The auction lasted from 29 January until 7 February. Four companies - Dense Air, Salt, Sunrise and Swisscom - had applied to participate, and all applicants were admitted and participated in the auction. While there was media speculations about a possible fourth market player from the UK, Dense Air ultimately did not purchase any frequencies.
Five frequency blocks of 5 MHz each in the 2600 MHz band as well as parts of the 700 and 1400 MHz bands remain unsold. The latter are so-called additional downlink frequencies, which can be used in the future for increased data download capacities. The un-allocated frequencies will be re-tendered at a later date.
The frequencies are awarded for 15 years.
The frequency allocation was carried out by means of clock auction. This auction format has allowed bidders to simultaneously bid on frequency blocks in all frequency categories to be awarded.
With bid constraints (so-called spectrum caps), ComCom has ensured that all mobile operators have been able to acquire a wide range of 5G frequencies at affordable prices.


Insurance. It's a pretty boring subject, right? Well, probably yes, but while it might be pretty low down on the interest scale it's also important. A lot of the time you'd probably never think about insurance – it's just a weight off your mind. It's one less thing to worry about. However the trouble comes if you don't buy it or you buy cover that's not right for you or your business. In the event that things go wrong, the financial implications can be significant.
At Trade Direct Insurance, our customers are tradespeople. Builders, plumbers, electricians, painters & decorators, carpenters, and kitchen & bathroom installers etc. The list goes on. We know that you're busy people, often working 6 or 7 days a week, so your time is precious.
We've been insuring people like you for over 30 years. During this time we've developed a deep understanding of the trade and construction industry. This means we can offer a range of products designed to meet your needs.
This range of products includes Public Liability insurance, Van Insurance, Self-Build Insurance and many more besides. In fact, we sell 50 different products, and work with nearly 30 insurers, from AXA, Allianz and Aviva to Zurich.
Over the coming weeks, we'll use our knowledge to bring you an extensive range of insurance jargon buster articles. They'll be plainly written articles about the type of products available on the market. They'll also include some of the things you should think about when looking for insurance.
In this series of insurance jargon buster articles, we're going to provide you with straightforward, no-nonsense information about the key things to look out for when researching or buying insurance. The information we provide is not specific to the products we sell, or the insurers we work with. As much as we might want to help you choose one of our products, we can't recommend that you buy a particular product or cover.
As well as the main products that get advertised, such as Public Liability insurance, we'll look at some of the other covers that are available in the market. Some of these other covers can be included automatically, such as Employers' Liability insurance (if you have people working for you). Others can be chosen as optional extensions, such as Jury Service or Personal Accident cover.
Keep an eye out for our first insurance jargon buster installment.


This product information page is designed to help you decide whether the Hozelock Cloud garden watering controller is right for you. It includes links to the top online retailers' websites to save you time finding the best deal.
Where to find the best price for the Hozelock Cloud Controller.
A battery-operated tap-mounted watering controller which can be controlled via a smart phone app.
Suitable for use with a mains water supply.
The Cloud Controller connects directly to a garden tap and to a hose pipe (which may in turn be connected to a garden sprinkler or an irrigation system).
The Cloud Controller is easy to set up and includes a Hub that is connected directly to an internet router (not supplied) to provide a secure system that doesn't need a complex pairing process. No programming skills required.


Devon Lumber Co. Ltd. is one of the oldest family-run saw mills in New Brunswick, started by Herbert S. Gill in the early 1940's. The Gill family have been in the forestry business ever since, for over 70 years. Its first sawmill was established along the south bank of the Saint John River in Fredericton. Today, it is located at 200 Gibson Street on the north side of Fredericton. The company produces a variety of softwood, cedar, and value-added products. Gill Products are widely recognized for their quality.


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Hi people! First of all, a very big sorry to all you lovely readers for not posting anything since long. I had a lot going on at the personal end, and work pressure at office peaked. Could catch up with hardly six hours of sleep at night. Some days, even less. I wasn't looking and feeling the best over the past few weeks and blogging took a backseat. And I hated it.
The packaging is pretty humble, comes in plastic white jar with a screw lid and a second lid as well. The ingredients and directions of use are mentioned clearly in the label. I love honest layouts, and so I adore Aroma Essentials.
How do you describe it but simple unadulterated chocolate goodness?
See? That's how much real the sugar is.
It's advisable to dilute the scrub with some water before application. This helps to better spread the product on the skin surface and adhere to it till you choose to exfoliate.
The fragrance is heady tell ya ….
My bathroom fills with the delectable warm chocolaty aroma every time I use it, refreshing my senses from within. Well sometimes I even imagine my bathroom transforming into a bakery, with chocolate cookies and cakes baked fresh from the oven. 😛 May be it's just me, but I simply can't get over the fragrance of this scrub!
Madhu actually sent this particular product as a birthday gift to me, and boy was I surprised! So much love, and so much thought put behind. And I am thoroughly enjoying the product, this product has become a staple in my bath pamper routine. 🙂 I'm crazy about bath and body products, and the Aroma Essentials Milk and Chocolate Scrub fits that bill perfectly. 😀 However, I would not recommend using it on your face if you have very oily skin, particularly in the humid months. In the drier months however, you may want to use it on your face as well.
I'm in love with its fragrance. Secondly, it is so gentle on the skin. This scrub exfoliates and yet doesn't strip off hydration from the skin. Exfoliation does remove some natural hydration from the skin, like any bathing ritual does. But Aroma Essentials Milk and Chocolate Scrub replenishes the lost hydration leaving behind a supple, firmer skin. I believe with prolonged and regular use, this scrub is sure to show its benefits.
I think it can be used as a body wrap too, I'm yet to give it a try. Have you used a chocolate scrub before? Let me know your experience in the comments below!
This one seems like a nice one.


The Everton winger is owned by only 0.1 per cent of FPL managers ahead of his trip to Southampton.
Lookman appears to have secured his role on the teamsheet after impressing against AFC Bournemouth last weekend.
Handed only his second start of the season, he supplied the assist for Dominic Calvert-Lewin's (£5.3m) late strike in the 2-0 win over the Cherries.
The underlying statistics highlight Lookman's potential for assists in Fantasy.
His average of 40 minutes per chance created this season is identical to Toffees' playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson (£7.3m).
Southampton, meanwhile, have lacked resilience in defence over the last few months.
They have managed only one clean sheet in the last 12 Gameweeks.
Lookman has the momentum to profit from those frailties, offering FPL managers a tempting cut-price pick in midfield.


text:
MW Sales Decline, Guidance Exceeded
HOUSTON-Q2 figures for Men's Wearhouse showed sales at $526.2 million from $545.3 million, but diluted earnings of $0.75 per share, overtaking the $0.60 per share higher-end guidance.
By Amy Wolff Sorter | September 09, 2009 at 09:26 PM
HOUSTON-Though Men's Wearhouse's overall sales were down during Q2 year-over-year, executives pointed out that the decline had been expected, and given the current market, was better than expected. Overall sales were down to $526.2 million from the year before total of $545.3 million, but guidance expectations were exceeded.
According to the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer Neill Davis, lower than planned selling and administrative expenses led to a diluted earnings per common share of $.75 for the quarter. The guidance given in early June for the quarter was between $.56 and $.60 per share. This didn't prevent Davis and CEO George Zimmer from being very cautious with its Q3 guidance, which is in the range of $.27 to $30 per diluted common share.
"The suit industry overall is down double digits," Zimmer commented. "In contrast, our suit business, in dollar terms, is up by 4%, and in units, is up 23%. We're clearly growing our market share."
It did not mean, however, that the executive staff at Men's Wearhouse believed the company, or economy, was out of the woods. Zimmer pointed out that in the business cycles, the suit business tends to lead during the high point of a cycle, while lagging during the recovery.
With COVID, Flex Space Comes in All Property Types
Joe Mandola of Trendmaker Homes Houston recently discussed how the pandemic has affected the housing market, what buyers are looking for and where, and how the home shopping process has changed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Piecing and Iron on Applique are the techniques used to make this Wall Quilt.
The Pattern to make this project is featured in the July 2008 Quilter Magazine. No Pattern will be included in the Kit. Postage and Handling is included in the price of the Kit and will be adjusted accordingly.
Brighten Up a wall with this sweet quilt that is quick and easy. 26" X 36"


text:
Q: Selenium click link multiple times I'm automating tests for our webapp in Selenium WebDriver for C#.  One of our test scenarios identified an issue with clicking the save button multiple times resulting in multiple identical records.
The standard IWebElement.Click() causes Selenium to block until the page is fully loaded.  That means by the time our second click comes around to executing, the postback has been performed and we're not on the form page anymore.
Does anyone know a means of 'manually' clicking an element that won't cause Selenium to block?

A: You could either wait for a predetermined amount of time for the page to load:
driver.Manage().Timeouts().ImplicitlyWait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));

...or to be more dynamic and wait for your button to appear:
var driver = new WebDriver();
var wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, TimeSpan(0, 1, 0));
wait.Until(d => d.FindElement(By.Id("button"));

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/7811812/2006048
Selenium also has source code that is similar to the second method: http://selenium.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/dotnet/src/WebDriver.Support/UI/ExpectedConditions.cs
Let me know if it works out for you.  I personally use these options with WatiN:
browser.WaitForComplete();

...or:
browser.WaitUntilContainsText("Text");

It's a shame Selenium does not have the first one.

