text:
Wednesday, January 22, 2020 4.5°C
Holiday let adds new string to dale farmers' bow
WARM WELCOME: Mandy and David Mallon outside The Aspens
Post-Brexit uncertainty was the main driver for the Mallon family's decision to develop a holiday cottage on the farm near Middleton-in-Teesdale. Wendy Short took a tour of the property.
DAVID Mallon will be known to many Teesdale livestock keepers due to his passion for breeding high quality pedigree Swaledale sheep and for his store cattle, which usually make good prices at the local auction marts. However, there has been a well-documented decline in agricultural profitability and the extended family's decision to sell a farm cottage that was formerly occupied by his late grandfather was the catalyst which prompted the recent change.
The Kelton property was purchased last autumn by a farming partnership which includes David, his wife Mandy and his uncle and aunt, Simon and Shirley Bentley.
They briefly considered turning the cottage into a long-term residential let but its isolation convinced them that a holiday rental would be a better option. An initial visit by a Visit Durham tourism representative provided a valuable source of information and the family learned of the shortage of high quality self-catering accommodation in the region.
The building had full residential planning permission and there was no requirement to change its status to holiday accommodation, however, consent was sought for an additional window and patio door.
Mr Mallon says: "We had several quotations for drawing up the paperwork to accompany the planning application up but they seemed very expensive, so I produced them myself. I used an Ordnance Survey map to support the application and it took only about a month before permission was granted.
"Aside from the building work, one of the biggest tasks was upgrading the water supply. The spring-fed system was not considered suitable and we had to add a water treatment plant.
"It consists of a holding tank, with the supply treated using a carbon filter and a UV lamp which required new underground electricity power cables.
"The heating arrangement was outdated and we looked at installing a ground source system.
"But we were told that as the cottage is remote, it might be difficult to get hold of a specialist engineer if it broke down while it was occupied in the winter, as the nearest company is more than 40 miles away. Therefore we continued to use fuel oil, but added under floor heating. The roof was sound, but if it needs attention in the future, we may install solar panels."
Mr Mallon was the main manager of the renovation project.
"I thought that the short days during last winter would give me plenty of time to organise all the work that needed to be done," he commented.
"However, it was far more demanding than I had anticipated. I set out with a timeline, but project delays due to materials supplies, for example, meant that I had to change the project plan.
"I carried out some of the dismantling work myself, including the removal of the kitchen and bathroom units, but the rest was left to local traders and they all completed the work to a very high standard."
The family has spared no expense in renovating and decorating the property at Lanehead farm and the choice of a "high end" holiday cottage meant that the business was eligible for a grant from North Pennine Dales LEADER (part of the Rural Development Programme) and EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development).
Guest comfort is a priority and there is a wine cooler (stocked with a bottle of Prosecco), complimentary chocolates, an inset log burner and all of the kitchen equipment necessary to cook a gourmet meal. The decor throughout is neutral but accessorised to produce a stunning effect; at once luxurious and cosy.
Outside, there is a designated dog walking area and fantastic views of Grassholme reservoir and the surrounding fells.
As people seeking a countryside holiday will often wish to bring their dogs, one dog is permitted per booking as long as it is confined to the ground floor; a stair gate is provided for this purpose.
The support of an online holiday accommodation marketing company has been helpful in the early stages, but the commission that is charged has an impact on profitability. In the future, a full time job will be created, in order to manage the business. Currently, Mandy works part-time in an accounts office, as well as looking after the couple's two children; Josh, 6, and Olivia, 5, at their home in Eggleston.
"Hill farming has been under pressure for some time and other options for increasing income on this type of farm are limited," says Mr Mallon. "Tourism offered a new opportunity and a holiday cottage seemed like the best way to maximise the farm's assets
"We have been surprised and delighted to find that the cottage has so many bookings and we several weeks have been taken for next autumn. The challenge now is to maintain the property and the service at a very high standard, in order to encourage repeat visitors."
DESPITE the popularity of the holiday cottage business, the 700-acre farm remains at the heart of Mallon family life and their efforts to improve the genetic merit of the Swaledale sheep flock are paying off.
One of the ewes was crowned supreme champion at the annual High Force sheep show this season and in 2018, a ewe with the same sire (Ghyll House Elevator) took the breed championship at Eggleston show.
Tups from the Kelton Hill flock were sold to 3,500gns at Kirkby Stephen last year.
The farm also carries a spring-calving, 70-cow suckler herd of mixed breeding, with British Limousin and British Blues used as terminal sires. Calves that are not required for breeding are sold as stores.
1 MP says closure of unit is ludicrous 16 Jan 2020
2 Villagers try to halt latest plans for recycling plant 16 Jan 2020
3 B&B sets the standard for five years in a row 18 Jan 2020
4 This week's Teesdale Mercury 21 Jan 2020
5 4x4 vehicle seized by police after concerns 19 Jan 2020
&copy2020 Teesdale Mercury
Designed by Edward Robertson


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text:
Patronymes
 Claire Coombs (1974- ) est une princesse de Belgique.
 Ernie Coombs (1927-2001) est un acteur et scénariste canadien.
 Frederick Coombs (1803-1874), photographe américain.
 Lescott Kevin Lyttle Coombs (1976-), musicien saint-vincentais.
 Pat Coombs (1926-2002) est une actrice anglaise.
 Robin Coombs (1921–2006) est un médecin immunologiste britannique.
 Walter P. Coombs (1942- ) est un paléontologue américain.

Toponymie

 Coombs est un village de la Colombie-Britannique au Canada.

Divers
 méthode de Coombs ou vote exhaustif est un système de vote par classement.
 test de Coombs ou test à l'antiglobuline.

Voir aussi

Patronyme anglais

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Graffiti CMS: View Overrides I've got a Graffiti CMS (http://graffiticms.com) questions that is driving me crazy. I figured this would be the best place to try to get an answer and at the same time hopefully provider an answer for someone else with the same issue.
First, I have a site structure like this:

*

*Category1

*

*Sub-Category1

*Category2

*

*Sub-Category3

*Sub-Category4

*---Post1

*---Post2

I have my .view files in the theme. I have a category2.sub-category4.view file which in theory replaces the index.view file displaying the posts within the subcategory with the formatting of my choosing (this part is working).
What isn't working, and I can't figure out is when I go to localhost/category2/sub-category4/post1/ to view the post, it is also using the category2.sub-category4.view to try to display the contents of the post. But since the .view file was setup to display a list of posts it isn't going to display properly. What the expected behavior is for it to use post.view to render the post.
According to http://graffiticms.com/old-support/designers/making-use-of-views/ category2.sub-category4.view should override index.view and it doesn't say anything about it overriding post.view.
I've tried every naming schema I can think of, and if I change the category it always seems to override my post.view as-well. Any help is appreciated.

A: In all the views, Graffiti includes a $where variable which contains a flag you could potentially use.
#if($where == 'category')
Your list view
#else
Your post specific view
#endif

Not perfect for sure (I thought this issues had been resolved), but that should help you through this hurdle.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Ordering was super easy. I love the finished picture. This is for my boyfriends birthday. He is going to love it!!!!!
Excellent work! I couldnt be happier with my order!
Excellent work. Im so excited to see it in person!


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text:
Der River Tummel () ist ein Fluss im schottischen Hochland. Er liegt in der Council Area Perth and Kinross in der traditionellen Grafschaft Perthshire.

Die Quelle des River Tummel ist Loch Rannoch. Der Fluss verlässt den See an dessen östlichem Ende in der Nähe der Ortschaft Kinloch Rannoch. Zunächst bewegt er sich in östliche Richtung, wobei er sowohl Dunalastair Water als auch Loch Tummel durchfließt, wo ihn die Tummel Bridge quert. Einige Kilometer nach dem Ausfluss aus Loch Tummel wendet sich die Richtung des River Tummel nach Südosten, um kurz darauf Loch Faskally zu durchfließen und die Ortschaft Pitlochry zu passieren. Zwei Kilometer südlich der Ortschaft Ballinluig mündet der River Tummel in den River Tay.

Der Fluss ist ein Angelgebiet, in dem vor allem Lachse, aber auch Forellen gefangen werden können. Außerdem wird der Fluss im Sommer zum Rafting genutzt. Die meisten Uferabschnitte des River Tummel gelten als ausgesprochen malerisch und sind daher ein beliebtes Wandergebiet.

Weblinks
Beschreibung des Flusses (en.)
Informationen für Angler (en.)
Informationen zum Rafting (en.)


This pioneering volume, the first in a series, presents a plurality of voices, methods and concerns in Qur'anic interpretation ranging from the 8th century to the present day. No previous work has drawn on such a comprehensive range of commentaries and covered such a wide spectrum of theological approaches. On the Nature of the Divine analyses the works of Sunni, Shi'i, Ibadi, Mu'tazili, and Sufi commentators on six Qur'anic verses, revealing varied approaches to the scripture and its meaning. In their attempts to discern God's nature, the commentators inevitably introduce their theological concerns. Contextual introductions and annotated translations allow the reader to follow the genesis of key intellectual debates and religio-political attitudes still relevant to the lives of Muslims today. This combination of previously untranslated texts and extensive annotation provides an invaluable and innovative contribution to the field of Islamic Studies.


as heavy as prison doors clanging shut?
vibrating, humming in his easeful sleep?
that can take us anywhere, and onward.
than anything else I would know?
From Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 (Graywolf Press, 2010). Copyright © 2010 by Elizabeth Alexander. Used with the permission of Graywolf Press.


