Bollington is pleased to announce a number of board appointments, as part if its continued restructuring and development, following last year's MBO.
Patrick McDonnell (pictured below) has been appointed Finance Director of Bollington Group (Holdings) Limited and its subsidiaries, Bollington Insurance Brokers Limited and Bollington Underwriting Limited. Patrick has a wealth of experience in the financial services industry and has held Board and senior positions in a number of leading companies including MBNA Europe Bank Limited, LSB Limited plc and Swiss Life UK plc. Patrick's last position was as CEO and Finance Director of private equity backed Equidebt Limited.
Patrick replaces David Simpson, who is leaving the company after 7 years, firstly as Business Support Director and then as Finance Director.
Paul Hughes, formally with Direct Line, has been appointed as Direct Sales Director, with responsibility for motor trade road risks, commercial vehicles, courier and taxi retail sales and joins the Boards of Bollington Insurance Brokers Limited and Bollington Underwriting Limited.
Commenting, Paul Moors, CEO, said 'Whilst disappointed to see David leave after 7 years as a director, I am excited by the new appointments and believe Bollington will continue to grow and go from strength to strength'.
All appointments are subject to FCA approval.


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Q: Selenium or Chromedriver randomly stopped working with Python I have a few scripts in Python that use selenium and chromedriver for web scraping. They have worked fine for months but as of last night (04/06/2017) they started giving errors when I try to do anything with chromedriver. For example, these two lines of code produce a not secure error inside the browser address bar.
browser = webdriver.Chrome()
browser.set_window_position(-10000, 0)

My scripts were made using Python 3.5. I installed Python 3.6 but I am still using idle from 3.5. I installed Python 3.6 about 2 weeks ago and didn't have any problems with my scripts working. Why did this randomly start happening, which one of the two is the problem, and how can I fix this?

A: After downloading the newest version of chromedriver.exe and replacing the old chromedriver my issue was resolved. I still get a not secure error on the browser when it opens but my scripts continue to run now.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Ellis: Jenkins Saga Overkill A Good Sign
IRVING, Texas -As the official website of the Dallas Cowboys, we don't have a lot of other options than to make a big deal of it if this team's fullback gets stung by ants, or the tight ends coach hurt his ankle running a 5K.
All we cover, even in the slowest part of the year, is the Cowboys. So to us, this Mike Jenkins thing seems like a big blanking deal, to paraphrase both the real-life and cable television Vice President.
When a player who has apparently asked to be traded and has been skipping Organized Team Activities (OTAs) makes his first appearance at Valley Ranch in months, it's go time for us.
So yeah, we rolled out a camera to film him walking into the building, like he was Snookie walking into the courthouse.
And yeah, with Twitter apps in hand, we Eagle-eyed him while he jogged around the field, his only physical exertion during practice.
We were there for Jerry Jones' and Jason Garrett's respective inquisitions, as the two were peppered with Jenkins questions one after the other. Of course we were in the pack of no less than 30 reporters and cameras swarming Jenkins at his locker, only to come away with no comment.
At some point, though, even those of us at DallasCowboys.com have to put this story in perspective: Mike Jenkins is probably going to be this team's third or fourth cornerback.
It has to be a good thing that *this *story is the biggest point of concern or drama that has surrounded the Cowboys this offseason.
This isn't the All-Pro quarterback holding out, like in New Orleans. This isn't anything like New Orleans' offseason, actually.
This isn't the first-round pick getting a DUI, like in Jacksonville.
This isn't a player sucker-punching a teammate, like in Detroit.
No, again, this has been the third or fourth cornerback - albeit a pretty good third or fourth cornerback - deciding to take off voluntary practices that he wouldn't even be able to participate in because he's recovering from shoulder surgery.
What do voluntary mean, after all?
When Jenkins finally had to be here, he was. He might not have had a lot to say to the media, but he's speaking to the owner/general manager. He's speaking to his head coach. He's speaking to his position coach, and his teammates.
Jenkins has made one Pro Bowl, as an alternate, in an otherwise fairly nondescript four-year career. He is not Darrelle Revis. And yet the head coach's press conference was as frenzied on Tuesday as the one a day after Pacman Jones slugged his team-appointed bodyguard at a Dallas nightclub.
Give Garrett credit for stifling the madness with some context.
"We can keep talking about Mike Jenkins all day long, and we can try the questions a lot of different ways," Garrett said. "Now he's back in our building and we're going to coach him. He's going to be a part of our football team. We see that he's going to have a role on our football team. He's done some good things for our football team in the past few years. We anticipate him getting back healthy and being a part of what we're doing this year.
"We're focused on the players who are here throughout our offseason. They've done a great job. Now Mike's back, and we're focused on his development as well."
Focused. That's a good way to describe this offseason, when the only slightly juicy storyline hasn't been a true distraction for 89 out of the 90 players on the roster, and the one guy affected is a role player, not a cornerstone.
What's Next? Tackling the Cowboys OT Question
The best way to describe the Cowboys offensive line in 2022 is as a weekly game of 'Musical Chairs'; and they're still facing questions at OT that require answers in 2023.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Earlier this week, Rockstar released a handful of new Grand Theft Auto V screenshots that gave us a look at a few different methods of transportation that will likely be available in their upcoming game. The studio has now followed that up with three more screens, this time showcasing various recreational activities.
I don't think you need me to spell these out for you, so check out the images for yourself below.
It's amazing how little it takes from Rockstar to get fans all excited. They've proven that they can deliver stellar content on a consistent basis, so there's no doubt in anyone's mind that Grand Theft Auto V will be amazing.
The beauty of open world games like this is that there's so much to do and explore off the beaten path. Rockstar is responsible for making the open-world genre what it is today, and it looks like they're going to raise the bar yet again with GTA V.


If you have money you want to donate for charitable purposes, if there is a cause that you are passionate about supporting, or if you want to create and lead a nonprofit organization that's dedicated to making a bigger difference in the world…then you might want to find out how to create a foundation.
A private foundation is one type of tax-exempt nonprofit organization (also known as 501(c)(3) organizations) that receives special tax-exempt status from the IRS. If your private foundation qualifies, you can operate as a tax-exempt charitable organization that does not have to pay federal income tax and can collect tax-deductible contributions from donors.
There are a few important differences between a private foundation and other types of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. Your plan for starting a foundation should depend on what you want to accomplish with your foundation and how it will receive funding.
If your foundation has a focused mission that fits into one or more of these categories, it will probably qualify as meeting the standard for charitable "exempt purposes," and you should continue the process of applying to start a foundation.
Within the category of 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, there is a difference between "charitable organizations," "public charities" and "private foundations." You need to know whether your idea for a foundation is the right fit for being classified as a "private foundation" or if you should set it up as a different type of nonprofit organization.
Meanwhile, private foundations typically have just one major source of funding (such as donations from one family or corporation). Private foundations usually do not have a direct responsibility for operating charitable programs — instead, foundations help fund other nonprofit organizations and charitable work by making grants to other charitable organizations and individuals.
1. File organizing documents: This can include a corporate charter, articles of association, or other official documents to create your foundation as a legal nonprofit entity under state law.
2. Write by-laws: Your state may require your foundation to have by-laws, which are internal operating rules to govern your foundation. For example, your foundation's by-laws might specify more details about the mission and purpose of your foundation and include instructions on how your foundation will operate in a way that complies with regulations.
Violating these rules can lead to taxes and penalties against the foundation and its managers, members and contributors.
3. Get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) for your foundation: Even if your foundation will not have employees, you need an EIN to identify your foundation as a legal tax-exempt organization with the IRS. Getting an EIN will also help you set up a bank account for your foundation and otherwise manage official paperwork and compliance requirements. You can apply for your EIN online if your foundation is based in the U.S. or U.S. Territories, and if you have a valid Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) — Social Security Number, EIN from another existing business or ITIN.
Private Operating Foundation: This type of foundation devotes most of its resources to actively conducting charitable efforts for its tax-exempt activities, instead of just funding the activities of other charities or organizations. Qualifying as a private operating foundation can help your foundation avoid the excise tax on failure to distribute income.
Exempt Operating Foundation: This type of foundation has been publicly supported for at least 10 years, and can apply to qualify for exemption from federal tax on net investment income. To obtain status as an exempt operating foundation, the organization needs to file Form 8940 with the IRS.
Grant-making Foundation: This type of foundation does not do a significant amount of direct charitable activities and instead is focused on donating money and making grants.
5. Register with your state charity officials: In order to solicit charitable donations in your state, your foundation must register with one or more state agencies in the local state where your foundation was formed. Specific rules and registration requirements vary by state; refer to the IRS website for more details.
Setting up a foundation can be complex, but the rewards are worth the effort. If you follow the rules and qualify according to the compliance requirements, you can create a long-lasting foundation to support causes that you care about, give more generously in a tax-advantaged way, and leave a lasting legacy of doing good in the world.
Are you ready to start a foundation or other 501(c)(3) organization? Talk to Incfile today! We offer a variety of premium nonprofit services to help get your foundation launched, approved and on track for success.


