By Kat Greene, Law360, Thursday, July 27, 2017, Los Angeles – An Orange County Toyota dealer has filed a suit alleging the automaker shut down his recall notification software program and forced him out of owning a dealership, his attorneys said Thursday, all so the company could avoid paying for the influx of customers seeking repairs.
Roger Hogan, who owned dealerships in Claremont and San Juan Capistrano, California, said Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. disabled a software Hogan had created called Autovation because the program was driving more customers into dealerships for recall-related repairs, increasing the company's costs, according to his complaint in California state court.
Hogan said he'd created Autovation after Toyota's major safety recalls over dangerous defects, such as unintended acceleration, as a way for Toyota dealers to send letters to customers who had not yet gotten their cars fixed. But the more customers were aware of safety recalls, the more Toyota was going to have to pay to fix the problems, he said.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, alleged that Toyota sent out only one notice to customers when their vehicle was subject to a recall, and that many customers never even saw it. Toyota's "antiquated" system also made it hard for dealers themselves to identify open recalls when customers brought in their vehicles for service, he said.
His Autovation software was aimed at solving that problem, and it was wildly successful, he said.
But it meant Toyota was required to pay for the extra safety recall work that was coming in. The company killed the Autovation program to avoid having to pay millions for repairs, and then went a step further to get rid of Hogan as a dealer, according to the suit.
Toyota told Hogan to create a succession plan for his dealerships, but rejected his sons for ownership and management positions. It then ordered him to buy more land at one dealership, but refused to send him the cars that extra land entitled him to. It cut him off from the vehicles he needed by allocating them to competing dealers or ignoring his requests, and would extend one of his dealership's franchise agreements for only short periods of time to keep pressuring him, according to the suit.
Finally, Toyota told him to sell, he said.
Toyota was simultaneously putting corporate profits over customer safety and pushing Hogan and his dealerships to lose millions in revenues and value in retaliation for his software program, according to the suit.
A spokeswoman for Toyota declined to comment.
Hogan is represented by Louis R. Miller, Amnon Z. Siegel and Casey B. Pearlman of Miller Barondess LLP.
Counsel information for Toyota couldn't be immediately determined.
The case is Roger Hogan et al. v. Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc., in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Orange. Case number information couldn't be immediately determined.


150 to 200 words with a brief description of your business research topic, its business significance, research methods used and research results.
1.1 Your business research topic. What is your topic and what is its business significance.
1.2 A brief background/literature discussion of your topic. Provide a list of research questions for the identified business problem or opportunity.
1.3 A brief description of the research methodologies and techniques to be used for the research project. What research methodology will you use?
1.4 A description of the research process. What will be the steps in your project?
1.5 Outline describing what will be in each chapter of the report.
2.1 Introduction to Literature Review: Start with introduction which includes a list of the topic you will do a literature review on, what your hypotheses are from these topics that you are starting out with.
2.2 Topic 1: Define your 1st key word or phrase. Provide strengths and weaknesses from literature about the topic. Provide at least 4 references. Analyse your hypothesis about this topic and discuss your conclusion.
2.3 Topic 2. Define your 2nd key word or phrase. Provide strengths and weaknesses from literature about the topic. Provide at least 4 references. Analyse your hypothesis about this topic and discuss your conclusion.
2.4 Topic 3: Define your 3rd key word or phrase. Provide strengths and weaknesses from literature about the topic. Provide at least 4 references. Analyse your hypothesis about this topic and discuss your conclusion.
2.5 Topic 4: Define your 4th word or phrase. Provide strengths and weaknesses from literature about the topic. Provide at least 4 references. Analyse your hypothesis about this topic and discuss your conclusion.
3.2 Data Sampling Method. How will you get the data you need to test your hypotheses? What tools or devices will you use to make or record observations? How will you choose the sample? What degree of accuracy or level of confidence can you guarantee?
3.3 Data Analysis. What combinations of analytical and statistical process will be applied to the data? Which of these will allow you to accept or reject your hypotheses?
4.1 Discussion on Hypotheses. Was your initial hypothesis supported or rejected? Why?
4.2 Discussion on Literature and Research Results. What are the implications of your findings for the theory base, for the background assumptions, or relevant literature?
4.3 Recommendations. What recommendations result from the work?
5.2 Future Work: What suggestions can you make for further research on this topic?
At least 16 references properly referenced.
Here you could include the PowerPoint slides from your presentation, any (empty) surveys, any extra information of value such as extra data analysis not included in the chapters.


text:
Q: Dotnet not recognizing controller with Angular frontend I have created the following PersonController.cs:
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using PersonApi.Models;

namespace donau_lead_generator.Controllers;

[ApiController]
[Route("[controller]")]

public class PersonController : ControllerBase

{
    private readonly ILogger<PersonController> _logger;

public PersonController(ILogger<PersonController> logger)
{
    _logger = logger;
}

[HttpPost("addData")]
public Task<ActionResult<Person>> Post(Person person)
{
    Console.WriteLine("I am here");
    return null;
}

And the following service:
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http';
import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';

import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
import { Person } from './person';

@Injectable()
export class HomeService {

  constructor(
    private http: HttpClient) {
  }

  /** POST: add a new user to the database */
  addUser(user: Person): Observable<Person> {
    return this.http.post<Person>("person/addData", user);
  }
}

Which is called in the component like this:
this.homeService.addUser(newUser).subscribe(user => {console.warn(user)
}, error => console.error(error)); //maybe create Person

I know that the return value etc. is not correct yet, but the main problem is that the endpoint is not recognized:

My Program.cs
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Add services to the container.

builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews();

var app = builder.Build();

// Configure the HTTP request pipeline.
if (!app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
{
    // The default HSTS value is 30 days. You may want to change this for production scenarios, see https://aka.ms/aspnetcore-hsts.
    app.UseHsts();
}

app.UseHttpsRedirection();
app.UseStaticFiles();
app.UseRouting();

app.MapControllerRoute(
    name: "default",
    pattern: "{controller}/{action=Index}/{id?}");

app.MapFallbackToFile("index.html");;

app.Run();

If I add the method to the pre generated (weatherforecast) endpoint everything works.
My folder structure:

EDIT
I changed it to, as requested in an answer:
[HttpPost("addData")]
public ActionResult<Person> Post(Person person)
{
    Console.WriteLine("I am here");
    return Ok(person);
}

However, it still throws the same 404 not found error.

A: I finally found the problem.
The generated project via the dotnet cli, configures a proxy.conf.js where it specifies which urls are redirected to the server and /weatherforecast is the only url allowed. Thats why the endpoint added in /weatherforecast worked and in an extra controller file not.
To make it work for other endpoints add person in proxy.conf.js:
const { env } = require('process');

const target = env.ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORT ? `https://localhost:${env.ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORT}` :
  env.ASPNETCORE_URLS ? env.ASPNETCORE_URLS.split(';')[0] : 'http://localhost:42175';

const PROXY_CONFIG = [
  {
    context: [
      "/weatherforecast",
      "/person"
   ],
    target: target,
    secure: false,
    headers: {
      Connection: 'Keep-Alive'
    }
  }
]

module.exports = PROXY_CONFIG;

A: Replace this:
app.MapControllerRoute(
    name: "default",
    pattern: "{controller}/{action=Index}/{id?}");

to this: app.MapControllers();
And your url will be like: https://localhost:44416/Person/addData
Note: When using the [Route("[controller]")] attribute with the "[controller]" parameter, in the URL the controller name begins with an uppercase letter
Update
Also try to replace this builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews();
to this: builder.Services.AddControllers(); because you don't use controller with views

A: This is because the ActionResult types represent various HTTP status codes.
You have an Task<ActionResult<Person>> endpoint return type, but you are trying to return null with no defined code status, so it needs to be wrapped with Ok() or NotFound() methods, etc.
[HttpPost("addData")]
public ActionResult<Person> Post(Person person)
{
    Console.WriteLine("I am here");
    return OK(person);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Femmes Fatales Apr 30 2017
The saying goes that no parent should have to bury a child. Somebody didn't hear the saying.
The above Colombia Pictures promo photo of U.S. actress Eloise Hardt first appeared in 1941, when she was still performing in uncredited roles. Her first star turn came in 1947 in the twenty minute short The Luckiest Guy in the World, followed by a role in Homecoming in 1948. But her career in movies never really took off. It was in television that she made her mark, appearing in dozens of series beginning in 1956. Some of those included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Miami Undercover, and Dr. Kildare. But for all her acting credits, it was for events outside of show business that she seems to be remembered today.
In 1968 Hardt's daughter Marina Habe was kidnapped, murdered, and her body left in the woods off Muholland Drive. Speculation over the years is that one or more members of the Manson Family did the deed. This would have made Habe an early victim, as their famous murder spree didn't occur until 1969, but according to Ed Sanders, author of The Family, members of Manson's circle admitted they knew Habe, and newspaper reports in 1969 suggested the same weapons that killed Habe were used on Sharon Tate. However no arrest was ever made in the murder. As for Hardt, she's still alive and residing in California, which means she's outlived her daughter by nearly fifty years.
CaliforniaColombia PicturesThe Luckiest Guy in the WorldHomecomingAlfred Hitchcock PresentsMiami UndercoverDr. KildareEloise HardtMarina HabeSharon TateCharles MansonEd Sandersmurder

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


At one of the meetings discussing the life and direction of the church, it was agreed that we would meet regularly for a meal and fellowship. We therefore plan to have a faith breakfast on Easter morning (ie next Sunday) at 9:30am. Please see Fiona Thomas who has a sign-up sheet.
Joint Service by St Luke's and Our Lady of Good Counsel; shared packed lunch after.


