text:
package com.github.monzou.guardman.validator.impl;

import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkArgument;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.util.List;

import com.github.monzou.guardman.exception.GuardManRuntimeException;
import com.github.monzou.guardman.i18n.Messages;
import com.google.common.base.Joiner;
import com.google.common.collect.Lists;

/**
 * DigitsValidator
 */
public class DigitsValidator extends AbstractMutableValueValidator<Number> implements Serializable {

    private static enum Errors {

        /** Infinity */
        INFINITY,
        /** Digits */
        DIGITS,

    }

    private static final long serialVersionUID = -5286196467414244181L;

    private final Integer maxIntegerDigits;

    private final Integer maxDecimalDigits;

    public DigitsValidator(int maxIntegerDigits) {
        this(maxIntegerDigits, null);
    }

    public DigitsValidator(int maxIntegerDigits, int maxDecimalDigits) {
        this(Integer.valueOf(maxIntegerDigits), Integer.valueOf(maxDecimalDigits));
    }

    DigitsValidator(Integer maxIntegerDigits, Integer maxDecimalDigits) {
        checkArgument(maxIntegerDigits != null || maxDecimalDigits != null, "maxIntegralDigits or maxDecimalDigits is required");
        this.maxIntegerDigits = maxIntegerDigits;
        this.maxDecimalDigits = maxDecimalDigits;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    public boolean apply(Number value) {
        return validate(value) == null;
    }

    /** {@inheritDoc} */
    @Override
    protected String resolveMessage(Number value, Object... params) {
        Errors error = validate(value);
        String key = DigitsValidator.class.getSimpleName();
        switch (error) {
        case INFINITY:
            return Messages.get(String.format("%s.infinity", key));
        case DIGITS:
            key = String.format("%s.digits.%s", key, getParamsKey());
            if (params == null || params.length == 0) {
                return Messages.get(key, maxIntegerDigits, maxDecimalDigits);
            } else {
                return Messages.get(key, params);
            }
        default:
            throw new GuardManRuntimeException("Unexpected error: " + error);
        }
    }

    private String getParamsKey() {
        List<String> keys = Lists.newArrayList();
        if (maxIntegerDigits != null) {
            keys.add("integral");
        }
        if (maxDecimalDigits != null) {
            keys.add("decimal");
        }
        return Joiner.on(".").join(keys);
    }

    private Errors validate(Number value) {
        if (value == null || Double.isNaN(value.doubleValue())) {
            return null;
        }
        if (Double.isInfinite(value.doubleValue())) {
            return Errors.INFINITY;
        }
        BigDecimal bd = toBigDecimal(value);
        if (bd == null) {
            return null;
        }
        if (maxIntegerDigits != null) {
            int integerDigits = bd.precision() - bd.scale();
            if (integerDigits > maxIntegerDigits) {
                return Errors.DIGITS;
            }
        }
        if (maxDecimalDigits != null) {
            int decimalDigits = bd.scale() < 0 ? 0 : bd.scale();
            if (decimalDigits > maxDecimalDigits) {
                return Errors.DIGITS;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    private BigDecimal toBigDecimal(Number value) {
        if (value == null) {
            return null;
        }
        if (Double.isInfinite(value.doubleValue()) || Double.isNaN(value.doubleValue())) {
            return null;
        }
        if (value instanceof BigDecimal) {
            return (BigDecimal) value;
        } else {
            return new BigDecimal(value.toString()).stripTrailingZeros();
        }
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
21st Century Breakdown World Tour – światowa trasa koncertowa Green Day, która odbyła się na przełomie 2009 i 2010 r. W 2009 zespół dał 39 koncertów w Ameryce Północnej, 31 w Europie i 10 w Oceanii. W 2010 zespół dał 8 koncertów w Azji, 16 w Europie, 18 w Ameryce Północnej i 10 w Ameryce Południowej.

Program koncertów
 "Song of the Century"
 "21st Century Breakdown"
 "Know Your Enemy"
 "East Jesus Nowhere"
 "Holiday"
 "The Static Age"
 "Before the Lobotomy"
 "Give Me Novacaine"
 "Are We the Waiting"
 "St. Jimmy"
 "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
 "Hitchin' a Ride"
 "Welcome to Paradise"
 "When I Come Around"
 "Brain Stew"
 "Jaded"
 "Longview"
 "Basket Case"
 "She"
 "King for a Day"
 "Shout" (cover The Isley Brothers)
 "21 Guns"
 "American Eulogy"
 "Minority"

Pierwszy bis:

 "American Idiot"
 "Jesus of Suburbia"
 "Last Night on Earth"

Drugi bis:

 "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"
 "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

Lista koncertów

Koncerty w 2009

Ameryka Północna
 3 lipca – Seattle, Waszyngton, USA – KeyArena
 4 lipca – Vancouver, Kanada – General Motors Place
 6 lipca – Edmonton, Kanada – Rexall Place
 7 lipca – Saskatoon, Kanada – Credit Union Centre
 9 lipca – Winnipeg, Kanada – MTS Centre
 10 lipca – Fargo, Dakota Północna, USA – Fargodome
 11 lipca – Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA – Target Center
 13 lipca – Chicago, Illinois, USA – United Center
 14 lipca – Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA – The Palace of Auburn Hills
 16 lipca – Hamilton, Kanada – Copps Coliseum
 17 lipca – Ottawa, Kanada – Scotiabank Place
 18 lipca – Montreal, Kanada – Bell Centre
 20 lipca – Boston, Massachusetts, USA – TD Garden
 21 lipca – Filadelfia, Pensylwania, USA – Wachovia Center
 22 lipca – Pittsburgh, Pensylwania, USA – Mellon Arena
 24 lipca – Hartford, Connecticut, USA – XL Center
 25 lipca – Albany, Nowy Jork, USA – Times Union Center
 27 i 28 lipca – Nowy Jork, Nowy Jork, USA – Madison Square Garden
 29 lipca – Waszyngton, USA – Verizon Center
 31 lipca – Nashville, Tennessee, USA – Sommet Center
 1 sierpnia – Duluth, Georgia, USA – Arena at Gwinnet Center
 3 sierpnia – Tampa, Floryda, USA – St. Pete Times Forum
 4 sierpnia – Miami, Floryda, USA – American Airlines Arena
 5 sierpnia – Orlando, Floryda, USA – Amway Arena
 7 sierpnia – Nowy Orlean, Luizjana, USA – New Orleans Arena
 8 sierpnia – Houston, Teksas, USA – Toyota Center
 9 sierpnia – San Antonio, Teksas, USA – AT&T Center
 11 sierpnia – St. Louis, Missouri, USA – Scottrade Center
 12 sierpnia – Kansas City, Missouri, USA – Sprint Center
 13 sierpnia – Omaha, Nebraska, USA – Qwest Center
 15 sierpnia – Denver, Kolorado, USA – Pepsi Center
 16 sierpnia – Salt Lake City, Utah, USA – EnergySolutions Arena
 18 sierpnia – San Jose, Kalifornia, USA – HP Pavilion
 20 sierpnia – San Diego, Kalifornia, USA – Viejas Arena
 21 sierpnia – Las Vegas, Kalifornia, USA – Mandalay Bay Events Center
 22 sierpnia – Phoenix, Arizona, USA – US Airways Center
 24 sierpnia – Sacramento, Kalifornia, USA – ARCO Arena
 25 sierpnia – Inglewood, Kalifornia, USA – Kia Forum

Europa
 28 września – Lizbona, Portugalia – Pavilhão Atlântico
 29 września – Madryt, Hiszpania – Palacio de Deportes de la Communidad de Madrid
 1 października – Barcelona, Hiszpania – Palau Sant Jordi
 2 października – Tuluza, Francja – Le Zénith
 4 października – Paryż, Francja – Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
 5 października – Kolonia, Niemcy – Lanxess Arena
 7 października – Berlin, Niemcy – O2 World
 8 października – Hamburg, Niemcy – Color Line Arena
 9 października – Kopenhaga, Dania – Forum Copenhagen
 11 października – Sztokholm, Szwecja – Ericsson Globen
 12 października – Oslo, Norwegia – Oslo Spektrum
 14 października – Dortmund, Niemcy – Westfalenhalle
 16 października – Rotterdam, Holandia – Ahoy Rotterdam
 17 października – Antwerpia, Belgia – Sportpaleis Antwerp
 19 października – Glasgow, Szkocja – Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
 20 października – Belfast, Irlandia Północna – Odyssey Arena
 21 października – Dublin, Irlandia – The O2
 23 i 24 października – Londyn, Anglia – The O2 Arena
 26 października – Sheffield, Anglia – Sheffield Arena
 27 i 28 października – Birmingham, Anglia – LG Arena
 30 i 31 października – Manchester, Anglia – Evening News Arena
 1 listopada – Londyn, Anglia – Wembley Arena
 3 listopada – Monachium, Niemcy – Olympiahalle
 6 listopada – Wiedeń, Austria – Wiener Stadthalle
 8 listopada – Zurych, Szwajcaria – Hallenstadion
 10 listopada – Mediolan, Włochy – Mediolanum Forum
 11 listopada – Bolonia, Włochy – Futurshow Station
 12 listopada – Turyn, Włochy – PalaOlimpico

Oceania
 4 grudnia – Perth, Australia – Burswood Dome
 6 grudnia – Adelaide, Australia – Adelaide Entertainment Centre
 8 i 9 grudnia – Brisbane, Australia – Brisbane Entertainment Centre
 11 i 12 grudnia – Sydney, Australia – Acer Arena
 14 i 16 grudnia – Melbourne, Australia – Rod Laver Arena
 18 i 19 grudnia – Auckland, Nowa Zelandia – Vector Arena

Koncerty w 2010

Azja
 12 stycznia – Bangkok, Tajlandia – Impact Arena
 14 stycznia – Singapur, Singapoore Indoor Stadium
 16 stycznia – Hongkong, Asia World-Expo
 18 stycznia – Seul, Korea Południowa – Olympic Gymnastics Arena
 21 stycznia – Osaka, Japonia – Osaka-jō Hall
 23 i 24 stycznia – Saitama, Japonia – Saitama Super Arena
 25 stycznia – Nagoja, Japonia – Nippon Gaishi Hall

