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Privacy PolicyBreathing Tree2021-04-15T18:19:06+00:00
1. Introduction and Scope
This document concerns YOUR personal data, legally defined as information concerning any living person that is not already in the public domain, and covers legislation from The Data Protection Act (DPA), Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
The aforementioned regulations seek to protect and enhance your rights as a data subjects, and cover the safeguarding of personal data, protecting the user against the unlawful processing of personal data and the unrestricted transfer of personal data within the EU.
Please be aware; GDPR does not apply to information already accessible in the public domain, for example, Companies House data, or domain registration information.
In this policy document, "we", "us" and "our" refer to the data controller listed in Section 2.4 of this document.
1.1 BREATHINGTREE.CO.UK is committed to safeguarding the privacy of visitors to our website (https://www.breathingtree.co.uk) and general service users, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018.
1.2 This Privacy Policy applies to all cases in which BREATHINGTREE.CO.UK is acting as a data controller responsible for the processing and safeguarding of personal data of website visitors and service users.
1.3 Upon first visiting our website, you will be asked to agree to the terms presented in this policy document, and to the use of cookies. Continued use of our website after the privacy/cookie notice implies consent has been granted by the user (YOU).
2. Who we are
The information provided in this section clearly defines who "we" are, and who is responsible for managing your personal data. Methods of contact should also be clearly defined in accordance with EU laws on service provider transparency.
If you believe information is missing or incorrect in this section, or does not adequately describe the service provider, you should discontinue use of this website immediately.
2.1 Who are we?
Breathing Tree is founded by international author of And Breathe Coach Rebecca Dennis. She provides one on one and group session in the UK and around the world helping individuals to improve their breathing and optimize the physical and mental wellbeing.
2.2 Physical address
18 Hayes Place,
Marylebone,
London NW1 6UA
2.3 Contact methods
You can contact us via any of the following methods:
(a) By post to
(d) By email
2.4 Data Protection Officer
Our data protection officer/data controller is Rebecca Dennis and contact details for the aforementioned controller are as detailed above in section 2.3.
3. Collection of YOUR personal data
The section below will detail the types of data that is collected, in addition to the methods of collecting this data.
3.1 User provided information
BREATHINGTREE.CO.UK will collect direct information provided by you (via contact forms, for example) to provide quotations, make telephone contact, or to email you concerning any information you may request.
3.2 Automatically collected information
Whilst visiting our website, some additional personal data may be collected, including but not limited to personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information concerning the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use.
3.3 How YOUR data on our website is collected and stored
Data will be collected on our website in the following ways:
a) Via web contact forms on our website
Data provided via our website forms is manually submitted by the user, and stored in an encrypted MySQL database.
b) Via Google Analytics tracking
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic and user behavior, enabling us to enhance the user experience and analyse marketing.
Google use cookies to offer this service and their privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
All data is stored on Google's secure servers.
c) Via web server tracking software provided with our web hosting
Our web hosting provider may track user behaviour and monitor potential security threats, and as such will collect data designed to keep the website operational and your information secure.
All data is stored on our web host's secure servers and will be made available in association with a relevant data protection request.
d) Via browser cookies
Our website uses cookies, defined as a string or array of information that a website stores on a visitor's computer. YOUR browser provides this information on each visit to our website.
Website visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using our website.
Further information on browser cookies and how to manage them can be found in section 12 of this docu


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Blossoms in Autumn (1973) Cvetje v jeseni
Date: 5 Jun 2019 12:21:29
Blossoms in Autumn (1973)
DVDRip | MKV | 700x574 | x264 @ 1570 Kbps | 111 min | 1,37 Gb
Audio: Slovenian AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English (embedded in MKV)
Doctor Janez, a somewhat elderly lawyer, tired of urban life, pays a few week's visit to his relative Presecnik, a well-off farmer living in highland village. Farm life holds a great attraction for him, particularly because a deep and secret love develops between himself and Presecnik's daughter Meta. After a few serene and cheerful days spent on the farm, filled with pleasant labor and walks together with Meta in the unspoilt surroundings, he has to return to Ljubljana to resume his office work. But he cannot forget Meta and he makes his mind to buy a property not far from the Presecnik home and and to become a farmer. He does indeed buy a farm and sets out again to the Presecnik home to ask Meta to be his wife.
Funeral Feast (1969) Sedmina
Funeral Feast (1969)
DVDRip | MKV | 792x576 | x264 @ 2616 Kbps | 90 min | 1,78 Gb
Audio: Slovenščina AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English (embedded in MKV)
Genre: Drama, War
The first days of war in Ljubljana. The young hero Niko experiences the bloody and violent transition from childhood to manhood. Based on the novel by Beno Zupancic.
The Tree (2014) Drevo
Date: 8 Apr 2019 04:02:33
720p (HD) / WEB-DL IMDb
The Tree (2014)
WEB-Dl 720p | MKV | 1280x720 | x264 @ 1830 Kbps | 89 min | 1,19 Gb
Audio: Slovenščina AAC 2.0 @ 96 Kbps | Subs: English hardcoded
One story, three angles. In three chapters, the film's plot is told through the eyes of two brothers and their mother Milena as we witness a tragic situation which befalls the family as the result of an accident. The two sons, adolescent Alek and his younger sibling Veli, are unable to leave their house, the only place where they feel safe. After a period of time, however, their refuge becomes a prison for the boys.
Landscape No.2 (2008) Pokrajina St.2
Date: 7 Mar 2019 12:47:22
Landscape No.2 (2008)
DVDRip | AVI | 720x400 | XviD @ 1701 Kbps | 90 min | 1,36 Gb
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Burglars Sergej and Polde steal the valuable painting "Landscape No.2". By coincidence, Sergej also takes a mysterious document dating back to the end of World War II. Instructor is ordered to recover the stolen painting and the document, which triggers a diabolic mechanism of the past.
Express, Express (1995) Ekspres, Ekspres
Express, Express (1995)
DVDRip | AVI | 656x384 | XviD @ 1612 Kbps | 74 min | 950 Mb
Audio: Slovenščina MP3 @ 160 Kbps | Subs: English (srt)
After his father's death, a young man (Gregor Bakovic) uses the black mourning flag and sews himself a pair of trousers. He then takes a train trip and meets a variety of bizarre characters, including a stowaway, a deaf-mute duo, a balloon-seller, a bird enthusiast, and an attractive girl (Barbara Cerar). Their railway romance gets derailed but a variety of sight gags and caboose comics keeps the film on track and in loco motion.
A Trip (2012) Izlet
A Trip (2012)
WEB-Dl 1080p | MKV | 1920x1080 | x264 @ 9623 Kbps | 81 min | 5,63 Gb
Audio: Slovenščina E-AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subs: English (embedded in MKV)
Ziva, Andrej and Gregor are best friends since high school. Gregor is a soldier who is about to embark on a mission to Afghanistan and Ziva is going to study abroad. Andrej is their gay friend who hates everything, himself included. They decide to go to a road trip to the seaside like they did when they were in high school. When they arrive, they get drunk and Ziva and Gregor kiss each other, what brings tension to their relationship, while Andrej doesn't know anything and just makes fun of everything, mostly of Gregor and his army ideals. The conflict erupts when Ziva, in a fit of rage, destroys their tent and tells a secret that enrages Andrej. Only then the true problem is revealed - Ziva is not going to study abroad, she was lying because she didn't want to pity her.
Outsider (1997)
Date: 28 Feb 2019 10:31:59
DVDRip | AVI | 720x448 | XviD @ 1669 Kbps | 104 min | 1,37 Gb
Audio: Slovenščina AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English (srt)
A teenager, son of an army officer, moves with his family to Ljubljana in the fall of 1979. In the new surroundings, he'll fall in love, make friends and discover the world of punk rock. The latter will get him into trouble with his strict father.
Class Enemy (2013) Razredni sovraznik
Class Enemy (2013)
Relations between the students and the new teacher of German are extremely tense. When one female student commits suicide, her schoolmates blame the teacher for her death. An awareness that things are not quite so black and white comes too late…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Mirroring failed over - created 2 principal database and will not allow me to drop one of them For some reason my mirrored servers triggered an automatic failover. I have 2 databases that both think they are the principal server, one is "Principal, Synchronized/In Recovery" and the other is "Principal, Synchronizing"
I figure this is bad. My plan is to rebuild mirroring by dropping the database on one server and restoring it again based on the backup of the other. I have removed mirroring on one of the servers. And took a backup. However, I cannot drop the database on the other server. I have tried single user mode, detaching and taking database offline.