Cocoa butter and organic Shea butter are two of the most deeply moisturising ingredients used in skin care. Combined with a fresh, sweet, citrus scent, Chocolate Orange Cocoa Body Butter creates a deeply rich moisturiser, full of natural healing benefits which starts to melt immediately it touches the skin.
Cocoa butter is high in antioxidants, which help fight off free radicals that damage and prematurely age skin cells. Not only is Cocoa Butter reputed to prevent stretch marks caused from pregnancy or weight gain, but it is also believed to help the healing of scars and has been noted to help skin irritations such as Eczema and Dermatitis.
INGREDIENTS: butyrospermum parkii (Shea Butter); prunus amydalus dulcis (Sweet Almond Oil); theobroma cacao (Cocoa butter); citrus aurantium (Bitter Orange Essential Oil); citrus sinensis (Sweet Orange Essential Oil).
Tags: Pure, Chocolate, Orange, scented, cocoa body butter, with a sweet, zesty, tangy, refreshing citrus scent.


Saratoga Beer Week is Here!
Saratoga Beer Week is here! It's time for 5 days of Craft Beer Heaven in beautiful Downtown Saratoga Springs.
Saturday: Saratoga Beer Summit with two sessions at the City Center, from 1pm-4pm or 5pm-8pm. Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the door with unlimited samples and a commemorative sampling glass.


Daughter (featuring Songwriting alumni Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and BMus druming alumnus Remi Aguilella) are playing at Latitude Festival in Suffolk.
Dub Pistols (featuring drum alumnus Jack Cowens) are heading up to The Beat-Herder Festival in Lancashire.
Monarks (featuring alumni Sam Kinsella and Matt Arnold) and Zuzu (featuring current BMus student Julia Lamb on bass) are heading to Hill Farm in Oxfordshire for Truck Festival.
Follow the link to see all the ICMP acts playing some of the world's biggest festivals this summer, with our ICMP Festival Guide 2016.


Julia Saini joined Frost & Sullivan in April 2001 and is one of the founding members of the European Automotive & Transportation Practice. In her current role as Vice President Mobility, she is responsible for leading Frost & Sullivan's Global Aftersales and Retail Programme Area, with a strong focus on digitization, e-commerce and new business models.
Julia is highly experienced in leading global strategy engagements with a strong focus on project excellence and unconditional client satisfaction. Julia is trilingual and holds a Master (LLB, LLM) and Doctorandus in Law (Dr.).
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents.


The readers have voted, and City-State of the Sea-Kings has made it to the top of the review pile here at the Tavern. I'll start digging into it heavy tomorrow.
Close behind it will be the Adventures Dark and Deep Player's Manual.
Rounding out the top 5 are Five Ancient Kingdoms, Whitehack and Arrows an Indra.
The above will all have multi part (or continue) reviews. Those not in the top five, as well as other items that crop up (like some DCC RPG adventures - hint, hint) will get the usual mini-reviews inter-spread amongst the longer reviews.
Tomorrow I'll award the random RPGNow Gift Certs. One will be awarded on the G+ side and three on the blog side.
There. I said it. Westward is a "steampunk western". Wasn't there a TV series a little while back that hit on both themes?
Personally, I really like the D6 ruleset, even in it's various flavors. I have fond memories of WEG Star Wars, and it's a simple enough system to learn with a decent amount of options. Well, that and the core D6 books are free. As in, well, free. Oh, and OGL. So have a blast.
Westward, the "steampunk western" comes in 2 flavors. "Pay what you want" (slightly crippled - no printing, no copy / paste, etc) and a full usable (printable) version for 10 bucks. The contents are the same in each, and neither requires other rules - they are self contained.
So, here's my advice. Pay NOTHING for the PWYW version of Westward. Set some time asides, as it's over 350 pages long with some decent color art. If you like what you see, and want to actually use it, as a GM or player, plop down the $10 for the full, printable version. Why pay twice?
I do suggest grabbing a copy of Westward, even it it's just for ideas in other games. The price is right.
Westward Premium is the HighResolution version of Westward. Buy the Premium Edition to remove the watermark, enable copy and paste, and printing!
As of this posting, City-State of the Sea Kings has 21 votes between the blogside and G+ (G+ has been fairly quite).
The other front runners are Adventures Dark and Deep Players Handbook, Arrows of Indra, Five Ancient Kingdoms and Whitehack (all with 10+ votes).
There's a complete listing of the slush pile (and vote placing) going on on this post.
Voting is open until tomorrow (Saturday night). I'll close the voting whenever tomorrow's game session wraps up.
For every 20 vote posts (unique, you can only vote once but may vote for up to 3 items to be reviewed) or fraction of 20 posts, I'm putting a $5 RPGNow Gift Certificate into the random prize pool. The blogside currently has 2 GCs in the pool (to be awarded Sunday) and the G+ side currently has 1 GC in it's pool.
Help decided what gets moved to the top of the review pile!
How Encumbering is Encumbrance in Your Campaigns?
Do you strictly track encumbrance? Hand wave it? Ignore it? Give everyone in the party Bags of Holding and hope it all goes away?
I find myself somewhere between ignoring and hand waving. Trying to jump over a pit trap? What are your carrying. Otherwise, I dont give it much thought, as the play is the game, not the number crunching.
Still, LotFP has a decent semi-abstract encumbrance system that doesn't seem to be overtaxing.
How do you handle encumbrance in your games?
Lets see, for as little as $4, you get FATE Core, FATE Accelerated, Spirit of the Century (my personal introduction to FATE), Full Moon and Ehdrigohr.
Beat the average price folks are paying (as I type this, its a hair over 12 bucks) you also get Starblazer Adventures, Legends of Anglerre, the Kerebos Club and any future additions to the bundle.
If you are "FATE Curious", this is you opportunity to get a ton of FATE for a really cheap price.
Did I mention it's all DRM free?
Vote on What Gets Moved to the Top of the Tavern's Review Pile - Because it's a Damn Big Pile!
I have a shitload of stuff to review, and I'm failing badly at doing so. Work is taking up more time then it had (which means overtime and more money to spend on goodies, so I'm not really complaining) but it does mean free time is at a premium.
So, I'm letting you vote on what gets moved to the top of the review pile (one random voter gets a $5 RPGNow credit, so there is an added bonus in voting).
Adventures Dark & Deep Players Manual - a AD&D 2e "what if".
City State of the Sea Kings - a new Wilderlands sourcebook / campaign.
Stoneheart Valley - just noticed the S&W version says "Pathfinder" on the cover - that's going to make for some confusing retail sales.
I'll leave the voting up through Saturday evening.
Vote on the blog or G+. Vote for up to 3 choices. All picks get equal weight.
Do You Use Alignment in Your Campaigns?
I use it, but there are times I wonder why I bother.
I'm beginning to wonder if more general good / indifferent / evil type of axis would be more effective in future campaigns for my usual group. More latitude and less "various interpretations".
So, do you use alignment as is? Do you tweak it? Drop it all together?
The last few months for my gaming group have been hit or miss - at times, of the 8 in the group, only 3 or 4 can make a session. Not an easy way to move on with a campaign of DCC that usually has 6 or 7 players / PCs when we game.
And yeah, that is a sign of the summer months, but I'd like to be prepared in any case.
This means the sessions we wind up short either become yap sessions (not bad in and of itself) or get canceled outright.
So, looking for ideas of RPGs that can be run with little set up, short rules, easy to throw and adventure together, doesn't rely on niche protection and can handle small parties.
This book is more massive than I expected. City-State of the Sea Kings clocks in at 380 pages and a map. The map itself is two-sided. One side has the numbered hex map of the Isle, the other side has the map of the city. Both are very well done.
I didn't realize that this is one of the last projects that Bob Bledsaw senior had an active hand in (but I found out that and more reading the foreword - good thing I didn't skip that like usual).
It uses the "Judges Guild Universal System" for stats, which is easier to understand and convert (for me at least) then the system used in Lich Dungeon and the like. Still would have preferred OSR generic, but the system used has history behind it and is familiar to many.
Layout is easy on the eyes (I do wonder about all of the highlighting throughout the text, but maybe that will sort itself out with a solid read).
You probably could run a full campaign from beginning to end on this isle.
I want to move this to the top of my review pile - but that pile is getting friggin huge! Still, City-State of the Sea Kings is calling to me - loudly.
What is Your Favorite OSR "Clone" Ruleset?
I have a fairly decent list of OSR ruleset to the right of this post, but I'm sure it's incomplete.
Anyhow, my favorite OSR "Clone" (and a clone is in no way needs to be a prefect copy of the source material in this definition I'm using - it's more flavor and spirit than rule and letter) would be Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Edition if you are going by the actual boxed set. There is something about the box itself that just makes it special. The Deeper Delving Boxed set fails to recapture the same magic.
If I want an AD&D feel without the clutter, I'd go S&W Complete. Labyrinth Lord AEC comes damn close, but the need of two rulebooks compare to the one of S&W Complete is the tie breaker for me, if you will.
So, what are your preferred "clones"?
Appendix N - I got mine, but most folks ain't got their. Folks are getting antsy.
Far West - there's talk about the PDF of the rules being released this month. Normally I'd laugh dismissively, but I just had my backer portrait emailed to me, so I can actually say "there's been some progress".Still hopelessly late.
The Perfect Beer Drinking Vessel and Private Keg! - not a gaming product, but I'd really like this by the end of the year. Updates fairly frequently.
OpenQuest 2 - just got the PDF today. Reminds me a bit of RQ2. I need to sit down and read this. I also need more time to do all of the things I want to do. Almost off the list.
Dungeon Deck: Quests - last update 9/7, stating that the overdue project still hadn't shipped from India - promised and update when there was something to update, so I guess a month later it still hasn't found its way onto a boat.
Tavern Cards - last update 8/4. Estimated to ship back in April. It's not the lateness so much as the lack of communication that irks me.
The Skies Over Danbury - Dungeon World Adventures - Barely late, but the last update was back in June, and it was awaiting layout by an overworked, over committed, layout artist. Ah well.
Tales From the Fallen Empire: Sword and Sorcery Setting - was it really due back in January?
Myth & Magic Player's Guide - 2E Revived and Updated!!! - he says it's shipping. Supposedly 98 shipments went out, apparently to folks that don't do social media, as I've failed to spot a copy "in the wild". Who knows, maybe one of my readers has a copy and can show us - for real yo!
Dwimmermount - I really wish Tavis and company all of the best, but this project is cursed. It's given me lots of blogging material, so maybe I've already gotten my monies worth... or not. I'm one of the asses that went in for the vinyl maps.
Nystul's Fiascos - one for all, and all for naught. Thank God I didn't put in at the "Dwarven Stein" level to round out my drinking vessels collection. Shift responsibility away from "Mad Mike" and on to others - Mike is slick, I'll give him that.
Ogre - maybe in time for this Christmas?
So, I'm currently digging through what is now the living room closet (formerly my bedroom before renovations) as I'm looking to add some soundproofing to the back of it (my son's room is on the other side). In the course of moving stuff out of the top (nearly all gaming material) I came across this gem - The Primal Order from Wizards of the Coast from back in 1994.
Yep, that's before they bought out TSR and grabbed D&D and all of the rest.
Now, look at the back cover (or at least, the part of the back cover I took a picture of.
Notice and game missing from that list?
I guess TSR - They Sue for Real was the sleeping giant they didnt want to stir up.
What is Your Favorite Classic "Old School" Gaming Module / Adventure?
I was thinking about all of the great (and not so great) modules I picked up in my teens and early 20's - mid 80's to early 90's - and I find myself surprised that my favorite modules of the era are not from TSR. Heck, they aren't for (A)D&D at all.
Instead, they are for RuneQuest 2 - the Chaosium edition.
Pavis and Big Rubble, because in truth, they are just two parts that make up one exciting sandbox.
I ran this in both RQ3 and RQ2, using the Chaosium boxed sets that I picked up at a con held at Columbia University back in 86 or 87. The boxes had some shelf wear and crushing going on, but their contents were intact. It didn't hurt that I picked up a HC of the RQ2 rules from the same vendor.
I suspect if I had found Judges Guild's Wilderlands back in my early gaming days, my answer to the question would have been made a bit harder to come to - probably the same conclusion, just not so clear cut.
So, what's your favorite classic "old school" gaming module / adventure?
I'm a big fan of The Tome of Horrors Complete for Swords & Wizardry. It's a hefty tome, but it adds so many options for OSR styles gaming as far as monsters go, it's almost indispensable. Almost. The price is a horror for many, even if the hard cover includes a PDF copy in the price.
Did I mention my wonderful cat knocked a glass of water off the desk and onto my copy of The Tome of Horrors Complete below? That was a year or so ago. Damage was minimal and obviously she (the cat) still lives.
ToH Complete isn't so complete anymore, with the addition of Tome of Horrors 4. $44.95 for the print + PDF (and 5 bucks for the Pathfinder version and 50+ pages - Pathfinder certainly can be a bloated system). Is it worth you dollars?
Are you a completist? If you own ToH Complete, you'll certainly want ToH4.
Are you a monster junkie? This is a well presented monster book with awesome art and an adventure seed for each monster.
Are you writing your own adventures for you group? You can keep them on their toes by introducing monsters from the ToH series.
Are you running a published campaign / series of modules / megadungeon? Much less valuable for you.
ToH4 is very well done and is worth the price for me, but it may not be for you. It's a bit of a niche product. Monstrosities is probably the monster book to start with if you need a basic monster book for your OSR campaign.


