text:
California: Farm Workers
Victoria Island Farms, owner of the property on which six migrant labor camps with "deplorable conditions" were found in San Joaquin County in 2000, agreed to pay $542,969 in September 2001 to settle a lawsuit filed by California Rural Legal Assistance on behalf of some of the workers who lived in the camps. Some 1,200 Victoria Island employees who worked in the asparagus fields from 1997 through 2000 may file claims.
However, as of April 2002, about two-thirds of the back-wage funds, some $350,000, had not been claimed. Victoria Island spent more than $172,000 to improve the camps, and issued a statement which said: "the settlement reflects the parties' full faith that the high quality asparagus produced by Victoria Island Farms is produced under the best conditions in the industry by workers who are properly paid and housed in accordance with the law."
There will be a trial on a separate suit against JB Farm Labor Contracting in October 2002. Jose Bautista and Otilio Bautista operated the camps, which are located near Victoria Island Bridge off Highway 4 west of Stockton.
Sunmet. Sunmet, owned by Merjan Financial Corp, was a 10,000-acre operation in the San Joaquin Valley that produced $40 million a year worth of almonds, grapes, apples, peaches and plums with 470 full-time and 4,000 seasonal workers. William J. Barkett of La Jolla bought the land from the MetLife insurance company with an $85 million loan from Credit Suisse in December 1997.
In June 1999, Credit Suisse filed a foreclosure suit against Barkett and began to operate the farm; it has since sold the land. Barkett countersued, alleging that Credit Suisse set him up to fail, and wanted to reacquire the land. The bankruptcy receiver did not pay creditors, including farm labor contractor Ruben Beas Agricultural Services of Madera, who was owed $500,000, so Beas went bankrupt without paying 340 farm workers the wages they were owed, an average $335.
The bankruptcy court in April 2002 released $114,000 of the $189,000 owed to Beas so that Beas workers could be paid. However, many of the workers could no longer be found, and the remaining $75,000, if the workers do not claim it, will go to the IRS and EDD. A series of newspaper stories on the Sunmet case, "Dirt Cheap" by Sacramento Bee reporter Andy Furillo in May 2001, won the Harry Chapin Media Award: http://www.sacbee.com/static/archive/news/projects/workers/
Hand Weeding. The short-handled hoe, which is two-to-three feet long, so that workers were forced to bend over, was banned in 1975, based on medical evidence that it caused degeneration of the spine, back injury and potentially permanent disability.
In July 2002, farm worker organizations petitioned Cal-OSHA to amend the General Industry Safety Orders 3456, Hand-Held Tools, to extend the ban on the short-handled hoe to hand weeding- some employers have reportedly ordered workers to weed by hand, which also requires bending. The revision would specifically prohibit use of tools that require or result in a worker "stooping, kneeling or squatting." Violation of the standard could result in a penalty of $500 per employee, for each violation.
A long-handled tool would be defined as a tool that is at least four feet long and able to be used by the worker without stooping, kneeling or squatting. The petition allows an exemption for crops grown under continuous plastic mulch or woven cloth sheets if the use of a long-handled tool is not possible. In such cases, employers would be required to provide workers with protective clothing and equipment such as knee pads.
Transportation. The Agricultural Industries Transportation Services program was launched in Kings county in April 2002, with the goal of eventually allowing 100,000 farm workers to ride to and from work in worker-driven vans that have been certified as safe by the California Highway Patrol. Using federal and state grants, 48 15-passenger vans and four 28-seat buses were purchased.
Under the AITS program, drivers lease the vans for $750 a month, and then collect $60 to $70 a month from fellow workers for rides to work; the grant pays the cost of fuel and maintenance. Drivers can use their vans only for work.
Labor Law Enforcement. The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) was established in 1927; it now enforces workplace safety and health laws for more than 14 million California workers and 1.3 million employers. On July 1, 2002, DIR established a new license verification unit to help agricultural growers verify the status of the farm labor contractors who bring workers to their farms.
Growers can go to http://www.FLCLicensingVerification@hq.dir.ca.gov and send an email with the information on the FLC they plan to use to get workers, and save the response they receive within 24 hours to demonstrate compliance. DIR says: "There is no longer any reason for unlicensed farm labor contractors to be hired and for agriculture workers to run the risk of not being paid." Farm employers who do not verify the status of their FLCs may be liable for unpaid wages and fines.
In San Diego county, a group of eight teenagers who attacked five Mexican farm workers in their 60s on July 5, 2000 were sentenced in June 2002 to terms ranging from four months in a youth detention camp to at least three months in adult prisons. The case involved Proposition 21, a 2000 state law that allows prosecutors to try juveniles as adults for violent offenses without a judge's approval.
The legal farm workers who were beaten sued the families of the teens and received $1.4 million in a settlement.
Workers Compensation. If a worker is injured on the job, the employer's worker's compensation pays for medical treatment and partially replaces lost wages. Workers compensation is typically the most expensive mandatory payroll tax for employers, costing many farmers 10 to 20 percent of the wages that are paid because, for instance, workers who climb ladders or work with livestock suffer frequent injuries.
California employers pay about $11 billion a year in worker's compensation premiums, equivalent to $1.49 per $100 in wages paid; the total costs of benefits paid was about $9 billion. California employees file about one million claims for worker's compensation benefits a year, and they receive some of the lowest worker's compensation benefits in the US. However, many California employers assert many of the worker claims filed are fraudulent. The state says that many employers also commit fraud by underreporting their payrolls, or by misclassifying workers into lower rate classes.
Goleta National Bank in Santa Barbara has introduced an ATM debit card for farmers to pay workers that has no fees or check cashing charges.
Ben Fox, "Teens sentenced for attack on Mexican workers in San Diego," AP, June 28, 2002. "Van leasing Program Targets Farm Workers," Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2002. Kerri Ginis, "Nation's First -- Program lets farm laborers lease vehicles to transport others," Fresno Bee, April 24, 2002. Andy Furillo, "$114,000 payday awaits farm workers left in lurch by bankruptcy," Sacramento Bee, April 15, 2002. "$350,000 from farmworker settlement remains unclaimed," AP, April 3, 2002.


text:
Q: How to make a function to recover period of times in React-native? Iwould like to select multiple periode of times in react-native and I'm pretty lost to do it.
I understand I need to use "Moment" but I'm a little stuck...
For example I guess that "last week" is "moment().subtract(6, 'days').calendar();"
But how to check the last week for example from monday to last sunday ?
Thanks a lot for any help
The function I"d like to set up is :
export default class MyTrips extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
this.state = {
      currentDate: new Date(),
      markedDate: moment(new Date()).format("YYYY-MM-DD"),
  };
  }

      execAction = (val) => {
        switch (val) {
          case "this week":
          moment().subtract(6, 'days').calendar();
            break;
          case "Last week": (from monday to last sunday)
            break;
          case "this month":
             moment().subtract(1, 'month').calendar();
            break;
          case "Last month": (last entire month)
            break;
          case "This year":
               moment().subtract(1, 'year').calendar();
            break;
          case "Last year":
            break;
          case "30 last days":
             moment().subtract(30, 'days').calendar();
            break;
          case "90 last days":
             moment().subtract(90, 'days').calendar();
              break;
          case "12 last months":
             moment().subtract(12, 'months').calendar();
            break;
      default:
          //Alert.alert("[" + val + "] No action defined...");
        }
      };

A: You can call moment().startOf('week') to get to the beginning of this week, from there you can move to last week like this:
moment().startOf('week').subtract(6, 'days').calendar()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Rewards are not just limited to a big bonus, a fat raise in the compensation or lavish monthly party, as it may not be financially feasible for many small companies. But, there can be many out of the box ideas, which can be innovative, cost effective and highly motivational.
It's an idea that counts. Any new way to motivate your employee also boosts motivation as well as promotes them innovate and think apart from traditional ways.
Different employees have different capabilities, which are well known by their employers. Giving some extra responsibilities apart from their routine jobs, can make them feel more capable of performing better for their company.
Praise is one thing that doesn't cost a penny, but works more than any other type of motivation in any field of life. An appreciation of employee's efforts can make him feel dedicated for you and can do wonders in increasing more dedications. This reward can certainly changes mind setup of anybody to more positive thinking. Praising in presence of other employees can also motivate others to perform better.
Giving more responsibility involves more time and efforts. Giving your employees flexibility in performing extra responsibilities removes burden of turnaround time, keeps their nerves calm and mind to think of innovative ways to do job. This also provides them freedom to manage their schedules accordingly, and enable them to spend time with their loved ones too, while doing extra jobs, which ultimately boosts their performances.
Saying Thank You, can be very useful to praise an employee, and if it is accompanied by small gift card or a coupon can do magic. Small gift card of nearest coffee shop or shopping can motivate your employee with some personal touch. It my cost you some bucks but not a fortune.
Setting examples isn't easy, but many employees perform very well to serve the purpose of best motivation for other employees. Showcasing them as an example is the best way to set a stage for every employee to reach those heights.
POPTeam has come out with an innovative idea to showcase any employee. They have realized that employee recognition is the key to success. You can reward the most important outcomes people create for your business.
They create custom "POPtraits" to celebrate your team. Just send them the photos… They Pop, Print, Ship. Ready to hang. The POPs can also be used for internal awards, events. Maybe for Holiday Gifts? You can even have Holiday Gifts for office teams and for their families. You can also have corporate gifts for your esteemed clients.
These reward ideas can be worked out immediately and at no cost or at very low cost. These rewards can improve satisfaction among your employees and can boost their productivity.
Let us know other innovative ideas that you can have at your workplace to motivate your employees.