I have tried to kill process using this database but it doesn't work. The command it is on is "KILLED/ROLLBACK" but nothing changes here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Posted inEmployment and Labor, Government and Politics
Stand Up Guys
by Mick Dumke September 26, 2007 August 1, 2013
Safety specialist Frank Coconate (left) says he was punished by the Department of Water Management supervisors after he ran for office as an independent Democrat. (Photo by Jason Reblando)
Sleet fell throughout the cold morning of Nov. 2, but the five guys handing out campaign literature outside St. Juliana school couldn't think of being anywhere else on Election Day. Pacing next to the walkway leading into the school, 7400 W. Touhy Ave. on Chicago's far Northwest Side, they tried to catch everyone headed inside to vote. They pressed three-inch-square sheets that said "PUNCH #49 for Ralph Capparelli" into hands that could not help but take them. They politely requested support for the entire Democratic ticket.
One of them, a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver who'd identify himself only as Ray, bounced up and down to stay warm while declaring he would do "whatever they need" to help out.
"They need their foot soldiers," added a guy in a Bears cap standing next to him.
In the indirect, slightly boastful talk of precinct workers, the two went on to say that "they" meant their leaders in the Democratic Party, particularly Capparelli, the longtime Democratic committeeman of the 41st Ward and a state representative from the 15th District who had relinquished that seat to challenge Republican incumbent Michael P. McAuliffe in his 20th District.
Leading up to the election, "they" sometimes asked the guys to register voters, round up petition signatures, pass out campaign fliers or knock on doors to make personal appeals. This day was about bringing the vote in. So far, it was going well: At just after 9 a.m., three hours into the election, turnout was strong—though Capparelli would eventually lose, capturing just 41 percent of the ballots.
While Ray was the youngest of the group—he appeared to be in his late 20s—he was a veteran of the previous three elections, his political career starting right after he'd been hired at the CTA.
"I'd never really been into voting before, but now I see the importance of it," he said. "It's understood that, if you get help from somebody getting your job, it's understood you need to be out there helping them out."
But the other men outside St. Juliana agreed with Ray. They all had positions with the CTA or the city of Chicago. They all were expected to do some electioneering. And, because they all wanted to keep their jobs, they refused to name names, including their own.
"Politics makes the world go round—that's how it works. You've got to know somebody to get in," said the Bears fan. "Very few people get called for an interview with the city. That's why people do this—standing in the rain like this. You know—one hand washes the other."
It's against the law for public employees to do political work on government time. But, when the men were asked if they'd taken the day off to help with the election, they started laughing.
"Some do. Some don't," said the man in the ball cap.
When asked about mobilizing city workers, Capparelli also laughed.
"I don't control one job," he said. "There's nothing I can do for anyone. I really don't have any workers. The CTA? Forget about it. I couldn't get you a job at the CTA. Find one guy, and I'll give you $100. No, I'll give you $200."
For generations, it was known that Chicago's Democratic Party thrived on a system of political patronage. Under the "Machine" perfected by former Mayor Richard J. Daley, anyone who wanted a job with the city was expected to work for the party's candidates; those who had not demonstrated their loyalty and work ethic were not going to get a second look.
The city was supposed to be different after a series of legal battles led to the Shakman consent decree in the 1970s and 1980s. Covering most of the city's 38,000 jobs, the decree made it illegal for city employees to be required to engage in political work, and, with a few exceptions, for the city to hire people based on patronage.
But not everyone has let laws get in the way of politics.
Payroll data obtained by The Chicago Reporter show that thousands of city employees have missed work each of the last three election days, accounting for absentee rates higher than most other days of the year.
And hundreds of employees were hired only for the two-week pay period including the 2003 municipal election. The workforce then slimmed down to its previous level for the next pay period.
City employees get two to five weeks of vacation a year, depending on their experience. And many city workers are more than happy to use their time off helping local political candidates.
Across Chicago on Nov. 2, though, many city employees said their supervisors and political sponsors expected—and sometimes pressured—them to do campaign work. Punishments for refusing could include demotions or terminations, they said.
Their accounts are virtually identical to charges laid out in the Dec. 16 federal grand jury indictment of Donald Tomczak, the former first deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Water Management. It accuses Tomczak of doling out city jobs, promotions and overtime in return for campaign work for candidates he supported. The candidates are not named in the indictment.
Activists believe the knotting of politics and city work has helped stifle the prospects of independent candidates, who typically have no way to match the troop strength and fundraising acumen of Democratic incumbents. The situation, they say, partly explains why Mayor Richard M. Daley has coasted to easy victories in his three elections and faces little opposition from the city council.
The Reporter's findings also come at a time when city workers say they're being squeezed by the Daley administration, which has slashed some jobs, privatized others and demanded contract concessions to balance the budget over the last few years.
"City workers—they're scared," said Frank Coconate, a 26-year veteran of the Water Management Department and frequent critic of the Daley administration. "It's like the mob—if you don't do it, they'll get you. There's a master sheet downtown of who's in and who's out."
The mayor's press office didn't respond to repeated requests for comment, eventually referring questions to the city's Law Department.
Jenny Hoyle, the law department's spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail that the city abides by the Shakman decree.
"The fact that employees may be using vacation days to do election work indicates that there is no mixing of government business and politics; in fact, it demonstrates that employees are appropriately separating their personal activities from their work activities," she wrote. "Based on the size and diversity of the City's workforce, it is not surprising that some employees would be involved in political or social organizations in their free time."
Hoyle also wrote that the figures showing a payroll increase for the 2003 municipal election were false, even though they came from the city. "Political workers were not added to the payroll for that time period," she wrote. She did not provide new numbers.
On Tuesday, Nov. 2, Election Day, the city's fleet yard at 4900 W. Sunny side Ave. is full of trucks.
Twenty-four hours later, the trucks are gone, presumably out on the street as they are on most work days. (Photos by Mary Hanlon)
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Reporter obtained a database of the number of employees who were absent from the city's largest departments—except fire and police—from Jan. 1, 2003, through Dec. 7, 2004. The database also shows the number of employees on the payroll for much of that time. The information does not specify whether employees were gone for vacation, illness, personal days, or some other reason.
In many of the 41 departments, the days of the 2003 municipal election (Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2003), the 2004 primaries (Tuesday, March 16, 2004), and the 2004 general election (Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004) were typical: About as many people missed work as usual. Nearly 11 percent of city employees are gone on a given weekday.
But the departments of Transportation, General Services, Streets and Sanitation, Aviation, Water Management, and the Mayor's Office of Special Events had nearly twice as many absent workers as usual on the days of all three elections.
The same was true at Fleet Management, Planning, Zoning and the Office of the Mayor for the municipal election; Fleet Management and the Office of Budget and Management for this year's primary; and the Department of Housing for the general election in November.
And, in a few departments, the municipal and primary election days were among the leading days off. For example, about a third of all employees in the Department of Streets and Sanitation were absent from work on the municipal election day, tops for the department during the period analyzed. The absentee rate was more than triple what it was the days before andafter the election. Typically, the department goes without 10 percent of its 4,100 workers on weekdays.
In the Aviation Department, which provides workers for the city's two airports, the most absences came on the day of the February 2003 municipal election, while the March 2004 primary finished fourth—behind the days after Christmas and Thanksgiving in 2003. The municipal and primary election days were also among the most-missed in the General Services, Fleet Management, Transportation and Water departments, according to the data.
Election Day is "an excused day off," said Pasquale Messina, who drives a truck at O'Hare International Airport for the Aviation Department. On Nov. 2, Messina, a 41st Ward precinct captain, stood under an umbrella outside the Norwood Park fieldhouse at 5801 N. Natoma Ave., handing out palm cards advising voters of favored candidates.
"You can play hooky from work, and they don't yell at you," he said.
But Messina, 27, denied that he was required to do political work. He said Capparelli, the ward's committeeman, is a family friend, and Messina simply enjoys being involved in politics. That's why, for weeks leading up to each election, he and other precinct captains get together for breakfast on Sunday mornings to discuss strategy.
He admitted, though, that others may feel they have no choice. "There will be some people who tell you, 'We need you to do this,'" he said. "I'd say it's pretty widespread. Jobs are scarce with the city."
Later that afternoon, a man named Jesse shivered outside the door of the Crow Bar, a tavern and polling place at 106th Street and Avenue C on the Southeast Side. The City of Chicago baseball cap and Fire Department jacket he wore weren't enough for the plunging temperatures.
He'd borrowed the jacket from his brother; Jesse worked in Streets and Sanitation, and the hat was his. With no hot races in the 10th Ward, he was in the cold gathering signatures for a petition to block new landfills from the area. Jesse didn't know who had proposed the petition, or why. "They just told me about it this week," he said. He wouldn't identify "they," but noted that for years he had worked on elections across the city, wherever he was needed. It was always fine with his supervisors at work, he said.
Many departments also had more workers than average available at the time of the 2003 municipal election, the Reporter's analysis shows. The Department of Transportation went from 1,314 employees during the pay period ending Feb. 15, 2003, to 1,659 the next two weeks and then back down to 1,407 for the March 15 payday. Over the same time, the Aviation Department grew from 2,004 to 2,639 before falling to 2,014. But these increases were modest next to Water Management's. That department's payroll exploded from 2,802 employees to 5,175, then back to 2,732.
