by a fractured and splintered black history and dialectical black consciousness. Not exactly a repository of directorial technique, Get Out lacks this emancipatory stylistic thrust.
In this light, we would be remiss not to acknowledge that Get Out's unique achievement is simply having pride of place in the multiplexes rather than the independent theaters. But that's fine, what with counter-cultural hegemony requiring public recognition and all that. Get Out is, thus, more an achievement of nerve than ragged aesthetic radicalism – it challenges the subject matter, the content, of mainstream white cinema, not the formal structures of perception adopted by mainstream white filmmakers. Essentially, what Peele has conjured is a highly effective, stylistically robust classic creeper and prowler, using basically the same style that white filmmakers have adopted for decades. It just so happens that this particular film happens to be creeping on the hot coals of racism and prowling around the dark corners of oppression.
But, as they, that certainly ain't nothing, and Get Out is certainly a stunner in its own aesthetically pared-down register and on its own terms. Those terms happen to be compromised – the terms necessary to appeal to a mass audience – but Peele's film is no corporate shill. Rather, it's a carefully cultivated barn-burner, heterogeneous enough in its subject matter than its stylistic homogeneity is only a relatively minor trifle. The State of Film Address out of the way, the matter of Get Out can be discussed for what it truly is: a simple, exceptionally well-constructed horror film walking not cautiously but briskly on unstable ground. I will, I suppose, walk cautiously on the narrative though, which boils down to an inverted, flayed, skewered, and strangled riff on the aforementioned half-centennial "classic" Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Our protagonist is Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, in a feat himself giving far and away the greatest performance in a film generally not wanting for decent performances). Chris is dating Rose (Allison William), who has invited him to visit her parents Dean and Missy (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) for the weekend. The only problem is that Chris is black. And Rose hasn't told them.
For her parents, Rose says, this is no problem at all, which is the first spark in the film's eyes, its initial breach into the hallowed halls of modern racial naivete. The second marker is Chris' casual, almost indifferent expression when a police officer stops Rose – driving – and asks Chris for his ID. Without over-determining himself, Peele makes it quite clear through Chris' sly "same shit, different day" smirk that Chris gets it and Rose doesn't. When speaking to a bemused Rose about having to tell her parents his racial identity, he merely intones "It's a thing", another pinprick in the film's cushion of reminders that its embellished tale of racial horror is not so much an accident or a coincidence as an emblem of generally-brewing paranoia present like a thin, often unseen membrane over his entire experience in life. When they arrive at his parent's white-washed, pillar-encased mansion – its decorative dollhouse decorum has the pallor of a plantation – things take a turn for the uncanny. The parents are gregarious, ecstatic to meet him, their inflections fraught with a not-so-subliminal desire to please Chris with signs of their racial hipness. The father all but steers him to a picture of Jesse Owens on his wall and, naturally, asks Chris what his sport is without any evidence – other than his skin color – that he has a sport in the first place. Racism becomes entombed in generosity as the film hones in termetically on the sociocultural awareness of white people playing their parts, confronting black characters through construed, contrived, and entirely constructed frameworks.
For her part, mother Missy is a post-hippie type who practices hypnotism – which will of course be weaponized as a tool against Chris. Her primary weapon is a spoon gently rattling in a teacup, which is itself a signifier of a white master beckoning a black body to their side for service, a marker of feminized domesticity curdled into suggestive bric-a-brac that insinuates the latent power dynamics and less-than-manifest horrors lurking and bubbling within domestic power structures. The whole family, in a gesture that does not dissipate, is genuinely in love with blackness but only insofar as it settles into their arms and confronts them on their own terms, or, more accurately, insofar as they get to define the terms and sculpt them as they wish. The earliest odd mark is Rose's brother whose attitude is clearly more unhinged, but what seems suspect at first eventually nurtures into something oddly familiar, even comfortable: a more overt form of racism. Tellingly, his refrains to genetic coding and interest in wrestling Chris, carrying an Antebellum sting to them, never mushroom into center-stage in this many-ringed racial circus of white and black spectatorship and white and black performance. Instead, they cede ground to the ostensibly kinder-hearted, more nebulous racial obsessions of the parents and the benign Rose. What the film is really after is not Rose's race-conscious brother but her parents, emblematic of the white liberals who express an alternately feigned and genuinely-believed empathy with marginalized groups verbally while institutionally facilitating policies that are largely identical to the inequalities of the past.
Humming in the background are two black servants – Georgina (Betty Gabriel) Walter (Marcus Henderson) – who speak and act through a lexicon of acquiescence, as though they learned all they know from a history book written in Mississippi in 1872. More subliminally troubling are the family's attitudes toward them, parading them around like showpieces or motile furniture good for whatever ails you. Although it reveals an ulterior meaning later on, the father's claim that he hired the servants to care for his ailing parents and "couldn't bear to get rid of" the servants when they died carries a whiff of black bodies as property masked under a rhetoric of benevolence. Having the servants around, as it has done for well-to-do white families for centuries, creates a passively domineering front for Chris and other guests to see that lies only a few degrees more subliminal than Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman.
Thus, the film deals in the innocuous horror of systems masked not by flesh-scarred lesions or pin-filled heads but with a smile. Although the film always veers two places to the left of genuine sociological tract, it maintains a cogent analysis of race even as it settles into darker, more explicit territory. Most obviously, we get a metaphor for whiteness in black bodies, or rather, the film hones in on modern African Americans who have, Get Out suggests, sometimes been lulled by the façade of post-racial opportunity into uncoupling themselves from interior "blackness" in a bid to impress white America.
It is fitting that consciousness, black skepticism, renewed realization, a refreshed self, ultimately begins to set Chris free when he moves past his ambivalences about positioning himself in white society and begins to explore why he wants to fit in at all. Make no mistake: this is not a comedy of remarriage with race in place of gender. Reconciliation is not on the table, and the badly bandaged wound-chasm between races only reveals the extent of its infection as the film goes along, which any critic of malignant color-blindness will cosign as an unmistakable good. Chris begins circling the wagons waiting for a racial remark to slip out. Lucky for him, racial liberals are insurmountably adept at making a fool of themselves if the viewer's perspective is sufficiently acclimatized to the labyrinthine ins and outs of the liberal language of superiority-encased-in-kindness and the fetishizing of black bodies. Just as it rescinds even an iota of redemption for its white characters, the film also burns the respectability narrative – where black characters are defined by their righteousness – to the ground.
The film's commitment to Chris' own dueling dread and perhaps-negligent desire to overlook and trust these white liberals is entirely admirable, especially in comparison to, say, the make-white-people-happy-or-else Guess Who's Coming to Dinner – which this film never explicitly references but is never not thinking of. Of course, that film featuring Sidney Poitier all but pleaing that his fiance's well-to-do liberal parents would condone their engagement was never really about Poitier's character, a totem to black exceptionalism more than a conflicted human being. He was primarily a collage of positive traits manicured and curated by white people so they could have their own liberalism reflected back onto them and congratulate their own ability to appreciate a black man if, and probably only if, he wore a suit and happened to be one of the most respected doctors in the world. The same is true of Poitier's other 1967 film – also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year – In the Heat of the Night, where Poitier slays a white police captain's racism in the most contentious black-white pas de deux that side of Lethal Weapon. Again, his character in that film is a statue, a totem to black respectability for a film more invested in the white police officer's complexities and multivalent, shifting, liquid persona. The film must hold Poitier's emotions hostage, locking him into a vise of respectable black male typecasting in order to contrast his begrudging partner's growth and vulnerability to change.
In comparison, although bluntly acerbic and sharply pointed on the subject of white liberalism, Get Out is equally adept at navigating the complex perspective of its black protagonist and negotiating the Du Boisian layers of consciousness fighting within him, skepticism about wider society on one hand and a pronounced interest in believing in a post-racial society on the other. Ultimately, the film is less about white racism than black double-consciousness, the disconnect between the black body and the black mind and the socially-sanctioned atmosphere of coercing black characters to dissociate from themselves, to not trust their better, more suspicious instincts and, instead, simply listen when the world around them informs them it'll be all right in the end. Get Out nails the great cinematic unknown of a complex black point of view defined not in relation to how he acts around white characters or helps them but how he sees white characters and what he thinks of them. Chris' own self-cultivated sophistication – his self-policed desire, taught to most of black America, to act benignly toward white people and trust in their best intentions – also veers him into murky waters unthinkingly. The perhaps-necessary but costly belief that he can navigate the phalanx of ingratiating white remarks thrown his way and come out the better man taps into the surreal nature of a black man's experience in a white world. The film explores Chris' mind as a constant self-negotiation, a persistent double-ness, and, above all, as a walking-hallucination.
The only major flaw is the conclusion. Although the ending – racial retribution manifested as an onslaught of sanguine – is cathartic, it also betrays Peele's until-then adroit grasp of his nefarious tone. It's a cop out, more than anything, particularly because it rests the crux of solution on the very black physical virility it has spent 80 minutes mocking white characters for adoring. Perhaps one might say the conclusion acknowledges black masculinity insofar as it can be turned against the white characters who appreciate it only when wrapped in a subservient package for their institutional utilization. The very final image, however, resurrects black intellect and black skepticism as genuine narrative instruments and valuable traits, albeit ones this particular film couches in a comic light to its partial self-sabotage through the character of Rod (Lil Rel Howery), Chris' TSA-employed sidekick from home and the one black stereotype the film does traffic in relatively uncritically. Most of the film wields indecision as a kind of skill, but the finale is a touch too preoccupied with dolling out divine retribution through the demonic art of corporeal brutality.
Other nagging issues abound. Peele misses certain opportunity to deal in the aesthetics of color considering the subject matter, and he occasionally deploys horror tropes strategically to investigate the gap between the de-raced – or implicitly raced – horrors of most films and the explicitly raced horrors here. He also tattletales on himself far too gregariously, embellishing some of the more buried themes and neutering their impact, particularly in the final 15 minutes. The earlier moments never let the racism get too comfortable; they're the disquietingly liquid kind, slipping out of reach just when you are sure something is wrong here. The latter stages of the film take the brackish waters of race – diaphanous, porous, capable of being read multiple ways and always mutating so you can't quite grasp it assuredly – and ossify them into ice.
Still, my skepticism merely rejects the fervent occultism surrounding the film in the last few months, not its quality and necessity. What Peele is adept at is scraping the mental architecture of white and black characters and uncovering the relics of racism that are, in fact, merely subsumed underneath genteel masks today, rather than actually dead. Peele's film descends into the lower registers of racial discomfort missed in the grand-scale Elephant Art aspirational narratives like Roots that deal in and dole out historical specificity like markers of truth. In emphasizing triumph and narratives thereof, media in the Roots sensibility can succumb to the shibboleth that slavery and racism were mere stray accidents and unfortunate mistakes, delays in the American equality project, rather the building blocks of oppression. But because it refuses a story of triumph, Get Out is no deep dive to reclaim an unmediated and pure "true" America rooted in exceptional inclusiveness and an unflappable core of equality. Instead, Get Out sees racism as a fundamental factor of how we construct equality.
When the characters in Get Out resort to positive opinions about Chris' skill, beauty, class, and capability, they are reifying the wrong-headed belief – one we turn to almost intrinsically – that racism is merely the lack of goodwill or the tone of voice rather than perennially reactivated social institutions. Being nice and respectful is not enough to corrode a system where oppression is predicated on a perverse variance of niceness, where we turn to abstract platitudes like empathy and tolerance rather than social and institutional upheaval. The problem of liberal discourse is that it favors the same essential framework of personal gentility and individual rhetoric embraced by the right as markers of good and bad people rather than progressive and oppressive institutions.
Although Peele's film doesn't entirely destroy this rhetoric of individuality – it sometimes reduces the white characters to grotesquely malformed individual gargoyles to alleviate the sting that these people are really like us, reflective of institutions and communities – he brings us further than many of the other acclaimed race films of recent years have dared. Concerns aside, Peele understands race not as a linear track toward a finish line but as a knot melting and resolidifying almost constantly and in inconstant ways. That, and the film couples these concerns to a thorny, unanswered curiosity about whether race is a material, a consciousness, an idea, a perception of the self, a perception founded by others, or, obviously, a kind of New Jersey Turnpike of them all informing and inflecting each other. In other words, Peele sees race as it is: unfinished business, and he doesn't dare finish it.
This entry was posted in Review on June 25, 2017 by jakewalters98.
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Plot: Movie story move around a young family is visited by ghosts in their home. The movie start with Amy and Eric Bowen are looking to buy a new house with her three children, the eldest daughter, Kendra, Griffin and the youngest daughter, Madison. At last they find a house that has recently come on the market. The first night, strange noises are heard in the walls. In the middle of the night, the lights and start devices on and off, like an invisible force seems to move through the house. The commotion wakes Griffin, and down the stairs and talking to Maddy is an unknown presence in television. Eric and Amy learn that their house was built on an old cemetery and ghosts in their house looking for better neighborhood. Watch Free Movies Online for free without any registration.
By admin1Posted on May 30, 2015 Categories: HOLLYWOOD Movies, Horror MoviesTags: Online Watch Poltergeist 2015 Movie Watch Free Movie Poltergeist 2015 Watch Online Poltergeist 2015 Movie Watch Poltergeist 2015 Movie
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Not only do Muslims abuse women, they also kill them for any human impulse, and they really don't like Black people.
I may not comment every day, but I stop by to see what the hell is really going on.
Yep. Aesop got it right. And there is nothing new under the sun. Humanity needs the learn the same lessons over and over. The same cast of characters show up in every generation, don't they?
This was a reply to srdem.