FMAR is a no-kill animal shelter. Our property includes two buildings. One for cats and one for dogs. The former includes a screened patio for the cats and the latter, a large yard for the dogs to play in. Once we take in an animal, it has a home with us for it's lifetime. Some of the animals have stayed with FMAR for years before being adopted. The animals at FMAR are rescued from nearby pounds, accepted (as space is available) from the public, or left on our doorstep. FMAR is comprised solely of volunteers that have a deep love of animals. The shelters are thoroughly cleaned twice a day. All dogs are either walked or given play time in the yard every day. We have an well developed TNR program, offer educational programs for kids, and allow people to volunteer to fulfill community service hours. FMAR is well-know and well-respected in our community, and we continue to strive to provide services to the people and animals in our area.


Of 1,504 reviews in all languages, 3 are displayed.
There is a main shrine with lots of smaller buildings around it. There are many cherry trees nearby which look really nice when they are all in blossom. I'd recommend the war museum nearby as well.


text:
Q: Elastic band around a cylinder An elastic band is stretched using a known force and then placed around a cylinder. How are the forces or tensions distributed? I assume there will be two components: firstly, a tangential or circumferential component, and secondly, a radial or centripetal component. How are these components calculated?

A: The upshot is that there will be a net radial component only.
To see this, pick a point on the circumference of the cylinder and compute the net force on that point due to the rest of the rubber band. I'm going to say that the radius of the cylinder is $R$, that the force applied to stretch the band is $T$, and I'm going to ignore the width of the band. Then the force per unit length $dl$ is $dF = T(dl/2\pi R)$.
Now let me take the point I'm interested as $\theta = 0$, and ask what the force on that point is due to a point at some $\theta$ around the circle. That point applies the force $dF$ at the angle $\theta$. Decompose that into radial and tangential components. But notice that there is a matching point at $-\theta$ that supplies the same radial force but an exactly opposing tangential force. The net force due to $dl$ is therefore $dF(\theta) = T(dl/2\pi R)|\sin\theta|$, all directed radially. I'm taking the absolute value of the $\sin$ because the points on the far side of the cylinder will have a negative value for $\sin\theta$, but will still supply a positive force.
To actually do the integral, we need to convert the differential: $dl = Rd\theta \Rightarrow dF = T|\sin\theta|d\theta/2\pi$. Finally, the total radial force applied at the point $\theta = 0$ is $F = \int_0^{2\pi} d\theta T|\sin\theta|/2\pi$. To simplify this, note that $\int_0^{\pi/2}|\sin\theta|d\theta = \int_{\pi/2}^\pi|\sin\theta|d\theta = \int_\pi^{3\pi/2}|\sin\theta|d\theta = \int_{3\pi/2}^{2pi}|\sin\theta|d\theta $. So $$F = \frac{4F}{2\pi} \int_0^{\pi/2} \sin\theta d\theta = \frac{4T}{2\pi}$$.
A few notes on that result. As I mentioned above, I've neglected the width of the band. The only real effect of adding the width should be do divide this result by the width. If you do that, then you get a pressure. In this form, I've calculated a force per unit length. This result does not depend on the radius of the cylinder; the force you supplied initially to stretch the band is spread evenly over the entire circumference. As a result, there will be a larger total force applied if you stretch the rubber band over a larger cylinder. This is what we expect for an elastic band. The force is spread evenly along the length of the band, and the total force you need to apply scales linearly with the stretching length.


Brazil is a country with a lot of passion. It is famous for football, the Rio Carnival, and Mount Corcovado. Football quickly became a passion for Brazilians. Over 10,000 Brazilians play professionally all over the world.
Carnival is the most famous holiday in Brazil and has become an event of huge proportions. Rhythm, participation, and costumes vary from one region of Brazil to another. In the southeastern city of Rio de Janeiro, huge organized parades are led by samba schools. The country stops completely for almost a week and festivities are intense, day and night, mainly in coastal cities. The consumption of beer accounts for 80% of annual consumption and tourism receives 70% of annual visitors.
The 125-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer with outstretched arms overlooks Rio de Janeiro from atop Mt. Corcovado.


