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Senjuti Basu Roy
Returning Top-K : Preference Aggregation or Sortition, or is there a Better Middle Ground?
Given a large number of users' preferences (numerical or ordinal scores, ranked order) over a large number of objects, returning top-k results entails selecting a small list/set containing exactly k objects that are most "appropriate ". In this article, I will investigate two alternatives for selecting a top-k list/set that consumes such preference based inputs. First, the so-called preference aggregation models (selection by election) that combine individual preferences and aggregate them to select the final top-k. I will revisit a rich body of existing quantitative models adopted from the social choice theory that are designed to represent democratic ideals in the selected top-k. Then, I will present the Sortition process, or election by lot, a method practiced by Ancient Athens for choosing public officials in some ancient Greek city-states, which selects top-k objects as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates. Obviously, compared to the existing preference aggregation models, the qualitative properties of the Sortition process is Iess investigated mathematically – albeit there exists anecdotal evidence in favor of it. I intend to compare these two alternatives from several dimensions as well as investigate their computational implications. I will conclude the article by laying out a middle ground which perhaps is the best of both worlds.
Imagine the world of inputs consisting of a large number of objects having complete or partial preference information of different kinds from even a larger pool of users. A simple user preference could be elicited as follows:
John: Choc > Vanilla > Strawberry…….
Amy: Strawberry > Vanilla > Choc……..
It is not a stretch to extend this example over several thousands or even a million of objects (products, songs, tweets), where the preference is given by millions of users. This brings in the challenge of scale to the problem. Other representations of preference could be elicited via score (rating on the products), or in an ordinal scale (excellent, good, average, etc). We intend to study all the alternatives in the context of aggregation types.
This operation is a building block in many database and information retrieval applications, and is widely used in web search for aggregating results from different search engines, recommender systems, electoral processes, or in general allocating scarce resources among many candidates, such as, in hiring or admission.
The end goal is to retrieve a small number of k objects from the given set of objects that are representative of the users' preferences. The output could be a list or permutation having a strict order, or a set, where any two objects in the returned result set are equivalent.
Preference aggregation is a form of selection by election, and is the most widely used mechanism practiced in the computing community to aggregate individual preferences to decide the final top-k. Depending on the underlying preference models (score based vs. ordinal vs. rank based), there exists a large body of existing quantitative models primarily adopted from social choice theory that claim to satisfy population preferences in the selected top-k. At the other extreme, there exists Sortition, which selects k random samples from a larger pool of candidates as results. The data centric computing community, such as the database and information retrieval researchers are mostly aware of some of the most popular models and their computational implications (such as, Kemeny optimization is NP-hard for 4 or more lists) [12] or perhaps on their social welfare propositions (such as, average relevance is utilitarian, whereas, least misery is egalitarian).
I intend to write this blog with three primary goals. (A) Investigate a wide range of preference aggregation models both computationally and in the realm of democratic ideals and highlight the point that there does not exist a model that is even close to be called ideal. Moreover, most of these models are computationally demanding. (B) Highlight the strengths as well as weaknesses of Sortition, which is incredibly computationally lightweight, by demonstrating some important use cases. (C) Lay out a plan that takes the best of both worlds.
Preference Aggregation
Preference aggregation is the process of selection by election and is grounded on the principle of voting theory, which intends to represent democratic ideals (some of the key properties are described in Table 1) in the selected top-k results. From now onwards, users and voters would be used interchangeably.
The paradox of voting was discovered over 200 years ago by M. Condorcet, a French mathematician, philosopher, economist, and social scientist. However, the importance of the voting paradox was not fully realized until several years after Kenneth Arrow published Social Choice and Individual Values in 1951, which contained his celebrated General Possibility Theorem. The essence of this theorem is that there is no method of aggregating individual preferences over 3 or more objects that satisfies several conditions of democratic ideals and produce logical results.
Table 1: Key Properties of Preference Aggregation
These properties have different implications:
(a) Diversity/Fairness – The first 10 properties promote the notion of diverse/fair of different kinds that has received attention from both data management and information retrieval community. As an example, the proportionality criterion preserves minority representation, the so-called demographic parity that is well understood in algorithmic fairness. Properties, such as, Non dictatorship, pareto efficiency, independence of irrelevant alternatives, unrestricted domain, condorcet property, anti plurality, solid coalitions attempt to represent preference of the voters in the selected/elected top-k.
(b) Robustness– Although there does not exist a single universally accepted definition, robustness intuitively denotes the degree to which an underlying process is vulnerable to small changes, formalized using Quasi-chaotic properties by Dummet considering monotonicity, Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives, and Transitivity.
(c) Computational Implications – There are types of computational problems that are relevant, namely: (i) Computing required to produce top-k given multiple voters' preferences. (ii) Computing required to satisfy additional properties, to satisfy diversity/fairness/both. A well studied problem in this context is computing the margin of victory (MOV) that demonstrates manipulability of the underlying method, which is to figure out the minimal changes required in the user preference to change the original winner/ top-k. As it turns out, this latter problem ends up being computationally intractable even for simple aggregation models.
According to social choice theory, there exists 4 primary kinds of preference aggregation models. These models also encapsulate different forms of preference representation of the users, such as, score-based, ordinal, or rank-based.
1.Majoritarian– Majority rule is the simplest of non-dictatorial preference aggregation. When two alternatives are under consideration, the one preferred by the most voters is selected.
2. Positional Methods– Unlike majoritarian methods, which use only information from binary comparisons between candidates, positional methods take into account information about individuals' preference orderings. However, these methods do not necessarily take into account a voter's entire preference ordering. Plurality voting – which uses only information about each voter's most preferred alternative – approval voting – which uses information about a varying number of top alternatives for each voter- and the Borda count, which uses information about each voter's entire preference ordering, are part of this type.
3. Multi-Stage Methods – Multi-stage procedures use either different choice functions at different stages of the procedure, or one choice function iteratively on diminishing sets of alternatives. Runoff Election Procedures, Single Transferable Votes (STV) are part of this type.
4. Utilitarian Methods – Utilitarian preference aggregation requires voters to assign utility values to each alternative. Utility values can be thought of as measures of expected happiness with each alternative on some finite scale.
I refer to Table-1 that enlists several (not complete though) popular aggregation methods and describes their properties and types1 . These methods are quantitative and a mathematical model exists for each.
1https://stanford.library.sydney.edu.au/archives/fall2018/entries/social-choice/
Computational Implications
As mentioned above, there are two types of computational implications that may be interesting to the data-centric computing community; (i) Compute top-k : produce top-k objects (ranked or set) for a given aggregation method, by consuming a large number of user preferences. (ii) Compute margin: change the original outcome minimally to satisfy additional criteria, (e.g., proportional representation, MOV) for a given aggregation method. The latter one is mostly studied as a constraint optimization problem, where these additional criteria are imposed as constraints.
Table 2: Preference Aggregation Models
1. Compute top-k
Producing top-k based on some of these aforementioned models is an interesting technical problem in its own merit. Several of these models are computable in polynomial time, however, several of these are not, as listed down in Table-2.
Table 3: Computationally Intractable Models for Producing top-k
2. Compute Margin
The goal here is to change the original user preference minimally, i.e., compute margin, given an underlying aggregation method, such that – (a) the produced top-k objects satisfy additional properties, such as, proportional representation; (b) computing MOV which ensures that the produced top-k is different from the original top-k. These latter problems are designed to study robustness of the underlying aggregation method, i.e. how hard it is to manipulate the original top-k.
Table 4: Computationally Intractable Models for Computing MOV
As it turns out, producing MOV is much harder computationally. As an example, even though producing top-k based using Borda is polynomial time computable, producing MOV for Borda is NP-hard. In fact, changing the original top-k turns out to be NP-hard even for very simple aggregation models, such as, average score, and least misery [4].
In voting theory, the concept of margin of victory (MOV) is designed to measure electoral competitiveness of the candidates, that we formalize in recent works [6, 7] considering kemeny optimization and plurality voting as the underlying aggregation methods. We study margin as the smallest number of single ballot substitutions under plurality voting to promote a given set of k candidates as the top-k and present a set of computational results. It is needless to say that for the models that are computationally intractable (such as, CC, STV, STV-Borda), computing MOV involving those models are also NP-hard.
