text:
PEGASUS_USING_PEGASUS;
PEGASUS_USING_STD;

Boolean verbose = false;

static Mutex forkSafeMutex;
PEGASUS_FORK_SAFE_MUTEX(forkSafeMutex)

ThreadReturnType PEGASUS_THREAD_CDECL mutexLockThread(void* parm)
{
    if (verbose)
    {
        cout << "mutexLockThread locking" << endl;
    }

    forkSafeMutex.lock();

    if (verbose)
    {
        cout << "mutexLockThread got lock" << endl;
    }

    Threads::sleep(1000);

    if (verbose)
    {
        cout << "mutexLockThread unlocking" << endl;
    }

    forkSafeMutex.unlock();

    return 0;
}

#if defined(PEGASUS_OS_TYPE_UNIX)
void testForkSafeMutex()
{
    Thread th1(mutexLockThread, 0, false);
    th1.run();
    Threads::sleep(100);

    pid_t forkStatus = fork();
    if (forkStatus < 0)
    {
        cerr << "fork() error " << errno << endl;
        PEGASUS_ASSERT(0);
    }
    else if (forkStatus == 0)
    {
        // Child

        if (verbose)
        {
            cout << "Child process locking" << endl;
        }

        forkSafeMutex.lock();

        if (verbose)
        {
            cout << "Child process got lock" << endl;
        }

        forkSafeMutex.unlock();

        if (verbose)
        {
            cout << "Child process unlocking" << endl;
        }

        exit(0);
    }
    else
    {
        // Parent
#if defined(PEGASUS_HAS_SIGNALS)
        // Make sure the child process exits
        pid_t status = 0;
        do
        {
            status = waitpid(forkStatus, 0, 0);
        } while ((status == -1) && (errno == EINTR));

        PEGASUS_TEST_ASSERT(status != -1);
#endif
    }

    th1.join();
}
#endif

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    verbose = (getenv("PEGASUS_TEST_VERBOSE")) ? true : false;

    try
    {
#if defined(PEGASUS_OS_TYPE_UNIX) && !defined(PEGASUS_OS_ZOS)
        testForkSafeMutex();
#endif
    }
    catch (Exception& e)
    {
        cerr << argv[0] << " Exception " << e.getMessage() << endl;
        exit(1);
    }