A: If we use JavaScript to send our click events, Selenium will not be blocked and we can click multiple times.  However, because our click triggers a page load, we cannot reference the element directly.  Instead, we need to specify the location to click and then fire our click events.
Because our WebApp uses JQuery, I was able to use the code specified here:
How to simulate a click by using x,y coordinates in JavaScript?
So in the end our C# logic looks something like this:
IWebElement element = driver.findElement(By.id("foobar"));
Point point = element.Location;
IJavascriptExecutor jscript = (IJavascriptExecutor)driver;
jscript.executeScript("$(document.elementFromPoint(arguments[0], arguments[0])).click();", point.X, point.Y);

Although this sends the click event I'm not 100% sure that the element receives it; I'll run some experiments and see.

A: What you need to do is click via javascript. In java this is done like this:
IJavascriptExecutor executor = (JavascriptExecutor)driver;
executor.executeScript("arguments[0].click();", driver.findElement(By.id("gbqfd")));
executor.executeScript("arguments[0].click();", driver.findElement(By.id("gbqfd")));

I actually imagine it is very similar, this will not block selenium and you should be able to chain a few on before the page comes back.
if this newer approach is too slow you might be quicker doing it all in js, e.g.
IJavascriptExecutor executor = (JavascriptExecutor)driver;
executor.executeScript("document.getElementById(id).click();");
executor.executeScript("document.getElementById(id).click();");

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Here you will find pop cultural references to the printed circuit board.
WALL-E's Blue PC Board In the 2008 Pixar film "WALL-E", Eve scrambles to replace our hero's circuit board. She tries numerous PCBs with green soldermask before finally coming across a blue PC board compatible with WALL-E.
In response to a few skeptical responses, we decided to justify the conclusion that WALL-E is a Mac (to say nothing of the fact that Jobs founded both Apple and Pixar).
From Walter Isaacson's Biography: "Steve Jobs"
One of the new engineers interrupted and asked why it mattered. "The only thing that's important is how well it works. Nobody is going to see the PC board." Jobs reacted typically. "I want it to be as beautiful as possible, even if it's inside the box. A great carpenter isn't going to use lousy wood for the back of a cabinet, even though nobody's going to see it." In an interview a few years later, after the Macintosh came out, Jobs again reiterated that lesson from his father: "When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.


text:
Meet Minnesota Carlson's MBA Class Of 2021
by: Jeff Schmitt on January 24, 2020 | 1 Comment Comments | 8,373 Views
Ah, the Midwest – the fly-over people. The region conjures up images of small towns and deserted factories. It is Trump Country: flat and frigid, cornfields and country music, John Deere and Budweiser. It is the place where dreams supposedly go to die, where life's highlights come down to state fairs, fish frys, and cow tipping.
If you listen to the pundits talk about the Midwest, you'd think cheese is a food group, Red Lobster is fining dining, and Walmart is community central. Oh – and ranch dressing is supposedly the Midwest's answer to hot sauce and ketchup too. Sure, the people are open and neighborly…but do you really want everyone knowing your business?
SMALL IN SCALE, RICH IN RESOURCES
Of course, the Midwest is more than the farmlands surrounding Chicago. In reality, it is an education and commercial hub. And you won't find a better combination of the two than the University of Minnesota and the Twin Cities. Cosmopolitan, courteous, and clean, they are the home to the Carlson School of Management, small school extraordinaire. Just a short jaunt from the mighty Mississippi – and downtown Minneapolis for that matter – the full-time MBA program blends the resources of an elite research university with a community geared towards personal attention and career transformation.
"Our class size averages about 90 per year," explains Phil Miller, assistant dean for MBA and MS programs at Carlson. "This allows students to know each other well and for faculty and staff to provide individualized support. But our business school has 4,500 students and a faculty ranked regularly in the top 10 to 15 in the world. In other words, you get something rare: both excellence and intimacy."
Corporate reception at Carlson
Davi Gordon, a Columbus native and senior tax accountant, was seeking a "big city school" experience after earning her undergraduate degree at a liberal arts college. This combination of small scale and abundant options led her to join Carlson's full-time MBA Class of 2021.
"I was looking for a program with a recognized reputation, human-scale class size, a strong focus on experiential learning, and a location in a thriving business community," she explains. "Long story short, the Carlson School jumped out at me as the best fit for my career objectives, offering the essentials needed to put my entrepreneurial venture to practice."
100 YEARS OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Gordon's classmate, Heather Stanislawski, placed a premium on "where students seemed the happiest." Her takeaway? "Not only did the Carlson School check every one of my boxes, but I knew that I would be surrounded by kind, supportive, and impressive peers. And, of course, there is the tried and true cliché: once I walked on the University of Minnesota campus, despite the fact that it was 23 degrees below zero the day that I interviewed, I couldn't imagine myself going anywhere else."
Tiana Birawer, a 2019 P&Q Best & Brightest MBA, joined General Mills after graduating from Carlson last spring. Echoing Miller, she notes that her classmates didn't have to choose between a big school for opportunities or a small school for community. They enjoyed both in equal measures.
"Our program size can be a big benefit," she explains. "You get personal attention from professors and staff. You can actually know the names of all the students in our class and the other classes. Our alumni are committed to helping and staying involved. We have great placement rates with companies across the U.S. and the world. A small program may not be for everyone, but it can sure be for you."
Orientation Week for full-time MBA class of 2020 kicks off with a welcome breakfast in the CSOM atrium.
One reason for this success is Carlson's differentiating feature. It is a pioneer in experiential education, with hands-on projects and partnerships being the core of the programming. "We have one of the deepest experiential learning curricula in the nation," adds Phil Miller. "All students participate in a year-long, eight-credit Enterprise program targeted at the industry or skill set they seek to develop – Brands, Consulting, Funds and Ventures. Each program is led by clinical faculty with deep experience at industry-leading firms like McKinsey. Our recruiters call out students applied experience as a differentiator in summer internships and early in their career."
CAREER TRANSITIONERS ALREADY MAKING A DIFFERENCE
At Carlson, small doesn't mean narrow. In the Class of 2021, you'll find a diverse array of backgrounds. Take Hunter Brocato, an intern coach in New Orleans who prepared high school seniors for professional internships. Over two years, 95% of his students completed their internships – with half of them offered either a full-time position or a second internship. His medical assistant interns, for example, were able to shadow practitioners in various patient treatments. Another team of interns developed an app for GE Digital to market a music festival.
"I was blown away by the power of business in driving change in individuals and communities through this experience, Brocato observes. "The intersection of private and social sectors energized me in a way nothing else had and business was a clear next step. Additionally, I found that an MBA would be the best way to develop my ability to lead teams and organizations."
The class also features Cleresa R. Roberts, a biologist who has published research on stemming aging in adipose-derived stem cells. Her next step: medical leadership – specifically reducing health care disparities for minorities. The class also includes many students like Roberts who are making career transitions. Matteo Panero, for one, has already shifted from industrial engineering to supply chains. He even spearheaded a warehouse upgrade that increased capacity by six times. His next step? Entrepreneurship, of course. At the same time, China's Han Zhou made the switch from interpreter to revenue generator. To say her transition was seamless would be an understatement.
Carlson Consulting Enterprise team
"During my first year in business development, I successfully led the company's market entry into two Fortune 500 customers, increased department revenue by 30 percent, and boosted customer retention rate to 100 percent."
DISNEY MAGIC…OR MEDICAL?
Mark Giannetti made his name by organizing a day-long leadership development and networking event for the LGBT community at General Mills' corporate headquarters. Of course, every class has its career misfit…in the best possible sense. This year, that honor belongs to Davi Gordon…a volleyball player who parlayed a series of part-time jobs in engineering, logistics, and farming into her role as an "accidental" tax accountant.
"[It] ultimately helped me realize my passion for analyzing data and solving problems, which is something I want to continue post-MBA."
Outside their careers, Cleresa Roberts trains shelties for dog competitions. Han Zhou manages her dad's blog – which reaches 850,000 followers. Matteo Panero takes pride in her six-month internship at "the magical world" of Disneyland Paris. Just don't tell Heather Stanislawski that Disney is the happiest place on Earth.
"I have broken my nose three times – twice at Disneyland," she quips.
Go to Page 3 for a dozen student profiles from the Class of 2021.
Page 1 of 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Tagged: Business School, Cameron Califf, Carlson MBA Class of 2021, Carlson School of Management, class of 2021, Cleresa R. Roberts, Davi Gordon, Han Zhou, Heather Stanislawski, Hunter Brocato, Joe Martin, Kevin L. Vargas, Mark Giannetti, Matteo Panero, MBA, Molly Dowden, Thu Ha, University of Minnesota
Previous Article: How To Get The Most From The MBA Info Session
Next Article: Influential HBS Prof Clayton Christensen Dies


