text:
SEADOGS (Southeast Alaska Dogs Organized for Ground Search)
SEADOGS (Southeast Alaska Dogs Organized for Ground Search)SEADOGS (Southeast Alaska Dogs Organized for Ground Search)SEADOGS (Southeast Alaska Dogs Organized for Ground Search)
SEADOGS mission is to train, certify, and deploy qualified search dog teams to assist law enforcement agencies in the search for and the recovery of lost and missing persons, and educate and promote K-9 Search and Rescue in the community.
SEADOGS K-9 Search and Rescue Team, is a group of volunteers providing CERTIFIED, EXPERIENCED, and PROVEN search dogs and handlers for Wilderness, Avalanche, Land and Water, Cadaver, Tracking/Trailing, Evidence, Disaster, and First Responder search missions. Members of NASAR (National Association for Search and Rescue) and ASARA (Alaska Search and Rescue Association). SEADOGS is capable of local SAR training; search management, Incident Command and NASAR licensed instruction and evaluation.
SEADOGS is a volunteer nonprofit [IRS 501(c)(3)] search and rescue organization dedicated to training and handling search dogs in southeast Alaska. The team works closely with other search and rescue groups, and is responsible to the Alaska State Troopers. Certified (Callout list) handlers are on 24-hour call, and available within 40 minutes or less, of notification for a search. SEADOGS has been in operation for 31 years and is recognized nationally as a search and rescue organization. The group's standards for dog and handlers were adapted from California WOOF and 'DOGS' (Anchorage). Every year SEADOGS participates in searches involving everything from lost hunters to suicide victims. While wilderness searching is the "bread and butter", dogs may also be trained in avalanche, water, disaster searching and other specialties. Teams have participated in rescue efforts from Ketchikan to Barrow, and during the Armenian and Loma Prieta (San Francisco) earthquakes.
Mail: PO BOX 35641 Juneau AK 99803
Copyright © 2018 Juneau SEADOGS - All Rights Reserved


text:
Willi Tillmans (ur. 20 listopada 1888 w Düsseldorfie, zm. 1985 w Hagen) – niemiecki malarz pejzażysta.

Studiował w Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Düsseldorfie pod kierunkiem Eugena Dückera. Malował przede wszystkim pejzaże, które wiernie oddawały naturę, jego prace odznaczały się bogatą kolorystyką i stosowaniem efektów świetlnych. Najchętniej wykonywał obrazy techniką olejną i akwarelą.

Linki zewnętrzne

Niemieccy malarze współcześni
Urodzeni w 1888
Zmarli w 1985
Akwareliści
Niemieccy pejzażyści
Ludzie urodzeni w Düsseldorfie

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text:
Q: Why is $ \|T(x) \|\le \| T\| \|x \|$? Let $X$ and $Y$ be normed linear spaces and let $T$ be a bounded linear operator from $X$ to $Y$. The norm of $T$ is defined as
$$\|T \|=\sup\{\|T(x) \|\;:\;\|x \|\le 1\}. $$
From the definition of the norm, we can say that $\|T(x) \|\le \|T \|\;\forall \;x,$ and that $\|T \|\|x \|\le \|T \|$ as $\|x\|\le 1$.
However I don't understand why we write $\|T(x)\|\le \|T\|\|x\|$?

A: Clearly $\Vert T(x) \Vert \le \Vert T \Vert$ if $\Vert x \Vert = 1$.
Now, just remember that we're dealing with linear operators.
So if $\Vert x \Vert = c$, then $\Vert \frac{x}{c} \Vert = 1$.
So $$\left\Vert T(x) \right\Vert = c \left\Vert T\left(\frac{x}{c} \right) \right\Vert \le c \Vert T \Vert$$