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text:
Sacramento Bee Insinuates That CalPERS and Its Vendor Diligent Boards Have Grossly Deficient Security in Forthcoming Hit Piece Against Board Member Margaret Brown
The Sacramento Bee and the author of its State Worker column, Wes Venteicher, are a sad case study in what is happening to soi-distant journalists in the US.
Once upon a time, the Bee's most widely read column, the State Worker, showed considerable independence. When Jon Ortiz penned that feature, he would regularly call out questionable conduct at CalPERS.
But under his successors Adam Ashton and the current columnist Wes Venteicher, the State Worker feature has devolved into propaganda for CalPERS. Later this week, we'll discuss how Venteicher blew the story on CalPERS divestment from private prisons, a move has significant implications lost on Venteicher due to his apparent lack of inquisitiveness.
But on to more pressing matters, which is the latest example of how CalPERS at the Sacramento Bee are conniving to embarrass themselves and in passing, throwing CalPERS vendor Diligent Boards under the bus.
Venteicher is working on what looks like the oxymoron of a pathetic hit piece on CalPERS' pro-transparency board member Margaret Brown. It's pathetic because Venteicher's line of inquiry shows he's got nuthin, yet he's acted as if he really believes Something Serious is afoot.
To cut to the chase, the line of attack is that CalPERS issued electronic devices like cell phones and tablets to board members and newly-created CalPERS documents show that Brown lost some of them. In reality, Brown has already returned all those devices save one iPad to CalPERS, and as we'll show shortly, Brown still has the iPad and it was never at risk of being picked up by anyone else. She mistakenly reported it as missing when it had fallen behind a large cabinet in her house while being charged.
On top of that, lost devices are a fact of life. Both CalPERS and its board portal service, Diligent Boards, each have security protections to prevent access to data. Yet this non-event is being trumped up as some sort of security risk.
This sort of thing wouldn't make the crime blotter in a 500 person town. The fact that Venteicher is devoting what ought to be valuable reportorial time on a nothingburger illustrates how over-willing he is to carry CalPERS' water. This sort of piece would get him laughed at in a city like New York where reporters are capable of finding and reporting on bona fide news. If Venteicher wants to guarantee that he never gets out of provincial backwaters like Sacramento, this is just the way to do it.
If the story hews to Venteicher's line of inquiry, it's based on two false premises: first, that Brown lost (as opposed to temporarily misplaced) devices and second, that had they actually been lost, that CalPERS and Diligent Boards' security procedures we so lax that CalPERS' secrets could conceivably have gotten out in the wild.
As we'll show, this story was almost certainly fed to Venteicher by CalPERS. His wrongheaded insinuations follow the CalPERS pattern of smearing dissident board members while failing to publicize large lapses in the very same vein by the staff-captured board members and senior executives.
Mind you, not only were all Brown's devices "found" but it's arguably a matter of nomenclature whether to have deemed them to have been lost. For instance, record of the status of the iPad that Brown is listed as not having returned is inaccurate. Brown found the location of her iPad after she returned home from Sacramento and informed a CalPERS staffer. Yet CalPERS created documents that it gave to Venteicher that showed the reverse. Was this incompetence on CalPERS part, or a deliberate effort to mislead?
Brown sent this image to show she has the supposedly missing iPad that is the focus of this tempest in a teapot in her possession:
On top of that, in the topsy-turvy World According to CalPERS, Brown is guilty of being scrupulous. As she said,
As someone who has managed large projects with budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, I've always been relentless in accounting for funds and assets so I could hold the people around me to the same standard. If I can't put my hands on a credit card, even though I am very sure that it's in the pocket of a jacket I left in my locked car, I'll cancel it rather than run the risk that I might be wrong.
The fact that CalPERS also unwittingly makes clear its records are shot full of holes separately tells you how seriously CalPERS takes asset-tracking.
Genesis of the Probable Brown Hit Piece
The Sacramento Bee sent a Public Records Act request to CalPERS asking for
…records of all electronic devices, including phones, tablets and any other devices, provided to CalPERS board members in the last five years.
If you believe someone at the Bee all on his little own dreamed up that of all the possible things they could ask CalPERS about, the topic the status of CalPERS tech toys merited a Public Records Act request, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
Further evidence of the lack of independence of this PRA that CalPERS created documents just for the Bee, not just once but twice.
The spreadsheet that CalPERS initially sent to the Bee was created on September 30, 2019 by Larry Hughes and modified on October 4. Public Records Act requests require the production, not the creation, of documents. CalPERS did not provide the Bee with any records as required by the Public Records Act.
Yet CEO Marcie Frost represented to the board that this was the sum total of the records provided to the Bee. On October 9, she sent a copy of the spreadsheet and only the spreadsheet to the board, stating: "Attached for your information are the records provided to the Bee."
The first spreadsheet was obviously incomplete, since it has no information about devices issued to former board members Ron Lind, Richard Gillihan, JJ Jelincic, Michael Bilbrey, and George Diehr and current board members Jason Perez, Lisa Middleton and Eriana Ortega.
Someone on the receiving end must have been alert enough to notice and point the gaps out to CalPERS. The very next day, Frost sent out a second version of the spreadsheet with more board members added to the end of document, noting" "Attached is the remainder of the responsive records to the Sacramento Bee's Public Records Act request." The second spreadsheet looks to be an edited version of the original, since it was created September 30, 2019 by Larry Hughes and last modified on October 10, the same date as Frost's second e-mail to the board.
We have embedded the later version as best we can at the end of this post; we can only provide a PDF. We will e-mail both spreadsheets to anyone who requests them. Bear in mind that the second version is still incomplete; it has no information about former board member George Diehr or current member Eriana Ortega. Both versions also have no information whatsoever about the "designees" of the Treasurer, Controller, and the Director of CalHR, who also have CalPERS-issued iPads. For instance, there is no information about current designees, who are regularly identified in CalPERS transcripts as "Acting Board Member," such as State Treasurer Fiona Ma's designees, Frank Rufino and Matt Sahaor and Betty Yee's designees, Karen Green Ross and Lynn Paquin or earlier designees, such Grant Boyken, who was one of former Treasurer John Chiang's designees.
With so many gaps, this spreadsheet on its face can't be seen as saying much, save confirming that CalPERS does a poor job of asset-tracking or that CalPERS couldn't be bothered to comply with this PRA even for a pet reporter.
The spreadsheet shows, among other things, that CalPERS assigns board members Apple devices, including the iPhone 6, 6s, and 7, as well as iPad Air and iPad Air. Board members have also sometimes cracked their screens or had bad batteries. Quelle surprise!
It also shows board members that lost an iPad: Margaret Brown, Priya Mathur, Ramon Rubalcava, and Theresa Taylor. Note that Brown has lost the most devices but is the only board member to have told CalPERS they were found them later, consistent with her claim of vigilance.1 By contrast, the spreadsheet shows Theresa Taylor also lost an iPhone 7 and didn't notice or didn't bother reporting it; she has one listed as found but never reported as lost. Or are these records inaccurate as well as incomplete?
Now, I applaud all of you for having read so far, since this all seems like a heap of nothing, correct? We finally get to the fun part, the e-mail from Venteicher to Brown yesterday, October 21, at 5:43 PM PDT:
Ms. Brown,
I'm the state worker reporter at the Sac Bee. I filed a Public Records Act request with CalPERS on all electronic devices distributed to board members over the last five years, and in the data saw that you have lost an iPad and two phones, and that the phones were recovered. Has the iPad been recovered?
My understanding is iPads, at least, may be used to access both closed session and open session board materials. The closed session access would seem to make the loss of one of these iPads a security risk for the organization. Please give me a call at 916-321-1410 tomorrow to discuss this. I'm looking to talk by 5pm (Tuesday) for a story. Thanks.
Wes Venteicher
The Sacramento Bee
wventeicher@sacbee.com
We've collapsed some of the columns that weren't germane to show you Brown's device rap sheet:
And here are the cells that show the asset tag for her iPad, so you can see that the number in the photo above is the same as the one CalPERS assigned to her, 62073:
One has to wonder if Venteicher is also making inquiries of the board members who lost iPads and never recovered them. One also wonders if Venteicher knows that Diligent Boards can be accessed by desktop, laptop or smart phone.
Venteicher's Ludicrous Security Insinuations
In what looks like an attempt to indict Brown, Venteicher takes an unwitting and large pot shot at CalPERS' security practices as well as those of the vendor CalPERS uses to operate its "board portal," Diligent Boards. In layperson terms, that means Diligent Boards hosts CalPERS closed session documents and public board meeting documents for board member access. For Venteicher's concerns to be valid, both CalPERS and Diligent Boards would have to be grossly remiss.
As an aside, it's par for the course that Venteicher treats being able to access open session records as a concern. Is he so clueless that he does not realize that anyone with an Internet connection and a search engine can find them on CalPERS' site and/or YouTube?
JJ Jelincic reports that when he was on the board, CalPERS would perform a factory reset on iPhones and iPads reported as lost. That would make it impossible for anyone to ascertain anything if the device had been reported promptly as missing. Has CalPERS downgraded its security by abandoning this pratice?
As far as the iPads are concerned, Venteicher should know or have bothered to find out that they have an Auto-Lock feature which locks the device after a period of disuse, requiring a password or finger scan to re-open. The default time is short. If CalPERS were competent, it would issue devices with a quick trigger on the Auto-Lock and if possible, prevent users from changing that setting.
Perhaps Venteicher has also forgotten that Apple devices are famously hard to crack.
Perhaps by later today, Venteicher would also have worked out that in order to access closed session records, someone who had gotten their hands on a board iPad would not only have to provide a username and password for the device, but also a second username and password to access the Diligent Boards portal where copies of CalPERS' closed session records sit.
Although I am in no position to evaluate Diligent Boards' claims, its 3500 clients clearly regard security as of paramount importance. Accordingly, it is top of the list of considerations for potential customers:
Security is the #1 worry of boards adopting a new technology, and with good reason. Hackers work 24/7 trying to break electronic security and gain access to an organization's systems to spy, steal, or extort. Often, hackers are able to do this without a company even knowing its security has been compromised. If you want a secure solution, you need state-of-the-art security methodologies and encryption – not just another file management system for your board. Portal software allows a business to feel secure in knowing their confidential and financial information is safe – or at least it should. Make sure any potential vendor makes you comfortable with their security practices for your data. However, remember that even the most secure route must also be the most user-friendly or board members may try to find a (less-secure) workaround.
An MIT computer science graduate and trustee tells me that companies like Diligent Boards typically offer more than one level of security protection. For instance, they might allow customers to choose between a simple user ID and password versus two-factor identification. So if CalPERS were concerned about security, it could probably opt for more stringent safeguards. Diligent Boards did not respond to questions.
Could the Planned Story Have a Different Primary Angle?
It is entirely possible that the Venteicher's apparent intent to depict Brown as a threat to CalPERS' vaunted security is merely a thread in a larger piece. After all, from CalPERS' standpoint, if it gets a smear into print, it's a gift that keeps giving. They can keep repeating it no matter how false or trivial it is in reality.
CalPERS is pursuing the half-baked idea of bringing the board software system in house, allegedly because the not-too-bright-bulbs in the Board Services Unit have taken to using Diligent Boards as a scapegoat for being late in uploading documents for the board to see before board meetings. Note that staff had no such problem with timeliness under former CEO Ann Stausboll.
If 3500 companies, most of which have more employees, more complex operations, and hence more ground for the board to cover, can navigate Diligent Boards, the problem seems to be staff not doing the work to become familiar and/or not seeking help.
In addition, if it really is true that Diligent Boards has become more cumbersome, there are competing services such as BoardAdvantage and Director Point. There is no evidence that CalPERS has assessed alternatives rather than embarking on a costly exercise in reinventing the wheel.
On top of that, CalPERS is hardly in a position to make a stink about security threats, let alone flatter itself it can build and run a sufficiently secure system given its IT lapses, such as:
