text:
Moving to St Columb Major, Cornwall? What you need to know
So you are thinking of moving to St Columb Major in Cornwall? You've found some estate agents and they have told you what you wanted to hear. You've read some speil by a local councillor who says that St Columb Major is on the up an up? Now it's time for a bit of reality. Cold hard statistics culled from the Police, the Indices of Deprivation and the latest census. Is St Columb Major the land of milk and honey or are Newquay, Padstow and Wadebridge a lot better? Time to find out.
Crime in St Columb Major
Using the latest Police street crime figures for the month of November 2020 we have compiled a table of the most voilent Policing areas in and around St Columb Major. Naturally the more urban and more central areas will have a higher rate of crime, but often you can be surprised when that is not the case and that is the area you want to move to.
Indian Queens 7
Toldish 6
Fraddon 6
Ruthvoes 6
Talskiddy 4
Killaworgey 4
Black Cross 4
Colan 0
Retallack 0
Cannalidgey 0
The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for St Columb Major. These statitics are published by the government every 2-3 years. They are a measure of how likely you are to be a victim of personal or material crime in an area, such as muggings or burglary. We've collated an average rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around St Columb Major. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.
Newquay Tretherras (Best) 19695/32845
Newquay Treviglas 23747/32845
St Mawgan and Colan 24938/32845
Newquay Treloggan 25324/32845
Roche 26379/32845
Ladock, St Clement and St Erme 27020/32845
St Dennis and Nanpean 27639/32845
Lanivet and Blisland 28621/32845
St Enoder 30118/32845
St Columb Major (Worst) 30274/32845
Wadebridge - The Poor man's Padstow
Your Health in St Columb Major
If you are thinking of moving to St Columb Major, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. We've taken the healh question from the latest census to find out and how St Columb Major compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;
Cornwall (St Columb Major) 1.43% 4.87% 14.88% 33.59% 45.23%
Plymouth 1.44% 5.08% 13.95% 33.53% 46.02%
South Hams 1.11% 3.8% 13.32% 34.37% 47.41%
West Devon 1.18% 3.96% 14.28% 34.73% 45.85%
The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for St Columb Major. They measures the risk of premature death and the impairment of quality of life through poor physical or mental health, lovely! We've collated an average rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around St Columb Major. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;
St Dennis and Nanpean (Best) 12205/32845
Newquay Tretherras 12697/32845
St Columb Major 18525/32845
St Mawgan and Colan (Worst) 20904/32845
Deprivation in St Columb Major
Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average Index of Multiple Deprivation rank of all the LSOAs in the wards in and around St Columb Major. In layman's terms, this is how rough the ward is based on mutiple measures of deprivation including; employment, income, health, crime, housing and outside space.
Ladock, St Clement and St Erme (Best) 11410/32845
St Dennis and Nanpean 8346/32845
Roche (Worst) 8572/32845
Looe: Tourists are the only thing going for this town
Falmouth, the worst places have to be Old Hill and Acacia
Plymouth, ingrate central
Wadebridge – The Poor man's Padstow
Looe and the whole of frigging Cornwall is a ****** hole
Portreath: The adult and the **** chapters of the Cornish Mafia
Plymouth, it's only down from here
Saltash: behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel, jealous, vindictive town
Liskeard, Cornwall… moving here is biggest mistake you will ever make
Tags: Cornwall, Crime in St Columb Major, Estate agents in St Columb Major, Let's move to St Columb Major, Moving to Newquay, Moving to Padstow, Moving to St Columb Major, Moving to Wadebridge, Newquay, Padstow, Roughest areas in St Columb Major, St Columb Major, Wadebridge, What is it like in St Columb Major, Worst area of St Columb Major, Worst bits in St Columb Major


A sprawling 9000 sf stucco manor anchors 2 luxurious acres in a privileged setting that can be yours to rent for a month, a summer or even longer. A long driveway from one of the Hamptons most storied lanes leads to a gated entry that opens to a profusion of color surrounding this unique residence that includes dramatic great room, children's wing with 2 bedroom suites and large play area, 1st floor guest suite as well the state of the art kitchen with adjoining living room. Upstairs the expansive master wing offers sumptuous bath, office, sitting room and a large outdoor terrace. An additional bedroom completes the second floor. The finished basement has a screening room, gym and spa bath with steam room. A park-like atmosphere, including specimen trees and extensive gardens, envelops the pool, spa and cascading waterfall, all serviced by the expansive pool house with 3 baths and cabana kitchen. With all this going on plus proximity to ocean beaches expect this newly listed property to quickly find a renter.


Go to File tab > [tab]Preferences. Make sure "Automatically create unknwon variables... is ticked.
[*]Copy "GUI Custom Lightning Locker" category with "gCLL" and "gCLL VariablesGen" triggers in it.
// 2. Copy this "GUI Custom Lightning Locker" category with "GCLL" and "GCLL VariablesGen" triggers in it.
// REMEMBER! 0h0m0s means this system will do nothing for you!
// Debug mode toggle. You will see helpful messages ingame when this is "true"
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_U2U] = "(U2U Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_P2U] = "(P2U Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_P2ULoc] = "(P2ULoc Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_P2P] = "(P2P Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_P2PLoc] = "(P2PLoc Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_Fade] = "(Fade Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_ApplyTimed] = "(ApplyTimed Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_ChangeRed] = "(ChangeRed Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_ChangeGreen] = "(ChangeGreen Register) "
set msg[udg_GCLL_Type_ChangeBlue] = "(ChangeBlue Register) "
Two of these systems are far more superior than yours. I would like for you to add more features (ex: supporting between two points, between a point and a unit, adding "end point" effects) before I can approve it.
I agree, they are superior, for vJass.
I want to post to post the trigger, but I can't. Everytime I paste it to Chrome, it says "Snap, something when wrong"
No idea. Either paste it in sections or use the Plain Text Editor instead of the Rich Text Editor.
I've updated the post to include the system code and example spell.
Thanks!! I really appreciate it.
Other than an awkward data structure and mediocre demo map, I don't see anything game breaking with this system. Given that you are aiming for GUI-Friendly, forcing people to read the extremely lengthy HOW TO USE in the custom text was sort of off putting for me. I recommend updating this and maybe having very basic demos and also some more complicated ones like the Pull spell you already have added. This is honestly not the best lightning system we have, but the database is rather lacking in GUI friendly systems which I am always for. This is a good step forward, but I'm hoping you can update it with more features.
Finally a lightning system for GUI users. May I ask if there is an option call for destroying the lightning when it reach certain condition? Like when unit dies or distance broken?
Could it be that you forgot to add udg_gCLL_Counter into the Trigger "gCLL VariablesGen" to let it create automatic?
Edit: Wanted to use this System, but got a error on testing after copying the "GUI Custom Lightning Locker - Category" into another map. The Debugger said something like unknown name.
Please send me a screenshot of that error.
It's just that not copied variable which boosts upto 7 compiling errors.
EDIT: I hope someone can take care of this system code in the description.
It is an integer because it is for counting, for accuracy. With 0.03125 interval, 1s = 32 tick. So, 2h = 120m. Then , 120*60 = 7200s. Finally, 7200*32 = 230400. So, I decreased it by one in every tick.
I don't know if this is necessary. I just want to make sure the GCLL_Location is indestructible.
As I mentioned, it seems pointless.
It's thrown under Suggestions for a reason.


New cloud-based eDiscovery service offers rapid scalability with state of the art security at low cost, enabling corporate law departments and law firms of every size to meet their data management needs.
A new highly secure and cost-effective approach to eDiscovery is required to level the playing field for companies and law firms faced with daunting volumes of information. This is why we are introducing our new cloud-based eDiscovery solution called ClutchCumulus.
CLUTCH Information Management & Discovery, a unit of Morae Global Corporation, a leading provider of integrated consulting solutions for the legal and compliance functions, today introduces ClutchCumulus. This new cloud-based eDiscovery service offers rapid scalability with state of the art security at low cost, enabling corporate law departments and law firms of every size to meet their data management needs.
"The world's data will explode 10-fold to 44 zettabytes by 2020, so it's a significant challenge for our legal clients to rapidly digest the vast amount of information and find the key facts that matter the most," according to James Neath, President of the CLUTCH GROUP at Morae Global. "The problem is especially acute in litigation and corporate investigations, where timely data triage and review can make all the difference. A new highly secure and cost-effective approach to eDiscovery is required to level the playing field for companies and law firms faced with daunting volumes of information. This is why we are introducing our new cloud-based eDiscovery solution called ClutchCumulus."
Deploying in the cloud allows CLUTCH to deliver its state-of-the-art eDiscovery and global document review solutions - previously only available to the world's largest and most sophisticated financial institutions - on any and all eDiscovery projects, no matter the size or complexity.
While the cloud was once viewed as a security risk, it is now considered more secure than most on-premises solutions. Hosting on RelativityOne, which sits in Microsoft Azure, takes advantage of Microsoft's enormous investment in its security infrastructure. Microsoft has the resources to monitor hosting services 24/7, rapidly implement security updates and patches, and provide a level of redundancy and protection not available in a traditional IT environment.
Deploying in the cloud requires no infrastructure investment and puts at the client's fingertips the computing speed and power of the world's largest tech companies. It also facilitates low and flexible pricing.
Today, most organizations have begun to build an IT strategy around the cloud, while the legal function has been off-strategy. Deploying in the cloud allows the legal function to leverage and capitalize on IT initiatives and funding, setting the stage for better support and cooperation going forward.
It is often hard to predict how much computer storage is needed for any given project. Deploying in the cloud allows clients to scale up or down almost instantly, enabling projects to get started faster and be delivered at a lower overall cost.
Relativity, by far the most popular eDiscovery hosting platform, now has a cloud-based offering called RelativityOne, so there is almost no learning curve for legal and review teams. Morae Global's CLUTCH division was the first in the United States to offer Relativity One to its clients and was among the first to offer a comprehensive managed eDiscovery solution in the cloud in the UK, too.
The speed and power of the cloud can amplify the impact of state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to quickly and automatically reduce the size of data sets requiring eyes-on review, especially when deployed by a team of data and review-process experts. Speed can be increased further when leveraged by a network of global document review centers.
Clutch Cumulus delivers these benefits on matters of all sizes and complexity with a skilled project management team of seasoned lawyers. State of the art eDiscovery and global document review capabilities like these were previously available only to the biggest players who were willing to invest heavily on high volume eDiscovery projects.
For more information about ClutchCumulus, please visit https://www.moraeglobal.com/ecumulus/.
Morae Global Corporation provides end-to-end legal and compliance solutions to General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officers. Morae's team of experts is comprised of some of the most seasoned and knowledgeable professionals in the legal industry who are trusted to transform legal and compliance departments worldwide. Core service lines include CLUTCH Information Management & eDiscovery; Legal & Compliance Consulting Solutions; and Alternative Legal Services. Using performance-based management consulting and technology-enabled information, discovery, and on-demand legal services, Morae Global is redefining the business of law. Morae Global has offices throughout the United States, including in Houston, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., and internationally in London, Bangalore, Zurich and Hong Kong.
For more information about Morae Global's legal solutions, visit http://www.moraeglobal.com.


