Are you worried that a new baby will derail your vacation plans? Well, we're here to tell you that you can be both a new mom and a traveler. With pre-planning, thoughtful packing and a heck of a lot of patience, you've got all you need to adventure with your littlest one.
Certainly, venturing beyond the comforts of home with your baby can be daunting. There are days when a quick trip to the grocery store will feel impossible. You'll wonder if you should you bring the whole diaper bag or just a bottle; you'll worry that baby will cry the entire time. So we bet you're wondering how could you possibly prepare for a trip away from home that lasts several days?
Here are 7 essential tips for traveling (by plane, train or car) with a baby.
Does the airline have restrictions about traveling with an infant?
Does baby need any ID?
Is there a doctor available at your destination?
Should you travel with infant medications?
Does the hotel have cribs?
What's the weather forecast? Does it get colder at night?
Will you be close to a grocery store or pharmacy?
Your instincts may tell you to pack everything in the world you may need on your trip, but don't do it! Instead, aim to travel lightly, bringing only the essentials with you. Many moms choose to use a backpack as their personal carryon bag so they can have their hands free to deal with a baby and her needs.
Overall, the fewer pieces of luggage you have to worry about, the better.
While there are some things you want to have at your fingertips while you travel, you can make life easier by shipping some supplies to your destination ahead of time. For example, you know you'll go through dozens of diapers, so instead of carrying them all with you from day one, order online and ship a supply directly to your hotel or Air BnB (most online suppliers ship for free).
A smart move would be to ship a duplicate blanket or stuffed animal (or whatever it is your baby doesn't like to be without) to your destination just in case the original gets lost in transit. Your little one and your travel companions will be so grateful for your forward thinking!
If it's possible, plan your travel around baby's sleeping schedule. The very best scenario would be for your little one to fall sound sleep during the plane, train or car ride. When the baby's asleep, you'll be able to relax and anticipate the adventure ahead. What's more, when the baby wakes, she'll be alert and ready to take in all of the new sights!
Depending on your destination, there may be babysitting services available. If there are professionals available to take care of the baby, go ahead and plan an adult-only night out (be sure to pack your dancing shoes!). Hotels often have daycare centers as well, so you can have an afternoon to yourself while baby is safe and happy playing with other little travelers.
If you're visiting friends or relatives, ask ahead if they could hook you up with a reliable sitter. Same goes for staying at an Air BnB – your host may have a list of recommended sitters to choose from.
No one is going to have a joyful vacation if they aren't getting enough sleep. With this in mind, check (and double check) that you've packed baby's favorite sleeping blanket, toy or whatever it is that helps her fall asleep every night. Having something that's associated with home will definitely provide comfort in unfamiliar territory.
Music has been proven to help baby self-soothe and also promote sweet dreams. If you're traveling by car, load up your iPhone with music that's familiar to the baby and let it be your soundtrack! Also, if you're staying in a hotel or Air BnB, you can use the playlist at bedtime or when she goes down for a nap.
If baby is used to falling asleep with a musical mobile or another type of sleep soother that's small enough to pack, be sure to bring it along!
You'll feel more confident if you have basic medical supplies on hand at all times. Pack a first aid kit that you can stash in the diaper bag and have with you wherever you go. You don't need to go overboard and take along every medicine imaginable, but you do want to have the basics covered. Most of all, if baby requires specific medications, triple check that you have them handy (plus refills if necessary).
If you're traveling by car, you can bring along a more comprehensive first aid kit that will handle a wider range of medical emergencies.
You don't have to be a supermom to take a trip with your infant. In fact, we're positive you can plan a family trip that will be relaxing and rewarding for everyone. The key is to take time to plan and then pack with care.
When you travel with a baby, know in advance that you're in for a unique experience. Certainly, there's no way to anticipate every tricky situation or uncomfortable moment. So, on every day of your trip, remind yourself that you've got it covered.
Don't forget to check out our homepage for more on Motherhood & Marriage!
Samara Kamenecka is a VA specialized in SEO and writing, based in Madrid. When she's not chained to her desk working, she likes to explore the city with her boyfriend, their two kids, and their dog. She blogs about everything from pregnancy gear to baby-led weaning over at http://www.tinyfry.com.


This letter can be sent by an accountant to a client when representation is no longer possible.
This letter is to inform you that I can no longer serve as your accountant. I am (retiring/cutting back on clients/in legal trouble/no longer willing to serve you).
If it's more convenient for you, I'd be happy to pass your file along to my colleague (name), who is a licensed (CPA/Enrolled Agent).
I also wanted to remind you that you'll need to attend to (quarterly taxes/IRS issue).
Thank you for the opportunity to be your accountant. I apologize for any inconvenience.