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All Food Preparation
Food Preparation Tips and Guide
Food Preparation, Tips and Guide
Sight and Smell of Food
Sight of Food
The eyes receive the first impression of foods, the size of the serving, the shapes, colors, consistency and the presence of any outward defects. Color can demote ripeness, the strength of dilution, and even the degree of heating. Black bananas, barely yellow lemonades and scorches macaroni send visual signals that better food can be found elsewhere. Color can be deceiving. If the colors of two identical fruit-flavored beverages are different, people often perceive them as tasting different. People may judge milk's fat content by its color, but not the fat, is modified in reduces fat milk, it is often judges to be higher in fat content, smoother in texture, and better in flavor than the reduced fat milk with its original color. How food is combined on a plate also contributed to or detracts from its appeal. Imagine a plate containing baked flounder, mashed potatoes, boiled cabbage and vanilla ice cream compared to one on which are a nicely browned chicken breast, sweet potatoes, green peas, and blueberry cobbler. Most people would prefer the latter.
Smell of Food
Smell is almost as important as appearance when people evaluate a food item for quality and desirability. Although the sense of smell is not as acute in human beings as it is in many other mammals, most people can differentiate between 2,000 to 4,000 odors, while some highly trained individuals can distinguish as many as 10,00.
Since naming each of these odors separately would tax even the most fertile imagination, researchers have categorized them into major groups. One classification system recognized six groups of orders : spicy, flowery, fruity, resinous (eucalyptus), burnt, and foul. The other widely used grouping scheme consists of four categories: fragrant (sweet), acid (sour), burnt and caprylic (goaty). Regardless of the classifications, most odors are detected at a very low concentrations. Vanillin can be smelled at 2 x 10-10 mg. The ability to distinguish between various odors diminishes over the time of exposure to the smells, this perception of a continuously present smell gradually decreasing over time is called adaptation. People living near a noxious-smelling paint factory will, over time, come not to notice it, while visitors to the area may be taken aback by the odor.
On a more pleasant note, imagine the scent of chocolate chip cookies wafting through the house as they bake. How does the smell get carried to people, and why is the smell of something baking more intense than the smell of cold items like ice cream? As a volatile molecules travel through the air, some of them reach the yellowish-colored olfactory epithelium, an area the size of a quarter located inside the upper part of the nasal cavity. This region is supplier with olfactory cells that number form 10 to 20 million in a human and about 100 million in a rabbit, reflecting the difference in importance of the sense of smell between people and rabbits. The exact function of these specialized cells in the sense of smell is not well understood. Since only volatile molecules in the form of gas carry odor, and since heat converts many substances into their volatile form, it is easier to smell hot food than cold ones. Proteins, starches, fats, and sugar are relatively large molecules, which makes their aromas too heavy to be airborne. Lighter molecules capable of becoming volatile are detected by the olfactory epithelium by one of two pathways:
Directly through the nose, and/or
During eating when they enter the mouth and flow retro nasally, or toward the back of the throat and up into the nasal cavity. Who has not experienced the feeling of bubbles tingling in the nose brought on by drinking a carbonated drink while simultaneously being made to laugh unexpectedly? This illustrates the connectedness of the two areas.
Chemistry of Food Composition
Food Evaluation
Food Selection Criteria
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5 Dividend-Payers with Lower Credit Risks than U.S. Treasuries
Published Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:00 CET by DividendYields.org
When it comes to credit risk, U.S. Treasuries tend to represent the safest of investment instruments. This means that the cost of insuring U.S. Treasury debt against the possibility of default is lower than the cost of insuring credit obligations of other insurers, including corporate debt, with the cost represented in terms of spreads on credit default swaps (CDS). However, there are corporations with an impeccable record of financial stability, earnings growth through different business cycles, and consistent dividend payments that are considered less risky than U.S. Treasuries in terms of a probability of default or some other adverse credit event. This lower credit risk implies CDS spreads below those of the U.S. Treasuries and thus the lower cost of insuring the high-quality corporate debt.
Income investors who seek safety of their investments against the heightened credit risk are generally attracted by the companies with superb credit quality. These companies tend to have strong balance sheets with robust profitability and ample liquidity that point to these companies' capacities to meet their financial obligations in a timely manner. As corporate credit safety is a highly sought-after feature in the post financial-crisis investment environment, it justifies the valuation premiums that often accompany the stocks of companies with minimal credit risk.
With this in mind, here is a closer look at five long-standing U.S. corporations that pay dividend yields above those of the 10-Year Treasury bonds and carry CDS spreads below those of the U.S. government debt. These stocks represent different industries and are not necessarily defensive plays. Moreover, their returns are not necessarily less volatile than those of the general market. However, even though they are not substitutes for bonds, they offer an alternative investment opportunity for income investors prudently allocating assets in a low-yield environment.
American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) is one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., serving over 5.3 million customers in 11 states. The company has paid cash dividends every quarter since 1910. In 2012, the company earned $14.9 billion in revenues and $1.5 billion in operating profit. Its assets at the end of last year totaled $54.4 billion. AEP operates in a stable regulatory environment –with the Ohio fleet deregulation behind it– with some 85% of the company's operations regulated. It is the stability of AEP's regulated earnings and the company's strong balance sheet that support stable dividend payouts over such long periods. The company expects its dividend to grow in the future "in line with earnings from regulated operations." In fact, the company's Board recently upped its dividend payout ratio target to the range of 60%-to-70% of consolidated earnings. The company sees its EPS growing at a CAGR of between 4% and 6% through 2015, while analysts forecast the company's EPS CAGR of about 3.9% for the next five years. The utility has achieved a five-year ROE of 10.6%, which is higher than the average for its peers of 7.1%. Earlier this year, AEP made the list of Morgan Stanley's 17 best high-yield dividend plays (check out the list here, courtesy of Business Insider).
Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is the U.S. entertainment, communications, and cable products and services company. In 2012, the company reported total revenues of $62.6 billion and operating earnings of $12.2 billion. Comcast's revenues have grown at a CAGR of 12% since 2010, while its adjusted EPS has expanded at a rate of 22%. The company's cable business has shown robust performance, with the number of combined video, high-speed Internet, and voice customer subscribers increasing by 1.5 million or 3% year-over-year. The company's acquisition of the remaining 49% stake in NBC Universal from General Electric (GE) will also boost its top and bottom lines. Comcast hiked its dividend by 20% earlier this year, achieving a five-year average annualized dividend growth rate of 26%. A robust expansion in the company's free cash flow –at a rate of 12% per year since 2010– has made this possible. Going forward, the company appears to be an attractively-valued growth play, boasting a forward P/E of 17.6x (below its peer average) and long-term EPS CAGR of 17.5%. Aside from dividends, the company is also boosting shareholder value through share repurchases (valued at $2 billion this year alone).
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is the U.S. pharmaceutical and healthcare giant with total 2012 revenues of $67 billion and net earnings of $10.9 billion. J&J is the world's largest medical devices and diagnostics company, sixth-largest consumer healthcare company, and eighth-largest pharmaceuticals company. The company has a robust portfolio of new products, solid balance sheet, and growth potential, especially in emerging markets. It has achieved 29 consecutive years of adjusted earnings increases and 50 consecutive years of dividend growth. Through 2016, the company expects to grow its sales at a CAGR of between 3% and 6%. Analysts expect J&J to expand its EPS at a CAGR of 6.6% for the next five years. J&J's stock is characterized by low volatility of returns and beta of only 0.47, indicating that its returns are only as half volatile as the market's. This makes it a desirable defensive play. However, all these strong attributes have driven J&J's share price up more than 30% over the past year, boosting its valuation. Currently, the stock looks fairly priced at 15.4x forward earnings, on par with the pharmaceutical industry's multiple.
Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK), a power and hand tools company, is another S&P Dividend Aristocrat, boasting 45 consecutive years of dividend growth. In fact, the company has paid dividends for 136 straight years. Last year, SWK earned $10.2 billion in revenues and xx billion in net income. Between 2003 and 2012, the company realized a 17% revenue CAGR, 18% EPS CAGR, and 92% cumulative growth in its dividend. Its long-term revenue growth target is in the range of 10%-to-12% annually, or 4%-to-6% organically, while its long-term EPS target CAGR is in the mid-teens. While the company has failed to meet these targets last year, it has a good potential to reach the targets in the future. SWK aims to achieve these targets through a combination of organic growth, international expansions via acquisitions, expansion into adjacent markets, intensified innovation and product development, as well as streamlined manufacturing. The rebound in U.S. residential and non-residential construction, strong trends in Do-It-Yourself (DIY) markets, and reacceleration of global economic growth, including growth in emerging markets from which the company derives 52% of its sales, bode well for its future financial performance. The stock is valued at 14.4x forward earnings and boasts a five-year EPS CAGR forecast of 11.1%.
Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) is a leading U.S. rail transportation company and an operator of one of the largest railroads in North America. Last year, the company realized total revenues of $20.9 billion and net income of $3.9 billion. Driven by strong chemicals, intermodal traffic, and automotive sectors, and despite weak coal transportation volumes, the company achieved a 10% growth in EPS to an all-time quarterly record in the fourth quarter of 2012. Analysts forecast the company's EPS CAGR at 14.2% for the next five years. The overall railroad sector appears especially appealing for the periods of high oil prices, as it provides a low-cost transportation alternative to oil-intensive transportation modes. Therefore, the sector boasts large potential as global economies accelerate growth, driving oil prices higher in the future. Legendary investor Warren Buffett long before recognized the potential of railroad transportation companies and acquired Burlington Northern Santa Fe LLC in 2009. He remains bullish on the sector for the long haul. As regards UNP specifically, the company has posted a strong financial performance driven by an economic recovery and the shale oil and gas boom. It caters to several industries, including agriculture, automotive, intermodal shipping, energy, chemicals, and industrials. This company has paid dividends for 114 consecutive years.
In summary, all these stocks offer decent income with low level of assumed risk. They boast decades or even more than a century of dividend payments. Therefore, investors seeking sleep-at-night stocks with dividend yields above the 10-Year U.S. Treasury bond should refer to these stocks as part of their research for the long-term safe income plays. Still, all these stocks should be evaluated based on their risk profile, valuation, and total return potential.
Dividend/Share
Payout Ratio
American Electric Power US0255371017 92.02 23.0 4.0 2.68 8/8/2019 67 2.94
Johnson & Johnson US4781601046 130.43 21.6 6.0 3.80 8/26/2019 63 2.93
Union Pacific US9078181081 167.71 19.9 8.4 3.88 8/29/2019 46 2.32
Stanley Black & Decker US8546161097 147.12 31.3 4.7 2.76 8/30/2019 59 1.87
Comcast US20030N1019 46.97 17.9 2.6 0.84 10/1/2019 32 1.81
Articles featuring American Electric Power (AEP):
Dividend Champion And Contender Highlights: Week Of December 8
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Reasonably Valued, High Quality, High Yield Dividend Growth Stocks
I've been using a modified version of David Van Knapp's quality scoring system to rank the Dividend Aristocrats, the Dividend Kings, and the Dividend Champions. The system employs five widely used quality indicators from independent sources and assigns 0-5 points to each quality indicator, for a maximum of 25 points. A modified version of David Van Knapp's quality scoring system. My modifications include assigning 3 points to companies that don't have an S&P Credit Rating but... Read more
Dividend Champions For November 2019
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Dividend Champion And Contender Highlights: Week Of November 3
Introduction The Dividend Champions list is a monthly compilation of companies which have consistently increased their annual dividend payouts, and the latest edition may be found here. However, since this list is only produced once per month, the data in it can quickly get out of date. Furthermore, with close to 900 companies on the list, the sheer amount of data can quickly become overwhelming. In this weekly series, I highlight recent and upcoming dividend related activity for companies... Read more
There's Nothing Spooky With These 19 Upcoming Dividend Increases
Introduction This article series is designed to keep investors informed of upcoming dividend increases. For dividend growth investors, this can be an opportunity to start or add to positions prior to a new increased payout. This can be especially important for retirees who live on dividend checks. The lists I've compiled provide various stats for the stocks that are increasing their dividends next week. This list is a trimmed-down version only covering dividend increases. A full... Read more
2020 DividendYields.org - Information is provided 'as is' without any warranties.