text:
How Matthew Boyd raised his game for the Detroit Tigers
George Sipple
SEATTLE — Nicholas Castellanos stood in the visitor's clubhouse at Safeco Field on Thursday night and began shouting to nobody in particular, as he watched replays of Matthew Boyd's latest start for the Detroit Tigers.
"Matthew Boyd ain't a secret," Castellanos said. "Cat's out of the bag."
What's also no secret, in addition to the quality starts Boyd has given the Tigers in the majority of his appearances in 2018, is how fatherhood has changed him for the better since Meira Joy Boyd entered the world July 27, 2017.
"He gets his priorities right," Jeff Vanderstelt, the lead pastor at Doxa Church in Bellevue, Wash., said of Boyd.
Tigers prospect mailbag:Is Derek Hill considered a bust?
Vanderstelt sat in Section 134 on Thursday night with Boyd's family.
"His relationship with God is No. 1," Vanderstelt said. "His wife and his kid are No. 2 and then baseball is third. That's one of the reasons he does well, because he gets the things that matter most in order. And then he can go out and play. It doesn't have to be everything. Which, I think, frees a guy up to play to the best of his abilities."
Vanderstelt reflected on the man he's grown to respect more and more as the years roll on.
"He's a guy that really cares about people," Vanderstelt said as Boyd was striking out a career-best nine hitters on Thursday in the Tigers' 3-2 win over the Mariners. "He's deeply compassionate. Very caring, very considerate."
Vanderstelt said Boyd's "depth of empathy" has grown significantly since the birth of his daughter.
"He's a very, very, deep, loving, compassionate man," Vanderstelt. "He's very tenderhearted. He's tough and strong in his ability to play, but he's very tenderhearted and sensitive to people."
Told of Vanderstelt's comments, Boyd said: "Well, that's flattering. That's God's grace in me. That's not my own doing. That's completely God and working in me and giving me grace. I haven't been that way. I've been quite the opposite in the past. It's a daily walk, a daily battle."
Lisa Boyd, Matthew's mother, said fatherhood has given her son better perspective on who he wants to be.
"He's always been an old soul and a compassionate soul," she said. "He continues to strive to be his best self. He's probably more self aware now that he has a child, of being the best person that he can, the person that God created him to be and embracing every little moment of each day. The opportunity he has to touch people."
Boyd, 27, remains active in the church, and mentors youth from his home state.
Jessica Boyd, who recently graduated from college and now works in Seattle, said Thursday was a chance to see her brother pitch live for the first time in a year. She also commented that being a father impacted him greatly.
"Matt's just honestly the most caring person," Jessica said. "Cares for everyone in his life, so deeply. It's pretty cool to see him care for Meira, his daughter, in such a different way, and see him blossom into a father.
"The stars really have aligned in many ways, from baseball to family life, it's been a really exciting journey. It's great to see everything start come together for him."
Boyd was touched that everyone in his inner circle came to watch him start against the team he grew up rooting for.
"Everywhere I turned I saw someone I grew up with," he said.
He recognized people during his bullpen session before the game, and later he took the mound with some watching in a suite and others watching in seats left of home plate.
He got batters to swing and miss on all nine of his strikeouts. He had 17 swings-and-misses over six innings and allowed two runs on six hits.
Boyd has a 3.19 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP over his eight starts. He has 41 strikeouts over 48 innings.
Kurt and Lisa Boyd were greeted several times during the first few innings by people who recognized them in the stands in Section 134. Mathew said he got tickets for 38 family and friends, and heard from about 50 others who said they would be coming to the game.
"There was so much love there," Lisa said Friday morning. "He certainly had a lot of extended family and close friends, but there also so many people within our greater community that have followed him as he's played in college and beyond.
"All night long afterward, people who saw him on TV or said, 'I saw you at the stadium, didn't want to bug you. So excited for Matt.' "
Lisa, who runs a real estate company in Bellevue, Wash. with Matthew's aunt, cleared her schedule of appointments to maximize time with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchild.
Lisa said she hadn't anticipated how having a child would take her son to "that next level of manhood."
"It was kind of a missing piece of a puzzle you didn't know was missing," she said.
While she and her husband spent years shuttling Matthew to and from baseball and hockey games around Washington, Lisa said she's no baseball expert.
But, she does think becoming a father has something to do with Boyd's maturity on the mound.
"Even last year before the baby was born, you could see it coming together," she said. "Everything else is in such wonderful order in his life, the pitching has fallen into line as well."
Lisa spent part of Wednesday visiting her granddaughter and noted she was "anxious to see her more than anybody."
"That little tug on my heart was so intense," Lisa said of seeing her first grandchild for the first time. "I just love her down to my toes. She's a good baby. She is so much fun to be around."
Did she think her son was ready to be a father as a 26-year-old?
"As a parent, you always get a little worried," Lisa said. "How could they possibly be ready to parent?
"You could tell they had so much love for each other. As parents, you think 'you'd like to check a few more boxes.' The time it takes to raise a child, maybe they should have a little more time under their belt. They knew they were ready. They had so much love and joy. This is such an experience. They wanted to have their children young."
Asked how fatherhood has changed him, Boyd smiled. "It's changed everything, in the best way possible.
"I don't think anyone's ever ready to be a father, but in the same sense, my wife and I love the Lord more than anything. Through His love, we're able to love each other more and deeper than we ever have. That reciprocates in our child."
Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgesipple.
Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!


Is Ramsbottom swimming club suitable for me?
RASC is a family friendly yet competitive swimming club. Although we have a learn to swim programme, the aim is to develop young swimmers to race in competitions and enjoy a variety of aquatic activities. It is therefore expected the children should attend swimming sessions between 2 and 6 times a week depending on age and ability.
If you are looking to swim only once a week then maybe a swimming club is not a suitable option for you.
How do we find out about the swimming galas?
The noticeboard, Facebook, website and Newsletter (coming soon) are the methods of communication we have. Please make every effort to use these communication tools. We have over 300 swimmers in the club so would struggle to inform all swimmers of upcoming events.
When will my child be selected for team gala?
The coaches and teachers at the club will monitor your child's progression. When we feel your child has the ability to compete against other clubs, we will approach you. If you child is selected, the team sheets are placed on the notice board, so please keep an eye out.
How can I help my child get selected for galas?
Attending as many sessions as possible is the best way to improve a swimmer and gain selection for a gala. Another great way to assess our swimmers is to compete in the internal galas. Any swimmer can enter these galas regardless of their ability. All races are timed, and we can use these times to assess the current ability of each swimmer.
How can we enter open meet galas?
There are various levels of open meet galas and some are more suited to swimmers new to these events than others.
Entry to these galas is usually limited to 9 years and above and some have minimum entry times. The club aims is to provide all swimmers with the ability to compete at the highest level possible. Open meet galas are highly competitive and the swimming is of a high standard.


text:
Bierly, Margaret M. & Stanford Univ., CA. Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching. (1974). Cataloguing Teacher Training Materials in a Computerized Retrieval System Separating the Baby from the Bath Water. [Washington, D.C.] : Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED096314
Bierly, Margaret M. and Stanford Univ., CA. Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching. Cataloguing Teacher Training Materials in a Computerized Retrieval System [microform] : Separating the Baby from the Bath Water / Margaret M. Bierly and Others Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse [Washington, D.C.] 1974 <https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED096314>
Bierly, Margaret M. & Stanford Univ., CA. Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching. 1974, Cataloguing Teacher Training Materials in a Computerized Retrieval System [microform] : Separating the Baby from the Bath Water / Margaret M. Bierly and Others Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse [Washington, D.C.] <https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED096314>
| title=Cataloguing Teacher Training Materials in a Computerized Retrieval System [microform] : Separating the Baby from the Bath Water / Margaret M. Bierly and Others
| author1=Bierly, Margaret M
| author2=Stanford Univ., CA. Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching
| publisher=Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse
Cataloguing Teacher Training Materials in a Computerized Retrieval System [microform] : Separating the Baby from the Bath Water / Margaret M. Bierly and Others
Book, Microform, Online, Online - Google Books
Bierly, Margaret M
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED096314
[Washington, D.C.] : Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1974
This paper describes the efforts of the Program on Teacher Effectiveness of the Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching to survey and catalog available teacher training products. It is stated that the project developed from the program's own need to identify potential products which could be incorporated into the program's Systematic Teacher Training Model--a flexible training system for preservice and inservice teachers. The paper defines teacher training products and describes the identification of products. In a section on what makes up a "flexible catalog," the following categories are outlined: developers, subject matter specificity, target audience, grade level specificity, target outcomes for teachers and for students, availability, nature of the training situation, and field test results. The final section describes the uses of a computerized catalog. (JA)
Sponsoring Agency: National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC.
Contract Number: NE-C-00-3-0061.
ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (59th, Chicago, Illinois, April 1974).
May also be available online. Address as at 14/8/18: https://eric.ed.gov/
Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.
Cataloging. | Catalogs. | Computer Storage Devices. | Computers. | Instructional Materials. | Merchandise Information. | Teacher Education.
Reports, Descriptive.
Stanford Univ., CA. Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching
Teacher Training Products [microform] : The State of the Field. Research and Development Memorandum No. ...
A Validation of a Method of Assessing Young Children's Language Competence [microform] / Margaret M. Bierly
The Need for Including the Topic of Developmental Psycholinguistics in Educational Psychology Courses [m...
A Developmental Study of the Influence of Semantic and Phonological Variables on Linguistic Comprehensio...
Teacher professional engagement and constructivist-compatible computer use [microform] : teaching, learn...


When the warmer times are approaching, we begin to wonder what sandals to purchase - varied colors or one color, low or high? Let us give you some practical guidelines in relation to picking out right sandals for any apparel.
Refuse from sandals with straps around the ankles as much as they can visually cut your legs.
To select the proper sandals you should regard your outfit. Opt for versions that will not look like slippers but conversely have fashionable straps and heels.
Provided that you expect to walk long distances but you are required to wear heeled sandals, it is better to buy those with a low heel. In case the heels are wide and low, they won't fatigue your feet, in this way at the end of the day you wouldn't feel systaltic pain.
Purchase leather sandals for formal occasions. Leather sandals come in multifarious paints and sizes, that's why generally look good. Buy sandals that are made of high quality leather and in addition burnished on the outside.
You may try getting sandals which are a half size larger than your natural size. This could guarantee greater practicality.
Try a combination of sandals with beautiful heels and leggings. This is a really nowaday solution and is perfectly fitting for going out with friends.
Getting the right sandals for your feet is as easy as getting solid soles, right arch support, regulable straps, and sure as much cosiness as possible.
You may use search engines like Bing, Yahoo!, Google to find thong sandals and anything else you wish. Please visit this page to find out more about sandals.


