Do you ever sign onto Facebook or Twitter and feel overwhelmed by the barrage of political mudslinging, jokes (not always in good taste), and opinions? The same feelings can arise when looking at the reader comments that follow blogs and political articles. However, some of this political discourse online is actually important!
According to the Pew Research Center, 82 percent of Internet users looked for information or completed a transaction on a government website in 2010. Almost half of Internet users (48%) have looked for information about a public policy or issue online. In my opinion, these numbers will continue to increase.
1. Political discourse online allows for deeper dissection of opinions and issues compared to what the mass media typically provides.
According to a study by Topix, 27 percent of Internet users reported participating in political discussions or debates online. Eighty-one percent of these users cited dissecting issues in greater depth than traditional media as the main reason they participate online.
This leads us to the growing distrust of our mass media today. As of last month, 60 percent of Americans reported not trusting the mass media to report accurate and unbiased information. Political discourse online allows the public to read and view mainstream news reports followed by the opinions of others, thus receiving a wider view on current issues.
2. Political discourse and opinion polling impacts the state of political campaigns.
Because a portion of political polling occurs online today, our participation in online polls and surveys can make an impact. And politicians are listening — usually. You can check out the Reuters poll here to see what I'm talking about. Reuters has polled 11,000 people each month about the presidential race and other issues. USA TODAY and Gallup also consistently run polls on the state of political opinion.
But it doesn't stop at polling. If our politicians are running good campaigns, they will constantly monitor both media and public perceptions. This includes reactions expressed via mainstream media such as newspapers, magazines, and television networks, and outlets on the Internet.
3. Political discourse online encourages political activism in the real-world, especially among younger generations.
Adults ages 18 to 29 typically have lower voter registration and voter turnout rates. In fact, 63 percent of 18 to 29 year olds plan to vote this year, which is down from 72 percent in 2008. But, In contrast, political discourse online is much higher for this group, likely because they are the first generation to grow up communicating on the Internet.
Because of this, Internet users, especially younger generations, are more likely to participate in political activities, such as watch political videos, share election-related content, "fact check" political claims, and even participate in political activities on a daily basis.
As Americans increasingly use the Internet and social media to seek out political information, political discourse online will rise. Politicians have added online platforms such as social media, blogs, and online forums to their communications toolbox, so let's help them listen by using these tools actively and respectfully.
Are there other reasons political discourse is important online?
Rand Strauss is the President and CEO of PeopleCount.org, a nonpartisan organization that enables the public to communicate constructively by taking stands on political issues influencing the country today. Connect with Rand and PeopleCount.org on Twitter and Facebook.


Video showing normal pulmonary valve opening and closing.it looks like a Mercedes benz sign.
What is a Pulmonary Stenosis?
The pulmonary artery is a large artery (blood vessel) which carries blue deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs. in the body. The connection between the heart and the pulmonary artery is guarded by a valve called the pulmonary valve. Narrowing of the pulmonary valve is known as pulmonary stenosis. Pulmonary stenosis increases the work of the heart causing the right ventricle (lower pumping chamber) to thicken (known as hypertrophy) and potentially eventually fail. Pulmonary stenosis can be mild, moderate, severe or critical (the latter is an emergency). The narrowing can be at the level of the valve, or above the valve (supravalvar) or below the valve (subvalvar).
Most babies and children will have no symptoms. The usual form of presentation is the incidental finding of a heart murmur. Severe cases, which are not common, may become breathless, tire more easily, and have slower weight gain with feeding difficulties. Critical stenosis in newborns can lead to collapse. Pulmonary stenosis may also be diagnosed before birth by fetal echocardiography.
A clinical examination will usually reveal a heart murmur. An echocardiogram will confirm the diagnosis. An ECG will also be performed and often a chest X-ray.
Mild and moderate pulmonary stenosis is well tolerated and does not require treatment but should be regularly monitored in the outpatient clinic. There is a small possibility of spontaneous improvement with growth. Other cases become more severe with time whilst others remain stable for many years. Pulmonary stenosis can be treated either via a keyhole approach with a balloon cardiac catheter (angioplasty) or less commonly by open heart cardiac surgery. Each child's heart is individually assessed to decide which treatment will give the best long-term result.
Balloon cardiac catheter involves a general anaesthetic. A tube, with a deflated balloon, is passed from a blood vessel in the leg to the heart, using X ray guidance. Once the balloon is correctly positioned in the narrowed pulmonary artery, it is inflated, thereby stretching the narrow opening to enlarge it. This process is repeated a number of times and then the catheter is removed. After this procedure, there may be some leak across the stretched valve but a leaky valve is better tolerated than a very narrow valve. Hospital stay duration depends on the age of the child and their status prior to the procedure. The simplest cases may only require a 1-2 night admission. Open heart surgery techniques to repair the pulmonary artery involves being attached to the cardiac bypass machine. Children are usually in hospital for 5-10 days but longer stays can be necessary particularly for babies. Surgical strategies include surgical repair of the valve, and replacement with a mechanical or tissue valve. Dr Naqvi works with an experienced internationally renowned team of nationally audited congenital cardiac surgeons and interventionalists and if needed will refer your child to the one who is best for your child's heart.
The outlook for children with Tetralogy Of Fallot is usually excellent. Some patients are left with a leak across the pulmonary artery. This may require further surgery later in life (usually between the teenage years and young adulthood). This may be open heart or via transcather keyhole placement of a Melody valve. These procedures also have excellent success rates. Dr Naqvi has cared for many babies and children with Tetralogy Of Fallot and has followed them up until adulthood. She says "Having Tetralogy Of Fallot does not stop children doing well in sports or from having a happy full life. I know many who are in school teams and even competing at county level. I even know patients who have achieved 10 A stars at GCSE despite having a Fallot repair as a baby." There are also a number of successful athletes with Tetralogy Of Fallot including Australian cricketer Beau Casson. Shaun White is an inspirational 2 times Gold medallist Olympic snowboarder (net worth $40 million) who had 2 cardiac surgeries for Tetralogy Of Fallot before 1 year of age. You can see his interview with Larry King on CNN on You Tube where he discusses his condition and his career.