The key takeaway is the following: even though there exists a large number of preference aggregation methods, Arrow's theorem points out their ineffectiveness in more than one account . Second, these models are computationally intensive to calculate. FInally, even when certain properties are claimed to be theoretically present in a model, the underlying data itself may be unrepresentative – because those who have the time, money, and influence are over represented in the data, and the selected top-k tends to represent those preferences.
The other alternative is an incredibly computationally lightweight mechanism, namely Sortition, which is the process of selecting the top-k via lottery. As unrealistic as it may sound, the ancient Athenians chose only ten percent of their officials by election, selecting the rest by sortition—a lottery, which randomly selected citizens to serve as legislators, jurors, magistrates and administrators. The Kleroterion (Figure-1) was a device used to choose the names of those who would serve. It was a slab of stone incised with rows of slots and with an attached tube. Citizens' tokens were placed randomly in the slots so that every member of each of the tribes of Athens had their tokens placed in the same column. There was a pipe attached to the stone which could then be fed dice that were colored differently (assumed to be black and white) and could be released individually. When a die was released, a complete row of tokens (so, one citizen from each of the tribes of Athens) was either selected if the die was colored one color, or discarded if the color was different. This process continued until the requisite number of citizens was selected. Clearly, the aforementioned process simulates uniform random sampling to select top-k.
Sortition has become largely antiquated in the modern world, except for selecting jurors in the US randomly from their tax rolls. Computing communities have resorted to Sorition processes to promote individual fairness [13] to ensure objects of similar "worth" (utility) have a similar probability of being returned to the end user.
Figure 1: Device Kleroterion, used by Ancient Athenians for Sortition
The key question however is, sortition, which is clearly computationally lightweight, is it representative of the underlying users' preferences?
As an immediate case study, I would like to resort to the following statistics, published in a recent work [18]: " If the US Senate were to change overnight to a sortition house, then the number of males would go from 79% down to 49%, while the number of females would go up from 21% to 51%; the number of whites would go down from 90% to 77%, and the number of Blacks and Hispanics. would go up from 3% and 4% to 13% and 18%, respectively. Sortition members would be significantly younger (the average Senator is 62 years old), and less educated (76% of senators have more than a bachelor's degree)"…….
These statistics also allude to the weaknesses of preference aggregation methods. I tend to agree with this school of thought and argue that preference aggregation models, aka selection by election, actually lead to unrepresentativeness, because those who have the time, money, and influence are over-represented in the data, and the selected top-k tends to represent those preferences. The computing community too seems to care about representativeness to ensure the produced results are diverse, or fairly (proportionally) represent the underlying population.
Sortition might be much more descriptively representative, as a random sample or a stratified sample from the population, as long as the sample is large enough. Using sortition, the statistical probability is likely to guarantee the selection of top-k who truly represent the underlying population.
Sortition, however, has its obvious weaknesses, too. (a) When k is small (i.e., the selected number of objects is not large enough), the top-k selected by lottery may not be representative. This may call for applying advanced sampling techniques and studying their qualities analytically. (b) Sortition, in its original form, is not suitable when users' preferences are provided as ranks or score. Therefore, interesting research challenges lie ahead in studying these variants in a systematic manner. (c) finally, sortition as it is, is not suitable when the produced top-k needs to be a list/permutation.
Sortition, followed by Preference Aggregation (The way forward)
Perhaps a middle ground exists that takes the best of both worlds.
I conclude this article by laying out a middle ground by motivating the opportunities and challenges that exist in combining sortition and preference aggregation and leaving some food for thought.
A primary weakness of the preference aggregation methods is that they are oftentimes computationally intensive. On the other hand, Sortition is highly lightweight, but does not extend easily for ranked inputs or when the output needs to be ordered. A research opportunity exists in studying the middle ground, which is less computationally intensive than running the aggregation models on the entire inputs, i.e., perform sortition first and collect a reasonably large number of samples from there, and then perform aggregation over the collected samples, as opposed to on the entire inputs. A cautionary note here though – Sample Carefully. It is evident when k is small, a truly uniform random sample is not representative of the population. Thus an alternative is to select the top-k carefully, stratify when possible, and cluster/multistage the sampling process, as applicable for the underlying input data. This gives rise to a set of interesting research problems.
(1) A key question is to define the notion of sample carefully and meticulously. A sample can represent a subset of the users' entire preference, partial preference of all users, or a combination of both. The challenge however is to ensure that for a given aggregation model, if a property holds true on the entire inputs, it must also remain satisfied on the collected samples. As a specific example, given a large number of ranked preferences, how to obtain a sample such that the Borda score on that satisfies consistency, pareto-optimality, and monotonicity?
(2) Equally important is the aspect of understanding and analyzing the sample size which will allow one to theoretically approximate the error introduced by the sampling process wrt the entire inputs. As an example, how to sample from the given inputs, such that the selected top-k are not very different from the original top-k, or how to reason the value of MOV obtained on the sample with the value of MOV obtained on the entire input.
(3) More generally, given a sampling approach and size, an interesting question is to be able to produce theoretical error bounds of the underlying computational problems.
(4) An interesting research question for the social welfare theorists is to study what additional properties does this combination give rise to that either of them does not satisfy individually.
Blogger's Bio
Senjuti Basu Roy is the Panasonic Chair in Sustainability and an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her research focus lies at the intersection of data management and AI, especially enabling human-in-the-loop AI in scale. Senjuti has published more than 75 research papers in high impact data management and data mining conferences and journals. She is the tutorial co-chair of VLDB 2023, The Web Conference 2022, has served as the Mentorship co-chair of SIGMOD 2018, PhD workshop co-chair of VLDB 2018, and has been involved in organizing several international workshops and meetings. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, a PECASE nominee, and one of the 100 invited early career engineers to attend the National Academy of Engineering's 2021 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium.
1. Kenneth Arrow. Social Choice and Individual Values. Wiley, New York, 1951.
2. Amer-Yahia, S., Roy, S. B., Chawlat, A., Das, G., & Yu, C. (2009). Group recommendation: Semantics and efficiency. Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment, 2(1), 754-765.
3. Esfandiari, M., Basu Roy, S., & Amer-Yahia, S. (2018, October). Explicit Preference Elicitation for Task Completion Time. In Proceedings of the 27th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (pp. 1233-1242).
4. Roy, S. B., Thirumuruganathan, S., Amer-Yahia, S., Das, G., & Yu, C. (2014, March). Exploiting group recommendation functions for flexible preferences. In 2014 IEEE 30th international conference on data engineering (pp. 412-423). IEEE.
5. Basu Roy, S., Lakshmanan, L. V., & Liu, R. (2015, May). From group recommendations to group formation. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGMOD international conference on management of data (pp. 1603-1616)
6. Wei, D., Islam, M. M., Schieber, B., & Basu Roy, S. (2022, June). Rank Aggregation with Proportionate Fairness. In Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Management of Data (pp. 262-275).
7. Islam, M. M., Wei, D., Schieber, B., & Basu Roy, S. (2022, June). Satisfying Complex Top-k Fairness Constraints by Preference Substitutions. To Appear in VLDB 2023.
8. Airiau, S., Aziz, H., Caragiannis, I., Kruger, J., Lang, J., & Peters, D. (2019, August). Portioning using ordinal preferences: Fairness and efficiency. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 2019.
9. Aziz, H., Faliszewski, P., Grofman, B., Slinko, A., & Talmon, N. (2018, January). Egalitarian Committee Scoring Rules. In IJCAI (pp. 56-62).
10. Munagala, K., Shen, Z., & Wang, K. (2021, July). Optimal algorithms for multiwinner elections and the chamberlin-courant rule. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (pp. 697-717).
11. Blom, M., Conway, A., Stuckey, P. J., & Teague, V. J. (2020, April). Did that lost ballot box cost me a seat? Computing manipulations of STV elections. In Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (Vol. 34, No. 08, pp. 13235-13240).
12. Fagin, R., Kumar, R., & Sivakumar, D. (2003). Comparing top k lists. SIAM Journal on discrete mathematics, 17(1), 134-160.
13. Flanigan, B., Gölz, P., Gupta, A., Hennig, B., & Procaccia, A. D. (2021). Fair algorithms for selecting citizens' assemblies. Nature, 596(7873), 548-552.
14. Diaconis, P. (1988). Group representations in probability and statistics. Lecture notes-monograph series, 11, i-192.
15. Cross, E. (2005). NP-Hard Manipulations of Voting Schemes.
16. Malleson, T. (2018). Should democracy work through elections or sortition?. Politics & Society, 46(3), 401-417.
17. Nikookar, S., Esfandiari, M., Borromeo, R. M., Sakharkar, P., Amer-Yahia, S., & Basu Roy, S. (2022). Diversifying recommendations on sequences of sets. The VLDB Journal, 1-22.
Managing and Exploiting Massive Geolocation Data Similarity Search for Scalable Data Science: The Past, Present and Exciting Road Ahead


