text:
2021 FALL ARCADE ROAD TRIP STOP 4: PITTSBURGH PINBALL DOJO - BELLEVUE, PA
Flashback to 2016, the popular Pittsburgh Pinball League had lost its home. The location that the group had been hosting their regular events at was on a block that was scheduled to be demolished by and replaced with condos. When the city literally shut off the water to the entire block, the group knew that they could not continue to meet there any more. But where to go? Two members of the organization, real estate expert and the golden-voiced former PAPA pinball announcer Jon Replogle and the master of pinball Zen Jake Kolojejchick jumped into action. Along with several other group members, they purchased and renovated a former bowling alley, turned karate dojo and transformed it into a beautiful pinball paradise aptly named the "Pittsburgh Pinball Dojo."
When it comes to the annual Fall Arcade Road Trip (TM), I select all of our destinations and Rob is in charge of logistics. The Dojo was one of the must visit locations on this year's trip to Pittsburgh. Much to my chagrin, after looking into it Rob informed me that the week we were going to be in town the Dojo was only scheduled to be open on Thursday night, before our arrival. So I reached out to several members of the group and Evan Bookbinder and Jake Kolojejchick were kind enough to agree to open up the Dojo on Saturday morning for us to get pictures of their amazing place for everyone. And pictures we did get. I finally finished sifting through hundreds of them this weekend, cleaning them up and supercharging them like I typically do (what can I say, I like colors). Below is a list of what we saw, courtesy of Pinball Map:
24 (Stern, 2009)
4 Square (Gottlieb, 1971)
AC/DC (Premium) (Stern, 2012)
Alien Poker (Williams, 1980)
Aquarius (Gottlieb, 1970)
Argosy (Williams, 1977)
Attack From Mars (Bally, 1995)
Bobby Orr's Power Play (Bally, 1977)
Dialed In! (LE) (Jersey Jack, 2017)
Eight Ball Deluxe (LE) (Bally, 1982)
F-14 Tomcat (Williams, 1987)
Flight 2000 (Stern, 1980)
Ghostbusters (Pro) (Stern, 2016)
Grand Lizard (Williams, 1986)
Harlem Globetrotters On Tour (Bally, 1978)
Hi-Diver (Gottlieb, 1959)
Hollywood Heat (Gottlieb, 1986)
Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Pro) (Stern, 2018)
Jack-Bot (Williams, 1995)
Medusa (Bally, 1981)
Metallica (Pro) (Stern, 2013)
Meteor (Stern, 1979)
Orbitor 1 (Stern, 1982)
Paragon (Bally, 1978)
Pinball Lizard (Game Plan, 1980)
Ripley's Believe It or Not! (Stern, 2003)
Silverball Mania (Bally, 1978)
Sorcerer (Williams, 1985)
Spider-Man (Stern, 2007)
Star Pool (Williams, 1974)
Stellar Wars (Williams, 1979)
Super Orbit (Gottlieb, 1983)
Super Score (Gottlieb, 1967)
Supersonic (Bally, 1979)
Twilight Zone (Bally, 1993)
The Walking Dead (Premium) (Stern, 2015)
The Wizard of Oz (Emerald City) (Jersey Jack, 2013)
Wizard! (Bally, 1975)
World Cup Soccer (Bally, 1994)
World Poker Tour (Stern, 2006)
That's some lineup! I don't think that I've seen a few of those games, like Stern Orbiter 1 and Game Plan Pinball Lizard, anywhere else on location. As impressive as this list is, so is the lineage of many of these games. If one looks closely at my pictures they will see small labels on the coin doors of many of the games. Those labels indicate that the game was once a part of the now liquidated famous PAPA pinball collection. Many of these actual games, such Williams Grand Prix, were featured in the amazing PAPA pinball tournaments that many of us watched live and in person or on YouTube over the years.
In addition to hosting pinball tournaments, the Dojo is open to the public once or twice per week. All of the games are set to free play and visitors can play all that they like for one flat fee ($15 I believe). The venue can be rented out for private parties as well. The folks at the Dojo even conduct pinball skills classes for beginners or even more seasoned players who would like to hone their skills. The group has big plans for future tournaments.
If you're a pinball fan who ever finds yourself in the Pittsburgh area, you owe it to yourself to check out the fantastic Pittsburgh Pinball Dojo. Once again, thanks so much to Evan and Jake who took the time to show us around. Make sure to check back at KnappArcade.org often because later this week I will have a report on the Indiana Jones secret government warehouse of arcade and pinball games. Thanks for reading everyone!


text:
Greenport man charged with BWI after mounting breakwater
by Jen Nuzzo
A Greenport man was arrested on drunken boating charges early Saturday after he crashed his boat into the Greenport breakwater — a rock jetty that juts into the bay toward Shelter Island, police said.
Herbert Israel, 23, was traveling east out of the Greenport Harbor and struck the rocks shortly after 2:40 a.m., Southold Police said.
Mr. Israel, who was traveling with three other male passengers in their early 20s, was the only person injured, police said. He was taken to Eastern Long Island Hospital and treated for minor injuries, officials said.
Mr. Israel was charged with boating while intoxicated and is awaiting arraignment in Southold Town Justice Court, officials said.
Barbara Edwards Delsman, who has vacationed in Greenport for over 35 years, said that while it was startling to see the boat up on the breakwater, she wasn't too surprised because accidents are known to occur in that location.
"When I saw it I was relieved no one was seriously hurt or killed," Ms. Delsman said. "Accidents aren't infrequent at the breakwater.
"People have been killed there before."
She said police told her the driver was "pretty bloodied up."
[nggallery id=35 template=galleryview]
Town rethinks permit for house on tiny waterfront lot
School Board: Gym, FIT Center renovations are reported to be on time

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Taste the drink that has been savored for centuries in India and refresh your body and soul with the creamy blend of honey, vanilla, black tea and exotic spices. Big Train's Vanilla Chai is Kosher Certified, gluten free, contains no hydrogenated oil and can be made with water or your choice of milk. Enjoy hot, over ice or blended – Namaste!


One might have the impression that we'd stepped into the current century when we began being offered "library service platforms" instead of the traditional "integrated library system." But, in truth, these new platforms are faster horses more than they are cars (to paraphrase Henry Ford).
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
In Tennant's 2002 article, he explained some of the problems with MARC as a syntax as well as the MARC data elements themselves, and he suggests that the path forward is to begin with the requirements of bibliographic description (e.g. replacing the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules) and then create an encoding standard that provides more flexibility. Well, that's pretty much what is happening. It's just happening very slowly. It's definitely not happening in Internet-time.
In 1998, IFLA was developing FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records). FRBR is a conceptual model. The idea was to come up with a way to think about bibliographic description that focused more on the user's needs and then use that conceptual model to come up with a plan for replacing whatever needs replacing. RDA (Resource Description and Access) is the cataloging standard that is based on this conceptual model.
FRBR focuses on relationships. Prior to FRBR, a book was described both in terms of its content (author, publisher, year published) and its physical attributes (size, format, length). But that makes for a lot of duplication in our catalogs because there are many instances of things by the same author, publisher, and date (for example). It also doesn't take into account the relationships of things. And those relationships increasingly matter.
FRBR distinguishes between entities, attributes and relationships among entities. For example, George Eliot and Mary Ann Evans are entities and Middlemarch (the book, DVD, and ebook) are also entities. And all three of these entities have relationships that can be described with FRBR. Describing all these entities and relationships helps the user find related things, eliminates a lot of duplicate effort and creates a growing web of related resources instead of a clunky database full of single bibliographic records and their associated item records.
Use URLs to name things.
Include links to other URLs so they can discover more things.
My point is that the Semantic Web and Linked Data are also all about relationships. So, while we librarians are working on FRBR and RDA, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is working on Resource Description Framework (RDF) which is one of the standards that could make the Semantic Web a reality. The fact that we are all focusing on relationships is good news. We appear to be on the right track.
However, while we are developing our new, state-of-the-art approach to bibliographic description, we are still using MARC in our integrated library systems and library service platforms. The web, in the meantime, has moved on to XML because it is a markup language that is both human-readable and machine-readable. With XML, it is actually possible to describe the relationships between things living on the web. XML is the way forward for the Semantic Web and it is also the way forward for libraries.
Enter BIBFRAME. Per the Library of Congress (LoC), "The BIBFRAME Initiative is the foundation for the future of bibliographic description that happens on the web and in the networked world." The goal of the Initiative is not only to replace the MARC format but also to take all aspects of bibliographic description, as well as data creation and exchange, into account as they do so. In other words, there are working on getting away from MARC by using FRBR/RDA. As long as the LoC aligns their work with the rest of the World Wide Web, we may have a positive path forward.
Even so, BIBFRAME has a long way to go and the process of getting from our MARC-based systems to a system that bears some relationship to the rest of the computing world will take some time. My experience of the library system marketplace is that it is a big ship that doesn't move easily. I'd like to think that library system vendors are following the BIBFRAME Initiative and eagerly planning all the great things that they'll make possible once there is an alternative to MARC. But sadly, I doubt this is the case. Library system vendors have a captive market. No other industry knows how to deal with MARC (and no one else wants to) so there is some advantage to the vendors of keeping it that way.
But let's think positively. What might happen if we were aligned with the rest of the world using RDA and RDF and XML and we're all about relationship – just like everyone else!
Our patrons could become another "entity" with relationships to our resources and our spaces and our staff. We might also have information in our library systems about our community entities. Our job might be to help weave together the relationships between various community resources, library resources, patrons and staff. The great libraries are increasingly engaging with the community. This goes beyond "outreach" where we take our physical "stuff" to people or try to lure them inside to use our "stuff." Community engagement is about creating relationships and connecting resources of various formats and types and our library system might actually - someday - facilitate what we are already starting to do.
In the meantime, we operate in disconnected worlds. We use the web. We use our catalogs. We engage our communities. But our work on the web and with our catalogs and in our communities isn't integrated. Plus, we are marginalized from the rest of the networked world. The longer this situation goes on, the less efficient we are, and the harder it will be to build relationships between our resources and the resources already available out there on the web.
We need software tools that make sense for our needs today while simultaneously connecting us and leveraging the capabilities of the web. We need to start focusing more on relationships and become part of the great weaving together of stuff based on those relationships. The more time we spend fussing with MARC records that no one else can use, the farther behind we get. The work of the librarian is to connect the user to the thing they need, and yet ironically, we are completely disconnected from the vast majority of things out there.
So let's agitate for library systems that leave MARC behind. Ask for support for BIBFRAME in your next ILS procurement and keep abreast of BIBFRAME development, attend webinars, and provide feedback. Let's make sure the process to replace MARC doesn't take another decade, and that, when it is done, we end up with something that really will help us do our jobs and participate with the rest of the online community.
Berners-Lee, Tim. 2006. Linked Data. Available from https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html.
Breeding, Marshall. 2015. Future of Library Resources Discovery [NISO White Paper]. Available from https://www.niso.org/apps/group_public/download.php/14487/future_library_resource_discovery.pdf. This article was published after I wrote this article.
Library of Congress. Bibliographic Framework Initiative. FAQ and other useful information available from http://www.loc.gov/bibframe/.
Lorenz, Andrea. (2011). FRBR simplified. This nine-minute YouTube video by Andrea Lorenz is a good starting point for learning more about FRBR. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPBpP0wbWTg.
Tillett, Barbara. (2011). "Keeping Libraries Relevant in the Semantic Web with RDA: Resource Description and Access." First appeared in Serials, Vol. 24, no. 3. (Nov. 2011).
Bartlett, Sarah. February 23, 2015. "Is there a library-sized hold in the internet?" [Interview with David Weinberger]. Available from https://www.researchinformation.info/analysis-opinion/there-library-sized-hole-internet?news_id=1847. This reference was discovered after I wrote the article. It's excellent.
This article originally appeared in Collaborative Librarianship,Volume 6, Number 4, 2015.