So used are we in the Western democracies to the nostrums of our political system and the cycles by which that system operates that the notion that liberal democracy is not a natural state of affairs is difficult to comprehend. Yet it is so. It was only in the last decade of the 20th century that democracy finally reached across Europe. Terrorism poses the greatest dilemma for believers in the rule of law since World War II.
On the other hand, American legal scholars have often used the story of Ulysses and the Sirens as a metaphor for their Constitution's role in keeping short-term political impulses from imperilling the nation's long-term, historical commitment to a free society based on the rule of law. The United States Constitution prevents presidents and governments from following the siren song of authoritarianism, the very evil against which the American colonists revolted.
The first duty of all nation states is the protection of its citizens. If it cannot provide it, the very existence of the nation is endangered. This is self-evident.
One of the chief predicaments for governments in liberal democracies is striking the appropriate balance between national security and the maintenance of the civil liberties that characterise such societies. What is apposite will depend on circumstances but if a liberal democracy is to remain such, there must be a line beyond which its government will not follow the siren call of national security.
Few have expressed the value of the rule of law more eloquently than Robert Bolt in his famous play, A Man for All Seasons, when he has Sir Thomas More reprove his flighty son-in-law for his bold claim that he would cut down every law in England to get after the Devil: 'Oh? And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you—where would you hide, Roper, the laws being all flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast—Man's laws, not God's—and if you cut them down d'you really think that you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake'.
Despite the enormity of the crimes of al Qaeda and the Taliban, and the understandable horror and repugnance they provoke, the establishment of ad hoc military commissions to try alleged al Qaeda and Taliban members of war crimes has provoked grave concern and enormous opposition not only from the usual suspects—civil libertarians and human rights activists—but from mainstream law groups, such as the American Bar Association, and even conservative commentators such as William Safire (who described them as 'Soviet-style'). Predictably too, criticisms have come from Muslim societies that the Guantanamo prisoners, all Muslims, are being treated to a second-class system of 'justice' that would be unacceptable for others.
the guilty with a valid complaint with which to attack a conviction.
The very manner in which the military commissions were established was unusual. President Bush acted on his own authority as US Commander-in-Chief rather than on a statute passed by Congress. More troubling, however, was his assertion in his Military Order that: 'Given the danger to the safety of the United States and the nature of international terrorism, I find … that it is not practicable to apply in military commissions under this order the principles of law and the rules of evidence generally recognised in the trial of criminal cases in the United States district courts'.
Even Ted Lapkin, who justifies the use of military commissions, concedes that 'a conventional trial in a civilian courtroom would certainly do much to quell the wrath of the Bush administration's detractors'. He claims, however, that 'a normal criminal proceeding would erect serious obstacles to the effective prosecution of the war against radical Islamist terror that could very well cost innocent lives' because intelligence sources would be jeopardised or compromised. That is simply wrong—in ordinary criminal proceedings, the government is entitled to claim a privilege against revealing information that may compromise, for example, criminal investigations or intelligence operations.
The more likely explanation for the establishment of military commissions is to be found in the comment of Justice Scalia in Rasul v Bush that 'the Commander in Chief and his subordinates had every reason to expect that the internment of combatants in Guantanamo Bay would not have the consequence of bringing the cumbersome machinery of our domestic courts into military affairs'. This suggests that he believes that the military commissions are more about securing convictions than ensuring fair trials. One is irresistibly reminded of the old joke about the newly-captured rustler in the Wild West being told he would be hung after receiving a fair trial.
So far the military commissions have not conducted any trials. Once they have, however, it is inevitable that their very legality and their processes and decisions will be challenged in the Supreme Court. The principal defence argument is likely to be that the commissions are so fundamentally flawed as purported instruments of justice that any accused person could not receive a fair trial before them and that review or appeal process following such trials is inherently unfair.
That argument rests on a number of grounds. First, every aspect of the process is controlled by the Pentagon and the White House. An accused person is prosecuted by the military, defended by the military and tried before a group of military officers. Hence Major Mori's complaint that there is not even the appearance of a fair trial. In October 2004, the Pentagon itself acknowledged some of the flaws in the system when it dismissed from the commissions three of the officers designated to sit as judges on the ground that they lacked impartiality. An impartial judiciary is the bedrock of any system of justice worth its salt.
Allied with that basic requirement is a system of appeal to a superior court. The second major flaw in the military commission system is that there is no right of appeal to a court. The only appeal is to the Secretary of Defense and then to the President. In these circumstances, no one could conceivably regard the Secretary of Defense or the President as independent or impartial, let alone judicial.
The third vice in the system is that the ordinary rules of evidence, designed specifically to ensure fair trials and to prevent wrongful convictions, will not apply. The commissions will be entitled to take into account any evidence they regard as relevant, including hearsay evidence from unidentified informants, forced confessions or admissions and even evidence kept secret from the accused persons. In an ordinary criminal trial or court-martial, an accused person has a right to test the evidence of, for example, an informer by cross-examination and by calling evidence to contradict the allegations of the witness.
The American Civil Liberties Union contends that this is the first time in American history that a court or tribunal would be allowed to use evidence not revealed to the accused or his civilian lawyer to establish guilt in a criminal proceeding.
Defenders of the tribunals point to the fact that certain rights are guaranteed by the rules of the commissions: the right to representation by defence counsel, a presumption of innocence, a standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the right to obtain witnesses and documents to be used in their defence, the right to cross examine prosecution witnesses and the right to remain silent with no adverse inference being drawn from the exercise of that right. These rules, however, can be altered at any time at the whim of the Pentagon and the White House.
In 1943, Justice Felix Frankfurter of the US Supreme Court famously remarked that 'the history of liberty has largely been the history of observance of procedural safeguards'. It is, however, misleading of the supporters of the commissions to claim that their rules are procedurally fair when an impartial judiciary is not available to apply them. The Soviet Union under Stalin had an impeccable set of constitutional rights for citizens but the judiciary were, of course, mere apparatchiks.
More recently, in a case dealing with the indefinite detention of an American citizen in a Navy prison, the very conservative Justice Scalia commented trenchantly on military justice and the historical distrust of it in American constitutional law: 'Many think it not only inevitable but entirely proper that liberty give way to security in times of national crisis—that, at the extremes of military exigency, inter arma silent leges. Whatever the general merits of the view that war silences law or modulates its voice, that view has no place in the interpretation and application of a Constitution designed precisely to confront war and, in a manner that accords with democratic principles, to accommodate it'.
It may be that the officers appointed to try David Hicks and others in the commissions will be as conscientious and honest as the courageous Major Mori but it is asking much of them effectively to face down their own President and Secretary of Defense by giving the accused a fair trial in the true sense.
In any event, any convictions secured in the commissions will inevitably be tainted by the process and, unfortunately, will be likely to further undermine any claims the US has to leadership or moral authority in the struggle for democratic freedoms in the Muslim world. This seems a high cost to pay for the convenience of securing the convictions of a few minor al Qaeda foot-soldiers in an unfair manner.
If Justice Scalia's rumblings are any indication, the US government may also face embarrassment when the military commission cases—as they assuredly will—come before the Supreme Court.
Hugh Dillon is a Sydney magistrate.
Recent articles by Hugh Dillon .


