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Q: Restricting access to an action from outside of website I have an ASP.Net MVC3 web application written in C#.
I have one ActionResult that has been designed to return a Json result so that it can be called asynchronously by a webpage using JavaScript. The action is basically as follows:
public ActionResult FindSomething(string search)
{
   var result = GetSearchResult(search);

   return Json(new { @Result = result }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

Then in one of the web pages I have some JavaScript (using JQuery) to get the data.
What I want to try and do however is to restrict access to this FindSomething Action so that only my website code can get access to the result. As it stands anybody could call this Action from a web browser.
Any ideas on some options for me to get this done?
It should be noted that there will be no login to this website so no authentication can be done that way. And I do not want to have anything in the html source code relating to a password approach.

Why I want this:
The FindSomething method actually calls a third party service, which is paid for using credits. So in effect, the number of calls, the more it costs.
My concern is, if someone knows about this URL and wants to use the same service then they could query it by our URL and avoid the charge.
I am not sure if this 3rd party service has even consider this, they offer a couple of ways to interact with the service. One through a web service which I can call via server code (which I am doing) and one through some inline javascript references - the latter of which requires hard-coded license key in the html source :S
...it may be worth me hitting them up for an answer, but regardless of how I get around this flaw in the service, it still makes for an interesting question here on SO

A: I am afraid that there's no reliable way to achieve that given your constraints. You could make it difficult by using for example anti forgery tokens but not 100% bullet-proof. Don't forget that not only browsers can send HTTP requests. Anyone can forge an HTTP request and send it to your server.
The way this is done with non GUI APIs is that public keys are given to clients and the way this is done with GUI applications such as web sites is by giving passwords to your users.

A: Most sane way of doing it would be to use an anti-forgery token + salt as explained here:
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken(Salt = Constants.AntiForgeryTokenSalt)]
public ActionResult FindSomething(string search) { ... }

You can now couple this with 'authentication token' like below which will secure the action against both cross site scripting and unauthorized access:
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken(Salt = Constants.AntiForgeryTokenSalt)]
public ActionResult FindSomething(string search, string accessToken) { ... }

Of course, under normal circumstances, 'access token' is obtained through some form of authentication mechanism (i.e. OAuth). In this case, it can be your improvised unique string passed to view and requested back (just as anti forgery token but with 'nonce' so that it can only be used once).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


European furnished apartments on the second floor of the villa. Suitable for 2-4 people, elegant, classic and comfortable, quiet place to spend an ideal vacation with the family.
Villa Vera Rosa is very charming and romantic.
2 separate, spacious rooms, each with 30 sqm.
Cozy bedrooms with elegant decoration, bathroom and access to a private balcony.
The hostess has her own little restaurant with homemade French cuisine.
The owner of the house is European. This means high quality service and comfortable home environment. The hostess is a very nice woman, originally from France. On the first floor of the house she has a spacious kitchen and is now preparing its guests delicious pies with mushrooms, fruit salad and much more.
The house is located in the bustling and dynamic village of Anjuna. Despite this, it is hidden from prying eyes, and is far away from the road.


Blue Cat's Triple EQ by Blue Cat Audio is a Virtual Effect Audio Plugin. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin, a VST 3 Plugin, a DirectX Plugin, an RTAS Plugin and an AAX Plugin.
Blue Cat's Triple EQ is an easy-to-use 3-band semi-parametric equalizer. It includes a low shelf filter, a high shelf filter and a boost/cut peak filter. Its wide range of gain (+/-40 dB per band) and bandwidth (.01 to 5 Octave) makes it very versatile. The three filters are linked together so that when you change the center frequency or the bandwidth, the three filter parameters are changed accordingly: you can change the entire equalizer characteristics with one single mouse click making any equalization task very easy and intuitive.
The graph shows the computed frequency response of the plug-in, so that you can exactly know how your signal is processed. This is not an approximated or "ideal" response curve based on the controls of the user interface, but the exact computed frequency response of the filter, which makes this plug-in a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) equalizer.
Filters designed after analog circuits.
+-40 dB range on each band.
Real time display of the frequency response.
Random preset generation: auto generate custom presets with one single click.
'Smooth Update Mechanism': real-time parameter modification with zipper-free parameter updates. Hear absolutely no 'click' when playing with parameters.
DirectX version: supports 32-bits floating point as well as 16 / 8 bits PCM audio streams.
Triple EQ supports "Blue Cat's Skinning language", allowing you to customize the plug-in to your own needs.


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Home » Product Store » Gift Items from The Good Soldier » 90005
A fully illustrated history of West Point Cadets from 1794 to the present.
Established in 1802, the United States Military Academy at West Point is the oldest of the United States's service academies. Since the nearly 210 years of its existence, literally thousands of cadets have graced its halls. West Point has long been a leader in establishing traditions that have crept not only into the other service academies, but into colleges and universities throughout the United States. Traditions such as class rings, parades, rank structures, and its own lexicon have made USMA a model to emulate – and these are traditions that cadets must learn on the double. The life of a cadet is highly structured and full of pageantry. Pass in Review will be the first book to examine the lives of the cadets who earn their bars at West Point.
Author Clyde Cocke and photographer Eilene Harkless Moore will collaborate to chronicle the uniforms, events, and traditions of cadet life at West Point. From dining in the Cadet Mess to strolling the Flirtation Walk to participating in Ring Weekend, readers will get an inside peek into the life of a cadet. West Point's Highlanders, the Pipes and Drums of the United States Corps of Cadets, will be featured, as will the unique West Point Tartan. Contemporary images will blend with seldom-seen artwork from the West Point Museum collection to provide a behind-the-scenes look into the life of USMA cadets.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Inlanta Mortgage, headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., has promoted two of its own to executive positions. Jean Badciong (pictured above) has been promoted to chief compliance officer and Paul Buege (pictured below) has been promoted to chief operating officer.
Inlanta CEO John Knowlton announced the promotions at Inlanta's Annual Manager's Meeting on April 7.
Buege joined Inlanta in 2013 as senior vice president of business development and brought more than 30 years of mortgage industry experience to Inlanta. Prior to joining Inlanta, Buege was SVP of business development for Shelter Mortgage and president and chief operating officer of Universal Mortgage.
"As Badciong focuses on compliance, Buege will share his tremendous energy, enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge as he leads our operations team during this exciting period of expansion for Inlanta," Knowlton added.
Inlanta has 31 branches in 16 states and more than 200 employees. The company is an agency-approved lender for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, FHA/VA, FHA 203K and USDA loans. Inlanta also offers numerous state bond agency programs as well as a full suite of jumbo and portfolio programs.