In stock - low quantity. Order in the next 5 hours, 13 minutes and it will go out today!
"The bumper sticker," begins the performer as he shows a selection of them - all of which are cut in half, "is a source of 5-Star wisdom often using four-letter words. They're a short form expression of attitude, philosophy, and humor. You can find them at truck stops, novelty shops, and bargain swaps."
Placing a business envelope in full view, he continues, "There are halves of two different bumper suckers in here (they can be seen through the address window) that usually combine with others to get an amusing reaction."
"One of you will choose another half from these," the performer continues, spreading the stack of severed stickers face up for a nearby participant. "As you can see, there are more than two dozen random possibilities. Which one would you like."
After the helper freely chooses one of the halves the Mentalist instructs, "That was an intentional choice, influenced perhaps by color or subject matter. Next, you will select one unseen."
He turns the stack of half-stickers face down and reminds, "Because it's selected blindly, and randomly, it will be a surprise for both of us"
"I'll keep you in suspense a moment longer," remarks the performer, as he withdraws one of the sticker-halves from the envelope (with its back toward the audience) to align with the unseen sticker-half.
"This combination doesn't work," the performer informs, tucking it back in the envelope and pulling out the other one inside. "Hopefully this combination will be better." He aligns it with the randomly selected half, smiles, and tucks the pair partially in his breast pocket, still (and always) fully visible to the audience.
"Let's try the half sticker you picked earlier," suggests the Mentalist, reaching for the participant's piece. He aligns it with the remaining half from the envelope and his eyebrows go up. "Well, this is weird," remarks the entertainer. He turns them around: they are opposite ends of the same bumper sticker!
"But I promised you something funny," reminds the Mentalist, removing the pair of half-stickers from his breast pocket. "And this is funny!" He holds them up for everyone to see; the second pair is also a perfect match!
You get everything you need to perform this outstanding routine, bumper stickers, an ungimmicked window envelope, a 'special something' and instructions. The 'bumper stickers' are printed on glossy card stock and pre-cut into halves. There is a simple, one-time setup task that takes ten minutes or less and you're good to go for years to come.


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Mirosława Papierzyńska-Turek – polska historyk, badaczka dziejów Kościoła prawosławnego w Polsce oraz historii Ukraińców w II Rzeczypospolitej.

Życiorys
Rozprawę doktorską pt. Kwestia ukraińska w Sejmie Polskim w latach 1922-1926 obroniła 27 kwietnia 1974 w Instytucie Historycznym Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego pod kierunkiem Żanny Kormanowej. Stopień doktora habilitowanego uzyskała w 1986 w Akademii Nauk Społecznych (ANS) na podstawie dorobku naukowego oraz rozprawy pt. Między tradycją a rzeczywistością. Państwo i Kościół prawosławny w Polsce w latach 1918-1939. Pracowała w ANS oraz w Instytucie Bibliotekoznawstwa i Dziennikarstwa w Akademii Świętokrzyskiej im. Jana Kochanowskiego w Kielcach. Jest członkiem Komisji Wschodnioeuropejskiej Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności.