text:
Opinion August 16, 2021 August 17, 2021 by Bossy
The WNBA: A Good News Story From 2020
Written by Stella McRobbie
Graphic by Ana Isaacs
The year 2020 turned the mundane, political. It turned facts into arguments, and it threw the world upside down. Cooking changed from necessity to coping mechanism; exercise, once avoided, now a survival technique. And sport became a political battleground. Which leagues were still operating? Who was wearing masks? Who was kneeling? Who was saying Black Lives Matter and who was saying nothing? Sporting leagues and players were thrust feet first into coming up with something other than "full credit to the boys, all eyes on next week." When the tiresome argument that athletes should stay out of politics reared its ugly head, politicians appeared ever more opinionated about the lives and decisions of athletes and their organisations. Some sunk and some swam when faced with this added pressure, but the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) rose to the challenge, determined to open a dialogue about racism in the United States.
One of the biggest political stories of 2020 was the Senate run-offs in Georgia, which gave the Democrats control of the Presidency, House, and Senate. In one of the two races that flipped the Senate for the Democrats, Raphael Warnock defeated Republican incumbent, Kelly Loeffler. The importance of these Senate run-offs meant that Kelly Loeffler's name was suddenly known beyond state lines, rising to national and even international recognition. But Kelly Loeffler wasn't new to the players of the WNBA – Loeffler owned around fifty per cent of the Atlanta Dream, a successful WNBA team with many key league players.
While investment in women's sport is usually a positive, Kelly Loeffler proved to be an antagonising figure within the WNBA. The league thrives on the labour and talent of women of colour, who make up eighty per cent of players. However, Loeffler was one of the outspoken owners in opposition of players taking action against racial injustice. This included 'taking a knee', an act that was very visible and common throughout the league. Loeffler supported the fining of players for wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts for warm-ups, instead of their approved pre-game t-shirts – fines which the league eventually rescinded and apologised for.
In the wake of the global pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the all-important federal elections in America, many players in the WNBA decided to take matters into their own hands. The Atlanta Dream hopped off the bus before one of their regular season games wearing 'Vote Warnock' T-shirts, and other teams followed suit. The players resolved not to let Loeffler's money and power scare them into submission. The Atlanta Dream players saw tangible change that they could make, even at the risk of their team's existence.
Sometimes support and investment in women's sport is treated like an underserved blessing. Critics frequently dismiss the Atlanta Dream and claim that they should feel lucky someone was willing to buy into their team. But women's sports shouldn't have to settle for less; the continued exposure and growth of women's leagues means the players shouldn't be beholden to whoever happens to show a modicum of interest. The players are not desperate for attention and support, they are deserving.
In women's sporting leagues, investment often comes with conditions: more profits, more dunks, quicker play, and whatever arbitrary improvements outsiders preach. But now, the players have decided that they too have conditions. The WNBA demanded owners and investment that recognises politics isn't separate to sport, it's an unavoidable part of the lives of women, and particularly Black women. Kelly Loeffler asked players to stick to sport – I bet a lot of players wish Kelly Loeffler stuck to politics, but if only it was that simple. If only sportswomen lived without gendered comments on Instagram, gendered dialogue in sports media, and gendered pay. These players are bound to the society they have grown up in, but this time, they were able to set the tone.
In the 2020 season, players sat out of games, took a knee, and wore shirts raising awareness of Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, and others. They encouraged people to vote and respond to the census by taking deliberate game penalties and even boycotting the entire season, which 2014 MVP Maya Moore did. After this outspoken activism from players, worry set in about the future ownership of the Atlanta Dream. Kelly Leoffler was eventually pressured to give up her share in the Atlanta Dream. At one stage, Lebron James put out a call out on Twitter for people to come with him to collect Kelly Loeffler's share. Following this, past player Renee Montgomery made the possibility of ex-player ownership a reality. As of earlier this year, she and two other investors now make up for Kelly Loeffler's ownership. One of the new owners along with Montgomery, Larry Gottesdiener, breathed a new rhetoric of decency into the Atlanta Dream ownership, stating that the team is "an Atlanta Asset … the dream isn't going anywhere."
In a year that felt void of good news stories, the WNBA has been an exception. The athletes, coaches, support staff, and organisational leaders have consistently proven that doing the right thing doesn't always come at a cost. The leadership shown by the WNBA Players Association and the courage of the players is an important reminder that we cannot wait for attitudes to change and for people to pay attention to important issues. Bettering the world is a choice, an active decision all of us can make.
Black Lives MatterPoliticsSportWomen
There's A Light I Cannot Reach
The Broken Compass of Student Politics


text:
Man Utd boss Rangnick responds to talk of Haaland signing bonus in contract
Manchester United boss Ralf Rangnick has rubbished reports of transfer bonuses in his contract.
It's been claimed Rangnick will be paid €10m if he can bring Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland to Old Trafford.
But when asked whether he would get a bonus for signing Haaland, Rangnick pretended to look through his contract, flicking through the pages...
"10 million for Erling Haaland, 10 million for Kylian Mbappe, 10 million for Robert Lewandowski, 10 million for Joshua Kimmich. Of course, this is nonsense, there is no such thing in my contract," he said.
"We haven't spoken about new players, and it's not the time to speak about new players. We have to get to know the current squad in detail. The current squad is definitely not too small. After Christmas we will perhaps have time to speak about new players. Winter is not the best time to buy players."