For Aviation and Water, the Feb. 28, 2003, payroll was the largest of any pay period studied by the Reporter. Tom LaPorte, Water department spokesman, referred payroll questions to the Law department.
"We have no indication that the city payroll 'swelled' for the pay period of the last municipal election," Law department's Hoyle wrote. She said the large jump in Water department employees might have been due to the fact that the Water and Sewer departments merged during that time. But that merger was effective Jan. 1, 2003, and Hoyle didn't explain why the error did not show until late February, or why it only appeared for that particular pay period.
Hoyle also noted that the Shakman decree prohibits the city from using political affiliation as a basis for hiring and that the decree outlines procedures to ensure that political affiliation is not part of the hiring process. City employees who feel they are pressured into political work should file a grievance with their union or the city's inspector general, she added.
Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez was unavailable for an interview, said spokesman Matt Smith. In an e-mail message, Smith went on to say that his department followed the law.
"The Shakman decree does not require the City to limit its hiring to people who have no political interests or involvement in political organizations," Smith wrote. "In fact, it would be a violation of the Shakman decree to use a job applicant's political activism as a basis for not hiring that person."
But Jay E. Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association, a watchdog group, said he is not surprised to hear city employees say they're expected to do political work. Patronage and bare-knuckles politics are Chicago traditions, he noted. "It is understood that, if you go above and beyond the call of duty, you'll be rewarded."
Other analysts react similarly, saying government employees have long made up the majority of Chicago's Democratic campaign armies. They emphasize that nothing is wrong with city workers spending their free time electioneering—as long as it's really free.
It is a line in the sand that Mathias W. Delort believes most politicians now respect. "We don't quite see the level of intertwining of politics and city work we used to," said Delort, a Chicago attorney who has represented independents, Republicans and regular Democrats in election disputes over nearly two decades. "In my experience dealing with elected officials as political clients, there's a lot of sensitivity to this."
Most volunteers are just interested in helping their candidates win, he said. "Almost every elected incumbent has a crew of people around them because they really like that person. Maybe it's because they got a job from them, but they want to be there. It's a political town, and some of them really enjoy it."
Others, including Stewart, are skeptical. "It does strain credulity to think that so many city workers are political junkies."
Carl Segvich does not need to be convinced. In the 2003 city elections, the lifelong Bridgeport resident took on Daley-appointed Ald. James A. Balcer and a supporting army of 11th Ward workers. Segvich lost by 70 percentage points.
Segvich, a conservative Republican, jumped into the race knowing he'd need a miracle to win in a ward controlled by John P. Daley, the 11th Ward Democratic committeeman, a Cook County board member and the mayor's brother.
Still, collecting the signatures to get on the ballot was surprisingly easy, he said: While a few people refused to sign, telling him they were afraid of losing city services or imperiling their city jobs, many others announced that they wanted to challenge the mayor's allies.
Segvich is a salesman in the private sector, but his father was a city worker, and he estimates that most of his close friends and family members are as well—that's how it is in Bridgeport.
And so once he'd made it onto the ballot, many friends and relatives told him they couldn't display his signs, attend a fundraiser or do anything that could be seen as supporting his candidacy.
"It was heartbreaking—so many people said, 'Carl, we're going to vote for you, but we can't put your sign up,'" he said.
One night, Segvich said, a brick was thrown through a window of his car, which had a campaign sign posted in it. He believed it could be an intimidation tactic, but he had no proof. "I'm not scared of anybody, but I felt like people were treating me as if I had leprosy," he said.
On Election Day, Segvich and his handful of volunteers were overwhelmed by his opponent's "well-oiled machine."
At least four city workers were posted outside each of the ward's polling places, handing out palm cards, some of which were "accidentally" left in voting booths, he said. Segvich said friends of his who work for the city told him they were forced to take time off to help with the election. "If you want to get a raise or a promotion, you've got to get out there," he said. "Even if you want to get in the door."
Balcer reacts indignantly to the charges. He said Segvich should have filed a complaint with election officials last February if he had evidence that laws were broken. "We abide by the rules," Balcer said. "I'd never tell anyone to intimidate anyone. –¦ I don't support anyone throwing bricks."
Balcer said city workers do volunteer for his ward organization, but he didn't know what portion of his campaign team they account for. "If someone wants to volunteer, they can volunteer," the alderman said. "I would never pressure anyone to be involved in politics. If they work for the city, fine. If not, that's fine, too."
Nick Valadez is a Democrat, but that did not help him fend off city worker-led campaign teams in two bids for alderman in the 10th Ward.
In 1999, Valadez faced a first-time candidate, mayoral aide John A. Pope, who used dozens of election workers from the Hispanic Democratic Organization. The HDO is run by current and former City Hall operatives, including Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez, who lives on the Southeast Side. Its rank and file is composed largely of city workers, according to political activists. Valadez said he knew that many of the people who campaigned against him were city employees because they were old friends and acquaintances.
The HDO-backed campaign was organized and effective. For example, Valadez said, on Election Day, a van pulled up to a polling place in the 8900 block of South Buffalo Avenue. Then some men jumped out, opened the back doors and lifted out a senior citizen wearing socks but no shoes. They then carried him inside to vote. "At that point, I said, 'I'm in trouble,'" said Valadez, who now practices law in south suburban Oak Forest.
"I know a lot of these people work for their candidates because they want to," he added. "But the problem is that usually they're not volunteers."
Pope said his campaign team was made up of more than city workers and HDO members. "We involved a lot of people, including city employees, people who weren't city employees, males, females, whites, Hispanics, young and old," he said.
The alderman stressed no one was forced to volunteer. And Valadez and other 10th Ward candidates also had support from city emploees, Pope said, arguing that they are typically more involved in politics than other people. "They're closest to the issues in their daily lives. They take a natural interest."
When lifelong 11th Ward resident Carl Segvich ran for alderman, he was crushed by a political organization that he believes was mostly made up of city workers. (Photo by Jason Reblando)
In the heyday of Richard J. Daley's administration, government and politics were often indistinguishable. According to political veterans, court records and news reports, anyone who wanted a city job was supposed to see his committeeman or alderman. If the person was a relative or friend of someone already involved in Machine politics, he might be sent to City Hall with a recommendation.
Otherwise, he needed to make a name for himself. The best way was by earning a reputation as a "stand-up guy," someone who put in time knocking on doors, registering voters, selling fundraiser tickets, handing out campaign literature or doing anything else the party needed. He knew that, by taking a city job, he'd be expected to "volunteer" his time for a few weeks every campaign season.
Employees clearly had a vested interest in seeing their bosses re-elected. But critics charged that the patronage system undermined the democratic process and ensured government waste and corruption.
"There certainly was a time when government in the city of Chicago and Cook County was run strictly for the benefit of the politicians and their friends, with any public service being purely accidental," said Richard K. Means, an Oak Park election lawyer who has represented clients in and out of government for more than 35 years.
The system was supposed to be destroyed under Shakman, a series of legal agreements that forbade government firing and hiring "upon or because of any political reason or factor including, without limitation, any prospective employee's political affiliation, political support or activity, [or] political financial contributions." Only a few employees of the city, Cook County and the state were made exempt from the rulings. Since then, Means said, the city has had to do business differently. Jobs are supposed to be posted before people are hired for them. The law backs employees who don't want to get involved politically. Professional positions, such as attorneys and engineers, are rarely filled by people who lack proper credentials.
But that doesn't mean the old patronage system is dead. Many of the city's entry-level, low-skill jobs may still be doled out as rewards, Means said. "It's not heavy handed, but for the people with the lower-level jobs, it's pretty clear," he said.
Others say Shakman has only succeeded in making sure that political hiring and firing is done quietly. One Democratic organizer, who has been involved in party politics for more than 30 years, since Richard J. Daley was at the helm, said City Hall has a tighter control over jobs and political outcomes than ever before.
"It's easy to get around Shakman," said the organizer, a longtime city employee. "Don't pay attention to Shakman."
The organizer, who didn't want his name used because he still works with prominent Democrats, said hiring in Streets and Sanitation and other departments is only done with the approval of top mayoral aides. They maintain lists of which employees have helped at election time, he said. "Whatever they're assigned to do for the elections, they do."
While those who've pitched in get promotions and overtime, according to the organizer, the others get lousy jobs or badgered into quitting.
City workers know that, if they do not show up to do their part on Election Day, life at work will be miserable, said Coconate, the water department veteran. "If you're north, they'll send you south. –¦ They do not want any kind of independent out there."