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text:
John Wick game announced!
Tyler Haines May 14, 2019
Good Shepherd Entertainment, in partnership with Lionsgate have announced John Wick Hex, a new video game directed by Mike Bithell (Thomas Was Alone, Volume, Subsurface Circular). Be prepared for a fast-paced action strategy game that has you thinking and striking like the profession hitman of the critically acclaimed franchise from Lionsgate which returns to theaters with John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum on May 17. The game is currently in development for consoles and will be available for PC and Mac exclusively on the Epic Games Store at launch.
John Wick Hex has been created with the assistance of the creative and stunt teams behind the films, and is described as "fight-choreographed chess brought to life as a video game", capturing the gun fu style of the series while also expanding the universe. Gamers will decide each action and attack, and need to consider the cost and consequences of these. Every move will feel like it's a scene straight out of the movies, and each fight will progress the job requiring precise strategic thinking.
By performing well and progressing through the original story you will unlock new weapons, locations and suit options. Each weapon will change the tactics and manner of play. Ammo is finite and realistic so you will need to time your reloads and make the most of the scavenged weapons.
John Wick Hex complements the style of the films with a graphic noir art design, and features voice talents with the likes of Ian McShane and Lance Reddick, and more to be announced.
For more information and updates check out http://JohnWickHex.com
Watch the announcement trailer below
John Wick, John Wick Hex
Luca - May 16, 2019 at 9:12 am
Seems a rip off, of metal gear solid.
Robbie Pearce - May 17, 2019 at 10:33 am
Yeah, but it's John Wick

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I read an article recently which I found to be stimulating and of interest and felt a need to look a little further. I hope you find my contribution to be of interest.
What I found was that "a dominant minority, also known as alien elites if recent immigrants, is a group that has overwhelming political power, economic power or cultural dominance in a country or region. This is despite the fact they represent a small fraction of the overall population.
The term apparently is most commonly used to refer to ethnic groups, defined along racial, national, religious or cultural lines. The particular group would hold a disproportionate amount of power.
White minority rule describes a situation where whites, comprising the minority of inhabitants in a given region or territory, lead countries where non-white populations are the majority of inhabitants. White minority rule was associated with legal segregation (apartheid) in South Africa but not in Rhodesia or the Portuguese colonial territories. In these countries, the franchise was extended to non-whites on a qualified basis.
The term was principally though not entirely used in Southern Africa, especially in the Republic of South Africa before and during the policy of Apartheid and also in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) during the rule of the Rhodesian Front. Many in the local non-white populations tended to favour Majority Rule, a term which the white minority tended to describe as Black Majority Rule.
White minority rule ended in these countries through a combination of violent attacks by non-white groups; peaceful protests by non-whites; widespread international moral, political and financial pressure, including from majority-white countries; and changing attitudes within the white minorities themselves.
Some scholars argue that white minority rule exists within the international system and term this phenomenon as Global Apartheid.
"Global apartheid, stated briefly, is an international system of minority rule whose attributes include: differential access to basic human rights; wealth and power structured by race and place; structural racism, embedded in global economic processes, political institutions and cultural assumptions; and the international practice of double standards that assume inferior rights to be appropriate for certain "others," defined by location, origin, race or gender.
Thanks Des, very interesting. You mention Rhodesia – it seems to me it's not just the vote, it's also who controls or is dominant in the economy and land ownership, and also who promotes their knowledge, their ideas, and their forms of education. For example the superiority that has existed in what the UK and the USA promote. There are so many examples, I had an interesting discussion just a day ago about how academics are rated by their international publications, rather than their publication in African journals. Also the use of UK and USA research that may – or more likely – may not apply to Africa. The latest example of the effect of taking international research is the issue is cross-ethnic adoption, based on overseas research. I'm also considering whether a western education is an impediment to finding solutions to African problems. Good for thinking about over the weekend.


Arriving via Godz ov War Productions, today we have France's Autokrator and their devastating and brutal mix of Death/Doom elements with heavy Drone influences. Easily as one of the most oppressive and aurally disturbing releases of 2016, the band delivers 36 minutes of pure madness that will take you to the edge of sanity.
Delivering the first punch with "Chapter I', the band opens with a disturbing audio clip that is closely followed by hellish growls and their crushing drumming. This duo does a great job in crafting a massive wall of sound that is only disturbed by the deep growls. The sheer brutality continues with the intricate "Chapter II" and the demolishing "Chapter IV". In both tracks we noticed the mixture of influences from outfits like Autor & Punisher and the all mighty Anaal Nathrakh, but taken to the extreme.
Perfectly balancing the madness with some atmospheric abuse, "Chapter III", "Chapter VI", and "Chapter VIII" nicely continue to set a very dark mood and make the listener uneasy. In terms of the most brutal track in this release, "Chapter VII" and its incisive riffs perfectly offsets some funky percussions to deliver the most oppressive track in this release.
Filled with crushing distorted vocals, pummeling riffs, and massive drumming, "The Obedience to Authority" is truly a unique experience. Autokrator creates a very disturbing atmosphere that brilliantly splattered in the 36 minutes this release lasts. If you like extreme brutality and bands like Anaal Nathrakh, which play music that we can only imagine is playing 24/7 in the depths of hell, look no further and get a copy of this album.


