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QKD4GOV – Quantum-safe Cryptography for Securing Governmental data
Establishment of a secure communication network between public authorities to investigate novel encryption schemes based on quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC).
Data security and data autonomy is a fundamental necessity for the governmental sector and critical infrastructure in order to secure economic competitiveness as well as national security - especially in times of increasing global threats under the ongoing power struggle between the USA and China for technological world leadership in the IT sector. The protection of confidential data, data integrity and data authentication using current encryption methods is threatened by global developments and investments in quantum computers, since asymmetrical encryption methods (public key cryptography) used today can be broken by quantum computers. It is therefore necessary to develop new encryption technologies and systems that are "quantum-safe".
The operational use of this new technology is currently being promoted by the European Union (EU) through the specific 10-year research and innovation program "EuroQCI – Quantum Communication Infrastructure" and first demonstrations are planned by 2023. Austria and in particular the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology has taken on an internationally leading role in this area and launched the QKD4GOV project, supported by the Austrian Security Research Programme KIRAS, with several national partners. The aim of QKD4GOV is to demonstrate QKD-based encryption technology for highly secure communication between governmental authorities. By setting up a test infrastructure, research into new schemes such as the combination of post-quantum-based encryption technology with QKD takes place in QKD4GOV.
For this purpose, a QKD demonstration network will be installed via inner-city fiber optic connections in Vienna, which connects the Federal Chancellery (BKA) as a central node with the three federal ministries: Ministry of Defense (BMLV), the Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Ministry of European and International Affairs (BmeiA). With the help of research partners and industrial companies, modern QKD-based key management is developed and new security applications such as secret sharing and message authentication are verified for future use by public authorities. Close cooperation between public bodies and Austrian companies ensures that the security requirements from the point of view of the IT-security end-user are considered in the development of QKD security technology. In addition to the technological research outcomes, the results from QKD4GOV are also the basis for the positioning and potentially active leadership of Austria in the European EuroQCI initiative and will flow into the future national cryptography-infrastructure for governmental authorities.
Dr. Hannes Hübel (Coordinator)
Dr. Andreas Poppe (Deputy)
Ing. Florian Kutschera (Technical coordination)
Organisation: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
Additional project partners:
fragmentiX Storage Solutions GmbH
X-Net Services GmbH
CableRunner Austria GmbH & Co. KG
Universität Wien – Institut für Europarecht
Bundeskanzleramt Österreich (BKA)
Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten (BMeiA)
Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung (BMLV)
Bundesministerium für Inneres (BMI)
ACOnet
Dr. Hannes Hübel, hannes.huebel@ait.ac.at, +43 50550 4453
Ing. Florian Kutschera, florian.kutschera@ait.ac.at, +43 50550 4210
https://www.ait.ac.at/en/about-the-ait/center/center-for-digital-safety-security
FFG - Austrian
Research Promotion Agency
Sensengasse 1 A-1090 Vienna
Federal Ministry of Finance
Johannesgasse 5, A-1010 Vienna
© 2023 KIRAS Security Research


Check out these GREAT deals on some of our MeaLu Collection Cement Tile designs. Our warehouse is moving so we're making extra space! All of these designs are discounted! HUGE SAVINGS! These prices are only good while supplies last.
Allow me the space to squelch some confusion about what characteristics you can expect with handmade Mexican saltillo tile. In our web-based world, there are plenty of misleading ideas about what's normal and what's not. At Rustico Tile and Stone, we know handmade Mexican saltillo tile well. Very well. At Rustico, we tell you exactly what saltillo tile is. We offer no embellishment to the nature of these beautiful floors – you either like saltillo flooring or you don't. If you're expecting "perfect" saltillo tiles, I bid you to look elsewhere. But before you go, just hear me out about why you don't want "perfect" tiles. Perfect handmade Mexican saltillo tiles don't exist. If they did, we'd sell them. We are the largest manufacturer for real saltillo tile in Mexico. If any seller tells you that their saltillo tile is without blemish or rustic traits, then they're not selling real saltillo tile….


text:
Q: c# uwp reading more than one value (BLE) private async void CharacteristicReadButton_Click()
        {
             // BT_Code: Read the actual value from the device by using Uncached.
            GattReadResult result = await selectedCharacteristic.ReadValueAsync(BluetoothCacheMode.Uncached);
            if (result.Status == GattCommunicationStatus.Success)
            {
                string formattedResult = FormatValueByPresentation(result.Value, presentationFormat);

                rootPage.NotifyUser($"Read result: {formattedResult}", NotifyType.StatusMessage);
            }
            else
            {
                rootPage.NotifyUser($"Read failed: {result.Status}", NotifyType.ErrorMessage);
            }
        }

I have this problem where whenever I press "read", it justs read one value. I have setup a mpu6050 with my rfduino. So it should read the x , y, z values. However, in my case, it only reads the 'z' value. how do I make it read all three values ?
In my c#: (reads only the z value)

In my arduino:

A: It looks the problem is in FormatValueByPresentation. Value returned as bytes array and the function simple formats it as int or float.
Check your characteristic presentation format first. Then check returned value length.
After that it is possible to fix your code.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Peabody Energy has launched a global campaign to build awareness and support to eliminate energy poverty, increase access to low-cost electricity and improve emissions through advanced clean coal technologies.
Pursue greater development of next-generation technologies and the regulatory framework to capture, use and store carbon dioxide emissions.
Peabody CEO, Gregory Boyce, commented: "More than a decade ago, the United Nations Millennium Goals called for a rapid halving of extreme global poverty by 2015 – and a half century ago, US President Johnson declared war on poverty.
"Yet today, 3.5 billion people in the world lack adequate access to energy, and more than 4 million people needlessly die each year from the effects of energy poverty. We have the technologies and the global resources to end this crisis. All of us must work together toward realistic solutions."
Half of the world's population lack adequate access to energy, including 1.2 billion children, based on data from the International Energy Agency and the World Bank. Household air pollution from indoor fires is estimated to be the fourth leading cause of death in the world, and results in a staggering 100 million years of life prematurely lost as measured by Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY). Each DALY represents one year of healthy life lost to disease.
Boyce added: "These sobering statistics demonstrate that energy poverty is the real human and environmental crisis facing the world today. The greatest crisis we confront is not an environmental crisis predicted by computer models, but a human crisis fully within our power to solve. For too long, we have been focused on the wrong priorities."
Also driving the need for affordable energy are longer-term demographic trends. The global population is expanding by more than 200 000 people each day. Urban areas are forecast to grow by more than 70 million annually through 2020, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
All energy forms are necessary to end global energy poverty and increase access to low-cost electricity. Coal is the world's most abundant energy source and fastest-growing major fuel. According to analysts, coal is expected to surpass oil as the largest energy source in coming years. The fossil fuel must play an important role in any plan to end global energy poverty and increase access to low-cost electricity, while using advanced technologies to improve emissions.
"Coal is a fundamental environmental solution when turned into electricity and synthetic natural gas at large scale. Coal-fuelled electricity and synthetic natural gas can eliminate widespread deforestation from gathering biomass as well as the devastating effects of energy poverty," explained Boyce.
"The drive by some to reduce coal use and make energy scarce and expensive is unsustainable, hurting people and harming the environment. We need to recognise the enormous health and environmental benefits in ending energy poverty, eliminating household air pollution and increasing access to low-cost electricity. Everyone in the world deserves to live as well as those in developed nations. Let's use more energy, more cleanly, every day."
In the US, coal is used to generate approximately 40% of electricity.
States that do not use coal pay electricity rates that are more than 50% higher than states that use coal for electricity generation.
High energy costs create a regressive tax on Americans, with lower-income households spending a far greater portion of their income on energy bills.
Coal's environmental profile has continued to improve.
Coal used for electricity generation has increased more than 170% since 1970, while key power plant emissions have been reduced by nearly 90% per unit of electricity.
Peabody believes that the US policy framework must recognise the role of coal in low-cost electricity, protect existing coal plants from regulatory overreach, and encourage the development of efficient new coal plants. The US should continue to invest in research and development for next-generation technologies.
Australia leads the world in coal exports.
Coal is the nation's second-largest export and essential for jobs and economic strength, contributing nearly $43 billion each year to the economy, based on research from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Coal also is the lowest-cost fuel for electricity generation.
Challenging environmental targets and taxes have placed strains on Australian families and businesses. It is therefore essential that the new government be supported in its call to end the failed carbon tax scheme, scale back renewable energy targets, drive down electricity costs, restore jobs and strengthen the country's competitive advantage in the Australasian region.
In China, coal demand is rising as it increasingly is used for electricity generation and is turned into natural gas, transportation fuels and chemicals.
China will reduce the direct use of coal in residences and businesses while it increases its use of coal in electricity plants and conversion applications.
China is also replacing older coal plants with advanced coal units, as well as using synthetic gas from coal in a range of applications.
This approach, combined with the installation of major emissions controls on power plants and replacing older plants with advanced technologies, is similar to that taken by the US.
"The world continues to turn to coal to solve its largest energy and economic challenges, but we need far more action to expand access to low-cost electricity to help families, power economies and pull billions out of energy poverty," explained Boyce. "We also need a new approach to rational environmental policy. We submit that the right path is through increased deployment of today's advanced technologies such as supercritical coal generation that lead to continued emissions reductions. Longer term, research and development in next-generation technologies can lead to the ultimate goal of near-zero emissions from coal."
Advanced coal technologies, including high-efficiency supercritical coal generation, state-of-the-art emissions control applications and coal conversion methods through gasification, are all being employed across the world today. A critical step in improving global emissions would be far greater deployment of these existing technologies.
Next generation technologies such as carbon capture, use and storage applications need further research and development investment, including greater private-public partnerships in research and development, as well as new and improved regulations to allow for carbon storage.
Direct outreach to governments, institutions and other stakeholders toward actions that increase energy access and expand the development and use of advanced technologies.
Peabody Energy has announced financial results for 2013, amid weak prices for Australian coal.
Peabody Energy has responded to President Obama's State of the Union address.
Peabody ratchets back output from low-quality coal mines.
US coal miner, Peabody Energy, has elected Michael Sutherlin, the former head of Joy Global, to its board of directors.