Drakulverne > Public Forums > Registration > Lost Access?
If you previously saw the private forums but cannot anymore, just post again asking for access. I did some cleanup of the user groups removing folks who hadn't been here in over a year. Just post and I will fix it.


Only modified files are downloaded and stored.
If the file is in an older backup, it moves it into the latest backup folder and leaves a reference in the older backup to it so that the older backup can be easily restored. It also checks what other backups reference to it and modifies them also.
This allows SiteVault to easily reconstruct older backups while keeping the newest information handy.
You want to run a periodical and intelligent ftp backup.
The SiteVault incremental FTP backup functions this way: A first FTP backup is done and the information is transferred locally from the server.
The second time you backup only the modified or newly added files are downloaded and the filed from the previous backup that haven't changed are moved to the current backup folder while recording that it did so, allowing you to restore the site as it was at a certain date.
This is fast and accurate taking the shortest possible time for your site backup.


I'm not sure about you but each season there are a few colours that I'm drawn to more so than usual. This yeah I've noticed that along with my usual forest green, navy and maroon mustard yellow has caught my eye. I'm not sure yet how I would style it but I like it. I think if done well it's a colour that you can carry forward in years to come.
So an idea came to me and I'm not sure how to title it but essentially I want to create targeted colour collages of my fave fall colours and make individual posts about it. I'll start with my year round fave forest green or hunter green. Which ever you want to call it.
You know I can wax poetic about colours and shades so I'll try not to be too extra when I describe what the green shade feels like to me when I think of fall.
Green trees endless fields, horses on the trail of fervent hunt dogs tirelessly tracking their prey. It's the hunter moving swiftly through trees of deepest green and brightest reds. It's the joy of hay rides through apple orchards and the scent of harvest. It's form and poise. Refined with an edge. It's rich and vibrant full of depth and dimension, full of movement.


text:
Mother of 13-year-old shark attack victim says he got 'very, very lucky'
Keane Webre-Hayes was seriously injured in the attack.
ByMark Osborne
Keane Webre-Hayes, 13, is pictured in his hospital bed at Raby's Childrens Hospital in San Diego after surviving a shark attack on Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018.
Keane Webre-Hayes is still laid up in a hospital bed two days after he was attacked by a shark off a San Diego beach, but he's already making plans to get back in the ocean.
Hayes' mother, Ellie, spoke at a press conference on Monday evening and said her son is slowly recovering from serious bite wounds to his upper back, left arm and shoulder and left side of his face.
"Today someone brought him a mask and a snorkel, and he feels pretty determined in this moment he is going to get back out there," Ellie Hayes said. "He said, 'Mom the chances are so much more slim for a second bite.'"
Ellie Hayes, the mother of Keane Webre-Hayes, reacts as she speaks about her son's recovery, alongside her husband, Ben, right, at a hospital Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, in San Diego. Webre-Hayes was expected to recover after a shark attacked him while he dived for lobsters in Southern California.
The 13-year-old was swimming at Beacon's Beach and looking for lobsters in Leucadia, California, just north of San Diego, when he was attacked by the shark, authorities said. Webre-Hayes, who was in water about 9 feet deep, was rushed to shore by lifeguards and good Samaritans and eventually airlifted to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, where his mother spoke Monday.
"We got blessed on Sunday -- we got very, very lucky. We know it and we are thankful," Ellie said. "Keane is really special. ... He is very brave, very strong, athletic. I don't know. He's a warrior; I didn't know he was that good of a swimmer, so I'm really proud of him."
(MORE: 13-year-old boy attacked by shark near San Diego, airlifted to trauma center)
Keane was listed in critical condition Sunday and underwent immediate surgery after arriving by helicopter at the hospital. Dr. Tim Fairbanks, the hospital's chief of pediatric surgery, said Monday he's been upgraded to serious condition.
"It has been an honor to take care of Keane and his family during this time, and I also want to let you know our work is not done yet," Fairbanks said. "We are thrilled to be where we are right now, but we still got to get him across the finish line, and get him all the way better."
Doctors shared a photo of a smiling Keane in his hospital bed, with his left shoulder and left side of his face showing the fresh wounds caused by the shark's bite.
His mother thanked three men who were in a kayak nearby when her son was attacked and helped to get him to shore.
"Thank you so much," she offered the good Samaritans. "Keane has been asking for them. I just want to say 'thank you' to all three of them. Without what they did, we would be having a whole different scenario. Keane has been asking for them and just real quick his eyes haven't welled up until he asked for the people who saved his life."
(MORE: How to stay safe from shark attacks this summer)
The family said they did not want to discuss the full extent of Keane's injuries, but they do expect him to make a good recovery, even if the scars will remain. Doctors emphasized that Keane said he was thankful all of his limbs were in tact.
"I am going to honor their wishes ... what we will and wont go over; it was a very large shark bite, very deep down through the chest through the muscles," Fairbanks said. "We're not going to go into much more details than that. It was a very large injury."
"I think it is a miracle, I think Keane is a miracle," his mother said.
ABC News' Jim Vojtech and Kevin Lo contributed to this report.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Taliban Regime Pressed bin Laden on Anti-US Terror
by Gareth Porter Posted on February 12, 2010 February 15, 2010
Evidence now available from various sources, including recently declassified U.S. State Department documents, shows that the Taliban regime led by Mullah Mohammad Omar imposed strict isolation on Osama bin Laden after 1998 to prevent him from carrying out any plots against the United States.
The evidence contradicts the claims by top officials of the Barack Obama administration that Mullah Omar was complicit in Osama bin Laden's involvement in the al-Qaeda plot to carry out the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sep. 11, 2001. It also bolsters the credibility of Taliban statements in recent months asserting that it has no interest in al-Qaeda's global jihadist aims.
A primary source on the relationship between bin Laden and Mullah Omar before 9/11 is a detailed personal account provided by Egyptian jihadist Abu'l Walid al-Masri published on Arabic-language jihadist websites in 1997.
Al-Masri had a unique knowledge of the subject, because he worked closely with both bin Laden and the Taliban during the period. He was a member of bin Laden's Arab entourage in Afghanistan, but became much more sympathetic to the Afghan cause than bin Laden and other al-Qaeda officials from 1998 through 2001.
The first published English-language report on al-Masri's account, however, was an article in the January issue of the CTC Sentinel, the journal of the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point, by Vahid Brown, a fellow at the CTC.
Mullah Omar's willingness to allow bin Laden to remain in Afghanistan was conditioned from the beginning, according to al-Masri's account, on two prohibitions on his activities: bin Laden was forbidden to talk to the media without the consent of the Taliban regime or to make plans to attack U.S. targets.
Former Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told IPS in an interview that the regime "put bin Laden in Kandahar to control him better." Kandahar remained the Taliban political headquarters after the organization's seizure of power in 1996.
