text:
Am Kinda Busy… Reading!
Release Day Blitzes
Blitzes
Silk by L.M. Pruitt
Bewitching Book Tours Horror Review Tour
By Nadine / 14th April 2016
L.M. Pruitt
They called it the murder tree.
In 1995, twenty kids went in to the woods. Only three came back alive.
There are monsters in the woods.
Twenty years later, what happened is still a mystery.
The monsters are back.
Now, the town of Silk faces its greatest threat in over two hundred years. No one is safe.
Not even the monsters.
Available for Pre-Order at Amazon
Brilliant! Bloody Bloody Brilliant!!!
Do you really need me to say anything else? Cause I really do not know how to even begin to explain how much Silk is fantastic! I got really sucked in from pretty much the second page and I could not for the life of me put it down.
Fair enough, I have a hard time putting books down in general, but I really got so caught up in the story I actually had to force myself to put my kindle down and get some sleep at 3am. For me it was as close to perfection as it could be when it comes to my personal preferences in everything story telling related.
The characters were great, with enough of a back story and flashback for you to get to know them and love them especially Eli and Shep our main protagonists. I just loved them from the get go as kids in the first chapter then all the way as adults in the rest of the book.
Though it is not very often I start a book with a mass murder, it really did not put me off but got me sucked in a matter of seconds, especially when we discover the gruesome history of the town our story takes place in. See, that is all it takes to make me happy!
The writing was super fluid, great fantastic pace, lots of action and twists, a little bit of kink and that for me makes it a wonderful combination.
As I said from the get go Brilliant! I am sure going to be adding Mrs. Pruitt to my to watch and get more books list for sure after reading Silk as my intro novel to her work.
If what I said just peaked your interest, then I strongly suggest you use the link above and grab a copy, you will not regret it!
The kids did, anyway. To the adults, those people who no longer believed in ghost stories and things that went bump in the night, it was known as the old Litz tree. The last living monument to the family who founded the town before Georgia was even a state, giving their money and lives in the process.
The adults liked to gloss over that particular part of the story when discussing the history of Mulberry.
The kids preferred to linger on it.
Most of them knew the story of the night the Litz family lost their lives before they were even able to read the decades old textbooks grudgingly provided by the Department of Education. By the time they graduated to junior high, all the kids—the cool ones, at least, the ones you wanted at your party or it wasn't really a party—had camped out next to the murder tree. More than one high school girl had allowed her boyfriend to "comfort" her in the shadow of the ancient mulberry after listening to the story of the Litz family yet again.
You weren't a part of Mulberry until you had spent your time at the murder tree.
It was the only reason Elias Crenshaw could think of for why he was freezing his balls off on what was shaping up to be the coldest night of the year.
That and the fact Mandy Jones had promised him she'd be there. The way she'd told him, with just the tiniest smile of her bubblegum pink lips and a flutter of lashes, was enough to keep him warm.
But only for another hour. After that, he was going home. The guys could rag him all they wanted on Monday morning. They'd be the one with bug bites and frozen fingers and all the other stupid things that happened when you spent the night in the frickin' woods. He'd be warm and rested and all studied up for the big biology exam in sixth period.
Man, if he didn't get at least a C his parents were going to flip. They'd already been on the fence about letting him camp out the Friday before a test. If he failed, they wouldn't let him out of the house again until the end of the school year. He'd be the only kid not allowed to go the eighth grade prom.
Mandy Jones would never go out with him if he was the loser kid who didn't go to the prom.
"Your face is going to freeze like that."
Elias snorted. "No, it won't."
"Yeah, it will." Shephard Jackson widened her already big brown eyes—bug eyes, Mandy called them—and nodded solemnly. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Probably the wrong thing to say when we're next to the murder tree." Elias tilted toward her, leaning in with his whole body before hunching his shoulders and shivering. "What are you doing here? I thought you weren't allowed in the woods after dark."
"I'm not." She huffed out a breath, the puff of frosty air doing nothing to dislodge the white blonde hair seemingly glued to her forehead. She'd bleached it the week before on a dare, just like she'd pierced her nose last month and broken in to the library the month before that. "But that's Kelly's stupid rule. She keeps trying to act like she's my mom or something."
"Well, she married your dad." Elias winced when she reached over and smacked him on the back of his head. "Jesus, Shep."
"You're not supposed to take her side. You're supposed to take mine." She sniffled and swiped her hand under her nose. "That's what best friends do."
"Fine, whatever." When Shep sighed, Elias rolled his eyes. "It's a stupid rule and she's a bitch and she should stop trying to act like she's your mom."
"Thank you." The pseudo sniffling immediately stopped and she leaned in to him, her slight frame weighing next to nothing. After a moment, she said, "What are you doing here?"
"Rite of passage." He nodded at the small group clustered around the carefully constructed fire. Albert had insisted they follow all the safety rules for lighting a fire in the woods, reminding everyone of Smokey the Bear's immortal saying. "Supposed to be more people coming. Real party."
"Oh, please." She scoffed, the harsh exhalation shaking her entire body. "You're here because Mandy Jones said she was going to be here. Her and her little group. They're so… ugh." She shook her head before turning to scowl at him. "You couldn't fall in love with some girl who can actually have a conversation for longer than five minutes without mentioning cheerleading or makeup?"
"First, I'm not in love with her." Elias returned her scowl, narrowing his eyes to slits. "We barely know each other." Truth, even though he'd spent countless hours imagining what it would be like to kiss her. "Second, just because she's not fighting the power or whatever you do when you're not pissing off your stepmom doesn't make her stupid. She's really smart."
"Eli, she said it was ridiculous to have the term 'african-american' because if you were born in America you obviously couldn't be from Africa."
"Well." He paused, racking his brain for an explanation even as he winced. "You know, there are a lot of adults who feel the same way. Like we should all just embrace our current culture and let of our heritage."
"Right." Shep snorted and rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She jerked her chin at the fire. "Let's go. Story time."
"Oh, come on." He groaned, digging in his heels half-heartedly when she tried to drag him toward the group. They both knew it would be impossible for her to move him unless he helped. She was a hundred pounds soaking wet, barely topping five feet while he'd gained twenty pounds since school started. The only reason he wasn't as fat as a turkey was the corresponding growth spurt, the new six inches putting him dangerously close to six feet. "Not again. We've heard this thing a million times."
"So this will be a million and one. Come on." She yanked his arm harder, grumbling something under her breath about ogres. "It's tradition to tell the story at every campout. Besides…." She trailed off, smiling up at him and batting her lashes. "I'm pretty sure Mandy finally arrived."
"Well, in that case." He laughed when she gasped, using her moment of feigned shock to scoop her up and toss her over his shoulder in a fireman's hold. "You know what's really great about having you as a best friend? You're easy to pick up when we're fighting."
"You're such a troglodyte." Shep pounded on his back with her fists, biting back a scream when he took a step forward. "If anybody sees me, I swear—on my mom's grave—I will make your life miserable for the rest of the year."
He paused, not at the threat, but the oath. After a minute, he dropped her back to her feet, brushing a speck of something off the shoulder of her jacket. They stared at each other, the awkwardness of the silence nearly tangible. Finally, he said, "Sorry, Shep."
"Whatever." Spinning on her heels, she stomped toward the far side of the group, the laces of her combat boots slithering over the dead leaves like a snake. She slid between Albert and Jacob, sneering at something one of them said. Elias watched for another minute before shoving his hands in his pockets and trudging over to join the growing group.
"Hey, Elias." Mandy half walked, half skipped up to him as he neared the fire, linking her arm with his. "I thought you were going to spend all night talking to that weirdo."
"She's not a weirdo." The defense was as automatic as breathing. "Her mom died, remember? Like, right in front of her. She's just, you know, grieving."
"Right." Mandy sighed, the sort of huge, exaggerated sigh Elias knew meant annoyance at his supposed ignorance. His older sister made the same noise every time he asked her a question. "Whatever. I didn't come out to these stupid woods to talk about her." She smiled at him, the fire casting shadows over her normally light and bright face. "I came to hang out with you."
"Dude, we're waiting." Isiah Graves, Elias's second best friend—but number one guy best friend, as Isiah was quick to point out—raised his voice to an almost shout. Since he'd been the one to propose the campout, he'd insisted he get to tell the story of the murder tree. Elias didn't bother reminding him it was a hollow honor. "Story and then party. Rules are rules, man."
"Nobody cares except for you." Jacob Wesson had the honor of being the oldest person in the group by a month and the first to have a voice which didn't crack at random moments. "Just get this boring ass shit over with before I die of fucking boredom."
"Okay, okay." Isiah hunched his shoulders and shuffled his feet, shooting a glare around the group at large before straightening to his full height. "The year was 1748. The town of Mulberry was struggling, just as it had been since the Litz family arrived from Germany with a dream of producing silk and other luxury goods."
"He sounds like a really dorky version of Mr. Young." Mandy's breathy whisper smelled like cinnamon and Elias closed his eyes for a split second, inhaling deeply. When he opened them again, she was watching him with a knowing look.