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The Tea Party Times? Rumors Swirling About The Koch Brothers Buying The Tribune Comapany
Posted by Mark NC on March 13, 2013 at 4:26 am. NO	Comments :
Newspaper wires are buzzing over a report by the L.A. Weekly that billionaire oil magnates and Tea Party financiers David and Charles Koch are interested in buying the Los Angeles Times or even its parent corporation, the Tribune Company. Tribune owns the Times as well as the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and some 20 television stations.
On the surface this might appear to be an ominous development that would put a number of influential media assets in the hands of some notoriously self-serving political manipulators. The prospect of the plutocratic Koch clan assuming control of a network of media properties that they could convert into clarions for their Tea Party fronted campaign to expand their wealth and power is worthy of some concern. However, a deeper examination of this will take the sting off of it.
First of all, the Tribune newspapers are not exactly journalistic powerhouses that break major stories or shape public opinion. To the contrary, they are mere shells of their former glory having cut their editorial staffs to the bone which, not surprisingly, has resulted in a downward spiral in circulation. And if the Koch brothers were to assert their ultra-conservative political ideology on newspapers in liberal enclaves like L.A. and Chicago they are not likely to find many new subscribers.
This brings us to the question of whether an acquisition by the Kochs would represent any change in ideology at all. The Tribune Company was already a right-wing enterprise that published papers with editorial positions that conflicted bitterly with the majority of their constituents. The current CEO of Tribune is a former News Corp executive. Until 2008 the L.A. Times had never endorsed a Democrat for president. And, in a particularly telling and shameful action, the Times fired columnist Robert Scheer, a thirty year veteran with the paper and a Pulitzer Prize winner, and replaced him with Jonah Goldberg, a dimwitted conservative hack with no journalism credibility. So contrary to conventional wisdom, these media operations were not bastions of liberalism.
The Tribune rumors have added to speculation about the company's future that has also included gossip about Rupert Murdoch as a potential buyer. News consumers in the cities affected must be excited about the prospect of having their hometown papers run by the man responsible for hacking into the phones of hundreds of people including a murdered schoolgirl. However, all of this chatter ignores some fairly steep obstacles for both parties. Despite their wide-ranging conglomerate, the Kochs have no experience with media companies. And as noted above, the specific entities available with Tribune would not be very helpful to their propaganda mission. Murdoch would likely be unable to close a deal due to his current ownership of TV stations and newspapers in the same markets. A Tribune acquisition would violate FCC rules (for which he has already received waivers) and would initiate a long and difficult approval process.
Given the impediments to the deals by these famous suitors, one wonders where the rumors might have come from. The most obvious source would be from within Tribune itself. They may be trying to create the illusion that there is acquisition interest in the company and its assets in order to stir up potential buyers and artificially inflate its value as it emerges from bankruptcy. That's a more likely scenario than one wherein either Murdoch or the Kochs actually bid on the company.
If either of these rumored suitors actually did acquire all or part of Tribune, it would be a sad day for journalism, but only on a symbolic level. Seeing any media property with the history of these enterprises become so embarrassingly intertwined with Tea Party nutjobs would be unfortunate and disheartening. But on practical terms it really wouldn't result in any observable change considering how stridently conservative and deeply ineffectual these properties have become in recent years. What is truly sad is just the fact that the papers have already fallen to such appalling depths that these rumored acquisitions by disreputable characters bent on deception wouldn't really make any difference at all.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Rapper Cliassy Fp Unveils Epic New Album DinnerTime 4
Rising rapper Cliassy Fp – from Austin, Texas and based in Houston – has returned with his must-hear new album, DinnerTime 4, a ten-track collection of authentic and diverse hip-hop in all its glory. The independent rapper has been going from strength to strength in 2021 – the album's lead single "Outside" made waves organically and new single "Too Much" looks set to be his biggest single to date.
Inspired by the likes of Static Major, Ryan Leslie and 50 Cent, Cliassy Fp showcases his huge range of talents across the new project – from his natural rap flow and diverse cadence to his impressive lyricism and storytelling abilities. Speaking more on the project, Cliassy Fp says, "The idea of 'Dinnertime' came about from one of my favourite producers/songwriters, Static Major. Before his death, he was working on an EP called Suppertime, so in honour of him, I decided that all my solo projects would be titled Dinnertime. DinnerTime 4 is my best work yet!"
New single "Too Much" is one of several standout tracks on the project and showcases Cliassy Fp's versatility as a rapper, switching from the aggressive and hard-hitting previous single "Outside" and moving to a slower and more melodic pace. It's this ability to excel in both lanes and shift between the two seamlessly that makes Cliassy Fp such an exciting artist and one to watch out for.
Expanding further on "Too Much", Cliassy Fp says, "The track features one of my favourite artists from Austin, Texas – The Teeta. It's aimed towards my lifestyle. I like nice things, and I work hard for everything I have, but some people think it's boujee or cocky. Innocent Tata is an artist from Houston, Texas, and we linked up through a mutual friend. It all came together perfectly."
"Too Much" and the rest of DinnerTime 4 are available to buy/stream now on all platforms: https://lnk.to/dinnertime4.
Keep up to date with the latest from Cliassy Fp: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
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The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Laboratory located in Richland, Washington state. PNNL's mission is to transform the world through courageous discovery and innovation. PNNL's vision is to perform science and technology that inspires and enables the world to live prosperously, safely, and securely.
What type of work is done at PNNL?
Research at PNNL strengthens the U.S. foundation for innovation, and they help find solutions for not only DOE, but for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Nuclear Security Administration, other government agencies, universities, and industry. More specifically, PNNL provides unique scientific equipment and science and engineering personnel to prevent and counter acts of terrorism through applied research in information analysis, cyber security, and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. They also work to increase U.S. energy capacity and reduce dependence on imported oil through hydrogen and biomass-based fuels research and to reduce the effects of energy generation and use on the environment. PNNL hosts other summer research opportunities and STAR Fellows frequently work with undergraduate teams during the course of their project.
PNNL will be offerring several STAR Fellowships, often involving multi-disciplinary research efforts. One ongoing project requires Fellows with a coding background working with a chemical management database project which tracks spills and interactions. Other projects frequently look for Fellows with mathematical and/or chemical training, but projects are diverse and extend into marine energy projects at the Sequim Marine Sciences Laboratory. If you are interested in a fellowship at PNNL, please keep an eye on this page, we will update it as more information becomes available. STAR Fellows at PNNL are able to take advantage of affordable on-site accommodations organized by the lab.
Visit the Cal Poly Digital Commons to browse previous STAR Fellows' projects at this site.