text:
Expert: 85 percent of 1.1 million new San Antonians will be Latino
How will San Antonio's unique population growth affect its affordable housing dilemma?
By Ben Olivo | Nov 15, 2017 | Affordable Housing, Gentrification, Housing
Every time Maria Berriozabal hears that San Antonio's population will increase by 1.1 million by 2040, she has the same reaction.
"Each time I hear these statistics, they are so sobering," Berriozabal, a former councilwoman and member of Mayor Ron Nirenberg's housing task force, said at the group's meeting Tuesday night.
The statistic is even more sobering when considering San Antonio's current housing affordability crisis, and what it will look like a couple of decades from now.
Another wrinkle: 85 percent of the 1.1 million new San Antonians will be Latino. That's about 935,000 people. And a "significant chunk" of that number will be homegrown, Dr. Rogelio Saenz, the dean of the College of Public Policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told the task force .
"So when we're planning for housing for that population . . . what kind of housing are they going to need?" Berriozabal asked Saenz.
"Affordable housing is a major reality for the population," Saenz responded.
What was unclear was exactly how many new affordable units San Antonio will need by 2040. A 2013 study (scroll to "Attachment D") commissioned by the city said that San Antonio will need 150,000 affordable housing units by 2016. The city estimates 5,000 units have since been added.
Other pressing questions: What will all this new affordable housing look like? What is affordable housing, anyway?
Jim Bailey, a task force member and associate principal at Alamo Architects, asked twice during the meeting: Where will the housing go?
"Maybe the piece that's missing is taking that 2013 study and figuring out where that need exists in San Antonio," Bailey said.
With San Antonio's older housing stock in notoriously poor condition, the preservation of homes dominated much of the conversation, just as it has in past task force meetings.
"Large spaces of the inner city way back when, they were being built in a haphazard way," said Dr. Christine Drennon, director of Urban Studies at Trinity University and an advisor to the task force. "Now it's actually housing the population that we're concerned about that is having trouble accessing newer housing."
She mentioned that many of these communities are located in, or close to, the inner city and therefore are susceptible to new development.
"The interesting thing is that we are concerned about a lack of affordable housing, and yet we have a housing stock that is affordable, that we're allowing to deteriorate," Drennon said.
Lourdes Castro-Ramirez, head of the task force, chimed in.
"Preservation of units in neighborhoods, there's also preservation of housing affordability, meaning preservation of units that have subsidies — whether it's a subsidy from the federal or state government — you have a number of buildings with expiring affordability covenants," Castro-Ramirez said.
Dawn Hanson, a Beacon Hill resident currently fighting a proposal by District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño that would rezone her neighborhood and others in the inner city, offered a different perspective.
"Sometimes preservation is given a higher grade than actually housing people," Hanson said. "So when you talk about preservation in some of these higher opportunity neighborhoods, they glom onto that and then they start rejecting any sort of multifamily housing . . .
"Some of these houses may not be worth preserving, and they could be torn down for four-plexes, six-plexes and eight-plexes, where maybe the property owner partners with a developer and actually has a stake in the new development that happens, which is a good way to keep them in the neighborhood and also preserve affordability."
ben@folomedia.org
What is your congregation doing for San Antonio's most vulnerable?
Explaining the complex Alazan Courts proposal


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text:
Islamic ornament is the use of decorative patterns in Islamic art and Islamic architecture. Its elements can be broadly divided into the arabesque, using curving plant-based elements, geometric patterns with straight lines or regular curves, and calligraphy, consisting of religious texts with stylized appearance, used both decoratively and to convey meaning. All three often involve elaborate interlacing in various mediums.

Islamic ornament has had a significant influence on European decorative art forms, especially as seen in the Western arabesque.

Overview

Islamic art mostly avoids figurative images to avoid becoming objects of worship. This aniconism in Islamic culture encouraged artists to explore non-figural art, creating a general aesthetic shift toward mathematically-based decoration. Even before the preaching of Islam, the regions associated with the Islamic world today showed a preference for geometric and stylized vegetal decoration. As early as the fourth century, Byzantine architecture showcased influential forms of abstract ornament in stonework. Sasanian artists were influential in part through their experimentation with stucco as a decorative medium.

The Islamic geometric patterns derived from designs used in earlier cultures: Greek, Roman, and Sasanian. They are one of three forms of Islamic decoration, the others being the arabesque based on curving and branching plant forms, and Islamic calligraphy; all three are frequently used together, in mediums such as mosaic, stucco, brickwork, and ceramics, to decorate religious buildings and objects.

Authors such as Keith Critchlow argue that Islamic patterns are created to lead the viewer to an understanding of the underlying reality, rather than being mere decoration, as writers interested only in pattern sometimes imply. In Islamic culture, the patterns are believed to be the bridge to the spiritual realm, the instrument to purify the mind and the soul. David Wade states that "Much of the art of Islam, whether in architecture, ceramics, textiles or books, is the art of decoration – which is to say, of transformation." Wade argues that the aim is to transfigure, turning mosques "into lightness and pattern", while "the decorated pages of a Qur'an can become windows onto the infinite." Against this, Doris Behrens-Abouseif states in her book Beauty in Arabic Culture that a "major difference" between the philosophical thinking of Medieval Europe and the Islamic world is exactly that the concepts of the good and the beautiful are separated in Arabic culture. She argues that beauty, whether in poetry or in the visual arts, was enjoyed "for its own sake, without commitment to religious or moral criteria".

Arabesque

The Islamic arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. It usually consists of a single design which can be 'tiled' or seamlessly repeated as many times as desired. This technique, which emerged thanks to artistic interest in older geometric compositions in Late Antique art, made it possible for the viewer to imagine what the pattern would look like if it continued beyond its actual limits. This is a characteristic which made it distinctive to Islamic art.

The fully "geometricized" arabesques appeared in the 10th century. The vegetal forms commonly used within the patterns, such as acanthus leaves, grapes, and more abstract palmettes, were initially derived from Late Antique and Sasanian art. The Sasanians characteristic use of the scrolling vine as a decorative element derived from the Romans through Byzantine art. In the Islamic period, this vine scroll evolved into the arabesque. The vine ornament which is popular in Islamic ornament is believed to come out of Hellenistic and early Christian art. However, the vine scroll has experienced stylistic changes which has transformed the vine pattern into a more abstract ornament with only remnants of the Hellenistic model. Additional motifs, such as flowers, began to be added towards the 14th century.