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In November 2016, Kryptowire authorities inadvertently found that the FOTA software update framework (Firmware Over The Air), that is, the undelete application com.adups.fota, created by the Chinese organization Shanghai Adups Technology Company, represents a threat to clients. As it turned out, FOTA contains an indirect access, which always blends the information of a great many clients into the servers of the Chinese maker, sending data about the gadget on them, beginning from the IMSI and IMEI numbers, to SMS messages and the call log.
As per data from the official site, Adups arrangements take a shot at 700 million Android-gadgets around the globe. In the meantime, delegates of Adups completely denied that the indirect access was purposefully set in FOTA, and guaranteed that the observation was not led at the heading of the Chinese specialists. The engineers guaranteed to guarantee this does not occur again in the new firmware adaptations, but rather in the mid year of 2017, examiners at Kryptowire talked at the Black Hat meeting where they said that cell phones with FOTA are as yet being sent to stores with a pre-introduced spyware.
Presently another cover the present situation was displayed by Malwarebytes authorities. As indicated by specialists, the new form of com.adups.fota does not so much do anything incorrectly and never again keeps an eye on clients.
Be that as it may, as indicated by Malwarebytes, different segments of Adups are presently occupied with peculiar exercises, which can not be evacuated or crippled similarly. The issues were found in com.adups.fota.sysoper and com.fw.upgrade.sysoper, which are a piece of the UpgradeSys application (FWUpgradeProvider.apk).
This time it's not about reconnaissance and gathering of client information, but rather about the capacity to download and introduce any applications or updates for applications on the gadget. Obviously, without the information and assent of the client. Despite the fact that there has been no suspicious movement with respect to this application, nobody can ensure that later on Adups or another person won't attempt to utilize UpgradeSys. Investigators say that the correct number of hazardous gadgets is hard to decide, yet such gadgets can be bought from versatile administrators in an assortment of nations, including the UK.
Specialists caution that there is definitely no sheltered approach to evacuate suspicious parts. The client should either get root access to his gadget, which is unequivocally disheartened by numerous cell phone makers, or utilise the exceptional Debloater Windows application made by Malwarebytes designers. The application will evacuate UpgradeSys, yet it has not been tried with all the assortment of Android gadgets, so masters caution that utilising Debloater can incite "startling conduct".
Malwarebytes engineers trust that the segments of com.adups.fota.sysoper and com.fw.upgrade.sysoper were essentially overlooked by the designers of Adups amid the last "cleaning", and now the producer will finish what was begun, sparing various gadgets from risky usefulness.
BitMain is one of the leading Bitcoin mining equipment manufacturers in the world. The company's AntMiner range of specialized hardware mining equipment makes up for over 70 percent of all the mining hardware, which could be at risk following the discovery of Antbleed security flaw.
Antminer S9
An anonymous researcher raised a storm in mayningovom community spread through Twitter about backdoor Antbleed, detected in the equipment companies Bitmain, which is the world's largest supplier of equipment for mining cryptocurrency.
Why does @BitMainTech have the ability to selectively shut off any miner with their secret backdoor? Find out at https://t.co/uWqGpNsJoH.
— AntBleed (@antbleed) April 26, 2017
It turned out that the backdoor appeared in the firmware code in July 2016, and researchers have been trying to inform Bitmain about the issue in September 2016, through the GitHub repository company, however this application ignored up until an unknown well-wisher is not attracted to the problem of public and media attention .
The official website of Antbleed explained that Bitmain device, please contact auth.minerlink.com, once in 1-11 minutes, and the domain is owned by Bitmain . During each communication equipment transmits to the address provided a serial number, MAC-address and IP-address.
Bitmain can use the data to check the lists of sales and a report on the supply by identifying the device and associating it with a particular user. In turn, the piece of code above actually means that if the answer to the inquiry device will answer "False", the miner will cease its work and will be disabled.
An anonymous researcher notes that the device will be able to save not inbound-rules for the firewall, as Antbleed works through outbound-connections. It has been reported that the backdoor was discovered in the S9 Series devices and earlier versions S9s. Antbleed also likely present in the L3 models, T9 and R4, although this is only an assumption of an unknown researcher.
To find a job Antbleed check your device, the researcher proposed to modify the file / etc / hosts, add a line 139.59.36.141 auth.minerlink.com. This will cause the device to connect to the test server researcher, is running this code , other than the code Bitmain servers - if the device is vulnerable, mining will stop at 11 minutes.
Protect against Antbleed researcher offers a proven and simple way: once again change the / etc / hosts, auth.minerlink.com redirecting to localhost (127.0.0.1 auth.minerlink.com).
Needless to say that after the publication of this information, all the miners were indignant over the world. In fact, the backdoor allows the company to track Bitmain and disable their device and is analogous to a fairly rigid DRM-free. Worse, any attacker who carry out attacks man-in-the-middle or DNS, can also activate the backdoor, because no authentication mechanism Antbleed does not provide.
As a result, the company was forced to Bitmain justified and urgently to the official explanation. Yesterday, April 27, 2017, representatives of Bitmain published a detailed post in the blog, which explained that Antbleed - this is not the backdoor, and the company is not trying to control the user device. According to the company, this feature has been added to the code to device owners themselves can control the equipment remotely, and had a chance to disable a miner, if that is stolen or hacked. A similar function is now equipped with almost all modern smart phones. Antbleed also allows law enforcement agencies to provide more data if it is suddenly needed.
The developers admit that Antbleed never brought to mind: the development function was started with the release of Antminer S7 and should have been completed to the exit Antminer S9. However, due to some "technical problems," the plan was not implemented, and even test server was shut down in December 2016. The fact that the "backdoor" still is present in the firmware of devices - it is a bug and someone's oversight. The company reports that the problem affects the following models:
Antminer R4
Antminer T9
Antminer L3
Antminer L3 +
Experts Bitmain apologized to users and published a new firmware on their site for all of these devices, in which the "backdoor" no longer exists.


Well Well Well, Last time I blogged about Iyer sisters, and I like these sisters too. They call themselves The Cheapmunks.
The Cheapmunks Suhana and Mahek mix out the popular western and eastern songs in a commendable manner. Two guitarists to cover and seldom , a man on Tabla sets them on fire! They don't have a wiki page or a website or a Youtube Channel. So the videos posted here are unofficial and low in quality, do bear with it.
This is their major hit, and probably the only single recorded digitally.
This is their first audio, which was released as a fun innovation on facebook and turned out to be rage.
Well, I really like this cover of Bewafaa.
Lastly, you may check out this one.
Common T Series, Release Rockstar's music now, so that I stop my urge to listen quality music for sometime.


text:
/**
 * Created by sdikramanjian on 4/7/2017.
 */
(function(){
    'use strict';

    /**
     * Component that handles the Welcome screen for the app
     * @type {{templateUrl: string, controller: WelcomeScreenController}}
     */

    var WelcomeScreenConfiguration = {
        templateUrl: '../score-keeper-components/welcome-screen/welcome-screen.component.html',
        controller: WelcomeScreenController
    };

    function WelcomeScreenController(){

    }

    angular.module('myApp').component('welcomeScreen',WelcomeScreenConfiguration);

})();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Epactionotus advenus is a species of catfish in the family Loricariidae. It is native to South America, where it occurs in the Biguaçu River basin in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil. The species reaches at least 3.54 cm (1.4 inches) in standard length. It was described in 2020 as part of a review of the genus Epactionotus conducted by Maria Laura S. Delapieve, Tiago Pinto Carvalho, and Roberto E. Reis. FishBase does not yet list this species.

References

Loricariidae
Fish described in 2020
Catfish of South America
Freshwater fish of Brazil

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The following committees are run by parents/members of the PCS community and its volunteers. For further information on any committee or if you are considering joining a committee, please contact the committee chair.
If you would like to learn more about any of these committees or to become involved, please contact us directly for more information.
The mandate of CPC is to deal with working conditions that apply to all teachers equally. These specific conditions include salaries, benefits, and contract definitions.
The mandate of the Executive Committee is to appoint, after consultation, Board members to committees and maintain a four person Committee consisting of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer.
The mandate of the Finance Committee is to manage the finances of the school.
The mandate of the Fundraising & Volunteer Committee is to coordinate and encourage all fundraising and volunteer aspects of the membership.
The mandate of the Program Committee is to oversee all things related to the programs of the school.
The mandate of the Promotion Committee is to promote and raise the awareness of PCS and Christian education in the local communities.
The mandate of the Property and Maintenance Committee is to concern itself with all phases of the proper care and maintenance of the school building, equipment, and property.
The mandate of the Transportation Committee is to coordinate and transport students to PCS.


