text:
The importance of network operators in Nepal during COVID-19
By Bikram Shrestha on 20 Apr 2021
Tags: COVID-19, Guest Post, South Asia, network operators
Nepal is listed on the United Nations LLDC list, has a population of 29 million, and is sandwiched between two giant neighbours: India on three sides, and China to the north. In the early days of the Internet, bandwidth was possible only through very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT). It was expensive but it was consistent and free from third-party regulation.
Several ISPs offered very limited services before cross-border fibre was introduced in Nepal from India in 2008. VSAT had a capacity in the 100s of Mbps but since cross-border fibre introduction, Nepal's total international bandwidth stands at around 800 Gbps+.
Being landlocked, Internet connectivity is dependent on neighbouring economies. Currently, there are five major transit points: India holds three Internet transborder permits and China has two. China's international transits are in Rasuwa and Tatopani. Both remote points suffer from low capacity and are frequently broken during winter due to landslides and floods.
Internet use is rapidly growing in Nepal, so this infrastructure is critical.
The COVID-19 crisis has led to severe socio-economic disruption in Nepal, as in most other economies; the health, banking, education, and e-commerce sectors had to adapt their businesses.
The Internet became a lifeline for the continuation of business and social activities, and will remain so in a post-pandemic world.
This led to a massive increase in demand. At the height of the pandemic, between March and November 2020, Nepal added a reported two million new Internet subscribers.
This presented issues and challenges to Nepal's network operators, with bandwidth struggling to keep up with heightened demand.
Connectivity for all is a must
Online health, education, and remote working possibilities have brought a semblance of normality to uncertain times. Telehealth solutions now offload some activities from healthcare systems, enabling health workers to focus on saving lives. Videoconferencing and social networks help us stay in touch with our families and friends. Online news, other media, and online games keep us informed and entertained while passing time at home, as shown in Table 1.
Content Percentage of total
Facebook 18%
Tiktok 7%
Netflix 2%
Microsoft 2%
Amazon 1%
Pubg 3%
Others 32%
Table 1 — The typical distribution of international content in Nepal.
But is affordable and meaningful connectivity available for all?
Internet affordability (devices and access) remains a problem for almost 13% of people worldwide who live below the international poverty line. Nepal is overrepresented in these figures, with 18.7% of the Nepalese population currently living under the poverty line.
As the Internet plays an increasingly crucial role during the pandemic, the importance of network operator services has expanded.
The importance of network operators
The consumption of Internet bandwidth increased sharply during the pandemic in Nepal, even during traditional off-peak hours. Not only has the demand for network continuity increased, but network operators also faced challenges relating to cybersecurity, the high cost of infrastructure, and demand for local content. These challenges continue.
For Nepalese network operators, this crisis has proved an opportunity to serve their communities and simultaneously build infrastructure, trust, and goodwill in at least five different ways:
Providing business-critical connectivity and resiliency
Facilitating work from home arrangements
Regularly monitoring network connectivity and maintaining cybersecurity
Internet bandwidth segregation as per requirements
Keeping individuals and societies connected and informed, with access to medical, financial (digital banking), commercial, and other essential services during mandated social isolation
Network operators' work enables mass messaging with public health updates from local or national governments that will ensure people are following public safety guidelines. The ability to reach people on a wide and individual basis is critical to ensure accurate information reaches the public.
While social distancing has, unfortunately, become a necessary part of life, remaining socially connected through virtual means is a critical requirement for our safety, sanity, and our best attempts to keep the global economy moving.
While it is not certain when we will be able to resume normal lives, it is certain that network operators will continue to provide critical services that enables social connectivity in a physical distancing world. When we do return to normal lives, I hope we continue to recognize the important work of network operators.
Bikram is Head of Digital Banking of the Sanima Bank Ltd, President of Nepal Internet Foundation in Nepal and the APNIC Cooperation SIG Co-Chair.
System administration work during the COVID-19 lockdown:… by Mannat Kaur November 8, 2022 Guest Post: Study reveals the invisible care work done as part of sysadmin work.
The impact of Private Relay on network operators and ISPs by Andrew Campling November 26, 2021 Guest Post: Private Relay is likely to cause some operational challenges to network operators and ISPs
Network operators cooperate to secure Pakistan's Internet by Muhammad Yasir Shamim February 1, 2021 Recognizing the need for networks to secure their routes, Pakistan operators worked together towards a common goal.
Free legal clinic available to Asia Pacific network… by Hannah Durack September 16, 2021 A free legal clinic is available to assist network operators in the Asia Pacific, but spots are limited.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mega Millions winning numbers for Friday, Nov. 22
Anthony Zurita
NorthJersey
Are you the next millionaire?
Here are the Mega Millions winning numbers for Nov. 22, 2019:
7 - 12 - 17 - 49 - 53 and Megaball 24
Megaplier is 4x
Friday's jackpot rose to an estimated $208 million with a cash option of $141.1 million, according to the Mega Millions website.
There was no overall winner so the jackpot will rise to $226 million with a $154.3 million cash option for next Tuesday's drawing.
Mega Millions Winner:$227 million Mega Millions winning ticket sold in Texas
Here's how the Powerball winning numbers are selected 13 things more likely than winning the Powerball jackpot Won the lottery? Remember, money can't buy happiness Just won the jackpot? Shut your mouth and call a lawyer
Meanwhile, the Powerball jackpot for Saturday night is estimated at $90 million with a cash option of $61.7 million, according to the Powerball website.
Winning Ticket:$150 million Powerball ticket sold in California
Unfortunately, anyone hoping to stay under the radar with future winnings is out of luck. In New Jersey, winners are required to be identified. But maybe not for long after a bill was introduced in the NJ State Legislature to allow winners to remain anonymous.
If you're dreaming of winning the Mega Millions jackpot, you should probably call a lawyer and be ready to tell lots of people no because life is about to get a little hectic.
Anthony Zurita is a breaking news reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all the major news happening in North Jersey, subscribe here. To get breaking news directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
Email: zuritaa@northjersey.com Twitter: @AnthonyRZurita


A marked year…2015. A year of great distinction. A year by which humanity brailed its way through the vast majority of it leaning on curiosity, prayer and faith for the possibilities their Divine nature and the years ahead would hold.
The moments…informed every now and again by clear shots of expanded awareness…calmed down the often hyper emotional states of mayhem allowing us to tap into the seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of our human spirits to meet the challenges, changes and needs of our new human existence as consciously actualized Gods.
With perceptions altered and preferences denied…as a matter of courtesy to our authentic natures…we've had to learn (and continue to learn) how to synchronize heart and mind, body and soul to maintain equilibrium between the world that was…and the one that is.
This year proved to be monumental for each of us as our resonance shifted strongly away from a world (and hundreds of our lives) sustained in density and illusion and moved towards a world and nature…each finding its way to being sustained by Divine Intelligence and Love.
2015 will undoubtedly be looked upon as a year of experiences both cosmically and personally, unrivaled by its impact, persuasions, pushes and opportunity for us all.
2016, (a nine year…a year of completion) will continue to offer rich opportunity through poignant not random experiences both Cosmic and personal (though you will notice in both cases more calmly) that will deepen our awareness of Reality and solidify our resonance, natures and hearts to the greater extent of Who We Are…to Love…and to the Divine content within our minds and hearts.
Many will discover fulfillment trumping frustration, in deeply personal ways…not as a result of planetary alignments…though of newly awakened personal alignments.
Often times this year it felt as though we were failing and falling when experience gave us often obscure opportunities to activate a greater radius for our hearts to expand and recalibrations to be made that would upgrade our capacity to not only be more God, but first and foremost to realize we are God.
All experience is set up by ourselves, with the Universe conspiring to evoke untold and unmeasured shifts and illuminations in our consciousness and hearts…experiences that the mind can never understand for it has no relationship to experience that exists beyond itself…beyond its crashing waves of thought.
We knew from the beginning this would be an experiential lifetime of epic proportion… We knew we were going on a journey to awaken to what we had already come to know… We knew we were dropping down into a fallen nature and through that nature we would be resurrected and returned to our Original Nature. We knew.
And, our Mother/Father God along with our Realized Souls knew what it would take to illuminate and Craft a Master out of human nature and how to craft a reality that originally separated everything from itself…into One Realization. God knew.
Together and in Our knowing, the plan for 're-presentation' of each Life and this Planet was created using every form of experience as the teleporter.
Beloveds, we have been through an unthinkable, profound, complex process of transference and transcendence. First, through a descension away from our Original Natures…next, into ascension by way of expanding our human consciousness, once again, toward our Original Natures…and lastly, via descension (physicalization of that consciousness)…all in one lifetime…all in one form…as You.
Who could possibly have accomplished such a feat? None other than a God.
2016 is energetically set up as a year of integration, unification, creativity and actualization.
Though the complex process of transference and transcendence came harrowingly close to defeating many of us…here we are…heroes, pathcutters, wayshowers, comrades in the most daunting experience of all human existence.
Let us hold hands and hearts as we complete the translation of what it means to be a GOD in human form.
It is my prayer that we all focus fully on Mastering This God Experience by delivering ourselves to clarity, unifying all that has polarized us…by rising up and exceeding the human minds belief in what is possible…by neutralizing every single negative, limiting and self defeating thought we have…by integrating and holding steady what is true in our hearts…by basking and acting in and as the Light, Love and Truth of Who We Are…undenied. And, by becoming a flowing current of replenishment to all others.
As we focus and take action on what we have left to accomplish we will notice that as both ours and the Earths remaining false structures collapse our True Selves will naturally rise. And, as individual unconscious acts of destruction play out, Unity Consciousness will naturally become widespread.
I so love you and honor you beyond every word I could ever write. Thank you each for being some part of my life. May the end of this year bless you and the beginning of next deliver you.
One Free Thirty-Minute Session with Every One-Hour Session Booked.
Pass it on as a wonderful gift to a loved one or use it for yourself!
From now through January 2016 as we make the turn into the life-changing New Year of integration, unification, creativity and actualization it is my pleasure to offer Private Sessions, with an extra boost to help you (and if you like friends and loved ones) gain stability, clarity and confidence as you move forward into a New Year and into your particular, spectacular translation of God in form.
All sessions are guided and interactive prompting the true Spirit that moves in you, as you, to come front and center through you for a rich and empowering experience.