text:
Taylor Hall Injury 5-6 Months
Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers has elected to have 2012 NHL season ending shoulder surgery. He recently was hit hard in the head by Cory Sarich of the Calgary Flames and has not played again since. It is expected he is out with a concussion and now Taylor Hall has the following to say:
"Four years now. I injured it in junior and it's been wearing away. I've been playing with a pretty bad shoulder for most of this year and I'm excited to see what I can do after it's fixed."
Taylor Hall is a big part of the Edmonton Oilers' future so hopefully he can recover and be back in game shape for the 2012-2013 NHL season.
By: NHL Insider on Tuesday, March 27, 2012

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Frant Dunlany Transcending. Music you experience rather than merely listen.
Comes with a A5 insert written by Aria.
Includes unlimited streaming of Agnys via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Spring Theory is proud to announce its latest release, an LP from San Francisco-based experimental producer and label alumni Aria Rostami. Titled Agnys, it's an intensely personal and introspective reflection on friendship, loss and rebirth in our hyper-connected society. A rumination on a collaborative project started with Rostami's now deceased production partner, roommate, and friend Shawn Dickerson, it utilizes a melodic and ambient techno sound palette to take the listener on a journey that touches on the uncanny permanence that information technology lends to the tragic fragility of the human experience.
Mirroring the time distortion of the information age, and how new and old exist simultaneously on the internet, Agnys is a record that unfolds in reverse. The deep and minimalistic b-sides, "White-White," "Soroban" and "Beghilos" guide the aesthetic experience. Unified by an emotion of retrospective nostalgia, they were all created by editing and contorting aspects from a single recording made from Dickerson's piano — a dusty and detuned standup made sometime before The Great Depression that now sits in Rostami's bedroom. "This plays with both the idea of sameness (something old, something that's been done, something bland) and newness (something re-contextualized)," explains Rostami.
By contrast, the warm embrace of "Clepsydra," the symphonic dancefloor grandeur of "Seven-Segments," and sharp punchiness of "A Square Tablet Strewn With Dust" reveal Rostami's own take on the sonic structure of the B-sides. "The A-sides are a reinterpretation of the world made by the B-sides much like the B-sides are a reinterpretation of Shawn's interests and ideas. In this way, the listener works backwards to the source."
"The internet became a key player in our relationship. The web dissolved old walls of discovery and opened itself up through search terms and piracy. We were discovering electronic music we couldn't even conceive of." says Rostami. "For Agnys, I took ideas that are new, ideas that are old, and ideas that are just old enough to be recycled again and focused on certain points that I thought Shawn and I could have explored more if we had had the time."
Simply put, Agnys is a beautiful record from one of San Francisco's most talented producers. We're excited to release it, and we're very excited for you to hear it for yourself.


Surprise! Big Brother alum Christmas Abbott is pregnant.
"Well, I've always expected the unexpected in my life and this year is no different! In January I discovered I am actually EXPECTING and a whole new life would be laid out before me," the reality TV personality, 36, captioned a lengthy post that included photos of her baby's sonogram and a pic of herself reading What To Expect When You're Expecting alongside the father of her child, Benjamin Bunn, on Monday, March 5.
Fans will remember Abbott had a connection with fellow Big Brother houseguest Paul Abrahamian during season 19. Back in September, she told Us Weekly that she has "no idea" what is going on between the two of them, but she would be willing to explore a relationship with him.


FILE - Syrian Kurds from Kobani walk to the border fences as seen from the Turkish border town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 26, 2015.
Turkey's army said on Tuesday it had detained almost 800 people trying to cross illegally from Syria, including three suspected Islamic State militants, after bolstering security in border areas near where the radical Islamists hold ground.
The military said 768 people had been detained on Monday alone while trying to cross the border. The three suspected Islamic State members were sent to jail in the southern city of Sanliurfa after being detained separately on July 2, it said.
Wary of advances by both Syrian Kurdish forces and Islamic State in northern Syria, Turkey has sent extra troops and equipment to strengthen parts of its 900 km (560-mile) border as the risk of spillover rises.
Turkey has maintained an open border policy throughout Syria's conflict, absorbing close to two million refugees, but requires legitimate refugees to pass through checkpoints and be documented. The military did not say why the 768 people had been detained.
Turkey has faced criticism from some Western nations for failing to do more to stop foreign fighters crossing and joining Islamic State. It argues that domestic intelligence agencies in the West need to stop their nationals being radicalized and travelling to Turkey in the first place.
Ankara has mooted the creation of a 'secure zone' on Syrian soil to prevent a new wave of refugees crossing the border, a strategy which would be likely to require a military incursion, but has made clear it will not act alone and has been lobbying for support from the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.
Retired General John Allen, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama to build that coalition, held talks on Tuesday in Ankara with Turkish officials.
While concerned about the threat from Islamic State, Turkey also fears the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria which could further embolden its own 14 million ethnic Kurds.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday there were no immediate plans for any incursion into Syria, but said Turkey would respond if its security were threatened.


text:
College of the Ozarks | Fastweb
College of the Ozarks
University Website: www.cofo.edu
Apply Online: campusweb.cofo.edu/ics/Applications/
College of the Ozarks is a private, Christian liberal-arts college, with its campus at Point Lookout near Branson and Hollister, Missouri, United States. It is 40 miles (64 km) south of Springfield on a 1,000-acre (400 ha) campus, overlooking Lake Taneycomo. The college has an enrollment of 1,500, a student-to-faculty ratio of approximately 16:1, over 30 academic majors, and degrees in Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science.
The College charges no tuition for full-time students, due to its student work program and donations. The program requires students to work 15 hours a week at an on-campus work station and two 40-hour work weeks during breaks. A summer work program is available to cover room and board costs. The college refers to itself as "Hard Work U.", and places emphasis in character education. Its mission since its establishment in 1906 is "to provide the advantages of a Christian education for youth of both sexes, especially those found worthy, but who are without sufficient means to procure such training."
College of the Ozarks College Scholarships
Patriotic Scholarship - College of the Ozarks
$1,500 Varies See Details
C of O Book Scholarship
$300 Varies See Details
L.W. Hyer Book Scholarship
Cost of Education Scholarship
100% of tuition Varies See Details
100% of tuition
Summer Work Scholarship - College of the Ozarks
General Scholarship - College of the Ozarks
Athletic Scholarship - College of the Ozarks
Schools Near College of the Ozarks
North Arkansas College
Bryan University
University of Phoenix-Springfield Campus
Vatterott College-Springfield
Lester E Cox Medical Center-School of Medical Technology
Midwest Technical Institute-Springfield
ITT Technical Institute–Springfield
Regency Beauty Institute-Springfield
Paul Mitchell the School-Springfield
Missouri College of Cosmetology North
Mercy Hospital Springfield-School of Radiologic Technology
Academy of Hair Design-Springfield
Everest College-Springfield
Forest Institute of Professional Psychology


text:
Q: Why Matlab 2016a cannot be killed by Terminal's CTRL-C in Debian 8.5? Fig. 1 Pressing two times CTRL+C in Terminal does not act but puts two line breaks in Matlab's command line

I think there is something wrong with the keybindings. I have tried both Windows and Emacs unsuccessfully. The keybinding works in Mathematica. Debian 8.x is supported by MathWorks for Matlab so it should be supported.
Related conditions

*

*Typing CTRL+C in Matlab's prompt does not enter kill but a line break

*...

Differential solutions

*

*Open Matlab's prompt and enter exit.

*Open System Monitor and give kill and/or force kill signal to Matlab

Matlab: 2016a, 2016b prerelease
Hardware: Asus Zenbook UX303UA
OS: Debian 8.5
Linux kernel: 4.6 (backports)
Related: [could not find finally anything; most conditions are related to the condition where you type the thing directly in Matlab's prompt]
Service ticket of MathWorks: 02154064

A: MATLAB is not mathematica; it appears the programmers of MATLAB decided to either block SIGINT (the ^Cs during the startup) or installed a custom handler that emits a newline (when in command prompt mode). This is typical behavior for a shell environment.