text:
Tome On The Range
Storm Bringer: An Interview With James Ellroy
Angus Batey , June 9th, 2019 10:14
With his latest novel, This Storm, just published by Heinemann, James Ellroy - author of La Confidential, The Black Dahlia and The Cold Six Thousand – speaks to Angus Batey about why he loves cops and why he's done with Hollywood
Photo (c) Marion Ettlinger
At 71, and halfway through his biggest and baddest set of stories yet, James Ellroy's powers aren't just undimmed, they're growing. The shaved head and wire-framed glasses may be as much a trademark as the clipped, all-fat-ripped-off prose style, and the persona projected in public appearances and other kinds of performance – interviews most definitely among those – may remain that of the supremely self-confident "demon dog" of American letters: but, just like the characters in his massive books, there's ever more to Ellroy than a collection of familiar tropes.
The Quietus meets him in a central London restaurant, all but deserted at 9am, with a waiter ill at ease when informing the gravel-throated writer that his chosen poison – prawn cocktail – doesn't form part of the breakfast menu. Ellroy opts to have nothing at all, save a glass of hot water with a slice of lemon. It feels apt: the economy of the writing shadowed by the combination of convention-defying appetite thwarted, only to be replaced by ascetic denial.
Or maybe that's just this reader, extrapolating far more from an inconsequential vignette than is actually there – an occupational hazard when reading Ellroy's vast, complicated and evocative novels. His method is almost as maniacal as one or two of his more Machiavellian characters: the books take several years to construct, as a small team of researchers go out and hunt down details to keep the timelines accurate, then Ellroy constructs a separate other book – a framework against which he can align those tightly constructed sentences.
Often thought of as a crime writer, he's actually (and additionally) a master of historical fiction, his hunting grounds being mid-20th century USA, often – though by no means always – his native Los Angeles. His extensive casts of characters – a 92-person, six-page dramatis pesonnae appears at the end of his latest – liberally sprinkle mischievous, sometimes outright malicious, caricatures of famous real-life people into the mix of invented individuals.
His lauded LA Quartet series of novels began in 1987 with The Black Dahlia, the first book in which Ellroy explicitly set out to confront the true-crime story that dominated his life from the age of 10: the still unsolved murder of his mother. Book three in the Quartet – LA Confidential – made his name twice over. Initially rejected by his publisher for being too long, Ellroy knew that none of its labyrinthine sub-plots could be cut without destroying the integrity of the whole: so he went through the manuscript line by line, excising phrases, clauses, individual words. The resulting style became his literary calling card, all excess confined henceforth to the actions depicted rather than the words used to describe them. The book became a hit, and the film adaptation made its author a star.
This Storm, just published, is part two of an in-progress Second LA Quartet, situated earlier in the century and featuring many of the same characters Ellroy wrote about in the 1980s and 1990s. Readers who first came across the corrupt cop Dudley Smith in the 1951-set Clandestine (written in 1980 and published in 1982), and followed the character backwards in time to 1942 in book two of the first Quartet, The Big Nowhere, then through the '50s in LA Confidential and beyond in White Jazz, know how his story ends: but in This Storm and its predecessor, 2014's Perfidia, we're essentially presented with what, in superhero parlance, would be Smith's "origin myth".
Long-term readers are also reunited with familiar faces in their earlier years, including LAPD sergeant Turner "Buzz" Meeks, officer Lee Blanchard, and his enigmatic paramour, Kay Lake, whose diary entries appear in both books and signal yet another change of style for Ellroy. There are walk-on parts, where appropriate, for folks we met in the '60s-set Underworld USA Trilogy – American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand and Blood's A Rover – and characters new to the Second LA Quartet, such as the brilliant Japanese forensic scientist Hideo Ashida, and Elmer Jackson, a real-life LA cop.
The setting is Los Angeles early in World War Two, a city flying off its hinges post-Pearl Harbor, with Japanese citizens rounded up and interred in prison camps, panic and paranoia set permanently on a hair trigger, and where opportunities for vice, graft and criminal personal advancement are at an all-time high. In This Storm this already rich backdrop is enlarged further – a body long buried in a city park is washed up in a flood, while a cold-case gold robbery and a triple homicide at a club frequented by clashing clans of political extremists all look like they could be connected.
By taking characters he's been living with for decades and throwing them into an unprecedentedly turbulent time, Ellroy has given himself maximum opportunity to weave webs and pull strings. And while there is always a temptation, with this writer of murder and mayhem more than most, to try to dig for clues to the art in the life, Ellroy is a writer of such poise and panache that the books have to be front and centre in any conversation with him.
"Writing is a wholesome process for me," he says. "It's always enlightening, ennobling, and brings me closer to human beings, and makes me more tolerant, and brings me closer to God. I love it. I love it more than anything."
How does it work, then? What's your set-up?
Ellroy: I love being alone, with absolutely no noise. I have a nice desk. I have a landline telephone. I write by hand. And I love putting words on paper. I love thinking. I love pondering.
When I'm putting a book together, which is what I'm doing right now back in the states at home, it's like there's a big screen – movies from the early 1960s, when they made movies in Panavision and black and white. And I'm moving the criminal stories, the political stories, the love stories, the police corruption stories through my mind, fitting the elements together in the weeks and months.
I can't tell you how much time I spend just thinking: "Okay. Okay. What's the point of convergence with the gold robbery and the Griffith Park fire?" Which was a real thing. "Is there too much backstory? When do I set the murder at the clubhouse? That coming in 40 chapters into the book – how's this going to work? When do I reveal this? When do I reveal that?" And then all of this becomes almost like a novel unto itself. It becomes the outline. And from there, the book. So, I'm really writing the book twice. Which is why there's these gaps between my publications.
The style seems to be evolving.
If you go back two titles to Blood's A Rover, I'm expanding this style. There's a reason for this. It's to enhance the emotional language. That poor kid [in Blood's A Rover], Don Crutchfield, in love with the left-wing revolutionary woman; Dwight Holly and the doomed love between him and Kathy Sifakis. It's interlocking love stories in history, and the style had to be expanded.
It's more expanded in Perfidia, and there's the break point of an entirely new style with Kay Lake's diary. And it's yet more expanded in this book. If you were to examine it, sentence to sentence, it's still so dense that it feels tightly compressed. But I have gone over, and over, and over the text in order to properly expand it and enhance that text.
Some people have said the style can get in the way.
If they're talking about White Jazz and The Cold Six Thousand, I'd agree entirely. Now, I think it's its honed and refined and mastered to the proper degree. People have told me this is the book which is the heaviest in back story. And people that I trust absolutely have told me the plot is entirely comprehensible because of the reduced usage or deployment of the style.
A key part of this process is melding the fiction with the historical background.
Publishing has taken some hits financially with the internet and everything. And fiction is down – non-fiction has spiked way up. People are always on the internet. They like the concreteness of non-fiction because it purports to tell them about their life. Well, the novel is entirely about that. If you can submit yourself to the novel and realise that, physically, it has nothing to do with you – Los Angeles, the home front, early World War II, a corrupt cop, a Japanese forensic chemist, a boozed-out Navy nurse, rogue cops, and everything else – but it has everything to do with human beings and how they grasp, and how they love, and how they fall, and how they transcend. You know, it's "The Novel", with a big capital T, and a big capital N. That's what I'm out to give the folks.
What do you enjoy more – is it the spinning of all the various plates and keeping everything up there until the time is right to bring it all crashing down? Or is it the characters that you enjoy writing?
A lot of people write books; long books. And I doubt if anyone today – or perhaps ever – has written books as complex and layered as these. But then again, I doubt if anyone that you might call a crime writer has written these massive outlines. I'm a professional. I've been doing this for 40 years. And If you look, the intervariances in language, viewpoint to viewpoint: the way people speak – since these were all subjective third-person viewpoints; the way that they elaborate their thoughts, especially in the chapters that carry large pieces of time and jump the story – you see how I do it. It's the attention to detail.
Is that what you live for in your writing?
I live to write the great finish to the book. I strive for perfection in language, characterisation, and the rewriting of history.
How real are these people to you? I mean, you carry them around with you everywhere, and you've been inside their heads for such a long time. Do you like them?
Yeah. I love them all, and I love the characters in Perfidia and This Storm most of all because these are my books about egalitarianism, inclusiveness, and the police world that I've been adopted into. I've never wanted to be a policeman, but I love them as a breed of men and women. And it's the world that they live in, as shitkicking Americans in 1942.
There are these very, very deep friendships, and these people united in a common cause – an allied victory in the War – and the internal fortunes and the infernal factions of the Los Angeles Police Department. The whole theme of friendship is very, very strong. Walls collapse: social walls, racial walls collapse in World War II. Dudley Smith's only real friend is a Japanese homosexual. You know?
Hideo Ashida is the guy that he reveres, not his goons, Breuning and Carlisle, or his women, who are really his victims, or his numerous daughters, who were just a flounce of his stupid Irish sentiment and bullshit blarney.
The extremes the characters pitch for range right across the political spectrum. Should we be reading these as maybe not a plea, but perhaps a hymn to or an elegy for moderation?
Yeah. Well, for freedom, for decorousness, for lucid thinking when confronted with the extreme political pulls that do nothing but play on one's emotions, as they seek to delude and convert and create horror.
I know you decry any relevance or resonance to the present day, but that seems like a theme that's particularly needed today, in what feel to many of us like increasingly polarised times.
I understand what you're saying. It wasn't my… I conceived the book before all this hoo-hah and the present day commenced. I conceived this book and outlined it. I mean, I knew the book in its entirety. It's not meant to be topical. It's meant to be read… It's an instructive novel, and it doesn't instruct you what to think about the world today.
The message for people today is: "Here is a complex, dense work of art, and I want you to read it. However you consider it to be relevant in your own life today is up to you, and I'm not going to tell you how to think," which is why I give people no cues along the lines of the contemporary.
People need to be taught how to read. [points to people staring at cellphone screens] It's not that important – whatever it is can wait until you get to a payphone. Fiction's in the tank because people are used to reading the internet, getting scattergun bursts of information that they immediately relate to their own lives. "I'm going to find my next sexual partner on the internet. I'm going to buy my next article of good clothing that will help attract my next sexual partner on the internet. In the music world, I'll get some good compact discs, obscure, for three bucks apiece, and they'll be shipped out of Amazon to me, and arrive at my door in a couple of days."
It's crazy to me, that people don't want to be transported in the interactive art of reading, to another place, another time, that they're attracted to because it's dissimilar, it's a world they couldn't have imagined.
You talk about your fondness for police in general, and the LAPD in particular, and your ongoing friendships with people in that world – yet the majority of the LAPD officers you write about are very difficult to like. Elmer Jackson is among the most sympathetic, but he's basically a pimp and a womaniser; as a reader I find myself liking Buzz Meeks, but it's despite his tendency to extract information from suspects through violence.
If you look at the guys they're thumping on, by and large, they're bad. They deserve that. I've known some cops that did some thumping that they shouldn't have done, in order to put some very bad guys, as in rapists and child molesters, behind bars. So the question I always ask people is: "If you were in their shoes and your choices were to put the phone book to some child molester or rapist to secure a conviction, what would you do?"
It's a real tough question to answer, especially back at a time when there was really no legal redress for this kind of abuse of power. It's 1942 here. All bets are off. And in the meantime, these guys love and lust, and pine for women, and everything else.
Cops are the most romantic people I've ever met, and LA cops are some of the sweetest-natured and most sentimental people I know. I was trying to explain to someone asking me a question last night about the books, myself, and everything. I said, "Look, I'm an American, I'm patriotic, I'm conservative, I'm religious, and I'm sentimental. I see the world realistically and I see human beings realistically. The people that carry that weight - in the end I can forgive them." Even Dudley Smith, who is piece of shit who should be stopped at any and all costs.
You've said that you have no particular interest in writing anything set later than 1972 [the end-point of Blood's A Rover]. Why is that?
More than anything else, it's a blind instinct. I want to live in the language of the '40s. There's a lot of very funny stuff in Blood's A Rover with Nixon and Hoover there, trying to talk hip, tell it like it is, and everything else in the late '60s and early '70s. I lost the idiom about then.
I enjoyed the idiom in the black pimp movies that I saw. I liked the black comedian shtick, that guys like Reynaldo Rey and Richard Pryor were doing. But the language from that point on, I don't give a shit. I don't want to go there.
Yet you've done work for film and TV that's set in contemporary times: there was the movie Rampart, and an as-yet-unmade TV series called Gemstone...
All that shit, these were paychecks, and they're long gone. They just dropped off the face of the Earth. Rampart, there's virtually nothing I wrote in there. I hate the movie. I hated Woody Harrelson's performance, and it was rewritten out from under me by Oren Moverman, the director. It's a bad movie, as is Dark Blue, which is a Ron Shelton movie. It was originally my script, The Plague Season.
The other movie that got made, Street Kings with Keanu Reeves – that was something that I wrote really for Nick Nolte. I made a bunch of dough, and it financed my divorces, you know? Paid alimony, taxes, and shit like that.
Hollywood has been good to me in that regard, but it's over. It's very unlikely that there will ever be a film made from anything that I've written because the characters of Perfidia and This Storm are tied up legally with the film versions of The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential. Kay Lake, Dudley, all of them.
I made the decision, not long ago, just not to do any more film and TV work. I only want to write novels from hereon in. I'm 71 now, and I'm healthy. I really want to write a total of five more books. Two books in this quartet, and then a new Underworld USA trilogy.
How's the third book of this quartet shaping up?
Kay Lake is the overall hero of the whole second LA quartet. The important thing with Kay Lake is she acts in the heat of the moral moment, and she acts purely. She's not doing a diary viewpoint in the next book, but I'm reasonably certain that she will in the fourth book.
I started thinking about the next book about halfway through [writing] This Storm. Right before I left for Britain, I read a book about the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping – the kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby. And there's a character, a real-life psychiatrist, that I realised I wanted to use in the new book in a backstory, for a US treasury agent – because they captured the killer, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant, by tracking the serial numbers on the ransom bills. So, I've been teething on that for a couple of weeks. And then I got on the airplane.
What about the second Underworld USA trilogy – where will that go?
I have ideas, but I don't know yet. It would be back in time. I think 1956. But this is just the beginning of thinking about it.
And at the rate that you write, it could be a while before we get there.
Oh, brother! Yeah, I know.
You're going to be about 90.
One hopes! From your mouth to God's ears.
This Storm by James Ellroy is out now, published by William Heinemann
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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I won't lie to you – horses scare me a bit. They are just so immense. Of course, there are other large animals out there too. But you don't often find yourself standing next to them. Or, as happened to me recently, climbing onto their backs and riding them (whose idea was this?).
We were visiting my wife's college friend Edie in Western Colorado. Edie and her husband, Gary, live up in the hills at about 7,500 feet. They are very resourceful – the kind of people where if you dropped them into a remote forest with nothing they would have power in about a week. And so it should come as no surprise that they own horses. Two, to be exact.
That's not what this was.
On our first day there, Edie asked if I wanted to "go for a ride." I naively assumed she meant in the car, to get ice cream or something.
Next thing I knew, I was putting my left foot in the stirrup and hoisting myself up into the saddle.
The next 90 minutes were the highlight of my trip (maybe my life).
She led us up into the red stone hills, occasionally stopping on the edge of a cliff and just looking around. It was amazing.
You know what's not at all like riding a horse? Driving a car.
Yes, they both can be used as a way to get from here to there. But one has a lot more uncertainty attached to it.
With a car, and barring any unforeseen incidents, you go exactly where you want to go at precisely the speed you choose. Not so with a horse, particularly when you're a novice like I am. My horse stopped to eat, walked beneath low branches, and even occasionally took off in a run. I may have been riding, but she was doing most of the driving.
Your business is a horse, not a car.
Running your own business is more like riding a horse than driving a car. This is an unwelcome surprise to a lot of people, particularly those who are new to life as a solopreneur.
From the outside looking in, other people's businesses may seem "car-like" to you: smooth, steady, predictable. It appears as if they are just putting their foot on the gas and moving ever forward.
It's an illusion of course, but like most good illusions, you can't tell.
You, on the other hand, and thanks to your view from the saddle regarding your own business, feel like you're riding a wild animal. One day it's fast. The next day it's slow. Sometimes it stops without warning, only to suddenly take off again.
A horse is not a machine – you're never in complete control. The mighty beast has its own agenda. You can exert some influence, but at some level, it's going to do what it's going to do.
Why is that guy's business doing so much better than mine?
Why was I so busy last year this time and now I'm not?
How come things aren't the way I expected?
Simple. You're riding on a horse, not in a car. Unpredictable, occasionally frightening, and outside your complete control – that's just the way it is.
Can I give you a way to remove all the risk from your horseback riding adventure (a.k.a. your business)?
But I can share with you the same advice Edie gave me as we were leaving the barn: Stay loose, don't fight the horse, and make sure to look around and enjoy the view every once in a while. The ride will be over sooner than you think.