From the 14th century onward, the geometrically-configured arabesque began to be displaced by freer vegetal motifs inspired by Chinese art and by the Saz style that became popular in Ottoman art during the 16th century.

Geometric patterns

The historic world of Islamic art is widely known to be the most proficient in its use of geometric patterns for artistic expression. Islamic geometric patterns developed in two different regions. Those locations being in the eastern regions of Persia, Transoxiana, and Khurasan, and in the western regions of Morocco and Andalusia. The geometric designs in Islamic art are often built on combinations of repeated squares and circles, which may be overlapped and interlaced, as can arabesques, with which they are often combined, to form intricate and complex patterns, including a wide variety of tessellations. These may constitute the entire decoration, may form a framework for floral or calligraphic embellishments, or may retreat into the background around other motifs. The complexity and variety of patterns used evolved from simple stars and lozenges in the ninth century, through a variety of 6- to 13-point patterns by the 13th century, and finally to include also 14- and 16-point stars in the sixteenth century. Geometric forms such as circles, squares, rhombs, dodecagons, and stars vary in their representation and configuration across the world of Islam.

Geometric patterns occur in a variety of forms in Islamic art and architecture including kilim carpets,
Persian girih and western zellij tilework,
muqarnas decorative vaulting,
jali pierced stone screens,
ceramics,
leather,
stained glass,
woodwork, and metalwork.

Calligraphy

Calligraphy is a central element of Islamic art, combining aesthetic appeal and religious message. Sometimes it is the dominant form of ornament; at other times it is combined with arabesque. The importance of the written word in Islam ensured that epigraphic or calligraphic decoration played a prominent role in architecture. Calligraphy is used to ornament buildings such as mosques, madrasas, and mausoleums; wooden objects such as caskets; and ceramics such as tiles and bowls.

Epigraphic decoration can also indicate further political or religious messages through the selection of a textual program of inscriptions. For example, the calligraphic inscriptions adorning the Dome of the Rock include quotations from the Qur'an that reference the miracle of Jesus and his human nature (e.g. Quran 19:33–35), the oneness of God (e.g. Qur'an 112), and the role of Muhammad as the "Seal of the Prophets", which have been interpreted as an attempt to announce the rejection of the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity and to proclaim the triumph of Islam over Christianity and Judaism. Additionally, foundation inscriptions on buildings commonly indicate its founder or patron, the date of its construction, the name of the reigning sovereign, and other information.

The earliest examples of epigraphic inscriptions in Islamic art demonstrate a more unplanned approach in which calligraphy is not integrated with other decoration. In the 10th century, a new approach to writing emerged. Ibn Muqla is known as the originator of the khatt al-mansub, or proportioned script style. "Khatt," meaning the "marking out," emphasized calligraphic writing's physical demarcation of space. This concept of rationalizing space is inherent in all of Islamic ornament. By the 9th and 10th centuries inscriptions were fully integrated into the rest of an object or building's decorative program, and by the 14th century they became the dominant decorative feature on many objects. The most common style of script during the early period was Kufic, in which straight angular lines dominated. In monumental inscriptions, certain flourishes were added over time to create variations such as "floriated" Kufic (in which flower or tendril forms spring from the letters) or "knotted" Kufic (in which some letters form interlacing knots). However, the elaboration of Kufic scripts also made them less legible, which led to the adoption of rounder "cursive" scripts in architectural decoration, such as Naskh, Thuluth, and others. These scripts first appeared on monuments in the 11th century, initially for religious inscriptions but then for other inscriptions as well. Cursive scripts underwent further elaborations over the following centuries while Kufic was relegated to a secondary role. Inscriptions became longer and more crowded as more information was included and more titles were added to the names of patrons.

Influence on Western ornament

A Western style of ornament based on Islamic arabesque developed in Europe, starting in late 15th century Venice; it has been called either moresque or western arabesque. It has been used in a great variety of the decorative arts, especially in book design and bookbinding. More recently, William Morris of the Arts and Crafts movement was influenced by all three types of Islamic ornament.

Theories of Islamic ornament

The representation of pattern is one of the earliest forms of artistic expression; however, scientific and theoretical studies on pattern are a relatively recent development. The systematic study of their properties and significance emerged in the late 19th century. Theories on ornament can be located in the writings of Alois Reigl, William Morris, John Ruskin, Carl Semper, and Viollet-le-Duc.

Oleg Grabar is one of the theorists to engage with ornament's capacity to evoke thought and interpretation. He argues that ornament is used not merely as embellishment but an intermediary for making and seeing. Furthermore, its decorative qualities seem to complete an object by providing it with quality. This "quality" is the feeling transmitted through ornament's visual messages.

Owen Jones, in his book The Grammar of Ornament (1856), proposes theories on color, geometry, and abstraction. One of his guiding principles states that all ornament is based on a geometric construction.

Ernst Gombrich emphasizes the practical effects of ornament as framing, filling, and linking. He deems the most meaningful aspects of art to be non-ornamental, which stems from a preference to Western representational art. Geometric pattern in Islamic ornament involves this filling of space, technically described as "'tessellation through isometry.'" The primary objective for geometric patterns "filling" of space is to enhance it. In his book,The Meditation on Ornament, Oleg Grabar departs from Gombrich's European-influenced position to show how ornament can be the subject of a design. He differentiates between filling a space with design, and transforming a space through design.

Grabar calls attention to the "iconophoric quality" of ornament. His use of the word "iconophoric" connotes "indicative" or "expressive." Regarding ornament for its own sake undermines its subjectivity. Geometric forms can be fashioned as subjects through their ability to communicate or enhance iconographic, semiotic, or symbolic meaning. Ornament in the Islamic work is used to convey the essence of an identifiable message or specific messages themselves. The richly textured geometric forms in the Alhambra function as a passageway, an essence, for viewers to meditate on life and afterlife. One example of the use of geometry to indicate a specific message is visible over the entrance of one of the Kharraqan towers, where star-shaped polygons frame the word "Allah" (God).

The development of vegetal ornament from Egypt, the ancient Near East, and the Hellenistic world culminated in the Islamic arabesque. Vegetal ornament is the suggestion of evocation of life as opposed to the representation of it. Its organic, rhythmic lines create an essence of growth and movement.

A common misconception in understanding the arabesque is resigning it to purely religious messages. This implies that the Islamic use of ornament emerged as a stylistic response to a rejection of idol or icon worship. Although ornament is used as a vehicle towards sacred contemplation and union with God, it is not confined to this function.

Notes

References

Sources

Islamic art
Islamic architectural elements
Ornaments

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Abitibi—Témiscamingue is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. The area was also represented by the electoral district of Témiscamingue from 1968 until 2004.

Geography
The district includes the Regional County Municipalities of Témiscamingue, Abitibi, Abitibi-Ouest, the city of Rouyn-Noranda and a small section of south western Jamésie territory.

The neighbouring ridings are Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, Pontiac, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, Nipissing—Timiskaming, and Timmins—James Bay.

History
Témiscamingue was created in 1968 from parts of Pontiac—Témiscamingue and Villeneuve.

It was initially defined to consist of:
 the Cities of Noranda and Rouyn;
 the Towns of Belleterre, Temiscaming and Ville-Marie;
 the County of Témiscamingue (except the Townships of Béraud, Chabert, Darlens, Desroberts, Granet, Jourdan, Landanet, Laubanie, Marrias, Mazérac, Pélissier and Sabourin without local municipal organization).

In 1976, it was redefined to consist of:
 the Cities of Noranda and Rouyn;
 the Towns of Belleterre, Duparquet, La Sarre, Macamic, Temiscaming and Ville-Marie;
 the County of Témiscamingue; and
 parts of the County of Abitibi.

In 1987, it was redefined to consist of:
the towns of Belleterre, Duparquet, La Sarre, Macamic, Noranda, Rouyn, Témiscaming and Ville-Marie;
the County of Témiscamingue excluding the Territory of Témiscamingue-Lac-Granet portion;
 parts of the County of Abitibi; and
 the southwest part of the Municipality of James Bay.

It was renamed "Rouyn-Noranda—Témiscamingue" in 1996, and redefined to consist of:
 the cities of Belleterre, Cadillac, Duparquet, La Sarre, Macamic, Rouyn-Noranda, Témiscaming and Ville-Marie;
 the county regional municipalities of Abitibi-Ouest and Rouyn-Noranda;
 the County Regional Municipality of Témiscamingue, including Timiscaming Indian Reserve No. 19 and Eagle Village First Nation-Kipawa Indian Reserve, the Indian settlements of Hunter's Point and Winneway; and
 the southwest part of the Municipality of James Bay.

In 1997, it was renamed "Témiscamingue".

The electoral district was abolished in 2003 when it was merged into Abitibi—Témiscamingue.

Abitibi—Témiscamingue was created in 2003. 77.1% came from Témiscamingue, and 22.9% from neighbouring Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik riding.

The riding lost a small territory to Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou as a result of the 2012 electoral redistribution.