Wybrane publikacje
 Sprawa ukraińska w Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej 1922-1926, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie 1979.
 Problem autokefalii Kościoła prawosławnego w Polsce w latach 1918-1939, "Euhemer" 24 (1980), nr 1, s. 53-65; nr 3, s. 71-78.
 Między tradycją a rzeczywistością. Państwo i Kościół prawosławny w Polsce w latach 1918-1939, Warszawa: ANS 1986.
 Prawosławie w II Rzeczypospolitej, "Rocznik Historyczno-Archiwalny" 4 (1987), s. 25-54.
 Między tradycją a rzeczywistością. Państwo wobec prawosławia 1918-1939, Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe 1989.
 Kościół prawosławny na ziemiach ruskich Litwy i Korony, "Przemyskie Zapiski Historyczne" 6/7 (1989/1990), s. 139-162.
 Prawosławie i grekokatolicyzm w polskiej historiografii i publicystyce historycznej [w:] Spotkania polsko-ukraińskie, red. nauk. Zygmunt Mańkowski, Lublin: Wyd. Uniw. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 1992.
  Wizje unii brzeskiej w świadomości historycznej, "Białoruskie Zeszyty Historyczne" 3 (1996), z. 2, s. 41-50.
  Grekokatolicyzm i prawosławie jako wyznaczniki tożsamości narodowej w świetle ukraińskiej historiografii i myśli politycznej, "Warszawskie Zeszyty Ukrainoznawcze" 4/5 (1997), s. 277-290.
 Mychajło Hruszewski i Wiaczesław Łypynski - dwie filozofie dziejów Ukrainy, "Kieleckie Studia Bibliolologiczne" 3 (1998), s. 107-117.
  Prawosławie i unia w filozofii dziejów Ukrainy Mychajła Hruszewskiego [w:] Polska - Ukraina. 1000 lat sąsiedztwa, t. 4: Katolickie unie kościelne w Europie Środkowej i Wschodniej - idea a rzeczywistość, red. Stanisław Stępień, Przemyśl: PWIN 1998, s. 239-245.
 Od tożsamości do niepodległości. Studia i szkice z dziejów kształtowania ukraińskiej świadomości narodowej, Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek 2012.

Bibliografia

Polscy historycy
Ukrainoznawcy
Urodzeni w XX wieku

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In the isolated, desolate and decrepit village of Dunwich, Wilbur Whateley is the hideous son of Lavinia Whateley, a deformed and unstable albino mother, and an unknown father (alluded to in passing by mad Old Whateley, as "Yog-Sothoth"), and strange events surround his birth and precocious development. Wilbur matures at an abnormal rate, reaching manhood within a decade, locals shun him and his family and animals fear and despise him. All the while, his sorcerer grandfather indoctrinates him into certain dark rituals and the study of witchcraft. The story culminates with the actual Dunwich horror: Early one morning, the Whateley farmhouse explodes as the thing, an invisible monster, rampages across Dunwich, cutting a path through fields, trees, and ravines, leaving huge "prints" the size of tree trunks. The town is terrorized by the invisible creature for days, until Doctors, all of Miskatonic University, arrive with the knowledge and weapons needed to kill it.


The insert plates should be washed using cold water and soft soap. Use a soft cloth to scrub. You should avoid using hard detergents, bleach, and hard brushes.
Body armor carrier differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some can be dry cleaned while other cannot. Always check the manufacturer's instructions and adhere to them.
Do not submerge your armor in water even when washing. It is advisable to keep it away from moisture as much as possible. Avoid leaving the armor outside, or anywhere it is exposed to UV radiation.
Insert Ballistic Panels correctly. Body armor will come with directions from the manufactures on how to insert and secure the ballistic panels in place. Take your time and ensure that the panels are well placed. Wrong placement will ultimately damage the carrier.
Do not overload your carrier. Body armor comes with pockets to stash weapons and add trauma plates. Ensure every plate you add id necessary and avoid loading too many weapons on the armor. Too much weight will reduce the effectiveness of the armor and will eventually take a toll on it.
Putting on body armor and adjusting is not as straightforward as one might assume. A big part of ensuring that the armor remains protective is ensuring it fits well. While putting it on, raise the armor over your head and let it sit on your shoulders. Now strap up the shoulder straps and the waist straps. Put on the armor while sitting down to ensure it fits well and feels comfortable.
Body armor should not be put on hangers. They should be stored lying flat. Hanging armor means its weight continues acting on the ballistic materials, therefore, degrading them.
It is best to have a locker or wardrobe where you could lay your body armor. Do not leave it in the car trunk or anywhere else it is exposed to sunlight. UV radiation degrades the ballistic materials.
Always unload and disassemble all the part of the body armor before storing it.
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These tips are meant to ensure that your body armor lasts for long. They do not mean that your body will remain new forever. It is therefore vital that you keep in mind the warranty period of the manufacturer. Different manufacturers offer different warranty periods. Always replace the body armor after the warranty duration has elapsed.


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Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS
Human Immunodeficiency-deficiency Virus (HIV) is a global pandemic with millions of people affected over the globe. Knowledge about HIV over the last few decades has resulted in improved care and better outcomes for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). This increase in knowledge has helped in developing new drugs, preventing transmission, and reducing stigma. But a lot of myths still abound regarding HIV and AIDS and these myths are spurred by a mixture of misinformation and cultural beliefs. To tackle this pandemic of misinformation will require contrasting myths with facts.
HIV is a death sentence: The fact is that with the current advances in treatment, PLWHA can lead normal lives with proper treatment. Advances include the development of highly active anti-retroviral drugs, advent of single use medications for treatment, and better management of side effects of drugs. This has resulted in longer life expectancies following HIV infection and better control of its complications. HIV is no longer a death sentence.
You can tell if someone has HIV/AIDS by looking at them: This is a surprisingly common myth. It's said that there are certain ways PLWHA look but this is not true. Most of the signs which people associate with HIV, such as severe weight loss, are due to chronic illnesses, and HIV is just one out of many. Further more, these signs are absent in individuals who are in the early stage of the disease or on treatment. Also, if an individual contracts the HIV virus, the symptoms are mostly absent or unremarkable. A person with an HIV infection might have fever, fatigue , or general malaise, which may even be confused with malaria or flu. Additionally, the initial mild symptoms generally only last a few weeks. So the only way to tell if a person has HIV/AIDS is by running a medical test.
HIV positive people can't safely have children: It is thought that all HIV positive people will have HIV positive children. However, this is untrue as HIV positive women and men can have HIV-negative children safely. If a woman adheres to her treatment plan and uses her medication as and when due, it is possible to have a child who isn't HIV positive.
Interestingly, as many as 15-45% of HIV positive women who have no intervention whatsoever end up having HIV negative babies. However, for women who access interventions, the woman is placed on treatment and her pregnancy and delivery closely monitored. The child is also placed on preventive medication and a HIV test is quickly done to ascertain the child's HIV status. All these make delivery of children safe for PLWHA.
Those who test negative for HIV can have unprotected sex: A person was recently diagnosed with HIV may not test positive on an HIV test until up to three months later. This is because the antibody-only tests used in screening work by detecting antibodies in the body which develop when HIV infects the body. Depending on the test, HIV positivity could be detected after a few weeks, or up to three months after possible exposure because of the time needed for antibodies to develop. So a negative antibody test does not exclude 100% the possibility of a HIV infection.
HIV always leads to AIDS: HIV is the infection that causes AIDS. But it is not automatic for every HIV positive person to develop AIDS. AIDS is a syndrome where the immune system is severely depleted by the virus over time. However, early treatment of HIV infection prevents this progression to AIDS. And with new advancements in HIV therapies, this is now more possible than ever.
HIV is a global health challenge and misinformation about the disease can hamper progress in tackling its spread and ensuring adequate treatment for PLWHA.
Disease Prevention and Healthy Ageing HIV/AIDS Misconception
Neck pain: When you should be concerned
"John, you have been complaining about this neck pain for months," Phillip noted. "I think it's about time you went to see your doctor, this might be more than just pain," he added. Neck pain is one of the most common symptoms people experience. At work, at school, or while we play, we turn the neck from side to side, up and down, all day, every day, and so it is not rare
Diabetes and your immune system
Diabetes mellitus has far-reaching effects on the body. Known as a silent killer, diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases and one of the leading causes of death. Diabetes affects not only the eyes, heart, kidney, and brain, but also the immune system, the body's defence against infections. Left untreated, diabetes weakens the immune system, making an individual vulnerable
Hypothyroidism: Underactive thyroid function
Screening for Cervical Cancer
Understanding Cervical Cancer
The Overactive Thyroid (Hyperthyroidism): All You Need to Know
Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
Thyroid Gland Disorders