text:
Q: Pandas accessing last non-null value I want to fill data frame NaNs with the last valid value for a given group. For instance:
import pandas as pd
import random as randy
import numpy as np

df_size = int(1e1)
df = pd.DataFrame({'category': randy.sample(np.repeat(['Strawberry','Apple',],df_size),df_size), 'values': randy.sample(np.repeat([np.NaN,0,1],df_size),df_size)}, index=randy.sample(np.arange(0,10),df_size)).sort_index(by=['category'], ascending=[True])

Delivers:
     category   value
7       Apple     NaN
6       Apple       1
4       Apple       0
5       Apple     NaN
1       Apple     NaN
0  Strawberry       1
8  Strawberry     NaN
2  Strawberry       0
3  Strawberry       0
9  Strawberry     NaN

And the column I wish to calculate looks like this:
     category   value  last_value
7       Apple     NaN         NaN
6       Apple       1         NaN
4       Apple       0           1
5       Apple     NaN           0
1       Apple     NaN           0
0  Strawberry       1         NaN
8  Strawberry     NaN           1
2  Strawberry       0           1
3  Strawberry       0           0
9  Strawberry     NaN           0

Tried shift() and iterrows() but to no avail.

A: It looks like you want to first do a ffill then do a shift:
In [11]: df['value'].ffill()
Out[11]:
7   NaN
6     1
4     0
5     0
1     0
0     1
8     1
2     0
3     0
9     0
Name: value, dtype: float64

In [12]: df['value'].ffill().shift(1)
Out[12]:
7   NaN
6   NaN
4     1
5     0
1     0
0     0
8     1
2     1
3     0
9     0
Name: value, dtype: float64

To do this over each group you have to groupby category first and then apply this function:
In [13]: g = df.groupby('category')

In [14]: g['value'].apply(lambda x: x.ffill().shift(1))
Out[14]:
7   NaN
6   NaN
4     1
5     0
1     0
0   NaN
8     1
2     1
3     0
9     0
dtype: float64

In [15]: df['last_value'] = g['value'].apply(lambda x: x.ffill().shift(1))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: nginx is not showing custom 50x error page with php-fpm I'm unable to display my custom 50x.html page, instead I'm getting nginx error output.
location ~ \.php$ {
    root /legacy/app;
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_read_timeout 10s;
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_intercept_errors off;
    fastcgi_buffer_size 16k;
    fastcgi_buffers 4 16k;

    # make sure you have a custom html page placed in app folder
    # i.e. /legacy/app/app/50x.html
    error_page   500 502 503 504  /legacy/app/50x.html;

}

location / {
    try_files _ /index.php?$query_string;

    # make sure you have a custom html page placed in app folder
    # i.e. /legacy/app/app/50x.html
    error_page   500 502 503 504  /legacy/app/50x.html;
}

in nginx logs:
172.17.0.1 - - [28/Oct/2022:22:21:54 +0000] 504 "GET /test33 HTTP/1.1" 569 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/106.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" "-"
2022/10/28 22:25:12 [error] 54#54: *20 upstream timed out (110: Connection timed out) while reading response header from upstream, client: 172.17.0.1, server: localhost, request: "GET /test33 HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:9000", host: "localhost:8080"

and in the browser:
➜ curl http://localhost:8080/test33

<title>504 Gateway Time-out</title>

504 Gateway Time-out

nginx/1.20.1

I tried to change fastcgi_intercept_errors off; to fastcgi_intercept_errors on; but it has no effect.


Much research on workplace injuries and deaths has focused on accidents such as falls or electrocutions. But a recent study of firefighters who died on the job from cardiovascular problems addresses the impact of sudden bursts of physically strenuous activity.
The study's findings were based on data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health involving the deaths of 199 on-duty firefighters from cardiovascular events between 1998 and 2012.
Of the deaths, 167 were caused by heart attacks, 12 by irregular heartbeat, three by strokes and the remainder by other cardiovascular causes.
Most of the firefighters were young; the average age of the firefighters who succumbed was 49.
The researchers looked at the activities that the firefighters were performing before they suffered a cardiac event and classified them as "light" or "vigorous." Light activities included getting out of a vehicle or driving, while vigorous activities included rescuing someone from an emergency situation and running.
In 148 deaths, the firefighters had engaged in vigorous activity of about 33 minutes on average. In 88 cases, the firefighters were actively involved in fighting fires, a hugely strenuous activity. In 61 deaths, firefighters were responding to an emergency.
Although the study involved only firefighters, it is likely that sudden bursts of physical activity or heavy labor may also endanger workers in other industries. Of particular interest are emergency workers like paramedics and rescue service personnel. These workers may be required to engage in sudden bursts of activity that are not just physically strenuous but also mentally stressful.
The researchers recommend regular health checkups and monitoring for risk factors for workers who are required to perform heavy physical activity or suddenly engage in physically hectic activity. These workers need to be regularly evaluated for their cholesterol and sugar levels as well as their blood pressure.
Being physically fit is extremely important for workers who are exposed to sudden bursts of physical and mental stress. Good general health can reduce a worker's risk of a medical emergency.


President Donald Trump has forced out Attorney General Jeff Sessions just one day after the midterm elections and after nearly a year of berating him for recusing himself from the Justice Department's Russia investigation. Sessions's temporary replacement—Matthew Whitaker, his chief of staff—is now effectively Special Counsel Robert Mueller's new boss. But he's expressed repeated skepticism over the scope of Mueller's inquiry in the past, raising immediate questions about whether he will try to limit it.
Legal experts and political strategists who have either worked directly with the president or observed his behavior from afar attributed Trump's reluctance to fire Sessions to two major considerations: fears in the White House that the move would cost the president support among GOP voters and members of Congress, who generally like and support Sessions, and the risk of provoking further allegations of obstruction of justice—both of which could deepen the challenges already facing the administration.
Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, told me that Trump's decision to oust Sessions and replace him with Whitaker probably wouldn't be considered an obstructive act in and of itself. But it could add to the "totality of the circumstances" surrounding a series of moves Trump has taken to try to stymie the Russia investigation since early last year, Honig said, including his firing of former FBI Director James Comey and his attacks on Sessions.
With the midterms out of the way, however, Trump evidently feels freer to make changes to his Cabinet, regardless of how it may be perceived by investigators who have been closely examining his behavior for signs of corrupt intent with regard to the Russia investigation over the last 18 months.
Whitaker will be the acting attorney general until a permanent replacement is nominated, Trump tweeted on Wednesday, and he'll be overseeing the Mueller investigation directly in his new post. While he has touted Mueller's character—"There is no honest person that sits in the world of politics, in the world of law, that can find anything wrong with Bob Mueller," he told CNN last year—he seems to have already formed an opinion on the probe itself. In a tweet, Whitaker said an article that characterized Mueller's investigators as a "lynch mob" was a "must read," and he told CNN that if Sessions were fired, his replacement could "reduce" Mueller's budget in such a way that it would grind his investigation almost to a halt. He also shared an article on Twitter that explored the process by which Trump could fire Mueller, said in a radio interview that "there is no criminal obstruction-of-justice charge to be had" against Trump, and defended the Trump campaign's decision to meet with Russian nationals to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton—a meeting Mueller has been closely examining."You would always take the meeting," Whitaker told CNN last year. "You certainly want to have any advantage, any legal advantage you can." Whitaker is also friendly with Sam Clovis—a key grand-jury witness in the Mueller probe—and chaired his state-treasurer campaign in 2014.
In reality, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein gave Mueller a fairly broad mandate when he appointed him following Sessions's recusal in May 2017: Mueller was free to investigate not only Russia's election interference and potential coordination between Trump's campaign and Moscow, but "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation" as well. Mueller has also been farming out aspects of the investigation to prosecutors in New York and Washington, D.C., that don't fall squarely within his mandate.
Moreover, intelligence and law-enforcement experts—as well as sitting members of Congress—have pointed out that the question of whether Russia has any kind of financial leverage over the president is highly relevant to determining whether Trump could have been coerced into conspiring with Moscow's election interference in 2016. Indeed, several of the Justice Department and FBI officials who have investigated Trump's campaign—and who have been attacked by Trump directly—have extensive experience in probing money laundering and organized crime, particularly as they pertain to Russia.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday, following Sessions's resignation, that Whitaker "should recuse himself from" the Russia probe "for the duration of his time as acting attorney general" given his previous comments "advocating defunding and imposing limitations on the Mueller investigation." Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, who is set to chair the House Oversight Committee when the new Congress convenes next year, called Whitaker's supervision of the Russia probe "wholly inappropriate" and told the Justice Department to preserve documents in preparation for an inquiry into his appointment. House Democrats could also opt to subpoena Whitaker to testify under oath once they take power in January.
Trump's move could still backfire. Without the administration's protection, Sessions may now find himself both more vulnerable and more inclined to cooperate with Mueller, who has been investigating a period last summer when Trump privately discussed firing Sessions and attacked him in a series of tweets. At one point, the FBI opened an investigation into whether Sessions perjured himself in congressional testimony when he said he had no contact with Russians during the campaign."It's possible that Sessions will now be either angry or, at a minimum, no longer feel any need to curry favor with the president," Kris said. Sessions's conversations during the campaign with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and the Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos have been closely scrutinized by the special counsel, moreover, and Sessions's campaign-era interactions with Trump would not be covered by executive privilege, Kris noted.