Europa
 29 maja – Landgraaf, Holandia – Pinkpop Festival
 30 maja – Hanower, Niemcy – TUI Arena
 2 czerwca – Skive, Dania – Skive Festival
 4 czerwca – Oslo, Norwegia – Ullevaal Stadion
 5 czerwca – Göteborg, Szwecja – Ullevi Stadion
 8 czerwca – Helsinki, Finlandia – Kyäsari
 11 czerwca – Monachium, Niemcy – Olympia-Reitstadion
 12 czerwca – Nickelsdorf, Austria – Nova Rock Festival
 16 czerwca – Manchester, Anglia – Lancashire County Cricket Ground
 19 czerwca – Londyn, Anglia – Wembley Stadium
 21 czerwca – Glasgow, Szkocja – SECC
 23 czerwca – Dublin, Irlandia – Marlay Park
 26 czerwca – Paryż, Francja – Parc de Pines
 29 czerwca – Praga, Czechy – Vystaviste Holesovice
 1 lipca – Moguncja, Niemcy – Messepark
 2 lipca – Werchter, Belgia – Rock Werchter Festival

Ameryka Północna
 3 sierpnia – Camden, New Jersey, USA – Susquehanna Bank Center
 5 sierpnia – Darien, Nowy Jork, USA – Darien Lake Performings Arts Center
 7 sierpnia – Chicago, Illinois, USA – Lollapalooza Festival
 9 sierpnia – Alpharetta, Georgia, USA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
 11 sierpnia – Bristow, Wirginia, USA – Jiffy Lube Live
 12 sierpnia – Hartford, Connecticut, USA – Comcast Theatre
 14 sierpnia – Holmdel, New Jersey, USA – PNC Bank Arts Center
 16 sierpnia – Mansfield, Massachusetts, USA – Comcast Center
 18 sierpnia – Toronto, Kanada – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
 20 sierpnia – Quebec, Kanada -L'Agora du Vieux-Port
 21 sierpnia – Montreal, Kanada – Quai-Jacques Cartier
 23 sierpnia – Clarkston, Michigan, USA – DTE Energy Music Theatre
 26 sierpnia – Dallas, Teksas, USA – SuperPages.com Center
 28 sierpnia – Greenwood Village, Kalifornia, USA – Comfort Denial Amphitheatre
 30 sierpnia – Phoenix, Arizona, USA – Cricket Wireless Pavillon
 31 sierpnia – Irvine, Kalifornia, USA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
 2 września – Chula Vista, Kalifornia, USA – Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
 4 września – Mountain View, Kalifornia, USA – Shoreline Amphitheatre

Ameryka Południowa
 8 października – Caracas, Wenezuela – Estadio de Fútbol de la Universidad Simón Bolívar
 10 października – Cajicá, Kolumbia – Nem-Catacoa Festival
 13 października – Porto Alegre, Brazylia – Gigantinho Arena
 15 października – Rio de Janeiro, Brazylia – HSBC Arena
 17 października – Brasília, Brazylia – Ginásio Nilson Nelson
 20 października – São Paulo, Brazylia – Arena Anhembi
 22 października – Buenos Aires, Argentyna – Pepsi Music Festival
 24 października – Santiago, Chile – Estadio Bicentenario de La Florida
 26 października – Lima, Peru – Estadio Universidad San Marcos
 29 października – San José, Kostaryka – Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Ayma

Źródła
 http://www.greenday.com/stillbreathing?ref=https://en.wikipedia.org/

Trasy koncertowe Green Day

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Watch 'Aftermath' Teaser Trailer
This is a while in the making – they've finally revealed the first teaser trailer for Aftermath!
Italian developer One O One Games has created a story-driven psychological thriller based on a future Earth. And dammit, doesn't it look incredible!
Publisher META released this description, "Aftermath is a story-driven psychological thriller set in the future. You play as Charlie, an astronaut who has returned to Earth in the wake of the aftermath in search for her daughter. Earth has been invaded by an outside force and society is a shadow of its former self. The entities roaming Earth are one of many threats Charlie must deal with to accomplish her goal."
The best thing about this trailer, there's apparently more to come!
"This is only the beginning of us exploring Aftermath. – Over the coming months until launch, we'll be highlighting a huge amount of topics and content, to help players understand more of what's in store. The trailer released today is layered in moments that reflect elements of the game that we've not even started to talk about. You won't catch them all the first time around."
There is currently no release date for Aftermath, but we do know it'll be available on PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Which 2021-released video game is your favourite?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The "Prague Declaration" is Europe's new Antisemitic Poison
Fighting Antisemitism while supporting Antisemitism?
Contradictions of a Berlin conference
by Dr. Clemens Heni
Can we fight one form of antisemitism while supporting another? Have a look at what is planned this week-end in Berlin. The groups "Mideast Freedom Forum" and "Stop the Bomb" are organizing a conference on Iran, entitled Time to Act. Indeed: it is time to act against Islamo-fascist Teheran, which works to produce nuclear weapons and said it wants to wipe Israel off the map. Every effort has to be undertaken to help stop Iran going nuclear.
But this Berlin conference most recently announced very proudly that they invited as a key speaker, Czech politician Jana Hybaskova. With no personal disrespect to Ms. Hybaskova, sorry, but it is not OK to deal with Iran and invite a politician with Hybaskova's record on a cardinal Jewish issue in Europe: the history of the Holocaust at a time when "another branch" of antisemitism, with this politician's help, is working overtime to delete the Holocaust from European history and try to make "equal" the perpetrators and victims of the Holocaust.
If someone is seriously concerned about the threat of antisemitism, that person cannot be active in supporting or initiating antisemitism in the EU and promoting the Prague Declaration, while donning philo-Semitic clothing when it comes to the faraway Middle East.
There is a lot to learn from this Berlin invitation to a leading figure of the Holocaust Obfuscation movement.
The following article, co-authored by Professor Dovid Katz, Vilnius (Lithuania), explains. Readers are respectfully referred to my paper, and to a page on the Jewish protests against the Prague Declaration.
Katz and Heni in Algemeiner Journal 4 Dec 2009 in: www.algemeiner.com (week of November 30, 2009) Algemeiner is a New York based Jewish, Yiddish, and English weekly newspaper, editor: Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson, Director: Simon Jacobson, Chairman of Advisory Board: Dr. Elie Wiesel
by Dovid Katz, Vilnius, and Clemens Heni, Berlin
Your open opponent is your friend. He or she states a clear position that you can accept or dissent from. That is the spirit of robust debate in a democratic society. The real enemy is the camouflaged trick-speak of Orwellian parlance. In a one-to-one fair fight, it can be overcome by a skilled debater.
Much more difficult to come to grips with what is happening in Europe now at the odious nexus of Holocaust revisionism and a special East European brand of antisemitism. Difficult, because the product is manufactured by a cunning and powerful ultranationalist elite, based in the Baltics and spreading westward with alarming speed, working with ample government funding. It is spreading its poison with such cunning that even seasoned players, including naive Westerners (Jews included) do not always see what is happening.
In Eastern Europe, one finds a certain local kind of elitist antisemitism. One of its versions: "We love Israeli, American and British Jews, we just hate the local Jews because they continue to think that we helped Hitler while the Russians saved them or their parents or grandparents. Time to mix it all up in a trendy new model of equivalence of evils that the westerners will buy into."
Antisemitism neo-Nazi style in Eastern Europe today (daubing of the Jewish Community of Lithuania in August 2008; there have still been no arrests)
A condensed version of a complex narrative: Instead of coming to terms honestly with their Holocaust histories (highest percentages of Jews killed — mid 90s — in all of Europe), which various individual Baltic scholars boldly tried to do, these states' elites took the basest antisemitic version ("The Jews were all communists and got what they deserved") and transformed it into sophisticated Eurospeak: "The Equal Evaluation of Totalitarian Regimes", or, as it is best known, "Double Genocide". First, the word "genocide" is legally redefined to refer to any kind of evil (particularly: Soviet deportations and deprivation of freedoms). Second, the imaginary "Jewish Bolshevist" image cherished by antisemites is revived and polished up. Then, the "two genocides" are legally made to be "equal" and — shockingly, in Lithuania — prosecutors started to defame and "investigate the war crimes" of Holocaust survivors in their late 80s who are alive because they escaped the ghetto to join the anti-Nazi resistance. They are heroes of the free world. One, Fania Yocheles Brantsovsky, 87, is librarian of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. Another, Dr. Rachel Margolis, 88, cannot return to Lithuania for fear of prosecutors' harassment. (She is loathed by the state-run "Genocide Industry" for having rediscovered and published a Christian Pole's eyewitness diary of tens of thousands of murders.)
The most dangerous success the history-twisters have had to date is the so-called "Prague Declaration" issued at a conference there in June 2008. It proclaims "Communism and Nazism as a common legacy" and demands that Communism be assessed "in the same way Nazi crimes were assessed by the Nuremberg Tribunal". Just ask any Holocaust Survivor on the planet if the perpetrators of Genocide are "the same" as those who offered refuge to the small number who could flee and indeed, those who liberated the few survivors in the eastern sector at war's end.
But the distortion doesn't stop at proclaiming one true Revisionist history for all Europe. The Prague Declaration calls for "the overhaul of European history textbooks so that children could learn and be warned about Communism and its crimes in the same way as they have been taught to assess the Nazi crimes". There is demand for a Europe-wide mix-and-match commemoration day for Nazi and Soviet crimes that would in practice supplant Holocaust Memorial Day. The intrepid human rights champion John Mann MP of the UK parliament has very rightly called the Declaration a "sinister document".
One of the founding signatories of the Prague Declaration, Jana Hybaskova, is announced as a speaker at a Berlin conference about Iran, this weekend, entitled "Time to Act". Why are good willed people featuring founders of the dangerous Holocaust Obfuscation movement? Why support an antisemitic movement, while – for very good reason – attacking anti-Zionist Iran? We cannot fight one form of antisemitism while supporting another form of antisemitism. It is not just a mistake of Ms. Hybaskova, which can easily be corrected (like all the other signatories, she is free to explain that she made a mistake…). In fact, it was MEP Hybaskova's office, in collaboration with that of Czech Republic parliament senator Marin Mejstrik, that stage-managed the dissemination of the Prague Declaration, in a joint press release of 9 June 2008. Three days earlier, they had both "presented" the English and Czech versions of the Declaration to the Czech Republic's Senate.
Antisemitism Prague Declaration style in Eastern Europe today ("Delfi", the major news portal in the Baltics, gloating over "successes" in convincing Europe that Soviet crimes were "worse" than the Nazi genocide of their Jewish populations; most recently published 14 November 2009)
There is an inherent problem in professing support for Israel while obfuscating the Holocaust by comparing that unprecedented genocide with the serious crimes of the Soviet Union (which certainly merit separate and serious ongoing scrutiny). In the actual current climate in Eastern Europe, where antisemitism is inextricably linked with Holocaust Obfuscation, and where Holocaust survivors are pursued and defamed, the red-equals-brown movement is today's elitist antisemitism par excellence. Nobody knows that better than the small, embattled and often vanishing Jewish communities of Eastern Europe who bear the brunt of the local antisemitic campaigns that are the unspoken accompaniment of those fancy declarations in the European Union. The signatories of this sinister document have provided this antisemitism with high-class cover. High time to unmask the whole charade.
Dovid Katz is professor of Judaic Studies at Vilnius University and research director of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. www.holocaustinthebaltics.com and www.dovidkatz.net
Clemens Heni, PhD, recently a Post-Doc at Yale and is now an independent scholar and author, is currently based in Berlin