text:
Duterte-Tugade's NCR Cable Cars: Will they work?
In an interview with Karen Davila on ANC's Headstart, incoming DOTC chief Art Tugade said he's in talks with a cable car manufacturer about the possibility of installing cable cars to ease Manila Traffic. Tugade said he wants to mimic Bolivia's approach, but on a more massive scale.
[FEATURED IMAGE: Bolivia's Mi Teleférico]
Tugade said, "Yung cable cars pinag-aaralan definitely... Ito ho, hinihiram ko 'yung Bolivia experience kung saan mayroong mga cable car… Uumpishan mo muna 'yan sa area ng Pasig, then EDSA, ito 'yung mga gondola na may 35-passenger capacity." [GMA].
(We will definitely study the potential of cable cars, similar to Bolivia's. We plan to launch 35-seater gondolas initially in Pasig, then EDSA.)
ThinkingPinoy should not be in Malacañang
I woke up from general anesthesia at 4:00 PM of 09 May 2016. At last, my trusty surgeon finally excised a severe perineal infection that's been bugging me for weeks. I should have undergone surgery weeks earlier but I chose to postpone it because I had something more important to do.
Idealistic? Hardworking? Patriotic? Malacañang needs you!
If you've been following the ThinkingPinoy Facebook Page for quite some time, you might have noticed that I am keen to work for the incoming Duterte administration. After several weeks's worth of noting, I have finally managed to get an appointment with people from a key presidential communications group (CG).
What's in it for you?
The PH Telco Cartel: Telstra's story from conception to miscarriage [1/2]
In San Miguel, Globe, Smart & the 700 MHz Band for Dummies [Pt. 1 of 2], ThinkingPinoy explained what the 700 Megahertz (700 MHz) band is. Now that we got that out of the way, it's time to talk about the story of the 700 MHz spectrum in relation to mobile internet and the Philippine Telecom industry at large.
This post serves as the second part of that article. However, instead of using the title "San Miguel, Globe, Smart & the 700 MHz Band for Dummies [Pt. 2 of 2], I decided to use the title above as it provides is better describes this post's content.
Warning: This will be the longest article that I, ThinkingPinoy, has ever written, so I would like to apologize in advance if reading this will take a lot of time. I felt that it's high time for the public to have a deeper working understanding of how messed up the PH telco industry is, so that each of us can provide more meaningful contributions to the PH Telco debate.
Let's go.
The dagger to heart – the final straw – was finally planted when Globe and Smart, through the NTC, urged the newly-formed Philippine Competition Commission [PCC] to probe SMC's control over the 700 MHz spectrum, citing this practice as "anti-competitive" [MS].
(This article is the continuation of The PH Telco Cartel: Telstra's story from conception to miscarriage [1/2])
In response, PCC founding chairman Arsenio Balisacan said one of the sectors the PCC would focus on is the telecommunications industry, which includes a study of the 700 MHz issue and how San Miguel was able to obtain and maintain control of the scarce frequency in spite of calls for a public bidding [MS].
The PCC derives its mandate from Philippine Competition Act, penned by Senator Bam Aquino and signed on 21 July 2015 by his uncle, President Noynoy Aquino [RA 10667].
Now let's ask the question, why?
San Miguel, Globe, Smart & the 700 Mhz Band for Dummies [Pt. 1 of 2]
SMC sold the 700 Mhz band to Globe and Smart... so what's in it for you?
San Miguel Corporation has finally let go of its prized 700 Mhz band by selling it to the telco duopoly of Smart Communications and Globe Telecom. Press releases say it's good for the public, but that is just the partial truth. The tech talk is a bit difficult to grasp, so ThinkingPinoy is here to the rescue!
Duterte, Cayetano, Pimentel: Inside Info on the Senate Presidency (Part 2 of 2)
In Duterte, Cayetano, Pimentel: Inside Info on the Senate Presidency (Part 1 of 2), ThinkingPinoy explained that over the past month, President-elect Duterte has masterfully consolidated and tested the limits of his political power, with Senate as the only thing standing in his way.
The key to the Senate is in the Senate Presidency, currently contested by Senator and PDP-Laban President Koko Pimentel; and Senator and Duterte running mate Alan Peter Cayetano. Now, it's time to continue where we left off.
Politics is a battle of competing interests and not a struggle between good and evil. Thus, it is incumbent upon the electorate to choose a leader whose interest and advocacies best align with theirs. The sooner we learn, recognize and accept this truth, the better for us. ThinkingPinoy has become well aware of this fact, that's why he's been attempting to educate his readers about the ins and outs of today's "Political Game of Thrones".
Leni's Possible Defense: Strike down SOCE laws
Yesterday, ThinkingPinoy explained how the Liberal Party's (LP) non-filing of the its Statement of Campaign Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) will result in the disqualification of all winning LP-nominated candidates starting from Vice-president Leni Robredo down to municipal or city councilors [TP: No VP Leni].
In reply, Robredo insisted that Comelec Rules allow LP to file its SOCE until June 30th. However, TP showed that Robredo was in fact referring 2014 Comelec Resolution 9873 that has already been repealed by 2015 Comelec Resolution 9991, essentially implying that Robredo's June 30 claim has no legal basis [TP: Obsolete Law].
Attorney Maria Leonor Robredo's poorly constructed "June 30 deadline" legal argument will not hold water in the court of law. However, she may still have other ways to get out of this LP-initiated legal mess. And that's what we will be talking about.
June 30 SOCE Extension? Leni Robredo used obsolete rule
Vice-president-elect Leni Robredo says deadline is 30 June 2016 but TP discovers she cited an obsolete Comelec Resolution.
No LP SOCE equals No VP Leni, No LP Senators: Election Lawyer
Mar Roxas and the Liberal Party failed to submit their Statements of Campaign Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) on time. An election lawyer says this will cause a political crisis of epic proportions.
Impunity of Liberal Party Mining Crony to end soon?
Will a Liberal Party illegal miner crony become one of the first casualties of Duterte's crusade against corruption?
Banned? Mr. Lingao, let's learn from Carlos Celdran
The official Facebook page of the Juan Nationalist was taken down by Facebook after it was mob-reported. The deluge of reports came after EJAP released a statement criticizing Duterte's declarations against media and journalist killings. The account was restored only after contacting a Facebook executive [Star].
A similar case happened to the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP). Meanwhile, One of TV5 journalist's Ed Lingao's Anti-Marcos posts also got taken down – twice. At the second instance, the system also prevented Lingao from posting for a cruel 24-hour period [Star].
All the incidents involving these posts and accounts can be summed up into one sentence:
Incendiary content triggered a large number of Facebook user reports that, in turn, triggered an automatic ban.
I, ThinkingPinoy, am a journalist, and my primary enabler is the constitutional right to free speech. That is why I empathize with Lingao, EJAP, Juan Nationalist, and every journalist whose freedom to speak online has been impaired.
The operative word, however, is empathize.
#JustForFun: ABS-CBN, "Tatlong Bibe" is from the UK
I stumbled upon Bambit Gaerlan's Tagalog Facebook post that reads:
Sa nagbabagang balita! Saksakan!
Saksakan ng tanga ang mga nilalang na ito:
Ang BPI branch na nadenggoy ng nagpanggap na Peter Tiu Lavina sa halagang 700K, nagrelease ng pera bago nag verify sa kampo ni PRRD
Ang mga may ari ng isang kotse kung saan sila nag iwan ng bag na may lamang 40K na cash at tuloy nanakawan ni Spider Kid.
Ang "expert" na nagsabing Pinoy daw ang nursery rhyme/song na Tatlong Bibe kagaya ng Bahay Kubo.
P*t*ng*n*
Alright, the first two items are obvious incidents of sheer idiocy. The third, on the other hand, piqued my interest. Why? Because my Facebook friends are going gaga over "Tatlong Bibe (Three Ducklings)", and I never really cared about it until my wall got inundated with homemade "Tatlong Bibe" dance videos.
Ok, this issue has nothing to do with Philippine Politics, but please indulge me because nangangati ang utak ko.
Pagbigyan niyo ako, trip lang.
#KungAkoSiRody: The Big Issue of Big Media's Big Ego
I am the 71-year-old Rodrigo Duterte and by the end of the month, I shall be the 16th president of this republic. Yes, I am a rude person and yes, it has been that way since I was born. Yes, I like banter and yes, that's something that Davao media men are already very familiar with.
Yes, I might have offended Mariz Umali when I catcalled her but no, my actions were without any sexual innuendo. Yes, women have the right to complain about the incident but no, I will not apologize because I have the right to be stubborn. All my 16 million voters have always been aware of my foul mouth yet they still voted for me. Now, ask yourself why, then ask yourself what you should do because of that.
Yes, you have the right to write about my bad manners as much as you want to but no, I am not obliged to spend an hour each day of of whatever little time I have left in this world just to quench your thirst for tabloid content. If your dislike for my demeanor is more important than your duty as a journalist to inform the people of the next president's plan for this country, then boycott my nightly press conferences.
(In the #KungAkoSiRody article series, ThinkingPinoy attempts to "play the political Game of Thrones" by pretending to be President Rodrigo Duterte.)
#NotSoHoly: CBCP vs Duterte: Sex and Filipino Catholic Priests
Eyebrows rose as then presumptive president-elect Rodrigo Duterte said: "It's about time na magklaro-klaro tayo.... Sinong lahat ng bishop...
I stumbled upon Bambit Gaerlan's Tagalog Facebook post that reads: Sa nagbabagang balita! Saksakan! Saksakan ng tanga ang mga nilala...
"Frailties of Woman" Leni Robredo Version?
Earlier this month, President Rody Duterte cracked a joke about Vice-president Leni Robredo's knees, The president said Robredo has smooth...
#JunkTerrorBill: Fake Facebook Accounts linked to Fake Death Threat?
University of the Philippines Los Banos student organization Defend UPLB announced on 07 June 2020 [1] that it took down one of its posts...
A short summary of the RTC decision on Maria Ressa's online libel case
Here is a concise summary of Manila RTC Branch 46 presiding judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa's 37-page decision on People v. Maria Ressa ...
About ThinkingPinoy
ThinkingPinoy, its contents, and its associated social media accounts were created, published, and maintained solely by ThinkingPinoy (TP) in his personal capacity. TP is not officially affiliated with any political party. Unless otherwise specified, the opinions expressed in this website and its associated social media accounts are TP's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of any particular political party.
To learn more about TP, CLICK HERE.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The new version includes an InDesign CC plug-in. It also includes a new script that automates the conversion of PDF files into Mag+ InDesign files as and refinements to analytics tools.
Mag+ announced version 4.4 of its digital publishing and mobile app platform. The new versionincludes an InDesign CC plug-in. It also includes a new script that automates the conversion of PDF files into Mag+ InDesign files as and refinements to analytics tools.
The PDF conversion tool was developed to enable customers to convert back issues of publications, older sales materials, or any type of publication where designing from scratch is not worthwhile.
"While the majority of our customers choose to use Mag+ specifically because they want to create something far more interesting and dynamic than a simple PDF version of something created for print, we recognize there are times when simply making old content available on a tablet or mobile device as quickly and easily as possible makes the most sense," said Mike Haney, chief product officer at Mag+.


The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (also known as Precinct of the Lady Helper Church and Con-cathedral of the Lady Helper) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prizren, Kosovo, seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prizren-Priština.
The Cathedral of Prizren was commissioned in 1870 by Dario Bucciarelli, Archbishop of Skopje. Its clocktower was built by Thomas Glasnovic, a Croatian monk and architect. The cathedral among its frescoes features in the north side of the church a fresco of Skanderbeg painted in 1883 by Gjergj Panariti an Albanian monk and painter from Korçë.
This article about a Kosovar building or structure related topic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This page was last edited on 5 September 2018, at 14:45 (UTC).