text:
Radicalized By Last Four Years Of Living With Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton Announces Support For Trump
Politics · Sep 9, 2020 · BabylonBee.com
U.S. - Trump has just gotten an endorsement from an unlikely source: Bill Clinton. Radicalized by four years of Hillary Clinton ranting about Putin and election interference, the former President announced his support for Trump in a video message Wednesday.
"If you had to live with Hillary for the last four years, trust me, you'd support Trump, too," an exasperated Bill Clinton said in a video released Wednesday.
"She hasn't let 2016 go. It's Russia this, Russia that. Non-stop. I tried to tell her, 'Putin didn't make you not campaign in Wisconsin, darling.' You can imagine how that went," he added.
Yelling could be heard in the background of Mr. Clinton's video, which appeared to be filmed on a cell phone with the former leader of the free world speaking in hushed tones while crouching in a dimly lit closet.
"Yes, that noise you hear is her. I told you, she hasn't stopped for four long years," said the former President as he paused to check through the cracked closet door to see if Hillary had moved closer to his location.
Mr. Clinton went on to offer a few basic reasons behind why he is now donning a Make America Great Again hat in public including Trump's ability to not constantly mention Putin, Russia, or Wikileaks to him in every single conversation.
"It was a pretty low bar. We just need to vote for whoever is not an obsessed conspiracy theory nut at this point."
Mr. Clinton ended his video message by imploring the voters, "Let's make America great again."
The Bee Explains: Creationism Vs. Evolution
U-Haul Introduces Armored War Rigs For Californians Trying To Flee State's Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland
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text:
\section{Introduction}

Nonlinear optical and matter waves carrying angular momentum readily
self-trap into vortex modes, which may be considered as two-dimensional dark
solitons supported by a modulationally stable flat background, or bright
solitons with embedded vortices. Experimental and theoretical studies of
vortices is a vast research area in nonlinear optics, studies of
Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs), quantum fluids, and in other fields. The
formation, stability, and dynamics of dark \cite{Pcoullet1989,Swartzlander1992,
Duree1995, DesTorner, Tsubota,Pramana,Allen,Matthews2009,Fetter,Achilleos2012,
Trapani,Liq-cryst,singular} and bright \cite{Dalfovo,Manolo,Berezhiani2001,
Bob,Malomed2002,trapped2,Adhikari2003,Jianke2003,Adhikari2004,quadr-cubic,
bimodal,Neshev2004,Segev,hidden,Zaliznyak,Rotschild2005,Desyatnikov2005,Michinel,
trapped3,Mihalache2006,trapped1,Kartashov2006,Minzoni2007,Jiandong2008,
liangwei2008,Yingji2008,Weiping2009,Skarka2010,Yuwu2013,Min2014,Zhaopin2014,
Kartashov2014,Driben2014,Nir,Dong,liao2017} vortices have been explored
in a great variety of settings, including conservative and dissipative ones,
continuous and discrete media, local and nonlocal interactions, and
different types of the nonlinearity -- cubic (self-focusing and defocusing),
cubic-quintic, saturable, and quadratic (second-harmonic generating). A
recent development has produced unexpected predictions in the form of bright
semi-vortices (bound states of components with vorticities $S=0$ and $S=1$)
in spinor BECs with the spin-orbit coupling\ and contact attractive
interactions, which are stable in free space \cite{SVS1,Yongchang,SVS2,SVS3,SVS4,
Guihua2017},as well as stable gap solitons of the semi-vortex type in the free space
with dipole-dipole interactions (DDIs) \cite{Gap}.

