What I believe is most critical to insist upon is the degree to which Europe itself had to repudiate central elements of its own history and culture — the absolute authority of hereditary rulers, the prohibition of diverse religious beliefs in any one society, the elevation of the rights and needs of political and social status elites above those of ordinary inhabitants — in order to develop and implement the idea of society as a community of free individuals sovereign over a limited state. Yet this was necessary if the marriage of engineering culture and entrepreneurship was to survive and flourish, and produce the economic and technological miracles of the last two centuries.
In these few, but powerful, words Mr. Goldstone gives us the two concepts that he believes have been most responsible for "economic and technological miracles of the last two centuries." The first is a "community of free individuals sovereign." The second is "a limited state." Without this he states that entrepreneurship and the engineering culture it gave birth to would have never survived. Simply put, imagine life without your smart phone or television and wonder why you do not spend more time learning about liberty protected by a limited state.
We will leave the discussion about the "limited state" and all that encompasses an intelligent debate surrounding this for later in this series of posts. First I think it wise to discuss the concept of "a community free individuals sovereign" in the context of rights. This is because one has to know their rights and where they come from to even begin to have an intelligent discussion about what type of state they should construct to protect them.
This entry was posted in History of the Modern World and tagged history, modern world, rights by 3rdWAVElands. Bookmark the permalink.
I think I sent you and email through Craigslist about writing or social media help. Was that you? Anyway, this style is custom made. I have viewed many thousands of websites and never seen one done this way. If you fill out a contact form or leave and number here where I can call you we can talk more. I can do a short consultation for free but after that I charge based on what the individual or company needs. This site, the last time I checked was graded 85 by Hubspot Marketing Grader and it is only a few weeks old. I started another more local and business related site that is even newer and graded the same. Most of it is creative marketing but social media expertise plays a lot into it as well. Anyway, let me know if I can help.


text:
MediaObservatory
Media Integrity
Media Ownership and Finances
Media Policy and Reforms
Public Service Media
EU Award
EU Award Winners
SEE Media Observatory: Why to observe media in SEE?
SEEmediaobservatory
SEE region
media and democracy
Today's Balkan press functions more as an extension of politics than a representation of public opinion, and a sizeable portion of the media continues to be controlled by powerful political groups.
A regional initiative and a partnership of civil society organisations aiming to address obstacles to democratic development of media systems.
For more than a decade civil society organizations connected in the South East European Network for Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM) have been raising voices to promote and protect values of free, independent and responsible media in their countries and on regional level. Some of them, like Albanian Media Institute, Media Center Sarajevo, Novi Sad School of Journalism or Center for Independent Journalism in Budapest have been part of that struggle since mid 1990s.
At the end of 2012, an initiative involving seven members of the SEENPM has gained a support of the European Commission to address and challenge current problems with media freedom and pluralism in the region.
»Today's Balkan press functions more as an extension of politics than a representation of public opinion, and a sizeable portion of the media continues to be controlled by powerful political groups« said Remzi Lani, director of the Albanian Media Institute.
South East European Media Observatory is a regional initiative and a partnership of civil society organisations aiming to address obstacles to democratic development of media systems by providing a regional instrument for media research and monitoring, support to investigative journalism and civil society engagement. It also offers a regional framework for debates, consultations and coalitions among key stakeholders, seeking to inform and influence media reform processes.
SEE Media Observatory particularly addresses the problems with integrity of media and journalism in the region, focusing on harmful patterns of media ownership and media finances.
In 2013 and 2014 the regional observatory concentrates on media integrity in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia.
SEE Media Observatory addresses problems identified through national and regional research, monitoring and debates organized in past decade by the network SEENPM and other actors, and emphasized in reports and discussions on the situation with media freedom in the region.
The observatory adapts the notion of "media integrity" to capture whole set of indicators of qualities of the media sector crucial for its ability to serve public interest and democratic processes. In order to grasp the scale of the issues covered by the concept of media integrity the risk indicators have been identified on the level of media policy development and implementation, but also on the level of media structures and institutions, as well as on the level of media practices and contents. Within that analytical framework the media integrity research of the SEE Media Observatory will put special focus on media ownership and finances, but also examine the position of journalists.
The media integrity research will be guided by the following key research questions:
Whether and in which way media systems in the countries of SEE integrate risks of institutional corruption and political clientelism? How these risks influence ability of media to serve public interest and democratic role? Particularly, how they are manifested in four areas: media policy development and implementation, media structures and institutions (specifically media ownership, finances and public service broadcasting), journalists and media practices (content)? Which policies, structures and practices can be considered "agents of change" in terms of protection of media integrity and advancing democratic media reforms?
By applying the concept of media integrity the SEE Media Observatory will:
1. Search the field of media integrity through research and investigative journalism
2. Deliver the findings through online and print platforms
3. Debate the findings with key players through online platforms and at public events on national and regional level
4. Change the field – influence media reforms through advocacy by civil society organizations included in the regional partnership, but also by other media NGOs which will receive financial support for their campaigns.
Support to investigative journalism and civil society
Two sub-granting schemes will be provided by the SEE Media Observatory: in 2013, five grants will be given to investigative journalism teams, and in 2014, five grants to civil society organisations for actions aimed at protection and promotion of media integrity.
The SEE Observatory will support investigative journalists to disclose corrupt practices undermining the proper functioning of free, independent, pluralistic and viable media in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia. In coopeation with the Guardian Foundation it will also provide a regional workshop for investigative journalists.
The observatory will initiate several other regional meetings, aimed at capacity building of relevant actors but also at exchange of knowledge and experience, and at public discussion on the findings of the media integrity research and investigative journalism findings. It will incude initiative of the SEE Media Observatory for a regional meeting of anti-corruption bodies on the issue of media integrity.
Web site, books, debates
Regional web site of the SEE Media Observatory will serve as online platform for publication and promotion of ideas, documents, analyses and reports of the project partnership, but also for initiating debates and reflections by other actors.
The research findings of the SEE Media Observatory will also be published in books in each respective country, and in a joint one.
The ideas, findings of the research and investigative journalists, and recommendations for policy changes will be promoted through debates and advocacy actions on national, regional and European level.
The regional partnership includes most relevant and vital national civil society organisations in five countries aspiring for EU membership (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia) and two neighbouring EU member states (Hungary and Slovenia) engaged in efforts for media professionalization and media policy changes in their countries. The partners are: Peace Institute, Ljubljana (project leader), Albanian Media Institute, Tirana, Media Center Sarajevo, Investigative Journalism Center, Zagreb, Center for Independent Journalism, Budapest, Macedonian Institute for Media, Skopje, and Novi Sad School of Journalism.
It also includes CSOs from three other countries (Kosovo, Montenegro and Turkey) as observers in the first period , with plan to extend tools and activities to these countries in the second period (2015 and 2016). In the part which is aimed at strengthening of investigative journalism the regional observatory includes a peer-to-peer support of the Guardian's investigative and data journalists, through the Guardian Foundation, which has been for more than 10 years a supporter and partner of the civil society organizations connected in the regional network SEENPM.
SEE Media Observatory is financially supported by the the European Union Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance, Civil Society Facility Programme.
In 2013 and 2014 the SEE Media Obervatory activities have been supported by the Open Society Foundations Program on Independent Journalism, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Media Program for South East Europe, Open Society Foundation Serbia, Office for Cooperation with NGOs within the Government of the Republic of Croatia, Government of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Department for International Development Cooperation Policies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Slovenia, and the Guardian Foundation.
Relevant past projects:
Previous joint policy research and advocacy projects of the SEENPM which are connected to the work of the SEE Media Observatory include:
Media Ownership and Its Impact on Media Freedom and Independence in Post-socialist countries of SEE and CEE (2003/2004); A regional research and advocacy project mapping media ownership patterns and their impact on media freedom and independence in 18 post-socialist countries of South East, Central and Eastern Europe. Coordinated by the Peace Institute as a member of the SEENPM.
Labour Relations in the Media in SEE (2004); A regional research and advocacy project exposing problems with labour relations in the media in the region.
The Business of Ethics, the Ethics of Business in SEE (2005); A research and advocacy project exposing good and bad practices in the media business in the region.
The Ethics and Journalism in South East Europe (2006); A regional research and advocacy providing comparative analysis of journalistic profession on the basis of survey on professional ethics among journalists in 6 countries in the region.
Freedom of Speech in SEE - Media Independence and Self-Regulation (2007); A comparative research project on self-regulation and regulation of defamation and protection of sources in the region.
Patterns of Political Instrumentalisation and Clientelism in the Media in South East Europe (2007); A project exploring patterns of political instrumentalisation of the media in the countries of former Yugoslavia through production of short TV reports and regional meeting of stakeholders. Coordinated by the Peace Institute as a member of the SEENPM.
Professional Journalism and Self-regulation: New Media, Old Dilemmas in South East Europe and Turkey (in cooperation with UNESCO in 2011) etc. A regional project aiming at strengthening professional journalism in self-regulation in the region, providing country analysis and series of national and regional debates.
The necessity for reinventing the editors' role as guardians of media integrity
Read the complete repor
Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina corruption Croatia EU Award Flash report investigative journalism Kosovo Macedonia media financing media integrity media ownership Montenegro political pressures SEE region self-censorship Serbia thematic reflections Turkey voices
South East European Media Observatory
is a regional partnership of civil society organisations aimed at enhancing media freedom and pluralism, and influencing media reforms in the countries of South East Europe.
Peace Institute, SLO
Albanian Media Institute, ALB
Media Center Sarajevo, B&H
Investigative Journalism Center, CRO
Center for Independent Journalism, HUN
Macedonian Institute for Media, MAC
Novi Sad School of Journalism, SER
Web: mediaobservatory.net
e: contact (at) mediaobservatory.net
Send us an email with the subject "SUBSCRIBE" and start receiving our newsletter.
The project is funded by The European Union Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA); Civil Society Facility (CSF).
The contents of this web portal are the sole responsibility of SEE Media Observatory project partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.
MediaObservatory 2013-2015 | Copyrights