A: The default meaning of Ctrl+C is to send the signal SIGINT. The conventional meaning of SIGINT is to halt the task that's currently running in the foreground and let the user provide new input. I'm using task in the informal meaning of whatever the computer is doing. This is not necessarily a separate process. In a program like Matlab that reads successive commands and processes them — a REPL — SIGINT is supposed to bring the user back to that program's prompt, not to kill the program. When the foreground task is a program that does one job and then exits, SIGINT is supposed to kill the program since that's the way to bring the user back to the shell prompt.
Try Ctrl+\. This sends the signal SIGQUIT, and the conventional meaning of SIGQUIT is to exit immediately and (if the system is configured for it) leave a core dump. Not all programs keep that meaning, I don't know if Matlab does.
If the kill signal keys aren't working, try Ctrl+Z to send SIGSTOP which suspends the program and brings you back to a shell prompt where you can send some other signal. When you suspend a job, the shell shows a message like
[1]+  Stopped       matlab

The number in brackets is the job number. You can use %1 instead of a process ID to send a signal to the process from that shell, e.g. kill %1 here to send SIGTERM (normal kill signal), and if that doesn't work then kill -KILL %1 (SIGKILL, the kill signal that doesn't give the application a chance).
If you can't interrupt the application to reach the shell running on that terminal, kill it from another shell running in another terminal.

A: Your shell also does not die when you type Ctrl-C. The current command line is canceled, and you get a new prompt, instead of the shell terminating and logging you out, or returning to the previous program.
A system command shell like Bash is just software; whatever it can do, any other programming language shell can be programmed to do, using the same techniques.
While a typical programming language shell is in interactive editing mode, the TTY is in raw mode and Ctrl-C is just an ordinary character.  The action of canceling the current command line can be implemented as if it were a special type of editing command, bound to the Ctrl-C key.
In addition, some programming language shells also allow the evaluation of code to be interrupted. That is usually achieved by, while code is running, restoring the TTY mode to the usual settings which map Ctrl-C to the generation of a SIGINT signal, which is handled. Somehow the handling is translated to a cancelation of the running code. An interpreter written in C might perform a longjmp to a location set up using setjmp by the interactive prompt. The SIGINT signal handler itself might just set a global variable which says "interrupt raised".  The interpreter might check this variable from time to time and turn it into an exception. That avoids the added complexity of jumping out of a signal handler.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Felipe Pérez Roque, född 28 mars 1965 i Havanna, är en kubansk statstjänsteman som var Kubas utrikesminister från maj 1999 till 2009.

Vid sin utnämning var han inte bara regeringens yngsta ledamot utan även den ende som var född efter den kubanska revolutionen 1959.

Roque är utbildad elektronikingenjör och tidigare ledare för en studentorganisation. Innan sin utnämning till minister var han Fidel Castros stabschef. Han är också ledamot i det kubanska kommunistpartiets centralkommitté.

Externa länkar
Kubanska UD:s webbplats

Kubas utrikesministrar
Män
Födda 1965
Levande personer
Personer från Havanna

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


"The International School of Flanders is a truly international school. We have a very cosmopolitan staff and student body with over 90 nationalities represented. The majority of our students and staff are expatriates. We do have local students and teachers too, and try hard to incorporate Belgian culture into our curriculum. I think local students come to the school because it offers them an opportunity to complete their education in English, while being exposed to a variety of cultures.
There is a strong sense of community at the school and the dynamic between leadership, staff, students and parents is wonderful. Working at ISF is like working with extended family; communication is open, honest, and always constructive. I love the fact that the school is an ever-changing environment. Most government schools tend to have pattern to them in the way they are led and operate. An international school is an evolving creature in the sense that there are many external factors that impact the school. As an international school leader, it's important to be adaptable and very creative when it comes to problem solving. This is one reason I continue to work at international schools, as I really enjoy finding solutions to problems.
I previously worked at an international school in the Middle East. The approach to teaching was more authoritarian, partly due to the size of the school I was leading. At ISF the approach is collaborative, and I enjoy this because I believe every member of the team has valuable input to offer. I have also found that the students here are more inclined to want to learn skills, are more content, and do not fixate on the final grade.
I hope to gain valuable European experience from my position here, and to be in a better place to become the Headmaster of a leading international school in the future. I have had many new experiences at ISF. This is the first time I am working in a Google for Education school, and technology is fully integrated in everything we do. This has an immense impact on the delivery of our curriculum and preparing students for life. It's also the first time that I am not working in a purpose-built facility, and I must say, it has a great deal of charm to it. The school is set in beautiful grounds with vast green play areas and I like to watch the squirrels running around during summer!
I moved here from a Council of International Schools (CIS) accredited school and ISF is a member school currently seeking accreditation. This provides me with a challenge; because the school is already excellent, it is not simply a case of mirroring my previous experiences but finding how to slightly adapt certain elements for the accreditation process. As ISF is a not-for-profit school, managing budgets plays a big role.
My partner moved with me to Belgium and is also working at ISF as a primary teacher. She is enjoying the experience. I do not have children but Belgium certainly is a very family-friendly environment to be in. The people are polite and helpful, and it's a very safe country.
It was quite a shock adapting to the taxes in Belgium! I moved from a tax-free country, so this was something that had an immediate impact. Needless to say, salaries in Europe do not compete with those of the Middle East but I believe the quality of life is much better in Europe. Belgium has a lot of bureaucratic red tape, but ISF has been wonderful helping me to navigate this.
Brexit hasn't affected our school yet as I think multinationals are still awaiting final decisions. We do have British teachers and students and I hope that whatever is decided, it will not affect them negatively.


Washington, DC—Consumer confidence in conducting business and protecting personal data online is threatened every day by phishing scams. In an initiative led by the National Consumers League (NCL), law enforcement, financial services and technical industries have joined forces to combat this threat. The group today issued a "call to action" with the release of a paper outlining key recommendations that form a comprehensive plan for combating phishing more effectively.
Phishing is a large and growing problem, in which identity thieves pose as legitimate companies, government agencies, or other trusted entities in order to trick consumers into providing their bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personal information. In 2005, phishing scams ranked 6th in Internet complaints to NCL's Internet Fraud Watch program and the scams continue to dupe consumers. A May 2005 consumer survey by First Data found that 43 percent of respondents had received a phishing contact, and of those, 5 percent (approximately 4.5 million people) provided the requested personal information. Nearly half of the phishing victims, 45 percent, reported that their information was used to make an unauthorized transaction, open an account, or commit another type of identity theft.
NCL's new report, the result of a comprehensive three-day brainstorming retreat organized by the Washington-based consumer advocacy organization last September, makes multiple recommendations on how to combat it.
Provide greater support for consumer education, using clear, consistent messages and innovative methods to convey them.
Sponsorship for the initiative was provided by the American Express Company, First Data Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation. The recommendations were developed by retreat participants representing financial services firms, Internet service providers, online retailers, computer security firms, software companies, consumer protection agencies, law enforcement agencies, consumer and ID theft victims organizations, academia, and coalitions such as the Anti-Phishing Working Group and the National Cyber Security Alliance. Peter Swire, C. William O'Neill Professor of Law at the Moritz College of Law of the Ohio State University, wrote the report for NCL.
In the next phase of this project, NCL is forming working groups and inviting organizations and experts who are concerned about phishing to examine how the anti-phishing strategies in the report can be adopted on a widespread basis. "We all need to work together in a systematic approach if we want to have a significant impact on the tidal wave of phishing that is hitting consumers and hurting legitimate organizations," said Grant.
To obtain a copy of "A Call for Action," click here.


text:
Comic Book Author
FebruaryFeb 8, 1914
Jan 18, 1974 (age 59)
Comic Book Author#5
Born in 1914#14
First Name Bill#35
February 8 Author#5
Aquarius Author#35
Famous for co-creating DC Comics' Batman character with artist Bob Kane, he also made major contributions to the development of Green Lantern. He was not recognized for his work until after his death but was awarded posthumous membership in both the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame.
Following his graduation from The Bronx, New York's DeWitt Clinton High School, he sold shoes before becoming a ghostwriter for Bob Kane's Clip Carson and Rusty comic strips.
He penned an episode of the Batman television series and also contributed to the screenplays of the movies The Track of the Moon Beast, The Green Slime, and Death Comes to Planet Aytin.
Raised in both Denver, Colorado and New York, New York, he grew up with sisters named Gilda and Emily and was the son of Tessie Finger and the Austrian-born Louis Finger. With his first wife, Portia, Bill Finger had a son named Fred; his second marriage was to Lyn Simmons.
Fellow DC Comics artist Jerry Robinson created the annually presented comic book writers' Bill Finger Award in Fingers' honor.
Bill Finger Popularity
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physical address. Always do your homework. Check the company status with the Better Business Bureau, as well as with the Department Consumer Protection Agency in your state. Ensure the company is fully insured and that you receive a written contract for your purchase.


