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Bob Bradley is U.S. soccer's version of Gary Kubiak: Keeping him makes no sense
David Theis
Jul 3, 2011 | 5:09 pm
Bob Bradley
In the world of international soccer, the beat goes on. The Gold Cup has scarcely ended, but Copa America — the South American version of the Eurocup — is already underway this weekend in host country Argentina.
Despite being situated in North America, Mexico is invited to this year's tournament. It's mostly sending a youth team, and resting the stars, such as Chicharito and Giovanni Dos Santos, that shined so brightly in the Gold Cup. (And Mexico dropped eight players from its Copa America team for partying after curfew with "unidentified women.")
So Mexico will likely make an early exit from a tournament that is drawing a great deal of international interest, as both a preview of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and as a renewal of perhaps the greatest national rivalry anywhere — Argentina vs. Brazil. But Mexico will still be far ahead of the United States.
U.S. soccer is little like last year's disappointing Houston Texans, and U.S. coach Bob Bradley definitely gives off a very Gary Kubiak vibe.
The U.S. has had a good run the last 10 years or so, starting with its defeat of Mexico in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals. (Of course, the team did flame out in the 2006 World Cup, not advancing from the group stage.) Specifically, since 1999, the U.S. had Mexico's number, going 10-5-2, including last week's Gold Cup final loss, so we could at least pound our chests over regional dominance.
But no mas. Mexico has a very exciting young team (in 2005 a team led by Dos Santos won the international under-17 championship), and it appears to have left the U.S. in its collective dust for the foreseeable future.
In fact, many commentators are concerned that the U.S. has taken a step back from its decent performance at the 2010 World Cup, and that the way forward isn't clear. U.S. soccer is little like last year's disappointing Houston Texans, and U.S. coach Bob Bradley definitely gives off a very Gary Kubiak vibe. That is, to fans he seems bland and uninspiring, and incapable of adjusting to game situations.
His Gold Cup final tactics have been roundly second guessed. After the U.S. took a very unexpected 2-0 lead against Mexico, Bradley continued to treat the game as if it were 0-0. That is, the team didn't adopt a more defensive strategy even after Steve Cherundolo, a key backline defender, was hurt. The defense quickly fell into shambles and took Tim Howard's goalkeeping with it.
But in any case, it's rare for a national team to keep its coach through two World Cup cycles. But the U.S. appears to be on the verge of doing just that — for a second time. Bruce Arenas led the team to unexpected success in 2002, reaching the semifinals, but flamed out in 2006.
Now Bradley has been rewarded with a contract extension for doing "good enough" in 2010, when most countries would've changed coaches no matter how well they'd done. (In 2010 Italy and France were the only teams that had brought back its coaches from 2006, and both teams embarrassed themselves.)
That complacency should certainly sound familiar to Texans' fans.
It's enough to make U.S. fans question how hungry the U.S. Soccer Federation hierarchy really is. Twice they've teased American fans by getting into serious talks with former German player and coach Jurgen Klinsmann, only to lose him both times, allegedly because he wants too much control.
Even if the U.S. doesn't hire Klinsmann, if it wants to take the next step forward, instead of a long step back, it should at least replace Bradley with a coach that has won at the international level. That said, it's likely that Bradley will lead the team into Brazil in 2014, assuming the U.S. make the tournament.
After all, he came in second in the Gold Cup, and apparently that's good enough.


If skateboarding has ever had a Cinderella story, this is it.
An unknown kid from Kamloops, deep in the depths of British Columbia made his way into the finals of Street League (SLS), quickly writing him into skateboarding's history books.
Known for his smooth style and insane technical ability, Matt splits his time between the sunny streets of LA and the rainy roads of Vancouver.
A skateboard prodigy, Matt started skating when he was five, first got sponsored when he was ten, and won his first major contest, 2009 Damn Am Canada, when he was just 16.
In 2014, Matt skated the SLS Pro Open and made history as the first amateur to qualify into SLS.
And in his first year, he made it to the Finals at every contest and was the first rookie to ever qualify for the Championship where he ended up in 5th place above SLS veterans Paul Rodriguez and Shane O'Neill.
After a strong year Matt turned pro for Flip Skateboards in 2015 and had a good year in SLS with two top-ten finishes.
After coming back from injury in 2016, Matt is looking to re-establish his competition form and lead Canada's skateboarders in Tokyo 2020.


The heart and soul of our company. The key to our success.
It's no exaggeration to say that without our manufacturing and technical professionals, Prysmian couldn't make so much as one metre of our cables. Representing the largest part of our total workforce, they are the beating heart of the company.
Every day, worldwide, they make things happen and add value to our businesses. They are the driving force behind our three fleets, (including the cutting-edge cable laying Giulio Verne and Cable Enterprise) wherever they are in the world. Quite simply, they are the lifeblood of our business.
With specific technical knowledge relating to the manufacture of cables, they ensure our 112 plants keep producing world-leading cable solutions.
We're always looking for new and skilled personnel to join the Prysmian family.


After all the trash produced about Osho's ranch in Oregon at least this report is not filled with lies and stupidity that seems to come straight from the press department of the Pentagon.
The producer of this film at least tries to describe this most thrilling story of modern religious consciousness in an unprejudiced way.
The enormous envy of the neighbouring farmer is shown clearly, the farmer who could not stand the success of the Sannyasins.
For many of the followers of Osho it became more than clear in what kind of country they had landed when the first fanatic Christian fundamentalists appeared at the gates of the ranch, shouting slogans like " We will show these people that there is only one God almighty."
Now the politically motivated pressure by the US government against the ranch intensifies.
The federal attorney of Oregon declares the city of Rajneeshpuram an illegal city, unprecedented in world history. And the reason is, astonishingly, that the ranch offends the separation from state and church. From now on this verdict served as a base to hinder and cripple the ranch in every possible way. Buildings on the ranch are declared illegal and new buildings are not allowed due to some obscure land use laws.
The Sannyasins successfully maintain their ground before court.
In July 1984 the High Court of Oregon determines that the city Rajneeshpuram does not violate any state laws.
When the US government, under the leadership of US Secretary of State Alexander Haig, realise that they cannot harm the ranch on a legal basis, they change their tactics and start to attack Bhagwan directly.
Unexpected help came to them from inside the ranch by Osho's secretary, Sheela.
The crimes committed by her were a welcome excuse to illegally arrest and imprison Osho. Sheela's crimes created the fog behind which the US government was able to hide their criminal action against Osho.
Only Osho's flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, and his subsequent kidnapping by the US authorities takes pressure off the ranch.
Osho's deportation from the USA was the final hit to the ranch. The community was destroyed and announced its final dissolution.
Today the former city of Ranjneeshpuram is just another ghost city in the wild west of America.


Check into your hotel of choice and make your way to downtown Kamloops for dinner at a local hotspot. How will you indulge?
Enjoy a typical Canadian winter night out! Take in a Kamloops Blazers WHL hockey game at the Sandman Centre.
Before heading back to your hotel, make a pit stop at 2 of Kamloops' craft breweries for a pint of beer. Both Red Collar Brewing Co. and The Noble Pig Brewhouse are in walking distance of the hockey game.
Want to experience more of the BC Ale Trail?
Before a day of outdoor adventure, fuel up with a hearty breakfast at Hello Toast. Try their famous eggs benedict, or head over to The Art We Are for vegan and gluten free options.
After breakfast, head up to Harper Mountain; Kamloops' only family owned and operated ski resort located only 20 minutes away.
Start your morning off by seeing how fast you can slide down the slopes in the thrilling Snow Town Tube Park.
Or, rent a pair of snowshoes and hike the trails to impeccable views.
Winter Adventure Awaits in Kamloops.
Rent ski or snowboard gear after lunch and shred on 16 runs of 1400 vertical feet. For a lovely après experience, warm up in the lodge with a cup of hot chocolate and a Canadian classic poutine by the fireplace.
Grab dinner before catching a live Western Canada Theatre production. WCT Entertains locals and visitors each season with 8 different productions.
Check to see what will be playing while you are in Kamloops!
Wake up with a fresh cup of coffee from Red Beard Café on the eclectic North Shore.
If you didn't get the chance to snowshoe at Harper Mountain, have ACT Adventures lead you on a guided snowshoe tour through the local trails. Learn about the natural surroundings and what makes Kamloops' landscape unique.
There is plenty of snowshoeing to experience here!
Hop in the car and head east along Highway 1. Drive for 15 minutes and you will come across a stunning vineyard called Monte Creek Ranch Winery. Home to a working ranch, stunning views of the South Thompson River, and award winning wines. Sip on wines like Haskap Berry, Pinor Noir, and Sparkling Wine.
Our Wine Game is Strong in Kamloops.
We hope you've had an amazing Canadian winter experience in Kamloops. Share your adventure photos with us by using #explorekamloops, see you again in the summer!