How to fix audio crackle in Xenoblade Chronicles?
I recently got a new PC that is finally able to run Xenoblade Chronicles with HD texture pack on Dolphin and got everything else working out fine but I get occasional audio crackle during the game (I'm playing the NTSC-U version).
I'm using Dolphion version 5.0-4662-x64. I attached pictures of my current Dolphin Configuration, Dolphin Graphics and Xenoblade Properties settings to this post.
I tried switching Audio Backend from XAudio2 to OpenAL but on low latency I still got crackling and at 10+ latency there was a big audio delay so that wasn't optimal either.
I had to put V-Sync and "Speed up Disc Transfer Rate" on to eliminate screen tearing.
Does anyone know what I could try to do to eliminate the crackle (or delay when using OpenAL with high latency)?
Edit: Downloaded the latest dev build of Dolphin (5.0-6671-x64) and tried the newly added "Cubeb" Audio Backend but I still get minor crackling during cutscenes at times with both available Audio Backends. So I'm guessing the problem is somewhere with my settings but I have no idea where.
Any reason you´re not using -latest- dev build?
(03-25-2018, 08:42 AM)DJBarry004 Wrote: Any reason you´re not using -latest- dev build?
The reason why I have 5.0-4662 build is 'cause it was the latest build when I first attempted to get the game working. I figured there probably wouldn't be too many differences between 5.0-xxxx versions so I hadn't bothered downloading a new version (seeing how they keep getting updated all the time).
I guess I'll try downloading the latest version and see if that helps but the audio problem seems to be a common problem with Xenoblade so I figured the Dolphin version difference probably isn't the crucial factor here but rather something to do with my settings. Some people said that OpenAL fixed the problems for them but for me it caused tons of audio delay.
Edit: Downloaded the latest build (5.0-6671-x64) and tried the newly added "Cubeb" Audio Backend but I still get minor crackling during cutscenes at times with both available Audio Backends. So I'm guessing the problem is somewhere with my settings but I have no idea where.
Audio crackle is usually caused by slowdown. If the game isn't running full speed, Dolphin runs out of audio to play, and you get the cracks in the audio where it doesn't have anything to play. You can either turn on audio stretching or make sure the game is running full speed.
(03-25-2018, 07:22 PM)JMC47 Wrote: Audio crackle is usually caused by slowdown. If the game isn't running full speed, Dolphin runs out of audio to play, and you get the cracks in the audio where it doesn't have anything to play. You can either turn on audio stretching or make sure the game is running full speed.
This game's sound behaves strangely when audio stretching is turned on. It's sort of like a crackling or a wow sound... don't know how to describe it. It does it because somehow the fps fluctuate by 0.1-1 frames even when the game is turboing well over 70fps (don't pin me on that exact number though) I can easily hear it in the screen with the Monado (titlescreen). It completely vanishes with Audio stretching off.
(03-25-2018, 09:05 PM)mstreurman Wrote: This game's sound behaves strangely when audio stretching is turned on. It's sort of like a crackling or a wow sound... don't know how to describe it. It does it because somehow the fps fluctuate by 0.1-1 frames even when the game is turboing well over 70fps (don't pin me on that exact number though) I can easily hear it in the screen with the Monado (titlescreen). It completely vanishes with Audio stretching off.
I have audio stretching turned off by default on the latest dev build and I still get the occasional crackle. It happens regularly on certain parts of cutscenes (like when the opening cutscenes switches to Shulk's narration for the Battle of Sword Valley it always happens) and occasionally on other parts too (for example when the opening cutscene shows Dunban cutting down Mechons the audio sometimes, but not always, crackles during it).
That's a very mild case of crackle though. The aforementioned cutscene with Dunban cutting down Mechon has way worse crackle whenever it occurs there.
This happens to me with both "XAudio2" and "Cubeb" Audio Backends and audio stretching not being enabled while using HLE (I attached picture of my current Dolphin Audio settings to this post). All my other settings are the same as the ones shown in the opening post pictures except I turned off "Speed up Disc Transfer Rate" from the .iso settings 'cause the 5.0-6671-x64 build of Dolphin doesn't seem to require it anymore (I tried turning it both on and off just in case but it had no impact on the crackle).
(03-25-2018, 10:21 PM)o-s_f Wrote: I have audio stretching turned off by default on the latest dev build and I still get the occasional crackle. It happens regularly on certain parts of cutscenes (like when the opening cutscenes switches to Shulk's narration for the Battle of Sword Valley it always happens) and occasionally on other parts too (for example when the opening cutscene shows Dunban cutting down Mechons the audio sometimes, but not always, crackles during it).
5. Set up the Windows Power Options to "High Performance"
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-4800MQ-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-1600/1927vs2984 > it shouldn't be that much of a difference in speed for emulation.
That sounded like Shader Generation to me in the video. Shader Generation or lag loading the ISO.
Tried all of this but the issue still persist. I also tried messing around with audio stretching and changing the Graphics Back-End to OpenGL just in case but those didn't help either.
I'm starting to think that the problem might just simply be with my hardware. The wiki.dolphin page for Xenoblade does mention "There are minor audio cracks and frame-drops with shaders." when tested with GTX 970 (which is my GPU also).
(03-26-2018, 05:31 AM)JMC47 Wrote: That sounded like Shader Generation to me in the video. Shader Generation or lag loading the ISO.
Is there some way to impact these aside from messing around with ubershaders (using them didn't help, I tried)?
I dunno. I played Xenoblade to completion on a GTX 770 and 4790k. And Ryzen matches Haswell clock for clock in single threaded perf. Though, my 4790k runs at 4 ghz minimum.
Do other games have this problem for you or just Xenoblade?


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Facal D, Maseda A, Pereiro AX, Gandoy-Crego M, Lorenzo-López L, Yanguas J, Millán-Calenti JC. Cognitive frailty: A conceptual systematic review and an operational proposal for future research. Maturitas. 2019 Mar;121:48-56. Epub 2018 Dec 7 PubMed.


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HomeNewsLocal newsDiwali Gala Offers Platform for Culture, Community
Diwali Gala Offers Platform for Culture, Community
By Ananta Pancham
This year's Diwali Ball theme, "Bollywood Red Carpet," offered attendees the chance to don their best cultural wear. (Ananta Pancham photo)
On Diwali, the five-day festival of lights celebrated by the East Indian community and people of Indian descent all over the world, the aarti — or devotional song — offered in particular to the Goddess Lakshmi, is a prayer for peace and prosperity at the dawn of a new year and was the centerpiece of the India Association of the Virgin Islands' Diwali Gala, which was held Saturday night for the first time since 2019.
The glow from dozens of electric candles cast a warm light around the stage as the aarti was performed, with dancers swirling in tune with the words around the effigies of the Hindu goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, played by Antilles School seniors Ishr Bhullar, Aisha Khemani and Reema Mirchandani.
For many, the resurgence of the gala — which raises money for the organization and programs at the Indian Cultural Center on St. Thomas — was a kind of homecoming, something that event organizer Darshan Nagrani said he often looked forward to as a child. Being able to put it on this year, though, was an entirely different experience, he added.
"You never think about what happens behind the scenes," Nagrani shared. "You perform, you eat and see family and friends, and you go home happy. But seeing it come together — the food, the decorations, lights and sound, you realize it really takes a village."
Rohan Samtani, better known as DJ Rohan, said he flew in Saturday just for the event. (Ananta Pancham photo)
Rohan Samtani offered similar sentiments as he bounced behind the DJ booth. A regular at events on the mainland, mostly New York and Boston, Samtani said he had flown in the same day especially to do the music production like he has since he was in high school.
"I've been looking forward to this for weeks," Samtani said. "This is the first time the event has been held in more than two years and just being home and being here reminds me of how we continue to come together, to be there for one another as a community."
India Association board member Giresh Mirpuri said his goal is to help a younger generation experience the same kind of memories that he, Samtani and Nagrani, among others, had as children.
India Association President Pash Daswani (front, flanked by his Board of Directors) welcomes attendees Saturday and offers congratulations and thanks to organizers and sponsors of the event. (Ananta Pancham photo)
"This is a longstanding community organization that has always been led by our elders," Mirpuri said of the India Association. "The children always love doing the performances, and we want to encourage them to continue to be more involved, along with those my age who want to see the association grow and continue to do great work within the territory."
Having a platform for the East Indian community to come together was also what Nagrani hoped those in attendance Saturday took away.
"We don't have many events like this, and really what it's about is community," he said. "To have a chance to come together, build culture, and be more aware of one another — that's really important."
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I am listening to that Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) can be altering its identify to the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO). If you proceed to get this message, please contact the local ODAR workplace that sent you the CD. So, working for ten years is enough for most people to develop into eligible to receive social security benefits. Because there's a backlog of claims already in the Social Security administration's information, and the truth that most claims are denied, it takes some info and strategy to be efficient when submitting for incapacity.
To start receiving your federal advantages, like Social Security or veterans benefits, it's essential to sign up for electronic funds with direct deposit. A sixty-six-12 months-previous who retires in 2011, as an example, will likely be eligible for a most of $2,366 in monthly payments from Social Security. CDs being given to those who represent Social Security claimants who lack efolder access will quickly be encrypted.
But being a social safety workplace in DTLA, in fact there have been some characters in line…and I overheard a scary story about somebody who tried to cover razor blades taped together in a belt to strive (unsuccessfully) to kill his social employee…so there's that. If you misplaced the letter, fill-in and print the web form Social Security Letter for U-M J-1 Scholars Then convey it to the International Center for authorization.
She's instructed them a number of instances she's greater than keen to be pat down by hand, but they inform her the law states a female individual can only be pat down by a feminine security guard, and they do not have one. Sklar said that he was aware that many attorneys were using workarounds to allow their staffs to access the efolders and that Social Security's Office of General Counsel was engaged on the problem.
SSA additionally administers the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which is wants-based mostly, for the aged, blind, or disabled. Additional income comes from interest earned by the Social Security trust funds and from an income tax paid by about one-third of beneficiaries on their Social Security benefits. Once they, themselves, are in the untenable place of getting to depend solely on the federal government for their properly-being and livelihood (a authorities worker is just not the identical as being on the fastened income of Social Security or SSI/SSDI), let's have a look at how effectively they fare being handled like cow dung.