1. A CalPERS employee hacking into CalPERS' personnel records and altering them, then presenting the falsified documents to members of the state legislature (the Nancy Michaels case).
2. CalPERS issuing sequential passwords in a shared format to board members and senior executives, making it easy for anyone who knew the protocol to access the system.2
3. CalPERS failing to protect beneficiary records by letting a company with which it had no contract have access to its member database
4. A CalPERS employee left comments on our site that revealed mid-level network deficiencies
In other words, there are no good reasons for CalPERS to create its own, sure to be costly-to-build in house board portal. That suggests there are only bad ones. The most likely is that staff will spy on whether particular board members have looked at particular documents. Commercial board portals deliberately do not have that capability to protect board members from staff snooping and even more important, to protect individuals and the institution from liability (the failure to look at documents could be used in court to prove negligence).
Even though this is a sorry little tale, as Lambert said, it shows CalPERS is fractal. No matter what aspect you look at, the same patterns appear over and over: the reflexive dishonesty, the incompetence, the belief that all that matters is PR, the vicious attacks on those who are trying to get CalPERS to shape up. CalPERS is like an addict that needs to hit bottom and look at his dissolute life and the damage he's done to others in order to have a hope of getting on the road to recovery. But with all those billions to burn, it's going to be a costly ride.
1 Brown indicates, and I was not able to independently able to verify as of publication time, that the reason for the sometimes lengthy gap between when a device was reported as lost versus found is that CalPERS appears to have been inconsistent in logging her devices as found. Sometimes it appears to be based on her verbal report as to having them in her hand; other times, it seems not to have been logged as found until sighted by or returned to CalPERS.
2 This glaring deficiency makes Venteicher's line of questioning less outlandish….if you assume the person who got their hands on the board device was a CalPERS staffer in the know.
00 CalPERS Second BOA Mobile Device list - With Names
This entry was posted in Banana republic, CalPERS, Media watch, Politics on October 22, 2019 by Yves Smith.
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flora October 22, 2019 at 5:35 pm
In what looks like and attempt to indict Brown, Venteicher takes an unwitting and large pot shot at CalPERS security practices as well as those of the Vendor CalPERS uses to operate its "board portal", Diligent Boards.
Venteicher: Ready, aim, backfire!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz65AOjabtM
beep beep.
(This latest ineptitude from CalPERS would be funny if its ineptness wasn't so serious a problem for CalPERS retirees.)
Good point about CalPERS being fractal.
Thanks for your continued reporting on CalPERS, PE, and pensions.
The Rev Kev October 22, 2019 at 7:08 pm
Just got time for a brief comment here. I see that Wes Venteicher is new to the SacBee after joining at the beginning of the year. The article welcoming him said "He has a lot to learn about the state's government and its workforce" but from what I can see, he will make a good fit with Adam Ashton and the SacBee so "Welcome to the party, pal!"
I would contend that the accuracy of that spreadsheet is irrelevant as it is only a wrapper for the one entry that is really of interest – that for Margaret Brown. It did not need to be accurate or complete. It could have had Brown's entry all by itself. So, lets get a definition or two set here-
"hatchet job"
noun: informal
noun: hatchet job; plural noun: hatchet jobs
a fierce written attack on someone or their work.
"He does hatchet jobs, not reviews"
I was trying to look up the definition of the word "hack" too but mostly these days it has a definition to do with computers and not its earlier meaning. I am wondering if this attack is the thin edge of the wedge to try to stampede CalPERS into abandoning Diligent Boards and justifying it with non-stories such as this. If they want to bring security in-house, it would be glorious. I can see it now. The vital username would be something like admin and the password would probably be guest.
I did note one oddity. In Margaret Brown's "rap sheet" it was charged that when Brown found and returned her device that it was missing its "asset tag" but that image clearly shows it to be still in place. But when you get down to the gist of this story, I think that we all know who the real CalPERS asset is here.
JTee October 22, 2019 at 7:29 pm
Etymology 3 in Wiktionary shows the source as:
a horse for hire especially an old and tired one (16th century). Subsequently, "a person, usually a journalist, hired to do routine work" (17th century).
It's like a master class in skullduggery, except that the perpetrators are not so masterful. They do appear to be very persistent, however. At a convenient time in the future, this article can also be trotted out as independent confirmation (see, we're not the only ones who think this) that board member Brown, although her heart is in the right place, just isn't up to performing her duties. Please vote for candidate X. It seems the shenanigans will not end until they are successful in eliminating any meaningful board oversight, or they are ousted and jailed.
JCC October 22, 2019 at 8:08 pm
As someone closely involved with all aspects of IT Security within a specific subset ( a much smaller subset than CalPERS, I'm sure) of the DoD, the first thing that struck me is how lax their security practices are. An on-going, up-to-date, and accurate, inventory of IT assets is a fundamental key piece of basic security.
This is not equivalent to "Quick, put together a list!"
Based on this article it's pretty clear that CalPERS is seriously deficient. Anyone with a basic understanding of IT Security, especially within a large financial institution such as CalPERS, will clearly see the SacBee article as veiled hit job on Margaret Brown, as well as a clear admission of ignorance of IT Security practices.
Mr. Venteicher also appears to show obvious ignorance in this field and so should not be writing anything about it until he is a little bit better educated.
David in Santa Cruz October 22, 2019 at 11:25 pm
"Politics is a difficult business. You need to raise massive sums of money from people who all want something and if you give it to them directly you'll go to jail. But if you don't give it to them in some form, you won't be elected to the next office. So you square that circle." — Jerry "The Mad Monk" Brown, Sacramento Press Club, December 2018
Why the cover-ups? Why the hiring of incompetents who facilitate plausible deniability? How did Nancy Pelosi turn Orange County, Tricky-Dick Nixon's birthplace, Blue?
Only if you understand CalPERS as a massive political kick-back scheme can those questions be answered. Only when you ask how multiples of billions of dollars in public funds are invested with ex-lobbyists and politically-connected bundlers can the logic be discerned.
A whipped-dog monopoly-controlled precariat has replaced reporting, simply engaging in stenography for the powerful. Trump!Trump!Trump!/Russia!Russia!Russia! distract the public but never lead anywhere.
Lambert Strether October 23, 2019 at 1:25 am
I love the "CALPERS ASSET" sticker on Brown's iPad. If only they were as careful with all their assets.
Watt4Bob October 23, 2019 at 10:38 am
That tag might as well read "Steal Me".
A proper asset tag would be meaningless to a casual observer.
vlade October 23, 2019 at 3:39 am
I'm amazed, AMAZED.. not
What I am amazed about is that someone in Cal manages to write an article on corporate security w/o seemingly talking to any of the people who actually do corporate security. Because if he did, he'd know that dealing with lost pieces of equipment is a daily occurence.
The responsibility of the person in such a case is usually limited to immediately letting the company know that they lost it (this is critical especially for things like RSA tokens, less so for phones/ipads etc.), and not to change any settings on the device they were explicitly told not to change (which may include not installing any SW). They may have to do more if they did stupid things like glue their password on the device or whatever (which would be a security breach in the first case).
The responsibility of the device provider (company, not the manufacturer) tends to be much more – like installing SW, making the right settings (and locking them down where possible) etc. etc.
The major problems aren't actually iphones/ipads etc. but laptops, as you can have confidential information on them – but again, it's really entirely up to the laptop provider to assess what can end up on the laptop and how it has to be protected.
"My understanding is iPads, at least, may be used to access both closed session and open session board materials. The closed session access would seem to make the loss of one of these iPads a security risk for the organization"
If a loss of an iPad alone can seriously compromise the security of a closed session at CalPERS, the problem is purely on CalPERS side as it means the access was not secured enough (short of Brown taping her passwords to the iPad or something similarly silly, but that would have nothing to do with the iPad loss).
The reporter should note that if this is what the article will be based upon, then either he, or CalPERS security IT will be laughed out of the town. I'm pretty damn sure that there's a ton of IT security people in California who would have a great time picking it apart in social media.
That would also bode rather badly on any attempt to bring in the IT security inhouse.
Or maybe it's 'Classic CalPERS' (to paraphrase Classic Dom) – if we're incompetent externally, everyone can see it. Bring it inhouse, so we can be incompetent internally and pretend we're good.
Clive October 23, 2019 at 4:10 am
CalPERS staff can't even indulge themselves in harassment of board refuseniks competently. Any large-ish organisation of any sort of maturity and sophistication (as I wrote that, I thought to myself how nice it would be if CalPERS acquire some of that, but never mind) has a written policy in place covering assets such as phones, tablets, laptops and so on.
For a start, remote wipe is an essential feature which must be set up and maintained on any device which can store private (organisational) data or access corporate data. CalPERS seem to 'fess up that they do have this on their devices (it would be immediate grounds for state regulators to act if CalPERS failed to do this because it would be grossly negligent to not take reasonable steps to protect data). So there is zero — absolutely no — risk of data or CalPERS systems being compromised as a result of a lost or stolen device. Or, conversely, if there was a risk, it would be CalPERS' fault there was a risk, not Board Member Brown's.
Then the mobile device policy would, or should, state what would be deemed to be fair use of CalPERS' assets by staff and the board members and what constitutes potential careless or not taking fair precautions to safeguard CalPERS' property. My TBTF is fairly typical — you're allowed to lose one device through your own mislaying it or theft every three years. Two losses in three years gets you a talking to from you manager. Three losses means you lose your privileges to have access to a company mobile device and you might be liable for disciplinary procedures if you were obviously being just careless.
If CalPERS staff are trying to engage in a smear campaign against Brown in the absence of having a written policy to cover the issue it's their bad, not Brown's
Indeed. As I wrote above, if this is the basis of the article, it will embarrass either the writer or CalPERS IT security staff, but not Brown.
diptherio October 23, 2019 at 9:38 am
Venteicher treats being able to access open session records as a concern
What?!? Public records available to the public?!? Say it ain't so!
And the SacBee finally launches their attack on Margaret Brown. It sounds like they want to use this non-incident to restrict Board members from accessing CalPERS private records from anywhere except at the CalPERS headquarters itself-
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article236585408.html
The Rev Kev October 25, 2019 at 10:03 pm
And another publication adds to the attack on Margaret Brown-
https://www.techwire.net/news/calpers-data-not-at-risk-from-lost-devices-agency-says.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Vegan Chicken at KFC?
PETA Petition Urges Fast-Food Chain to Offer Animal-Friendly Version of Its Signature Meal
London – Following KFC's announcement that it plans to add vegetarian fried chicken to its menu, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has submitted a petition – signed by more than 12,600 compassionate members of the public – to the chicken-churning fast-food chain urging it to make the option 100 per cent animal-free.
"More people than ever are seeking vegan foods, and business-savvy restaurants across the UK and beyond are updating their offerings to meet this skyrocketing demand," says PETA Director of Vegan Corporate Projects Dawn Carr. "PETA is calling on KFC to dish up delicious all-vegan fried chicken that could spare millions of sensitive birds the horrors of the abattoir."
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to eat" – has released numerous exposés, available here, here, and here, revealing that chickens used for food endure systemic abuse in today's meat industry. They're routinely fed antibiotics and bred to grow so large that their legs often collapse under their own body weight. At the abattoir, they're shackled upside down, their throats are slit, and they're scalded in defeathering tanks, sometimes while still conscious.
In addition to each sparing nearly 200 animals a year a terrifying death, vegans are less prone to suffering from heart disease, diabetes, strokes, obesity, and cancer than meat-eaters are. They also have smaller carbon footprints, as the meat industry is a major producer of the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.
PETA offers a free vegan starter kit, available here, full of recipes, tips on dining out, and more. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.