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This Father's Day, ditch the stress of gift-giving and give dad what he really wants: quality time together. Swap out your view from the couch for one from a hilltop, and trade the sounds of the hustle and bustle for the quiet of the great outdoors. Grab your gear and hit the trails with these tips and essentials for a day of hiking and adventure.
Before you embark on weekend exploration, check out our complete list of hiking essentials you'll want to have in your backpack here.
1. Map it out. Whether seasoned explorers or headed out for your first hike, spend some time researching trails that are fit for you. This way, you will know what to expect, how long it might take and have time to pack the essentials. Don't forget to bring your map, or a portable charger if you plan to use maps on your mobile device.
2. Dress for the day. On the trails, you're not the only one looking for adventure. Pests are, too, so layer up! Wear tall socks, light-colored long pants and long-sleeved shirts to help prevent ticks and mosquitoes. Tuck your pants into your socks as an extra precaution.
Pro tip: Buy EPA-approved permethrin-treated clothing or treat your clothes at home, according to label directions (it's odorless after drying and won't stain!). Permethrin is an EPA-approved and CDC-recommended repellent proven to fend off ticks and other pests that try to hitch a ride on your clothing.
3. Bask in the sun without burning. Apply sunscreen before you leave the house and again throughout the day, reading label directions to determine how often you should reapply. Lip balm with SPF will also keep your lips moisturized and sunburn-free, and grab a hat and pair of sunglasses for more shade and protection.
4. Fend off pests. Once your sunscreen is on, apply EPA-approved bug repellent according to label directions to your exposed skin to help keep your skin bite-free. Look for bug repellents with DEET, Picaradin, IR3535 or other EPA-registered active ingredient endorsed by the CDC for safety and protection. Stay in the middle of the path in wooded areas to help avoid brush where ticks love to catch their next ride on you. Don't forget to check for ticks when you get home after your day of exploration.
5. Stay Hydrated. Drink plenty of water before you leave the house, and especially while you're out in the elements. It's important to drink water even before you feel thirsty and keep an extra bottle on hand. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day for adults, and more when you're active and exercising!


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Home » Act 1: Birth, Childhood, and Early Career
Veteran fan magazine writer Herb Howe tells of penning an article about Nita back in the lush, golden days and submitting it to her in fear and trembling for an okay. Nita, always a wit, asked for only one change. She wanted the line "Nita Naldi was born over a market" changed to "Nita Naldi was born over a fish market."
Nita Naldi was born on November 13, 1894 in a tenement located at 309 E. 114th Street in the then-Irish enclave of Harlem. According to her birth certificate, her parents, Patrick and Julia Cronin Dooley, named her Mary. The 1900 and 1910 U.S. censuses, however, enumerate Mary Dooley as Nonna Dooley. Nita is enumerated twice on the 1910 census, at home and at Holy Angels Academy in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where her great-aunt, Sr. Mary Nonna Dunphy, was the founder and Mother Superior. This second enumeration was derived from the school's register and probably reflects the name under which Nita was registered. Nita was purportedly named after her great-aunt, so based on this and other internal evidence, we here at Naldi HQ infer that Nita's full name was Mary Nonna Dooley.
Two siblings preceded Nita into this world and departed from it before Nita's birth. Patrick and Julia Dooley's fourth child, a boy born in 1896, also died in infancy. Nita's only surviving brother, Daniel Aloysius, was born in 1898.
The Dooley household was a crowded one to modern eyes, although it was probably not considered unduly so at the time. Their tenement flat housed the Dooley children, Nita's parents, her grandparents, and a maternal aunt. The family was solidly blue collar, devoutly Catholic, and upwardly mobile; both Nita's father and grandfather were skilled tradesmen, her mother was a musician, her great-uncle was a wealthy merchant with a profitable Gold Street business and a home on West End Avenue, and her great-aunt, Sr. Mary Nonna, as a Mother Superior, had reached the pinnacle of career success for women in the Catholic Church. Nita and her brother were both educated with an eye to providing them with a leg up on the social and economic ladder. Daniel Dooley was eventually apprenticed to an attorney, while Nita, like her cousins (and probably her mother), attended Holy Angels Academy.
In my day, if men found you could converse, they wouldn't take you out again, so I'd just sit there with my head in the soup plate.
There was no bridge across the river to Fort Lee at the time, so each week Nita would board the ferry at the beginning of the school week and return home on Friday. At a time when most girls were given short shrift by the educational system, Holy Angels provided an unusually enriched academic environment; in addition to the three Rs, students took classes in art, music, drama, literature, and theology. Holy Angels was a favored boarding school among Catholics from the theatrical and early film community, where evening performance schedules hampered careful supervision of children. Actresses Mabel Taliaferro, Grace George, and Alice Brady were educated at Holy Angels, and the 1910 federal census for the school, which enumerates the future Nita Naldi, also enumerates the five-year old Katherine E. Gibbs—better known as Kay Francis.
When there's witless speculation to be done (to be done)
A historian's lot is not a happy one (happy one).
With apologies to W.S. Gilbert.
A word about research. We here at Naldi HQ have amassed reams of documentation on Nita's family and have spent many enjoyable hours devising tantalizing hypotheses to explain what happened to them—and why. Our endeavors ultimately proved fruitless. Credible conclusions can be teased from notations on public records only with great care, and it is easy to go spectacularly (and hilariously) wrong. Nita herself never publicly discussed the events documented in public records, her surviving family has no remembrances or explanations for them, and your intrepid reporters can draw no rock-solid conclusions. We understand that dry recitation of public record is tedious, but the records are part of the story. We will keep it succinct.
Schoolmate Kay Francis, dressed as "Nita Naldi," for a 1933 costume party. Photo courtesy Scott O'Brien, used with permission.
Between 1900 and 1906 the Dooley family went from being economically stable and upwardly mobile to hell in a handbasket. Patrick and Julia Dooley suffered an appalling infant mortality rate even for fin de siécle New York; of their eventual six children, only two survived to adulthood. Tuberculosis played a role in the family's story, although how large a role we do not know. Little John D. Dooley, born in 1896, died of tubercular enteritis at 11 months; in May 1903, Nita's maternal aunt, Mary Agnes Cronin, died of tuberculosis-related influenza. In 1906 Mary Agnes was followed to the grave by Nita's grandfather. Daniel Cronin had been the foreman of a tinsmithing factory, and his death probably resulted in a devastating reduction in the family's income.
Nita's last sibling was born in April 1905. This birth was induced at seven months due to eclampsia, and the premature little boy lived only one day. Shortly thereafter Nita's father departed the family home. He did not move very far away, however; he remained only a block from his family. We do not know whether this proximity was based on Patrick Dooley's desire to remain near his family or upon the legendary provinciality of the average Manhattanite. Nita later said that she left school to support her family, but in 1910, four years after these events, she was still in school, as was her brother Daniel. This suggests that Patrick Dooley's removal from the family home did not spell the end of his economic support, at least until Nita and Daniel were adults.
Nita's grandmother died in December 1911 as the result of an accidental fall, and when Julia Dooley died of a stroke in November 1915, she was living in the Regina Angelorum Catholic Home for Working Women. Whether this was by choice or by necessity we do not know. Nita was 21 years old at the time her mother died, so if Julia Dooley was in a charitable home out of necessity, Nita was not doing a very good job of supporting her family, despite her later claim. Nita herself, however, was living in the same home with her mother (and with a young secretary named Maria Naldi) so we at Naldi HQ prefer to believe that the two resided at Regina Angelorum by choice. Patrick Dooley was still alive in 1920, when he listed himself for the last time in the New York City Directory. Diligent effort on the part of your Naldi Investigators has so far failed to determine where and when Nita's father died. The search continues.
Early Stage Career
"How impressed I was to watch Nita in her scene with Rudolf Valentino in Blood & Sand. When she walked to the harp, I was expecting another random attempt at playing the harp on screen by a non-musician. But to my surprise, I could see that she was indeed really playing. She played out a melody and a definite bass line with continuity and logic. In fact, I could see that her hands were really plucking the strings rather than the typical light strum to "get by" on camera. Her left hand was indeed playing exact octaves with a repeated phrase making jumps of a certain distance and landing on the same strings, which shows she had some skill. Her right hand was playing a melody that also showed some repetitive phrasing and a very intentional musical action, even slightly rolled chords measured evenly, which is certainly not done by a beginner." Annamaria Mendietta.
Cora MacGeachy costume design for Nita Naldi, for "The Passing Show of 1918." Image ©Shubert Archive, used with permission.
Nita eventually excised several years from her age and in later interviews conveniently truncated her early career, giving the impression that she spent a few bored months modeling before leapfrogging to the Great White Way. There is, however, a gap in our knowledge of these years, years she undoubtedly spent working in less-than-stellar theatrical productions. By the time her name began appearing in cast lists she had already developed a cynical sense of humor and a reputation for hard drinking. Her dark coloring was at odds with the ice-cream blonde look then considered "All-American," so she jettisoned her local origins and became the usually Italian, sometimes Spanish, occasionally Irish daughter of world-traveled diplomats who hailed from Italy, Spain, Washington DC, or New Orleans—-depending on her mood at the moment. She and Maria Naldi moved into a midtown Manhattan apartment and announced that they were sisters. Nita adopted Maria's last name, creating the lilting and alliterative stage name "Nita Naldi." Her friends called her "Nix." Very few of her fellow theatricals believed Nita was Italian.
Even fewer believed that Nita and Maria were sisters.
After landing my first speaking part in a regular legit show called "The Bonehead," I was fired for throwing dice with the stagehands–and missing a few cues. Tell me what the stage crew thinks of a star, and I'll tell you where she rates.
Nita, second from left, in "The Passing Show of 1918." Photo courtesy The Shubert Archive.
The late teens were good years for Nita. Both her credited roles and her publicity confirm that her vamp persona was already established, and she garnered good, if not rapturous, reviews for her work. After her first known credit in Follow the Girl, March 1918 (billed as Nonita Naldi), she joined the Shubert Organization for The Passing Show of 1918, and was a featured chorine in the play's loving ode to an even better-known vamp, Salome. She became the darling of the more glossy theatrical publications; in October 1919, Town & Country burbled:
The last time we used this beauteous lady's picture, she was doing a Theda Bara Vampire bit in The Gay Whirl on the Century Roof. With the entire theatrical world on the rampage at the moment of writing [ed: the Actors Equity Association's strike of 1919] it is difficult to prophesy what she will be up to when this issue is on the newsstands. Meanwhile it is sufficient to have her un-zuloaga-ed Spanish profile to look at. Or is it Italian? Those foreign profiles are so difficult. Even though they usually originate right here in New York. Anyway, somebody ought to paint her.
Florenz Ziegfeld took this advice to heart.
Ziegfeld
"Pan," Alberto Vargas.
Nita's time with Ziegfeld is not well documented. We do not know whether she appeared in the Follies or the Midnight Frolic (or both), or the dates of her engagement with the fabled impresario. Her name appears in no first night cast lists for any Ziegfeld production, and we can claim only one specific Ziegfeld credit for her: in May 1921 she replaced featured showgirl Dolores in Sally. In May 1919, however, Ziegfeld hired artist Alberto Vargas as the official portraitist for the Follies; for the next twelve years, Vargas painted select Ziegfeld beauties in a variety of erotic poses. Nita sat for one of his first portraits, probably painted during late 1919–early 1920. Vargas posed her with her arm encircling the bust of a grinning satyr; the portrait (known as "Pan") hung in the lobby of Ziegfeld's New Amsterdam Theater.
When his first book of portraits was published in 1923, Vargas bowed to censorship constraints and painted clothing on her.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Sometimes, life can throw unexpected things at us. Rafael Mantesso, a Brazilian artist, for example did not think his wife would leave him, especially not on his 30th birthday. Unfortunately, however, it happened and there was nothing he could do. Breakups are one of the hardest things to deal with, but what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger, right?
This talented artist has decided to show the world that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. He became famous on Instagram for posting photos of his dog, and served as an inspiration for people across the globe. Here is the inspiring journey of Rafael and his super cute bull terrier named Jimmy Choo, after his ex-wife's favorite designer(the only thing she left him with).
Whose up for some karaoke?!