Victoria State Emergency Service (SES) Regional Manager John Parker is "Taking the Plunge" in Loddon Mallee's waterways on Wednesday 5 March.
John has been training for several months in preparation for a marathon 17 kilometre swim, broken up across the region's major lakes, rivers and reservoirs, to raise funds for the Victorian Emergency Service Association (VESA) Welfare Fund. This fund provides crucial support and assistance for SES Volunteers or their families during times of hardship.
The Taking the Plunge event will start at first light on Wednesday 5 March commencing at Lake Eppalock near Bendigo and continuing at Cairn Curran Reservoir, Bridgewater on the Loddon River, Little Lake Boort, Lake Charm, Kangaroo Lake, Lake Boga and concluding at Swan Hill in the Murray River with a community barbecue at the Canoe Steps at the Riverside Park.
"There have been several incidents recently where one of our volunteers or their families has faced difficult circumstances, and VESA has provided invaluable support and assistance," said Mr Parker.
"Witnessing the positive impact this fund has under these circumstances has motivated me to conduct this event," he said.
SES encourages all businesses and workplaces across the Loddon Mallee region to get behind the VESA fundraising event, either through donations or to host an orange themed morning or afternoon tea on the day.
Regular updates on the event will be posted on the SES Facebook page and photo album as each stage is completed.
Donations can be made to the VESA Welfare Fund at any Bendigo Bank. All donations over $2 are tax deductible. Any donation, big or small, will be gratefully accepted and allow the work VESA undertakes with volunteers and their families to continue.
For more information please northwest@ses.vic.gov.au or phone 03 5444 8444.


text:
Home | Employment Law
EMPLOYMENT LAW OVERVIEW
The Employment Law applies to every employee who has a contract or employment relationship in the private, public and semi-governmental sector.
The Employment Law does NOT apply to:
employees whose total period of employment is less than one month;
employees whose total hours of employment is less than eight hours in a given week;
employees whose employment is of a casual nature and/or particular nature under the condition that in these cases the non-application of the Law is justified by objective reasons;
The legal team of Cyprus lawyers of Michael Chambers and Co. LLC is able to advise both employers and employees on issues relating to employment law. Employment raises a number of unique and complex matters and when problems do occur they can not only serve to be disruptive but also expensive. Our team approaches employment law with a pragmatic approach, helping you to balance employment with the wider commercial aspects which affect the business decisions you make.
Importantly, we know that if a client encounters problems in employment law, it needs to be dealt with as swiftly as possible. Our goal is to provide speedy, exact advice which is accurate but, equally as important, as cost effective as possible.
We can advise employers and employees on the following employment law issues:
Self-employment and consultancy
Grievance and disciplinary hearings
In-house support on matters such as immigration, health and safety and human resources
Crisis situations
Specialist advice to management and senior executives
Our team of Cyprus lawyers are able to advise both employers and employees on issues relating to employment law. Contact us to get help with your case.
Michael Chambers & Co LLC > Practices > Employment Law > Employment Law


That's true, but braving Hall H means dealing with throngs of people and waiting in lines for events you might not even get into! Sunday, though. Sunday's chill. Everyone's getting ready to leave, presenters are way more relaxed, and beside, you can catch up on literally everything you might have missed with handy roundups from sites like io9 because we love you.
Having said that, here's all the nifty stuff we came across on the final day of this year's San Diego Comic-Con. It's been real, folks.


text:
Q: Can we use ords 20.3 in front of non-oracle dbs? Good day,
I have noticed that every example of ords that i find is in front of an oracle db.  Can oracle ords 20.3 be used to front non-oracle dbs such as db2 or ms sql ?
Thnx
Nikita


A few days ago, I was preparing for cross-examination. The event never happened because the hearing was terminated on a technical point before the other side could put on any witnesses. But court preparation is never a waste. All the research you do for it keeps until later. Here are a few things I learned about refreshing recollection as an alternative to putting up substantive impeaching evidence.
I anticipated crossing the adverse party in what would have been a pivotal moment in the trial. The witness had previously given a recorded interview with two law-enforcement agents. I knew that the witness would contradict the previous statement in a significant way (because the relief she sought depended upon an alternate version). And there was great impeachment material to be found on this audio recording. However, it was doubtful that I would be able to have the agents produced for this hearing. So, I had to prepare to use the recordings without the witnesses who recorded the interview. And my witness had no incentive to cooperate with any effort to authenticate the recording.
Here is how I prepared. First, I made a detailed and indexed digest of the recording with minute and seconds noted for all the things I would need to use. Then I practiced with the audio file on the computer until I could reach any spot instantly. I also had a transcript prepared of the entire interview.
I called a friend of mine who teaches trial advocacy and who is an excellent trial lawyer. He confirmed that I could get where I needed to go by refreshing recollection. He gave me some helpful tips to plan this cross-examination. First, he told me to preface each question about the statements using the phrase "do you recall…" The use of the word "recall," put us in a memory framework.
The second piece was to build up the interviews themselves. In fact, in planning the cross-examination, I built several chapters up to point the witness to that time, place, and circumstances of the interview. I wanted to direct the witnesses attention to the fact that the witness knew that the interview was being recorded. And I wanted to establish, in the witnesse's own words, that the interview was important in its nature and scope.
Some judges mistakenly believe that a witness can only have recollection refreshed with a document the witness prepared. The reality is that a witness's recollection can be refreshed with anything. "As long as the witness is willing to swear from his memory as refreshed, his memory may be refreshed from any kind of stimulus, 'a song, or a face, or a newspaper item.'" Bianchi v. State, 327 Ga. App. 440 (2014). If you use a written document, then there are a few other things to keep in mind — you need to make the writing available for opposing counsel to review under Rule 612. When it came down to time to impeach, I would simply have said "would it refresh your recollection of the interview if I showed you a transcript of it." Of course many objections could come at this point. The adverse lawyer could question the authenticity of the transcript. In which case, my response would have been that I am just showing the transcript to see if it refreshes her recollection. I could then give the judge and the witness the option of my playing the interview itself in the specific portion that is relevant to refresh recollection.
Over time, the witness looks bad by having her recollection refreshed. The fear is that the witness will hear herself on the recording and pretend her recollection is not refreshed. At this point, you probably win because the witness loses all credibility.
The other piece involved an early arrival in court. I came to court two hours early to use the audio equipment and have everything ready to go. Had it been necessary use the recording, I wanted to move to the computer quickly and I wanted the audio to be sufficiently clear for tn judge to hear it.


The term 'MJP Architects Ltd' or 'us' or 'we' refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is address 9 Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ. Our company registration number is 03163770. The term 'you' refers to the user or viewer of our website.


text:
Însurăței (abans conegut com a Pârdăleni) és una ciutat situada al comtat de Brăila, Muntènia (Romania). Té una població de 7.336 habitants. En el seu terme municipal es troben els poblats de Lacu Rezii (450 hab.), Maru Rosu (124 hab.) I Valea Călmăţuiului (121 hab.).

La ciutat administra tres pobles: Lacu Rezii, Măru Roșu i Valea Călmățuiului. Aquesta última es deia Rubla durant el govern comunista i allotjava delinqüents polítics que estaven obligats a viure-hi. Es va convertir oficialment en una ciutat el 1989, com a resultat del programa de sistematització rural romanès.

Fills il·lustres
 Gheorghe Moldoveanu (n. 1945), remer

Referències

Ciutats de Romania

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS - VOA
Missionary in Philippines Notes Fears of Growing Islamic Radicalization
"I am convinced that through dialogue it is possible to bring about real change and create a climate of mercy. Just as Pope Francis is inviting us to do in this Holy Year"
January 08, 2016 15:28ZENIT StaffConflicts, War, Terrorism
"In some areas of Mindanao we are experiencing exactly the same thing as is happening in Iraq," says Father Sebastiano D'Ambra, an Italian missionary of the PIME congregation who has been working for almost 50 years now in the Philippines. He was speaking on the phone to the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
"The situation is a worrying one," adds Father Sebastiano, referring to the anti-Christian attacks that took place on Christmas Day in the south of Mindanao. "It is difficult to establish for certain whether the violence was directed specifically against Christians, even though everything points to the fact that this was the case. Without doubt our brothers and sisters in the faith are one of the targets of these fundamentalist groups."
He goes on to explain that the attacks were carried out by the members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (Biif), a paramilitary Islamist terrorist group that emerged in 2008 following a split in the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (M I LF). In 2011 the government in Manila signed a peace accord with the MILF, with both sides pledging to engage in negotiations to establish a new law, the Bangsamoro Basic Law, that would guarantee a special status to the region.
"But the agreements with the government have been put on hold because the Filipino authorities attach greater priority to the presidential and legislative elections planned for 9th May 2016. And so radical groups like the BIIF, which have absolutely no desire to negotiate with Manila, are taking advantage of the instability of the situation to engage in terrorist disturbances."
Islamic radicalism has a long history on Mindanao. Already back in the 1990s the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group was widely active, and was responsible for the murder of the PIME missionary Father Salvatore Carzedda in 1992. The radicalisation continued with the proliferation of Islamist movements of a Wahabi inspiration, supported from Saudi Arabia, while for the past 10 years or so there has been a powerful presence of the Jemaah Islamiah, an Islamist group that began in Indonesia.
"In the last three years the so-called Islamic State has gained a growing number of supporters in Mindanao. ISIS is present here too, albeit not in such an extreme form as in the Middle East." Father Sebastiano also points to the fact that many Islamic leaders on this island, which has a strong Muslim presence, have urged their own people not to celebrate Christmas together with the Christians, although this is an ancient and deeply rooted custom in the Philippines.
Zamboanga is quite far from the place where the Christmas attacks occurred, and the news went almost unreported by the media, because the government is attempting to play it down in view of the forthcoming elections. Nonetheless, in the local Christian communities the fears are growing, above all because they still retain a vivid memory of the attack carried out by the MILF in 2013 which destroyed half of the town, left numerous people dead and more than 10,000 homes in flames. "Since then the Christians have been extremely cautious in regard to the Muslims, while the Muslims themselves complain of a local government by the majority Christian community (approximately 70%) that does not reflect the growth of their own community."
Father Sebastiano is the founder of the Silsilah movement which has been attempting since 1984 to promote interreligious dialogue and which has also involved a section of the local Muslim community.
"The growth of radicalism throughout the world is making our mission more difficult and still more necessary than ever at the present time. Even some of the Islamic leaders who are working together with us are becoming discouraged. We need to have more courage and more faith. It is a long process, but I am convinced that through dialogue it is possible to bring about real change and create a climate of mercy. Just as Pope Francis is inviting us to do in this Holy Year."
Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries. www.churchinneed.org (USA); www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org (AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL); www.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN) www.acnmalta.org (Malta)
January 08, 2016 15:28Conflicts, War, Terrorism
Baptism of Jesus, Son of God and Brother of Us All
Cardinal Turkson's Address on Moral Challenges to Business and Society


