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On Congress Blog
Congressional news and analysis
Coburn: Report will make us 'look like jackasses'
By SCOTT WONG
Sen. Tom Coburn issued a cryptic warning about a Government Accountability Office report that will be released Tuesday morning, saying it will make "all of us look like jackasses."
The Oklahoma Republican, who's read the GAO report, refused to elaborate or say what led him to that conclusion. But the report, which was later leaked to several news outlets, identified billions of dollars in waste from overlap and duplication in federal agencies, offices and programs.
For example, there are about 80 federal programs across several agencies aimed at promoting economic development, according to the Wall Street Journal, which received a copy of the report. And there are 20 programs that seek to address homelessness.
"Read the report that comes out tomorrow from the GAO that looked at the government that we put in the last debt-limit extension – makes us all look like jackasses. …" Coburn told reporters at the Capitol on Monday night. "Go study that. It will show why we are $14 trillion in debt."
The report, required by federal law, likely will be discussed at a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, on which Coburn serves. He also is a member of the "Gang of Six," a bipartisan group of senators negotiating to implement the recommendations of President Barack Obama's debt and deficit reduction commission.
"I will let the report speak for itself," Coburn said. "And anybody that says we don't look like fools up here hadn't read the report."
Senate Republicans


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Apply to The Phoenix Scholars!
The application is now closed. Our application will re-open in early January for the 2020-2021 cohort of Scholars.
The Phoenix Scholars aims to help low-income, first generation and/or minority students throughout California access higher education by providing pro-bono college application counseling and mentorship.
Students who don't identify with two of the above criteria are encouraged to still apply! We aim to help as many students as possible within our capacity. We also require that students who apply have demonstrated academic interest by maintaining a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.7 or higher.
Feel free to email us at information@phoenixscholars.org with any questions/concerns about the application.


THE MONSTER HUNTER MEMOIRS SERIES CONTINUES. TWO AUTHORS, WHO COMBINED HAVE OVER FOUR MILLION BOOKS IN PRINT AND 10 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERS, TEAM UP TO EXPAND LARRY CORREIA'S MONSTER HUNTER UNIVERSE!
With New Orleans out of control, Chad Oliver Gardenier, one of Monster Hunter International's premier hunters, has been dispatched from Seattle to reinforce the beleaguered members of MHI'S Hoodoo Squad in their fight against the darkness.
Chad had once taken a werewolf while wearing only jogging gear. With half a dozen or more loup garou appearing every full moon, mysterious shadow demons, houdoun necromancers, fifty-foot bipedal crocodiles showing up every couple of months and more vampires than a Goth concert, New Orleans in the '80s gives a whole new perspective to the term "Hell on Earth." In fact, more monsters are popping up than crawfish at a fais do do! Chad may be able to collect enormous bounties for the monsters he kills. But there's one catch: he has to stay alive to do it!


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The Football World Cup, 2014 will kick off (literally) in Brazil in a couple of hours.
1. Frankie's Magic Football: Frankie and the World Cup Carnival written by England's midfielder, Frank Lampard. He is in the English squad or this World Cup. Written for children 5 years and above, this is just one of the many books in the Frankie and the Magic Football series.
2. T.J and the Cup Run by Theo Walcott, also plays England, but will not feature in this year's World Cup due to a knee injury. This book for children 9-11 years old. There are more in this series too – T.J and the Penalty, T.J and the Hatrick, T.J and the Winning Goal.
3. And then there is For the Love of Soccer written by football's legend, Pele.
Those were three books written by football players.
Now, if you are wondering how these super busy football players found the time to write a children's book, read Frank Lampard's interview with The Guardian's young reader members.
Teachers and educators, find some very useful, free downloadable teaching resources about football in general and the World Cup in particular to use in your class or learning studios here and here.
We will keep posting more books on football on our Facebook page everyday for the next one month of World Cup, 2014. Visit our Facebook page daily to discover learning (All about football) through stories.
Meanwhile, do you know any other past or present football players who have authored children's books? Do let us know via and we will add their works to our list. Also, have you used children's storybooks to teach about sports? Which is your or your children's' favorite? Tell us.
Ever After is a learning and development organization that uses stories to make education fun for the young and the old. We swear by the power of stories to communicate concepts, inspire individuals and impact lives.
Visit our website to know more about Ever After's services and programs offered. Also, stay connected with us through Facebook or Twitter.


GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- Lambeau Field will turn into "Swingtown" the night before the Green Bay Packers' 2018 season kicks off.
A concert by the Steve Miller Band headlines the team's Celebration Weekend festivities Sept. 8-9. Festivities begin at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Johnsonville Tailgate Village in the stadium's east parking lot. Music is set to start at 7:30 outside the stadium, near the Oneida Nation Gate.
Parking and admission for the concert are free.
The Lambeau Field Atrium, including the Packers Pro Shop, Lambeau Field Stadium Tours, the Packers Hall of Fame and 1919 Kitchen & Tap, will be open for regular hours, the organization says.
On Sunday night, the Packers open their 100th season of football by renewing the NFL's most-played rivalry with the Chicago Bears. The Johnsonville Tailgate Village is set to open at 3:20 p.m., with stadium gates opening at 5:20 p.m. in advance of the 7:20 p.m. kickoff.


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Home About Staff
Native French Speakers, World Class Instructors.
It's wonderful to learn from native French speakers, and to be with fellow lovers of French language and culture.
- Harriet M., Wilmette
Maria Kurt
Founder and Executive Director, French School
In 1998, Maria used her knowledge and expertise to establish the French Institute of the North Shore. She earned a master's degree in French Language, Literature and Civilization from Middlebury College where she specialized in the teaching of French. Maria was determined to understand how one acquires a second language and develop the most effective way to teach French. Additionally, she holds a master's degree in Education. Having lived in Paris for two years during her studies, and frequently traveling to France, Maria appreciates cross-cultural nuances and brings an abundance of travel and cultural insights to the school.
Maria and her husband live in Winnetka with their two daughters and a French Bichon Frisé. Maria and her husband enjoy ballroom dancing, as well as water sports on the French Riviera.
Ashlee Cummings
Director, French School
Ashlee has been working in education for 14 years, having taught foreign languages at the elementary, middle, high school, and university levels. She has worked in both administrative and instructional capacities at the French Institute and the French School over the past six years. Ashlee holds a master's degree in French Language and Literature and a bachelor's degree in Foreign Language Education from Miami University. Ashlee has been fortunate to study and work abroad in Paris and Dijon and travel extensively throughout France. She particularly looks forward to her frequent trips to her favorite French town, Annecy. Ashlee enjoys reading, going to the ballet, and exploring the viticulture of our great land.
Heather Meindl
Director, French Institute of the North Shore
Heather's studies and work afforded her the opportunity to live abroad in Avignon, Québec, Senegal and Switzerland, giving the French Institute a more global Francophone perspective. Her master's degree in French language education brought her back to her hometown of Chicago. Heather's energy and charm help guide and inspire our adult language learners. Outside of work, Heather enjoys exploring Chicago's foodie culture, traveling the globe, and tending to her menagerie of animals.
French School Teacher
Audrey was born and raised in Colmar, a small city in eastern France. She is very proud of her origins and loves sharing her knowledge of Alsatian culture and food. She has lived in the United States for over five years and now considers it home. Audrey wears a constant smile on her face and loves teaching young children. She is so grateful to be a part of her students' first learning experiences and to help them build a solid foundation emotionally and academically. Outside of school, Audrey enjoys going to the movies with her husband, ballroom dancing, and horseback riding.
Camille grew up in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a small town west of Paris. She has previously lived in both Germany and the United States with her parents, an experience that motivated her to want to live and work abroad as an adult as well. Camille loves teaching and is so excited to have the opportunity to teach in the US. In her free time, Camille enjoys reading, running, and cooking.
Johanna comes from a small city near Versailles, France. With previous teaching experience in France, Johanna has cultivated a unique, creative, and well-organized classroom environment, which sets her students up for success from the moment they enter her classroom. Her inviting demeanor and sense of humor keep her students at ease throughout the year. Outside of school, Johanna enjoys painting, dancing, and travel.
French School Assistant
Originally from francophone Belgium, Géraldine has spent much of her adult life in Switzerland and the United States. Her effervescent personality creates a nurturing environment filled with fun and happiness. Géraldine understands the complexity and value of raising bilingual and bicultural children. She is passionate about pets and enjoys cooking.
A native of Normandy in northwest France, Laure enjoys discovering new things and is eager to pass on this curiosity to the children she teaches. Through her experience in France as an educator, she learned the joy of helping children explore the world and grow as individuals. Seeing them learn new things is what she loves more than anything. Outside of school, Laure is passionate about reading, travel, and hiking.
Born and raised in a small town in the southwest of France, Marie has called the United States her home for over 20 years. Prior to the French School, Marie worked as a teacher's assistant at a Montessori preschool and as a home daycare provider. She loves working with children and is inspired by their spontaneity and "joie de vivre." Outside of the classroom, Marie enjoys painting, gardening and cooking.
French Institute Instructor
Originally from Nîmes in the south of France, Adeline grew up with a love for literature, fine arts, and Les Camargues (the natural wetlands near the Rhône Delta), which in turn, are some of her favorite topics for discussion! Adeline is motivated by la francophonie, and is equally excited to teach about French culture, as she is to teach about cultures from other French speaking countries.
Continuing Education & French Institute Instructor
A native of Picardy in northern France, Laura is very passionate about French language and literature. Laura has ample positive energy and a calming presence that will inspire her students to speak with confidence and ease. Because Laura loves traveling and discovering new cultures, she has lived in both Australia and Canada, and is thrilled to be here in the United States!