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Like a Coen brothers noir south of the border, Paraíso is a genre-bending story about love, sibling relationships, and the dark side of paradise.
Peter and Wendy—their mother chose the names—felt as close as twins, despite their difference in age. As teens, they fled their wealthy Philadelphia home in the family station wagon and headed for Mexico, only to be discovered sleeping in the car on the banks of the Mississippi, in Huck Finn country. Now, many years later, estranged by an apparent betrayal as profound as their family's dysfunction, the two live separate lives, Peter as an editor in New York, Wendy as an edgy sports photographer with a taste for risk. With a new book out and an invitation to Los Cabos, she drives the Mercedes inherited from their father to Baja California, finally completing the trip begun twenty years earlier.
But when the engine fails near a small town named Paraíso—Paradise—she lingers, exploring its underside in an affair with a dangerous man and, all too suddenly, becoming witness to a vicious crime. Meanwhile, in New York, Peter can't help but think of Wendy. When, from his apartment in lower Manhattan, he watches the Twin Towers fall on a beautiful September day, he knows it's time to leave his comfortable life, go find Wendy, and make peace with his long-lost sister. A noirish tale reminiscent of David Lynch and the Coen brothers, Paraíso traces the journey from a mother's dark secret to a place where love, and even perfect love, is possible.
This book started out just fine. The opening was good. It left me wanting to know all of the events leading up to the present moment. I was actually into this story for quite a while, even though my feelings about the story as a whole was middle of the road. I appreciated that the author let me get familiar with Wendy before he transferred over to Peter. Which the events that Peter had to deal with leading up to his reunion with his sister were real and a moment in history not to be forgotten. Yet, try as I must I really could not get into Wendy and Peter's lives or the story as a whole that much. Other then a faint whisper of the locations, the storyline a little and what was taking place at that moment. Although, from what I can remember of this story there is some depth to it and the ending was good.