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Failure to Adjust
How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy
A history of the last four decades of U.S. trade policies and a blueprint for how to keep the United States competitive in a globalized economy.
Book by Edward Alden
Publisher – Rowman & Littlefield
Release Date – Oct 2016
Order Print Copy
Order E-Book
Foreign policy analyses written by CFR fellows and published by the trade presses, academic presses, or the Council on Foreign Relations Press.
Read an excerpt of Failure to Adjust.
Against the backdrop of the U.S. presidential election cycle and the controversy over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, Alden shows how the collapse of the consensus on trade has been decades in the making. Using detailed historical research and drawing on his previous experience as a journalist covering the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Alden reveals that U.S. policymakers have long recognized the challenges that Americans would face in the new global economy, but mostly looked the other way.
The problem is not globalization, he writes. "The problem has been the domestic political response to globalization, which in too many ways has been deeply irresponsible. A central task of any government is to provide the tools to help people adjust and succeed in the face of economic change." However, "the story of the last half century has instead been the failure by governments to ease that adjustment," Alden says.
In Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy, Council on Foreign Relations Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow Edward Alden explains why the political consensus in support of trade liberalization has collapsed, and how to correct the course. The United States has contributed more than any other nation to writing the rules that created the competitive global economy of today, helping support stronger growth in much of the world. Yet successive U.S. administrations have done far too little to help Americans succeed under those rules, says Alden.
Failure to Adjust contends that the policies needed to help more Americans flourish in the global economy are well within reach. The book's recommendations for the federal government include building on local and regional efforts to attract and develop internationally competitive industries; introducing corporate tax reforms and streamlining regulations; enforcing trade rules to ensure a more level playing field; reforming international rules to constrain subsidies that distort trade; developing comprehensive workforce retraining plans and apprenticeships to help American workers build necessary skills; and expanding trade adjustment assistance to workers displaced by trade.
Alden argues that "with the right support from governments—federal, state, and local—the ingredients are there to build an American economy that not only competes with the best in the world but does so in a way that once again raises the living standards of more of its citizens."
A Council on Foreign Relations Book
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Reviews and Endorsements
An insightful history of worldwide economic transformation over the last 50-plus years.
This is going to sound really nerdy, but Edward Alden's new book on trade is really timely. Of course, I don't get much of a chance to read these days.
Michael Froman, Bloomberg's Best Books of 2016
Ted Alden's new book, Failure to Adjust, captures vividly the inherent tension in America's role in the postwar global economy: that between the principal architect and guardian of an open system, on the one hand, and a participant and competitor within that system, on the other. That tension cannot be removed. But in Alden's thoughtful analysis, as the global economy grows, the balance between player and referee that needed to shift in America in favor of the former has been late in coming. It is a really interesting and detailed assessment that avoids overly simple diagnoses and prescriptions.
Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate and William R. Berkley Professor in Economics and Business, New York University
Rising opposition to globalization has thrown an already polarized political environment in America into near mayhem, with our key economic partnerships hanging in the balance. Ted Alden provides a cogent and constructive analysis of the origins of opposition to economic openness that charts a viable path forward. It is essential reading for all who care about America's role in the global economy.
Gordon Hanson, Pacific Economic Cooperation Chair in International Economic Relations at University of California, San Diego, and Director, Center on Global Transformation
Ted Alden hits the nail on the head with this cogent analysis of the trade issue, its impact on American workers, our failure to meaningfully help those adversely affected and what we should now be doing to save globalization by adopting more thoughtful and far-reaching policies.
Steven Rattner, Chairman, Willett Advisors LLC
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The global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is underway, but the emergence of new coronavirus strains threatens to make the pandemic far worse before it gets better.
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China's Starring Role in Hollywood
What does it take to make a Hollywood blockbuster? Movie stars? A great script? How about approval from the Chinese government? In this episode, two guests explore the surprising role of Chinese censorship and oversight in the production of U.S. films and ask what's at stake as their presence increases.
Podcast with Gabrielle Sierra, Aynne Kokas and James Tager January 6, 2021 Why It Matters
Donald Trump's Costly Legacy
History will judge the Trump presidency to have been a consequential one, but more for its destructive effects than for its achievements.
by Richard N. Haass January 11, 2021