    cout << argv[0] << " +++++ passed all tests" << endl;
    return 0;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Tag Archives: VOA cuts
"Shifting away from shortwave": Significant reductions for BBG under FY 2018 budget
Edward R. Murrow Transmission Site near Greenville, North Carolina
(Source: BBG Press Release via Dan Robinson)
FY 2018 budget request reflects key BBG priorities amid spending constraints
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Broadcasting Board of Governors today released the FY 2018 budget request to support key U.S. foreign policy goals by providing news and information around the world while accommodating the current tight fiscal climate.
"As is true throughout the federal government, the budgetary environment requires that we prioritize our resources while emphasizing impact and maintaining the level of excellence our audiences have come to expect," said CEO John F. Lansing. "Despite reductions in spending, we are committed to our mission, impacting the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world by providing accurate, unbiased, and uncensored news and information."
The tight fiscal environment necessitates BBG to improve operational efficiencies and make difficult resource trade-offs to effectively meet performance goals and support U.S. foreign policy priorities.
The $685.1 million budget request includes transmission, program and staffing reductions across all BBG networks—the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks—and the International Broadcasting Bureau, including the Office of Technology, Services and Innovation. This includes reducing, and in some cases, eliminating certain language service capacities; shifting away from shortwave transmissions where they have the least impact; and optimizing information technology.
Although the funding request represents a 12.9 percent reduction from the FY 2017 enacted budget, it prioritizes funding for U.S. foreign policy goals, including combatting violent extremism, countering Russian disinformation, and enhancing programming for North Korean audiences. It also capitalizes on the momentum gained from the streamlining of operations in 2016 and the aggressive shift to digital already underway at each of the five networks.
The request includes $680.4 million for International Broadcasting Operations, including Federal and non-Federal networks, as well as $4.7 million for Broadcasting Capital Improvements.
The FY 2018 budget request contains proposals to continue the agency's responsive shift to the most effective media platforms, respond readily to crises, keep pace with shifts in audience demographics and interests, and sharpen strategy and results measurement to drive performance.
BBG's extensive network of seasoned, professional and well-connected journalists is particularly strong in regions where ISIS, Russia, Iran, China and other global actors that do not share American values are attempting to make further inroads.
"Should Congress enact this budget, there is no doubt that staff reductions would be difficult," Lansing said. "We will do everything possible to minimize the effect on our employees by emphasizing attrition, early retirement opportunities, and agency buyouts for federal employees wherever possible. Our staff and journalists are the core of what drives our impact around the world. We will do everything we can to safeguard our greatest asset."
This entry was posted in Broadcasters, International Broadcasting, News, Shortwave Radio and tagged BBG, BBG Cuts, Broadcasting Board of Governors, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Marti, RFA, shortwave, VOA, VOA cuts, Voice of America on May 25, 2017 by Thomas.
Radio World: International Broadcasters Reconsider Shortwave
Check out this article from Radio World which addresses the state of shortwave radio broadcasting.
Jeff White of WRMI and Kim Elliott of the VOA are both interviewed. Elliott even speaks about the virtues of the VOA Radiogram experiments which have had success circumventing shortwave radio jamming (broadcasts which were completely omitted from the BBG Special Committee report on the efficacy of shortwave radio).
Click here to read the full article at Radio World.
This entry was posted in Broadcasters, Digital Modes, News, Shortwave Radio and tagged Jeff White, Kim Elliott, Radio Miami International, Radio World, VOA, VOA cuts, VOA Radiogram, Voice of America, WRMI on August 19, 2014 by Thomas.
US House passes H.R. 4490
View of the Capitol Building from the roof of the Voice of America on 330 Independence Ave., S.W.
The United States International Communications Reform Act of 2014 (H.R. 4490) has just passed the the House today, next it will go before the US Senate.
This bill proposes major changes to the overall structure of US international broadcasting. Click here to read previous posts about the bill and read the press release below for more information.
We will update the SWLing Post with news about H.R.4490 as it is presented before the Senate–follow the tag HR4490.
(Source: House Committee On Foreign Affairs)
Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, applauded House passage of bipartisan reform legislation to improve the missions, objectives, and effectiveness of U.S. international broadcasters, such as the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN). The legislation, the United States International Communications Reform Act of 2014 (H.R. 4490) was unanimously passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee in April. Chairman Royce and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Committee's Ranking Memberintroduced the legislation in April.
On House passage of H.R. 4490, Chairman Royce said: "For many years, our international broadcasting has been broken and ineffective. While strongmen, despots, and terrorists are working overtime on their public disinformation campaigns, the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees our international broadcast efforts, meets once a month. The status quo is a recipe for failure on the critical information front. The legislation the House passed today provides serious reforms to U.S. international broadcasting, allowing for a strong, effective tool in the fight against censorship and harmful misinformation."
H.R. 4490 reforms U.S. international broadcasting, including in the following ways:
Fixes Well-documented Management Problems — Currently, five U.S. international broadcasting entities report to the Broadcasting Board of Governors ("BBG"), a group of 9 part-time individuals, who meet once a month to make management decisions. Important decisions can languish if the Board does not have a quorum, which is often the case. This legislation would establish a full-time, day-to-day agency head and reduce the role of the Board to a more appropriate advisory capacity. These changes have been recommended by the State Department's Office of the Inspector General and are widely recognized as needed reforms.
Clarifies the Mission of the Voice of America (VOA) — The VOA charter states that VOA will provide a "clear and effective presentation of the policies of the United States." Over time, VOA has abandoned this mission and adopted a mission of the so-called "surrogates" to provide uncensored local news and information to people in closed societies. This legislation makes clear that the Voice of America mission is to support U.S. public diplomacy efforts.
Consolidates "the Freedom Broadcasters" — Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN) have the same mission – to provide uncensored local news and information to people in closed societies – with different geographic reach. Consolidating these organizations into a single, non-federal organization will achieve cost savings, allow for closer collaboration, and improve responsiveness. While the consolidation would mean shared administrative staff and other economies of scale, they would retain their distinct "brand names."
For information of Chairman Royce's efforts to reform international broadcasting, visit www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/broadcasting.
This entry was posted in Broadcasters, International Broadcasting, News, Shortwave Radio and tagged BBG, Broadcasting Board of Governors, Consolidated Grantee Organization, H.R. 4490, HR4490, IBB, International Broadcasting Bureau, United States International Communications Agency, United States International Communications Reform Act of 2014, VOA, VOA cuts, Voice of America on July 28, 2014 by Thomas.
The Straits Times: "Western radio broadcasters tuning out"
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, for sharing this article from The Straits Times which interviews our friend Victor Goonetilleke. This is one of the first articles I've seen in the international press which gives a listener's perspective on recent cuts to shortwave broadcasting.
(Source: The Straits Times)
For 67-year-old Victor Goonetilleke, sitting with his headphones on in his house in the lush green Sri Lankan countryside, June 30 was the end of an era.
Voice of America's (VOA) short-wave broadcasts to Asia abruptly went off the air, raising howls of protest from many of the US government-funded broadcaster's listeners across the region.
But as the broadcasts had already been greatly diminished, this was not a surprise. The big Western radio broadcasters have gradually ceded the political "soft power" space they once dominated to a new heavyweight: China Radio International (CRI).
In recent years, Radio Canada International and Radio Netherlands Worldwide have shut down while the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and VOA have cut back on their range of languages and hours of programming. Now, the VOA has left Asia.
Mr Goonetilleke is not just an avid radio listener. He professionally monitors radio frequencies for the VOA. He is also a former veteran radio correspondent with Radio Netherlands for 24 years in an era when short-wave radio broadcasts from the likes of the BBC, VOA, Radio Netherlands, and Deutsche Welle were often lifelines to other worlds for hundreds of millions especially in times of conflict and misery.
The BBC now broadcasts in 29 languages across the planet, down from a peak of 69 in the 1970s. CRI broadcasts in 65, up from a reported 43 in 2006. Some programmes are run by local FM stations.
These days, Mr Goonetilleke can listen to four hours of CRI broadcasts in Sinhala and Tamil daily, compared with 30 minutes each on BBC.
CRI's Tamil language broadcast is one of its oldest, run by fluent Tamil speaker Zhu Juanhua, a Shanghai native better known by her tens of thousands of listeners as Kalaiarasi.
According to the CRI website, it has 3,165 listener clubs around the planet, including CRI netizens' clubs.
This entry was posted in Broadcasters, News, Shortwave Radio and tagged BBC Cuts, China Radio International, CRI, RA Cuts, Shortwave Radio, Victor Goonetilleke, VOA cuts, Why Shortwave Radio on July 27, 2014 by Thomas.
NY Times: Journalists "at Odds With Union" over VOA's role
The New York Times, in a recent article, describes a growing split between the VOA Union (American Federation of Government Employees Local 1812) and VOA journalists over the proposed changes to the VOA mission (via H.R. 4490), which would make it an active voice of American policy. (Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Marty, for sharing this relevant article).
Below is an excerpt from The Times; click here for the full article:
WASHINGTON — Voice of America journalists who are fighting to maintain what they say is their editorial independence are now at odds not only with Congress, but also with their own union.
The union, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1812, recently endorsed a bill that would change language in the charter for the 72-year-old news agency and require it to actively support American policy. That came as a surprise to some Voice of America employees, who said the legislation would make them mouthpieces for government policy. They want the union to withdraw its letter of support.
"A lot of us would welcome change and reform, but not at the cost of undermining V.O.A.'s journalistic credibility," said Jim Malone, a senior national correspondent at the government-financed news agency who is not a member of the union.
In its letter, union leaders said the agency's managers had lost sight of their mission and were trying to turn the "V.O.A. into something they envisioned as a global variant of CNN."
"In the end, some of the currently entrenched senior management represent a far greater threat to V.O.A.'s journalistic independence, indeed to the very existence of the V.O.A.," the union wrote.
The danger, said the union's president, Tim Shamble, is that the government could withdraw its financial support if the agency continued its current course. The federation represents about 40 percent of all Voice of America workers and 11 percent of the journalists in the central news division.
For other posts about this topic, please follow the tag: HR4490
This entry was posted in Broadcasters, Current Events, International Broadcasting, News, Shortwave Radio and tagged BBG, Broadcasting Board of Governors, Consolidated Grantee Organization, H.R. 4490, HR4490, IBB, International Broadcasting Bureau, United States International Communications Agency, United States International Communications Reform Act of 2014, VOA, VOA cuts, Voice of America on July 3, 2014 by Thomas.
Details of shortwave reductions to VOA, RFE, RFA
Earlier today, I contacted Letitia King, Spokesperson for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). I asked her for details regarding the cuts to shortwave services that were recently announced.
Ms. King has just sent me the following list, with notes, which includes all shortwave reductions under the BBG:
Facts and Figures on Shortwave Broadcast Reductions
U.S. international media must optimize program delivery by market. We are ending some shortwave transmissions. We continue shortwave to those countries where these transmissions are still reaching significant audiences or where there are no reasonable alternative platforms at a lower cost to the BBG.
The shortwave reductions will save U.S. taxpayers almost $1.6 million annually.
There are no reductions in staff or programming – these are transmission platform reductions only. Programming continues to be available through other media.
Shortwave transmissions continue in many languages including to key shortwave markets like North Korea, Nigeria, Somalia, Horn of Africa, and elsewhere. (List enclosed below). Transmissions also continue on other platforms including AM, FM, TV and online.
VOA Azerbaijani
Cuts: 30 minutes SW
Continuing Distribution: Satellite TV (HotBird)and satellite audio (TurkSat); Multimedia web and mobile sites & social media
SW is used by just 2% of adults weekly in Azerbaijan, and does not yield significant audiences for the service (0.4% weekly reach on radio in BBG's most recent survey). By contrast, satellite dish ownership is widespread, at 56%, and 18% use the Internet weekly. The service has both satellite and online products, which are far more likely to reach audiences in Azerbaijan.
VOA Bangla
Cuts: 1 hour SW
Continuing Distribution: 1 hour MW(AM); FM and TV affiliates; Multimedia web and mobile sites; Social media
SW is not widely used in Bangladesh (just 2% weekly), and the majority of the service's audience comes to its programming via FM and TV affiliate networks in the country.
VOA English (in Asia)
Cuts: 6.5 hours SW (2 hours of programming that was repeated)
Continuing Distribution: Some MW; Multimedia web and mobile sites & social media
Outside of sub-Saharan Africa, English speakers are rarely users of shortwave radio. They are more likely to be educated and affluent, and to have access to a broad range of media. Years of BBG research questions on consumption of VOA English on shortwave have failed to find any significant audiences outside Africa, in large part because usage of shortwave radio in other regions is mostly very low.
VOA Lao
Continuing Distribution: 30 minutes MW; 7 affiliates in Thailand on Lao border, with reach into Laos; Multimedia web and mobile sites; Social media
SW is very little-used in Laos – less than 1% of adults report listening to SW radio weekly. In BBG's most recent research in Laos, no surveyed listeners reported using the SW band to access VOA content. A strong majority (66%) hear VOA on FM, through affiliate stations on the Thai border that carry VOA content (Laos is so small that border FM stations have decent penetration into the country).
VOA Special/Learning English
Cuts: 5.5 hours SW
Continuing Distribution: Learning English programs continue on SW on English to Africa. 30 minutes MW; Multimedia web and mobile sites, including special interactive teaching products; Social media, including social English lessons
BBG audience research indicates strong interest in learning English, but very limited shortwave listenership to VOA Learning English, outside a few select markets. The service is working more closely with other VOA language services to create English learning products for distribution on more popular channels. And Learning English offers a variety of digital products that are increasingly popular, including a Skype call-in show, videos on YouTube, and a website featuring both audio and transcripts for online audiences to follow as they listen.
VOA Uzbek
Continuing Distribution: Satellite audio and TV (HotBird); FM and TV affiliates in neighboring countries; Multimedia web and mobile sites (with circumvention tools deployed); Social media
SW is not widely used in Uzbekistan (just 2% weekly), and does not yield significant audiences for the service (0.3% weekly). Adults in Uzbekistan are much more likely to own a satellite dish (13%) or use the internet (12% weekly) than to use SW, so the service provides content on those platforms. Uzbekistan is an especially difficult market to penetrate with USIM content, but SW is not an effective platform for the country.
RFE/RL Persian (Farda)
Cuts: 1 simultaneous SW frequency for 6 broadcast hours
Continuing Distribution: SW on multiple frequencies for all 24 broadcast hours remains on, in addition to 24 hours daily MW; "Radio on TV" on VOA Persian stream; 24 hours daily satellite audio with slate plus 24 hour Audio on 4 other satellites including Hotbird, the most popular satellite in Iran; Multimedia website (with circumvention tools deployed); Social media; mobile app with anti-censorship proxy server capability built-in.
This is only a reduction to the number of simultaneous frequencies during some of the broadcast day. SW radio, with 5% weekly use in 2012, is considerably less popular than other platforms on which audiences can access Farda content, such as MW (10% weekly use), satellite television (26% own a dish, and 33% watch satellite television weekly) or the internet (39% weekly use).
RFA Lao
Cuts: 2 hours SW
Continuing Distribution: 5 FM radio affiliates in Thailand provide cross-border coverage; Multimedia web & mobile sites; Social media
SW is very little-used in Laos – less than 1% of adults report listening to SW radio weekly. RFA Lao's listeners come overwhelmingly via FM stations on the Thai border – 94% of past-week listeners report hearing RFA on FM. (Laos is so small that border FM stations have decent penetration into the country).
RFA Vietnamese
Continuing Distribution: MW coverage of all broadcast hours remains on; Multimedia web and mobile sites (with circumvention tools deployed) include webcasts and other videos; Social media
· SW radio is very little-used in Vietnam – less than 1% of adults report any weekly use of the waveband, and RFA reaches just 0.2% of adults weekly on radio. MW is slightly more popular, but the future for USIM in Vietnam is likely online: 26% of Vietnamese use the Internet weekly now (with much higher rates among certain populations, like the young and the well-educated), and three in four personally own a mobile phone. While Vietnam attempts to block access to sensitive sites, Vietnam is actually the most active country in our most popular Internet Anti-Censorship tools with almost 600 million hits per day.
Languages that continue on Shortwave
Afan Oromo/Amharic/Tigrigna to Ethiopia and Eritrea
English to Africa
English to South Sudan
French to Africa
Kinyarwanda/Kirundi
Pashto (to FATA and Afghanistan)
Portuguese to Africa
· Shona/Ndebele/English to Zimbabwe
Spanish to Cuba
Avar/Chechen/Circassian
Arabic (Afia Darfur to Sudan/Chad)
This entry was posted in Broadcasters, News, Shortwave Radio and tagged BBG Cuts, BBG Reductions Shortwave, Broadcasting Board of Governors, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, RFA, RFE, shortwave, Shortwave Cuts, VOA cuts, VOA Learning English, VOA shortwave, VOA Special English, Voice of America, Voice of America Cuts on June 30, 2014 by Thomas.
Amendment to H.R. 4490 protects "critical" shortwave services
In response to yesterday's post regarding sweeping cuts to VOA's shortwave service, an SWLing Post reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) writes:
"HR4490 contains the following amendment attached to the bill by Cong Lowenthal of CA. Cong Lowenthal has the largest Cambodian community in the US in his constituency as well as Vietnamese.
This is the amendmentto HR4490 which was approved unanimously by the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The Amendment to HR 4490 reads:
"Shortwave broadcasting has been an important method of communication that should be utilized in regions as a component of United States international broadcasting where a critical need for the platform exists."
Click here to read the full text of H.R. 4490.
This entry was posted in Broadcasters, International Broadcasting, News, Shortwave Radio and tagged Amendment to HR 4490, BBG Cuts, Broadcasting Board of Governors, HR 4490, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, RFA, RFE, shortwave, Shortwave Cuts, VOA cuts, VOA Learning English, VOA shortwave, VOA Special English, Voice of America, Voice of America Cuts on June 28, 2014 by Thomas.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Our mission is simple: serve delicious, affordable vegan food that makes animals & humans equally happy. Whether you're craving comfort food or channeling your inner health-guru, we're your cafe that does both!
the best way to get those veggies in!
a classic! grilled on sourdough bread & served with fries.
served until 11:00AM NO EXCEPTIONS thank you for understanding!
2 slices of sourdough toast spread with pink beet hummus, sprouts & seeds.
earth island cheddar melted onto smoked tofu & sliced bakon topped with juicy tomato on a toasted english muffin.
2 sausage links, 2 slices veggie bacon, house made hash, eh'gg. 1/2 bagel & creamcheeze.
cheezy eh'gg, housemade hash potato, chili, cheeze, avo & green onion.
beyond burger, cheezy eh'gg, veggie bacon, tomato, slathered in spicy mayo & dusted with s+p. served with hash patties.
hearty bean chili with a dollop of oil-free sourcreem. healthy never tasted so good.
6 crispy fingers served with organic agave hunny mustard for dipping & seasoned fries. shout out to all those who have taken their blindfolds off and taken meat off their plate! thank you!
seasoned fries, mozza, gravy.... perfection.
*formerly known as the Loaded Poutine* your favourite poutine amped up with cucumber, tomato, purple cabbage & green onion. finished with creamy tahini dressing. poutine or salad? that aint nobody's business but your own.
your fav poutine piled high with bbq sweet potato pulled "pork"& creamy coleslaw. spicy sriracha drizzle & toasted sesame to send your tastebuds into a tizzy.
sandys come solo, but if you're feeling hungry, rock a side!
sourdough bread with ooey-gooey Daiya cheeze. most people who claim they don't enjoy Daiya at home love our grilled cheeze... we've got that magic touch!
bbq pulled-potato loaded with creamy coleslaw. mind-bogglingly delicious.
bbq pulled-potato loaded with SPICY coleslaw.
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raw veggie spirals with beets, sprouts & dates slathered in creamy curry dressing.
the trio is back and better than ever! chilli, brown coconut rice, tahini kale caesar salad. all the good flavours and healthily oil-free with the exception of the smoked bakon bits!
a big ol' bowl of creamy coconut mac & cheeze with broccoli & green beans for good measure.
a nostalgic duo, creamy mac topped with chili & sourcreem. one dollar from each bowl devoured goes to a local animal rescue!
10 perogies with grilled mushroom, onion & sourcreem. OR with cheeze sauce & parsley.
homemade crispy seitan & crunchy cucumber tossed in sweet chili sauce on a bed of creamy brown coconut rice. garnished with crispy wonton, green onion & sesame.
crispy tricken' slathered in franks red hot. lettuce tomato & tzatziki to cool it down.
beyond patty, cheeze, burger, naked style.
double beyond patty, double cheeze, naked style.
beyond patty, mozza, mushroom, naked style.
whole marinated portobello, tomato, kale, alfalfa sprouts, mayo.
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Hedgehog ---- Peppermint Mocha ---- Toasted Coconut...and other classic flavours such as vanilla, caramel & hazelnut!