text:
Q: Determine if an interval is contained in an infinite sum of multiples of other intervals I came across an interesting problem recently which I don't think I've seen posted here before:
Given a finite set of disjoint closed intervals I1, I2, ..., In, construct the covering I = U (i1 I1 + i2 I2 + ... + in In) where the union is taken over all possible sequences (i1, ..., in) of nonnegative integers. Here, the sum of two intervals is meant literally as the set of sums of elements from either set.
We may assume for simplicity that the endpoints of each Ik are positive integers.
The problem is to determine, given another interval X = [a,b] (for some positive integers a,b), whether or not X is contained entirely within I or not.


Janet Solyntjes is a certified MBSR teacher and serves on the faculty of the Center for Mindfulness at UMass. She is also on the faculty of the Engaged Mindfulness Institute, helping train people to bring trauma-informed mindfulness into underserved and at-risk communities.
Janet has offered MBSR courses in Colorado since 2000 and has been leading mindfulness meditation retreats in the United States and internationally for over 20 years.
She is co-founder of the Boulder-based Center for Courageous Living, a small business committed to promoting the inherent goodness of individuals and groups through a variety of supportive services, programs, and retreats.
Here she is in conversation with Rob Dube—an avid meditator of 14 years, the author of donothing: the most rewarding leadership challenge you will ever take, and founder/organizer of the donothing® Leadership Silent Retreat. Rob is also the President of imageOne—which is ranked one of Forbes Top 25 Small Businesses in America and #1 Top Workplace in Detroit.
What is the "ROI" on walking meditation?
From Blow Pops to Forbes Best Small Companies! Rob started his first business in high school selling Blow Pops out of his locker. For the last 28 years, he's served as President and Co-founder of imageOne, ranked as one of the Top 25 Small Businesses in America on the 2017 list of Forbes Small Giants.
Throughout Rob's entrepreneurial journey, he's developed an unwavering passion for delivering extraordinary experiences that positively impact the lives of his team members, the goals of their customers, and the fabric of the community…A unique approach to business that has driven the company to success in its industry, and as a top workplace. imageOne is simply the best at helping clients optimize and manage print, automate business process, and secure documents and is well-known as an exceptional company, receiving local and national recognition for its multi-award-winning culture.
Rob is an avid meditator of 14 years, the author of a best-selling book, donothing,™ the most rewarding leadership challenge you will ever take, and organizer of the donothing™ workshops and leadership silent retreats.


The best way to start a partnership is with the understanding that it may not last forever, and that's okay. In fact, it's normal.
The demise of a business partnership is similar to the end of a marriage. Participants often dance around the decision to dissolve the relationship because to call it quits is to admit defeat. And no-one wants that.
A better way to look at a business partnership is to assume from day one that it's far more likely to break up than continue indefinitely. So prospective partners should start their relationship by planning what to do when the mutual attraction starts to sour.
Roland Hanekroot, who runs New Perspectives Business Coaching, uses the analogy of a pair of cogs that engage, enmesh, move on and disengage, to describe the partnerships life-cycle.
Disengagement is the predictable outcome of the process, as partners' common goals, needs and interests start to change.
The other lesson is to prepare for the inevitable by setting up mechanisms from the get-go that encourage conversations about the little things, before they become too hot to handle.
Hanekroot calls it "checking in on tetchiness".
Not all partnerships are destined to fold within a few years. Hanekroot says partnerships in professional services firms tend to work well longer.
However, the odds of a course correction for any partnership are improved if you can "name the elephant in the room" while it's still a manageable size.
Hanekroot recommends putting a yearly weekend away in the diary "to try and convince each other what you want to do with the partnership in the coming year".
That's also a good time to refresh any documentation around shared inventory or investments, which can become very complicated with partnerships that have been going for years.
"You might have bought a building together, lots of equipment or have joint liabilities with leases and employee entitlements," says Hanekroot.
Just like every marriage is different, so too is every professional partnership. As such how they are dissolved will differ from business to business.
Notice in writing - If a partnership has been established for an indefinite period, partners can resign at any time in the form of written notice to the other partners.
Observe relevant legislation - If you have a partnership agreement, the terms of that agreement will inform its dissolution, keeping in mind the applicable state laws.
Consult legal advice - All partners should seek independent legal advice to assist them through the dissolution process.
Pay off debts - Even though the partnership is ending, you are still legally required to pay your debts. An accountant could help with this and also with any outstanding tax liabilities your business might have.
Deregister the company - If the dissolution of the partnership also means the business has ended you need to deregister your company with ASIC.
For ASIC to accept your deregistration, the following requirements need to be fulfilled: all members of the company agree to deregister; the company is no longer conducting business; the company's assets are worth less than $1000; the company has no outstanding liabilities (including debts); the company isn't involved in any legal action, and all fees and penalties have been paid to ASIC1.
Often when partnerships break up, so does a friendship.
Depending on how long and how intense the partnership has been, participants will go through different stages of grief as they come to terms with the break up. And there may be lasting financial entanglements.
Business coaches (and lawyers) can assist in setting up mechanisms to prevent or minimise those worst-case scenarios, but it shouldn't put you off the partnership experience.
Hanekroot advises the uninitiated to not go into a full partnership.
"Go into partnership on particular projects or for a particular purpose," he says.
Important: This article has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial or taxation situation or needs of any particular individual. Before acting on the information, you should consider its appropriateness to your circumstances and if necessary, seek appropriate professional advice. Any information used in this article is for illustrative purposes only. Roland Hanekroot is not a member of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Group of Companies (the Group) and the content or any view expressed by Roland Hanekroot does not represent an endorsement, recommendation, guarantee or advice in regard to any matter. CBA, nor members of the Group accept any liability for losses or damage arising from any reliance on external parties their products, services and material. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.