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text:
Ryder Steven Kinsey
Ryder Steven Kinsey, age 16, of Tecumseh, passed away Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.
Ryder Steven Kinsey, 16, of Tecumseh, passed from this life Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019, in Tecumseh.
He was born Oct. 2, 2003, to Steven Brian and Autumn Elizabeth (Anonsen) Kinsey in Oklahoma City.
Ryder was raised in Tecumseh and was currently a sophomore at Tecumseh High School.
He played baseball growing up, but decided to pursue his passion for wrestling. Ryder's passion for wrestling and being a "bread-a-tarian" drove his faithful workout regimen. He loved music and played the drums in the Tecumseh High School Band for two years with his brother. Ryder loved football and was currently on the football team.
He loved the outdoors, car naps, showers, being silly and his miniature dachshund, Nugget. He especially loved spending time with his brothers, sister, and his family. Ryder was an amazing young man who had a big compassionate heart and was a known as a "patter." He was always giving everyone a gentle, encouraging, and loving pat on the shoulder. Ryder, affectionately known as "Red Ryder," is dearly loved and will be truly missed by all those who knew and loved him.
He was preceded in death by his great-grandparents, Kenneth and Jackie Kinsey and James and Virginia Long; and his uncle, John Spear.
Those left to cherish his sweet memories are his loving parents, Brian and Autumn Kinsey of the home; his loving sister and two brothers, Emma Kinsey, Riley Kinsey and Rowdy Kinsey of the home; grandparents, Steve and Judy Kinsey of Tecumseh, and Ronda and Mike Thrasher of Shawnee; five aunts, April Anonsen of Moore, Amber Spear of Shawnee, Peggy Billiott of Shawnee, Tina and Joe Glasgow of Earlsboro, and Michelle Kinsey of Shawnee; and many cousins, loving friends and extended family.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to First United Bank in c/o: the Ryder Kinsey Memorial Fund.
Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 15, at Cooper Funeral Home.
Service will be at 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 16, at Tecumseh High School Alumni Building with Tanner Newman and Destry Newman of Life Church Shawnee officiating under the direction of Cooper Funeral Home of Tecumseh.
To share memories, or to sign the guestbook online, go to www.cooperfuneral.com.


text:
Madhuranombarakattu () is a 2000 Indian Malayalam-language drama film directed by Kamal and written by Raghunath Paleri, starring Biju Menon and Samyuktha Varma. The music was composed by Vidyasagar. The film won the Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film.

Plot
Vishnu is a govt school teacher who is travelling with his children Unni and Maya after getting a transfer from his hometown. The bus meets with an accident and Unni dies at spot. Vishnu's wife Priyamvada is jailed after committing a murder. She kills someone who was molesting Vishnu's sister, Sreekutty.

Vishnu hides the death news of Unni from Priya.Vishnu further tells the villagers that his wife is admitted in the hospital following the accident. In the new place, Vishnu along with his friend Shekharan, Headmaster and others catches Kaatumaakan who with his friends use to steal hens, kill them and make the school untidy and hands him to the police. In the jail, Kaatumakan learns of Priyamvada, who is Vishnu's wife and plans for a revenge.

After some days, Priyamvada is released from the jail. They together hopes for a better life. But Kaatumakan returns and tortures the villagers. On a high windy day, Maya leaves with the neighbours in a horsecart. Priya wanders in search of Maya and gets noticed by Kaatumakan. He tries to hurt Priya, but the high wind makes the school building to collapse and it falls on Kaatumakan, killing him. Vishnu finds frightened Priya in the corner of the school and hugs her. Vishnu, along with other villagers share the happy news of the death of Kaatumaakan.

Cast
 Biju Menon as Vishnu
 Samyuktha Varma as Priyamvadha
 Master Ashwin Thampi as Unni
 Baby Manjima as Maya
 Sreenivasan as Sekharan
 Oduvil Unnikrishnan as Head Master
 Kavya Madhavan as Sunaina
 Sarath Das as Iqbal
 Nedumudi Venu as Bhagavathar
 Mala Aravindan as Abdulla
 Vimal Raj as Kattumakkan
 Augustine as Jail Warden
 Thalaivasal Vijay as Kalki Parameswar
 T. P. Madhavan
 K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Mullathatha
 Sindhu Shyam as Seetha
 Megha as Sreekutty
 Master Vignesh as Hilal

Awards
 Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film
 Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress - Samyuktha Varma
 Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Artist -

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack contains 6 songs, all composed by Vidyasagar and Lyrics by Yusuf Ali Kecheri.

References

External links

2000 films
2000s Malayalam-language films
2000 drama films
Films directed by Kamal (director)
Films scored by Vidyasagar
Indian drama films


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text:
Q: How can I do a specific sort using Kotlin? I have this ArrayList in Kotlin :
a = ArrayList<String>()
a.add("eat")
a.add("animal")
a.add("internet")

And I would like to sort the elements of my ArrayList by frequency of "e" eg I would like to have a new ArrayList such as :
a[0] = "animal" // there is no e in animal
a[1] = "eat" // there is one e in animal
a[2] = "internet" // there is two e in internet

I thought to use Collections.sort(a) but like my sort is specific it won't work...
Do you have any ideas ?
Thank you !

A: You can also do this without converting each String to a CharArray first (as in the currently the accepted answer), which I don't know why you'd do:
a.sortBy { it.count { it == 'e' } }

Plus, you might want to name nested its:
a.sortBy { word -> word.count { character -> character == 'e' } }

A: Writing on my phone so the syntax might not be exactly correct, but something like:
a.sortBy { it.toCharArray().count { it == 'e' } }


text:
Q: Passing multiple values in single parameter Let's say I have this function:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION test_function(character varaying)
  RETURNS integer AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
some_integer integer;
begin
   Select column2 from test_table where column1 in ($1) into some_integer;
end;
Return some_integer;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE COST 100;

And I want to call it like this:
Select * from test_function ('data1', 'data2','data3');

Of course, it cannot be done this way, because Postgres tries to find function with this name and three parameter which doesn't exists.
I tried to put quotes around commas but in that case parameter is interpreted wrong:  data1', 'data2','data3, like one string.
Is there a way to put multiple values in parameter so IN clause can recognized it?

A: (Your function wouldn't be created. RETURN after END is syntactical nonsense.)
A function with a VARIADIC parameter does exactly what you ask for:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION test_function(date, date, VARIADIC varchar[])
  RETURNS SETOF integer
  LANGUAGE sql AS
$func$
SELECT col1
FROM   test_table
WHERE  col3 > $1
AND    col4 < $2
AND    col2 = ANY($3)
$func$;

db<>fiddle here - demo with additional parameters
Old sqlfiddle
Call (as desired):
SELECT * FROM test_function('data1', 'data2', 'data3');

Using a simple SQL function, plpgsql is not required for the simple example. But VARIADIC works for plpgsql functions, too.
Using RETURNS SETOF integer since this can obviously return multiple rows.
Details:

*

*Pass multiple values in single parameter

*Return rows matching elements of input array in plpgsql function

*VARIADIC parameter must be the last input parameter

*Return rows matching elements of input array in plpgsql function


text:
Kan. abortion doc killed in church; suspect held
WICHITA, Kan. – Dr. George Tiller, who remained one of the nation's few providers of late-term abortions despite decades of protests and attacks, was shot and killed Sunday in a church where he was serving as an usher.
The gunman fled, but a 51-year-old suspect was arrested some 170 miles away in suburban Kansas City three hours after the shooting, Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz said.
Outsmarted
High finance vs. human nature.
by John Lanchester June 1, 2009
The world of banking, it's becoming clear, operates according to different norms from those of the rest of the business world. Take the offsite corporate weekend. Normal behavior on these occasions consists of punishing the minibar and nursing consequent hangovers, hitting on long-fancied colleagues, and putting embarrassing items, ideally pornographic videos, on one another's hotel bills. For form's sake, a few new ideas are cooked up, and then gradually allowed to die a natural death when everyone is back at work and liver-function levels have stabilized. In June, 1994, when a team from J. P. Morgan went on an off-site weekend to Boca Raton, they conformed to normative behavior in certain respects. Binge drinking occurred; a senior colleague's nose was broken; somebody charged a trashed Jet Ski and many cheeseburgers to somebody else's account. Where the J. P. Morgan team broke with tradition was in coming up with a real idea—an idea that changed the entire nature of modern banking, with consequences that are currently rocking the planet.
The new idea was based on an old one, that of the swap. Say you're in the grocery business, and feel gloomy about your prospects. Your immediate neighbor is in the stationery business, and he feels gloomy about his prospects, less so about yours. You get to talking, and one of you hits on a brilliant idea: why not just swap revenues? You take his earnings for the year, and he takes yours. The actual business doesn't change hands, making the swap, in banking terminology, "synthetic." The first currency swap took place in 1981, and allowed I.B.M. to trade surplus Swiss francs and Deutsche marks for dollars held by the World Bank. The two institutions exchanged their obligations to bondholders and their bond earnings without actually exchanging the bonds. The deal, brokered by Salomon Brothers, was worth two hundred and ten million dollars over ten years and ushered in a whole new field of finance. As Gillian Tett tells it in her book "Fool's Gold" (Free Press; $26), by the time of the Boca Raton off-site, swaps had become a roaringly successful feature of the banking world: the volume of such interest-rate and currency derivatives was worth twelve trillion dollars, more than the entire U.S. economy.
USA Today's Latest Scare Story on the Deficit
Suppose that President Obama announced tomorrow that he was going to increase spending on the military by an amount equal to 10 percent of GDP ($1.5 trillion a year or $6 trillion over the course of his presidency). This would not affect USA Today's calculation of debt burdens at all. Suppose that he announced that he would eliminate the corporate income tax and institute a special zero tax bracket for incomes over $100,000. This would also increase annual deficits by about $1.5 trillion. This change also would not affect the deficit as highlighted by USA Today in a front page story.
USA Today's deficit does not take account at all of projections of future income tax revenue or projected spending in most government programs. It only considers commitments to a narrow set of retirement programs and Medicare and it only counts the projected payments of taxes designated for these programs by people already in these programs.
When I'm 65: A Retirement Timeline
—By Anna McCarthy
1636 Plymouth enacts first pension law for colonists injured while fighting Indians.
1776 During Revolutionary War, US promises annuities to generals, war heroes, and those disabled in battle, in part to curtail desertions in future wars.
1862 Civil War leads to first full-fledged pension system for war vets.
Security Blanket: How Social Security Can Save Us All
Thank god, Bush failed to privatize Social Security. Now it can help to rescue the economy.
—By James K. Galbraith
it's not widely enough appreciated just how hard this economic crisis is going to be on the old. Why? Because unlike the working population, they are often, well, no longer working. And while the laid off are, of course, in deep trouble, those who hold on to their jobs in a depression do fairly well. Their costs (like gasoline) tend to fall more than their incomes. That means real wages rise, as indeed they have, thus far, in this crisis.
But the elderly tend to live off their assets. These include homes, already down by nearly 30 percent nationally and much more in certain parts of the country. They include corporate stocks, often in 401(k) accounts, down by 50 percent or so, so far. They include cash and bonds, which earn the interest rate—enough said. And there's not much else. A sharp decline in any one of these would be a problem; the simultaneous crash of all three is a calamity for the ages—and the aged.
Who Shredded Our Safety Net?
—By James Ridgeway
LIKE MOST PEOPLE whose quality of life depends upon the fluctuations of an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or other acronym-soup retirement account, I was born long before such things existed. It's easy to forget, now that more than half of us have been made shareholders, that until well past the middle of the 20th century, most people had nothing to do with the stock market: Wall Street was for the wealthy and the reckless. It was a world most Americans didn't understand and, after 1929, didn't trust. Some lucky people had pensions, but few had the privilege of even thinking about retirement. They were too busy trying to survive the present—which in my childhood meant the Great Depression and then World War II.
I spent the war years in Washington, DC, where my father had a minor position in the Roosevelt administration. After school, my brother and I spent most of our time running around the streets, trying to get the air-raid wardens to give us a scrap of nylon parachute, or maybe even one of their cast-off World War I helmets, before the blackout drill began. One evening, my mother called us into the dining room and solemnly presented each of us with a $25 war bond. That was my first contact with the world of investment. Compared to a piece of parachute, it was a real downer.
Pension Privateers
How the boss absconded with your benefits.
—By David Cay Johnston
john snow won't have to worry about his retirement. When he left the csx railroad to become George W. Bush's second treasury secretary, he took with him a $2.5 million annual pension. The figure was based on 44 years of employment at csx, never mind that Snow had been there for only 25 (during which, incidentally, he brutally cut safety and maintenance, to the point where a jury awarded a widow $50 million in punitive damages after a derailment—money paid by the taxpayers because of a little-known law that insulated Snow and his company from the costs of his egregious judgment). That kind of boost is unheard of for the rank and file, but not at all uncommon for corporate executives and owners.
Snow's case is typical of the way corporate executives have, for the past 35 years, managed to gild their retirement benefits even as they hollowed out workers' pensions.
What One Stimulus Buck Could Do
Can this architect's "14x" plan simultaneously slash CO2, create millions of jobs, and save local government?
—By Michael Mechanic
Fri May 29, 2009 9:45 AM PST
Okay, quick: Which portion of the US economy consumes the most energy?
Nope. It's not transportation. Not manufacturing either. The correct answer is the building sector, which guzzles about three-quarters of the nation's electricity and half of our overall energy—and is responsible for almost half of America's carbon emissions.
The crusade for a Christian military
When Sergeant Jeffery Humphrey and his squad of nine men, part of the 1/26 Infantry of the 1st Infantry Division, were assigned to a Special Forces compound in Samarra, he thought they had drawn a dream duty. "Guarding Special Forces, it was like Christmas," he says. In fact, it was spring, 2004; and although Humphrey was a combat veteran of Kosovo and Iraq, the men to whom he was detailed, the 10th Special Forces Group, were not interested in grunts like him. They would not say what they were doing, and they used code names. They called themselves "the Faith element." But they did not talk religion, which was fine with Humphrey.
Katha Pollitt: Amber Waves of Blame
Can we please stop talking about feminism as if it is mothers and daughters fighting about clothes? Second wave: you're going out in that? Third wave: just drink your herbal tea and leave me alone! Media commentators love to reduce everything about women to catfights about sex, so it's not surprising that this belittling and historically inaccurate way of looking at the women's movement--angry prudes versus drunken sluts--has recently taken on new life, including among feminists. Writing on DoubleX
.com, the new Slate spinoff for women, the redoubtable Linda Hirshman delivered a sweeping attack on younger feminists for irresponsible partying, as chronicled on Jezebel.com, a Gawker-family blog devoted to "Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without Airbrushing." Likewise, a silly "debate" over whether Sex and the Single Girl did more for women than The Feminine Mystique followed the release of Jennifer Scanlon's Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown. As Naomi Wolf wrote in the Washington Post, "The stereotype of feminists as asexual, hirsute Amazons in Birkenstocks that has reigned on campus for the past two decades has been replaced by a breezy vision of hip, smart young women who will take a date to the right-on, woman-friendly sex shop Babeland." Pick your caricature.
What's wrong with parsing feminism along a mother/daughter divide? Everything.
First of all, it's chronologically off. If second wavers are those who made the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and '70s, they are not the mothers of today's young feminists but their grandmothers. Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Barbara Seaman and Del Martin are dead. Adrienne Rich is 80, Robin Morgan is 68. Gloria Steinem, still fabulous, celebrated her seventy-fifth birthday on March 25. The wave construct obscures the perspective of women ten or even twenty years younger, like, um, me--in 1966, when NOW was founded, I was a junior in high school--or Susan Faludi (b. 1959), bell hooks (b. 1952) or Anna Quindlen (b. 1952).
Frank Rich: Who Is to Blame for the Next Attack?
AFTER watching the farce surrounding Dick Cheney's coming-out party this month, you have to wonder: Which will reach Washington first, change or the terrorists? If change doesn't arrive soon, terrorists may well rush in where the capital's fools now tread.
The Beltway antics that greeted the great Cheney-Obama torture debate were an unsettling return to the post-9/11 dynamic that landed America in Iraq. Once again Cheney and his cohort were using lies and fear to try to gain political advantage — this time to rewrite history and escape accountability for the failed Bush presidency rather than to drum up a new war. Once again Democrats in Congress were cowed. And once again too much of the so-called liberal news media parroted the right's scare tactics, putting America's real security interests at risk by failing to challenge any Washington politician carrying a big stick.
Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL and FELICITY BARRINGER
To change the bulbs in the 60-foot-high ceiling lights of Buckingham Palace's grand stairwell, workers had to erect scaffolding and cover precious portraits of royal forebears.
So when a lighting designer two years ago proposed installing light emitting diodes or LEDs, an emerging lighting technology, the royal family readily assented. The new lights, the designer said, would last more than 22 years and enormously reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions — a big plus for Prince Charles, an ardent environmentalist. Since then, the palace has installed the lighting in chandeliers and on the exterior, where illuminating the entire facade uses less electricity than running an electric teakettle.
In shifting to LED lighting, the palace is part of a small but fast-growing trend that is redefining the century-old conception of lighting, replacing energy-wasting disposable bulbs with efficient fixtures that are often semi-permanent, like those used in plumbing.
Thomas Frank
The GOP's Feigned Outrage
It takes chutzpah to protest what you've created.
The Tilting Yard: Gangs of D.C.
Power is sexy in the nation's capital.
Republicans vs. Bureaucrats
You can't starve government and blame it too.
Let's Move Their Cheese
We can get better bank management for a fraction of the cost.
Digby:Panic Artists
I have been desperate for someone other than bloggers to say this for years. Here's Richard Clark:
[L]istening to Cheney and Rice, it seems that they want to be excused for the measures they authorized after the attacks on the grounds that 9/11 was traumatic. "If you were there in a position of authority and watched Americans drop out of eighty-story buildings because these murderous tyrants went after innocent people," Rice said in her recent comments, "then you were determined to do anything that you could that was legal to prevent that from happening again."
I have little sympathy for this argument. Yes, we went for days with little sleep, and we all assumed that more attacks were coming. But the decisions that Bush officials made in the following months and years -- on Iraq, on detentions, on interrogations, on wiretapping -- were not appropriate.
Zoellick Warns Stimulus 'Sugar High' Won't Stem Unemployment
By Timothy R. Homan
May 30 (Bloomberg) -- World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned policy makers that fiscal-stimulus plans are insufficient to turn around the "real economy" and rising joblessness threatens to set off political unrest across the globe.
"While the stimulus has given an impulse, it's like a sugar high unless you eventually get the credit system working," Zoellick said in an interview yesterday with Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital with Al Hunt." "When unemployment increases, that's probably the most political combustible issue."
U.S. minimum wage hike a stimulus to economy: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A higher U.S. minimum wage is providing a cushion to the economy when it is most needed, according to a report released on Thursday.
The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think-tank based in Washington, said recent rises in the minimum wage have acted as a "stealth stimulus," preventing the worst recession in generations from spiraling out of control.
Paul Krugman: The Big Inflation Scare
Suddenly it seems as if everyone is talking about inflation. Stern opinion pieces warn that hyperinflation is just around the corner. And markets may be heeding these warnings: Interest rates on long-term government bonds are up, with fear of future inflation one possible reason for the interest-rate spike.
But does the big inflation scare make any sense? Basically, no — with one caveat I'll get to later. And I suspect that the scare is at least partly about politics rather than economics.
First things first. It's important to realize that there's no hint of inflationary pressures in the economy right now. Consumer prices are lower now than they were a year ago, and wage increases have stalled in the face of high unemployment. Deflation, not inflation, is the clear and present danger.