The new Executive Committee has met for the first time and as always is looking to improve our courses, create new Courses and make learning easier for members. If you have not attended a Course for some time then now is the time to phone Teresa to book a spot as over the last year or so Windows 10 has changed the way computers operate. Much easier when you know how.
Teresa Urutia is back from holiday refreshed and ready to receive your calls. Call Teresa at (04) 2983132 to enrol in your chosen course.
Posted on 06 March 2015 by Kapiti SeniorNet Inc.
We had a wonderful response to our recent Open Days. Over the 2 days we enrolled 40 new members and some of our classes for this term are now full with a waiting list. Please don't hesitate to contact Teresa on 04 298 3132 to reserve a place or get her to place you on the waiting list.
(04) 298 1916 and she will check your membership information.
At the last Q&A meeting on 19 February, our Tutor Lorna MacGregor presented a very informative and entertaining talk about her recent 18 day holiday in India. She is an accomplished photographer and has captured some very interesting insights into life in India.
Come along to see the Learning Center make over. What a great job has been done by the many SeniorNet volunteers. A great thank you to all who came along and gave of their time.
Posted on 19 November 2014 by Kapiti SeniorNet Inc.
March 2014 marked the closure of the Waikanae/Otaki SeniorNet Inc and the beginning of another chapter in my life. Waikanae/Otaki merged into SeniorNet Kapiti and membership was automatically transferred to Kapiti.
In the weeks leading up to the closure, I was asked on several occasions if I was considering staying with Kapiti SeniorNet. My standard reply was…."I don't know how to get there – I don't drive!" To be quite frank, I convinced myself that commuting from Waikanae to Raumati Beach via public transport was definitely not on my agenda. I got tired just thinking about it.
Coping with technology changes? Learning in an exciting but challenging time.
It won't have escaped your attention that technology is changing rapidly and if you are one of our many new learners, new to the tablet or the laptop or the desktop computer you may already wonder what possessed you to want to learn how to use one of these yourself.
Posted on 16 February 2014 by Kapiti SeniorNet Inc.
Welcome to the New Year, and here at Kapiti SeniorNet it is as hectic as usual trying to fit you all into your chosen courses. Do please be quick as many of the courses are filling up fast.
Phone Teresa (04) 2983132 or send an email to kapiti@seniornet.co.nz to book your place.
Also, Workshops for iPad and Android tablets, 'How Do I…?' and 'Question and Answer'.
Check the descriptions of the courses here.


After suffering his first professional loss, Brazil's Thomas Almeida returns to Sao Paulo for Fight Night on Nov. 19 - and he's hungry for vengeance. See what he worked on after his loss and how he feels for his fight vs Albert Morales.
Check out the highlight's from the official weigh-in for Fight Night Las Vegas, including unbeaten bantamweights Thomas Almeida, Cody Garbrandt and more.
Check out the highlights from Friday's Open Workouts at the Harley Davidson store near Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Hear from Cody Garbrandt, Thomas Almeida and more as we head toward Fight Night Las Vegas.
Thomas Almeida fights for finishes and the proof is in his resume. Almeida is 21-0 with 16 first-round finishes. Don't miss him take on undefeated Cody Garbrandt at Fight Night Las Vegas on Sunday on FS1.
UFC Minute host Lisa Foiles previews what's coming up for Fight Night Las Vegas this Sunday. This fight card is stacked so be sure not to miss the action on FS1 at 9pm/6pm ETPT.


Hi! Sign in to let us know how Dom's Alterations was?
Super Signs Express Aug 22 .
I replaced the phone number on Dom's sign and thought I'd let you know what the new phone number is: 727-247-7714. He's a great tailor and a great brother as well.
If you've been to or used Dom's Alterations, leave a review.


text:
Q: Content Type not enforced in s3 pre-signed POST I'm currently using the AWS javascript SDK to create pre-signed POST's. (note that this question is NOT about pre-signed PUTs/URLs, another s3 feature)
https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-js/
When trying to create a pre-signed post I do something like the following:
const params = {
  Bucket: 'myuniques3bucket',
  Fields: {
    Key: 'key1.png',
    'Content-Type': 'image/png'
  },
  conditions: [
    {bucket: 'myuniques3bucket'},
    {key: 'key1.png'},
    {'Content-Type': 'image/png'},
    ['content-length-range', 1024, 1048576], // 1KB to 10MB
    {'x-amz-date': amzDate},
    {'x-amz-algorithm': 'AWS4-HMAC-SHA256'},
    {'x-amz-credential': `${process.env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}/20180820/us-east-2/s3/aws4_request`}
  ],
  Expires: 300  // 300 seconds
}

s3.createPresignedPost(params, (err, data) => {
  console.log(data);
});

And I'm wrapping tests around the upload processes that should not work.  I'm finding that the content type is not enforced there as I can upload other file types with other content-type post params.
It's not clear to me whether the JS SDK manages the signing process for the user or if I need to do something special to get these various keys in the signature.
It's clear that I CAN do some of this, it's not clear if I NEED to.  Not sure if the library is supposed to be handling that for me.
TLDR; What do I need to do to activate content-type validation with s3 pre-signed POST's using the js sdk?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

A: The policy document is only specifying what the form fields must contain in order for S3 to accept the signed request as valid -- in this case, that the form must claim that the content-type is image/png so that S3 will store the object with Content-Type: image/png.  This mechanism doesn't actually validate the content-type of the object itself.  S3 doesn't have a way of doing that, nor does the JS SDK.
You could do it in JS in the browser or you could do it after the upload, using an S3 event to notify a background process that the uploaded content needs to be validated.  Post-processing images is probably a good practice, anyway, because you often want to strip out any inappropriate metadata, such as data included in some images identifying the location where the photo was taken.

A: You can just set your S3 storage to just accept certain types of files.
Look at the docs:
https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/s3-allow-certain-file-types/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Les Galloansérés (Galloanserae) sont un super-ordre d'Oiseaux. Selon la taxinomie Sibley-Ahlquist, la lignée des Galloansérés a depuis longtemps divergé des autres lignées de Néognathes dont elle constitue la base.

Systématique
Le super-ordre des Galloansérés a été créé en 1988 par les ornithologues américains Charles Gald Sibley (1917-1998), Jon Edward Ahlquist (1944-2020) et Burt Monroe (1930-1994).

Liste des ordres
Selon  :
 Anseriformes Wagler, 1831
 Galliformes Temminck, 1820

Étymologie
Leur nom est formé de « gallo » pour les Galliformes et « anserae » pour les Ansériformes.

Publication originale

Articles connexes
 Liste des Galloanserae de France
 Asteriornis

Références taxonomiques

Notes et références

Super-ordre de tétrapodes (nom scientifique)
Classification taxinomique des oiseaux

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET ), located at the heart of Kottayam, Mattakkara, Karimpani facilties and contact details are given here. Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET) is a quintessence of AMIE education in India. This college has a long list of credits attached to it. Visveswaraya is the only AMIE institute in India that is having "Limca Book of Records" for the most number of All India Ranks.
Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET ), located at the heart of Kottayam, Mattakkara, Karimpani . Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET) is a quintessence of AMIE education in India. This college has a long list of credits attached to it. Visveswaraya is the only AMIE institute in India that is having "Limca Book of Records" for the most number of All India Ranks, the college offers one of the most reputed and professional teaching that one could get. The prime moto of the college is to impart the AMIE aspirants with top of the notch teaching facilities so as to facilitate a brighter future for students. Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET), is result oriented and fully residential college, helping the AIEM aspirants to bag higher educations in IIM, NIT, IITs ect and also scoring high GATE score.
The college is located in Mattakkara, Karimpani, in Kottayam. The place is well surmounted by natural beauty and modern amenities. It is well connected to nearby city with a state of the art transportation facility. Apart from the existing transport facility VIET has a fully functional transport facility of its own allowing easy access to the college for the students and staff.
Today in this modern era the scope electrical and electronics engineering is on its rise day by day. The field was earlier a part of electrical branch but the exponential advancement in the field of electrical instruments with the coming of Integrated circuits and super conductors led to the formation of this branch. VIET provide a top class training for its students. The staff here at VIET are highly qualified and professional. The electrical and electronics lab in the facility could be competition to any top class facility. Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology provides 60 seats foe Electrical and Electronics branch.
A vast growing field in the world of Engineering is electronics and Communication Engineering. This is one of the most promising field in terms of placements. Major companies like NTPC, NCL, etc are interested in the branch. VIET provides a good platform for those aspiring to do B Tech in Electronics and Communication. It provides high quality class rooms, lab facility,library, computer center so as to motivate and mould students into a perfect professional. Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology provides 60 seats for Communication branch.
With the widened scope of communication the world is becoming a smart village and the distance between borders are decreasing and this has led to increase in demand of IT branch. The staff of VIET is dedicated for giving its students top class knowledge on the topics.
B.Technology in Computer Application is a new branch developed and a sub branch of Computer science. This branch also has an exponential scope in todays world and VIET provides a platform for its aspirants to outshine in the same.
Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET) has a fully functional library that has got hundreds of books which will be a boon for the students those who want to refer to these. The library is well disciplined with presence of library staff who make sure that complete silence is maintained in the library. Students are allowed to issue books from the library using their library cards and is to return within time limit failing which fine will be imposed. The library is well ventilated and comfort for students are taken care off.
Computers are also available which helps students to access internet and download e books that too free of cost. The computer facility helps the students to access information related to anything from the internet.
Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET) is a fully residential college. Which can provide housing facility for upto 1000 students. The rooms allotted to students ate top class with all required facilities. Generators ate present to fight the current cuts, allowing students full facility to study with out any hindrance. The hostel is looked after by trained wardens who at all times are alert to provide a disciplined environment in hostel at all times. The management sees to it that the students get access to water at all times. The clean and fresh environment of the makes the students feel like home.
Visveswaraya Institute of Engineering Technology (VIET), provides high quality food for its students. College mess provides morning breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner for students. And the menu for food is selected by students itself.
The college provide top of the notch computer facility for its students along with state of the art internet facility giving students access to information globally. The lab is under surveillance of qualified lab incharges and maintained under strict supervision.
Apart from academics, college also promotes co curricular activities for the complete development of students. The college promotes games and sports among students for both physical and mental development of students. The college provides bus facilities for students. The eco friendly environment of the college provides a nature friendly development of students.