text:
suits = ("Diamonds", "Clubs", "Hearts", "Spades")
values = ("Ace", "Two", "Three", "Four", "Five", "Six", "Seven", "Eight", "Nine", "Ten", "Jack", "Queen", "King")

class Card:
	"""
	A class for holding the information of a single Card
	@param(number) - the suit of the card
	@param(number) - the value of the card
	"""
	def __init__(self, suit, value):
		self.suit = suit
		self.value = value

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Warwick Castle - Hawk Experience offers the ultimate in Birds of Prey handling experiences.
Birds of Prey Experiences now available everyday of the year.
The experience includes the opportunity to learn about and fly the birds, a two-course lunch in either the Coach House or Undercroft Restaurant and a chance to see the birds in action at one of the flying demonstrations. Castle admission and car parking is also included so you can explore the fascinating attractions and magnificent grounds at your leisure.
On arrival at 9.30am, you will be guided around the Birds of Prey enclosures by one of our experienced falconers and learn about the various Birds of Prey housed at the Castle. Then you will learn the techniques of handling and flying birds such as Harris' Hawks, Common Buzzards and European or Verreaux's Eagle Owls in the beautiful surroundings of Warwick Castle. The experience culminates at approximately 11.45am with an opportunity to hold one of our magnificent Bald or Golden Eagles and watch the flying demonstration. Don't forget to bring your camera!!
Birds of Prey Experiences are available at a cost of £85 per person. There will be a maximum of four participants on each experience. Spectator tickets are also available at a cost of £35.
Call Warwick Castle sales team on 01926 406640, for further information and to book.
Bursting to the towers with tales of treachery and torture, passion and power and above all, fascinating people, times and events, Warwick Castle is so much more than simply a castle. You can experience preparations for battle in Kingmaker, see lavishly decorated State Rooms and watch as a household prepares for a Victorian party in a Royal Weekend Party, discover how electricity was first generated to light up the castle in the Mill & Engine House or explore 60 acres of grounds and gardens.
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Treat yourself or a friend to a fantastic Birds of Prey Experience at Warwick Castle and get close to the action with the magnificent eagles, vultures, owls and hawks who perform every day. Throughout spring and summer, our magnificent team of birds of prey soar and glide around Warwick Castle's towers and ramparts in their twice daily shows.


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Pokemon Trading Card Game Online to make its iOS debut
By Lester Zeus -
Pokemon for iOS has arrived, but unfortunately not as the traditional RPG that fans were hoping for.
Nintendo is developing a Pokemon game for iOS devices. The leak came from "The People's Nerd" Josh Wittenkeller, a YouTuber and hardcore Nintendo fan who posted a screenshot of the game running on an iPad to his Twitter feed. Later, Polygon confirmed the news, but did not give any details of when the game would be released.
It is the first time that a Pokemon game has been introduced on the iOS platform, however, it is not the traditional role-playing game that most Pokemon fans would be hoping for. Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (TGCO) is a virtual card trading game where players challenge computer opponents in 3 leagues. You start with 3 basic decks and as the game progresses, you earn new achievements and cards that can be added to the deck.
The game is already available on Mac and Windows, so moving onto the iPad and iPhone was predictable. This will not be the first Pokemon app to come to iOS. Pokemon TV is an app that allows users to view episodes from the television series on their device.
Pokemon is a popular media franchisee that was created in 1996 by Santoshi Tajiri. The video game is published by Nintendo and is owned by The Pokemon Company.
josh wittenkeller leak of Pokemon game
pokemon game for iOS
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Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (2015) 11 (1): 117-123.
Let me share with you my memories.
There was a foggy air around this once-tall building—now half its size—that made me recall the many dust storms that occupied the city every now and then.
"It is because of the Iran-Iraq War," he said with a low voice, as we turned the corner.
That was the first time I had seen destruction of that magnitude.


National Aquarium | Happy Birthday, Sugar!
Today, we're celebrating a very special bird's 17th birthday: Sugar, our umbrella cockatoo!
Sugar frequently snacks on peanuts and coconuts. He loves tearing apart shredded newspaper and sharpening his beak on wood blocks. Some of his favorite enrichment activities involve playing with cardboard tubes.
Sugar also enjoys dancing to the song "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies, which is how he got his name.
Did you know? Like other umbrella cockatoos, Sugar has a crest of feathers on his head which he'll raise when surprised or excited!
Join us in wishing Sugar a very happy birthday in the comments section!


text:
_Redshift Console_'s goal is to be the tool to monitor and manage a Redshift cluster. The first release has basic tools to monitor running queries, WLM queue and your tables/schemas.

After over a year of managing our Redshift cluster with a collection of scripts and queries, we decided to bundle this into a more user friendly tool that can be used by a wider audience. This project also aims to uncover all the useful information hidden in [Redshift's Developer Guide](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/) (such as the [table design status](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/c_analyzing-table-design.html) query).

![Screenshots](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2186704/rdc_screenshots.gif)

### Features

* Inflight queries view with option to cancel any query and view related alerts (when available; from [STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/r_STL_ALERT_EVENT_LOG.html)).
* WLM queue view.
* Schemas view with additional information for each table including: total size (rows/MB), unsorted area size, is the table properly distributed and more.
* Load errors (aggregated view) from the past 24h, based on [STL_LOAD_ERRORS](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/dg/r_STL_LOAD_ERRORS.html)

### Roadmap

This project is safe for usage, but still in its early stage (version 0.1). Future versions will include:

* Loads - Progress of current operations and history of recent ones.
* Vacuum status.
* SNS/CloudWatch integration to show metrics and events from AWS' console.
* Proactive notifications re. important events in the system: long running queries, problems, changes to the schema, dangerous levels of unsorted areas and more.

We are always happy to receive feedback and suggestions, especially if they are accompanied by a pull request.

## Usage

You can either use the PyPI package or the docker image.