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The Plum Line Opinion
Opinion Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events
President Trump is deteriorating before our very eyes
By Greg Sargent
Greg Sargent
Opinion writer covering national politics
Opinion writer
THE MORNING PLUM:
Were you deeply alarmed by President Trump's performance in Arizona on Tuesday night? If so, that is understandable. Trump is getting worse. He rambled and ranted with abandon. He hinted that he will pardon Joe Arpaio. He escalated his attacks on the media, accusing them of misrepresenting his response to the violence in Charlottesville. Yet he also doubled down on his defense of Confederate monuments, claiming that "they" are trying to "take away our heritage and our history." (Emphasis added.)
All of this appeared to signal a growing contempt for the rule of law and an increasing indifference to the health of our democracy and institutions, and to his own responsibilities and duty to the public to try to calm the antagonisms unleashed in Charlottesville's aftermath. If anything, at this difficult moment of national introspection, Trump conspicuously sought to further inflame those antagonisms. Some reacted with deep panic: Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper labeled the speech "downright scary and disturbing," adding: "I really question his ability to be — his fitness to be — in this office."
But without minimizing the dangers that Trump still poses, it's worth considering Trump's act in a somewhat less alarming light, by comparing it with another, similar performance: Dustin Hoffman's powerful depiction of the public deterioration of legendary political satirist and comedian Lenny Bruce, in the movie "Lenny." And this hints at where this could — could — all end up.
It is true that Trump's performance did energize the crowd at key moments, such as when he hinted that the Arpaio pardon is coming and when he attacked the media ("CNN sucks! CNN sucks!" chanted the crowd). But The Post's Jenna Johnson captures another side of the audience's reaction with this memorable description:
As the night dragged on, many in the crowd lost interest in what the president was saying.
Hundreds left early, while others plopped down on the ground, scrolled through their social media feeds or started up a conversation with their neighbors. After waiting for hours in 107-degree heat to get into the rally hall — where their water bottles were confiscated by security — people were tired and dehydrated and the president just wasn't keeping their attention. Although Trump has long been the master of reading the mood of a room and quickly adjusting his message to satisfy as many of his fans as possible, his rage seemed to cloud his senses.
Obviously, the comparison between Trump and Lenny Bruce, as portrayed by Hoffman, is imperfect in all kinds of ways. But not in this one way. Bruce was arrested for various low-level charges, including obscenity and drug possession, and in the movie "Lenny," Hoffman depicts Bruce's later performances as public displays of increasing grievance, resentment and self-absorption over his legal plight, and deteriorating awareness of his audience.
In one of these, Bruce is muttering to himself unintelligibly as audience members shift uncomfortably and begin to leave. "Where you going?" Bruce says, despairingly. Then he slips into sardonic self-pity over his persecution for obscenity: "Hey, where you people going? Oh, come on, man! I haven't even said [expletive depicting sexual act] yet!"
In another, Bruce is reading to his audience from documents involving his legal troubles, and he is so deep in the legal weeds (and in his self-absorption) that people again begin leaving. "Oh, come on, man!" Bruce says to the departing patrons. "Where you going? No, I don't wanna do t––– and a––!"
There were hints of this sort of deterioration from Trump last night. There was the self-pity, the self-absorption, the outsize resentment and grievance. And it could get worse. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) reportedly has confided that he isn't sure Trump's presidency can be saved. Degenerating relations with congressional Republicans could imperil other pieces of his agenda, leading to more anger and frustration. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe continues, meaning more revelations lie ahead.
Last night, Trump actually read aloud from his previous comments on Charlottesville — just as Bruce did from his legal documents — to illustrate how unfair the media is being to him. It's not hard to imagine the dynamic that Johnson describes above getting worse over time, with Trump increasingly wallowing in the details of his persecution while his audiences increasingly lose interest.
To be clear, Trump still commands immense control over the news cycle, which means he could very well turn things around. And whatever is to be on that front, I don't want to minimize the dangers Trump still poses. It is horrifying that Trump continues to stoke racial division for what appear to be deeply cynical purposes (as former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon openly revealed to be the case). Trump may expand his deportation dragnet, and last night Trump threatened a government shutdown over his Mexican wall. This and the Arpaio pardon could maximize the ugliness. The attacks on the press could further erode public faith in the news media's legitimate institutional role and could conceivably end in violence. An effort to remove Mueller remains a very real possibility. Trump controls our nuclear arsenal, and he still has not faced a full-blown crisis.
Meanwhile, The Trump Show — such as the one witnessed last night — poses a threat in another way, too. It is a distraction from all of the various damage the Trump administration is doing on the deregulatory front (which Matthew Yglesias summarizes here), and from his continued self-dealing and naked profiting off of the presidency, which is itself a serious threat to the future health of norms governing the conduct of our public officials.
But for all that, further deterioration into an increasingly buffoonish and self-absorbed figure (again, with apologies to Bruce for the imperfect comparison) also remains a possibility. Hoffman may not look the part, but it's seductive to imagine an actor of his ability and depth playing it.
* TRUMP MAY FORCE SHUTDOWN TO GET HIS WALL: At the rally, Trump threatened to use the specter of a government shutdown to win funding for his wall on the Mexican border. Politico reports that this is his real intention:
Trump's vow … mirrors private comments he has made to advisers in recent days … Trump has told his advisers he will not accept a deal on other issues without money for the wall "and it has to be real money," said one senior White House official.
And recall, the White House is looking to use the "dreamers" as a bargaining chip as part of this effort. Get ready for a very ugly September.
* TRUMP RAGES AT MCCONNELL FOR NOT PROTECTING HIM: This New York Times piece got a lot of attention for reporting that Mitch McConnell privately doesn't think the Trump presidency can be saved. But also note this, from a phone call in which Trump raged at him:
He was even more animated about what he intimated was the Senate leader's refusal to protect him from investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to Republicans briefed on the conversation.
It's hard to know what's more amazing here: Trump's conviction that Congress's role is to protect him, or his belief that McConnell has let him down despite all that Republicans have done in this regard.
* GENERALS ARE PLAYING AN INCREASING ROLE: The Post has a nice look at the degree to which generals are now surrounding and influencing Trump. This, from former acting CIA chief John McLaughlin, is both instructive and worrying:
"This is the only time in modern presidential history when we've had a small number of people from the uniformed world hold this much influence over the chief executive. … They are right now playing an extraordinary role. …To some degree, Trump is playing president, and I think the whole idea of being able to command a group of warriors is deeply satisfying to him."
Putting aside the legitimate debate over whether it is desirable for generals to have so much influence over an elected leader, that seems like a pretty accurate depiction of Trump's mental state.
* ANOTHER POLL FINDS TRUMP'S APPROVAL IN THE TOILET: A new Politico-Morning Consult poll finds Trump's approval rating has dropped to 39 percent, a low point in this poll. Note this, on Trump's response to Charlottesville:
A 43 percent plurality of voters blame the white nationalist protesters most for the violence, but nearly as many, 36 percent, say both the white nationalists and the counterprotesters are equally to blame. …Among those who approve of Trump's job performance, only 15 percent assign more blame to the white nationalists. Fifty-six percent of voters who approve of Trump's job performance blame both groups equally, and another 15 percent blame the counterprotesters.
It is shocking, just shocking, that Trump supporters agree with him even when he is weakly condemning white supremacy.
* WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT JOE ARPAIO: With Trump suggesting he will, in fact, pardon Arpaio soon enough, Michelle Ye Hee Lee has a useful look at his whole history. Bottom line:
Arpaio's agency employed systemic racism in the name of immigration enforcement, targeting Latino drivers and detaining them solely based on a suspicion that the driver may be in the United States illegally. He willfully rejected the order to stop these tactics, and is now convicted of criminal contempt. He was voted out of office, but left behind a controversial legacy at the cost of county taxpayers, who are now left with a legal bill of dozens of millions of dollars.
Sounds like Trump's idea of a fine, upstanding fellow.
* ARPAIO IS NOT SURPRISED THAT TRUMP WILL PARDON HIM: Here's Arpaio's reaction to the great news:
Mr. Arpaio said he "wasn't really surprised" to hear he would likely be pardoned. "I just know him," Mr. Arpaio said of the president. "And even though everybody said he's not going to talk about it — deep in my heart, I knew he was going to say something. I had no hints, but that's who he is."
Yes indeed — this is exactly who Trump is.
* AND HILLARY CLINTON REFLECTS ON TRUMP THE 'CREEP': "Morning Joe" is previewing excerpts from Hillary Clinton's new memoir on the election, and here's a choice one, concerning Trump's space-invading tactics at the debates:
"Well, what would you do? Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly: 'Back up you creep, get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women, but you can't intimate me, so back up.'"
Let's not forget that Trump said this about the debate in question: "When she walked in front of me, believe me, I wasn't impressed."
Greg Sargent Greg Sargent writes The Plum Line blog. He joined The Post in 2010, after stints at Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine and the New York Observer. Follow