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following members of the House of Commons of Canada:

Election results

Abitibi—Témiscamingue, 2004–present

|align="left" colspan=2|New Democratic Party gain from Bloc Québécois
|align="right"|Swing
|align="right"| +29.0
|align="right"|

|-

Témiscamingue, 1968–2004
By-election: On Mr. Brien's resignation, 14 March 2003:

By-election: On Mr. Réal Caouette's death, 16 December 1976

See also
 List of Canadian federal electoral districts
 Past Canadian electoral districts

References

Elections Canada 2011 results
Riding history from the Library of Parliament
(1966 - 1996)
(1996 - 1997)
(1997 - 2003)
Campaign expense data from Elections Canada

Notes

Quebec federal electoral districts
Amos, Quebec
Rouyn-Noranda


Getting the most for your construction dollar begins with all parties engaged in the process at the earliest time. Cost control, meeting schedule deadlines, and optimizing value are based on decisions made at the initial stages of the job.
Construction Management at Risk (CMAR) is a qualifications-based selection process and provides construction management services for a project throughout both the pre-construction and construction phases.
Design-build is a method of project delivery in which one entity – the design-build team – works under a single contract with the project owner to provide design and construction services. This is an inclusive contract that involves one entity, one contract, one unified flow of work from initial concept through completion.
Ionic Builders has successfully managed tenant improvements of over two million square feet in both new and occupied buildings throughout the greater Phoenix area. We are experts in working within the confined area of finish spaces involving other tenants or landlord operations.
We always keep in mind the requirement of delivering the project at the most competitive method possible, while integrating the concepts of "best value" and quality assurance to the successful project. Participating as an active member of the project team during pre-construction is where Ionic, as construction manager, has the greatest impact in achieving defined project goals at the lowest possible cost.
Our first step in risk management is client alignment. This is the process of identifying and fully understanding the unique requirements of each owner and project. This alignment process is the beginning of a successful relationship for both firms.
I have known Kelley for more than 20 years. He is without a doubt a great builder.
Ionic is the pinnacle of class. They listened carefully to my needs and delivered. I would recommend them to anyone.
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« One Man, One Vote?
1. A skeptical discontent with the present, informed by a sense of the past.
2. The ability to make connections among seemingly disparate phenomena.
3. Appreciation of the natural world, enhanced by knowledge of science and the arts.
4. A willingness to imagine experience from perspectives other than one's own.
That list remains a highlight for me, but Delbanco's historical information about America's most venerable and venerated colleges and universities provides good context for thinking about where we are today.
Still, even if I'd read no further than page three, I'd still recommend College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be. The ability to write that list tells me that at least one other person shares my view of what should result from a solid liberal education.
This entry was posted on 29 October 2013 at 5:05 PM and is filed under Academia, college education, liberal education.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


text:
« SEMNALC organizes rally for health care reform in Rochester | Main | Outposts from the Small of America: Fog »
DM&E to speed up in Rochester; idles Wyoming plans
One of the deciding factors in the 2006 congressional election southern Minnesota was the plan by the DM & E railroad to upgrade its tracks and increase traffic. Citizens in Rochester, spurred by a public affairs campaign the Rochester Coalition--a group formed by Mayo Clinic and businesses--grew alarmed at perceived inattention to their concerns by six-term representative Gil Gutknecht.
With the denial of a $3.2 billion federal loan to the rail's former owners, many opponents of the upgrade of the line and its extension into Wyoming's Powder River coalfields turned their own attention elsewhere.
Several developments have brought the project--never abandoned by Canadian Pacific, the line's new owner--back into the headlines.
The Rochester Coalition has proposed a southern bypass. The proposal is meeting with stiff resistance in Dodge County. Last night I attended a Dodge County Farmers Union meeting that passed a unanimous resolution opposing the project. Other local county MFU chairs and state president Doug Peterson were there for the discussion . (More later on this).
Today's Post Bulletin reports that the trains will be going through town a lot faster now that track improvements are now complete in the medical city:
Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad this week announced the end of a citywide rail upgrade and described its plans to start accelerating train speeds over the next four weeks.
Trains currently go 10 mph through the city. That will increase to 30 mph by Sept. 17, adding 5 mph per week.
"We want to give the community a chance to adjust," said DM&E spokesman Mike LoVecchio.
A 30 mph train "can't stop on a dime," LoVecchio said. DM&E estimates that a typical train, loaded or unloaded, traveling 30 mph, takes a mile or more to come to a full stop.
"Stopping on the crossing is taking a terrible risk," he said.
I'm always astonished by drivers who take risks around trains. Perhaps it's because I drive a Focus, and my go-cart wouldn't fare well if I lacked the common sense to avoid a fight with a train. Here's hoping that the City of Rochester and the railroad can afford a public awareness campaign about this development.
In other news, the Post Bulletin reports that DM&E puts coal plans on hold:
News that the Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. has put its $6 billion expansion plans on hold may delay the project but does not mean an end to the fight over the railroad in Rochester.. . .
In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne, Wyo., DM&E also said it has dropped its condemnation lawsuits against some landowners in northeastern Wyoming. The railroad filed the lawsuits in 2007 seeking condemnation of some 19 landowners in Converse, Weston, Campbell and Niobrara counties for rights of way to about 1,200 linear acres.
While the Canadian Pacific has dropped the condemnation lawsuit, the project is not being dropped forever, two newspapers report. The Post Bulletin reports:
DM&E spokesman Mike LoVecchio said the action Wednesday does not signify that the railroad is dropping the coal-line project.
"Instead of pursuing eminent domain, we will negotiate with landowners," he said. "It is the only change in our position."
All along, LoVecchio said, the coal-line project has relied on three things: Acquisition of the necessary right-of-way, obtaining contracts with mines and utilities, and a good-performing national economy.
The filing made it clear that a slowing national economy has delayed the project.
The Billings Gazette's coverage today had more on the railroad's future plans:
Lovecchio said DM&E will now negotiate with those same landowners it had sought to condemn in U.S. District Court for the past two years.
Randall T. Cox, attorney for several landowners involved in the lawsuit, said this week's dismissal was a victory for those who fought to protect their land.
"I believe the DM&E spent more on litigation than it offered for right-of-way in Wyoming," Cox told the Star-Tribune. "DM&E would never consider increasing its offers of money. This was the most spectacularly unsuccessful right of way negotiating strategy that I have ever witnessed. . .
. . .Canadian Pacific acquired DM&E after the condemnation filing in 2007 and had said the project would continue as long as it met certain thresholds, including a favorable regulatory climate, available financing and acquisition of land rights.
"I want to stress, as of today, no decision has been made by Canadian Pacific whether to proceed with the Powder River Basin project," Lovecchio said
Coal isn't the only slice of the energy market that relies on rail experiencing a downturn. The Wall Street Journal reports in U.S. Biofuel Boom Running on Empty:
Two-thirds of U.S. biodiesel production capacity now sits unused, reports the National Biodiesel Board. Biodiesel, a crucial part of government efforts to develop alternative fuels for trucks and factories, has been hit hard by the recession and falling oil prices.
The global credit crisis, a glut of capacity, lower oil prices and delayed government rules changes on fuel mixes are threatening the viability of two of the three main biofuel sectors -- biodiesel and next-generation fuels derived from feedstocks other than food. Ethanol, the largest biofuel sector, is also in financial trouble, although longstanding government support will likely protect it.
About 70 percent of the nation's ethanol is shipped by rail, according to Ethanol Producer Magazine.
Disclosure: I am a member of the Minnesota Farmers Union, but didn't participate in the discussion.As a resident of Mceod County, I don't have dog in the fight.
Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Aug 27, 2009 at 02:10 PM in Civic engagement, Transportation | Permalink


text:
Poraza – osada leśna w Polsce, położona w województwie kujawsko-pomorskim, w powiecie włocławskim, w gminie Brześć Kujawski.

W latach 1975–1998 miejscowość należała administracyjnie do województwa włocławskiego.

Linki zewnętrzne

Brześć Kujawski (gmina)


I am trying to install the driver for an Epsom Filmscan200 onto a W2k machine. When I insert the Epsom CD containing the drivers, Windows refuses to recognise any inf files as being appropriate. Apparently, Epsom stopped making this device in 1999, and no updated drivers are available from the Epsom website.
I will try Driverguide (my next port of call), but I was hoping that somebody might be able to suggest a work-around.


Malaysia is in the Southeastern Asia, peninsula bordering Thailand and northern one-third of the island of Borneo, bordering Indonesia, Brunei, and the South China Sea, south of Vietnam. It has the total footprint of 329,847 sq. km.


The news: Here's a quick solution for late afternoon brain fog that doesn't involve a third shot of espresso: Walk around the block. Just a 20-minute stroll can increase blood flow to the brain, which can boost creative thought. Regular brief strolls can enhance the connectivity of important brain circuits, combat age-related declines in brain function and improve memory and cognitive performance.
When scientists looked at the brains of regular walkers, they found some surprising physical changes. Their brain circuits, the information highways our brain cells use to deliver packets of data, were thicker than those of non-walkers, especially in the parts of the brain associated with performing complex tasks. It turns out walking is exercise for both your legs and your brain.
After just a 20-minute period, the brain scans of a group of adolescents who walked on a treadmill sparkled with activity; they also performed better on standard reading tests after their ambles.
The findings aren't limited to young people; in adults who don't walk regularly, brief strolls have been linked with more creative thinking. Studies suggest this might have to do with the fact that walking catalyzes activity in the regions of the brain associated with deep thinking.
Here's how it works: As we age, the networks of pathways our brain cells use to carry information back and forth begin to disintegrate. The activities the brain once carried out in sync must then be performed individually. As our brains slow down, everything we do becomes more sluggish. Regular walking combats these age-related declines by protecting the most important brain networks from decay.
In young people, brief bouts of walking help increase attention span and academic performance, although scientists aren't sure exactly why. For one thing, exercise likely stimulates the release of special chemicals in the brain that protect brain cells and encourage the growth of new blood vessels.
Overall, moving around regularly improves blood flow to the brain and helps wake us up, making it easier to concentrate on specific tasks. People who do any form of exercise that gets their heart pumping also tend to have larger hippocampi, the brain region we use to recall facts and digest new information.
It's easy to make a brief walk a daily routine: Take a break (research shows the best time is around 2 p.m.) from the office to find a new coffee shop that's about 10 minutes away. You'll complete your 20-minute goal before you (or your boss) notice. Ride the subway to work? Get off a couple of stops before you arrive and walk the rest of the way.
Even if you miss one day of walking, research suggests you'll continue to reap the benefits of a regular active practice. So push away that desk chair and start moving around. Your legs, feet and brain will thank you.


text:
Diacme és un gènere d'arnes de la família Crambidae.