Over 400 people enjoyed a splash of colour at Wallace Park, Lisburn at the weekend at the popular 5K 'Color Run'.
Motorists have been warned to expect delays following a collision on one of Northern Ireland's busiest motorways this afternoon.
The principal of Antrim Grammar School has paid tribute to former teacher Robert Flowerday who was found dead on Sunday.
Touching floral tributes have been left outside the home of murdered school teacher Robert Flowerday.
Police are appealing for information after a front door of a house was set alight in Lisburn.


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Outstanding Bravery Award
Daniel Gallimore
Daniel was beaten up so severely that he was knocked unconscious and left for dead on the pavement by the gang who attacked him.
The victim he helped suffered a broken nose and made a swift recovery.
But Daniel was in a coma for six weeks and on life support for 10 weeks.
When he came to, he had lost his sight in both eyes and continues to suffer debilitating memory loss.
He was not able to leave hospital until he'd had a year of intensive treatment.
Daniel had to give up his job, lost his home and his girlfriend.
But with grit and sheer determination, he is rebuilding his life.
Now he raises funds for blind charities and visits schools to give talks about his disabilities.
He has been commended for his courage by Portishead police, who say: "Daniel is a very brave young man. Very few people would risk their personal safety to help a stranger as he has done."
Daniel's mother Sylvia says: "Despite everything, he is always cheerful, good fun, kind and generous."
Launched by the Daily Mirror, the very first Pride of Britain Awards was held at the Dorchester Hotel in London's Park Lane in May 1999. It was hosted, as it has been every year since, by the incomparable Carol Vorderman.
The idea took off immediately. The winners included Donna Marie McGillion who had narrowly survived the Omagh bomb a year earlier. And among the guests were Tony Blair, who had only been Prime Minister for two years, Sir Paul McCartney, Victoria Beckham, and Queen Noor of Jordan.
ITV decided to screen the event from the following year, 2000. It exceeded all expectations, attracting 10 million viewers.
HRH Prince Charles launched the Prince's Trust Young Achiever of The Year category at Pride of Britain 2001 and has kindly supported and been involved with our Awards every year since.
Helen Ridding
Lifesaver of the Year
Kevin Dingle, Mike Edkins and Paul Pollington
Lucy-Rae Tameluvicus | Sarah Dinsdale | Rhys & Charly Daniels
Fundraiser of the Year
Sandra Howard
Michael McNally | Helen Smith | Daniel Gallimore | Donna Marie McGillion
Pioneers of the Year
Richard Noble and SQN. LDR Andy Green
Inventor of the Year
The Viagra Scientists
Entrepreneur of the Year
Richard Emnuel
Mo Molam
Juliet Gellatley
Helen Rollason | Lennox Lewis | Doreen & Neville Lawrence
Most Inspiring Young Sportsperson
His Late Majesty King Hussein of Jordan and Her Majesty Queen Noor


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The Evolution
Sita Devi
Ancient Cities
**Breaking News** UK migration from Turkey around 6,000 years ago
Posted On: Apr 16th, 2019 at 04:35
United Kingdom / Great Britain / England
First of all let's not allow ourselves to be fooled by the ridiculous headline – that this migration consisted of those who built Stonehenge. It's becoming tiring. There is no evidence these people built Stonehenge, and we will never know who did. For all we know, a group of yaks could have travelled from Tibet, built Stonehenge and then walked back again.
What we do have is a very interesting piece of the jigsaw when it comes to migration into the British Isles.
This is what we now know from the article.
1) There were already people living in Britain and human evidence goes back tens of thousands of years.
2) The migration in this article brings in a new population from Turkey around 6,000 years ago.
3) This population was replaced by the Beaker People around 4,450 years.
So what's the problem with the Stonehenge theory?
Simple – Avebury was built around 5,000 yeas ago. The builders of Stonehenge used the same quarry in the Marlborough Downs for the larger stones, and the two sites were almost definitely used simultaneously, and were a part of the same landscape. In other words, the two were not mutually exclusive and people used both sites at the same time.
Therefore it's very unlikely this new population were the builders of Stonehenge because the economic stability that was required for the building of Avebury was already established around the same time this migration took place.
That's not to say they didn't play their part, but it is almost certain that earlier stones or henges were already in place on both sites.
Another problem is the dating of the Stonehenge we see today. The date attributed to this has been 2500 BC, almost the same time as the Beaker migration, so it's plausible it was the Beaker People who were involved and not the Turkish peoples. Since the dates can never be ascertained with any accuracy, it's only guesswork. So to make completely impossible-to-prove statements like this is unprofessional and nothing but click bait for the uninformed.
An important note to make is the fact it takes some considerable time for a population to become established. It also takes some time for a population to be dissolved or removed. So we could hazard a guess that this population was at its prominence for around a thousand years, which isn't that much time. It's very likely this population was already in decline when Stonehenge was built, absolutely bringing into doubt the once-again stupid headline that these people had anything to do with Stonehenge. We are constantly being warned about fake news, and yet our own media are more than happy to promote fake news.
The archaeological establishment should be outraged, not peddling the headline for attention.
The most likely explanation is that everyone living in Britain at that time was involved in the huge projects for both sites, and not any single population. Sites of such magnitude require communication of many different groups, to share ideas with the transference of knowledge and intelligence.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47938188
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Catch More Fish, Enjoy More Sun, Fishy-Fun for Everyone. Fish On!!
THE BOBBERS are three musicians with a fishing problem. Our problem is that we can't get enough of fishing and making music. All three of us are transplants from the Midwest who somehow found one another out here in the Northwest, much like Pete Seeger and Ivar Haglund. We love what we do; and, we know you will love it, too! Fish On!!