Coconate, a safety specialist, said he did campaign work for mayoral allies for years, until he went against their wishes and ran for the state House in 1998, 2000 and 2002. He was the runner-up in the Democratic primary his first time, and won his second bid. After that, hundreds of city workers showed up in his Northwest Side district to work against him in the 2000 general election, removing his yard signs and handing out palm cards that included state representative McAuliffe, his Republican opponent, as part of the endorsed Democratic ticket. Coconate lost, 62 percent to 38 percent.
As a safety specialist, Coconate spends many of his days inspecting Water Management Department work sites. But, a few weeks after the 2000 election, supervisors started excluding him from safety meetings, and at one point his desk was removed from his office, he said.
Coconate proudly declares that he refused to learn his lesson. In 2002, with even more city workers in his district, he didn't make it out of the primary. The next year, he campaigned for a challenger to a Northwest Side alderman. At work, he was assigned to more than two months on "bug patrol": dropping tablets of mosquito larvae repellent into sewer locations on the South Side. "It had nothing to do with my job," Coconate said.
Water Department's Tom LaPorte said the assignment wasn't connected to Coconate's political activity. "What I can tell you is that quite a number of employees from different bureaus participated in the West Nile Virus program," he said.
Coconate's desk might have been moved during an office reorganization, he said. "We don't make staffing decisions based on people's politics."
Still, many political volunteers hope their efforts will win them rewards.
By 5 p.m. Election Day, Eric White had to take a break. After 11 hours of handing out literature outside the polling place at Thorp School, 8914 S. Buffalo Ave., he sat on a fire hydrant. He said he volunteered to work because he believed in democracy. But he also hoped his efforts might get caught by someone's eye.
"I'm just trying to meet people and shake hands and make some friends along the way, and hopefully something might turn out for me," he said.
It might take a couple of years. Insiders say jobs only appear for people who have proved themselves over several elections. "Loyalty is No. 1," said the 30-year Democratic organizer. "If you've got somebody who works for two elections, you know it's a decent guy."
On Nov. 2, a man named Rick worked the sidewalk outside the Edison Park Lutheran Church, 6626 N. Oliphant Ave., four days after his job with Department of Transportation had been turned over to a private company. Clad in a cement workers union jacket, He said city jobs "are all political," so he was out doing "favors," assuming they would be noticed. "I've got to," Rick said. "This is one way to keep my options open."
Mark Anderson, Efren Arcos, Juanita Barajas, Josh Kantarski, and J. Diamond Weathersby helped research this article.
Dual shifts out—along with a few jobs
Q&A with Tio Hardiman
Summer institutes get teachers into neighborhoods
Mick Dumke
No bio entered More by Mick Dumke


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Q&A: Michael Hirst, creator and writer of Vikings
The third season of Vikings is set to premiere tonight in the United States and Canada. The show, which follows the adventures of Ragnar Lodbrok and his family, has been averaging over three million viewers in North America.
The series's creator and writer, Michael Hirst, who has also been responsible for other shows like The Tudors and The Borgias, recently went on Reddit to conduct a question and answer session with fans. Here are some of the highlights from the Q&A:
How much of the writing is based on actual historical stories rather than being pure fiction? How do you make the historical parts fit in with the story you're telling?
The story I'm telling comes out of my historical research. I don't have a fictional story that I just add historical details to. Everything I do starts in research, and reading. And during the research / reading, storylines and characters start to emerge. And although I can take these characters for a walk, I never leave their historical reality behind. It's like putting down an anchor from a ship – you could sail the ship away from an anchor to an adventure, but you are still anchored to the reality, or what you know of the reality. So for me, that's the dichotomy between fiction and history. It's something I am very proud of, that VIKINGS is as real as we can make it – I don't like fantasy myself, because fantasy can be very, very entertaining, but it's ultimately meaningless because it doesn't hold a mirror up to us the way that history does. Whereas a show like VIKINGS can get people interested in Viking culture, and if they are interested in Viking culture, they can go read history books, check out the facts, see what is real or perhaps what I might have pushed too far. But it's a real show about real people and real events, and it's also done in a real way, and that is something else that I am proud of.
Mr. Hirst, How does the research process work for your show? Obviously you are passionate about the subject matter…but is there a team that goes about fact-checking, finding legends, and seeing what really happen to find what would make great TV?
Yes. I work with two people, one of whom I've worked with for many years, and that's a historian called Justin Pollard. Justin is an expert in the Dark Ages, and will check through everything that I write to make sure that it's plausible and real. We're not making a documentary – so you can't ask for everything to be accurate. After all, this is the "Dark Ages" and there is very much we don't know. But I have to say this: I had a radio interview, with the head of Scandinavian Studies at Harvard University, who is a Swedish professor. And we showed him the first 3 episodes of the first season, before they were broadcast, and I thought he was going to eat me alive… but what he said was "this is the first time my culture has ever been taken seriously, and treated intelligently." I believe that a Canadian network has done some small documentary films to accompany the show this season, and they went to Scandinavia to ask academics and interested people how authentic they thought the show was. And they said "We had academics begging and pleading to be part of this programme. They love it in Scandinavia!" and that is fantastic, as far as I'm concerned.
The other person that I – I don't work with him, but he surprised me with story-lines from Norse Sagas – is an Icelandic novelist, Ólafur Gunnarsson, and I am very grateful to thank him for the authentic insights on the mythic side of Scandinavian and Viking life.
What was your favourite scene to write in Vikings?
Ehm… oh I have lots of favourite scenes. I think one of the most powerful was the blood-eagling in Season 2. I knew, when I wrote this, that it was a controversial scene and would be difficult to shoot, and it was challenging to shoot because it's very extreme, but I wanted to write it and wanted to shoot it because it takes us deeper into the heart of the Viking experience and the Viking beliefs and Viking society. So that was an important scene.
First, as a woman, I want to thank you for portraying excelent strong female characters on a tv show. We just love and worship badass Lagertha and clever Siggy and are starting to like motherly Aslaug. Will we continue to see this strong characters in season 3? Will they change? Will we have more female strong characters?
Well, thank you very much! Yes, those 3 female characters – Siggy and Aslaug and Lagertha – are essential parts of season 3. And they are all strong women, in their own way. I think things happen to Aslaug that will probably increase interest in her. There's an unexpected side to her that will be revealed. And there are going to be some NEW strong women coming from an unexpected place, which is Paris, as you know (it's no secret) the Vikings are attacking Paris, so we are going to spend some time with the Frank side of defenders. And there are a couple of strong female characters who will emerge from that side of the conflict. But i like writing female characters. I did my thesis at Oxford on the stories of Henry James, and Henry James always said that he preferred to write female characters! So I'm glad that people respond to this. I of course wrote ELIZABETH – that was one of my favourite things I ever did – and maybe it's something I can't entirely explain, I do have a lot of daughters, that may have something to do with it, but somehow I just find women characters just more complex, more unexpected.
How big of a risk was to put a show together with bad guys as the main characters?
That's a very good question! Many people told me that it was impossible to write a show about the Vikings precisely because Vikings have always been seen as the "other." As "bad guys," the guys who break down your door in the middle of the night and plunder and raid – so how are you ever going to make them the interesting guys, the guys you were rooting for? Well, there were 2 answers to that. One is the reputation of Vikings had nothing to do with them, because they never wrote anything down. They were non-literate. Their actions were mostly written down by their enemies, the Christian Monks, who had every reason to diss – not only their behavior, but their pagan beliefs. It was their paganism that really frightened the Christian Monks. So there is a lot of propaganda about the Vikings, and I became aware, during my research, that there were many more things to say about Vikings and Viking Culture – not in the least their technological abilities to build these extraordinary boats, which could cross open oceans and sail up rivers, their democratic habits as a society (they were much more democratic than the Franks, or the Saxons – people were elevated largely on merit), and they had some very good laws – when they finally occupied large areas of the center of England, that was called the "Dane Law" because they imposed their own laws, some of which continued to this day. So I had another agenda – I wanted to open a dialogue about an unexpected group of people.
What sort of education/qualifications does it take to create such a program?
It's funny that, with many of these questions, it's clear that people can't quite believe I write the show myself? Well, I think there's such disbelief in the States, that there's a lot of people churning out material, and it's a collective thing?
But I have a very academic background. I went to 3 universities, including Oxford. I thought I was going to be an Academic, until I happened to meet a film-maker who read some of my short stories, and wanted me to write a script. So I sort've stumbled into my career. And as I said, I have a historical consultant who has many degrees, is extremely bright, and you know, every department at the studio – the costumes, or the production design – all those departments themselves will do a great deal of research, and work on the period, and the details, and it's fantastically creative and exciting, finding out what people have found out, and what we are doing.
And here's a very important thing: if you include Latin as a dead language, we have FOUR dead languages in the show. We have people speaking Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Old French (when they raid Paris, which sounds more like German than French, actually) and Latin, and can you tell me ANY other network show that has people speaking four dead languages in it? No! I mean, they don't speak it much, but you can tell that is what they are speaking. I wanted people to hear what those languages really sounded like. It's a very important part of the authenticity of the show.