The August 1998 U.S. cruise missile strikes against training camps in Afghanistan run by bin Laden in retaliation for the bombings of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa on Aug. 7, 1998 appears to have had a dramatic impact on Mullah Omar and the Taliban regime's policy toward bin Laden.
Two days after the strike, Omar unexpectedly entered a phone conversation between a State Department official and one of his aides, and told the U.S. official he was unaware of any evidence that bin Laden "had engaged in or planned terrorist acts while on Afghan soil." The Taliban leader said he was "open to dialogue" with the United States and asked for evidence of bin Laden's involvement, according to the State Department cable reporting the conversation.
Only three weeks after Omar asked for evidence against bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader sought to allay Taliban suspicions by appearing to accept the prohibition by Omar against planning any actions against the United States.
"There is an opinion among the Taliban that we should not move from within Afghanistan against any other state," bin Laden said in an interview with al Jazeera. "This was the decision of the Commander of the Faithful, as is known."
Mullah Omar had taken the title "Commander of the Faithful," the term used by some Muslim Caliphs in the past to claim to be "leader of the Muslims," in April 1996, five months before Kabul fell to the Taliban forces.
During September and October 1998, the Taliban regime apparently sought to position itself to turn bin Laden over to the Saudi government as part of a deal by getting a ruling by the Afghan Supreme Court that he was guilty of the Embassy bombings.
In a conversation with the U.S. chargé in Islamabad on Nov. 28, 1998, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, Omar's spokesman and chief adviser on foreign affairs, referred to a previous Taliban request to the United States for evidence of bin Laden's guilt to be examined by the Afghan Supreme Court, according to the U.S. diplomat's report to the State Department.
Muttawakil said the United States had provided "some papers and a videocassette," but complained that the videocassette had contained nothing new and had therefore not been submitted to the Supreme Court. He told the chargé that the court had ruled that no evidence that had been presented warranted the conviction of bin Laden.
Muttawakil said the court trial approach had "not worked" but suggested that the Taliban regime was now carrying out a strategy to "restrict [bin Laden's] activities in such a way that he would decide to leave of his own volition."
On Feb. 10, 1999, the Taliban sent a group of 10 officers to replace bin Laden's own bodyguards, touching off an exchange of gunfire, according to a New York Times story of Mar. 4, 1999. Three days later, bodyguards working for Taliban intelligence and the Foreign Affairs Ministry personnel took control of bin Laden's compound near Kandahar and took away his satellite telephone, according to the U.S. and Taliban sources cited by the Times.
Taliban official Abdul Hakeem Mujahid, who was then in the Taliban Embassy in Pakistan, confirmed that the 10 Taliban bodyguards had been provided to bin Laden to "supervise him and observe that he will not contact any foreigner or use any communication system in Afghanistan," according to the Times story.
The pressure on bin Laden in 1999 also extended to threats to eliminate al-Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan. An e-mail from two leading Arab jihadists in Afghanistan to bin Laden in July 1999, later found on a laptop previously belonging to al-Qaeda in and purchased by the Wall Street Journal, referred to "problems between you and the Leader of the Faithful" as a "crisis."
The e-mail, published in article by Alan Cullison in the September 2004 issue of The Atlantic, said, "Talk about closing down the camps has spread."
The message even suggested that the jihadists feared the Taliban regime could go so far as to "kick them out" of Afghanistan.
In the face of a new Taliban hostility, bin Laden sought to convince Mullah Omar that he had given his personal allegiance to Omar as a Muslim. In April 2001 bin Laden referred publicly to having sworn allegiance to Mullah Omar as the "Commander of the Faithful."
But al-Masri recalls that bin Laden had refused to personally swear such an oath of allegiance to Omar in 1998-99, and had instead asked al-Masri himself to give the oath to Omar in his stead. Al-Masri suggests that bin Laden deliberately avoided giving the oath of allegiance to Omar personally, so that he would be able to argue within the Arab jihadi community that he was not bound by Omar's strictures on his activities.
Even in summer 2001, as the Taliban regime became increasingly dependent on foreign jihadi troop contingents, including Arabs trained in bin Laden's camps, for its defense against the military advances of the Northern Alliance, Mullah Omar found yet another way to express his unhappiness with bin Laden's presence.
After a series of clashes between al-Qaeda forces and those of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Taliban leader intervened to give overall control of foreign volunteer forces to the Tahir Yuldash of the IMU, according to a blog post last October by Leah Farrall, an Australian specialist on jihadi politics in Afghanistan.
In Late January, Geoff Morrell, the spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, suggested that the United States could not negotiate with Mullah Omar, because he has "the blood of thousands of Americans on his hands," implying that he had knowingly allowed bin Laden's planning of the 9/11 attacks.
(Inter Press Service)
Author: Gareth Porter
Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.
View all posts by Gareth Porter
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text:
Columbia State Community College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award the Associate of Arts degree, Associate of Fine Arts degree, Associate of Science degree, Associate of Applied Science degree, Associate of Science in Teaching degree, and Technical Certificates. Contact the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404.679.4500 for questions about the accreditation of Columbia State Community College.
Student Rights Related to Accreditation include: (1) to learn about the accreditation status of the institution, (2) to file a third-party comment at the time of the institution's decennial review, or (3) to file a complaint against the institution for alleged non-compliance with a standard or requirement. Normal inquiries about the institution, such as admission requirements, financial aid, educational programs, etc., should be addressed directly to Columbia State Community College and not to the Commission's office.
In addition, some of the college programs have specialized accreditation by the following agencies:
Accounting, Business Administration, Business, Economics, Information Systems Technology
Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP)
11520 West 119th Street
Overland Park, Kansas 66213
www.acbsp.org
Emergency Medical Technical - Paramedic
Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the EMS Professions (CoAEMSP)
8301 Lakeview Pkwy Suite 111-312
Rowlett, Texas 75088
www.caahep.org
Engineering Systems Technology
The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE)
275 North York Street, Suite 401
Elmhurst, IL 60126-2752
www.atmae.org
Tennessee Medical Laboratory Board
Metro Center Complex
665 Mainstream Drive, 2nd Floor
Pending Approval:
National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS)
Rosemont, IL 60018-5119
Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN)
3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850
www.acenursing.org
Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT)
20 N. Wacker Drive, Suite 2850
www.jrcert.org
Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC)
1248 Harwood Road
Bedford, Texas 76021-4244
www.coarc.com
Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities (CVTEA)
1931 N. Meacham Road, Suite 100
Schaumburg, Illinois 60173-4360