text:
Skanska builds commercial office in Swindon, UK, for GBP 37 M, about SEK 450 M
20 July 2020, 10:37
by SKANSKA (Europe)
Skanska has signed a contract with Zurich Insurance to build a new commercial office in Swindon, UK. The contract is worth GBP 37 M, about SEK 450 M, which will be included in the order bookings for Europe for the third quarter 2020.
Skanska will construct approximately 9,300 square meters of office space over six floors, featuring a terrace at roof level. Skanska is also responsible for the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering services and will provide the specialist piling ground engineering solutions.
The building is expected to achieve a BREEAM rating of 'Excellent' on completion.
Construction work starts July 2020 and is scheduled to complete April 2022.
Skanska is one of the leading development and construction companies in Europe. Outside the Nordics, the company has operations in building construction and civil engineering in Poland, Czech Republic & Slovakia and the UK. Skanska develops commercial properties in select home markets in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary, while residential development is active in Poland, Czech Republic and in the UK with the BoKlok concept. In 2019, Skanska had sales of SEK 33 billion and about 11,700 employees in its European operations outside the Nordics.
Source: Skanska UK
Skanska in Gothenburg, Sweden, is moving to the self-developed office ...
SKANSKA Europe
Skanska invests EUR 76 M, about SEK 780 M, in a new office building in ...
Skanska builds new hospital building in Oulu, Finland, for EUR 190 M, about ...