text:
Song Premiere and Interview: Victoria Bailey "Christmas Must Be Tonight"
Interviews Listen & Watch Song Premieres
October 14, 2020 October 13, 2020 Melissa Clarke0
Americana Highways brings you this premiere of Victoria Bailey's early seasonal contribution to the Christmastime musical canon: her interpretation of The Band's "Christmas Must Be Tonight." Bailey's "Christmas Must Be Tonight" was recorded at Jazz Cats Recording Studio in Long Beach, CA and mixed and mastered by Jonny Bell. The lineup is Victoria Bailey on vocals and guitar; Sean Kibler on fiddle; Philip Glenn on mandolin; Eric Roebuck on lead guitar; and Jeff Livingstone on bass.
Here is our mini chat with Victoria Bailey, with the song link beneath it:
AH: What is the story behind recording this song? What made you want to cover it? Are you a fan of the original by The Band? Are they a favorite group of yours?
V: It's been a dream come true to track a holiday song. I love Christmas so much, and I am always ready for the early decorations put out at Target three months ahead of time, ha ha! The Band is one of my all-time favorites, and this song is so special to me. It is not a well-known Christmas tune, although it should be, and it was such an honor to shine light on this track and to put our own twist on it as a band as well!
I have been so inspired by The Band for quite some time now. I love that there are two completely different versions of this song, and I'm very curious as to why they chose that. It is an outtake track on their Northern Lights, Southern Cross album, as well as on their album Islands, both versions sung by the coolest, Rick Danko. Garth, Robbie, Richard, and Levon come beaming through, too. I think what I love most about this song is the purity of the story and vocals, as well as how it separates itself from mainstream Christmas tunes. This song brings me to such a peaceful place, and it is a piece of The Band that ties in their faith so beautifully.
AH: What kind of a vibe were you going for on this song when you recorded it? Do you think you ended up with a song that sounds like you expected it to sound? If so, how so, and if not, what's different about it?
VB: I definitely wanted to put a "Victoria" twist to the cover of this song. My band and I recorded it live around one mic, acoustic in-studio. There was so much beautiful energy in the room with the back-up vocals and string instruments, and it truly did feel like Christmas! We've had a lot of time together in the studio in the past few years working on my record and other projects, so this was such a special end-cap to the year for all of us. It turned out exactly how I wanted – raw and live – and it just really represents who we are as a band and who I am as an artist, as well as also trying to emulate all of the things I love most about The Band, too, and why they inspire me so much.
AH: When did you record this song? Was it hard to get into the holiday spirit at that time of year?
VB: We recorded it on a SUPER hot day in the middle of summer! Ha ha! So it was definitely a little tricky to get into the Christmas mindset at first. But we pulled through, and I kept saying "Merry Christmas!" throughout day to keep people on track. : )
Pre-order/pre-save link: https://ffm.to/6vd2jb. This could easily be your "go to" Christmas song this year. Just lovely.
Song Premiere: Jake Allen "More Than Meets The Eye"
REVIEW: Allman Brothers "Warner Theatre 2005" Double CD and "The Final Note – Painter's Mill Music Fair – 1971" Capture Excitement


text:
Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain
Robert W. Buccigrossi, Eero P. Simoncelli
We develop a probability model for natural images, based on empirical observation of their statistics in the wavelet transform domain. Pairs of wavelet coefficients, corresponding to basis functions at adjacent spatial locations, orientations, and scales, are found to be non-Gaussian in both their marginal and joint statistical properties. Specifically, their marginals are heavy-tailed, and although they are typically decorrelated, their magnitudes are highly correlated. We propose a Markov model that explains these dependencies using a linear predictor for magnitude coupled with both muitiplicative and additive uncertainties, and show that it accounts for the statistics of a wide variety of images including photographic images, graphical images, and medical images. In order to directly demonstrate the power of the model, we construct an image coder called EPWIC (embedded predictive wavelet image coder), in which subband coefficients are encoded one bitplane at a time using a nonadaptive arithmetic encoder that utilizes conditional probabilities calculated from the model. Bitplanes are ordered using a greedy algorithm that considers the MSE reduction per encoded bit. The decoder uses the statistical model to predict coefficient values based on the bits it has received. Despite the simplicity of the model, the rate-distortion performance of the coder is roughly comparable to the best image coders in the literature.
IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
Dive into the research topics of 'Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Image compression Engineering & Materials Science 100%
Statistics Engineering & Materials Science 29%
Wavelet transforms Engineering & Materials Science 18%
Statistical Models Engineering & Materials Science 17%
Uncertainty Engineering & Materials Science 12%
Buccigrossi, R. W., & Simoncelli, E. P. (1999). Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 8(12), 1688-1701. https://doi.org/10.1109/83.806616
Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain. / Buccigrossi, Robert W.; Simoncelli, Eero P.
In: IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 8, No. 12, 1999, p. 1688-1701.
Buccigrossi, RW & Simoncelli, EP 1999, 'Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 1688-1701. https://doi.org/10.1109/83.806616
Buccigrossi RW, Simoncelli EP. Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. 1999;8(12):1688-1701. https://doi.org/10.1109/83.806616
Buccigrossi, Robert W. ; Simoncelli, Eero P. / Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain. In: IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. 1999 ; Vol. 8, No. 12. pp. 1688-1701.
@article{07210a9bd0cb4c8cb52ca7459a8ecb17,
title = "Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain",
abstract = "We develop a probability model for natural images, based on empirical observation of their statistics in the wavelet transform domain. Pairs of wavelet coefficients, corresponding to basis functions at adjacent spatial locations, orientations, and scales, are found to be non-Gaussian in both their marginal and joint statistical properties. Specifically, their marginals are heavy-tailed, and although they are typically decorrelated, their magnitudes are highly correlated. We propose a Markov model that explains these dependencies using a linear predictor for magnitude coupled with both muitiplicative and additive uncertainties, and show that it accounts for the statistics of a wide variety of images including photographic images, graphical images, and medical images. In order to directly demonstrate the power of the model, we construct an image coder called EPWIC (embedded predictive wavelet image coder), in which subband coefficients are encoded one bitplane at a time using a nonadaptive arithmetic encoder that utilizes conditional probabilities calculated from the model. Bitplanes are ordered using a greedy algorithm that considers the MSE reduction per encoded bit. The decoder uses the statistical model to predict coefficient values based on the bits it has received. Despite the simplicity of the model, the rate-distortion performance of the coder is roughly comparable to the best image coders in the literature.",
author = "Buccigrossi, {Robert W.} and Simoncelli, {Eero P.}",
note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received June 9, 1997; revised March 17, 1999. The work of R. W. Buccigrossi was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship GER93-55018 and the GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. The work of E. P. Simoncelli was supported by NSF CAREER Grant MIP-9796040, ARO/MURI DAAH04-96-1-0007, and the Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology at New York University. Preliminary versions of this work were published in the Proceedings of ICASSP, Munich, Germany, April 1997, and in the Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Image Processing, Santa Barbara, CA, Oct. 1997.",
journal = "IEEE Transactions on Image Processing",
publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",
T1 - Image compression via joint statistical characterization in the wavelet domain
AU - Buccigrossi, Robert W.
AU - Simoncelli, Eero P.
N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received June 9, 1997; revised March 17, 1999. The work of R. W. Buccigrossi was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship GER93-55018 and the GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. The work of E. P. Simoncelli was supported by NSF CAREER Grant MIP-9796040, ARO/MURI DAAH04-96-1-0007, and the Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology at New York University. Preliminary versions of this work were published in the Proceedings of ICASSP, Munich, Germany, April 1997, and in the Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Image Processing, Santa Barbara, CA, Oct. 1997.
N2 - We develop a probability model for natural images, based on empirical observation of their statistics in the wavelet transform domain. Pairs of wavelet coefficients, corresponding to basis functions at adjacent spatial locations, orientations, and scales, are found to be non-Gaussian in both their marginal and joint statistical properties. Specifically, their marginals are heavy-tailed, and although they are typically decorrelated, their magnitudes are highly correlated. We propose a Markov model that explains these dependencies using a linear predictor for magnitude coupled with both muitiplicative and additive uncertainties, and show that it accounts for the statistics of a wide variety of images including photographic images, graphical images, and medical images. In order to directly demonstrate the power of the model, we construct an image coder called EPWIC (embedded predictive wavelet image coder), in which subband coefficients are encoded one bitplane at a time using a nonadaptive arithmetic encoder that utilizes conditional probabilities calculated from the model. Bitplanes are ordered using a greedy algorithm that considers the MSE reduction per encoded bit. The decoder uses the statistical model to predict coefficient values based on the bits it has received. Despite the simplicity of the model, the rate-distortion performance of the coder is roughly comparable to the best image coders in the literature.
AB - We develop a probability model for natural images, based on empirical observation of their statistics in the wavelet transform domain. Pairs of wavelet coefficients, corresponding to basis functions at adjacent spatial locations, orientations, and scales, are found to be non-Gaussian in both their marginal and joint statistical properties. Specifically, their marginals are heavy-tailed, and although they are typically decorrelated, their magnitudes are highly correlated. We propose a Markov model that explains these dependencies using a linear predictor for magnitude coupled with both muitiplicative and additive uncertainties, and show that it accounts for the statistics of a wide variety of images including photographic images, graphical images, and medical images. In order to directly demonstrate the power of the model, we construct an image coder called EPWIC (embedded predictive wavelet image coder), in which subband coefficients are encoded one bitplane at a time using a nonadaptive arithmetic encoder that utilizes conditional probabilities calculated from the model. Bitplanes are ordered using a greedy algorithm that considers the MSE reduction per encoded bit. The decoder uses the statistical model to predict coefficient values based on the bits it has received. Despite the simplicity of the model, the rate-distortion performance of the coder is roughly comparable to the best image coders in the literature.
JO - IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
JF - IEEE Transactions on Image Processing