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rob Zerban called from Racine at about five o'clock, a couple hours before the polls will close in Wisconsin, and (very likely) he will not defeat Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan in the zombie-eyed granny-starver's simultaneous race to maintain his seat in the House of Representatives from Wisconsin. Zerban, however, remained upbeat. (He was on the road by four this morning and, when the polls opened, he was in Ryan's hometown of Janesville.) Win or lose, the odd circumstances of this race, where the national profiles of both Ryan and his frankly extremist economic positions were raised to such a high point that the people back in the district couldn't help but study them in details, assured that the case Zerban made against Ryan was properly amplified.
(For what it's worth, turnout statewide in Wisconsin has been enormous today, with the now-requisite stress and finagling on the curious system by which we elect people. Zerban estimates it at 65 percent, which could bring him closer to Ryan than he might otherwise come.
"What I heard the whole campaign was the people don't want to see us go backwards," Zerban said. "They don't want to go back on the issues of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. They don't want to go back to elderly people living in poverty. And I think, with the increased visibility that Paul Ryan got as the vice-presidential nominee this year, people back home got their first good look at what he's really all about. That was important, I think."
And then we said goodbye and my last interview of the 2012 election ended right then and there, as the sea outside went to a deeper blue, and everything edged closer and closer to The Fan.


text:
Category: International Relations
If we can do this with North Korea, then what exactly was wrong with the Iran Deal?!?
On February 27, 2019 By Alex WhalenIn International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
Honest question: if we can make these kinds of concessions in advance to the North Koreans, then what exactly is the complaint about the Iran Deal? And if your answer is "Obama did it, so it's automatically bad," you're doing this entirely wrong.
U.S. negotiators are no longer demanding that North Korea agree to disclose a full accounting of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs as part of talks this week between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, according to current and former senior U.S. officials.
The decision to drop, for now, a significant component of a potential nuclear deal suggests a reality that U.S. intelligence assessments have stressed for months is shaping talks as they progress: North Korea does not intend to fully denuclearize, which is the goal Trump set for his talks with Kim.
The Trump administration is hoping to get a significant concession from North Korea on Yongbyon, but it's unclear if the U.S. can offer something in exchange that Kim would accept. North Korea wants sanctions relief, and U.S. officials have advised the president against taking such a step at this stage in negotiations. North Korea has offered to freeze activity at Yongbyon in past rounds of negotiations with previous U.S. administrations.
Current and former U.S. officials note that North Korea has other sites with similar capabilities, however, and they are raising concerns that Pyongyang won't negotiate on all aspects of its weapons programs if it's not forced to disclose them.
In recent months researchers have discovered that North Korea has as many as 20 undisclosed ballistic missile sites, according to Beyond Parallel, a project sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a defense think tank. One of the sites is the Sino-ri Missile Base about 130 miles north of the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea, where about 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed.
Read More: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/u-s-drops-demand-full-accounting-n-korea-nuclear-program-n977251
So Iran having nuclear power is an existential threat to the US, but giving it to the Saudis is A-OK? This makes sense how?!?
On February 19, 2019 February 19, 2019 By Alex WhalenIn International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
They wanted to sell nuclear technology to the Saudis for their personal profit. This makes sense to the "all Muslims hate us and want to impose sharia law" how? This makes sense to the "Trump is the one who will finally put America first" people how? This makes sense to the "Uranium One is treason, and she should be jailed or worse" people how? How can anyone — and by that I literally mean anyone — think this makes ANY sense?
The Saudi Kingdom is one of the very few nations on earth that has an issue with energy supply, and I'm fairly confident I don't need to explain why. So no, they don't want nuclear power for power; they want it because they want a weapon. Everyone involved in this scheme understood that, and yet they enthusiastically went ahead with it anyway. Think about that. And as you do, remember how many times they promised to "never forget" 9/11.
The project was an effort to transfer U.S. nuclear energy technology to Saudi Arabia for the development of nuclear energy sites there. It was spearheaded by a company called IP3 International. Between June 2016 and December 2016, Flynn served as an advisor to a subsidiary to IP3 International called IronBridge Group, Inc. He faced scrutiny for omitting certain details about his relationship with the group on his government security clearance application forms.
From the beginning of the Trump administration, Flynn's top aide Derek Harvey pushed for the project, described as a Middle East Marshall Plan, according to the report. Harvey claimed that Flynn had already made the decision to move forward with with the project during the transition, the report said.
Flynn is now cooperating with Mueller's investigation, where he pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about Russian contacts during the transition.
In early 2017, Harvey was warned by career staff that the White House would need to comply with Atomic Energy Act, which requires congressional approval of any transfer of nuclear technology to a foreign country, according to the report. Yet, Harvey ignored these warnings, the report said.
"Both career and political staff inside the White House reportedly agreed that Mr. Harvey's directive could violate the law," the report said. "One senior political official stated that the proposal was 'not a business plan,' but rather 'a scheme for these generals to make some money.' That official stated: 'Okay, you know we cannot do this.'"
talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/report-officials-pushed-flynns-saudi-nuke-project-after-warnings-it-broke-law
US suspends nuclear arms treaty with Russia
On February 1, 2019 By Alex WhalenIn International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
Why why WHY?!? Suspending this treaty in reaction to their alleged violations gives them EXACTLY what they want. Rather than reign them in, it gives them a perfect excuse to push violate them further. "Well, if the United States isn't going to follow it, why should we?!?"
We don't need more nuclear weapons, not even if they are building more of them. We already have enough. Suspending this treaty will do nothing other than hand the Russians a needless PR victory.
Now why would we go ahead and do something like that?!? MAGA, ammirite?
www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/politics/us-russia-nuclear-arms-treaty-pompeo/index.html
WSJ: "We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President."
On January 4, 2019 By Alex WhalenIn American Political History, International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
I mean…they're not wrong, except perhaps for a half dozen other thing Trump has said. Still though, for my entire adult life, conservative foreign policy experts have insisted that the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and our subsequent intervention on behalf of the anti-Soviet forces there was one of the key drivers in the collapse of what Saint Ronnie called "the Evil Empire." So for Trump to suddenly and it of nowhere parrot the community party lie that the invasion was a smart move aimed at preventing domestic terrorism….I mean…yeah, that IS pretty absurd.
www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-cracked-afghan-history-11546560234
Tariffs are taxes paid by American businesses on the purchase of foreign products
On January 4, 2019 By Alex WhalenIn International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
Although it's incredibly simple, I feel like this cannot be repeated enough:
Tariffs are taxes paid by importers on imported goods. So, for instance, the cost of a US-imposed tariff on a Chinese product is paid by the US company purchasing that product from China; it is not paid by the Chinese government.
www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/4/18168860/trump-news-conference-shutdown
Tariffs are taxes paid by Americans when buying foreign products. They are a tax. Not by the strained logic Republicans have used to declare things a tax these past four decades, but a straightforward "government imposing a mandatory financial charge" tax. I don't know if the President doesn't understand or if he thinks his base doesn't, but thats entirely irrelevant. He raised taxes on American businesses, and they are passing that cost on to us.
Not even hard.
Bad earnings by US firms puts pressure on China? I mean, OK, but…
On January 3, 2019 January 3, 2019 By Alex WhalenIn Global Issues, International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
This is, I suppose, true so far as it goes. The problem is that it doesn't go nearly far enough in the right direction.
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Thursday that "it's not going to be just Apple" that faces revenue shortfalls as a result of the trade tensions initiated by President Donald Trump between the United States and China.
"It's not going to be just Apple," Hassett, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said. "I think that there are a heck of a lot of U.S. companies that have a lot of sales in China that are basically going to be watching their earnings be downgraded next year until we get a deal with China. And I think that that puts a lot of pressure on China to make a deal."
Source: WH Economic Adviser: 'Not Going To Be Just Apple' Feeling Effects Of China Trade War – Talking Points Memo
Yeah, over time this would put pressure on China's political system. But much more quickly, it's going to put pressure on the parts of America's political system that began this trade war, including but not limited to the White House this dude is advising. So, like…I mean, OK, but also…?
New player, same pattern
On December 29, 2018 By Alex WhalenIn Elections, International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
Some interesting new details on Manafort's work on behalf of Russian interests around the world. When you step back and take it all in, what you see Manafort engaging in a series of near-identical interventions on behalf of Russia, of which his work with Trump was only the last in a long series.
At the time, the fact that a guy with tons of experience working on behalf of Russian oligarchs would suddenly who up and volunteer his services to Trump for free made no sense. No one chooses to become a volunteer campaign manager, not at that level, and especially not after having spent decades working elsewhere. And yet Manafort did. Then, all of a sudden and out of nowhere, the GOP reverses its official position on Ukraine, and Russians suddenly start reaching out with both covert and overt offers of support for the campaign. And then, when Manafort's role in all that starts to get attention, he leaves his official campaign role while his deputy and partner stays behind.
You can think that's all random happenstance if you want, but given how utterly unprecedented and illogical it all is in the absence of the Russian explanation….
Anyway. Interesting new details in this story from Time: time.com/5490169/paul-manafort-victor-boyarkin-debts/
Russian Agents Sought Secret US Treasury Records During 2016 Campaign
On December 24, 2018 By Alex WhalenIn Domestic Policy, Elections, International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
"Wouldn't it be great if we could get along with Russia," they said.
US Treasury Department officials used a Gmail back channel with the Russian government as the Kremlin sought sensitive financial information on its enemies in America and across the globe, according to documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News.
The extraordinary unofficial line of communication arose in the final year of the Obama administration — in the midst of what multiple US intelligence agencies have said was a secret campaign by the Kremlin to interfere in the US election. Russian agents ostensibly trying to track ISIS instead pressed their American counterparts for private financial documents on at least two dozen dissidents, academics, private investigators, and American citizens.
Most startlingly, Russia requested sensitive documents on Dirk, Edward, and Daniel Ziff, billionaire investors who had run afoul of the Kremlin. That request was made weeks before a Russian lawyer showed up at Trump Tower offering top campaign aides "dirt" on Hillary Clinton — including her supposed connection to the Ziff brothers.
Russia's financial crimes agency, whose second-in-command is a former KGB officer and schoolmate of President Vladimir Putin, also asked the Americans for documents on executives from two prominent Jewish groups, the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Jewish Women, as well as Kremlin opponents living abroad in London and Kiev.
In an astonishing departure from protocol, documents show that at the same time the requests were being made, Treasury officials were using their government email accounts to send messages back and forth with a network of private Hotmail and Gmail accounts set up by the Russians, rather than communicating through the secure network usually used to exchange information with other countries.
Got a tip? You can email tips@buzzfeed.com. To learn how to reach us securely, go to tips.buzzfeed.com.
Analysts at an elite agency within Treasury first warned supervisors in 2016 that the Russians were "manipulating the system" to conduct "fishing expeditions." And they raised fears that the Treasury's internal systems could be compromised by viruses contained in emails from the unofficial Russian accounts. But staff continued using the Gmail back channel into 2017, despite repeated internal warnings that Russia could be trawling for sensitive financial records — including Social Security and bank account numbers — to spy on, endanger, or recruit targets in the West.
— Read on www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/anthonycormier/russian-agents-sought-us-treasury-records-on-clinton-backers
"Nothing formal, just tweets."
On December 23, 2018 By Alex WhalenIn International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
As you probably could've guessed by now, Trump hasn't issues any orders, so neither the civilian nor military leadership has any idea what's going on. For example:
The Marine Corps' top officer has faced questions about what the recent drawdown orders and the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis mean for Marines. His answer:"I have no idea."
— Read on www.wsj.com/articles/marines-deployed-abroad-seek-answers-amid-washingtons-turmoil-11545573601
A ludicrous self-own
On December 22, 2018 December 22, 2018 By Alex WhalenIn International Relations, PoliticsLeave a comment
If the Presidebt doesn't even know his own pointman in the fight against ISIS, then how can he possibly know ISIS has been defeated?
twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1076655729820471296
I try not to say it too often, but just imagine the Republican reaction had Obama said he did not know the man leading the fight against ISIS. Just imagine what they would have said and done.
And then never, EVER forget that feeling, because they will be right back at it in a couple of years as if none of this ever happened. It won't work if you don't forget and then act accordingly.