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Akkineni Narajuna's career is a flourishing one, with close to 100 movies in his filmography. However, the actor, who can give many younger stars a run for their money, didn't just fascinate the southern facet. Nagarjuna was a loved name in aamchi Bollywood as well. However, the hunky star went missing from the Hindi cinema after his last stint in JP Dutta's war stint LOC Kargil. And now, he is all set to make his comeback and the news will surely make you squeal. Reportedly, Nagarjuna is all set to end his fifteen-year-old hiatus with Ranbir Kapoor's Brahmastra. However, the same has not yet been confirmed by the makers.
Akkineni Narajuna's career is a flourishing one, with close to 100 movies in his filmography. However, the actor, who can give many younger stars a run for their money, didn't just fascinate the southern facet. Nagarjuna was a loved name in aamchi Bollywood as well. However, the hunky star went missing from the Hindi cinema after his last stint in JP Dutta's war stint LOC Kargil. And now, he is all set to make his comeback and the news will surely make you squeal. Reportedly, Nagarjuna is all set to end his fifteen-year-old Bollywood hiatus with Ranbir Kapoor's Brahmastra. However, the same has not yet been confirmed by the makers.
This news will definitely increase the chances of escalating the box office collections and expectations of the movie in Telugu states and Karnataka. As it is post Ranbir's Sanju which is almost on the verge of becoming a blockbuster, Brahmastra is keenly looked forward to by the fans.
A source quoted the same to a leading daily, "Nagarjuna wanted to do a Hindi film from a long time, but was looking for an interesting project. He finally gave his nod to this one. He will join the Hindi film's sets from Tuesday onwards in Mumbai."
Brahmastra is a fantasy trilogy which is being helmed by Ayan Mukherjee, and will also star Alia Bhatt. It will be interesting to see which character would be portrayed by Nagarjuna. All we know, in the words of Ranbir, the movie is not a superhero venture and is a supernatural romance instead.
nextPICS: Maanayata Dutt and kids are on an incredible holiday; but where's Sanjay Dutt?


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Dangerous heat in Iowa — over 90 degrees — will nearly triple to 64 days annually, report says
Donnelle Eller
The Des Moines Register
Increases in potentially lethal heat driven by climate change will affect Iowa and most other states across the nation in the decades ahead, a peer-reviewed report released Tuesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists says.
The number of days Iowa's heat index — the combined measure of temperature and humidity — is above 90 degrees is expected to nearly triple, climbing from 22 days each year on average to 64 by mid-century and 92 days by the century's end, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, group said.
The report comes as Iowa braces for heat index values of 105 to 110 degrees, beginning Wednesday and continuing through Saturday, the National Weather Services said, creating dangerous conditions for young and elderly residents.
Outdoor workers become susceptible to heat-related illness when the heat index goes above 90 degrees, said the Union of Concerned Scientists, which seeks to use research to address environmental and social problems.
The group's report echoes concerns in the Fourth National Climate Change Assessment last year. It projected the Midwest would experience extreme heat, drought and heavy downpours to disrupt crop production.
Farmers could see a 25% drop in corn yields by the middle of the century, the assessment said.
More: What a difference one degree makes: Iowa is getting hotter, bringing more frequent and intense storms
The Union of Concerned Scientists' projections for Iowa and other states are dire for the next two to five decades:
Without action to cut carbon emissions, the number of days Iowa's heat index is above 100 degrees would climb from five on average annually to 30 days by mid-century.
It would climb to 55 days a year by the end of the century, the report said.
Of the cities with a population of 50,000 or more in the state, Davenport, Des Moines and Iowa City would experience the highest frequency of these days, the report said.
Iowa's extreme heat, with a heat index above 105 degrees, would increase from an average of two days annually to 17 days by mid-century and 39 by the century's end, the group said.
Historically, Iowa "as a whole has experienced zero 'off-the-charts' heat days in an average year," Union of Concerned Scientists said. That climbs to two days per year on average by mid-century and eight by the end of the century.
Off-the-chart heat days, defined as exceeding the heat index ranges, has only happened in the U.S. in the Sonoran Desert, where the heat index is above 130 degrees.
By limiting future global average warming to 3.6 degrees, Iowa could see the heat index above 100 degrees drop from nearly two months by the end of the century to 21 days, the report said.
The group's study was published in the journal, Environmental Research Communications, and outlines what to expect if no global action is taken to curb carbon emissions that contribute to global warming as well as slow and rapid actions.
"If we stay on our current global emissions path, extreme heat days are poised to rise steeply in frequency and severity in just a few decades," the report said.
"This heat would cause large areas of the United states to become dangerously hot and would threaten the health, lives and livelihood of millions of people," it said.
The group recommends policies that would cut carbon emissions and reduce the possibility of extreme heat days. They include encouraging renewable energy production, energy efficiency, and low-carbon public transportation.
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.
Your subscription makes work like this possible. Subscribe today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.


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Tennis is a great way for children to learn new physical skills, as well as valuable life qualities, such as respect, team work, fair play and concentration. Most importantly, kids will have fun and make new friends – and who knows, it may even be the start of a life-long love for tennis!
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6 high-quality lessons, developed by experts at the LTA.
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When: Number of courses running from May - July. See here for dates and times.
For more information or to book your child's spot, visit the website here.