With the change in season, comes change in Canadian roads. Our certified service staff at North Bay Mitsubishi understand that potholes and rough roads are a part of life, especially after a hard winter.
A sudden shock from a pothole or other obstruction can damage your Mitsubishi vehicle and suspension system. Damaging your suspension system can lead to many things like uneven wear on your tires to reducing the responsiveness and smooth ride of your vehicle.
Come into North Bay Mitsubishi to keep your vehicle in top shape! Book an appointment today!


Our entryway needed a little added organization. Since we love the board and batten look, we decided to make a whole grid style wall and managed to keep it under $100!
First, we screwed the horizontal boards into the studs.
Then, we affixed the vertical boards to the walls with liquid nails.
We caulked all of the trim.
Sanded and painted the whole thing with plain white semi-gloss paint.
Having four kids, we added a lot of hooks, including several at kid-friendly heights so that they can hang up their own coats and backpacks. Check out the original post at Seven Town Way for more details!
Multifunctional Coat Rack From an Old Window.
See how we took a factory crate lid and turned it into a chalk/cork/magnetic board!


text:
Q: Inverse of certain symmetric 2x2 block matrices Let $M$ be a complex $2n\times 2n$-matrix of the form
$$
M=\begin{pmatrix}A&B\\ -B &A\end{pmatrix},
$$
where $A$ is a symmetric $n\times n$-matrix and $B$ a skew-symmetric $n\times n$-matrix. In particular, $M$ is symmetric.
I would like to know the precise conditions on $A$ and $B$ such that $M$ is invertible, and then a formula for $M^{-1}$ in terms of $A$ and $B$ which is as easy as possible. In particular, the formula should take into account that A and B are symmetric and skew-symmetric, respectively.
The literature on general block matrix inversion formulas is so  overwhelming that I can find only results which are way too general for my purpose (e.g. the inversion formulas given in this Wikipedia article).
Thank you very much in advance for any helpful comments and answers.

A: In the meantime, I found out a satisfying answer myself, at least in the case where $A$ and $B$ are real, which suffice for my purposes. In the book Matrix Theory by Fuzhen Zhang (2nd edition, p. 48), it says that if $A$ and $B$ are real $n\times n$-matrices, then
$$
det\begin{pmatrix}A & -B\\ B & A \end{pmatrix}=|det(A+iB)|^2,
$$
which implies that the matrix on the left hand side is invertible iff $A+iB$ is, and the book also says that
$$
\begin{pmatrix}A & -B\\ B & A \end{pmatrix}^{-1}=\begin{pmatrix}E & -F\\ F & E \end{pmatrix}\qquad \text{if }(A+iB)^{-1}=E+iF.
$$

A: Suppose that $A$ and the Schur complement $S = A + BA^{-1}B$ are invertible. Then the inverse of $M$ is given by
$$
M^{-1} =
\begin{bmatrix}
A^{-1}(I - S^{-1}BA^{-1}) & -A^{-1}BS^{-1}\\
S^{-1}BA^{-1} & S^{-1}
\end{bmatrix},
$$
which is just the usual block inversion formula.


Swansea University Egyptology lecturer Dr Ken Griffin with the newly discovered artefact.
Most importantly, the hieroglyphs above the head--part of a formulaic text attested elsewhere at the temple--use a feminine pronoun, a clear indication that the figure is female.
The front of the artefact.
This is a rear aspect of the artifact.
: Realigned artefact to show how the face could be completed.


Bathroom Mirror And Vanity. You can use one sink for something while you can use the other for the other things. And of course, the sink can be used by two people at the same time. Just imagine how you are brushing your teeth while your brothers are shaving. And yes, thanks to the bathroom mirror, the function of the sink can be even more awesome.


This series of six mini prints comes straight from the pages of the comic Fridge Zone. These formerly-edible creatures will watch guard over your kitchen or act as a reminder to clean out the deep, dark corners of your fridge before they come to visit in person.
3 colors screen printed by hand on 8x8" French Kraftone stock. Limited edition of 15.


The China Threat continues to remain the plate du jour on the menu of American security commentators. It is also very much at the forefront of political chatter. But explicit statements of China as power monger, hungering to challenge US primacy, tend to be rarer. Hypocritical discretion is the think tank's watchword.
As always, she labours her experience on dealing with business and political leaders as a textbook example of probity, carefully avoiding any mention of her actual corporate record. This enables her to get a sense about the inner workings of Chinese behaviour, even if she seems somewhat short on the historical and cultural front.
Throw in a generous dash of ignorance, and we have the Fiorina world view on China, which seems very much that of an aggrieved American CEO, which is what she was, rather abysmally, when she was at Hewlett-Packard.
US students, it would follow, do poorly at their exams but have skills in innovation. It doesn't seem to Fiorina that these might go hand in hand – one can perform superbly in both exams and the realm of innovation. What the GOP presidential contender is seemingly against is the idea that a standardised education system is somehow fundamentally wicked.
Such a view enables her to then explain China's insatiable appetite for acquiring intellectual property (of course, the US, busy powerhouse of innovation, would never do that sort of thing). "They are not terribly imaginative. They're not entrepreneurial, they don't innovate, that is why they are stealing our intellectual property." For all of that, one wonder's why the Chinese could even be a credible threat.
On Wednesday, the views about the Chinese system, and the Beijing agenda, were given a more generous airing. China, she argued on CBS This Morning had "made a bargain with their people" which involve economic gains in exchange for a "repressive totalitarian regime".
In an odd way, Fiorina is describing a social contract, something which should be lauded given the similarly artificial agreement forged between the Founding Fathers and America's citizenry. The sovereign will of the people has always been a fanciful, if brilliant notion arrived at by the cerebral workings of James Madison. It led to the US becoming a business empire run by set interests and elites ensconced in sinecures of wealth. That bargain has duly frittered away the Republic, which is similarly labouring under various mechanisms of less overt repression.
China as threat means that Fiorina is happy to provide advice, notably to President Barack Obama. If she was the one meeting China's Xi Jinping next month, she would give the premier the proverbial finger of defiance. The US stance against Chinese territorial ambitions would be shored up. The "new Chinese aggression" would be combated with the assistance of regional allies.
I would say first that we are going to be more aggressive in helping our allies in that region push back against new Chinese aggression, whether those allies are Australia or Japan or the Philippines.
There is no better recipe for war than those who keep belittling the virtues of peace while claiming they are preparing for conflict. Fiorina's agenda against China is well and truly out of the closet, though it is only fitting to also note her own distinct inability to innovate when in positions of responsibility. Just ask the HP board on that score.


What is best Anti-virus, spyware, malware?
Software Ideas Modeler intended as an intuitive, quick diagram creator useful for a variety of applications. The program can create a wide variety of diagrams such as flowcharts, CRC cards, hierarchical task analysis, entity life history and mind maps. Printing available in batch and with multiple pages per diagram.
Note that this edition of the program has limited functionality, with additional, for-pay premium features available.
Writes settings to: Application folder (settings.settings file and creates a Profile directory.
From the prompt, select "Standard Non-commercial"
Click the option for "Personal - Non-Commerical use," check the box, and click Confirm.
Optionally, disable the Buy button by selecting Options and uncheck "Show Start Page" from the General tab.
@BGM: The standard edition isn't free if you're a commercial entity, hence the price tag.