Cybersecurity is not just about computer or smartphone. Almost any connected device can be hacked, so you need an accurate list of all work-related inventory and accounts. Each employee must have their own credentials with an assigned role for each account used. Admin privileges are not for all, especially for accounts that have access to the most important documents.


Utilize out-of-the-box templates to build your own workflow visualization or upload custom workflow visualizations to be displayed at each stage in the governance process.
Highlight current stage to pinpoint where you are in the governance process.
Click on each stage to see an overview of the required activities.
Fully integrated with the Microsoft PPM workflow engine.
Microsoft Project Server 2013 and 2016 users can add conditional logic and validation rules to project details forms to ensure the right custom fields are displayed at the right time.
Display specific custom fields based on values users select in other fields.
Automatically populate the value in a field based on the selection of another field.
Make fields required based on the selection a user makes in another field.
Filter available values in a lookup table based on the selection in another custom field.
Set a default value for one or more fields based on the values selected in other fields.
Utilize UMT360 resource plans to easily estimate resource demand by role or named resource in varying granularities (e.g. yearly, quarterly and monthly) and units (e.g. FTE, days and hours).
Support for rolling wave resource planning.
Powerful cost estimate capabilities make it easy to capture cost estimates for projects and programs in UMT360 budget cost web-parts.
Manually enter cost estimates for labor and non-labor costs into UMT360 cost web-parts or sync from the Microsoft PPM schedule.
Enforce the right level of cost detail at each stage in the governance process (e.g. by year and at level two in the cost structure).
Support for rolling wave planning and forecasting.
Easily breakdown cost estimate by allocation center to gauge funding contributions.
Lock cost estimates on approval.
UMT360 makes it easy to capture benefit estimates for projects and programs.
Define benefits timeline to start during or after project completion.
Manually enter benefit estimates by levels defined in the UMT360 benefit estimate web-parts.
Enforce the right level of benefit detail at each stage in the governance process (e.g. by year and at level two in the benefit structure.
Derive financial metrics (e.g. NPV, ROI).
Lock cost benefit estimates on project approval.
Easily define and integrate quantitative scoring assessment to evaluate competing requests (e.g. strategic impact, risk, probability of success, architectural fit etc.).
The scoring assessments are fully integrated with Microsoft PPM governance controls.
Choose to show or hide the score within the UMT360 assessment form.
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text:
#include <modules/base/processors/imagesnapshot.h>

#include <inviwo/core/datastructures/image/image.h>  // for Image
#include <inviwo/core/ports/imageport.h>             // for ImageOutport, ImageInport
#include <inviwo/core/processors/processor.h>        // for Processor
#include <inviwo/core/processors/processorinfo.h>    // for ProcessorInfo
#include <inviwo/core/processors/processorstate.h>   // for CodeState, CodeState::Experimental
#include <inviwo/core/processors/processortags.h>    // for Tags, Tags::None
#include <inviwo/core/properties/buttonproperty.h>   // for ButtonProperty
#include <inviwo/core/properties/ordinalproperty.h>  // for IntProperty

#include <functional>   // for __base
#include <string>       // for string
#include <string_view>  // for string_view
#include <type_traits>  // for remove_extent_t

namespace inviwo {
class Deserializer;

// The Class Identifier has to be globally unique. Use a reverse DNS naming scheme
const ProcessorInfo ImageSnapshot::processorInfo_{
    "org.inviwo.ImageSnapshot",  // Class identifier
    "Image Snapshot",            // Display name
    "Image Operation",           // Category
    CodeState::Experimental,     // Code state
    Tags::None,                  // Tags
    R"(Save snapshot of images that can be viewed later. Useful for comparisons.)"_unindentHelp};
const ProcessorInfo ImageSnapshot::getProcessorInfo() const { return processorInfo_; }

ImageSnapshot::ImageSnapshot()
    : Processor()
    , inport_("inport_", "Input image"_help)
    , outport1_("outport1", "Outputs the input image or a saved image"_help)
    , outport2_("outport2", "Outputs the input image or a saved image"_help)
    , outport1ImageIndex_("outport1ImageIndex", "Image 1 index",
                          "The image to output on outport1, -1 means input pass through"_help, -1,
                          {-1, ConstraintBehavior::Immutable}, {-1, ConstraintBehavior::Mutable})
    , outport2ImageIndex_("outport2ImageIndex", "Image 2 index",
                          "The image to output on outport2, -1 means input pass through."_help, -1,
                          {-1, ConstraintBehavior::Immutable}, {-1, ConstraintBehavior::Mutable})
    , snapshot_("snapshot", "Snapshot")
    , clear_("clear", "Clear") {
    addPorts(inport_, outport1_, outport2_);
    addProperties(outport1ImageIndex_, outport2ImageIndex_, snapshot_, clear_);

    outport1_.setHandleResizeEvents(false);
    outport2_.setHandleResizeEvents(false);

    snapshot_.onChange([&]() {
        outport1ImageIndex_.setMaxValue(static_cast<int>(snapshots_.size()));
        outport2ImageIndex_.setMaxValue(static_cast<int>(snapshots_.size()));
        snapshots_.emplace_back(inport_.getData()->clone());
    });

    clear_.onChange([&]() {
        snapshots_.clear();
        outport1ImageIndex_.setMaxValue(-1);
        outport2ImageIndex_.setMaxValue(-1);
    });
}

void ImageSnapshot::process() {
    auto i1 = outport1ImageIndex_.get();
    auto i2 = outport2ImageIndex_.get();
    if (i1 == -1) {
        outport1_.setData(inport_.getData());
    } else {
        outport1_.setData(snapshots_[i1]);
    }

    if (i2 == -1) {
        outport2_.setData(inport_.getData());
    } else {
        outport2_.setData(snapshots_[i2]);
    }
}

void ImageSnapshot::deserialize(Deserializer& d) {
    Processor::deserialize(d);
    clear_.pressButton();
}

}  // namespace inviwo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
LAING O'ROURKE WINS THAMES WATER £123M BECKTON SEWAGE WORKS CONTRACT
Thames Water have appointed Laing O'Rourke to work on a £123m project to ensure Beckton sewage works can cope with London's growing population.
The three-year upgrade, due to start early next year, is the first major contract awarded as part of Thames Water's AMP7 schedule. It will see Laing O'Rourke build a completely new inlet works and extend aeration lanes and settlement tanks.
Beckton, which is said to be the largest sewage treatment works in Europe, will also be prepared to receive wastewater from the new Thames Tideway Tunnel, a 25km "super sewer" under the River Thames which is due to be completed by 2024.
John Bentley, Thames Water's capital delivery director, said: "Awarding this contract is a significant milestone as it is the first major project awarded as part of our £5 billion capital investment plan for the next five years. By ensuring we can take the flow from the 'super sewer', this project will help to improve the quality of the River Thames, as well as making sure the site is ready to handle the expected increase in London's population in the future."
Declan McGeeney, Laing O'Rourke's head of infrastructure, UK, said: "Six years ago, we delivered a substantial upgrade to Beckton and we're delighted Thames Water has trusted us to return. The project will maximise the use of digital engineering and off-site manufacture, with every detail of the works being built virtually before the real thing.
"Many of the tanks, such as the walls of the new activated sludge plant, will be built at our factory in Nottinghamshire before being transported for assembly on site. These modern methods of construction help us to deliver six months faster than traditional methods would allow."
The first works at Beckton was built in 1864 by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as part of the revolutionary Victorian sewer network, which drastically improved water quality in the River Thames. It now treats the wastewater of almost four-million Londoners.
Beckton has seen major investment in the last 15 years and the works now produces half of its energy needs on-site.
The latest project, which is expected to create about 30 jobs for local workers, is part of a 25-year investment plan to ensure the site meets the best environmental standards, with Thames Water committed to protecting the environment and reducing emissions across the business.