text:
Justice Scalia Canceled Subscription to "Slanted," 'Shrilly Liberal" Washington Post
by Don Irvine on October 7, 2013
In an interview with New York Magazine's Jennifer Senior, published on Sunday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he no longer subscribes to The Washington Post, because it was slanted against conservatives and "shrilly liberal:"
It was the treatment of almost any conservative issue. It was slanted and often nasty. And, you know, why should I get upset every morning?" Scalia said. "I don't think I'm the only one. I think they lost subscriptions partly because they became so shrilly, shrilly liberal.
Scalia does subscribe to The Washington Times and The Wall Street Journal, but not The New York Times or Post, saying he prefers radio.
"I get most of my news, probably, driving back and forth to work, on the radio," he tells Senior:
"Sometimes NPR. But not usually."
Senior asked Scalia if he had any favorites on talk radio:
You know who my favorite is? My good friend Bill Bennett. He's off the air by the time I'm driving in, but I listen to him sometimes when I'm shaving. He has a wonderful talk show. It's very thoughtful. He has good callers. I think they keep off stupid people.
The Post, which was owned by the Graham family for 80 years, is now owned by Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who also has liberal leanings. So it doesn't look like the paper will make it back on Scalia's media diet any time soon.
Don Irvine
Don Irvine serves as the Publisher for Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts. View the complete archives from Don Irvine.
Accuracy in MediaAIMAntonin ScaliaShrilly liberalSlanted newsWashington Post


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Scroll down for the form to express interest in joining a group.
"We are a group of amateurs getting together with the aim of growing a variety of vegetables and fruit. Although the group currently has the use of an allotment at Current Hill we are negotiating with the Council to set up a new community area. We are awaiting details from them regarding amenities."
"We enjoy visiting buildings of all kinds, both to admire them and to discover the history surrounding them and the people who frequented them in the past. We organise outings to places of interest each month, both in London and locally, using professional tour guides where appropriate. Past trips have included Rochester, Freemason's Hall, Tudeley Church, Biggin Hill Chapel and we frequently join with other groups for walks or theatre tours."
All U3A members are very welcome to join the mailing list and come along to any venues of interest.
"We start each month by appreciating a painting chosen by a member. We may then look at projections of the works of a particular artist or review an exhibition coming to a gallery which we might visit. We are fortunate to have an array of first class galleries to enjoy, just a cheap day return ticket away!"
There will be no home based meetings, just visits to places such as the British Museum, Museum of London/Docklands, Maidstone Museum, Lullingstone/Crofton Roman Villas and other sites of historic interest in London and the south east.
The venue is at Crockham Hill village hall, so there will be a small charge to cover the hire of the hall and expenses.
This is a new group. It has held its inaugural meeting. Members opted for a combination of outings and field trips to wild life centres, etc, combined with talks by specialists. A programme of activities is being developed. Meetings will commence on the first Tuesday of the month starting in October. It is hoped to have a specialist talk in September on a date to be determined.
The members of our Book Group enjoy reading and socialising with like-minded people. We certainly widen our own reading horizons with the individual choices of others and enjoy sharing opinions with friendly and fun discussions. The host chooses the book for review at the next meeting. Copies are usually borrowed from Oxted or Westerham libraries, where we are registered as a book group. We keep a look out for any local literary events that may be of interest.
Meetings: Usually every 6 weeks on Friday mornings at 10 am, in members' homes on a rotational basis.
The Group meets to discuss books chosen by the members - the personal choices of the individuals. They may be of any genre, often contemporary occasionally classical, encouraging us to read books that we may well not have chosen for ourselves. The Group is more social than academic, and we have enjoyed two Literary Lunches where we have been addressed by well known authors, and will plan more in the future.
If you like dancing and a wide range of music from all over the world then circle dancing is for you. The dances can be lively or gentle, meditative or exciting. The moods and styles vary enormously and there is something for everyone in the repertoire. You don't need a partner or experience. Dance bare-foot or in soft-soled shoes. Cost : £4 (or £18 for 6 sessions). Venue: Christchurch URC Hall, Littlecourt Rd.
For beginners who want to learn how to manipulate and make adjustments to their photographs. The first session will be about transferring photographs from your camera to the computer and organising them. There will be an opportunity to practice the lesson at the end of each session.
This is a continuation of the 2nd Year Course. There will be a variety of input including, making an Audio Visual of your photographs, going out to take photographs plus the opportunity to share the group members' knowledge and experience. We meet at the Riverhead Bowls Club.
The members in the group have experience of Digital Manipulation. Activities this year will be varied according to the group members' requests. It will include learning more about our cameras and going on photograph shoots, studio work and experimenting with digital techniques, as well as visiting exhibitions. It's hoped to continue learning by experimentation, discussion and input from members.
Want to find out about the great choice of other interest groups on offer? Click to see groups E-K, groups L-R and S-Z and Potential groups.


Yesterdays M5.9 earthquake which struck in the U.S. state of Virginia and was felt across much of the eastern cities such as Washington and even as far away as New York has given interested parties a chance to raise the issue of the cost of earthquake insurance. Across the U.S. uptake of earthquake insurance by homeowners is low, even in California where 80% of residents are exposed to possible earthquakes just 10% actually have quake coverage.
The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has taken the opportunity presented by the Virginia quake to raise the issue of the Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act (EIAA) which could be addressed in the U.S. Congress soon. The legislation would allow for cheaper insurance to be sold to householders as the act would allow any public, non-profit earthquake insurer to issue private debt in order to maintain liquidity after an event strikes. The CEA have published a factsheet on the EIAA here.
Of course the CEA has just completed a groundbreaking catastrophe bond transaction through their Embarcadero Re Ltd. SPV which provides them with an additional $150m of reinsurance coverage from the capital markets. At the time that it was completed the CEA stressed that the cat bond facility had been set up to allow them to revisit the capital markets for increased protection on a regular basis.
Any mechanism which enables earthquake insurance coverage to be made available more cheaply can only be a good thing, particularly if it reduces the reliance on taxpayers in the event of a major disaster. We would suggest that increasing the volume of earthquake exposed catastrophe bond issuances would be a similarly good hedge to allow earthquake insurance to be made more cheaply available to residents of earthquake exposed U.S. States and to keep the sources of reinsurance well diversified.