text:
In re Del Biaggio, 082216 FED9, 13-17500
Document Cited authorities 24 Cited in Precedent Map Related
Docket Nº: 13-17500
Opinion Judge: O' SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge.
Party Name: In re William James Del Biaggio, III, Debtor, v. David Freeman, Defendant-Appellant. Liquidating Trust Committee of the Del Biaggio Liquidating Trust, Plaintiff-Appellee,
Attorney: Merle C. Meyers and Michele Thompson, Meyers Law Group, P.C., San Francisco, California, for Defendant-Appellant. Michael M. Lauter, Michael H. Ahrens and Steven B. Sacks, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, San Francisco, California, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Judge Panel: Before: Alex Kozinski, John T. Noonan, and Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, Circuit Judges.
Court: United States Courts of Appeals, Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
In re William James Del Biaggio, III, Debtor,
Liquidating Trust Committee of the Del Biaggio Liquidating Trust, Plaintiff-Appellee,
David Freeman, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 13-17500
Submitted January 6, 2016 [*] San Francisco, California
Appeal from the United States District Court 4:12-cv-06447-YGR for the Northern District of California Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, District Judge, Presiding
Merle C. Meyers and Michele Thompson, Meyers Law Group, P.C., San Francisco, California, for Defendant-Appellant.
Michael M. Lauter, Michael H. Ahrens and Steven B. Sacks, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, San Francisco, California, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Before: Alex Kozinski, John T. Noonan, and Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, Circuit Judges.
SUMMARY[**]
Affirming the district court's affirmance of the bankruptcy court's summary judgment in an adversary proceeding, the panel held that an individual creditor's general unsecured fraud claim was properly subordinated to other claims senior or equal to it.
The panel held that the claim was properly subordinated under 11 U.S.C. § 510(b) because it was a damages claim arising from the purchase or sale of securities of an affiliate of the debtor. The panel held that the claim arose from the sale or purchase of securities in Predators Holdings, LLC, owner of Nashville Hockey Club Limited Partnership, LLC, which owned and operated the Nashville Predators National Hockey League team. The panel also held that § 510(b) is not limited to corporate debtors, but also applies to individual debtors.
O' SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge.
A provision of the Bankruptcy Code requires that damages claims arising from the purchase or sale of the security of a debtor be subordinated to other claims senior to or equal to it. We must decide whether such treatment applies where the debtor is an individual.
The Nashville Predators are a National Hockey League ("NHL") team in Nashville, Tennessee. As of 2007, the Predators were owned by Craig Leipold and his family. During that year, however, David Freeman learned that Leipold intended to sell the team to a third party who wanted to move the Predators to another state. As a result, Freeman began organizing a group of Nashville investors to buy the team. Leipold talked with Freeman about purchasing the Predators, but was also in conversation with other potential buyers, including William Del Biaggio, III. Eventually, Leipold and the NHL Commissioner suggested to Freeman that his group of investors join forces with Del Biaggio to make a joint bid to buy the team. In so suggesting, Leipold related previous assertions made to him by Del Biaggio that stressed Del Biaggio's ability to fund the purchase and his experience with professional hockey.
During the summer and fall of 2007, Freeman and Del Biaggio engaged in negotiations concerning the acquisition of the Predators. Del Biaggio confirmed his ability to fund a $70 million share in the investment, and told Freeman he had connections in the NHL and hoped to become a major owner of a second NHL team. Freeman and his investors ultimately reached an agreement with Del Biaggio to purchase the Predators from Leipold for $193 million. Before the closing date, however, Del Biaggio contacted Freeman and informed him he could only invest $25 million, not the $70 million he originally promised. He proposed to replace the remainder with a $40 million increase in a loan from CIT Bank. Del Biaggio reported that he personally guaranteed the loan and that he would pay all the interest accrued on account of the loan increase. He also agreed to provide a personal guarantee to underwrite the Predators' lease obligations up to $10 million.
The sale of the Predators to Freeman and his cohort of investors, including Del Biaggio, closed on December 7, 2007. As a result of the sale, the Predators became wholly owned and operated by Nashville Hockey Club Limited Partnership, LLC, which is in turn wholly owned by Predators Holdings, LLC ("Holdings").
Freeman invested $31 million to obtain 31 Common Units of Holdings. Common Units were subject to capital calls and not afforded a liquidation preference, unlike the other form of equity investment in Holdings, the Series A Units. Freeman also made a $5 million subordinated loan to Holdings in exchange for its promissory note.
Del Biaggio invested in Holdings through an entity called Forecheck Investments, LLC ("Forecheck"). Forecheck paid $30 million to obtain all 30 Series A Units of Holdings. These Series A Units gave Forecheck 32.6% of the voting units in Holdings. Del Biaggio in turn invested $25 million to acquire an 83.33% interest in Forecheck. As a result, Del Biaggio controlled roughly 27% of the voting securities of Holdings.
Several months after the sale, Freeman learned that Del Biaggio never had the funds to support his guarantees and that the $25 million Del Biaggio already invested was in fact money he had embezzled from his clients. Del Biaggio filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy which gave rise to the current proceeding. He was later indicted and convicted for various financial frauds and sentenced to an eight-year prison term.
Del Biaggio's fraud became headline news in Nashville, and as a result Predators revenues stagnated. To keep the business afloat, Holdings made capital calls to holders of the company's Common Units, including Freeman. Freeman satisfied this first capital call with a payment of $2, 632, 075. To prevent termination of the CIT Bank loan and the Predators' lease, he also replaced Del Biaggio's guarantees with his own. Freeman alleges he was unable to satisfy later capital calls because of these guarantees, and that as a result, his membership units in Holdings became "heavily diluted and virtually worthless."
In October 2008, Freeman filed a general unsecured claim against Del Biaggio's bankruptcy estate seeking damages of an undetermined amount arising from his fraud in the Holdings transaction.1 In a later amended proof of claim, Freeman sought damages of $38, 632, 075. This amount included Freeman's initial $31 million investment in Holdings securities, the $5 million of subordinated debt he issued to Holdings in exchange for the promissory note, and the $2, 632, 075 paid in the first capital call. In response, the Liquidating Trust Committee of the Del Biaggio Liquidating Trust, the entity charged with prosecuting claims objections in Del Biaggio's bankruptcy, filed a counterclaim against Freeman and sought summary judgment. The counterclaim sought subordination and disallowance of Freeman's claim based on 11 U.S.C. § 510(b).
The bankruptcy court granted the Committee's motion for summary judgment, finding Freeman's claim was subject to mandatory subordination under § 510(b). After determining that Holdings was an "affiliate" of Del Biaggio via his ownership in Forecheck the court concluded that § 510(b) applied to Freeman's fraud claim because the plain language of the statute covers claims arising from the purchase of the securities of a debtor's affiliate. The bankruptcy court further reasoned that subordinating Freeman's claim under § 510(b) served the purposes of the statute, because as an investor in Holdings, he bargained for both a greater share of profits and a greater share of risks than Del Biaggio's unsecured creditors. The court also determined that the claims of Del Biaggio's other creditors were senior to Freeman's claim based on its conclusion that notes or shares issued by a subsidiary create no claim to the assets of a parent. Freeman appealed to the district court, which in turn affirmed the order and judgment of the bankruptcy court. Freeman timely appealed here.
We review a district court's decision on appeal from a bankruptcy court de novo, and apply the same standards applied by the district court without deference to that court. In re Thorpe Insulation Co., 677 F.3d 869, 879 (9th Cir. 2012). When considering a bankruptcy court's grant of summary judgment, we apply the regular summary judgment standard in order to "determine whether there are any genuine issues of material fact and whether the bankruptcy court correctly applied the substantive law." In re Caneva, 550 F.3d 755, 760 (9th Cir. 2008) (quoting In re Bakersfield Westar Ambulance, Inc., 123 F.3d 1243, 1245 (9th Cir. 1997)).
Freeman first contends that the bankruptcy court and the district court erred in applying Bankruptcy Code Section 510(b) to his claim against Del Biaggio. Section 510(b) reads as follows:
§ 510. Subordination
(b) For the purpose of distribution under this title, a claim arising from rescission of a purchase or sale of a security of the debtor or of an affiliate of the debtor, for damages arising from the purchase or sale of such a security, or for reimbursement or contribution allowed under section 502 on account of such a claim, shall be subordinated to all claims or interests that are senior to or equal the claim or interest represented by such security, except that if such security is common stock, such claim has the same priority as common stock.
11 U.S.C. § 510(b). The statute operates in two steps. First, it commands that specific types of claims relating to securities, including claims "for damages arising from the purchase or sale" of a debtor's securities or the securities of an affiliate "shall be subordinated." See In re Betacom of Phoenix, Inc., 240 F.3d 823, 828-29 (9th Cir. 2001) (observing that subordination of qualifying claims under § 510(b) is mandatory). Second, it identifies other claims to which a qualifying claim must be subordinated-"all claims or interests...