Taxonomia

 Diacme adipaloides (Grote & Robinson, 1867)
 Diacme claudialis
 Diacme elealis (Walker, 1859)
 Diacme finitalis (Guenée, 1854)
 Diacme griseicincta (Hampson, 1913)
 Diacme liparalis (Guenée, 1854)
 Diacme mopsalis (Walker, 1859)
 Diacme oriolalis (Guenée, 1854)
 Diacme phyllisalis (Walker, 1859)
 Diacme samealis (Snellen, 1875)

Referències

Espilomelins


text:
Analysis: Delta CEO Says That It Will Not Pay CSeries Tariffs
by Vinay Bhaskara
ATLANTA – Delta Air Lines (DAL) reported a $1.81 billion net pretax profit ($1.7 billion adjusted for special items) for the third quarter (Q3) of 2017 this morning, a drop of 9.3% year-over-year (YOY). Excluding the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, profits were down a more modest 3.3% YOY.
For the quarter, Delta saw revenue grow 5.5% YOY to $11.06 billion, while expenses grew 7.7% YOY to $9.22 billion. Still, the Atlanta-based carrier recorded a rock-solid operating margin of 16.6% for the quarter.
So all in all, it was a pretty standard quarter for Delta. That being said, we did have one major takeaway from Delta's earnings and the quarterly earnings call.
Delta won't pay CSeries Tariffs
On the call, Delta CEO Ed Bastian directly addressed the decision by the U.S. Commerce Department to slap a nearly 300% tariff on Delta's order for 75 Bombardier CSeries jets:
The C Series debate or the decision from commerce is not just disappointing, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. We think it's early in the discussions and we also know that is triggering a lot of discussions at political levels, not just within the aerospace field. We will not pay those tariffs and that is very clear. We intend to take the aircraft. I can't tell you how it's going to eventually work out.
There may be a delay, us taking the aircraft as we work through the issues with Bombardier who is being a great partner in this. We think that the aircraft needs to come to market. We believe it will come to market and we believe Delta will get it at the agreed contractual price. We're not going to be forced to pay tariffs or do any anything of the ilk. So there should not be any concerns on our investors' minds in that regard.
He then responded to a later question with more of the same:
I think my words are very clear, no, we will not pay the tariffs that are being discussed or debated. First of all, those tariffs are preliminary as I mentioned. In our opinion, it is very difficult for Boeing or any US manufacturer to claim arm with a product that we purchased that they did not offer and they don't produce. In fact, they ended the production of the 717, which would be the closest akin 10 years ago. When we went through the RFP to select and selected the C Series, Boeing competed very hard for the order, except they were competing with not their own product, but it was a Brazilian product, an Embraer product. That wasn't even new, it was used, E190s ironically from all places over at Canada. So as you looked through this and tried to see how exactly a harm case is going to be developed, particularly to justify the type of tariffs that are being contemplated. To us it's unrealistic, a bit nonsensical. But we're working closely with our partners at Bombardier…
We at Airways are not as sure. While it is certainly clear that Delta wants to fight the tariff, the U.S. government does appear to have legal grounds upon which to impose the tariff.
Delta is correct that Boeing is trying to shut down a competitor when it doesn't have an alternative, and it's fair to say that Boeing is behaving hypocritically when it uses the same pricing and sales techniques to sell planes to other countries.
Yet the fact remains that WTO anti-dumping rules largely do not take into account the context of the global aircraft manufacturing industry, where list prices bear almost no resemblance to the end price paid by consumers. By the letter of the law, Bombardier almost certainly sold the CSeries to Delta below its production cost.
Moreover, the context of the Trump administration and its positions on trade make it far from a certainty that they will be receptive to counterarguments.
The Trump presidency in some ways was won on the basis of sharp anti-import sentiment, and while the President has not been able to succeed in tangibly altering free trade agreements like NAFTA or the one between the U.S. and China, this offers him a highly symbolic but ultimately modest-impact way of getting a "win" on trade restrictions.
So the Trump administration, with which Delta seems to have a decent relationship, is not likely to play ball.
A lot will depend on how the Canadian government responds. Retaliatory tariffs on Boeing 737s and 787s could potentially get the Commerce Department to back off.
It could also cause this administration and its leader to fly off the handle and escalate the country into a full-on trade war with China. We won't know more until the Canadians respond.
BombardierBombardier CSeriesCSeriesDeltaDelta Air Lines
Vinay Bhaskara
Senior Business Analyst, Big Airline Enthusiast, Avid Airport Connoisseur, Frequent Flyer, Globetrotter. I Miss Northwest Airlines Every Day. vinay@airwaysmag.com @TheABVinay
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Bombardier, Québec Government Sign CSeries Partnership


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Home » News » Checking ticket fraud: NANTA issues identity card, holds AGM
Checking ticket fraud: NANTA issues identity card, holds AGM
By Lawani Mikairu
Following outcry from the air travelling public that the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agents, NANTA, should develop and implement rules that can regulate the conduct and ethics of its members in their transaction with customers and airlines, the body has insisted that every travel agent must have the Travel Practitioner Identification Card to practice.
Universal School of Aviation gets NCAA approval to operates Abuja satellite campus
NANTA President, Mr Bankole Bernard disclosed this in Lagos at the pre-AGM press conference to announce the body's 43rd Annual General Meeting, AGM, billed for 27th of March, 2019 in Lagos.
Bernard said the "Travel Practitioners Identification Project " is aimed at checking activities of fraudulent illegal travel and tour operators in the country. He also said "the initiative would ensure that every travel and tour operator, whether owner or employee of travel agency must have identity card with Unique Identification Number(UIN)".
According to him , this year's AGM with the Theme: "Developing Strategic Policies for the Sustainability of the Growth of the Travel and Tourism Industry" would have in attendance prominent Nigerians and government officials who have signified their interest in facilitating the development and growth of the sector.
He also said government, through the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, has to create an enabling environment for the growth of travel agents in Nigeria and stressed the need for the local content law in Nigeria to be applied fully in regulatory operations of travel agents so as to preserve the sector for the benefits of Nigerian citizens.
AVIATION CHALLENGES: Expert cautions over Nigeria operations
He further said stakeholders in air travel business; airlines, NCAA, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN and NANTA, need to frequently share data information to avoid conflicting figures in industry data which impede planning.
Among the dignitaries expected at the AGM are the Minister of State, Aviation Senator Hadi Sirika, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Director General, Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Captain Muktar Usman who will be the key speaker, Director General, Nigeria Council of Arts and Council, NCAC , Otunba Segun Rusewe, Director General NTDC, Folorunsho Coker,goodwill message is expected to be given by the former speaker, Lagos state House of Assembly, Mr. Jokotola Pelumi. Royal Fathers of the day are the Emir of Kano and the Ooni of Ife.
Igbo Presidency: Northern Youths clamour for Ohuabunwa January 18, 2022
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Buhari leaves Abuja to attend inauguration of Gambian president January 18, 2022


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Lars Larson on need for high-capacity magazines
In: 2nd Amendment, Crime & Sentencing
by NW Spotlight
Lars Larson appeared Monday with Megyn Kelly on Fox News' America Live and spoke on why high-capacity magazines are needed when people are defending themselves in their homes. Lars used the example of the young mother in Georgia who defended herself and her 9-year-old twins last Friday from an ex-con home invader, using her .38 revolver.
The young mom shot the home invader six times – hitting him five times – when he opened the attic crawlspace where the mom was hiding with her two children. Unaware the mom had emptied the revolver, the home invader obeyed her command to stay down or she'd shoot again, allowing the mom and her children to run to safety at a neighbor's house. The home invader was still able to get up and drive off. He didn't get very far – sheriffs' deputies found the home invader bleeding profusely in a neighbor's driveway.
Lars pointed out that the mom was very courageous – and fortunate. If the intruder had chosen to attack her rather than stay down, or if there had been more than one intruder, the mom and her children would have been defenseless, as her .38 revolver was empty after firing six shots. Lars explained "That's one reason that most people, including most police officers and most people who care about protecting their homes, want a gun that is capable of holding more than [six bullets] and is capable of reloading very quickly."
Lars told Megyn Kelly that at local police citizens' academies "officers will tell you, you can put a lot of bullets in a bad guy, and he will keep coming at you. That's why they teach officers – shoot till the threat is gone."
The Atlanta newspaper reports that the ex-con forced his way in the front door with a crowbar, and had previously cased another home, but left after being confronted by the homeowner.
A smaller local Georgia newspaper is reporting that the intruder is in the hospital, "reportedly on a ventilator," and that "officials from Walton County Sheriff's Office don't expect any charges to be filed against the mother." On the way to the hospital, the home invader told a deputy sheriff the reason he broke into the home was because "I was there to steal."
UPDATE: The original January 2013 MSNBC story that said that the home invader, Paul Slater, was an ex-con – has been taken down (it now produces an Error 404 message). The link in this article has been updated – it now points to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from Feb. 11, 2013 that states that the home invader, Paul Ali Slater, "was released from jail there in late August after serving six months for simple battery and three counts of probation violation. Slater has six other arrests in Gwinnett [County] dating back to 2008, according to public records."
A May 4, 2013 Washington Post article says this about the home invader "Slater had been charged with theft one other time. He also had been charged on two occasions with assaulting his wife." The Washington Post article also says "[Sheriff Joe] Chapman says Slater sought out [the mom] and her children, bypassing a purse on a counter and a big-screen TV to reach the crawl space, breaking through two locked doors in his path."
Lars Larson: Unions driving businesses out of business
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Lars Larson: Israel has the solution to our immigration problem


Centerville Airport Environmental Assessment – French-Reneker-Associates, Inc.
This project is the initial step required to acquire the necessary property to bring the airport into compliance with the newest Federal Aviation Administration Safety Standards. The acquisition of approximately 45 acres of land adjacent to the airport is required to preserve required runway protection zones and building restriction lines. The environmental assessment included a research of existing records to determine if environmental concerns were present, wetland delineation, archaeological review, and biotic species review. This information was then compiled for review by related Federal and State agencies to determine the level of environmental impact.