O il stocks have careened up and down on a wild rollercoaster ride since July, as investors have pondered falling petroleum demand, emerging-markets turmoil, OPEC's instability, questions about whether Iraq will be allowed to continue trading oil for food and the possibility of a recession in the U.S. and Europe. Indeed, it has be en hard to find a less valued or more troubled sector anywhere. Yet some investors and analysts now see certain oil companies as relatively tranquil harbors, suitable for defensive-minded investors in these turbulent times.
Even the most seasoned industry experts are scratching their heads over oil's prospects these days. Over the past two years, the price of a barrel of crude has plunged from $25 to just over $11 last June, before bouncing back to around $14 recently. In brief, these are the most volatile times for petro prices since the dark and dramatic days of the late "Seventies and early "Eighties. Everything seems to affect energy prices: warm weather, Middle East politics, economic growth, Asian financial worries.
"The oil market is a really strange animal," muses Thierry Desmarest, chairman and CEO of Total , the Frenchbased oil giant, over strong coffee in his window-filled boardroom, high over Paris. Desmarest manages a wan smile before continuing. "Where else do you find a market influenced by climate, politics and economics? The London and New York markets are very open, yet OPEC countries can change their asking price and production quotas."
Well might he smile a little. For despite the oil market's woes, Total has emerged as one of the top picks among industry analysts in Europe and the States. Yet it is a sign of the times that Total recently beat the Street's estimates for the first half of the year by reporting a 6% decline in net income, to $655 million, and a 7% fall in earnings per share over the same period.
"You need to remember that the industry as a whole averaged a 25% fall in earnings over the first half," points out Steven Pfeifer, international oil analyst for Prudential Securities in New York. "It has been a very difficult period, and Total is weathering the storm well. They are probably growing production faster than anybody else right now." A fan of Total, Pfeifer believes its American depositary receipts, each of which represents a half-share of Paris-traded stock, might hit $73 within 12 months, compared with the less than 60 at which they recently were changing hands.
Prudential currently rates the French energy producer and retailer's shares a "strong buy"-- one of only 20 among the more than 700 stocks covered by the investment firm. Written into his analysis, however, are the assumptions that oil will rally to $16-$17 a barrel next year and that there will be no U.S. recession.
Why is Pfeifer bullish on Total? "I think they are the best in the world at locating and exploiting new exploration and production activities," he says, "and they have assembled some tremendously valuable assets."
The definition of a successful oil organization has changed radically over the past 10 or 15 years. As recently as the mid-1980s, some European firms were expanding their networks of filling stations, building convenience stores and commissioning massive petrochemical plants and refineries. Today, there are too many gas pumps and chronic refinery overcapacity. At the same time, new shopping malls and superstores have stolen much of the old highway retail trade. The margins of these various "downstream activities"-- industry jargon for businesses far removed from the wellhead-continue to shrink, and many oil giants are trying to sell them or at least cut costs and boost profitability by pooling resources through joint ventures and alliances with competitors. Many are also selling or closing their commodity chemicals businesses.
Refining may be the worst business of all these days, at least in Europe. Producers there have spent billions in recent years on scrubbers, desulfurizers and other ecofriendly gear in order to comply with tough new European Union environmental regulations due to take effect in the year 2000. And more work must soon begin to comply with a second set of rules planned for 2005. Similar regulatory tightening has also been under way in the U.S. and Canada.
Tougher environmental protection may, however, help Total, by giving it an excuse to shut unwanted refineries in France, something that could otherwise be tricky in a country of strong labor unions and 11% unemployment. "They can paint the ecologists and the Eurocrats in Brussels as the ones who are killing jobs," says a French petro analyst. "It may help them to close down refineries without looking like evil capitalists."
However this drama plays out, the new logic of the industry is that refining, marketing and retailing are out. "Upstream" activities like exploration and production, on the other hand, are firmly in, because more effective techniques have taken much of the guesswork and failure out of finding and exploiting new fields.
Huge energy fields discovered in recent years off the West African coast also have boosted companies" exploration and production revenues. Giant deposits, which can be tapped for a decade or more, of course, are far more profitable than smaller marginal fields that may fizzle out after just a few years.
Total was among the first European producers to realize that the rules of the game had changed.
Before being appointed chairman and CEO in May 1995, Thierry Desmarest was the company's head of worldwide exploration and production and had already worked hard to win promising concessions off West Africa, where drilling has revealed that there may be billions of barrels of oil under one parcel off the coast of Angola alone, a concession of which Total owns 20%. The oil should start flowing from this area in a serious way by mid-1999.
Since rising to Total's top job, Desmarest has won the rights to explore other promising new oil and gas fields off Nigeria and Indonesia, in Burma, Thailand, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. Through all of this, Total's boss has stuck doggedly to an overriding rule: Keep costs down so as to stay in the black, even if oil falls to $10 a barrel.
"Total has developed an unusual diversity of growth prospects," says Jeremy Hudson, senior oil analyst for Salomon Smith Barney in London. "Usually a single oil company will have six prospects or less. They have a dozen or more." Hudson is a fan of Total's stock and believes it will move up by 20% over the next 12 months and that annual earnings will grow by an average of 23% a year through 2001, with dividends rising 14% a year over the same stretch.
Specifically, he sees the company earning $2.41 an ADR this year and $3.13 in 1999, versus $2.66 last year. Hudson also thinks there may be more upside potential to the stock when the oil group moves broadly into recovery, something he thinks is a possibility in the second quarter of 1999. "They always tend to be overbought on the way up and oversold on the way down," he says of Total.
In his endless quest for more deals, CEO Desmarest pulled off a real coup in September 1997 when he signed a pact with Iran to develop its vast South Pars gas field.
Total thus became the first Western oil company invited into Iran since the 1979 revolution. Still, it risked evoking U.S. trade sanctions, aimed at punishing foreign companies that do business with terrorist regimes. Desmarest doubtless enlisted the help of allies in both the French government and the European Union. After a lot of bitter debate, Washington relented and granted Total a waiver to sanctions in May of this year. Now the Iranian project is forging ahead.
"We were very careful to abide by all United Nations resolutions and present our case to Washington," asserts a senior Total executive. "Anyway, we really did not have much to lose because we had hardly any business left in the U.S."
Such aggressive exploration and dealmaking have pushed Total's production up by 44% since 1990, and it's expected to keep jumping by 7%-9% annually for the next five years. That's the strongest growth projected for any major oil producer. "By the end of the 1990s," Desmarest predicts, "we will have doubled our production without adding any staff at all."
While Total now generates 80% of its profits outside France and over half outside Europe, its home European market may soon help it, rather than hurt it as was the case throughout much of the "Nineties. As France and Germany shake off years of recession, European economic expansion likely will outpace the U.S.'s in 1999, with OECD economists now predicting 2.6% growth in the Old World, versus just 1.5% in the States.
Thus, European oil companies like Total, Elf Aquitaine and British Petroleum could fare well. "I feel more positive about economic growth in Europe than anywhere else," says Catherine Soulier, European fund manager for Londonbased Threadneedle Investment Managers. "This is our favorite stock in the sector, our top pick." Total, reasons Soulier, is likely to post 15% earnings gains for 1999, even if conditions remain tough. That probably is better than most European oil majors can do.
While Total has radically increased its growth prospects under Desmarest's stewardship, the group also has cut exposure to less profitable and riskier ventures. Since 1995, Total has sold all but 8% of its U.S. marketing operations, slashed excess refinery capacity in Europe and returned its once-troubled French marketing operation to profitability, increasing total throughput at its French gas stations by around 6%. The company also has reduced the payroll in its refining and marketing operations by 5,000 jobs, or 20%, mainly through early retirements.
The company is blessed in that it never had a commodity petrochemical business, now the bane of many an integrated oil group. It does, however, operate two specialty-chemical businesses: One focuses on synthetic rubber for the car industry; the other, on coatings, resins, adhesives and sealants.
The rubber business consistently produces a reasonable 10%-15% return on capital, analysts estimate, while the other chemical operations may yield only 7%. It's impossible to know for sure because Total doesn't provide separate accountings for each wing of its chemicals unit.
Still, the coatings-and-resins business is seen as Total's Achilles" heel. "They really ought to get out of that business," complains Salomon Smith Barney's Hudson. "I don't see any real synergies for an oil company to be doing that."
There are signs that Desmarest may be close to heeding such advice. "They look like they're shaping up their chemicals businesses so they can sell them," comments an institutional investor with a "full position" in Total stock. "They have stated that the business is now worth 1.2 times sales and that they want to boost sales by 50% before 2002," he concludes. "You don't do that unless you are trying to create an impression of stand-alone value, which puts me in mind of a sale."
Right now, according to company sources, 50% of Total's assets are devoted to exploration and production, 30% to refining and marketing and 20% to other activities. Desmarest eventually wants up to 65% of all assets in the more profitable domain of E&P. If so, then something else will clearly have to go. The ideal scenario: Total squeezes greater efficiencies out of its chemical business and waits until European growth accelerates over the next year or two. Then the company sells the operation, fetching a better price than it now can.
While it has abandoned marketing in the U.S., Total has expanded its network of filling stations in Africa, where demand far outstrips supply, costs are low and there is relatively little competition. This is broadly seen as a positive move by investors Barron's spoke with, despite the current turmoil in emerging markets. After all, motorists need gasoline, even in a recession.
More questions surround the group's filling stations in Europe, where competition is fierce and margins are thin. Some analysts feel that Total must either aggressively boost market share-it's No. 1 in France, but just a tiny player in Germany and the U.K.-- or set up a joint venture with a rival. But, like many oil bosses, Desmarest seems a bit obsessed with the value of having his company's brand plastered over thousands of filling stations.
Some analysts disagree. "I think the brand value is grossly overvalued by the company," argues Jeremy Hudson. "They should really figure out a way to create an alliance."
Going forward, the two greatest sources of potential danger to Total probably are currency risk and the possibility of a further decline in the price of oil. About two-thirds of the company's revenues and costs are in dollars, according to analysts, so that will help dampen the effect of any slide in the dollar against the euro, the new common European currency expected to be introduced in January.
As for petroleum prices, a number of factors will weigh on them in the months ahead. On November 25, OPEC representatives meet, with Kuwait pressing for further production cuts from members of the group, in the hope of pushing up the price. Whatever decision is made could have a great impact. A year ago, production increases agreed on by OPEC sent crude into a tailspin.
The Clinton Administration, meanwhile, is pondering whether to continue allowing Iraq to sell oil in exchange for food: Removing that country from the oil market would help push up or, at the least, stabilize petroleum quotes.
And even the smallest sign that Asian demand is beginning to pick up almost certainly would help drive oil stocks higher. Worsening global economic conditions, in contrast, would have the opposite effect.
But regardless of what happens, Total is likely to outperform most of its peers. "They manage to combine an aggressive explorer's culture with real financial rigor and discipline," concludes Steve Pfeifer of Prudential. "That combination is hard to find." And it may be one that investors are willing to pay for in the coming year.