Ship's Store is the place to go to get some of the neat things presented in Steve's Last Chance Marina.
The Transistorized Ignition System is offered in a kit. If you have a soldering iron and some solder, you can assemble the kit in less than an hour. Cost of the Kit is under $ 20.00 US.
The kit is manufactured by Vellman Co. in Belgium. You can visit their website at http://www.velleman.be. Information on the transistorized ignition can be found at http://www.velleman.be/kits/k2543.htm.
You can order the kit on-line or via land line from Techamerica at http://www.techamerica.com. Go to the catalog section. The Techamerica catalog number for the kit is 990-0004. Techamerica is very responsive and will ship any order - large or small - in a hurry!
Alternative resistor arrangements are given at the Vellman site for 6 Volt DC systems. If you have an 8 Volt DC system like the EWE BOAT, e-mail me and I will tell you what alternative resistor arrangements are required.


text:
Russian troops have been deployed in Mali, where they will serve as military trainers for the Malian defense forces near the city of Timbuktu. That's according to a government spokesman cited by Reuters and other international news agencies. Witnesses living in the region told Reuters they had seen uniformed Russian…
French scientists report new COVID variant traced to Cameroon
Yet another strain of the COVID-19 virus has emerged in France, after the case was discovered in a person returning from travel in the West African nation of Cameroon. The new strain has now been identified in 12 people who may have had contact with the person, who lives in…
Lavrov defends Russia's role in Sahel, confirms Wagner plans
The Russian foreign ministry confirmed reports that Mali plans to hire contractors with the Wagner Group to fight extremism in the Sahel, but insisted again that the private company is not operating under Moscow's control. The remarks from Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov followed questions about the presence of Wagner…
France's Castel calls for inquiry after report on C.A.R. operations
France's Castel Group, one of the largest wine producers in the world, says it will launch an investigation into claims that it paid armed group members to provide security for its operations in the Central African Republic. The company's announcement follows an investigation by The Sentry, a human rights and…
Death toll rises to 69 in Algeria's wildfires
The death toll from wildfires sweeping across parts of Algeria rose to 69 on Wednesday, according to a local official in the hard-hit district of Tizi Ouzou. Abdelkader Amrouche, the attorney general for the region, confirmed that the number included 20 soldiers who responded to the emergency when the fires…
Report: Mali's Bah N'Daw resigns during ECOWAS meeting
Transitional president Bah N'Daw has resigned, according to Malian news sources. The resignation was presented to Assimi Goïta, the transitional vice president, during an emergency meeting with former Nigerian president Jonathan Goodluck and his delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Bah N'Daw has reportedly dissolved his…
On heels of Sahel summit, another 35 die in Chad
Another 35 people have died in Chad following clashes in Salamat Province in the southeastern part of the country, a development that follows on this week's regional security summit among the five Sahel nations and France. The communal fighting between farmers and herders began with an attack at a roadblock,…
France mourns 3 soldiers killed in Mali
France has announced the death of three soldiers serving with Operation Barkhane in Mali. Fighter 1st Class Dorian Issakhanian, left, along with Brigadier chief Tanerii Mauri and Fighter 1st Class Quentin Pauchet were identified after they were killed in a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) incident. The three served with…
Honeymoon could soon be over for Erdogan's Turkey in Africa
In the nearly ten years since Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his famous visit to Mogadishu in August 2011, Turkey has rapidly become one of Somalia's most important (and generous) international benefactors. After Erdogan became the first head of state from outside of Africa to visit Somalia since the country's disastrous…
Mali's transitional government expects release of Cissé, France's Petronin
There's a prisoner exchange in the works in Mali that would see opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé released, as well as French humanitarian aid worker Sophie Petronin, in exchange for the release of dozens of suspected fighters held by the Malian government. That's according to Reuters, with the news agency reporting…
Mauritius says it's making progress on MV Wakashio oil spill
Officials in Mauritius say they've offloaded nearly all the fuel that was still trapped aboard the ill-fated MV Wakashio, the Japanese-owned ship that is stranded and leaking oil into a protected marine area of the Indian Ocean island nation. That's according to Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth on Wednesday, as he…
France responds after deadly attack at Nigerien wildlife park
Leaders in Niger and France said they were in close contact following the deaths of eight people attacked at the Kouré Giraffe Reserve on Sunday, seven of them working with the aid organizations ACTED and IMPACT Initiatives. President Mahamadou Issoufou said he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron by…
France sends help to Mauritius to deal with Wakashio oil spill
The French government is sending assistance to Mauritius, in order to help the Indian Ocean island nation deal with a shipwrecked tanker that is now leaking oil into a protected marine area. "When biodiversity is in danger, there is an urgent need to act. France is there," said President Emmanuel…
U.S. says 'assistance may be at risk' if Sahel nations fail on human rights
The United States says it is "deeply concerned" by allegations of state security forces committing human rights violations in the Sahel region, including a troubling report of mass executions in Burkina Faso released earlier this week by Human Rights Watch. "Continued human rights violations and abuses risk undermining the state's…


Use the this free Password Generator to create highly secure passwords that are difficult to crack or guess. Just select the criteria for the passwords you need, and click "Generate Password(s)". Remember, the more options you choose, the more secure the passwords will be.
Share this free tool. It's important people update their passwords!


Sign up for Broadjam today to follow Who Are Those Guys, and be notified when they upload new stuff or update their news!
New!! The 4th CD from Who Are Those Guys. The Guys bring their unique blend of rock, blues, country and folk to 14 new tracks. Check it out!!!
A selection of eleven songs taken from Who Are Those Guys 1st and 2nd CDs. Also includes two previously unreleased tracks. Released in 2004. Available on i-Tunes, CDbaby.com and www.whoarethoseguys.com.
This song was recently heard on the CBS television series "Without A Trace".
then you best not come around.
Ride on that golden train.
Love in its darkest form.
Eye to eye and claw to claw.
Their secrets kept well out of sight.
where love did once reside.
Please don't rock my world.
Welcome to Downville, Welcome to Downville.
I can't take the place.
That painful fall from grace.


Located 1 1/2 miles East of Fern Mountain just East of US69 in Muskogee. According to the Indian Pioneer History, volume 55, pages 338, 339: "Soon after the Creek agency was established at Fern Mountain in 1857, the Agency burial ground was started on the hill one and a half miles east of the agency on the first road between the Agency and Ft.Gibson, and the old deeply worn road that winds its way throught the old cemetery today is a part of that same old Agency-Ft. Gibson trail.--Fannie Renty, Creek Freedman, born and reared in the vicinity gave the information contained in the preceeding paragraph. It would be difficult to estimate the number or graves in this old cemetery with any degree of accuracy as none of the older graves have markers with inscriptions and many of them have a heavy growth of brush and briers over them indicating many years of neglect. Some of the later graves have expensive and beautiful monuments and tombs, but sadly neglected and several have fallen down."
Clean up and restoration of the cemetery has begun. See Eastern Oklahoma Cemetery Preservation Organization, Inc. for pictures and information.
Adams Mike	 …1866	 …1923	 Lodge No. 4402; G.U. O. of O. F.
Carett (infant male)	 Homer C.
Crawford	 Elliott	 Oct. 2, 1905	 Sept. 9, 1920	 s/o J. & L. C.
Dean	 Ida Midge	 March 8, 1962	 ossw Dean, James R.
Fourd	 Gladys G.	 March 3, 1898	 July 30, 1907	 d/o S. W. & J. E.
Fourd	 Jeannetta E.	 October 25, 1884	 February 11, 1915	 w/o S. W.
Hailey	 E. W.	 …1900	 …1924	 ossw Polk, A. B.
Harris	 Beatrice P.	 November 19, 1904	 January 31, 1926	 w/o Joe Harris, Jr.
Hogan	 Esther	 September 8, 1896	 April 9, 1900	 "At Rest"
Houins	 Lugene	 March 14, 1937	 Pvt. I. C. D. 517 Engrs. 92 Div.
James	 Joana	 May 21, 1878	 September 15, 1888	 d/o W. & H.
Killin	 Benjamin D.	 July 11, 1923	 Pvt. 805 Pioneer Inf.
Moton	 Ela	 Oct. 3, 1905	 age 11 mon.
Patton	 America	 …1875	 …1918	 w/o J. W.
Polk	 A. W.	 …1903	 …1924	 ossw Hailey, E. W.
Richardson	 Daved	 Jan. 14, 1860	 May 1, 1930	 age 70yr. 3mon. 16day.; born MS; s/o Daved Richardson, Sr.
Robertson	 Ida Lee	 Feb. 7, 1930	 age 21yr. 11mon. 12da.; d/o Robert Wright & Ella?
Sango	 Amma	 Dec. 9, 1879	 April 3, 1889	 d/o M. & S.
Sango	 Freddie	 Aug. 2, 1881	 Dec. 29, 1888	 s/o M. & S.
Soloman	 Johanna	 July 14, 1878	 August 26, 1878	 d/o S. & E. S.
Steward	 Henrietta Brown	 June 27, 1886	 December 25, 1908	 w/o J. R.