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How Application Security can prevent exploits in your code
For an outside cybercriminal to steal data, she or he first has to gain access to a network. This could be through direct access in a location with a connection point to a network or being directly at a computer on a network. Happens sometimes, but nowadays this is very rare. Much more common are two other means of gaining access – through phishing attacks and exploits.
An exploit uses a software security vulnerability. It is a flaw in software code of an operating system or an application, which makes it possible for a hacker to access other parts of the system, get administrator privileges, or deploy other tools to further his reach into the system. Nowadays there are almost weekly updates of OSs, office applications, internet browsers, because new software vulnerabilities are discovered almost daily, and must patched.
Todays' environment differs very much from the times of mainframes or early PC era in one way. We use many more applications written not by large computer vendors or global software companies like Microsoft. Lots of them are developed in-house, that is by the companies themselves, by hired developer studios, or by one of thousands of smaller software developer teams. Popular mobile applications are sometimes developed by a single person. Also the term application has shifted to encompass smaller tools, web and SaaS services.
The fastest and cheapest way to prevent exploits is to discover them in the source code. And repair them before putting applications in production. Later this is harder and the costs of remediation or damage grow exponentially. But developer teams don't have trained engineers specialized for security analysis. There are no people who would search for vulnerabilities and recommend changes. Developers don't have time for that, modern DevOp teams must release multiple new application versions often daily.
But we can automate application security testing. Two well known brands are Checkmarx and MicroFocus Fortify. Those are tools or services that scan source code in different languages, or are integrated with scripting code or app servers, some even monitor running applications. Sometimes they integrate (Web) Application Firewalls. They have databases of hundreds of source code vulnerabilities, can discover them in source code, and they recommend changes to remove them. Not by searching for fixed code patterns but by intelligently following data input, processing, output, variable and memory usage, libraries and function calls, arguments passing etc. They find many more vulnerabilities much faster than a team of security analysts would.


A Queensland-created children's series will make television history when it is aired on three different networks.
Grace Beside Me, an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Queensland-based Aboriginal writer Sue McPherson will be delivered by a creative team dominated by Indigenous talent.
The series will premiere on NITV, followed by a broadcast on the ABC and with a third outing on subscription TV on Disney Channel – an Australian first.
The series, commissioned by NITV, and supported by Screen Queensland and Screen Australia's Indigenous Department, is produced by Lois Randall from northern New South Wales and Queenslander Dena Curtis.
Premier and Arts Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk said the multiple screenings for Grace Beside Me reflected the strength of Queensland's local industry.
"Queensland Government investment is creating a continued pipeline of local production that is delivering a thriving and successful screen sector, developing new talent and generating more jobs for our screen workforce," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Screen Queensland CEO Tracey Vieira said Grace Beside Me was developed with investment from Screen Queensland as part its commitment to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander talent and growing a strong local industry.
"It is encouraging to mark Sue McPherson's development as an award-winning writer, from her beginnings as a recipient of a 2011 State Library of Queensland Indigenous Writing Fellowship, to her participation last year in The Athena Project, a national collaborative initiative supported by Screen Queensland, to assist key female talent living in regional Australia," Ms Vieira said.
In adapting her work for television Sue will be joined by a team of Indigenous writers, including fellow Queenslander Tristan Savage, also a recipient of the State Library of Queensland Indigenous Writing Fellowship (2013).
Producer Lois Randall said the Grace Beside Me production team included Queenslanders Dena Curtis as her producing partner, Murray Lui as Director of Photography and an almost completely Queensland crew.
Grace Beside Me is in pre-production.


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Q: argument of type 'int' is not iterable Issue What I trying to do is picking random integers from a value, for example: 1:32 will be an input, I will split by the : and then select a random value. Then Selenium will select the dropdown based on what value is returned.
My code:
# SELECT
if register_parts[3] == "SELECT":
    if register_parts[0] + '="' + register_parts[1] + '"' in self.driver.page_source:
        _select_value = ""
        if ":" in register_parts[2]:
            _select_value = self.get_random_value_between(register_parts[2])
            _select = Select(selenium_action)
            _select.select_by_visible_text(_select_value)
            self.write_to_debug_file("self.select_by_visible_text(" + _select_value + ") --> SELECT --> [ " + _select_value + " ]")
        else:
            _select_value = register_parts[2]
            _select = Select(selenium_action)
            _select.select_by_visible_text(_select_value)
            self.write_to_debug_file("self.select_by_visible_text(" + _select_value + ") --> SELECT --> [ " + _select_value + " ]")

Additional function:
def get_random_value_between(self, input_values):
    ''' this function will return a random value between: x:x or 1:31 for example ... '''
    parts = input_values.split(':')
    return random.randrange(int(parts[0]), int(parts[1]))

The problem is on this line:
_select.select_by_visible_text(_select_value)

I'm getting the error:
argument of type 'int' is not iterable

From reading up, I think the issue lies in the fact I am doing:
if ":" in

I could be wrong. I'm not sure how to fix it. Any help on the issue would be appreciated. As far as I can see, the code should work, but I must be missing something. I have read a few threads on here regarding the error but it's still not sinking totally in.

A: If possible, cast _select_value as string before using _select.select_by_visible_text.
And recast as int values after the iteration.

A: I think this is correct. If the error is on if and not the else, then your passing an Int as an argument to a method that needs a text/str value.
Just try the following line:
_select.select_by_visible_text(str(_select_value))


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Q: Angular Google Maps ui-gmap-markers labels I've created angular app with google maps. On the map I display markers. But it's still not obvious for me how to create a label which will be opened on click (on pin).
Help me please
    <ui-gmap-google-map center='map.center' zoom='map.zoom'>
    <ui-gmap-circle center='map.marker'
       radius='8046'
       fill='map.circle.fill'
       stroke='map.circle.stroke'>
   </ui-gmap-circle>
   <ui-gmap-markers models="notices"
       coords="'location'">
   </ui-gmap-markers>
   </ui-gmap-google-map>

A: Need to use <ui-gmap-windows> tag inside <ui-gmap-markers> tag
<ui-gmap-markers models="randomMarkers" coords="'self'" icon="'icon'" click="'onClick'">
    <ui-gmap-windows show="show">
        <div ng-non-bindable>{{title}}</div>
    </ui-gmap-windows>
</ui-gmap-markers>


text:
1 item tagged "Goldman Sachs"
The big data race reaches the City
Vast amounts of information are being sifted for the good of commercial interests as never before
IBM's Watson supercomputer, once known for winning the television quiz show Jeopardy! in 2011, is now sold to wealth management companies as an affordable way to dispense investment advice. Twitter has introduced "cashtags" to its stream of social chatter so that investors can track what is said about stocks. Hedge funds are sending up satellites to monitor crop yields before even the farmers know how they're doing.
The world is awash with information as never before. According to IBM, 90pc of all existing data was created in the past two years. Once the preserve of academics and the geekiest hedge fund managers, the ability to harness huge amounts of noise and turn it into trading signals is now reaching the core of the financial industry.
Last year was one of the toughest since the financial crisis for asset managers, according to BCG partner Ben Sheridan, yet they have continued to spend on data management in the hope of finding an edge in subdued markets.
"It's to bring new data assets to bear on some of the questions that asset managers have always asked, like macroeconomic movements," he said.
"Historically, these quantitative data aspects have been the domain of a small sector of hedge funds. Now it's going to a much more mainstream side of asset managers."
Banks are among the biggest investors in big data
Even Goldman Sachs has entered the race for data, leading a $15m investment round in Kensho, which stockpiles data around major world events and lets clients apply the lessons it learns to new situations. Say there's a hurricane striking the Gulf of Mexico: Kensho might have ideas on what this means for US jobs data six months afterwards, and how that affects the S&P stock index.
Many businesses are using computing firepower to supercharge old techniques. Hedge funds such as Winton Capital already collate obscure data sets such as wheat prices going back nearly 1,000 years, in the hope of finding patterns that will inform the future value of commodities.
Others are paying companies such as Planet Labs to monitor crops via satellite almost in real time, offering a hint of the yields to come. Spotting traffic jams outside Wal-Marts can help traders looking to bet on the success of Black Friday sales each year – and it's easier to do this from space than sending analysts to car parks.
Some funds, including Eagle Alpha, have been feeding transcripts of calls with company executives into a natural language processor – an area of artificial intelligence that the Turing test foresaw – to figure out if they have gained or lost confidence in their business. Trades might have had gut feelings about this before, but now they can get graphs.
There is inevitably a lot of noise among these potential trading signals, which experts are trying to weed out.
"Most of the breakthroughs in machine-learning aren't in finance. The signal-to-noise ratio is a problem compared to something like recognising dogs in a photograph," said Dr Anthony Ledford, chief scientist for the computer-driven hedge fund Man AHL.
"There is no golden indicator of what's going to happen tomorrow. What we're doing is trying to harness a very small edge and doing it over a long period in a large number of markets."
The statistics expert said the plunging cost of computer power and data storage, crossed with a "quite extraordinary" proliferation of recorded data, have helped breathe life into concepts like artificial intelligence for big investors.
"The trading phase at the moment is making better use of the signals we already know about. But the next research stage is, can we use machine learning to identify new features?"
AHL's systematic funds comb through 2bn price updates on their busiest days, up from 800m during last year's peak.
Developments in disciplines such as engineering and computer science have contributed to the field, according to the former academic based in Oxford, where Man Group this week jointly sponsored a new research professorship in machine learning at the university.
The artificial intelligence used in driverless cars could have applications in finance
Dr Ledford said the technology has applications in driverless cars, which must learn how to drive in novel conditions, and identifying stars from telescope images. Indeed, he has adapted the methods used in the Zooniverse project, which asked thousands of volunteers to help teach a computer to spot supernovae, to build a new way of spotting useful trends in the City's daily avalanche of analyst research.
"The core use is being able to extract patterns from data without specifically telling the algorithms what patterns we are looking for. Previously, you would define the shape of the model and apply it to the data," he said.
These technologies are not just been put to work in the financial markets. Several law firms are using natural language processing to carry out some of the drudgery, including poring over repetitive contracts.
Slaughter & May has recently adopted Luminance, a due diligence programme that is backed by Mike Lynch, former boss of the computing group Autonomy.
Freshfields has spent a year teaching a customised system known as Kira to understand the nuances of contract terms that often occur in its business.
Its lawyers have fed the computer documents they are reading, highlighting the parts they think are crucial. Kira can now parse a contract and find the relevant paragraphs between 40pc and 70pc faster than a human lawyer reviewing it by hand.
"It kicks out strange things sometimes, irrelevancies that lawyers then need to clean up. We're used to seeing perfect results, so we've had to teach people that you can't just set the machine running and leave it alone," said Isabel Parker, head of innovations at the firm.
"I don't think it will ever be a standalone product. It's a tool to be used to enhance our productivity, rather than replace individuals."
The system is built to learn any Latin script, and Freshfields' lawyers are now teaching it to work on other languages. "I think our lawyers are becoming more and more used to it as they understand its possibilities," she added.
Insurers are also spending heavily on big data fed by new products such as telematics, which track a customer's driving style in minute detail, to help give a fair price to each customer. "The main driver of this is the customer experience," said Darren Price, group chief information officer at RSA.
The insurer is keeping its technology work largely in-house, unlike rival Aviva, which has made much of its partnerships with start-up companies in its "digital garage". Allianz recently acquired the robo-adviser Moneyfarm, and Axa's venture fund has invested in a chat-robot named Gasolead.
EY, the professional services firm, is also investing in analytics tools that can flag red flags for its clients in particular countries or businesses, enabling managers to react before an accounting problem spreads.
Even the Financial Conduct Authority is getting in on the act. Having given its blessing to the insurance sector's use of big data, it is also experimenting with a "sandbox", or a digital safe space where their tech experts and outside start-ups can use real-life data to play with new ideas.
The advances that catch on throughout the financial world could create a more efficient industry – and with that tends to come job cuts. The Bank of England warned a year ago that as many as 15m UK jobs were at risk from smart machines, with sales staff and accountants especially vulnerable.
"Financial services are playing catch-up compared to some of the retail-focused businesses. They are having to do so rapidly, partly due to client demand but also because there are new challengers and disruptors in the industry," said Amanda Foster, head of financial services at the recruiter Russell Reynolds Associates.
But City firms, for all their cost pressures, are not ready to replace their fund managers with robots, she said. "There's still the art of making an investment decision, but it's about using analytics and data to inform those decisions."
Source: Telegraph.co.uk, October 8, 2016