Glaucoma is an eye disease that affects the optic nerve, the part of the eye which receives images collected by the retina and sends them to the brain. Every eye maintains a certain amount of internal pressure, called intraocular pressure. When this pressure rises to abnormal levels however, it can put extra stress on the optic nerve, causing significant damage. Optic nerve damage results in loss of vision, and ultimately blindness.
The front of the eye is constantly producing a fluid called aqueous humor. A healthy eye will continually produce small amounts of aqueous humor to ensure consistent eye pressure. When normal drainage becomes slowed or blocked, pressure increases, and may lead to glaucoma. There are several different types of glaucoma the two most common types being chronic open-angle glaucoma and closed-angle glaucoma.
Chronic open-angle glaucoma is the most common form of the disease and usually develops with age. With this type of glaucoma, pressure gradually increases around the eye causing it to work less effectively over a period of time. There are no symptoms in the early stages of open-angle glaucoma. Peripheral vision is usually the first to deteriorate. As the disease becomes more advanced, blank spots begin to appear in one's vision. If left untreated, it eventually develops to blindness. The best way to avoid serious vision loss is early diagnosis and treatment with annual eye exams.
Closed-angle glaucoma is less prevalent but is considered a real eye emergency. This type of glaucoma occurs when a patient's pupil moves or dilates and actually blocks off the drainage angles in the eye. This is considered a medical emergency in which an ophthalmologist should be contacted immediately to avoid any loss of vision.
Laser surgery has also become a common treatment option for glaucoma. For open-angle glaucoma the doctor may choose a trabeculoplasty, a painless laser procedure which uses light to shrink and stretch eye tissue to allow more drainage of fluid. For many patients with closed-angle cases, in which the iris is blocking drainage of aqueous humor, a laser surgery called iridotomy may be performed.
Other glaucoma treatment options involve various traditional surgeries. A common glaucoma surgery for open-angle glaucoma is the trabeculectomy, where a doctor creates a small flap in the sclera (white part of the eye). Underneath the surface of the sclera, the doctor creates a small reservoir, called a filtration bleb, into which aqueous fluid may drain and then be disbursed, further reducing intraocular pressure.


Evidence shows defendant in Motorcycle Club trial served as a police informant.
DETROIT, MI. (April 29, 2017) -- When the U.S. Attorney's Office indicted 91 alleged members and associates of Detroit's Highwaymen Motorcycle Club on allegations of racketeering, drug trafficking, theft and murder for hire, a central thread in the case was club leader Aref (Steve) Nagi's attempts to root out suspected snitches.
Nagi's preoccupation with informants inside the storied and homegrown motorcycle club — whose violent history is credited with keeping the Hells Angels out of Detroit — was evident in his rambling, late-night phone conversations, which were secretly recorded by the FBI and introduced as evidence at the 2010 trial in federal court in Detroit.
And when the FBI raided the Highwaymen's Michigan Avenue clubhouse in southwest Detroit in 2007, they discovered a photograph of one of their two confidential informants —with the word "rat" scrawled in black marker across his face.
The case sent more than 30 Highwaymen to prison —- many, including Nagi, for lengthy sentences.
But some of those convictions are now being challenged because of new revelations that Nagi himself — a former Highwaymen vice president and the lead defendant — had worked as a confidential informant for federal and local police agencies.
Convicted Highwayman Gary (Junior) Ball Jr., who from his federal prison cell used Michigan's Freedom of Information Act to uncover Nagi's hidden past, says Nagi and his Detroit attorney, James Thomas, led defense strategy meetings in the massive case. Among the concerns: Whether what he and other defendants thought were confidential disclosures made to attorneys may have been fed, through Nagi, to the FBI and prosecutors.
The Highwaymen, founded in Detroit in 1954, gained infamy in the 1970s when some members were convicted of bombing and raiding homes and clubhouses of rivals. The outlaw motorcycle club, which at least until the indictments was Detroit's largest, was seen by many as an outlaw among outlaws — banned from a federation of Detroit clubs founded by a former Outlaws president.
Records released by Troy Police Department under the Freedom of Information Act show Highwaymen leader Aref "Steve" Nagi had acted as a police informant.
In a March 29 court filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Goetz highlighted some of the Highwaymen lore, alleging the club had "terrorized southwest Detroit for decades" through drug dealings, beatings and theft and "got away with everything." He described an incident in which several club members pulled up in front of an occupied southwest Detroit home and fired 15 rounds into it, as well as beatings administered with fists, beer bottles and chairs on occasions when club members encountered a suspected snitch, or someone who was significantly behind on his drug payments.
Ball, 51, who is serving a 30-year sentence and wants a new trial, has a May 17 hearing scheduled before U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds.
The hearing is to explore other irregularities Ball uncovered, such as the fact that his own defense attorney, Lawrence Shulman of Birmingham, without Ball's knowledge, also represented a codefendant, Randy McDaniel, charged in connection with some of the same crimes as Ball. Court records show Shulman cut a deal for McDaniel in another federal case that resulted in his charges in the Highwaymen case being dropped.
The Shulman conflict alone, which Shulman denied existed in an e-mail to the Free Press, is grounds for Ball — convicted of racketeering, conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles, drug trafficking conspiracy, and conspiracy to obliterate vehicle identification numbers — to get a new trial, said Ball's Alabama attorney, David Schoen.
But the Nagi revelations, he said, have the potential to also undo other convictions.
"The case is a mess," Schoen said.
Thomas, well-known in Detroit as the lead defense attorney in former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's federal corruption case, vehemently denied Nagi ever acted as a police informant. He swore an affidavit to that effect in November.
Ball must have Nagi confused with some other Aref Nagi, Thomas insisted, pointing out that the Aref Nagi he represented, sometimes known as "Steve" or "Scarface," has a birth date of Aug. 17, 1963.
That, however, is the same birth date as the Aref Nagi who, in 1992, arranged for delivery of 2 kilos of cocaine in a shopping center parking lot, then gave the signal for Troy police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to swoop in, according to records Ball obtained using the FOIA. Booking photos released by Troy Police also match Nagi's image.
In the Highwaymen trial, "the defendants agreed to have Mr. Nagi's defense attorney serve as a sort of defense team leader and Mr. Ball would have never agreed to the same had he known all relevant facts," Schoen said in a court filing.
Federal prosecutors, unlike Thomas, aren't denying the truth of what Ball discovered, including Nagi's past role as a police informant. But they are downplaying its significance, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Graveline told the Free Press on Wednesday he wasn't even aware at the time of the Highwaymen trial of Nagi's past role as an informant.
Nagi, who was convicted of racketeering, assault with a dangerous weapon, use of a firearm in committing a violent crime, conspiracy to transport stolen property, drug conspiracy and other charges, was sentenced to 37 years in prison, later reduced to 27 years on appeal. In 2016, Edmunds further cut Nagi's sentence to 20 years, based on submissions from Thomas about his "exemplary" conduct in federal prison.
Nagi's "conviction at trial and lengthy sentence should be enough proof of the fact that he did not cooperate," Graveline said in an April 5 court filing.
"However, the government can aver that the case agent never interviewed Mr. Nagi as part of his investigation and both the undersigned and the case agent are unaware of any attempts by Nagi to cooperate, at any time, with law enforcement, in their investigation of the Detroit Highwaymen Outlaw Motorcycle Club."
But Schoen said it's important for Ball to know the full history of Nagi's cooperation with federal and other police agencies, and who decided to conceal Nagi's past from Ball, even if it turns out Nagi wasn't a "spy in the camp" during the Highwaymen trial. At a minimum, he wants a chance to question Nagi and Thomas under oath.
"The overriding point is, the defendants are entitled to know this stuff," and it was never disclosed, Schoen said.
Since Ball raised the issue, two other imprisoned Highwaymen — Leonard (Dad) Moore, who was dubbed the club's "godfather" at trial, and former national president Joseph (Little Joe) Whiting — have filed court papers making similar arguments.
"Mr. Ball and Mr. Moore were constitutionally entitled to know that Nagi had been in the government's employ as a cooperating witness," Moore attorney Martin Beres said in a December filing.
While Nagi's history has implications for the entire trial, attorney Shulman's simultaneous representation of Ball and another Highwaymen defendant, McDaniel — which was concealed from Ball — is in some ways even more troubling, Schoen said.
Shulman was admonished — but not charged or disciplined — by the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission in 2014 for not responding to Ball's 2013 complaint alleging a conflict of interest.
But Shulman said the commission never made a determination that Ball's conflict of interest allegation had merit.
Shulman, who first made an appearance as Ball's attorney in June 2008, made his first appearance for McDaniel just a few weeks earlier, in March 2008, in a 2006 criminal case in Monroe County. Shulman also represented McDaniel beginning in 2009 in a separate drug case in front of a different federal judge in Detroit, and it was pursuant to the 2010 plea deal Shulman negotiated for McDaniel in that case that Edmunds dismissed McDaniel as a defendant in the Highwaymen case, in April 2011, records show.
Graveline told the Free Press he is limited in what he can say before the May 17 hearing, but he denied that McDaniel's charge in the Highwaymen case was negotiated away as part of McDaniel's plea deal in the other federal case. Instead, McDaniel's guilty plea meant he was already facing more prison time than he would have received in the Highwaymen case, so he was dropped as a matter of efficiency, Graveline said. Shulman said that's his understanding, also.
Shulman never made an appearance for McDaniel in the Highwaymen case, where McDaniel was represented by another attorney. Schoen and Ball believe that was to conceal his dual and conflicting representations. Schoen told the Free Press that McDaniel told him that Shulman in fact represented his interests in both cases. Shulman said that's "simply not true."
Schoen says prosecutors must have known, and Edmunds should have known, that Shulman was representing both Ball and McDaniel. Both had a duty to inform Ball, who was kept in the dark, Schoen said.
Ball and McDaniel weren't just charged in the same wide-ranging case. Two of the charges Ball faced related to the same set of facts under which McDaniel was charged — the alleged theft of motorcycles in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 2006, and their transport to Michigan to receive false registration titles.
In fact, evidence shows McDaniel was the go-to guy for changing vehicle registrations — an offense for which Ball was ultimately convicted, Schoen argues.
Ball and Schoen allege Shulman pulled his punches in cross-examining certain witnesses, not wanting to explore areas that would help Ball but implicate McDaniel.
"For Shulman, there was a clear risk to his other client's (McDaniel's) interests if he were to pursue plea negotiations with Mr. Ball or if he pursued certain lines of defense that would have well served Mr. Ball, but would have inculpated his other client (McDaniel) or undermined stories McDaniel had told the government in his cooperation," Schoen said in a court filing.
Shulman told the Free Press there was no conflict. Ball knew he was representing McDaniel in the other cases and there was no need for Ball to sign a conflict waiver because no conflict existed, he said.
"I didn't represent Mr. McDaniel in the Highwaymen case, and Mr. McDaniel was not indicted in that case until well after Mr. Ball was indicted," Shulman said in an e-mail.
"McDaniel had another attorney appointed to represent him in the Highwaymen case. My cases with Mr. McDaniel were unrelated."
Shulman said Ball's 30-year sentence was excessive, and he wishes him well in getting a new trial, but "I went to the mat for him during trial and left it all on the floor."
Prosecutors argue that the federal case in which Shulman represented McDaniel had nothing to do with the Highwaymen and McDaniel was never called as a witness against Ball. They also say in court filings that they had strong evidence against Ball on the drug conspiracy charges — including direct sales by Ball to a police informant — which had nothing to do with McDaniel.
"Despite his best efforts to conflate the lengthy timeline of this case and assume certain facts about his defense counsel, there was no conflict of interest in the defendant's case," Graveline said in a court filing.
Ball's first attorney in the case, Lee O'Brien of Troy, represented Ball from the start of proceedings in October 2006 until May 2008, after O'Brien himself was charged in the case, with making false statements.
Prosecutors knew O'Brien, who could not be reached, was under investigation and should have let Ball know he needed to get another attorney, Schoen argues.
"For O'Brien, who, according to investigative reports was suspected of being involved with illegal conduct with Mr. Ball, he risked being inculpated if he were to have Mr. Ball pursue plea negotiations," he said.
Graveline said in a court filing that the 19 months during which O'Brien represented Ball were not a crucial state in the proceedings and Ball can only argue, quite speculatively, that O'Brien's representation prevented a possible plea deal at that time. However, "of the 17 individuals charged in the original indictment, none of them resolved their cases between October 2006 and May 2008," he said.