And of course there was INTENSE excitement in the Academic community when they were asked to translate some dialogue into Old Norse, or Anglo-Saxon, because these languages haven't been spoken or heard for Hundreds of years? So there were academics at Cambridge, who were not only asked how to give us the words, but how to pronounce them. And it's part of the living texture of the show, that people don't just dress up like the period, they speak like the period. And that is wonderful.
I think it's utterly fantastic.
You can read the entire Q&A with Michael Hirst on Reddit.
TagsTelevision about the Middle Ages • Vikings


The six-month contracts end Wednesday, when the cruise ships return to commercial use. As the deadline approaches, FEMAofficials said they're busy finding new housing for the remaining passengers. About 60 passengers, the majority from South Mississippi, remained aboard the Holiday on Friday.
"The people are being relocated to other, longer-term housing --- either mobile homes or rental units or other arrangements are made," FEMA's Eugene Brezani said. "We've had 1,800 people on the ship, (and) they've been moved on to better conditions."
Pascagoula police said the ship's departure was expected, and having it docked at the Port of Pascagoula hasn't placed any undue stress on authorities since it got here.
In fact, the ship has had all kinds of security since it docked here, with a private security firm guarding the entrance and exit gates and agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics aboard the ship to provide in-house security.
Pascagoula police have jurisdiction over the ship and investigate any reported crimes.
Since the ship's arrival, many South Mississippi residents have expressed concern over possible criminal activity brought to the area as a result.
To the contrary, Leonard said the ship's evacuees have caused few problems, though the police department is still investigating a case of reported child molestation on the ship in December. He would provide no other details.
Other reported criminal activity Leonard cited included complaints about drug possession, assaults, trespassing issues, domestic disturbances and vehicle burglaries.
"A lot of this was happening in the parking lot," Leonard said. "But it hasn't been a burden to us."Other complaints have been about suspicious persons or harassing telephone calls.
"I can't say it's been a problem," Leonard said.


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Jan Schmidt-Garre is a producer/director working with his own company, Pars Media, in Munich. His films include portraits of Sergiu Celibidache, a 13-part series about tenors of the 78 rpm recording era, and a feature film, "Bruckner's Decision". He started his career working as an assistant to opera directors including Rudolf Noelte and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
From my early youth I knew I wanted to do something with music. I loved opera and played the piano. At the age of 14, in my hometown of Munich, I sat in on the rehearsals of Rudolf Noelte's production of "Eugene Onegin". Noelte opened my eyes to the world of opera and directing. I learned so much from him about working with actors and singers. He knew 100 ways on sitting on a chair. I wasn't sure if I should try to be a conductor or an opera director. What drove me was a wish to find the visual equivalent to music. Working as an assistant with directors such as Noelte and Jean-Pierre Ponelle, I saw them produce music that was provoked by the action on stage. When this happens, the staging and the music melt together and there's no question of who's serving whom.
I wanted to study music at university but I thought that this would be an easy option and that I wouldn't really train my brain. There was a lot I didn't understand, so I studied philosophy instead. I remember being introduced to the work of C. S. Lewis and being told how he had drawn inspiration from seeing specks of dust dancing in the sunlight. He realised that he could either analyse the image and keep his distance from it or get to the heart of the image to understand what had produced it. This is an important concept for me when I make films. I am not interested in analysing the person as a patient but rather at looking at what interests him; looking through his eyes. I try not to lose touch with philosophy. I'm currently organising a series of lectures on aesthetics. The philosopher I am closest today is Hegel. I'm also influenced by Zen.
I've always been more interested in the process than the result. In my first long film about Sergiu Celibidache (1989-92) - which I started while at film school - I was interested in his rehearsals and how he worked with musicians and not in the final concerts. He was fantastic at explaining what he wanted. Although he was famous for being a dictator, he actually sought the opposite. He wanted to disappear totally as a conductor, to stimulate the musicians to listen to themselves and find the right balance. Sometimes, in rehearsals rather than during concerts, he reached what he called "transcendence" - he went beyond the sound. I attended some of his classes at university, and I remember him asking someone to write a 12-tone row on the blackboard - the most desolate phrase one could imagine. And then the process of humanisation began; the search for its innate order. How is it divided? How can it be phrased? How can it be conducted? One student after another would go to the piano and try his luck. Finally someone succceeded in giving life and a shape to this amorphous material. And then during the break I found myself whistling something as easily as if it were by Schubert: the 12-tone row.
I also had private conducting lessons with him and remember studying beating technique at the beginning of Beethoven's Fith Symphony. He was sitting in front of me, very close, beating the opening bars with such enormous energy that I was alomost frightened. I understood how he could reign over 100 musicians and force them into a unit.
Leonard Bernstein was another conducter important for me. At the end of the Seventies, he worked a lot in Munich and I had the chance to attend his rehearsals and concerts. I also met him many times and visited him in New York. He didn't theorise much, although he was one of the brightest guys I've ever met. His presence made the musicians play ten times better than before.
I remember hearing the voice of Richard Tauber for the first time while driving through Vienna. I was fascinated by the directness of his voice. This lead me to make a 13-part series "Belcanto - The Tenors of the 78 Era". Today, people seem to have lost this direct touch to the musical material. Singers then had moments which make you think that there's no interpretation, nothing in the way. I made some other wonderful discoveries such as John McCormack. His way of singing is very unfashionable today. It's an acquired taste, but I discovered what enormous sensibility, distinction and discretion he sings with. He had a hit which sold 4.5 million copies: "I hear you Calling me". It's a simple ballad, with no big emphasis, no muscle, just pure music.
While making the tenors series I met Stefan Zucker - a fascinating person who also drives you crazy. He has a catalogue of videos and, as I found out later, he's also quite famous as writer on the history of singing. When I arranged to interview him he insisted we rent a concert hall so that he could sing during the interview. In the end he couldn't sing because it had rained the day before. He never sings the day after it rains.
I haven't had time yet, but I do have a wish to produce opera on stage. I'd like to do some Mozart: "Così fan tutte" or "Die Zauberflöte". Or I'd like to do some Janacek: "Katya Kabanova".
I've always been interested in how to bring music and something extra-musical together and an obvious way to do this is through dance. I am inspired by the work of Saburo Teshigawara, a Japanese choreographer who has developed an individual mixture of Japanese traditions and modern dance. His piece "Absolute Zero", was the purest and, at the same time, most virtuoso dance that I've seen for a long time. There were moments when he danced with his back to the audience for minutes doing nothing. There was such a tension in the hall that the audience seemed to stop breathing. I feel so privileged to be working on two projects with him at the moment.
I am keen collector of contemporary art. When I decide to buy an artist's work, I like to know about the background of the piece and the concepts behind it. I have pieces by the Spanish artist Santiago Sierra, by the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, of the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, and have recently acquired a work by Matthew Barney.
One of the most important film-makers for me is Hitchcock. I especially like his movies from the Fifties such as "North by Northwest". I am drawn to the precision, the sense of humour and the the ease of construction. Everything is so simple and so clear. It's about letting the material evolve as it has to.


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The Risks of Facebook Advertising and Racial Discrimination
There's a rising controversy right now — I've received a couple of dozen queries about this in the last few days — regarding Facebook's permitting advertisers to block particular ads from specific "ethnic affinity" groups, e.g. African American.
Facebook insists that these aren't actually racial categories per se since they don't directly ask users about their race. Rather, Facebook insists that they "merely" assign a kind of racial "score" to users based on user activities.
That's Facebook double-talk of course. Look at stuff that Facebook figures mainly interests whites, and Facebook sorts you into the white club. Look at materials that Facebook assumes mainly attract blacks, and Facebook relegates you to the black shack. Same idea for Hispanics, and so on.
These assumptions are naturally going to be wrong part of the time, but Facebook cares not, since they don't make a point of explicitly telling you which racial categories — and that's what these actually are, racial categories — that they've slotted you into.
But they do tell advertisers, at least to the extent that they permit advertisers to exclude different racial groups (or, excuse me, I mean "ethnic affinity" groups) from seeing particular ads or even knowing that those ads exist.
Facebook insists that their rules prohibit using these "racial control" facilities in illegal ways — such as to foster housing or job discrimination against particular racial groups.
But this issue hit the fan now when it was demonstrated how simple it is to get clearly racially discriminatory and illegal ads approved via Facebook's advertising portal.
Facebook (which, despite having put these racial categories in their "demographics" section, seems to assert that they're not really demographic!) tries to explain away these problems with the usual excuse — blame the users (or in this case, blame the advertisers). This despite the fact that it's Facebook's creation of these racial filters that practically begs racist advertisers to use them to exclude what those advertisers deem to be "undesirable" persons.