Translucent purple vinyl limited to 300 with download. Includes remix by Jason Lytle of Grandaddy.
Her Magic Wand is the brainchild of parisian Charles Braud, born as he discovered the world of computer music, a "magic wand" that enabled him to shape his songs blending noisy elements with indietronica and orchestral pop, drawing his inspiration from bands such as Slowdive, The Notwist or The Delgados.
His first album Everything At Once will be out in November. It was mixed by Stephane 'Alf' Briat (Air, Phoenix, Sebastien Tellier) and mastered by Chab (Daft Punk). It will touch on themes such as the alchemy of love, synesthesia, death, the passing of time and souvenirs fading out, and it will be infused with moments of feel-good melancholy.


text:
Entrepreneurship & Small Business (1)
Opportunity & Initiative (1)
Economics & Globalization
Soundview Executive Book Summaries® publishes summaries of the best business books of each year on economics subjects including globalization, economic policy, international trade, outsourcing, offshoring, economic trends and more. Browse our summaries to find those that will help you stay up on global business trends.
Peers Inc
How People and Platforms Are Inventing the Collaborative Economy and Reinventing Capitalism
by Robin Chase
A co-founder of Zipcar, Robin Chase, introduces the collaborative economy in which companies and governments are using the Internet's ability to facilitate collaboration by leveraging expertise, assets and resources outside their sphere of control.
The New Paradigm for Financial Markets
The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means
by George Soros
In the midst of the most serious financial upheaval in decades, legendary financier George Soros explores the origins of the crisis and its implications for the future. Soros, whose breadth of experience in financial markets is unrivaled, places the current crisis in the context of decades of study of how individuals and institutions handle the boom-and-bust cycles and dominate global economic activity. The prevailing paradigm for financial markets — that markets tend toward equilibrium an
Free Agent Nation
How America's New Independent Workers Are Transforming the Way We Live
by Daniel H. Pink
The Organization Man is dead. Long live the Free Agent. Pink explains the reasons for the development of widespread free agency and how it impacts your company and your industry.
What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade
by Michael Hammer
The author of Reengineering the Corporation presents nine core principles critical to contemporary corporate success. Among Hammer's agenda items: "managing without structure" and "creating order where chaos reigns."


text:
package uk.ac.ebi.phenotype.solr.indexer.utils;

import org.apache.solr.client.solrj.SolrServer;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import uk.ac.ebi.phenotype.service.dto.AlleleDTO;
import uk.ac.ebi.phenotype.service.dto.SangerImageDTO;
import uk.ac.ebi.phenotype.solr.indexer.beans.ImpressBean;
import uk.ac.ebi.phenotype.solr.indexer.beans.OrganisationBean;
import uk.ac.ebi.phenotype.solr.indexer.exceptions.IndexerException;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * This class encapsulates the code and data necessary to represent all of the
 * maps used to build the various phenotype archive cores. The intention is that
 * the first caller to any given map will trigger the map to be loaded; subsequent
 * calls will simply return the cached map.
 *
 * @author mrelac
 */
public class IndexerMap {
    private static Map<String, List<Map<String, String>>> mpToHpTermsMap = null;
    private static Map<String, List<SangerImageDTO>> sangerImagesMap = null;
    private static Map<String, List<AlleleDTO>> allelesMap = null;
    private static List<AlleleDTO> alleles = null;
    private static Map<Integer, ImpressBean> pipelineMap = null;
    private static Map<Integer, ImpressBean> procedureMap = null;
    private static Map<Integer, ImpressBean> parameterMap = null;
    private static Map<Integer, OrganisationBean> organisationMap = null;

    private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(IndexerMap.class);

    // PUBLIC METHODS

    /**
     * Fetch a map of AlleleDTOs terms indexed by mgi_accession_id
     *
     * @param alleleCore a valid solr connection
     * @return a map, indexed by MGI Accession id, of all alleles
     *
     * @throws IndexerException
     */
    public static Map<String, List<AlleleDTO>> getGeneToAlleles(SolrServer alleleCore) throws IndexerException {
        if (allelesMap == null) {
            allelesMap = SolrUtils.populateAllelesMap(alleleCore);
        }

        return allelesMap;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a cached map of all mp terms to hp terms, indexed by mp id.
     *
     * @param phenodigm_core a valid solr connection
     * @return a cached map of all mp terms to hp terms, indexed by mp id.
     *
     * @throws IndexerException
     */
    public static Map<String, List<Map<String, String>>> getMpToHpTerms(SolrServer phenodigm_core) throws IndexerException {
        if (mpToHpTermsMap == null) {
            mpToHpTermsMap = SolrUtils.populateMpToHpTermsMap(phenodigm_core);
        }
        logger.info("mpToHpTermsMap size=" + mpToHpTermsMap.size());
        return mpToHpTermsMap;
    }

    /**
     * Fetch a map of AlleleDTOs terms indexed by mgi_accession_id
     *
     * @param alleleCore a valid solr connection
     * @return a map, indexed by MGI Accession id, of all alleles
     *
     * @throws IndexerException
     */
    public static List<AlleleDTO> getAlleles(SolrServer alleleCore) throws IndexerException {
        if (alleles== null) {
            alleles = SolrUtils.getAllAlleles(alleleCore);
        }

        return alleles;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a cached map of all sanger image terms associated to all ma ids,
     * indexed by ma term id.
     *
     * @param imagesCore a valid solr connection
     * @return a cached map of all sanger image terms associated to all ma ids,
     * indexed by ma term id.
     * @throws IndexerException
     */
    public static Map<String, List<SangerImageDTO>> getSangerImagesByMA(SolrServer imagesCore) throws IndexerException {
        if (sangerImagesMap == null) {
            sangerImagesMap = SolrUtils.populateSangerImagesMap(imagesCore);
        }

        return sangerImagesMap;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a cached map of all IMPReSS pipeline terms, indexed by internal database id.
     *
     * @param connection active database connection
     *
     * @throws SQLException when a database exception occurs
     * @return a cached list of all impress pipeline terms, indexed by internal database id.
     */
    public static Map<Integer, ImpressBean> getImpressPipelines(Connection connection) throws SQLException {
        if (pipelineMap == null) {
            pipelineMap = OntologyUtils.populateImpressPipeline(connection);
        }
        return pipelineMap;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a cached map of all IMPReSS procedure terms, indexed by internal database id.
     *
     * @param connection active database connection
     *
     * @throws SQLException when a database exception occurs
     * @return a cached list of all impress procedure terms, indexed by internal database id.
     */
    public static Map<Integer, ImpressBean> getImpressProcedures(Connection connection) throws SQLException {
        if (procedureMap == null) {
            procedureMap = OntologyUtils.populateImpressProcedure(connection);
        }
        return procedureMap;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a cached map of all IMPReSS parameter terms, indexed by internal database id.
     *
     * @param connection active database connection
     *
     * @throws SQLException when a database exception occurs
     * @return a cached list of all impress parameter terms, indexed by internal database id.
     */
    public static Map<Integer, ImpressBean> getImpressParameters(Connection connection) throws SQLException {
        if (parameterMap == null) {
            parameterMap = OntologyUtils.populateImpressParameter(connection);
        }
        return parameterMap;
    }