text:
Saab contracted for Carl-Gustaf M4 multi-role weapon system for Australian Army
Modified date: Sep 5, 2018
A U.S. Marine with Marine Rotational Force-Europe 18.1 inspects the Swedish Carl Gustaf M4 anti-tank recoilless rifle during the cross-training range at Exercise Archipelago Endeavor with Swedish Coastal Rangers of 1st Marine Regiment aboard Berga Naval Base, Harsfjarden, Sweden, Aug. 22, 2018. Photo by Sgt. Victor Mancilla
On 5 September, Swedish Saab has announced that company received an order for deliveries of the new Carl-Gustaf M4 multi-role weapon system to the Australian Army.
According to the company's statement, this is Saab´s sixth customer for the Carl-Gustaf M4 system since its launch in late 2014. Deliveries will take place during 2020.
The new version retains all the effectiveness and versatility of the proven Carl-Gustaf system while introducing a range of major enhancements. These include a lighter weight design (weighing less than 7 kg), a round counter, improved safety and intelligent features, such as compatibility with future intelligent sighting systems and programmable ammunition, which collectively offer significant operational improvements for the soldier. The weapon is fully backward compatible with all ammunition types.
"With the introduction of the M4 version the Australian Army will have a weapon with the latest technology and improved ergonomics providing an increased tactical flexibility to deal with most situations on the battlefield", says Görgen Johansson, head of Saab business area Dynamics.
The Carl-Gustaf has seen extensive operational service with the Australian Army and moving to the M4 weapon represents the continued modernisation of this important lethality system.
Saab's world-leading Carl-Gustaf weapon system has a long and distinguished service history all around the world. Saab has worked closely with our global customers to successively modernise and enhance the weapon system to meet their changing requirements.
The Carl-Gustaf M4 is compatible with all existing and future Carl-Gustaf ammunition from its wide range of anti-armour, anti-structure, anti-personnel and support rounds.
French Army awards contract to SAAB for new camouflage system
Australian Army to receive latest version of Abrams tank
Saab receives new Carl-Gustaf round contracts
South Korea and Australia signs massive self-propelled howitzer deal


text:
Alert: You Can Now Buy Candles That Smell Just Like Your Favorite Movie
Thanks to an indie film powerhouse.
Rebecca Deczynski
Updated Jul 29, 2019 4:42 PM
"Aromatically speaking," begins the description on indie film production company A24's newest product, "the movies have historically been limited to wafts of hot butter, worn velour, and failed experiments with Smell-O-Vision." Now, however, they're becoming associated with far more elevated scents in the form of a very unexpected collaboration. Joining forces with fragrance studio Joya, A24 has released a line of six different movie genre-themed candles.
Known for movies like Lady Bird and Eighth Grade, as well as its avid Timothée-Chalamet-and-Lucas-Hedges-stanning fanbase, A24 is not new to untraditional merch. It's previously released gimmicky buys like a mini skateboard for Mid90s and a Lady Bird name patch, but this is its first foray into the home sphere—and it's very good.
The genres featured in the candle line include horror, thriller, noir, musical, western, and adventure, each with a burn time of 50 to 60 hours—or, about 33 movies. The fragrances themselves take specific inspiration from their genres, and transform it into entrancing olfactory experiences. Horror, for example, is inspired by fangs, glowing eyes, and lakeside cabins, which translates into a leathery scent with notes of mandarin and clove leaf. Musical, on the other hand, draws its cues from lamp posts, top hats, and pianos, resulting in a green, fig leaf and pink pepper aroma.
At $48 per candle (or $120 for a set of three) the collection is a luxury pick, but with the promise of nearly 60 hours of pure, aromatically expressed movie magic, we think they're a worthy buy. They might just be the final touch you need to make your home feel truly cinematic.
More new releases:
Target Has 1,400 New Stocking Stuffers This Year—Shop Our 12 Favorites
Found: The Best Holiday Gifts Under $25
We Can't Stop Thinking About This Urban Outfitters Wallpaper


Detail Specifications of Spectra Skywalker 128/50 Printer hea..
The Spectra Skywalker JA 128/50 is a high performance, robust and reliable jetting assembly suitable for solvent based, wide format graphic printers at resolutions up to 600 dpi.
The Spectra Skywalker JA 128/50 jetting assembly has been designed specifically to meet the exacting performance requirements of high productivity, solvent based, wide format graphics printing. A total of 128 individually accessible channels are driven from a single piezoelectric ceramic crystal, providing excellent channel-to-channel uniformity. The nozzles are arranged in a single line, at a 0.020-inch spacing, for maximum interlace flexibility. The jetting assembly design has been optimized for high dutycycle operation up to 16 kHz. The high drop velocity and excellent jet straightness minimize banding artifacts. The Spectra Skywalker JA 128/50 jetting assembly is easy to integrate into printer carriages. It incorporates an integral mounting bezel molded out of a durable, chemically inert engineering plastic. Registration features enable easy alignment to the carriage frame. The fluid interface is convenient and easy, through a female Luer Lock fitting. Two electrical connectors at the top of the jetting assembly allow each channel to be individually addressed. An optional Driver Chip Module reduces the electrical interface requirements to two serial data streams and the high voltage fire pulse used to actuate the pumping chambers. Numerous design features have been incorporated to promote a long service life, including a robust stainless steel nozzle plate and replaceable ink inlet filter. All static sensitive electronics are located upstream of the jetting assembly, minimizing the likelihood of electrical failures. The fluid interface is positioned away from the jetting assembly housing to reduce the possibility of contaminating the electrical contacts.
AllSign Printer - Printer Spare Parts- Description.
Printer Spare Parts - Spectra Skywalker 128/50 Printer head. Printer Spare Parts - Spectra Skywalker 128/50 Printer head.


text:
#region --- License ---

#endregion
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace MonoMac.OpenGL
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Enumerates available window states.
	/// </summary>
	public enum WindowState
	{
		/// <summary>
		/// The window is in its normal state.
		/// </summary>
		Normal = 0,
		/// <summary>
		/// The window is minimized to the taskbar (also known as 'iconified').
		/// </summary>
		Minimized,
		/// <summary>
		/// The window covers the whole working area, which includes the desktop but not the taskbar and/or panels.
		/// </summary>
		Maximized,
		/// <summary>
		/// The window covers the whole screen, including all taskbars and/or panels.
		/// </summary>
		Fullscreen
	}
}


Located close to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, this hotel offers an ideal base for visiting the city's numerous attractions. Following its meticulous restoration, this 14th century fortified tower-house is now a warm and luxurious hotel, with 19 comfortable and individually decorated rooms.
Relais Dell'Orologio has been a Nespresso customer since January 2009.
Nespresso is served in the following locations: In the breakfast room and meeting room.
Our customers requested it and the capsule system is very practical.


Working in an office space can cause a number of healthy concerns including tight hip flexors, bad posture and the unseen enemy, stress. However packing a healthy lunch is not the only way to stay on track with your goals, you also have to actively control your work stress levels.
Stress is not to be taken likely as it can lead to many health concerns including anxiety, depressions, weight gain and high blood pressure. So here are 5 tips to help you manage your stress levels and stay healthy in the office.
Your work life and home life need to stay separate, otherwise you will be bringing the stresses of work home with you. So never take work home but leave it at work where it belongs. If you need to go into the office early or work through lunch then do so, as it is better than taking it home.
It's true that failing to prepare is preparing to fail. If you don't take a healthy lunch with you to work, then you are more likely to buy someone unhealthy. Cook and prepare you meals the night before or at the start of the week, so that you never go hungry and are not tempted to cheat. Also make sure that you keep some healthy snacks in your desk draw, like nuts, muesli bars and fruit so that when hunger calls, you have an answer.
Being sedentary can wreak havoc on your joints, posture and hip flexors. So make sure that every hour you get up and move around a little. This could be just walking to the printer and back. Also try to get in some stretches once a day, maybe at lunchtime so that you don't become too stiff.
Getting outdoors and moving around during lunchtime is a great way to rejuvenate yourself for the rest of the day. So eat your healthy lunch at your desk and then get some friends together and go for a walk. You could even start a running group or walking group.
Staying back to finish work can ruin your chances of going to the gym or a class. So get organized and schedule work time, social time, personal time and exercise time. Either use a diary or use an App to help you stay on track.