Why Did Tesla Ask US EPA To Downgrade Model 3 Range Rating To 310 Miles (From 334 Miles)? Was It Due To Expected Power Draw Of Autonomous Driving System?
The comment thread on the exclusive Tesla Model 3 review that we recently published included an interesting exchange relating to the official US EPA range rating. It seems that the US EPA had originally intended to give the long-range version of the Tesla Model 3 a range rating of 334 miles, but that Tesla convinced them to downgrade this figure to 310 miles. Why, you ask?
Some of those participating in the comment thread speculated that it was due to the fact the Tesla Model 3 is "too good" — that is, that it makes the Model S look overpriced for what's on offer.
I'm going to put forward a different explanation here — that Tesla asked the US EPA to downgrade the official range rating due to expectations of much higher energy usage, and thus a much lower range, when the future fully autonomous driving system is active.
In other words, Tesla engineers and execs are aware that the autonomous driving tech + sensor suite that the Model 3 is currently outfitted with will use a lot of energy when fully autonomous systems are in use (once the software hurdles are finally cleared, regulatory approval is granted, and such a system is released to the public). Going on Tesla's style and history, it makes sense those execs and engineers would prefer that the official range rating reflect the figures expected when such a system is in use, rather than those expected when in manual use.
As argued by a number of industry figures in recent times, fully autonomous driving systems will likely be power hogs — even after the tech that's in use is made more elegant and efficient for the specific use. As it stands, the systems being used in the testing of fully autonomous vehicles (by firms such as Waymo/Google and GM/Cruise) do indeed use quite a bit of energy — thus handicapping the range somewhat.
While such a handicap won't practically mean much with regard to self-driving "robotaxis" in use in major cities, one can see why Tesla execs would prefer that this range handicap (with regard to usage of fully autonomous driving systems) not be so publicly visible — especially considering the company's image as a "green" company, where energy efficiency is considered to be important.
While this is all just speculation — of course — it does seem a fair possibility that there is something to this line of thought. Why else, after all, would Tesla execs prefer that the official US EPA range rating be a great underestimate of real-world range?
The only alternative explanation that seems to have much merit is the one arguing that the Model 3 makes the Model S look bad (if this is true, then it seems likely that Tesla is currently working on improvements to the Model S to further differentiate it, and that the current range underestimate for the Model 3 is just a stop-gap solution).
What do those reading this think? Was Tesla's motive in requesting a lower Model 3 US EPA range rating than the organization was slated to give (based on its own tests) due to a desire to disguise the high power requirements of future fully autonomous driving system use? Or was the company simply trying to undersell the Model 3 due to the current manufacturing bottleneck? Or was the motive something else entirely?
I haven't actually made up my mind yet, despite the arguments presented above, but it seems the most likely explanation to my mind as of yet.


Kevin Jaques is an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University.
He is a specialist in classical Islamic biography, Islamic law, and theology as well as religious hermeneutics and comparative religions. He has written two books, Authority, Conflict, and the Transmission of Diversity in Medieval Islamic Law (Brill, 2006) and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (Oxford, 2010), as well as numerous articles.
Jaques is currently working on reconstructing the various versions of Muḥammad b. Isḥāq's Sīrah Rasūl Allāh, the earliest biography of the Prophet Muḥammad and one of our most important sources for understanding how Muslims in the 2nd/8th century viewed Muḥammad within the context of the rapidly expanding Muslim world. Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150/767) lived during a time of great change and produced different versions of his work as he traveled across the late Umayyad and early ʿAbbāsid Empires. Jaques' project is to reconstruct those different versions as a window onto how Muslim worldviews developed over this period and in the different regions in which Ibn Isḥāq traveled. He is in the process of completing a collection of over 60 different witnesses to the work that he plans to publish together with a five volume series on the author and the Sīrah.
The first volume, The Captives of ʿAyn al-Tamr, will examine the first two centuries of Islam through the lens of those captured and enslaved at the Battle of ʿAyn al-Tamr (12/633), and how they and their descendants became contributors to the early Muslim tradition. Ibn Isḥāq's grandfather, Yasār, was a child when he was enslaved at the battle and later manumitted. The lives and experiences of manumitted slaves (mawālī sing. mawlā) is the central theme of the volume and will serve as a means of understanding many of the religious, social, economic, and political issues that helped form Ibn Isḥāq's understanding if the world.