text:
COVID-19 to cost world tourism no less than $22 billion: WTTC
February 28, 2020 - 18:0
TEHRAN – The global outbreak of the new coronavirus, known as COVID-19, will cost world tourism at least $22 billion owing to a drop in spending by Chinese tourists, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Director said on Thursday.
"It is too soon to know but the WTTC has made a preliminary calculation in collaboration with (research firm) Oxford Economics which estimates that the crisis will cost the sector at least $22 billion," Gloria Guevara told El Mundo daily, AFP reported.
"This calculation is based on the experience of previous crises, such as SARS or H1N1, and is based on losses deriving from Chinese tourists who have not been traveling in recent weeks," she said, adding, the Chinese are the tourists who spend most when they travel.
The loss figure, which equates to about 20.2 billion euros, is the most optimistic scenario envisaged by the study which was published on February 11 by Oxford Economics, taking the hypothesis of a 7.0 percent drop in overseas trips by Chinese nationals.
But the losses could more than double, reaching as much as $49 billion if the crisis lasts as long as the SARS outbreak, which erupted in November 2002 and was brought under control in July 2003. And it could spiral to $73 billion if it lasted longer than that, Oxford Economics said.
The economies most likely to suffer would be those most dependent on Chinese tourism, such as Hong Kong and Macau, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, researchers found. On Wednesday, the WTO urged countries to avoid taking health measures that would cause "unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade" saying travel restrictions needed to be proportionate to ensure they did not have "negative repercussions on the tourism sector".
The New York Times on Friday announced that over 83,000 people in at least 53 countries have been infected. "More new cases have been recently reported outside China, where the outbreak began in December than within in the country. China enforced a lock down of 700 million people to control the spread of the virus."
"European and Asian markets tumbled on Friday, following Wall Street's plunge on Thursday as investors became even more concerned about the potential harm to worldwide economic growth from the spread of the newly emerged coronavirus."
AFM/MG
Will the coronavirus cause a major growth slowdown in China?
Beijing envoy says will make every effort to expand Iran-China tourism ties
World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
Gloria Guevara


Whether you're a full-time parent or just a casual babysitter, if you have ever had the pleasure (not!) of caring for a fussy newborn, then you know just how draining the endeavor can be—especially when it comes to bedtime. Fortunately, there are plenty of techniques that you can try to help get that little one snoozing in no time.
Today's hack comes to us from a Michigan woman by the name of Lauren Session. Recently, the 31-year-old mom was taking care of her newborn niece A'mire while her sister was in the hospital.
Like anyone thrust into a situation like that, Lauren had a bit of a tough time adjusting to the infant's schedule, especially when it came to bedtime. That being said, the aunt did have quite the trick up her sleeve.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the auntie recalls the events that led her to this particular parenting epiphany.
We feel you, girl! There's nothing worse than being dead tired while dealing with a cranky baby.
Eventually, the incessant crying led the aunt to remember a trick that she used to do when her own child couldn't sleep. "I then remembered when my daughter was a baby and had a fussy moment, I would go into the bathroom and run the bathtub water and that would soothe her," Lauren says.
Lucky for us, the resourceful auntie turned on her camera to show the rest of the world this smart hack—even before she knew whether or not it would work. Can you guess what happened next?
A'mire isn't just an infant with a super cool name; as you've probably surmised, she's a babe who really loves the sound of running water—and she's not the only one. Believe it or not, a good percentage of newborns are comforted by white noise or rushing water sounds.
In fact, a study conducted in 1990 showed that, from a group of newborns aged 2 to 7 days old, a whopping 80% fell asleep within the first 5 minutes of white noise being turned on.
Researchers think that infants respond so favorably to the sounds because the tones are rather similar to what both the outside world as well as the inside of the mother's womb sound like in utero. Makes sense!
OK, enough with the details! Without further ado, here is the lovely Aunt Lauren putting her sweet niece to sleep with a little help from the bathroom sink. You just have to see how quickly the adorable A'mire falls into the "land of nod" once that faucet turns on!
We can't wait to hear what you have to say about this resourceful bedtime hack. Have you ever tried this with your baby before? If so, how did it work out? Do you know of any others that you would like to share?


For busy people like us, there is no such thing as a holiday weekend. To me (Cathy) world news and international political problems, Ebola, etc are far more urgent and important than Van Loon Commons. And of course, they come after my family.
In the past 6 months, Jim and I have lost his mother, been blessed with Cathy's first grandson, had a son with a knee replacement at 21 and Jim had open heart surgery in mid September. Being who we are and how we are; we made our planned trip to VLC on 10/3, 16 days post surgery for him and enjoyed 2 of the 4 days on the beach.
Today, was one of our son's birthdays, which with 7 kids, spouses and now grandkids, cover many calendar days. Tomorrow, I will post additional emails, videos or other commentary which takes more time than you can imagine to sort through, convert or upload, such as to You Tube. Any techies who are owners (or interested parties) with necessary skills will be appreciated.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized on October 11, 2014 by cathyhutton.


text:
Q: Prove that if $0\le p_n \lt 1$ and $S:=\sum p_n \lt 1$, then $\Pi (1-p_n) \ge 1-S$. Prove that if $0\le p_n \lt 1$ and $S:=\sum p_n \lt 1$, then $\Pi (1-p_n) \ge 1-S$.
I'm having real trouble proving this inequality. I'd greatly appreciate any help.


Many couples who know their marriage is over will actually put off a divorce because they believe that it is better for the children if they stay together. However, in many cases, it is the exact opposite. Divorce is rarely seen as a good thing, but it can actually provide benefits that an unhappy marriage never could, which is especially true regarding your children.
The key is to manage the conflict between you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse. The conflict is what caused all the problems in the first place. See the divorce as an end to that drama, instead of something bad that is happening to you.
Your children will notice if things go badly, but they will also notice if things go smoothly. In the interest of minimizing any damage to the children and yourselves, talk with your spouse about how to make the divorce as conflict-free as possible.
For a little motivation, take a look at the top four positive effects that a conflict-free divorce can have on children.
Stress is the #1 cause of emotional and physical problems. If the tension is high in a home where the parents are not happy being with each other, that tension spreads through the whole family and causes a great deal of stress. It takes its toll on everybody in different but harmful ways.
Choosing to stay together for the children only increases this tension and stress. Feeling trapped makes you feel like a caged animal, and it does not give you as much of a chance to be the attentive parent you want to be.
After many families split, everybody goes through the initial shock and adjustment. At that time, a lot of children actually start to thrive without the buildup of tension that was always present before.
Once you have released yourself from the confines of an unhappy marriage, you open yourself up to the possibility for a better mate. If you diligently work to make sure the divorce is healthy for both you and the other parent, you begin to build strength and a sense of self-worth.
Your new lease on life will help you attract a better partner. Your children watch and learn from the decisions you make. They will see how ending a bad relationship and finding one that is healthier and better for you is worth it in the long run.
They will see your strength as you move on with somebody you can enjoy life with. They will benefit from a lighter feeling of living a better life with a new person. And the most valuable lessons for them involve seeing what makes a good relationship and why ending a bad one is worth it.
If you set the divorce up in such a way that you and your co-parent work together, the children will see the value of boundaries, which are essential during a successful divorce. If you show your children that you can consistently enforce them, they will reap far more benefits than you could possibly imagine.
Your children will learn how to resolve conflicts with other people in their own lives. They will also find out that it is okay to reject a situation that they do not feel comfortable with, and they will see that sticking to boundaries positively affects everybody in the family.
This point is an extension of boundaries, but it goes even further. Divorce is not an easy decision, and it causes a lot of turmoil. No matter how smooth you try to make this transition, it shows the children that making tough decisions to improve their lives is worth it.
It shows a strong amount self-esteem and a willingness to do what you have to do for a more well-adjusted life. It teaches them that it is not selfish to put themselves first in a healthy way, which involves them believing that they are worthy of happiness.
They get to know you as a person, rather than part of a couple, so they will see you as an individual. This compartmentalization helps them pull more from each parent. It can have a huge impact and actually make them more well-rounded than if you had stayed together and compromised more than you wanted to.
4) It Increases Their Ability to Adapt.
Your children get to see that big challenges do not result in the end of the world. They see you pick yourself up, move on, and get stronger. This example rubs off on them and increases their resiliency.
They follow your lead. If you move in a positive direction and learn from divorcing your co-parent, they will see that bad things happening can actually lead to things getting better. In fact, the best lessons they can learn is to face problems head on and see how this tactic can improve their lives.
Difficult decisions never come with easy answers. If your marriage is no longer making anybody in the family happy, it might be time to consider divorce as a possibility. If you maneuver this situation well, everybody in your family could end up better off.
As you consider your options, talk to a divorce coach and see how they can help make the transition go more smoothly for your finances and your family.