text:
CRUSADER FOR RESILIENCE: Judith Rodin and the Rockefeller Foundation seek sustainable responses to disasters
Movers+Shapers
The Rockefeller Foundation has long helped municipalities and businesses respond to manmade and natural disasters. Since Rodin took over as president in 2005, the Foundation has invested more than $500 million to help communities strengthen their resilience.
By John Caulfield, Senior Editor | June 9, 2016
Judith Rodin, President, Rockefeller Foundation
Last January, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a total of $1 billion in National Disaster Resilience grants to 13 states and cities. In making the announcement, HUD made it clear that its judging criteria followed that of Rebuild by Design, a competition that the Rockefeller Foundation initiated in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
The 102-year-old Rockefeller Foundation has long been at the forefront of the resilience movement, helping municipalities and businesses find ways to combat and respond to manmade and natural disasters.
Over the last decade, the Foundation has invested more than $500 million to help communities strengthen their resilience. It has also leveraged $9 billion in resilience investments from governments, private-sector partners, and other actors. The mayors of two dozen U.S. cities (including Berkeley, Calif.; Boulder, Colo.; New Orleans; Pittsburgh; and Tulsa, Okla.) have committed 10% of their cities' budgets—the equivalent of $5.2 billion—to resilience-building activities.
Rebuild by Design has provided resilience training for 167 communities affected by Hurricane Sandy. Sixty federal agencies have used its training program.
As of April 30, the Foundation's "100 Resilient Cities" network was fully subscribed; more than 1,100 municipalities applied. "We have 100 test beds proving the resilience model every day," says the Foundation's President, Judith Rodin, PhD.
BD+C MOVERS AND SHAPERS
The People, Institutions, and Movements that are influencing design and construction in the U.S. and around the world.
Dan Gilbert – Detroit's Catalytic Converter
Judith Rodin – Crusader for Resilience
Bruce Katz – Urban Evangelist
Millennials – The Disruptors
Alloy LLC – Vertical Integrator
Jerry Yudelson – Green Giant
The PANAMAX Effect – The New Panama Canal
Theaster Gates – Real Estate Artist
Since assuming the position in 2005, Rodin, the former President of the University of Pennsylvania and Provost of Yale University, has seen resilience emerge from being an afterthought in the minds of most civic leaders, to a concern that they can no longer ignore.
"I can't go to a meeting of mayors and city leaders without being asked how they can join 100 Resilient Cities or get access to those frameworks," she says.
Rodin sees the AEC community as a "critical partner" in encouraging resilience. The Foundation worked with Arup's International Development Team to create the engineering giant's City Resilience Index, which will enable cities to assess their resilience using hundreds of indicators that can be plugged into their own datasets. "Arup has been an amazing thought leader on this," says Rodin. "We are seeing other [AEC] firms coming to the table, because it's what their clients are asking for."
Rodin defines resilience as the ability "to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of stresses and shocks." The Foundation urges cities to move away from crisis management toward a strategy that anticipates potentially disastrous events.
Corporate types perk up when Rodin mentions how resilience can "give businesses the upper hand" in what she calls "a hugely untapped market." (One of her recent books is entitled The Resilience Dividend.)
At the BSR Conference in San Francisco last November, Rodin described the five characteristics of resilience: awareness of vulnerability, redundancy, integration, self-regulation, and nimbleness. "You need to prepare to fail safely, not catastrophically," she told BSR2015 conferees.
She also identified three ways that businesses—presumably including AEC firms—could achieve a resilience dividend: 1) by embedding resilience into their cultures, 2) by creating products and services specifically addressed to resilience, and 3) by positioning themselves as resilience partners with their communities.
RESILIENCE AS A MEANS TO 'TIP' SYSTEMS
Rodin, 71, and the Rockefeller Foundation aren't just interested in rebuilding communities laid low by disasters: they want to "tip systems." She sees resilience as much about safeguarding social and economic infrastructures as it is about protecting physical and natural assets.
Rodin test-drove that philosophy during her 11 years as President of Penn, her alma mater, where she worked assiduously with local businesses, law enforcement, and civic leaders in Philadelphia to help make what had been a disadvantaged and crime-ridden neighborhood safer and more economically viable.
Rodin stepped into the resilience breach in 2005 when, at the invitation of Walter Isaacson—the President/CEO of the Aspen Institute and Vice-chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority—the Foundation funded and helped lead what became the post-Katrina Greater New Orleans recovery plan.
Working with New Orleans over the next decade gave Rodin insight into the power of resilience as a platform "to return and grow." It wasn't just about recovering from the flooding; it was also about rectifying years of social inequity.
"We're definitely seeing the power of resilience as a force for unification in New Orleans," says Rodin. "Mayor Mitch Landrieu has used resilience as a rallying cry for his city's comeback." More than 100 community leaders and stakeholders were consulted by the city to develop its resilience strategy, which launched last August.
Rodin believes resilience gives the Foundation a platform that sidesteps the political minefields of climate change and allows interested parties to "talk about what cities and communities are all experiencing: more disruptions than ever before."
She says she expects the next global crisis to be about water—not just the availability of supply, but also its quality. By 2030, global water demand is expected to exceed current supply by 40%, according to U.N. estimates.
Rodin warns, Cassandra-like, that the biggest threat to human health and economic progress will come from the further degradation of our natural systems—unless, that is, "we as economic leaders think about revaluing ecosystems and stop viewing them as free goods."
40 Under 40 | Oct 19, 2022
Movers+Shapers | Nov 7, 2021
Passage of $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill expected to spur stronger construction activity
AEC firms see federal investment as historic
Movers+Shapers | Apr 30, 2020
College programs help prepare students for careers in the construction industry
Universities with AEC programs hone their curricula and research to prepare students to hit the ground running in the construction industry.
Management Training: AEC firms bring students into the real world
Students benefit substantively from internships offered by AEC firms.
Meet the 'AEC outsiders' who are helping to push the industry into the new decade
AEC professionals have enough on their plates without becoming specialists in a new skill outside of their wheelhouse.
Buildings as "open source platforms"
NBBJ's year-old Design Performance Group helps building teams make smarter choices earlier.
Steely resolve: Carnegie Mellon University fuels Pittsburgh's post-industrial reinvention
After the steel industry started collapsing in the late 1970s, Pittsburgh has been reinventing itself as a science, medical, and academic hub.
AEC angel investor
Jesse Devitte is among the prescient venture capitalists who've bet on the AEC industry finally coming around to design and construction technology.
Sports teams get in the game: Mixed-use developments are using sports stadiums as their anchors
A massive mixed-use neighborhood under way in Los Angeles sets a new bar for sports-anchored development.
Movers+Shapers | Mar 19, 2018
Movers + Shapers: Tech takeover
From Chicago to Charlotte, the tech boom is transforming urban real estate markets and redefining workplace design.


"�Nickelodeon and Kellogg engage in business practices that literally sicken our children. Their marketing tactics are designed to convince kids that everything they hear from their parents about food is wrong. It's a multimedia brainwashing and re-education campaign- and a disease-promoting one at that. And parents are fed up.� said CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson. "


text:
Do All Peoples Have a Prophet?
Christopher Buck and Nosratollah Mohammadhosseini• May 9, 2019 • 1 Comment
Religion PART 37 IN SERIES: Indigenous Messengers of God
Do all peoples have a Prophet? Has the call of God been raised to everyone? The Baha'i writings seem to answer that question affirmatively, especially in Abdu'l-Baha's Tablet to Amir Khan.
In the following interview, I asked Dr. Nosrat Mohammadhosseini, a well-known Baha'i author and scholar of the Baha'i teachings, to offer his own comments on the meaning of Abdu'l-Baha's Tablet to Amir Khan.
Q: Dr. Mohammadhosseini, in your opinion, does Abdu'l-Baha, in his Tablet to Amir Khan, indicate that Indigenous messengers of God appeared in the Americas, when he states, in this authorized translation, as follows:
In ancient times the people of America were, through their northern regions, close to Asia, that is, separated from Asia by a strait. For this reason, it hath been said that crossing had occurred. There are other signs which indicate communication.
As to places whose people were not informed of the appearance of Prophets, such people are excused. In the Qur'an it hath been revealed: "We will not chastise them if they had not been sent a Messenger."
Undoubtedly in those regions the Call of God must have been raised in ancient times, but it hath been forgotten now. – Abdu'l-Baha, Additional Tablets, Extracts and Talks
A: Yes. By the phrase of the "Call of God" is definitely meant the advent of Manifestation(s) of God, since the "Call of God" is a Babi and Baha'i expression for manifestations of God, or, by extension, the promulgation of their teachings.
Q: So would you agree that the Tablet to Amir Khan is a clear text that enunciates what amounts to a newly discovered Baha'i teaching which confirms that Indigenous messengers of God definitely appeared in the Americas?
A: Yes, especially since Abdu'l-Baha, in his Tablet to Amir Khan, explicitly indicates that Manifestations of God were sent to the Americas. But there are several Baha'i texts that clearly imply this.
Q: Are these what Western scholars refer to as "universalisms"?
A: Yes. We have several texts from Baha'u'llah and the Bab that emphasize this truth. Interestingly, the Bab has referred to the advent of Manifestations of God throughout history and around the world, in different times and places. For example, in the Persian Bayan VI:16, the Bab wrote:
The Lord of the universe hath never raised up a prophet nor hath He sent down a Book unless He hath established His covenant with all men, calling for their acceptance of the next Revelation and of the next Book; inasmuch as the outpourings of His bounty are ceaseless and without limit. – Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 87.
Here, "without limit" means "universally" or "throughout history." The Bab elsewhere confirms this interpretation of the Qur'an in language that is intentionally Qur'anic in style: "Unto every people We have sent down the Book in their own language." – The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 45.
In the "Commentary on the Sura of 'The Sun'," after explaining that by al-shams ("the sun") is meant the Manifestation of God, Baha'u'llah affirmed that truth when he stated: "Every nation of the world hath been illuminated by one of these luminous Suns." – Baha'u'llah, "Commentary on the Sura of 'The Sun'," provisional translation Nosratollah Mohammadhosseini.
In this statement, Baha'u'llah declares that these Manifestations—the prophets and messengers of God—have appeared to every one of the peoples of Earth, although in sundry times and places. Obviously this includes, among others, Native Americans, First Nations Canadians and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas in general, as Abdu'l-Baha clearly affirms in the Tablet to Amir Khan.
Q: Thanks for referring to the "Commentary on the Sura of 'The Sun'." In another passage of this same Tablet, Baha'u'llah wrote:
On another level, furthermore, it ["the sun"] denotes the Prophets of God and His intimate associates, for such are the very "suns" of His Names and of His Attributes amongst His creatures. Indeed! Were it not for them, no one would have been irradiated by the Lights of deep knowledge, just as is evidenced by the fact that every religious community, among the religious communities of the earth, hath been irradiated by a "sun" among these resplendent "suns." – Baha'u'llah, "Commentary on the Sura of 'The Sun'," provisional translation by Stephen Lambden.
So, Dr. Mohammadhosseini, in your view, do these Baha'i "universalisms" expand on similar statements in the Qur'an?
A: In citing the verse of the Qur'an, "We will not chastise them if they had not been sent a Messenger," Abdu'l-Baha definitely shows that the American continent has been the scene of the advent of native messengers of God—since other Qur'anic passages, in relation to this verse, clearly testify that God has sent a messenger to every nation. This evidence from the Qur'an necessitates the advent of the Manifestations of God, including to the "people of America," as Abdu'l-Baha stated in the Tablet to Amir Khan.
We should remember that, although the past religions have been "world religions" from the point of view of their basis in divine origin and in their ethical principles and regulatory ordinances, yet, socially speaking, they began as local religions. Here, I refer only to the Qur'an itself, which explicitly states that the Qur'an has been revealed by God to warn the people of Mecca and surrounding regions.
Unlike the Baha'i Faith and its universal aims, the immediate objectives of those earlier religions involved the education and guidance of specific peoples. This further evidence necessitates the advent of Manifestations of God specifically for the Indigenous peoples of the American continent.
Q: So what about Abdu'l-Baha's apparent reference to the Bering Land Bridge Theory?
A: It is quite evident that Abdu'l-Baha is speaking about two different, but interrelated subjects: the question of migration and then the question of revelation. First, Abdu'l-Baha acknowledges that a migration across the Being Strait has been postulated by scholars ("it hath been said") and that this has probably occurred as a matter of historical fact ("There are other signs which indicate communication").
Although we are not aware of the exact question asked by Amir Khan in this regard, Abdu'l-Baha's reply should be accounted as an answer to the question of crossing and communication, including the issue of whether there was any religious influence as a result of this migration.
Unless we are talking about prehistorical religions, so far as I know, no shred of evidence of the migratory presence of Western religions in the Americas—from pre-Columbian times—even exists. Scholars have found absolutely no trace of Western religious influence—whether that of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, or Islam—on the American continent before the European conquest and colonization of the Americas.
Q: What do you think that Abdu'l-Baha meant in stating that "it hath been forgotten now"?
A: The term "forgotten" in the Tablet to Amir Khan is not related to those religions—Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, or Islam—or any Eastern religions, either, for the simple reason that the utter lack of evidence clearly shows that these religions did not enter the Americas prior to the invasions of Europeans, whether in antiquity or in the medieval period.
Scientifically speaking, no major natural catastrophe or cataclysm of a continental magnitude during the past two thousand years was sufficient to wipe out and obliterate all traces of those religions from the surface of American continent.
Thus the phrase, "the Call of God," in this Tablet does not refer to the Call of God raised by the promulgators of those religions, because their adherents never reached the Americas in pre-Columbian times. If such were the case, then we would expect to see or at least find a few vestiges, even admixed with superstitions. Yet this expectation has never been met.
So the word "forgotten" definitely means that the teachings and influence of these Indigenous Manifestations of God who appeared in Americas no longer have the currency and influence that they once enjoyed.
Q: That which is "forgotten" can also be remembered, i.e. rediscovered or revitalized, since many of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas have preserved their spiritual heritages, notwithstanding various attempts, in the past, to suppress Indigenous languages, cultures and religions. Thank you, Dr. Mohammadhosseini, for these enlightening comments on the Tablet to Amir Khan.
Nosratollah "Nosrat" Mohammadhosseini, LL.D., M.A., is a well-known Baha'i scholar, a former assistant professor of law at the University of Tehran, and is the author of several books and numerous scholarly articles. His book Read more
IN SERIES: Indigenous Messengers of God
The Indigenous Prophets: Lone Man in Mandan Sacred Tradition
Aboriginal and Baha'i: Merging Traditional and New
Made a covenant with the One Who comes next...