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Fiber composite and lightweight construction
Fiber reinforced composites materials are the future. They offer more advantages than the sum of their raw materials and can revolutionize many technical applications.
Fibers are built into polymers, metals, and ceramics; this helps them to become lighter, stronger, better malleable, and less brittle. The lightweight design benefits as much as the automotive industry, energy technology, and mechanical engineering. In the course of the debate on energy and resource efficiency in the building industry as well as mobility, fiber composite materials offer advantages since they are lightweight and use fewer resources.
The DITF allow themselves to be inspired by nature when developing new composite materials: Bionic structures are an essential driving force, for example, for novel three-dimensional and lightweight building constructions. Researchers have a particular interest in the interfaces between fiber and matrix when it comes to lightweight construction. For instance, modifying the surface of the fiber and tailoring the sizing to the specific application optimizes the function of the composite material.
It is a challenge to predict the behavior of innovative composite materials under an application characteristic load. The DITF meet this challenge with modern simulation techniques. Based on these methods, it is possible to make assertions about the manufacturing, processing, and behavior of new composite materials at an early stage of development.
The DITF further integrate testing technology into research. Fiber composite materials differ from conventional materials. Therefore, testing methods are not directly transferable. Distinct standards or entirely different testing methods must be developed to adapt them to the new materials.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Milwich
Deputy Head of Competence Center Polymers & Fiber Composites
Head of Fiber Composite Technology
T +49 (0)711 93 40-164
E markus.milwich@ditf.de
Dr. rer. nat. Frank Hermanutz
Head of Competence Center Biopolymer Materials
E frank.hermanutz@ditf.de
Infos und Downdloads
BioMat Pavilion 2021 opened
The pavilion on the Stuttgart Campus is the result of the LeichtPRO research project for future-oriented sustainable architecture. The DITF, together with CG-Tec, BAM and Steinhuder Werkzeugbau, developed and produced the pultruded profiles used from flax and hemp fibers. Press Release of Stuttgart University
Larissa Born receives Manfred Hirschvogel Award
Dr.-Ing. Larissa Born receives the Manfred Hirschvogel Award. The prize is awarded annually at the nine leading technical universities in Germany for the best dissertation in the field of mechanical engineering. The DITF congratulates the scientist at the ITFT on this achievement!
Link to the press release of the ITFT
Latent epoxy systems for fiber-reinforced plastics
DITF develop new resin systems for fiber-reinforced plastics that simplify process technology.
Smart textiles in the mobile exterior - the car of tomorrow
Light, smart, functionalized: Textiles are revolutionising micro electric vehicles in the micromobility class.
ANWENDUNGSFELDER FASERVERBUND/2D UND 3D-KONSTRUKTIONEN