If you're one of our customers who has been affected by Holidays 4U going into administration, you will have to complete an ATOL claim form to have your money for your flight returned.
The full form contains 12 sections, but we only require you to fill out sections 7 & 8 and send it to us with the requested documentation. We'll complete the rest of the form for you (we're well practiced at this from the collapse of XL, Goldtrail & Kiss), avoiding many common mistakes that could delay your refund. Once you have filled in sections 7 & 8, it must be returned directly to us, our address is below.
Below is a step by step guide to completing sections 7 & 8.
This section must be completed by the Lead Passenger. The Lead Passenger is the name used by sunshine.co.uk on your booking confirmation and the first name listed on your flight voucher.
Passenger name : Please print in capital letters the lead passenger's name.
Signed : The lead passenger must put their signature.
Date : Please enter the date the lead passenger signed the form.
This section must be completed by the card holder who paid for the holiday.
Section 8 specifies the bank details of the card holder. These details will be used by the CAA to make you a direct refund when your claim is processed. They will refund the claim to that bank account NOT the card used for booking.
Account Name : Please enter the name of the account holders. If it is a joint bank account both names must be listed here.
Address : This box should contain the card holder's address.
County : This box should contain the county part of the card holder's address.
Postcode : This box should contain the postcode part of the card holder's address.
Name of Bank : This should be full name of the bank or buildings society your account is held with. For example, 'Halifax'.
Roll Account No : If you have an account with a building society you are likely to have a roll number. If you have it please specify here, if not leave the box blank.
Bank Sort Code : This is the 6 digit code that identifies your bank. The sort code can usually be found on your bank card, a statement or your cheque book.
Account No : Please enter your bank account number here. Your bank account number is normally 8 digits long, and can usually be found on your bank card, a statement or your cheque book.
Signed by payer : The card holder must sign this box.
Date : The date the card holder signed the box.
An original copy of your bank statement, showing all the payments made to sunshine.co.uk for this holiday. Photocopies will not be accepted.
If your statements are online only, please contact your bank to request a hard copy as the CAA will not accept print outs. If the bank charge you for a hard copy, this cannot be claimed back.
You are welcome to obscure any payments not related to the claim, as long as your name, address, account details and payments to sunshine.co.uk Ltd are visible.
All other documentation required to complete your claim will be supplied by us, however please keep any other documentation you have regarding your booking in a safe place until your claim is fully processed.
We recommend you send your claim recorded delivery to ensure it isn't lost in the post.
Once we have received your documents in the post, we will complete the claim form and send it to the CAA. The CAA will then be in contact with you with a claims reference number. Please can you contact us here to advise us of your claims reference number when you know it. This will aid us with your claim. Once the claim has been processed the CAA with refund you directly.
What about my hotel / transfers / parking?
If you've managed to book new flights, the rest of your original booking is still valid (hotel, transfers and parking). Please do contact us to let us know your new flight details.
If you've been unable to get new flights and need to cancel your booking, you can find more info on what to do next here.


Looking westward storm clouds gather over the Gulf of Mexico. They try to push the setting sun from the sky and in doing so the sun ignites the sky in brilliant shades of red, orange, and yellows. Oil on 24x30 canvas PD tries to push the life out of your body as it impacts muscles and nerves that affect mental attitudes. However, life can have its moments of brilliance.


Can the US Prevent North Korea from Testing an ICBM?
Can the US Prevent North Korea from Testing an ICBM? is an article from 38 North: Informed Analysis of North Korea, published by the US-Korea Institute at SAIS.


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Stołążek – zlikwidowany przystanek kolei wąskotorowej w Stołążku, w województwie zachodniopomorskim, w Polsce.

Bibliografia
 Opis w serwisie Bazakolejowa.pl

Linki zewnętrzne

Stacje i przystanki kolejowe w gminie Resko
Iglice

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Q: Invalid short purchase tokens I have android app with subscription in-app purchase. Because I am using the subscription to deliver data from online service, I am using verification of purchase on server side via google play API (with purchase token the app send me after purchase). Majority of purchase tokens in my database are long alphanumeric strings, something like this :
djcbhbiertdkkotyuupnlmioppb.AO-J1Ozg0oasdfB3MAlWy-PihFE_nPVRMMfTW2_VPJt5KTKQA3CXNwyqweJAtUdIGTuOW9zEIIy-XS_4Un-a-Co6aEs__Adj1rZ4GtRxPKr04ph-l6nP2sU-w6e500YfTj5l0O8WEXF37yt

and these are verified OK. But from time to time I receive purchase tokens containing just 15 digits, like this :
781871156762279

And for these the result it always:
Google.GoogleApiException Google.Apis.Requests.RequestError
The purchase token was not found. [404]
Errors [
    Message[The purchase token was not found.] Location[token - parameter] Reason[purchaseTokenNotFound] Domain[global]
]

I did not find anything about this in documentation. Am I missing something? Or could it be these are "fake" purchases from some cracked version of my app? Thanks.