    /**
     * Returns a cached map of all organisations, indexed by internal database id.
     *
     * @param connection active database connection
     *
     * @throws SQLException when a database exception occurs
     * @return a cached list of all impress parameter terms, indexed by internal database id.
     */
    public static Map<Integer, OrganisationBean> getOrganisationMap(Connection connection) throws SQLException {
        if (organisationMap == null) {
            organisationMap = OntologyUtils.populateOrganisationMap(connection);
        }
        return organisationMap;
    }

    // UTILITY METHODS

    /**
     * Dumps out the list of SangerImageDTO, prepending the
     * what string for map identification.
     * @param map the map to dump
     * @param what a string identifying the map, prepended to the output.
     * @param maxIterations The maximum number of iterations to dump. Any value
     * not greater than 0 (including null) will dump the entire map.
     */
    public static void dumpSangerImagesMap(Map<String, List<SangerImageDTO>> map, String what, Integer maxIterations) {
        SolrUtils.dumpSangerImagesMap(map, what, maxIterations);
    }

    public static Map<String, List<SangerImageDTO>> getSangerImagesByMgiAccession(SolrServer imagesCore) throws IndexerException {
            Map<String, List<SangerImageDTO>> map = SolrUtils.populateSangerImagesByMgiAccession(imagesCore);
            return map;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: how to print no blur content over a blurred div I have a webpage in which a black rectangle is the background over a background wallpaper. The black rectangle is blurred out. I want to print a NON BLURRED content such as tables and thumbnail pictures OVER this blurred out black rectangle.
In this example, I am printing hello on top of the blurred black rectangle. but the hello is also blurred. how do I not blur the H3 tag? I have the HTML and the CSS i am using.
Below is the code.

HELLO

.blackRectangle {
background-color: black;
opacity: .7;
top: 15px;
width: 1870px;
height: 900px;
position: absolute;
-webkit-filter: blur(5px);
-moz-filter: blur(5px);
-o-filter: blur(5px);
filter: blur(5px);
}

.noBlur {
    top: 30px;
    width: 1870px;
    height: 900px;
    position: absolute;
    -webkit-transform: translateZ(0);
    -webkit-filter: blur(0px);
    -moz-filter: blur(0px);
    -o-filter: blur(0px);
    filter: blur(0px);
 }

A: You can use a blurred rectangle at z-index -1 and a non blurred rectabgle at z-index 1. So the non blurred rectangle will be placed over the blurred rectange and so its contents will be displayed clearly.
HTML:

HELLO

CSS:
    .blurredRectangle {
        background-color: black;
        opacity: .7;
        top: 15px;
        width: 1870px;
        height: 900px;
        position: absolute;
        -webkit-filter: blur(5px);
        -moz-filter: blur(5px);
        -o-filter: blur(5px);
        filter: blur(5px);
        z-index: -1;
        }

    .nonBlurredRectangle {

        top: 15px;
        width: 1870px;
        height: 900px;
        position: absolute;
        z-index: 1;

    }

    .noBlur {
            top: 30px;
            width: 1870px;
            height: 900px;
            position: absolute;
            -webkit-transform: translateZ(0) !important;
            -webkit-filter: blur(0px);
            -moz-filter: blur(0px);
            -o-filter: blur(0px);
            filter: blur(0px);
     }


Leaving Records, in partnership with Stones Throw Records, will release 'The Bela Session' by Bauhaus on November 23rd worldwide on vinyl and digital platforms. 'The Bela Session' captures the first time Bauhaus recorded together, just six weeks after forming as a band, on January 26th, 1979. This is the first release of that complete recording session featuring all five tracks, three of which are previously unreleased (all track listing information is included below). This also marks the first official reissue of the single "Bela Lugosi's Dead" on vinyl for over thirty years, as well as the first time the studio recording will be officially available on digital sharing platforms. The audio has been newly mastered from the original analogue tape by Mandy Parnell at Black Saloon Studios (Björk, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin).
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is considered the original gothic rock record and a cornerstone of the specific genre. Originally released in 1979 on Small Wonder Records "Bela" failed to make the pop charts but remained a staple of the U.K. independent singles chart for many years. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" has widely influenced contemporary goth culture as well as popular culture at large. Among many highlights, a live recording of "Bela Lugosi's Dead" was the iconic soundtrack to the opening scene of 1983 horror film The Hunger (starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon); it's been covered by Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack, Nouvelle Vague, Chvrches and others; cited as an influence on authors Chuck Palahniuk and Neil Gaiman; used on Saturday Night Live's skit "Goth Talk"; and the band itself was parodied on Beavis & Butthead and South Park.
Three months after releasing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" in August 1979, the group signed with influential U.K. indie label, 4AD who released their debut album "In The Flat Field". They then moved to the larger parent company, Beggars Banquet and between 1981 and 1983 released a further three studio albums, as well as peaking at #15 with their cover of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" in the UK singles chart. After disbanding in 1983, members of the band went on to form Love And Rockets and Tones On Tail while Peter Murphy enjoyed a successful solo career.
Late 2018 will also mark the 40th anniversary of Bauhaus. To celebrate, Beggars Banquet /4AD will be reissuing records from the band's catalog on limited edition color vinyl, details to be announced. Vinyl Me Please will also offer an exclusive edition of 'The Bela Session' on red vinyl in their member store.


text:
Палеу () насеље је у Румунији у округу Бихор у општини Палеу. Oпштина се налази на надморској висини од 166 -{m}-.

Становништво
Према подацима из 2002. године у насељу је живело 529 становника.

Попис 2002.

Референце

Спољашње везе

Насељена места у Румунији
Википројект географија/Насеља у Румунији

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Головний вокзал Берліна () — найбільший і найсучасніший залізничний вокзал Європи, центральний вокзал Берліна
.
Станція управляється , дочірньою компанією Deutsche Bahn AG.
Дворівневий вокзал, збудований за проектом архітектора Майнхарда фон Геркана, налічує 14 колій (разом із коліями U-Bahn і ще двома в стадії будівництва — 18 колій). Експлуатація почалася через два дні після урочистого відкриття 26 травня 2006 року. Розташований в самому центрі міста, неподалік від будівель Рейхстагу і Федеральної Канцелярії; на місці старого Лертського вокзалу, зруйнованого під час Другої світової війни й підірваного пізніше.
Класифікується Deutsche Bahn як станція I категорії.

Станцію Лертер відкрито в 1871 році як кінцева зупинка , що сполучає Берлін з Лерте, поблизу Ганновера, яка згодом стала найважливішою магістральною лінією Німеччини у напрямку схід — захід.
В 1882 році, після завершення будівництва штадтбану (міська чотириколійна  Берліна, що обслуговує як місцеві, так і міжміські перевезення), на північ від вокзалу була відкрита менша станція — Летер-Штадтбан для обслуговування нової лінії.
Пізніше ця станція стала частиною Берлінського S-bahn.
В 1884 році, після закриття сусіднього залізничного Гамбурзького вокзалу, станція Лехтер стала кінцевою зупинкою для потягів до/з Гамбурга.

Після серйозних пошкоджень під час Другої світової війни обмежене обслуговування головного вокзалу було відновлено, але потім призупинено в 1951 році.
В 1957 році, коли залізниці до Західного Берліна перебували під контролем Східної Німеччини, Лертський вокзал було демонтовано, але Летер-Штадтбан залишився як зупинка на S-Bahn.
В 1987 році він був капітально відремонтований на честь 750-річчя Берліна.
Після возз'єднання Німеччини було вирішено покращити мережу залізниць Берліна шляхом будівництва нової , яка доповнює штадтбан що працює схід-захід.
Логічним місцем для нового центрального вокзалу вважалося Лертський вокзал.

Розташування
Станція розташована в районі , у виборчому окрузі Мітте.
На півночі розташовані Європаплац і , а на південь — Вашингтонплац і Шпрее.
На південь від станції розташовані , Відомство Федерального канцлера і Пауль-Лебе-Хаус.
На сході розташований район Мітте і Гумбольдтафен.

Опис
Довжина станції становить 430 м, хоча деякі платформи мають 80 м.