This kind of "hey, it's not our fault!" excuse would never fly with newspaper ads or other traditional advertising, but has become common with Internet darlings, including firms like Uber and Airbnb, who are increasingly facing government actions pushing back on their cavalier attitudes in a range of contexts.
This is not to say that there's anything wrong with targeted advertising as a whole. In fact, it helps avoid wasting users' time with ads for products or services that they probably don't care about.
But once you step into the fire of racial classification on the Net, you're letting yourself in for a world of pain.
Just as a thought experiment, imagine if Google permitted YouTube uploaders to specify which racial groups would be permitted to find and view particular videos? Google would be rightly crucified in short order.
Obviously, Google would never do this. Yet what Facebook is actually doing is far worse than this imaginary example, and they've been doing it under the radar of most users. People writing to me are expressing outrage that Facebook didn't clearly inform them that they were being secretly stuffed into racial boxes and being spoon-fed particular ads based on those racial classifications.
Ultimately, this sort of misbehavior by Facebook threatens to provide ammunition to politicians and their cronies who have long wished to impose draconian controls on users' ability to post a wide range of completely legitimate materials on social media, video, and other sorts of sites. There's nothing that these politicos would love more than to leverage racial discrimination into broad-based Internet censorship.
Facebook needs to clean up their act. Or the government is likely to clean it up for them, and in their overreaction do immense harm to everyone else in the process.
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so — my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
The correct term is "Internet" NOT "internet" — please don't fall into the trap of using the latter. It's just plain wrong!
Author LaurenPosted on 30 Oct 2016 Leave a comment on The Risks of Facebook Advertising and Racial Discrimination
How to Protect Your Google Gmail from Russia's Putin and WikiLeaks
Word is out from multiple intelligence sources and security researchers that Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's Gmail account was hacked by (you guessed it!) Russian hackers under the direction of the Russian government (aka Vladimir Putin), for public distribution of Podesta's email messages via Putin's propaganda publishing arm: Julian Assange's WikiLeaks. All of this in furtherance of Putin's "Get Ignorant Puppet Trump Elected U.S. President!" project.
Apparently Podesta fell victim to a typical "spear phishing" attack, typing his Google Gmail credentials into a convincing (but fake) Google login page.
People fall for this kind of thing every day.
But don't blame Google, because Google already provides the means to make such attacks enormously more difficult — 2-Step ("2-Factor") Verification.
The problem is that despite Google's constantly entreating users to avail themselves of this, most people don't want to bother until after they've been hacked!
To be clear, I don't know for an absolute fact that Podesta wasn't using Google 2-Step Verification. But the sequence of events being reported would appear to make it extremely unlikely, because while 2-factor systems don't make such attacks absolutely impossible to succeed, they do indeed make successful phishing attacks less likely by orders of magnitude.
And it's not as if Google doesn't provide plenty of choices when setting up this kind of protection.
It can be done by text messages, by automatic calls to voice phone numbers, and by authenticator apps that don't need network access. It can even by done via high security USB-based crypto keys and printed emergency backup codes!
It's too late for Podesta. But it's not too late for you to protect yourself from Putin, Assange, and the more prosaic crooks who wander the Net.
If you use Gmail or other Google services, go turn on 2-Step Verification. If you use some other email system that offers 2-factor protections, go and enable them — now!
I published a write-up earlier this year explaining how to do this with Google. It's at: Do I really need to bother with Google's 2-Step Verification system?
Now you know — the answer is YES. It's not a bother, it's Google helping you to protect yourself against evil.
And that's the truth.
Author LaurenPosted on 20 Oct 2016 20 Oct 2016 Leave a comment on How to Protect Your Google Gmail from Russia's Putin and WikiLeaks
Yahoo's Email Spying Nightmare
Just when you're thinking that the situation couldn't get worse for once venerable Yahoo — the company has been sold at fire sale prices, they've announced historically enormous user account security breaches, and so on — comes word that Yahoo may have permitted mass scanning of users' email contents by unnamed federal intelligence agencies.
Unattributed, unsourced stories — particularly dramatic ones like this — must be viewed with extreme skepticism. Very often these days some nobody throws out a baseless rumor, it's mirrored around the Web in minutes, and sometimes is even picked up by mainstream news sources without any sort of realistic fact checking. If every individual or firm subjected to this sort of abuse responded formally to every such unfounded attack, they often wouldn't have time to do much else.
This Yahoo story is notably different however.
First, it actually originated with a reputable wire service — Reuters — and a reporter — Joseph Menn — who also is highly respected.
And Yahoo actually responded to these accusations by calling the story "misleading" in a very carefully worded, rather strange press release that leaves even more questions unanswered, including with the statement that: "the mail scanning described in the article does not exist on our systems."
Hmm. Not precisely described? Not on their current systems at this time?
What about closely described? What about on their systems in the past? What about data provided to some other entity for scanning?
Who (other than Yahoo) knows what they meant?
What they clearly didn't do was issue a straightforward denial that such mass content scanning ever took place.
Google, Microsoft, and other firms quickly issued statements saying that they they had not received similar requests for scanning. Google said specifically that if they ever received such a request their response would be "No way." (Indeed, knowing Googlers as I do, there's no way in hell that they'd assent to such a request.)
This is a very big deal. Because if the accusations regarding Yahoo are true, this would be the first mass scanning incident of this kind, at least that we've ever learned about.
And it's very important to keep in mind how this would differ from other surveillance situations here in the USA.
It's one thing when a court gives permission to an agency to demand the records and other materials associated with specific users. While this kind of authority can be and has been abused, there are times when it can be justified.
The situation gets more problematic when we move into the realm of mass (as opposed to targeted to specific persons) collection of metadata — like phone numbers or message headers. Courts have ruled in different ways regarding the privacy protections due these classes of data, leading to the controversies over the NSA's mass phone number collection efforts, for example.
But there's no such confusion over the actual contents of communications, like what's actually said in phone calls or written in the body of email messages.
Communications contents are at the highest level of privacy protections, and mass, untargeted scanning of email messages' contents would represent an egregious and (again, as far as we know) unprecedented violation of the individual privacy rights of innocent persons.
Frankly, I'm sincerely hoping that Reuters got this story wrong somehow, that the actual facts are not as dire as their report suggests.
But this is definitely not the time for Yahoo to be playing word games in their press releases, using language that leaves gaping holes obvious to all observers.
It's possible that Yahoo is still under some sort of government order that prevents them from explaining precisely what went on — yet Yahoo's current "non-denial" denial does not well serve Yahoo, its users, or the community at large.
We need to know the truth about what did or did not happen to users' emails at Yahoo.
And we need to know now.
"Yahoo was ordered last year to search incoming emails for the digital "signature" of a communications method used by a state-sponsored, foreign terrorist organization, according to a government official familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department obtained the order from a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
To comply, Yahoo used a modified version of its existing systems that were scanning all incoming email traffic for spam, malware and images of child pornography. The system stored and made available to the Federal Bureau of Investigation a copy of any messages it found that contained the digital signature.
Yahoo was forbidden from disclosing the order and the collection is no longer taking place, the official said Wednesday."
If this additional information is correct, it represents an enormously dangerous slippery slope. The inclusion of arbitrary signatures" at the behest of the government into malware/spam/cporn ("PhotoDNA") scanning systems is a dramatic departure from firms cooperating with each other, into the realm of secret government mandates.
Author LaurenPosted on 5 Oct 2016 5 Oct 2016 Leave a comment on Yahoo's Email Spying Nightmare
The Importance of "Google Assistant" and "Google Home"
There was a lot of fascinating stuff in the Google presentation this morning, but for me the section of most immediate interest — and that may perhaps be the most important going forward for many persons — related to Google Assistant and in particular the Google Home device for accessing Google Assistant.
True, Amazon has had a similar looking pedestal device around for awhile, but the access device is only the gateway — it's the cloud/AI/connectivity resources behind it that really matter. And on those scores, Google's far ahead of everyone else, and is likely to continue evolving much faster as well.
This class of "full room" connectivity isn't just important for the slick "Star Trek Computer" factor, but for the critical accessibility aids that it could provide for a vast number of people — visually impaired, mobility impaired, on and on.
And this is only the very beginning of this path. Incredibly important.
One last thing for now. A number of people have asked me if the Home device is sending everything they say in a room up to Google. I don't have specific information regarding this device, but I'd very strongly assume that the same operational model is being used as for other Google speech recognition products, where the attention phrase "OK Google" is recognized locally on the device, and only then is audio sent up to the cloud for full analysis (and you have control over what happens to that voice data once it reaches Google as well).
Author LaurenPosted on 4 Oct 2016 4 Oct 2016 2 Comments on The Importance of "Google Assistant" and "Google Home"
Google Launches a New Consolidated Blog [GOOD], with a New Unreadable Font [AWFUL]
Google has launched a new consolidated central blog called The Keyword to make it easier to track Google products, research, and other activities. It will reportedly ultimately replace many other Google blogs.