In many cases, bright vortex solitons are stable solely with the unitary
topological charge, $S=1$. In particular, the spin-orbit coupling supports
solitons with vorticities $S=1$ and $S=2$ in its two components, which are
completely unstable \cite{SVS1,Gap}. Vortices in the self-attractive BEC
trapped in an harmonic-oscillator potential also have a stability area
solely for $S=1$ \cite{Dalfovo,trapped2, trapped3,trapped1}. Vortex solitons
in the free space with the cubic-quintic nonlinearity \cite{Manolo} feature
stability regions for $S>1$, but they are very narrow, starting from $S=3$
\cite{Bob}. Typically, the vortex solitons with $S>1$ are subject to
azimuthal perturbations which break them into $S$ fragments \cit
{Soto-Crespo1991,Skrybin1998,trapped2,trapped1}. This instability has been
demonstrated experimentally for vortex beams propagating in saturable
self-focusing media \cite{Soljacic1998, Desyantikov2001, Soljaic2001}, as well
as in quadratic ones \cite{Dima}.

Sufficiently large stability regions in the parametric space for vortex
solitons with $S>1$ were found in axisymmetric potential lattices with the
Bessel functional profile in the radial direction, combined with the
self-defocusing nonlinearity \cite{Kartashov2005Bessel}. In that case, a
deeper lattice is required to stabilize solitary vortices with higher values
of $S$. Because the Bessel potential vanishes at $r\rightarrow \infty $, the
total norm of modes trapped in it under the action of self-defocusing,
strictly speaking, diverges in the infinite space. Truly confined gap
solitons (GSs), i.e., solitons whose chemical potential falls in one of bandgaps
generated by the underlying potential lattice, were constructed considering
the combination of the self-defocusing cubic nonlinearity
and a radially-periodic potential, $\sim
\cos \left( 2kr\right) $, where $r$ is the radial coordinate \cit
{Bakhtiyor2006}. However, only radial GSs with $S=0$ were found to be
completely stable in the latter model, while all confined vortices featured
a weak azimuthal instability. Self-trapped vortices, which remain stable, at
least, up to $S=5$, were recently found in a model of a polariton type,
which combines the self-repulsive contact nonlinearity of a two-component
BEC and effective nonlocal self-attraction mediated by the microwave field
generated by transitions between two components resonantly coupled by the
field \cite{Dong}. Nonlocal interactions, considered in Ref.
\cite{Dong}, or in the present work (see below), introducing their own radial scale,
provide more options in the interplay with the radially-periodic
lattice, which helps, in particular, to stabilize vortex GS modes against
the azimuthal instability.

The objective of the present work is to predict stable GSs with $S=0$ and
S\geq 1$ in a dipolar BECs trapped in a radially periodic potential, with
dipole moments polarized perpendicular to the system's plane, which gives
rise to the isotropic repulsive DDI. In earlier works, DDIs were used to
predict stable one-dimensional \cite{Santos11,epsilon01,Lauro,Bland2015} and
two-dimensional \cite{Pedri2005,Tikhonenkov2008,Tikhonenkov2208,Gligoric1,
Gligoric2,koberle2012,Yongyao2013,Raghuandan2015,Xuyong2015,Huaiyu2006,
Muruganandam2011} solitons in other settings. In addition, it was found that
quadrupole-quadrupole interactions are also able to create stable two-dimensional
solitons \cite{Q,Jiasheng}.However, the free-space DDI per se cannot stabilize
vortex solitons with $S>1 $ \cite{Tikhonenkov2208}. In this work, we demonstrate
that ring-shaped vortex GSs with higher values of $S$ (at least, up to $S=11$)
are readily made stable by the combined effect of the radial lattice potential and
repulsive isotropic DDIs. Furthermore, double and multiple sets of
concentric vortex solitons, with different topological charges, may stably
coexist, if placed in different annular potential troughs of the radial
lattice. In that case, vorticity jumps take place at zero-amplitude notches
separating the concentric vortices. The latter property was not reported in
previously considered two-dimensional models.

The paper is structured as follows. The model is introduced in Sec. II,
which is followed by presentation of numerical results for the fundamental (
S=0$) and vortex ($S\geq 1$) GSs in Sec. III. The stability of the solitons
is verified by means of systematic direct simulations. The paper is
concluded by Sec. IV.