Thank your guests for making your big day special, with these unique personalised shot glasses. A perfect wedding favour.
Please provide all the details requested above for personalising the shot glass. We will get in touch with you if we need more details.


AAA today announced that the first patient has been treated in a Phase I clinical study of lutetium Lu 177 dotatate* in patients with inoperable, somatostatin receptor positive, progressive pancreatic, gastrointestinal, or pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) in Japan. The primary objective of this open-label, uncontrolled, single-center, bridging study is to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and dosimetry of lutetium Lu 177 dotatate in Japanese patients. Six subjects will be included in the Phase I study.


text:
Senate Confirms Amy Coney Barrett as 103rd Supreme Court Justice
The Drama of the Online Bar Exam, the NCBE, and 2020 Bar Examinees
2020 Survey Shows $165K Average Law Student Debt at Graduation
The 2020 Law School Guide to Success for Rising 1Ls
Florida Judge Suspended for 5 Days After Inappropriate Footnotes
Judge Van Laningham is known for his lengthy and sharply written footnotes, but he may have gone too far this time.
Lawwly Contributor
The News Service of Florida reported that Administrative Law Judge John Van Laningham was suspended by his agency for five days for an inappropriate footnote concerning one of his colleagues.
Mr. Laningham is a judge with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings. Mr. Laningham is reported to be renowned for writing lengthy and sharply written orders in which he harshly rebukes various state agency officials.
The footnotes concerned John MacIver, the chief judge and division director, and his habit of reviewing judges' opinions before they are issued. Mr. MacIver was appointed as chief judge and division director as of October 2019.
According to Daniel Bean, Van Laningham's lawyer, MacIver issued the notice of the suspension on March 27th and Laningham plans to appeal the decision. The suspension took effect on April 1st after Administrative Law Judge Lisa "Li" Shearer Nelson recommended the suspension on March 26th.
In the footnote, Van Laningham said MacIver has been making comments and suggesting edits in judges' opinions and questioned whether MacIver's comments might be ex parte communications that are banned by Florida law.
The footnote stated that in one comment, MacIver said, "This is the crux of your most defensible finding." Another comment said, "Finding the agency's future intent as a matter of fact is troubling."
Laningham, in his footnote, said he was "erring on the side of caution and disclosure" by placing MacIver's comments on the record.
Any party wishing to rebut the communication may do so under Florida law, Laningham said. Laningham's lawyer stated that "Judge Van Laningham was neither insubordinate nor committed any misconduct; rather, he refused to maintain the conspiracy of silence promoted by the director.
The director is permitted to assign himself to a case and exercise his own independent authority as an administrative law judge, but attempting to shield his substantive participation, and then punishing another when it is properly disclosed, is wrong."
DISCLAIMER: All blog posts with the author "Lawwly Contributor" have been submitted to us through our contributor portal. Lawwly only edits the posts for grammatical and typing errors. The views expressed in the blog posts by contributors are those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Lawwly, who shall not be held liable for any inaccuracies presented. The contributor of any post presented on this site is responsible for obtaining all necessary permissions for publication. See our policies for more information.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Washington D.C. on lockdown this week
Tunisia plans social reforms in wake of protests
Posted January 14, 2018 3:59 a.m. EST
By Sheena McKenzie (CNN)
(CNN) — Tunisia has announced a raft of social reforms following anti-austerity protests which broke out across the North African country earlier this month.
The reforms, which include free medical aid for unemployed youth, come in the wake of demonstrations that began January 1.
Over 700 people have been arrested in the protests against price hikes since Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Friday.
Following a meeting at the presidential palace on Saturday, Social Affairs Minister Mohamed Trabelsi announced reforms aimed at providing relief for the economically disadvantaged, according to state news agency TAP.
The reforms include:
Free medical aid for unemployed youth. Increased state pensions. Increased financial assistance to poor families. Establishment of a housing fund to make housing more affordable.
While the reforms address concerns of the poor, they do not effectively change the 2018 budget legislation -- which many had protested against.
"Dropping the 2018 budget law is an unthinking and irresponsible idea," said Rached Ghannouchi, head of Tunisia's Ennahda Party, part of the ruling coalition.
"State reserve funds could solve some problems and create resources without opting for dropping the finance law," Ghannouchi continued.
Over 700 people arrested
Roughly 778 people have been arrested during demonstrations, with the UN human rights office expressing concern over the large numbers detained. It said around 200 of those detained are aged between 15 and 20.
Protesters face various charges, including vandalism, looting, attacks against public property and causing fires and road blocks, Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Major Khelifa Chibani told state news agency TAP.
But incidents of vandalism dropped sharply later in the week, Chibani added, and on Saturday protesters marched peacefully in the city of Sidi Bouzid.
Focus on unemployment
Next month's economic forum organized by the Tunisian General Labor Union will discuss ways to resolve the country's economic concerns -- including unemployment.
"Young people, especially in working-class neighborhoods, must receive real attention from the state, which is called upon to lend a listening ear to their demands," said the union's Secretary-General Noureddine Tabboubi.
Who is protesting and why?
A new, informal youth movement calling itself Fech Nestannew -- or "What are we waiting for?" -- sprang up at the start of the year and is now using social media to rally opposition to price hikes.
The latest protests coincide with the seventh anniversary of President Zine el Abedine Ben Ali's ousting after mass demonstrations -- igniting the Arab Spring across the region.
More recently, Tunisia's government has increased taxes under the 2018 Finance Act. The new budget raised value-added tax (VAT), or sales tax, on cars, alcohol, phone calls, the internet, hotel accommodation and other items, according to the Reuters news agency.
The austerity measures come at a time when Tunisia's economy is struggling. Its important tourism sector has not yet recovered following deadly terror attacks in Sousse and Tunis in 2015. Inflation in Tunisia currently runs at about 6% a year, which is eating away at people's earnings, and the tax hikes will hit those with the least hardest.
What is the political backdrop?
The protests had raised fears of wider unrest in Tunisia, the nation which spawned the 2011 Arab Spring movement but has since been seen as a zone of relative stability in a troubled region.
However protests are also common in Tunisia in the month of January, when many people mark the anniversary of the toppling in 2011 of the country's longtime autocratic leader, President Ben Ali.
Subsequent elections have given power to the moderate Islamist Ennahda party and the secularist Nidaa Tounes party, led by President Beji Caid Essebsi and seen as representing the old brigade.
Start 2021 Fresh - Use Code WRAL50 for half off produce delivery
WRAL Investigates
COVID most contagious two days before symptoms show
Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing
Snowfall coats downtown Paris
WRAL Morning News


WILMINGTON, MA — Registration for the Wilmington Recreation Department's Summer Playground Program is Monday, April 8, 2019 at 7:30am in the Recreation Office at Town Hall.
This six-week program for children entering grades 2 to 8 will be held from Monday, June 24, 2019 through Wednesday, July 31, 2019 (No July 4) at the Shawsheen Elementary School. Playground will run rain or shine from 8:30am to 1pm allowing children time to enjoy a wide variety of activities, including arts and crafts, games, sports, special events and optional field trips.
Additional information and registration forms can be found HERE.
Tiny Tots & Kids Club registration begins Wednesday, April 10, 2019 from 5pm to 6:30pm in the Town Hall Auditorium. After this date, registration will continue weekdays in the Recreation Office and online.
Dates for the two sessions are: Monday, June 24, 2019 through Friday, July 12, 2019 (No July 4) and Monday, July 15, 2019 through Thursday, August 1, 2019. Classes are held from 9am to noon at the Boutwell School. This remarkable program, one of Wilmington's most popular traditions, includes children ages 4 through 8.