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Quiz: Do You Know These Stats About EMTs in America?: HowStuffWorks
Do You Know These Stats About EMTs in America?
By: Isadora Teich
Image: Zero Creatives / Cultura / Getty IMages
EMTs have an incredibly important job to do. They provide help and support to people in deadly and dangerous situations every day. They often put themselves at risk to save lives and very often save the lives of people in critical conditions. Many people want to take on professions like these, but not many people can handle such intense and high-stakes work. It takes a lot to dive into risky and high-stakes situations and make the kind of decisions that solve problems and maybe even save lives.
EMT stands for Emergency Medical Technician and those in this field undergo intense training so they can handle making important medical decisions in high-stakes situations. They are always ready to respond in emergency situations, provide care, and transport sick and injured people to hospitals quickly and efficiently. It takes a lot of guts to be an EMT!
There is a lot to being an EMT, but how much do you know about all of the facts and figures of the job? Put your knowledge of EMT in America stats to the test with this quiz!
What is the national median yearly pay of EMTs?
As of 2017, the median yearly pay for EMTs is $33,380. This is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Which of these states has the most NREMT personnel?
Texas has one of the largest groups of certified NREMT personnel of any state. It has 32,095 of them.
What is the hourly median pay of US EMTs?
About $10
The 2017 median pay of EMTs in America is $16.05 an hour. This data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
As of 2016, about how many EMT jobs were there?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2016, there were about 250,000 EMT jobs. The exact number is 248,000.
What is the most statistically common injury for EMTs?
EMTs have one of the highest injury rates amongst all professions. 67% of those injuries involve strains and sprains, as EMTs often have to maneuver patients for care and transportation.
Between 2016-2026, how much is the field expected to grow?
The job outlook is excellent for this field. At 15%, its growth is much faster than the average.
Ambulance services employ what percentage of EMTs?
EMTs and paramedics had about 250,000 jobs in 2016. 48% of them were employed by ambulance services.
Hospitals employed about what percentage of EMTs and paramedics in 2016?
Hospitals employed 18% of those in this field in 2016. That includes state, local and private hospitals.
About how many EMTs worked more than 40 hours a week?
Most paid EMTs work full-time. Roughly 1/3 of them worked more than 40 hours a week in 2016.
How much did the lowest 10% earners amongst EMTs make?
About $20,000
The lowest 10% of EMTs earned less than $21,880 as of 2017. The median yearly wage is $33,380.
The highest-earning 10% of EMTs earned more than _______.
The highest 10% of earners amongst EMTs made more than $56,990. This is as of 2017.
Which employer pays EMTs the least?
Local hospitals
Private hospitals
Ambulance services pay a median wage of about $30,000. Hospitals and local government both pay a median yearly wage of about $35,000.
How many more EMTs are there expected to be by 2026?
About 15,000 more
About 30,000 less
About 5,000 less
There is expected to be massive growth in this field due to the growth of cities and the growth of America's aging population. Also, due to the high stress of the job, many people leave it and need to be replaced.
How many hours of training do EMTs have to complete for entry-level positions?
For an entry-level EMT position, people must complete 120 hours of training minimum. This training focuses mostly on trauma, cardiac emergencies and respiratory management.
Most EMTs are men: true or false?
75% of EMTs are men. 85% are of nonminority status.
EMT jobs are expected to be most available in which areas?
While EMT employment is supposed to grow 33% by 2020, it is thought that most of those jobs will be in rural and small US towns. This is where 54% of employed EMTs are expected to be.
Where do EMTs earn the most in the US?
EMTs in DC earn the most of any EMTs in the country. Their annual salary is $53,050 a year.
In which US state do EMTs make the least?
As an EMT, your location plays a big part in how much you will make. While those in some places earn over $50,000 annually, West Virginia EMTs earn an average salary of only about $25,000 a year. This is one of the lowest for EMTs in the country.
Are most EMT injuries fatal?
According to a Bureau of Labor study conducted between 2003-2007, most EMT injuries are not fatal. Out of 21,749 reported injuries or illnesses, 21,690 were not fatal.
EMTs have more training than paramedics: true or false?
In order to become an EMT, you must complete an EMT course, which might be up to about 150 hours in length. Paramedics are trained to handle more advanced medical cases, and their courses can be up to 1,800 hours long.
After completing an EMT course, how long of a time frame do you have to apply for your certification?
In order to become an EMT, you have to take a course and then take and pass the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) EMT exam. After that you can apply for certification within two years of passing the test.
Which state has the most NREMT personnel?
California has the most NREMT personnel. It has 39,599 of them.
How many people in the US were certified as EMTs in 2017?
About 50,000
About 170,000
In 2017, 266,472 people were certified as EMTs in the US. More EMTs were certified than first responders, AEMTs, and paramedics combined.
Which state has the least NREMT personnel?
Wyoming is one of the least populated states in America, so it makes sense that they have the fewest NREMT personnel. There are only 955 in the state.
In 2018, which state had the lowest first pass rate for EMTs?
In 2018, Alabama had the lowest first pass rate for EMTs in America. Only 48% passed the first time.
In 2018, which of these states had the highest EMT first attempt pass rate?
Hawaii had a 94% EMT first attempt pass rate in 2018. This is one of the highest in the whole country.
What percentage of EMT injuries were serious enough to keep them out of work for longer than a month?
Out of 21,794 reported injuries between 2003-2007, only about 3,700 of them resulted in a month of lost work time or more. That is only 17%.
How many patients does EMS treat per year in the US?
1 milllion
EMS treats between 25-30 million patients a year in the US. Their annual expenditure is about 5 billion.
What is the rate of injury for paramedics and EMTs compared to average occupations?
2 times higher
2 times less
Paramedics and EMTs have a very high injury rate compared to other occupations. The injury rate for those in these occupations is 3 times higher than the average.
What percentage of EMTs have college degrees?
Many EMTs in the US are college educated. 45% have a college degree or higher.
Of medical professionals, EMTs are how stressed?
The most stressed
The least stressed
Highly stressed
Despite the severe nature of their work, EMTs are one of the least stressed medical professionals. Only about 6% of nationally certified EMS professionals were classified as stressed, which is lower than the average for most other health care professions.
Which of these states has the least NREMT personnel?
Of all of the states about, Louisiana has the least personnel in this field. There are 10,306 of them.
What percentage of on-the-job injuries are caused by patients?
About 10%
Patients are not a leading cause of injury for EMTs and paramedics. Patients were found to be the source of their injuries only 37% of the time.
How many EMTs were certified in the US in 2016?
In 2016, 253,436 people were certified as EMTs in the US. This is over double the number of certified paramedics that year.
What is the number one cause of fatalities for EMTs?
Transportation related
Over a course of a three-year study, 59 EMT and paramedic deaths were reported. Of those deaths, 86% were transportation related.
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Steve Chafe and I spent a night in Mahers last week. We did some ice fishing and caught eight trout between us. They were biting pretty good in the morning, unfortunately we had to leave to go back to St. John's at 11 a.m., only for that I think we would have had twice as many.
The moose applications must be submitted by March 29th, 4:30 p.m. I'm in pool six this year. The on-line registration system is very convenient.
I guess by now most folks have heard there have been some coyote sightings recently in St. John's. Of course, over the past few years, there have been coyotes spotted throughout various towns and cities in this province. For example, trappers and hunters often encounter them in the country relatively close to CBS. The fact of the matter is that coyotes can, will and do live close to urban areas. In other provinces and throughout the USA coyotes live everywhere from large urban parks to a huge metropolis such as Los Angeles. They will eat garbage, small pets and pet food left on your patio, bird feed and compost might also attract them.
There have been a few, rare cases across North America where small children and adults have been attacked. Recall that a jogger was killed in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in October 2009, a few years ago by a pair of coyotes. Thankfully, such events are very infrequent. Cats and small dogs out in a bushy back garden are most at risk of a coyote attack.
With regards to coyotes carrying off your pet, we know that owls and eagles might also do the same thing. And here in Newfoundland from time to time moose wander into urban areas, as do foxes and even the usually shy black bear. Remember that a black bear was seen near Ferryland last July?
Personally, I think it's great to know that we share our homes with our living creatures. Of course, the key when encountering any wildlife is to treat it as a "wild" animal, and don't approach it for a picture.
Of course an unexpected close encounter can generate worry and fear, regardless of what statistics might say our chances of being killed by a wild animal are. For example, I can remember when I was a child and my parents and my grandmother were staying a few nights at a cabin near Terra Nova Park. We were awakened early one morning by a mother bear with a cub (she may have had two it was almost fifty years ago) prowling around outside. My Mom and Nan were pretty upset, as I was, but Dad tried to keep us all calm and eventually the bears wandered away.
But with any wild animal there is a potential risk. I did a story some years ago for another publication about a guide who was leading some non-resident hikers through Northern Labrador. They were startled from their sleep by a polar bear banging through pots and pans in a dining fly. The guide and hikers were in tents, there were no cabin walls to protect them from the large carnivore. The guide exhibited coolness under pressure and quickly uncased, loaded and fired a high-powered rifle and dropped the bear in the midst of the tents. This was a situation with the potential for someone to have been seriously injured or worse.
In 2004, I wrote a book about the arrival and expansion of the eastern coyote through Newfoundland. The book is called The Newfoundland Coyote and is dedicated to my sister who died in March that year. I chose that title even though the coyote isn't native to this island, but like the moose and snowshoe hare, the coyote has made its home here.
In the course of conducting interviews for that book, I spoke with a wildlife biologist who told me that, in his opinion, the most dangerous animal on the island was neither the coyote or black bear, but a cow moose with her calf or calves. Cow moose get mean in a hurry when anything or anyone threatens their calves.
I was hiking in a provincial park in western Newfoundland some years back, when I rounded a corner and came face to face with a big cow, with a calf a few paces behind her. I brought up solid and the cow instantly pinned her ears back and glared a look of pure hate at me. I backed up real quick and then turned and bolted. Thankfully, the cow didn't follow me.
One time when I was out in western Canada, I recall being in one of the National Parks and a large section of hiking trail was closed off due to sightings of a grizzly bear in the area. There were barriers on trailheads and signs warning hikers of the grizzly. It was ironic to think that people were visiting the National Park because of its wilderness, its rugged beauty and varied wildlife, but in order to protect visitors, the grizzly had to be given space.
I've hunted coyotes using a caller and bait, and have seen a couple. One evening when I was hunting I had some old moose meat out under a tree for bait and I had made a few calls. Just as the sun dipped below the horizon, a coyote started howling. It made the hair on my neck stand up, I'll never forget it.
But aside from hunting coyotes, I do get a thrill out of seeing them while cutting wood, or trouting.


Sunday driver | Turning my world upside down!
Weekend drives are great! This weekend we have driven along Highway 1, the Dixie Highway and A1A, the beaches road, from Palm Beach to Jacksonville. Do you have any idea how many iconic beaches are in that stretch? The big ones that come to mind are Daytona, New Smyrna, Ormond and Jacksonville Beach.
There are also important sights, like Cape Canaveral. Well, we didn't have time to see the last one, but we sure drove around a lot of beaches, stopped and walked a few of them and did a quick driving tour of St. Augustine, the oldest continually inhabited city in America. We would have seen so much more had we walked the old city, but sometimes I just don't want to be with thousands of other tourists. Fun fact on St. Augustine: it was so named as the founder of the city arrived on its shores on the feast of St. Augustine day.
Along the way, we had to stop in Jensen Beach for the photo-op.
We saw a lot of beach houses, regal estates, gorgeous palm tree lined streets, old mission style buildings, art deco hotels and a great number of Spring Break tourists.
Saturday night was a big of a challenge when we wanted to stop for the night. We drove to several places over 2 hours until I finally found a spot just south of Daytona Beach in New Smyrna. Our campground was not near the beach but rather near an old sugar mill. This area had been known as a large sugar plantation used to produce rum. Until prohibition, of course.
Tonight, we decided to stop just beyond the Georgia/Florida border at St. Marys. The campground is fine, but those nasty little bugs are about, making it hard to get outside and enjoy the evening.
You sure are covering some territory.
I know! We have so much to see. I love reading the history behind it afterwards as I write the blog.
And I'm enjoying learning all about these interesting places.


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Ultratop 200 Albums es la lista musical de los álbumes más vendidos en Flandes, Bélgica. Es publicada cada viernes en la página oficial de Ultratop y en "Radio 2". En su inicio constaba de un top 50, para posteriormente pasar a un top 100 y actualmente a un top 200. Su primera publicación fue el 31 de marzo de 1995, con fecha del 1 de abril de 1995.

El listado se basa en las ventas digitales y físicas de álbumes y EPs. El período de seguimiento es de viernes a jueves, para realizar la publicación el viernes siguiente al jueves con fecha del sábado de la misma semana.

Ejemplo
 Viernes 1 de enero, comienza el período de seguimiento.
 Jueves 6 de enero, finaliza el período de seguimiento.
 Viernes 7 de enero, publicación del listado con fecha del sábado 8 de enero.

Historia
La publicación comenzó el 31 de marzo de 1995, para que en 1997 se actualizase la frecuencia de publicación de 14 días a cada semana, transformándose en un listado semanal. La primera división del listado ocurrió con el Alternative Albums Top 50 en 2001, mientras que en 2004 la lista se dividió en precio completo y precio medio por los cambios en el mercado, aunque posteriormente el listado se movería en su totalidad al precio medio, permitiendo una entrada más fácil para los artistas nuevos. En el 2008 se integran las ventas por descargas, y posteriormente se integran las ventas por streaming en 2017. En 2012 el top se expandió de 100 puestos a 200 puestos, eliminando el Heatseekers Top 20 ubicado debajo del top 100. En 2019, después de 25 años, Ultratop vuelve a las radios, en el caso del listado de álbumes, en la radio Bel RTL.