"Everybody else in the town wanted to use the land for rice, something they could use and sell. But the Litz's refused to give up their dream." Isiah paused, drawing out the attempt at suspense. "Finally, the people of Mulberry decided enough was enough."
Even though everybody knew how the story went, how it ended, every last one of them inched closer. The next part of the tale was always told in a voice barely above a whisper, as if the long dead participants would hear and interrupt to correct the teller on some minute point. Tonight was no exception.
"The entire town, everybody except the children, marched out to the Litz homestead. Josiah Litz tried to talk them down, make them see reason, but he failed." Isiah stepped back and pointed up at a thick limb jutting out from the trunk in a crooked line. "They strung him up here but the fall didn't break his neck. So he watched while the town slaughtered his entire family."
He paused again, the group holding its collective breath. The leaves, long dead but stubbornly clinging to their branches, shivered as a faint wind blew through the forest. Mandy moved closer to Elias and he put his arm around her, ignoring Shep's eye roll.
Isiah waited a beat longer. "Or rather—almost his entire family.
"They forgot the oldest son was returning from New York. Franz Litz had been gone so long, it was possible the town had forgotten he even existed." Isiah rapped his knuckles on the tree trunk, nodding solemnly. "But Josiah hadn't. And while he slowly suffocated to death under the weight of his own body, he swore his family would have their revenge. And they did.
"While the town burned the house and the trees and buried the bodies of the Litz family, Franz, who'd witnessed everything from the safety of the woods, rode in to Mulberry." Isiah stepped back in to the circle, his low voice forcing everybody to move closer in order to hear. "And hung every last child."
The wind gusted through the woods again, stronger this time, the trees rattling their limbs in protest. Somewhere in the distance, some animal let out a single short cry, quickly cut off by the crunching of something larger and more dangerous. Elias glanced around the circle, surprised at the number of pale faces and large eyes, even as he reminded himself it was only a story.
"The townspeople caught him right after he hung his last victim, a baby barely a month old. They hauled him, kicking and screaming, back to the murder tree." As one, they turned to look at the ancient mulberry. "Even as they put the rope around his neck, he fought. His last words before the noose broke his neck were 'A cursed ground bears only poisonous fruit'."
"Or so they say." Jacob snorted and shook his head. "Whatever, dude. Stupid story about a whole bunch of dead people." He nudged Shep with his shoulder and laughed. "Fuck'em. Let's party."
The circle broke up in to smaller groups, twos and threes and fours, each cluster wandering away from the murder tree. Mandy gripped Elias's arm tighter and shivered. "That was so scary, right?"
"Right." He wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not and the smell of her floral perfume was too distracting for him to try and figure it out one way or the other. "So, uh, did you want to go for a walk or something?"
"A walk?" She laughed and shook her head. "Uh, no." Still laughing, she slipped away from him, reaching up and pushing her shiny lemon-yellow hair behind her shoulders. "I actually need to go talk to Shanna about the routine for the game tomorrow."
"Right." Elias nodded dumbly. "Uh, right. Good luck with that. I'll just… go… talk to Isiah."
Elias hunched his shoulders, stalking over to the base of the murder tree. Isiah studied his face, rocking on his heels before sucking air through his teeth. "Man, that was an epic crash and burn. Epic."
"Shut up." Elias punched him, pulling back at the last second. Isiah was nearly as skinny as Shep but more fragile looking, as if a good solid blow would break him in two. "She had to go do cheerleading stuff."
"Cheerleading stuff." Isiah snorted. "She's such a fucking tease."
"Dude, stop." Elias looked up as another gust of wind shook the branches, a handful of leaves falling down around them like confetti. "Did you have to pick the coldest night ever to do this thing?"
"Nah, that was just luck." The other boy grinned and attempted to wiggle his eyebrows. "Pretty spooky, right?"
"Whatever." Elias nudged him with his elbow. "You bring any good snacks or what?"
The crying woke him up.
At first it was just part of the dream. A good dream. A dream where Mandy Jones was dancing with him at prom, telling him how awesome he was and how great he looked and how much she loved him. And then he heard crying but when he looked at Mandy she was still smiling and telling him how she couldn't wait to kiss him.
"Elias, wake up. Wake up, Elias, wake up."
"G'way." He rolled over, smashing his face in the lining of his sleeping bag. "Sleeping."
"Wake up, please, Eli."
At the use of his childhood nickname, he rolled back over, opening his eyes until he was able to squint through heavy lids. "Shep?"
"Quiet." She cupped her hand over his mouth, leaning down and pressing her lips to his ear. When her cheek touched his, he realized the smooth skin was wet. "We have to run before he finds us."
He tried to speak again, glaring at her in the dark when she dug her nails in to his jaw. After a moment, he realized she was attempting to turn his head. Rather than struggle, he let her, blinking in an effort to get his eyes to adjust to the nearly non-existent light.
At first he thought someone had thrown a sleeping bag over a branch. Stupid kid stuff. But the longer he stared, the less sense that made and the more details he began to see. Like how it—whatever it was—was thinner at the top, like a rope, before becoming pudgy and then narrowing down to a gentle v shape. How it swung back and forth slowly like an overweight pendulum. How it made a wet, gurgling sound which raised the hairs all over his body.
And then the moon broke free of the clouds and Elias realized it wasn't a sleeping bag. Not even close.
And it wasn't the only one hanging from the branches of the murder tree.
He started to scramble to his feet—to run or hide or help his friends—only for Shep to yank him back down. Her voice was tight and thin when she said, "They're dead. They're all dead. We have to go."
Nodding dumbly, he let her pull him further away from the tree, deeper in to the woods. She'd begged and pleaded and whined until he'd agreed to sleep next to her, as far away from the fire as possible while still being in the clearing. The tangle of bushes had provided extra coverage against the northern wind, something he'd been thankful for as the fire died down and the cold set in.
"My shoes." Even though he knew he spoke, he was barely able to hear himself through her hand. "Shep."
"There's no time." As if to prove her point, she stomped her own bare foot on top of his. "Come on."
In the darkness behind them, someone giggled.
They ran.
Elias glanced over his shoulder, nearly tripping and falling when he saw a fire, this one easily twice as big as the one Albert had so carefully built hours earlier. And standing around it were a half dozen figures, lit by the ghoulish flames.
The faces—long, narrow, big-eyed, slack-jawed, smiling, drooling—were the last things Elias remembered for a very, very long time.
L.M. Pruitt has been reading since before she can remember, and writing nearly as long. She fell in love with New Orleans after spending one week there, and visits the city as often as her schedule permits–which isn't nearly often enough. She is the best selling author of the Jude Magdalyn series, the Moon Rising series, the Frankie Post series, and the Winged series. She makes her home in Florida.
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Amazon / Goodreads
Order the book before April 18 and receive
a free short story and signed bookmark
Please visit http://www.lmpruitt.org/SILK.php for details
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text:
Join us for our July 4th Concert & Laser Show!
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The Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra Association
Welcome to the Silver Screen ~ Great Movies bring Great Music
About the KVSO
Symphony Sounds
KVSO
The KVSO Conductor, Dr. Alan Dennis
The KVSO Concert Master, Rachel Jacklin
The Women's Guild
Youth Symphony (KVYSO)
About the KVYSO
The KVYSO Music Director / Conductor
KVYSO Committee Members
The History of the KVYSO
Contact the KVSO
The Kankakee Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra started in 2000, before its first rehearsal, after leaders of the KVSOA visited area schools and explained the new group. In fact, the history of the KVYSO really goes back further than that, when a symphony backer donated money to the symphony to be set aside specifically to re-establish a youth orchestra that once existed here.
The KVYSO gives music students the opportunity to play classical music and it gives string musicians an opportunity to play with a full orchestra, two experiences that are often lacking in many area high schools. Some members of the youth orchestra are also members of the KVSOA, which is open to high school and junior high school students, as well as music teachers and other musicians. The youth orchestra is also providing scholarships so some students can attend music camps this summer.
In the long run, Gene Bahls, past president of the KVSOA, said he foresees that the youth symphony will help maintain and increase the quality of musicians and music teaching here. A youth symphony is a strong 'draw' for bringing more high quality music teachers to the area.
Secondly, and perhaps equally important, is that parents of the youth symphony, will have a greater opportunity to hear the KVSO and become season ticket holders.
Everett Flanigan, past president of the KVYSO board, pointed out that not only are orchestras members top musicians, they are also top students. For instance, more than half the students are taking 'weighted classes' – tougher courses that award more points toward graduation. And, not only did the students volunteer to join the KVYSO, but they paid tuition to receive university-level instruction.
He said that the orchestra exceeded his expectations during the last school year because he anticipated greater problems getting nearly 50 young people of varying abilities and backgrounds to work closely together. He found that the orchestra members are mature, dedicated and 'love what they are doing'.
To visit the official site of the Kankakee Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra, please click here.
Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra
PO BOX 52 Kankakee, IL 60901
Copyright © 2019 – the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra Association.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
from node import nullid, short
from i18n import _
import util, error