text:
module ActiveRecord
  module ConnectionAdapters
    module OracleEnhanced

      class ForeignKeyDefinition < ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::ForeignKeyDefinition
        def name
          if options[:name].length > OracleEnhancedAdapter::IDENTIFIER_MAX_LENGTH
            ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn "Foreign key name #{options[:name]} is too long. It will not get shorten in later version of Oracle enhanced adapter"
            'c'+Digest::SHA1.hexdigest(options[:name])[0,OracleEnhancedAdapter::IDENTIFIER_MAX_LENGTH-1]
          else
            options[:name]
          end
        end
      end

      class SynonymDefinition < Struct.new(:name, :table_owner, :table_name, :db_link) #:nodoc:
      end

      class IndexDefinition < ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::IndexDefinition
        attr_accessor :parameters, :statement_parameters, :tablespace

        def initialize(table, name, unique, columns, lengths, orders, where, type, using, parameters, statement_parameters, tablespace)
          @parameters = parameters
          @statement_parameters = statement_parameters
          @tablespace = tablespace
          super(table, name, unique, columns, lengths, orders, where, type, using)
        end
      end

      class ColumnDefinition < ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::ColumnDefinition

      end

      class TableDefinition < ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::TableDefinition
        attr_accessor :tablespace, :organization
        def initialize(name, temporary = false, options = nil, as = nil, tablespace = nil, organization = nil, comment: nil)
          @tablespace = tablespace
          @organization = organization
          super(name, temporary, options, as, comment: comment)
        end

        def virtual(* args)
          options = args.extract_options!
          column_names = args
          column_names.each { |name| column(name, :virtual, options) }
        end

        def column(name, type, options = {})
          if type == :virtual
            default = {:type => options[:type]}
            if options[:as]
              default[:as] = options[:as]
            elsif options[:default]
              warn "[DEPRECATION] virtual column `:default` option is deprecated.  Please use `:as` instead."
              default[:as] = options[:default]
            else
              raise "No virtual column definition found."
            end
            options[:default] = default
          end
          super(name, type, options)
        end

        private
        def create_column_definition(name, type)
          OracleEnhanced::ColumnDefinition.new name, type
        end

      end

      class AlterTable < ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::AlterTable
        def add_foreign_key(to_table, options)
          @foreign_key_adds << OracleEnhanced::ForeignKeyDefinition.new(name, to_table, options)
        end
      end

      class Table < ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Table
        def foreign_key(to_table, options = {})
          ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn "`foreign_key` option will be deprecated. Please use `references` option"
          to_table = to_table.to_s.pluralize if ActiveRecord::Base.pluralize_table_names
          @base.add_foreign_key(@name, to_table, options)
        end

        def remove_foreign_key(options = {})
          ActiveSupport::Deprecation.warn "`remove_foreign_key` option will be deprecated. Please use `remove_references` option"
          @base.remove_foreign_key(@name, options)
        end
      end

    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text: require "missing_t"


text:
5 Favorites Redux #62: Snowy Movies
New Year's morning (Friday), we had a small ice storm roll through. Then on Saturday we got more snow. While it wasn't enough to do more than a light covering, it got me thinking about all the snowy adventures we've had on the big screen. Some stirring, others hilarious, but always such a rarity that we celebrate when we see them. Or so that's what we're supposed to say. There's nothing more bleak than a snowy landscape. Nature buried beneath flaky whiteness. Danger at every turn. There's something both peaceful and ominous about snow and its hoary visage. With nothing coming out this weekend that sounds even remotely interesting or with anyone I've seen more than a smattering of productions from, I thought I would companion this week's five favorites with the more hopeful, joyous Christmas list I put together three weeks ago.
Of course, putting those same films on this list would be cheating and unlikely considering there are a lot of films that aren't about Christmas that take place in the snow. Of course, I'm also interested in looking at specific scenes in films that aren't entirely about snow, but have scenes set in a wintry landscape. Hence, how I came up with the films on my list, a strange array of genres and from a variety of filmmakers. There are even a few that came briefly to mind, but before I could write them down, I had forgotten them.
Before digging into the top five, let's look at some of the films I chose to pass over, but not without due consideration. For big screen action adventures and blockbusters, there are no more impressive works than The Empire Strikes Back, The Day After Tomorrow, and Titanic. Each of these films, for different reasons, conjure up strong memories of the snowy environs in which they are set. From the frozen desolation of Hoth in the second Star Wars film, to the dangerous and preventable hellscape of The Day After Tomorrow, to the deadly and heartbreaking frigid climes that ended 1,500 lives in the true story of Titanic. All three films engaged audiences in different ways, but all of them were clear overperformers at the box office.
Moving away from the death and mayhem of the prior five films, we turn our attention to four family-friendly features that are set around or have central storylines involving snowfall or cold climates. Little Women, with either Katharine Hepburn or Saoirse Ronan in the lead, are a great set of films that most closely tie back to the warm familial spirits of the Christmas list I did previously. Two are animated films set either in the run up to Christmas, 101 Dalmatians, or have cold settings crucial to their plots, Frozen. Then there's Edward Scissorhands, which like most Tim Burton films, defies classification, but is unlimited in its snowy themes.
That leaves three films, two comedies and one horror. None of them fit easily into a category of their own, but they are each standouts. I, Tonya is a semi-biographical exploration of the life and career of Tonya Harding, the most notorious ice skater in history. It's a hilarious film that both takes itself seriously and has a lot of fun with its narrative. Fargo is the opposite. A black comedy in the truest sense of the word, this Joel & Ethan Coen title isn't among my favorites they've ever done, but it's hard to argue with the importance the snowy landscape of Fargo, North Dakota has on the film's themes. And finally, one of two Stephen King adaptations I considered for this list. While Rob Reiner's Misery gives Kathy Bates one of her greatest screen roles to date not to mention one of the screen's best performances ever, its snow-bound setting certainly ups the ante of the material, but holds no candle to what was done with the other title that does make my final five.
With that, let's get to it.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
David Lean had come off his 1962 Oscar-winning masterwork Lawrence of Arabia to deliver this adaptation of the popular Boris Pasternak novel to the big screen. Set in Russia between World War I and the Russian Civil War, the film follows Omar Sharif as the titular Dr. Zhivago, a married physician, as he struggles through the turmoil caused by the Russian Revolution and his unrequited feelings for a married woman played by Julie Christie.
A tremendous box office hit in its day, Doctor Zhivago remains in the top ten of box office players of all-time, having an inflation-adjusted worldwide box office tally of $2.2 billion. Only 3 films made prior or released in the same year had done better (Gone With the Wind, The Ten Commandments, and 1965's The Sound of Music). This passionate romantic drama clocks in at over three hours, but as a quintessential love story with a historical backdrop, the film is one of the greatest romances ever made.
While modern horror films have become something of a broadly enjoyed cinematic genre that is better known for pulling in fright-seeking audiences rather than critical acclaim, The Shining was produced in an era when quality and visceral thrills were at their pinnacle. Preceding films like The Exorcist, Psycho, and Halloween had demonstrated both filmmakers' ability to scare audiences, but also approach important themes and subjects.
Stanley Kubrick took the notion of artistic horror to a new level with his adaptation of Stephen King's popular novel about a family who takes up residence in a snowed-in motel during the winter months in the Colorado Rockies. His use of Steadicam not only helped amp up the tension of young Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) rolling around the empty, likely haunted hallways of the hotel and coming face to face with various horrors, it codified the technique into the cinematic lexicon such that it has become as important a storytelling technique as Orson Welles' use of angles in Citizen Kane or Alfred Hitchcock's employment of dolly zooms in Vertigo. This is one of the myriad reasons Kubrick's name is often venerated among cineastes even if his films aren't entirely to their tastes.
The key snowy moment in this film, though, is the iconic scene (among many in the film) where Danny is running through a snow-drenched hedge maze as his psychotic father Jack (an unnerving and unparalleled Jack Nicholson) seeks him out with an axe clutched in his murderous hands. The final moment will remain forever immortalized on film due to this scene and it exemplifies the use of snow as a cinematic motif representing a cycle of death and the subsequent rebirth in the Spring, though there is no such season for the family in this film.
The Ice Storm (1997)
As Ang Lee's follow up to his American breakthrough Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm adapts Rick Moody's novel about a married couple and their two children who have all drifted into a state of suburban malaise from which each tries desperately to escape. The film is set in 1973 during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as the various social deviations the members of the Hood family are engaged in begin to break down the walls of the carefully curated family structure they've created.
Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci, and Tobey Maguire as the Hoods and Sigourney Weaver as the neighbor's wife all deliver powerful performances in this richly contextualized drama that asks audiences how far their faith in human nature can be torn. The icy environs that act as the setting for the narrative ultimately prove a frightening character of their own in an incident surrounding an empty, frozen swimming pool. As the third act turn that brings the Hoods' family's life crashing around them, it reverberates through the rest of the film, cementing this as one of Lee's absolute best pictures even if it's not talked of in the same way that his films Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain are today.
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)
Of all the films mentioned in this article, Kill Bill, Vol. 1 is the only one that isn't inexorably surrounded by a snowy exterior environment. Quentin Tarantino's first of two films centers around a former member of an exclusive team of contract killers who's betrayed by her prior mentor. Uma Thurman plays The Bride, former codename Black Mamba, as she tracks down her four other contemporaries who were parties to her attempted murder and more gruesome suffering.
The film opens as she tracks down Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox) and engages her in a destructive and bloody fight for dominance. From there, we follow the Bride from one scene to another as she finally tracks down Cottonmouth, otherwise known as O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu). Before meeting the fellow martial artist in battle, she must wade through O'Ren's gang of thugs, the Crazy 88, and take them down in bloody and splendid style. It's the final scene of the film where winter has fallen in Japan and the pair finally face off. This snow-covered scene in O-Ren's serene courtyard, the innocence of white juxtaposed against the venal bloody red of their battle, that most stands out of all the visceral moments in the film. It is one of Tarantino's most achingly beautiful in terms of composition and thematic relevance.
Not before becoming well known in the United States, but certainly bringing him to the familiarity of American audiences, director Bong Joon-ho's English language debut is a brilliant example of his use of framing, color, pacing, and narrative themes to weave fascinating tales that expose the inner workings of our human psyches. Based on a celebrated French graphic novel, Snowpiercer is set in the not-so-distant future of 2031 as the train Snowpiercer continues its global circumnavigation while the passengers within exist in a strange sort of equilibrium with the poor being segregated to the rear of the train and providing necessary work and resources for the rest of the passengers while the wealthy elite inhabit the forward section of the train.
Chris Evans plays the spirited leader of a rebellion that fights its way through the train towards the engine where the poor hope to overtake the conductor and their operations to ensure everyone is treated equally. As the film progresses, the rebels slowly make their way from car to car, learning horrendous truths about their importance to the train's continued functioning. The rebellion continues to dwindle as it moves into the more luxurious segments and Bong does tremendous work creating self-contained scenes of fascinating beauty in each individual segment through which he passes.
The film is a meditation on the class struggles felt by people around the world and their necessity to the noble elites. It also makes some statements on global warming and attempts to re-engineer the world's climate, but those take a back seat to the juxtaposition of rich and poor in the film, a theme Bong would later explore more deeply, but also more subtly, in his Best Picture winning breakthrough Parasite. Snowpiercer remains a nearly equal film to that in terms of quality and if there was ever a film where winter, or more specifically a new ice age, has had a more potent symbolic importance, this is it.