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Bible: The Old Testament
Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy
Genesis, Chapters 1–11
Genesis: Chapters 12–25
Genesis Chapters 25–50
The First Book of Samuel
The Second Book of Samuel
The First & Second Books of Kings
The Song of Solomon
The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy form the bulk of the Hebrew law, or Torah. Each text mixes procedural instructions and legal matters with a variety of narrative voices and action. The separate books are probably the collected writings of priests with different interests and perspectives, written sometime during Israel's tumultuous exile in the seventh and sixth centuries b.c. The three works document an important stage in the development of Israel's identity as a people and a nation. The prose is frequently arduous and repetitive, but it functions as a long, concentrated pause in the narrative of the Old Testament. Israel's wandering in the desert can be seen as the nation's adolescence—a period of education and growth following the nation's birth in the exodus from Egypt and the events at Mount Sinai.
The fact that the Israelites' punishment for certain infractions is to isolate or expel the offending individual from the camp demonstrates the extraordinary desire of the people to remain part of the community. The Israelite camp is set up in concentric circles with the tabernacle at its center: Moses and Aaron are closest to the tabernacle, followed by the Levites who care for it, and the rest of the tribes surround them. Since uncleanness bars a person from approaching the sacred religious items, physical impurity places one farthest from the center of Israel. In this way, God's injunctions challenge the Israelites to strive to remain near the nation's center. The distinction between purity and impurity helps promote a distinction between an accepted, privileged "us" and an outcast "them" who are outside the circle of the community.
Moses's emphasis on the word "heart" in his sermons is also critical to Israel's understanding of itself as a unified people. Moses describes the physical and external regulations of the law by using spiritual and internal imagery. He says, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart" (Deuteronomy 6:6). The idea that Israel as a whole has a "heart" or a group of "hearts" suggests that the nation has developed a set of personal or private experiences over the forty years of wandering in the desert. This waiting period distances Israel from Egypt and the laws at Mount Sinai, forcing the nation to form a collective memory of these events. When Moses instructs the people, "You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul," he encourages them to internalize and embrace these collective, national memories (Deuteronomy 11:18). Moses portrays the religious laws no longer as a list of actions to be performed in the future but as sacred words and ideas that are a part of a past and an internal life that is unique to Israel.
The description of God as loving and compassionate in Deuteronomy is perplexing in light of God's intense wrath in Numbers. Moses, however, seems to see God's violent reaction to Israel's complaints and infidelities as an exercise or a test of Israel's commitment to the covenant. Indeed, God's destruction follows a consistent pattern in Numbers: the people complain and wish to return to Egypt; God threatens to destroy the people; Moses or another representative intercedes on behalf of the people; and God relents, punishing only a portion of Israel's population. The climax in these exercises occurs when representatives of the people speak on behalf of Israel. The moment of intercession when the plague is stopped by Aaron running into the crowd or by Eleazar's son stabbing the man and his foreign mistress are both climactic. Man's intercession does not require God to stop his destruction, but it creates the opportunity for Israel's leaders to display religious zeal and for God to show his mercy. God manifests his compassion and love not by what he does, but by what he does not do. Israel emerges from these encounters as a nation that has survived trials and hardship—a resilient people, with its weakest members now weeded out.
Take the Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy Quick Quiz
Exodus Next
God: Character Analysis


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Beef specialist receives UW Extension's top honor | KTIC Radio
Beef specialist receives UW Extension's top honor
BY Steve Miller University of Wyoming | December 9, 2019
Home › News › Livestock
Extension beef cattle specialist Steve Paisley. Courtesy Photo
Helping with one of the livestock industry's most critical programs and his outreach efforts on behalf of 4-H are some of the reasons a beef specialist has received the University of Wyoming Extension's top honor.
Steve Paisley, director of the James C. Hageman Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center near Lingle, received the Jim DeBree Award during the organization's annual training conference in Laramie in November.
Paisley leads state-wide efforts with extension educators to conduct beef quality assurance (BQA) training for producers. Beef quality assurance is one of the most critical and rewarding programs fostered by the livestock industry in recent years, said Jim Magagna, Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) executive vice president.
Paisley is a recognized leader in BQA training in Wyoming and at the national level, said Magana in his nomination letter, and has provided BQA training at WSGA conventions and will again this month.
Paisley joined UW Extension in 2001. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees at UW and his Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University. He is an associate professor in the Department of Animal Science in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Paisley's research focuses on management of the young beef female and includes heifer development and selection as well as economical and practical management and feeding programs. He has guided numerous graduate students and teaches academic courses at UW.
His ability to listen, to take direct input from others is a key characteristic of Paisley, said extension educator Scott Cotton in his nomination letter. Cotton is based in the Natrona County extension office.
"His outreach efforts with 4-H programs exceeds those done by other beef specialists in the U.S. with literally thousands of 4-H and FFA members learning from him first-hand," said Cotton.
Paisley also has conducted hundreds – if not thousands – of ultrasounds on 4-H swine, sheep and cattle. Paisley "Has contributed greatly to Natrona County 4-H programs as well as many others across the state of Wyoming," said Joddee Jacobsen, Natrona County 4-H educator in her nomination.
Paisley also co-leads the annual Range Beef Cow Symposium every other year (an effort between universities in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and UW).
He has assumed extension's role in collaborating with the WSGA to organize and identify speakers for the association's Progressive Rancher Forum, which provides a series of concurrent educational sessions on topics important to cattle producers.
Magagna said Paisley has demonstrated leadership in Wyoming's cattle industry by serving as regional vice president of WSGA for the past three years.
"The Wyoming cattle industry is clearly stronger because of the dedication of Dr. Steve Paisley," said Magagna.
The Jim DeBree Award is named in honor of the retired Wyoming extension administrator and given to those who demonstrate a high level of professionalism, performance and leadership within their program areas and communities.
4-HSARECUWUW Extension
A Touch of Brass to perform at Northeast Community College
Public invited to meet new Northeast Community College president at West Point event


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Comprehensive Analysis of Food, Forensic and Environmental Samples
Imagery provided by SCIEX © 2017
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Complete the form below and we will email you a PDF version of "Comprehensive Analysis of Food, Forensic and Environmental Samples"
SCIEX has launched its SWATH® data-independent acquisition (DIA) technology for analytical scientists working across all application areas.
SWATH Acquisition is ground-breaking in allowing the simultaneous and comprehensive identification and quantification of virtually every detectable compound in a sample, from a single analysis (MS/MSALL). SWATH Acquisition has unique capabilities for quantitative accuracy, offering exceptionally high reproducibility across multiple samples with wide dynamic range. Importantly, the technology enables the creation of a permanent digital record of quantitative MS/MS data for the entire sample. Following the successful implementation of SWATH for proteomics research, this technology is widely used today in the industrialisation of proteomics research and can now bring significant advantages for analytical scientists in other fields, including forensics, food testing, environmental analysis, and biologics.
The transition from traditional proteomics workflows to the SCIEX patented SWATH® Acquisition has transformed proteomics experiments, allowing all data to be robustly captured across very large sample cohorts to enable industrialised proteomics and precision medicine approaches. The ability of the SCIEX TripleTOF® system technology to acquire high resolution MS/MS spectra at high acquisition rates has made it the only mass spectrometer on which SWATH Acquisition can be routinely performed. Now with the new X500 series mass spectrometers, with the similar acquisition rates, on a routine use system SWATH Acquisition is now poised to revolutionize other fields.
For example, food-testing laboratories survey ingredients and food products for quality and safety. Pesticide residues in certain foods such as baby food are required to be as low as under 10 µg/kg, and foods such as fruits or vegetables often exhibit a high number of active components and can be difficult to analyse. When using traditional LC-MS/MS approaches to analyse complex matrices such as foods, there is a risk of missing the identification of an important low level residue. SWATH Acquisition eradicates this issue, allowing scientists to completely survey samples for every detectable chemical contaminant present while also ensuring rapid, reliable detection of low abundance compounds that are usually masked by dominant compounds in a sample.
Laboratories investigating water quality carry out rigorous treatment and testing procedures to identify a variety of chemical hazards. The difficulty with water analysis is that substances can be present at exceptionally low concentrations, in the range of low nanograms per litre, and a single sample may contain hundreds of contaminants. SWATH technology collects ultra-high quality MS and MS/MS on all detectable peaks to provide rapid and reliable identification and quantification of compounds in samples.
Characterisation and quantification of host cell proteins is an important stage in the development of biotherapeutics. Even with rigorous purification processes, small amounts of host cell proteins may be present in the final product. Traditional analysis methods including ELISA are not comprehensive enough to detect previously unknown HCP contaminants, and standard information dependent LC-MS strategies are not sensitive enough to detect low-level peptides in a reproducible manner. The unbiased SWATH Acquisition approach in contrast enables the detection of peptides down to very low levels in the sample, allowing researchers to generate reproducible data that is crucial for drug development studies.
Forensic testing involves routine screening and quantification of drugs and medications in numerous biological matrices, such as blood. This testing requires robust hardware, reproducible results and highly sensitive analysis. SWATH technology collects comprehensive MS data and MS/MS data from a single sample injection, which results in a digital archive of the forensic sample. This allows re-interrogation of the sample without physical re-analysis, removing the need for expensive and inconvenient sample storage, and saving time. This unbiased solution also provides high quality results that will stand up in court.
"The most important aspect of the X500R QTOF System is the ability to work with SWATH Acquisition, especially when analysing food samples with complex matrices," said Dr. Amadeo R Fernández-Alba, Head of the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for Fruits and Vegetables, and Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Almeria. "It also enables fast quantification, making it ideally suited to high-throughput applications, without compromising on sensitivity."
"As environmental chemists, we are always trying to find new compounds of concern, whether in drinking water, stormwater, or biota," said Christopher Higgins, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines. "SWATH looks to provide us an opportunity to collect and archive data, thereby allowing us to re-examine old data without reacquisition. This is an important advantage in environmental monitoring where samples are often limited."
"The beauty of SWATH is that it collects data for everything," said Dr. Thomas Kofoed, Chief Executive Officer, Alphalyse. "It allows us to identify and quantify each host cell protein reliably in drug batches, and provide a service that customers can trust."
"SWATH is our preferred method for broad-based drug screening when using SCIEX QTOF systems, because SWATH enables the generation of accurate library MS/MS spectral matching results reducing the possibility of false negative identifications," said Dr. Barry Logan, Executive Director, The Center for Forensic Science Research Education. "Essentially, SWATH provides reliable results for analytes that are toxicologically relevant to forensic investigations because of the complete MS/MS coverage that it provides."