\section{The model}

According to what is said above, we consider an effectively two-dimensional
setting, modeled by Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which is written in the
scaled form:
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned} i{\frac{\partial }{\partial t}}\Psi
(\mathbf{r},t)=-{\frac{1}{2}}\nabla ^{2}\Psi (\mathbf{r},t)+V(r)\Psi
(\mathbf{r},t)\\ +\kappa \Psi (\mathbf{r},t)\int
R(\mathbf{r}-\mathbf{r^{\prime }})|\Psi (\mathbf{r^{\prime
}},t)|^{2}d\mathbf{r^{\prime }}, \label{fulleq} \end{aligned}
\end{equation
where $\mathbf{r}=\left\{ x,y\right\} $ is the set of coordinates, $\nabla
^{2}=\partial _{x}^{2}+\partial _{y}^{2}$ is the respective Laplacian, $\Psi
(\mathbf{r},t)$ is the mean-field wave function, and $\kappa >0$ is the
strength of the DDI, with the isotropic kernel corresponding to the
particles' dipolar moments polarized perpendicular to the $\left( x,y\right)
$ plane:
\begin{equation}
R(\mathbf{r}-\mathbf{r^{\prime }})={\frac{1}{[\epsilon ^{2}+(\mathbf{r}
\mathbf{r^{\prime }})^{2}]^{3/2}}}.  \label{rkerneleq}
\end{equation
Here, cutoff $\epsilon $ is the regularization parameter, which is
determined by the confinement of the three-dimensional condensate in the
transverse direction \cite{Santos11,epsilon01}. Further, the axisymmetric
radially-periodic lattice potential is taken as
\begin{equation}
V(r)=V_{0}\mathrm{cos}(2r+\delta ),  \label{ring}
\end{equation
where $r=\sqrt{x^{2}+y^{2}}$, the depth of the lattice potential is $2V_{0}>0
$, the radial period is fixed to be $\pi $ by scaling, and $\delta $ is a
phase constant. Here, we focus on the consideration of two most essential
cases, \textit{viz}., $\delta =0$ and $\delta =\pi $, which correspond to a
potential maximum or minimum at the center, $r=0$, respectively, see Fig.
\ref{potentialwell}.
\begin{figure}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{1a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{1b.eps}}
\caption{Radial potentials (\protect\ref{ring}) with $V_{0}=1$, for $\protec
\delta =0$ (a) and $\protect\delta =\protect\pi $ (b).}
\label{potentialwell}
\end{figure}
We look for stationary axisymmetric states with\ chemical potential $\mu $
and integer vorticity $S$ as solutions to Eq. (\ref{fulleq}) in the form of
\begin{equation}
\Psi (\mathbf{r},t)=\psi (r)\exp \left( iS\theta -i\mu t\right) ,
\label{solution}
\end{equation
where $\theta $ is the angular coordinate. Self-trapped GS solutions are
characterized by the total norm,
\begin{equation}
N=2\pi \int_{0}^{\infty }{\psi }^{2}{(r){rdr}},  \label{ppeq}
\end{equation
and the angular momentum, $M=SN$. Its energy is
\begin{equation}
E=E_{\mathrm{K}}+E_{\mathrm{V}}+E_{\mathrm{DDI}},  \label{E}
\end{equation
where $E_{\mathrm{K}}$, $E_{\mathrm{V}}$ and $E_{\mathrm{DDI}}$ are the
kinetic, potential, and DDI terms, respectively:

\begin{equation}
E_{\mathrm{K}}=\int \left\vert \nabla \psi \right\vert ^{2}d\mathbf{r} \\
\equiv {\pi }\int_{0}^{\infty }\left[ \left( \frac{d\psi }{dr}\right) ^{2}
\frac{S^{2}}{r^{2}}\psi ^{2}(r)\right] rdr,  \label{K}
\end{equation}

\begin{eqnarray}
&&E_{\mathrm{V}}=2\pi \int {V(}r{)\psi }^{2}{(r)rd}r,  \label{V} \\
&&E_{\mathrm{DDI}}={\frac{\kappa }{2}}\iint {R(\mathbf{r}-\mathbf{r}^{\prime
})|\psi (\mathbf{r})|^{2}{|\psi (\mathbf{r}^{\prime })|}^{2}}d\mathbf{r}
\mathbf{r}^{\prime }.  \label{EDDI}
\end{eqnarray}

Two-dimensional bright GSs can be supported by the interplay of the radially
periodic potential and repulsive interaction \cite{Bakhtiyor2006}. In this
work, we focus on the DDI, which was not previously considered in the
present setting, neglecting contact interactions, which can be effectively
suppressed by means of the Feshbach resonance \cite{Feshbach}. In fact,
effects of adding moderately strong contact interactions to the DDI were
checked too (not shown in detail in this paper, as no dramatic changes
in the results were observed in that case).