Because Google has long had a multiplicity of blogs to follow, this could well be a very positive move, depending on the details.
This assumes, however, that you can actually read their new blog.
As you can see in the comparison below, Google has once again failed users with aging or otherwise less than perfect vision.
With fonts sized approximately the same, on the left I have a shot from a very recent traditional Google blog posting, and on the right the new "Who needs contrast?" version from their new blog.
The difference in contrast is obvious, with the new version on the right positively painful for vast numbers of users to view.
This is unfortunately not the first time Google that has gone this route with various of their products, effectively devaluing significant segments of their user population.
If you talk to Google about this — and I have — they will assure you that their new designs meet visual accessibility standards and pass the associated test suites. The problem of course is that those standards are widely viewed (no pun intended) as inadequate, counterproductive, and worse.
Typical human vision begins to degrade in our early 20s. A rapidly growing segment of the Google user community is being directly disadvantaged by this trend toward low contrast fonts that are impossible for these persons to comfortably read, or in some cases even read at all.
Google can do far better.
Author LaurenPosted on 1 Oct 2016 Leave a comment on Google Launches a New Consolidated Blog [GOOD], with a New Unreadable Font [AWFUL]


Cotton jersey fabric is knitted with interlocking loops of yarn making it stretchy. It's different from a woven fabric where the yarns crisscross perpendicular to each other. Jersey, made from cotton, is normally a fine single knit with an obvious right and wrong side but different knit constructions can produce a double faced fabric, like scuba, which is more stable with less stretch. The cotton fiber may be used on its own or mixed with spandex (Lycra) to improve the stretch and recovery of the fabric.
The stretch properties of cotton jersey make it ideal for T-shirts, tops, nightwear and underwear. It drapes nicely so it is perfect for dresses and skirts too.
Cotton jersey is available in many solid colors. The basic cotton jersey is 92% Cotton, 8% Spandex and 6.2 oz per square yard. Robert Kaufman Laguna Cotton Jersey fabric is 95% Cotton, 5% Spandex and is a little lighter weight at 5.4 oz. Jersey is also available in prints by Riley Blake.
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Cotton jersey has a tendency to curl at the edges causing problems when cutting. This can be reduced by ironing a spray starch over the sides before laying out for cutting.
Sometimes curling the edge is desirable. Jersey is great for creating no sew strands of fabric because the edges roll and don't fray. Cut narrow strips of fabric and stretch them lengthwise to roll the edges.
Ballpoint needles are good for sewing cotton jersey but if it is a high stretch jersey, containing Spandex (Lycra), consider a stretch needle as this will prevent skipped stitches. Select the size to match the weight of the jersey – 65/9 for lightweight and 90/14 for coarser, heavier weight knits. Or use a stretch double needle for hemming (see techniques below).
Use good quality polyester thread when sewing jersey. Even though cotton matches the fiber content, stitches in polyester thread move with the stretch of the fabric and will produce smoother seams than cotton thread.
Use a stretch stitch so your seams move when the fabric stretches to prevent broken threads. Most modern sewing machines have pre-programmed stretch stitch options but a narrow zigzag stitch will also work. Try these on spare fabric before starting your garment.
Use a serger with four threads to sew cotton jersey seams for a quick result and a good finish. If this isn't possible, sew seams with a stretch stitch and finish the raw edges with a zigzag or machine overcasting stitch. Some jersey fabric may not need to be finished as they do not ravel or fray.
Manufactured T-shirts are generally hemmed with cover-stitch machine. This shows two parallel rows of straight stitch on the surface with a serged stitch on the wrong side. If you do not own a cover-stitch machine, a similar effect can be created with a twin needle (see techniques below).
For 100% cotton jersey, use a hot steam iron, but if necessary, protect the surface with a pressing cloth. Reduce the heat of the iron for a cotton/spandex blend jersey.
If the cotton jersey permanently stretches while you sew, control the fabric using a strip of tear away stabilizer beneath the seam while you sew. Sew through the seam and stabilizer then carefully rip away the stabilizer when you finish.
A serger produces a perfect seam for sewing any stretch fabric panels together because the way the stitches are formed allows the fabric to stretch and move without causing the threads to break. Follow the instructions in the machine's manual and thread up both needles and loopers. Make sure the tension dials are all at the same setting and choose 2.5mm to 3mm stitch length. Test the stitch on some spare fabric and if the seam puckers, reduce the differential feed to a lower number. Sew your panels together when you are satisfied with the result.
If you don't own a cover-stitch machine but you need a hem to move with the stretch of a cotton jersey fabric, fit a 4mm stretch double (twin) needle to your sewing machine. Feed two reels of thread through the guides and eyes of the needles and fill the bobbin with the same thread. Fold up the cotton jersey to the required hem and sew from the right side of the cloth approximately ½" (12mm) from the hem edge. When completed, turn over and trim away the excess up to the zigzag stitching on the underside. This creates a similar effect to a manufactured finish and allows the hem to move when the garment is being pulled on and off without breaking the threads and stitches.
Store bought T-shirts are often finished with a neckband rather than a facing or binding so that the neck can stretch when it is pulled on and off. This is easy to recreate on a domestic sewing machine. Measure the neck circumference and cut a length of fabric to match by double the depth (with seam allowances added). Make sure the stretch of the fabric will lie around the neck band. Sew the band into a circle and fold in half so that the wrong side and the raw edges are enclosed. Place the neck band to the neck edge so that three raw edges are level and the band is on the right side of the T-shirt. Pin and then sew the band to the neck edge using a stretch stitch on the sewing machine. Finally, press the raw edges to the inside of the T-shirt and top stitch with a 4mm twin needle as with the cover stitch method above. No one will ever guess you made your T-shirt!
Click here to shop our wonderfully versatile range of cotton jersey fabric.
Do I need to use stablizer when I add a bound opening into a cotton single knit cotton knit gown.? The opening is to allow access to an insulin pump. I plan to bind the opening similar to a bound button hole.
BEST ANSWER: It will likely work well without stabilizer.
What is the best to use for baby/toddler clothes?
What is the best fabric to use to make active pants?


text:
Vermont expected to send state's first woman to Congress
The Green Mountain state is the only remaining U.S. state that has never elected a woman to federal office.
by Farah Lindsey-Almadani | 1/7/22 5:00am
Source: Photo by GearedBull at English Wikipedia. No changes made. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
Barring a major upset, Vermont's sole seat in the House of Representatives appears likely to be filled by a woman in the next Congress. Whoever is elected to the seat will replace current Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat, who is running to replace Sen. Patrick Leahy, also a Democrat, as he retires after nearly half a century in office. The 2022 election would, then, mark the first time the state has ever sent a woman to Congress and end its status as the last state in the country to have never done so.
Vermont Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and state Senate president Becca Balint, both Democrats, and Republican candidate and businessperson Marcia Horne have announced their intentions to run to fill Welch's seat. All three did not respond to requests for comment.
Horne, a marketing consultant and the sole Republican running so far, opposed representative Welch in the 2020 election as an independent, according to the Boston Globe.
Gray, a human rights attorney and native Vermonter, was raised on a farm in South Newbury, according to her campaign website. After graduating from the University of Vermont, Gray interned for Leahy and later worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
According to the campaign website, Gray is running "because the challenges [Vermonters] face — from our workforce shortages to our child care crisis — won't be solved by [the state] alone."
Balint, another Democratic candidate, made state history in 2014 by becoming Vermont's first female and first openly gay president pro tempore.
The impetus for Balint's campaign is that "together [Vermonters] have to deliver on some big promises for Vermont's working families, and that is going to take courage and kindness," according to Balint's website.
Another potential Democratic contender for the congressional seat is Vermont state Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, who has not yet confirmed her intention to run.
"For the decade I've served in the House and Senate, it's been about what I can do for people, not what title I hold," Hinsdale wrote in an emailed statement.
"These are complex challenges that require collaborative, national solutions, and I have an extensive track record of addressing these challenges head on," she wrote. "You'll be hearing from me soon!"
Both Gray and Balint are alumni of Emerge Vermont — a local chapter of the nationwide Emerge program, an organization that trains and supports female politicians in their campaign endeavors, according to its national website. Emerge Vermont executive director Elaine Haney called Gray and Balint "trendsetters."
She noted two reasons that she believes explain why the state has yet to send a woman to Washington: Vermont's small population means that few seats open up on a regular basis, and women often have familial responsibilities that prevent them from running a successful campaign.
Vermont Democratic Party communications director Asha Carroll said that sexism may have also prevented Vermont from sending a woman to Washington.
"I think it's for similar reasons that we have not yet seen a female president," Carroll said. "For whatever reason, I think it's a gender [inequality] to overcome."
Carroll said that the party will not endorse any candidate until after the first congressional primary on Aug. 9.