For the purpose of allowing people who would want to read it but don't want to buy it for 40 bucks.
This paperback version I put on super discount so it'll be like $10 to your door.
I will also be posting the whole text on academia.edu. very soon.
Oh. ! I thought you were a different Dave. Lol. He was telling me about Dragon software because he knows I voice dictate a lot of my stuff, like this comment for example. Lol. So that's why I put in there about dragon software.
But you are Dave at big story guide. How are you?
Yes the link is not working. Perhaps tell me the artist and the name of the song or the pizza music or something and I'll Google it and I'll listen to it.
I reconnected with a friend of mine from high school recently.
Lot going on there but extremely long story and ongoing story very short, is he went to seminary and was going to be a pastor and then something happened and he ended up homeless living in a drain pipe. Got some terrible long fungal infection from living in there. And now he lives with his brothers with one lung, just one side of his long as working.
But he's very Christian and I told him about our discussions over the years.
But I don't know if he will look at your blog because I think he's at a point where he's done with preaching and done with thinking.
He's not done with God or the Bible or Christianity or Jesus or anything. In general he just wants to keep things very simple.
Maybe a prayer for him would be good. I guess he supposed to live for a while even in his condition. And he's in the process of telling me his story because I asked.
I haven't revised it about the Lazarus thing, amongst other revisions and just formatting issues. But there's a few people who want to read it and I didn't I'm not here to make a profit off my books. I just think they're filled with things that people would be interested in reading. But it seems you have to play the marketing game if you want anyone to read your books so I guess my books will go unread.
Oh by the way I am going back to school to get my Masters degree in counseling probably family and marriage and family therapist.
I ffigure that I would be best useful in That area and in this worldthis world, and I'll never be out of a job with that degree.


text:
Thunder and a Surprising Resurrection Change Everything for Black Lightning
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Filed to:Black Lightning
From right to left: James Remar as Peter Gambi and Nafessa Williams as Anissa Pierce in Black Lightning.
Photo: CW
Black Lightning is arguably one of the smartest, strongest comic book adaptations on television right now, but that's not to say the show hasn't been without its weaknesses. It's been weird, for example, that everyone's been keeping these huge, conspicuous secrets from one another right in the open.
There's a certain degree of convenient ignorance that's required to make complicated shows like Black Lightning work, but at the same time, it's been odd to accept that neither of Jefferson's children would have figured out that their father was a superhero, or that Jefferson and Lynn wouldn't have even considered that their children might be metahumans. Thankfully, Black Lightning's finally addressing that weirdness head-on with "Equinox: The Book of Fate," one of this season's strongest episodes yet.
After spending half of the season sneaking around and hiding in the metahuman closet, Anissa's secret is finally out. Jeff, Lynn, and Gambi all know about her super-abilities and while they're all concerned for her safety, they waste no time in accepting the fact that she's destined to become a superhero vigilante like Black Lightning. Every cape show featuring a relatively young, new hero ends up incorporating some version of the "great power, great responsibility" trope in which the parents helplessly struggle in vain to keep their loved one away from being a hero.
But "Equinox: The Book of Fate" is somewhat more complicated because the reveal of Anissa's powers is juxtaposed with all of the death and destruction we've seen come to Freeland so far this season. Jeff and Lynn might not want to see Anissa purposefully putting herself in harm's way, but the fact of the matter is that they really don't have a choice. Anissa was on the front lines of Freeland's protests long before her abilities began to manifest, and the city's only become even more dangerous since she began learning just what all she can do. Try as he might to save it, Freeland's in a state of free fall, and on some level, Black Lightning knows that he and Gambi are stronger with Anissa on their side fighting the good fight if they really want to take the 100 down.
In a time of crisis, Black Lightning's heroes see their troubling times as a reason to come together, whereas the villains pull apart and turn on one another. It's interesting that as the evil organization Lady Eve works for and Tobias Whale's crew become more ascendant in power, the actual people on the ground seem to be losing their ability to actually wield that power effectively. Tobias' brutal cage match against a fighter high on green light was enthralling to watch, but it also reflected a larger idea that Black Lightning seems to have carefully woven into the fabric of its larger plot. Power derived from corruption and fear is unsustainable because it comes at the high cost of human life on all sides of the equation. Black Lightning's never shied away from killing characters off left and right, but "Equinox: The Book of Fate" heaps death onto the villains in a way we've not yet seen—further emphasizing that the game they're ultimately playing at is just as dangerous for them, if not more so.
While the sudden deaths of Tobias' henchman Joey Toledo and Lady Eve aren't off-brand for Black Lightning, they definitely came with an air of in-universe surprise. We've always known that they were all close to death just by virtue of their line of work, but the episode suggests that perhaps they never quite fully understood just how dangerous the storm they created actually was.
What ends up making "Equinox: The Book of Fate" so surprising, though, is the introduction of yet another curious deus ex machina that puts all of Black Lightning's deaths into a new context: Both Lawanda White and Latavius are still alive. Or, rather, they've both been brought back to life through means that have yet to be explained. After seeing so many important characters unceremoniously killed off earlier in the season, it makes all the sense in the world that Black Lightning would end up bringing at least a couple of them back, but the resurrections in "Equinox: The Book of Fate" could end meaning something much, much more interesting for the show.
There's still so much we don't know about Black Lightning's real Big Bad™, the group pulling the strings from the shadows which seems oddly fixated on Freeland and Black Lightning. This whole time we've been assuming that they were just another large-scale drug running outfit looking to turn a profit, but after this episode, the tea leaves point to a potential truth that's far, far more mysterious.
Jill Scott as Lady Eve in Black Lightning.
Watching Tobias and the green light brawler fight was like watching two Milk Duds trying to kill one another. It's also interesting to see that Tobias recognizes that green light's actually far too dangerous a drug for recreational use, the way the 100 is marketing it.
Lady Eve's death was a huge disappointment, but it's safe to say that she'll definitely be back before the end of the season. It's also worth noting that 1) her scene was FANTASTIC and 2) the electricity-shooting guns we see in that scene are very similar to the weather-based weapons currently seen in DC's Black Lightning comic, which have been used to frame Jefferson for crimes.
Peter Gambi rolled up looking like he was cosplaying as the Shadow, but got his costume at Party City.
There have been a couple of theories that Black Lightning is actually set in the same universe as Supergirl and that green light is derived from Kryptonite. Nothing in "Equinox: The Book of Fate" confirms that, but LaWanda's sudden reappearance and her suddenly turning into a cloud of glowing vapor is decidedly metahuman-y. If anything, it's somewhat reminiscent of how random people on Smallville would manifest meta abilities after being exposed to kryptonite.
Black Lightning's Most Shocking Episode Yet Is Also Its Most Grounded
Black Lightning's Origin Stories Are Rooted in Powerful Black History
No One Is Ready for the Deadly Storm Coming Black Lightning's Way
Black Lightning May Have an Incredibly Odd Connection to the CW's Arrowverse
io9 Culture Critic and Staff Writer. Cyclops was right.


Tim Horton's Camp Day was held on June 6 this year at locations across Canada. Camp Day is a day where proceeds from ALL coffee sales, and other donations, go toward helping sending kids to camp this summer. The amount of support shown by customers and volunteers, in Quinte, was outstanding!
McDonald's Restaurants across Canada teamed up on May 2nd to support local children's charities such as Ronald McDonald Houses and the Quinte Children's Foundation. 95.5 Hits FM was on hand for the day to help!
Post your photo's with the hashtag #cool100fm to join in!
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This seemingly new disorder is appearing more frequently in health history of clients seeking help for hair loss, thinning hair and treatment for hair loss at Absolique Hair Health Clinic. The frequency and relative effects on health and nutrition are certainly providing many with a reason for feeling the way they have, without success in finding out why.
Such a diagnosis can be relief for many because it all starts to make sense. In our world of technology and medicine, many are happy to know they were not imagining the way they were feeling. Modern medicine now understands more about this disorder that was first noted in the early 1960's. There is much research and support now available of Pyrrole which is described as a blood disorder.
"People who suffer from Pyrrole Disorder produce excessive amounts of HPL which, binds to or inhibits the nutrients; Zinc 1-7, vitamin B6 1-7, Biotin 8, and the Omega 6 Fat GLA from reaching their targets within your body. This effectively renders these nutrients unavailable. Supplementation with the above nutrients helps to reduce your HPL levels as well as the severity of the conditions, signs and symptoms".
Absolique recommend seeking professional help and advice if you can relate to the symptoms of Pyrrole or have had a diagnosis. We are the hair experts and can help to stabilise the hair whilst working with your professional to support your health. Contact Absolique Hair Health Clinic for more information about Pyrrole Disorder and Treatment for Hair Loss and to share your hair loss, hair thinning and scalp concerns. Email Absolique Trichologist at info@absolique.com.au or call our reception team on 07 3229 3242.