Walsh C. of E. Junior School is linked to St Peter's Church in Ash, which is in the Diocese of Guildford.
We have close links with the church and the cathedral, and children have opportunities to visit both.
Father Keith comes into school regularly for collective worship.
Volunteers from St Peter's helped us to run another 'Still Space' in school. We set up a range of reflective activities, giving children and adults calm, quiet, thinking time to consider themselves and others ... and the big questions. Again feedback was positive, and this will become an annual event at Walsh Junior. Adults were astounded at the children's spirituality and their living out of our school values.
Volunteers from St Peter's helped us to run our first ever 'Still Space' in school. We set up a special area in school and invited half a class at a time to come and enjoy being still for a while. There were a variety of activities to help children pause, think, reflect and pray - whichever they wanted to do. The response from children, volunteers and staff was overwhelmingly positive, and it's something we hope to repeat in the future. Children demonstrated that our school values are important to them as they showed compassion, thoughtfulness, kindness, respect as well as astounding us with their many spiritual responses.
Our children contributed a range of creative memorial pieces for the 1914-2014 exhibition and reflection at St Peter's Church. All of our children had the opportunity to look at the exhibits and reflect on those who gave their lives to protect ours., and Year 6 took part in a Remembrance Day service on 11th November.


text:
Home | Leadership | Are the Chinese that much better than us?
Are the Chinese that much better than us?
Children of cleaners in Shanghai outperform the sons and daughters of UK doctors and lawyers in global maths tests, according to the OECD. But is the reason for this down to good teachers, the Chinese culture, or something else entirely?
string(52) "Do we really need to look abroad for better schools?"
string(56) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/do-we-need-to-look-abroad/"
string(274) "Like an exciting holiday souvenir that doesn't look quite the same on the shelf at home, ideas plucked from more 'successful' education systems like China or Finland rarely have the intended impact here in the UK. So why, asks David Cameron, do policymakers keep doing it?"
string(372) "... Chinese culture, or something else entirely?library.teachingtimes.com/articles/are-chinese-better-than-us2. The Leaning Tower of PISA tests – Gove was adamant that Chinese schools were the model to follow. Yetin actual fact, the Chinese would much prefer an education system like ours! Sue Lyle reports on an ..."
string(6) "better"
string(4135) "2016].3. Pickett, K. and Wilkinson, R. (2010) The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. London:Penguin Books.4. Seddon, J. (2008) Systems Thinking in the Public Sector: The Failure of the Reform Regime… anda Manifesto for a Better Way. Axminster: Triarchy Press Ltd.Knowledge trails1. Are the Chinese that much better than us? – Children of cleaners in Shanghai outperform the sons anddaughters of UK doctors and lawyers in global maths tests, according to the OECD. But is the reason for thisdown to good teachers, the Chinese culture, or something else entirely?library.teachingtimes.com/articles/are-chinese-better-than-us2. The Leaning Tower of PISA tests – Gove was adamant that Chinese schools were the model to follow. Yetin actual fact, the Chinese would much prefer an education system like ours! Sue Lyle reports on an enlighten-ing trip to the Hunan Province. [Available with subscription to Creative Teaching & Learning].library.teachingtimes.com/articles/leaning-tower-pisa-testsMy final principle is consonance and, at this point, I should be honest and admitthat I gathered these, magpie style, a long time ago and should probably be givingcredit to someone else for inspiring me. If anyone can give me the reference, I willreadily atone for my sin!Consonance is where one is clear about one's values, vision and intent, and plansfrom these, but takes account of external demands and pressures. Success comes fromworking towards the external demands rather than starting from these. My favouriteexample was in the early days of implementing the 5-14 Curriculum in Scotland. The firsttwo guidelines to appear were for English language and mathematics, and the instructionwas that schools should implement the guidelines for their weaker area and then moveto the remaining one. One of the schools that I was working with at the time took adifferent path. Their priority was to make learning more active, so their approach was tofocus on problem solving in the mathematics document and the talking and listeningelement of the English language guidelines They had identified these as the aspects thatwould support their stated priority. It worked. The staff did not see 5-14 as an impositionas some others did. If anything, they saw it as a support. It was implemented with energyand commitment, and the other aspects were then seen as consistent and coherent.We can't base change on these principles when we are basing it on educationaltourism and souvenir hunting. At the risk of facetiousness, how many of us havebrought home that drink that tasted wonderful on holiday, possibly after a numberof other drinks, and only recently purged it from the cupboard? How many of us haveartefacts and instruments that seemed amazing when we were there, but remainneglected once we are here? Is there an analogy here for educational ideas, approachesand practices?It would be myopic not to look beyond our borders, but we should make sure thatwe are doing as much learning as we can from our nearest neighbours where contextsare most similar and the chances of things taking root are greatest. We should alsomake sure that we have understood fully why something has worked in its country oforigin and then really considered what it would mean to implement it here.Otherwise, feel free to travel, just don't bring me anything back.David Cameron is an Independent Education Consultant working across theUK and internationally. Formerly, he was a teacher, school leader, adviser and,eventually, a Director of Children's Services.https://reformscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bydiversemeans1.pdfhttp://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/apr/11/expert-teachers-ok-plateau-professional-developmenthttp://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/apr/11/expert-teachers-ok-plateau-professional-developmenthttp://library.teachingtimes.com/articles/are-chinese-better-than-ushttp://library.teachingtimes.com/articles/leaning-tower-pisa-tests.htm"
string(7) "chinese"
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Do we really need to look abroad for better schools?
string(48) "Collaborative Problem-Solving: PISA Results 2015"
string(53) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/problem-solving_271117/"
string(230) "This OECD report shows that girls are much better than boys at working together to solve problems, following the world's first global tests on collaborative problem-solving skills.
Leadership Briefing 12.03 (135)"
string(436) "... to originalsource documents.COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING: PISARESULTS 2015KeywordsCollaborativeproblem-solving, skills,PISA, students,group, workingtogether,gender, socialbackground,academic tests,teamworkSummaryThis OECD report shows that girls are much better than boys at working together to solveproblems, following the world's first global tests on collaborative problem-solving skills.TSome 125,000 15 ..."
string(5658) "Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that's new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING: PISARESULTS 2015KeywordsCollaborativeproblem-solving, skills,PISA, students,group, workingtogether,gender, socialbackground,academic tests,teamworkSummaryThis OECD report shows that girls are much better than boys at working together to solveproblems, following the world's first global tests on collaborative problem-solving skills.TSome 125,000 15-year-olds in 52 countries and economies took part in the test, which analyses forthe first time how well students work together as a group, their attitudes towards collaboration and theinfluence of factors such as gender, after-school activities and social background.As might have been expected, students who are high achievers in academic tests are also likely to bebetter at problem solving with other people.They are likely to have the skills in interpreting information and complex reasoning that will help themwith any kind of problem solving.The same holds true across countries. Top-performing countries in academic tests, such as Japan,South Korea, Singapore, Estonia, Finland and Canada, are also high performers at collaborativeproblem solving.But it's not always the case. Chinese students, who do very well in maths and science, are onlyaverage in their collaborative skills.Five years ago, PISA carried out tests on individual problem-solving skills. These showed that boystended to do better in most countries. But when the element of collaboration is added to the problemsolving, girls outperformed boys in in every country. In the UK this gender gap is one of the largest.Girls show more positive attitudes towards relationships, meaning that they tend to be more interestedin others' opinions and want others to succeed.Boys, on the other hand, are more likely to see the benefits of teamwork and how collaboration canhelp them work more effectively and efficiently.Disadvantaged students are more likely to see the value of teamwork than their advantaged peers.They tend to report that they prefer working as part of a team to working alone, and that they thinkteams make better decisions than individuals.Schools with more diversity in their student intake are also more likely to be associated with bettercollaborative skills, at least relative to performance in the academic disciplines.The classroom environment seems to influence how well students work together.Week Commencing 27th November 2017http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/pisa-2015-results-volume-v_9789264285521-en#.WhV0QDdpFPY#page4http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/pisa-2015-results-volume-v_9789264285521-en#.WhV0QDdpFPY#page4Leadership BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that's new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.When students have a lot of communication-intensive activities – such as taking part in classdebates or arguing about science questions – they are more likely to have positive attitudes towardscollaboration.Where teachers are supportive and have more positive relationships with students, this also is morelikely to be linked to higher levels of working together.Schools can identify students who are socially isolated and provide social activities where they canbuild relationships – and they can work harder to prevent bullying.So teachers can make a difference in encouraging such co-operation and making schools places thatsupport collaborative behaviour.Parents need to play their part too. For example, students scored much higher in the collaborativeproblem-solving assessment when their parents showed an interest in school activities.What happens outside school is important, with social, or perhaps anti-social, influences.Students who use the internet for chatting or social networking tend to better at collaborative problemsolving. But students who play video games seem to do worse, even after considering social andeconomic factors.UK Key Findings: ■ The United Kingdom's students perform even better in collaborative problem solving than theiraverage or above-average performance in science, reading and mathematics would suggest. ■ Roughly one in eight students (12%) in the United Kingdom achieves Level 4, the top level ofproficiency in collaborative problem solving. These students can carry out advanced problem-solving tasks with high collaboration complexity, maintain an awareness of group dynamics,and take the initiative to perform actions or make requests to overcome obstacles and resolvedisagreements. On average across OECD countries, only 8% of students can perform at thislevel. ■ Just over one in five students (22%) in the United Kingdom perform below Level 2. On averageacross OECD countries, 28% of students perform below Level 2. These students are at best ableto complete tasks with low problem complexity and limited collaboration complexity. They tend tofocus on their individual role within the group, and might be able to enact plans when prompted todo so. ■ The observed variation in students' performance in collaborative problem solving is roughly 17%higher in the United Kingdom than it is on average across OECD countries, meaning that thereis a wider gap between high and low performers in"