text:
The Wonderful, Weird Economy of Burning Man
Burners spend thousands preparing for the money-free event. But just as the desert community cannot fully escape capitalism, neither can capitalism remain untouched by the "gift economy."
Elizabeth Limbach
A replica of a Spanish galleon, sinking into the desert sand. Price tag: $64,000.Grant Kaye
The busiest time of year for the Reno-Tahoe International Airport is not Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or any of the other major national holidays. It's Burning Man.
Every year in late August, the 66th busiest airport in America becomes a doorstep to the annual festival, which manifests and disappears a week later in Nevada's nearby Black Rock Desert.
The terminals are swarmed with jovial, sometimes costumed travelers from dozens of countries. The occasional roving art mobile ("mutant vehicles" in Burning Man parlance) pulls up curbside to ferry pilgrims to their mecca.
A week later, the returning crowd is weary and coated head to toe in a film of fine, stubborn white dust—an inevitable souvenir from the dried lakebed location, known as the "playa." They doze in chairs and on the floor, sometimes huddled in heaps, and wash up in the restrooms. Extra airport staff is deployed, including janitors who, if a particularly dusty person is spotted, "will follow them and clean up behind them as they go," says Brian Kulpin, the airport's vice president of marketing and public affairs.
Departure day at the Reno airport (courtesy of the Reno-Tahoe International Airport)
The airport tolerates this amusing bedlam—embraces it, in fact—because these people (70,000 are expected next week) provide an annual stimulus to the airport's micro-economy.
In recent years, the airport has taken to displaying Burning Man-style art and offering a welcome table to festival attendees. Once, the airport held a celebratory parade throughout the terminals, complete with small art cars and performers.
"Every single seat we have coming into this airport the weekend before will be filled and every single seat we have leaving on the departure weekend will be filled," Kulpin says. He estimates that the airport reaps $10 million a year from Burning Man-bound flyers.
"How could we not embrace that?" he asks.
Similarly lively scenes unfold elsewhere in Reno, and everywhere along the route to Burning Man's ephemeral "Black Rock City": lines of filled-to-the-brim cars tangle around gas stations, grocery stores are emptied of their bottled water, and parking lot marketplaces pop up to hawk duct tape, hats, and other gear in high demand.
These pit stops, hotel stays and last-minute purchases equal $35 million spent by Burning Man participants—"Burners," for the uninitiated—in Nevada each year. Sixty-six percent of respondents in the 2013 Burning Man census (yes, it has a census) reported spending more than $250 in the state on their way to and from the event. Eighteen percent spent more than $1,000. In putting the event on, the Burning Man organization adds to this stream, from $301,660 given to local law enforcement agencies in 2013 to $4.5 million spent on Bureau of Land Management and other usage fees.
"This event has a huge, month-long, positive impact on our local economy," says John Slaughter, county manager for Washoe, which includes everything from Reno to the closest towns to the event, the 200-person-each desert settlements of Gerlach and Empire. "Our stores, restaurants, gas stations, and car washes see an incredible influx of traffic, providing a great boost to the Northern Nevada economy."
The bustling business pulsing in and out of Burning Man is the overlooked inverse of what occurs inside the Black Rock City gates, where the whirl of commerce comes to a halt. Burning Man famously eschews conventional market systems at the event itself.
One of the community's 10 guiding principles is Decommodification—a shunning of transactions, consumerism, sponsorship, and advertising. With the exception of ice and coffee sold by the organizers, there are no vendors. Burning Man swag isn't peddled from a merchandise booth, and all logos are taboo. It'd be a major faux pas to charge a fellow Burner for something.
What fuels the kaleidoscopic pageant of art, music, and play, instead, is another of its principles: gifting. In the gifting economy, participants provide everything but the festival's infrastructure (which includes the eponymous wooden effigy that perishes in a much-photographed tower of cathartic flames at the end of the week). Whiskey bars and grilled cheese stands, workshops and hair-washing stations, DJs and art installations, are all there as gifts, provided by one or more Burners—free of charge—for the enjoyment of others.
As it grows in both size and global recognition, so too do the gathering's economic impacts—both in direct dollar benefits to Nevada and beyond—along with questions of whether its experimental economic principles have potential in the world beyond Black Rock City
Burning Man had seen many summers in the desert before the organization dispensed its list of 10 principles in 2004, each based on a custom that had organically grown out of the event. Gifting, says founder Larry Harvey, emerged as the preferred system because "participants were unwilling to distance themselves from others through economic transactions."
"Burning Man is like a big family picnic," he told me. "Would you sell things to one another at a family picnic? No, you'd share things."
The curious fact that a lot of money goes into creating a week that is free of money is not lost on Harvey. But those who peg this as a contradiction, he says, misunderstand the intent of the experiment.
"People get confused sometimes," says Harvey, who unleashed Burning Man on the world with a foretelling bonfire at San Francisco's Baker Beach in 1986. "They say that because we have a principle of decommodification, that we're against money. But no, it's not really about money. It would be absurd if we said we repudiated money. In order to assemble a city, we have to use market economics."
The organization, which recently transitioned from an LLC to a nonprofit (Harvey says he is now the CPO—Chief Philosophical Officer), had a total of $26.8 million in expenditures for 2013. At the individual level, attending the event can easily run $1,000: the $380 festival ticket, camping necessities, a bicycle for getting around, food and water, transportation, etc.
"Even though you need no money out there, which is great, you need to do all of this shopping beforehand—all of your camping gear, food, shade, duct tape, body lights so you don't get hit by a car," says Karla MacGregor, proprietor of a personal shopping service called The Burner's Market. "People using my website"—mostly Burners flying in from distant locales—"spend $700, easily." MacGregor is part of a crop of "Burnerpreneurs" who have turned their love for Burning Man into businesses that cater to like-minded customers. The Morris Burner Hotel, a new "member-based hotel for the Burner community" in Reno, is another example.
And that's just getting the basics. Participating—the "Participation" principle is key to creating a vibrant, fleeting city—can mean more of an investment. Some participate by donning elaborate costumes. Others form theme camps like Silicon Village, a 220-person group camp with an annual budget of $20,000, according to the camp's former mayor, Rupert Hart. Expenses include a generator and a bar that offers happy hours.
Hart is also familiar with what it takes to bankroll another big-ticket Burning Man item—a mutant vehicle, or "art car." His, called Joyism, has been to Burning Man 11 times and requires annual repairs, storage fees, and gas. And its small size means a relatively low outlay compared to many of Burning Man's art cars, which take the form of massive covered wagons, seven-headed, fire-breathing metal beasts, and peculiar Victorian homes that Tim Burton would be proud of. A meandering tropical isle called Tiki Island debuted in 2013, fashioned with a second-story DJ tower and third-story lookout platform, thanks to $24,750 fundraised on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter.com.
Burning Man is best known for its abundant art, including large-scale installations that protrude from the monotone earth like surreal trees in an unruly forest. The organization dishes out art grants to nourish these expensive projects ($825,000 to 66 installations last year), but many builders also turn to crowd funding.
"Crowdsourcing effectively removes the power from large money groups to decide what gets made and what doesn't," says Matt Schultz, the artist behind several behemoth Burning Man pieces, of the crowd-funding phenomenon. "It enables the power of individuals to decide. It allows us to find the resources we need to make something amazing. It democratizes the act of production."
Schultz and his team, the Pier Group, first made waves at Burning Man with a 300-foot-long wooden pier-to-nowhere in 2011 that cost $12,500 to build. They returned with the pier in 2012—this time with a life-size, $64,000 Spanish galleon sinking at the end of it. They outdid themselves once again this year, both in size, scope, budget and fundraising abilities: The group's 72-foot-tall wooden sculpture, called Embrace, has been, perhaps, the most buzzed-about piece in the lead-up to this year's festival. Picture two entwined figures proportional to the Statue of Liberty bursting, mid-waist from the ground.
Artist's rendering of the Embrace sculpture (The Pier Group)
The sculpture, which took shape in a Sparks, Nevada, warehouse with the help of around 200 volunteers, had a budget of $210,000. Its 140,000 pounds of wood, alone, required more than $70,000, says Schultz.
Like everything else that's free to behold inside of Black Rock City, it took donations—or gifts of labor, skill, and time—to make Embrace happen.
What drives this giving, this willingness to pool resources to create something for collective reward? Burning Man is only possible because of it—a full-bodied example of the potential fruits of the sharing economy.
"People invest in the joy it will bring to other people," says Schultz. "We're trying to tell people to invest in things not because they'll get a profit, but because it's beautiful, because it's compelling."
In a world of tech-driven isolation and high-speed consumerism, Larry Harvey believes giving acts as a much-needed antidote to what he calls "capitalism on steroids."
"People give because they identify with Burning Man, with our city, with our civic life," he says. "The idea of giving something to the citizens of Black Rock City has enormous appeal to them because it enhances their sense of who they are, and magnifies their sense of being. That's a spiritual reward."
He says gifting—defined as the act of giving without the expectation of anything in return—alters the notion of value.
"What counts is the connection, not the commodity," Harvey says.
As Burning Man culture and ethos seep out into what the community refers to as the "default world," can a gifting economy survive the transfer?
"The term 'gift economy' is and isn't an oxymoron. Certainly, the world couldn't be run through a gift economy," Harvey says.
This is because a gifting economy is more idea than reality—one that is practiced and pondered, but not fully realized. Writer Benjamin Wachs, who blogs for Burning Man under the name "Caveat Magister," has pointed out that calling it an "economy" at all is a misnomer—for one thing, he says, it can't be a self-sustaining economy because it relies on other markets to exist.
"It doesn't actually generate wealth, the vast majority of which comes from outside Burning Man in the form of campers, tents, generators, and loin cloths," he writes.
"Nobody makes it to and from Burning Man without either a day job or the [labors] of people who have day jobs," he goes on. "We're nowhere close to describing, exhibiting, or participating in an 'economy' that truly relies on gifting. … What we do have is a compelling gift 'culture'—and it matters."
It matters, says Harvey, because it has potential to provide a meaningful counterpoint to the "default world's" system.
"That spirit, if spread in the world and widely adopted, would condition how people, as consumers in the marketplace, behave," Harvey says. "Whereas if all of your self worth and esteem is invested in how much you consume, how many likes you get, or other quantifiable measures, the desire to simply possess things trumps our ability or capability to make moral connections with people around us. There should be room in the world for both systems to flourish. If they did, they would inform one another."
Embrace's Matt Schultz is putting this into practice. He's the executive director of a free-use warehouse called The Generator—the place where Embrace was constructed. Says the website, "We don't buy. We don't sell. We dream. We convene. We create. We make."
"Inside The Generator, our gift economy, our decommodified environment, operates in a fairly simple way—it sounds like fantasy when I explain in, and it basically is," he says.
The Temple of Transition, from Burning Man 2011, was the largest temple ever erected at the event, at 120 feet tall. It was constructed of wood and canvas by artists Chris Hankins, Diarmaid Horkan, and a loosely assembled collective from countries as far away as Ireland and New Zealand. (Scott London)
Donations cover the $330,000 in annual operating costs for the warehouse, which opened in 2012, and its users provide supplies, repairs and other necessities. Inside, fine artists and jewelry makers create beside computer tinkerers and car restorers. Nearby, an aquaponic lettuce and mint operation is under way, not far from an effort to turn a vehicle into a hot air balloon.
"We try to ensure that whether you donate an hour or $50,000, that your gift is taken with the same gratitude," Schultz says, adding that the key to this formula is "that everyone gives back more than they take."
The hope at The Generator is, Schultz says, at "to refine the economic principles of what a gift economy is and what a decommodified, year-round space is."
There are various challenges with this. Everything is easier when there's an expiration date, for example.
"At Burning Man, your social interactions are for a week and you go home and reset," he says. "There aren't as many social repercussions. If you make your camp neighbor mad, they are only mad for a week. That's been a challenge in bringing the principles to the real world."
Unattainable as a true gifting economy might be, Schultz, like Harvey, believes it's a custom worth incorporating into existing practices.
"We're trying to find a way to make capitalism more equitable," Schultz says. "Instead of saying one system is bad, or another is bad, we're finding ways to make it function for more people."
Years ago, overlooking a gathering of a few hundred people, a man asked Harvey if he thought Burning Man could ever grow to a thousand. He said he did. The man shook his head. "He thought, 'That poor, deluded guy,'" Harvey surmised.
Now nearing 70,000 in size, the event sold out for the first time in 2011 and has continued to since. This year's ticket sale—its biggest ever—lasted 44 minutes before selling out.
The growth has fueled an ongoing and predictable debate over the subsequent "death" of Burning Man. (Reports that Grover Norquist is going this year don't help.)
"Right now we're thinking we could go to 100,000" if logistics pan out, Harvey says. "When people say 'What if we get too big?' I ask them, '[Too big] for what?' They are worried we'll become inauthentic. Because in their experience, when something gets bigger and bigger and bigger, it is alienated from its audience. But that's if it's just an item for consumption. They're afraid it will be denatured by size. But it's not about size. It's not a quantitative problem. It's a qualitative question."
The question of access is heightened now that demand exceeds supply. Economic access has already been a backdrop issue for the community.
For the wealthier denizens (the city attracts many of tech's biggest names, CEOs, actors, and even, last year, Sean "Diddy" Combs), there is an on-site airport and luxurious—and controversial—"plug and play" camps where, for a hearty fee, one arrives to find a plush set up, amenities and catered meals.
When asked if Burning Man is an even playing field, Harvey points out that its Low-Income Ticket Program is subsidized by hiked-up prices of pre-sale tickets. He also explains that gifts do not have to be material—helping one's neighbors, or volunteering, are considered valuable contributions.
But access is an issue, regardless, now that more people want to attend than physically can. Burning Man's imminent task is to pass the torch to its regional chapters, which carry the party on year-round in 28 countries, from Brazil and Greece to Russia and South Korea. Between these global outposts and a concerted effort by the organization to find Burning Man art permanent homes, the experience—once temporally and geographically limited to a week in the Nevada desert—is embedding itself into the everyday world.
"I hope that I can leave this world knowing that the event in the desert isn't the lynchpin and that, if it were removed, it would falter," Harvey says. "My biggest fear is that [the event] would be the be all and end all. We are racing to make it otherwise. It is going to be Rome to the empire, as it were—the great capital city for some time to come. But we can already see [a life outside of it] in these larger regional events."
It is through this dissemination that Burning Man's economic principles could take root.
"We don't think the world can be Woodstock," he says. "Who'd think the world could be a perpetual carnival? But we do think that the world could rediscover values that used to be automatically produced by culture but aren't anymore because culture is subject to the commodification in our world. Everything is sold back to us, targeted to demographics. What we have to do is make progress in the quality of connection between people, not the quantity of consumption."
Elizabeth Limbach is a writer based in Santa Cruz, California.