 Колії 1 — 8 є підземними та використовуються для регіонального та міжміського сполучення на магістралі Берлін Північ-Південь .
 Колії 9 — 10 підземні і будуть використовуватися для майбутньої лінії S-Bahn .
 Колії 11 — 14 естакадні і використовуються для регіонального та міжміського сполучення на Берлінському штадтбані.
 Колії 15 — 16 естакадні і використовуються для обслуговування швидкісних поїздів на штадтбані.
 Колії U1 і U2 відокремлені від головного вокзалу і використовуються для лінії U-Bahn .

Оперативне використання
Верхній рівень станції має шість колій (дві з яких використовуються для Берлінським S-Bahn), що обслуговуються трьома острівними платформами.
Нижній рівень має вісім колій, які обслуговуються чотирма острівними платформами для магістральних поїздів, а також ще одна острівна платформа для берлінського метрополітену.
Щодня станція обслуговує 1800 поїздів, а щоденний пасажирообіг оцінюється в 350 тис.

Станом на 2011 рік станція обслуговує поїзди InterCityExpress, , Interregioexpress, Regional-Express, RegionalBahn та S-Bahn.

Примітки

Посилання

 Головний вокзал Берліна  — Інтерактивна панорама станції
 Фотографії станції та її відкриття на сайті Бі-бі-сі
 Фото і відео відкриття

Споруди Берліна
Залізничні станції та платформи Берліна


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WOW! EPIC FAIL! on my part. Im going to go jump off a building now.
cibon7 we have cousin cars! lol.
I've probably posted in here already. Oh well. Old pic.
I'm glad this has been a popular thread. Let's keep it up!
Nice job getting that black piece of plastic above the sideskirt in front of the rear wheel color matched... It sticks out so much when it's left black.
btw you going to rpm the 17th?


text:
What to watch for in the most competitive election in Tanzanian history
It has been a barn-burner of an election campaign in Tanzania. We've seen high profile cross-party defections, dueling op-eds in the foreign press, mudslinging on Whatsapp, push-ups on the campaign trail, andmuch more. It has been the most vibrant campaign season since the onset of multiparty democracy in 1995. All this comes to an end on Sunday (Oct. 25), as voters will elect new leaders to govern the country for the next five years.
The question for the electorate is whether to give the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) another term in office or vote in the opposition for the first time in the country's history. Both sides arepromising change (paywall). CCM's presidential candidate, John Magufuli, a works minister in the outgoing administration, has positioned himself as someone who can get things done.
His rival, Edward Lowassa, is a former CCM prime minister who defected to the main opposition party, Chadema, in August. Running under the rubric of the opposition coalition Ukawa, Lowassa is betting that the electorate will see his experience as what's needed to propel Tanzania into the future. Both gentlemen have barnstormed the country, attracting huge crowds.
Click here to read the Quartz Africa report.
#PoliticalViolence #Elections #Tanzania #News


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Simply Invest
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By: Sam Instone
Why successful investors still shun hedge funds
The latest industry news suggests "investors return to hedge funds after six quarters of outflows…"
However, the evidence suggests successful investors still avoid them like the plague.
Simplicity versus complexity
Earlier this year, I wrote an article explaining why simple couch potato portfolios, like Vanguard's, are so successful.
They are passive, low cost and beautifully diversified.
They are, in fact, the antithesis of complex and expensive hedge funds.
But, because of a range of instinctive behavioural biases, coupled with common investing folklore…
…some investors are uncomfortable being hands off, and some believe the more complex a solution, the better it will perform.
The temptation to adjust a portfolio can be overwhelming.
The desire for complicated investments like hedge funds can be overpowering.
But, the evidence demonstrates that the cost of giving in to such temptations and desires is very high:
Warren Buffett famously said:
"It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results."
Why you should avoid doing extraordinary things
Andrew Hallam wrote an article in 2012, which I want to bring up to date for you today.
Entitled Couch potatoes crush hedge funds, Andrew compared the performance of the original couch potato portfolio, with that of arguably the world's most complicated and extraordinary portfolio.
He pitted finance writer Scott Burns' couch potato portfolio, which is a simple combination of stocks and bonds, against a fund so elite it's reserved for accredited, high net worth investors only, the Global HFRX Hedge Fund index.
Andrew demonstrated that Burns' simple passive portfolio delivered extraordinary results, beating the hedge fund in 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, and 2003.
His findings were then mirrored by a report The Economist published the same year. It compared hedge fund performance with the returns of the S&P 500:
"The S&P 500 has now outperformed its hedge-fund rival for 10 straight years, with the exception of 2008 when both fell sharply. A simple-minded investment portfolio, 60 percent of it in shares and the rest in sovereign bonds, has delivered returns of more than 90 percent over the last decade, compared with a meagre 17% after fees for hedge funds."
However, we're five years on, and hedge fund managers say they are busier than ever.
So, has the tide turned in their favour?
3 reasons why hedge funds still stink
Former Reuters columnist and finance writer Felix Salmon sums up hedge funds beautifully:
"There are huge risks involved in investing in any hedge fund: they're illiquid investments, and can blow up through bad luck or bad faith or old-fashioned bad investing at any time. In order to compensate for those risks, investors should be getting substantial excess returns. They're not. So they should stay away."
Here are the 3 main reasons why successful investors shun hedge funds:
1. Most hedge funds fail: their average life span is about five years.
According to journalist John Lanchester, out of an estimated 7,200 hedge funds in existence at the end of 2010, 775 failed or closed in 2011, as did 873 in 2012, and 904 in 2013.
2. They are lightly regulated.
Hedge fund managers defend the fact they're so lightly regulated by saying access to them is restricted to those investors who know what they're doing.
But, as Behaviour Gaps' Carl Richards says they should be restricted to those investors who can afford to lose all their money!
3. They are prohibitively expensive.
Many hedge funds operate a "2 and 20" fund charge. This means you pay 2% of whatever you've invested annually and 20% of any profits you make over a fixed benchmark to the hedge fund manager.
Some, like SAC Capital, have a "3 and 50" fund charge…
On costs, Andrew Hallam wrote:
"Fund leaders reap salaries that would satisfy a sultan, while the average hedge fund investor earns mediocre returns or worse."
Vanguard Group's founder, John Bogle, said: "You get what you don't pay for."
And New York City's public advocate, Letitia James said recently:
"Hedge funds believe they can do no wrong, even as they are losing money. If they truly cared…they would never charge large fees for failing to deliver on their promises".
Hedge funds concede defeat to Warren Buffett
The final evidence I want to present for your consideration is this…
Ten years ago, the world's greatest investor, Warren Buffett, was so convinced that cheap, passive portfolios have higher statistical odds of success, that he bet a million dollars he was right.
In 2007, New York based Protégé Partners LLC took on the bet.
Buffett said that over ten years and after fees, a cheap S&P 500 passive index fund would outperform their choice of five funds of hedge funds…
In May this year, Protégé Partners LLC conceded defeat.
Investing isn't speculating, and it needn't be a complex process to be successful.
About Sam Instone
Sam Instone, Director at AES International, is passionate about positive change and ensuring international investors get better results.
Connect with Sam Instone
Subscribe and receive our free video
The 3-step process I guarantee helps investors (just like you) get better results
Traditional financial services reward those selling products, not you. Watch our free video to learn 3 secrets to getting scientifically proven better results. By the end of it, you should feel relieved, confident, empowered and good about your future because everything begins and ends with you.
No thanks, I'm all set with my investments.
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It's been sometime now that I have spent in this RDBMS world and I know there is still plethora of things still waiting for me in here. But today I thought of compiling my tools in One Place so that it's one stop destination for DBA's working on Production Issues.
I will try to put all the counters and values or the queries required for looking into Production Issues. I will also try to document the significance of a parameter. I will alter/customize the content depending upon the feedback I have from the guests.
I will start with places I have the most issues and try to fight my fears before the D Day so that I don't have a cold feet.
Classic Question : What do I do if my Query/Report is responding slow and taking more time than ever?
Answer: There is never a right/wrong answer here. The only thing important is your approach and the answer will come eventually. The doctors first tries to identify the symptoms and then does some test and based on his experience he judges what is wrong with the patient. If the doctor has not faced the disease earlier then he will not be in a situation to prescribe any medication nor will he be able to tell what's wrong with the patient.
So the Answer will be two fold what are the parameters you will try to judge the situation on and the analysis you will do based on the data you have.
How will it help? This is a parameter which will give the awareness that whether the CPU in the system is adequate or you need more CPU to be added.
Value : The Processor Queue Length should be 0.
Significance : The Processor Queue Length as the name suggests is a parameter which tells us if there are any processes in queue waiting for the Processing. So if the Value is 0 then there are no processes waiting to be catered. You need not worry even the CPU utilization is very high if the Processor queue length is 0. What a I mean to say is there is no performance hit yet. Definitely a thing to work upon why is the CPU going high.
I know it's an old school technology and we should switch to always on like asap but then hold on to your horses causes the questions are not stopping to come very soon.
So 1st question which is the table which will show you the redo queue for the mirroring.
So basically the msdb.dbo.dbm_monitor_alerts table will have the key to your performance configuration of the mirroing setup.
There will another questions related to setup as well and I would like to address the most interesting one as of now but I promise to update this more soon.
we need to run this proc to update all the data in the distribution database monitoring tables.
The MSrepl_transactions table contains one row for each replicated transaction.
The MSrepl_errors table contains rows with extended Distribution Agent and Merge Agent failure information.
Al Time Favourite !!! Will post on the lines of Paul Randal sometime sson. May be getting Lucky Tonite !!