Most people who consider cosmetic surgery do so to eliminate wrinkles, puffiness, sagging, and other signs of aging on their face. During plastic surgery consultations doctors are often asked: How much younger will this procedure make me look? Although, many clinics now carry digital imaging software designed to give patients a calculated glimpse at post-surgery results, doctors have been unable to answer these questions with any confidence.
Nitin Chauhan, M.D., a facial plastic surgeon from Toronto, noticed this difficulty and designed an experiment around such a question. "Some of our patients like to have concrete numbers to look at, and the more information you can provide, the more it facilitates decision-making," she told Time magazine. Now the estimates from Chauhan's study are available in an online edition of the medical journal Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.
The study took before and after photos from facial surgeries performed on 54 women and 6 men between the ages of 45 and 72. They then presented the pictures to 40 medical school students who were asked to determine the age of each person in the photo. The average age difference estimated for all types of procedures? A respectable 7.2 years. Also, the students estimated the general age of the "after" pictures an average of 9 years below the actual age of the patients.
Patients who had face lifts and neck lifts looked an average of 5.7 years younger. That number climbed an additional year with a forehead lift , or 2 years with eyelid surgery. Those who had a face lift, neck lift, forehead lift, and eyelid work combined shaved 8.4 years off their perceived age.
While the study is in many ways innovative and valuable, there are issues surrounding its reliability for a larger context. First, men sampled in the study were out numbered 9 to 1 making it difficult to speculate whether men considering plastic surgery can expect the same range of results. Second, the study's age estimations are judged by a small group of medical students probably in their mid to late twenties. If the same snapshots of 45 to 72 year olds were evaluated by their peers instead, the perceived ages may've changed. Third and perhaps most damning, is the fact that all surgeries were performed by the same surgeon, Dr. Peter Adamson, who teaches at the University of Toronto and was a co-author of the study. Under this light the study's results read more like Dr. Adamson's personal batting average than a trustable approximation for people considering these surgeries outside of his care.
The research represents an interesting approach toward informing patients about feasible cosmetic results, but a much larger, gender specific, and perhaps age specific approach may be necessary to yield workable data. That said, the question of age and beauty will probably always be mired in subjectivity. Those pursuing cosmetic treatments should be aware that the aesthetic outcomes of plastic surgery will be different for everyone, and that your personal cosmetic surgeon will be the best predictor of your results.
If you're interested in more information on cosmetic surgery, contact us today. Our Plastic Surgery Portal representatives will schedule you a free and confidential appointment with one of our certified plastic surgeons in your area!


Rob Kardashian is still pining for his daughter.
The reality star took to Instagram on Sunday to post a new photo of his 1-month-old baby girl, Dream, along with a message about how much he misses her after his fiancée, Blac Chyna, took their daughter and left the house on Saturday.
"I really miss this girl," Kardashian wrote in the since-deleted post. "Never felt so in love with someone the way I do with you Dream! Look she had her thumbs up. Never thought a woman would try to take my happiness when all I wanted was to make her Happy. Man this is awful. Closing my eyes cuz this is draining."
Chyna, who recently deleted a number of Instagram posts regarding her fight with her fiancé, also appears to have started a new, secondary Instagram account. Chyna posted a Snapchat video to the account -- which is unverified and was later made private -- to prove it was really her posting content.
On Saturday, Chyna cleaned out Dream's nursery, her son King Cairo's room and the pantry at the house she shared with Kardashian. She later took to Instagram to announce that she's "done" with trying to make their relationship work.
"Everyone has tried to help Rob. I've gone beyond to help and so has his family! I'm done with the situation until he gets help. I have no longer have time to feed into Robert's shenanigans I have 2 children and myself to fend for," she wrote.
Chyna's mom, Tokyo Toni, took to Instagram on Sunday to assure people that the couple "will be fine," despite their problems, and that she hopes they can find their way.
"I love Rob and I am going to try to help them manage their relationship through love and wise words," she wrote. "At the end of the day they will still be together I promise you. Rob just have to get Mr. Insecure off of his back! Everything will be fine."
For more on the ongoing drama between the new parents, check out the video below.


Anchor your living room with the effortless Ruben Entertainment TV Unit With Black Doors - Natural. Showcasing a contrasted aesthetic, this TV unit is perfectly suited for any modern styled home, infusing natural wood tones to warm up the decor. With plenty of storage to meet the needs of a busy lifestyle, the stylishly versatile Ruben is a compact and timeless addition to your living room.


text:
Q: Explanation for an unexpected rainbow Yesterday, I observed an unexpected rainbow in the sky. There was no forecast for rain, neither was it raining anywhere nearby. I have been trying to find an explanation but don't seem to find any. Can someone please explain what this rainbow is?
Note:the colours were way more vivid as compare to the picture I have taken

A: These are tropospheric Iridescent Clouds
According to AtmosphericOptics:

When parts of clouds are thin and have similar size droplets, diffraction can make them shine with colours like a corona. In fact, the colours are essentially corona fragments. The effect is called cloud iridescence or irisation...
The usually delicate colours can be in almost random patches or bands at cloud edges. They are only organised into coronal rings when the droplet size is uniform right across the cloud. The bands and colours change or come and go as the cloud evolves...Iridescence is seen mostly when part of a cloud is forming because then all the droplets have a similar history and consequently have a similar size.

I've saturated the image so the interesting part can be appreciated

And here you have a very similar observation I quickly found by google image search:

A: I don't see a rainbow in that photo but rain isn't always necessary for a rainbow to form. A rainbow results from water droplets refracting and reflecting light in a certain way. Suspended water droplets (fog) can be enough, if they are sufficiently dense, occupy a sufficiently large volume and are located in the direction where you would normally see a rainbow.


Introduction to the major differences between domestic and IHRM; cultural, social and ethical issues for IHRM; IHRM planning, policies and procedures; international relations and evaluation of host country environments; recruitment and selection; remuneration; training and compensating expatriates; maintaining the employment relationship within international operations.
evaluate strategies for the establishment and maintenance of ethical and sound employment relationships within international organisations.
Students must have passed MGW2430 or MGG2430 before undertaking this unit.


This would be Alibaba's third investment in Chinese courier after buying a minority stakes in YTO Express Group Co Ltd and Best Inc.
Apple has joined a rival consortium led by Bain Capital that is bidding for Toshiba's chip unit, sources with direct knowledge of the matter have said.
The concession by Western Digital could be a turning point in the hotly contested auction for unit, which Toshiba has valued at at least 2 trillion yen.
Cisco Systems Inc, Bosch Ltd and several other companies, have set up a consortium to work on how blockchain can be used to secure and improve "internet of things" applications, as sectors beyond finance seek to benefit from bitcoin's underlying technology.
Blockchain company R3 CEV has reduced the amount it aims to raise from bank members in its first large round of equity funding to $150 million from $200 million and is changing the structure of the deal, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The 32-km long fully-elevated Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor was awarded to an RInfra-led consortium in August 2009 through an international competitive bidding.
The Unicode Consortium, on October 11, announced the newly finalised Unicode Version 6.0 that adds 2088 characters, with over 1000 new symbols, including that for the Indian Rupee.


Hong Kong adopts a territorial source principle of taxation. Only profits which have a source in Hong Kong are taxable here.
Profits sourced elsewhere are not subject to Hong Kong Profits Tax. Offshore income claim is not automatic. It needs to be applied.
The fee for this starts from around HKD 60,000.
Therefore, the company can also start arranging the filing work - even the filing request is not issued yet.
What documents are required for Tax Filing?
For a company does not need to apply for tax exemption, only Item 1 , Item 2 and Item 3 are required to submit to Hong Kong tax department.
When tax exemption application is required, Item 4 is required as well.
Item 1 : All income (onshore and offshore) of the taxpayer company should be reported.
Walk-Through document example of a deal showing how an offshore income business is handled.


text:
By Betty Williamson
Carl Armstrong: Personable, funny, enthusiastic
Last updated 1/7/2023 at 2:16pm
Carl Armstrong with his wife, Mona Lee Norman-Armstrong, and their grandson, Will, at Easter 2022.
Whether he was competing in an Ironman triathlon, flying a fighter jet, or teaching advanced placement physics to Clovis high school students, Carl Armstrong was all in.
"He never did anything he didn't do well," according to Mona Lee Norman-Arm...