text:
The Anti-Epiphany of Meta
A post on Media from the blog by Devin O'Donnell January 5, 2022
What hath the Metaverse to do with Epiphany?
It is still Christmas—even if only for a little longer. Then comes Epiphany on January 6. But what hath the Metaverse to do with Epiphany?
For materialists today, the role of sight, which figures so prominently in the ancient and medieval world, is often misunderstood. Moderns simply take for granted that what our eyes behold is all there is to see. But the old world was not so. It was haunted by what Lewis calls "the numinous." Both the antique and medieval man knew the world was charged with the supernatural—either with Hopkins' "grandeur of God" or with Aeschylus' dread of the furies. (Or both.) Man could have "visions" in the city or in the wilderness, and he could find to his terror or delight that there's more than meets the eye. So, the experience of an "epiphany" affects not only the physical sight but the spiritual and intellectual vision as well.
The word "epiphany" simply means a sudden revelation. At root, the word has to do with "light." In the light, the essence of a thing becomes manifest to oneself or to others. The epiphany scenes in Scripture bring greater recognition and realization of who Jesus is and what he means. Historically, the church recognizes three images in Scripture to mark the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth: the visitation of the Magi from the east (Luke 2; Matt. 2), the baptism of the Lord by John in the Jordan (Matt. 3:13-17), and the first miracle of Christ's ministry, the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11). Each of these scenes in the life of Jesus reveals something about his true nature and purpose.
In literature, however, the concept has taken on the idea of a more general moment of realization, to the extent that it has become a stock literary device. If you're Flannery O'Connor, your characters might suffer a violent and sacramental revelation. If you're James Joyce, however, your characters might be revealed as the unrepentant cynics they really are.
But the epiphany of characters, the manifestation of their true meaning and purpose, was not simply a way to entertain. Epiphany mattered because it was a glimpse into what is real. Consider, for instance, how the art of story was (and still is) a primary way in which a character is revealed. Conflict and suffering often function as a kind of lantern, throwing into relief the contours of form and the meaning of who the person really is in that moment. Thus, the substance of "character" is mediated through an event, one which "shows forth" a deeper and clearer picture of reality.
But this cannot happen in the Metaverse. We already know about "Zoom fatigue" and the false assumption that nothing significant is lost in the transition from in-person meetings to digitally mediated ones. We already know about the danger of what Roger Scruton calls the "reduced-risk" encounters online. We are perhaps already well-aware of the deception in "Hiding Behind the Screen," where, in the "screenful form of conducting relationships, I enjoy a power over the other person of which he himself is not really aware." But what about the Metaverse? If even our current mode of digitized relationships is already a problem, enough to stunt moral growth and compromise the healthy development of human society, then how much more the Metaverse? How much more is the possibility for an epiphany obscured? How much more the ability to behold revelation darkened?
Then the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened to the Metaverse, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed digital fig leaves together to make themselves absurd avatars.
The hubris of the Metaverse is ironic, that under the cover of false "skins" we can eliminate the hope of reality ever breaking through. Having been more conditioned to online activities in the last few years than ever before, humans are now beginning to grow so accustomed to outsourcing life online that what was once lampooned in the nerd playing Second Life is now a celebrated as if it were mainstream. With its layers of unreality, Metaverse is therefore the anti-epiphany.
We are losing the possibility of epiphany. It is not just visual noise that eclipses our vision, nor the digital din which now drowns out even the superficial song of the siren, let alone the meaningful sounds of silence and sense. Perception of epiphany is under attack today, adding a further annihilation of the moments of realization in our lives. The function of the Metaverse is a complete repudiation of epiphany, a demonic parody of its truth-revealing operation. It's not hard to see why something darker lurks behind Meta. Real life is our first life; in real life we have epiphanies. But in "Second Life"—and in its now more respectable sibling, the Metaverse—we only have reveries.
The Metaverse: Heaven for Soy Boys, Hell on Earth for Us
Zuckerberg Goes Meta
Living Virtually or Virtually Living?
Christmas and the Church Calendar
Devin O'Donnell
is the author of The Age of Martha (Classical Academic Press, 2019), a book on leisure and education. He was the Research Editor of Bibliotheca in 2015 and has worked in classical learning for over 15 years. Currently, he is the Director of Family & Community Education at The Oaks Classical Christian Academy. He and his family live in the Northwest, where he writes, fly fishes, teaches Great Books, and remains a classical hack.
• SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA EMAIL
Copyright © 2022 Salvo | www.salvomag.com https://salvomag.com/post/the-anti-epiphany-of-meta


Are there any trade/wholesale companies who create custom wood signs?
Discussion in 'General Chit-Chat' started by WhatsYourSign?, Feb 9, 2019.
I'm looking for somebody who makes custom wood signs at wholesale prices.
We need to order an 8x4 wood sign with depth (channels?) and painted.
Does it have to be wood? If you're going to paint it, HDU and PVC are less expensive, last longer, are easier to maintain, and easier to finish. You would need to cut into it with a knife to tell whether it was made of wood or not.
A quick google search will get you all the info you need. I've used CedarWorks, HDU Signs, and New England Carved Signs. They will carve them, paint them better than you can (unless you have a spray booth and an acrylic polyurethane set-up), apply gold leaf if desired, put them in a box and ship them to you for not much more than you could buy the materials for. This is the way to go unless you are like Gepetto living in the woods somewhere, and like the feel of a fine Swiss-made chisel in your calloused hands.
The client requested sustainable materials, so composites may not work. However, if it looks like wood that may be enough.
Ask the client whether he would prefer to kill a beautiful old-growth Western Red Cedar over using plastics made from refinery by-products that will last for years and put very little strain on the environment. The exhaust from the logging equipment will have more impact than the plastic sign.
I would be pleased to give you a quote. Please look over out website for an Idea about what we do.
Isa vs sgia tradeshows. Which should I attend?
Why are my R's Shifting in Trademarks??


A 30-year-old Regina male is facing numerous criminal charges including possession of a weapon and possession of a scheduled substance following an incident early on Monday morning.
On September 4, 2017, at approximately 2:21 a.m., a male was observed tapping on a residence door and window on the 1400 block of Retallack Street with the handle of a firearm. Shortly after, the male allegedly showed his firearm to two pedestrians on the same street. The male was located by police in a business on the corner of Dewdney Avenue and Robinson Street. The male was taken into custody without much incident.
–	Assault with a Weapon [Sec 267(A), CC].
STARR made his first court appearance on these charges in Provincial Court at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 5, 2017.