Many people have heard of juice fasts as a means of detoxifying the body. Followers of a raw foods regimen also include juices as part of their nutrition. Nearly anything can be juiced, fruits and vegetables, primarily. It's a form of concentrated nutrition. Some raw foodists drink only fresh fruit juices.
In addition, fruit and vegetable juices are good sources of the traditional nutrients. Citrus fruits (grapefruit, oranges, etc.) provide a healthy portion of vitamin C. Carrot juice contains large quantities of vitamin A, in the form of beta carotene. A number of green juices are a good source of vitamin E. Fruit juices are a good source of essential minerals like iron, copper, potassium, sodium, iodine, and magnesium, which are bound by the plant in a form that is most easily assimilated during digestion.
While fruit and vegetable juices are the most common form of juice, wheatgrass juice has been getting a lot of attention lately because of the denseness of nutrients it contains.
The primary advantage of truly fresh wheatgrass juice – juice made from raw, live, soil-grown wheat grass, is the apparent high level of life force energy that it contains. It is one of the few truly fresh foods available (sprouts are another). The grass is alive and growing right up to the time it is juiced, and hopefully you are drinking it within a few minutes or so of juicing.
Most of us get our green veggies from markets, and they were picked days ago and refrigerated – losing vitality the whole time. (It is an even worse situation for fruit, which may be picked weeks before you eat it, and in some cases, held in cold storage for months – losing vitality the whole time.) In contrast, one can grow wheatgrass indoors, and enjoy it when it is truly fresh.
In conclusion, drinking plenty of fresh fruit juices daily will cleanse your system, make you feel completely energized and last but not least, you will look beautiful. People will wonder what you are doing differently!


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Home / Fiqh & Life / Muhammad, the Most Popular Baby Name in London
Muhammad, the Most Popular Baby Name in London
September 22, 2018	Fiqh & Life, Sociability & Relations
Muhammad was the most popular name for baby boys in English regions London, the West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber in 2017, government statistics show, with spelling variations in the name taking it to first place across England and Wales.
Officially Oliver remains the most popular name for newborn boys across the country, with 6,259 born last year. However, it is pushed into second place by Muhammad when slight spelling variations including Mohammed and Mohammad are included, which achieve 6,510 newborns between them.
The one-letter differences in spelling of the name between the three top-100 variants stem from the transliteration of مُحمّد from Arabic into the Latin alphabet, which can be imprecise.
Even alone, Muhammad was the 10th most popular name in England and Wales last year, having slipped two places since 2016 but rising 28 places since 2007.
Taking the three English translations of the same Arabic name as one has left Muhammad the most popular boy's name in England and Wales every year since 2011, as previously reported by Breitbart London.
The official top name Oliver also has a contraction, Ollie, listed at number 86. Counted together, Oliver and nickname Ollie account for 7,047 boys in 2017.
Olivia, the feminised variant of Oliver was the most popular girl's name in 2017, followed by Amela, Isla, and Ava, all of which have risen steeply in popularity.
The statistics, released by the Office of National Statistics annually in September, also broke down top names by region.
UK Mosques Open Doors for Non-Muslims this Weekend
Global Islamic Investments Growing 50 percent than...
Mauritania to Host Int'l Conference on Holy Prophe...
Muslim Council of Britain to Start New Counter-Ter...
British Muslims Muhammad Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) Uk Muslims	2018-09-22
Tags British Muslims Muhammad Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) Uk Muslims
Fasting Muslims Save People from UK Tower Fire
Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today
Video: European First Eco Mosque Opens in Cambridge
Cambridge Central Mosque, in Mill Road, opened for prayer this week and has space for around 1,000 Islamic worshippers...


HSBC, additionally called HSBC Holdings plc, is locateded in London, UK. HSBC, the 3rd largest bank worldwide, supplies a wide range of solutions around the world consisting of examining accounts, savings accounts, insurance coverage, charge card, and also funding (consisting of car, personal, and also mortgage loans).
Improve your sell homes fast New Salem in 3 days.
Together with whatever else in a real estate agreement, the quantity of the down payment and also who pays it is usually negotiable. A customer may elect that the seller pay the down payment, or give credit at shutting for the customer's deposit. A purchaser can also ask for to pay the down payment in installments, whether in month-to-month installations or as a balloon payment at the end of the year.
Purchasing A Residence Calculator In this scenario, a section of the car loan is assured by the federal government, with the Department of Veterans Matters. As an outcome of this insurance, lending institutions usually use much more favorable terms to consumers. This consists of 100% funding for the most parts, without any cash below the borrower.
Origination merely implies the process of starting a home loan or home mortgage. Simplified, the homebuying, or origination process, consists of sending a variety of economic details to a home mortgage lending institution and getting approved for a finance.
Ways to Get A Home Mortgage With Bad Credit scores If you get that meeting, make certain you are prepared with papers that confirm youre a good risk. Lending institutions like stability. If you could reveal them that youve stayed in the very same home (or city) and also functioned the exact same task (ideally for the same employer) for a variety of years, it certainly will help your case.
Foreclosure Make a bid. The highest possible prospective buyer takes the home. In ###North Carolina:t#:t#:t# there are two sorts of repossessions: non-judicial as well as judicial. The non-judicial path is by far one of the most used. In non-judicial repossessions the public auction sale is final. Nevertheless, with judicial repossession the previous owner has up to one year to retrieve his home by paying the foreclosure sale plus passion as well as any type of extra expenditures sustained by the lender.
Whether youre seeking to entice buyers in-person or online, aesthetic allure is among one of the most important points a residence seller can grasp. Here are insights you can use to add curb appeal to your ###North Carolina:t#:t#:t# or western ###North Carolina:t#:t#:t# residence, plus a fast checklist you can follow prior to you list your home or business.
What To Deal On A Residence With An Overview Rate Next, youll should determine what to provide on the home that has captured your eye. Just how much home can you afford? Just how competitive is the real estate market? Will you need to invest big on repair services or upgrades to your house? How much time has the house gotten on the marketplace? Does the vendor appear determined to close the deal? Is it a brief sale? All these variables will certainly affect just how much you determine to use for the home.
If you obtain that meeting, make certain you are prepared with papers that verify youre a good threat. Loan provider enjoy security. If you can reveal them that youve lived in the exact same residence (or city) and worked the exact same work (preferably for the exact same employer) for a variety of years, it definitely will aid your instance.
Given that we opened our doors in 1990, weve grown to end up being over 15,000 members solid. Our surprises teach the very best techniques for producing riches with real estate. Our shocks write how-to short articles to educate you on their subject of experience. You will not find one more site with more original short articles on property investing free of cost.
The average residence worth in New Salem Region is amongst the highest in the country, at $645,900 in 2013. That ranks fourth in ###North Carolina:t#:t#:t# and nine in the U.S. As a result of those high home values, yearly real estate tax expenses for house owners in New Salem County are quite high, in spite of actual prices near the state average. The typical annual real estate tax in New Salem Region is $5,121, 2nd greatest in the state.
Making An Offer On A House Private Sale Competition Yours & the vendor's Look at that CMA one last time. The number of active, very closely similar comparables are there within that 1/2 mile span? In addition to tipping you off to whether your market is a purchaser's or a seller's market, the number of energetic compensations likewise shows just how much competitors the vendor has. The extra energetic compensations there are, the a lot more your vendor will certainly fear to obtain a deal, period, as well as be open to your offer around or listed below the retail price.
BAWB - Bay Area Wealth Builders Organization http://www.bawb.info/ Get in touch with: Michael Morrongiello [email protected] Telephone: (707) 996-6411 When: Third Thursday of each month, 7:00 pm Where: Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley.
When obtaining a home mortgage, the economic background, work history, and debt of both you and also the co-borrower is considered. This implies that if your co-borrower has even more recognized credit score compared to you, this could assist your opportunities in getting a finance. This additionally relates to your co-borrower's possessions and income. You will certainly both be accountable for repayments, as well as have an equivalent stake in your home. Make sure to entirely discuss and investigate a possible co-borrower's economic background, as bad debt could harm your opportunities of obtaining a home loan.


Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) is concerned with the way a person thinks, feels and acts, and the events and relationships that underlie these experiences – often from childhood or earlier in life. CAT is a collaborative program, meaning that it requires a "whole team" approach in the way we work with our clients. If we want to illicit a change in behaviour in our clients, we should be prepared to make changes in our own behaviour.
CAT forms the basis for the way all workers across LABSC work with our residents. CAT tries to focus on the behaviours that a resident presents with and the deeper patterns that relate to them. CAT does not focus on labels, syndromes or traditional symptoms. Instead, CAT looks at repeating cycles of behaviour.
A key element of CAT is that practitioners are expected to look at how they react to the behaviours of our clients and why we react in this way.
Try to focus on "what lies beneath".
For example, if a person reacts to a particular exchange in an aggressive manner can we try to see how past experiences have influenced this aggression? Can we alter our input in these exchanges so as to avoid this aggression?
Be objective of our own perceptions, attitudes and feelings towards a person and their behaviour.
If we feel offended by what a person says or does, does this influence our attitude towards them? Is this helpful?


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HB2 boycott hits Charlotte LGBT organization Campus Pride
Camp Pride cancellations could cost the nonprofit upwards of $30,000 in lost revenue
Jeff Taylor / Social Media Editor	on June 17, 2016
Camp Pride is in its 10th year and has been going strong and growing. However, this year HB2 is keeping some otherwise participants away due their stand against the anti-LGBT discriminatory legislation.
Ever since the North Carolina General Assembly passed anti-LGBT House Bill 2, the state has been hit with a series of boycotts and cancellations.
Businesses like PayPal and Deutsche Bank have nixed plans to expand here, costing hundreds of jobs, and entertainers and event organizers continue to cancel shows, with acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and Cirque du Soleil saying no thanks to the now-tainted Tar Heel State.
The purpose of the boycott is to send a message to North Carolina leaders that discrimination will not be tolerated. The economic impact is putting pressure on lawmakers to do something about HB2, whether that is a modification of the bill or a full repeal, as the LGBT community has been demanding.
While well intentioned, that boycott looks to be doing some harm along with the good.
The Charlotte LGBT college non-profit organization Campus Pride is beginning to feel the pinch of individuals choosing to steer clear of North Carolina. Executive Director Shane Windmeyer reports that they have had numerous cancellations for their upcoming Camp Pride event, an LGBTQ leadership academy for undergraduate students, as well as college faculty members.
"The last two years we've had about 95 to 100 students attend, and then we have about 40 advisors or staff who attend as part of the advisor academy. Right now, we're down by about 40 individuals, and that's roughly $25,000-$30,000 in revenue," Windmeyer says.
A number of states and cities have banned non-essential government travel to North Carolina and Windmeyer believes this is playing into the cancellations.
"What we've heard is that folks have travel bans, they've been told to boycott the state. If they don't have a statewide travel ban, then cities do," he says.
When he says that the bans are for government travel, and shouldn't be directly applicable for them, he reports that they are telling him they have still been told not to go.
"It's kind of a communication issue. It's not really just about could they really come to North Carolina. Yeah, maybe, but they're being told by artists, by entertainers, by other businesses, that, 'We're trying to put the squeeze on North Carolina. We're trying to basically not support the state as a way to boycott and create some sort of action,'" Windmeyer says.
"Some activists, young people, they're [saying], 'I'm an activist, and as an activist I am boycotting the state of North Carolina.' I get that, but the problem is that there are LGBT young people in the state of North Carolina who need visibility, who need support. And Campus Pride, unlike 90 percent of our national organizations, is based in Charlotte, as opposed to New York, or LA, or D.C.," he continues. "So, at the end of the day, Campus Pride chose to be in a southern city because that's where the work needs to be done. And I think this is an example of the fact that we're exactly where we need to be."
Campus Pride has been located in Charlotte since its founding in 2001.
Since HB2 passed, they have been active in helping to protest it on college campuses, such as the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
Windmeyer recognizes that some may not feel welcome or safe in North Carolina at this time, which he understands.
"A few people were concerned about their safety. There are some trans folks who are on our teaching team who said, 'You know what? I can't go to North Carolina. I just don't feel welcome or safe and I don't want to deal with that.'
"I said, 'Well I don't want to put you in that situation, so, of course, don't come if you don't want to come.' I totally get that."
For those who do attend Camp Pride, Windmeyer says they are taking extra safety precautions, such as having their meals catered and brought into their room instead of having students eat at the dining hall at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
They are also encouraging students to go to the bathroom in groups, as part of the I'll Go With You campaign, since, as he points out, "[UNC Charlotte] is a public institution, so they don't have the ability to make a restroom gender inclusive."
Windmeyer wants to see more LGBT organizations in the region, which he says will require funding. He says we need to have more groups that are firmly rooted in the South and don't "just parachute in when there's an issue."
"That's the way you create real systemic change and ultimately impact people when it comes to their hearts and minds," he says.
"The sad part is that we have a national movement that says it wants to see equality in southern states and in southern cities, but they don't live there, they don't breathe there. And the organizations that are living and breathing there, not all of them are seeing support," he says.
Not everyone has boycotted the state since the passage of HB2. In fact, there is a growing trend of artists coming to the state and donating all or some of their profits to LGBT organizations, such as Equality North Carolina and the Human Rights Campaign. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated altogether.
So far Campus Pride has not received any such donations.
Windmeyer says that he emailed NC Needs You, a group working with artists to encourage them to play in the state and donate proceeds, to be included in the list of organizations on their website, ncneedsyou.com.
At press time, he says he emailed them about two weeks ago and they have not responded or included Campus Pride on the list, which includes just over a dozen organizations, such as Equality North Carolina, American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, Progress NC Action, Youth OUTright, Southerners On New Ground and the LGBT Center of Raleigh.
Those interested in donating to Campus Pride can do so through their website at campuspride.org.
Campus Scene: Homecoming, banquet celebrates 15-year anniversary
Campus Pride reports deficit as a result of HB2
Campus Pride enters new school year with renewed ambition
Campus Scene: Youth leaders event upcoming
Boycotts & Benefits: Artists respond to HB2
Campus Scene: Camp registration open
Category: A&E / Life&Style, Featured Stories
Tag: Camp Pride, Campus Pride, Charlotte, HB2, Print Edition 2016-06-17
Posted by Jeff Taylor / Social Media Editor
Jeff Taylor is a journalist and artist. In addition to QNotes, his work has appeared in publications such The Charlotte Observer, Creative Loafing Charlotte, Inside Lacrosse, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He graduated from the State University of New York at Brockport and has lived in Charlotte since 2006.@jefftaylorhuman.
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There's nothing like a buyout rumor to goose the price of a stock, and so it was late last week with online business review aggregator Yelp .
The company's share price is up by almost 30% after The Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter," said Yelp is consulting with investment bankers and soliciting possible buyers for a sale.
Yelp needs help?As with many fast-burning young Internet companies, Yelp has spilled a lot of red ink. Since 2010, it's posted but a single annual net profit, and much of that gain was due to an income tax allowance.
Revenues have been rising at a brisk pace, but growth is slowing in key metrics such as the site's number of unique visitors.
Investors seemed to be losing interest. Before those buyout rumors started to swirl, Yelp stock was trading at less than half of its one-year high of almost $87.
The local business segment provides a huge potential revenue base. The trick is to turn that into actual advertising dollars, and with the resources it has at the moment, it seems Yelp is finding that a challenge to do profitably. It might just be better off in the portfolio of a deep-pocketed company that can absorb a few more years of losses if necessary.
Let the bidding beginAnd who might that be? Several observers have suggested Google . This is an obvious top pick, as the acquisitive search giant offered to purchase the company for around $550 million back in Yelp's pre-IPO days of 2009.
A half decade is a long stretch in Internet time, and Google has since moved on, opening its wallet to buy storied restaurant review specialist Zagat in 2011.
Google certainly has the capital to spend on Yelp, but it's a question of whether supplementing or replacing Zagat would be worth that money. Also, there's bad blood between the two companies, with Yelp accusing Google of manipulating search results to favor Zagat over itself.
Yahoo! is another top Internet name getting banded about as a potential buyer. This makes a bit more sense to me, as like Google, it is fond of acquisitions, and unlike Google, it doesn't have a solid, branded asset in the business review sphere.
The big problem is that Yahoo! has only $5 billion or so in cash and short-term investments, and it's committed to spending a chunk of that on share buybacks. Yelp probably isn't productive enough of an asset for the company to justify the expense of buying it.
Amazon.com has a much bigger pile of cash, clearly loves the idea of operating every type of business or service known to man, and has already waded into several niches of the food service segment that dominates Yelp's reviews.
Like Yahoo!, an Amazon.com buyout would make a certain amount of sense... although the big e-retailer seems to be more interested in direct sales of merchandise at the moment rather than the local business advertising model presented by Yelp.
Facebook is perhaps the most suitable player in our fantasy acquisition game. It's got the moolah, and as we've seen with its bigger-ticket acquisitions like Instagram, it's happy to spend this on name assets. Yelp might be a challenge to integrate with Facebook's core offerings, however.
Take a numberThere's no shortage of well-known companies being uttered as possible Yelp owners, including a few dark horses. Apple has gotten more than a few mentions, as has Priceline Group, TripAdvisor, and GrubHub.
Yelp won't be a bargain; after the WSJ's story fueled the stock price jump, its market capitalization stood at $3.7 billion. But if the article is accurate and the company's eagerly waving the "For Sale" sign -- "buy us, PLEASE!" -- it's questionable whether it can command much of a premium above that level.
This isn't to say the company doesn't have value. In spite of its struggles, Yelp is a recognized brand that's often the first -- or only -- go-to option for consumers researching a business. That might be the factor that attracts a buyer -- perhaps one that's even willing to pay a little extra.
The article Is Yelp for Sale? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Eric Volkman owns shares of Facebook. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com, Apple, Facebook, Google (A shares), Google (C shares), Priceline Group, TripAdvisor, and Yahoo!. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com, Apple, Facebook, Google (A shares), Google (C shares), Priceline Group, TripAdvisor, and Yahoo!. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