A weekly e-newsletter is sent via email to subscribing members and features what goes on in the life of the church on Sunday and in the following weeks.
Information submitted for the bulletin or enews must be submitted by 12pm on Wednesday. Submissions must be approved by all relevant committee chairs and a pastor prior to submission. Submissions involving fundraising or solicitations for donations must also be approved by the Finance Chair/Finance Evaluation Board.


I met some lovely people and discovered some fabulous stalls while exhibiting at the knitting and stitching show last week.
I particularly loved the Selvedge stall, and found some amazing fabrics at Ray's Stitch and The Eternal Maker.
The building itself was amazing, I hadn't been inside before. I loved all of the bunting against the old window panes. The views outside were stunning, it was amazing to see across London from such a height!


yg: e-remote control lost connection. In the end Jamie fixed the problem, as Yg weren't answering the phone after the module change.
1954 extension doesnt work if connection isnt up, the other phone should work.
ADSL router had started blocking vpn packets. Brett fixed it by turning off adsl connection…he is still looking at it. THere is a new router which will hopefully help.
Hobart: the Field system time is 0.5 seconds off mk5 time.
field system time not running on indp time goes out of allignment by a fraction of a second. Means we start and stop recording a little off the sched. Possible fix see below.
Hobart: Last BBC in S band looks pretty dodgy.
Hobart: The 70K stage temperature fluctuated a lot, every few scans. Is this normal? Sensor that its picking up is becoming unstable, so wrong but not dramatically wrong.
Hobart: formatter to fs time difference 0.5 seconds or greater' error, fixed with 'sy=run setcl offset' as suggested in wiki, while not recording (doesnt introduce a clock jump).
Ke: Mark 5 crashed bringing down network. Connection restored on-site. The whole network had died, probably a power glitch there. Its being replaced with a (hopefully) good one.
Ke:Large different between formatter and maserdelay setting off Alarm. Delay through DBBC has changed, monitor for stability and reset DBBC if it drifts. Had to reconfigure and restart the DBBC several times.c Mas called yg they said that they fixed it, and they had access. Here the vpn connection wasnt coming up. Brett had to switch off the router and wait for connection to come back.
Yg: Network connection lost (again). Restarted DBBC.
Yg: VNC failed. Brett had to reset.
Hobart: Live page frozen - restart the telmon web server.
Ke: Delay Drifting. Need to reconfigure/restart the DBBC. Didnt work, so rebooted whole computer and that fixed it.
Slewing errors - again with the schedule file - not as bad as last time. Just beeps, no alarms.
*for AUA042 the disk pos entry isn't working. have to manually figure them out.
*Stowing Yaragadee should be fixed at the moment. Stowing should be fine.


text:
My Slow and Painful Journey to Success
By Glenn Stearns
Published by Forefront Books
LIST PRICE: AU$ 21.99
From underdog in life to starring in Discovery Channel's Undercover Billionaire, Glenn Stearns is a rags-to-riches story that shows what can be accomplished with unbridaled grit and fierce determination.
Growing up in a low-income suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, Glenn Stearns attributes optimism, hope, hard work, and unforgettable mentors as the indelible influences that helped him break free from hardship, overcome numerous challenges, and dare to live his wildest dreams.
Stearns believes that it does not matter where you grew up, how little money you have, or even how many mistakes you have made—everyone has the potential to turn their life around and make their dreams come true. That's the core belief and incredible life of Glenn Stearns and what InteGRITy is all about.
Filled with memorable anecdotes from his roller coaster life and career, InteGRITy is a story about adversity, pain, attitude, and action. Glenn shares the lessons learned in his life, both personally and professionally, that helped him become the wildly successful business leader he is today. Through this story, he hopes to inspire others and leave a legacy built on kindness.
Glenn Stearns
Born to alcoholic parents, Stearns was diagnosed with dyslexia, failed fourth grade, and fathered a child at the age of fourteen. He graduated high school in the bottom ten percent of his class. By this time, he had developed a drinking habit that rivaled his parents, struggled with a quick temper, and found himself in jail more than a few nights along the way. Inspired by the promise of the American dream, Stearns took control of his destiny. He became the first person in his family to attend college and graduated with a degree in economics from Towson University. Motivated by stories of people who took risks and achieved their grandest ambitions, he boldly moved to California where he worked as a waiter and slept on the kitchen floor of a one-bedroom apartment that he shared with five other recent grads. All the while, Glenn continued to search for new opportunities to rise above his challenges and dared to live his best life.
In just under ten years and with no lending experience, Glenn formed his own mortgage company, Stearns Lending LLC, as well as a settlement company, Carriage Escrow. His settlement company soon became the largest HUD contractor in America. In 2002, Glenn's visionary success earned him Ernst and Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" Award.
Publisher: Forefront Books (March 21, 2023)
Book Cover Image (jpg): InteGRITy


text:
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node_modules/express/node_modules/connect/node_modules/uid2/index.js

Maintainability

76.60

Lines of code

45

Difficulty

11.06

Estimated Errors

0.19

Function weight

By Complexity

By SLOC

    <textarea id="file-source" class="span12">/**
 * Module dependencies
 */

var crypto = require('crypto');

/**
 * The size ratio between a base64 string and the equivalent byte buffer
 */

var ratio = Math.log(64) / Math.log(256);

/**
 * Make a Base64 string ready for use in URLs
 *
 * @param {String}
 * @returns {String}
 * @api private
 */

function urlReady(str) {
  return str.replace(/\+/g, '_').replace(/\//g, '-');
}

/**
 * Generate an Unique Id
 *
 * @param {Number} length  The number of chars of the uid
 * @param {Number} cb (optional)  Callback for async uid generation
 * @api public
 */

function uid(length, cb) {
  var numbytes = Math.ceil(length * ratio);
  if (typeof cb === 'undefined') {
    return urlReady(crypto.randomBytes(numbytes).toString('base64').slice(0, length));
  } else {
    crypto.randomBytes(numbytes, function(err, bytes) {
       if (err) return cb(err);
       cb(null, urlReady(bytes.toString('base64').slice(0, length)));
    })
  }
}

/**
 * Exports
 */

module.exports = uid;</textarea>

.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Mrs. V and I played hookey today and decided to skip church. Usually, my morality starts nagging at me when I think about skipping church, but today, I was surprised how comfortable I was with the decision. Maybe I was okay because I got to spend some much-needed quality time with Mrs. V. I was in Fort Worth from Wednesday to Friday, and then I came home just long enough to go to bed before I headed to Houston on Saturday.
This morning, I treated Mrs. V to breakfast in bed. I'm no gourmet chef, so she had to settle for bacon and cinnamon rolls. The bacon was a little on the "Cajun" side, but Mrs. V didn't seem to mind. After breakfast, we watched Crash. I was surprised how much I liked this movie - I think it does a great job of exposing our problems with stereotypes. I highly recommend it.
We took a quick power nap after the movie, and then headed to our Salsa class. So far, it's been very...interesting. We rotate partners a lot, so it's a nice change-up to dance with someone different. So far, I've only stepped on my partner's toes once. Unfortunately, she was wearing open-toed shoes.
Now, I'm trying to catch up on some much-needed writing. Things with the new manuscript seem to be going well, but I won't really know until I have a few more chapters under my belt. I will say this much - it's the first novel in a long time that I've attempted to write from a male POV. Peter/Isaiah/Joshua (I haven't quite finalized his name yet) is a very interesting character. I really like the story that he's telling.
Also, thanks to everyone that showed up the book signing in Houston. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of old friends. And Catherine and Catrina - thanks for being my cheerleaders.
Oh, I need a hookey day. The wife always asks me, "lets play hookie today." I know she ain't takin' no day off any more than I am. But the thought is nice.
My problem is that, I'm a little, too, comfortable with skipping church. So comfortable that if it wasn't for the wife, I'd probably be comfortably staying at home every week. Sad.
Salsa dancing. I'm going to have to see if the wife would be interested. Thats one of my off the wall interest.
Oh, and breakfast in bed. You just gave me an idea! Thanks! You just solved a Valentines day dilemma.


ISLAMABAD: PTI Chairman Imran Khan has challenged PM Nawaz Sharif stating that no matter how many containers the government put up and close all the roads to Islamabad but still it will not be successful in stopping the protesting crowd.
While addressing the people at "Shahrah e Dastoor", Imran Khan said that the government is closing the roads to Islamabad by putting up containers and asked that under what law is the government taking this action.He said we will approach the courts against this action of the government.
Imran Khan directed his lawyers to file against this action of the government.
According to PTI Chief,Chairman NADRA Tariq Malik has been forced to leave. He said that we have evidence against rigging and we will fight till the last ball.
He also invited the people from all over Pakistan to join him at Islamabad to stand against rigging.He further stated that under the constitution peaceful protest is my democratic right and added that if we will not stand against the electoral rigging the upcoming generations will never forgive us.