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Varming Consulting Engineers are dedicated to ensuring the economic, environmental and social sustainability of our designs. We meet the most stringent standards, such as BREEAM, Passive House and NZEB. We achieve this through a creative and innovative approach to all aspects of Mechanical and Electrical design, specification and cost control, and full collaboration with all project stakeholders.


SHOW MOM YOU CARE WITH A CRUISE ON SAN FRANCISCO BAY!
Enjoy a Two Entree Lunch Buffet paired with Bottomless Mimosas then hit the dance floor with our DJ!
Ticket price includes mimosas, sodas, juices, coffee and tea. All other alcohol is available for purchase at our cash bar.


Shuck and Jive: Give us an "M" and a "C"
On May 12th, 2008, the Session of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton, Tennessee, by a unanimous vote, affiliated with More Light Presbyterians and with the Covenant Network of Presbyterians.
First Presbyterian of Elizabethton is a progressive congregation that has a range of social justice ministries, while embracing scholarship, science, and the insights from the world's religions.
The Covenant Network of Presbyterians is a broad-based, national group of clergy and lay leaders working for a church that is simultaneously faithful, just, and whole. We seek to support the mission and unity of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a time of potentially divisive controversy. We intend to articulate and act on the church's historic, progressive vision and to work for a fully inclusive church. We are committed to finding a way both to live out the graciously hospitable gospel we have received and to live together with all our fellow members in the PC(USA).
* To interpret the work and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA) for its own members and for all others in its region.
Awesome! Can I join your church? I know, the commute from Albuquerque might be a bit long.
I am thrilled that they made this decision.
Well, Sara, that might be a bit of a commute all right, but hey, I consider you a member already of our virtual church!
Congratulations, FPCE! We're honored to have you with us!
Dang! That's something to be proud of. Way to go!
"To act against conscience is neither right nor safe."
You seem to be a man of conscience, pastor. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my book.


The 3 Questions I Ask My Kids Every Day, And Why - Something New Everyday!
Between sports and activities, Scouts and meetings, work requirements and family obligations, it seems that the moments we have in meaningful conversations are sometimes few and far between. Gone are the days when we come home from work and talk as a family while the newborn lies peacefully on my child. Gone are the days when we gather around the living room carpet and watch a toddler scoot and grunt. We have entered a new season of life — and it is busy, and packed, and intense.
In the limited amount of time where we are together, I make it a priority to ask three meaningful questions. They are quick questions, so my children have no idea the inferring that can occur or the subtle hints I can pick up on. I never make them go into detail if they don't want to, but I'm happy to listen when they do. I will never probe for more information, but I am a master at waiting silently to see if more will come.
Let me first start with what I do not ask. I hardly ever ask about a test score, a quiz, or anything academic. As an elementary school teacher myself, I assume my child's teacher will keep me up-to-date on anything I need to know in that realm. It isn't that I don't care about grades and education. It is that I am their mom. When I am at home with my children, it is my job to be their mom.
I will keep them safe. I will love them. I will meet their basic needs. But there is also more that I need to do as their mother: I need to know that they are happy. We live in a world where our society, our neighbors, our fellow citizens deserve to know that someone is looking out for everyone. That no one is in this world alone. That someone will do more than just dig deep and ask the questions. That they will read between the lines and hear what is being said (or not being said).
Who did you play with on the playground today?
1. Who did you play with on the playground today?
– Are they playing at recess?
– Do they feel like they are a part of a group when friends, or are they by themselves?
– Do they consistently play with the same friends, or are they meeting new friends?
– Are they running around and getting large motor exercise, or are they doing activities that don't expend a great deal of energy?
– Are they sitting by someone?
– Are they having conversations?
– Do they smile while recounting lunch?
– If they aren't sitting next to someone, how do they feel about that?
– Are they scared in the chaos of the lunch room?
– Did they try something new?
– Do they take risks?
– Is kindness in their bravery?
– Is compassion in their bravery?
– Are they proud of their bravery?
Being a mom has easily been the most difficult job I've ever had. The sleepless nights, the constant worry, the anxiety of how it will all turn out in the end. But these three questions — they serve a purpose. They let me know when we're "on track" and when we need to redirect. They are oftentimes a starting point to a bigger conversation.


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Dark Ambient Review: Dark Litanies of Terra / Mundus Sanctorium
Review By Casey Douglass
Warhammer 40,000 is something I've tried to get into on a number of occasions, but until recently, I didn't really click with it. A good omnibus of novels has helped massively, dabbling with one of the PC games too, and finally getting around to listening to the two albums that I am going to talk about in this review. I'll mention the book and the game at the end, but the two dark ambient albums come from Monasterium Imperi: Dark Litanies of Terra and Mundus Sanctorium.
Both albums take a little of their inspiration from the Warhammer 40K world, but they aren't intended to be overly entwined with the lore of that universe, nor is there any formal link with Games Workshop. Monasterium Imperi simply suggests that they might make a good soundtrack to listen to while you're engaged in any amount of thought or gaming, that might include the darkness of that universe.
I made the decision to review both albums together, as that is the way that I first listened to them, and also because it just seemed right to me. In the broadest of strokes, I'd say that Dark Litanies of Terra seemed the most pious or sacral of them both, with Mundus Sanctorium's field-recorded or other additions seeming to set three quite specific kinds of scene. Both albums feature the soothing style of sinister Gregorian chanting that might accompany a sprawling and powerful human civilization though, and for me, it's by far the feature that stands most prominent.
Dark Litanies of Terra
Dark Litanies of Terra consists of seven, relatively brief tracks, each of which is dedicated to Earth. For me, they conjured the kind of mental imagery that you might expect if you have seen the artwork of the Warhammer 40K world. I felt like I was walking the polished gothic halls and chapels of sinister cathedrals, the sunlight shining through carefully placed windows battling its way through the darkness that creeps at the edges.
The track Fratres is probably my favourite. It opens with a sinister vibration and a throbbing bass rumble. The sacral chants begin and a lighter melody accompanies them, the odd hefty, single drum-beat sounding. This track includes something in the chant that I really enjoy. I've called it a "shred" but I'm sure that's not the real term. Some of the chant has a higher edge, or maybe it's even an extra tone added. It's just a really pleasing counter to the unrelenting depth of some of the deepest tones. This whole track, for me, had an "enemy at the gates" feeling, that life was about to change and that dark deeds are about to be set into motion, in an effort to protect that life.
Mundus Sanctorium
Mundus Sanctorium is three longer tracks, each set to evoke worshipful life on far-flung sacred worlds in the cosmos. As I said previously, each track has a number of field-recorded or other elements that really set the scene. The first, Ordo Arcanum Cognitio has the splash of wind, rain and leaves. The second, Angeles Metalikus has a kind of electro-energetic fizzing, and the third, Credo Ultima, has the hiss and movement of something mechanical,along with distant screams. Guess which was my favourite?
Credo Ultima opens with a low drone, a clattering distant impact, and horn-like tones. Then the first scream begins. There is a chiming-knocking sound, and a regular piston-hiss, painting a picture of some kind of correctional or torture structure, a place for the heretics to be shown the error of their ways maybe. The calming chanting begins, with "shred", and the screams that come after seem to amp up in their agony. I loved this track as it was the darkest for me, but the other two evoke some great impressions too.
Leading up to this review, I picked up Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy on Kindle. It's currently £1.99 and is over a thousand pages of Warhammer 40K fun. I was partly swayed by one of the reviews, saying that it was a great book even if you weren't a 40K fan, or maybe even if you'd not enjoyed other stuff. For £1.99 I picked it up. I'm half way through it at the moment and it's brilliant. Eisenhorn is like the Inquisitor version of Sherlock Holmes, in some aspects. The book has already mentally taken me to an ice-world where most of the population has to be cryogenically frozen until the weather improves, to strange space-bending realities, and to witness a massive act of heretical terrorism that blew my mind.
Having spent a few weeks with Eisenhorn, I also decided I'd like to give Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 a try. It's a space-based real time strategy game where you can blast and pulverise the enemy with massive gothic spaceships. I've not been gaming much recently, and I'm finding BFG:A2 a bit overwhelming, but I've had a couple of hours with it so far and I'm enjoying the pomp and bluster of the conflict. This game, with the book and these two dark ambient albums have created a nice little triangle of interest for me, and all of them have fed into the others to make them feel more fleshed out and more vivid.
Would I have enjoyed the darkness of Dark Litanies of Terra / Mundus Sanctorium, if I hadn't discovered a newfound interest in Warhammer 40K? I think I would. Is my enjoyment of the Warhammer 40K universe amplified in the other direction as well? Definitely. I like things based on dark religious ideas, even though most modern day religions leave me a little disgusted. Such is the paradox of my own mind. Losing myself in the dark chant-based soundscapes of Monasterium Imperi while contemplating what it might be like to live in such a bleak yet powerful future is just what I feel I need right now.
Visit the Dark Litanies of Terra / Mundus Sanctorium pages on Bandcamp for more information. You can also have a skip through Dark Litanies of Terra below:
Album Titles: Dark Litanies of Terra / Mundus Sanctorium
Album Artist: Monasterium Imperi A.k.a Scorpio V
Label: Prometheus Studio
Released: 24 Dec 2020 / 5 Feb 2021
Labels: chant, dark ambient, Dark Litanies of Terra, dark review, Monasterium Imperi, Mundus Sanctorium, music, Prometheus Studio, Scorpio V, Warhammer 40K
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This HONDA CBR 250 is ready and waiting for you to take it home today. This motorcycle and our other inventory goes through a MULTI-POINT INSPECTION before it is put on our lot to be sold. The body is perfect and straight as a pin and has never been wrecked.
The powerful 250 engine accelerates strongly and more than holds its own in the toughest of traffic. The 250 engine gets great gas mileage and performs well on the highway. The sport wheels and road hugging suspension make handling those curves a breeze.
We have checked and double checked all of the major mechanical systems and know they are in great shape and waiting for you to drive it. With no significant exterior damage, this one has been kept in quality shape over the years.