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text:
Q: Maven complaining about "use -source 7 or higher to enable diamond operator" in a java 7 project I'm using Java 7 syntax in a project, but when I go to mvn clean install maven is telling me:
[ERROR] /Users/mosawi/Perforce/src/main/java/com/generalatomics/compilers/Engine.java:[47,45] diamond operator is not supported in -source 1.5
[ERROR] (use -source 7 or higher to enable diamond operator)

I'm pretty sure my project is Java 7, and my java build path is set to Java 7

EDIT:
Here is the relevant info concerning my pom.xml
...etc
<reporting>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-project-info-reports-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.8</version>
            <configuration>
                <dependencyLocationsEnabled>true</dependencyLocationsEnabled>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
            <artifactId>cobertura-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.7</version>
            <configuration>
                <formats>
                    <format>html</format>
                    <format>xml</format>
                </formats>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</reporting>

...etc.

A: Usually IDEs use maven pom.xml file as a source of project configuration.
Changing the compiler settings in the IDE not always has effect on the maven build.
The best way to keep a project always manageable with maven is edit the pom.xml files and instruct the IDE to sync with maven.
In this particular case you have to check two things:

*

*Configure the maven compiler plugin in the pom.xml

    <build>

    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <configuration>
                <source>1.7</source>
                <target>1.7</target>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
    ...

*Be sure that the mvn clean command actually is launched with a jdk7 (if you launch it from the IDE something like a "Maven settings" could be a good place to look at.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Ken Buckley Honoured by Sydney Branch
In November 1989 Ken Buckley retired as editor of Labour History. In recognition of his services to the Labour History Society, federal branch and Sydney branch, the latter's executive bestowed life membership on Ken. Branch secretary John Shields expressed all of our sentiments very well when he wrote to Ken suggesting, 'One shudders to think where the study of Australian labour history would be today had it not had the benefit of your scholarly enthusiasm, insight and eloquence'.
Hummer wishes Ken all the best for his 'retirement'. (Given the number of projects he has on the boil the word 'retirement' is rather farcical.)
The new editor of Labour History is Terry Irving, confirmed at a meeting of the federal executive on 1 December. A distinguished academic and writer our society's bannerhead, Labour History, would appear to be in very capable hands. Hummer wishes Terry all the best for a long, enjoyable and fruitful period as editor of Labour History.


text:
GPL working towards '100% record of no power outages'
Chief Executive Officer (ag), Renford Homer
By Editor On Oct 15, 2017
By Bibi Khatoon
As the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) celebrate its 18th anniversary, Chief Executive Officer (ag), Renford Homer outlined the state of the company and where it would like to be in the years ahead.
He noted that GPL "prefers to be a utility with 100% record of no outages, 100% record of no fluctuation in voltages and 100% record of seeing smiling faces every time we look out at our customer base."
However, to get there, Homer pointed out that one of the major obstacles is the size of the investment needed. At a media dinner on Friday, October 13 at the Grand Coastal Inn, he admitted that the power company has seen a number of "injections of financing, either through GPL or other sources" but noted that there is still need for more. In the meantime, the acting CEO said the company has a number of innovative projects on stream, some of which have been implemented to bring relief to customers.
Homer explained that "electricity over the years has become the lifeblood for many of us. There was a time when it wasn't that important if there was an outage—it's something which we could've lived through until the service was restored. But over the years, what we've recognized that there is an increased dependence on things that require this source of energy, so it has gone beyond just electricity—it's almost like the life-blood of our being, almost the life-blood of our economy."
As such, he recognized that the bar keeps getting higher and the company needs to do better but "for reasons that can be explained from time to time, there are glitches in the system," which throw the company back to where it was.
It is his belief that the company is clear on its mandate and it is not something which cannot be achieved, as he expressed gratitude to the staff of GPL.
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan during his 2015 National Budget speech outlined that GPL is known to have poor operational, financial and technical capability due to high energy and technical losses and fuel price volatility. He said it would require not only massive tariff increases but guarantees that taxpayers, through the treasury, will provide transfers to meet its obligation.
In 2016, the government announced an investment of $2.5 billion in initiatives to improve GPL's operational management capabilities. Approximately 830 km of the main distribution network was scheduled to be operated.
The Government had also announced that it is negotiating a power purchase agreement with a private developer for a US$50 million wind farm at Hope Beach to provide an additional 25 megawatts of power to the national grid—however, the project has not materialized.
According to the 2017 National budget, GPL was projected to record a deficit of $5 billion at the end of this year.
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US$75M hotel, amusement park & shopping hub for West Bank


Auldridge, Bennett & Gaudreau. On this, their second album, these three fine musicians are in a wonderful groove, picking & singing a great selection of 14 songs & tunes. It's superb contemporary Bluegrass with all three men given lots of opportunity to shine on their respective instruments: Auldridge on dobro, Bennett on lead guitar, and Gaudreau on mandolin. With Bennett & Gaudreau handling the bulk of the singing the songs all work beautifully, from the lovely new title song by Liz Meyer to Rodney Crowell's Home Sweet Home Revisited, Bill Caswell's classic Sweet Prairie Hay, and Bennett's original Satisfied To Stay. Add in fine versions of some Bluegrass standards (Too Many Tears, My Aching Heart and Are You Lost In Sin), and some dynamite instrumentals and you have a wonderfully listenable, great album. New Sweet Home, Welcome To New York, It Won't Be Long, Come Back Home, Dog Pause, Rigel Stomp, etc.