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Long Beach is a city in Nassau County, New York, United States. Just south of Long Island, it is on Long Beach Barrier Island, which is the westernmost of the outer barrier islands off Long Island's South Shore. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 33,275. It was incorporated in 1922, and is nicknamed The City By the Sea (as seen in Latin on its official seal). The city of Long Beach is surrounded by Reynolds Channel to the north, east and west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. As of January 1, 2018, Michael Tangney is the acting city manager, a position appointed by the city council. It has been Democratic for years.
Long Beach's first inhabitants were the Algonquian-speaking Rockaway Indians, who sold the area to English colonists in 1643. While the barrier island was used by baymen and farmers, for fishing and harvesting salt hay, no one lived there year-round for more than two centuries.
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About an hour away from the bustle and hustle of life in the greater Manila area, Tagaytay is a nice getaway. Because of the beautiful climate, it is very relaxing and a breath of fresh air compared to the city.
Tagaytay has grown some of the most beautiful flowers in the country. They supply flowers in Manila and other cities. Along the highway, you'll see lots of vendors selling plants and flowers. You can't help but stop by for a few minutes to buy some and take home.
Tourists and locals alike enjoy the tranquility Tagaytay has to offer. It is so peaceful, that they call it the "Center of Spiritual Retreat." It's perfect for anyone who loves to meditate and do yoga.
Tagaytay is a perfect venue for a picnic, horseback riding, camping and sightseeing.
If you ever travel to the Philippines, make sure to include Tagaytay in your itinerary. It'll be an experience you'll never forget.


TODAY I am happy to hear that my second postcard was received by Alisa Zhou of China. This is my first postcard using second post-crossing account.
Sadly, I am still waiting for my first postcard received.
saya join penpal pos surat by snail mail.


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Q: "Switching" of a continuous function Let $f, g: [0,1] \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ be continuous functions and consider the continuous function $h(x) = \max\{f(x), g(x)\}$. Suppose that at $0$, $f$ is "active" and at $1$, $g$ is active. That is $h(0) = f(0) \neq g(0)$, and similarly at $x = 1$. Is it true that there must exist some point $t \in [0,1]$ such that $h$ "switches" from $f$ to $g$? If not I think this should violate continuity but I don't see exactly how.

A: Consider $u=g-f$. $u$ takes a negative value at $0$, a positive one at $1$, and is continuous, so...


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What are 5 interesting facts about France?
Is ketchup banned in France?
What makes French so beautiful?
Quelle est l'origine de la princesse de Montargis?
France Is the Most-Visited Country in the World.
France Is Smaller Than Texas.
France Has the Largest Art Museum.
The French Eat 25,000 Tons of Snails Each Year.
France Produces Over 1,500 Types of Cheese.
Supermarkets in France Can't Throw Away Food.
France Had a King – That Lasted Only 20 Minutes.
How many regions are there in France?
The Regions of France Mainland France is now divided into 13 administrative regions, the governement agreeded on a reorganisation of the country. Metropolitan France is divided into 22 administrative regions, which in turn are divided into departments.
Did you know facts about France?
30 interesting facts about France
France is the largest country in the EU and sometimes called the hexagon.
France is the world's most popular tourist destination.
French was the official language of England for about 300 years.
Louis XIX was the king of France for just 20 minutes, the shortest ever reign.
Former US President Ronald Reagan may have once called ketchup a vegetable. But in France, ketchup isn't even considered healthy enough to serve in large quantities in school cafeterias. In 2011, France passed a law that banned spreading the viscous, red vegetable on everything except, ironically enough, french fries.
Why can't supermarkets in France throw away food?
In February 2016, France adopted a law on fighting food waste that meant supermarkets were forbidden to destroy unsold food products and were compelled to donate it instead. This law constituted the starting point of the fight against food waste through banning its destruction and facilitating donation.
What region of France is nice?
Nice, seaport city, Mediterranean tourist centre, and capital of Alpes-Maritimes département, Provence–Alpes–Côte-d'Azur région, southeastern France. The city is located on the Baie (bay) des Anges, 20 miles (32 km) from the Italian border.
FRENCH – MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOKEN LANGUAGE With its unpronounceable "r", its nasal vowel sounds "en", "in", "un" and melodious intonation, it sounds extremely musical to the non-native ear. And let's not forget the strong cultural context which lends French the status of the most beautiful spoken language in the world.
What country hates ketchup?
It's un-American! In 2011, France banned the tomato condiment from school cafeterias in order to preserve French cuisine. The one ironic exception: Students can still eat ketchup on French fries.
Quel avenir pour Montargis?
Montargis construit son avenir pour la qualité de vie de ses habitants Vie dans la ville Comportement citoyen Pour le mieux-vivre et le bien-être de chacun Développement durable et Agenda 21
Renée de France et Montargis Renée de France (1510 –1575 )Princesse royale, Dame de Montargis. Liens entre Montargis et la Chine nés dans le années 1920 et entretenus 100 ans après…
Comment contacter la mairie de Montargis?
Mairie : 6, rue Gambetta – BP 719 – 45207 MONTARGIS Cedex. Tel : 02 38 95 10 00 – ouverte du lundi au jeudi de 8h30 à 12h et de 13h30 à 17h30, le vendredi fermeture à 17h.
Comment s'appelle la princesse de Montargis?
Renée de France (1510 –1575 )Princesse royale, Dame de Montargis. Liens entre Montargis et la Chine nés dans le années 1920 et entretenus 100 ans après… Stationnement/transport/navette gratuite Plusieurs milliers de places gratuites et payantes sont disponibles. depuis le 14 février 2020…
How do you calculate conduction?
What engine is in a Great Wall V240?