def findcommonincoming(repo, remote, heads=None, force=False):
    """Return a tuple (common, fetch, heads) used to identify the common
    subset of nodes between repo and remote.

    "common" is a list of (at least) the heads of the common subset.
    "fetch" is a list of roots of the nodes that would be incoming, to be
      supplied to changegroupsubset.
    "heads" is either the supplied heads, or else the remote's heads.
    """

    m = repo.changelog.nodemap
    search = []
    fetch = set()
    seen = set()
    seenbranch = set()
    base = set()

    if not heads:
        heads = remote.heads()

    if repo.changelog.tip() == nullid:
        base.add(nullid)
        if heads != [nullid]:
            return [nullid], [nullid], list(heads)
        return [nullid], [], heads

    # assume we're closer to the tip than the root
    # and start by examining the heads
    repo.ui.status(_("searching for changes\n"))

    unknown = []
    for h in heads:
        if h not in m:
            unknown.append(h)
        else:
            base.add(h)

    if not unknown:
        return list(base), [], list(heads)

    req = set(unknown)
    reqcnt = 0

    # search through remote branches
    # a 'branch' here is a linear segment of history, with four parts:
    # head, root, first parent, second parent
    # (a branch always has two parents (or none) by definition)
    unknown = util.deque(remote.branches(unknown))
    while unknown:
        r = []
        while unknown:
            n = unknown.popleft()
            if n[0] in seen:
                continue

            repo.ui.debug("examining %s:%s\n"
                          % (short(n[0]), short(n[1])))
            if n[0] == nullid: # found the end of the branch
                pass
            elif n in seenbranch:
                repo.ui.debug("branch already found\n")
                continue
            elif n[1] and n[1] in m: # do we know the base?
                repo.ui.debug("found incomplete branch %s:%s\n"
                              % (short(n[0]), short(n[1])))
                search.append(n[0:2]) # schedule branch range for scanning
                seenbranch.add(n)
            else:
                if n[1] not in seen and n[1] not in fetch:
                    if n[2] in m and n[3] in m:
                        repo.ui.debug("found new changeset %s\n" %
                                      short(n[1]))
                        fetch.add(n[1]) # earliest unknown
                    for p in n[2:4]:
                        if p in m:
                            base.add(p) # latest known

                for p in n[2:4]:
                    if p not in req and p not in m:
                        r.append(p)
                        req.add(p)
            seen.add(n[0])

        if r:
            reqcnt += 1
            repo.ui.progress(_('searching'), reqcnt, unit=_('queries'))
            repo.ui.debug("request %d: %s\n" %
                        (reqcnt, " ".join(map(short, r))))
            for p in xrange(0, len(r), 10):
                for b in remote.branches(r[p:p + 10]):
                    repo.ui.debug("received %s:%s\n" %
                                  (short(b[0]), short(b[1])))
                    unknown.append(b)

    # do binary search on the branches we found
    while search:
        newsearch = []
        reqcnt += 1
        repo.ui.progress(_('searching'), reqcnt, unit=_('queries'))
        for n, l in zip(search, remote.between(search)):
            l.append(n[1])
            p = n[0]
            f = 1
            for i in l:
                repo.ui.debug("narrowing %d:%d %s\n" % (f, len(l), short(i)))
                if i in m:
                    if f <= 2:
                        repo.ui.debug("found new branch changeset %s\n" %
                                          short(p))
                        fetch.add(p)
                        base.add(i)
                    else:
                        repo.ui.debug("narrowed branch search to %s:%s\n"
                                      % (short(p), short(i)))
                        newsearch.append((p, i))
                    break
                p, f = i, f * 2
            search = newsearch

    # sanity check our fetch list
    for f in fetch:
        if f in m:
            raise error.RepoError(_("already have changeset ")
                                  + short(f[:4]))

    base = list(base)
    if base == [nullid]:
        if force:
            repo.ui.warn(_("warning: repository is unrelated\n"))
        else:
            raise util.Abort(_("repository is unrelated"))

    repo.ui.debug("found new changesets starting at " +
                 " ".join([short(f) for f in fetch]) + "\n")

    repo.ui.progress(_('searching'), None)
    repo.ui.debug("%d total queries\n" % reqcnt)