BET co-founder Sheila Johnson already made history in television. Now she's making major moves in Hollywood.
Way back in 1979, Johnson and her then-husband Robert Johnson created the breakthrough network Black Entertainment Television, which was the first ever cable TV franchise targeting African Americans. Then in 2001 the couple sold BET to Viacom in an all-stock deal for $2.9 billion including debt. "Cash from the share sales makes up a large portion of her estimated $700 million net worth," reports Forbes. Johnson is ranked No. 22 on Forbes new list of America's Richest Self-Made Women.
Since that time Sheila, 66, has been busy on various projects such as opening the Salamander Resort and Spa in Northern Virginia and a hotel management firm. Now she has a passion for film.
"I really believe that African Americans have lost their voice. That's why you're seeing what you're seeing in the general mainstream media. There's not that area where we can come together and really talk about a Ferguson [Missouri] or talk about what's going on in the police community and all the racial turmoil. BET was supposed to be that voice. And we don't have it," said Johnson, who also owns stakes in three D.C.-based professional sports teams (the NBA's Wizards, the NHL's Capitals and the WNBA's Mystics) and a private jet charter service.
Johnson has also been funding documentaries and films focusing on the African-American experience, including Lee Daniel's The Butler, in which she was the first investor. Johnson invested $2 million into the production, and then said she wanted to encourage other prominent African-American philanthropists and celebrities to also invest in the film.
It was not only a fulfilling investment, it was a wise one. The Butler earned roughly $200 million at the box office.
Currently Johnson and The Butler producer Pam Williams have partnered on several other projects, including a TV miniseries based on a forthcoming book about Thurgood Marshall's appointment to the Supreme Court. Other projects include the story of the 1980s Cadillac-favoring "Welfare Queen" who stole multiple identities in order to get more benefits.
"The men get all the credit for everything. We get airbrushed out of their lives," she says. "I think that more than anything the perception out there was that I did nothing: That I just sat home and ate bon bons and did nothing but helped the family grow financially or emotionally, and that I think was the most painful part of all." When she and Robert co-founded BET money was so tight Sheila made money on the side teaching private music lessons. And while she didn't begin as an executive at BET, she reveals she signed for the company's first loan and she was one of three original board members.
In 1990 Sheila joined BET full-time as vice president for corporate affairs and in 1991 the Johnsons took the company public making it the first African-American-controlled firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Then in 1990 they took it private.


They would have gotten away with it, too, if not for that pesky pressure sensor.
INDIANAPOLIS – Three Wabash students in white jump suits — one in a Donald Trump mask and two in Barack Obama masks — just etched their names in Monon Bell lore.
They spent six hours hiding under bleachers at the Lilly Center in Greencastle, according to Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter, before sneaking out and unfastening the 300-pound bell. Which, of course, was set up with a pressure sensor that alerted police as soon as they lifted it from its stand.
The massive trophy has been handed back and forth to the winner of DePauw and Wabash's annual football game since 1932. Sometimes, though, the exchange isn't so peaceful.
In 1965, a Wabash student posed as a Mexican dignitary and was given a tour of the DePauw campus. He returned after learning of the bell's location with a group of students and stole it.
The next year, DePauw students stole it (from their own school!) and buried it in the north end zone of Blackstock Stadium for safe keeping. This is a tradition full of scandalous stories of thievery, with the last successful heist coming in 1998.
This latest chapter will ultimately result in a Class A misdemeanor criminal trespass charge handed out to four students. The three that snuck in the building: Aaron Scott, Mason Owen Simmons and Wabash placekicker Schuyler Nehrig; plus their getaway driver, Brendan McCoy.
Nehrig's part in the brazen thievery attempt actually drew some praise from Bookwalter.
"They always talk about football players looking down their nose at the placekicker," he cracked. "(Nehrig) had a set of guts on him, for a placekicker."
That charge is about as light as Bookwalter could have offered. He spoke with DePauw officials, local police and the Montgomery County Prosecutor because — even though this is tradition — he had to make some example of them.
"We're cognizant that this is a college prank or whatever," he said, "but when you go into a building and hide out for six hours, we've got to do something."
They were confronted by police as soon as they got outside, seeing as how that sensor was going off before they even wheeled the bell outside. They did very little damage, leaving only a few scratches.
Bookwalter has reviewed the officer's body cam footage, which revealed that the officer had some fun before letting them off.
"Oh the looks on their faces," he laughed. "(The officer) played like they were going to jail."
"Can you tell me why I shouldn't charge you with theft?"
"Tradition," one of the young men responds.
"Theft is not a tradition," the officer counters.
Though Bookwalter has worked in Putnam County for 13 years, he's not dealt with a Monon Bell case — or any case, really — quite like this. He's sure it'll be remembered for a long time among the DePauw and Wabash communities.
"They'll be cracking jokes about this at their 25-year reunion," he said.
He's offered the four students a deferment program that will allow the case to be wiped from their record if they stay out of trouble through the school year and do some community service.
The 124th Monon Bell Classic will be televised on Fox Sports Indiana and Fox Sports Midwest on Saturday, Nov. 11.