#### PyPI

1. The easiest way to install the project is from pypi:

  ```bash
  $ pip install redshift-console
  ```

2. Settings are set from environment variables. The main setting to set is the connection string to your Redshift cluster: (make sure the user has sufficient permissions)

  ```bash
  $ export REDSHIFT_CONNECTION_STRING='user= password= host= port= dbname='
  ```

3. Start the server:

   ```bash
   $ redshift-console runserver
   Starting server on port 5000 (debug mode: False).
   ```

#### Docker
  ```bash
   $ docker run -e REDSHIFT_CONNECTION_STRING="user= password= host= port=5439 dbname=" -p 5000:5000 everythingme/redshift_console
   Starting server on port 5000 (debug mode: False).
   ```

## Authors

[Arik Fraimovich](http://github.com/arikfr) and [Oren Itamar](http://github.com/orenitamar).


text:
Senior Economist at The World Bank
Paolo Avner is a senior economist at the World Bank which he joined in 2014. His current work focuses on the links between urban form, land uses, transport systems, labor markets and vulnerability to natural hazards in developing country cities. He has worked on a number of analytical products including Urbanization Reviews (Kenya, Ethiopia, Haiti, Guinea, Mali) and flagship reports and is the author of several policy-oriented research papers. Prior to joining the Bank, Paolo worked in France as a researcher in LEPII (Grenoble) before joining the Center for International Research in Environment and Development (Paris) where he collaborated to the development of an applied land use - transport interaction model (NEDUM-2D). His work specifically focused on the ability of public policies and investments to curb greenhouse gas emissions from urban transport while limiting the costs of these policies for urban residents. Paolo has graduated from La Sorbonne University and from University Paris X - Nanterre as an economist and holds a doctorate from EHESS – École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.


text:
FDA Sued Over Inaction on Dangerous Hair Loss Medication Propecia
Drug Has Been Linked to Suicide, Depression, Long-Term Erectile Dysfunction
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public Citizen today filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Post-Finasteride Syndrome Foundation (PFSF) against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the FDA's inaction on a petition submitted by PFSF in September 2017. PFSF's petition asks the FDA to remove the popular hair loss drug, Propecia, from the market due to evidence of serious risk of patient injury, including depression and suicidal ideation.
"The FDA needs to act in a timely way to protect the public from the risks associated with use of Propecia," said Michael Kirkpatrick, the Public Citizen attorney serving as lead counsel for PFSF. "The FDA's failure to act exposes consumers to potentially life-threatening harm."
Propecia is the brand-name version of 1mg finasteride. Prescriptions have significantly increased in recent years, as the product and its generic versions are heavily marketed on television and online. Four years ago, PFSF filed a citizen petition requesting that FDA withdraw its approval of Propecia for treatment of male-pattern hair loss, due to the significant risks that the drug poses to patients. Alternatively, PFSF requested that FDA require drug manufacturers to revise the safety information on the labeling and add boxed warnings to disclose the risky potential side effects. FDA has yet to respond. The lawsuit filed today claims that FDA has acted unlawfully in failing to act on PFSF's petition.
Long-term use of Propecia can lead to post-finasteride syndrome (PFS), a syndrome characterized by sexual dysfunction and psycho-neurocognitive symptoms. Men who experience PFS may continue to suffer from these symptoms years after they stop taking the drug.
The risk of suicidal ideation associated with finasteride has been known for years. The VigiBase global database, which tracks adverse effects from global pharmacovigilance agencies, lists 378 cases of suicidal ideation, 39 cases of suicide attempt and 88 cases of suicide associated with finasteride use. Additionally, a 2020 study concluded that patients under age 45 who used finasteride for hair loss were vulnerable to depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.
The drug also inhibits multiple steroid hormone pathways necessary to the formation of brain neurosteroids that regulate many critical functions in the central nervous system, like sexual function, mood, sleep, cognitive function, the stress response, and motivation.
"False information from the FDA leads physicians to dismiss patients, while some even tell them their symptoms are not real," said John Santmann, M.D., the head of PFSF. "Without effective treatments for PFS, use of this cosmetic drug can lead to a lifetime of side effects. The drug ruins more lives every day and has no business being on the market."
Finasteride has also been linked to erectile dysfunction that persists months after treatment ends. In 2017, Northwestern University researchers published a study that one-third of the men who developed new erectile dysfunction while taking finasteride continued to have erectile dysfunction more than 90 days after drug discontinuation. An additional 2006 Propecia Periodic Safety Update Report found that some men did not have resolution of the sexual side effects at the end of clinical trials.
The complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is available here.
Health Care: Unproven or Unnecessary Treatments & Procedures
Justice & the Courts
Safe & Affordable Drugs & Devices: Drugs
Statement: NIAID's Statement on AstraZeneca's Vaccine is Remarkable and Troubling
FDA Approval of Aducanumab to Treat Alzheimer's Disease Would Be a Reckless Disregard for Science, Damage Agency's Credibility
Trump Offers False Hope on Coronavirus Treatments