text:
SPEAKERS - TEXTS & BIO
Cyprus 2008
Cyprus: the history
Toward the Meeting in Cyprus
THE PLACES OF THE MEETING
TEXTS AND SPEAKERS
TV WEB SAT BROADCAST
AVAILABLE VIDEOS
MESSAGE FROM H.H. BENEDICT XVI
METHOD OF ACCREDITATION
HOW TO FOLLOW LIVE THE EVENT
ALL VIDEOS OF THE EVENT
PHOTO & VIDEO GALLERY MONACO 2011
Go to Home Page in english
ROME 2013 Religions and Cultures: Dialgue and Peac
PLACES OF THE MEETING
BARI 2015: Christians in the Middle East: what future?
Home Bari 2015
Partecipants
#SaveAleppo
HOME Firenze 2015
Fotogallery - #civilitzationsindialogue. Firenze 2015
Assisi 2016 - Thirst for Peace
Münster 2017 - Paths of Peace
Streaming programme
MADRID 2019 - PEACE WITHOUT BORDERS > ARCHIVE > ANTWERP 2014 PEACE IS THE FUTURE > A GANDHIAN APPROACH TO PEACE-PROMOTING AND PLANET-FRIENDLY ECONOMIC GROWTH
September 8 2014 09:30 | Thomas More, Campus Carolus, Room 006
A Gandhian Approach to Peace-Promoting and Planet-Friendly Economic Growth
Sudheendra Kulkarni
Hindu, member of the "Forum for a New South Asia", India
Honourable Chairperson Mr. Michel Camdessus; fellow panellists Rev. Martin Junge, Dr. Catherine Marshall, Ms. Thomas Leysen; ladies and gentlemen;
I thank the Community of Sant'Egidio for inviting me to participate in this important and timely inter-faith dialogue.
THE 20th Century was the bloodiest century in human history. It suffered two World Wars that took a combined toll of 67 million people. It witnessed a holocaust. It saw the b irth of the nuclear age, in which the enormous power of atoms was tested not in a laboratory or a desert, but on two Japanese cities when children were in school or playing, men and women were at work, and the morning sky, bright with sunshine, was suddenly darkened with clouds of death and destruction.
The 20th Century also saw many other wars and violent clashes after the end of the Second World War. In the Indian subcontinent that I come from, the partition of India, which gave birth to Pakistan, resulted in approximately 1.5 million deaths in Hindu-Muslim riots. It also led to the largest trans-border migration of people in human history – almost all Hindus and Sikhs in what became Pakistan migrating to India, and a large number of Muslims in India migrating to Pakistan.
The challenge, as we gather here to commemorate 100 years of the start of First World War, is: Can we make the 21st Century different from the 20th Century and all other centuries in the past? Can we make Peace the Future of Our World, which is indeed the clarion call of this inter-faith and inter-culture meet in Antwerp?
In this session, we are discussing how economy can serve the cause of peace in the future. But we should first understand how economy served the cause of war and violence in the past, and is continuing to do so even in the present. I shall present my views on the subject, which are gained mainly from my study of Mahatma Gandhi's approach to economics.
Many great humanist thinkers in modern times have preached nonviolence. All of them are worthy of veneration. However, what is distinctive about Gandhi is that his 'science of nonviolence' explored, among other things, the economic basis of violence. It also enunciated a new ethics-based and peace-promoting way of economic development consistent with the higher possibilities in human evolution.
Mahatma Gandhi's prediction in 1908 about the First World War
Today it is widely recognised that colonialism of western nations was the chief source of violence, war and exploitation. Gandhi had not only understood this more than a century ago, but he had also accurately predicted that the colonial powers would turn Europe into a theatre of a catastrophic war. In a prophetic essay titled Sarvodaya (which means 'Welfare of All'), which he wrote in 1908, six years before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Gandhi had pointed out that the main cause of the war would be the West's industrialism. This model of attaining economic prosperity for a few at the expense of many had created a limitless appetite for cheap raw materials as well as new markets. Gandhi had said:
"Western civilisation is a mere baby, a hundred or only fifty years old. And yet it has reduced Europe to a sorry plight. Let us pray that India is saved from the fate that has overtaken Europe, where the nations are poised for an attack on one another, and are silent only because of the stockpiling of armaments. Someday there will be an explosion, and then Europe will be a veritable hell on earth. Non-white races are looked upon as legitimate prey by every European state. What else can we expect where covetousness is the ruling passion in the breasts of men? Europeans pounce upon new territories like crows upon a piece of meat. I am inclined to think that this is due to their mass-production factories."
A lot has changed in the world in the hundred years since Gandhi wrote this indictment of Western imperialism, the most notable change being the end of the era of colonialism. Happily, Europe – at least a large part of Europe – has now become a theatre of peace. If Gandhi were to visit Europe today, he would have been pleased to see a united, peaceful and cooperative continent.
Nevertheless, there has also been a striking continuity. The Western model of economic growth with some variations has spread to most parts of the world. The big and powerful nations' instinct to aggressively capture sources of raw materials, especially energy resources, near and far, and their equally aggressive attempts to capture markets for their finished products, is very much a part of the commercial culture in the age of globalisation.
New forms of violence generated by a flawed paradigm of economic growth
Here it is important to know that the current model of economic growth has given rise to many new forms of violence.
Even though we have not witnessed, since the middle of the last century, mass killings of human beings on a scale seen during the two World Wars, violence of a different kind – and almost of World War proportions – has struck Planet Earth in this new era of hyper-economic growth. Economic 'progress' has resulted in — nay, it has actually necessitated — the most virulent attacks on the environment, the likes of which had never been seen in human history.
Forests, one of the most beautiful and benevolent creations of Mother Nature, have been felled with impunity. Oceans, rivers and other water bodies have been polluted, their effluents often reaching toxic levels and killing countless number of aquatic creatures. Man's savagery on the other species on Planet Earth can only be described as an unending holocaust. The irony is that other species are being exterminated in the name of the 'development' of the human species. Clearly, Nature's highest creation has turned out to be the worst destroyer of its other creations.
Another new form of violence in the modern era has been the massive disruption of that most basic, civilising, and naturally created institution of mankind: Family. It is in the institution of family that man is most human. It is here that humanising values such as love, mutual affection and care, and cooperation without seeking anything in return from the family, are more freely active than in other areas of social interaction. The laws of modern economics have no place within the family unit because human labour here is non-monetised and freely offered.
Sadly, nuclear family is becoming the norm in more and more countries around the world. This is largely due to the failure of national economies to meet the housing needs of the poor and middle classes in the age of rapid urbanisation. Traditional societies in the past had ensured extension of the caring ethos of the family to neighbourhoods and communities to a substantial degree. This ethos has come under relentless attack by the forces of lopsided economic growth. The rapid disintegration of family and communities has led to atomisation of society. Paradoxically, countries where family and community values have got most eroded are regarded as 'developed', worthy of being emulated by the developing and underdeveloped countries!
This degenerative process is no longer limited to countries of the West. Slowly, India and China, two large ancient civilisations, are also following the wrong footsteps of other powerful nations in pursuing consumerism-driven economic growth. The forced separation of migrant workers from their families, the dehumanising living conditions for the urban poor, the separation of ageing parents from their children in middle-class families, the inhospitable and even hostile nature of the urban environment for senior citizens, children and people suffering from disabilities, and the growing scarcity of living space and other basic amenities for all but the rich minority — are all these not manifestations of violence?
For example, healthcare, a basic need and an inalienable right of every human being, now comes with a price tag - and the price tag has made it unaffordable to the common people even in rich countries. Isn't it systemic violence when the sick go unattended, not for want of medical facilities in the vicinity but for want of money? And isn't it systemic violence when the undignified and hazardous living and working conditions for a large section of the global population increases their vulnerability to disease and death?
The compulsions of crass commerce have brought violence even into the realm of culture. The function of culture is to refine the higher senses of human beings, enrich human relationships and thus enhance joy in life. However, by converting culture into a marketable commodity, tempting human beings into becoming consumers of this commodity, deadening their capacity for refined aesthetic experience, and reducing joy itself to instant and yet momentary pleasure, the business of mass entertainment has only created an illusion of 'good life'. Worse still, the giant entertainment industry in the West — and now in India too — which in turn is aped by entertainment businesses run by the westernised elites in other countries, has actually inflicted violence on a huge scale on the diversity of arts, culture, literature, languages, dialects and spiritual traditions around the world.
All these multiple manifestations of violence have caused a moral vacuum and alienation in modern societies. Crime in many new and sophisticated ways (for example, cyber-crime), which has increased in almost every part of the world, is also a form and an outcome of alienation.
There is another, oft-neglected, form of alienation in the modern world caused by the economic and cultural tyranny of industrialism: man's alienation from mankind's own past as well as from mankind's future. Increasingly, we are obsessed only with the short-term considerations and aspirations of our finite existence on this planet — with the 'here' and 'now'. We have little concern either for our ancestors' expectations from us or for our own obligations towards the generations to come. This has resulted in a cognitive and behavioral disorder in the modern man.
At the same time, old forms of violence – wars of aggression, invasion and occupation, and civil wars – have also continued. In some cases, these acts of violence by states – the so-called War on Terror - have been in response to acts of terrorist violence by non-state groups, inspired by religious extremism and fanaticism. The mass killings of innocent people, the destruction of homes and entire cities, the ruination of places of cultural and spiritual heritage, and the internal displacement and migration of millions people as refugees in their own or alien lands, which we are currently witnessing in the Middle-East, are all a crime on humanity.
Not all the violence that is taking place in Syria, Iraq, Libya and in the Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza is directly caused by economic factors. Geo-political power play, deliberate and bigoted misuse of religious identities, and suppression of democracy have been the main reasons for the mayhem in the Middle East. Nevertheless, there is one major way in which economics – rather, the economic compulsions of the global armaments industry – has been contributing to these wars, civil wars and violent clashes. The businesses of the world's major weapons producers have been thriving because of this business of killing.
Truth (Satya) and Nonviolence (Ahimsa):
Gandhian antidote to old and new threats to peace
Does Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of Truth (Satya) and Nonviolence (Ahimsa)offer readymade formulas to overcome the multiple old as well as new maladies of the modern world? No. But it does show us the pathways to peace, and these pathways are illuminated by ethical principles that are indispensable for re-ordering not only the economic institutions, but also the institutions of politics, governance and civil society.
None of Gandhi's ideas are entirely original; they are embedded in all the ancient and modern religious-cultural traditions of the world. As Gandhi himself affirmed: "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Nonviolence are as old as the hills."
Look, for example, at this pithy but profound Gandhian aphorism, explaining the 'seven social sins', which the Apostle of Nonviolence regarded as the roots of all kinds of violence in society:
Wealth without Work,
Pleasure without Conscience,
Knowledge without Character,
Commerce without Morality,
Science without Humanity,
Worship without Sacrifice,
Politics without Principles.
Gandhi firmly believed that money and markets must be married to the imperatives of morality and justice. According to him, the introduction of justice and moral values as a factor to be considered in regulating international commerce was the touchstone of "the extension of law of nonviolence in the domain of economics". He declared: "Economics that hurts the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and therefore sinful".
Much of what Gandhi said or wrote about economics negates the foundational principles of modern economic theory and practice. "True economics," he affirmed, "is the economics of justice". He called it the first principle of every religion. He also reminded us that all the scriptures of the world, "which we (verbally) esteem as divine" denounce "the love of money as the source of all evil, and as an idolatry abhorred of the deity". They declare "mammon service to be the irreconcilable opposite of God's service".
One of the pioneers of the Green Movement, long before environmentalism had become the subject of global concern and a global campaign, Gandhi had exhorted: "Mother Earth provides enough to satisfy everyone's need, but not enough to satisfy everyone's greed."
One of the pioneers of the feminist movement, long before feminism and women's empowerment had become the subject of a global campaign, Gandhi had affirmed: "If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman." He said so because of his belief that the law governing human evolution requires the Survival of the Kindest, and not Survival of the Fittest.
One of the pioneers of the movement for nuclear disarmament, he denounced nuclear weapons as "a diabolical and sinful use of science".
One of the pioneers of Inter-Faith Dialogue, Gandhi not only preached but practised as a matter of his life's mission promotion of harmony and better understanding among all the religions of the world. His teachings are not unique to Hinduism, the religion he belonged to. They form the bedrock of all religions, and all non-religious humanistic cultural-social traditions, in the world. And he himself studied the basic principles of all religions, and incorporated prayers from all religious in his daily prayer meetings.
Five ideas for nonviolent economic and social progress
Friends, as we mark the 100 years of the beginning of the First World War at this Inter-Faith Conference in Antwerp, it is our duty to look to the next 100 years and beyond and ask ourselves: What kind of a world should we create for ourselves and for our future generations? Should it be a world that repeats the follies, tragedies, mass-killings and other crimes of the past? Or should it be a world that harnesses the moral power it has gained from the past to create a new future – a future without wars and violent conflicts, a future without old as well as new forms of violence, a world based on peaceful and cooperative co-existence among diverse faith-based societies, nations, cultures, civilisations and also altogether new inter-connected communities that are being born in our Age of Globalisation and the Internet Revolution?
The answer is obvious. It is obvious that A Better Future Is Necessary. What is not so obvious is that A Better Future Is Possible. It is our duty to dispel the atmosphere of hopelessness and cynicism by actively creating, through concrete ideas, dialogues and actions, a new atmosphere of hope and faith all around the world.
As the first, foremost and only organisation dedicated to global governance, it is the responsibility of the United Nations to develop, and implement, an agenda for the Next 100 Years for a world without wars and violent crimes. The UN should create this agenda in cooperation with governments, multilateral bodies, religious-cultural organisations and the global civil society. Here I would like to present, in brief, five actionable ideas for such an agenda.
1. Outlaw wars between nation-states
Big dreams need bold ideas and determined collective action for their realisation. Therefore, if we dream of a new future for the human species, a beginning must be made by declaring all wars between nation-states as unlawful and illegitimate. Waging or joining war in self-defence is regarded as legitimate under the prevailing international law. However, the legitimate right of self-defence of all nations in the world can be guaranteed by evolving a new system of bilateral, regional and global security. In any case, the old basis for sovereign nation-states is becoming more and more irrelevant in the age of globalisation and Internet-driven formation of new trans-national communities.
Indeed, the bold and visionary initiative of the European Union shows that sovereignties of nations in a regional block can be pooled without threatening the interests of member-countries or extinguishing their national identities. Several new regional collectives such as ASEAN, African Union, SAARC can enter into no-war pacts.
Since the end of the Second World War, member states of the UN have indeed come forward to debate and sign various peace and arms control treaties, including a treaty to curb proliferation of nuclear weapons. This has happened because of a growing awareness that nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) pose a threat to the security of the world as a whole. Some of these treaties have indeed produced good results, albeit partial.
Now the UN system must be energised to think big and boldly by outlawing wars between nation-states.
2. De-militarise international relations by re-orienting War Economy to Welfare Economy
The global military spending of nearly 1.70 trillion US dollars is one of the biggest moral scandals of our times. This has sustained a war economy that is mostly wasteful and potentially – if more and more countries enter into no-war pacts and arms-control treaties, leading to the UN outlawing war itself – unnecessary. The war economy has also marginalised the welfare economy, not only in poor countries but also in a rich country like the Unites States of America.
I am sad to note here that India, which faces huge challenges in development and people's welfare, has a military expenditure of close to $ 50 billion. China spends even more. Our other neighbor, Pakistan, also has a huge military budget that drains its resources from people's welfare. The same is true about many countries around the world. Indeed, big arms manufacturers, and the governments supporting them, have a vested interest in keeping disputes and conflicts alive.
Peace-lovers in all ages have dreamt of beating 'swords into plowshares'. Realisation of this dream demands a drastic reduction in military expenditures of national governments, especially big powers, and diverting the saved resources to eliminate poverty, hunger, disease and homelessness from our beautiful planet.
War economy, sustained and aggressively promoted by the military-industrial-political complexes in many countries in the world, must be dismantled. As argued earlier, emphasis should shift from national defence to a new system of global security and regional security, based on just dispute-resolution mechanisms.
3. Ban 'Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction' that cause 2008-type crises
At the core of the economic and ecological crises in our times is the reigning financial architecture itself, made up of giant banks and financial institutions that have more wealth than the combined GDPs of all the poor countries in the world, private equity funds whose operations are largely non-transparent, and regulatory bodies that have often been found to be weak or complicit. All these organisations are at the service of a giant economic beast whose interests are at odds with the needs of both the common people and the planetary ecology, but which is accountable to none.
This is not normal commerce as civilisations around the world have known and practiced for thousands of years. This is commerce converted into a global casino. And a casino enriches a few and pauperises many. The financial meltdown in the West in 2008, which sent the American and European economies into a series of interconnected crises, is an early alert about much bigger booms, busts, bubbles, recessions, poverty, trade wars, pollution, disruption of communities. Even a multi-billionaire investor like Warren Buffet has likened "unregulated financial innovations" to "financial weapons of mass destruction".
Therefore the time has come for the world to democratically reform the global financial architecture. The United Nations is the most appropriate platform for spearheading a globally participative and cooperative effort to discuss the design, rules and priorities of regulating global finance. It must attach the highest priority to elimination of poverty, hunger, disease and deprivation, and also to regeneration of the environment, worldwide.
The principle of "affirmative action", which many governments have accepted under the force of domestic democratic opinion, must be applied in the working of the reformed global financial bodies. In other words, the needs of the least developed nations (LDCs), and also of the less developed communities within rich or emerging economies, should benefit from "positive discrimination" in credit supply, interest rates, investment portfolios, etc.
The new financial and economic architecture should also encourage innovations such as 'Compassionate Currencies', 'Circular Economy' (which focuses on zero waste and sustainability), Trust-promoting Community Money, etc.
4. Marry Economic Value to Ethical and Ecological Value
It is no coincidence that the root words for ethics (value) and economics (value) are the same. Ethics is about values that guide us to live, and organise, life in the right way. Economics is about creating value through the agency of making and providing products and services that human beings need to live their lives. Therefore, there is an intrinsic connection and a human cognitive command for economics to follow ethics.
This ethic of creating humanistic economic progress must include protection of the priceless ecological wealth of our planet. Indeed, Gandhi had extended the concept of trusteeship – the concept that the rich and the strong in human societies have a moral obligation to take of the poor and the weak - beyond economics to the realm of the environment; human beings, he declared, "are the trustees of the lower animal kingdom."
In other words, man must become nonviolent towards the natural ecology of which he is an integral part. Homo sapiens must become a reliable trustee to other living species that are cohabiting this beautiful but fragile planet. Like the challenge of nuclear disarmament, this challenge too has become far more pressing in the post-World Wars era. Indeed, the biggest task here is to first heal the wounds man has already inflicted on Gaia, the Greek name for Mother Earth. Science and technology can no doubt serve as the healing agents, but man needs something more — the wisdom to know why he committed the crime of assaulting the environment in the first place, the readiness to repent, and the knowledge to save both himself and the wondrous web of life on this planet.
5. Big powers have a bigger responsibility
A key requirement of Nonviolent Economics is the adoption of the virtue of cooperation, in the place of unhealthy, unscrupulous and destructive competition, in all economic activities. As in everything else, Gandhi placed greater responsibility on big powers (which now includes China and India) than on small and weak nations to promote nonviolence and peace in international commerce. "Great nations (must cease) to believe in soul-destroying competition and to multiply wants and thereby increasing their material possessions".
This commandment was never more valid than in our times.
{BoxAntwerp2014ProgPDF}
{BoxDiretteAntwerpen2014}
MADRID 2019 - PEACE WITHOUT BORDERS
This site uses cookies to improve your experience on the portal.
Ok understood!
Don't show anymore.