text:
Archives 15Comments
Comic for Thursday, October 31st, 2019
by PastUtopia on October 31, 2019 at 2:41 am
Chapter: Chapter 15
Location: Far Side of Utopia
Been a long time since I typed "comic for Thursday"… Least we have that much back on track, though I wouldn't count on Thursday comics being that consistent, just while we have the buffer budget, but that buffer is going to take a hit in the next few months due to travel again.
This comic references a lot of things about the past, not all of which we have seen, which makes it a bit tricky to follow I reckon. For example, Peter acquired Kally a place to live in Minus Years as back than the IDS wasn't formalized enough to own its own housing complex, but by the time Peter disappeared the IDS had it's own housing complex, which Kally relocated to. With IDS CI pulling out, she'd be out of a house again.
The things they are talking about both Peter and Kally would know, but aren't all things that I have a lot of space in the comic to expound upon.
Likewise, Peter and Kally both know the history of the other fairly well, while the comic has only shown bits and pieces of it. Peter knows that Kally, for example, is the Heir to the seat of summers in name only (due to being Nathan's sister, and Nathan not having a true heir, but there are reasons – somewhat alluded to here, and previously touched on by Nathan) that Kally would not be likely to become the leader of the Summers family… though she might acquire the Seat of Summers, which would be unusual (as it's almost always held by the head of the family), but not unheard of. The Summers family in a way may seem not that different than the Malsan Families…
The Kepler family is quite a bit different, in that it is don't have any sort of hierarchy to it. It's more "normal" in the sense that it's just a bunch of people that are related and have the same name, and might get together for BBQ and arguing about politics more than they otherwise would… well, it might go a little deeper than that if the rumors are to believed, but who can say… Peter's sister did allude to the Kepler family having it's own problems, and Miko doesn't seem to be a fan of them…
At this point I cannot 100% promise a Halloween sketch tomorrow, but I'll see what I can do. The schedule is pretty busy, but I'd like to do one, and I owe a bit of sketching here and there. If I do, I'll post a comment linking to it or something.
Tgape
November 5, 2019, 6:01 am	| # | Reply
I think to a large extent, families tend to formalize who the head of the family is when the family has some hereditary role to fill. The Malsan Families all have this role. The Summers family clearly does as well.
The Keplers, on the other hand, don't. They're individually important. It feels like they weren't anyone particularly important before the Incursion. But then they made names for themselves. They don't have any known hereditary magic disposition, so there's no push for them to have a familial obligation there.
But they have a reputation of getting things done. They seem to merit that reputation. I expect that it probably won't be too much longer before we find that Marigold Kepler also merits that reputation, but we've mostly just seen Peter, Miko, Arron, and Kyle so far. Kyle's not had that much screen time, either. Just enough to see he's clearly one of the family.
(I will admit to not being certain that Miko is technically a Kepler, as she's apparently the spawn of Arron and Kyle's sister. But who knows. I know two different people who managed to marry someone with their same surname without it being any kind of an incest thing, so I know it happens. It's also conceivable, depending on the timing of things, that the husband decided he'd prefer the prestige of the Kepler name than whatever his own was. Or maybe he just didn't *want* his surname. There are people who feel like their surname is objectionable for some reason.)
The Sidhekin
November 2, 2019, 3:39 pm	| # | Reply
Peter analyzing Kally: http://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-wednesday-september-9th/
Yeah, I agree with your take. 🙂
November 1, 2019, 12:56 am	| # | Reply
Happy Halloween! Here's the Halloween doodle for the year (clicking through should take you to the post, where it's full size) 🙂
Kevin Mark
That's actually awesome and hilarious.
Seconded. Ila continues to be murderously adorable.
The mouse over text on the image says "Woe to the house that give not the sweet-tasties." for those on mobile, which is pretty fitting to the dialog of it.
October 31, 2019, 7:28 pm	| # | Reply
What doesn't line up about "Nathan likes you" and "He finds your existence … vexing"? Totally possible to like someone on a personal level and still find them aggravating.
SeanR
Well…Query/Mium apparently uses "like" to indicate someone whose presence and/or actions make his achievement of his various goals easier/more likely/less costly.
I'm inclined to suspect that Peter has a similarly…utilitarian view, and may even be the source of Mium's.
Finding someone aggravating sounds a bit less than "finds your existence … vexing."
I think Nathan finds Peter to be fundamentally aggravating. Peter makes Nathan aware that everything is more complicated than he realizes… but also makes things more complicated than they were. Everything about him makes things seem harder, even when he's working on the same side and addressing the same task. Especially when they're addressing the same task.
But that said, he'd make a good brother in law at some future point when the current issues are resolved. Apart from the current situation in which Peter is apparently a rogue agent, he's glad that Peter's around and feels he's a good person. Now if things could just be simpler again…
Kudos to Past for getting back to biweekly updates! Rock on!
For any who missed it, Samantha Fuller has a last minute post to the previous comic page that I thought was very insightful regarding the unsummoning of Fluffy.
Just wanted to make sure people who are following both the story line and world development didn't miss Samantha's insight.
https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-27th-2019/
Simreeve
October 31, 2019, 11:22 am	| # | Reply
"You -They might need me.
Heh. She cares, she really cares… but are his interpersonal skills too limited for him to catch that slip and realise what it means?
His interpersonal skills have zero chance of catching that.
That's why he used his technical skills to craft Query. And now he has Mium. Rest assured, this will make its way into one of the prediction trees.
If someone out there thinks there isn't at least one tree dedicated to Kally, they haven't been paying attention.
And Kally knows this. She almost certainly has been feeding Mium corrections ever since she re-established contact with Team Peter.
I actually disagree. I think Peter does catch that sort of thing, and probably even realizes what it means. His analytical skills, including his ability to analyze people, are very good. Where his interpersonal skills are a problem is that he does not know how to react to it or process it.
In Peter's mind he probably makes a mental note of things like that, but it does not really cross his mind to than have an empathetic or human response to it.
Peter is fairly decent at emotional manipulation. He is not as good at it as he should be given his level of scheming, because he lacks the ability to execute it in a reliable way. But he absolutely does know what buttons to push. There is no way in my mind he misses obvious details like that, but as he is not actively trying to manipulate Kally, he just has no idea how to react to it.
My take is that Peter is fully aware that Kally still cares about him, he just is not quite sure what to do about it, because he has some reservations about her joining his cause (likely to because of the consequences she might suffer by splitting her loyalty, as she clearly is far more pro-IDS than he is… though recent events have been fairly disillusioning for her it seems).
If anyone has weaker interpersonal skills that Peter, it would Kally herself. She is less manipulative which makes her easier to like, but she is often at least as awkward and lacks Peter's ability to remain collected.
That is my take on it anyway.
He knows what buttons to push, but he doesn't know how to push the 'emotional response' button himself. He therefore contracts that out to others, like Naomi.
I still find it hilarious that his chief enforcer is his moralist and his empathist. Admittedly, she's his chief enforcer because Mium doesn't have that job satisfaction thing going on that Rovak noted was his one failing as an expert killing machine. Mium does the tasks that need doing, but there's no pride or joy there. Mium would probably just as soon have someone else do it, if they are able to do it. Naomi, on the other hand, wants to save the world, and has been convinced this is how to do that.
For what it's worth, I rate myself as slightly more sophisticated than Peter in this one regard: I know more frequently when emotional responses are needed. I've been told my feeble attempts at providing them are better than nothing. I'm not convinced, mind you. Even I can tell they're feeble, most of the time.
I am, for what it's worth, good at being there. I can be there and understand almost as well as Chauncey Gardener.
And we all know just how great Mium is at doing *that* job.
It's my impression that Kally has only recently resumed intentionally contributing to the Team Peter data pool. She took quite a while to drop the 'traitorous criminal' accusations and stuff, and I don't think she was intending to give them more data during that time.


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Last week a tragedy happened on a highway here in Saskatchewan. Ashley Dawn Richards, an 18 year old pregnant highway worker was struck by a motorist and killed on the job. The driver of the vehicle, a 44 year old man, was arrested on scene.
There is no reason that a tragedy like this should occur. Highway construction zones are clearly marked. By the time motorists reached the point where Ashley was working they would have passed various signs indicating they were entering, and then in, a construction zone with a reduced speed limit.
Those signs are there for a reason. To protect you, the motorist, and to protect the workers who are out there maintaining our roads to make them safe. The reduced speed limits are not optional. To ignore the rules of a construction zone is just, well, it's not only against the law, it's disgusting.
And if this news is not sad enough, it gets worse. Yesterday I heard an interview with the manager of the crew that Ashley was part of. He shared that nothing has changed. A young woman died just days ago and motorist going through that exact stretch of highway where she was struck are still not complying to the rules of the construction zone. They are still speeding, and the motorists who do slow down are being passed (in a clearly marked no passing zone) by those who can't bother to slow down. This quite literally makes me ill.
This is really quite simple, or at least it should be. When entering a construction zone SLOW DOWN to the posted speed limit and obey other signs (like do not pass). The safety of highway workers depends on it! Oh and don't forget to slow down for emergency, tow truck and maintenance vehicles as well. You are not more important than anyone else on the road.
Please, please, please, the next time you are tempted to not slow down in a construction zone – think of Ashley Dawn Richards, her grieving fiance Ben Diprose and the little unborn baby who also lost his life that day.
Oh gosh that is heartbreaking – and the fact that a little unborn baby just never had a chance before of it makes me sick. People are always in their own self-important world where they need to be where they are going NOW and who cares about rules or how it may affect someone else.
That is so sad! I also see cars whizzing through construction zones all the time. Maybe if the police were monitoring these zones more often and giving out hefty tickets, people would slow down. I live off of a busy highway where school zones are clearly marked too, but people still fly down the street at 50 miles an hour. It's, like you said, disgusting!