    return base, list(fetch), heads

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Vietnamese script born in Thanh Chiem Palace: reports
Thanh Chiem Palace (1602-1883) was a cradle of Vietnamese romanized script and the priest Francisco de Pina (1585-1625) was the founder of the modern writing system of the Vietnamese language.
VNA Friday, August 26, 2016 10:53
Historians discuss Thanh Chiem Palace's history, value
Wednesday, August 24, 2016 19:14
Quang Nam explores Vietnam's modern writing system
Saturday, August 20, 2016 18:16
An old map of the Thanh Chiem Palace is on display at a workshop on the palace and Vietnamese script in Quang Nam Province (Source: VNA)
Quang Nam (VNA) - Thanh Chiem Palace (1602-1883) was a cradle of Vietnamese romanized script and the priest Francisco de Pina (1585-1625) was the founder of the modern writing system of the Vietnamese language.
Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Historical Science Duong Trung Quoc made the claims in a scientific conference on Thanh Chiem Palace and Vietnamese Script in Dien Ban Town on August 25.
Quoc said over 30 out of 70 reports revealed the existence of the defunct palace and the introduction of the Vietnamese writing system attached to western missionaries.
"The modern Vietnamese writing system emerged as a 'river' that was created by different 'streams', and the first westerners came to the country to study Vietnamese language and create Vietnamese script by borrowing Latin to transcribe Vietnamese," Quoc told Vietnam News on the sidelines of the conference.
"Hoi An was seen as a busy trading port in previous centuries, and it was an entrance for cultural and Christian preachers in the south of Vietnam," Quoc said.
He said the latest documents found and studied by researchers, priests and scientists have determined the conclusion of the founding of the Vietnamese writing system and Thanh Chiem Palace was named as its place of origin and the first school specialising in the teaching of Vietnamese script.
Quoc, who is member of the National Council of Heritage, emphasised that Thanh Chiem Palace was seen as a threshold in enlarging the country's territory under the Nguyen Dynasty.
Researcher Nguyen Van Dang said Thanh Chiem Palace played a role as a big centre of administration, culture and military in the south of the country in the 1600s.
He said it sheltered at least 5,000 warriors and a big ship-yard in what is now Dien Phong Commune on the Thu Bon River bank.
He said the Palace, which was believed to be built in 1602, also provided warriors for the expansion of the country's territory southward.
Professor Hoang Chuong from Vietnam Centre of Research and Preservation of Culture, said ancient documents related to the priest Francisco de Pina revealed that he had lived in Nuoc Man (now Binh Dinh Province) and Thanh Chiem Palace, and he was the only western missionary speaking Vietnamese fluently.
Chuong also said the introduction of the Vietnamese writing system would be from 1618-21 before Alexandre De Rhodes (1591-1660), a French Jesuit missionary and lexicographer, continued uncompleted research on Francisco de Pina during a move to the north of Vietnam (1635-1645).
According to priest Nguyen Truong Thang, a dictionary of Vietnamese script-Latin-Portuguese, which was contributed by Francisco de Pina and his then students, was believed to have been printed in Rome in 1651.
He said historical documents of the Society of Jesus (or Societas Iesu in Latin) in Vi e t n am also revealed that Francisco de Pina had lived in Thanh Chiem Palace in 1620.
Historian Dương Trung Quoc said in a previous conference in 2002 that Thanh Chiem Palace had been identified with old documents and three archaeological field studies in 1999, 2000 and 2001 by Japanese experts from Showa Women's University in Japan.
Nguyen Quang Sinh, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Science and Technology, said archaeology studies on ancient tombs at the church of Anre Phu Yen in Dien Phuong Commune in Dien Bien Town are needed to clarify the resting place of Francisco de Pina.
He said the palace, which was recognised as a provincial relic in 2008, should be protected as a National special relic for further research in the future.
Sinh said that now the land area of Nguyen Du Primary School in Dien Phuong Commune was sited as the former foundation of Thanh Chiem Palace.
He said artifacts and ceramic jars and fragments found in the 1990s excavations also proved the existence of the old palace.-VNA
Thanh Chiem Palace modern writing system Vietnamese script Related stories Quang Nam
The HCM City administration has unveiled a draft design for the 18th annual Nguyen Hue Flower Street to celebrate the coming Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.
Breath-taking flower field in So Luon, Moc Chau
With the spectacular view of the flower field, people living in So Luon village, Muong Sang commune, Moc Chau district, Son La province have a peaceful and picturesque life.
Tourism park reopens to restore Vietnam's thousand-year-old culture
"Mot thoang Viet Nam" (Vietnam at a Glance), a tourism park recreating the beauty of Vietnam's thousand-year-old traditional culture located on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, was reopened on January 16 after 10 years.
New puppetry show promises fresh experience of Vietnamese culture
The Hanoi-based Vietnam National Puppetry Theatre has launched an experimental art programme named "Trang" (The Moon) that features different types of puppetry to offer the audience a new experience of the Vietnamese culture.
Exhibition on CPV to mark 13th National Party Congress
An exhibition on the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) will be held at the Vietnam Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts in Hanoi from January 18-24 to mark the CPV's 91st founding anniversary (February 3, 1930 - 2021) and welcome the upcoming 13th National Party Congress.


Lord Ruthven a écrit : L'article du dernier Mad te rejoins assez.
donc ça fait des années qu'on nous parle d'une oeuvre de génie totalement défigurée et en fait non, comme on pouvait s'en douter, elle était juste déjà moisie à la base.
Commissaire Tanzi a écrit : Changer la merde en or, c'est plus du montage mais de l'alchimie!
Pourquoi ? Ils refusent de vendre les droits à des sociétés françaises à cause de la non participation de la France à la guerre en Irak ?
The restoration that horror fans everywhere have been waiting for is arriving just in time for Halloween: Shout! Factory has revealed a street date and other info for its Scream Factory release of Clive Barker's Director's Cut of NIGHTBREED, which will have two different editions.
The two-disc Special Edition will contain the Unrated Director's Cut on both Blu-ray and DVD, with bonus features to be announced. The Limited Edition will retail for $79.97, and the Special Edition for $29.93; those who order the Limited Edition directly from Shout! Factory's website will receive an exclusive 18 x 24-inch poster of the new artwork while supplies last.
The Director's Cut will contain restored film footage, as opposed to the video scenes on view in THE CABAL CUT. Says Barker, in an official statement, "This is film history and beyond my wildest dreams of realization. When Scream Factory told me that they found the NIGHTBREED film footage I was gob-smacked! This is the ultimate validation of choices made by myself and Mark Miller [of Seraphim Films] all the way back in 2008. As we embarked down the road of attempting to track down the lost footage, we looked at each other and said, 'Maybe one day they'll find it.' It's my pleasure to announce that the day has come.
"Speaking personally, I didn't allow myself to believe that it would. Even if we did find some footage (which we did in 2009 in the form of heavily degraded VHS tapes) and even if we did find a company willing to release the film (which we did in 2013 with Scream Factory, God bless them) the prospect of finding the actual lost film materials was remoter than I'd wanted to admit out loud. If the footage could not be found by those who had worked closest on it the same year it had been released, then what were the odds we'd be able to find anything 20 years on? But Scream Factory, in their commendable determination, kept up the search and thanks to them total reconstruction has been made a possibility.