text:
The Dynasty Guru's Top 50 Dynasty League First Baseman, Nos. 21-50
The Dynasty Guru 2015-01-16
The Dynasty Guru · January 16, 2015
Congratulations on surviving another off-season. Now that the new year is upon us, it's time to spend the next month traveling across the positional landscape, labeling players with numbers that correspond to their value. It's the very definition of freedom. A ton of hard work was put into these rankings, and will continue to be put in as we bring you just an ungodly amount of information over the next month. We hope you enjoy the product we've created, and if you'd like to show appreciation for that work you can do so through this link, or via the donate button on in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage. All donations are truly appreciated.
We'll continue our first base list with a big time breakout candidate:
21) Kennys Vargas, Minnesota Twins (Age: 24, Previous Rank: NR)
Vargas got the call to Minnesota in August and held his own despite skipping AAA, putting up a .274/.316/.456 line that included nine bombs in 53 games. The 27 percent strikeout rate will be problematic if it holds, but he showed consistent improvement in that area while advancing through the minors. Vargas has the raw power to threaten the 30 homer plateau with a full season of at-bats and some refinement of his approach. If you're in need of power upside, drop the extra dollar on the big fella.
22) Mike Napoli, Boston Red Sox (Age: 33, Previous Rank:17)
Even after losing catcher eligibility, Napoli remains a valuable asset for fantasy owners. Although he's 3 years into the wrong side of 30 and not likely to repeat his majestic 2011 campaign, he's hit a steady .247/.359/.458, and averaged 21 homers, 68 RBI, and 60 runs over the past 3 seasons. His tendency to walk will also help in OBP leagues if you can ignore the high strikeout rate.
23) Adam Lind, Milwaukee Brewers (Age; 31, Previous Rank: 30)
Despite losing a substantial portion of his over-the-fence production, and seeing a 50 point drop in ISO in 2014, Lind moved up 8 spots in the rankings. He's likely get the lion's share of playing time at first base for the Brew Crew. It's no secret that Lind has gargantuan platoon splits, so getting more PA against lefties will hurt his value. But there's a good chance that the dingers will be back and he'll serve as a solid second-tier option.
24) Billy Butler, Oakland Athletics (Age: 28, Previous Rank: 14)
There aren't many good signs for Country Breakfast. He's coming off of his worst season 2008, has seen his offensive production declining for 3 straight years. Moving to one of the most pitcher-friendly park won't help him, either. One positive aspect is that he'll be just 29 and has a room to bounce back. Even if he fails to get back in his former self, he'll provide counting stats while hitting for a decent average.
25) Jon Singleton, Houston Astros (Age: 23, Previous Rank: 20)
Singleton's first taste of the big leagues was a disaster, hitting an abysmal .168/.285/.335 while striking out at an eye-popping 37 percent clip. Still, he's entering his age-23 season, so there's plenty of time for him to adjust to major league pitching. His .238 BABIP won't keep haunting him either. The potential is still there for him to be an average hitter with plus power, as he swatted 27 bombs between Triple-A and MLB in 2014.
26) Mark Teixeira, New York Yankees (Age: 34, Previous Rank: 22)
His days of being a top-five fantasy hitter are in the rearview mirror. Teix is no longer a 100/35/120 guy. That doesn't mean he has no value at all, though. Despite his age and injury total continuing to climb, he's still a league average hitter who can hit 20+ HR and drive in around 70 runs. He had the fifth lowest average among qualified hitters in 2014, but walks enough to not destroy your team in OBP leagues.
27) Dan Vogelbach, Chicago Cubs (Age: 22, Previous Rank: 26)
Big Sexy spent the entire 2014 season in his native Florida with the Cubs' High-A squad, where he hit .268/.357/.429 with 16 dingers in 560 plate appearances. There are few suspicions about his bat, which is expected to produce solid average and plus power numbers when Vogelbach gets to the majors. The problems is Anthony Rizzo blocking him at first base, the only position he's capable to man, and even that's being charitable to his defensive prowess. A trade that sends him out of the Windy City could happen.
28) James Loney, Tampa Bay Rays (Age: 30, Previous Rank: 36)
Loney can provide 10+ homers, drive in 70, score 55+ runs, and hit for somewhere around a .290 average, but that's more palatable than desired from a fantasy first baseman.
29) Greg Bird, New York Yankees ( Age: 22, Previous Rank: 44)
With a strong 2014 campaign between High-A and Double-A, and an MVP-winning Arizona Fall League stint, Bird solidified his reputation as a future solid contributor. He'll put up power numbers while getting on base at a decent clip at the MLB level as soon as 2016.
30) C.J. Cron, Los Angeles Angels (Age: 24, Previous Rank: 39)
Cron has shown remarkable power throughout his professional career, including his first stint in the big leagues in 2014, where he yanked out 11 dingers. On the other hand, his four percent walk rate and sub-.300 OBP aren't something you'd like to see from a young, power hitting corner guy. In the best case scenario, he's Mark Trumbo 2.0. Moreover, the Angels don't have a room to give him regular playing time. He'll likely to be platooned with newly acquired Matt Joyce.
31) Matt Olson, Oakland Athletics (Age: 20, Previous Rank: NR)
In 2014, the 47th overall pick in the 2012 draft smashed 37 long balls in the High-A California League, which topped all the minor leaguers except fellows named Kris Bryant and Joey Gallo. Although he did it in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the minors, his power potential is legit.
32) Yonder Alonso, San Diego Padres (Age 27, Previous Rank:28)
The former four-time top 100 prospect by Baseball America has struggled recently, both in performance and in staying healthy. You can expect that once his .251 BABIP in 2014 gets back to his career level at .304, so does his batting average. But he won't hit for enough power for a first baseman, especially playing half of games at Petco.
33) Kendrys Morales, Kansas City Royals (Age 31, Previous Rank: 21)
If you ignore his miserable 2014, he's a guy who hit .286/.339/.494 with 90 HR and a 128 OPS+ over the previous four seasons. You can say his awful numbers last year were a result of getting trapped in the unsigned FA purgatory until early June. He's been given regular DH role for the Royals and has a chance to be back to his productive self.
34) Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies (Age: 35. Previous Rank: 32)
The long-time Philly slugger has turned into the shell of his former self. He topped 600 PA for the first time in 3 years while crushing 23 HR and driving in 95 RBI in 2014. If you are looking for a quick power option for cheap, you may find some value in him, but he's not a long-term solution. Additionally, he's likely to lose playing time against LHP to Darin Ruf, if he's still a Phillie on opening day.
35) Ike Davis, Oakland Athletics (Age: 28, Previous Rank: 24)
It's an universally known fact that Ike Davis is never going to hit lefties. Although he possesses the power potential that gave him a 32-HR season three years ago and gets on base at an above average rate. If you can sit him versus lefties, it's possible he's a much better option than his peers in this grouping.
36) Logan Morrison, Seattle Mariners (Age 27, Previous Rank: 34)
LoMo's biggest problem is staying on the field as he's averaged just 344 PA over the past three seasons, with no more than 365 in any season. Even when he does play, his numbers aren't what one expect from a top tier first baseman. He can show some pop from the middle of a lineup, but not much more than that. While it's hard to close the door on former prospects with his pedigree, it's likely that he is who he is at this point.
37) Dom Smith, New York Mets (Age: 19, Previous Rank: 38)
Smith's prospect status rides purely on his first round draft pedigree. His 2014 season was dismal: .271/.344/.338 with only one home run all year long. The best-case scenario for Smith is the next James Loney, but if his power doesn't take major steps forward he will never be worthy of fantasy rosters.
38) Nick Swisher, Cleveland Indians (Age: 34, Previous Rank: 29)
Swisher's performance dropped off a cliff in 2014. It is possible the aging 34 year old could rebound to deliver another useful fantasy season, but it is not even certain that he will be granted a starting role in 2015, especially coming off surgery to both his knees.
39) A.J. Reed, Houston Astros (Age: 21, Previous Rank: NR)
The University of Kentucky product was a 2nd round pick last summer, then put up a .898 OPS in two levels of A-ball. Hes' a possible fast riser this season.
40) Christian Walker, Baltimore Orioles (Age: 24, Previous Rank: NR)
Walker reached the majors for a cup of coffee last year after another productive minor league campaign featuring both a nice batting average and plus power. He's not likely to be a star but there's a good chance to have a productive major league career. He is ready for the majors now.
41) Garrett Jones, New York Yankees (Age: 33, Previous Rank: 45)
Jones never gets much love but he has been a useful fantasy player for a long time. He won't be a starter for your team but provides adequate production as a short-term injury replacement.
42) Mitch Moreland, Texas Rangers (Age: 29, Previous Rank: 35)
Moreland never seems to get enough playing time to be useful in fantasy. Even if he did become an everyday starter he wouldn't help your team much.
43) Bobby Bradley, Cleveland Indians (Age: 18, Previous Rank: NR)
The 2014 third-rounder tore up the Indian's complex league with a 1.078 OPS. He is still a long way from the majors and has a lot to prove before we should invest too much in him.
44) Casey Gillaspie, Tampa Bay Rays (Age: 22, Previous Rank: NR)
A 2014 first-round pick out of Wichita State, Gillaspie put up some decent numbers in short-season A-ball. His stats didn't justify the draft position considering his age vs level, and he needs to show more this year if he is to develop some genuine prospect helium.
45) Stephen Vogt, Oakland Athletics (Age: 30, Previous Rank: NR)
If your league allows daily lineup changes then Vogt can be a useful platoon player for your squad, otherwise ignore him.
46) Justin Smoak, Toronto Blue Jays (Age: 28, Previous Rank: 41)
Smoak has been a tremendous disappointment his entire career. He is way too old to be considered to have potential. However, we have seen other disappointing hitters flourish when exiled north of the border (Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion).
47) Ronald Guzman, Texas Rangers (Age: 20, Previous Rank: 43)
Guzman's prospect stock soared after his breakout 2012 season in rookie ball, took a dip after a so-so season in Low-A, then plummeted last year when his stats nosedived despite repeating Low-A. 2015 is a make-or-break season for Guzman.
48) Darin Ruf, Philadelphia Phillies (Age: 28, Previous Rank: 42)
We still don't know how good Ruf really is because he has never been given a true chance to play. If the rebuilding Phillies give him a starting role he would be worth a flier in most leagues.
49) Jesus Montero, Seattle Mariners (Age: 25, Previous Rank: 29 C)
Montero's reputation has taken multiple hits: poor performance on the field, attitude problems, weight gain and to top it all off, a PED suspension. What you may have missed is that he had a good year in AAA last year, although it was not quite as good as he performed a few years ago. Montero is a post-hype prospect to keep an eye on.
50) Corey Hart, Pittsburgh Pirates (Age: 33, Previous Rank: 31)
Hart missed all of 2013 due to injury and played very poorly in limited action in 2014, but don't write him off. He has a track record of excellent fantasy production as he has hit for power and average in the past, and there could be another year or two of value here.
Commentary by Greg Wellemeyer, Kazuto Yamazaki, and Nick Doran
Tags:A.J. ReedAdam LindBilly ButlerBobby BradleyC.J. CronCasey GillaspieChristian WalkerCorey HartDan VogelbachDarin RufDominic SmithGarrett JonesGreg BirdIke DavisJames LoneyJesus MonteroJon SingletonJustin SmoakKendrys MoralesKennys VargasLogan MorrisonMark TeixeiraMatt OlsonMike NapoliMitch MorelandNick SwisherRonald GuzmanRyan HowardStephen VogtYonder Alonso
The Dynasty Guru
Ryan Epperson
Friday January 16, 2015 – Baseball Links | FantasyRundown.com
[…] 2015 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: TheDynastyGuru.com completes their ranking of the top 50 first basemen for dynasty/keeper leagues with #21-50. […]
Thanks so much for going this deep in the rankings. This site is akin to crack for prospect junkies like myself.
What do you view Bradley's ceiling as being? Very few 1B in the low minors stand out to me, but would a solid 2015 be enough to bump him into the conversation for a top 30 fantasy prospect ranking? Top 50?
Did Tellez just miss the cut? Personally, I'd much rather roster his potential over a retread like Jabba the Montero, or even guys like Ronald Guzman and Casey Gillaspie. Smoak, Ruf, and Hart I can see in leagues with deep mlb rosters given their likelihood to contribute something in 2015, but those first 3? What am I missing in Tellez's profile that makes him a worse bet long term?
If Bradley jumps into the top 30, something has gone horribly wrong with the rest of baseball's prospects. He's a 1B prospect who will be in Low-A at best. Those guys don't fly up lists.
Tellez was only voted for by 1 TDG member. He's just not that big a prospect and will have to prove himself all the way up. He'll likely make an appearance if he handles Low-A adequately.
The Dynasty Guru's Top 50 Dynasty League First Baseman, Nos. 1-20
The Dynasty Guru's Top 50 Dynasty League Second Baseman, Nos. 1-20