there is a rich culture to enjoy and opportunity for children and families.
Recent downturns and responses to them based on cuts in spending have reduced all three of these aspects of our economic environment. Above all, it is the responsibility of government to maintain a culture in which people enjoy living and have opportunity. Our corporate welfare focus is foolish. We need to build infrastructure, take care of the health care mess once and for all by extending Medicare to everyone who wants to enroll and supporting Medicaid. We need to defend — and extend — Social Security and restore the retirement age to a reasonable 62, which would open up opportunity for young people. Older people who can scarcely keep up the pace are now locked into jobs they are no longer able to do by the necessity to keep employer medical insurance and the prospect of poverty with reduced Social Security. Let older Americans retire and spend their retirement accounts and Social Security on travel and support for their children and grandchildren — something other than medical care — and the economy will turn around.
I look forward to voting for you again and again as our Senator from Virginia, and I hope I will get to vote for you for President in the future. Please understand that I do not want to take away from business, but business does not thrive except in a dynamic culture that produces demand for goods and services. Money trickles up, not down, and we know this every time we pay our credit card payment. If we keep cutting off our most vulnerable and forcing our middle class into poverty by low wages, expensive education, rising food costs, rising energy costs, abusive credit practices, and tax incentives to wealthy private corporations we will not survive.
For an economy to thrive, some of the money that goes up needs to be forced back down to the bottom so that it can recirculate. The way to do this is to collect taxes from the people who use our labor force and our infrastructure and our consumer base to become wealthy. The wealthy are not the source of jobs, they are the result of many people working to get by and to have a few dollars extra to take the family to the beach once a year and to carry smart phones in their pockets. The working people are the source of jobs and the source of wealth because they both do the work and generate the demand for goods and services. Infusing money at the top and asking corporations for the favor of a few jobs is utterly ridiculous.
I hope that your new bill considers the workers in the United States when you are thinking about jobs, because if our workers are not healthy and hopeful and do not benefit from their work we will not have an economy no matter how much money we give to corporations.
I hope also that you will see this message. I know that you receive many letters, but this message is clear. In the United States today we are seriously talking about taking out the foundations of the economy and trying to sustain the wealth at the top by giving more money to wealthy people. This is a third world solution, and we can do better.
This entry was posted in Health Care, Social Security, Taxing and spending, The Economy. Bookmark the permalink.


LOS ANGELES, CA (April 29, 2013) – A twisted genius and a good man are going head-to-head in the ultimate game of cat and mouse! Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and WWE Studios unveil a brand new chapter in its thrilling action franchise with 12 ROUNDS 2: RELOADED. The second installment, starring WWE Superstar Randy Orton, debuts on Digital HD on May 21 and on Blu-ray and DVD on June 4 – just in time for Father's Day.
The 12 ROUNDS 2: RELOADED Blu-ray and DVD is loaded with extra features including three making-of featurettes, audio commentary and more. Prebook is May 8.
WWE Studios continues to strategically diversify its slate of films, which includes theatrical releases and direct to home premieres, under the guidance of President Michael Luisi. Upcoming films for WWE Studios include: No One Lives, which was co-produced with Pathé Films and was accepted to Midnight Madness at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, starring Luke Evans and WWE Superstar Brodus Clay™; 12 Rounds 2 Reloaded, the 2nd installment in the action franchise, which stars WWE Superstar Randy Orton™ and will be released direct to home on June 4th by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; The Curse of the Ghost Bear!, an animated feature from Warner Brothers Animation that will find Scooby Doo and the gang teaming up with WWE Superstars to solve a mystery at WrestleMania due out in early 2014; and Christmas Bounty, an action comedy starring WWE Superstar The Miz™ and Francia Raisa, which will premiere on ABC Family's "25 Days of Christmas" programming event in December 2013.


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Home | Entertainment | Anurag Kashyap, Anupam Kher, Zoya Akhtar invited to join the Academy
Anurag Kashyap, Anupam Kher, Zoya Akhtar invited to join the Academy
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a list of new members and invited four Indian film personalities - Anurag Kashyap, Anupam Kher, Zoya Akhtar, and Ritesh Batra, to join the organisation.
A total of 842 artists from as many as 59 countries were invited to join The Academy this year. Achieving a new level of gender parity, the organisation announced that half of the members invited to join the Academy are women.
The organisation also disclosed that 29 percent of the new invitees are people of colour. The official Twitter handle of The Academy announced on Monday:
Best. Day. Ever. We're excited to invite these 842 inspiring storytellers to the Academy.
Tweet your welcome using #WeAreTheAcademy today.https://t.co/glplZscerD
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) July 1, 2019
Bollywood veteran actor Anupam Kher has been invited in the actors' branch. He currently stars in the American medical drama series 'New Amsterdam' as a neurologist named Dr. Vijay Kapoor.
Ace filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has helmed films like 'Gangs of Wasseypur', 'Dev.D', 'Lust Stories', expressed his happiness and tweeted "#WeAreTheAcademy" attaching the organisation's tweet. Kashyap has been invited in the short films and feature animation branch.
Zoya Akhtar, who has directed movies like 'Luck By Chance', 'Dil Dhadakne Do', 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' and 'Gully Boy', has also been invited to join the directors' branch.
Indian visual effects supervisor Srinivas Mohan has also been invited by the group. Sherry Bharda, YRF Studios' Creative Supervisor has also been invited for the visual effects branch.
Ritesh Batra, the director behind Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur's 'The Lunchbox' Nawazuddin and Sanya Malhotra-starrer 'Photograph', has been invited to join the writers' branch.
Among the other members of Indian descent are British actor Archie Panjabi of 'The Good Wife' fame and Canadian actor-director Nisha Ganatra who has helmed 'Chutney Popcorn'.
In 2018, 20 Indian film personalities, including Shah Rukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Aditya Chopra, Ali Fazal, Anil Kapoor, and Tabu, were invited to join the organisation.
Indian film producer Guneet Monga, whose film titled 'Period. End of Sentence' bagged the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at this year's Oscars, was also invited last year.
Academy invites new members, achieves gender parity in 2019
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Bjorn Again kick off music at sun-drenched Glastonbury Festival
Cuba legalizes independent movie-making


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1/2017 vol. 30
Exposure to excessive sounds and hearing status in academic classical music students
Małgorzata Pawlaczyk-Łuszczyńska 1
Małgorzata Zamojska-Daniszewska 1
Adam Dudarewicz 1
Kamil Zaborowski 1
Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Department of Physical Hazards)
Małgorzata Pawlaczyk-Łuszczyńska
Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Department of Physical Hazards, św. Teresy 8, 91-348 Łódź, Poland
music students
exposure to excessive sounds
pure-tone audiometry
hearing threshold levels
high-frequency notches
occupational diseases and work-related diseases, including asthma and rhinitis (case studies, diagnostics, prevention, risk factors)
Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess hearing of music students in relation to their exposure to excessive sounds. Material and Methods: Standard pure-tone audiometry (PTA) was performed in 168 music students, aged 22.5±2.5 years. The control group included 67 subjects, non-music students and non-musicians, aged 22.8±3.3 years. Data on the study subjects' musical experience, instruments in use, time of weekly practice and additional risk factors for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) were identified by means of a questionnaire survey. Sound pressure levels produced by various groups of instruments during solo and group playing were also measured and analyzed. The music students' audiometric hearing threshold levels (HTLs) were compared with the theoretical predictions calculated according to the International Organization for Standardization standard ISO 1999:2013. Results: It was estimated that the music students were exposed for 27.1±14.3 h/week to sounds at the A-weighted equivalent-continuous sound pressure level of 89.9±6.0 dB. There were no significant differences in HTLs between the music students and the control group in the frequency range of 4000–8000 Hz. Furthermore, in each group HTLs in the frequency range 1000–8000 Hz did not exceed 20 dB HL in 83% of the examined ears. Nevertheless, high frequency notched audiograms typical of the noise-induced hearing loss were found in 13.4% and 9% of the musicians and non-musicians, respectively. The odds ratio (OR) of notching in the music students increased significantly along with higher sound pressure levels (OR = 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.014–1.13, p < 0.05). The students' HTLs were worse (higher) than those of a highly screened non-noise-exposed population. Moreover, their hearing loss was less severe than that expected from sound exposure for frequencies of 3000 Hz and 4000 Hz, and it was more severe in the case of frequency of 6000 Hz. Conclusions: The results confirm the need for further studies and development of a hearing conservation program for music students. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2017;30(1):55–75
Analysis of inner ear potassium recycling genes as potential factors associated with tinnitus