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text:
They call this listening?
By inky pete, August 1, 2013 in Local Issues
grey_man 202
LocationNewcastle under Lyme
No problem with that Baz, if they are making money off the back of us, they should be re investing it for our benefit.
What they should also be doing is listening to local businesses.
Interesting stats from Cleo there. They are quite obviously targeting this particular car park as a way of making money from fines.
Local business also want cheaper rents and taxes should they listen to that as well, the council need to generate money, it's as simple as that.
P J 142
LocationCallands
Can't fine you if you don't do anything wrong. Perhaps that is where the profitable car park claims come from, fines not fees. I wouldn't be surprised if there was less of a constraint on how money raised by fines can be spent compared with money raised by fees
Steve Parish 10
What WBC are doing could be construed as being illegal unless they can show that every penny of profit goes towards other road projects such as pot holes etc.....
"Transport minister Norman Baker said: "The law is quite clear. Councils should not be pricing their parking in order to make a profit."
"Last week, the High Court ruled against Barnet Council's move to raise the cost of residents' parking permits in a landmark victory for campaigners.
Mrs Justice Lang ruled that the council acted unlawfully when it increased permit costs to generate more money for road maintenance."
But the council doesn't make any profit on car parking in Warrington so that doesn't apply.
Why should car users get a subsidy (free or cheap parking) that people without cars don't?
wolfie 299
LocationHere and now
What use is a special lane for cyclists if you haven't got a bike?
LocationOrford
Well buses are subsidized, cyclists are subsidized they get cycle lanes and places to put their bikes. If they dump their bike in the doorway or in the middle of a pavement, they do not get the Gestepo issuing them with fines, they can even ride their bikes on pavements. Motorists subsidies them, in the tax they pay in road tax, fuel duty, VAT, car park charges!
While I understand the need for the council to raise money and 50p isn't going to bankrupt anyone, go to far and you are in danger of driving people away, no people, no shops, no rates, no income from parking. The £10 charge for parking over 4 hours is a joke, and so is £4 for parking over two hours.
Have you ever heard off loss leaders?, it were you attract people in by making a loss on something and making a greater profit else where.
Of course you have because that is why the council do not charge on a Sunday, to attract shoppers. NOw I am really confused because, if the council thinks this works on a Sunday why would it not work on other days???
Bazj 500
LocationWestbrook.... middle of nowhere
Steve, if the council do not make a profit, do they make a loss? and if so why not get rid of the parking Nazis and save money? I thought that is what you were always banging on about doing anyway....
as for the last line; well others have already answered but I would have to agree and point out that not only are buses subsidised, they run across the town virtually empty for most of the day and only seem to fill up at rush hour....... and as for subsidising bicyclists; well you know my opinions on the waste of money that cycle lanes are in the town and how the bikes never even go near the lanes..... in fact, as a car driver, I am more likely not to be involved in a collision with a bike if I drive on the cycle lanes!
So, Steve, you think it's unfair that people with cars should be allowed to park free while those without cars don't park free? Bit Irish is that me auld lovie. Simple solution (continuing in the Irish vein) would be to allow those without cars free parking too.
Are there no drives for rent in S/Heath?!
You're right Steve. Much better for the council to put shops out of business. They're telling you the parking 'strategy' is harming their businesses so how do you square that with the Council's own plan for 2013-14 which specifically states that it should support local businesses? Do you see any conflict?
How is Bridge Street doing these days under the council's stewardship? Maybe if you put some planters down there, people won't notice it's dead. Oh, you're already trying that. Good luck.
Now I know you think it's only fair that people should only pay for those things they use, what would this new policy mean for Warrington's schools, public transport and social services and everything else? Surcharges for people with children? A profit making local bus service and increased fares? How about privatising everything so that we only pay for the things we use? How would you see that working? Do tell.
While you're campaigning for that don't forget that a great deal of the parking deficit comes from the council's own parking arrangements for employees. So I'll expect to see you fighting tooth and nail to get the subsidy removed from councillors and employees. Keep us updated on progress.
Any suggestions on how the council could keep it revenue streams up grey man, or are you here just to criticise, most high streets in towns are dying,
They should try things that don't harm local businesses. That can only be counterproductive in the long term.
Now if you don't mind I'm eagerly awaiting to hear Steve's plans to make sure people only pay for the council services they use.
I'm eagerly awaiting yours, looks like I'm in for await as well
I think I've already said. If the system in Stockton Heath was making a surplus already and supported local businesses and the medical centre and minimised the disruption to local residents through on-street parking and everybody was happy with it then there was no need to change it. The medical centre is now writing 50 letters a week to the council to support parking appeals, local businesses are losing trade and it's a problem for the neighbours.
The deficit in parking is actually down to staff car parking at the council and residents on-street parking schemes so they should be looking at decreasing costs and improving income in those areas before they break something that was both profitable and working. If the changes had no impact on people and businesses, there'd be no problem. But they do and it is, so the council has got it wrong and is actually doing something that runs counter to its own stated strategic objectives.
But the car parks at Lymm are still always full so I don't see how it has put folk off parking there and going into the village. Even before the changes to the car park fees there was always a problem with inconsiderate , illegal parking which I put down to ignorance or an over inflated sense of self importance.
That is true and it will always happen. I also know that the most inconsiderate often seem to be the ones who kick off most when they are caught out.
I don't know anything about the situation in Lymm so can't comment. I do know what is happening in Stockton Heath though and the council have made a mistake.
Has there been a significant drop in the use of the car park in Stockton Heath? Seems just as busy on the streets as it was before the changes to the parking fees
People are staying for shorter periods and using the local roads for parking more. What we also know is that local traders are seeing a fall off in trade and it's causing problems for the medical centre.
middlec 10
LocationSouth of the canal
Maybe I'm missing something here. But I'm old enough to remember that car parks, in towns and villages, were created for the benefit of those people who wanted to visit and shop there. Free! An amenity. Not necessarily for the locals who lived there (as some have pointed out here) but for those folk coming in from surrounding areas. Bringing trade to the area. Local businesses depended on it. Car parks were looked at as a loss leader, they cost money to run them, but were considered essential for the successful economy of the area, so cost was offset by the benefits to the area. Then somewhere along the line, councils thought," I know, forget the amenity bit, let's make money from this" and looked at parking as a profit making business, claiming we must cover our costs? Why?-To the detriment of the area. It's driven shoppers to places where the parking is free. Are there any councillors who have anything other than a block of wood between the ears who can't see this? Look at Warrington shops, Bridge Street is a prime example. It's almost a deserted eyesore. Not exactly a shining example of a good town shopping area, is it? And how about the Bridgefoot Riverside Retail Park....try parking there and being one minute over the allotted time, or getting the car wheels slightly over the white lines and you will be faced with fines, clamping and the wrath of those security heavies. Real draconian enforcement measures in place there! That really encourages shoppers to the area, doesn't it? Let's chase the business away and then afterwards wonder why! Now they are trying to implement the same procedures on places like Stockton Heath. These council lunatics are running the asylum! But they don't and won't listen and see the obvious, so I think the best thing is just to give up and go and lie down in a cool darkened room.
Maybe I'm missing something here. But I'm old enough to remember that car parks, in towns and villages, were created for the benefit of those people who wanted to visit and shop there. Free! An amenity. And not necessarily for the locals who lived there, but for those folk coming in from surrounding areas. Bringing trade to the area. Businesses depended on it. Then somewhere along the line, councils thought," I know, let's make money from this" and looked at parking not as an amenity, but as a profit making business. What has happened? It's driven shoppers to places where the parking is free. Are there any councillors who have anything other than a block of wood between the ears who can't see this? Look at Warrington shops, Bridge Street for example. Not exactly a shining example of a good town shopping area, is it? And how about the Riverside Retail Park....try parking there and not buying anything, or getting the wheels slightly off the white lines and you will face hefty fines. Draconian. Now that's clever thinking isn't it, force shoppers away. Now they are trying to implement the same procedures on places like Stockton Heath. These council lunatics are running the asylum! But they don't and won't listen and see the obvious, so I think I will just give up and go and lie down in a cool darkened room.
The problem is car parks need maintaining, insuring, lighting and so on and the money has to be found some place.
However I do not understand why employee parking and residential permits are lumped together with car parking. Most employers do not charge for parking and so their car parks run at a loss, car parking for employees is a cost of employing them.
As for residential parking, how can you loose money on them? Print out a permit, charge for it and the only other cost is a few street signs
I am not sure if all of Warrington's town center parking is to do with parking charges, the rates charged on businesses is also a major contributor to businesses not able to afford to trade in Warrington. The traffic chaos around Warrington can be off putting too (although it is not as bad as to the Trafford Center)
They'll be charging kids to play on the council playgrounds next...............
Dizzy 394
Forum Dunce
Locationsomewhere near to where I am
Maybe you shouldn't have said that Baz incase they read and 'think'
whatever way they do it Kije; they are not allowed to increase parking charges to fund other projects..... it is illegal
Personally I'm just dying to hear more about Steve Parish's idea that people should only pay for the council services they use. Seems like a non-starter to me but maybe he has a point. Come on Steve.
he hasn't responded yet Grey_Man.... although he has been on this thread (I saw he was active on here yesterday!!)


Lines and angles. Everywhere you look. Buildings lean in at you, closing off the sky and forming strange relationships with the earth below … inhuman but of our own making. Wires stretch across the sky forming patterns and the simple porch of a farmhouse becomes a study in form and shape.
It's the view from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, upward!
We are power generator central, more nukes per capita than anywhere else in the world … so we have power lines. LOTS of them. Everywhere. I'm surprised we don't all glow in the dark!
Thanks. They worked well in black and white.


Winner of the Triple Crown of Western literature awards: Western Heritage Wrangler Award, Will Rogers Medallion Award, and the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award. It also won the Laramie Award, and the Eric Hoffer Award for literature, and was a finalist for the daVinci Eye Award for cover design.
An innocent 14-year old preacher's son is kidnapped by three vile Civil War deserters. When turning-the-other-cheek fails to deter their cruelty, the boy resorts to his own violent behavior for survival, and the retribution he exacts from them casts him in a new struggle, this time for his soul. His redemption comes down to the wisdom of an old man and a small band of unbroke horses.