Behavioral and experimental economics are relatively new fields within economics. Economic experiments are human subject experiments in which human beings ranging from university students to CEOs make decisions in various controlled experimental environments. A key feature of experiments is that they involve financial compensation. Economic experiments allow researchers to study new economic instruments and policies before they have been introduced and evaluate the result of changes to existing policies. They also allow researchers to understand how behavior changes over time, how people's attributes and traits impact their economic decision making and how human beings respond to change and behave in risky situations.


text:
Stephanie Bruce Hopes Her Story Helps Other Women Struggling with their Post-Baby Bodies: 'No One Told Me All of This'
Stephanie Bruce says it's "been amazing to see the feedback from women" since her story went viral
Julie Mazziotta
Julie Mazziotta is the Sports Editor at PEOPLE, covering everything from the NFL to tennis to Simone Biles and Tom Brady. She was previously an Associate Editor for the Health vertical for six years, and prior to joining PEOPLE worked at Health Magazine. When not covering professional athletes, Julie spends her time as a (very) amateur athlete, training for marathons, long bike trips and hikes.
Photo: Steph Rothstein/Instagram
After having two babies just 15 months apart, Olympic hopeful Stephanie Rothstein Bruce's pre-pregnancy abs were long gone.
She developed diastasis recti, where the abdominal muscles split during pregnancy to make room for a growing baby, creating a cavity in the middle of the stomach. And while Bruce was thrilled to have her two sons, the elite runner was having trouble figuring out her body again.
"It was really hard physically on my body and mentally, and as I was going through some things trying to get back into training, I was like, 'Does this happen to all women?' " Bruce, 32, tells PEOPLE. "No one told me all of this."
"So as it was happening to me, I felt like I just wanted to be real about it, and put it out there."
Bruce has proudly shared photos of her postpartum progress from day one, with her pregnancy belly still showing right after the birth of her second son in Sept. 2015, to today, as she prepares for the Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meter run and continues to rebuild her core, stretch marks and all.
"When I started back running again, I could barely run a 9 minute pace, versus when on easy days when I'm in shape I could run 7-7:30 pace, and I was having a lot of bathroom issues, I couldn't control peeing, I had bowel incontinence, so I was going to the bathroom on a run," Bruce says.
"And it wasn't just not feeling like a pro athlete, I didn't even feel like a functioning human at that point, because that was just so demoralizing and a little humiliating to feel like, that I couldn't even control going to the bathroom."
RELATED VIDEO: Hey Moms-to-Be! Try These Three Easy Exercises from Carrie Underwood's Trainer
Her honesty gave her plenty of fans, who thank Bruce for being so open about these common issues that new moms are often afraid to discuss.
"It's been amazing to see the feedback from women," Bruce says. "I don't think I'm that inspiring, but a lot of women kind of felt like it is, and I just hope that other women feel that confidence, and post their baby bodies, and don't feel ashamed. These issues happen to all of us so I just hoped I could get the conversation going."
There are still critics, but they're far outnumbered by those who thank her for showing that even Olympic-caliber athletes have stretch marks post-baby.
"Some people were like, 'Ew, this is gross, you don't need to share this,' and I'm like, 'Well, you don't need to follow me, or you don't need to look at it,' " Bruce says.
"But there's a lot of women who are like, 'Wow, this is exactly what I look like.' They think elite runners are like superhumans who roll out of bed and were born with six-pack abs, but that's not the reality. We work really hard at it."
And she's doing that every day to try and make the track and field team for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"With the luxury of it being my job I've had ample time to do a lot of strength work and exercises," Bruce says. "But it'll be a work in progress. It's probably something that I will have to work on for years to come, but it's all part of the territory of trying to be a pro athlete and trying to have babies."
Ashley Graham Gets in Her 'First Sweat' 11 Weeks After Having Twins: 'I Had a Big-Time Recovery'
Ashley Tisdale Credits Pilates and Yoga for Healing Her Diastasis Recti: 'It Hasn't Been Easy'
Olympic Hopeful and Mom of 2 Who Suffered Abdominal Split During Pregnancy Shares Photos of Post-Baby Belly
Mina Starsiak Hawk Reflects on Weight Loss and Calls Out Social Media Troll: 'Be Kinder'
Pro Runner Stephanie Bruce Still Has Diastasis Recti 3 Years Postpartum: It's 'As Good As It Will Get'
Runner with Split Abs on Not Making Olympic Team: '20th Place Was Far from What I Had Hoped'
Fitness Expert Gabe Mirkin Discusses Tennis Elbow and Recommends Disco Dancing
Fitness Pro Sara Haley Healed Her Post-Natal Split Abs Through Exercise – Here's How Other Moms Can Too
Shanna Moakler Reveals Dramatic Body Transformation: 'I Stopped Eating for Emotional Pleasure'
Runner with Split Abs Stephanie Bruce Talks About Motherhood and Her Disappointing Olympic Trials
Trainer Emily Skye Shows Off Her Postpartum Body 3.5 Weeks After Her Surprise Home Birth
Ciara Learned to Love Daily Exercise After Years of 'Aggressive' Spot Training
Kate Hudson Is 'Still Trying to Reconnect' Her Ab Muscles Post-Baby
Drew Barrymore Turned to Stomach Sculpting After Her Pregnancies Caused Ab Separation
Emily Skye Shares Photo of Her 'Squishy' Postpartum Belly After Dealing with Ab Separation
Influencer Emily Skye Shares an Honest Look at Her Postpartum Body: 'You've Got to Be Patient'


INFECTIONS of the MRSA superbug have risen at Leighton Hospital despite a nationwide fall of 6.1%.
There were 37 cases at the Crewe hospital between April 2004 and March 2005, which rose from 31 in the previous year.
But health chiefs at Leighton, the main A&E centre for patients in Mid Cheshire, are playing down the figures, insisting cases have 'plateaued' over the last 12 weeks.
Simon Yates, chief executive of Mid Cheshire Hospitals Trust, said: 'In the last three months we have only had six cases so we are definitely on the way to improving.
The superbug infection rate has fallen to an all-time low nationally since counting began, according to Department of Health figures. The bug can occur naturally on people's skin and inside their noses and can lead to serious complications if it infects the wounds or bloodstream of poorly patients.
It is spread around the wards on the hands of doctors and nurses, and can lead to serious infections if transferred to instruments placed inside the body, such as tubes and catheters.
Mr Yates believes new measures in place at the hospital are starting to work and cases are going to decrease but health chiefs have warned that if hospitals fail to improve then chief executives could face heavy sanctions.
The Leighton figures have come as a shock to Mavis Law, the Winsford woman who lost her son Colin to MRSA in 2003. The 32-year-old contracted the superbug while in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, and since his death Mrs Law, of Beckenham Grove, has been actively campaigning for the complete eradication of MRSA.
She said: 'I couldn't believe it because Leighton looks so clean, everywhere you go you can see some sort of cleaning. That didn't happen at Queen Elizabeth Hospital - my son was there seven weeks and I didn't see a cleaner anywhere. But even if it looks spotless MRSA can still be there - it's what cleaning agent is used that's effective.