Frantically, she leapt, bounding over the furniture, running on all fours, panting, her eyes bulging, her jaw menacing, her mouth foaming. In that disorder, to be sure, the beauty became the beast again-but even so, she remained graceful, desirable.
Felicien Champsaur's Nora, The Ape-Woman (1929) is a sequel to both Homo-Deus and Ouha, King of the Apes.
Nora is the story of two hybrids: a beautiful dancer sired by an orangutan and a human scientist, further humanized by surgery, and the son of a native woman and the part-human orangutan Ouha, King of the Apes.
It is concerned with evolutionary history and the true nature of the simian and human species; it deals with the scientific modification of such species by means of surgery, thus enhancing the human condition, ultimately leading to the creation of supermen and the conquest of death.
Despite various critical claims, Nora refuses to be racist and proudly claims that supposedly civilized white men are not superior to other races, or even species. It is a story of the triumph of animality, and argues that such triumph is not something of which we should be ashamed.


Project management tips - As a project manager you are in daily contact with customers, colleagues and suppliers. This is simply part of your profession. However, how do you deal with these people? From your role as a project manager you can use different styles that you may already use - consciously or unconsciously - that help you deal with these different stakeholders.
It may sound simple, but your customers, colleagues and suppliers are also people. Treat them as such. Below I will briefly discuss 6 simple tips to keep the relationship with your suppliers healthy and human. They don't have to become your best friends and come to your birthday party, but they are extremely important in the results of your work. And you too will be judged on this.
Your time is valuable, so use it effectively. This also applies in collaboration with suppliers. You can link up with many different suppliers who all provide the same products or services for your needs. You just have to ask yourself whether this will help you, your organization and possibly your client in the short and long term. Imagine that you have to buy 10,000 flyers for a sales promotion and you are going to ask for a quotation from 5 suppliers. In the end you might save 2 cents per flyer, thus 200 euros. However, in terms of time, you may spend 2 to 3 times more by your communication with your suppliers and the follow-up. Your time also costs money, so ultimately your organization doesn't benefit from it and neither does the customer. Because it must also pay for your time.
You have now been selective in choosing your suppliers. It is also up to you to build a real partnership with your supplier. If you start to see each other as partners and help each other, beautiful things will arise. A real relationship is just like what you possibly have at home with your partner. You give to each other, you also take and above all you are in it together. My advice in your cooperation with your supplier is not to squeeze them out for every job. Make sure that your supplier can make good money from you, but also make sure that this gives you priority. It may happen that you need something urgently and then you want them to be inclined to do anything about it. Not only from financial gain but also from a human perspective.
A relationship is based on honesty, so share your challenges, concerns, wishes and everything that you believe will help you in the progress towards the results for the future. Talk to your supplier about his responsibilities if you think that something has taken too long, for example, or that you did not like the quality of something. Also make sure you make time in the meantime to evaluate with each other and give honest feedback. Make sure that this is constructive so that someone can really learn from this, but raw feedback is also allowed from time to time. Feedback is perception but always has a core of truth somewhere, certainly if it is signaled more often. Also don't forget to be positive to your supplier if something went well. Everyone grows from a compliment!
Nobody is perfect and mistakes can be made. A simple rule that I use in this is that you have to learn from mistakes and that the same error may occur again, but this is then no longer possible afterward. Then there is something fundamentally wrong with the process or the supplier. Always give your supplier the opportunity to correct his mistakes.
Make sure you learn from the projects that you pick up with your suppliers. You do business with them for a reason, they are the experts that you trust to work together towards the best result for your project. So ask, for example, how certain processes proceed internally at your supplier and what exactly happens there. This way you learn to understand your supplier better and you also get a better insight into why certain things cost more time or money. All this will help you enormously in your own projects and in the results thereof.
Give your supplier a healthy margin. They too must eat and pay the bills. You have nothing if you have the best price now, but in the end, you have to find a new supplier every 2 months. Through long-term cooperation, everything goes faster because you learn to understand each other better and are more responsive to each other. And if something extra is needed, you will find that the supplier is always willing to help. It is partly in your interest to keep your suppliers alive through a healthy margin.
Ultimately, it's all about expertise. To increase your expertise in the field of project management and to make use of the expertise around you at your suppliers. It is said that you are never too old to learn. So if you need immediate advice on project management, for example, sign up on CallTheONE and find the expert who can support you remotely via live video.
Project management is one of the most important parts of in business.
Prince2 is a project management method.


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Muribasidiospora är ett släkte av svampar. Muribasidiospora ingår i familjen Exobasidiaceae, ordningen Exobasidiales, klassen Exobasidiomycetes, divisionen basidiesvampar och riket svampar.

Källor

Basidiesvampar
Muribasidiospora

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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MySPOT
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About Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources System (FDLRS)
Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources System provides diagnostic and instructional support services to district exceptional student education programs statewide. Throughout Florida there are 19 FDLRS Associate Centers, serving one to nine districts each, and 2 Specialized Centers that serve the entire State of Florida.
FDLRS collaborates with districts, agencies, communities and other personnel and educational entities providing education and support for students with disabilities.
FDLRS activities are grouped into four primary areas:
• Child Find
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FDLRS Hillsborough
FDLRS Hillsborough services the Hillsborough County Public Schools and provides diagnostic and instructional support services to district personnel serving students with disabilities and their families in addition to those who are at risk of having a disability.
• the enhancement of learner outcomes
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For information about FDLRS Statewide and the other FDLRS Associate Centers, please go to www.fdlrs.org
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For information about any of the FDLRS Specialized Centers, please visit their websites below:
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The Resource Materials and Technology Center for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing (RMTC:D/HH) and the Outreach Services for the Blind/Visually Impaired and Deaf/Hard of Hearing (OSBD) are statewide discretionary projects housed on the campus of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (FSDB) with the mission to support the education of students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Blind/Visually Impaired in the State of Florida.
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Continuous Notification of Nondiscrimination
Pursuant to Title VI, Title IX, Section 504/Title II and other civil rights regulations, the School District of Hillsborough County (District) does not discriminate nor tolerate harassment on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, marital status, genetic information or pregnancy in its educational programs, services or activities, or in its hiring or employment practices; and it will take immediate action to eliminate such harassment, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects. The District also provides equal access to its facilities to the Boy Scouts and other patriotic youth groups, as required by the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act.
The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies: Dr. Pansy Houghton, Executive Officer, Compliance. 813-272-4000; pansy.houghton@sdhc.k12.fl.us; Office of the Chief of Staff, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, Florida 33602.
The School District of Hillsborough County is committed to providing websites that are accessible to all of our stakeholders. If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader, eye-tracking device, voice recognition software, etc.) and are experiencing difficulty accessing information on this site, the following person has been designated to handle inquiries or complaints related to the functionality or inaccessibility of online content: Dr. Pansy Houghton, Executive Officer, Compliance. 813-272-4000; pansy.houghton@sdhc.k12.fl.us; Office of the Chief of Staff, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, Florida 33602.
As required by Section 668.6076, Florida Statutes, you are hereby notified that: Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing. History.--s. 1, ch. 2006-232.