Números uno por año
1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999

2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009

2010 · 2011 · 2012 · 2013 · 2014 · 2015 · 2016 · 2017 · 2018 · 2019

2020 · 2021

Récords

Álbumes de Todos los Tiempos (1995-2021)

Fuente:

Enlaces externos
 Página web oficial

Referencias

Listas musicales
Listas musicales de Bélgica

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I know them, well do you really?? - Dean Da Costa "The Search Authority" "The Search Authority"
I know them, well do you really??
One of the things I see, and hear about all the time is how someone knows someone, who knows someone and how it either helps them get a job or stops them from getting a job. The interesting part is when the people who know people, knew them 1+ years ago, and yet still feel that what they know actually is still correct.
According to a study by Dr. Phillippa Lally of the University College of London, people have changes to the way the think, act, react, and process things at least every 4-6 months. That means if you knew someone say 1.5 years ago and back then they did not listen well, it is likely they listen very well now. Or If you knew someone 3+ years ago and back then they were a little hard to work with, it is very possible that they are now easy to work with.
In other words even though you may have worked with someone, or worked around someone, or even socialized with someone, if it has been more than 4-6 months you really cannot say you know them at all. The same would hold true if you are asking a third person about someone. If that person has not been around the person you are questioning about in the last 4-6 months they really cannot say they know. In fact if the person you are asking is someone you have not been around in the last 4-6 months you cannot say you know them well enough to have complete 100% trust in what they say.
In this age of social media were you can always find someone you can contact to ask about a perspective candidate, the reality is those opinions you get if are based on information 4-6 months or older are not 100% reliable, and in fact could be totally unreliable, and yet candidates are hired or not hire based on them.
Now I am not saying totally ignore them, what I am saying is use them like a piece to a puzzle, but talk to the candidate and address those issues and see if they are real, and are current. This way you are not giving up on what could be a great hire because of information that could be wrong.


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Home / All / Little People, Big Dreams Box Set - Inspiring Writers
Little People, Big Dreams Box Set - Inspiring Writers
Meet three inspirational people from the world of literature: Maya Angelou, Anne Frank, and Jane Austen!
In these remarkable true stories, learn how three women dealt with hardship and achieved great success in writing. Maya—despite being afraid to speak as a child, she went on to find her voice and become one of the most beloved writers and speakers of the twentieth century. Anne—whose famous diary captured the hearts and minds of the public after World War Two. Jane—after growing up with low expectations, went on to write timeless novels about brave women who made their own choices and never gave up. Each of these moving books features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the woman's life.
Format: Book, 96 pages
ISBN: US 9780711243217
Size: 10.118in x 8.11in / 257mm x 206mm


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Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
The Magic Mountain
Publisher: Reading Essentials
The Magic Mountain is the story of an unassuming, undistinguished young engineer named Hans Castorp who sits on the balcony of a sanatorium, wrapped in his blanket, thermometer in his mouth, naively but earnestly pondering the meaning of life, time, and his love for the beautiful Frau Chauchat.  Among the other characters on this Germanic ship of fools are Hofrat Behrens, the head doctor, and his hearty but sick-looking sidekick, Dr. Krokowski and an entourage of interesting patients. Mann began working on The Magic Mountain following a few weeks' visit to a sanatorium in Switzerland.  It is a massive meditation on "the inner significance of an epoch, the pre-war period of European history."  It was an immense international success from the time of its publication.
German essayist, cultural critic, and novelist, Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Among his most famous works are Buddenbrooks, published when he was just twenty-six,...
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Guiterrez, East-All Stars Pour it on West-All Stars 9-4 in the rain
By: Branden Hunter, July 2, 2013, 12:00 am
The East All-Stars almost did not go home with a 9-6 victory over the West All-Stars in the MHSBCA All-star game Monday night at Comerica Park. A 65 minute rain delay almost resulted in a cancelled game and postponement until Tuesday morning. However by the time the first pitch was finally thrown at 8:35 p.m., the players made the wait worthwhile with a strong display of talent and late inning offense for the 1,149 fans in attendance.
The West All-Stars were the away team and wasted no time getting on the board. After two consecutive errors by the East All-Stars, a sacrifice groundout scored starting pitcher Jackson Lamb from third base for the 1-0 lead. The East-All Stars would respond in the bottom of the inning. After Johnny Slater (2-3, 2 stolen bases) scored the first run, future Michigan teammate Hector Gutierrez (2-3, 3 RBIs) cleared the bases with a three-RBI double to take a 4-1 lead. Guiterrez's double came with two outs, and could have been prevented on the prior play. Rob Greeenman, catcher for the West dropped a pop-up fly-ball that would have gotten them out the inning. The mishap may have been due to the poor field conditions caused by the rain.
All together, both teams committed seven eras on the night. The East increased their lead to 6-2 by the fourth inning and never looked back after that. Following an RBI triple by Connor Fannon which provide a 7-2 lead, Carmen Benedetti blasted a RBI triple of his own to centerfield, scoring Fannon and putting the East up 8-2. Fannon won MVP of the East squad, pitching three innings, and striking out two batters on 41 pitches.
"It means a lot to get MVP here," said Fannon. "Took a lot of hard work these past four years to get here. The whole weekend was fun, getting to meet a bunch of good baseball players," he added. "I got to stay in a hotel with someone I didn't know, and made new friends."
Fannon will continue his baseball career at Oakland University next season. Pat Gaudard was the MVP of the West team, going 1-2, with two-RBIs. Down 9-3 now headed to top of the ninth, Brennan Kerr, edged the West closer with a RBI single to pull within five runs, at 9-4. His efforts weren't enough though, as that would prove to be the final result.
"This was a great win for a great group of kids in their final high school game", said East coach Bob Wamsley. "I think our pitching, catching did an exceptional job of not letting them score when they had the opportunities to."