Stephen Colbert and Oscar the Grouch's new duet reminds us that things aren't so bad, after all.
A Republican congressman from Kentucky says that if U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wants to visit an underground coal mine in his state, she'll first have to apologize to a GOP congressman from Texas.
U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., placed the condition on Ocasio-Cortez's planned visit to the Bluegrass State in a letter to the freshman congresswoman on Friday.
Barr's demand stems from comments that Ocasio-Cortez recently directed at U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, over his response to domestic terrorism.
Learn secrets that competitors will never know for pulling money out of your website.
Ocasio-Cortez told Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, that he should focus on domestic terrorism after he slammed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for describing the 9/11 attacks as "some people did something." In a March speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Omar spoke of the rise in anti-Islamic activity in response to terrorist incidents.
Ocasio-Cortez stepped in the middle of the feud to defend Omar and called out Crenshaw for not co-sponsoring a measure to aid 9/11 victims and their families.
"You refuse to cosponsor the 9/11 Victim's Compensation Fund, yet have the audacity to drum resentment towards Ilhan w/completely out-of-context quotes," she tweeted.
Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that Crenshaw targeted Omar because she is one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.
Following Ocasio-Cortez's comments, Barr and other conservatives pointed to Crenshaw's war record, having served three tours in Afghanistan and losing his right eye. During a hearing earlier this month about the Green New Deal, he invited Ocasio-Cortez to meet coal miners. But first, he would like her to apologize to Crenshaw.
Barr said his office has not received a response to his invitation.
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I made this 'stitches' file a while back, it was originally a body makeup that took up a sock slot but I've made it a non-default skin so ya'll can have your frankenstein sims wear stockings. Which is exactly what I know you were all wanting... right? Right??
As you can see in the gallery it comes with a couple of custom sliders. I chose colours that might work for dead flesh plus a pale default flesh colour.
It is available for for teen through elder.
You will need Rez Delnava's UI Mod in order to use this as it is a non-default skin.
Huge thanks to Obsidian Dawn for her photoshop stitches brushes.
Hair is a converted Peggy (455) by Savio.


text:
Salvadorian Immigrant Indicted For Voter Fraud In Texas
Filed Under:Crime, immigrant, Texas, United States, Voter Fraud
BEAUMONT (AP) — A man who Texas prosecutors say is in the United States illegally has been indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged voter fraud.
Authorities announced Friday that 57-year-old Mario Obdulio Orellana was indicted earlier this month on five counts, including voter fraud and false representation of U.S. citizenship.
Prosecutors allege that Obdulio illegally entered the U.S. from El Salvador in the early 1980s and later used false documents to obtain a U.S. birth certificate, a U.S. passport and a social security number.
Authorities also allege he registered to vote as a U.S. citizen and cast a ballot in the November 2016 election.
Obdulio faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
His court appointed federal public defender didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.


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He is also a website designer and has an amazing designing quality of attracting visitors in Psyspeaks website.


text:
Catholic dioceses still paying for clergy misdeeds
NEW YORK (AP) - The price for failing to rein in predatory clergy keeps rising for the U.S. Roman Catholic Church.
The church has paid more than $2.6 billion in settlements and related expenses since 1950, according to an annual report released Friday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The costs to dioceses and religious orders dropped in 2008 by 29 percent, to about $436 million. But 2007 was an unusually high year, when the Archdiocese of Los Angeles began paying its $660 million settlement to about 500 people. It was the largest deal by a U.S. diocese.
"The overall costs are still very high," said Mary Gautier of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. She compiles the statistics on claims and expenses each year.
New allegations continue to pour in, seven years after the abuse scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston. The crisis put an unrelenting national and international spotlight on the problem and inspired victims to come forward by the hundreds.
"It's proof that victims come forward only when they're able," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
The number of claims rose last year by 16 percent to 803. As in previous years, nearly all the new cases were brought by adults who said they were abused as children decades ago. Dioceses and religious orders said 98 of the new allegations could not be proven or were deemed false.
Most of the accused are dead, missing or already out of public ministry or the priesthood.
The statistics are part of an annual review of child safety in American dioceses and religious orders that is mandated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The evaluation is among the reforms that the bishops adopted in 2002, at the height of the abuse crisis. The plan includes background checks for employees and volunteers, training children to identify abusive behavior by adults and a discipline policy for offenders that removes them from any public church work.
This year's audit found nearly all participating dioceses compliant with the child protection policy. Still, auditors urged church officials to improve contact with law enforcement so that police can evaluate claims, and to publicize contact information for the lay panels that help bishops respond to new cases.
Dioceses spent $23 million on child safety last year, the bishops said.
"There are areas we need to improve on, but the structures are in place," said Teresa Kettelkamp, a former Illinois state police officer who leads the bishops' child protection office. "People have victim assistance coordinators. They have safe environment coordinators."
Regarding costs, attorneys for victims have repeatedly accused bishops of falsely crying poor when confronted with new abuse claims. The plaintiffs' lawyers say dioceses have more resources _ property, insurance or other assets _ than they reveal.
Dioceses told researchers that insurers have covered about one-quarter to one-third of abuse-related expenses each year since 2004. To pay the rest, bishops have sold land and buildings, including diocean headquarters, taken up special collections and cut staff.
Six U.S. dioceses have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the face of abuse lawsuits. One of the bankruptcies _ in Fairbanks, Alaska _ is pending. Last month, the Jesuits of the Oregon Province became the latest to seek bankruptcy protection, blaming more than 200 expected claims. Many of the anticipated cases involve Alaska Natives who say they were molested as children while living in remote villages.
The financial pressures from unresolved claims comes at a time when the church, like all groups, has additional money woes from the recession.
"Every diocese in the country is already hurting financially because of the decline in their endowments and the interest earned off that," said Chuck Zech, a Villanova University economics professor who studies church finances. "As parishioners get laid off, their contributions tend to diminish."
There is no way to predict when the number of allegations might decrease. Advocates for victims have been lobbying lawmakers in New York and other states to extend _ or even temporarily suspend _ the statutes of limitation on civil lawsuits over childhood sex abuse.
Many victims need more encouragement to come forward, said Anne Barrett Doyle, a Boston-area spokeswoman for the advocacy group Bishopaccountability.org
Only a minority of U.S. dioceses have publicly released the names of accused priests _ a move that is meant not only to potentially protect the public, but also to encourage other victims of the clergymen to seek help. Only 30 percent of new allegations last year were made through attorneys. Half of the claims were made to the dioceses directly by the accusers.
"Bishops have to try harder," Barrett Doyle said. "They have to publish lists of accused priests, they have to publish the assignments of these priests, so parents can start asking questions."
U.S. bishops' child protection office: https://www.usccb.org/ocyp/index.shtml
(This version CORRECTS the estimated 2008 costs of settlements and related expenses to dioceses and religious orders to $436 million, instead of $463 million.)