Take a tour of our library with these videos created by grade 6 and 7 students from Division 1 in the Fall of 2015. Students used two apps: Tellagami and iMovie to create these movies. First we discussed the criteria. Then students, in partners, created a storyboard for their tour. Next they recorded their tour in Tellagami and imported the clips into iMovie. Finally, they edited their movie. This was our first time using these two apps together. There were some challenges, but the students worked hard and, I think, had a lot of fun. Please read some of their reflections below.
We worked very hard on this. I would say next time I might use a real person's voice.
I noticed making this movie was harder than we thought it would be.
I learned how to use iMovie and how to edit. I noticed how quiet my voice is.
Next time we would use our actual voices so we could put in emotion.
Next time we will change the variety of our sentence starters.
We noticed that it's quite hard to record.
I noticed throughout the project we got better at it.


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The Zype Blog > Combat Fraudulent Sales of Your Inventory Using Ads.txt
Distribution avod
Combat Fraudulent Sales of Your Inventory Using Ads.txt
By Chris Smith on January 08, 2018
It's estimated that advertisers could be losing over $16 billion annually due to fraudulent traffic and clicks manufactured by bots. And that number is only set to grow; the World Federation of Advertisers predicts ad fraud to cost upwards of $50 billion by 2025.
This is bad for both advertisers and publishers.
Advertisers lose money when bad actors spoof certain web domains (e.g., ESPN.com), pretending to provide good publisher inventory for ad monetization. These bad actors allow advertisers to bid on publisher inventory, and then artificially inflate traffic using bots.
Publishers lose credibility as these bad actors misrepresent their brands and domains, potentially losing them valuable ad revenue due to lower trust with advertisers.
As a video publisher interested in ad monetization, how do you combat fraudulent traffic? The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) created the ads.txt initiative to help publishers eliminate ad sales fraud. Read on to learn more about ads.txt, how it works and how to use it on your website. If you're interested in learning more about video monetization as a whole, check out our comprehensive guide to video monetization for a complete look into the nuances of video monetization.
What is ads.txt?
Ads.txt is a specification created by the IAB to help eliminate unauthorized selling of ad-monetizable publisher inventory (e.g., video content). Ads.txt stands for "Authorized Digital Sellers" and is a method for publishers to publicly declare which companies are authorized to sell their digital inventory.
Ads.txt is simply a plain text file that you host on any website where you monetize your video content with advertising. The ads.txt file specifies which advertisers are authorized to sell your video inventory for ad revenue. This helps reduce fraudulent selling of your inventory by unauthorized sellers. Ads.txt files should also be integrated with your ad servers and SSPs to specify which buyers can purchase your video inventory.
How does ads.txt work?
When you make your video inventory available for ad monetization, you're authorizing ad exchanges to help find advertisers to purchase (make bids against) your inventory. These advertisers have no way of verifying who is authorized to sell your content; therefore scenarios could arise where an unscrupulous seller is intentionally trying to deceive sellers by mislabeling inventory to look like it's coming from one of your domains or perform some other similar kind of ad sales fraud.
Ads.txt helps eliminate this by allowing advertisers (the buyers) to independently check which sellers are authorized to sell your video inventory for ad monetization via your ads.txt files. If a seller does not appear on your ads.txt file, advertisers simply won't purchase inventory from them, preventing these fraudulent sales from occurring and ensuring your domain and/or branding isn't getting tarnished in the process.
To help illustrate this, see this diagram provided by the IAB :
Your inventory is highlighted in green in the "Content owner" boxes.
The advertiser bidding on ad space for your content is highlighted in blue.
Advertisers can verify which sellers are authorized to sell your content for ad monetization by reviewing the ads.txt files you publish on your domains (or with your ad servers).
What does a sample ads.txt file look like?
Check out a few real-world sample ads.txt files:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ads.txt
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ads.txt
How do I set up ads.txt?
For any websites you own and operate directly, you'll want to add an ads.txt file under the root domain. For example: https://www.example.com/ads.txt
Get a full guide to setting up your ads.txt file today, here>>.
Does my Ad Server support ads.txt?
More and more ad servers are coming on board with the ads.txt initiative! Please reach out to your ad provider and ask them if they support ads.txt. They should also be able to provide instructions on how to configure an ads.txt file to white label them to sell your publisher inventory on your behalf.
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ScamSmart should increase awareness of pension scams
by Nigel Jones 15th August 2018
It's good to see the government taking the issue of pension scamming seriously.
ScamSmart is a new advertising and information campaign from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and The Pensions Regulator (tPR). As the name suggests the campaign aims to help people become more aware of scamming techniques and encourages people to report any they are aware of.
A poll commissioned for the campaign says that 32% of pension holders aged 45 – 65 have no idea how to check for scams or whether or not they are dealing with legitimate advisors or providers.
Those people who have been the victim of a scam lost an average of £91,000 each.
However, of equal concern is that only a minority of scams are reported, largely because victims feel embarrassed or humiliated by having been caught out. The Pension Liberation Industry Group suggest that pension losses could be more than £1bn over the last two years.
The most common tactics used by fraudsters are unsolicited requests offering a free pension review. Consumers are also told to look out for offers promoting fabulous investment opportunities and urging consumers to withdraw money from their pension pot.
Scamming pension pots has become big business since April 2015 when the over 55s were given greater freedom and access to their retirement cash. A prime example of this are the reports of 'sharks' and 'vultures' preying on British Steel pension scheme members.
Key advice from the campaign is to reject unsolicited offers and to check the FCA Register to see if the company is authorised by them. A professional advisor will never rush or pressure anyone into making a decision about a pension.
In response to the issue, the government is expected to introduce regulations later this year that ban all unsolicited direct marketing relating to pensions. In our view, it can't come soon enough.
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PDF2 PDF |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | Version: 02/16/21 - Introduced
SB-438 Redevelopment: enforceable obligations: City of Atascadero.(2021-2022)
Track Bill
08/26/21 August 26 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
08/19/21 August 19 set for first hearing. Placed on suspense file.
06/23/21 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 22). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
06/10/21 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. with recommendation: To consent calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 9). Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D.
05/28/21 Referred to Coms. on L. GOV. and H. & C.D.
05/24/21 In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk.
05/24/21 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 1234.) Ordered to the Assembly.
05/20/21 Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
05/20/21 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 1191.) (May 20).
05/14/21 Set for hearing May 20.
04/20/21 April 19 hearing: Placed on APPR suspense file.
04/06/21 Set for hearing April 19.
03/25/21 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 633.) (March 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
03/11/21 Set for hearing March 25.
02/25/21 Referred to Com. on GOV. & F.
02/22/21 Joint Rule 55 suspended. (Ayes 32. Noes 4. Page 272.)
02/22/21 (Ayes 32. Noes 4.)
02/22/21 Art. IV. Sec. 8(a) of the Constitution dispensed with.
02/17/21 From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 19.
02/16/21 Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print.