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Critic's Guide /
Highlights 2015 – Barbara Casavecchia
Chantal Akerman, Jumana Manna and Virgilio Sieni: Barbara Casavecchia shares her highlights from 2015
Jonas Mekas, In an instant it all came back to me, 2015. Courtesy the artist and A Palazzo, Brescia
In December, Jonas Mekas was in Brescia for the opening of his show 'All these images, these sounds' at A Palazzo, a new version of 'The Internet Saga' he had installed, oddly enough, at at Burger King in Venice during the last Biennale. In front of 800 images spanning more than half a century, I couldn't help asking if he remembers every picture he took, and where, and when. The answer came with a Cheshire Cat's smile: 'Yes, absolutely'. For me, it was like things had come full circle. A couple of weeks after the Charlie Hebdo attack, almost exactly a year ago, I had been grateful to find visual healing in Mekas' Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man, a lust for life manifesto streamable on the excellent Vdrome website. The film was introduced with an interview of the filmmaker by Hans Ulrich Obrist. In it Mekas said: 'Memories, they say my images are my memories. No no no! These are not memories: this is all real what you see – every image, every detail, everything is real, everything is real and it's not a memory, it has nothing to do with my memories anymore. Memories are gone, but the images are here, and they are real! What you see, every second of what you see, here, is real. Is real. Right there in front of your eyes, what you see, it's real. There, in front of you. Yes, from that screen, it's all real.'
Chantal Akerman, Now, 2015, installation view Ambika P3, London
I've tried to keep that statement in mind, during a year in which horror and very real images of it seemed to keep multiplying uncontrollably – filtered through social media though whose algorithms we allow to edit for us our lives and diaries. Nobody put it better, I think, than Bret Easton Ellis in his recent article on the 'reputation economy': 'Instead of embracing the true contradictory nature of human beings, with all of their biases and imperfections, we continue to transform ourselves into virtuous robots.' Who or what are our electric sheep? In response to a police request to remain silent on social media in regard to the counter-terrorist operations in Brussels during the post-Paris-attacks days of late November, users flooded Twitter with cat memes with the hashtag #Brusselslockdown. In Chantal Akerman's powerful Now (2015), at the Venice Biennale's Arsenale (also shown later in the year at Ambika P3 in London), the only thing to be seen on the five screens was a desert, accompanied by a violent soundtrack of shootings, screams, engine noises. From Syria, the Abounaddara collective, on their website and on vimeo, regularly posts 'films that deal with the indignity of our present without ever replicating that indignity on the screen', as they call for 'an ideal of a common humanity, or we will all die'.
David Horvitz,The space between us, 2015, app. Courtesy the artist
'Even if you're far far far away there is a connection between us'; 'through the screen, can you feel me?'; 'the world is at war. The inequalities between the rich and the poor increase and we're ravaging the planet'… these are some of the lines from Antoine Catala's Distant Feel, an online project developed for the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, and New York's New Museum Triennial 2015 in which the artist works on the branding of a new symbol for empathy. David Horvitz just developed an app that measures the distance between two phone-users 'and shows an arrow pointing towards the other person'. Hello, is there anybody out there? Screens change, but our inclination to believe in whatever we see on them doesn't: before the summer, I saw a video I'll never forget: Medicine (2001) by Latvian artist Ieva Rubeze (in the group show 'Le fragole dal Baltico', curated by Simone Menegoi and Zane Onckule at CareOf in Milan), involving a series of impromptu healers trying to hypnotize and cure their viewers by means of a tele-screened imposition of hands.
I was moved by frieze contributing editor Quinn Latimer's short story 'My Mother, My Other: Or, Some Sort of Influence' on overcoming distance with books, daughterly love and individuating oneself, featured in the book Stationary, co-edited by Christina Li and Heman Chong. I'm grateful to Orit Gat for all her reflections on writing online and reading together IRL, and to Paul B. Preciado for his essential column at Libération, and for co-curating with Teresa Grandas 'The Passion According to Carol Rama' at MACBA in Barcelona. Farewell to the great, great mucca pazza of Italian art.
Carla Accardi,Origine(Origin), 1976/2007, Sicofoil, 21 black and white photographs, wood strips, variable dimensions © Carla Accardi Collection Antonella Sanfilippo, Rome
Two works, both titled Origine (Origin), are still very present in my mind. The first is a choreography by Virgilio Sieni, presented at Fondazione Prada in Milan during his cycle of actions 'Atlante del gesto'; it involved couples of mothers/fathers and sons/daughters of all ages, from very young to very old, working together on the transmission of gestures, so that intimacy and reproduction of common features kept intertwining. The other Origine (1976) was an installation by Carla Accardi, her first work after quitting the feminist collective Rivolta Femminile (co-founded with art critic Carla Lonzi), consisting of transparent sicofoil strips hung side by side, a series of black and white pictures of herself and her mother, at the same age. Neither of them is characterised by any role, not even reciprocally, and they are never together, though both share a common ancestor, a lady in a frock whose portrait hung nearby. The piece was included in the encyclopaedic exhibition 'La Grande Madre', curated by Massimiliano Gioni at Palazzo Reale in Milan. Together with the amazing archive of symbolical images of 'primitive' deities of fertility collected by Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn from the mid-1930s onwards, which had a crucial impact on Jung and is now part of the Warburg Institute, to me Accardi's Origine reminded us of the need to constantly re-write history and re-examine the commonplaces of our genealogies, categories, ways of framing gender.
Jumana Manna, A magical substance flows into me, 2015, film still. Courtesy the artist and CRG Gallery, New York
Jumana Manna's A magical substance flows into me (2015) at Chisenhale Gallery, London, based on her research around the music of different communities living in Palestine, as originally recorded by the '30s radio program Oriental Music, glued me to the seat (thank you for the blankets, it was freezing): not only thanks to the power of music – Mediterranean roots running deep – but also for the wonderfully surreal husband-wife, father-mother duets that Manna uses to destabilize the documentary format, in a perfect blend of the personal and the political, feminism and post-colonialism, culture and humour in harsh times.
Ilama ceramic sculptures (1500 BCE) at the Museo del Oro Calima in Cali, Colombia
In the year of systematic terrorist destruction of world-famous archeological sites, to come across the astonishingly beautiful Ilama ceramic sculptures (1500 BCE) of human figures and limbs at the Museo del Oro Calima in Cali, Colombia, was a reminder of how superficially I have been taught to understand art history and its lacunae. Another lesson came from Renee Gabri & Aireen Anastas's unreadable archive When counting loses its sense (2015) for the Armenian Pavillion at the Mekhitarist Monastery on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice, awarded the Golden Lion. And again in Cali, the small multimedia exhibition Ceramica Sonica at the Archeological Museum La Merced, reconstructed, with the help of musicians from the native communities, the 'voices' of several artefacts from the museum collection, otherwise muted forever. Petrit Halilaj included in his current exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan 'Si Okarina e Runikut' (2014), a series of sculptures in clay and brass, to be played by visitors. He created them with the help of Shaqir Hoti, a scholar from his hometown in Kosovo, who has studied traditional ocarinas for years, in order to recreate experimentally a precious item that once belonged to the collection of the local museum, a Neolithic-era instrument, that had gone lost because of war. The memory of a sound.
Another exhibition to remember was Guerre Pace (Wars, Peace) by Luca Bertolo at SpazioA gallery, in Pistoia: a chronicle of current events in the form of paintings of abstract fences and unrecognizable soldiers, as well as of intimate vases of flowers, as if only the most basic forms of expression could still exercise a right to the image.
Petrit Halilaj, 'Space Shuttle in the Garden', installation view Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan. Courtesy the artist and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; photograph: Agostino Osio
A personal oasis of peace and grace were the days spent talking, writing, walking around, discussing freely, dancing, eating and drinking together at 'The Eternal Internet Brotherhood/Sisterhood residency/summit/project happening organised by Angelo Plessas at the Malaspina Castle of Fosdinovo, in Tuscany. Thanks also to a mercifully flagging internet connection.
And finally, milles merci to John Giorno. To watch him perform 'Thank you for nothing' at Palais de Tokyo in Paris provided me with lots of affection, poetry, humour, possibly wisdom. And a lot of good energy. May love, indeed, come to our rescue.
Barbara Casavecchia
Barbara Casavecchia is a contributing editor of frieze and a freelance writer and curator living in Milan, Italy.
Jumana Manna
The Many Voices of Care in Chantal Akerman's Last Book
Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch: A Filmic, Gonzo, Dreamworld
Massimo de Carlo's Newly Renovated Portaluppi-Designed Milan HQ
The Exhibitions to See in Milan During Miart
Atrocity Exhibition: Francesco Arena's Politics of Imperceptibility
Milan's New ICA Opens its Doors With a Tribute to Marc Bloch and the 'Historian's Craft'
Hedi El Kholti on Chantal Akerman and Homes Loved and Lost
Mario Merz: The Art of Building an Igloo
Around Town: Milan
Social Work Artists, Live Performances and Talks Revealed
Jumana Manna: The Violence of Beautiful Things
1918-68: Italian Art, Life and Politics in the Shadow of Fascism
More Critic's Guide
What to See at the Manchester International Festival
The Shows You Need to See in New York this July
The Shows to See During New York Pride
The Shows to See in London During Art Night
A Guide to Zurich Art Weekend
With Copenhagen Art Week Now On, We Pick the Shows to See


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Choose other country
Why Sweden
A university professor was once quoted as saying that university doesn't teach you to do a job; it is meant to teach you how to think. But, how is it teaching you to think? For the majority of the world's universities, this means teaching you to think critically. This is not the same as learning to think for yourself. You are taught to think critically according to the method that your professor believes in. You will see this anytime you question their methods. Universities in Sweden take a much different approach. They teach you to think critically like any other university. But it is the framework around this that is much different. You are also taught to think independently and creatively. You are encouraged to not just question the non-academic world. You are taught to question everything. This gives you the ability to look at the whole world differently. It also changes the ideas that you come to. You are not looking at the world like it is wrong and you have been taught the proper way. You simply look at the world and ask, "Is there a better way?" This more creative and less judgemental method produces new ideas, not just griping about the world. This method of teaching is the main reason that Sweden consistently ranks among the most innovative countries.
Sweden is a European country located on the east side of the Scandinavian Peninsula in North Europe. The population is nine million inhabitants, of which almost two million live in and around the capital, Stockholm. For a sparsely populated country in the far north of Europe, Sweden has done remarkably well in establishing and maintaining an outstanding reputation abroad, based on many and varied commercial, technological, cultural and political achievements. Despite its natural riches, Sweden is a country built on people. Today, knowledge is Sweden's prime asset, with education kept in the public domain and developed to a standard that ranks consistently among the highest in OECD statistics.
Swedish higher education institutions have a degree structure that conforms to the Bologna Process; a Europe-wide standardization drive for higher education. There are three levels of higher education, each with minimum requirements for entry: a first level (Undergraduate studies), second level (Master's studies) and third level (Licentiate and PhD degrees).
The PhD programs are fully funded but require certain prerequisites. A requirement for studies at the third level is possession of a second-level degree — a Degree of Master (Two Years) or a Degree of Master (One Year) — or the completion of four years of full-time studies — three at the first level and at least one year at the second level. Comparable international degrees are also admissible, and specialized knowledge may suffice as well.


We posted this information on the PlanetBattlefield forums, but one of their admins decided it was not worthy of being on the site. Sure, you can find this information if you dig way down into many different posts, but we put it in the first post for everyone to easily find. Oh well. They dont want you to know, but we do. This is one possible fix for the lag problems experienced in Battlefield Vietnams 1.1 patch.
Just an update on for those curious about the crashes using Battlecraft 1.0 and the new patch of Battlefield Vietnam 1.1.
There is a new release of Battlecraft 1.1 that should be coming out within the next couple of days. It was slated to come out at the same time as the new BFV 1.1, but due to overwhelming workload that the EA testing department is under, it has been delayed for a couple days until EA testing can have a chance to ok it for release. The new release of BFV has a new StandardMesh file format that the current BCV is not programmed to handle. It has been addressed in the new release of BCV 1.1. Here are some other things that have been addressed.
-Added support for new BFV 1.1 .SM file format.
-Fixed crash bug when OLM does not complete task.
-Added an include command to the .lst to include other .lst files.
-Added back in support for large maps in BCV.
-Add definition in .cfg to specify executable name.
-Changed RFA compression algorythm. File size should be about 1/2 the size.
Hang in there… its coming.
The download link was up and then down… And now back up… Go download it quick!
The Download for map pack #8 is now available. Due to an unforseen problem, we were unable to add Tranquility to this map pack. We regret not being able to have it this month, but you can bet your sweet patootie it will be included next month!
Its that time again boys and girls! Battlefield Vietnam Custom Map Night! This time around, we have a brand new Dual Xeon Monster server (thanks to donations from the GRBs) and we will dedicate the whole thing to custom map night if it will allow us to have a lag free frag fest!
The line up includes some great quality maps and one new map from the GRB, called Operation Ebony Eyes featuring some of the coolest high rise buildings you have ever seen. Back by popular demand will be our own Ghost In The Darkness, with some of the coolest tunnels this side of the real thing.
ephil is working on the custom installer and the download should be available sometime in the next two days. Keep it here for updated info on the download and we will see you at our Friday Night Fights – Custom Map Night.
P.S. BF42 Custom Map Night will be the following Friday, August 6th! Yippee!
EA and DICE announced yesterday that they were doing some final tweaking of the Battlefield Vietnam 1.1 Patch and needed to extend their testing period one week as they shake down a new build of the patch. Their only comment on when it would be released was "quite soon".
We have been enjoying (probably too much) The Pirates Mod for Battlefield 1942 over the last few days on the Gamers Radio Server. Now, the Battlefield Pirates Mod Team has released a promised patch for the 0.30 version of the game. The list of fixes from the readme is below, but include correcting one major bug, tweaks to many maps, and entirely new map for high seas mayhem. Visit PlanetBattlefield – Pirates Mod to download the patch.
-SkullClan Carpenter now has StoneAxes like he should instead of the PegLeg Throwing Knives.
-Fire delay for both the StoneAxes and Throwing Knives now reduced slightly. Seems there is a problem with the netcode where the delay could end up being so long that you could kill your oponent before you ever saw the knife.
-Shark Frenzies now do 50% more damage. Theyve sharpened their teeth and are now hungrier than ever.
-And the one major bug: In Beta3, you could actually sink a Galleon by slicing an ammo keg about 30 times with your cutlass! Yaar! That thar exploit be no more!
In our on going effort to highlight the maps we have in development, we bring you City in the Sewers.
In an attempt to make life difficult for the US, the NVA has sabotaged the sewer system of a major city where the US has a large presence. Dysentery, Malaria and Wild Fever are rampant in the city. Everywhere the US fights is covered in green sewage. Good thing your computer doesnt have smell-a-vision.