July 27th - Stop the Frack Attack town hall gathering and strategy session.
July 28 - Washington, D.C. rally at the Capitol to demand no more drilling that harms public health, water, and air. Instead of pushing for the increased use of oil and gas, elected officials and public agencies must insist that the industry stop all drilling that is dirty and dangerous, and put communities and the environment first, starting by removing special exemptions and subsidies for the oil and gas industry.


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Performance Inquiries
Colleagues Comment
Wired Goddess
Taos Studio Photos Poetry Trombone Class Miscellaneous
The Vienna Philharmonic Hires Its First Asian Musician
For the first time in its history the Vienna Philharmonic has hired a person of color -- a Japanese tubist named Yasuto Sugiyama. The Philharmonic has traditionally forbade membership to people of color because the orchestra felt such individuals would destroy the ensemble's image of Austrian authenticity.
For more information about the orchestra's employment practices see the articles section of our website. The orchestra's policy of excluding people of color was especially directed at Asian musicians since many of the highest quality have studied in Austria and continue to live there.
The article below from the Mainichi Daily News provides more information about the Japanese tubist.
Mainichi Daily News
Tubaist is first Japanese to make Vienna Philharmonic
http://www12.mainichi.co.jp/news/mdn/search-news/880724/Sugiyama-0-1.html
A tubaist will play for the Vienna Philharmonic as the first Japanese to do so after having his skills recognized in an audition for the world-renowned orchestra, the Mainichi has learned.
Yasuto Sugiyama, 35, a member of the New Japan Philharmonic, said that he was proud to be able to play for the Vienna Philharmonic after winning the final audition to become a full-time member of one of the top orchestras in the world.
"I underwent the audition thinking that it was natural that I would be screened out," said Sugiyama. "Now I'm looking forward to play for one of the world's top orchestras."
Sugiyama's admission will probably send shockwaves through classical music circles in Austria and the rest of the world, because the orchestra has previously hired mainly Austrian and German male players, with only a few exceptions.
An unnamed Japanese cellist once passed an audition to the Vienna Philharmonic without giving nationality, but was rejected the moment he or she was identified.
Sugiyama's passage to Vienna began when he played Gustav Mahler's symphony no. 2 with a trombonist from the Vienna Philharmonic for Japan's Saito Kinen Orchestra under conductor Seiji Ozawa.
The Austrian trombonist recognized Sugiyama's exceptional skill, which led to the tubaist auditioning with seven Austrians and Germans for the Vienna orchestra earlier this year.
The Vienna Philharmonic decided to admit only Sugiyama after the final audition on June 20, sources said.
Sugiyama, who will began his fresh career in Vienna in December, will officially become a tubaist for the Vienna Philharmonic after playing for the Vienna State Opera for one year.
Since its inception in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic has always been one of the world's top classical music orchestras, playing under such great conductors as Wilhelm Furtvangler and Herbert von Karajan.
Players belonging to the Vienna State Opera run the orchestra independently. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, June 25, 2003)


Customs Authorization, Pre-Clearance Bills Advance in House: International Trade Law Firm | Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.
The House Homeland Security Committee approved June 10 legislation to formally authorize U.S. Customs and Border Protection and regulate its ability to conduct preclearance activities overseas.
The committee also passed H.R. 3488, which sets the conditions under which DHS may establish preclearance facilities, conduct preclearance operations and provide customs services outside the U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, R-Pa., said the measure is intended to block the opening of a CBP pre-clearance facility at the Abu Dhabi international airport in the United Arab Emirates. This facility would allow travelers coming to the U.S. to clear customs before their arrival, but currently the only airline with regular service from Abu Dhabi to the U.S. is the state-run airline of the UAE, Etihad. Meehan asserted that opening this facility would give Etihad a competitive advantage as travelers choose to route themselves through the Abu Dhabi airport to undergo preclearance.