text:
Home » Health News » Neural roots and origins of alcoholism identified
Neural roots and origins of alcoholism identified
02/06/2021 alcoholism, and, identified, neural, of, origins, roots
The physical origin of alcohol addiction has been located in a network of the human brain that regulates our response to danger, according to a team of British and Chinese researchers, co-led by the University of Warwick, the University of Cambridge, and Fudan University in Shanghai.
The medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) at the front of the brain senses an unpleasant or emergency situation, and then sends this information to the dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) at the brain's core, the latter area processing whether we need to escape the situation.
A person is at greater risk of developing alcohol use disorders when this information pathway is imbalanced in the following two ways:
Alcohol inhibits the dPAG (the area of the brain that processes adverse situations), so that the brain cannot respond to negative signals, or the need to escape from danger—leading a person to only feel the benefits of drinking alcohol, and not its harmful side effects. This is a possible cause of compulsive drinking.
A person with alcohol addiction will also generally have an over-excited dPAG, making them feel that they are in an adverse or unpleasant situation they wish to escape, and they will urgently turn to alcohol to do so. This is the cause of impulsive drinking.
Professor Jianfeng Feng, from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick and who also teaches at Fudan University, says, "I was invited to comment on a previous study on mice for the similar purpose: to locate the possible origins of alcohol abuse. It is exciting that we can replicate these murine models in humans, and, of course, go a step further to identify a dual-pathway model that links alcohol abuse to a tendency to exhibit impulsive behavior."
Professor Trevor Robbins from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge says, "It is remarkable that these neural systems in the mouse concerned with responding to threat and punishment have been shown to be relevant to our understanding of the factors leading to alcohol abuse in adolescents."
Dr. Tianye Jia from the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence at Fudan University, also affiliated with King's College London, says, "We have found that the same neural top-down regulation could malfunction in two completely different ways, yet leading to similar alcohol abuse behavior."
Published in the journal Science Advances, the research is led by an international collaboration, co-led by Dr. Tianye Jia from Fudan University, Professor Jianfeng Feng from the University of Warwick and Fudan University, and Professor Trevor Robbins from the University of Cambridge and Fudan University.
The research team had noticed that previous rodent models showed that the mPFC and dPAG brain areas could underlie precursors of alcohol dependence.
They then analyzed MRI brain scans from the IMAGEN dataset—a group of 2000 individuals from the UK, Germany, France and Ireland who take part in scientific research to advance knowledge of how biological, psychological and environmental factors during adolescence may influence brain development and mental health.
The participants undertook task-based functional MRI scans, and when they did not receive rewards in the tasks (which produced negative feelings of punishment), regulation between the mOFC and dPAG was inhibited more highly in participants who had exhibited alcohol abuse.
Equally, in a resting state, participants who demonstrated a more overexcited regulation pathway between the mOFC and dPAG, (leading to feelings of needing urgently to escape a situation), also had increased levels of alcohol abuse.
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Team 4 returned home last Saturday following an intensely busy 10 days in and around Railaco. It has been a while since Drs Andy Moran (Snake) and Gordon Saggers (Cowboy) have been to TL, so they really noticed the improvements in infrastructure, particularly in the quality of the main roads and the availability of electricity; as well as improvements in public health, especially the reduction in betel-nut usage which has been attributed to a public health campaign.
Andy and Gordon were charged with taking over the pressure cooker steriliser that the TLDP has just purchased from India. The fabulous Rotary Coordinator, Daryl Mills, provided us with a spare gas bottle and the boys bought a gas cooker from a supermarket in Dili and now the new clinic in Railaco has a steriliser that can sterilise a load of dirty instruments in 15 minutes!
The pair had a smallish set of dramas unique to working in this beautiful place – on finding that they had the wrong set of handpieces for the dental cart, they had to endure the 4 hour return trip from Railaco to Maubara to make an exchange. They wrestled with a recalcitrant generator, stemmed the flood from a leaky scaler and negotiated the goat tracks, otherwise known as secondary and tertiary roads with audaciousness and resolve. The roads to Tarasu and Leorema are particularly BAD.
Team 4 was kept extremely busy by the redoubtable Father Bong, treating patients in Railaco, Nasuta, Leorema, Railaco Leten, Gleno Jail, Daicerlaco, Tocoluli, Cocoa and Tarasu. Super-organised Father Bong had patients lined up and ready to go so the boys had very little downtime. He also organised two excellent support staff; a driver and interpreter, Victor, a Timorese who been a soldier in the Portugese army and had worked in Sydney as a cleaner in St Vincent's Hospital and as a garbage truck driver in Liverpool; and Natalia, an ex-nun who was their nurse and interpreter.
In total, the team saw 335 patients; did 20 cleans, filled 353 teeth and extracted 425 teeth. As Andy puts it, "Not bad for a couple of old blokes".
Many thanks to Henry Schein Halas who again stepped up to the plate and donated some much needed local anaesthetic to us, to Father Bong and Daryl, whose hospitality and efficiency we could not do without, and to Cowboy and Snake, for their sheer hard work. Fantastic job!


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Q: Beaglebone Black filesystem resize - incorrect information? "just delete the partition and make a new one" I am working remotely with a beaglebone black system.
I found this information on youtube about expanding the root filesystem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK6wfV_19ac (watch from 12:50)
The author of the video demonstrates resizing of the filesystem by literally deleting the filesystem which contains /, and then creating a new partition.
(Unless I've completely misunderstood?)
This seems completely crazy. I can't understand how this worked and didn't destroy the filesystem? It seems like a complete fluke that no data was damaged in this process and that all the inodes are still valid.
This makes me wonder if I completely misunderstood something - and so I am now worried that this is actually a valid thing to do.
I would like a second opinion on this - is what the author instructs in the video the correct way to expand a filesystem? If so, why did deleting the partition containing all of the data of the root of the filesystem not destroy that data?

A: Partitions and filesystems are not the same. At no point the filesystem was destroyed.
Partition is just a part of a larger device identified by some entry in the partition table. fdisk manipulates this table. In DOS (MBR) partitioning scheme the partition table is at (strictly: near) the beginning of the disk. In GPT it's near the beginning and (another one, backup) near the end. It doesn't belong to any partition, at least it shouldn't. In some sense you can think of it as "a table of contents".
Filesystem is a structure that usually lives inside a partition (but it may live in a regular file or take the entire device). Even if the partition entry is no more, you can mount the filesystem if you know its offset.
The author of the video destroyed the partition entry and created a new one. This only affected the partition table, not the actual data within the (old or new) partition, i.e. the filesystem. The partition in question was recreated larger but its starting sector remained. This is where the filesystem starts.
After the reboot the filesystem mounts successfully, because the kernel looks for its header at the beginning of the new partition, which is the same as the beginning of the old partition where the actual filesystem header was/is. The filesystem knows its size, so the fact the partition is now of a different size is irrelevant, as long as the filesystem "fits" (so enlarging is always OK; see the note about shrinking at the end).
Finally resize2fs was used to actually resize the filesystem. The new size was not specified, so the tool let the filesystem take the entire partition. This was the only moment anything was done to the filesystem itself (aside routine mounting and accessing). The tool supports resizing to the right (i.e. without moving the beginning of the filesystem) even if the filesystem is mounted. This is what happened.
Yes, it is the correct way.
Note if you want to shrink a partition, you should shrink the filesystem first, only then adjust the partition table. The rule is at any moment the whole filesystem should fit in the partition. Shrinking a mounted filesystem may not be as easy (or possible at all) as expanding it.