Great expectations were built into the $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. Not only was last year's 2-year-old champion Good Magic making his first start of the year, but he was bet down to 7-10 odds against a respectable group of 3-year-olds. Moreover, Good Magic went into this 1-1/16 mile race as the early season favorite for the 2018 Kentucky Derby.
Sadly, for those who backed Good Magic at the pari-mutuel windows and those who were confident he would quickly cement his status as the horse to beat on the First Saturday in May, they were left with less money and several questions going forward.
While I will discuss the results a bit later in this column, I want to stress an important, point about all such Derby prep races, a point I hope will guide horseplayers toward good Derby picks each and every year. The point is this: You should carefully review every major Derby prep race if you hope to identify the best and fittest contenders.
Without bragging, I have successfully used this principal to pick more than 30 Derby winners and several dozen exotic contenders since I first realized its value in the mid-1960's. Specifically: Players should use all the available tools to properly evaluate the Derby preps that will identify horses who deserve to be followed up in their next starts.
Likewise, such careful evaluations will help you to downgrade unlikely Derby contenders, even highly ranked ones. That said, my suggestion also comes with a warning: You can't do these evaluations in a half-way manner!
Today's game actually gives players more information than was possible even 10 years ago. For instance, today's Daily Racing Form result charts include more details about each horse's performance and other pertinent facts. It also is true today's players are often treated to good post-race comments published by highly trained trackside reporters. For an example of the added info, no one needed to have been at Gulfstream Park on Saturday to spot a few important things about the top three finishers.
• Good Magic was unable to gain ground on the two horses who were in front of him through most of the race, finishing an evenly paced third, about 4-1/2 lengths behind the winner. If you paid close attention to what was on the TV screen, you would have seen he was breathing very hard as he was being led back to his trainer Chad Brown. Being that tired clearly indicated Good Magic was not quite fit for the task!
As such, it will be necessary to keep track of Good Magic's workouts and he will need to show much more in his next start – the Florida Derby at Gulfstream on March 31, or the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, April 14.
• The winner, Promises Fulfilled – who was making his 2018 debut after having finished a tiring third in the Nov. 25 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill – broke sharply from his outside post position to take the lead. And, under smooth handling by red hot jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., Promises Fulfilled then repelled a couple of challenges posed by previously undefeated Strike Power to score by 2-1/4 lengths.
• Strike Power was stretching out from a pair of sprint victories at Gulfstream, including the promising 102 Beyer Speed Figure he earned in his 5-1/2 furlong debut last December that was followed by the 87 he posted winning the 7 furlong Swale Stakes on Feb. 3. While it still remains to be seen if this colt wants any part of the 1-1/4 mile Kentucky Derby, the 92 Beyer he earned in the Fountain of Youth was three points higher than Good Magic.
In another example I wrote about a few weeks ago, I gave above average marks to Noble Moon when he finished third to Bravazo in the $400,000 Risen Star stakes at the Fairgrounds. In fact, I rated Noble Moon's performance as more promising than the winner because he had to deal with traffic issues and appeared to learn a lot in the contest.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, I will be looking carefully at Noble Moon's next outing to evaluate his true Derby status. As I said earlier in this column, such follow-up study is the best way to zero in on the most likely Kentucky Derby contenders.


His different voices for different characters were weird and his "female" voices in particular were dreadful. When he couched the main character's daughter it was very unconvincing and nearly ruined the whole audio book.
You won't look at the old man living next door the same way again.


text:
Black Eyed Peas Encourage Fans to #PlayApartTogether for the Holidays In Social Campaign With Zynga
Platinum Recording Pioneers Share Messages of Gratitude and Social Distancing For A Safe Holiday Season, as Part of Ongoing Games Industry Campaign
--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 24, 2020
Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNGA), a global leader in interactive entertainment, is collaborating with internationally renowned recording artists the Black Eyed Peas to share positivity, encouragement and hope for the holidays.
As a continuation of the award-winning gaming industry initiative, #PlayApartTogether, the Black Eyed Peas have recorded words of encouragement and hope for a healthy, safe holiday season. Founding member of the Grammy award-winning group, Taboo, has created personal videos that will be shared through the #PlayApartTogether network of more than 80 video game companies worldwide, bringing light, warmth and signature Black Eyed Peas style to this unprecedented holiday season.
"#PlayApartTogether began as an effort to activate the vast, engaged gaming audience to help fight the spread of COVID-19 and care for one another," said Bernard Kim, President of Publishing at Zynga. "We're so thankful that the Black Eyed Peas, whose impact on culture and music is immeasurable, are bringing their words of strength and inspiration to the movement so we can head to a new year on a high note. Stay strong, stay safe and stay upbeat, and remember that we're all in this fight together."
#PlayApartTogether is a global games industry initiative that encourages physical distancing and other powerful preventive measures in the fight against COVID-19 to the massive global audience of gamers. Spearheaded by Zynga and growing to more than 60 participating companies, #PlayApartTogether has provided vital information, entertainment and physically distanced connection to players around the globe.
SUPPORTING ASSETS:
Supporting visual assets available at: http://bit.ly/PATHoliday
About Zynga
Zynga is a global leader in interactive entertainment with a mission to connect the world through games. To date, more than one billion people have played Zynga's franchises including CSR RacingTM, Empires & PuzzlesTM, Merge Dragons!TM, Merge Magic!TM, Toon BlastTM, Toy BlastTM, Words With FriendsTM and Zynga PokerTM. Zynga's games are available in more than 150 countries and are playable across social platforms and mobile devices worldwide. Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in San Francisco with locations in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, India, Turkey and Finland. For more information, visit www.zynga.com or follow Zynga on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or the Zynga blog.
This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, the participation of the Black Eyed Peas in a #PlayApartTogether initiative. Forward-looking statements often include words such as "outlook," "projected," "planned," "intends," "will," "anticipate," "believe," "target," "expect," and statements in the future tense are generally forward-looking. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date hereof. We assume no obligation to update such statements. More information about these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions is or will be described in greater detail in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), copies of which may be obtained by visiting our Investor Relations website at http://investor.zynga.com or the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.
ZYNGA MEDIA CONTACT:


Introducing the new Horn 105 Cut Easy Mk2 cutting/hobby table.
•Huge work surface when opened.
•Large working area, ideal for cutting out patterns.
•Rounded corners to prevent fabric snagging.
•On castors, making it easy to move around.
We say:	The optional A1 Hobby Cutting Mat (measures 24" x 34") is available to add to your order, to be delivered with your table.


Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Bundaberg Rumball - ripe fruit. 2015-07-26.
60 days. The vigorous but relatively compact dwarf regular leaf plants produce a heavy yield of medium to medium small sized (2-3 ounces) round chocolate colored fruit with delightful, balanced, sweet flavor.
Developed in the 2007-2014 by the members of the Dwarf Tomato Project from a cross between Budai Torpe and Black from Tula. Selected by Richard Allen, in the F2 generation (January 2007). Named by Patrina Nuske Small, after a familiar Australian sweet treat.
Stabilization was the collaborative work of Patrina Nuske Small, Howard Kushner, Carol Knapp, Ted Maiden, Christy Shedd, Amanda Fischer and Craig LeHoullier.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Bundaberg Rumball (2) - ripe fruit. 2015-08-10.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Bundaberg Rumball (1) - ripe fruit. 2015-08-19.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Bundaberg Rumball - sliced fruit. 2015-07-26.
Tatiana Kouchnareva (B.C KO T). Bundaberg Rumball (2) - sliced fruit. 2015-08-10.
You can buy Bundaberg Rumball seeds at Tatiana's TOMATObase Seed Shop.
History * Developed in the 2007-2014 by the member … * Developed in the 2007-2014 by the members of the Dwarf Tomato Project from a cross between Budai Torpe and Black from Tula. Selected by Richard Allen, in the F2 generation (January 2007). Named by Patrina Nuske Small, after a familiar Australian sweet treat.
This page was last modified on 1 February 2016, at 00:22.


text:
November 20, 2010 / 8:21 PM / in 9 years
Police say no specific attack threat in Germany
Brian Rohan
BERLIN (Reuters) - Police on Saturday said there were no signs of an imminent attack by militants in Germany, after a news magazine reported that a plot existed to attack the Reichstag parliament building.
The comments played down the report by weekly Der Spiegel, which said Germany's decision to step up security measures this week had been prompted by the discovery of militant plans to break into the Reichstag parliament building and shoot hostages.
"We have concrete details of suspects, but no concrete details that an attack will be carried out at a specific time and place," the head of Germany's BKA Federal Crime Office, Joerg Ziercke, told Reuters.
Der Spiegel, citing security officials, said a jihadist living abroad had informed them in recent telephone calls of a plan for armed militants to enter the 19th century building in central Berlin and open fire. It said police considered the information credible.
The information, the magazine said, had prompted officials to announce on Wednesday they were raising security, especially at public places including airports and train stations.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Thursday authorities were on guard against threats of an armed attack of the kind that killed 166 in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.
The Reichstag building has strong symbolic importance in Germany. An arson attack there in 1933 highlighted Nazi moves to assume complete control over Germany. The image of a Soviet soldier planting the red flag atop its ruin in 1945 marked the end of World War Two for many.
It was formally restored as the country's legislature soon after the 1990 reunification of Germany and is visited daily by hundreds who walk around its glass dome looking down on debates.
Late on Saturday more than 100 tourists were lined up outside the building and no police were in sight.
The jihadist, Der Spiegel reported, said the group of attackers was to be made up of six people. Two had already arrived in Berlin and another four, including a German, a Turk and a North African, were under way.
Germany has troops in Afghanistan and has been the target of threats on Jihadist websites.
The timing of the reported parliament plot, for February or March, differed however from de Maiziere's warnings that attacks were planned sometime before the end of November.
At a news conference on Wednesday, de Maiziere said intelligence services had received concrete indications attacks were planned in the next two weeks.
Der Spiegel said another plot could also have contributed to the alarm — one signaled two weeks ago by U.S. authorities involving an Indian Shiite group that had dispatched two men who aimed to arrive in Germany near the end of the month.
According to the magazine, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation told the BKA that the group, a recent ally of al Qaeda known as "Saif," or sword, had obtained European visas for the men, who would stop in the United Arab Emirates on Nov 22.
German afternoon news broadcasts led on the Reichstag report, adding to the climate of concern that has spread across the country during a week of increased police presence.
In several incidents across the country, police have cordoned off abandoned packages that turned out to be false alarms in the past days. Authorities temporarily closed the airport in the northeastern city of Rostock on Friday after a laptop set off an explosives detector.
Chancellor Angela Merkel moved to reassure the population, telling Bild am Sonntag newspaper that security forces were doing everything in their power to protect the country.
"We are determined not to allow such threats affect our free way of life. This is the way I believe people are reacting," she said at a NATO conference in Portugal.
Additional reporting by Thomas Seythal, Reuters TV; Editing by Jon Boyle