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text:
Chinese boxing >
White Crane boxing – The true story
Internal 'kung fu'
Chang San Feng
The comic >
Evolution of a character
Finding a new artist
White Crane. A comic book/graphic novel written by Zanna Vaughan-Davies and illustrated by Santiago Espina.
Finding an artist...
When original artist Adrian Rodriguez had finished the character designs and the pitch scene he unfortunately became unavailable to complete the project. However, his brilliant work had done
its job and attracted interest from publishers. Leading to a search for an equally talented replacement.
Santiago Espina
Fortunately, after months of searching San responded to my advert and the choice was made easy...
But before San came along, many other talented artists applied. So after whittling down a shortlist of five artists, from almost 100, I sent them the script for the first page of Issue 1 (above). Here's what the best of the best came up with...
This one more than any captured the characters' thoughts and feelings in their expressions. I could
have left the page with no word balloons and you would still have known what everyone was thinking. Ultimately I felt his style was too 'indy' for the story, which I felt needed a very cinematic and modern
style to act as a counterpoint the 'traditional' nature of a 'kung fu' period piece.
Youjun – Twinkle Planet Studios
Next up was this explosive opening from a young artist from a Chinese comic book studio. More than any of the pages Youjun expressed the idea in the script of the first panel leaping out of the page 'as if attacking the reader. I love this page but my one concern was that, after seeing Adrian's ultra-modern, digital art for the pitch scene I loved the blend of an Eastern story with Western art. I wanted to make a 'kung fu' story in a very Wetsern way. Ultimately this page just seemed too Chinese.
Robekka Studios
Again, this page is very cool, taking the story in another direction which would work brilliantly for a martial arts epic, but is perhaps too familiar for the genre being very strongly manga influenced.
A talented young artist who I would have been very lucky to work with, who expressed the characters perfectly, but, as with the others, was superceded by the eventual winner whose skills are just impossible to ignore...
The White Crane comic


Hobbies: Mine hobbies are a many interesting and pleasant things in life. We can speak about it later., Personality: Here is a little more about me.I am careful and attentive, calm and kind, optimistic and communicative, serious and patient, with a sense of humor, I like travelling.By nature I am optimist! And Im attractive, interesting, honest, faithful and a joy full, happy girl. I love this life! But first of all I am romantic, tender and passionate woman and I want to love and be loved. And I believe in true love. I am a large romantic and I am woman of love. I like kisses and hugs very often from my man. But I am serious woman in the main vital questions as well. Well, you may I ask me any questions. Feel free., Personal: I would like to meet a sincere and honest man, who is faithful, kind and intelligent. And also it is important for me that a person is attentive, has a good sense of humor, and loves children. A man, who is responsible, caring and understanding. I want to be with the man who is able to love and to be loved, a man who is romantic and affectionate.


More than 200 charter flights to and from the Spanish capital and Milan have been put in place for fans flocking to the all-Madrid final of the Champions League, airport operator AENA said on Wednesday.
A total of 218 flights - or more than 46,300 seats - have been added to the regular 105 routes between Madrid and the two airports serving Milan from Thursday until Monday, it said in a statement.
"The predicted increase in activity will see a special plan of action put in place in the airport to reinforce the usual assistance given to airlines and passengers, which involves close to 150 people," it added.
This includes services such as reinforced security checks, cleaning and the handling of taxi lines.
The final on Saturday pits Real Madrid against Atlético Madrid.
This is the second time that both teams have faced off in a Champions League final.
In 2014, Real beat Atlético 4-1 in Lisbon in the only other final between two sides from the same city.


text:
General News of Wednesday, 30 December 2020
Source: kasapafmonline.com
Election Petition: Don't empanel Justice Jones Dotse – ASEPA petitions CJ
Justice Jones Dotse is reportedly being considered for the position of Speaker of Parliament
Civil Society Organization, Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has petitioned the Chief Justice not to include Justice Jones Dotse when empanelling Judges for the Election petition before Supreme Court.
A copy of the petition sighted by Kasapafmonline.com said this has become necessary due to high rumours circulating among the corridors of power that the learned Supreme Court Judge is being considered for the position of Speaker of Parliament in the 8th Parliament that commences on the 6th of January,2021.
"Even though Justice Jones Dotse's name has not been publicly mentioned, it is thrive knowledge among a section of Ghanaians that he is being considered for the Speaker-ship position and even though mere rumour we believe it is enough to prejudice him and as such the calls for his recusal from all election-related cases," aspects of the petition signed by Executive Director, Mensah Thompson said.
It further prayed the CJ to consider the petition urgently before empanelling judges to sit on any election-related case so as to protect the image, integrity, and independence of the judiciary especially in adjudicating the pending election petition brought before it by the NDC.
The National Democratic Congress has filed a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary polls.
In a statement after filing the petition, the party said: "The Petition was filed pursuant to the party's audit of the 2020 Presidential results and extensive consultations with the National Executive Committee and Council of Elders of the party.
"The Petition details serious violations of the 1992 Constitution by the Electoral Commission and its Chairperson and Returning Officer for the Presidential Election, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa in the conduct of their constitutional and legal responsibilities. It seeks among others, a declaration from the Supreme Court to the effect that, the purported declaration of the results of the 2020 Presidential Election on the 9th day of December 2020 is unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect whatsoever".
Uganda court orders woman told to pay ex-fiancé for breaking his heart