Infiniti is planning to build five news cars in China over the next five years – and today it's announced one will be an EV, based on an "all-new electrified vehicle platform influenced by the stunning Q Inspiration concept car".
The Q is "the first manifestation of Infiniti's new form language for an era of advanced powertrains," says the company. Its boss Roland Krueger said Nissan's luxury arm had China in mind when it was designing the Q, which he says "shows a very sporty, performance-oriented electric concept, with a much bigger interior space".
Five years is still a way off, so predictably details are scant (we don't even know whether it'll make it to Europe or the US, let alone the UK in RHD), but we'd wager on something to compete with the likes of the Tesla Model 3 and Jaguar I-Pace.
Say what you want about Infiniti, but there's no denying it does a good concept. So if the eventual production car looks anything like the Q, we'll be happy. Happier still if it has the tech to back it up.


Placement activities started this year with first recruitment drive of Zydus cadila a Cadila Healthcare Ltd. Group company followed by number of off-campus and on campus drives round the year. Faculty of Pharmacy got ample opportunities with esteemed pharmaceutical Industries like Piramal Discovery Solutions, BDR Internationals(research division), Omgene life sciences, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Zydus Research centre, Gujarat Liqui Pharma caps private limited., Mil Laboratories, Elysium Pharmaceuticals and many more.
Highest Number of offer made was 16 offers by Cadila Helathcare ltd. Ahmedabad with a starting Package of 2.8 lacks.
Placement Season 2015-16 kicked off well with campus drives of eminent organisations such as SUN PHARMA, ZYDUS PHARMA, ALEMABIC PHARMA, SANOFI INDIA, CADILA PHARMA, CLARIS PHARMA and many more.
JOB FAIR 2015 AND JOB FAIR 2016 was arranged at Parul Campus and more than 80 Industries participated in these JOB FAIRS and over 600 offer letters were generated.
Campus Placement Program (2015) was indeed a very successful one, with our B.Pharm/M.Pharm students getting an opportunity to sit for recruitment drive of many companies including eminent names such as torrent pharma, CIPLA, VOVANTIS, ASTRON RESEARCH, SUN PHARMA, ZYDUS PHARMA, ALEMABIC PHARMA, SANOFI INDIA, CADILA PHARMA, CLARIS PHARMA and many more.


text:
Who Needs Government? Pirates, Collapsed States, and the Possibility of Anarchy
Anarchy Q & A
Peter T. Leeson • August 18, 2007 •
Randy poses a few interesting questions for me, as does Rodrik in his last remarks. I'll do my best to answer them:
Q: Pete, do you think that if Somalia remains in its stateless condition that it will emerge from poverty to prosperity?
A: I think that the greatest sources of instability and retrogression Somalia has experienced since going stateless in 1991 are the few exogenously-created attempts, backed by the international community, to reinstate government in the country. The first of these was the "Transitional National Government." The second was the "Transitional Federal Government." Despite these interjections, internally, Somalia has proved a remarkably stable anarchy, whereby the power of various groups that might be interested in asserting their overarching control of the country is checked by the power of competing groups. Instead of this leading to conflict, it has mostly led to peace. When the TNG, and later TFG, lodged itself in the picture, this power equilibrium was disturbed, which led to renewed conflict.
If Somali anarchy were "left alone" would it emerge from poverty to prosperity? I don't know, but part of the main point in my original essay was that this is the wrong question to be asking.
I think that for the foreseeable future the question for Somalia is one of anarchy as we understand this anarchy to be in Somalia—not in an idealized form of perfect private order like we read in David Friedman's Machinery of Freedom—vs. a highly-predatory and dysfunctional government like the one Somalia had before 1991—not an idealized form of property-protecting government like we see in the U.S. Neither of these particular states of the world generate lots of prosperity. But the evidence from Somalia suggests to me that the former generates more prosperity than the latter.
Just like there are different "kinds" of governments, I believe there are also different "kinds" of anarchies. Some will be more high-functioning than others and many factors, such as a society's level of development, culture, history, etc., will constrain what kind of anarchy it might get if it were to go this route just like these features constrain what kind of government it can expect if it goes this route instead. The situation of Somalia suggests to me that even the "worse kinds" of anarchy are better than the "worse kinds" of government. Given the choice between the two, which is the choice I think Somalia has, the former is superior. I am not saying that Somalia is the "worst kind" of anarchy; I simply haven't seen enough cases of anarchy to know if this is the case or not. But I do know it's not the "best kind," if for no other reason than the fact that I think the international arena, for example, shows a "better kind."
Rodrik asks what my advice would be for Somalia. It would indeed be to leave Somalia alone because I think the alternative that Rodrik suggests—trying to construct a Botswana-like government in Somalia—will not only fail, but will likely produce worse outcomes that just letting Somalia be. The reason for this is the same one I pointed to in my initial essay. Somalia and Botswana face very different constraints, which in turn dramatically affects the types of government they could have.
Botswana has a long history of constraining rulers—going back to the precolonial period—which have carried forward to today. Botswana is also a veritable diamond mine, which has largely operated to preserve the historically-grounded good institutions it has enjoyed. Somalia, in contrast, has no such history of constraints, has experienced political corruption and predation from the time of its independence, and has no diamonds to speak of. If Botswana's path is replicable, it's not replicable in Somalia. An attempt to make Somalia look like Botswana won't produce another Botswana. It will produce another Barre-ruled Somalia.
Q: Do you think there is any practical way to eliminate governments in those areas that have bad governments, and actually leave them stateless?
A: I don't believe there is an effective way to exogenously "engineer" anarchy in foreign countries for the same reason I don't believe there is an effective way to exogenously "engineer" good governments in developing countries. The track record for foreign aid looks pretty poor from where I sit, and there is no reason to think that attempts to "create anarchy" abroad would be any better. Incentive and information problems plague both efforts equally.
Q: If you had the option of completely eliminating government in the United States, relying entirely on voluntary agreements, would you do it?
A: If the readers of this exchange were not already fully prepared to have me committed, I will give them the reason to do so now: Yes, I would be in favor of what you propose.
I think that the "better kind" of anarchy is actually most likely to flourish in a highly-developed society with a history like the one the U.S. has. Randy and Rodrik have both pointed out, and I think rightly, that we do not have any examples of countries (if we exclude the international arena, which is of course not a country) that have become wealthy through anarchy. Although I agree with this, I do not think it demonstrates what those who invoke it usually think it does. It does not follow from this, for example, that anarchy is antithetical to prosperity and that government alone is capable of producing wealthy societies.
We often forget that until a good way into the 19th century, even England and the United States were very much reliant on private arrangements for traditional public functions, such as providing law and order. As we moved along, government grew stronger and bigger and largely supplanted these private arrangements. But this does not mean that these places could not have grown wealthy on the basis of private arrangements if they had been permitted to. Only someone who is fully committed to the "Pigouvian perspective," who thinks about the evolution of government purely in terms of rectifying market inefficiencies and serving the "public interest," could conclude as much. Students of public choice will be ready to point out that government's growth and usurpation of private arrangements historically is not evidence that this was efficient or that government is responsible the growth we have observed since then.
In my mind, the "anarchy path," which would have involved government shrinking at this critical junction in U.S. or British history, for example, is one of a few paths—including the one we did take—that could have been taken and generated prosperity. In fact, I would argue along with Bruce that the anarchy path would have generated greater prosperity than what we have today under government.
Q: The difficult thing about contemplating orderly anarchy in a prosperous society is that it is so far away from anything ever experienced … What do you think, Pete?
A: I think that it's closer than we sometimes pretend. I live in Arlington, VA. There are quite a few police active around here and lots of government buildings. Nevertheless, not too long ago, right in front of the cigar shop I spend my copious free time in, no more than 15 feet from my face, in broad daylight, I saw a man walk up to a car parked in front of the shop, break out the window and walk away with a laptop computer.
Contrary to what you might be thinking right now, I am not raising this example to suggest that this theft means we're not as far from anarchy as we think. I'm raising this example to suggest that this theft, despite the strong presence of government enforcement, means that we're not as far from anarchy as we think.
Like it or not, most of the time, despite its hypothetical presence, government isn't there to protect us. Yes, it's true, you can call the police if your computer is stolen. But this did not prevent the theft, which, ostensibly, is the great benefit of state enforcement. Nor do I suspect that the poor fellow who was victimized, who did in fact file a report with the police, will ever see his computer again because of this.
I know, I know, shadow of the state and all that … We'd see more computers stolen if it weren't for government police, and so on … But my point is that when you buy an alarm for your house, when you encrypt the password on your computer, when you hire a "rent-a-cop" or use private arbitration, when you so much as lock your door when you leave in the morning, you're telling me something. And that something is that government is not as bullet-proof (or cost-effective) a remedy for protecting your property as we often pretend it is. People evidently feel the need to resort to private methods of property protection, which suggests the presence of a rather large "formal enforcement vacuum"—a sizeable arena of our daily lives in which government cannot be relied upon to protect us. Well, that's anarchy.
Anarchy Unbound, or: Why Self-Governance Works Better than You Think by Peter T. Leeson
Everybody seems to know we need government … But pirates didn't! How did they manage without the state? In this issue's thought-provoking lead essay, Peter T. Leeson, the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at George Mason University, explores what pirate "constitutions," credit institutions among 19th century African bandit traders, and the well-being of Somalians after the collapse of the Somalian state have to tell us about the possibility of practical anarchy. It works better than you think, Leeson concludes. "As long as there are unrealized gains to realize, people will find ways to realize them" — state or no state.
Anarchy Bound: Why Self-Government Is Less Widespread than It Should Be by Bruce L. Benson
Bruce L. Benson, author of The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State, argues Peter Leeson's defense of anarchy is too moderate. Governments in developed nations, Benson maintains, are not better than ordered anarchy. Drawing on Franz Oppenheimer's classic account of the state as a protection racket, Benson argues that the state only seems necessary because it offers "solutions" to problems the state itself creates. Benson claims that even well-constrained states are essentially parasitic, leading him to conclude that "even when a relatively 'good' government exists, there still is way too much government and not nearly enough anarchy."
The Limits of Self-Enforcing Agreements by Dani Rodrik
Harvard economist Dani Rodrik is willing to accept a number of steps in Peter Leeson's argument for anarchy, "but [Leeson's] bottom line … represents a huge leap of faith." Citing the work of several important thinkers, Rodrik argues that "the problem with self-enforcing agreements is that they do not scale up." Both theory and data show that complex, well-functioning social and economic systems require the enforcement of rules by government. "Those societies in which markets work best are the ones where the reach of the state is longer, not shorter."
Anarchy From a Policy Perspective by Randall G. Holcombe
Florida State University economist Randall Holcombe argues that even if Leeson is right about anarchy, it doesn't much matter. "Regardless of its merits," Holcombe writes, "anarchy has no prospect as an actual policy option." The bottom line is that government is popular in developed nations. Furthermore, anarchy may not be a "stable equilibrium," in which case it might "coalesce into governments … potentially more oppressive and more destructive than those we see in prosperous areas today." According to Holcombe, if we're going to get a government anyway, the best approach to policy is to "make it smaller, less intrusive, and more libertarian," not to make it go away.
The Feasibility of Anarchy by Peter T. Leeson
The Most Significant Market Failure by Bruce L. Benson
Means and Ends in Our National Movement Toward Anarchy by Randall G. Holcombe
Scaling Up, International Trade, and Demand for Government by Dani Rodrik
Rebuttal to Rodrik by Peter T. Leeson
Polycentric Governance* by Bruce L. Benson
The Crux of the Matter by Dani Rodrik
The Relevance of Anarchy by Randall G. Holcombe
Anarchical Policy Analysis by Bruce L. Benson
Anarchy Q & A by Peter T. Leeson
Anarchy as a Policy Goal by Randall G. Holcombe
The Road to Anarchy by Randall G. Holcombe
Privatization versus Contracting Out by Bruce L. Benson
Clarifying Matters by Peter T. Leeson
The Relevance of Anarchy, Again by Randall G. Holcombe
One More Try: Anarchical Policy Analysis by Bruce L. Benson
A Stock-Taking by Peter T. Leeson