Shanghai, 14th June: Last week, UBM Sinoexpo, subsidiary of UBM plc, announced that the company acquired 70% interest in the Shanghai International Franchise Exhibition (SFE). No financial details of the acquisition were disclosed.
Organised by Shanghai Exhibition-Conference Limited (SEC), SFE was launched in 2005. It is held twice a year – a spring and an autumn edition. The exhibition is reportedly one of the largest franchising events in China. Exhibitors are mainly from the food, beverage and retail sectors. At the spring 2018 edition, the exhibition attracted 221 exhibitors with over 450 brands and more than 50,000 visitors.


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Now It's a Race for Cantor's Seat ... Or Is It?
By Rob Longley 2014-06-16T03:32:41
Talk about low-key.
Democrat Jack Trammell's nomination for Virginia's 7th District congressional seat was codified not in a convention hall or at the ballot box, but in a hastily arranged conference call Sunday with a handful of district committee members. The 50-year-old Trammell's nod received little media attention inside Virginia — as of Monday, most outlets were still reporting that the district had no Democratic candidate — and next to none outside the commonwealth.
What a difference a few days makes.
The little-known college professor and author, who was to be the latest sacrificial lamb in Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) political ascension, is now the much-better-known candidate with, some say, a realistic shot at flipping Cantor's seat to the Democrats.
The transformation is of course due to Republican Dave Brat's stunning upset of Cantor in Tuesday's primary. The giant-killer Brat, 49, a Tea Party fave who hammered Cantor on conservative causes, especially immigration, during the primary campaign, has become a rock star pinup for the conservative wing of the GOP in the wake of his astonishing victory.
But Democrats are well aware that beyond the newfound fame, Brat is still a political neophyte with nowhere near the name recognition, clout or money enjoyed by Cantor. That may give Trammell, who, like Brat, is a professor at Randolph-Macon College, an opening. What was supposed to be a sure seat for Republicans with the mighty Cantor on the ballot is suddenly a potentially competitive race between political novices, some Democrats say.
"We have a real chance to pick up this seat," said one state Democratic Party official who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak about campaign strategy. "With Cantor, you had a powerful incumbent with tons of cash in a solidly Republican district. With Cantor out, we at least have a shot."
But some analysts aren't so sure.
"Barring some really major errors by Brat, this race shouldn't be on the radar as a competitive race in November," Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, said. "It's difficult to see Brat losing. And because of the basic fundamentals of the district, it's unlikely national Democrats will invest much here."
The more likely scenario, Skelley says, is that Brat will win in November — and then "will have to fend off some serious GOP primary challengers in 2016."
And given the well-organized Tea Party support Brat received across the central Virginia district in his unlikely win against Cantor, the Republican nominee has an added advantage in an already energized base.
But Democrats may not be willing to give Brat a pass just yet.
https://pjmedia.com/blog/now-its-a-race-for-cantors-seat-or-is-it/


Ready for a totally new spin on playtime for you and your pup!?
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At Bullibone, our mission is simple: Make dogs happy with healthy habits. We believe that good mental and physical health led to a higher quality of life for both pup and owner!
All our toys are designed to help your dog reconnect with their natural instincts in a way that tightens the bond between you and your best friend. Our toys help reduce tartar and plaque while freshening your dog's breath and keeping their gums healthy.


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"The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 in a historic move that brings together The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC) and The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) and, for the first time, makes it possible for residents of the Rio Grande Valley to benefit from the Permanent University Fund—a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System.
The new university is home to a new School of Medicine and will transform Texas and the nation by becoming a leader in student success, teaching, research, and health care. UTRGV enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine enrolled its first cohort in the summer of 2016.
The shared history of UTPA and UTB/TSC goes back to 1927, when Edinburg College was founded. In 1973, Pan American opened a second campus in Brownsville, which later became an independent institution of The University of Texas System in 1991. Over the years, the missions and the identities of these great institutions have continually evolved to serve the communities of the Rio Grande Valley." – http://www.utpa.edu.
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Q: Pegar valores em comum em varias colunas de um dataframe? Eu tenho uma tabela com valores numéricos e gostaria de pegar os valores em comum em todas colunas (interseção) e os valores únicos de cada uma utilizando pandas (Python).
    Position_a  Position_b  Position_c  Position_d  Position_e  Position_f
0   45794939.0  45794939.0  45794939    45794939.0  45794939    45794939.0
1   45794975.0  45794975.0  45794975    45794975.0  45794975    45794975.0
2   45794983.0  45794983.0  45794983    45794983.0  45794983    45794983.0
3   45794988.0  45794988.0  45794988    45794988.0  45794988    45794988.0
4   45795006.0  45795006.0  45795006    45795006.0  45795006    45795006.0

A: Seu exemplo está um pouco estranho, uma vez que todos as linhas estão presentes em todas as colunas, mas talvez o seguinte método para contar as ocorrências te ajude.
    import pandas as pd
    import numpy as np

    data = {'Position_a': [45794975, 45794983, 45794988, 45795006, np.NaN],
            'Position_b': [45794939, 45794975, 45794983, 45794988, 45795006],
            'Position_c': [45794939, 45794975, 45794983, 45794988, 45795006],
            'Position_d': [45794939, 45794975, 45794983, 45794988,np.NaN],
            'Position_e': [45794939, 45794975, 45794983, 45795006, np.NaN],
            'Position_f': [45794939, 45794975, 45794983, 45794988, 45795006]
            }

    df = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(data)

    print(df)

    tidydf = pd.melt(df)

    tidydf.pivot_table(index = ['value'], columns = ['variable'], aggfunc = len, fill_value = 0)


Guess what!? Yes, metrics for June! 📊 Books I usually don't count how many books I read, I just track and check at the end of the month. When I saw that I read five books read this month, my face was like 😱. All of them received a 4-star review, so the result is quite good. Managing Oneself: This is a great book. It's not life-changing, but there are many great tips to improve your life.
It's May, and it's time for metrics! 📊 Books Two books read this month, but both received a 3 stars review: Wait, What?: And Life's Other Essential Questions: Exactly what the author says in the beginning: It's a lecture that became a book. Not bad, but OK-ish. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work: More political views than I was expecting and the pacing is not so good.
It's time for April metrics! 📊 Books Note: I write a review for each book I read. You can find them on my Goodreads account. Again, just one book this month, and again, a 5 stars one! A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy. This book was on my reading list for many months now. After reading it, I realized I'm practicing a fraction of Stoicism for many years.
March is gone, and it's time for metrics! 📊 Books Note: I write a review for each book I read. You can find them on my Goodreads account. Just one book this month, but a 5 stars one: When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. This book is about optimization based on time and energy. What is the best time to do some action based on statistics? I found it to be amazing and could confirm many of the assumptions with my data.
February time! Let's see what we can get from my metrics. 😀 Books Note: I write a review for each book I read. You can find them on my Goodreads account. I'm quite satisfied with my reading list for this month: Five books read in a month and a 4.6 average rating. That's what I call a good reading month. The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence.
I'm excited to write this post about my performance for the first month of the year. I think I will have some great news at the end of this post, related to my expenses. Let's get started! 😀 Books I decided to listen to my podcasts this month, so I did not hear that many audiobooks. The only book I read this month was a physical book: Hiding in unnatural happiness is a book I received from a monk in York.
Brace yourselves, this post will be HUGE TL;DR: It was a great year and I'm really glad to see the metrics and notice everything I accomplished. I don't remember the last time I posted my yearly review publicly but as I'm doing monthly posts of my stats, it makes sense to do an annual review as well. I do yearly reviews since around 2005 but I never post them publicly.
Came back from a travel last month and just packed my stuff to travel again this month. Let's see if it affected my performance. Books I was traveling this month, so as usual, I'm not reading/listening to audiobooks because I prefer to focus on the place I'm visiting. For this reason, I did not finish any book this month. With that said, it is the first time I have 4 books on my reading list at the same time.
This will be a quick post to help people that are doing the same search as I was doing some minutes ago: "firefox disable ctrl+q". I'm using Firefox Quantum for some weeks now (will probably post about it in the future) and the ctrl+q "feature" really annoys me. It's not the first time that I hit ctrl+q by accident just to see the entire browser and tabs being closed without warning.
Came back from a travel last month and just packed my stuff to travel again this month. Let's see if it affected my performance. Books Read three books this month. My first book of H.P. Lovecraft, called At the mountains of madness was one of them. It was an interesting experience to read it. I also read about minimalism just to realize that I'm a minimalism since forever. If you like minimalism I also recommend to listen to their podcast and read their website.


text:
Eva Watson-Schütze (* 16. September 1867 in Jersey City; † 1935 in Chicago) war eine amerikanische Malerin und Fotografin des Piktorialismus. Sie war ein Gründungsmitglied der Photo-Secession.