Cross Cultural Journeys is a travel company passionate about understanding indigenous cultures around the world. Through their foundation, they have partnered with GTLI to empower the women of Minogelti kebele 1, Hamer Woreda 2, South Omo Zone (home of 16 ethnic groups) in the SW corner of Ethiopia.
Cross Cultural Journeys became acquainted with our initiatives when their group of adventurers visited GTLI's remote field camp in February 2014. Several of the explorers became immediate supporters of GTLI's orphan program and others decided to combine their resources to strengthen and increase the capacity of the Minogelti's women cooperative – one of the most effective and sustainable methods to build the resiliency of an indigenous community.
This project has been transformative for the women and the entire Minogelti community.
A grinding mill that had been installed a few years earlier–to relieve the women of several hours a day grinding grain by hand–had fallen into disrepair and was no longer functional. The Cooperative was unable to locate and engage a mechanic to maintain the mill.
Cross Cultural Journeys Foundation in collaboration with a generous private donor provided the funds to refurbish the mill and train the women to perform preventative maintenance, make minor repairs, and maintain an inventory of spare parts. The women have also learned how to weigh grain properly and record income and expenses daily. The women are now empowered to operate and maintain their grinding mill.
A second significant investment by Cross Cultural Journeys Foundation was facilitating Integrated Functional Vocational Literacy classes (IFVL) for the community. Ten women enrolled and regularly attended, alongside men, to learn basic literacy and numeracy skills. Our IFVL schools include activities that reinforce healthy hygiene and sanitation, reproductive health, and nutrition behaviors. By including exercises that talk about diversifying diets and other skills, IFVL is able to positively influence a family's nutrition at the same time women are gaining the skills to earn money to purchase food. And when men and women practice joint problem-solving in these activities, their respect for each other increases.
Through their successes in IFVL, cooperative members and their families are now eating eggs daily and earning income by selling them. One cooperative member sold enough eggs to buy a goat! The community is eager to have another IFVL program. This is a shift in favor of gender equality and a concrete demonstration of the benefits of education—the women are directly contributing to family food and household assets.
Another significant outcome for the community is the Cooperative management team is now able to communicate in Amharic, the national language. Coop Chairwoman Gulo Bola is able to use her mobile phone to communicate with government officials and the South Omo Zone Cooperative Union. Since limited officials speak the tribal language, or have the confidence to use a mobile phone, Gulo is able to facilitate logistics for the cooperative and advocate for the entire community. Women Cooperative members are now treated as important community decision makers and advocates.
The Southern Nations & Nationalities Peoples Region awarded the Cooperative a flat screen TV in appreciation of their accomplishments. Unfortunately, Minogelti does not have electricity so they will auction off the TV in the future!
South Omo Zone Women Affairs Office acknowledged their pioneering accomplishments with a large trophy cup.
The number of Women Cooperative members who earned their first profit sharing distribution in August 2016.
The coop paid Cooperative Union dues of $225 (5,000 birr) which gives them access to bulk purchasing and transportation, providing them an overall savings of $4,450 (98,000 birr) for products they sell: oil, soap, batteries, tea, biscuits, beads, razor blades, sorghum and maize.
Gelte Mine, pictured with her daughter Kognang, is a 35-year-old Dasenech widow and mother of 7 children. When Gelte was asked how her family's quality of life was affected by GTLI, she replied, "We eat much, much better and we no longer have diarrhea. I am now self-confident. I do not let the brothers of my dead husband control me. My eyes have been opened. I say, GTLI is mizap" (the highest compliment in Dasenech language).
Prior to GTLI's work with Gelte's community, the lives of the women and girls were determined by traditional standards, values, and rules of conduct. Women were valued only for bride-price, labor, and number of offspring; females had no representation in the household or community; women were denied freedoms of speech, influence, and education; women owned no assets and had no authority over household assets or finances; and women and girls accepted violent and abusive disciplinary behavior. Other cultural practices that adversely affect Dasenech females include female genital cutting and early forced marriages.
Gelte defied very stringent cultural mores when she decided to start using modern contraceptives after participating in GTLI's Community-Based Learning in Action Healthy Children. She does not want to have a baby by the brothers of her (dead) husband! Gelte managed to save $100 when she was employed as a Community Health Promoter for a GTLI Emergency WASH project. This exceptional role model is now the cashier of the women's cooperative and a member of the Community Empowerment Committee.
A blue hat special welcome!
The people of Guerenarema welcomed us in July with this heartwarming celebration! We were there to check up on the progress our Women's Strengthening project, and we were greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm from both the women and men of the community.
The people are thrilled that they have learned to read and write Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia. This simple skill is an important step in improving their long term survival. They are better able to negotiate with merchants and communicate effectively with government officials in charge of providing them important services.
Two years ago Guerenarema was at the bottom of a long list of Dasenech communities unable to adapt to their rapidly changing environment. They had access to clean water, because they had participated in our WASH project in 2014-2015. But they had no school, no health facility, and no community-based microenterprise of any kind. Access to food was not dependable, and the people were barely subsisting. Their community was often in conflict with the adjacent Hamer people, because they were forced to compete for scarce grazing land and water for their livestock.
With the help of our funding partner Boeing Global Corporate Citizenship, we began a Women's Strengthening project with the goal of improving economic empowerment and stability in this area.
The first step in this project was to provide more than 50 men and women our Integrated Functional Vocational Literacy classes. IFVL provides basic literacy and numeracy for adults while at the same time introducing new skills for food production and consumption, including chicken farming and gardening. You can see how proud they are by the messages they wrote on their hats!
The new Bandira well, rated to provide water for 400 people, operates 24/7 to serve more than 2,000.
Where we work in South Omo Zone, Ethiopia, less than 30% of the people have access to clean water. When a new well is constructed, it is often overused and quickly breaks down. The new well we constructed in Bandira this spring is now used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by everyone in the surrounding area. This does not give the well sufficient time to recharge.
Overuse is just one of the challenges for new water schemes. Poured concrete, that protects the well, quickly cracks if proper construction techniques are not used. Wells that are not protected by fencing and proper sanitation practices become contaminated. Local government water offices are often challenged by the lack of capacity—budget, technical expertise, and transportation—and struggle to help when wells fail.
To reverse this trend, GTLI strives to build the capacity within the community itself to maintain their new clean water supply. We teach local contractors to perform standard concrete quality tests during construction. We provide extensive training for the Water User Association, made up of community members, facilitating the collection of water user fees and providing initial water scheme replacement parts so they can perform preventative maintenance.
Building the resiliency of these communities begins with sustainable clean water. Since 2010 GTLI has constructed or refurbished 127 water schemes and provided access to safe water for more than 102,000 people in the Dasenech, Hamer, BenaTsemay and Nyangatom kebeles. In order for everyone to have access to sustainable clean water, more wells need to be constructed.
The kids are growing and need new shoes!
Our Hamar family of children are thriving; they are all doing well in school, and the two children who came to us malnourished (Temesgen and Zenabaw) are now healthy and growing. Our little Aregesh is still struggling with ear problems. She had surgery last fall on her right ear and this week she will "go under the knife" for her left ear. She is so sweet and uncomplaining.
Hilu, our oldest girl, is now in 3rd grade. She loves her little "sisters" and often reads to them. Negataw, pictured on the far right, looks more like Halle Berry every year! Berge, our second oldest girl, was off playing with a friend and missed this story time.
Our boys take our breath away – so full of energy and love. Just imagine–Kore, Ronni and Muse between 12-15 years, Yuan around 10 years old, whirlwind Achemi, around 7 years old, Tesmesgen (somewhere between 6-8 years old) and little Lucas, probably 4 years old–all living in the same compound with our 5 girls, their caretaker, their cook, and Netsanet, GTLI's field coordinator! And, by the way, this same small compound in Turmi is also our field office. Cozy but safe. Many of our male staff, particularly Netsanet, Tariku (Finance/Admin officer) and Yehualashet (Project Officer) have become the kids' surrogate fathers.
When GTLI first piloted Integrated Functional Vocational Literacy (IFVL), attendance averaged 15 people, with only three regular attendees. Lessons were simple learning exercises. Now, five years later, each of the 12 lessons are organized into six discrete learning activities that reinforce healthy hygiene and sanitation, reproductive health, and nutrition behaviors. In Gueranerama Dasenech, 51 adults (37 women and 14 men) have already attended 32 out of 72 learning activities and their commitment continues to grow! When men and women practice joint problem-solving in school, their respect for each other increases, which starts shifting norms in favor of gender equality. It's transformative—and Gueranerama adults are raising the bar!
The Gueranerama Women's Cooperative is also ahead of the pack in earning money. These amazing women have established an executive committee, a management committee, and a credit committee, with more than half of the 24 members actively participating in co-op management. The cooperative is licensed with the local government office, and during the past few months they have been able to deposit 4,095 birr (approximately $190) in profits into their Omo Micro Finance account. This may not seem like much but when the average household income is less than $1/day, it's a fortune.
The women have been busy selling local drink and coffee chaff while they wait for the completion of the new rural trading center and the inauguration of their new grinding mill. Soon, more than 170 very vulnerable households will be able to purchase food and commodities locally (instead of walking for two days) and to save 2-3 hours per day using the grinding mill rather than grinding grain by hand.
And, best of all, the people of Gueranerama are truly helping themselves. They contributed 11,340 birr as cost share (approximately $528) in May alone by fetching water for construction and participating in other activities.
Our aim is to equip South Omo pastoralists so that within five years, they will have the ability—the health, livelihood options, and leadership skills—to thrive. It looks like Gueranerama may well be our first success story in resilience. Fingers Crossed!
GTLI Board Member Johnnie Lloyd led a 3-day workshop for our field and management teams in Hawassa, Ethiopia in April. The main topic, effective communication, was new to most. We agreed that our new working definition of communication means the receiver understands the essence of the message sent by the sender. It was fun, energizing, and great to be together.
GTLI/Ethiopia has a program team and a support team. The entire program team, except for Dr. Merkeb Belay (Program Manager) is based in the field. The support team, Finance/Administration, supervised by Sisay Aredo, is located 25% in Addis and 75% in South Omo; and all field program and support activities are coordinated by Netsanet Feleke. Both teams have been fine-tuned this past year and are working well together.
"The quality of our management team is first rate. The entire GTLI team is well structured and doing a terrific job!" — Johnnie Lloyd, international business consultant and GTLI Board member.
As part of GTLI's quarterly review process, each team is encouraged to talk about their successes, challenges, and suggestions for improvement.
Sudo, GTLI's senior field office guard, makes a suggestion to more effectively help his people, the Hamar.
A Dasenech woman grinds by hand the grain that she will use to prepare her family's meal. This is a task she spends 2 to 3 hours on, every day. Despite her work load, she is finding the time to participate in our women's strengthening project now underway in the Guerenarema community.
Our project seeks to improve economic empowerment and stability for the women in this underserved community, where there are no schools, no health facilities, and no community-based organizations promoting microenterprise. We are not focusing only on the women, however. A group of men and women are coming together twice a week to learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic. And in the process, they learn to make decisions together.
In these traditional communities, women do bulk do the bulk of the physical work—fetching water, carrying heavy loads, grinding grain. When we work with communities to empower women, they learn how to form a cooperative to operate a grinding mill and rural trading center. The cooperative will save hours of productive time each day for all of the women in the community. Time that would otherwise be spending grinding grain by hand or walking miles to the nearest trading center.
Our experience with women cooperatives has shown us that as they contribute to the overall economic vitality of the community, they also improve status of the women as valued community members. The women gain productive time, and they gain a voice in matters that affect their well-being and their families' well-being.
Amarech Benki is a 37 year-old BenaTsemay woman and the mother of nine children. Her two oldest children are married and her youngest is 18 months old.
Prior participating in GTLI's Reproductive Health project, Amarech had no understanding of basic sanitation and hygiene. She now feels strongly that she could have prevented the death of one of her children with the understanding that she now has of healthy hygiene and sanitation behavior. She has become a strong advocate of pit latrine usage, hand washing, and clean compounds. Amarech wants to help her community.
Amarech is happy that she and her family now have more to eat. Before participating in the program, her family's diet consisted of maize and occasional meat when her husband's wild animal hunt was successful. As part of this GTLI program she received four chickens when she graduated from Integrated Functional Vocational Literacy school (IFVL). She learned well, and she now has 30 chickens. She sold one chicken recently for funds to purchase an exercise book for her son. She has also given 20 eggs to five households to help them start raising chickens. Her husband received vegetable seeds and agricultural tools when he graduated from IFVL. Their family's diet now consists of eggs, sweet potatoes, vegetables, chickens, and meat, which they buy with their egg money.
Women in Amarech's community usually have at least 10 children. She and her husband decided that in order to make their family happy and healthy she needed to use Family Planning. They agreed that Depo was the best option for them and so Amarech, a fearless pioneer, became a new acceptor of modern contraceptives.
Lori Pappas, GTLI Founder and Executive Director, was thrilled to share results from GTLI family planning initiatives at the fourth International Conference on Family Planning that took place in January in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. The conference drew researchers, implementers, policymakers, advocates, and representatives of local and international organizations.
Lori really enjoyed hanging out with people striving to make the world a healthier place, particularly for women and children.
For more about the ICFP, visit the conference website.


Like Bern's signature style, but looking for something a little more technical? Want a helmet that is equally at home in a paceline as it is on a spirited commute to work? The FL-1 Pave MIPS is the lid for you. With a style inspired by the original leather Tour de France helmets, the FL-1 Pave MIPS offers plenty of ventilation, ultra-light weight, a unique look, and technical cutting-edge features such as a Boa 360 degree retention system and MIPS protection. The FL-1 Pave MIPS: style without compromise.


While the Long Island and New York City criminal defense attorneys at Barket Epstein are well-experienced in both federal and state law, we most frequently defend our clients at the New York State level since this is where most criminal offenses are prosecuted.
Our highly skilled criminal defense attorneys, representing clients in Nassau, Suffolk, New York City and throughout the region, are prepared to fight for your rights and have a track record of success both in negotiating successful plea bargains and in reaching favorable outcomes in the courtroom. Our team includes former prosecutors, former legal aid attorneys, and former criminal court judges to help you navigate the criminal justice landscape. The sooner you consult with us, the sooner we can determine the best course of action in your particular case and get to work. Whether you have been arrested and charged with a crime, or are simply being investigated, we are available for instructive consultation.
Our skilled criminal defense attorneys know the ins and outs of New York State law and will use that knowledge to decide on your best line of defense. We are able to quickly identify any and all possible defenses that may be available to you and to pursue those defenses with our team of investigators and experts.
Consultation with an attorney is critical and the attorneys at Barket Epstein are ready to use every tool available in defending you against criminal charges.