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Posts Tagged HG Wells
The Undercover Soundtrack – Andrew Lowe
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on July 12, 2017
The Undercover Soundtrack is a series where I host a writer who uses music as part of their creative environment – perhaps to connect with a character, populate a mysterious place, or hold a moment still to explore its depths. This week's post is a return visit by author, editor, journalist and musician Andrew Lowe @andylowe99
Soundtrack by Blanck Mass, Glass Animals, Johan Johansson, Kris Kristofferson, Leodoris, Mark Pritchard, Mogwai, UNKLE, YouTube tropical island ambience
Kris Kristofferson came first. At the end. A slow pull-back, with Nobody Wins playing over the scrolling credits.
I'd had the Savages story pinballing around my brain for a while, but hearing Nobody Wins gave me that final scene. It underscored the logic of the story, seeped into the characters and themes. It unspooled the narrative backwards, giving me the focus to go forward.
If some kind director (Shane Meadows or Danny Boyle, please) makes a film of the book, I would insist they pack the soundtrack with the music I used to fuel the writing. Because, for me, music isn't a lubricant or a catalyst. It's central to the story of a novel's creation; as crucial as the ramblings in my notebook app, the epiphanies in the supermarket queue, the drafts and redrafts.
I know some writers like silence or white noise or Brahms or Schubert or Eno, but I can't make it happen like that. I need the mood of the music to match the tone of the scene, and, while I'm at it, I like to transpose the tunes into a fantasy soundtrack of the movie of the book. (Actually, let's go for Ben Wheatley.) With Savages, that meant the wall-of-sound headrush of Blanck Mass for the final five chapters, Mark Pritchard's ominous minimalism for the bad blood of the mid-section, and the cataclysmic crunch of Johan Johansson's The Beast for a pivotal scene that I wanted to read like the slow and pitiless turning of a torture-rack wheel.
Savages is the story of Joel Pearce, a suburban GP who's looking to shake up his routine. He receives an extravagant gift for his fortieth birthday: a 'desert island survival experience' and, despite being a creature of home comforts, he rises to the challenge. Together with four friends, he travels to a remote tropical island in the Philippines for three weeks of indulgence and self-discovery.
It doesn't go well.
Savages is, I hope, a thriller that plunges the reader into deeper genre waters. I wanted to write something instant and high-concept and broad, but smuggle in plenty of literary layers and contemporary obsessions. (Self-improvement, male identity, ageing, post-hedonism, the blurring of the fake and the real.)
I read plenty of genre thrillers; mostly crime and psychological. When they're good, they can be very, very good, but when they're bad, they can feel like dressed-up research or algorithm-friendly templates, hacked out from the walls of the deepest data mines.
Over the last year or so, the most interesting books I've read have dabbled with fusion. The author has taken a little from this genre, a dash from that, and moulded their story into a lateral but nourishing whole. I'm thinking of Elan Mastai's All Our Wrong Todays (sci-fi romance), Sara Baume's Spill Simmer Falter Wither (one man and his dog and the human condition), Adrian J Walker's The End of the World Running Club (post-apocalyptic existentialism).
With Savages, I wanted the fusion to come from a tweak to the three-act convention. Act One is character study; family and relationship drama. Act Two is a psychological thriller; mounting tension, known unknowns. Act Three is all-out action thriller, bordering on horror. And it's all served up with a twist inside a twist which came from that Kris Kristofferson eureka! moment.
I don't only use music as a writing backdrop; it always seeps into the story when I'm out and about, under headphones. With any writing project, I usually have a signature song that follows me around; something that seems to connect with the story's ambience and conflict. For Savages, it was Toes by Glass Animals, with its furtive, feline slink and talk of "divine ape-swine". (The song is a perfect fit for the setting, as it's clearly inspired by HG Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau.) I also loved the brooding sensuality of Leodoris's Run, those honking synth stabs hinting at whatever evil lurks deep in the febrile vegetation, and the way its title chimes with one of the book's recurring ideas: progress, forward momentum, running, the urge to run when there's nowhere to run to, the limbo between fight and flight. (UNKLE's Panic Attack helped here, too, as did Mogwai's Glasgow Mega-Snake, a glistening guitar meltdown that I used as pre-writing psyche-up.)
And when I had to glue myself to the writing chair in the middle of a dark and dismal winter, and cook up scenes of heat and light and powdery beaches, I turned to old YouTube, where some kind soul had stuck a static camera under a palm tree and captured an uninterrupted hour of the kind of desktop-background fantasy island described in the book. Outside my window, the North London streets glittered with frost, but in my writing cave, I was transported, tapping away to the sounds of chirping cicadas, rustling palm fronds, cresting waves. The soundtrack helped me to create an authentic bucket-list dreamworld, which I could take great pleasure reshaping into a nightmare.
Andrew Lowe is an author and editor who has written for The Guardian and Sunday Times, and contributed to numerous books and magazines on film, music, TV, sex, videogames and shin splints. He divides his time between various rooms of his home in London, where he writes and makes music (as half of electronic duo Redpoint). He gets out of the house by running, cycling and coaching youth football. Savages is out now in ebook and paperback. Audiobook coming soon. His website is here, his Facebook page is here and you can tweet him as @andylowe99
ageing, Andrew Lowe, Blanck Mass, Glass Animals, HG Wells, Johan Johansson, Kris Kristofferson, Leodoris, male identity, Mark Pritchard, Mogwai, music for writing, Philippines, post-hedonism, Savages, self-improvement, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Undercover Soundtrack, thriller, UNKLE, YouTube tropical island ambience
The Undercover Soundtrack – Louisa Treger
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on June 24, 2015
Music and love transform your internal landscape
Once a week I host a writer who uses music as part of their creative environment – perhaps to connect with a character, populate a mysterious place, or hold a moment still to explore its depths. This week's post is by Louisa Treger @louisatreger
Soundtrack by Hozier, Amy Winehouse, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms
Before pursuing a career as a writer, I was a classical violinist, working as a freelance orchestral player and teacher. Music was fantastic training for being an author because it taught me the discipline to glue my butt to a chair and spend hours alone every day, honing my craft. Music was, and still is, a huge part of my life. It informs every word I write.
Many authors listen to music while they are working, but I can't. For me, music is too powerful; it's like a magnet, drawing all my attention to it. It shuts out the words. I listen to music in my car, while walking the dog, or doing chores at home.
Music lifts us into a different realm. It allows us to enter a place where our emotions can flow freely, in a way that transcends ordinary experience. Yet although music expresses things that go deeper than words, I find that it inspires words. Music expresses states of feeling that I want to capture verbally. At first, these are dim and half formed in my mind; I am fumbling my way towards them. Listening to music is a catalyst, helping me put emotions into words.
Music was fundamental to the writing of my debut novel, The Lodger.
It's a biographical novel about the little-known author, Dorothy Richardson, who was a literary pioneer and something of a cult figure in her day. She wrote stream of consciousness before anyone else and was considered Virginia Woolf's equal, but somehow, she got forgotten by history.
At the start of my novel, Dorothy is existing just above the poverty line, working as a dentist's secretary and living in a shabby boarding house in Bloomsbury. She receives an invitation to spend the weekend with a childhood friend. Jane recently married a writer hovering on the brink of fame. Dorothy doesn't recognise his name: HG Wells, or Bertie, as his friends call him.
Bertie Wells appears unexceptional at first. But then Dorothy notices his grey-blue eyes taking her in, openly signalling approval…
Tormented about betraying Jane, yet unable to draw back, Dorothy free-falls into an affair with him. Then a new boarder arrives at the house – striking Veronica Leslie-Jones – and Dorothy finds herself caught between Veronica and Bertie… Amidst the personal dramas and wreckage of a militant suffragette march, Dorothy finds her voice as a writer.
A song that helped me capture the mood and tone of both love affairs in my book is From Eden by Hozier. This is a very powerful song: tragedy and rapture rubbing shoulders. It reaches into your soul, pulls it out and throws it on the ground. It's about people who are damaged by their pasts, who are flawed and cynical, yet have found something incredibly precious in each other.
Dorothy had fallen; she was living in sin; betraying Jane … The hunger she felt for Bertie was all-consuming; it obliterated everything else, even her guilt.
Loss and longing
There is a great deal of loss in The Lodger, and I looked to Amy Winehouse's Back to Black for inspiration. I think it's one of the best breakup albums of all time. Amy sings about the kind of love that goes so deep inside you, it transforms your internal landscape and marks you forever. And her voice: smoky and ancient, expressing more loss and longing, more pain and despair than one person can bear in a lifetime. It speaks to me.
Often, it seemed as though a part of her still existed continuously in the past. Lived with Veronica; the two of them lying eternally in each other's arms, belonging together, as in the early days.
Music did more than help me identify states of feeling. There are many parallels between music and writing, including rhythm, colour, tone, and the ability to blend many voices, or to make a single voice stand out. Listening to classical chamber music – especially by Mozart, Schubert and Brahms – taught me about all of them. Chamber music is pure and precise, yet at the same time, it's a real dialogue between characters. There are too many wonderful works to list individually, so here are three of my favourites: Mozart String Quintet in G minor KV 516; Schubert String Quintet in C major D 956; Brahms String Sextet G major opus 36.
Finally, The Lodger is a novel about writers and writing. Great music is sublime in the way writers strive for sublime prose; it soars above the humdrum of everyday life, transforming it. It's what Dorothy Richardson and H.G. Wells tried to do with words:
When you are in the right mood, words appear faster than speech or even thought; your pen follows them as quickly as your hand can move it across the page, and sometimes, the most exquisite phrases spill out. It's hard to explain what a wonderful feeling it is; it smoothes out all the creases in your mind, and completely revives you. And you see life with such clarity…
This is what I am striving for too – and constantly feeling I am falling short of it. As Wells says in my novel: Will I ever get the things I want to say properly said?
Louisa Treger began her career as a classical violinist and worked as a freelance orchestral player and teacher. She subsequently turned to literature, gaining a PhD in English at University College London. Married with three children and a dog, she lives in London. She spends as much time as she can in South Africa, where she supports a feeding scheme for underprivileged children living in shacks in the desolate Kurland Village in the Western Cape, where 70% of adults are unemployed. The Lodger is her first novel and is published by Thomas Dunne Books. Find her on Facebook, her website and on Twitter @louisatreger.
GIVEAWAY Louisa has offered to give away two print copies of The Lodger. To enter, comment here. Extra entries if you share the post on social media, but we might not know you have unless you let us know in a comment – so remember to come back and confess your good sharing deeds.
Amy Winehouse, Brahms, Chamber music, classical chamber music, Dorothy Richardson, H.G. Wells, HG Wells, historical fiction, Hozier, Louisa Treger, Mozart, musician-turned-writer, Schubert, Schubert String Quintet, The Lodger, The Undercover Soundtrack, Thomas Dunne Books, undercover soundtrack, voice, writing with music
'Music and love transform your internal landscape' – Louisa Treger
My guest this week used to be a classical violinist. She says music informs every word she writes, expressing states of feeling that she then strives to render in words. Her novel is a biographical story about the little-known author Dorothy Richardson, who pioneered the stream of consciousness technique, although she is overshadowed today by Virginia Woolf. In the novel, Richardson is invited to stay with a friend who is married to HG Wells, which is the start of a tangled and tumultuous affair. It's a novel full of love and loss, with a soundtrack to match. She is Louisa Treger and she'll be here on Wednesday with her Undercover Soundtrack.
Dorothy Richardson, HG Wells, historical fiction, loss, Louisa Treger, love, music for writers, musicians, The Lodger, Virginia Woolf, writers and music


The Hamilton County Mental Health levy will be on the ballot for renewal, and it's important to remember that it won't raise taxes! Mental health services are important to the fabric of our community and our quality of life.
A vote FOR issue #3 will continue to care for Hamilton County residents and their families in times of crisis.
A vote FOR issue #3 will provide treatment, housing, and job training for the severely mentally disabled.
A vote FOR issue #3 won't raise taxes, and your support will continue critical care to children, adults, and families.
In 2015 almost 24,000 adults and children directly benefited from mental health services funded by the levy. 1 out of every 5 people in Hamilton County are affected by mental illness. These services funded through this levy help individuals, adults, and children in our community lead more self-sufficient, productive lives.