Leben
Eva Watson begann 1883 im Alter von 16 Jahren ein Studium an der Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, wo sie die Klasse von Thomas Eakins besuchte. Sie übte sich vornehmlich in Aquarell- und Ölmalerei. Ob sie von Eakins in fotografischer Hinsicht beeinflusst wurde, ist nicht bekannt. Ab 1890 befasste sie sich ausschließlich mit der Fotografie.

Von 1894 bis 1896 teilte sie sich ein Fotoatelier mit Amelia Van Buren, ebenfalls eine Absolventin der Akademie in Philadelphia. Im Anschluss eröffnete Watson ihr eigenes Porträtstudio. Ihr piktorialistischer Stil fand schnell Beachtung, und zeitgenössische Fotografen lobten ihre ästhetische Sichtweise. In einem Brief an die Fotografin Frances Benjamin Johnston äußerte sie sich 1897 zuversichtlich, was die Rolle der Frau in der Fotografie betrifft. 1899 wurde sie Mitglied der Photographic Society of Philadelphia gewählt und stellte unter dem Namen Eva Lawrence Watson aus. Im Folgejahr wurde sie an die Seite von Frank Eugene, Gertrude Käsebier, Alfred Stieglitz und Clarence Hudson White in die Jury der Gesellschaft gewählt.

1901 nahm sie auf Drängen von Frances Johnston an einer wegweisenden Ausstellung amerikanischer Fotografinnen in Paris teil. Im selben Jahr heiratete sie den deutschstämmigen Anwalt und Literaturprofessor Martin Schütze. Das Paar zog nach Chicago, wo Martin Schütze einen Lehrstuhl übernahm. 1902 wurde Eva Watson-Schütze die Mitgliedschaft im vornehmen Londoner Linked Ring angetragen. Den dortigen Austausch mit anderen progressiven Fotografen empfand sie als sehr anregend. In dem Ansinnen, eine ähnliche Vereinigung in den USA zu schaffen, korrespondierte sie mit Alfred Stieglitz. Gegen Ende des Jahres wurde sie gemeinsam mit Stieglitz Gründungsmitglied der Photo-Secession.

Den Sommer 1903 verbrachte Watson-Schütze in der Byrdcliffe Colony, einer Künstlerkolonie des  Arts and Crafts Movement bei Woodstock. Dort erwarb sie mit ihrem Mann ein Stück Land, auf dem sie ein Sommerhaus, das sie  "Hohenwiesen" nannten, errichteten. Von 1905 bis ungefähr 1925 verbrachte das Ehepaar die Sommer- und Herbstmonate dort.

1905 veröffentlichte Joseph Keiley  in Camera Work ein umfangreiches Porträt von Eva Watson-Schütze in dem er sie als "eine der zuverlässigsten und aufrichtigsten Verfechterinnen der piktorialistischen Bewegung in Amerika würdigte." (Camera Work 9, 1905, Seiten 23–36)

In Byrdcliffe fand Watson-Schütze ihr Interesse für die Malerei wieder. Nach 1910 fotografierte sie nur noch selten, ab den 1920er Jahren sind nur noch Familienfotos von ihr bekannt. 1929 wurde sie Direktorin der Renaissance Society, einer Kunsthalle, die 1915 auf dem Gelände der University of Chicago gegründet wurde. Unter Watson-Schützes Kuratorium, von 1929 bis 1935, zeigte die Society wichtige Ausstellungen von Künstlern der klassischen Moderne, wie beispielsweise Jean Arp, Constantin Brâncuși, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall,  Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró oder Pablo Picasso.

Eva Watson-Schütze starb 1935 in Chicago.

Literatur
 C. Jane Gover: The Positive Image – Women Photographers in Turn of The Century America, State University of New York Press, 1988, ISBN 0-88706-533-3 (englisch)
 Jean F. Block: Eva Watson Schütze – Chicago Photo-Secessionist. University of Chicago Library, 1985, ISBN 0-943056-06-3 (englisch)
 Martha Kreisel (Hrsg.): American Women Photographers – A Selected and Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Press, London 1999, ISBN 0-313-30478-5 (englisch)

Weblinks

  Eva Watson-Schütze auf photogravure.com (englisch)

Fotograf (Vereinigte Staaten)
Ausstellungskurator
Piktorialismus
Maler (Vereinigte Staaten)
Person (Edeldruckverfahren)
Person (Chicago)
US-Amerikaner
Geboren 1867
Gestorben 1935
Frau


text:
Apollo Discussions »
The Hoax Theory »
"The LM was made of aluminum foil and tape!" - counterargument
Author Topic: "The LM was made of aluminum foil and tape!" - counterargument (Read 3321 times)
One common argument for the landings being faked is the whole "The LM was made of aluminum foil and tape!" thing. Here's some good counterarguments. "Well, the De Havilland Mosquito (a WWII airplane) was made out of balsa, and could fly at 400 mph. It's as true as the LM being made out of foil." (Posting a picture is good.) (Ironically, it's actually more true than LM was made out of foil bit. The Mosquito was effectively made out of what was in many ways an early version of composite materials, except using wood products, and IIRC, balsa was one of them.) Another good thing to point out is that foil like that is used extensively on satellites and planetary probes.
Even I was surprised to learn they used tape to attach the Kapton? foil. I would have assumed they would have glued it to the underlying structure. But it was explained to me quite well - what is tape, but a piece of material with glue on one side? That pretty much immediately led to an "ah, now I understand" moment. The tape is just a piece of material across a joint was glue on one side. Another thing to bring up is that the "foil" is just an outer covering to keep the sun off, and actually is somewhat flimsy. But then again, with no air resistance, it didn't need to be strong, The actual structure was underneath it, and was plenty strong enough. (Post a picture of a LM under construction without the outer covering attached.) Another point is that the actual cabin the astronauts were in was about the thickness of a beverage can. So, IIRC (I think) was the outside of a B-17.
One final good thing to do would be to turn the question around, and ask a HB what a lunar lander should look like, or how they would design one. Hopefully that would occasionally lead to a bit of thinking,
(PS: About the Kapton tape, would common duct tape have been strong enough for that application? Just something I recently wondered about.)
BertieSlack
Re: "The LM was made of aluminum foil and tape!" - counterargument
I think I'm right in saying that the only bits of the pressurised crew cabin that are visible from the outside are the windows and the hatches. What you see is basically thermal insulation and the micrometeoroid shield - which are not necessary for the structural integrity of the vehicle. The frame, substructure and crew cabin were made of titanium and aluminium sheeting, and were strong enough for a vehicle that didn't have to deal with aerodynamic loads. With the layers of insulation stripped off, the LM looked like this:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/o8hnx.jpg
It's also worth remembering that LM was built by Grumman - who also made the F-14 Tomcat.
bknight
An image is worth a thousand words, and I wish they would have never said you could punch a hole in the LM (insulation) in my mind propagating such hoax beliefs. Similar to
Mr. Smith video a couple of years back where is describing the task of venturing through the VARB, when Apollo did tha by skirting the less dense parts, but we all know how the CT crowd viewed this video. A follow up video showing the interior of Orion went a long way to correct the poor language choice in the first.
Truth needs no defense. Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
Eugene Cernan
Mag40
Quote from: Everett on September 05, 2019, 10:26:10 AM
"The LM was made of aluminum foil and tape!" thing. Here's some good counterarguments.
Here is a better one. No it wasn't.
Allan F
The LM had thicker pressure-bearing walls than a soda can.
A soda can holds 30 psi - the LM had to hold 5 psi.
Also, al commercial airliner has thinner pressure-bearing walls than the LM - and carries greater pressure differential over a much larger area.
Well, it is like this: The truth doesn't need insults. Insults are the refuge of a darkened mind, a mind that refuses to open and see. Foul language can't outcompete knowledge. And knowledge is the result of education. Education is the result of the wish to know more, not less.
apollo16uvc
Where no telescope has gone before.
Quote from: Allan F on September 05, 2019, 03:44:41 PM
The sodacan has the benefit of a geometrically strong shape (Cylinder)
The LM does not.
Ultraviolet light photography rules!
No, but the LM had a lot of ribs for structure. More per hull area than an airline. The can has none.
It's ribbed for her pressure.
OK, jokes aside, the 'foil and tape' crowd obviously have never looked at many satellites and landers for non-atmospheric objects.
And, I'm not an engineer, but the habitable pressure vessel portion of the LM looks fairly cylindrical even so. Not perfectly, people don't walk very well across curved floors usually, but it's taking advantage of the shape where it can.
There is no way thin fragile flesh could possibly contain all of the messy organs while retaining verticallity, therefore people cannot exist.
Same argument.
Why the crank fraternity are so impressed by it is anyone's guess.
Curiously, the "tinfoil LM" crowd never seem to provide a physical description of what a "believable" LM would in fact look like. I assume they want it to be silver, shiny, and vaguely bullet-shaped - like something out of Buck Rogers - and since the historical LM does not look like that, then the only logical conclusion is that it's fake.
This line of argumentation also nicely exemplifies the classic hoax believer paradox; namely that NASA is simultaneously 1) capable of faking anything imaginable with their bottomless resources, and 2) hopelessly inept at faking things.
Hoax believer: "Of course the cloud patterns on earth seen in Apollo photos match weather satellites from those same days - with all of the tax dollars that NASA steals, that would be dead simple for them to fake, even in the era of analog film and decades before the advent of Photoshop."
Also the hoax believer: "LOLOLOL, they mock up a trashcan from popsicle sticks and tinfoil and expect us to believe it can land on the moon? I feel sorry for anybody who falls for this!"
JayUtah
Integral stringers, a Grumman innovation. They used a chemical milling process to create them in the curved shapes needed for composing the pressure vessel.
"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Regarding tape, pressure-sensitive adhesives can be amazingly strong. We just don't produce them for the public for liability reasons. We use polyamide tape with adhesives that are strong enough to hold my weight. Engineers use tape for the same reasons non-engineers find tape convenient and appropriate.
What I meant was that the outer thermal/micrometeorite shield wasn't particularly sturdy, but with no air in space, didn't need to be. The actual structure however was, but you can't see it from the outside, it's under the outer layers. Then again, everything did need to be stressed for +3 G's to survive loads during launch. (I think.) The picture that BertieSlack posted pretty much counters the "too flimsy" argument all be itself. (Question - was the descent module outer thermal/micrometeorite shield a separate layer away from the structure, or was it right up against/attached to/backed by the structure? I'd assumed the former, but from the picture posed makes me wonder if it was the latter.) And some HB should take a look at what a modern satellite or probe looks like - just like the LM.
I'd also imagine that the typical HB assumes something like a typical Hollywood ship as well. Or alternately, for that matter, perhaps something like the Soviet equivalent to the LM, the somewhat more aerodynamic looking LK:
http://www.astronautix.com/l/lk.html
Also worth noting, don't forget the Grumman earned the nickname the "Grumman ironworks" during WWII for how sturdy its carrier aircraft were. It seems Grumman was the US Navy's preferred aircraft builder. Too bad Northrop Grumman doesn't seem to build planes much any more, or that so few combat aircraft types are produced nowadays there's not room for another contractor. Part of me wonders if letting McDonald Douglass be bought out by Boeing was a mistake. Now any tanker or other airliner derived military aircraft goes to Boeing by default, since heaven forbid that we license-build an Airbus!
The core structure of the LM ascent stage was extremely strong: fore and aft milled frames connected at the bottom by two ventral beams and at the top by the extremely robust docking structure.
Quote from: JayUtah on September 07, 2019, 12:22:31 AM
Interestingly, I have twice had occasion to deploy two part epoxy resin this last two months. The sad victims could not fathom why "Superglue" failed, but resin did not. I could have diverted into a diatribe about evap versus chemical reaction adhesives, but I chose to avoid that madness, "It works, that is all."