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Main » 2016 » August » 24 » Conrad Hotels & Resorts Unveils Smart Luxury in China's Fujian Province with Opening of Conrad Xiamen
Conrad Hotels & Resorts Unveils Smart Luxury in China's Fujian Province with Opening of Conrad Xiamen
XIAMEN, Fujian Province & MCLEAN, Va. - Tuesday, August 23rd 2016 [ME NewsWire]
(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) smart luxury hotel brand, today announced the opening of Conrad Xiamen, on the southwestern coast of Xiamen Island. Owned by Shimao Group and managed by Hilton, Conrad Xiamen is the first Conrad hotel in Fujian province, the sixth in China among a portfolio that includes Conrad Hong Kong, Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay, Conrad Dalian, Conrad Macao, and Conrad Beijing, and joins the larger Hilton portfolio of over 70 hotels in China.
"Conrad Xiamen is an excellent addition to our China portfolio. It underscores our commitment to growing our presence across the top destinations of this market and our confidence in the increasing demand for luxury accommodations from a new generation of smart luxury travelers," said Bruce McKenzie, senior vice president of operations, Greater China & Mongolia, Hilton.
Conrad Xiamen occupies the 37th to 54th floors of the iconic 300-meter tall Shimao Straits Tower, in the heart of Siming's Central Business District. Designed to be a shopping, leisure, and business hub, Shimao Straits Tower is a striking sea-facing landmark with a sail-shaped design boasting expansive views of the famous Gulangyu Island. Guests of Conrad Xiamen will enjoy direct access to a shopping mall and a cinema, as well as the prestigious Shapowei dining precinct. Nan Pu tuo Temple and Xiamen University are within walking distance and Conrad Xiamen is also close to major businesses and popular attractions such as Gulangyu Island ferry terminal, Zhongshan Road and Baicheng Beach. Conrad Xiamen is 22 kilometers from Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport.
"We are delighted with the debut of our Conrad Hotel & Resorts brand in Fujian. Conrad Xiamen is a great flagship hotel that epitomizes the luxurious facilities and intuitive service that will provide our guests with inspired experiences and define a new standard for luxury in Xiamen," said John Vanderslice, global head, Conrad Hotels & Resorts.
Conrad Xiamen has 241 guest rooms and suites with floor-to-ceiling windows that offer breathtaking views. Averaging 60 square meters, the rooms have walk-in wardrobes, large flat screen TVs, Wi-Fi and wired Internet access, Nespresso machines, hydrotherapy rain showers and 400-thread count luxury bed linens. Alternatively, guests can opt for suites and executive rooms with exclusive access to the Executive Lounge on the 54th floor.
Overlooking the city from the 37th floor is a 24-hour Health Club with a full range of cardio and strength training equipment, as well as personal trainers. The heated 25-meter indoor pool offers sea views and guests can also unwind in the Jacuzzi or enjoy personalized treatments at Conrad Spa, which uses only the purest natural products.
With over 2,000 square meters of flexible meeting space and state-of-the-art audiovisual technology, Conrad Xiamen is also an ideal venue for corporate events, social gatherings and weddings. There are eight multifunction meeting rooms that can accommodate up to 210 people and a pillar-less, 760-square meter ballroom that is connected to a sea-facing 380 square meter foyer.
Conrad Xiamen delivers exquisite culinary experiences with its five restaurants and bars. Coast Bar & Grill offers the ultimate sky dining experience, with fresh seafood, grilled specialties and the highest bar in town. Lucheng serves mouth-watering Cantonese and Fujian delicacies, and has eight private rooms that are perfect for small functions. Pier 38 is an all-day dining restaurant with a buffet featuring a vast array of Asian and Western dishes, interactive cooking stations and great sea views. The sophisticated Plush serves High Tea by day and transforms into a vibrant bar in the evenings. Offering fine wines and snacks, it is a great place for socializing and relaxing. And at Parisian patisserie French Kiss, guests can expect fine pastries and Western-style meals.
To ensure that guests enjoy all that the city has to offer by way of culture, art, cuisine and adventure, Conrad Xiamen offers signature Conrad 1/3/5 experiences. Conrad Xiamen also offers the Conrad Concierge app, which enables guests to customize the details of their stay, such as pre-selecting bath amenities, or checking-in while in transit, via a smartphone or tablet.
Conrad Xiamen participates in Hilton HHonors®, the only hotel loyalty program that allows members to earn Points & Miles® on the same stay, with No Blackout Dates on reward stays. Along with HHonors Points, members also enjoy the lowest rates, digital check-in, complimentary internet access, and a booking fee waiver when they book directly through www.conradhotels.com.
Conrad Xiamen is located at No. 186, Yanwuxi Road, Siming District, Xiamen, Fujian Province, 361005, P.R. China. For more information or to make reservations, please call the hotel directly at +86 0592 258 6666, visit the hotel's website at www.conradhotels.com/xiamen, or follow the hotel on Wechat: Conradxiamen.
Hilton currently operates over 70 hotels in China, recently opening the second Hilton hotel in Xiamen, DoubleTree by Hilton Xiamen-Wuyuan Bay.
For more information about Conrad Hotels & Resorts, please visit http://news.conradhotels.com or follow us at www.facebook.com/ConradHotels, www.instagram.com/ConradHotels, http://twitter.com/ConradHotels.
About Conrad Hotels & Resorts
Conrad Hotels & Resorts is the destination for the new generation of smart luxury travelers for whom life, business, and pleasure seamlessly intersect. Conrad offers its guests an innovative way to Stay Inspired through a curated collections of 1-hour, 3-hour, or 5-hour experiences, available through www.stayinspired.com or through the intuitive Conrad Concierge mobile app. Consisting of 26 properties across five continents, Conrad is part of Hilton, a leading global hospitality company. Connect with Conrad by booking at www.conradhotels.com. Learn more about the brand by visiting http://news.conradhotels.com or following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company, comprising more than 4,700 managed, franchised, owned and leased hotels and timeshare properties with over 775,000 rooms in 104 countries and territories. For 97 years, Hilton has been dedicated to continuing its tradition of providing exceptional guest experiences. The company's portfolio of 13 world-class global brands includes Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Canopy by Hilton, Curio - A Collection by Hilton, DoubleTree by Hilton, Embassy Suites by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Tru by Hilton, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton and Hilton Grand Vacations. The company also manages an award-winning customer loyalty program, Hilton HHonors®. Hilton HHonors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels have access to benefits including exclusive member rates, free standard Wi-Fi, as well as digital amenities that are available exclusively through the industry-leading Hilton HHonors app, where HHonors members can check-in, choose their room, and access their room using a Digital Key. Visit http://news.hiltonworldwide.com for more information and connect with Hilton on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Selina Li
Conrad Xiamen
selena.li@conradhotels.com
Audrey Wong
Hilton – Asia Pacific
Audrey.Wong@hilton.com
John Walls
Conrad Hotels & Resorts
john.walls@hilton.com
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This article is about the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom
The Battle of Trafalgar
This article is about the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.
The Symbol:
The naval ensign of the Royal Navy, also known as the White Ensign.
The White Ensign or St George's Ensign is an ensign flown on British Royal Navy ships and shore establishments. It consists of a red St George's Cross on a white field with the Union Flag in the upper left corner.
The White Ensign is also flown by the Royal Yacht Squadron and ships escorting the Queen.
In addition to the United Kingdom, several former British states or nations also have variants of the White Ensign with their own national flags in the canton, with the St George's Cross sometimes being replaced by a naval badge.
For those who don't know what an ensign is:
An ensign is a national flag, an emblem or a badge used at sea, to mark your ship or vessel. The word is derived from the Latin word insignum.
Titles and naming Of the Navy
The British Royal Navy is commonly referred to as the "Royal Navy" both in the United Kingdom and other countries. All other navies of other countries have the name of their country in their navy's names e.g. Royal Australian Navy or Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke marine) and Royal Swedish Navy (Kungliga Flottan). This name is a remain of their former power and position as the greatest nations Navy. The only other country that is also called "Royal Navy" is French Navy, despite France being a republic since 1870, But they call it "La Royale" in French off course.
Namings Of ships
Ships are very often named after British Dukes and these names frequently re-used. Later on I will talk about ships like the HMS warrior, the abbreviation HMS means Her Majesty's Ship . As well as a name, each ship and submarine of the Royal Navy and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is given a pennant number which in part denotes its role.
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Tracing its origins to the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service. From the end of the 17th century until well into the 20th century it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power. It remains a prominent and powerful navy with the ability to project power globally.
power projection (or force projection) is a term used in military and political science to refer to the capacity to intimidate other nations and implement policy by means of force, or the threat of this force in an area distant from its own territory.
(This ability is a crucial element of a state's power in international relations. Any state able to direct its military forces outside the limited bounds of its territory might be said to have some level of power projection capability, but the term itself is used most frequently in reference to militaries with a worldwide reach. Even states with sizable hard power assets (such as a large standing army) may only be able to exert limited regional influence so long as they lack the means of effectively projecting their power on a global scale. Generally, only a select few states are able to overcome the logistical difficulties inherent in the deployment and direction of a modern, mechanized military force.)
Let's start off with a very important piece of history in which the Royal Navy plays a crucial role.
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).
The battle was the most decisive British naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve off the south-west coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost.
The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the previous century and was achieved in part through Nelson's extraordinary tactics.
Normally the objective in naval battle is engaging an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy to make signalling in battle or disengagement easier. This way the fiels fields of fire and target areas are maximised . Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed in a right angle against the larger enemy fleet, with decisive results.
Nelson was deadly wounded during the battle, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. The commander of the joint French and Spanish forces, Admiral Villeneuve, was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Spanish Admiral Federico Gravina escaped with the remains of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle.
HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, is still a commissioned Royal Navy ship, although she is now permanently kept in dry-dock. In 1922 she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She continues to be flagship of the Second Sea Lord and is the oldest naval ship still in commission.
The Royal Navy Has been the greatest and most powerful fleet for many years and nowadays it operates a fleet of technologically very sophisticated ships. The where very often the first to use new cutting edge technologies or develop the latest technical breakthrough, this is one of the things that made the Royal Navy that powerful.
This urge to rule the waves also has historical roots.
Due to British leadership in the Industrial Revolution, the country enjoyed unparalleled shipbuilding capacity and financial resources, which ensured that no rival could take advantage of these revolutionary changes to negate the British advantage in ship numbers. In 1889, Parliament passed the Naval Defence Act which formally adopted the 'two-power standard', which said that the Royal Navy should maintain a number of battleships at least equal to the combined strength of the next two largest navies. Nowadays that would be crazy.
2 Examples of their tradition of high-end technology development are the HMS Warrior and the
Dreadnought.
HMS Warrior was quite eeasy the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built in 1860.
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts".
Admiral Sir John "Jackie" Fisher is credited as the father of the Dreadnought. Shortly after he assumed office he ordered design studies for a battleship armed solely with 12-inch (305 mm) guns and a speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). He convened a "Committee on Designs" to evaluate the alternative designs and to assist in the detailed design process. One benefit of the Committee was that it would shield him, from political charges that they had not consulted leading experts before designing such a radically different battleship.
Dreadnought was the first battleship of her era to have a uniform main gun battery, rather than having a few large guns complemented by a heavy secondary battery of somewhat smaller guns. She was also the first capital ship to be powered by steam turbines, making her the fastest battleship in the world at the time of her completion. Her launch helped spark a major naval arms race as navies around the world, particularly the German Imperial Navy rushed to match her in the build-up to World War I.
Dreadnought did not participate in any of World War I's naval battles as she was refitting during the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the only time that British dreadnought battleships fired on their German counterparts during the war. However, she became the only battleship ever to sink a submarine when she rammed one when it unexpectedly rose up to the surface of the sea, and thus became visible, after firing a torpedo at another dreadnought in 1915. ( After Jutland, she was relegated to coast defence duties in the English Channel, only rejoining the Grand Fleet in 1918. She was reduced to reserve in 1919 and sold for scrap on 9 May 1921 for £44,000.)
Of course the Royal Navy did his part in both the World Wars, being a specific and powerful component of the British Army
During the two World Wars, the Royal Navy played a vital role in keeping the United Kingdom supplied with food, arms and raw materials and in defeating the German campaigns of unrestricted submarine warfare in the first and second battles of the Atlantic.
During the First World War most of the Royal Navy's strength was deployed at home in the Grand Fleet, confronting the German High Seas Fleet across the North Sea. In this battle the Germans were repeatedly outmaneuvered and the British advantage in numbers was proven invincible, leading the German High Seas Fleet to abandon its challenge to British dominance.
In the inter-war period the Royal Navy was stripped of much of its power. The Washington and London Naval Treaties imposed scrappings of capital ships and limitations on new construction.
Does anyone know why they agreed on these treaties?
( It is common that after the war treaties limited the constructions of weapons and armament in sort of war-hangover.) By 1938 though treaty limits were effectively ignored. The re-armament of the Royal Navy was well on his way by this point; the Royal Navy had begun construction of still treaty affected and undergunned new battleships and its very first full-sized purpose-built aircraft carriers. In addition to new construction, several existing old battleships, battlecruisers and heavy cruisers were reconstructed, and anti-aircraft weaponry reinforced, while new technologies were developed.
At the start of World War II in 1939, the Royal Navy was still the largest in the world,
You want to hear all the numbers?
consisting of 15 battleships and battlecruisers with 5 under construction, 7 aircraft carriers, 66 cruisers with 23 more under construction, 184 destroyers with 52 under construction, 45 escort and patrol vessels with 9 under construction and 1 on order, and 60 submarines with 9 under construction.[54]
( During the early phases of World War II the Royal Navy provided critical cover during British evacuations from Dunkirk. At the Battle of Taranto, Admiral Cunningham commanded a fleet that launched the first all-aircraft naval attack in history.)
The Royal Navy suffered huge losses in the early stages of the war. There were, however, early successes against enemy surface ships, at the Battle of the River Plate in 1939, and off Norway; by 1941, with the sinking of the Bismarck, Germany effectively lost her surface ship capabilities. As well as providing cover in operations, it was also vital in guarding the sea lanes that enabled British forces to fight in remote parts of the world such as North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Far East. Naval supremacy in the Atlantic was vital to the operations carried out, such as the invasions of Northwest Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy. Royal Navy ships also provided an important role in escorting convoys across the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, and to other countries on the allied side, protecting them from air, surface and submarine attack.
Following victory in the First World War the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size] although at the beginning of the Second World War it was still the largest in the world. By the end of the Second World War the U.S. Navy had emerged as the world's largest.
During the course of the Cold War and the emergence of the Soviet submarine threat, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union its focus has returned to global expeditionary operations.
The GIUK gap is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval warfare choke point. Its name is an acronym for Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, the gap being the open ocean between these three landmasses. The term is typically used in relation to military topics.
After World War II the decline of the British Empire and the economic hardships in Britain at the time forced the reduction in the size and capability of the Royal Navy. The increasingly powerful U.S. Navy took on the former role of the Royal Navy as global naval power and police force of the sea.
Current role
The current role of the Royal Navy (RN) is to protect British interests at home and abroad, executing the foreign and defense policies of Her Majesty's Government through the exercise of military effect, diplomatic activities and other activities in support of these objectives. The Royal Navy is also a key element of the UK contribution to NATO.
Their objectives are delivered via a number of core capabilities:
Maintenance of the UK Nuclear Deterrent through a policy of Continuous at Sea Deterrence.
Provision of two medium scale maritime task groups with organic air assets.
Delivery of the UK Commando force.
Contribution of assets to the Joint Helicopter Command.
Maintenance of standing patrol commitments.
Provision of Mine Counter Measures capability to UK and allied commitments.
Provision of Hydrographic and meteorological services deployable worldwide.
Protection of the UK and EU's Exclusive Economic Zone.
Current deployments
See Standing Royal Navy deployments
The Royal Navy is currently deployed in many areas of the world, including a number of standing Royal Navy deployments. These include several home tasks as well as overseas deployments. The Navy is deployed in the Mediterranean as part of standing NATO deployments including mine countermeasures and NATO Maritime Group.
uploads -> Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba
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british empire
early phases
previous century
british royal navy
economic hardships
most powerful navy
combined fleets