First, my research examines Black women's voluntary associations and radical social movements. My dissertation looks at Black Sororities' interactions with the Black feminist movement from 1968-1980. It is a comparative historical project in which I look at two similar organizations and examine why the two organizations, who had interacted similarly with previous social movements like the suffrage and civil rights movements, diverge with the emergence of post-civil rights radical movement making.
The second line of my research focuses on Black civic engagement and Black civil society. In this line of research I look at various facets of civic engagement like volunteering and voluntary associations.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on July 22, 2015 by rivetingrosie08.


Q: Can I meet the band after their concert?
A: Due to scheduling conflicts beyond our control, any customer who purchased from Sound Rink may not be eligible to meet an artist after their concert has ended. This is regardless of having either arrived late to your meet and greet or having missed it entirely.


WASHINGTON President Donald Trump vowed in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday to build a border wall and said Democratic attempts at "ridiculous partisan investigations" could damage US prosperity.
Mr Trump spoke to a joint session of the US Congress facing political discord over his demands that Democrats end their opposition to funding for a US-Mexico border wall which he says is needed to stem illegal immigration and smuggled drugs.
Mr Trump called illegal immigration "an urgent national crisis" but stopped short of declaring a border emergency that would allow him to bypass Congress for wall funding. Instead, he urged Democrats and Republicans to find a compromise by a Feb 15 deadline.
"In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall, but the proper wall never got built. I will get it built," Mr Trump said in the House of Representatives chamber, with new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi watching over his shoulder.
Democrats call the wall a waste of money and ineffective. During the speech, Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal tweeted her opposition to the wall, saying: "The border is more secure than ever. Enough."
Mrs Pelosi, who frequently sat stony-faced through Mr Trump's address, has shown no sign of budging from her opposition to his border wall demand.