A: I have received short purchase tokens in the same 15-digit format, and I believe that these are, in fact, attempts at fraudulent purchases.
It is not your app that is cracked. Rather, a user installs a special app onto a rooted device that performs a man-in-the-middle attack against your app, emulating the legitimate In-App Billing Service. When your app begins a purchase flow, this fraudulent app intercepts the purchase request, and returns a fake purchase token.
Apps that verify the token locally are vulnerable, because the same fraudulent app is used to verify the token.
Apps that send the token to the backend are probably safer, because the backend can make a request to the in-app billing API to verify the token independently. However, the app must wait for the backend verification to succeed before granting the user the purchased privileges.
Please see my other answer for more details on this attack.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Silver Chain physio helps father fulfil wedding wish after suffering stroke
For Seville Grove resident Brendan Mullin, not even a stroke – a life-threatening medical emergency which alters the blood flow to the brain – could stop him from walking his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day.
The 69-year-old is one of thousands of Australians who are supported by leading in-home health and aged care provider, Silver Chain, to regain their independence after experiencing a stroke.
In coinciding with National Stroke Week, 2-8 August, Silver Chain Head of Allied Health, Kelly Gurr, wants the community to know the importance of early intervention. This includes the prevention of stroke, which is the focus of this year's week through recognising F.A.S.T. (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) signs of stroke, and rehabilitation after a stroke.
"The biggest improvements in a client will be seen in the first six months following a stroke," Ms Gurr said.
"It is important that treatment is sought as early as possible after hospital discharge so that the individual's level of function and independence is maximised and they are able to live a full and rich life again."
Following the stroke, Brendan was left with no movement on one side of his body. He also experienced memory issues and had difficulty swallowing, leaving him dependent on his wife, Margaret, for almost everything.
"I couldn't sit up or walk without her help," he said.
"One of my daughters was married a few months after the stroke, and I was in a wheelchair for it, so I was determined that this time I'd be able to walk."
With help from Silver Chain physiotherapist Sam Listing, the father of four was able to fulfil his dream.
"When I started seeing Brendan, he told me his goal to walk down the aisle with his daughter in nine months' time," Ms Listing said.
"At first, he was not able to walk without me holding his trunk and would get tired after three metres. He and Margaret were so committed to the exercises, which usually involve strength and body awareness. His motivation and hard work are so inspiring."
In 2020, more than 27,000 Australians experienced a stroke for the first time. It is a leading cause of disability, with almost 450,000 people around the country living with the effects of a stroke, and it accounts for about 5% of deaths.
Silver Chain offers specialist nursing, palliative care, home care and support services, home hospital and allied health services to 105,000 Australians, like Brendan, every year.
"Thanks to Sam, I was able to walk my daughter down the aisle," he said.
"I've gone from a wheelchair to walking stick, and I've got my confidence back."
Pictured: Silver Chain client Brendan Mullin, with Silver Chain physio Sam Listing.


After the wild success of our inaugural cheesy romantic Valentine's Day in Buenos Aires last year (spent at a Tango show, of course), Radek and I decided to keep the tradition alive and celebrate in Paris. The mother of all predictably romantic destinations provided us with fine strolling weather (at least as compared to Poland), delicious and diverse dining options and a fortuitously timed ticketbooth strike at the Louvre resulting in our free entrance.
Among the highlights were: Radek's first encounter with Fondue, Moulin Rouge at night, the winding and surprising empty streets of Montmartre, a reunion with our beloved German friend Christoph (now interning in Paris) and…hotel check-out when we happened to glance at someone else's bill and noticed that they had paid over twice as much for the same type of room that we had (Thank you Travelzoo Top 20).
This was the relaxing hassle-free city break that should be required after all trips to Morocco just to put your life expectancy back in the proper range.
Posted in Expat Attempt (Life in Poland), France, Western EuropeBookmark the permalink.


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Trapital
insights on music, media, and culture.
Why Swizz Beatz' Keeps the DJ Battles Free
Hey! It's been great to see all the philanthropic from hip-hop and the music industry to help fight this pandemic. There's too many to tag here, but all those efforts are recognized. Thank you!
Today's update covers Swizz Beatz DJ Battles, the (potential) future of film festivals, and streaming cuts during a recession.
Why Swizz Beatz Keeps Money out of the DJ Battles
Swizz Beatz' Verzuz battles have been a temporary relief for quarantined hip-hop fans. The former Ruff Ryders producer and Timbaland had cooked up this plan a few years back, but this was the perfect time to dust it off and put it in motion.
The original concept had a business plan to monetize these sessions, but they've held off. Here's Swizzy in a recent VIBE interview:
And of course me and him had a plan, we had to plan for three years for it to be done with businesses and partners and things like that, but right now this is not the time for that. We would look crazy…The minute you see a logo running across that screen, it's just gonna feel crazy.
These people are putting this on for free, ain't nobody got a dime yet. And all the corporations and everything are all to the table, but right now we just enjoying it like this. It's 6 million people unemployed, what type of business are we talking about right now?
He read the room—the hundreds of thousands attending on IG Live—and held off on monetization. It's an earnest move that will generate goodwill.
Verzuz's free status also increases its pricing power. The producers can use this time to build an audience, focus on the product, and tweak the plan over time. These livestreams were perfect for March and April 2020, but the producers don't know what the world climate will be like in a few months. It's wise to wait this out. Both producers have financial security and don't need to rush it, which makes it easier.
Right now, Verzuz faces two challenges. The first is securing producers and matchups they deem worthy of battle.
Here's another interview quote from Swizz:
But these are people that got [20 hit records], certified. So a lot of people don't wanna come outside that do have the 20, and a lot of people that do wanna come outside that don't have the 20. So we gotta keep this thing curated because once it gets silly, it just gets silly…
lot of people are like "I need JD and Puff," and I'm like well if it were that easy, it would have been already. … But nobody is gonna be mad, nobody is gonna be mad. At the end of the day, they just gotta trust the curation.
The second challenge is that some participants aren't down with the "free" strategy. The next battle up was Teddy Riley vs. Babyface. According to the rumor mill, it was postponed because Riley wanted to charge viewers $10 to attend and get sponsors involved. It makes the New Jack Swing pioneer look selfish.
To be clear, it's not irresponsible to charge money for livestreams. Fans loved Erykah Badu $1 livestream concert. But she did it on her terms, not someone else's. Teddy entered a format where famed DJs had done this for free. But now he wants to switch it up and collect his bread? No buddy, that ain't how it works!
As the saying goes, either charge a lot or charge nothing. Verzuz succeeds because it charges nothing. It will also succeed in the future when it charges sponsors a lot. Folks like Teddy Riley are better off launching their own.
Amazon's Ready to Disrupt Festivals
From Deadline:
Amazon Prime Video and SXSW have teamed to launch Prime Video Presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection. Eyed to go live later this month, the initiative was hatched as a way to give exposure to films slated to premiere at the Austin-based festival before their red carpet hopes were dashed when the festival got canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Filmmakers are being invited to opt-in and have their work premier exclusively for 10 days in the U.S. on Prime Video. A fee of an undisclosed amount will be paid to the makers of each film. It's up to the filmmakers whether or not they want to show their work this way. Those who need to monetize their projects with theatrical or other VOD deals will likely demur.
It's a nice concession to filmmakers who would have otherwise lost out completely. According to Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke, this is a completely earnest effort:
"Not as a business opportunity, but an effort to be supportive of filmmakers and talent in this trying time. We saw this festival being canceled and I've been there many times and we had a huge financial and emotional investment, and we wanted to find a way for the community to be able to come together and celebrate that work. This was about wanting to create a doorway for filmmakers to platform their work."
I mean, sure. Amazon Studios is doing a good deed thing here. But we can all see the writing on the wall.
Video streaming services—Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon—have low key waited for this direct-to-streaming moment. For years, the brick-and-mortar theaters and institutions owned distribution. Digital streaming services had to wait until exclusivity was over. But during this pandemic, movies have accelerated the timelines and have hit streaming directly. It's no surprise that festival filmmakers are partnering with Amazon to distribute content.
We are approaching a reality where famed film festivals may become virtual events. Netflix is already testing out event-based viewing with its School Daze watch party. If Amazon Studios develops strong connections with these SXSW filmmakers, it's only a matter of time before they do the same with other film festivals.
If filmmakers and content creators enjoy direct-to-streaming as an alternative, it may be a hard sell to get them to come back to the traditional institutions that once owned this process.
Will Streaming Get Cut in a Recession?
From Digital Music News:
"Research firm Kagan has conducted an S&P survey of how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the media landscape. It's not exactly a glowing report.
Over 1,000 participants shared their new viewing and listening habits during the past few weeks. Sports fans were also asked what they prefer to do now that no live games are airing.
The S&P survey found that most people felt streaming video and cable TV were expendable. When asked which service they would cut first – 37% said streaming, while 28% of respondents said cable TV would be next. The survey also found that cord-cutters aren't heading back to cable during the crisis, either. Unclear is exactly how music streaming fits into this mix, though so far, usage has been declining during the crisis."
These survey results may be true, but I strongly disagree with the underlying implication.
Let's step back. The services most likely to get cut first are those that have zero utility in quarantined life. Those include gym memberships, transportation, exclusive in-person access places, and clothing memberships, and so on. If folks can't travel outside, then there's no use for most of these services (maybe Stitch Fix, but unless you need another "WFH fit" for your Zoom meetings, that's a stretch). Personally, I've already canceled coworking memberships and transportation benefits, but have yet to cut back on digital content.
Now, music streaming is clearly on the decline since commuting and outside travel are down. But the utility isn't zero. People can still stream music from their homes if they choose. I would argue that many of the folks who earn enough money to have multiple digital media subscription services are more financially stable than the average person. Additionally, I bet that any services with marginal utility that will get canceled were already on the verge. COVID-19 just accelerated the inevitable.
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Looking for a hotel in Ban Pong? Compare all 2 hotels in Ban Pong (Thailand) and book online.
This is the list of all 2 hotels in Ban Pong.
Featuring a private beach area and barbecue facilities, Photharam Guest House is located in Ban Pong. The property is situated 4.3 km from Wat Pho Rattanaram. Guests can enjoy mountain views.
Guest rooms in the guest house are fitted with a coffee machine. At Photharam Guest House rooms are fitted with a flat-screen TV with satellite channels.
Guests at the accommodation will be able to enjoy activities in and around Ban Pong, like diving.
Rooms: Family Room with Lake View.
Featuring barbecue facilities and free WiFi, The Antique Riverside Resort is located in Ban Pong. With a garden, the property also features a terrace. The resort features a Seafood restaurant.
At the resort, the rooms come with a wardrobe and a TV. Every room is equipped with a private bathroom with free toiletries.
Guests at The Antique Riverside Resort can enjoy a continental or an American breakfast.
Speaking English and Thai, staff are ready to help around the clock at the reception.
Rooms: Bungalow with Garden View, Deluxe Double Room, Suite with River View, Three-Bedroom House, Two-Bedroom House.