text:
<form>
<textarea id="code" rows="24" cols="80">
class Test:
     def run(self, b):
         self.a = 10 + b
         return self.a

print "Hello World"
a = Test()
</textarea>

<button onclick="runit()" type="button">Run</button>
</form>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Lenovo B40-30 review
A cheap business laptop? Yes, indeed!
By Desire Athow 2015-11-05T12:35:00.308Z Laptops and netbooks
1. Introduction and design
2. Spec and performance
3. Verdict
Lenovo B40-30
The Lenovo B40-30 will be a decent laptop if you can upgrade the memory by yourself. Otherwise, there are better alternatives out there for a tad more.
Nicely priced
Handy form factor
Neat design
Reasonable battery life
Trackpad is too small
As surprising as it sounds, Lenovo sells two products that carry the B40 name. One is an all-in-one PC and the other a business laptop, and we are reviewing the latter here.
Its bigger brother, the B50-30, was put to the test by techradar more than a year ago and both share some common DNA, as expected. Both belong to Lenovo's B-Series, a line of affordable laptops that target the booming small business segment.
Read more: Jumper X1 Convertible 2-in-1 laptop
This laptop was provided by Ebuyer and cost £179 (around $275, or AU$385) but you can get it for under £170 should you shop around. (Ed: Note that Ebuyer no longer sells this laptop).
This is a more compact machine than Lenovo's B50-30
There are three big differences between these two Lenovo laptops though, and the first is the form factor. The B40 (MCG27UK) has a 14-inch display compared to a 15.3-inch for its bigger brother. That translates into slightly better portability (0.17Kg lighter) and a marginally smaller frame (40mm narrower).
Then there's the fact that this laptop doesn't come with an optical drive by default, the opposite of the rest of the range. We believe this is more of a cost cutting exercise since there is still an empty bay where the drive ought to be and Lenovo does provide an option to add one.
The keyboard is okay but there's no space for a numeric keypad
The third difference and probably a deal breaker for some of its targeted customers is the fact that it doesn't have a numeric keypad because of the form factor. Ouch.
That's a shame. The laptop looks anything but basic or entry level; true, it is plastic but it's matte and sturdy. This thing doesn't flex and the slightly reflective exterior adorned by the (old) Lenovo logo shouts "I mean business" to us.
The keyboard is ordinary: six rows, non-dedicated function keys (boo!) but a dedicated menu button. The keys, with Lenovo's signature curved base, feel slightly soft (and quiet) and have a decent travel. Nothing to write home about (or indeed type home about).
The trackpad is rather too small
As for the trackpad, it's a tad bigger than a credit card with two physical buttons located at the bottom of it. They've got surprisingly shallow travel and you need to press them bang in the middle to get adequate feedback (i.e. hear a perceptible click).
Current page: Introduction and design
Next Page Spec and performance


The Original Oyster House restaurant first opened its doors in Gulf Shores in 1983. Our restaurant on the Causeway, overlooking Mobile Bay, opened in 1985. Since then we have proudly served the Gulf Coast the best seafood in a casual atmosphere with genuine southern hospitality.
Are you interested in working at one of our area's best known restaurants for great seafood, scenery and southern hospitality? The Original Oyster House is looking for good people who want to work in a fun, casual atmosphere with panoramic waterfront sunsets, caring coworkers and competitive benefits. Come experience a culture that thrives on service, recognition and financial reward. To learn more attend the Original Oyster House job fair at the Gulf Shores location on Thursday, Jan 31 from 10 am to 5 pm, visit www.originaloysterhouse.com/jobs or call 251-928-2620 x 109.


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Eggware.XYZ Blog
For Eggy News
Tag: retrospooktacles
Nightmare Ned was Disney's doomed dream
January 11, 2021 brilokuloj Gaming, Retrospectacles Leave a comment
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101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVil Manor haunts me to this day
December 15, 2020 brilokuloj Gaming Leave a comment
RETRO: Super Mario 64 [Spooky Edition]
October 31, 2015 Eggware.XYZ Gaming, Retrospectacles Leave a comment
Super Mario 64 did more than just bring Mario to the third dimension: it literally defined a new genre and revolutionized video gaming for the rest of eternity. It's impossible to overstate just how important Super Mario 64 was to the world of video gaming. Almost every single 3D video game produced after Super Mario 64 has drawn from its groundbreaking new mechanics.
But it's not all fancy industry-changing technology in the world of Super Mario 64. This game changed something else about the world of video games… it introduced a world of fear. With the new 3D world came new 3D horrors, and these scarred the minds of a whole generation of gamers.
Where would modern horror gaming be without Big Boo's Haunt, the Mad Piano, and Unagi? Although these kinds of scares may now seem simplistic, the world of horror would not be where it is today if they did not give us a glimpse of the potential that 3D games could provide.
After the jump, we'll see these revolutionary frights first hand, and learn about what it meant to see 3D fear for the first time.
RETRO: Tomba! [Spooky Edition]
Tomba! is a 1997 side-scrolling platformer released for the Sony Playstation by Whoopee Camp. Designed by Tokuro Fujiwara, creator of the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, Tomba is an interesting platformer-RPG blend involving solving quests in an open 2D world.
In Tomba!, the world has been magically corrupted by seven magic Evil Pigs and turned into a surreal land. The events of the game are sparked into motion when one of the Evil Pig's minions steals a bracelet that belonged to Tomba's grandfather, prompting him to go on an adventure to recover it. Along the way he meets the inhabitants of his world and helps them solve the problems that the Evil Pigs have caused with their dark magic.
The game itself is eccentrically humorous, and doesn't let go of its grip on that, to the point where it might be hard to see what's scary about a game with sidequests like helping a monkey find his pants. But this is October, and you know what that means: being designed by the same person who made Ghosts 'n Goblins, this game is filled with unexpected creepy frights.
Join us after the jump and we'll see ourselves just what kind of madness these Evil Pigs have caused.
RETRO: Banjo-Kazooie [Spooky Edition]
Banjo-Kazooie is a 1998 3D platformer game for the Nintendo 64 by Rareware, and is considered by many to be one of the best games for the N64 altogether. It involves a bear (Banjo) and his best friend (Kazooie) on a quest to save Banjo's sister Tooty from the evil witch Grunty, who is planning on stealing Tooty's vestal beauty for herself.
Although Banjo-Kazooie is widely considered to be one of the greatest hits of the 90s, that just means it's filled with what a lot of those great 90s had in common: pure, pure fear. Although Banjo-Kazooie is a light romp at heart, certain areas of the game are filled with unabashed fright. And no, we're not just talking about Mad Monster Mansion here – Mad Monster Mansion is child's play compared to how terrifying some of these levels can get.
After the jump, we'll journey with the bear and bird to the deepest, spookiest recesses of Grunty's castle.
RETRO: Ecco the Dolphin [Spooky Edition]
Ecco the Dolphin is an action-adventure game developed by Novotrade International and published by Sega in 1992. Starring the titular Ecco, a bottlenosed dolphin with a strange constellation-shaped birthmark on his forehead, the game was unique at the time for exploring the vast depths of the ocean.
"It's dolphins, right?" was the common refrain of most parents purchasing Ecco games for their children. Nothing could be bad about some nice, adorable, friendly dolphins! Even discarding the fact that real life dolphins are brutal and carnivorous, it was still a flawed premise from the start to assume that every animal protagonist would be as friendly as Sonic the Hedgehog… which was still a game with its own problems, but that's for another article.
Needless to say, this didn't pan out well for the children who received these gracious gifts. Just like Ecco himself, we'll learn to experience true fear after the jump.
RETRO: Donkey Kong Country [Spooky Edition]
Donkey Kong Country was released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo. It was developed by Rare, and was the first entry to make Donkey Kong his own standalone hero instead of a Mario villain. It was hailed as a gameplay and graphical masterpiece, utilizing pre-rendered CGI models to give a faux-3D look to the 2D game. However, for as impressive these CGI models were, they pushed the limits of realness closer to the border of uncanny.
Many of the things that made Donkey Kong Country so great were also things that made it down right spooky. Join us on a trip through the jungle as we reminisce on the things that made us wonder if 3D gaming was all it was hyped to be.
RETRO: 3D Monster Maze
Some fears are more primal than others. All things spooky tap into the darker parts of our mind, where our basic survival instincts lie, and exploit them to simulate experiencing a level of fear that people in modern society rarely feel. But perhaps one of the most primal fears is that of being hunted by something stronger and unstoppable than you.
3D Monster Maze was released for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1982, written by Malcom Evans for J.K. Greye Software. It relies on a deep, primal fear of being hunted. Hit the jump, and enter the monster's lair for yourself.
RETRO: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos [Spooky Edition]
October 5, 2015 Eggware.XYZ Gaming, Retrospectacles Leave a comment
Welcome to Halloween! Or as most people like to call it, October! This Halloween, we want to talk about some of the stuff that scared us the worst when we were kids. It's time to take a retrospective look back into the past with Retrospectacles' Spooky Edition, Retrospooktacles, where we will be not just looking through our old memories, but the things that made them terrifying!
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos is a Playstation game that was released on September 29, 1997 by the now-defunct Argonaut Games. It was originally intended to be produced for Nintendo as a video game starring Yoshi, but Nintendo declined and decided to produce their own 3D platformer with Mario himself. If it wasn't for Nintendo declining this offer, Croc could've been the first true console 3D platformer ever released.
Croc, to most people, might be a minor footnote in the history of 3D platformers. But to those who have played it as kids, we may just remember something very distinctive about it: it was creepy as heck.
After the jump, we'll explore why this Yoshi expy had reason to fear for his life.
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Visual Edge Technology has announced three new acquisitions, including another core managed IT services provider into its Netwise Resources brand in the Midwest, N2N Technologies of Indianapolis.
N2N has been a full-service IT provider of information and business technology solutions since 2008. N2N is known for its private cloud hosting platform that will now provide Visual Edge clients with a private cloud hosting option.
Visual Edge Technology has announced the acquisition of Office Systems of Vermont.
Visual Edge Technology has also acquired Business Technology Partners (BTP) in Orlando, FL. The management team of BTP will lead a 3-month transition, in an effort to move its operations to neighboring dealer, AXSA Imaging Solutions, Inc. (AXSA), also acquired by Visual Edge just last October.