Breaking The Poll: Week 11 — OhVarsity!
After a two-week hiatus following a loss to Temple, the Bearcats find themselves back in the top 25 of the AP Poll. Is this starting to feel normal again, at least a little bit? It's the first time the Bearcats have spent three weeks as a top-25 team since the 2011 season, when they spent four weeks in the rankings.
The last few years have taught me not to take winning for granted. I worry because nobody expected this year to be so successful that many will shrug it off while looking ahead to next season and the potential that team will have. The thing is, even many great teams don't start 8-1, and sometimes destiny takes over. We saw how many wins the 2015-16 Bearcats sports gods reclaimed. Sometimes that happens. Just be sure to soak up this winning, because it can evaporate.
Two important AAC teams lost this week. Houston (not on our schedule; don't really care) got beat up by SMU. South Florida (you idiots, I wanted a matchup of 8-1 teams) got wrecked by Tulane.
This means two things. First, surely this has gotta make UC's conference record look at least five percent better. A pair of solid 7-1 teams just got picked off by teams the Bearcats have beaten. Second, it means that the road to December top-25 glory is in the hands of UCF and Cincinnati. If UC can get past USF and UCF can evade Navy, I think there's a chance we're looking at a top-20 team on the road against a top-10 team, at least by AP Poll rankings. That's good for the conference.
The all-important College Football Playoff rankings debut Tuesday at 9 p.m. on ESPN (I think. It's ridiculous how hard it is to track down the air time of the reveal show).
This ranking debuted in 2014, so the Bearcats have never appeared on it. It's the one that matters though. Not only does the highest-ranked Group of Five team get a placement in a New Year's Six bowl (this year the Fiesta or Peach) but Luke Fickell also gets a $50,000 bonus from UC if his team hits the rankings at any point.
A continuing gripe: I still do not understand how this team plummeted from #20 to #35 after an overtime road loss to a team that was favored to win. This week's poll muddied that question even more for me. Navy entered Nippert 2-6, and the Bearcats were favored by a couple touchdowns. They were lambs for the slaughter. The jump from #30 to #25 is no small feat, yet here we are.
I feel like a blowout win over a bad team should not be prettier than a narrow loss to a pretty good team is ugly. Maybe I'm crazy and none of this even makes sense.
Of course, the point of this entire series is to laugh at this type of stuff, yet it only continues to boggle the mind.
We've officially got a vote that's so outlandish I have to wonder if it was an error. Dylan Sinn of Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette ranked the Bearcats 12th on his Week 11 ballot, sandwiched behind Ohio State and ahead of Kentucky. I will take the love, but that one is wild. No other voter has the Bearcats in their top 15.
The weirdest part of Sinn's ballot, to me, is that the rest of it is mostly boring. College Poll Tracker doesn't list any Extreme Picks (teams ranked more than five spots from their rankings in the final poll) for Dylan in the Top 20, so it's not like he's going around shaking things up on his ballot.
Can I just go back to the guy from last week? What do you want from UC, Mike Barber? He ranked UC on his Week 9 ballot, one of just three voters to do so in the wake of the Temple loss. Since then, the Bearcats are 2-0 with a road win over a serviceable (and likely bowl-bound) SMU team and a hammering of Navy at home.
Barber has yet to move Cincinnati back into his top 25, but that's starting to become less surprising when you see the other shenanigans he's pulling.
Barber has five Extreme Picks on his ballot. Three are Power Five teams and two are Group of Five teams. As you may have guessed, all the Power Five teams are flagged for being overrated (five or more spots above where they finished in the final AP Poll) and both of his Group of Five teams are flagged for being underrated (five or more spots below where they finished in the final AP Poll).
Mike just hates Group of Five teams.