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» Home » News and Events » Media Releases » 11th MRC Regional Stakeholder Forum delivers recommendations for responsible hydropower management, Prior Consultation process
Vientiane, Lao PDR, 8 December 2021 — Mekong governments, developers and operators were urged to share information and data on hydropower operation to improve cascade dam management, according to the first-ever public forum organized on this critical issue by the Mekong River Commission (MRC). Stakeholders also specifically discussed the most recent assessments of potential transboundary impacts from the Sanakham dam Lao PDR had proposed to build on the mainstream of the Mekong River.
The 11th Regional Stakeholder Forum, held on 29 and 30 November 2021, aimed to provide a unique opportunity for stakeholders to exchange views on responsible hydropower development and management and to consult them on the 684-megawatt Sanakham dam. It attracted in excess of 200 attendees each day in a hybrid virtual-physical setting that included government officials, hydropower developers and operators, international and national hydropower associations, community representatives, civil society organizations, and MRC Development Partners and Dialogue Partners.
There are currently 88 hydropower projects in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) with around 12,600 MW total installed capacity. Some 15 dams with a total capacity of 1,600 MW are under construction and by 2040, hydropower is forecast to generate more than 30,000 MW in the LMB. During the forum, attendees were briefed on some of the challenges arising from the increasing prevalence of hydropower plants and the regional effort to tackle them.
Lao PDR's challenges and efforts in coordinating multiple dam developers and operators provided one of the examples. The country recently commissioned the Nam Ou Cascade Control Centre, the first in the nation, to manage internal and external communications to mitigate flood risk. The Control Centre is an information sharing conduit for regional and local authorities and government agencies which will monitor and coordinate hydropower projects over 15 MW.
The US Army Corps of Engineers experience in transboundary river management between the US and Canada shows that the challenges of aging infrastructure, climate change and environmental factors are equally applicable to the LMB. Adopting best practices that include collaborative management between the two countries and their national and local agencies, infrastructure maintenance and community outreach, will improve common basin management outcomes.
Representatives from China provided latest information about hydropower development and management in the Upper Mekong River known in China as Lancang. China's plans for the Lancang River cascade, a centrally controlled dam operation that includes an automatic hydrological forecasting system, can address environmental and management issues relating to native fish species, water quality and monitoring fish passage.
But with more dams coming online, a representative from a civil society organization called for a stronger and urgent sharing of operational regimes of hydropower projects with the public. "We believe information on flows including release schedule is necessary for the communities living along the Mekong River. Making this data available in simple language is equally important."
Dr An Pich Hatda, MRC Secretariat CEO, said the MRC has been stepping up efforts through the new 10-year Basin Development Strategy to establish a regional mechanism for coordinated basin operation management.
"We aim to ensure that decisions on flow releases are supported by transparent data and information sharing between countries. We want to ensure that there is improved predictability of flow changes for basin communities."
Stakeholders assured of their comments on impacts from Sanakham dam
While appreciating the Lao Government for sharing a huge number of assessments and studies about the Sanakham project, stakeholders expressed concerns about its transboundary impacts, recommending an economic and financial analysis of the project together with an assessment of bank erosion and socioeconomic effects.
Attendees notably from Thailand urged Lao and Thai policymakers to increase the number of monitoring stations to assess the impact on downstream Thai communities whom they said are living close to the proposed project. Stakeholders also called on the project developer to ensure dam safety and minimize unforeseen flood emergencies to protect local communities.
Besides conducting technical reviews of the project's submitted documents, the MRC Secretariat has conducted rapid assessments of the immediate downstream impacts of the dam and recommended a set of measures that would not only minimize the negative impacts but also enhance the project's benefits.
Commenting on the necessity for collective effort to ensure the project's success, Mr Sinava Souphanouvong, Vice Minister of Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines, said "Lao government stands ready to work closely with other MRC Member Countries and relevant stakeholders to ensure a meaningful public participation and conclusion of the Sanakham project."
Stressing the importance of the forum to the Prior Consultation process, Dr Hatda said "These discussions are essential and the forum serves as a venue to gather feedback and concerns to be considered by the MRC Joint Committee before passing them to the developer and the notifying country to address."
The CEO added stakeholders' concerns and recommendations, gathered during the official Prior Consultation process, would be formally recorded and reflected in the technical review report of the proposed project, and submitted to the MRC Joint Committee who oversees the Prior Consultation process for consideration.
The Sanakham hydropower project is located on the Mekong mainstream between Xayaburi and Vientiane provinces or approximately 2 km upstream of the Thai-Lao border in Loei province. The project is estimated to cost more than USD 2 billion and will be developed by Datang (Lao) Sanakham Hydropower company, a subsidiary of China's Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd.
The MRC is an intergovernmental organization established in 1995 for regional dialogue and cooperation in the Lower Mekong River Basin. Based on the Mekong Agreement between Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam, the Commission serves as a regional platform for water diplomacy as well as a knowledge hub of water resources management for the sustainable development of the region.


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My ambition when I started out was to play two or... - Van Morrison Quotes
George Ivan "Van" Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are described as mystical and transcendental, while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are critically acclaimed.
#Culture & Society #People #Van Morrison #musician #Quotes
My ambition when I started out was to play two or three gigs a week. And that's what I'm doing.
George Ivan "Van" Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are described as mystical and transcendental, while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are critically acclaimed. ...


Is it the "race" or the "rate" that stops a nation?
For many Australians, the first Tuesday in November is synonymous with one thing - "the race that stops a nation"; the richest "two-mile" handicap horse race in the world – the Melbourne Cup.
Come 3pm this Tuesday all eyes will be glued to TV screens around the country for 3 minutes as punters wait and see if their chosen horse will be first past the post, hoping their "investment" generates a handsome return.
This time honoured event has the power to captivate the entire country, even those that do not normally follow the sport of horse racing will tune-in, and many will invest some of their hard-earned money (estimated to be around $800 million last year) on the outcome of the race.
However in recent years, a significant event that takes place 30 minutes prior to the big race has managed to steal punters attention away from the mounting yard - the Reserve Bank of Australia's Monetary Policy Decision announcing any movements in the official cash rate (OCR).
You see for five of the last seven years, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Mr Glenn Stevens has announced a change of the official cash rate (up and down) on Melbourne Cup day. Economists, bankers and consumers alike now all pay extra attention to the November announcement, and with the OCR at a record low level there is plenty of interest this year.
4 per cent were undecided.
Almost all Economists have been reported as supporting the large majority of The Adviser's respondents, expecting rates to remain unchanged this Tuesday, with some looking as far out as August 2015 before expecting any further changes to the OCR.
Factors such as a weakening labour market, slow wages growth and a persistently high Australian dollar have been suggested as being the reasons the RBA will hold fire on an increase to the cash rate at this point in time. It appears as though the central bank also has a close eye fixed on global growth and market volatility, noting concerns about China, Japan and Europe in its minutes of the October meeting.
Consumer sentiment, whilst stabilising following a period of decline, has been significantly outpaced by the increase in median house prices in capital cities, hurting future home-owners as the affordability gap continues to widen. Active property investors both here and abroad have contributed to the increase in median house prices which can be evidenced in Dwelling Investment figures which rose by more than 8 per cent in the past year to the June quarter and are expected to continue at strong levels on the back of solid numbers in building approvals.
Looking to the other side of what is preventing a rate cut is the risk of overstimulating the housing market. With median house prices rapidly increasing on the back of record level auction clearance rates, a further rate cut might just tip the property market over the edge and cause prices to rise even further, essentially shutting out a large percentage of consumers for the time being. Unless there is a major crisis leading to global recession I dont expect rates will be cut unfortunately.
Either way, if the cash rate does move, it will be the first change in 13 months – the longest period of interest rate stability since 2006. It was August 2013 when the last change was made, a 25bps decrease, Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister, and Gai Waterhouse was yet to win her first Melbourne Cup with Fiorente becoming Australia's first female trainer to win the big race.
It is our expectation that rates will remain on hold at least until the middle of next year if they change at all then, and it appears the RBA board share the view that we are looking at "a period of stability in interest rates" as per the minutes from their recent board meeting.
So as Mr Stevens approaches the "clock tower" on Tuesday, I suspect he will be sitting comfortably clear of the pack on his horse and will ride-on "hands and heels" over the line – with no change to the official cash rate.


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Q: Is it possible to have the Navigation bar Transparent Until the user expands the navigation bar on the Mobile Version? My Problem Scenario: The navigation bar is transparent on the mobile version of the site so the user can see the banner and the navigation bar is on the banner. Once the user clicks on the navigation bar, it expands and the navigation bar is no longer transparent.
Problem: I am not sure how to do this. I am able to make the navigation bar transparent but when I select the navigation bar on the mobile version, it remains transparent.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank You
UPDATE
The code below is done in ColdFusion and is the navigation bar. I reference an example I saw and just added what I needed/removed what I didn't.

                                            <input type="text" class="form-control btn-standard" value="#HTMLEditFormat($.event('keywords'))#" placeholder=" Site Search" />

                                                <button type="submit" class="btn btn-default btn-standard navKeywordsSubmit">

                                                </button>

                                    <cf_CacheOMatic key="dspPrimaryNav">

                                        #$.dspPrimaryNav(
                                            viewDepth=0
                                            , id='navPrimary'
                                            , class='nav navbar-nav nav-nowrap ignore'
                                            , displayHome='never'
                                            , closeFolders=false
                                            , showCurrentChildrenOnly=false
                                            , liHasKidsClass='dropdown'
                                            , liHasKidsAttributes=''
                                            , liCurrentClass=''
                                            , liCurrentAttributes=''
                                            , liHasKidsNestedClass='dropdown-submenu'
                                            , aHasKidsClass='dropdown-toggle'
                                            , aHasKidsAttributes='role="button" data-toggle="dropdown" data-target="##"'
                                            , aCurrentClass=''
                                            , aCurrentAttributes=''
                                            , ulNestedClass='dropdown-menu'
                                            , ulNestedAttributes=''
                                            , aNotCurrentClass=''
                                            , siteid=$.event('siteid')
                                        )#
                                    </cf_CacheOMatic>


Plant baskets or planters, are a great way to create a feature out of your plants. Indoor plants are on trend for interior styling, they add a tranquil feel to your home and with our planters, and you can disguise plain plastic pots behind a beautiful basket, handmade by our basket weavers in Ghana.
Whether you have a green thumb or prefer low maintenance artificial plants, making a feature of your greenery indoors is easy with our planter baskets.
Medium – will hold most average sized pots – 30cm in diameter, 19cm height.
Large – very spacious and can hold large pots or try multiple succulent plants – 37cm in diameter, 23cm height.
Not keen on green? Then use these open round baskets for storage in the home instead! Using as a planter us a suggested use, all of our baskets are multi-purpose and their uses are limitless.


Did you know you can find our most recent services on our Youtube channel?
That's right we live stream each of our services and they are then archived on Youtube.
Visit our youtube channel and listen to a service.


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Q: Magento connect all options disabled Im running a new magento 1.9.1 but there are issues with the connect manager. All options are disabled. Leaving the page gives a javascript warning 'There are connect processes running'
I have tracked this down to an ajax call to to /downloader/index.php?A=empty which sais 'Please wait, preparing for updates...' in the green terminal style.
Also the iframe with the terminal does not show. Ive tried multiple browsers
Any idea what I have done wrong or how to correct this issue?

A: Solution was to change the backend from hhvm 3.1, to php-fpm.