Realize that winning managers were just lucky.
Men In Black II, Ocean's Twelve, & The Hangover, Part II... all of these movies have one thing in common: they all were abysmal sequels to blockbuster movies. We long to regenerate scenarios when everything comes together perfectly and the stars align, but that kind of success is rarely duplicated. In the world of money managers, success means blockbuster performance… every year! Fund managers who are successful in the short term are considered the current financial heroes, despite the fact that every reputable study of mutual fund performance over the past 30 years has found there is no reliable way to know if managers with recent winning performance will win in the future. This is why some variation of the disclaimer "past performance is no guarantee of future results" must appear in all mutual fund advertisements and prospectuses. Even still, unwitting investors chase recent performance, and the dangerous practice of manager picking ensues.
Sometimes managers can duplicate their success a few years in a row, but it just doesn't last. As hard as it is to duplicate success in the film world, it is even more difficult for these all-star money managers to duplicate their past success.
"Most investors follow the crowd down the path to comfortable mediocrity," says David Swensen in Pioneering Portfolio Management.1 Anxious to capture the gains that come with a winning mutual fund manager, manager pickers blindly chase a hot performing fund manager's track record, failing to realize their odds for future success have vastly diminished.
Figure 5-1 shows the results of a study using Morningstar data reflecting the performance of active fund managers for the 13 years from 2004 to 2017. The chart depicts how on average, only about 9 funds remained in the top 100 the following year.
In the years 2008 and 2009, none of them repeated their previous year's top 100 performance.
Variations in manager performance are a function of luck and the random rotation of the style of their fund. When a particular manager's investment style is rewarded by the market, that manager is often credited with skill. As market conditions change, however, so does the performance of fund managers. Figures 5-2 and 5-3 track the rankings of the top 10 mutual fund managers in a given year and subsequent time periods. These charts reveal how quickly a "top" fund manager can slide to the bottom. For example, Figure 5-2 shows that the ProFunds Biotechnology UltraSector Inv had the highest performance out of 6,896 mutual funds in 2013. In 2014, however, the fund slipped to seventh place; then to 939 in 2015; 7,719th place in 2016 and finally landed in 393rd place in 2017. The data contained in these two figures reveal many other examples of fund performance that sharply declined in subsequent years.
An analysis of the Morningstar database of 246 mutual funds with 10 years of returns is shown in Figure 5-4. The top graph shows the performance rankings of these 246 funds from best to worst (left to right) for the first 5-year period from 2008 to 2012. Then the same order of fund rankings is maintained in the bottom graph in order to see if fund performance was repeated in the second 5 year period from 2013 to 2017. In light of the above studies, it should come as no surprise that many of the managers who outperformed their peers in the first 5-year period did not do so in the second 5-year period, and vice versa.
Even large institutions and pension plans chase performance, much to their detriment. A study conducted by Amit Goyal of Emory University and Sunil Wahal of Arizona State University found that manager hiring and firing decisions made by consultants, board members and trustees were a waste of time and money.
Using data from the same study by Goyal and Wahal, Figure 5-6 conveys the tendency for investment committees or plan sponsors to hire investment managers with a history of above-benchmark returns and fire managers with lower performance. The chart shows that after managers were hired, their post-hiring excess returns were indistinguishable from zero, and the managers that were fired performed better than the hired managers. The plan sponsors should have just bought index funds and forgotten about manager picking in the first place.
Despite Swensen's admonition, active manager selection and termination remains a common practice among public pension plans. Plan sponsors hire investment fund managers whom they expect to deliver above benchmark returns.
An investigative journalist for The St. Petersburg Times, approached Index Fund Advisors (IFA) and a handful of other investment experts to collect some in-depth analysis of the risks and returns of the Florida State Pension Plan for various periods of time relative to various index portfolio strategies. The research results were revealed in a July 2011 article titled, "Easy investments beat state's expert pension planners,"7 which concluded that a simple index portfolio would have outperformed the Florida state pension plan's investment performance over the last ten years.
"The professionally managed SBA [State Board of Administration] performed worse — by more than a percentage point — than seven index-fund portfolios for the decade ending 2010," the article reports. "On average, a $100 investment in an index portfolio grew to $184, while Florida's pension delivered just $157," the reporter concluded.
The findings prompted me to dig deeper. If Florida's $124 billion pension plan fared so poorly against the index portfolios, what about the other states? IFA attempted to analyze the employee retirement systems in all 50 states. Data on more than 40 state pension plans was obtained, yielding similar results with varying degrees of underperformance relative to the index portfolios.
Figures 5-7 through 5-10 show the annual risk and return of various state pension plans, net of fees, compared to passively managed index portfolios comprised of a blend of diversified asset allocations. A best effort was made to estimate fees in states that report returns before fees are deducted. States were analyzed for both 13-year periods and 26-year periods and were charted based on either a June 30th or December 31st year-end date. The data shows that in the 26-year study, only 2 states (South Dakota and Delaware) matched the index portfolios, and not one of them outperformed in any of the time periods analyzed. For data sources, go to pension-gate.com.
Directors of these pension plans have access to so-called "top" money managers, which would lead one to believe that these plans fired their very best shots at earning above-benchmark returns, only to fall short. This analysis reveals that the widely implemented and costly process of hiring and firing of investment managers for state pension plans has delivered a negative payout relative to a risk-appropriate set of index benchmarks.
As discussed in Step 3, a method to determine manager skill is to identify if there are enough years of performance data to be statistically significant by measuring a manager's t-stat. If the t-stat is that of 2 or greater, then the investor has at least a 97.5% confidence level that the manager's above-benchmark returns were due to skill, with up to a 2.5% chance that they were due to luck, and the true alpha of the manager is zero.
In this book's 2015 printing, we analyzed the year-by-year difference between the fund return and the benchmark return of four funds that were named Morningstar's 2013 "Manager of the Year" with ten or more years of data. At that time, each of the funds had a positive average alpha, but none of them had a t-stat of 2, meaning their alpha was not consistent enough to have a 97.5% confidence level of manager skill. How did those managers fare in the subsequent five years? Figures 5-11 through 5-14 reveal that all of the managers still had a positive average alpha, but none of them were able to attain a t-stat of 2 over the entire period ending of December 31, 2017.
When managers are subjected to the scrutiny of a simple t-test, the idea of manager skill to produce consistent alpha quickly becomes relegated to the realm of fantasy, taking its rightful place alongside unicorns, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster - as depicted in The Alpha Myth painting on the following page.
1Swensen, Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment (New York: The Free Press, 2000).
2Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin', song, Columbia Studios, 1964.
3John C. Bogle, "The Arithmetic of 'All-In' Investment Expenses". Financial Analysts Journal, January/February 2014, pp 13-21.
5Amit Goyal and Sunil Wahal, "The Selection and Termination of Investment Management Firms by Plan Sponsors," The Journal of Finance, vol. 63, no. 4 (2008).
6Swensen, Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment (New York: The Free Press, 2000).
7Sydney P. Freedberg and Connie Humburg, "Easy Investments Beat State's Expert Pension Planners," St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersbug, FL), Jul. 31, 2011.
8State Retirement Systems Data from public information, includes states that provided 11 and 24 yrs of returns for fiscal years ending 6/30, and are net of fees; Index Portfolios are net of fund fees and 0.05% Advisory Fee. See www.pension-gate.com/ states for additional disclosures.
10State Retirement Systems Data from public information, includes states that provided 12 and 25 yrs. of returns for fiscal years ending 12/31, and are net of fees; Index Portfolios are net of fund fees and 0.05% Advisory Fee. See www.pension-gate.com/ for additional disclosures.


text:
Home News MP Kwarteng Becomes Boris' Chosen One
MP Kwarteng Becomes Boris' Chosen One
Following his promise for a more diverse front bench, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Cabinet reshuffle sees the MP for Spelthorne in Surrey, in south-east England, Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng, British-born with Ghanaian roots, installed as the Minister of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and become a senior member of the government's cabinet.
Born in Waltham Forest, to Ghanaian parents, the Eton-educated front-bencher who has also served as a member of the public accounts committee in the UK was parliamentary private secretary to the Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park.
Having studied for a doctorate in British History at Cambridge, he is a graduate of Harvard University and has written several books, including Ghost of Empire: War and Gold and Thatcher's Trial.
Elected as MP in 2010, he has consistently supported local enterprise and called in Parliament for business-friendly reforms – one of his achievements being finding local entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
He also launched the Spelthorne Business Plan Competition in 2013.
Frequently tipped to become Britain's first Black Tory cabinet minister, in 2018, the former junior Brexit minister, popularly known as the 'Black Boris', was appointed Undersecretary of State in the Department for Exiting the European Union following the resignation of Sue-Ellen Braverman.
The appointment of Kwasi Alfred Addo Kwarteng adds to former home secretary – and former leadership contender -Sajid Javid becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer whilst Priti Patel returns to front-line politics as the new Home Secretary.
James Cleverly, the MP for Braintree in Essex, is the new Part Chair in PM Johnson's re-shuffle.
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Ästhetische Theorie er en bog af den tyske filosof Theodor Adorno. Værket, der blev udgivet posthumt på baggrund af Adornos efterladte ufærdige udkast, reflekterer over den moderne kunsts sociale karakter. Med udgangspunkt i Hegel og Marx diskuterer Adorno, om kunst kan overleve i et senkapitalistisk samfund og om kunst kan være med til at ændre samfundet. I denne diskussion bygger Adorno på Kants idé om finkulturens (schöne Kunst) autonomi, samtidig med at han trækker på Marx' idé om kunstens forankring i samfundet. Ud fra denne kobling af Kant og Marx diskuterer Adorno nødvendigheden og umuligheden af kunstens autonomi. For Adorno udtrykker autentisk moderne kunstværker derfor nogle af de konflikter, der fandtes i den verden hvori disse værker blev skabt. Den svære skrivestil i værket har en kritiker argumenteret at kunne forstås som en dobbelttydighed i værkets titel, der både kan læses som en "teori om æstetik" om som "æstetiseret teori."

Kunstsyn
Centralt for Adornos kunstsyn er hans skelnen mellem Gehalt og Funktion, der får hans kunstsociologi til at adskille sig fra både hermeneutiske og empiriske tilgange. Hvor en hermeneutisk tilgang typisk betoner kunstværkets mening og kulturelle betydning og nedtoner værkets politiske og/eller økonomiske rolle, fokuserer en empirisk tilgang typisk på samspillet mellem værket og forskellige sociale faktorer og ignorer derfor gerne spørgsmål vedr. værkets betydningslag. Adornos greb ligger i at forene disse to analytiske strategier. Han argumenterer for, at værkets Gehalt og Funktion bør forstås i relation til hinanden.

Med grundlag i Adornos syn på den moderne kunsts autonomi og hvad han ser som en vigtig ændring af kapitalismens karakter, er Adorno meget kritik indstillet over for den rolle som politisk kunst kan spille. Adorno mener, at den politiske kunst både har problemer ift. effektivitet og legitimitet i senkapitalismen. Dog mener han samtidig, at politisk kunst kan fungere som en form for korrektiv til det, han så som en falleret æsteticisme i meget populær kunst. Adorno mener, at i senkapitalismen er den bedste politiske kunst i stand til at gennemarbejde sine egne indre modsigelser på en måde, så de skjulte indre modsigelser i samfundet ikke længere kan ignoreres. For Adorno er Samuel Becketts teaterstykker et godt eksempel på dette. For Adorno er Becketts stykker mere sande end meget andet kunst. Adorno mener, at alle kunstværker har en Gehalt i kraft af en indre dialektisk modsætning mellem dets form og indhold og for at forstå denne dynamik må man derfor både forstå værkets indre dynamik og den dynamik, der er på spil i værkets socialhistoriske kontekst.

Litteratur
 Adorno, Theodor W. Ästhetische Theorie. Ed. Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970.
 Zuidervaart, Lambert, "Theodor W. Adorno", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2015)

Noter

Humaniora
Kunst
Æstetik
Filosofi

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