Physiotherapists are allied medical professionals involved in treating patients suffering from joints and musculo-skeletal problems. They aid in increasing the movements and strength, by alleviating pain and help in returning to full function of the body parts.
These professionals work to improving mobility through various methods like exercise and electropathy. In the recent years, physiotherapists have become the most sought after para-medical professionals in hospitals. Many even extend their services to making house calls.
These days, the services of physiotherapists are not sought only for trauma, Parkinson patients and for the elderly. Physiotherapists come in handy in many situations and help us lead a normal lifestyle.
Headaches: Headaches are usually caused due to dehydration, malnutrition, stress but one more common reason is misalignment in neck and spine. By adjusting the alignment, your physiotherapist may relieve you from symptoms of headache and improve blood flow.
Joint and Muscle Pain: If you are experiencing joint and muscle pain and medicines failed to work, it is time to see a physio. A trained professional works on some spinal adjustments that will increase blood flow and nerve conductivity to joint and muscles.
Poor Posture: Wrong postures while sitting and standing mount unwanted pressure on neck, back and shoulders and it can cause the disc prolapse. In certain cases, a well-trained physiotherapist can provide pain relief without an invasive surgery.
Sharp Pain in Legs: Sharp, shooting pain in legs along with tingling, weakness could be a sign of pinched nerve. Visit a trained physio, to assess the exact cause and to alleviate unwanted pressure on the nerve and causing pain.
Inflexible Muscles: If you find yourself unable to stretch arms and legs, or suffer from a stiff neck, see a physiotherapist immediately. Adjustments by a physio aids in realigning bones and joints to relieve pain by increasing the range of motion for the body to function at an optimal level.