text:
The Texas FFA Association (Future Farmers of America) is one of fifty-two state associations of the National FFA Organization. It was the 34th state organization to be chartered, in 1929. As of the 2016–2017 year, it had the largest membership enrollment. It also has the largest number of chapters in the organization. It has 115,941 members and 1,032 chapters. The state is led by a team of 12 state officers representing each of the 12 areas of the Association.

Leadership
The Texas FFA Association State Officer Team consists of twelve members to serve as officers for a year running from the state convention in July to the following convention. There are ten vice-presidents, one first vice-president, and one president. The twelve individuals make up the board of student officers. The responsibilities of an officer for the Texas FFA are to serve as a representative of the association, represent the members at the Texas FFA Board of Directors meetings, and carry out the day-to-day operations outlined in the Texas FFA Program of Activities. In order to run for state office a student must either be a graduating senior from high school, or be no more than one year removed from high school, hold the Lone Star FFA degree, and be willing to contribute many hours of service to the association.

Texas FFA State Officers

2022-2023

President: Windsor Godfrey - Area IV, Bryson

First Vice-President: Bryce Fisher - Area XII, Florence

Area I Vice-President: Campbell Offield, Plainview

Area II Vice-President: Zoee Nolan, Seminole

Area III Vice-President: Logan Jaure, Jersey Village

Area V Vice-President: Austin Blagg, Frisco Memorial

Area VI Vice-President: Joseph Nelson, Gilmer

Area VII Vice-President: Thomas Egbert, Canyon-New Braunfels

Area VIII Vice-President: Ty Williams, Dawson

Area IX Vice-President: Brandon French, Cushing

Area X Vice-President: Nathan Atkinson, Calallen

Area XI Vice-President: Laura Beth James, Flatonia

Texas FFA State Staff
 Jennifer Jackson, Executive Director of the Texas FFA
 Gwenn Cain, Membership Services Coordinator
 Tammy Glascock, SAE Coordinator
 Carolee Frampton, Budget and Finance Coordinator
 Ashley Dunkerley, Communications Coordinator
 Jordan Blount, Student Recognition and Scholarship Coordinator
 Peggy Georg, Leadership Development Coordinator

External links
 Texas FFA
 Texas FFA Collegiate Assoc.
  Texas Young Farmers Assoc. of the Texas FFA
  Vocational agricultural Teacher Assoc of Texas

Youth organizations based in Texas
National FFA Organization

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


With Halloween firmly behind us, Kidrobot ain't messing about with their newest announcement heading into the Holiday period. Kidrobot have released a number of new plush items, all set to spruce up your Christmas decorations. The highlight being this 11inch Holiday Elf Labbit Plush, which you can purchase for $11.99/£10 HERE on the Kidrobot store.
You can stock up on your Kidrobot Holiday Plush HERE on the Kidrobot store.


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Summary of our formation topic from August 2016 and the first presentation in our new formation series on the process of evangelization.
Last week's formation was entitled "The Mission of the Church." It was the first in a series during which we will reflect on the process of evangelization. Having looked at the underlying principles given by the Church, in upcoming sessions we will focus more practically on what this looks like in youth and campus ministry today.
This first talk was an overview of the Church's understanding of the process of evangelization and can be summarized in the following 5 points.
"Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize" (Evangelii Nuntiandi 14).
Here we see that evangelization is not one task among many for the Church. It is the reason for her existence. And therefore everything that she does, and everything we do as a community, must be evaluated in light of this mission.
God the Father desires for us to be united in relationship with him. This is the reason why he created us. Even in the moment of our first sin, he immediately responded, promising a Savior. Time and again he reached out to his people through covenants.
The Son makes the Father's plan possible. Our salvation, our being brought back into communion with the Father, is possible because of the Incarnation and Paschal Mystery.
"To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, so that ht manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church" (Ephesians 3:8-10).
It is breathtaking, and humbling, and incredibly encouraging to see God's willingness to allow us to cooperate with his plan for salvation.
According to the General Directory for Catechesis the essential elements of evangelization are: witness, proclamation, teaching, sacraments, and love of neighbor (GDC 46).
Through witness we are present to people and demonstrate, more through actions than words, a new way of living. Proclamation is sharing the basic Gospel message of God's love and a call to conversion. Through teaching we make explicit the fullness of what God has revealed in Christ. In the sacraments we have access to the grace won by Christ on the cross and the community is built up. And through growing in love of neighbor people learn to share the love they have received from Christ.
"And while each of these essential elements are crucial, we cannot reduce the dynamism and richness of evangelization which calls for them to be implemented in totality" (GDC 46).
A singular focus on witness that is ultimately opposed to the proclamation of the Gospel creates a false dichotomy. Of course this is often an overcorrection to the negative reaction garnered when Christ is proclaimed with words separated from a life of witness. In both cases there is a flattening and distortion of the "complex, rich and dynamic reality which is called evangelization" (EN 17).
The essential elements of evangelization follow the basic structure of the Great Commission. "Go (be present and witness), therefore, and make disciples of all nations (proclaim Christ), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (sacraments), teaching (teaching) them to observe all that I have commanded you (love of neighbor).
This postcard was created by our diocesan Office of Youth Ministry to give a visual overview of the stages of evangelization.
The General Directory for Catechesis summarizes this progression: "The process of evangelization…is structured in stages or 'essential moments' (Catechesi Tradendae 18): missionary activity directed toward nonbelievers and those who live in religious indifference; initial catechetical activity for those who choose the Gospel and of those who need to complete or modify their initiation; pastoral activity direction toward the Christian faithful of mature faith in the bosom of the Christian community" (49).
These stages are not rites of passage that we complete and, as a result, never revisit. In our practice of youth ministry we must be attentive where our teens are in process of evangelization and accomodate our work with them to help them move toward the next stage. And we must keep in mind that these essential moments "may be repeated, if necessary, as they give evangelical nourishment in proportion to the spiritual growth of each person or of the entire community" (GDC 49).
Developing a greater understanding of each of these stages and discerning how to help our youth and youth communities grow in their relationship with Christ is the main reason for this formation series.
Finally, as we seek to help young people come to understand the fullness of truth, we must rely on the fullness of grace communicated to us through the Church's liturgy. The liturgy is the source and summit of the Church's life. Therefore we must seek to enliven the grace already given to youth in the sacraments they have received and help them prepare for renewed and deepened encounters of Christ in liturgy.
Formation punctuated by discerned, prayerful moments of commitment is a powerful means for growth in relationship with Christ and community. We have seen this in our own journey of becoming members of Women Youth Apostles. And therefore, whether it is offering a more structured model of stages of commitment such as Catholic Life Communities or CLCs, or simply a focused preparation for encountering Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or the Eucharist, ultimately we must place our trust in the work and grace of Christ made most directly available in the Church's liturgy.
In contrast to the popular misquote of St. Francis of Assisi cited above, there is a true quote from him that can inspire our efforts in evangelization.
Mary, Queen of Apostles – pray for us!
St. John Bosco – pray for us!
St. Therese of the Child Jesus – pray for us!