I cannot see any experiment available except one called "Error"
The message I receive is Couldn't read applications: It has not been possible to obtain your user info. Have you authorized this app to access your info?
What can I do? Why cannot I access to experiments?


text:
Q: Maximum cost of cloud hosting solutions (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.) Does someone know of theoretical worst case expenditure when using instances (e.g. EC2) to host some publicly accessible content? I mean instance cost itself can be estimated but what happens in case a malicious entity would start downloading at a rate, order of magnitudes higher than normal (for instance through a botnet). Outbound traffic is billed and cannot be controlled unless specifically implemented by the host - which is rarely the case, let's be honest. I guess at some point DDoS protection and the likes would kick in but that might also take a while.
As I see it no cloud provider supports hard-budget limits (they willingly avoid it, in turn this means that it must cost customers a significant amount) so my question is, has anyone thought about this or even experienced such scenarios? Is there any technical protection from the cloud provider or is this entirely left to the user?
It's kind of odd that in CS we are always talking about worst-case complexity but apparently that doesn't apply to money...

A: You could use a serverless service (Lambda or Azure functions) as a content delivery system, there you can implement some rate limiting features and a temp ip-ban system, then funnel the whole thing through CloudFlare and its DDoS protection logic, while it seems like a gas factory solution, it at least provides a more white-box approach to the whole CDN service.

A: I can only speak for AWS - you can use AWS Shield, a Managed DDoS Protection.
It comes in two flavours

*

*AWS Shield Standard which is enabled by default and is designed to protect other customers when your services are DDoS'ed.

*AWS Shield Advanced is a paid service designed to protect your services from DDoS.

With AWS Shield Advanced customers get AWS WAF and AWS Firewall Manager at no additional cost for usage on resources protected by AWS Shield Advanced. Additionally,  you get "DDoS cost protection for scaling", a feature that protects your AWS bill from usage spikes on your AWS Shield Advanced protected EC2, Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator, and Amazon Route 53 resources as a result of a DDoS attack.

(Highlights are mine)
So with AWS Shield Advanced your usage bill will be capped in case of DDoS.

Obviously Shield Advanced comes at a cost and is not worth it for small or hobby deployments. On the other hand these small scale services are not that likely to be targeted by DDoS and if they are the architecture would probably not withstand the load and crash, effectively stopping the DDoS and protecting your bill.
As always it's a trade-off - either you want to keep your services up during DDoS and are ready to pay for it, of you prefer to protect your wallet at the cost of your service going down. You can't have it both ways sadly.
Azure and GCP may have services similar to Shield, I don't know. If they do they will very likely come at a cost too. The general trade-off points are valid regardless of your cloud provider.
Hope that helps :)

A: From an Azure perspective
You can set budgets and if your cost exceed these limits it can trigger workflows that shut down, scale down, notify you, anything you want really.

In this scenario, a monthly budget of $1000 for the subscription is set. Also, notification thresholds are set to trigger a few orchestrations. This scenario starts with an 80% cost threshold, which will stop all VMs in the resource group Optional. Then, at the 100% cost threshold, all VM instances will be stopped. To configure this scenario, you will complete the following actions by following the steps provided in each section of this tutorial.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/billing/billing-cost-management-budget-scenario
So there are ways to control your costs before they go rampage for any reason.

A: On Azure
if you're talking about making static content available publicly, you probably want to use Azure CDN. This contains basic DDoS protection free of charge: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cdn/cdn-ddos
If you're talking about dynamically generated content, you could use Application Gateway to have a single point to control access. This service can additionally be protected with Azure DDoS: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/ddos-protection-overview

A: On Google Cloud you can set budgets and budget alerts:

After you've set a budget amount, you set budget alert threshold rules
that are used to trigger email notifications. Budget alert emails help
you stay informed about how your spend is tracking against your
budget. You can also use budgets to automate cost control responses.

whenever you received a budget alert email you can do some actions to prevent spending too much money.
To estimate your future spendings in advance you can use Google Cloud Pricing Calculator.
GCP also offers you WAF Google Cloud Armor:

*

*Benefit from DDoS protection and WAF at Google scale

*Detect and mitigate attacks against your Cloud Load Balancing workloads

*Mitigate OWASP Top 10 risks and help protect workloads on-premises or in the cloud

In addition, you can analyse your networking with VPC Flow Logs and control your cloud infrastructure with integrated Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