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Q: Absolute Convergence of Infinite Weierstrass Product I am really stuck on something.  I need to show the following:
Let $U$ be a domain in $\mathbb{C}$.  If $f_n: U \to \mathbb{D}$ are analytic functions satisfying that $\sum |f_n - 1|$ converges locally uniformly on $U$, then $$\lim_{n \to \infty} \prod f_n = f$$
converges absolutely and locally uniformly on $U$ to some analytic $f$.  Additionally, $$\sum \frac{f_n'}{f_n} \to \frac{f'}{f}$$
I think the second part is just taking some logarithmic derivative and should be clear once the first part is established.  We know the result for a product of complex numbers (namely that $\prod c_n$ converges absolutely iff $\sum |1-c_n|$ converges), and we know the Weierstrass factorization theorem, but that's pretty much it.
I assume the proof is to pick a point $c$ and then use some compactness argument.  I think it starts out something like... pick a small simply connected precompact neighborhood $V$ of an arbitrary $c \in U$.  Then we'll just look at the tails of the sum/product, choosing an $N_0$ big enough so that $f_n(V)$ is away from $0$ and thus has a log, which we can do by the convergence of the sum.
Now I want to do something like $|\frac{log(f(z)}{f(z) - 1} - 1| < \frac{1}{2}$ uniformly on $V$ (recall it's precompact in $U$), from which I can get the first part of the theorem.  When dealing just with points, we can get this inequality by noting that $\lim_{z \to 1} \frac{log(z)}{z-1} = log(z)'$ at $1$, but I can't fix this method for the function version.
Can anyone see how to give a rigorous argument?  Thanks a lot!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Rage M. Kidvai is an attorney and Paul Rapoport Foundation Equal Justice Works Fellow in the Immigrant Justice Project. Rage received their Bachelor's degree from Hampshire College, and their J.D. from the City University School of Law, with a clinical focus on criminal defense. A former SRLP intern and collective member, Rage is committed to supporting folks experiencing and working hard to challenge state violence and oppression. Their prior work outside of SRLP has included representing survivors of inter-personal violence on their welfare & immigration cases, family defense work for parents facing allegations of neglect due to their poverty, and criminal defense representation at public defender offices. Rage is thrilled to be able to grow with those involved with SRLP, and hopes to provide support to the amazing legal staff in the SRLP Direct Services Team (DST).


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Williams » Anthropology & Sociology » Student Resources » ANSO Graduation Prizes
Each year, one (or, in rare cases, two) graduating senior majors from each discipline are singled out for their exemplary work in Anthropology and Sociology. These prizes come with small cash awards.
The Friedrichs Award in Sociology was endowed by the grateful parents of a Williams alumnus who greatly appreciated the teaching of Professor Robert Friedrichs (b. 1923-d. 2012), founder of the Williams Sociology program. Bob Friedrichs was a graduate of Oberlin College and received his doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After teaching at Drew University for 12 years, he joined the faculty at Williams as the first sociologist ever hired by the college. He chaired Anthropology and Sociology for many years and retired in 1993. Friedrichs was best known for his book A Sociology of Sociology (New York: The Free Press, 1970), which earned him the American Sociological Association's Sorokin Award in 1971.
The Orton Prize in Anthropology honors the work of James H. Orton (b. 1830-d.1877) , Williams Class of 1855. Orton was a minister, professor of natural history at Vassar College, and a renowned explorer of western South America. His travels resulted in a best-seller, The Andes and the Amazon, or Across the Continent of South America (1870). Orton traveled to South America again in 1877, where he died while crossing Lake Titicaca on route to the city of Puno.
You can learn about the 2020 winners of the Departmental awards here.
Archive of winner announcements:


Зооноз ли герпесвирусная инфекция собак / Canine Herpes Virus : Is it a Zoonosis?
Pearly Penile Papules and Herpes - What You Should Know?
Ep2. Dragons Of The West Crazy Featherd Frogs Jump Poor Bird. Travel, Herping, Fishing, Fun, 4K.
Herpes Blitz Protocol By Josh Parker - Does it Really Work (Pros Cons) ?


We have many vintage photographs in our Archives. Several images of people we have been unable to identify, and so we'd like to enlist the help of our visitors.
The person in this photo may be a friend or family member related to the Benjamin Hatfield family of Advocate.
If you think you know who these people are, please let us know by emailing archives@ccgsns.com stating "unknown photo #33″ in the subject line. If they are identified, we'll post here to let you know.


In an University of Washington experiment involving 64 toddlers and a metallic robot, babies who had watched the robot play games with a researcher followed the robot's "gaze." The toddlers wanted to see what the robot was seeing.
Credit: Reprinted from Neural Networks, Volume 23, Issues 8-9, October-November 2010, pages 966-972; "Social" robots are psychological agents for infants: A test of gaze following; Andrew N. Meltzoff, Rechele Brooks, Aaron P. Shon and Rajesh P.N. Rao; Figure 5; � 2010, with permission from Elsevier. Others wishing to use this image please contact "Neural Networks."
University of Washington computer scientists programmed a metal robot named Morphy with human-like movements to see if 18-month-olds would interact with it. Researchers say companion robots like Morphy will need to interact in fundamentally human ways to be accepted by humans. This video provides a good illustration of the robot's dexterity as it follows and kicks a ball.
A team of scientists from the University of Washington co-led by psychologist Andrew Meltzoff and computer scientist Rajesh Rao recently determined that it is not only what something looks like, but how it moves and interacts with others that gives even inanimate objects social significance.
Morphy looks at a toy while researchers measure whether an 18-month-old baby will follow the robot's gaze.
The University of Washington's infant-robotics team programmed a metal robot named Morphy to copy some basic human social skills. Then, in an experiment, researchers measured whether 18-month-old babies would interact with and take cues from the robot as if it was a sentient being. When the robot looked at a toy in the room, 13 out of 16 babies, who had watched the robot play with a researcher who also was part of the experiment, followed the robot's gaze as compared to a control group in which babies did not see Morphy interact with the researcher. Only 3 of 16 of these babies turned to where the robot was looking.