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carriewriterblog
Social Media * Communications * Writing * Editing * New Media
Into the Great White Open
Anyone who has spent any time in the great outdoors, be it hiking, mountain climbing, running...knows what a rush it can be. To be close to the sky, the mountains, the wind and sun. To feel one with the earth and elements, to feel a greater spirituality then in our everyday lives down below, on concrete and dry land. To feel a connection to something greater then oneself... and in that sense, a heightened sense of oneself-- of being alive. Of being closer to God, maybe. Of feeling more complete, more human -- definitely. That is why we take on these challenges, to take ourselves away from the everyday. To breathe deeply, to feel the sun on our backs and on our faces, to listen to the small pulses of nature - the wind playing on a snowbank, the call of a wild animal, maybe the song in our heads that repeats itself like a mantra, as we push ourselves further and further up the side of a mountain. No doubt this is some of what the climbers who lost their lives at Mt. Hood were searching for. And yet, this is the kind of story that has a resonant poignancy for all of us. We find ourselves anxiously watching the news, hoping the rescuers find signs of life in the blank white canyons that fill our television screens. We watch the faces of the families, the arc of the day as bright sunlight fades into blackness, each nightfall signalling another day lost, a lessened sense of hope. When Kelly was found dead, the ominous discovery ironically made us feel hopeful - that at least the rescuers had been in the right area, that perhaps there was a chance that the other two climbers would be found. But tonight, the news that the search had been called off, and that the other two climbers Hall and Cooke had probably fallen or been buried , brought its own dismal conclusions. Part of us feels like we know them, like we have lost our own friends - because we understand the need to look outside ourselves, to find higher ground, for peace, for answers, for a kind of salvation. We know that Kelly was injured, and that the other two climbers probably left him to try and get help. But who knows what else might have transpired. Did they argue, cry and scream? Maybe they laughed or told jokes. Maybe they were delirious. Maybe they saw dancing angels in the snow. Maybe they couldn't see anything at all. These last few days as I walked the city streets, I found myself wondering what the climbers last few conversations were, what they said to each other and themselves, what they thought about in their dying moments. Of course, I will never know, and maybe no one, not even their loved ones, can know. In this season of hope and joy, I wish them peace, and hope that even for a small moment, 40,000 feet above sea level, they found what they were looking for.
tumblewords said...
So many days of watching the searchers, hoping against hope, wondering what drew the climbers to that whiteness at that particular time while knowing it was just because... it was there.
Carrie Freelance Writing, Editing, Branding, Publications Management
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War of Angels is gamigo´s new free-to-play 3D online role-playing game (MMORPG). There are no monthly subscription fees and no purchase is necessary to play. Register now and explore an exciting new fantasy world with a unique look. Fight not just on land but also underwater and, unlike in any oth...
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Special Interview with Aeria Now
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Play Caesary At SumoPandaGames.com!
Palo Alto, CA - September 16, 2010 - Dragonsmeet Inc., a social browser-based game publisher and developer has announced the launch of Caesary, a free-to-play City-Building and Military Strategy game set in the age of Rome, on August 13th 2010. Players begin the game as a Consul to the Roman Empire ...
Thursday, Sep 16th, 2010 3610 views
Dragon Ball in Dragon's Call?
Recently, fantasy browser-based MMO Dragon's Call has been updated continuously. Following the release of Instance Wars and Guild Wars, Arena Tournaments will also be fully upgraded with the brand new system - Sacred Wings. Adopting the same mode of Budokai Tenkaichi in Dragon Ball anime series, t...
CLOSED BETA
Myth Angels Online (MAO) is the newest title of the Angels Online series developed by USERJOY. USERJOY, a Taiwan based game developer of well known titles published by Aeria Games like Kingdom Heroes and Legendary Champions Online will be publishing its own Myth Angels Online in North America this O...
Max Pow
Max Pow is an online role-playing experience set in a fantasy world. MP takes action RPG fundamentals and adds loads of creatures, environments, weapons and characters. Players become brave heroes as they explore and fight across a mysterious and perilous land. MP allows thousands of players to inte...


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otherknowsbest
When People Believe They're Both Responsible for Everything and Incompetent at Everything, Privacy Will Die
May 26, 2016 davidberreby
Imagine driving down a street and hearing impatient honking behind you. Annoying, right? But there might be extenuating circumstances. Perhaps there's a woman in labor in that car. Or someone who could miss her plane because of all the traffic from that accident two miles back. On the other hand, that honker could have reasons that make him more annoying than you'd expect. Maybe that driver is cheating on a life partner and rushing to get home so an alibi will hold up. Maybe it's a car full of goons out to collect protection money for a guy named Ice Pick Willie.
The way life is currently organized, those details are unknowable. So the reasonable assumption is that anyone honking at you has an average sort of motive. This is a sound application of the Copernican principle, which holds it most likely that there's nothing special about the place and time in which you are observing anything. So whatever you're perceiving is probably in the average range for its type. The driver behind you is unlikely to be 4 feet tall, and equally unlikely to be 7 foot 2. Analogously, that driver is unlikely to have an extremely good or extremely bad reason to badger you.
An alternative to the Copernican approach to others is, of course, to use stereotypes. But a stereotype like "Southerners are casual about time" or "old people are forgetful" is still a rough generalization, in which you invoke (supposed) facts about a category of people to explain the behavior of an individual. You have to do this because you don't know enough about the person in front of you and their motivations of the moment.
This lack of information about individuals and their circumstances is a veil of ignorance, hiding us from each other. And that veil has been, I would argue, a good thing. Unless we're invoking a bad stereotype, the veil causes us to see each person who imposes on us as an equal, and to treat his motives as more or less valid, and to refrain from judging him.
What happens, though, if the veil of ignorance is removed? If it becomes possible to know, in real time, scores of relevant details about what made the person honk? This is the prospect raised by the Internet of Things, that near-future Web over which phones, cars, highways, fitness trackers, offices and stores will all talk to one another. Soon, when the IoT is part of daily life, as Daniel Burrus noted here, concrete in a bridge will detect ice and alert your car to the hazard. Then the car "will instruct the driver to slow down, and if the driver doesn't, then the car will slow down for him."
In other words, the main subject of all this digital talk among things will be the humans they serve and monitor. I think it's unlikely that we'll let them keep all that information to themselves. If you have a woman in labor in your car, the car will know—and so, if you are idling in the way, will you. On the other hand, if that person behind you is just worried about getting to lunch before they seat someone at her favorite table, then you'll know that too. And you'll judge your fellow human accordingly.
What brings this to mind is the changing semantics of cars bashing into one another. As Matt Richtel reports here, traffic-safety advocacy groups are campaigning to rebrand the "car accident." That term invites people to think that colliding with another car or plowing into a ditch are events that just happen, like lightning strikes or heavy rain. In fact, almost all car crashes are caused by people's decisions. Driving while drunk, driving while texting, driving while asleep and other choices are the cause of "accidents," which kill some 38,000 people a year on American roads.
So police departments around the U.S. have been replacing the blank veiling concept of "accident" with the word "crash." The authorities want to shift to a concept that nudges people to see drivers as responsible for what happens to them. In this, they are like their colleagues elsewhere in government, who are trying to reclassify other experiences that people used to see as fate. Heart attacks and diabetes don't just happen, we're told—they're the consequences of choices we make about food and exercise. Catastrophic global warming isn't something that's occurring by accident; we're making it worse by flying and wasting electricity. If you're poor in old age, don't blame capitalism—you were supposed to be saving for retirement!
You might think that this trend will encourage people to take more responsibility for their own conduct, and thus help them not only to avoid accidents but to see themselves as empowered agents of their own lives and authors of their own fates.
I think, though, that the long term consequences will be the opposite.
This is because today's message of individual responsibility coincides with an equally powerful message of individual incompetence. The psychologists who have the attention of our media and our leaders are the ones who say that people make mistakes all the time, about everything: what to eat, what to buy, what to fear, what to plan for. Driving is no exception: One of the most commonly cited justifications for the coming age of self-driving cars is that way fewer people will die on the road. Driving, like so many other skills, will soon be—if it is not already—an activity that machines are better at than humans.
When you combine the message of individual responsibility with the message of human incompetence, the only consistent stance left is that people ought to let the machines do the work. The responsible thing to do is to cede control. Let the cars drive themselves, and thousands of people will live, who would have died at the hands of human drivers.
But when we cede control, we give up information. The controlling system needs it to make the decisions we once had to make. So, for example, an effective transport system will need to know if you're going to the hospital with a woman in labor, or just worried that they'll run out of Chunky Monkey at the ice cream parlor. And once the machine knows it, why should it keep that information a secret?
So the Internet of Things is likely to shred the veil of ignorance that forces us to see all claims on us as equal. In any given confrontation, instead of assuming every person is an average human being with average reasons for his behavior, we will be able to tell the good reasons from the bad, the Samaritans from the selfish cheaters. And another layer of privacy—the privacy to decide for yourself how much of a hurry you should be in, how much you should impose on others—will be gone. When we combine the presumption of accountability with the presumption of incompetence, we're signing up for a transparency that is so complete, and so different from life today, that we can scarcely imagine the world we are creating.
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I am a British citizen residing in South Africa. In June I will be visiting family in the UK accompanied by my South African wife who holds a valid C Business visa (expiring in 2018). Under the new regulations, can my wife use her existing visa to enter the UK or must she apply for a new visitor visa?
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything stating this more explicitly.