To achieve the proper fit, measure your dog from neck to rump. Add an additional eight inches and you have a proper fit. You can choose your breed to see our recommendations. Larger breeds that grow out of character and weigh close to or over 200lbs, you will need the extra extra large Mammoth. This bed also accommodates two to five dogs and comes with an orthopedic mattress.
Dimensions are listed next to popular dog beds on this page.
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Great material and good stitches, sure they will last longer than anything else we have tried over the past 40 years.
My dog Lacie loves the dog bed!! You can see the smile on her face! Five stars!.
This is Danny Boy in his new bed …. 2 minutes after unpacked it …. he LOVES it, we juts tell him at night 'bed time' and he goes straight to it.
Charlie seems to like his bed. I liked the color and the Velcro closure it is plenty big for him and he is 90 lbs we bought the Large with ortho foam.
We received our 2 new doggie beds today and they are very impressive the foam seems like it will hold up very nicely which is what we need because my babies be are 11 yrs old and they love the beds already.
Pookie has so much fun on his couch playing with his toys. He has his own space.
He really does fit. LoL …We'll have to get another one for Emma. She's pouting on the love seat. Thank you!
Patch loves his new Mammoth crate bed. It took some coaxing (and a treat) to get in there the first time, but ever since then it's his favourite place to be!
My pooch with her new bed. She absolutely loves it.
My girls just love their new couch.
The bed we got is PERFECT. Size, comfort, color.
Picture of our dog, Molson on a Mammoth bed! He loves it!
My boys love the bed and so do I!!!
I LOVE Mammoth Beds And So Do The Dogs!
Rudee's Dog Bed Is A Hit!
Our 11 year old golden seems very happy!!!
Molly just received her new Christmas bed and as you can see from her face she is more than happy! Molly received the Large (44 x 36) SKU#801m 6 inch orthopedic model and it is plenty big for this 90 lb. yellow lab. Quality product at a fair price.
She loves her new bed. What great products this company has.


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In September 2022
9 September 2022 Blog Post: New Booster Shot "Heralds" COVID Seasonality
The latest bivalent boosters began shipping over the Labor Day weekend and have now become available in local pharmacies. These are termed 'bivalent' as they contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – one from the original (ancestral) strain and the other a common sequence between the BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages of the Omicron variant. The artist formerly known as 'the booster' (which was monovalent) containing only the original strain has been taken off the market entirely and is no longer available. In this way, there will be no confusion about which booster to give to a patient, as only one has approval currently.
The timing of the bivalent booster shipping coincides closely and not coincidentally with seasonal influenza shots. We received our annual flu shots in the office about two weeks ago and have been dispensing them to patients already. It is a not so subtle nod to the seasonality of COVID-19. White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha suggested that the bivalent booster could be bundled with seasonal flu shots saying (somewhat cumbersomely) "I really believe this is why God gave us two arms – one for the flu shot and the other for the COVID shot."
Despite Dr. Jha's clear misconception about the intelligent design of two arms (which were an obvious evolutionary pressure to allow for the crossover dribble) – his framing is similar to the advice I have been giving patients about the timing of the bivalent booster. The overall goal being established protection by the Thanksgiving holidays, which is when seasonal respiratory viruses begin to spread in earnest – fueled by travel, family gathering and increased time indoors. Typically I recommend that flu shots be delivered by the end of October although we continue to vaccinate patients well into January (particularly if we have a later season surge).
There is clear evidence of a seasonal distribution of COVID-19. Below is a graph of prevalence (percentage rate of cases per 100 population) by week for Los Angeles County. There are three lines: 2020 (Blue), 2021 (Red), 2022 (Yellow)
Looking at the graph it is clear that there are low seasons: March to June (all years although remember in 2020 we were 'flattening the curve' and in 2021 we still had Spring mask mandates) and September to November (which is interesting because there is a lot of fretting that goes on with the opening of school in the Fall).
Summer 2022 showed a clear rise in cases but the obvious seasonality begins mid to late November (2020 especially), peaking mid January (Omicron in yellow was indeed everywhere in 2022) before falling rather rapidly by early February.
So the rollout of the updated COVID-19 boosters targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are indeed meant to head off a 2022/2023 winter surge but also give us a sense of how the CDC is shifting our pandemic approach to a more predictive rather than reactive response.
Dr. Fauci echoed this sentiment in classic Fauci speak: "It is becoming increasingly clear that—looking forward with the COVID-19 pandemic, in the absence of a dramatically different variant—we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual, updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population."
13 September 2022 Blog Post: Fall 2022 COVID Boosters
28 September 2022 Blog Post: Following the UK's Lead
14 September 2022 Blog Post: Mid-September COVID Case Numbers


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Rhea May Chiles (née Grafton; December 1, 1930 – November 8, 2015) was First Lady of Florida from 1991–98 during the tenure of her husband, Governor Lawton Chiles. In 2009, she was designated a Distinguished Floridian by the Florida Economics Club at an event hosted by former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Major B. Harding and keynoted by former United States Senator Sam Nunn.

Founding of "Florida House"
Rhea Chiles spearheaded the creation of Florida House on Capitol Hill, the only "State Embassy" in Washington D.C.

In the late 1960s, Lawton and Rhea Chiles were visiting Washington D.C. on vacation with their young children. They got lost and found themselves on Embassy Row. One of the children said, "Let's go to Florida's embassy, and they will tell us where we are." They explained that only foreign countries had embassies and that states did not. The idea, however, intrigued Chiles.

In the first year following Lawton Chiles' election to the United States Senate in 1970, Rhea was walking by 200 East Capitol Street. At the time, the neighborhood was unsafe and the properties were unsightly. For these reasons, most people did not come east of the Capitol. Chiles walked past a circa 1891 row house—the historic Manning House—that was in total disrepair. The second floor of the historic property had caved in and the windows were boarded up. Homeless people were living in the basement. Chiles remembered her child's comment about "Florida's Embassy." With that as her vision, she arranged the purchase of the property with $5,000 of her own money and $120,000 raised from friends in Florida. Chiles preferred the sound of Number One Second Street over the original address. With that preference, she boarded up the front entrance and opened the back door as the formal entrance to Florida House. She supervised the historic restoration of the 100-year-old Manning House that came to be Florida House.

In time, she reopened the former front door, which now leads into the garden. In 1983, Rhea Chiles received the Florida Society of Historic Preservation Award for her leadership in the restoration of the historic building that became Florida House.

Unique among the properties of the 50 states, Florida House serves as a "goodwill embassy" for Floridians in Washington, D.C. Florida House sits atop Capitol Hill, and is located nearby the United States Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Serving as home base for tourists as well as the business community, Florida House hosts approximately 10,000 visitors a year. It is filled with art and period antiques donated by people from all over Florida, and provides hospitality to all Floridians who visit. The facility also offers cultural and educational opportunities that enable Florida citizens to enrich their appreciation, knowledge and involvement in our federal government. Florida House is run as a not-for-profit foundation, and no state or federal tax dollars are used in its support. With an emphasis on education, Florida House is an extraordinary resource of information about the Nation's Capitol and its resources. It is centrally located on Capitol Hill, and has a clear view of the United States Capitol dome. Chiles served as the president and CEO of  Florida House from 1973 until 1988. She later served as Chairman Emeritus of Florida House.

Other service and contributions
A patron of the arts as well as an artist herself, in the 1960s, Rhea Chiles was one of the founders of the Polk County Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida. During her husband's service in the U.S. Senate, Rhea Chiles presided over the Congressional Wives Prayer Group, and Co-Chaired the Ladies of the Senate Luncheon for First Lady Betty Ford.

Her tenure as First Lady of Florida was marked by numerous contributions to Florida, particularly focusing on the health and welfare of the state's children. The work of the Governor and Mrs. Chiles on behalf of children led to the creation of The Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, a maternal and child health research and policy institute established by the Florida Legislature in 1996.

Among Chiles' most significant contributions as First Lady was her vision—in tandem with that of her husband, Governor Chiles—that carried out the youth smoking cessation program following the historic tobacco settlement shepherded by the Governor. The Governor and Mrs. Chiles provided the platform and impetus for Students Working Against Tobacco or SWAT, which was funded by Governor Chiles' historic tobacco settlement. This initiative, in turn, led to the creation of a statewide student-led Truth (anti-tobacco campaign). The Truth campaign resulted in a dramatic cessation of tobacco use among middle and high school students, and became a national model.

Later life and widowhood

In 1998, Rhea Chiles founded The Lawton Chiles Foundation, which carries on the commitment of her husband to benefit the lives of children in Florida.

Over the next decade, Chiles developed and managed The Studio at Gulf and Pine, a community cultural center in Anna Maria, Florida. Chiles died from a lengthy illness at her home in Anna Maria Island, Florida at the age of 84.