We wrote about Augmented Reality becoming more mainstream with Facebook, Google and Apple integrating these technologies in their product offerings. As per reports, Apple iOS11 scheduled for launch in September will an ARKit. This is Apple's homegrown technology for enabling developers to build AR apps. Google had earlier announced their VR ambitions. Google has plans to support the developers with creating VR content and help them monetise this content through advertising. A recent patent application by Facebook, supposedly for their AR glasses, reveals few more details about it. It's designed to look more like a regular pair of glasses and the features include audio playing through connected devices.
AR is already proving it can have real business applications. AR in dentistry provides the patient with the much needed 'preview' to show how the teeth will look post the procedure or even how it should look by choosing different options within the procedure. Changi Airport recently announced their plans to equip their ground staff with AR glasses so that they can, in real time, see the details of the cargo like weight, loading sequence and allocated position within the aircraft through a QR code. There are more advertisers now adopting AR technology for creating immersive mobile experience for their consumers.
However, adoption of VR by the advertising industry will depend a lot on how simple and easy the access to hardware will be. But companies like omnivirt and vertebrae are already providing many options for advertisers. According to Abigail Posner, Head of Strategic Planning at Zoo (Google), VR allows brands to move from 'story telling' to 'story living'. As an example Guinness recently offered a VR experience for customers across TESCO supermarkets in UK where an VR environment was created comprising of colours, shapes and sounds to enhance their perception of each flavour.


Tottenham Hotspur will bid for Manchester United striker Javier Hernández if they can sell Emmanuel Adebayor in the January transfer window.
Spurs have been keen to buy the 25-year-old Mexican for some time and will step up their interest after it became public that he has grown increasingly frustrated at his lack of opportunities at Old Trafford especially in season that culminates in a World Cup.
Adebayor has struggled since he gained a permanent move to Spurs last year and is already behind Roberto Soldado and Jermain Defoe in the pecking order.
Spurs had hoped he would leave last summer but a significant stumbling block is his wages said to worth up to £175,000-a-week.
Arsenal have also shown an interest in Hernández but United are unlikely to want to sell until next summer at the earliest and particularly to a Premier League rival.
The priority for United manager David Moyes is to strengthen his team's midfield although he is aware that Hernández is frustrated.
Signing Hernández would call into question Defoe's first-team chances at Spurs but Villas-Boas has insisted he will not sell the 31-year-old in January.
Villas-Boas also claimed that Defoe's chances of making England's World Cup squad will not be affected even though he has not been a regular Premier League starter for Spurs this season.
"I am not sure about Roy Hodgson's selection process but what I have seen is that he has been counting on Jermain in the same way and has been included in all call-ups this season. So that wouldn't appear to matter on his selection," he said.
Defoe has been included as one of six strikers by the England manager for the forthcoming friendly matches against Chile and Germany and was in the squad throughout the qualifying campaign.
The striker has just one more year left on his contract after this season and there have not been any talks, so far, about a new deal.


Keep your little adventurer warm with our Kids Magnolia Jeep Hoodie. Soft and comfortable, this hoodie features the Magnolia vintage truck and a pocket to keep hands warm on cold days.
CARE INSTRUCITONS: machine wash warm with like colors. Tumble dry on low.


Would like like a chance to win a free a cappella music CD? We recently published a review of the album. You can read it here, if you missed it.
To enter for a chance to win, all you need to do is fill out this short Radi-Call Readership Survey. A winner will be chosen at random and announced next week!
I would like to order one of these CD's… can you give me info on where I can do that and how much they are?


There was a little kerfuffle in the interwebs recently, kittens, and your humble editor was at the centre of it, thanks to an interview last month with Passcode journalist (and Cryptosphere pal) Fruzsina Eordogh for an article called The Great Anonymous Divide. The premise of the article was that Anonymous, while a Hivemind, is far from a unanimous one. Thanks in part to having been born in the heavily American bowels of 4chan, Anonymous has in the past been dominated by Americans, and as the idea of Anonymous spreads, the Americanons are losing influence. Differences of opinion over issues like Palestine, and the emergence of former Anons among the ranks of ISIS, as well as the Snowden revelations, all conspire to drive Anonymous activity to places other than the US.


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How Are Seedless Watermelons Grown?
Updated on: 15 Apr 2019 by Akash Peshin
Cross Breeding
Watermelons are only known for two things: the sweet juice of their crushed-ice-textured flesh and seed spitting. However, since the 1990s, people seem to play the sport less and less; in fact, some watermelons don't have any seeds now, so the game could be lost forever!
On the other hand, in the sweltering summer heat, not everyone enjoys their divine stream of cold juice being perpetually interrupted by tiny rocks…
Seedless watermelon. (Photo Credit : Pixano)
A seedless fruit is an oxymoron. It is perplexing and biologically contradictory, because fruits are just mature flowers that protect seeds. It is the seed inside a fruit that ensures the survival of its plant's species. A fruit without a seed would mean that the plant that bore it is sterile — it is one genetic code's final heir. At the heart of our inquiry lies the question: how do we grow a plant when its fruits contain no seeds? The inventors therefore had two problems to solve: growing a plant that bears seedless fruits and somehow ensuring that it continues to procreate, despite its sterility. So, how did they resolve these issues?
To nature, sterility is an atrocity – a heinous crime. Nature encourages the survival of its species (precisely, its genes) at all costs. Such a crime can only be committed by tinkering with a plant's cellular structure either, naturally (very unfortunate) or artificially, through deliberate cross-breeding, for example.
A watermelon embedded with seeds possesses 22 chromosomes — thread-like entities that carry the genes. Such a species is called a diploid. However, the chromosomes can be doubled by treating the plant with the chemical colchicine. The new species, a tetraploid, now possesses 44 chromosomes. Now, when the tetraploid is pollinated by a diploid, or when the diploid's male reproductive cell fuses with the tetraploid's female reproductive cell, a seed possessing 33 chromosomes is formed, a triploid. This seed grows into a watermelon plant that bears seedless watermelons.
The seedless watermelon plant is often called the "mule" of the plant kingdom, for a mule is the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. (Photo Credit: Pixabay)
It is imperative to know that by "seedless", we mean that the watermelon isn't replete with the seeds that we normally refer to as seeds — the brown, minuscule pebbles — but rather, it possesses the white, translucent and softer ones that are less hated. These are immature seeds whose coatings haven't completely developed. The first problem is therefore solved; we discovered how to create one, but how do we ensure that it procreates?
In a vegetation of seedless watermelon plants, only two-thirds are triploids, while the rest are diploids. A watermelon plant sprouts both male and female flowers, but its sterility renders its male flower impotent. To ensure the continuation of its seedless species, the female flower must be pollinated. The pollens are provided by the diploids planted around it. This is primarily achieved by agents, such as a honey bee, which acts as a wing-man and carries pollen from the neighboring diploids and drops them onto the triploid's females. The flower matures and transmutes into a delightful fruit, except that it is seedless.
(Photo Credit: Pxhere)
Seedless fruits aren't necessarily grown by cross-breeding. Vines that bear seedless grapes are grown by cloning. They are descendants of the very first vine that bore seedless grapes. For more details, click here.
Of course, the convenience of eating a watermelon bereft of seeds does come at a cost. Its beauty seems to be starkly overshadowed by its blemishes. Seedless watermelons are warm-season crops; thus, for propitious germination, they must grow in day temperatures of 80 to 95ᵒF and night temperatures of 60 to 70ᵒF. The growth will not be optimum if these temperatures aren't maintained; to ensure that, they are grown in greenhouses with facilities that come at very high costs.
Another disadvantage is the plant's lack of variety. As there is no room for any variation, successive generations cannot evolve to resist an infection that killed an ancestor or thwarted its growth in some way. An infection that impedes one can impede the others just as easily.
Seedless watermelon farm. (Photo Credit: Pixabay)
Despite its limitations, seedless watermelons are grown widely. Vendors earn a fortune since the market is huge. In the few years following its invention, the fruit resembled its seeded cousin, but didn't taste as sweet as one would expect. However, improved breeding techniques have instilled the uniquely sweet taste as well. Could it get any more convenient?
American farm bureau foundation for agriculture
The short URL of the present article is: http://sciabc.us/eYHYV
Akash Peshin is an Electronic Engineer from the University of Mumbai, India and a science writer at ScienceABC. Enamored with science ever since discovering a picture book about Saturn at the age of 7, he believes that what fundamentally fuels this passion is his curiosity and appetite for wonder.
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Where Do Flies And Bugs Go During Storms?
December 2, 2019 Nature
Why Do You See Various Shades Of Green In A Garden?
October 9, 2015 Nature
Why Does Soil Always Look Brown?
November 30, 2016 Nature
What Is A Food Chain? Who Are Producers, Consumers and Decomposers In A Food Chain?
March 22, 2019 Nature
Why Do Clouds Look Dark?
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Why Are Parrot Such Great Imitators Of Humans?
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The Science Behind Beautiful Fall Foliage
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What Is Photosynthesis?
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How Much Do Vehicles Really Contribute To Air Pollution?
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Tags: Biology