text:
Ten Random Bands That Released One Great Album, Then Called It A Day!
Some bands only get one bite of the musical cherry, and despite releasing solid debut albums, find themselves disbanding soon after. That doesn't mean their records are failures though, at least not on the ear. Here are ten bands, in no particular order, whose only musical offering should have a place in your collections!
1 – Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth (1980)
New wave post-punk trio Young Marble Giants formed in 1978 in Cardiff, Wales. They released their only full length album "Colossal Youth" in 1980 before disbanding. The record is recommended listening however, and is constructed around the raw vocals of Alison Statton, along with the minimalist instrumentation (guitar and bass) of brothers Philip and Stuart Moxham.
The band found a cult following of sorts in the United States, with bands such as REM and Nirvana later siting them as influences, while grunge band, Hole, covered "Credit In The Free World" on their debut release "Live Through This."
2 – Mother Love Bone – Apple (1990)
Just days before the release of their debut full length album, "Apple", and after having successfully completed a rehab course for heroin addiction, Mother Love Bone frontman, Andrew Wood, was found unconscious of an apparent overdose. Three days later his life support machine was turned off and Mother Love Bone ceased to exist.
Mother Love Bone came together in 1987, essentially from two well established bands in the Seattle music scene, Green River (who featured eventual guitarist and bass player Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament respectively) and Malfunkhon (Wood). Malfunkshon have since been labelled by some as "kick-starting" the new Seattle music scene that bubbled away for a decade in the 1980s before the grunge explosion of the early nineties.
Their sound was more akin to the "arena bands" they listened to when they were growing up, with big hints of Kiss, Queen, Marc Bolan and Aerosmith to name just a few.
Incidentally, following the band's break-up, Goassard and Ament went on to form Pearl Jam, who would become one of the biggest bands on the planet throughout the 1990s.
Mother Love Bone circa 1989
3 - Temple Of The Dog – Temple Of The Dog (1990)
The Temple Of The Dog album was only ever going to be a one-time-and-done affair, but originally it wasn't even supposed to be that.
Following the death of Andrew Wood in 1990 and the break of Mother Love Bone, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament turned their focus to finishing several of Wood's half-written songs. They brought Wood's close friend and Soundgarden frontman, Chris Cornell in to work with them, and also featured contributions from vocalist with their new band, Pearl Jam, the then unknown, Eddie Vedder. The project quickly turned into a full length album.
Temple Of The Dog is taken from the lyrics of "Man Of Golden Words" – a song on the Mother Love Bone's," Apple." The sound is typical of the grunge era, with the song "Hunger Strike" reaching the top ten upon it's re-release in 1992 on the back of Pearl Jam's success.
4 – Atom Seed – Get In Line (1990)
Described by SPIN as a "cheesy Red Hot Chilli Peppers spin-off", London-based four-piece, Atom Seed, managed to blend punk guitars, noisy vocals and funk-driven bass and drums into their one and only release, "Get In Line" in 1990.
The title track enjoyed limited success as a single in the rock and metal charts, and by 1991, the band turned their attention to the United States.
An already "shaky" relationship with the band's record label in America (London Records) quickly turned sour when the album did not take off as expected. The label turned down all subsequent demos from the band and consequently a second album was not recorded. By 1993 they had been released by the company and split soon after.
5 – The Throbs – Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds (1991)
Described as the "New York version of Guns N Roses", the four-piece from the Big Apple, The Throbs, featured a punk-sleaze sound that leaned heavily to the 1970s punk forerunners, the New York Dolls.
Their debut album, "The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds" enjoyed initial praise and limited success, with the single, "Come Down Sister" arguably being the highlight of the offering. Rock-n-Roll legend, Little Richard also made an appearance on piano on the track "Ecstacy."
Despite the huge potential, including a successful support tour of the United Kingdom with hard rock super-group, Mr. Big, the band were dropped by their label just six months after their one and only release.
6 – The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks…(1977)
Despite the numerous re-issues, bootleg live recordings and the bizarre "The Great Rock N Roll Swindle", The Sex Pistols released only one official studio album, "Never Mind The Bollocks…Here's The Sex Pistols" in 1977.
The London four-piece were originally signed with EMI, but were dropped from the label almost immediately following the release of their debut single, "Anarchy In The UK." They were soon picked up by Virgin, and after replacing their original bass player, Glen Matlock, with the eventually infamous, Sid Vicious, they released their follow-up single, "God Save The Queen" – incidentally the song was banned by the BBC, despite it reaching number one in the UK charts.
Soon after the release of their debut album, the Pistols ventured on their ill-fated tour of America in early 1978. By the time they had pogoed and spat their way from east to west across the United States, they had all but broken up, with vocalist, Johnny Rotten (John Lydon) quitting the band following their show in San Francisco.
7 - Honeycrack – Prozaic (1996)
In August 1994, following their firing from The Wildhearts, Chris Jagdhar (CJ) and Willie Dowling formed Honeycrack – a band that stated "we have no messages to convey, but we do want to change the world!"
Although they carry a heavy guitar, driven sound, their only release, "Prozaic", is riddled with pop hooks, numerous, time, tempo and key changes, and draws influence from more musical genres than you could shake a drumstick at. Even their name was a tip of the hat to the fact they were mixing sweet pop melodies (honey) with bone-crunching guitars (crack).
Two singles were released with moderate success – "The King Of Misery" and "Sittin' At Home" – before their third single, "Go Away" cracked the Top 40.
The group embarked on a headline tour in support of the album's eventual release, which included a four-week residency at London's Splash Cub, before they seemingly fizzled out – by early 1997 they had officially disbanded and CJ returned to The Wildhearts.
8 - Roadhouse – Roadhouse (1991)
Following his firing from Def Leppard due in part to his continued struggle with alcoholism, guitarist and co-founder of the Sheffield rock group, Pete Willis, returned a decade later, now sober, with a new band, Roadhouse.
Despite their self-titled debut offering a pretty solid set of hard rock tunes, the timing of its release couldn't have been worse. With the "grunge takeover" right around the corner, it was largely seen as "old hat" by most.
Three singles were issued from the album, "All Join Hands", "Hell Can Wait" and "Tower Of Love", but despite landing support slots with veteran rock acts as Saxon, Gillan and No Sweat, the band folded a year after the album's release.
9 – Blamesless – The Signs Are All There (1995)
Four piece band Blameless, formed in Sheffield in the United Kingdom in the early nineties, and off the back of promising demo recordings and a handful of solid live shows, they were soon snapped up to be the "British Pearl Jam" by China Records.
Their record label sent the band to Boston, Massachusetts to record their debut album at Fort Apache Studios and to work with American producer, Paul Q. Kolderie. "We though they meant Boston, Lincolnshire," vocalist Jared Daley stated years later on how the move surprised the band somewhat.
Their debut albums "The Signs Are All There" was released in 1995, and was packed with a variety of influences. Sales and the general reception to it however were immediately disappointing, and far below the high expectations of their record company.
When the group scored a minor hit with the release of "Breathe (A Little Deeper)" the following year, the album was re-released in the hope that the relative success of the new single would spark an increase in album sales. This ultimately didn't happen and they were ultimately dropped by China Records and disbanded soon after.
10 – The Germs – GI (1979)
Formed in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, punk noise band, The Germs, are widely regarded as one of the more influential bands on, not just the Los Angeles punk scene of the time, but of the wider American punk movement of the 1980s and 1990s.
Although not musically proficient (aside from guitarist, Pat Smear, who would eventually join Nirvana), the band drew audiences off the back of their manic live sets, which often were on the verge of riots such was the energy.
Fan of the band, Joan Jett, produced their debut album, and although they were never going to truly capture their live energy on record, "GI" was a solid recording of short, sharp noisy punk.
Vocalist Derby Crash, battling a heroin addiction among other obstacles in his life, became increasingly erratic in his behaviour following the album's release, which ultimately resulted in the band dissolving in 1980. On December 7th of that year, aged just twenty-two years old, Crash committed suicide by intentionally overdosing on heroin.
Check out the video below – a live show from The Whiskey Club in Los Angeles in 1979, a good example of the raw energy and chaotic feel of The Germs on stage.
[Marcus Lowth July 2016]
next article: Chilling Movie stories....
Well Known Movies With Strange And Chilling Backstories
Hollywood is full of alleged curses and behind-the-scenes goings-on of legendary films. Here are ten of the most interesting and, at times, chilling......
The Satanic Panic – A Modern Day Scientific Witch Hunt?
In the 1980s and 1990s considerable time and effort was spent on Satanic cults - a period now referred to as The Satanic Panic....
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Monsters, Witches, Voodoo And Aliens – Legends And Folklore Of The American South
The southern states in America have a culture almost of their own. They also have some of the most interesting and strangest legends and folklore in the world....
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All pictures are for illustration purposes unless indicated otherwise and are not the property of Me Time For The Mind


Hi, this is the first time I use Userecho. I am trying to set up a page, but I cannot manage to change the link to a webpage. I previously set it to my facebook profile and now, even tho I change the setting (Your site URL on Common settings) it remains on the FB profile. How can I definitively change the link?
As we see you are talking about this module.
You are able to customize your module in the Project settings -> Community Forums -> Layout customization. Then just click "clog" icon on the module and change the link.


Dot coms die - now their users too!! Cyber serial killer on the loose - aseries of deaths arouse the suspicion of a police detective (Dorff) and a health examiner (McElhone), who suspect it may all have to do with the victims' shared visits to a web site called Fear.com, run by a "black widow" woman who may be playing a deadly game.
Dot coms crashed and burned. As did this flick in the US - laughably so apparently.


MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA (April 2, 2004) - Emerson Process Management recently received an order to replace all existing propane and mixed refrigerant compressor anti-surge valves in an LNG facility in Brunei. The 25 existing valves will be replaced by the Fisher® optimized anti-surge control valve system. This major upgrade will protect compressors, increase efficiency, and enable monitoring for predictive maintenance that reduces risk of operations downtime.
The 12-inch through 30-inch valves in the Fisher optimized anti-surge system include custom designed multi-path, multi-stage WhisperFlo® noise abatement trim that can reduce noise by up to 40 dBA. The heart of the system is in the actuation. It reduces the number of actuation accessories typically found in anti-surge valves by over 50 percent. This improves operating performance and reduces startup and commissioning times. Tuning time is reduced from 12 hours with conventional anti-surge valves to 30 minutes with the Fisher optimized system, this owing to the reduced number of accessories and the FIELDVUE® valve controller.
The Fisher valves will open in less than two seconds to protect the compressors from anti-surge conditions. Not only will the valves open quickly; they are designed to meet stringent closed-loop control criteria. Linearity of the control signal is less than 0.75% and is designed so the valve will have minimal overshoot in the open and closed directions. The actuator is installed with a cushioning feature that provides a controlled deceleration into the travel stops, preventing damage that can occur when a heavy valve plug is moved from one stop to the other.
Because the anti-surge valves are critical to plant operation, their performance will be monitored online. Diagnostic information can be collected, viewed and analyzed in real time without shutting down the valve or disturbing the process. A red, yellow or green light diagnostics-driven indicator identifies potential problems. If an alert is triggered, the problem, potential causes and recommended actions are displayed, allowing the site to schedule maintenance rather than waiting for a failure to occur.
For more information contact an Emerson Process Management sales office and request a copy of the January 2004 Hydrocarbon Processing article "Upgrade your compressor anti-surge valves," Fisher case histories D351125X012 & D351091X012 and a 2004 Texas A&M paper "Advancements in Compressor Anti-surge Control Valve Solutions."
Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com), an Emerson business, is a leader in helping businesses automate their production, processing and distribution in the chemical, oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, power, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and other industries. A division of Emerson, Fisher Controls International LLC (www.emersonprocess.com/fisher) is a global leader in the design, manufacture and application of final control systems. Fisher's technology and innovation in process control play a key role in Emerson's combining of superior products and technology with industry-specific engineering, consulting, project management and maintenance services. Emerson brands include PlantWeb®, Fisher®, Micro Motion®, Rosemount®, Daniel®, DeltaV™, Ovation®, and AMS™ Suite.