Artist and author
Rhea Chiles was an accomplished artist. Her watercolor, "Window to Washington," which depicts the view of the Capitol from the upstairs window of Florida House on Capitol Hill, is considered the "artistic signature" of Florida House. Governor Chiles established the "Heartland Award for Public Service," which was presented by the Governor to Floridians who were found to exemplify long-term commitment and service to their communities. Recipients of the Heartland Award received a painting, "Heartland," depicting the Myakka River in southwest Florida by Rhea Chiles.

In 1997, Rhea Chiles, then First Lady of Florida, published "700 North Adams Street", a 144-page illustrated history that explores the architecture, interiors, and gardens of the Florida Governor's Mansion; the history of the original 1907 Mansion; and the personal lives and culture of the families who lived in the original Mansion and the one built in 1955.

References

1930 births
2015 deaths
First Ladies and Gentlemen of Florida
American founders
Museum founders
Florida Democrats
Women in Florida politics
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
University of Florida alumni
People from Miami-Dade County, Florida
People from Anna Maria, Florida
American women non-fiction writers
20th-century American philanthropists
21st-century American women


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Q: Does f(3x) = 3f(x)? Is just listed as a true or false question in my book but I was just thinking when this actually is true or false. For instance if f(x) = cx for some c then this equality hold. Or when f = 0 for all x. Am I right?

A: Of course, there exist functions $f$ which satisfy this equation for all $x$, which you have found. When $f(x) = cx$ for some $c$ (including $c=0$), the equation will hold true.
The equation is what's called a functional equation, which is an equation where you're trying to solve for a function rather a variable. Existence of solutions is guaranteed for some certain kinds of functional equations.
Alternatively, you could look for $x$ such that the equation holds true for all $f$, which has no solutions in this case, or for a given $f$, which would simply be solving the equation.
However, for the purpose of the question in the book, the answer is false, as the statement is not true for all $f$ and all $x$, which is the requirement for it to be true if no additional conditions/restrictions are listed.

A: Just note that when $f(x)=x^2$, $$f(3x)=9f(x)$$


Freshman David Cain auditioned for All State for the second time this year. He has made All State once before and is excited to attend this year.
On Jan. 14, 23 of the NFHS band members traveled all the way to Houston County, Georgia to audition for the All State band. However, not just any band member could attend the audition. In December, students had to audition at the district-wide level, and all who passed that audition with a certain score would be moved onto the All State level audition. This time around, they had to play two etudes, one lyrical and one technical, and two sight reading pieces. They are graded on tone quality, technique, dynamics and more. The students were up against some of the best players in the state of Georgia and have been practicing for months. It is an honor just to be able to audition at this level, let alone make it.
Those students will now have the opportunity to play in a band made from all of the best musicians in the state of Georgia and put on a concert with them. This is a very big accomplishment, and North is very proud of these students for their hard work and dedication to the band program.


I, Paul did write with my hand, I -- I will repay; that I may not say that also thyself, besides, to me thou dost owe.
Markus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lukas, my fellow-workmen!
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [is] with your spirit! Amen.


Commercial Drivers License (CDL) / Truck Drivers | Law Offices of Shawn A. Gritz, L.L.C.
Drivers who possess a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) must take additional precautions when facing criminal/traffic offenses.
The complex nature of the laws governing CDL drivers and the potential consequences beyond the charges themselves calls for an experienced attorney. For example, drivers facing a DWI/DUI charge face a suspension of their driving privilege. When a CDL driver is charged with drunk driving, and even if the driver was not driving a commercial motor vehicle at the time, a "simple" MVA hearing comes with significant risk that the CDL will either be disqualified or suspended. Under the Code of Maryland Regulations 11.11.12.07 the MVA may not issue a CDL if the driver's license is suspended or restricted. This means that a driver with a work restriction or an ignition interlock restriction may not have a CDL. Further, a CDL driver who refuses the breath test faces a one year disqualification of the CDL.
When facing the charges in court, if the CDL driver is found guilty of driving while under the influence of alcohol under Transportation Article, Section 21-902(A), or driving while impaired by drugs, or drugs and alcohol, or by controlled dangerous substances, the MVA will impose a one year disqualification of the CDL on a first offense. Subsequent disqualifications are for life. It is important to note that a probation before judgment (PBJ) does not avoid the disqualification as it is still considered a conviction for CDL purposes. If acquittal is not a possibility or a likely outcome, it is crucial for defense counsel to try to get guilty finding to a lesser offense of driving while impaired by alcohol to avoid the CDL disqualification.
Finally, if a CDL driver finds him or herself facing suspension or revocation as a result of point accumulation (caused by a drunk driving conviction or any other offense) it is essential that counsel request a reprimand since, as discussed above, any other sanction would result in the loss of the CDL.
Further, any suspension, modification, or disqualification of one year or more may require a CDL driver to reapply for his/her CDL at the conclusion of the period of time. It is important to be aware that even for shorter CDL suspensions or modifications drivers with special endorsements on their CDL, such as HAZMAT, may also be required to reapply before obtaining a new CDL.
Some criminal charges may also have a profound impact on a CDL driver's ability to maintain their CDL. It is essential you hire an attorney who understands the specific implications of the charges on your CDL.
If you are facing criminal or serious traffic charges in Maryland and you have a CDL call Shawn A. Gritz at 301-980-5930 for a free consultation.


tumors in order to propose a safe recommended dose range for further evaluation.
- To determine the pharmacokinetics of L-NNA.
- To determine the safety profile of L-NNA.
- To evaluate the potential pharmacodynamic effect of NOS inhibition on angiogenesis.
- To evaluate the effect of L-NNA on circulating NOS levels.
vasoconstrictive effects of L-NNA in tumor tissue (where available).
Patients receive a single dose of NG-nitro-L-arginine (L-NNA) IV over 10 minutes on day 1.
All patients undergo up to 6 dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (DCE-CT).
contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) as well as DCE-CT scans.
biopsy samples are analyzed for iNOS and eNOS expression.
a week for 28 days and then monthly thereafter (if required).


Ever wondered why Everton are called "The Toffees", Newcastle the "Magpies" or Chelsea "The Pensioners" ????
Well, this site will try explain the whys, what, who and when behind the sometimes baffling world of football nicknames, sometimes of course the true origins have been lost in time and only myths remain., in those cases we will try to differentiate between fact and fantasy.
Then again sometimes the origin of a football teams nickname is so obvious it doesnt really need an explanation but that still doesnt stop the history of them being fascinating, apart from the obvious boring ones - which I wont mention to save offending anyone.
a: A descriptive name added to or replacing the actual name of a person, place, or thing.
b: A familiar or shortened form of a proper name.
Given the above definition though its easy to see why the likes of Tottenham (Spurs), Hartlepool (Pool) and Bristol Rovers (Rovers) got their nicknames.
However, its harder to work out how some nicknames fall under that definition, for example surely only a fan of Lincoln would know why they were known as The Red Imps?
The answer of course being a combination of the colour of their strips and the fact that an Imp statue sits on top of Lincoln cathedral !!
The colour of strips has also featured in some of the more bizarre nicknames as well, one of the more extreme ones being Lancaster City who are known as The Dolly Blues because they used to play in the same colour as Dolly Blue washing tablets !!
Not all football teams actually use their nicknames in any sort of official capacity but some have been known to go over the top in claiming "ownership" of their nickname.
These teams will remain nameless to save me getting into trouble but suffice to say the team concerned have actually taken people to court for using a nickname that had grown from supporter use but had nothing to do with the club until they realised its worth on their official merchandise !!
Anyway, enough of that sort of thing, this site is purely about giving football fans a bit of background to their teams nickname and how they came about, hopefully it will give you a bit of info you didnt already know and maybe clear up a bit of the mystery surrounding football nicknames and their history.
It is a brand new site which is very much a "work in progress" which will be updated as and when we can so if your team isnt listed yet please dont think "fancy not having my team, what a rubbish site" as we will get round to listing them all in time - of course if you want to drop us a mail with your team Nicknames background we will gladly stick it on here for you, saves us doing the work !!!
In the meantime we have shown a few cartoons below portraying some of the teams featured on the site, wonder how many you can name ???


A good mouthpiece if you need an extreme amount of power and edge. The Lakey is probably the brightest sonically of any non-metal mouthpiece. The 6*3 facing is a .085" tip opening. There is a slight nick out of the corner of the left tip, otherwise the rails and the rest of the facing look very good. Bite plate has no teeth marks at all!
If you want to warm up the sound of the mouthpiece, I recommend a Rovner Dark Model Ligature which you can add to your order by clicking on the "Ligature" option .
This one does come with a metal ligature and cap.