We're proud of our e-learning course: Maximizing Mentoring Success. We believe it's the perfect training for new mentors and mentorees as they embark on their mentoring journey together.
Of course, it's easy for us to say how great the course is, right? This is why we decided to have a case study created that discusses one professional organization's experience with the course.
Interested in learning more about our e-learning course?
The course costs only $79, and group rates are available as well--just ask. We also have an online certification course designed specifically for mentoring program managers. Thanks for reading the case study and checking out the courses.


Still love the series but it seems like lots of pages that don't move the plot forward. It is starting to feel more and more like the Wheel of Time series which we all know ground to a halt. Hopefully Mr. Martin will not die before he completes the series. I rated it a 2 out of 5 on Amazon.
Will your GPS work when you need it?


In this lesson you will learn about why Krav Maga is for everyone. This lesson also covers what to expect when you train in Krav Maga. You will learn basic Krav Maga philosophies and principles, important training considerations, and much more.
In this lesson you will learn about why Krav Maga is for everyone. This lesson also covers what to expect when you train in Krav Maga.


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Christopher Brian McCombs (né le ) est un acteur, mannequin, écrivain et producteur américain. Il est surtout connu pour ses rôles à la télévision tels que Chris dans la série comique japonaise "The Benza" et son dérivé "Benza English", Michael dans la série originale de Netflix "Followers", et DJ Chris dans la série TV Asahi "Kodawari Navi".  Il est également connu pour des rôles de scène tels que Hoteye dans la production en direct de Fairy Tail.

Christopher maîtrise le japonais et a remporté plusieurs prix d'interprétation pour ses performances en anglais et en japonais.

Biographie

Jeunesse
Christopher est né à Geniva, dans l'Ohio, et s'est installé à Cleveland avec sa mère, l'enseignante Karen Callahan, dès son plus jeune âge. Il a commencé à jouer et à être mannequin professionnellement au lycée lorsque son talentueux professeur d'éducation l'a poussé à auditionner pour des spectacles.

Carrière
En 2013, Christopher a commencé une longue série de rôles réguliers et récurrents à la télévision japonaise, notamment "Go Ji Ni Muchuu" de Tokyo Metropolitan Television Broadcasting Corporation, "Omotenashi no kiso eigo" et "Ei Ei Go" de NHK Educational TV, Kodawari Navi de TV Asahi, et Bento Expo de NHK General TV. Il a également travaillé comme reporter dans des émissions comme "J-Trip Plan" de NHK World.

En 2015, Christopher a créé la société de production indépendante Tokyo Cowboys pour aider à créer de meilleurs rôles pour les étrangers souhaitant travailler au Japon. Suivant les conseils du président de Freewave Entertainment, Mutsumi Takahashi, Christopher a commencé à mettre sur pied une équipe d'artistes et de créateurs japonais et étrangers qui voulaient créer des divertissements qui représentent mieux la diversité de Tokyo. Bien qu'à l'origine concentrés sur la réalisation de courts métrages, les Tokyo Cowboys ont commencé à produire des séries de divertissement en 2018 avec la série web Till Death, et "The Benza" de 2019 sur Amazon Prime Video. Le rôle de Christopher au sein des Tokyo Cowboys est à la fois producteur et scénariste en chef.

En 2020, Christopher a commencé à travailler sur la série dérivée de "The Benza", "Benza English". En plus de ses rôles habituels à TV Asahi, NHK Educational TV, et NHK General TV, il a commencé à apparaître régulièrement dans "Zip!" de Nihon TV, une émission d'information matinale japonaise.

Prix et distinctions
Capable de se produire en japonais et en anglais, Christopher a remporté plusieurs prix pour son jeu d'acteur. Il a notamment remporté le prix du meilleur acteur pour son rôle dans le court métrage japonais "The Actor and the Model" au Festival international du film de Formosa à Taïwan ainsi que le prix de l'étoile montante au Webfest de Séoul en Corée en 2018 et le prix du meilleur acteur à l'édition 2019 pour son rôle principal dans la série télévisée The Benza. Christopher a également été reconnu pour son travail de scénariste.

Références

Liens externes

Acteur américain
Producteur américain
Acteur japonais de cinéma
Acteur japonais de télévision
Naissance en août 1985


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Q: How to properly ensure termination of a thread that is using a shared Lock? In __main__, I create a new daemon thread to achieve a non-blocking processing on a shared state protected by a threading.Lock(). While everything works fine from the looks of it when the program is running, I sporadically get an exception when quitting the program, i.e. when the daemon thread is supposed to terminate:

'NoneType' object has no attribute 'acquire'

The code is roughly as follows:
mutex = threading.Lock()

def async_processing(shared):
    global mutex
    while True:
        sleep(1)
        mutex.acquire()
        try:
            shared.modify_state()
        finally:
            mutex.release()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    shared = SomeObject()

    thread = threading.Thread(target=async_processing, args=(shared,))
    thread.daemon = True
    thread.start()

    if user_enters_some_command_to_stdin:
        mutex.acquire()
        try:
            shared.modify_state()
        finally:
            mutex.release()

I'm not really at home with Python and am thus maybe not doing this the way it's supposed to be done, but my guess is that somehow a context switch to the thread happens after mutex is no longer available. Is this hypothesis true?
What is the best way to handle this?

A: I think the simplest way is adding a flag variable:
mutex = threading.Lock()
flag = True

def async_processing(shared):
    while flag:
        sleep(1)
        with mutex:
            shared.modify_state()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    shared = SomeObject()

    thread = threading.Thread(target=async_processing, args=(shared,))
    thread.start()

    if some_user_action:
        with mutex:
            shared.modify_state()
    flag = False
    thread.join()  # wait for exit.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Little Changes in Clearing System Despite Concerns of Federal Reserve
By Paul Beckett and Greg IpStaff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
In the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bank of New York Co. found itself the focus of concerns that the nation's financial markets had become too dependent on a few huge banks to process securities trades and transfer funds.
The bank, which had three buildings in lower Manhattan either damaged or temporarily closed by the attacks, was unable to perform its critical nerve-center function for days afterward, creating a logjam of payments. At one point, it owed other companies a total of about $100 billion, people familiar with the matter say, including $30 billion each to Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.


Hey Bob, are MEI still part of the preferred group? Only you have them listed here but they don't have a listing/heading in the sub forum area. Just wasn't sure if they were still an active member of the group or not they as there wasn't much activity in their sub forum.
I've hidden some of those preferred vendors where nothing at all has happened for three or four years and kept them in this listing.
The Preferred Vendors area has got a bit stale and I'm contacting some of the guys in there at the moment to see if they want to have a forum or just offer any deals they have in the general forum.
I don't think anyone from MEI has been on the forum since we first created the sub-forum. Same with Alaska Specialty Woods and Cedar Creek Cases.
They are still on the preferred vendors list but it seems unnecessary to have an entire sub-forum if it just gathers cobwebs.
For the month of May, Alaska Specialty Woods Inc, has slashed their already attractive prices for their 100% Savage Sourced Old Growth Sitka soundboard products.This month it's Mandolin family time. No coupons needed for this sale.
Also if any of the Admins of ANZLF want to grab any of what's on sale, or other, we would still like to donate product for you to sell or auction for fundraising of this Great Forum.
Brent Cole Sr. - Pres./ Founder Alaska Specialty Woods Inc.
"Woods for the World's Music in Harmony with the Land"
I'm looking for a reliable source of fresh bow hair. Does anyone have a source they would recommend?