text:
Abandon resolutions. Stop looking for a soulmate. Reject positive thinking
Our new year issue kicks off with advice on how to be a better person in 2011 (and it's not what you think)
Illustration Photograph: John Holcroft
@oliverburkeman
Fri 31 Dec 2010 19.03 EST
New Year's Day, when you stop to consider it, hasn't been very well thought through: the day traditionally assigned for the turning over of new leaves is also the day many of us are far more likely than usual to be waking up hungover, or at least seriously late, and generally without the energy for launching effortful new self-improvement projects. The gym's probably closed; new year resolutions rarely work out anyway; and besides, today marks the 30th anniversary of the achievement of self-government by the island nation of Palau, which is surely as good a reason as any to indulge in further alcohol-fuelled celebration. Then again, on some level, who doesn't want to be a bit happier, more productive and generally a better person? Allow us to suggest a few modest, down-to-earth, evidence-backed ideas for 2011 that might actually work…
Abandon your new year resolutions – today
If you've made any new year resolutions, steal a march on the rest of the world by abandoning them today, rather than waiting a week or two for the moment when everyone else's will inevitably collapse in a quagmire of failed hopes, self-reproach and packets of Pringles. The lure of making a "complete fresh start" can be hard to resist, and gleaming-eyed self-help gurus pander to that urge. In fact, aiming for across-the-board change – to get fitter, eat better, spend more time with the family and less time playing Angry Birds, all at the same time – is exactly the wrong way to change habits. Willpower is a unitary, depletable resource, which means investing energy in any one such goal will leave less remaining for the others, so your resolutions will, in effect, be fighting each other. Far better to aim for one new habit every couple of months or, better yet, to manipulate your surroundings so as to harness the power of inertia, so you needn't spend your precious reserves of willpower at all. (It's infinitely easier to watch less television when you don't have one, or to use your credit card less when it's locked in a cupboard.) Making things automatic, not consciously and continually striving hard to be better, is the key here, as Alfred North Whitehead recognised back in 1911: "It is a profoundly erroneous truism... that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing," he wrote. "The precise opposite is the case. Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them."
Stop looking for your soulmate
Relationship gurus expend enormous amounts of energy debating whether "opposites attract" or, conversely, whether "birds of a feather flock together" – largely, it seems, without stopping to reflect on whether relying on cheesy proverbs might be, more generally, a bad way to think about the complexities of human attraction. Should you look for a partner whose characteristics match yours, or complement yours? The conclusion of the Pair Project, a long-term study of married couples by the University of Texas, is… well, neither, really. "Compatibility", whether you think of it as similarity or complementarity, just doesn't seem to have much to do with a relationship's failure or success, according to the project's founder, Ted Huston: the happiness of a marriage just isn't much correlated with how many likes, dislikes or related characteristics a couple does or doesn't share. Compatibility does play one specific role in love, he argues: when couples start worrying about whether they're compatible, it's often the sign of a relationship in trouble. "We're just not compatible" really means, "We're not getting along." "Compatibility" just means things are working out. It simply renames the mystery of love, rather than explaining it.
According to the US psychologist Robert Epstein, that's because a successful relationship is almost entirely built from within. (He cites evidence from freely entered arranged marriages, arguing that they work out more frequently than the unarranged kind.) All that's really required is two people committed to giving things a shot. Spending years looking for someone with compatible qualities may be – to evoke another cheesy proverb – a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.
Overhaul your information diet (but don't starve)
We've been worrying about information overload for millennia. "The abundance of books is distraction," complained Seneca, who never had to worry about his Facebook privacy options (although he was ordered to commit ritual suicide by bleeding himself to death, so it's swings and roundabouts). But it's been a year of unprecedentedly panicky pronouncements on what round-the-clock digital connectedness might be doing to our brains – matched only by the ferocity with which the internet's defenders fight back. Yet as one team of neuroscientists pointed out, writing in the journal Neuron, we've been talking in misleading generalities. "Technology" isn't good or bad for us, per se; neither is "the web". Just as television can have positive or negative effects – Dora The Explorer seems to aid children's literacy and numeracy, a study has suggested, while Teletubbies seems not to – what may well matter more is what we're consuming online. The medium isn't the only message.
The best way to impose some quality control on your digital life isn't to quit Twitter, Facebook and the rest in a fit of renunciation, but to break the spell they cast. Email, social networking and blogs all resemble Pavlovian conditioning experiments on animals: we click compulsively because there might or might not be a reward – a new email, a new blog post – waiting for us. If you can schedule your email checking or web surfing to specific times of day, that uncertainty will vanish: new stuff will have accumulated, so there will almost always be a "reward" in store, and the compulsiveness should fade. Or use software such as the Firefox add-in Leechblock , which limit you to fixed-time visits to the sites you're most addicted to. Can you, as the blogger Paul Roetzer suggests, make it a habit to unplug for four hours a day? Three? Two? What matters most isn't the amount of time, but who's calling the shots: the ceaseless data stream, or you. Decide when to be connected, then decide to disconnect. Alternative metaphor: it's a one-on-one fistfight between you and Mark Zuckerberg for control of your brain. Make sure you win.
Self-improvement: track your personal data
It's been rather disorienting, over recent years, to be the kind of anally retentive geek who enjoys devising personal logbooks to record, say, how one uses one's time, or spends one's money: now everybody seems to be doing it. The "self-tracking" movement has been boosted enormously by iPhone apps and similar software that makes it easy to store and analyse personal data: see, for example, WaterWorks (for monitoring your water-drinking), FoodTrackerPro (which does what you'd imagine), the time-logging application TimeJot or the Zeo sleep-monitoring machine, which purports to tell you how much high-quality deep sleep you're racking up each night; the Looxcie is a tiny camera, worn on the ear like a Bluetooth headset, that will record video of your whole day, though goodness knows when you'll find the time to sift through it. For much more – arguably too much more – see The Quantified Self.
All this can be taken too far. But in moderation, the benefits are twofold. First, you can exploit the Hawthorne Effect – the way the mere fact of monitoring your behaviour can influence it to change in a positive direction. Second, you can analyse the data you collect to identify patterns you might otherwise never have noticed. Be prepared for a shock, though: you're almost certainly working much less, spending more and eating more poorly than you imagine. Approach personal data "with gentleness rather than judgment", advises Sierra Black at GetRichSlowly.org, or you're liable to throw in the towel to avoid confronting such truths. Remember, friends and colleagues who claim to work 12-hour days, never eat junk food or exercise for an hour a day almost certainly aren't being entirely accurate; they've just never tracked themselves properly.
Volunteer (even though David Cameron wants you to)
It's frequently tempting to ignore centuries-old advice on happiness in favour of cutting-edge research and clever new tricks. It's also tempting to resist doing things the coalition government wants you to do in order to help them cut government services. Yet all of this is unfair on volunteering, since the all but incontrovertible truth is that donating your time (and, to a lesser extent, your money) is one of the most reliable short cuts to happiness, reduced stress levels and enhanced physical health. Studies in the UK have shown correlations between high levels of "informal voluntary activity" and better health, higher GCSE grades and lower burglary levels; coupled with laboratory studies on the hormone oxytocin, which causes the "helper's high", it seems likely that volunteering helps cause all these benefits, rather than just occurring in the same places. The most dependable sources of happiness, as the Harvard psychologist Tal Ben-Shahar puts it, are those that lie at "the intersection of pleasure and meaning", and volunteering sits squarely at that crossroads.
Reject positive thinking
These are troubled times for the leading proponents of positive thinking (though presumably they're not feeling glum about it). The social critic Barbara Ehrenreich struck a chord, in her book Smile Or Die, when she argued that our current financial crises may be at least partly attributable to a blindly optimistic, failure-is-impossible ethos in the financial services industry. A Canadian study suggested positive affirmations – such as "I am a lovable person!" – actually have a negative effect on the moods of people with low self-esteem, who you might have thought would benefit from them the most. Meanwhile, the high-profile guru James Arthur Ray, a star of the movie version of The Secret, awaits trial on manslaughter charges in connection with the deaths of three participants in an October 2009 "sweat lodge" ceremony.
According to practitioners of the increasingly popular approach of "acceptance and commitment therapy", one of several philosophies opposed to conventional positive thinking, neither positive thinking nor negative thinking is a particularly useful goal: a better plan is to learn to fixate less on the whole matter of cultivating this or that mental state. That's reflected in the timeless and exceedingly effective anti-procrastination mantra that "motivation follows action", not the other way around. Wait until you feel like doing something, and you could be waiting for ever. "Inspiration is for amateurs," the artist Chuck Close is fond of saying. "I just get to work."
Make dinner, make furniture, make an effort
"The Ikea effect" seems an inappropriate name for the notion that we derive greater enjoyment from things we've worked harder to create. You can see the rationale of the researchers who coined it – there's a unique pleasure to successful self-assembly – but they'd clearly had only atypically trouble-free encounters with Billy bookshelves. Yet, more generally, this cognitive bias is now well-established, and provides another persuasive explanation for why great material wealth has such a small impact on happiness: the effortlessness of having everything fall into your lap is somehow fundamentally unsatisfying. The neuroscience writer Jonah Lehrer argues that the same applies to making dinner, at least by analogy with experiments on mice, who develop long-standing preferences for snacks they've had to labour harder to obtain. Combine this with the argument made by Matt Crawford in his book The Case For Working With Your Hands, that an exclusive focus on intangible "knowledge work" leaves many of us feeling disconnected from reality, and you have a persuasive argument for doing more DIY, cooking more dinners and generally doing more making.
Don't take frugality too far
Being bombarded daily by messages of financial catastrophe probably makes it easier to save money and avoid self-sabotaging shopping splurges. But it's also an invitation to fall into the psychological trap known as "hyperopia", or the opposite of shortsightedness: the tendency to deny oneself present-moment pleasures to a degree one subsequently comes to regret. Experiments by the economists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky show that people suffer short-term regret when they choose pleasure over work, but once a few years have passed, the situation flips: looking back over the years, people tend to feel far more regret at passed-up opportunities for pleasure, not work. Personal finance writers love to preach the benefits of cutting back on daily hedonistic expenditures – the overpriced latte, the breakfast croissant. But the most efficient way to save money, obviously, is to cut out big expenditures, not small ones. And if small pleasures deliver a reliable daily mood boost, they may be better value, in terms of their cost-to-happiness ratio, than more pricey occasional purchases such as gadgets or clothes. It's all too easy to mistake the daily feeling of self-denial for the idea that you're making significant savings, when in truth the two may not be closely related.
Befriend your friends' friends
High on the list of psychological insights that seem far too obvious to bother thinking deeply about is the phenomenon sociologists call "triadic closure": the way people tend to befriend the friends of their friends. There seems to be something especially satisfying about closing a friendship triad – when A and B, who are both already friends with C, become friends with each other. (Facebook's Friend Finder is mainly just a mechanism for achieving this.) One reason is simply the greater likelihood of overlapping interests. But as the happiness blogger Gretchen Rubin points out, there's an additional explanation: when you close a triad, you're helping to knit a dense social network in a way that doesn't happen with simpler friendship chains, where A is friends with B is friends with C is friends with D. "It's both energising and comforting to feel that you're building not just friendships, but a social network," she says. Moreover, friends of friends are much easier to meet in the first place, and maintaining the link requires less effort, since you're probably going to keep running into them anyway. If you want to rejuvenate your social life, then, consider keeping an eye out for triads. (Warning: not Triads.)
Creativity: make one small change to your workspace
Evidence continues to accumulate for a curious psychological effect that's either massively dispiriting or rather encouraging, depending on how you look at it: the way we're influenced to an extraordinary degree by subtle details of our surroundings we might never consciously notice. (In one experiment, the mere presence of a briefcase, a symbol of corporate life, in a roomful of participants caused people to behave more competitively and less cooperatively.) The downside of this, of course, is how much the current configuration of your home or office might be holding you back without your realising it. The upside is you can exploit the phenomenon. Even the slightest hint of greenery – even as computer wallpaper – appears to aid concentration. High ceilings are associated with abstract, unconstrained thinking, claim researchers at the University of Minnesota, lower ones with more focused tasks. So switch rooms when you need to, if you can. Or step outside. If you work from home, or otherwise have plenty of control over your office layout, consult the compelling if frequently envy-inducing blog From The Desk Of, where writers and artists reveal their workspaces.
Instead, or as well, consider working standing up. According to a rash of news reports last year, based on a handful of studies, too much sitting down is the single most unhealthy, and potentially life-shortening, activity in which most of us engage. Expensive standing desks are available; for instructions on building your own, see bit.ly/gSBwPv. Perhaps you'll become the next Philip Roth, who famously works at a lectern. It's true that Donald Rumsfeld did, too. But we really don't need to dwell on that.
A collection of Oliver Burkeman's Weekend columns, Help!: How To Become Slightly Happier And Get A Bit More Done, is published on 6 January by Canongate Books at £12.99. To order a copy for £10.39 (including free UK p&p), go to guardianbookshop.co.uk.
oliver.burkeman@theguardian.com
twitter.com/oliverburkeman


D-Lighting specialise in providing professional advice and qualified lighting design, helping homeowners "see what's possible" when illuminating their home and garden.
For most homeowners building and renovating, while they know what colours and finishes they would like to use on the exterior, which style of kitchen or bathroom, very few actually understand how to illuminate their space to best suit individual preference whilst incorporating a design that compliments their home and its décor.
At D-Lighting we like to recognize a client's lifestyle, how they use and furnish living areas, the design and style of kitchens and bathrooms and the overall architecture of the house. The lighting in both interior and exterior aspects should reflect this. Many homeowners are unaware that the lighting installed today is already outdated.
So how do we guarantee your lighting is both functional and reflects what you envisioned for your home?
· We understand your lighting needs, by providing professional advice and convenient solutions, we explain how lighting can work in your home.
· Help you choose and recommend lighting fixtures to suit the design of you home.
· Detail the design plan for installation and purchase your products of choice.
So what can you expect when looking to D-Lighting for help?
Our professional advice, but most of all, our passion and personal service. Being the only specialist lighting outlet on the Central Coast we not only sell lights, we help you choose the right light for your home.
Consultation: D-Lighting provide a "free" lighting consultation where we get an understanding of your ideas and requirements to make the lighting to your home special. We discuss important aspects such as budgets, lifestyle, interior and exterior design.
Concept: If you would like to proceed with our service we set about putting the consultation ideas into a preliminary concept design for you to consider.
Detailed Plans: When concept plans are decided we commence a detailed lighting plan and documentation for the installation.
Quotation: D-lighting will provide a quotation on lighting fixtures.
Support: We'll be with you the whole way through your project. We're here for help, advice or follow up on-site visits to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible whilst ensuring your experience with us is a delight.
Hi, we are in the planning stages of building a house in Umina and need some advice on lighting – what kind of light for what spaces, where to position light, what is too much, what is too little etc. Reading the above I feel that you might be able to help us with this. What is your process, and what cost is involved?