Vancouver-based artist Howie Tsui was born in Hong Kong and raised primarily in Thunder Bay, Ontario where he built and maintained connections to Chinese culture through food and popular culture. His work explores questions of identity and national history, among other things, and does so through techniques and imagery that conflates traditional painted scrolls with contemporary forms of illustration like manga. His latest work, Retainers of Anarchy, is a multi-disciplinary project — including paperworks, sculpture, built structures, animation, and video — organized around a large-format video projection and an interactive installation component to be exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery in spring 2017. It will be Tsui's first solo museum exhibition and, in terms of its scope, the largest work he has yet produced. The project is a response to a video project commissioned by the Chinese government for the 2010 World Expo that depicts a Song Dynasty festival in a manner that is arguably inauthentic and certainly problematic in terms of its depiction of a cohesive body politic. Retainers of Anarchy will use the wuxia genre of martial arts fiction and fantasy, and the real-world setting of the Kowloon Walled City, to examine turmoil, dissent, resistance, and community while exploring Tsui's own relationship with Chinese popular culture and his experience of the dynamic links between mainland China and Hong Kong.
Michael Brendan Baker: The scope of this project is far greater than anything you've attempted in the past, so I'd like to begin by asking you a little about your process. Your various works appear to be closely knit, particularly in terms of their thematic interests and the larger conceptual frame you are exploring.
Howie Tsui: It's true, yes, that many of my projects come out of the work that precedes it as I recognize new areas of interest or investigation that I want to delve into. And then it's like a bug — I need to keep it in place while I finish whatever I'm working on. It tends to come about like that, and that's why it likely appears to be knotted together, because they are always inter-related unless they are commissioned pieces for a particular show. When I'm left to myself it's very cohesive because they're all pulled from a single thread of interests.
I think this juggling of ideas and projects is indirectly related to the larger conceptual frame of fluctuating identities or cultures. The feeling of being 'inbetween' whether it's more academic — the split between high- and low-art — it always seems like I'm vacillating between different realms. In previous texts about my work, people speak about "liminal zones" — which was a pretty good catchphrase four years ago — and it's pretty accurate. I feel like I function in this in-between place that affords me a more radial perspective that informs the projects I'm interested in pursuing. In this new project, in particular, because I'm also exploring the wuxia genre of martial arts fantasy fiction, the world that it happens in — in Cantonese it's called gongwu, which translates as "rivers and lakes" —is a fictitious world that is also in-between, a liminal space that's between reality, history and fiction, like a wild west where you're just out there and not anchored to any particular place. Certainly not a real place. And you're floating, if that makes any sense.
As a first step, I was trying to undermine an animated scroll I saw when I was in Hong Kong in 2010. The Chinese government produced an animated scroll called 'The River of Wisdom' for the World Expo and digital remake of a classic Song Dynasty scroll called Along the River During the Qingming Festival. When I first saw it, I thought it was cool, just through the scale, but the more I considered it I felt it was necessary to respond to how idealized that world was, so socially harmonious. My practice tends to skewers things in a disobedient way so I wanted to do another version of it which was chaotic and I thought the Kowloon Walled City was a great way of reframing the scroll project within a lawless place. The irony or paradox is that the Kowloon Walled City was, in fact, a very organized place. Despite the fact it was lawless — beyond the borders of Hong Kong, within the borders of China but ungoverned in a meaningful way — deemed dangerous and hectic but orderly as a result of rules and self-imposed modes of conduct that emerged quite organically. And this mirrors the gongwu, these environments in martial arts fantasy fiction, where there is no formal policing and it is left instead to these heroes to maintain order and achieve some sense of social cohesion.
Despite the campy production of some of these films, the themes are communicated quite effectively. The television shows are based on the work of a wuxia author, Jin Yong, who is very popular and responsible for many classics that were quite political and concerned with how these swordsmen are upholding an honourable existence by resisting oppressive forces (which tend to be government officials and others representing dynastic legacies). In some cases, it's very xenophobic, with invading forces set-up as the villains and the ethnic Chinese as the good guys. In terms of the paradox between lawless chaos versus social harmony in an ungoverned state or liminal zone — and its central place in this new project — that came first and then it was structured by my processing all the various elements of the genre.
MBB: And what role does collaboration play in this process? How significant is it that you must necessarily hand responsibility for some elements of the work over to others with talents and skill sets you don't possess yourself?
HT: It is increasingly significant. In the past I've always been obsessive about things in a 'quality control' way and I enjoyed making work that was relatively modest, or not precisely polished, nor fabricated or manufactured by specialists in those fields. But this new work demanded I 'go big' after a while. It was necessary to challenge myself and see if I could navigate it, putting myself within a puzzle and seeing if I could solve it. In terms of resources, at no point in the present moment am I able to say, "Okay, I have enough financial resources to actually pull this off." So that moment is still on the horizon but I initiated the current project at the scale it's at hoping that I could get enough people and support behind it that I could realize it as I envisioned it. And then there's the watered-down version of the project that I might have to capitulate to if I can't find enough funding or creative ways of getting enough help to produce the work. I hope the work is supported to the extent it can be exhibited beyond Canada, so there can be a little more exposure for Canadian artists abroad, which there is a lack of. Canada is a small enough country population-wise, that we don't have a large enough collector base or vibrant enough art market to support artists internationally on a consistent basis.
Currently, I have two co-op students from Emily Carr's animation program working for me, as well as a graduate who is a really great animator and is serving as the director of the animation component on my behalf. Another professor at Emily Carr, Martin Rose, was my original consultant and has served as my entry into that world. It's cool to see my stuff moving. I produce keyframes outlining a sequence of movements, and then they go through a process of digitizing my work and optimizing it for their own animation methods. I started off providing them with easier characters and movements but now they are getting more complex. One element of their work is creating these shorter loops that can be a part of the projection piece.
MBB: With this in mind, how easy will it be to transport the work and show it in different venues?
HT: The project will be transportable — a single high-end PC tower with five projectors — with an installation component that can be reconstructed in various spaces.
The dimensions of the scroll projection are 90 feet high by 10 feet tall, and it will start off as a landscape scroll. But what happens is that the projection will shift and you will see a building representing the Kowloon Walled City, at which point it will zoom in, and I've designed cross-sections — doll house-style — allowing you to look into the building and see all of these scenes animated within the individual rooms.
The installation component — a living room filled with VHS tapes of these films from my youth — is intended to be an honest representation of the source of my relationship to the genre: a basement in Thunder Bay watching all of these kung fu films. My father originally relocated to Canada based on a proposal to establish a videocassette manufacturing company in Thunder Bay, so that's how we got here. That plan didn't last long but it explains why we had so many videotapes at home. Access to cultural products plays a role in connecting the diaspora to one's home countries.
MBB: For readers who are not familiar with your work or your story, can you briefly describe your development as an artist and the role played by formal education and community engagement?
HT: For me, undergraduate art school (University of Waterloo) was foundational. When I got out of high school I was in Thunder Bay, and Thunder Bay has a great history of First Nations woodland art but I wasn't exposed to very much contemporary art. I wasn't versed in that world. My initial training wasn't terribly academic, it was technique-driven, but university did provide the more foundational art historical and theoretical concepts that I've since built upon. The most valuable part was just being around other students that were also super interested in making art. Developing a language using visual art happened in art school later on, after I found a crew. We were the low-brow, B-movie, outsider kids and I think if I hadn't been in the program at the same time as those guys, I would have felt pretty alone and might not have wanted to pursue it any further.
I was also lucky to have been mentored as much as I was after arriving in Ottawa. Not in a formal way, but because the community is tight-knit, you see how the few organizations there are operating. You learn from that. The Ottawa Art Gallery was my first job after undergrad and I was just working the front desk, but I got to see the shows that the gallery was putting on. The curator at the time, Emily Falvey, was a very good, heady curator and the themes to her shows were a great balance between pointed, political, and intellectual, but not at all obscure. That rubbed off on me, definitely, and the programming at SAW Gallery was also very helpful. It was even more forwardly political, and shows were frequently providing voices for more marginalized and disenfranchised sections of society. That was also very influential as my work tends to address similar themes.
MBB: And the impact of your move to Vancouver upon your work, your understanding of the Canadian art scene — in what ways does Vancouver allow your work to evolve and how has your identity as a Chinese-Canadian artist evolved with increased access to the world of contemporary Chinese art?
HT: After moving to Vancouver, I noticed there is much more work being produced by many more artists, showing in many more galleries with more funding and a wider range of mandates. There's a lot to see but it's also hard to zero in on things because it's so frenetic, certainly in comparison to Ottawa. I go and check stuff out but I'm certainly less active in Vancouver than Ottawa, and much of that is a consequence of having a two year-old to look after.
I think increasing the role Hong Kong and China plays in my artistic life was always the goal of relocating to Vancouver. I knew Ottawa was a great place to find myself because it wasn't so distracting. I could occupy the silence and figure out what my practice was in an honest way, without being effected by external factors. And I think that helped because once I arrived in Vancouver, I was a semi-established, mid-career artist and I could check-out as much work as I wanted, but I didn't need to feel as though I wasn't part of it, or that my work didn't fit with what the scene was preoccupied with. The whole intention of moving out here was wanting to get back to Hong Kong and Asia more often, and given that my work was exploring these overt cultural references, I wanted to use that, but play with it in a way that would allow me to get over to Asia and present it so people could see what happens when a Chinese diasporic artist is producing work with an eye on returning to the country post-migration. And maybe I would learn more things after returning to Asia and my perception of things would just explode, including my perception of the culture while living in Canada, which was accessed primarily through TV shows and movies.
When I go to mainland China, I am definitely an outsider because I don't speak Mandarin, but when I go to Hong Kong it feels like a homecoming. In terms of how I am positioned as an artist when I'm exhibited, if I'm programmed in shows, I am often a 'Hong Kong-born artist' who is returning to the country. In Hong Kong, Westerners run a lot of the arts organizations and galleries, so it's easy for them to work with Western-trained, Western-schooled artists with a tie to Hong Kong. There are organizations that are reversing that and trying to support straight-up Hong Kong-born local artists, but it's still a developing movement.
In mainland China, it's such a large world over there. In Shanghai, I'm exhibiting at a gallery that is more frequented by ex-pats and western Europeans. A mainland collecting audience isn't really into my work yet. I think there is a tendency for mainland collectors to invest in mainland art, but there is a new trend — like wine and cheese on the mainland — to collect some non-mainland art. Honestly, I'm not entirely in tune with the art market and how its machinations actually work. I know some colleagues who've found great success after studying at fine arts schools in the United States or Canada, and then returned to Hong Kong and did really well because of the cultural capital — there's a cache attached to Western schooling. The power structure of the art scene is Eurocentric so they put more value in someone educated in a Western context. In Hong Kong, if someone graduated from Goldsmiths or a similar setting, it would look very good regardless of their practice. It's tied-in with the weird relationship between Hong Kong, Britain, and colonialism. Hong Kong'ers have historically looked up to Britain and British culture, and they continue to differentiate themselves from mainlanders in their perception of themselves as more mannered and knowledgeable of etiquette. Mainlanders are viewed as brutish and uncultured.
MBB: And what about your own identity as it is defined by your practice? Certain thematics or conceptual preoccupations come in and out of fashion, enjoy greater or less traction in terms of funding and gallery support, and the consistency of your vision could just as often be a liability as something worth celebrating.
HT: I think it's widely accepted that art focused on identity is out of fashion or gauche. Now it's process-based abstract work. So I'm very self-conscious about my place in the art world. I have another artist friend in town that makes work focused on identity and we have to stay tight so that we aren't shaken by criticism that claim our interests or practices are irrelevant. It's pretty difficult. But that is the area I'm interested in working in, and comments or critiques don't resonate with me, or for a lot of people who are struggling or wrestling with issues of identity.


We are developing and growing our team in India. Sanjiv Ray joined us earlier this month as our new Chief Operations Officer (COO). He will be working closely with our team, providing leadership and support as Hunar Ghar becomes one of India's most inspiring schools, proving that excellence in education is possible in a resource poor rural area.


Apart from guided diving excursions and courses for beginners or experienced divers, Aquatica also organize snorkelling trips, as an alternative for those who do not want to scuba dive. But just the same want to experience the fantastic underwater environment.
We provide clean air fillings for all dives from our own cylinder filling station. Our cylinders are periodically tested according to local laws, as well as all of the other equipment, in order to guarantee the safety and enjoyment of all diving activities.
The dive shop sells a varied selection of diving equipment at very competitive prices, all those diving with Aquatica get a great discount on all diving equipment purchases.
Aquatica dive centre is a DAN (Diver Alert Network) member.
Our staff are trained in first aid.
All diving activities are directly supervised by qualified and professional instructors.
All dives feature a 5 meter safety stop and are planned within non-decompression limits.
During all dive excursions a first aid kit, oxygen kit, mobile phone and emergency contact numbers are always present.
All divers will have to complete a registration form on arrival at the dive centre. This will include details of your diving qualification and a copy of your medical declaration (see Maltese Diving Regulations section).
Aquatica Dive Centre organize dives around Malta, Gozo and Comino - so it is a great opportunity to enjoy seeing the lovely and fascinating Islands.