text:
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God's Treasure Map: An Invitation to Imagine Your Inheritance (Joshua 13
November 26, 2019 by David Schrock
Category: Sermon Notes
As the famed Puritan, Matthew Henry, begins his commentary on Joshua 13:1, he writes, "We are not to skip over these chapters of hard names as useless and not to be regarded." Why? Because " where God has a mouth to speak and a hand to write we should find an ear to hear and an eye to read."
This is a good reminder as we venture into seven chapters composed of lists, boundary markers, and land distributions. In comparison to the exciting action of Israel's military conquests in Joshua 1–12, Joshua 13–19 seems, well, . . . dull. But its dullness depends entirely on our inability to appreciate what these chapters meant to Israel.
For centuries, Israel had waited to receive its long-promised inheritance. And now, that the gift of the land had come, Joshua 13–19 tells the contents of this treasure and the placement of God's people in the land. What was once promised to Abraham, is now coming to fulfillment in the days of Joshua.
For us today, this passage is equally exciting when we consider the inheritance promised to us in Christ—an inheritance we still look for in the new heavens and the new earth. Thus, these chapters should not bore us with their detail; they should stir excitement in our own hope of heaven—i.e., a heaven on earth when Christ returns.
Indeed, this is how I pursued these chapters in Sunday's sermon. Rather than taking a microscope to each verse, we looked at them as a whole. Instead of devoting a sermon to each chapter we looked at Joshua 13–19 as a 'treasure map' to better understand our inheritance in Christ.
You can listen to this sermon online. Discussion questions can be found below.
What stands out about Joshua 13–19? How have you read (or struggled to read this list before)?
In what ways did this event (the distribution of the land) encourage the second generation coming out of Egypt? How would this passage encourage/exhort the Israelites in Israel's past? (Think about those in the land tempted to pursue the gods of Canaan).
How does Israel receiving the promised land prefigure the New Creation? What is similar? What is different?
What does it mean for God to be the inheritance of the Levites (13:32)? Review Psalm 16 for more on this.
What truths and attributes of God do you observe in this narrative?
How should we think of our inheritance under the New Covenant (1 Pet 1:3-9)?
Word Study: Look up "inheritance" in the New Testament. How should our eternal inheritance shape our lives today?
For further study:
In this passage we see the end of Balaam (13:22) and the introduction of Othniel (15:15-19).
Take note of the places where Israel fails to drive out the inhabitants and remember the consequences of this (Judges 1-3).
The daughters of Zelophehad appear (17:3-6) and receive the inheritance promised to them. Review Num 27:1-11 36:1-12.
Soli Deo Gloria, ds
More in Sermon Notes
John 1:19-34 Who is Jesus? Learning from John the Baptist How to Answer the Most Important Question
John 2:1-12 We Have Seen His Glory
John 1:35-51 What Do You See When Jesus Looks at You?
More by David Schrock
An Invitation to the Book of Daniel: Neither Diet Plans, Nor Date-Setting, Nor Dares to Be Like Dani
Seeking the Kingdom of God within the Church of Jesus Christ
How Justification by Faith Impels Justice: The Biographical Testimony of William Wilberforce
Four Reasons for Taking the Lord's Supper Every Lord's Day
Eternal Perspective in a Time of Isolation (Sunday, March 22, 2020)
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(703) 878-4673 | admin@obc.org


text:
Home > Blog > Whole Life Insurance or Term
Whole Life Insurance or Term
Whole Life Insurance or Term?
We'll give you a hint: The one you want begins with a "T." Here's why it makes sense for most people.
The right type of life insurance can be summed up in a single word: term. But before we explain why, it's important to understand the differences between the most common types of insurance available. Our glossary can help with that, and decipher some of the more common insurance lingo.
The basic difference between term and whole life insurance is this: A term policy is life coverage only. On the death of the insured it pays the face amount of the policy to the named beneficiary. You can buy term for periods of one year to 30 years. Whole life insurance, on the other hand, combines a term policy with an investment component. The investment could be in bonds and money-market instruments or stocks. The policy builds cash value that you can borrow against. The three most common types of whole life insurance are traditional whole life policies, universal and variable. With both whole life and term, you can lock in the same monthly payment over the life of the policy.
Whole life insurance is expensive: You're paying not only for insurance but also for the investment portion. That extra cost might almost be worth it if these policies were a good investment vehicle. But usually they aren't. Insurance agents like to call these policies retirement plans, emphasizing the "forced savings" inherent in forking over the premiums each month "for retirement."
Get started here and finish your calculations in the complete calculator at SmartMoney.
Input Error:
Leaving aside the fact that there are many better ways to save for retirement, these policies come with high fees and commissions, which sometimes lop off as much as three percentage points from the annual return. On top of that, there are up-front (but hidden) commissions that are typically 100% of your first year's premium. Worse, it's often impossible to tell what the return on the investment will be, and how much of what you pay in goes toward the insurance and how much toward the investment.
Premiums for term insurance are downright cheap for people in good health up to about age 50. After that age, premiums start to get progressively more expensive. The same holds true for whole life policies, though people who need coverage starting in their 60s and beyond may have no alternative but to buy whole life. Most companies simply won't sell term policies to people over about age 65.
To get a real sense of the value of term, let's compare a term policy and a universal life policy. Say a 40-year-old nonsmoking male has a choice between a $250,000 Met Life universal policy with a $3,000 annual premium and a same amount of renewable term coverage with a 20-year fixed premium of $350. At the end of one year, the universal policy, assuming it paid 5.7% per year, tax-deferred, would have a cash value of exactly zero (cash value is the amount you would get back if you canceled the policy). But say he had instead invested $2,650 (the difference between $3,000 and $350) in a no-load mutual fund that averaged a total return of 10% annually. At the end of the first year, he'd have $2,841, accounting for taxes on the earnings at a 28% rate. At the end of 10 years, he would have accumulated more than $46,000 in after-tax savings in the mutual fund. Over the same period, the cash value of the policy would have climbed only to
Can you afford to retire? Enter your info to find out.
That's not to say that whole life insurance is always a bad idea. Wealthy people can use whole life in their estate planning by setting up an insurance trust that will pay their estate taxes from the proceeds of the policy. And for the growing number of people in their late 40s or early 50s who are just starting families, whole life is at least worth a look.
One of the great problems with whole life is only an expert can tell if a policy you own or are considering will ever become a decent investment. James Hunt, actuary for the Consumer Federation of America, who has analyzed thousands of policies, notes that whole life policies hardly ever yield a reasonable return unless held for 20 years or more. So if you buy one be prepared to pay into it for the very long haul.
The key to a whole life policy is its internal rate of return -- the yield on the policy after all fees and charges are subtracted. A competent analysis can determine at a minimum whether the weight of the fees and charges built into one of these policies will ever allow a worthwhile return. Such an analysis will also pinpoint the minimum amount of cash value that you can derive from a policy at any given time interval.
You've been faithfully paying into that whole life policy a good pal of your brother-in-law sold you 10 years ago. And now you're thinking, "Hey wait a minute, I should be bailing out and getting a cheap term policy." Not so fast. First and foremost, keep in mind the substantial sum you've probably paid in over the years. How much will you get if you "surrender" or cash it in now? The answer to that question can be found in the illustrations you got when you signed on the dotted line. If you can't determine the surrender value you may have to -- heaven forbid -- call your agent and ask. But it's worth taking the trouble before you make a decision.
Most policies don't start to build decent a cash value until their 12th or 15th year. So if you cash in after 10 years, you could be out of a lot of money. And you can be sure that if you surrender in the first five years or so, practically every dime you put in will be down the toilet. The next thing you have to consider is whether you are still insurable at a reasonable rate if you switch to term. That's because you'll have to requalify medically. If you are over 50, smoke or have health problems, you may find it's cheaper to hold onto your old policy.
If you're looking for whole life coverage or a term policy that you'll want to keep 20 or 30 years, the financial soundness of the insurer is a critical concern. You want some assurance the company will be around in case you aren't. For insurance companies, the major credit agencies like Standard & Poor's rate claims-paying ability.
Posted 12:11 PM


Search Results for "intro nature"
Autumn sunny day, yellow leaves falling on ground. Low angle. Nature background. Season intro. Camera locked down.
Title Intro animated text for healthy diet concept for Natures Own Candy.
Aerial high angle view on the islands of Stockholm Archipelago, panning shot of treetops revealing narrow inlets behind the trees, nature and wilderness concept, travel and documentary intro.
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Need an intro shot to your video? This is a perfect shot to apply a tittle over or just to use while talking about Parks, nature, water, or climate.
mirror reflection. seagull birds. bridge landscape. slow motion. lake river pond.


FIRST FILMS FIRST | NEW FIRST FILMS FIRST PARTICIPANTS ANNOUNCED!
13 Apr NEW FIRST FILMS FIRST PARTICIPANTS ANNOUNCED!
After thorough and long deliberation, our Jury Committee has reached the decision. It was not an easy one. We have received 121 applications, most of them on a very high level, and the Jury could choose only 8 projects.
We regret many of the projects we love didn't make the list since we were limited to only 8 participants. However, we encourage the applicants to keep the good work on developing their projects and apply the next year. This year, we have selected several projects that didn't make it the last time.


text:
«Нуклотро́н» — базовая установка Объединённого института ядерных исследований (ОИЯИ), в Лаборатории физики высоких энергий им. В. И. Векслера и А. М. Балдина (ЛФВЭ), предназначенная для получения пучков многозарядных ионов с энергией до 6 ГэВ на нуклон, протонов, а также поляризованных дейтронов.

Ускоритель «Нуклотрон», представляющий собой сильнофокусирующий синхротрон, был сооружён в Дубне в течение 1987—1992 годов в том же здании, где расположен ускоритель прошлого поколения (синхрофазотрон ОИЯИ). «Нуклотрон» создан на основе уникальной технологии сверхпроводящих магнитов, предложенной и развитой в Лаборатории высоких энергий, которая в настоящее время носит имя академиков В. И. Векслера и А. М. Балдина. Конструкторские разработки, испытания и монтаж элементов «Нуклотрона» целиком выполнены силами коллектива Лаборатории. Производство магнитных элементов осуществлено в Центральных экспериментальных мастерских ОИЯИ.