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Gnu atheism, women's rights, internationalism, universalism, and gossip
Ophelia Benson is a columnist for Free Inquiry and The Freethinker, and the co-author of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense, Why Truth Matters, and Does God Hate Women.
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Target – see what they did there?
I hate most kinds of shopping, and most kinds of shops. Confined spaces, lots of strangers everywhere, no trees or birds or large bodies of water – what's to like about them? But I can tolerate them for the time it takes me to find the milk or socks or shampoo I need to get, usually. Unless there is Christmas music playing – then I really can't tolerate them, and postpone non-essential shopping until after the season is over.
But there are some extras I can think of that would make a shop even more hellish. A bunch of polar bears roaming around hungrily? A raging fire? A broken sewer pipe?
Shoppers roaming around with shotguns slung over their backs?
More images have surfaced of gun rights activists carrying weapons inside Target stores in Texas. On May 31, several women went shopping at a Target in Corpus Christi, toting not just kids but also shotguns and semi-automatic rifles.
"We just kind of feel like our rights are being infringed upon, which is against the constitution," the organizer, Sarah Head, told a local TV station two days before the demonstration.
For several months members of the group Open Carry Texas—mostly men, some of whom have used disturbing intimidation tactics against women—have shown up armed at Target stores to demonstrate their right to carry rifles openly in public and to call for the right to do so with handguns (which is not legal in Texas.) They've hung out in the Target parking lot. They've carried their weapons in Target's toy aisles and declared that the company is "very 2A friendly." In at least one case, as I reported recently, Target has known in advance that they were coming.
That. If I went into a Target and saw people roaming around with shotguns I would be out of there in a heartbeat.
This country is a basket case.
Notes and Comment Blog
Onamission5 says
She's carrying her gun upside down. If it rains, the inside of the barrel will get all wet, and if it accidentally discharges, it's much more dangerous angled toward the head of people alongside her than if it's fired at the ground.
Plus if she feels the need to swing it around for "self-protection" she's going to end up pointing the barrel behind her and, providing she can grip the trigger at all, shooting the next customer in line.
The message I get from this photo is "We think guns are toys and we have no goddamned idea what we are doing FREEDOM!"
Al Dente says
What does carrying a shotgun or rifle in a store prove? "Hey, look at me, I'm Billy or Betty Badass and I can afford to pay a couple of hundred bucks to buy a cheap shotgun."
michaelbusch says
Second Amendment to US Constitution:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed
Even if we were to accept that the amendment is a good idea as written (I personally don't), what part of "walking around waving shotguns and rifles in defiance of basic gun safety rules" can possibly be considered "a well-regulated militia" ?
Giliell, professional cynic -Ilk- says
I'm really glad I live on a different continent.
Those people would scare the living shit out of me.
sc_770d159609e0f8deaa72849e3731a29d says
members of the group Open Carry Texas—mostly men, some of whom have used disturbing intimidation tactics against women—have shown up armed at Target stores to demonstrate their right to carry rifles openly in
Why Target stores? Because the name sounds appropriate or are there other reasons?
Presumably if people have the right to carry guns in public, shops have the right to demand that they deposit them at the entrance while they are in the shop.
Martin Cohen says
Maybe Target can't stop them from carrying the guns, but they can refuse to sell to them: "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."
Chris J says
I wonder if the guns that Open Carry Texas are toting around are loaded or not. I know technically you should handle every gun as if it were loaded, but I wonder if they purposefully load them or not. If they do, that's frikken absurd that they expect to be able to openly carry around loaded weapons. If not, what do they expect to be able to do with an empty gun for self-defense?
A stranger on the street once got angry at me over something trivial and asked me "do you want to get shot" and pantomimed reaching into his belt for a gun. I don't know if he actually had one or not, but it was scary as fuck. Now I'm trying to imagine a world where that person had a legal right to carry around a gun. Maybe he'd get in trouble for pulling it on someone, but that wouldn't mean much to me.
They honestly don't care about anyone around them.
funknjunk says
Yup, i don't get it. These people live in a fantasy world, but even in that world, the tropes and myths they seem to want to live out are not congruent with their actions. They seem to want a Wild West kind of environment … but you know, in all the stories about Wyatt Earp and sich, THESE people would be the bad guys. They are refusing to disarm, so we can have a safe society. They're refusing to leave their weapons at the town limits …. Tangentially, this kind of reminds me of Bill Maher's point in one of his rants, talking about Republicans and bullies and being "Real Men" (like they all want to be). In our media culture, the "Real Men" are portrayed as standing up to the bullies, protecting 'the people' from bullies; doing what's right. Not the other way around. They can't even get the mythology right ….
Jeremy Shaffer says
sc at 5-
Based on what some people in my neck of the woods say, it's possible that Target has a correlation with liberals and liberalism, as opposed to Wal-Mart, which is where True Americans shop. That could just be something limited to people I know in regards to Target but that is why some of these Open Carry people have tried to do the same at places like Starbucks.
Bernard Bumner says
We all know that guns are just tools – this exactly like going shopping with a pair of mole grips in your back pocket….
That picture makes Texas look like a place I never want to visit. It looks dangerous.
Menyambal says
The Second Amendment has nothing to do with that picture up there.
At the time when a well-practiced musket formation was the best defensive force, the citizen army needed regular access to the state-issued arms, for practice. This was opposed to keeping the arms in an armory, which would reduce practice and would also slow deployment, and was also opposed to a standing army of paid mercenaries.
The US now has a standing army of paid soldiers, strictly forbidden by the constitution, and as ever, supplies the arms to the defenders of the state.
AJ Milne says
Ummm… Did people happen to follow that link to the intimidation tactics story?
http://motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/guns-bullying-open-carry-women-moms-texas
… just the kinda level-headed types we're so delighted are armed, I just can't tell you.
karmacat says
Of course, the ones who are at the most risk of getting shot are their own kids. I was in Houston recently but fortunately see any of this but Houston tends to be somewhat civilized
I'd almost like to see it in person once (and only once) out of morbid curiosity and my fascination with the weird.
Seriously though, if it hasn't happened already, this thing is going to get people killed. It would be ironic if the open carry movement clashed with the typical red state dogma that anyone who isn't a convicted felon should be able to carry a concealed weapon with a tiny bit of training and a small licencing fee. Combine this with the popular open ended definition of killing in self defense(if they make you nervous shoot `em).
Say some moron is happily strutting down the sidewalk with an assault rifle strapped across his chest. He carelessly bumps into a person who happens to be carrying a concealed pistol in an easy to reach place.
That person is startled to see some thuggish looking guy with a massive gun looming over them, and so draws and shoots. Who would the gun loving community side with? To me it would be an understandable mistake. No one grew up in an America where walking around with military hardware was normal. The pistol packet might have been genuinely worried about Rambo`s intentions.
Many of them carry the rifle strapped into a position similar to the way a soldier not in combat but in a potentially dangerous place would carry it. In other words very ready for action.; one step away from being ready to grab and fire. This looks very threatening and someone suddenly confronted with this sight might panic.
Also, what about a group of these activists going into a business where the proprietor doesn't want them? They start talking about their rights and he/she pulls a gun and says get the hell out now.
It's not that I want these tragedies to happen, but it would be a predictable result of the all fun and games attitude many have toward deadly weapons. I would also guess that the concealed carrier or the shopkeeper might be at least slightly more serious people more likely to actually know how to use a gun.
Again, who does the NRA or whoever side with?
Brony says
One short tempered idiot, or too many people who don't want to be around folks who are armed. Target or any business would have to do something. And then where would the paranoia go if it's not just the government?
RJW says
If she were ever confronted by an armed assailant that woman would be dead before she managed to unsling the shotgun, flick the safety off, aim and fire.
Fortunately her child doesn't appear to be armed.
@7 Chris J,
Suppose he'd tried that with someone who was armed.
latsot says
In the UK we have this strange idea that nobody should be carrying weapons around unless they have a good and highly specific reason. Hardly any reasons are defined as good. Self defence, for example, is absolutely NOT a good reason to carry a weapon.
I know, I know, it's CRAZY. How are we supposed to overthrow a corrupt government if we're not allowed to walk around in public packing a blunderbuss and a bandoleer of throwing knives?
The Open Carry folks and the Stand Your Ground folks had better never meet.
Seriously, somebody could shoot a person like in the top pic, right there in the store, and claim that they had felt threatened. And given that those folks have been going around threatening people, the reasoning would be sound.
If you are going to pack a shotgun while pushing a shopping cart, the gun should be laid across the handlebars/child seat top to allow for quick access. (Maybe I should sell Shoppers Scabbards ™ that strap to the cart for upright convenience. )
carlie says
A Marine Corps weapons instructor explains why it is a terrible idea for people to own guns for 'self defense'.
Sound advice from someone people ought to want to hear from on the subject, and yet, the comments are rife with such illuminating statements as "nuh-uh!" and "hyperbole!"
I hope they can resist the temptation to stand in the parking lot and have a shooting contest with the store's huge, conveniently target-shaped sign. Bull's eye! Yeeeehaaw!! You owe me a beer.
Ammosexuals - Lawyers, Guns & Money : Lawyers, Guns & Money says:
[…] liberals. This is why they're having their little fetish parades at places like Chipotle and Target. It's not enough for them to own guns now; they want everyone who is not an open-carry […]
Target – see what they did there? » Butterflies and Wheels | Texas Gun Rights says:
[…] More: Target – see what they did there? » Butterflies and Wheels […]