text:
Home›Golf News›Stephen Gallacher scoops top award
Stephen Gallacher scoops top award
By Martin Inglis — 21 March, 2015
Stephen Gallacher Scottish Golf Awards
• Stephen Gallacher wins top award at the Scottish Golf Awards
• "It was a special year for me," said the Ryder Cup star
• Kylie Walker and Bradley Neil also recognised at the event
STEPHEN GALLACHER | SCOTTISH GOLF AWARDS
Stephen Gallacher capped a fantastic 2014 by scooping the Player of the Year award at last night's star-studded Scottish Golf Awards.
The 40-year-old, who fulfilled his dream of playing at the Ryder Cup in September, received a standing ovation from a packed Edinburgh Corn Exchange as he collected the gong from last year's recipient and No.1 female Catriona Matthew.
As well as being part of that winning European team, the Scottish No.1 also successfully defended his Dubai Desert Classic title and moved up from No.66 in the world rankings to No.35.
Speaking at the awards, Gallacher reflected on a brilliant year for Scottish golf and paid tribute to the nation's golf fans.
"It was a special year for me in 2014, one that will be hard to beat" - Stephen Gallacher
He said: "It was wonderful to collect the award in front of my friends, family and fellow players. It was also great to receive such a brilliant ovation from Scotland's golf fans, who have again turned out in fantastic numbers for the awards.
"It was a special year for me in 2014, one that will be hard to beat, but I'm working hard to achieve more and look forward to competing in all four major championships this year, starting at the Masters in a couple of weeks' time.
"To win this award in such a memorable year for Scottish golf, with so many other players achieving great success, is even more special. I'd like to congratulate all the other winners, as well as the SGU and SLGA for putting on a superb event that really showcases all the great things about our game."
bunkered tuition panel member Kevin Craggs narrowly missed out on the inaugural Bob Torrance PGA Coach of the Year award, which went to Alan McCloskey from Bothwell Castle GC.
Fittingly, Sam Torrance was there to present the award in memory of his late father, with McCloskey a worthy recipient after a hugely successful year coaching leading Scottish golfers Gallacher, Marc Warren and Scott Jamieson.
Elsewhere, Kylie Walker won the Inspiration Award after her two breakthrough wins on the Ladies European Tour in 2014, while Augusta-bound Bradley Neil collected the prestigious Amateur Golfer of the Year and the SGU Men's Order of Merit title.
Troon's Connie Jaffrey was another notable double winner on the night, receiving both the SLGA Ladies and Girls Order of Merit awards, while Cawder's Calum Fyfe became the fourth recipient of the Adam Hunter Award, along with the SGU Boys Order of Merit crown.
Those involved at grassroots level were also given their moment in the spotlight, with Borders club Peebles triumphant in the RBS Junior Club of the Year, before Maitland Pollock (Lochmaben) and Evan Sutherland (Reay) shared the RBS Volunteer of the Year award, recognising their work in developing golf in their respective local communities.
"The event provides a great platform for everyone involved in the game to come together" - Ross Duncan
Ross Duncan, SGU marketing and sponsorship manager, said: "The Scottish Golf Awards continues to grow in stature year after year and we're very proud to have staged another hugely successful event.
"The event provides a great platform for everyone involved in the game to come together and celebrate achievements at all levels. On the back of such a great Ryder Cup and a brilliant season for Scotland's golfers, the event was even more special.
The Scottish Golf Charitable Trust, the main beneficiary of the awards, also raised thousands of pounds on the night from auction and prize draw fundraising, with proceeds to be invested in its good causes of junior golf, education and environmental best practice projects.
Stephen Gallacher wins Player of the Year :: Your thoughts
Were you at the awards? Share your thoughts on the award winners by commenting below.
Related Articles - Stephen Gallacher
Scots pros to aid amateurs in new 'buddy' initiative › Read article
CONFIRMED! Big-name trio to appear at virtual Scottish Golf Show › Read article
Related Articles - Scottish Golf Awards
Paul Lawrie receives Inspiration Award › Read article
Catriona Matthew 'thrilled' to accept award › Read article


text:
FILE – Minnesota Twins' Carlos Correa, right, is congratulated after hitting a solo home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning…
FILE – Minnesota Twins' Carlos Correa, right, is congratulated after hitting a solo home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. Star shortstop Carlos Correa and the San Francisco Giants have agreed to a $350 million, 13-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday night Dec. 13, 2022 because the agreement was subject to a successful physical.(AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, File)
AP source: Carlos Correa, Giants reach $350M, 13-year deal
by: RONALD BLUM, Associated Press
Star shortstop Carlos Correa and the San Francisco Giants have agreed to a $350 million, 13-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
And the 28-year-old Correa indeed moved once more, this time to a Giants team that recently missed out in its bid to sign free agent Aaron Judge.
Correa's guarantee will be the fourth-largest in baseball history. Mike Trout got a $426.5 million, 12-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels, Mookie Betts has a $365 million, 12-year agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Judge, the new AL home run champ and MVP, is getting $360 million for nine years to remain with the New York Yankees pending a physical.
Correa was one of the headliners in a stellar group of free agent shortstops that also included Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson — Swanson is the only one in that group still available.
Philadelphia signed Turner for $300 million over 11 years, San Diego got Bogaerts for $280 million over 11 years, Texas signed pitcher Jacob deGrom for $185 million over five years and the New York Mets retained outfielder Brandon Nimmo for $162 million for eight years.
Correa hit .291 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs in his one season with Minnesota.
Brandon Crawford, a three-time All-Star, has been the Giants' shortstop since 2011. Crawford, who turns 36 next month, slumped to a .231 average with nine homers and 52 RBIs last season, down from a .298 average with 24 homers and 90 RBIs in 2021.
Correa was selected by Houston with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 amateur draft, and he played a key role in the Astros' rise from the bottom of the AL West to the franchise's first World Series title in 2017.
He hit a career-best 26 homers in 2021 in his last year with Houston, also finishing with a .279 batting average and 92 RBIs. He earned his second All-Star selection and first Gold Glove.
Just last weekend, Correa joined many of his former Astros teammates in Las Vegas for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event.
Correa, the 2015 AL Rookie of the Year, has a .279 career average with 155 homers and 553 RBIs in eight big league seasons. He also has been a stellar postseason performer with 18 homers and 59 RBIs in 79 games.
Agent Scott Boras negotiated the deals for Correa, Bogaerts and Nimmo. Correa's agreement raised Boras' free-agent contracts this offseason to $1.01 billion for nine players.
AP Baseball Writers Jay Cohen and Janie McCauley contributed to this report.
National / 9 mins ago
Russia Ukraine War Sanction Impact


Lions and Rabbits, a gallery on Grand Rapids' North Side, is participating in their first ArtPrize with the goal of giving viewers a beautiful, thoughtful escape from reality.
Hannah Berry curated her North Side gallery to make people think about the way dreams translate to reality.
"DREAMLAND" is Lions and Rabbits' first ArtPrize exhibit, and they are already planning their themes for next year.
Berry's own piece is an interpretation of a recurring dream she's had ever since tragically losing one of her best friends.
The entire gallery is filled with pieces that are not only beautiful, but emotional and thought provoking.
Berry said many of the pieces in her gallery should be in larger venues like the Amway Grand Plaza or Grand Rapids Art Museum, but even so, Lions & Rabbits has drawn in thousands of viewers.
Lions and Rabbits is a test market for ArtPrize, as it is pretty far North, but Berry said many people stop in on their way to and from downtown.
For more info on their ArtPrize pieces, click here.


text:
// TypeScript Version: 2.0

/**
* Callback function.
*
* @param error - encountered error or null
* @param args - results
*/
type Callback = ( error: Error | null, ...args: Array<any> ) => void;

/**
* Predicate callback function.
*/
type PredicateNullary = () => void;

/**
* Predicate callback function.
*
* @param error - error object
*/
type PredicateUnary = ( error: Error ) => void;

/**
* Predicate callback function.
*
* @param error - error object
* @param bool - condition used to determine whether to invoke `x` or `y`
*/
type PredicateBinary = ( error: Error, bool: boolean ) => void;

/**
* Predicate callback function.
*
* @param error - error object
* @param bool - condition used to determine whether to invoke `x` or `y`
*/
type PredicateCallback =  PredicateNullary | PredicateUnary | PredicateBinary;

/**
* Predicate function.
*
* @param clbk - callback to invoke upon predicate function completion
*/
type Predicate = ( clbk: PredicateCallback ) => void;

/**
* Function invoked after condition check.
*
* @param clbk - callback to invoke upon function completion
*/
type ResultFunction = ( clbk: Callback ) => void;

/**
* If a predicate function returns a truthy value, invokes `x`; otherwise, invokes `y`.
*
* @param predicate - predicate function
* @param x - function to invoke if a condition is truthy
* @param y - function to invoke if a condition is falsy
* @param done - callback to invoke upon completion
*
* @example
* var randu = require( `@stdlib/random/base/randu` );
*
* function predicate( clbk ) {
*     setTimeout( onTimeout, 0 );
*     function onTimeout() {
*         clbk( null, randu() > 0.5 );
*     }
* }
*
* function x( clbk ) {
*     setTimeout( onTimeout, 0 );
*     function onTimeout() {
*         clbk( null, 1.0 );
*     }
* }
*
* function y( clbk ) {
*     setTimeout( onTimeout, 0 );
*     function onTimeout() {
*         clbk( null, -1.0 );
*     }
* }
*
* function done( error, result ) {
*     if ( error ) {
*         throw error;
*     }
*     console.log( result );
* }
* ifthenAsync( predicate, x, y, done );
*/
declare function ifthenAsync( predicate: Predicate, x: ResultFunction, y: ResultFunction, done: Callback ): void; // tslint-disable-line max-line-length

// EXPORTS //

export = ifthenAsync;


On 22 February 2017, the Council of the European Union issued the final versions of the draft texts of the European Union ("EU") Medical Device Regulations ("MDR") and the In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation ("IVDR"). The finalised versions of the draft texts are available here and here.
The Council of the European Union is expected to hold a vote to adopt the MDR and the IVDR on 7 March 2017. This will be followed by a vote by the European Parliament on 20 March 2017.
If the above timeline for adoption is respected, the adopted MDR and IVDR texts could be published by May 2017 and enter into force in May or June 2017. In these circumstances, the MDR would be applicable by 2020 and the IVDR by 2022.
The two Regulations will replace the current Medical Devices Directive1, the Active Implantable Medical Devices Directive2 and the In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Directive3. This will result in a substantial revision of the current regulation of medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices in the EU.
The two Regulations include transitional provisions permitting CE Certificates of Conformity issued by notified bodies in accordance with the current Directives, and prior to the date of the entry into force of the MDR and IVDR, to remain valid until the end of the period indicated on the certificates.
There are, however, related limitations. The medical devices to which these Certificates relate may be placed on the EU market or put into service in the EU only if, from the date of application of the relevant Regulation, they continue to comply with the relevant current Directives, and provided there are no significant changes in the design and intended purpose of the medical devices. Moreover, there will be related changes in some obligations related to the devices. The requirements of the relevant Regulation relating to post-market surveillance, market surveillance, vigilance, registration of economic operators and of devices shall apply in place of the corresponding requirements in those Directives.
We will provide more detailed information and analysis concerning the changes that the new Regulations will introduce in future blogs.