См. также
 Ускоритель заряженных частиц
 Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility (NICA) — проект коллайдера на базе обновленного «Нуклотрона»

Примечания

Ссылки
 Сайт «Нуклотрона»
 Лаборатория физики высоких энергий им. В. И. Векслера и А. М. Балдина  ОИЯИ

Научные институты России
Научные установки России
Ускорители частиц


Prior to Windows Vista, CACLS (Change Access Control Lists) is used to manage to complicated NTFS permissions, complement the Folder Options' Security tab which offers an easy way to make minor permissions tweaks. Beginning from Windows Vista, including in Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, and later Windows OS versions, CACLS which has drawback of difficult to use to set inherited permissions on a folder is been deprecated and been replaced with iCACLS. iCACLS expands the capabilities of CACLS to be able to display, modify, backup or restore contents of discretionary ACLs for files and directories. iCACLS command line utility also able to show and set mandatory labels of an object for interaction with WIC (Windows Integrity Control) which most noticeable in the Internet Explorer Protected Mode which automatically Low integrity to Internet objects to protect the operating system from malicious web content in Internet Explorer.
store the the acls for the all matching names into aclfile for later use with /restore.
finds all matching names that contain an ACL explicitly mentioning Sid.
finds all files whose ACL is not in canonical for or whose lengths are inconsistent with ACE counts.
/grant[:r] Sid:perm grants the specified user access rights. With :r, the permissions replace any previouly granted explicit permissions. Without :r, the permissions are added to any previously granted explicit permissions.
/deny Sid:perm explicitly denies the specified user access rights. An explicit deny ACE is added for the stated permissions and the same permissions in any explicit grant are removed.
/remove[:[g|d]] Sid removes all occurrences of Sid in the acl. With :g, it removes all occurrences of granted rights to that Sid. With :d, it removes all occurrences of denied rights to that Sid.
Sids may be in either numerical or friendly name form. If a numerical form is given, affix a * to the start of the SID.
/T indicates that this operation is performed on all matching files/directories below the directories specified in the name.
/C indicates that this operation will continue on all file errors. Error messages will still be displayed.
/L indicates that this operation is performed on a symbolic link itself versus its target.


For a rustic floral wedding theme, we have the Sweet Blossoms & Birds Tea Infuser Favours packaged in a beautiful shimmery box. On the other hand, our Vintage Wooden Handle Butter Spreader Favours will charm your wedding guests especially if you're holding a rustic vintage wedding. If you're looking for rustic bomboniere, you can't go wrong with these beautiful array of rustic vintage wedding favours from Australian Favors!


text:
Essential Opinion: Tab Hunter Confidential
Tab Hunter Confidential is a great 2015 documentary about the life and career of the titular former actor, matinee idol and heartthrob who was also a closeted homosexual in 1950s Hollywood where being out and proud as such could immediately curtail a burgeoning or even an established career – even one that burned astonishingly bright for a short time in the 1950s.
Knowing what I knew of Tab Hunter – which wasn't much, I expected the documentary to be more about his struggles as a closeted gay actor in 1950s Hollywood. And I had assumed that any closeted gay actor's career in those days would have ended on account of his private proclivities having gone public — so that was the story I was expecting to unfold.
But as we find out in the documentary, neither of these were really the case for Hunter – who was a willing participant in a studio system that allowed him to have private relationships with men such as figure skater Ronnie Robertson and fellow actor Anthony Perkins as long as he maintained the public illusion of relationships with actresses such as Natalie Wood and Debbie Reynolds. And though that same studio system protected him from the scandal-hungry tabloid press, it was Hunter's own desire to separate himself from it that derailed his Hollywood career at its peak.
Outside of a few key examples, the documentary doesn't present Hunter's having to maintain an incongruous public and private life as being as much of a struggle as I would have assumed it would. So it is actually better able to serve as a reflection of a sociopolitical climate that forces people to make these kinds of concessions to living a life on their own terms in order to have this career. Whether this was purposed or inadvertent, because it wasn't obviously called out in this way, the documentary is all the better for it – even if less riveting. But in this day and age of content overabundance where riveting is what it takes to break through (as opposed to just interesting or entertaining), less riveting is quite refreshing.
Tab Hunter Confidential is also impressive for the stars that appear in it. In addition to the aforementioned Reynolds, Robert Wagner (on behalf of the late Wood), Noah Wyle of ER (whose first film credit was in one of Hunter's final films), Clint Eastwood (who appeared in one of Hunter's peak films early in his own career), director John Waters (who revitalized Hunter's career in the 1980s), Lainie Kazan (who co-starred with Hunter and Wyle) as well as several starlets of the era who were tasked with helping him maintain his public image are interviewed. Their respective inclusions help the documentary maintain a better balance between Hunter's career and Hunter's sexuality than I would have imagined it would upon first reading about it. (The most pleasing of these inclusions is Jo-Ann Cox of St. Louis, Missouri — who won a date with Hunter in 1956 and, in a nod to the great lengths the producers went to include as many relevant people as possible for this documentary, recounts that experience.)
Though Hollywood has changed in terms of acceptance of gays, its activism on behalf of them and in how they're portrayed on screen, much hasn't changed in terms of how its matinee idols are expected to put forth and maintain a certain type of image for moviegoers – which still means that a gay matinee idol is still called upon and/or chooses to remain closeted for fear of risking any box office money. And though it has become more than okay for an actor to be openly gay, there are still limitations on the types of roles that are available to them. The documentary doesn't speak too much on this either, but because it doesn't, Tab Hunter Confidential, inadvertently or otherwise, becomes both a stark reminder of how things haven't changed and a somewhat pleasant reminder of how they have.
Read our interview with Jeffrey Schwarz
Terrence Moss
Terrence Moss is a Los Angeles-based blogger and writer who works at a media buying agency to pay the bills. He also contributes to the internationally-distributed Kraven Magazine, co-writes a web series called "Child of the 70s" and performs every week at Musical Mondays in West Hollywood. Terrence also watches a lot of old TV shows, gay indie flicks and other web series -- so he's quite single.
@the79show
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Latest posts by Terrence Moss (see all)
Essential Opinion: You're Killing Me - 28/10/2017
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Documentaries Reviews
Anthony Perkins Clint Eastwood Debbie Reynolds Jeffrey Schwarz John Waters Lainie Kazan Natalie Wood Robert Wagner Ronnie Robertson Tab Hunter Tab Hunter Confidential
Gay Essential Films To Watch, Strangers On A Train
Gay Essential Films To Watch, Inside Daisy Clover


text:
You are here: Home / Reviews / Fiction / Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (published serially from 1838-1839) meets the Dickensian stereotype of a very long book. I began reading it when my daughter was newborn and I finally finished it, now that she's three and half.
Nicholas Nickleby is definitely not my favorite Dickens novel. In some respects it's obvious that its a early novel by the master of complex plots. It has many different plots and subplots and an abundance of clever characters, and yet there's something that seems to be missing to tie the whole novel together. It simply was not an enjoyable read for me after the first few hundred pages.
That's not to say I regret reading it. I'm always glad to read another Dickens novel, I really do enjoy both the complex and the superficial and stereotypical characters that are presented in a Dickens' novel.
Nicholas Nickleby is about the once wealthy Nickleby family, which upon the death of the father of the family is left impoverished due to his unwise investments. Mrs. Nickleby is a ridiculous woman. Nicholas is of course the eldest, and since he is college educated and the new "man of the family", he must find a way to support his mother and sister. Nicholas's beautiful and innocent sister, named Kate, also needs taking care of. Upon the reversal of their fortunes, the Nicklebys first turns to their estranged uncle, Ralph Nickleby, in London, who is wealthy, in hopes that he will help them become established in some way with their new, less stable, future.
However, Ralph Nickleby is a wicked man. The novel follows Nicholas as he first follows Uncle Ralph's advice in teaching in a rural Yorkshire school, and then as he flees a poor situation to find his own route to supporting his family. The most well known part of this novel, thanks to the 2002 movie, is the section in which Nicholas is working at Dotheboys Hall, a stereotypical abusive boys school that in the 1830s truly did exist in the countryside of Yorkshire. Dickens' novel became an expose of the horrible living and learning conditions such boys were reduced to, and after Nicholas Nickleby's publication, many such schools were shut down.
However, Nicholas short tenure at Dotheboys hall and the tyranny of the wicked headmaster Mr. Squeers is only the first 200 pages of the massive tome about Nicholas's attempts to reincorporate his family into the proper London social sphere. Nicholas flees the countryside with an abused and simple boy, Smike, only to search for work and stability for the forseeable future (and another 600 pages). He becomes an actor with a travelling troupe, he must save his sister in London from abuse at the hands of Uncle Ralph's wicked friends, and he must find a job he can do to provide his mother and sister with stability. Of course, he also desires to find love for himself and his sister, but that would make things too pretty in the end, wouldn't it? 😉
I don't mean to spoil the novel for you, but I don't think it would do that if I said that things do work out all right in the end. Uncle Ralph meets his just desserts, Nicholas, his sister, and his mother find stability and happiness, and the novel ends on a positive note in many ways. Saying so much cannot spoil the novel for you, as it is 800 pages. There is much to be discovered within the pages, and yet one must be an ambitious reader to keep going. The plot turns, and turns again and characters appear and reappear. All become important to the developing plot, and I enjoyed how Dickens tied things up in the end to provide the positive tone that Nicholas and Kate live for throughout.
All that said, I cannot say I will reread Nicholas Nickleby, and I cannot recommend it as a first Dickensian read for the uninitiated. It is just so tiresome overall!
Note: Nicholas Nickleby is in the public domain. I read a digital edition. If you'd like a physical copy, consider one of those I link to above!
Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London by Andrea Warren
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Thoughts on Four Christmas Novellas by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens: A Life by Jane Smiley (Brief Thoughts)
Filed Under: Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: abuse, family, friends, stereotype, teaching and/or education, Victorian literature
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Charlie (The Worm Hole) says
My thoughts pretty much echo yours. I found it hard to get through, quite boring at times, and overwritten. Shorter it would've been okay.
I'm glad to know I'm not alone. It's hard for me to take an author I so respect and pretty much say his book was no good…..