More people are needed to come forward to adopt children.
Children in foster care are being looked after in expensive placements outside North Somerset because there is a shortage of volunteers.
North Somerset Council hopes to encourage people to become foster carers during its Foster Care Fortnight, which runs from Monday to May 27.
Councillor Jan Barber, executive member responsible for children's services, said: "There are many myths about who can and can't foster which can often put people off from coming forward – but they aren't true.
"There are certain criteria which need to be met but we're happy to talk to anyone who's interested.
Information about becoming a foster carer will be available in Weston's Town Hall, in Walliscote Grove Road, throughout the fortnight.


ScorpionTrack Stolen Vehicle Tracking – S5 & S7 Category.
As of January 2019 Catagery 6 Now is Category S7 & Category 5 is now S5.
ScorpionTrack stolen vehicle tracker actively protects your vehicle against unauthorised movement using GPS technology and movement detection sensors. For example: if the vehicle is towed, lifted onto a low-loader or moved without driver cards (in the case of a ScorpionTrack Category 5 system (now S5).
Upon unauthorised movement detection ScorpionTrack will discretely notify our international control centre of a possible theft. ScorpionTrack is able to provide, speed, direction, ignition state, battery condition and location details to the Police control room in the event of a theft. Subject to environmental variables, ScorpionTrack is accurate to within 10 metres.
Cars – Van – Motorhome – Plant – Boat & Motorcycle.
Thatcham Accredited, Insurance Approved – including 2 automatic driver recognition cards as standard.
Scorpion Track 24 /7 / 365 Secure Monitoring Centre provides our customers with the peace of mind that comes from knowing their vehicle security is in the very best hands – every minute, hour and day of the year.
ScorpionTrack and ScorpionTrack S5 have been subjected to the rigorous Thatcham test requirements to meet their TQA level in vehicle tracking system approval. This will cater for any insurance company TQA tracking system requirement.
The ScorpionTrack S5 is a sophisticated GPS tracking system that has been awarded Thatcham Category S5 accreditation and includes driver card identity tags to ensure the vehicle is detected as stolen even if the keys are stolen too. It also includes remote vehicle immobilisation by our control centre to catch the thieves red handed. Category 5 is often a requirement of vehicle insurance policies for high value, sports, classic and prestige vehicles but it is also sought after by those concerned with losing their vehicles as a result of key theft or hi-jacking.
Our 24 /7 / 365 Secure Monitoring Centre provides our customers with the peace of mind that comes from knowing their vehicle security is in the very best hands – every minute, hour and day of the year. All of this along with Thatcham approval to the highest standard ensures the best accuracy currently available through such technology.
ScorpionTrack S5-VTS has been subjected to the rigorous Thatcham test requirements to meet their TQA level in vehicle tracking system approval. This will cater for any insurance company TSC tracking system requirement.
Protect Your Vehicle Today CALL TTW Installations ABOUT OUR Range Of Security Solutions.
"Install a ScorpionTrack Stolen Vehicle Tracking system and get its free mobile app allowing you to remotely access and manage a variety of vehicle security and convenience features".
Find Out More About ScorpionTrack Tracking?
Please contact us on the form below if you would like any more info on the tracking solutions, or just give us a call on 01159 599 995.


text:
Rockin' Gibraltar
Hercules is said to have moved the two mountains flanking the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea as part of his Twelve Labors of Greek mythology. Gibraltar is conclusively the northern pillar, though there's some dispute of the location of the southern half in Africa. There's also some disagreement over the years as to whether Hercules was narrowing or widening the strait between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean.
In any case, the Rock of Gibraltar got its name not from Greek mythology, but the 711 AD Muslim invasion by Tangier governor Tariq ibn Ziyad. Say "Jebel Tariq" (Tariq's mountain) with an exhausted slur, and you'll get Gibraltar, the name of the rock and the tiny country surrounding it.
This 426-meter limestone ridge is so strategically important that it's been passed around for centuries. Castilla (Spain) got it back from the Muslims in 1462. In 1704 it was captured by an Anglo-Dutch fleet, and Spain ceded it to Britain in 1713. In the twentieth century, Spain's Franco wasn't the least bit pleased about the situation and closed the border from 1967 to 1985. Gibraltarians always decisively recommit to British sovereignty under an arrangement of self-government.
Queensway Quay, where we stayed, is the base for local and visiting yachts, in a harbor that's enormous and busy. In a place that's only an area of 6.5 kilometers, it's close to everything else in town. Fuel is cheap, so Gibraltar is a great place to stop, if only to top off the tanks. Special tax status has helped Gibraltar gain economic strength through tourism and financial services.
These adorable macaques wander freely around the Rock. They're known as the Barbary Apes, though they're technically monkeys. Legend has it that Gibraltar will remain British for as long as the Barbary apes are there. The British take this very seriously. Until recently, their care was overseen by the British military, and Churchill took a personal interest in their well-being during World War II.
Gibraltar has always been a strategic location, and the British took no chances during World War II. A team of 5000 men and 300 women embarked on a three-year project to build a web of tunnels inside the Rock. Planes arrived unassembled inside of crates, and were assembled out of sight, ready for departure from the runway that is still Gibraltar's airport. The people working inside had no sense of day or month in the cool darkness inside the mountain.
Gibraltar's airport is currently under renovation, and it's about time. The runway crosses the road into the country (that's Spain, just beyond the airport). Thus, like a train crossing, traffic has to stop whenever a flight comes in. The access road is currently being rerouted. That doesn't fix the fact that the short runway crosses a thin peninsula with ocean on either side of it. Myself, I'd fly into Spain and drive in.


Say "no" to FOMO (fear of missing out) by saying 'yes' to another exciting concert event that has kept everybody Oakland wide awake in eager anticipation! News has gone viral about Arijit Singh making its way to this side of town on Saturday 6th April 2019 at the Oracle Arena. Don't miss out on the likes, shares, comments, and wow reacts that would flood your feed from people who have gone out to book their tickets. Get yours now!
Your voices have been heard. Your clamor has gotten their attention. Now, they're on their way, following the live concert circuit leading to California, for Oakland. Indeed, Arijit Singh is headed this way, to rock this side of town with a live showcase on Saturday Saturday 6th April 2019. Fans have locked and loaded tickets to the show, faster than you can say 'I want tickets!'. Don't get caught unawares and empty-handed. Arm yourself with tickets that would secure your spot where you can just let your hair down and bask in the music of Arijit Singh. They're coming your way, so get those tickets right here right now!