In a key election week that saw housing in focus in the Chancellor's budget, Liberum Housebuilding Analyst Charlie Campbell made this 24-page PowerPoint presentation to students at University College London.
They're studying for a BSc in Planning & Real Estate and Charlie's whirlwind tour of the UK housing market from a financial perspective is a succinct and informed summary of how the market works and what to look out for.
Topics covered include why housing is in short supply and where the fault lies, the reasons for high prices, low mortgage supply and generation rent, how demand for houses can be met, the land market and how to predict house prices.
> Click on this image to download the PDF of the presentation.
It's well documented in academia that smaller companies tend to perform better over time horizons of 10 years or more. This is particularly evident in the UK, where we see good performance from the very smallest companies and bad performance from the very largest companies.
£100 invested in the FTSE 250 on January 1st 1997 would be worth £593 now.
By comparison, the FTSE 100 would have returned just £287.
This is largely down to the FTSE 100 being dominated by around 20 very large firms - the megacaps - which have historically been mostly Banking, Mining, Oil & Gas and Telecoms companies. The performance of the megacaps since 1997 has been relatively weak, offsetting the much stronger performance of the 80 smaller firms in the FTSE 100 and holding back the index.
This chart shows the return on £100 since 1997 from UK indices.
One key reason why smaller companies tend to generate better returns in the long term is the existence of a 'liquidity discount' that evaporates as they grow into larger businesses.
Institutional investors are willing to pay a higher price for a stock, all else being equal, if they can enter and exit positions quickly and without moving the market. This translates into broadly higher multiples (P/E EV / EBITDA etc.) on larger companies for a given level of earnings growth.
This effect has been particularly exaggerated of late. Not only has liquidity in small cap worsened markedly over the last 12-18 months, but the premium investors are willing to pay for liquidity has risen – likely a result of the 'lobster pot' rotation out of small cap witnessed in April-June last year which left small cap 'tourists' particularly scarred.
This chart shows the number of days it takes to trade 10% of a stock.
We therefore find the FTSE Small Cap index currently at a post-crisis record discount to the FTSE 100. It is trading, as a whole, on 13.2x 12m fwd P/E vs. the FTSE 100 on 15.8x – a 17% discount. We can expect this to normalise, as it has done in the past, if liquidity improves or if risk appetite for illiquid companies returns.
Another key factor cited by academics for small cap outperformance is the increased likelihood of mispriced securities in small cap, given lower analyst coverage. One key caveat to this is that whilst there may be more mispriced securities in small cap, there are a similar number overpriced as underpriced.
The overpriced securities typically trade on a high multiple as a result of optimistic growth expectations, which often prove too enthusiastic. We find that expensive (cheap) stocks typically underperform (outperform) more in small cap than in large cap, where securities are more efficiently priced, for precisely this reason.
Therefore, when investing in small cap we should be careful to maintain a value 'tilt', an approach first characterised by David Swensen of Yale University.
FEW north of Crouch End will be surprised to know that there is a massive gulf between how the British consume television and use their iPads and what London's media elite think they're doing.
And that leads to some warped views of what's actually going on.
London media execs are as likely to visit the moon as Barnsley and believe the 'provinces' to be populated by red-trousered "Kippers".
They are also sure that they understand the habits of the rest of the country because their teenage children spend every waking hour on Snapchat and FaceBook, with zero interest in Coronation Street.
I was reminded of this confirmation bias when I looked at a fascinating survey by Thinkbox, which probed the media habits of the media elite and the normal - my emphasis - population.
Your average metropolitan media luvvie assumes that Joe Public watches 1 hour and 43 minutes of live TV a day and that only 49% of all TV viewing is live.
In fact, it's 4 hours and 12 minutes and 89% (the figures are from 2013 but unlikely to have changed significantly).
We are watching as much live TV now as we did 10 years ago.
Elsewhere, nearly four-fifths of the media elite use Twitter compared with the rest of the population at less than 20%.
Now it's true that Thinkbox has skin in the game here as it is the trade body for the commercial TV broadcasters in the UK.
But its findings are important for two reasons.
First, it suggests that the agencies' insistence on the relentless rise of digital and the need to shift advertising budgets away from TV to online is premature. Linear TV may be around for a lot longer than people expect (in the U.S. it remains by far the dominant form of video viewing).
A statistic often missed is that while live TV viewing in the UK may be down from 2010, it is almost exactly the same as it was a decade ago, which suggests that the fall from recent years may be a reversal of the spike in live TV viewing we saw during the recession.
Second, advertisers risk shifting their budgets prematurely into a medium that is unproven and where there are major issues around fraud and transparency of pricing.
It is almost a mantra amongst some advertisers to talk of the amount of money they are shifting to digital/online and that being digital automatically boosts sales. That is wrong.
The key question is what works. On that score, linear TV has a future.
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Commercial factors will, I believe, force the UK's broadcasters to give up their provocation to use an empty chair where an absent David Cameron should sit in the televised election debates.
For the BBC, the obvious risk is over Royal Charter renewal and the structure of the licence fee. The bulk of the Conservative party and press already thinks the Corporation is a hotbed of metropolitan, Oxbridge lefties who hate Tories.
Assume the Conservatives form the next government. In a bid to quell restive backbenchers in the run-up to a divisive and challenging EU referendum in 2017, the government may throw them a BBC bone.
Less commented on, though, is the risk for the commercial broadcasters.
The government has just launched a review into whether the main commercial channels (ITV, Channel 4 and Five) can charge pay-TV operators for carriage of their channels. This may be a huge and very profitable source of new revenues for the broadcasters and a major cost for operators such as Sky.
So for the commercial broadcasters to empty-chair Cameron risks their positions in this debate.
The Conservatives would, of course, claim that whatever decision is taken was impartial.
But Archie Norman, ITV's Chairman and ex-Conservative Party Chairman, has the sufficient political nous to know the risks.
Channel 4's bosses, meanwhile, would have the extra consideration of fuelling what it would see as an unwelcome privatisation debate.
But the broadcasters are standing together on this issue, no?
Well, the platforms tend not to sacrifice their own interests for the greater good (ITV CEO Adam Crozier recently blamed its weak performance in audience share partly on the BBC).
There is too much temptation for one broadcaster to break ranks.
There will be two other considerations for the broadcasters.
First, the Conservatives look to be edging into a sustained lead (ahead by 2 percentage points with YouGov this week) as Labour's Scottish problem appears to worsen. Betting on the Conservatives winning the most seats has tightened considerably over the last 24 hours.
Second, no one really seems to care about the debates. It is seen as a typical media elite debate that 'luvvies' and political hacks relish yet no one in the real world gives a damn about. Lord Ashcroft's findings seem to support this.
The broadcasters will sound tough for a few days to save face and then back down, blaming the PM and/or voter apathy on the issue.
(LONDON) British householders have tempered their optimism on the outlook for property prices but continue to plan for house moves and improvements, Liberum's lastest quarterly survey of UK consumers suggests.
"We've also highlighted sentiment ahead of the UK general election in May and it helps illustrate why the outcome remains so up in the air," said Liberum Media Analyst Ian Whittaker, who leads the survey.
"The good news for the economy? Few are putting off their spending plans ahead of the election. And fewer people think they're the 'squeezed middle'," he noted.
The survey, which has run for more than five years, highlighted support from potential voters for improved spending on care for the elderly and council housing.
The Brexit referendum outcome is finely balanced but Scotland must remain part of the UK, those polled across the country said.
Increased support for David Cameron as Prime Minster sharply outpaces that for Ed Miliband, with UKIP's Nigel Farage markedly falling away compared with the previous survey.
Our poll, carried out in January, shows a wobble on overall confidence of the British consumer, with net positives as a percentage of all answers falling 3.3 percentage points to 6.6%, fuelled in part by concerns over job security and the softer property price trend.
By comparison, the average score in the 18 months to October 2014 was 11.6%.
"The January data feels like a blip to us given lower fuel costs and improving employment prospects," Whittaker said.
1,003 respondents were asked their views in January/February 2015. The respondents were evenly distributed by gender (males: 49%, females: 51%), across age groups and throughout the social classes (A-B: 27%, C1-C2: 48% and D-E: 27%).


text:
Chris Vaneman
Kelly Vaneman
Ensemble Radieuse
Petrie Winds
Isorhythmic Legos Presentation
Kelly Vaneman, Oboist
Kelly McElrath Vaneman is Associate Professor of Oboe and Musicology at the Carroll McDaniel Petrie School of Music of Converse College, the only women's college in the U.S. with a comprehensive music program. She holds D.M.A., M.M.A., and M.M. degrees from the Yale University School of Music, where she was teaching assistant to Ronald Roseman. A native Texan, she received her B.Mus. summa cum laude from Baylor University, where she studied with Doris DeLoach. In addition, she studied modern and Baroque oboe with Paul Dombrecht at the Koninklijk Konservatorium Brussel under a grant from the Belgian American Educational Foundation.
Dr. Vaneman is, above all, committed to chamber music and the expansion of its repertoire. As oboist of Ensemble Radieuse she has performed on four continents, premiered countless new works and arrangements, and recorded the CD Inbox. Ensemble Radieuse were prize-winners in the 2006 National Flute Society Chamber Music Competition and have been invited to perform at the conferences of the College Music Society (National), the International Double Reed Society, the Southeastern Composers Forum, and the South Carolina chapter of the Music Teachers National Association. They have also been featured performers on Nashville Public Radio's "Live in Studio C."
edAs a soloist, Dr. Vaneman has been active in the new music scene and has over thirty premieres to her credit. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Guatemala,Texas, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina and has played as a member of the Central Texas, Waco, Asheville, Spartanburg, Hendersonville, and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, the National Orchestral Institute, the American Wind Symphony, and the Reigate Festival Orchestra of Surrey, England.
A musician of wide-ranging interests, Dr. Vaneman has both performed Baroque music on period instruments and performed and recorded as a member of the New York-based rock bands Rome 56 and the Ashley Wilkes Band. She is a past president of the Rho chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda and a member of Alpha Chi and has written for The Double Reed, the journal of the International Double Reed Society. She spends her summers in residence at the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania, where she performs with the PAI Symphony and teaches oboe and chamber music.
© 2014 Chris & Kelly Vaneman, All Rights Reserved


The problem with the "Enter network password" popup is not so much that you need to enter new data into them. The data is right there, even if you don't check 'Save password' and you just hit Enter it will use the already saved password (as long as you don't change it).
You can also hit Cancel/Escape and it will skip the account and do it the next time. "Oh Joy"
In Outlook 2000, the POP account check would time out in the same manner. If you had the Send and Receive dialog hidden (it would only show in the status bar of Outlook) and you would only notice an yellow exclamation mark now and then in the same status bar. On the next automatic Send and Receive it would most probably not time out and you would get the mail after all.
With Outlook XP this changed and was fixed eventually by an update. But in Outlook 2003 the problem has returned.
Somehow Microsoft thinks it's very important that, even though you have your Send and Receive dialog hidden that you receive a notice that Outlook is not able to check the POP account. It looks like it will take another patch from Microsoft to suppress the Enter network password popup and have the error showed in the status bar.
Penn State's POP mail servers do not allow mail checks more often than two minutes apart. Outlook 2003 will still display an error message because of these restrictions. Here is a sample. You will be shown the time remaining in the message.
So for now, just hit Cancel.
If new mail will not arrive, even if you wait two minutes, you may need to access your mail in another manner (ex: WebMail, POPsickle or KillerWeb Mail) and delete messages before they will begin to download again.


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