text:
"the orchid thief" and new yorker writer susan orlean
Susan Orlean says it best: "I'm an author, a staff writer for The New Yorker, a dog owner, a gardener, a parent, a frequent lecturer/speaker, an occasional teacher, a very occasional guest editor, a once-in-a-blue-moon movie inspiration, and doodler." Well, almost... because she's being modest with a dash of insouciance and twist of wit. Her phenomenally successful book The Orchid Thief was turned into the film Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Spike Jonze and starred Meryl Streep. She writes for The New Yorker - that alone is a calling card. And Susan teaches at NYU. If you like to be tickled with words, she's mighty fun to follow on Twitter too.
Which five words best describe you? Curious. Energetic. Impatient. Eager. Irreverent.
How did you get your start as a writer and what path have you taken since? I started writing right out of college, for a small newspaper in Oregon. That led to another job at a slightly larger paper, and then eventually to writing for magazines, then big magazines, and then books. I've always been a writer and assume I'll always be one.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers? Read the writers you admire most, and work hard to find what you want to say and why you want to say it.
What's your proudest career achievement? I'm proud of my books, and especially The Orchid Thief.
What has been your best decision? To not go to law school.
Who inspires you? Great writers like Joan Didion and John McPhee; anyone who has managed to be creative and still engaged in the world.
What are you passionate about? Listening to other people's stories, and choosing to write stories that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Which person, living or dead, would you most like to meet? William Shakespeare.
What dream do you still want to fulfil? My dreams these days are pretty domestic: I want to see my son, who is five years old, become a wonderful person.
What are you reading? Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris.
images courtesy of susan orlean; portrait kelly davidson
Labels: new york, writing
Exquisite Accessories said...
never read one of her susan Orlean's books I shall have to go grab one for a read!
Don't know if you're on twitter but you MUST follow Susan. She's brilliant, hilarious and smart. n
V said...
I know this isn't about Adaptation, but it's one of my favorite movies and I know so few people who have seen it. Was excited to see this post!
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Hello... and welcome back!


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Trisha Kay Paytas (ur. 8 maja 1988 w Riverside) – amerykańska youtuberka, modelka, piosenkarka i celebrytka internetowa.

Wczesne lata
Paytas urodziła się 8 maja 1988 w Riverside. Jest córką Franka i Lenny. Rodzice rozwiedli się gdy miała trzy lata, razem z matką przeprowadziły się do Freeport, gdzie spędziła więcej dzieciństwa. Ma dwójkę rodzeństwa, brata i przyrodnią siostrę. W wieku piętnastu lat przeniosła się do Kalifornii, gdzie mieszkała z ojcem i bratem. Rok później wróciła do Illinois, gdzie uczęszczała do liceum w Pecatonica. Jest pochodzenia greckiego i węgierskiego.

Kariera

2006–2012: Początki na Youtube
Po przeprowadzce do Los Angeles aby zacząć karierę aktorską, Paytas zaczęła profesjonalny modeling w damskiej bieliźnie i pracowała jako striptizerka, by się utrzymać. 3 stycznia 2007, Paytas założyła swój kanał na platformie YouTube o nazwie ''blndsundoll4mj''. Oryginalnie kanał miał być dedykowany jej idolowi, Quentinowi Tarantino, ale krótko po stworzeniu kanału, skupiła się na wideo o innych tematach. Od 2008 do 2011 pojawiła się w kilku telewizyjnych programach, m.in.: The Ellen DeGeneres Show i Współczesna Rodzina. Wystąpiła także w teledyskach Eminema i Amy Winehouse.

2013–2017: Sukces w sieci i muzyka
W 2014 założyła drugi kanał, Trisha Paytas, na którym wstawiała vlogi. Na kanale z czasem pojawił się także mukbang. 29 czerwca 2015 wydała swoją EP-kę Superficial Bitch. Rok później wydała kolejną EP-kę Daddy Issues. Po jedenastu dniach opuściła 20 edycję Celebrity Big Brother.

Po 2018: Trasa koncertowa i podcasty
W lutym 2019 wypuściła swój cover piosenki ''Shallow'' autorstwa Lady Gagi i Bradleya Coopera. W cztery dni cover zyskał ponad milion wyświetleń. Później tego samego roku wyruszyła w trasę koncertową The Heartbreak Tour, aby promować swoją muzykę. W październiku 2019 wskrzesiła swój podcast The Dish with Trish, który został anulowany w sierpniu 2020. Od września 2020 do czerwca 2021, razem z Ethanem Kleinem, prowadziła podcast Frenemies, który skupiał się na social mediach. Na stan 2021 aktywnie udziela się na TikToku i OnlyFans.

Życie prywatne
Paytas była w kilku związkach. Od 2008 do sierpnia 2013 spotykała się z Anthonym Michaelem Hallem. Od 2014 do 2016 spotykała się z tancerzem Seanem van der Wiltem, a od 2017 do 2019, z youtuberem Jasonem Nashem. Od 2020 związana jest z izraelskim artystą Mosesem Hacmonem, z którym zaręczyła się w grudniu tego samego roku. W grudniu 2021 odbyło się wesele Paytas i Hacmona. W styczniu 2021 ujawniła się jako osoba niebinarna. 14 września 2022 urodziła córkę, Malibu Barbie Paytas-Hacmon.

Przypisy

Amerykanie pochodzenia greckiego
Amerykanie pochodzenia węgierskiego
Amerykańskie modelki
Amerykańskie osobowości YouTube
Amerykańskie wokalistki
Urodzeni w 1988