Canadian hospitals, which operate under a universal health program, offer the same opportunities for surgery as American hospitals - despite the fact that no candidates for surgery are denied for financial reasons. The caricature of "socialized medicine" is used by corporate interests to confuse Americans and maintain their bottom lines instead of patients' health.
Our countries are joined at the hip. We peacefully share a continent, a British heritage of representative government and now ownership of GM. And, until 50 years ago, we had similar health systems, healthcare costs and vital statistics. The U.S.' and Canada's different health insurance decisions make up the world's largest health policy experiment. And the results?
On coverage, all Canadians have insurance for hospital and physician services. There are no deductibles or co-pays. Most provinces also provide coverage for programs for home care, long-term care, pharmaceuticals and durable medical equipment, although there are co-pays. On the U.S. side, 46 million people have no insurance, millions are underinsured and healthcare bills bankrupt more than 1 million Americans every year.
Lesson No. 1: A single-payer system would eliminate most U.S. coverage problems. On costs, Canada spends 10% of its economy on healthcare; the U.S. spends 16%. The extra 6% of GDP amounts to more than $800 billion per year. The spending gap between the two nations is almost entirely because of higher overhead. Canadians don't need thousands of actuaries to set premiums or thousands of lawyers to deny care. Even the U.S. Medicare program has 80% to 90% lower administrative costs than private Medicare Advantage policies. And providers and suppliers can't charge as much when they have to deal with a single payer.
Lessons No. 2 and 3: Single-payer systems reduce duplicative administrative costs and can negotiate lower prices. Because most of the difference in spending is for non-patient care, Canadians actually get more of most services. We see the doctor more often and take more drugs. We even have more lung transplant surgery. We do get less heart surgery, but not so much less that we are any more likely to die of heart attacks. And we now live nearly three years longer, and our infant mortality is 20% lower.
Lesson No. 4: Single-payer plans can deliver the goods because their funding goes to services, not overhead. The Canadian system does have its problems, and these also provide important lessons. Notwithstanding a few well-publicized and misleading cases, Canadians needing urgent care get immediate treatment. But we do wait too long for much elective care, including appointments with family doctors and specialists and selected surgical procedures. We also do a poor job managing chronic disease.
On closer examination, most of these problems have little to do with public insurance or even overall resources. Despite the delays, the GAO said there is enough mammogram capacity. These problems are largely caused by our shared politico-cultural barriers to quality of care. In 19th century North America, doctors waged a campaign against quacks and snake-oil salesmen and attained a legislative monopoly on medical practice. In return, they promised to set and enforce standards of practice. By and large, it didn't happen. And perverse incentives like fee-for-service make things even worse.
Lesson No. 5: Canadian healthcare delivery problems have nothing to do with our single-payer system and can be fixed by re-engineering for quality. U.S. health policy would be miles ahead if policymakers could learn these lessons. But they seem less interested in Canada's, or any other nation's, experience than ever. Why? American democracy runs on money. Pharmaceutical and insurance companies have the fuel.
Analysts see hundreds of billions of premiums wasted on overhead that could fund care for the uninsured. But industry executives and shareholders see bonuses and dividends. Compounding the confusion is traditional American ignorance of what happens north of the border, which makes it easy to mislead people. Boilerplate anti-government rhetoric does the same. The U.S. media, legislators and even presidents have claimed that our "socialized" system doesn't let us choose our own doctors. In fact, Canadians have free choice of physicians. It's Americans these days who are restricted to "in-plan" doctors. Unfortunately, many Americans won't get to hear the straight goods because vested interests are promoting a caricature of the Canadian experience.
--------- Michael M. Rachlis is a physician, health policy analyst and author in Toronto.


Built to tackle, turn, and trounce big water on its own turf, the Z522D is writing a whole new book on rough water performance. Stretching 22' 7" in length, the dominating design is matched with the deepest vee hull we've ever put under a bass rig. Combined with a first-ever 25" transom height for even more freeboard and deck space, this is one big bad tackle box. Inside, casting decks and storages are huge with advanced features just as boundless. Centering the helm, smooth hydraulic steering is surrounded by instrumentation. Additional features include digital switching, built-in L.E.D. NAV lights, an on-board charger, a Minn Kota Fortrex 80, Lowrance electronics, adjustable SRS Soft Ride Seats, our patented Power Ventilation Rod Storage system, integrated tackle and rod storage systems, interior light package, and so much more.


text:
This directory contains utilities for testing metricbeat system module.

To execute burn application:
GOMAXPROCS=4 go run burn.go -cpus 4


Believe it or not, for the first 2 weeks of the competition on ABC's My Diet is Better Than Yours, Kurt was eating as much as he wanted. He was eating like a king from The Wild Diet cookbooks—bacon cheeseburgers, fatty coffee, delicious green smoothies, big salads, bone broth and even healthy desserts… and the weight was dropping off. He lost 16 pounds in Week 1!


British TV network ITV on Monday denied that it has been in touch with Apple about Cupertino's rumored plans to name its yet-to-be-announced television set the iTV.
News about ITV vs. iTV got started after The Telegraph posted a story on Saturday that said Adam Crozier, ITV's chief executive, penned a letter to ITV in 2010 expressing concern about the possibility of Apple using his company's name for a new Apple set.
When asked about the story, an ITV spokesperson said "The Telegraph's piece is entirely speculative and there has been no recent dialogue between ITV and Apple on this subject."
According to The Telegraph, Apple told ITV in 2010 that it would not "muscle into its territory, at least in the UK." But the issue cropped up again recently because "insiders" were concerned that Apple's new CEO, Tim Cook, might feel differently.
The existing Apple TV set-top box got a makeover and a price drop back in August 2010. At the time, there were also rumors that the set-top box would be renamed the iTV, and Mike Large, acting group director of Communications at ITV, told Pocket-Lint that ITV had "vigorously defended" its intellectual property in the past, but did not say whether the company would go after Apple on similar grounds. The new Apple TV was revealed without a name change, however, so it never became an issue.
Rumors about an Apple-based television set have been making the rounds since last year after Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography mentioned that the late Apple co-founder was working on an Apple-branded TV before his death on Oct. 5.
Recently, analyst have predicted the launch of an Apple TV set by late 2012. Last week, Jeffries & Co. analyst Peter Misek talked about possible content delivery strategies for the set, which he referred to as the iTV. That prompted reports that the TV would be known as the iTV, but Misek didn't explicitly state that he had knowledge that Apple planned to brand such a product with that name.
For more, see PCMag's review of the existing Apple TV and the slideshow below.


Graffiti Technica is about exploring the possibilities and future of digital 3d graffiti. Inspired by industrial design, the process of creation is about discovering something fresh and interesting rather than just working on one style or medium forever.
As the work is no longer limited to the 2D world, Graffiti Technica draws on many aspects of architecture, graphic design, visual effects, industrial design and photography to create a hybrid form of 3d graffiti that is completely unique. The work will evolve with the inevitable advancement in computing power, internet speeds and devices.