text:
Here Is Joe Biden's 1981 Op-Ed That Sure Seems to Suggest Mothers Shouldn't Work Outside the Home
Esther Wang
Filed to:Joe Biden
On Wednesday night, Kirsten Gillibrand got into it with Joe Biden, whose decades-long record is basically a menu of terrible shit that is very worth getting into it over. The topic was Biden's lone opposition to expanding a childcare tax credit while in the Senate in 1981, and a companion op-ed he wrote that argued day care centers and nursing homes were somehow emblematic of people's "desire to avoid individual responsibility."
As HuffPost reported last Friday, while a senator, Biden made both a financial and a moral argument against expanding the childcare tax credit to all two-parent families, regardless of their income. He argued wealthier families—in today's terms, couples whose combined annual incomes are $88,000 or more, which is hardly rich by any means—should not receive a tax credit. He justified his stance by arguing that giving comparatively more well-off couples an incentive to, in his words, "forget their responsibility to take care of a child all day from the time the child is an infant until the time he or she gets in school" is "undesirable and wrong." (Biden now, for what it's worth, supports an $8,000 per year tax credit for any family needing childcare, but unlike Elizabeth Warren, has yet to release a detailed childcare plan, and his tax credit is paltry when compared to Warren's plan.)
But in 1981, at the time of the vote, Biden further expanded on his position in an op-ed he wrote for The Daily Times, the local newspaper in Salisbury, Maryland. In it, he linked the use of day care, as well as nursing homes, to what he called "the cancer of materialism." It's worth quoting his op-ed at length. Here's Biden implying that people who would make use of the tax credit do so in order to get, among other things, a swimming pool:
If a couple enjoying such an income chooses to supplement it so they can go out and buy a larger home, a patio, a swimming pool or three weeks at the beach, that's fine. They should do it on their own. I do not believe that the federal government should be a party to a system which encourages children in day-care centers in order to acquire material possessions that go far beyond any family basic necessities.
He added, sounding like quite the Republican: "The day-care centers and nursing home blossoming across the American landscape are monuments to our growing unwillingness to accept personal responsibility for those to whom we owe the most."
Gillibrand, during Wednesday night's debate, seized on his op-ed and his former opposition to expanding the childcare tax credit.
I want to address the vice president directly. When the Senate was debating middle-class affordability for child care, he wrote an op-ed. He voted against it, the only vote. But, when he—he wrote an op-ed, was that he believed that women working outside the home would create the "deterioration' of family." He also said that women who were working outside the home were avoiding 'responsibility."
While Biden had not singled out women as the ones who should stay at home and take care of the kids (he himself, after all, was a single dad at the time), it was true in 1981, as it is true today, that the majority of stay-at-home parents are women. In response to Gillibrand, Biden defended his record and pointed out that both of his wives were working mothers. "From the very beginning, my deceased wife worked when we had children," Biden said. "My present wife has worked all the way through raising our children." I guess his own family where both he and his wife worked wasn't contributing to the deterioration of the family, it's just other families.
What he didn't address, however, were his beliefs that at least one parent should stay at home and raise their kids and that sending kids to day care (and parents and grandparents to a nursing home) is some sort of moral failing.
I'm not a parent, but as someone whose mom and younger brother spent months taking care of my dad at home, giving up their lives to do so in the process, before we decided it was the right decision to have him live in a nursing home before he died, all I can say is, fuck you Joe Biden!
Here's the full op-ed:
Senior staff writer, Jezebel
Last Night's Debate Felt a Little Too Similar to Veep for Julia Louis-Dreyfus
No One Will Say 'Abortion'
I Really Want to Know What Bronzer Joe Biden Is Using That Makes Him Now Look Alive


text:
Suffolk County Executive Bellone Announces $250,000 Grant Towards Countwide Hike and Bike Network
Categories: County Executive
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone today announced the county has received a $250,000 grant through the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council to help fund a Countywide Hike and Bike Network Master Plan. The Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning, which applied for the funds, will issue a Request for Proposals to hire a qualified planning firm to undertake the study.
"A Hike and Bike network will expand transportation options, connect our downtowns, and create a transit-oriented framework needed to attract more young people to Suffolk County," said Suffolk County Executive Bellone. "This funding is a critical first step to help us achieve this goal and make Long Island a more competitive region."
The study will examine existing and potential hike and bike infrastructure across Suffolk County that can better connect residents to employment, recreation, services, commercial centers, and natural resources through enhanced multi-modal facilities. The study will also identify network gaps and propose a series of phased improvements that increase connectivity. The total cost of the study is $312,807, which includes a 20 percent local match of $62,499 covered by in-kind staff time.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council receives funding from the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration and then awards it to sub-recipients to carry out regional planning priorities. A robust Hike and Bike Network will improve bike and pedestrian transportation options, generate economic activity, improve health, support an active lifestyle, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and household transportation costs, and improve air quality.
Theresa Ward, Deputy County Executive and Commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning, said: "The County continues to champion efforts to promote mixed-use transit oriented developments that maximize access to public transportation. Establishing a county-wide hike and bike network goes even further to connect significant local resources and existing downtowns and transit hubs as an important step toward attaining healthier, walkable and bike-able communities. This grant will allow us to create the foundation for that network."
The proposed Hike and Bike Network complements Suffolk County Executive Bellone's Connect Long Island plan – a regional transportation and development initiative that promotes sustainable long-term economic growth in Suffolk County. The network will foster walkable and bike-able communities, connecting popular destinations, historical sites, downtowns and transit hubs across the county. The network will work to improve the quality of life for residents, reduce the reliance of automobiles and boost economic activity.
Hike and bike trails remain popular statewide as illustrated by New York State's investment into the Empire Trail. Once completed, the Empire Trail will be a 750-mile hike-bike path that connects Albany to Buffalo and Manhattan to Canada. Suffolk County's network shares similar objectives and goals as the initiatives being seen statewide
In June 2017, the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning issued a Request for Information regarding a countywide bike share program. A Hike and Bike Network will complement the proposed bike-share program, which has been deemed both feasible and desirable for use in downtown areas, near transit stations, in public parks, and on college campuses.
José M. Rivera, Executive Director, New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, said: "The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council is pleased to assist County Executive Steve Bellone, as he steers Suffolk County toward a more active and bike-friendly transportation network. As a very passionate NYMTC Council Member and former Co-chair, County Executive Bellone has been at the forefront of promoting innovation, increasing transportation options and reducing emissions for Suffolk County."
Rosemary Mascali, Co-Chair of the Sustainable Transportation Committee of the US Green Building Council, said: "A county-wide hiking and biking network would provide enhanced opportunities to safely bike and walk both recreationally and to work or school, benefiting our air quality as well as our health and well-being."
Sammy Chu, Chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council-Long Island Chapter, said: "An expanded hike-bike network would also help boost our local economy as has been proved in many other communities as walkers and bikers stop to visit local delis, restaurants and bike shops."
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text:
Q: NodeJS TypeError: Cannot read property of undefined while accessing cloudant I am trying to get a basic understanding of how CRUD operations with db  works with node js.
I have created two separate files - server.js and app.js.
server.js contains code for accessing the database and app.js got a reference to server.js through 'require'.
Below is my code for server.js :
var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var cors = require('cors');
var app = express();

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
var port = process.env.PORT || 8999;
var router = express.Router();

app.use(cors());
app.use('/cloudApi', router);
app.listen(port);
console.log('REST API is runnning at ' + port);

var dbp = "users";
var Users;

function initCloudant() {
    var cloudantURL = appEnv.services.cloudantNoSQLDB[0].credentials.url || appEnv.getServiceCreds("users-cloudant").url;
    var Cloudant = require('cloudant')({
      url: cloudantURL,
      plugin: 'retry',
      retryAttempts: 10,
      retryTimeout: 500
    });

    Users = Cloudant.use(dbp);
}

router.route('/tests').get(function (req, res) {
    console.log("Inside tests api");
    Users.find({
        selector: {
            "testName":"abc"
        },
    }, function(err, result) {
       res.send(result);

    });
    });

when I run this using command : node server.js, everything works fine for me.
I can access the api through postman as well.
in my app.js, I have given refernce to this:
var server= require('./dir/server.js');

when I run the command- node app.js
and try to hit the api, I get error as :
TypeError: Cannot read property 'find' of undefined
    at C:\Users\nodeApp\dir\server.js:80:13
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:
95:5)
    at next (C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\route.js:137:13)
    at Route.dispatch (C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\route.js:112:3)
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\layer.js:
95:5)
    at C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:281:22
    at Function.process_params (C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:335:12)
    at next (C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:275:10)
    at Function.handle (C:\Users\nodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:174:3)
    at router (C:\Users\anodeApp\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:47:12)

I dont know what point I am missing so that the apis can work.

A: Your initCloudant method is never getting executed it seems.
call initCloudant from success callback of get method like below:
router.route('/tests').get(function (req, res) {

    initCloudant() //call it here

    console.log("Inside tests api");
    Users.find({
        selector: {
            "testName":"abc"
        },
    }, function(err, result) {
       res.send(result);

 });

Or alternatively intialize your User object properly to default properties.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


There are plans to visit OC-153?
Last time you there were in October, 2006.
Very sorry but we can't include OC-153 this time. Did you see our information about equipment we have stored in P29. You could encourage some of your friends to go there and use that gear!
We will wait for future expeditions.
Surely I will be in the log this fall.
Best DX + GL! 73! Serge.
TNX fer cw qso and new one on 15...great operator!!!
THANKS FOR 17M CW AND FOR NEW DXCC.
Thanks for new IOTA's ! - Very good operators!
Brilliant operation as always! Have a safe journey back home!
Great team !Thanks nice show from Pacific.
THANKS FOR 20 M CW AND FOR NEW DXCC.
Many thanks for 4 new IOTAs! Great operation and always very good signal!
any news for the online logs.