Define shared decision making and how a health care provider and a patient work together for the best outcome.
Understand how to engage patients in their health care decision making and hot to use patient-centered outcome research (PCOR) information tools and resources to help patients understand their treatment options and to explore their own values and preferences.
Explain the SHARE approach, a five-step process for shared decision making that includes exploring and comparing the benefits, harms, and risks of each option through meaningful dialog about what matters most to the patient.


text:
Jewish World Review July 29, 2013/ 22 Menachem-Av, 5773
The Wages of a Phony Recovery
By Mort Zuckerman
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The Great Recession, as it is now commonly called, is the longest and worst recession since the end of WWII. It is also marked by the weakest recovery from any recession that we have had in that same period. In June, the government's Household Survey reported that since the start of the year, the number of people with jobs increased by 753,000 - but there are "jobs" and then there are jobs. No fewer than 557,000 of these jobs were only part-time. The Survey also reported that in the month of June, full-time jobs declined by 240,000, while part-time jobs soared by 360,000 and have now reached an all-time high of 28,059,000, three million more than when the recession began at the end of 2007. By contrast, the number of people working full-time actually fell. That's just for starters. The Survey includes involuntary part-time workers, as well as those who want to work but have stopped looking, and that puts the real unemployment rate for June at 14.3 percent, up surprisingly from 13.8 percent in May.
At this stage of an expansion you would expect the number of part-time jobs to be declining, as companies would be doing more full-time hiring. Not this time. So in this "Long Misery" of a recession, we have the extraordinary situation of millions of enforced part-timers by necessity taking these jobs because they are the only employment opportunities available to them, as businesses increase their reliance on independent contractors and part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees. Even government payrolls have been shrinking, not only in state and local lay-offs but more recently at the federal level. In June of last year, 58,000 federals workers were part-timers. This year it's 148,000, and we still don't know how the sequester will play out, for many agencies have resorted to furloughs rather than layoffs.
This is also reflected in the latest unemployment report where the biggest gains came from leisure and hospitality industries, extending from hotels to fast-food restaurants. Of the 195,000 new payroll jobs, 75,000 were in restaurants and bars, where the average weekly paycheck is about $351, less than half the figure for all other private industries. Not to mention that they have fewer shift hours especially in the restaurant world, which has averaged 26.1 hours per week versus 34.5 hours for all private employers.
What's going on? The fundamentals surely reflect the feebleness of the macro-economic recovery that began roughly four years ago, reflected in an average GDP growth rate annualized over the last 15 quarters at a miserable two percent. That's the weakest GDP growth since WWII. Over a similar period in previous recessions it averaged 4.1 percent. During the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, the GDP growth rate dropped below two percent, so we are not going to see an early ending to our misery. Bear in mind that this anemic growth is all we have to show for the greatest fiscal and monetary stimuli in 75 years, with fiscal deficits of over 10 percent of GDP for four consecutive years.
The truth is we do not have any clear idea how to improve our economies without the lubricant of serious growth in GDP, and the rate of GDP growth has been decelerating at the very moment we need it to be accelerating. According to the Brookings Institution, at the growth rate of roughly 195,000 jobs a month, it will take nine more years to return to the pre-recession level of employment, for we are 10 million jobs short of returning to normal levels of unemployment and labor force participation.
The most troublesome development is the decline of manufacturing. In 1978, we had 17.8 million manufacturing jobs. They represented 25 percent of all 71 million U.S. jobs. In 2012, we have a mere 11.9 million manufacturing jobs representing only nine percent of the 133.7 million total jobs, a decline that reflects automation and imports especially of labor-intensive products. Today's 97,000 steel workers produced nearly 10 percent more steel than 399,000 steelworkers did in 1980. In the clothing industry, output has dropped more than 80 percent since 1980 with the number of jobs falling from 1.3 million to 150,000.
You wouldn't know this from the standard unemployment headlines, but we are looking at an estimated 22 million Americans who are unemployed or under-employed, who are virtually invisible and mostly excluded from the calculation of the standard unemployment rate of 7.6 percent.
Obamacare is partially to blame. It requires employers with more than 50 workers to provide health insurance or pay a $2,000 penalty per worker. Under the law, a full-time job is defined as 30 hours a week, so businesses, especially smaller ones, have an incentive to bring on more part-time workers. Little wonder that the Obama administration announced it is postponing the employer mandate until 2015, undoubtedly to see if this will encourage more full-time hiring. But thousands of small businesses have been capping employment at 30 hours for they know their reprieve is only for one more year.
This weak recovery has been devastating to low and moderate income Americans, especially the young, the less educated, and minorities. Younger workers between the ages of 16-19 are enduring an unemployment rate is 24 percent. For African-Americans it is 13.7 percent and for Latinos it is 9.1 percent, compared to the overall average unemployment rate of 7.6 percent. And the national poverty rate now stands at 15 percent.
It gets worse. We are not regaining the kinds of jobs that we had before the recession. For example, as Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin pointed out recently, two-thirds of all jobs lost were in moderate wage occupations such as manufacturing, but less than one-quarter of the subsequent job gains are in these occupations. She goes on further to note that recent jobs gains have been in mostly lower-wage occupations such as retail sales and food services which accounted for about one-fifth of the job losses but a bit more than one-half of subsequent job gains.
Another critical issue is chronic long-term unemployment with 36.7 percent of the ranks of the unemployed without work for at least six months, raising the question of whether or not they will have a chance at being called back. Many may be seen as permanently unemployable as their skills deteriorate, leading to the possibility of a structural unemployment problem such as Europe experienced in the 1980s. Nor are we getting back many of the jobs that were lost. The number of hires during April and May is the same as it was in January 2009, when job losses were at their highest of the recession. In fact in the 45 months since the recession ended, 113,000 fewer jobs a month have been created compared to a normal recovery according to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee. If we created as many jobs as typical in a normal expansion, roughly four million more Americans would be collecting a paycheck.
Today we have close to seven million multiple job-holders, which means a good portion of the new jobs created were in effect second or third jobs going to people who were already employed elsewhere. Then there is the stunning feature of the current civilian workforce participation rate, which at 63.5 has dropped by a shocking 2.2 percentage points since the recession ended, an event that never has happened during previous recessions. Another statistic that underscores why this is such a dysfunctional labor market, is that the number of people leaving the workforce during this economic recovery has actually outpaced the number of people finding a new job by a factor of nearly three, as pointed out recently by David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff.
What we clearly need is a policy that will nourish the revamping of our capital stock where investment has plunged to the lowest levels in decades. We must also target policies to nourish our high-tech industries, which will in turn inspire manufacturing these products at home and thus help create new jobs. This means we will have to prepare a skilled workforce for manufacturing and to be willing to increase the number of visas to foreign graduate students in the hard sciences who are now forced to leave America and who then work for our competitors in other countries. Similarly, we must improve the processing through our patent office, the channel for innovation, but which has been a long-time impediment to speedy process. Finally we should engage in a major infrastructure program to improve our airports as we once did for our railroads and highways, such as new technologies that would greatly accelerate airport landing and take-off.
It is imperative that we focus on innovative and creative policies, otherwise the five-year crisis in employment will continue even when the economy seems to be recovering. Without such a focus, millions of American families whose breadwinners are unemployed or underemployed will remain frightened and pessimistic, especially the young who are entering the workforce. Helping tomorrow's workforce must be another top economic priority. We need a recovery that is real and not phony.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Mort Zuckerman is editor-in-chief and publisher of U.S. News and World Report.
© 2009, Mortimer Zuckerman