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Home»Center for Career & Professional Development»Prospective Students»Internships & Other High Impact Experiences»Internship Programs
Internships & Other High Impact Experiences
Internship Search Strategies
Success at the Internship Site
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I-CORPS
Ready to take your professional development on the road? SU interns can take part in experiences in New York, Washington, DC, London, at Disney and more.
New York Arts Program
The New York Arts Program is designed to provide interested students in any major the opportunity to experience working in an arts-related field of their choice and earn up to 15 academic credits in the process.
Selected students spend a semester living in New York City and working as an intern/apprentice. Former students have interned with Saturday Night Live, Glamour, Teen Vogue, NBC, MTV, VH1, Mary Zimmerman's Arabian Nights, Strasburg Institute, Young People's Chorus of NYC, and many others.
The opportunities provided through the New York Arts Program are priceless and can often lead to related post-graduate career opportunities. For more information about the program, please contact Dana Luna, Assistant Director of Internship & Employment Development in the Center for Career & Professional Development, who serves as the On-Campus New York Arts Program Representative.
Step 1: You must have approval to study off campus. APPLY to off-campus/study abroad
Step 2: Get started on your New York Arts Program application. APPLY NOW to NYAP
Applications are reviewed as they are received, so it's to your advantage to apply early. Final deadlines are:
Fall: February 1
Spring: October 1
Note: There is no summer program available; however, program housing is available in the summers to those students who have completed the New York Arts Program.
Southwestern University students have previously interned with the following organizations:
Ensemble Studio Theatre
Strasberg Institute
Tony Origlio Public Relations
Saturday Night Live Music
Art Studios of Sculptors
Charles Ross & Jill O'Brien
City Center Marketing and Development Department
Chicago City Limits
MTV, VH1
NBC, Entertainment Publicity
NBC Program Standards
Dixon Place Theatre
The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institue
Dodger Stage Holding Theatricals
Randy Carfagno, Puppeteer
House of Power Records
Rogers & Cowan
I Caramba Communications
Shaw Delany, Painter
Passport Recording
NBC Nightly News
SU London Semester
During the SU London Semester program each fall, students can elect to take part in an academic internship through the program's non-profit partner, IES Abroad, for a unique cultural perspective on the world of work and invaluable experience working abroad. When applying for the IES Abroad internship in London, students are placed in internships based on their academic backgrounds, interests, and previous work experiences, as articulated in their resumes and cover letters.
SU London Semester Information Page and Application
SU Washington D.C. Semester
Southwestern cooperates with the Capitol Hill Internship Program in Washington, D.C., through the United Methodist College Washington Consortium.
This internship and academic program offers opportunities for coursework and internships in politics, economics, and foreign policy as well as journalism, fine arts, and architecture. Depending upon the specific program, students work as interns at the White House, on Capitol Hill, in the courts, or in public interest groups. Twelve to fifteen credit semester hours can transfer to Southwestern. Students live in flats on Capitol Hill. This program is open to students in all majors.
SU Washington DC Semester Information Page and Application
Previous internship sites:
Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange (exclusive opportunity to Southwestern students)
World Affairs Council of America
Council in Opportunity for Education
Feminist Majority Foundation
FDA Office of Orphan Products Development
Office Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Children's Defense Fund
House Ways and Means Committee
National Water Resources Association
Center for Multi-Track Diplomacy
Smithsonian Museum