text:
Buy Smile Direct Club Clear Aligners Store Locator
In June, the thin, transparent plastic trays that fit over her top and bottom teeth was available in the mail. McKinney is working through the series gradually, switching the very first set for the next, and the next, as her teeth move. It'll take about 9 months in all. But after 3 months of using these trays nearly every day and night, McKinney is delighted about flaunting her brand-new smile (Buy Smile Direct Club Clear Aligners Store Locator).
Danny Menendez/ BuzzFeed News Inside one of SmileDirectClub's New York City locations. SmileDirectClub's service design seems working. Align Innovation– the business that makes Invisalign, SmileDirect's main competitor– invested $46.7 million to become SmileDirect's special provider last year, and this year invested another $12.8 million, to own a total of 19% of the company.
On the other hand, lookalikes have actually launched with similar services: Orthly, released by 2 University of Pennsylvania trainees, now offers services to customers in Philadelphia, and Honest Co. introduced in New york city this summertime. A SmileDirect client can be matched with among 225 associated dental practitioners or orthodontists in all 50 states. These oral experts remotely review client cases and after that create the aligners that SmileDirect sends in the mail.
The business declined to name any of the physician within its network, and would not supply details about its monetary relationships with them. "Basically they are collecting payments and paying us marketing costs," Fenkell stated."I believe that claim is rather phony," AAO's general counsel Dillard said. "The customers don't even see a dental expert.
(SmileDirectClub has a two-star ranking on Yelp.) And numerous expert dental professionals are alarmed that consumers never ever see a licensed doctor prior to or during their treatment."It blew my mind," Casi Stubbs, a Florida orthodontist and member of the American Association of Orthodontists, informed BuzzFeed News. Like normal orthodontists, SmileDirect's dental practitioners base their prescriptions on computer simulations of mouth scans.
"The teeth do not move biologically like they do on the computer system," Stubbs stated. Among her clients, 60-year-old Charlene Burnham, is a SmileDirect customer whose too-tight aligners cut her gums, exposing part of her tooth near the root. Burnham informed BuzzFeed News she invested a week attempting– and failing– to consult with a SmileDirect dental practitioner on the phone, then went to Stubbs for aid."They were bleeding, they were cut to the root," Burnham stated.
"I was horrified."A SmileDirect representative informed BuzzFeed News by e-mail that company-affiliated dental experts "track the client's progress throughout treatment at regular periods."The business "assists in the interactions" of consumers and dental service providers, the representative stated. "Dental providers communicate straight with clients through the customer portal and through SMS or phone when suitable or shown."In a YouTube video that's been viewed over 21,000 times considering that June, Baltimore orthodontist Jeffrey Miller cautioned individuals away from the service, saying that no orthodontist would ever recommend aligners without first taking the X-rays that SmileDirect avoids.
(The video was eliminated after this story published.)Grant Olson, a dental expert in Springfield, Missouri, told BuzzFeed News that the business's product marketing, which compares itself with orthodontist-fitted Invisalign, is misinforming. Unlike Invisalign trays, which orthodontists can enhance by sticking unique attachments on a tooth, SmileDirect's item is restricted to very slight corrections: The aligners can fix a tilt, but can't move a tooth's orientation or position along with its root.
He discussed that SmileDirect-affiliated orthodontists only authorize cases that are ideal for a remote assessment and do not require follow-up dental check outs (Buy Smile Direct Club Clear Aligners Store Locator). Laws for dentists differ throughout states, but there are some typical styles in the 36 problems sent out by the AAO: Some states consider making impressions and providing retainers to be the role of a certified medical professional, but SmileDirectClub normally supplies those services.
AAO basic counsel Dillard also informed BuzzFeed News that the business's company design incentivizes dental practitioners affiliated with SmileDirect to prescribe the trays even if they aren't required. Danny Menendez/ BuzzFeed News Although the business hasn't attracted the attention of regulators yet, client complaints are plentiful online. TL; DR: Prepare for a rough trip.
The huge bulk of consumers in these groups resign themselves to dealing with the snags because there are merely no other choices (Buy Smile Direct Club Clear Aligners Store Locator)."If you can be client, desire a budget friendly plan, SDC IS the right way to go! Having a positive mindset and being patient goes a LONG method," Melanie Masso wrote to BuzzFeed News.
For lots of other clients, the flight is a bust. Seattle resident Melissa Gulick informed BuzzFeed News that at the end of practically a year of treatment, the aligners have actually destroyed her bite: Her front teeth touch before her molars can make contact (Buy Smile Direct Club Clear Aligners Store Locator). "I'm quite annoyed– food is tough to chew now and they won't repair it!"Gulick said that after complaints to the company, SmileDirectClub agreed to continue treatment totally free.
When inquired about problems that the trays messed up customers' bites, a SmileDirect representative told BuzzFeed News: "Over 95% of our customers total treatment and sign off on their completed new smile. It is essential to remember that with any orthodontic procedure, bites will continue to shift till the treatment is completed."Another consumer, 24-year-old Drexel University trainee Kacie Durham, told BuzzFeed News that SmileDirectClub sent her a simulated treatment plan that made her teeth look even worse."It in fact made my teeth appear more uneven at the bottom," she said.
Durham returned her trays and obtained a refund. Later on, an orthodontist not affiliated with the company told her that her teeth would need to be submitted and formed prior to they might be aligned. Durham felt fooled: SmileDirect had actually authorized her for a treatment that would never have worked."If a possible consumer is unhappy with the 3d sneak peek of his/her smile, there is no obligation to buy aligners," the SmileDirectClub agent said (Buy Smile Direct Club Clear Aligners Store Locator).
Minelle Tendler, a Boca Raton orthodontist, signed up with among the most significant Facebook groups, the 11,800-member SmileDirectClub Assistance, after 2 of her clients asked about the product. In browsing the posts that appear in her Facebook feed, Tendler said that she's not seen anyone say they have actually had the ability to speak to a dental professional at the company.
"You're asking somebody who has no dental background, 'Is this going to work?'"More than as soon as, Tendler has stopped short of replying to threads on the forum. She sits on her hands since the patients are not hers. "I'm looking at the images and thinking, Oh my god, you need to get teeth gotten, don't do it."Primarily, she is fretted that individuals who are wooed by SmileDirectClub's low price aren't fully aware of the disadvantages of skipping a dental check out.
A previous variation of this short article misidentified him as an orthodontist. Align Technology owns 19% of SmileDirectClub. A previous version of this story mentioned it was 17%. Likewise, SmileDirectClub began operating in North Carolina in early October. A previous version of this story, based on an August interview with cofounder Alex Fenkell, stated that the business was not running in North Carolina.
Mail-in aligners may appear like an excellent alternative for a minor repair. But remember you're not the specialist on how very little a repair your teeth need. "It's difficult to go from something that's 90% great to make it 100% ideal; in my experience, I find that these are the harder cases," Dr.
The results of utilizing unnoticeable aligners can be exceptionally unforeseeable, since some people respond well to them and others won't. "It's really hard to monitor this on your own, because– like whatever in medicine– not everybody reacts the exact same," he states. The genuine problem comes with finding out how to fix your smile if you're not responding correctly to the retainers, he states.