Collaborative Problem-Solving: PISA Results 2015
string(57) "Editor's Comment – PISA: Time for a little scepticism"
string(32) "Creative Teaching & Learning"
string(44) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/ctleditorial1/"
string(288) "The PISA test results gave our political and education leaders another opportunity to criticise British schools. But, as Sue Lyle points out on page 62, the picture is much more complex than it at first might seem. The schools in Shanghai that did so well and were held up as ..."
string(364) "... a long way behind Asian countries.Like athletic training, Chinese education is drill, drill, practice, practice. Students in the US, Matloff reminds us, have much better things to do with their time, including leading world popular culture and starting up multi-national internet companies. As anyone who has met Chinese ..."
string(389) "The PISA test results gave our political and education leaders another opportunity to criticise British schools. But, as Sue Lyle points out on page 62, the picture is much more complex than it at first might seem. The schools in Shanghai that did so well and were held up as such shining examples had recently dismissed, at 14 years old, all but 20 per cent of their populations."
string(5491) " CTL ISSUE 4.3The PISA test results gave our political and education leaders another opportunity to criticise British schools. But, as Sue Lyle points out in her article 'The Leaning Tower of PISA tests', the picture is much more complex than it at first might seem. The schools in Shanghai that did so well and were held up as such shining examples had recently dismissed, at 14 years old, all but 20 per cent of their populations.  What was left was a 20 per cent cohort of children who represented the academic elite of the area, and possibly the country. It is analogous to the grammar schools here, which Wilshaw has bravely refused to allow to expand in Kent, on the grounds that they are 'stuffed full of middle-class children' and would in no way improve social mobility.On top of this selectivity, the Shanghai student elite are, to quote Norman Matloff, an American Professor also expressing some scepticism of the results, academic athletes who are trained to pass tests – including the PISA tests. America had the same sort of results as the UK, with us middling in the league tables, a long way behind Asian countries.Like athletic training, Chinese education is drill, drill, practice, practice. Students in the US, Matloff reminds us, have much better things to do with their time, including leading world popular culture and starting up multi-national internet companies. As anyone who has met Chinese headteachers will tell you, they are desperate for some of the more creative pedagogy that takes place in the UK.Even former Premier, Wen Jiabao, Matloff points out, has complained about China's rote-memory approach to education. And Chen Lixin, an engineering professor at Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi'an, has warned that China produces students who can't think independently or creatively, and have trouble solving practical problems. He wrote in 1999 that the Chinese education system 'results in the phenomenon of high scores and low ability', an observation germane to PISA results. In the 2009 tests, 'students scored low in independent reading strategies, meaning they rely on teachers' instruction on what to read,' according to the Shanghai Daily.In the United States, as in the UK, a complicating factor is socioeconomic class. Interesting research in the US has found that test scores in states such as Utah, Iowa and Nebraska, which don't (yet) have a large underclass, are similar to those of the top Asian countries. In 2011, compilation of the PISA data showed that the white (read 'middle-class and up') students in Washington, D.C., scored much higher in maths than students in Hong Kong and Taiwan, two of the highest international scorers.Matloff ends his critique of the PISA test results by pointing out that an Economic Policy Institute study shows that, after socioeconomic data are accounted for, the adjusted ranking for the US is much higher than the raw scores indicate, and it's a safe bet that the same would be true for the UK.High scoring, low ability children might ring a bell to many of you. It is very much the direction our system is moving in… Gove's main education project has been to roll back the weak, but valiant attempts to make UK education relevant to a modern British society and a modern intellectual property-based economy, opting instead for more 'traditional', more academic exams and tests, more emphasis on facts, an abandonment of project work and a downgrading of art, music, design and technology, and a skills-based approach to learning.This all seems to have been done under the banner of 'The Glorious Past', regardless of how well that glorious past really served our national interests. Alongside the PISA test results, a new and disturbing report has been issued about the chronic under-productivity of our workforce. There are lots of theories about this, none of which has to do with laziness – the British work longer hours than any of their Western European counterparts.The first main theory to emerge is that capital investment has been lower – due to a risk-averse elite and an over-reliance on the finance sector and other services. The second is that our industry is failing to use its intellectual talent more seriously than any other advanced nation. The result is that UK managements are full of poor problem-solvers and are failing to introduce new work-process innovations. The second theory is linked, but is even more of an economic time-bomb… It suggests our schools might be teaching the wrong subjects, in the wrong way.Linking our teaching, learning and assessments to our economic needs is an idea far beyond the capacity for Gove or even the Labour education spokespeople… whoever they are. But the Americans, Singaporeans and, one expects shortly, the Chinese, are radically re-organising their curriculum and assessments to stress learning in depth, higher order thinking, collaborative project work, problem-solving and creativity.In 2013, we were frogmarched in the opposite direction. Will 2014 be any different?To access articles from Creative Teaching & Learning Magazine:Please Log in.To view the latest issue of Creative Teaching & Learning, please go to the Online Publications page or Click here for the direct link.Alternatively, you can subscribe here. Call our sales team for the best rate: 0121 224 7599"
Editor's Comment – PISA: Time for a little scepticism
string(30) "PISA: Time for some scepticism"
string(48) "https://www.teachingtimes.com/ctl-4-3-editorial/"
string(64) "Editorial from Creative Teaching & Learning issue 4.3 (Dec 2013)"
string(13) "TeachingTimes"
string(5156) "The PISA test results gave our political and education leaders another opportunity to criticise British schools. But, as Sue Lyle points out in this Creative Teaching & Learning (issue 4.3), the picture is much more complex than it at first might seem.The schools in Shanghai that did so well and were held up as such shining examples had recently dismissed, at 14 years old, all but 20 per cent of their populations.What was left was a 20 per cent cohort of children who represented the academic elite of the area, and possibly the country. It is analogous to the grammar schools here, which Wilshaw has bravely refused to allow to expand in Kent, on the grounds that they are 'stuffed full of middle-class children' and would in no way improve social mobility.On top of this selectivity, the Shanghai student elite are, to quote Norman Matloff, an American Professor also expressing some scepticism of the results, academic athletes who are trained to pass tests – including the PISA tests. America had the same sort of results as the UK, with us middling in the league tables, a long way behind Asian countries.Like athletic training, Chinese education is drill, drill, practice, practice. Students in the US, Matloff reminds us, have much better things to do with their time, including leading world popular culture and starting up multi-national internet companies. As anyone who has met Chinese headteachers will tell you, they are desperate for some of the more creative pedagogy that takes place in the UK.Even former Premier, Wen Jiabao, Matloff points out, has complained about China's rote-memory approach to education. And Chen Lixin, an engineering professor at Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi'an, has warned that China produces students who can't think independently or creatively, and have trouble solving practical problems. He wrote in 1999 that the Chinese education system 'results inthe phenomenon of high scores and low ability', an observation germane to PISA results. In the 2009 tests, 'students scored low in independent reading strategies, meaning they rely on teachers' instruction on what to read,' according to the Shanghai Daily.In the United States, as in the UK, a complicating factor is socioeconomic class. Interesting research in the US has found that test scores in states such as Utah, Iowa and Nebraska, which don't (yet) have a large underclass, are similar to those of the top Asian countries. In 2011, compilation of the PISA data showed that the white (read 'middle-class and up') students in Washington, D.C., scored much higher in maths than students in Hong Kong and Taiwan, two of the highest international scorers.Matloff ends his critique of the PISA test results by pointing out that an Economic Policy Institute study shows that, after socioeconomic data are accounted for, the adjusted ranking for the US is much higher than the raw scores indicate, and it's a safe bet that the same would be true for the UK.High scoring, low ability children might ring a bell to many of you. It is very much the direction our system is moving in… Gove's main education project has been to roll back the weak, but valiant attempts to make UK education relevant to a modern British society and a modern intellectual property-based economy, opting instead for more 'traditional', more academic exams and tests, more emphasis on facts, an abandonment of project work and a downgrading of art, music, design and technology, and a skills-based approach to learning.This all seems to have been done under the banner of 'The Glorious Past', regardless of how well that glorious past really served our national interests. Alongside the PISA test results, a new and disturbing report has been issued about the chronicunder-productivity of our workforce. There are lots of theories about this, none of which has to do with laziness – the British work longer hours than any oftheir Western European counterparts.The first main theory to emerge is that capital investment has been lower – due to a risk-averse elite and an over-reliance on the finance sector and other services. The second is that our industry is failing to use its intellectual talent more seriously than any other advanced nation. The result is that UK managements are full of poor problem-solvers and are failing to introduce new work-process innovations. The second theory is linked, but is even more of an economic time-bomb… It suggests our schools might be teaching the wrong subjects, in the wrong way.Linking our teaching, learning and assessments to our economic needs is an idea far beyond the capacity for Gove or even the Labour education spokespeople… whoever they are. But the Americans, Singaporeans and, one expects shortly, the Chinese, are radically re-organising their curriculum and assessments to stress learning in depth, higher order thinking, collaborative project work, problem solving and creativity. In 2013, we were frogmarched in the opposite direction. Will 2014 be any different?"
PISA: Time for some scepticism