text:
Philippine leader Duterte's preferred successor quits presidential race
Philippine Senator Christopher "Bong" Go runs for vice president
Karen Lema
November 29, 2021, 10:40 PM ·2 min read
Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines
By Karen Lema
MANILA (Reuters) -Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte's preferred successor, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, announced on Tuesday he was dropping out of the presidential race, leaving the administration without a candidate in next year's polls.
Go, Duterte's long-time aide, had recently hinted he may pull out of the presidential contest and said the president respected his decision.
His withdrawal raises questions over who the popular Duterte will now support in the May 2022 election. The 76-year old leader is not eligible to seek re-election, but will be standing for a senator's seat.
"I and President Duterte are ready to support whoever will truly serve and can continue and protect Duterte's legacy towards a more comfortable and safe and prosperous life for our children," Go said in a speech streamed on Facebook.
Analysts have said Duterte wants to ensure an ally succeeds him so he can be insulated from potential legal action at home or by the International Criminal Court, which has launched a probe into the https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/international-court-approves-investigation-into-philippines-war-drugs-2021-09-15 thousands of killings in his "war on drugs".
Duterte's daughter, Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, is running for the largely ceremonial deputy post https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/duterte-daughter-joins-marcos-running-mate-philippines-presidential-election-2021-11-16 alongside the son of late Philippine dictator and namesake, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has emerged as an early frontrunner https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/after-dust-settles-son-of-late-philippine-dictator-emerges-as-presidential-frontrunner/ar-AAQLbkM.
Political observers say Go's withdrawal from the race would likely benefit the Marcos/Duterte-Carpio ticket as it would consolidate the Dutertes' voter base behind the 43-year-old mayor and that support could extend to Marcos.
"There is no more confusion in terms of administration support," said Aries Arugay, visiting fellow at the ISEAS Yusof-Ishak Institute and political science professor at the University of the Philippines.
Marcos is up against other presidential aspirants, including former boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, vice president Leni Robredo, Manila mayor Francisco Domagoso, and senator Panfilo Lacson. He is facing several disqualification cases https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippines-group-seeks-bar-marcos-jr-election-tax-evasion-2021-11-17 grounded on a nearly three-decade old conviction for tax evasion.
(Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Ed Davies and Lincoln Feast)
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text:
Pasuwa pleads for proper Preperations
9:29 am 27/10/2015
Warriors head coach has pleaded with the Soccer Motherbody, ZIFA to avail proper and good environment for training ahead of CHAN 2016 finals to be held in Rwanda early next year.
Zimbabwe made it through to the finals amid chaotic scenes marred with player boycott and strikes.
In the last match scheduled for Lesotho, which secured qualification, Business man Philip Chiyangwa chipped in last minute with $10000 for allowances while the Ministry of Sport acquired air tickets.
In an interview with the Chronicle, Pasuwa pleaded with ZIFA to organise preparation whilst there is still time to avert last minute preparations.
"Let me say this to the authorities, we need to be in camp in time. We need to prepare well in order to get good results. We're going to meet stronger opponents, most of whom are far better than Lesotho," said Pasuwa.
"So we need as much as we can in terms of preparations. We shouldn't get used to these bad habits of training just three days when we could have more time. It's not healthy and I tell you one day we'll be hammered for five if we continue on such a path.
"This is not only about Chan. In fact we would want to see Zimbabwe playing at bigger tournaments like the Afcon and even the World Cup.
"We want to square off with some of the world's big names as Germany to test our talents. I believe we've the talent but we lack the support to qualify for those bigger events,"
Pasuwa and his technical committee together with officials from Zifa and the Sports and Recreation Commission have been invited for a meeting to chart the way forward with Sport and Recreation Minister, Makhosini Hlongwane, this week.
The Ministry was not amused by the events in the run-up to the Warriors' trip to Maseru as it appears the same problems keep recurring whenever the national team is preparing for an assignment.
Previous: Pasuwa: CHAN qualification will open doors
Next: Players boost for Highlanders and Chicken Inn


I see, like others, the effect the mens coalition is making on our country at the moment. Even Good Morning NZ has shown a part of the media's coverage. But the time Good Morning has spent is about a book and once again it is stated that most parents sort it out without having problems or going to court.
What people are not talking about is part of the core problem and is what our society needs to recognise. It is POWER and POWERLESSNESS.
Considering most of these parents that do not go to court but are part of the statistics that work it out amicably, one would find that parent (a) blackmails parent (b) who basically will almost do anything to see their children. In one moment parent (b) can lose shared parenting or even access.
Now, I am aware that I am going out on a limb, but think it about. It makes common sense to see things this way. In most couples in working relationships, you will see one parent has more power than the other in alot of situations. But in these relationships parents are supposed to negotiate their different thoughts and feelings. Yet they still argue, they still clash now and then. Or one parent accepts the others ways and rarely you will see them make a stand. Either way there is power.
In most broken relationships I see one parent less powerful than the other. The children still become the pawns in the middle. And this is in all walks of life.
For me, I can remember that if CYFS asked me to jump, I would ask, "How high?" And they were the only party I would do that with because the had my children.
But by doing this I empowered CYFS even more. And this is what I see happening to seperated parents with children. I don't think in most cases the parents even see this as I do. But it exists. How many stories do we hear of one parent being powerless to the other parent's actions. And then we hear the stories where parent (b) won't give power to parent (a) and then the power struggle begins and the lawyers start to proceed by finding statutes that can give power to their client and take power from the other parent. Both parents have their strengths and weaknesses on show for a judge to decide their's and their children's future.
This is where, I feel we have to draw the line. To enable one parent to have power over another is just asking for trouble for the children. The power will come back and bite the parent who holds it. And this consequence will affect the children.
The parent that is powerless becomes a mess inside and on the outside their life reflects what is going on inside. This also affects the children. If it is the best interest of the children, we should be considering, then it is in their interst to have both parents with equal power. And the equal power has to be given from the government. It has to be the law of the land.
It is absolutely wrong for a parent to be blackmailed by another parent. One parent should not have power over another. That is manipulation in the worst form.
Presumptive **HandsOnEqualParent** from conception breaks the power broking and gives Kids "Equal" doses of their Biological-Mum, DAD and Grands.
With good Law, Social Policy and councelling, ONLY able to step in where there were obvious descrepencies yet are still legally bound to apply **HandsOnEqualParenting** from Conception without Due process to cause anything else etc.
If most parents work out custody amicably then why do we have so many parents paying and receiving child support through Inland Revenue.
The figures do not match.
Hi Julie, sometimes I think your posts are a bit out in left field but with this ome you have hit the nail on the head.
It is exactly about power and powerlessness, and about how harmful it is for children to see one of their parents, sponsored by state laws and institutions, gain way too much power at the expense of the other.
For the same reason it was not so good in the old days either when dads often had way more power than mums.
State institutions and laws need to support equal power between parents.
Powerless to love & nurture our own children because of prejudice and corruption shown by a bias court that is committed to ignoring wrongful behaviour from a powerful female custodial parent. This makes it hard for non-custodial parents to see it as a court of justice – as they witness the children suffer from the vile PAS .This is when the vulnerable – delicate children are brainwashed by the custodial parent as happened in my case when a maternal family & a underhanded judicial gravy train tried to totally poison my girls against me.
Julie you are on to it.
I would like to add that once a power differential becomes obvious, the weaker parent is forced to make life changing decisions; should I walk away and hope that my children come looking for me later, in which case he will join the statistics as an "absent" parent, or should I risk all that I worked for in making a life my children, and fight for reasonable contact with them, even if it is fortnightly babysitting?
The quantity of contact between the weaker parent and his/her children is directly related to the depth of that parents pockets, and the strength of that parent to fight on against all odds. This should be seen by any judge as the manifestation of that parent's love for his/her child, but is instead seen as a character flaw, as in my case, the judge described me as "obsessed" with my only child.
Perfectly put Julie. I can relate to the point about when asked to jump you said to cyfs 'how high'. I followed such a path with my daughter's mother early on in the piece thinking (mistakenly of course) that if I started to do what she asked surely I'd get to see my daughter a bit more. It seems obvious now with the hindsight, yet at the time thought it was the only course I could follow.
Wayne, that judge is worse than shameful in his lack if understanding of normal, healthy attachment between a parent and child.
His ignorance and lack of compassion are exactly why major decisions affecting families should not be left to people with legal skills, they should be given instead to people with first rate people skills.
The strange thing is that after jumping for 9 years, I stopped and gave up to feeling I was wasting my life. I mean it started in my 20's and they should have been great years for me.
When I left the town, CYFS started chasing me. I then got to call some shots. I refused to jump anymore.
So, I got my kids back. I guess they had no power over me anymore.
I see others doing the same and winning but it is not something I could ever advice other people to do because it is such an important situation. And it doesn't always work.


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