text:
Top 100 People Dry Bulk Asia Pacific
23 Andreas Sohmen-Pao, BW Group
Sitting at the helm of a 400-vessel shipping empire, Andreas Sohmen-Pao continues to build up his leadership by swinging his weight behind an industry-wide carbon levy initiative and demonstrating his asset maneuvering skills
Under the chairman, the group now has an asset portfolio that includes the world's largest gas carrier fleet
Source: BW Group Sohmen-Pao: become a shipping mogul and opinion leader.
TIME has turned Andreas Sohmen-Pao from a media-shy family business heir into a shipping mogul and opinion leader, as his responsibility grows.
Recently, the chairman of BW Group and Singapore Maritime Foundation unveiled a new human resources network that aims to enhance the role of HR professionals in the maritime sector.
What has drawn greater attention is, of course, the proposal for a sector-wide carbon levy, which he presented during the Global Maritime Forum summit in Singapore a month ago.
The idea is to establish a green fund underwritten by the levy and managed by the shipping community to facilitate the pressing switch for the industry to zero-emission fuels.
"The [International Maritime Organization] has set the trajectory. Politicians are demanding zero-carbon shipping. This train has left the station," Mr Sohmen-Pao said. "Let's not be on the wrong side of history."
Mr Sohmen-Pao was leading a working group that shared the same idea. They hoped the plan could raise about $8bn for the green fund initially and expand the tally to $70bn within 10 years.
The appeal has also been heard by many others in the industry. Five of the biggest shipping associations are considering a similar levy framework, despite being less financially ambitious. And they want to present that to the IMO.
The increasing personal influence of Mr Sohmen-Pao, a grandson of Asian shipping magnate the late Sir YK Pao, comes along with the expanding footprint of his company through a series of asset manoeuvering.
In January 2019, BW Tankers completed its merger with Denmark-based Hafnia Tankers, creating one of the world's largest product tanker companies, with a fleet of more 100 vessels.
In May, BW Group upped its stake in liquefied petroleum gas carrier owner Epic Gas to more than 80% and garnered the chairmanship for Mr Sohmen-Pao in the subsidiary.
In November, a filing by liquefied natural gas carrier owner Flex LNG, a John Fredriksen business, showed that Mr Sohmen-Pao's company had become its seventh-largest investor with about 1% equity interests.
On the other hand, it sold a 10% and 5% stake, respectively, in very large crude oil tanker owner DHT Holdings and its subsidiary, BW LPG, earlier this year.
Today, BW Group has extended its reaches to an asset portfolio of nearly 400 ships of different types and sizes — including the world's largest gas carrier fleet — that it owns.
With greater power comes greater responsibility. Sitting at the helm of this business empire, Mr Sohmen-Pao continues to build up his leadership, a quality that has become ever more valuable for a shipping industry entering an uncharted new era.
Mr Sohmen-Pao also appeared in the Top 100 in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
BW Group plans to sell stake in DHT
Shipowners seek to seize initiative as inevitable carbon levy looms
BW Group sells BW LPG stake for $45m
Subject: 23 Andreas Sohmen-Pao, BW Group


The Scottish International Piano Competition is taking place at the moment in Glasgow. The preliminary rounds have just finished, with competitors from 15 countries. The semi-finals take place at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on 6 & 7 September, with the concerto finals at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 10 September with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Thomas Søndergård.
The competition, which takes place every three years, has announced a new media partnership with Classic FM; Listeners will have the exclusive chance to hear the final shortly after the competition. The programme will feature three concertos performed by the finalists. Classic FM will also share social media videos featuring some of the pianists via their Facebook page and on ClassicFM.com.
For the semi-finals (6 & 7 September), the players' recital programmes will include a newly commissioned piece by the Scottish composer Gordon McPherson, for the final (10 September) the competitors will choose from Bartok's First and Third Piano Concertos, the concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, Ravel, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens' Second Concerto, Rachmaninov's concertos and Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Prokofiev's Second and Third Piano Concertos, and six Mozart piano concertos.