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Jury dismissed after failing to reach verdict in Creato trial
Phaedra Trethan Jim Walsh
The Courier-Post
CAMDEN - Brendan Creato would have been 5 years old Thursday.
On Wednesday, a jury deadlocked over whether his father, David "D.J." Creato, was guilty of killing the boy in October 2015.
Jurors in the murder trial of Creato said Wednesday they were unable to agree on a verdict for the Westmont man, accused of killing the 3-year-old. Prosecutors said he smothered the boy in an effort to preserve a troubled relationship with a 17-year-old girlfriend.
Live Q&A with reporters at 11 a.m. Thursday;
get your questions in now
Superior Court Judge John Kelley, who on Tuesday afternoon directed jurors to keep deliberating, this time declared a mistrial.
The Camden County Prosecutor's Office said in a release shortly after the jurors' dismissal that it would retry the case. A status conference is set for July 5.
Creato, 23, contended he awoke on the morning of Oct. 13 to find Brendan was missing from his apartment.
Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah presented a circumstantial case to argue no one but the boy's father had the motive and opportunity to kill the child, whose body was found in a wooded park described by Creato as his "favorite place in Haddon Township."
Shah said she had no comment after Kelley dismissed jurors.
Defense attorney Richard Fuschino Jr. repeatedly pointed to the lack of direct evidence tying Creato to his son's death.
The boy's mother, Samantha Denoto, and her family declined comment on the ruling.
Fuschino said Creato had cooperated with investigators, answering their questions for 12 hours on the day Brendan's body was found in a stream in Cooper River Park.
"They just haven't proven their case," Fuschino said of the prosecution in his closing argument.
Creato's father, David Creato Sr. declined comment shortly after the jury was dismissed.
"I was advised not to comment," he said.
Fuschino said the Creato family was "obviously having a very tough day."
"They wanted to see their son come home today, and that's unfortunately not the way it went," he added.
Fuschino said he would again ask for a lower bail for his client, whom he described as "upset."
"He wanted to see his family today; he hasn't seen his family in person in a year and a half and that's heartbreaking for all of them," Fuschino said.
At his Jan. 12, 2016 arraignment, Creato was ordered held on $750,000 bail; Fuschino said he would seek to have that amount lowered but did not indicate Wednesday what amount he would ask a judge to set as bail.
Read more: Full day-by-day
coverage on the Creato trial
Jurors deliberated over five court sessions, but repeatedly returned to the courtroom to review electronic evidence and verbal testimony.
In many instances, the jurors scrutinized recorded comments made by Creato, who did not testify at the trial.
For instance, three times during deliberations, jurors watched a video that showed Creato talking to investigators on Oct. 13, 2015, the day his son's body was found.
Assistant Camden County Christine Shah had noted Creato did not check his cellphone for updates on the search for Brendan prior to the interview. She also asserted his expressions of grief appeared to subside quickly as he discussed a variety of subjects, including his then-girlfriend Julia Stensky, with detectives.
"He was just trying to figure out what was going on," said Fuschino, noting his client readily consented to a search of his cellphone. "Everybody reacts differently."
During the police interview, Creato acknowledged Stensky had threatened to end their romance days earlier because she did not want a relationship that included a child.
Creato also said he called and texted Stensky repeatedly on the night before his son went missing due to jealousy over a potential rival at her college.
But the father also told detectives he had made clear to Stensky that Brendan would always be part of his life.
Jurors twice interrupted deliberations to hear the 911 call in which Creato reported his son was missing.
They also reviewed a roughly hour-long conversation between Creato and Denoto of Haddonfield.
During that talk, recorded secretly by Denoto at the request of investigators, Creato suggested a "spirit of the lake" may have drawn Brendan to the wooded park in predawn darkness.
On two occasions Tuesday, they reviewed testimony and phone records that showed Creato snooped in Stensky's social media accounts on the night and early morning before he reported Brendan missing.
Creato, who faced a potential sentence of life imprisonment, turned down a plea bargain that would have imposed a 35-year sentence.
He also faced a potential jail term of five to 10 years, as well as a monetary fine, if convicted of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Before Wednesday's session, a pair of toddlers played in the hallway outside Judge Kelley's courtroom, running and babbling at reporters and others waiting for court to begin.
The 2-year-old boy and his 1-year-old sister drew smiles and laughs from David and Lisa Creato, as they waited to see whether a jury would find their son guilty of killing their grandson.
Their wait goes on.
Phaedra Trethan: (856) 486-2417; ptrethan@gannettnj.com


UPDATE (Tuesday, June 27): The School Board approved all items up for a vote Monday night. It took no action regarding the placemaker repurposing proposal from the city.
From RAGBRAI emergency contingencies to the superintendent's pay, here are 10 things to know about the Charles City School Board meeting that begins at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 26, in the 7th grade learning studio at the middle school.
1. All of the district's schools and the North Grand Building will be emergency shelters for RAGBRAI visitors to Charles City in case of severe weather or other emergency on July 26 if the board approves four memorandums of understanding with the city.
2. Engaging the help of professional "placemaker" Zach Mannheimer from McClure Engineering Company in regards to the North Grand Building is not yet off the table. The board will consider meeting with the Charles City Council about a partnership. Mannheimer was the creative force behind the Des Moines Social Club project and he has projects underway in Council Bluffs, Fort Dodge, Earlham, Algona, Fayette, Jefferson and Newton, according to school district administration.
3. Superintendent Dr. Dan Cox will get a 1.19 percent raise in his salary if the School Board agrees with his recommendation.
4. Instructional assistants Karleen Sickman, Christin Flucke and Holly Caspers have submitted their resignations.
5. Sickman is taking the position of Intervention Room coordinator, at a pay rate of $20.57 per hour.
7. The substitute teacher pay is slated to remain at $105 per day.
8. A mental health counselor based in Mason City, Cody Williams, will contract with the district to provide assessment, counseling and therapy services. His practice, Turning Leaf Counseling, will provide services in the district for up to two days a week, according to the contract the board will consider.
9. The school district's Iowa School Board Association dues for 2017-18 are $5,282.
10. The district will celebrate the completion of Its new Transportation Center behind the high school with an open house at 6 p.m. July 24.
This entry was posted in Charles City Schools and tagged Noah Robbins, ragbrai. Bookmark the permalink.
Thanks for a clear and concise report on the school board agenda, Chris.


You want to go on a holiday but you cant decide where, which place do you think of when you want a mix of everything, beaches, nature, good food, parties & peace? Goa of course! but how do you reach Goa? on a motorcycle of course! there's more to Goa than just beaches and parties. On this ride we also explore parts of the Western Ghats.
We switched from city mode to countryside mode, the destination was Hampi, Hampi is a land of rocks where nature has fashioned a rugged landscape, nestled by the banks of the Tungabadhra River, this erstwhile capital of the Vijayanagara kingdom is now a UNESCO world heritage site spread across 25 square km. The ride from Hyderabad to Hampi took us through some scenic country roads, we could see rural India at its best, We reached Hampi by 4 PM, and went for some off-roading, you can also do some serious bouldering around Hampi. We stayed in a nice little home-stay overlooking the paddy fields, the hosts were very nice and so was the home cooked food. We called it an early night.
We wanted to reach Dandeli by early evening, so an early start it was. Karnataka has some amazing places, can't say the same for the roads though, a thousand bone jarring speed breakers later, we reached Dandeli, but then again that's the fun of a road trip, no two roads are the same, sometimes they're good and sometimes bad, a bit like life 🙂 The road to Dandeli was scenic, we went from the dry belt to the tropics, and difference in temperature was evident. Our stay was bordering the Anshi Tiger reserve, greenery everywhere, a perfect place to unwind after a great ride. The weather was chilly, we just sat there gorging on hot pakoras and lemongrass tea and looking into the forest. Time passes real slow in the jungle, the night was cool enough for a bonfire, it was going to be a long night for sure.
A place like Dandeli deserves more than an evening, so we decided to stay another day and see around, moreover we deserved a break after two days of riding. A few of us decided to do some white water rafting, what an experience that was, not to be forgotten soon. We found a trail and went off-road again, later we went around and saw some unique rock formations at Syntheri, came back to our resort by the evening and decided to relax and prepare our livers for the Goan onslaught.
This was the most anticipated ride of the tour, winding roads through the jungle and no traffic! what more can you ask for? This is why I love the Western Ghats, we just rode, soaking in the nature along with its sights and sounds. Although longer, this route was worth the extra 50 odd Km of riding. Reaching Palolem post lunch we checked in to our stay and hit the beach, which was a stone's throw away. The Southern beaches of Goa are less crowded, the sand is whiter and the beaches wider. It was so nice, we decided to spend the whole evening sitting in a shack, sipping on Feni and gazing into the sunset.
Today, the plan was simple, we decided to explore rural Goa, we rode around the villages, the small towns, saw the daily lives of the locals. Used a ferry to cross a river and eat some delicious Goan food.
Our last day in Goa, coincided with the Royal Enfield Rider Mania which happens every year, more than a thousand mad bikers ride to Goa for a weekend of bikes, music and fun. The parking lot of the event is a sight in itself, hundreds of gleaming Royal Enfields basking in the sun. The event looks interesting, there were many bike related contests and the day ended with am amazing live performance by a popular rock band . We reluctantly go back to our hotel and start packing for the return journey, promising ourselves that we have to be back soon.
Day 7 & 8 – We rode back to Hyderabad, back to the grind.