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Join the InfluenceMap Team
Lobbying and Corporate Influence
Japan Energy Transition Initiative
FinanceMap
RecoveryMap
CA100+ Company Profiles
What do you mean by corporate influence and lobbying?
We recognise that corporations are manifestly involved in the progress of policy and legislation formation (in all areas, not only climate change) affecting their business and they regard the need to do this as part of their operating model. Research has indicated that this influence likely extends beyond the activities normally associated with the word "lobbying" (e.g. donations to clearly motivated political actors) and includes the domination of the public discourse on climate change science and policy via their hugely powerful and funded messaging tools (e.g. advertising, PR, social media, access to influential meetings) as well as the use of influencers like trade associations and advocacy groups. Details of our analysis of corporate influence in climate change policy can be found here.
How can you prove corporations are affecting policy?
We stress here that our assessment and scoring platform does not claim to measure actual corporate influence over the climate change policy process. Such an assertion would need to involve vastly more cause-and-effect substantiation, which we do not attempt. Rather we assess and score corporations on a variety of activities that respected authorities (e.g. the UN's Caring for Climate) have asserted are highly likely to influence policy. On this site when we use the term "corporate influence" it should be regarded in this context.
How do you define climate policy?
A process of global, regional and national consensus building, policy formulation and legislation/fiscal measures on climate change has been underway for the last two decades and is on-going. In our assessment of corporate influence, we consider the process from consensus forming on climate science to legislative interventions at various levels and take this process to be "climate change policy". We consider regulations/laws and guidelines as well as fiscal interventions such as carbon taxes and continuation of subsidisation of coal, for example. Importantly, we consider amendments to mainstream regulations and fiscal policy driven by or affecting climate change.
How do you score companies?
To measure and score corporate influence on climate change policy, we have developed a comprehensive process of examining a series of publicly available and reliable data sources (e.g. legislative consultations, social media, advertising, reliable media, top management messaging, financial disclosures, CDP responses) and querying them, for each corporation, against a set of climate change policy and legislation related queries (e.g. position on a carbon tax, energy efficiency standards). We score each data source/query intersection (or cell) on a 5-point scale, with clearly consistent evidence and guidelines for our scorers. Historical evidence is weighted less than more recent evidence. Evidence more than three years old does not significantly contribute to an orgnaization's score. It is left archived on the profile to allow users to see how the narrative of the organization has evolved.
What do you not consider in scoring?
Our analysis and scoring is focused on an organization's comments, interactions and influence on policy and legislation. We do not consider internal strategy, activities and performance of a company on climate change related issues, such as CO2 emissions, use of various energy forms and the company's business activities if these have no direct relevance to policy and legislation forming. There are numerous other research streams (e.g. Carbon Tracker, CDP) dealing with corporate performance on climate and we do not wish to widen our remit where adequate coverage exists.
What does NA and NS refer to the scoring cells?
If a particular query does not apply to a data source (e.g. external data sources do not apply to transparency queries), OR for a particular corporation the data is unavailable (e.g. due to our research limitations, or it does not disclose through a voluntary scheme like CDP), we mark the weighting cell with "NA" (not applicable), and the weighting is set to zero. Its original weighting is redistributed evenly through other data points for this query. If no evidence is available (after a search) for a particular cell, it is marked "NS" or not scored with the same impact on the weightings as NA. So each organization has its own specific weighting matrix depending on data availability and relevance. This means that a company will not be impacted by its lack of involvement in policies that do not affect it and conversely will be more accurately assessed for those that do.
What are the organizational scores?
To measure and score corporate influence on climate change policy, we have developed a comprehensive process of examining a series of publicly available and reliable data sources (e.g. legislative consultations, social media, advertising, reliable media, top management messaging, financial disclosures, CDP responses) and querying them, for each corporation, against a set of climate change policy and legislation related queries (e.g. position on a carbon tax, energy efficiency standards). We score each data source/query intersection (or cell) on a 5-point scale, with clearly consistent evidence and guidelines for our scorers. There are 96 such scoring cells at present and the organizational score for each corporation is computed over these, by our proprietary algorithm that accounts for weightings and irrelevant data sources/queries. The organizational score is expressed as a % with 100% representing very supportive influence on climate policy. We note here that a corporation and an influencer (e.g. a trade body, chamber of commerce, advocacy group) are scored in exactly the same way to arrive at their respective organizational score.
What are the relationship scores?
A corporation, as well as its organizational score will have a relationship score. It is computed by aggregating the organizational scores of the Influencers (trade bodies etc.) it has relationships with, weighted by both the strength of these relationships and the relative importance of the Influencers towards climate change policy. A corporation will have a number of relationships with Influencers mapped in our database. In turn these Influencers will themselves have organizational scores as computed by exactly the same method as was done for the corporations. Such relationships vary in nature and strength and we account for this in our assessment by assigning relationship strengths. For example a trade association may have 2000 member corporations with 10 of them on its executive committee. The 10 executive committee members would have strength of 8 compared to 3 for the regular members, for example. The relationship score is expressed as a % with 100% representing very supportive influence on climate policy. In general if a corporation's organizational score is roughly equal to its relationship score the corporation's positions and interactions with climate policies are in line with those of the key influencers it has relationships with. If the organizational score is much higher than its relationship score, the trade bodies and other influencers the corporation is involved in are misaligned with the corporation on climate policy.
Explain the performance bands
For Corporations, the organizational scores and relationship scores are combined to result in an Overall Rating that places the Corporation in a performance band. There are 20 performance bands from A+ (representing a total score from 95-100%) through to E- (a score of 25-30%), with scores below 25% falling in the red "F" band. So it is a relative scale. Most companies fall within the 45-55% band that indicates they are neither actively obstructing nor supporting the climate policy process. A score of 60% or more indicates the company is actively supporting polices and regulations towards a low carbon future. Conversely lower than a 40% band generally indicates obstructing behavior. As different sectors face differing regulatory issues, it is most useful to compare the performance bands of corporations within the same sector.
Can the performance bands be linked to competitiveness?
Our scores may also be regarded as a measure of a corporation's readiness in the case of a shift towards a low carbon regulatory regime, based on the assumption that their support for this originates from a forward thinking competitive strategy. For example, a corporation who is actively supporting low carbon laws and measures may also be engaged in a strategic shift in its own activities in this direction, thus potentially giving it competitive advantage if legislation should move swiftly to disfavor GHG emissions. Conversely a corporation engaged in overt or covert obstruction of climate change policies may be unlikely to be strategically shifting its activities in a similar manner. This analysis may be pronounced in sectors which will be heavily affected by a fast shift to a low carbon regulatory regime but are not engaged in selling GHG emitting fuels directly, such as the automotive, electric utilities and chemicals processing related sectors. Moreover, some research suggests that political donations are followed by decreased shareholder returns.
Can you compare corporations from different sectors?
Climate change policy and regulations will increasingly affect all corporations regardless of sector, but clearly some will be affected more than others depending on region and regulation. Our performance bands are perhaps best used when corporations from the same sector are compared. A great example is the automotive sector, where manufacturers who are strategically positioning themselves for a low carbon future will support accelerated CO2 emission standards as bolstering their competitive position. Similarly comments can be made about energy intensive users like chemicals, building materials and utilities. Comparing the InfluenceMap performance band of BMW with that of Google, in isolation of information on how these companies perform with respect to their direct competitors may not be as meaningful.
Why the initial list of organizations to score?
We prioritize companies based on economic size as determined by the Forbes Global 2000 not including state owned enterprises (e.g. Sinopec). An analysis of corporate influence on policy by a state owned enterprise is not clear, hence our omission for the time being. In addition, we include more than 100 private sector trade associations, federations and advocacy groups that represent the interests of companies, based on a mix of criteria (a) their influence on policy in general and size and (b) how active they are on climate policy and legislation, both assessed by numerical metrics.
We recognise that China accounts for roughly a quarter of global GHG emissions and that policy and regulations from its governmental system, along with adherence by the corporate sector is extremely important to a low carbon future for the planet. Most of this corporate sector, especially the fossil fuels, chemicals and automotive sectors remain under government control if not majority ownership. So the meaning of corporate influence over climate policy requires additional analysis and detailed in-country research of China state-owned corporations.
Do you use data associated with disclosure under the 1995 US Lobby Act?
The US Lobby Act of 1995 places certain disclosure requirements on lobbyists and corporations and provides for official databases, which are in part used by well respected NGOs such as OpenSecrets.org. We do not uses these extensively for two reasons. Most importantly, the motivation of the lobbying spend is not sufficiently clear for InfluenceMap to link to specific climate change regulatory strands. Most global multinationals fund a range of political targets for a range of reasons and we do not feel the links are solid enough for this to be one of our data sources. Secondly our analysis of corporate influence stretches far beyond traditional lobbying spend. CEO messaging, trade association capture of technical details of regulations, public facing capture of the climate change debate and other means may be equally or more effective tools. That said, we will use this data if carefully and convincingly analysed by the media or research group so the links to climate change policy are clear.
Why do some of the service sector companies score so low?
Service sectors like retail and telecommunications do not have nearly as much engagement and influence (whether positive or negative) on climate policy as the energy and manufacturing sectors. So there are very few data points on which to base our query and score. Hence a single piece of evidence on a particular query (e.g. disclosure) could distort the organisation's score and performance band. We recognise ours in an imperfect system in this regard and encourage users to compare companies within sectors and also examine the pieces of evidence we have collated rather than focus too much on the overall score. We include an engagement intensity metric to provide a measure of the extent to which the company is engaging on climate change policy matters. It is a number from 0 (no engagement at all) to 100 (full engagement on all queries/data points). Clearly the fossil fuel value chain companies will have a far greater level of engagement that retailers.
What is the engagement intensity?
The engagement intensity (EI) is a metric of the extent to which the company is engaging on climate change policy matters, whether positively or negatively. It is a number from 0 (no engagement at all) to 100 (full engagement on all queries/data points. Fossil fuel value chain companies are more affected by climate regulations and will have a higher EI than, for example retailers. So an organization's score should be looked at in conjunction with this metric to gauge the amount of evidence we are using in each case as a basis for scoring. On our scale, an EI of more than 35 indicates a relatively large amount of climate policy engagement.
How can you be sure all your evidence is accurate?
Our database contains over 200,000 pieces of evidence backed up by what we consider respected publicly available external sources relevant to our subject matter and the organizations we are ranking. We add to this database daily as new information is available and our scores change in real time. We welcome input from interested parties should any typographical errors, mistakes, perceived misinterpretation of data or other issues be noted, and we stand ready to review our information as comments are made available. We further point users to our Terms and Conditions for issues relating to the appearance of external data on our site and reliance on our platform.
How do you keep your database current?
We have a system of receiving alerts from hundreds of web sites with our preset searches and monitor these alerts daily, adding evidence and revising scores in real time. We also encourage interested and knowledgeable parties to comment on and contribute to our website and we will add to our database provided credible documentation exists.
What is the InfluenceMap Finance Project?
The Finance Project aims to clarify, via analysis and aggregation of publicly available information, the detailed links between the finance sector (banking, investment management, insurance) and private and public companies operating in our global economy.
Why is the finance project important?
Finance has a pivotal impact on the development of societies globally and the sector is central to many key theories of change employed by the likes of sustainable finance and the divest-invest climate movement. It is important that these, as well as society as a whole, have objective and easily accessible data on which parts of finance are invested in or doing business with which companies.
When will this project be made public?
This Project will be released late summer 2017. Sign up for our updates or check out our website for further updates and developments.
InfluenceMap is a non profit Community Interest Company (CIC) No. 9480976
London Head Office
InfluenceMap, 40 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UD, UK
Japan Energy Transition Initiative 1-21-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0043, Japan
Keep up-to-date with our latest reports and news by registering for email updates.


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Home » Speakers » Elaine Ostrander
Elaine Ostrander
Dr. Elaine Ostrander is the Chief and Distinguished Investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She received her B.S. degree from the University of Washington (1981), and her Ph.D. from the Oregon Health & Science University (1987). Ostrander continued her postdoctoral training at Harvard University. A few years later, she joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs at University of California, Berkeley, where she began the canine genome project. In 2004, she joined the NIH and her laboratory studies the domestic dog as a model organism to understand the heritability of traits and disease susceptibility. For her scientific contributions, she was named NIH Distinguished Investigator (2011). Visit her lab website and learn more about Ostrander's research.
Talks with this Speaker
Canine Genetics: Studying Disease Susceptibility and Cancer Risk
Elaine Ostrander provides an overview of canine genetics, and explains how scientists are using genetics to decipher the molecular basis of different traits such as height and cancer risk. (Talk recorded in December 2017)
Part 1: Canine Genetics: Dog Genes Tell Surprising Tales
Part 2: Genomics of Dogs disease: Dog Genes Tell Surprising Tales


A supernatural thriller is wrapping up filming in the Fox Valley. Not much is being said about 'The Wraith', but it involves a family living in Neenah.
The movie is directed by Neenah native Michael Sajbel and most of the crew hails from northeast Wisconsin.
It is expected to be complete next year and producers plan a premiere at an area theater.
One of the actors in the movie is a familiar face to us on TV, and to those folks who knew her growing up in Neenah.