Can he capture Ahmed Al-Amin before it's too late?
Confronting a new operative . . .
When veteran CIA operative Titus Ray arrives in San José, Costa Rica, and meets fresh-faced Ben Mitchell, a hot-tempered new operative with barely any experience in the field, he has a choice to make--ignore him or take him under his wing.
Facing an old demon . . .
In the middle of an active, ongoing operation, Titus is suddenly called back to the States where he must deal with the failures from his past and make decisions about his future with Detective Nikki Saxon.
Opposing a present danger . . .
In an effort to stop Hezbollah assassin, Ahmed Al-Amin, from murdering a high-profile government official, Titus travels to Caracas, Venezuela, where he learns the assassin is but one piece of a complicated international plot to deliver chemical weapons to some of America's most dangerous enemies.
· Will he overcome the obstacles and capture Ahmed before it's too late?
Luana picked up her first adult spy novel when she was eleven years old. Today, she continues to have a passion for the thriller/suspense genre of fiction. In addition to being an avid reader, she is also a news fanatic and follows events around the world on a daily basis, particularly the Middle East. Luana is a minister's wife and has lived in Norman, Oklahoma for the past two decades. Previously, she resided in several states in the South and Midwest. Along with her husband, she also served as a missionary in Costa Rica and Venezuela. Luana is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers.
Another outstanding book in the Titus Ray series. The story line was compelling and completely believable in 2015 and the characters were well-developed and interesting. The personal issues, personality conflicts, and power struggles were believable as was the compassion and teamwork encountered. I particularly liked that there were no super-humans. It isn't that I don't enjoy some stories with characters that are able to survive physical trauma that would kill most humans and then bounce back with little recuperation time to single-handedly foil the bad guys, but I can also appreciate a story with characters who are fairly normal people. There was a lot of action, drama, and suspense in this story and the scenarios presented always seemed plausible. A key aspect of this series is that Titus is a recent convert to Christianity who is growing in his faith and struggling with what it means to be a Christian. How does that affect how you do your job? How can you relate to people who've known you for years as a non-Christian? I like that Titus doesn't bludgeon people with a bible; he simply lives according to his new values. I felt this was characterized well via an observation by Olivia about Titus' behavior.
If you haven't read the first in the series, One Night in Tehran, I absolutely recommend doing so before reading this book. Not because it is necessary in order to enjoy this story - you'll be provided with enough background without reading the first book - but simply because it is a really good read. As part of a series, Two Days in Caracas ends with a lead-in to the next book in the series. It didn't seem like a cliff-hanger because the story is complete as written. The ending simply lets you know that there is more ahead in case you've come to enjoy the characters and story line(s). On a final note, this story contains neither profanity nor gratuitous sexual encounters.
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat Second Book!
After reading One Night in Tehran, I fell in love with a spy! I absolutely found Luana Ehrlich's book so fascinating that I could not put it down. So, naturally, when her new book came out, I bought it immediately and started reading it. I was not disappointed. Titus Ray makes being a spy so cool. I loved how he thought through situations before actually plunging ahead and I loved how his life is changing because of his commitment to Christ. It is so wonderful seeing a life become new because of Jesus. I also loved seeing his romance with Nikki develop too. I hope her third book will be coming out soon, because I have thoroughly enjoyed this series.
I have just finished reading this second book in the Titus Ray series and I must say it was excellent. I didn't want to put it down and often kept reading when I should have been doing other things, but it was well worth the time. I was concerned about getting involved in a series as I normally prefer not to do so. This series is different to so many others though, in that you can read one book as a stand alone novel as each one is a complete story that leaves one satisfied. At the end there is a small section that will state something about a further adventure but it doesn't make you feel like you have to purchase that book to complete your story and for that, I am really grateful to this writer in how she constructs her novels. I found all the characters to be so very well developed and unusually for me, I felt I really knew and understood them. That was so gratifying to me and made it far more enjoyable in that I wanted things to be good for them, despite knowing that they had some serious trials ahead. I would recommend this book to any of my friends/family who enjoy well written thrillers, nobody reading this or any of this series, could be disappointed.
Two Days in Caracas is the second book in the Titus Ray Thriller series. Both the first book, One Day in Tehran and this second book were enjoyable reads for me. Excellent plot development and the characters are very well done. The author continues to develop Titus and other characters in this second in the series. I like the way the author handles the spiritual aspect of the book. Titus is a relatively new convert to Christianity and as such still has much to learn. He learns to lean more on God in this episode of his life as a covert CIA operative and manages to witness his faith in an unobtrusive way as the Lord opens the door for him. The low-key witnessing is minimal and presented just as an everyday lay Christian would find opportunities. No overt evangelism, just ordinary people sharing their faith to someone who has opened a door to hear about it. The real story is his life as a covert CIA operative. The author does an excellent job of creating a believable story. The villains are villainous, the terrorists are terrorizing, the spies are suspicious and secretive, and overall the characters are an excellent mix representing the human population well.
In Two Days in Caracas, Titus is temporarily taken off the spurious medical leave he was forced to take after his last assignment in One Day in Tehran. He is thrust into the world of Hezbolla, drug cartels, and Venezuelan civil servant corruption when a fellow CIA operative was murdered and it was determined that Titus Ray was the real target. There is a lot of great action, plenty of suspense and a little bit of romance, as well as dealing with family issues and interpersonal relationships with family, friends, co-workers, and superiors.
The story is written from the first person perspective of Titus Ray, the main character. As a male he occasionally will include descriptive details that, in my experience, most men would usually miss or dismiss. But, being a spy, I'm sure his attention to detail is trained and heightened so it isn't beyond suspension of disbelief. Her male characters are masculine and she has strong female characters, though there are moments of feminine weakness that ring true to reality, especially when it comes to relationship development.
This author's books entertained me and kept me reading into the wee hours because I didn't want to put them down. I've already gotten the third book in the series. Each book is a stand alone story so you are left with an unresolved cliff hanger. If you missed the first book there is enough pertinent information reviewed from the first book that you are not left in the dark. Even if you read the books out of order there are no real spoilers in the second to keep you from enjoying the first at a later time, though, I would recommend reading One Night in Tehran first just so you can see the progression of character development. Both are well worth the reading. I would let any youth read this series of books. Great read for people who enjoy spy novels and political thrillers.