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Experimental rules in exhibition help challenge Huskies
Nov. 8, 2015 Updated: Aug. 11, 2017 2:10 p.m.
STORRS >> Breanna Stewart nodded her approval when it was suggested that she could always blame the larger basketball used in Sunday's exhibition game for UConn's reigning national player of the year missing all five of her shots from behind the 3-point line.
However, in the eyes of her Hall of Fame head coach, the different rules utilized during Sunday's preseason women's basketball game were not implemented just to get a few more people in the seats, to generate a couple punch lines or even generate some extra buzz around the Huskies' final exhibition game.
During his stint as the head coach of the U.S. women's national team Auriemma has grown to appreciate how the game is played under the FIBA rules used overseas. With the cooperation of Vanguard coach Russ Davis, one of Auriemma's good friends in the coaching profession, there were rules in the Huskies' 98-18 victory similar to what might be seen in a WNBA game.
The lane was 16 feet, four feet wider than in a normal college game, the 3-point line was pushed back to 22-1, a larger men's basketball was used in addition to a 24-second shot clock and 8-second count to get the ball over mid court.
"Does it matter?" Auriemma asked. "I am just trying to challenge our kids. At least everybody got to see the game go (up and down) and what the response will be, we will see."
The teams were a combined 0 for 10 from the 3-point line in the first half, but with so many different rules being used, it is hard to tell where to place the blame.
"Maybe it is a combination of the line and the ball or maybe we just had a bad shooting night, I don't know," Auriemma said.
1of2UConn's Moriah Jefferson, right, shoots a 3-point basket against Vanguard's Maya Kennedy as Breanna Stewart, left, defends during the second half Sunday.Jessica Hill — The Associated Press Show MoreShow Less
2of2A women's college basketball, left, and men's college basketball are displayed before Sunday's game. The men's basketball was used in Sunday's game.Jessica Hill — The Associated Press Show MoreShow Less
UConn did shoot 62 percent from the field, including 46 percent from 3-point range in the second half.
"We practiced with it (the larger ball) a few (times)," Stewart said. "It was cool to try it out."
Even before the first shot was taken, Auriemma received some good news. He was told there has been talk about using some of the experimental rules in the postseason WNIT.
"Things don't change very quickly in college sports, they are pretty set in how they do things," Auriemma said. "It takes a while, I like that they are (talking about) starting it in the postseason WNIT."
BANNER DAY FOR HUSKIES
With the first regular-season game at Gampel Pavilion not until Dec. 5 against Notre Dame, the decision was made the unveil the national-championship banner and present the championship rings before the Vanguard game.
"We got the banners and rings out of the way so it was good," UConn senior guard Moriah Jefferson said. "You get that reminder of what that feels like and you want to feel it again."
Auriemma didn't come right out and say it, but some might have viewed it as being in bad taste to honor the 2014-15 national championship team right in front of the Notre Dame team the Huskies beat to win the program's 10th national title.
"We didn't want to do it that day because there is going to be a lot going on that day," Auriemma said. "Traditionally you like to do it in your first regular-season game, but it being so far out and it being that game, the bigness of that game, I don't think we need anymore going on that game so it was good to do it today. It is kind of the end of the last season and we can move on. We got the rings, we got the banner and it was a good day all around."


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Quality early child care needs help from state
Authorities must improve monitoring, ways to improve, day care facilities
Brian Donovan, Commentary
Just as quality day care programs can be a powerful force in shaping our children's lives, inferior ones can threaten their development and safety. Unfortunately, there is too much evidence to suggest that New York state isn't up to the task of straightening out the bad facilities, despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo's emphasis on the importance of early-childhood learning.
Experts report that kids from high-quality day care will show better academic achievement and less misbehavior than those who endured programs that were mediocre or worse. This means day care will play a strong role in shaping America's success — or decline — as many millions of day care graduates grow into adulthood.
The news isn't all bad in New York. The state's oversight of day care has improved from the sometimes negligent bungling of the 1990s. Back then, as a reporter for the Long Island newspaper Newsday, I worked on investigations that found that weak state enforcement repeatedly allowed kids to remain for years in badly run, sometimes dangerous programs, while parents got little information.
Now, state inspections are more frequent. Inspectors have smaller caseloads. The state oversight agency, the Office of Children and Family Services, now posts information on its website that's meant to help parents evaluate programs.
Some of the bad news: It's still much too easy to find situations that raise troubling questions about the children's well being. Long Island data, for example, shows that day care programs hosting several thousand children are operating with documented — but still uncorrected — violations of OCFS safety and health rules.
The OCFS website also reveals Albany programs with violation histories that suggest a scary disregard for the children's basic safety and peace of mind, never mind their intellectual and emotional development.
One Albany center, licensed for 68 children, was cited for "methods of discipline, interaction or toilet training which frighten or humiliate a child." Another center, licensed for 116 kids, violated the important rule that "children cannot be left without competent direct supervision at any time." Another center, licensed for 76, broke the supervision rule, operated with too small a staff, and failed to obtain fingerprints from adults with access to the children so that required background checks could be done.
"We still have a system that doesn't always recognize that these early years are a critical part of a child's life —very important to a child's development," said Janet Walerstein, who runs a nonprofit public service agency that helps Long Island parents find quality day care.
While it's good news that inspectors uncovered these dangers, some critics note that such blatant violations rarely lead to license suspensions or even small fines. Generally, the state prefers to avoid punitive measures even when children are put in danger. Instead, OCFS consults with violators about how to how to improve their programs, then conducts follow-up inspections.
OCFS could also do more to inform parents about how to avoid the bad day care operations. A report last year by some Democratic state senators criticized the OCFS website for failing to specify if a program's violations include any in the worst categories — "serious" and "imminent danger." That "failure," they said, makes it harder for parents to find a program with a solid safety record.
Another troubling issue is the state's failure to oversee many of the numerous child care programs that call themselves nursery schools, which are not necessarily licensed facilities. The state allows many to operate without a license or inspections, even for basic fire safety, as long as they're open for only three hours a day — or at least claim to be.
Some nursery schools operate under the State Education Department's oversight, but that program is completely voluntary. So, across the state, communities are full of nursery schools that the state has never checked to see if any employees are convicted criminals or sexual predators, much less what their level of child care training might be.
Dr. Kathleen Roche, a reform advocate, said "too many of these children" in unregulated nursery schools "are looked after in outright firetraps by unqualified people. State officials have deliberately looked the other way for decades."
Some more good news — sort of. A respected day care professional organization, Child Care Aware of America, publishes detailed analytical reports on the quality of oversight in every state. Each state gets a letter grade, A through F. The group's 2013 report named New York as having the best regulatory system in the country, despite its problems. True, much of the competition is weak — many states have woefully flawed programs and rarely make improvements.
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The same report, however, documented another serious gap in New York's protection of day care children: The background and criminal-record checks it conducts for adults with access to day care kids don't include an important safety measure — a national-level FBI fingerprint check. Their prints are checked only against state records. Child Care Aware says any "comprehensive background check" should include the FBI's far more extensive fingerprint registry, which would flag people with out-of-state criminal records.
Oh, and about New York state's top-in-the-country letter grade: It was a "C." The state met only 77 percent of the group's recommended standards — a finding that leaves thousands of working parents with too much to worry about. The report says many providers should have more child care training and the state should have more licensing inspectors.
We haven't heard enough about these oversight weaknesses from our legislative leaders or the governor. The OCFS has many smart, concerned staffers, but they need stronger resources and legislation to do a better job.
Maybe the victims just don't have enough political clout. Apparently our little kids need to form political action committees, make trips to Albany, hire thick-wallet lobbyists and hand out hefty political contributions.
But since that can't that happen, I guess the kids need to be warned that in our system, despite some improvements over the past decade, just being adorable doesn't mean they'll always be adequately protected.
Brian Donovan is a retired Newsday reporter whose national awards include the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting and the University of Maryland's Casey Medal for stories on day care problems.
Brian Donovan