Students also reacted to the prospect of Vermont electing a woman to Congress. Selina Noor '22, who serves as the public relations and membership director of the Dartmouth Political Union, said she had discussed the race with other DPU leaders.
"[The DPU executives] were also talking about … the long-standing bias against anyone, other than white men, who hold office in Vermont," Noor said. "In the 2018 gubernational race, Christine Hallquist [a Democrat] was defeated, and she would have been Vermont's first female governor and first transgender governor in the country."
She also added that representation is key in encouraging women to run for office.
"When women start seeing results, … [women] will start to come out of the bubble and be more engaged," Noor said.


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text:
11/06/2021 Squash Reporter County Closed, NEWS 0
The delayed Northumbria County Closed 2021 finally took place at Tynemouth Squash Club from 20th to 24th October.
There was an encouraging number of entries for each event and very good attendance throughout, particularly on Finals Night.
In the Men's Senior A event, Liam Gutcher claimed his second title against first-time finalist and Newcastle University team-mate Chris Wiggins in three entertaining games.
Sam Ward had earlier secured the Ladies' Senior title for the 8th time beating 2016 champion Hannah Cliff in a repeat of the 2017 and 2018 finals, in three extremely close-fought games.
The Men's Senior B event was won by Lewis Cruz who beat Milo McKenzie 3-0, and the Men's Senior C title went to Matthew Mahoney who overcame Adam Coates 3-1.
In the Masters events, Peter Mcleod was made to work hard for his fourth Over 45 title, coming back from 2-0 down against Richard Bradley to win 3-2. Glenn Ward claimed both the Over 55 and Over 60 titles, with comfortable wins over Matt Tellyn and Peter Slaughter respectively. The inaugural Over 65 event attracted a good entry and was won by Adrian Alderton, beating Joe Witherspoon in a hard-fought match 3-1.
Racketball has a new champion in Mike Paul who overcame the first-ever lady finalist Maria Bainbridge 3-0.
Peter McLeod and Simon Cliff retained their Doubles crown for the umpteenth year in succession. Will they ever be beaten?
In the Plate events, there were wins for David Jackson (Men's A), Maria Bainbridge (Ladies), Lewis Conqueror (Men's B), Joe Elliott (Men's C), Jeremy Phillipson (Over 45), Peter Slaughter (Over 55), Tim Gorman (Over 60), John Thompson (Over 65) and Steve Brown (Racketball).
Thanks go to Adam Coates and Guy Eniona for organising the tournament, to Steve Cubbins for the photography and maintaining the County Closed site, and to Tynemouth for hosting. And not forgetting the crowd…
Only three months to wait for the County Closed 2022!
Event Winner Runner-up Score
A Liam Gutcher Chris Wiggins 3-0 (11/8 11/6 11/8)
Ladies Sam Ward Hanna Cliff 3-0 (12/10 11/4 15/13)
B Lewis Cruz Milo McKenzie 3-0 (11/6 11/4 11/3)
C Matthew Mahoney Adam Coates 3-1 (11/6 12/14 11/3 11/5)
O45 Peter McCleod Richard Bradley 3-2 (8/11 10/12 11/9 11/7 11/6)
O55 Glenn Ward Matt Tellyn 3-0 (11/5 11/5 11/2)
O60 Glenn Ward Peter Slaughter 3-0 (11/8 11/5 11/2)
O65 Adrian Alderton Joe Witherspoon 3-1 (16/14 6/11 11/1 11/5)
Doubles Peter McCleod & Simon Cliff Lewis Conquerer & Alex Storey
Racketball Michael Paul Maria Bainbridge 3-0 (11/2 11/6 11/9)
County Closed


text:
Q: Volume and stationary values
I don't understand how to do any of the above questions, would someone be able to give me some tips on what functions i'm supposed to use?

A: The question is not complete! I will work using
$$
V=4x^3-66x^2+216x
$$
Then
$$
\frac{dV}{dx}=\frac{d}{dx}(4x^3-66x^2+216x)=12x^2-132x+216
$$
Stationary point can be obtained by setting $\frac{dV}{dx}=0$.
\begin{align}
12x^2-132x+216&=0\\
12(x^2-11x+18)&=0\\
x^2-11x+18&=0
\end{align}
It only has one value, namely $x=2$ because:
\begin{align}
x^2-11x+18&=0\\
(x-9)(x-2)&=0\\
x=9\quad&;\quad x=2
\end{align}
$V(x) < 0$ for $x=9$ (impossible for physical quantity).
$$
\frac{d^2V}{dx^2}=\frac{d}{dx}(12x^2-132x+216)=24x-132
$$
$\cfrac{d^2V}{dx^2}=-84$ for $x=2$. Because $\cfrac{d^2V}{dx^2}<0$, then the stationary value is a maximum.


text:
By David SCHUCHARDT
animeEntertainment
Gintama final movie, at last the anime cinematic feature that will bring to a close at almost decade long journey. Ever since the project was announced there was some debate on whether or not it would be and anime film. Those questions have been put to rest for the release of the newest trailers for the film. The concern was quite bound as them light novel the series is based off of has sponsored numerous media sources. That being said, none of them quite handshaking and the of the science fiction/period light novel series. if the trailers are to be believe this movie finally well.
Gintama final movie has seen in mom and entertaining journey to reach this place series life. The franchise extends over almost a decade worth of source material the light novel series. It has introduced numerous characters beyond the primary three all of which have been hilarious an intense by turns. additionally, light novels inspired numerous anime seasons and two previous anime films. On top of that several live action theater productions have been made based on a series. That alone should speak to the popularity of the source material. Though, the fact that it also sold over 50 million copies also explains a great deal.
Gintama final movie will be based off the finale of the light and bring that to anime life. Though based on the information and will it will not 100% match the source material. However that is to be expected as the original anime did not either. Some of the changes involved some original story information and character designs. Additionally, the final chapters of the original light will are being converted into a new net only anime. This will be more or less its own story but will tie into the events of the movie. Gintama final movie will air in theaters sometime in 2021. Unfortunately for non-Japanese fans there is no confirmation of any translation schedules at this time. That being said Gintama final movie will most likely be so popular that it will available around the world.
Magnum PI season three premiers o'clock December 4, 2000. Fans of the series had been waiting for this day so uncle Len to be...


text:
Green builder unveils Zero Carbon Home design
Aspect Living today unveils its innovative design for an affordable, environmentally-friendly home in SA's pioneering Zero Carbon Challenge.
Woodside-based Energy Aspect Living has recruited a team of creative SA businesses, including iconoclastic cartoonist and architect Ross Bateup, to set a new standard in sustainable housing design. From today, Energy Aspect Living's Zero Carbon Home design will be on display in the State Library of SA as part of the Zero Carbon Challenge People's Choice contest. You can vote for the design either online or at the State Library until February 26.*
Backed by Land Management Corporation and the Integrated Design Commission, the Zero Carbon Challenge challenges SA's building industry to aim for "zero carbon" construction. The goal was to design a $300,000, three-bedroom home that minimises the environmental impact from embodied and operating energy during the 50-year life of the building.
As a specialist in environmentally sustainable house construction, Energy Aspect Living is one of just a handful of finalists to reach this stage of the Zero Carbon Challenge.
Energy Aspect Living director and licensed builder Danny Pauley said the Zero Carbon Challenge was a chance to show publicly what was possible today. "We believe compromise is not necessary if you want to look after the environment while building a home," he said.
"Green housing design needs to be about balance, not compromise, if we want to leave a great world for our kids – and for their children. We also wanted to show that South Australia has a local builder which is delivering nationally significant standards of sustainable housing."
Energy Aspect Living has adopted a practical, performance-orientated approach to the Zero Carbon Challenge, which means that its design is achievable in construction.
Mr. Pauley said the Energy Aspect Living team had designed more than a Zero Carbon House. "We've designed a Zero Carbon Home, an environmentally sustainable dwelling that balances a family's lifestyle needs with environmental demands," he said.
"Our Zero Carbon Home embraces nature, with a space-efficient design that takes advantage of free solar energy and refreshing breezes. Spacious openings capture and store the warmth of the winter sun to radiate at night while shading and a breezeway garden cool the air to make air conditioning redundant in summer. "
Energy Aspect Living's Zero Carbon Home design was undertaken by Ross Bateup's architectural design firm, Bateup Urban Design in association with JPE Studio.
* Vote for Team Energy Aspect Living by voting online via Facebook at http://vote.zch.com.au or casting your ballot at the SA State Library on the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide. Voting is open from February 15-26, 2012.
About Energy Aspect Living
Energy Aspect Living is a South Australian-based GreenSmart Award-winning builder that aims to lead Australia into a new era of sustainable homes and lifestyles. For more about the Energy Aspect Living Zero Carbon Home, visit http://www.zerocarbonhome.com.au
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