Most doctors have heard of locum tenens, but very few actually know how it works. Dr. Noel Lumpkin wanted to change that with her new book The Road Warrior Physician. I'm Tim Rush and with me today is Dr. Noel Lumpkin. Dr. Noel Lumpkin is an anesthesiologist with CompHealth, and over the past decade, she has answered so many questions about her career as a locum tenens physician she figured she could write a book, so she did. She recently published The Road Warrior Physician: A How-To Guide For Locum Tenens. She calls Washington State home but holds licenses in 9 states, and she is currently on assignment in Alaska. Today, we are discussing the ins and outs of locum tenens.
Dr. Lumpkin, welcome to our show.
Thank you. I am happy to be here.
Dr. Lumpkin, it is one thing to say you know so much about a topic you could write a book, but you actually did it. What inspired you to write this book about locum tenens?
Well, as you say, many of us say, "I could write a book on that," but in working as a locum tenens, I have had many people ask me questions about it. In fact, several people have taken me out for dinner to ask me questions, and I have written down information, and I have had more than one person say, "You should write a book on this." And I had a period where I had a few weeks off, and I looked at writing a book and learned that Amazon requires 15,000 words for a nonfiction book, and I thought, "If I gave myself 30 days, could I do this?" and realized I only had to write 500 words a day, and when it sounds like that, it's really not so much, so I made a point that every day I had to write 500 words about locum tenens, and at the end of a month, I had a book. And it made me think about what I do and formulate it into something that was concrete and hopefully usable. So, I think anyone can write a book about something you know. You just have to make yourself do it and change someday into now.
So going backwards, what was it that originally inspired you to work locum tenens in the first place?
Well, I did work in a permanent position prior to doing locum tenens, and I was at a point in my career where I was somewhat restless, a little bit frustrated with the way things were going. And by chance, I met another physician—an anesthesiologist as it turns out—who had a job where she worked 6 months of the year in an academic setting and 6 months of the year doing locum tenens, and prior to that, I had never known anyone that could do locum tenens as their primary job. So I started to look into it, and I thought perhaps this would be a better way for me, at least in the interim. I was thinking I would do this for maybe a year or 2 and it would allow me to look at other practices and see how they do things differently. And so I thought, "Well, I will give myself 2 years," and I started doing it, and I found that the lifestyle suited me very well and still continues to do so.
Back in my staffing days, I did recruiting for hospitals, army hospitals, in fact, and worked with a lot of nurse practitioners, physicians and physician assistants on locum assignments, and you're right, there is a lot of terminologies that are new to a lot of the people I spoke with, such as the per diems and the travel allotments. So, what are the first steps that the audience needs to know about working in locum tenens?
Well, first, I think you have to think about why do you want to do locums or why are you thinking about doing locums. Some people approach it as, "Well, I want to work somewhere else a few times a year so that I can travel to a new place." Well, that's fine. Those are going to be the short-term, 1-week assignment somewhere. Some people say, "Well, I want to be closer to aging parents or other family members, so I am looking at something I can do on a recurring basis, perhaps, over the next few years." Well, that is a different type of assignment. And then there are those who see their own job in peril or, perhaps, have lost their jobs and they are looking for something more permanent, or at least long-term. So I think you have to figure out what your needs are initially before you start approaching the job market, because people say, "Oh, are there jobs out there?" and I am here to tell you there are thousands of jobs out there, and sifting through all that, depending on what your needs are, could be daunting. So figure out what your need is as far as locums and then think about what kind of jobs you're going to look for, because the types of jobs out there also vary considerably from short day assignments or occasional 1- or 2-day-a-week assignments to working lots of call and lots of weekends, and we will all approach it differently depending on what our needs are. If you are looking solely for lots of money, then you can take the job with lots of call. If you want to go somewhere and enjoy time with your family, you don't want those kinds of jobs. So I think you have to figure out what your needs are and just what type of job you are looking for before you ever make that call or start looking online.
What inspired the title The Road Warrior Physician?
That's perfect. That's perfect. What tips would you give someone who is going to be doing their first locum tenens assignment?
Well, as I have mentioned in the book, first of all I say, "Don't panic." People have told me, "Oh, I could never do what you do cuz I couldn't imagine going someplace new." And I say, "Well, you know how to do what you're doing, right?" And they're like "Well, of course." And I said, "Well, doing locums is like cooking Thanksgiving dinner in someone else's kitchen. You already know how to cook. You just simply have to look around and see what's slightly different about their stove, their mixing bowls, where they keep their spices and so forth. The outcomes are almost always the same. You're just going to cook thinks a little differently. And so don't panic when you're going to someplace new. Try and stop thinking about what makes it different and focus, rather, on what makes it similar." And also approach it with, you're there to help them. You're not there to teach them or tell them how to do things better. You're there to help them. And if you go in there with an open mind and willing to learn something new, you're off to a great start.
You're listening to ReachMD. I'm Tim Rush, and speaking with me today is Dr. Lumpkin from CompHealth, the author of The Road Warrior Physician. We're talking about what doctors should know about locum tenens. It sounds like locum tenens has been great for you, but this lifestyle can't fit everyone. What questions should a doctor ask himself or herself before trying locum tenens?
Well, I think as human beings we are all resistant to change to some degree. There are those who can see change and roll with the punches and move forward. That's a good fit for locum tenens. At the opposite end, there are people who the slightest variation in a routine causes them to come unglued, not a good fit for locum tenens. I stress to everyone that I meet, and in my book in particular, the biggest thing you have to have as a locum tenens is flexibility. If you're used to your rigid routine and everybody at your hospital knows exactly what you need and when you need it, you're not going to find that when you go to a locums assignment, and so if you're not able to roll with a lot of change, it's not a good fit. I don't care if you have a Nobel Prize in medicine. If you can't be flexible, locum tenens is not right for you. And so I think that probably is the first hurdle that someone has to clear if they are thinking about doing locum tenens. And then that's at the hospital. Traveling, while it sounds great, living in a hotel for weeks at a time is another challenge, and if you're used to your pillow, your bed, your kitchen, then locums is not right for you. I think what it really comes down to is flexibility. And, of course, some people think they're flexible and they're not, so I think it's always interesting to have people tell me how they view their day and how they like their workplace, and if they're used to everything being just so with nothing out of place, locums is not right for them.
Well, some of my customers are the largest national locum tenens providers, so the numbers of physicians moving into locums continues to increase, so there is no question that there are many benefits for doctors. But, what about the hospitals or the direct practices? What's in it for them?
Well, I always found it astonishing that hospitals look at locums as something that just fills a hole. It's like plugging a hole in a dike or like the old-fashioned switchboards where they're simply trying to plug something in to fill something so it will work, and they don't look at the people who are coming into their hospital for, perhaps, the first time, or even after multiple times and ask their advice about who might fit well in that job. Maybe it is that person, but if it's not, they might know someone who would, and I find that it's a resource that hospitals frequently ignore to their own peril. They keep hiring the same kind of people and wondering why they're leaving, and I've told a couple groups, "I can tell you why these people are leaving. You're hiring the wrong people." And so I think hospitals should look at locums not only as potential candidates for those jobs but also as potential resources. And I think that someone coming in new for the first time sees things that, perhaps, have been there for so long, you don't realize that those are either advantages or disadvantages to hiring. So I think that hospitals should spend more time talking to their locums and less time worrying about simply filling a spot.
I've spoken to so many locum tenens physicians that have found a new passion and a new joy for medicine in their life with the flexibility of locums. And you've got to figure happy people make great doctors, so well said. Are you a better doctor because you do locums?
I like to think so. I think, going back to the flexibility, I've had people say, "We could put you in any type of case and you don't complain; you don't raise a ruckus;" and I think it does help you do that. I think it makes you focus on the task at hand rather than, "Oh, I don't have this piece of equipment or that medicine" or what have you, and I think it does make you more adaptable. And I look at locums like camping. You know, leave no trace. Leave only footprints, take only photos. And I think that you can fit into any kind of situation, and I think hospitals and practices appreciate it. And if you're thinking about doing medical missions, there is no better training than locum tenens.
So, what's next for you, Dr. Lumpkin? Will there be a sequel to The Road Warrior Physician?
I don't know, at this point, if I will write another book. People asked me that right after the book came out, and I said, "It's kind of like asking a woman who's just given birth when she's going to have another baby." You know, I think it takes a lot of time and effort to get a book out, and I'm not sure what I would continue to write about. I don't know if I would write about locum tenens or, perhaps, maybe medical mission work, how you get into that and how locums prepares you for that. But I have found from the book that, much to my great surprise, I have found and enjoyed speaking about locum tenens, so, perhaps, it's another avenue that I might go with this topic.
Well, we've come to that time. I want to thank you, Dr. Noel Lumpkin, for joining me today and talking about your book, The Road Warrior Physician: The How-To Guide for Locum Tenens.
Well, thank you for having me. I've enjoyed it.
Yes, thank you. I'm Tim Rush. To access this episode or others, please visit ReachMD.com and Become Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening.
Many physicians have questions about locum tenens, but very few know all the answers. This how-to guide will set you on your way.
Dr. Noel Lumpkin, author of Road Warrior Physician, produces a must-read for all physicians, no matter their career stage. Through her insights, Dr. Lumpkin will equip you with the tools you need to begin your career as a locum tenens physician—from the steps to take, the benefits received, and job landscape.


SMT8 and previous version of SMT our great.
I've seen only limited use, since most of apps our single threaded and would never benefit from SMT.
It would nice to a link of apps that could benefit from SMT.
I've checked a few websites and I'm having a tough time just trying to figure out how to turn it on.
I'm also trying to figure out if different lpars may benefit more than others, or may it actually hurt performance on any.
First, I think we can safely assume that none of these lpars are a single user machine which only runs one batch program at a time using traditional I/O for ERP processing.
Many support Domino and/or WAS and many of these lpars are dedicated to just such a workload.


2016 Annual Appeal: Support our programs in SRI lanka!
It's been a big year for us. In January, we raised $17,000 in individual donations to start a model organic farm and farmer training center to combat unsafe chemical-intensive agriculture, one of the root causes of kidney disease in Sri Lanka. The project is progressing quickly- check out this video to see for yourself!
In May, we mobilized fast to support immediate and long-term community-led relief efforts from the severe floods and landslides in Sri Lanka. The floods and landslides were the country's worst natural disaster since the tsunami, taking many lives and lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and Sarvodaya mobilized quickly on the ground to evacuate people from flooded areas and provide immediate relief to families who lost their homes and belongings in the floods with food, clothing and shelter.
In October, we hosted a Mandala event in Madison, Wisconsin, bringing together members from the community in a peaceful ritual.
We brought on three new, young board members to our organization and are renewing our continued partnerships with Sarvodaya Sri Lanka and Teach for Nepal to strengthen the vision for our futures together.
Our annual appeal this year will support two projects in Sri Lanka: the Sri Tissapura Organic Farm and Farmer Training Center and the Sarvodaya Institute of Higher Learning.
The Sri Tissapura Organic Farm is close to being a self-sustaining project, with the first season of cultivation starting to bear crops that are being sold at markets locally and in Colombo. We are lucky to have a committed, talented team working on the ground to support the farm, composed of an external resource person, a farm manager, and farm assistants. Our fundraising campaign this year aims to support the community engagement goal of the farm, offering workshops and training programs to local farmers to learn chemical-free farming methods and develop their understanding of the broader global perspective on the benefits of ecological farming, both for human health and for the environment. Our campaign will also support the physical center itself, which was heavily damaged during the Civil War and has not been fully repaired since. Having one of the larger buildings repaired will allow the center to host longer trainings where farmers can come from different regions and stay for several days to learn novel ecological farming techniques. Eventually, we would like to establish a certificate program for rural youth to learn organic farming as well. Rebuilding this center is the foundation of being able to offer more in-depth trainings to truly transform Sri Lankan agriculture.
Earlier this month a training program was hosted at the farm, where 32 officers attached to the local government, police force, army officers, ministry of health officials, and school teachers learned about the Sarvodaya approach to chemical free farming and chronic kidney disease of unknown origin. Our skilled and talented resource persons from MONLAR, our partner organization, hosted the training event.
The farm recently had a visitor from Malaysia, ecological farming expert Mr. Ivan Ho. He shared strategies of non-violent farming where all living beings- plants, animals, and humans, can coexist in harmony. Mr. Ivan shared a few earth friendly farming methodologies, including the clay pot water conservation system. His visit encouraged the local farmers to transform their farming practices and ignited a deep love and sense of gratitude towards mother earth.
The Sri Tissapura center is part of the larger network and platform of the Sarvodaya Institute of Higher Learning (SIHL), Sarvodaya's new development education initiative which offers innovative, modern and forward thinking perspectives on holistic education to support a democratic and healthy country. Our annual appeal this year will also support education programs community leadership, conflict resolution and community nutrition through the SIHL. The SIHL aims to address emerging cultural and social issues through training new leaders to be able to address the challenges of solving problems in today's quickly changing world. We at Sarvodaya USA are happy and proud to support these community education programs.
Please consider including Sarvodaya USA as part of your end of year giving to support the great work that's being done on the ground to advance the health and well being of the most disadvantaged members of Sri Lankan society. We are honored to share their great work with all of you and grateful for the support of our generous donors!