Numerical simulations have been carried out by dint of algorithm of PCSOM
\cite{YangJK}, fixing $\kappa \equiv 1$ by means of scaling, and, typically,
taking $\epsilon =0.5$, which is small enough in comparison with the potential's
period, $\pi $, making it possible to produce generic results. It was additionally
checked that taking still smaller $\epsilon$ (e.g., $0.25$) does not produce any
conspicuous change in the results. The stability
of stationary soliton solutions was tested by means of real-time
propagation, which was implemented with the help of the standard split-step
-- fast-Fourier-transform algorithm.

\section{Numerical results}

\subsection{The radial lattice with $\protect\delta =0$ (potential maximum
at the center)}

\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{2a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{2b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{2c.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) A typical fundamental ($S=0,n=1$) ring-shaped gap
soliton for $\protect\delta =0$, other parameters being $N=1.3$ and $V_{0}=1
. (a) The density of stationary wave function in the $(x,y)$ plane. (b) Its
cross section, $|\protect\psi \left( x,0\right) |^{2}$, along $y=0$. (c) The
cross-section of the real-time simulation, which demonstrates stability of
the soliton.}
\label{Ringsoliton}
\end{figure*}

\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{3a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{3b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{3c.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{3d.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{3e.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{3f.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) Two typical examples of stable gap-vortex solitons
for $\protect\delta =0$. (a) and (b): Density and phase profiles of the
vortex soliton for $S=1,n=1$ [$n$ is defined as per Eq. (\protect\ref{min
)]. (c) The cross-section of the real-time evolution, corroborating the
stability of the vortex soliton. (d,e,f) The same as in (a,b,c),
respectively, but for $S=4,n=3$. The norm of both vortex solitons is $N=1.3
, and the strength of the radial potential is $V_{0}=1$.}
\label{Vortexsoliton}
\end{figure*}

When radial potential (\ref{ring}), has a maximum at the center, Eq. (\re
{fulleq}), naturally, cannot produce a fundamental soliton ($S=0$) with a
density peak at $r=0$. Instead, the model readily produces stable GSs with
S=0,1,2,3,4,..$. which feature a density minimum at the center, and the main
radial density peak trapped in a trough with the bottom at one of potential
minima
\begin{equation}
r_{\min }=\pi \left( n-\frac{1}{2}\right) ,~n=1,2,3,4,...,  \label{min}
\end{equation
where $n$ is the number of the radial minimum. Typical examples of such
ring-shaped solitons are displayed in Fig. \ref{Ringsoliton} for $S=0$, and
in Fig. \ref{Vortexsoliton} for $S=1$ and $S=4$. The GSs with $S=0$ and $1$
place their density maxima close to $n=1$, while the vortex with $S=4$
chooses $n=3$. It is worthy to note than the latter vortex mode, with a high
value of the topological charge, $S=4$, displayed in Fig. \ref{Vortexsoliton
(d-f), is definitely stable, on the contrary to a majority of models where
it would be unstable. In fact, we have obtained stable vortex solitons with
topological charges up to $S=11$, as indicated below in Figs. \ref{muVortex
(a) and \ref{deltapiVortex}(d).

\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{4a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{4b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{4c.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) (a) The cross-section $|\protect\psi (x,0)|$ of
profiles of the gap solitons trapped in different annular potential troughs
(here we display the absolute value of the field, rather than the density,
to display the profiles in a clearer form). (a) The solitons with $S=0$ and
1$ in the first trough, which corresponds to $n=1$ in Eq. (\protect\ref{min
). (b) $S=2$ and $3$, in the trough with $n=2$. (c) $S=4$ and $5$, in the
trough with $n=3$. The norm of all the gap solitons displayed here is $N=1.3
, and the half-depth of the periodic potential is $V_{0}=1$.}
\label{abspsi}
\end{figure*}

\begin{figure}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{5a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{5b.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) (a) The energy, defined by Eqs. (\protect\ref{E})-
\protect\ref{EDDI}), of the gap solitons with different vorticities $S$, and
the radial location of their main density peaks. Yellow stripes denote the
respective potential troughs. The norm of all the solitons presented in this
panel is $N=1.3$. (b) Chemical potential, $\protect\mu $, for the
gap-soliton families with different values of $S$, versus the norm, $N$, at
V_{0}=1$. This panel demonstrates that all the families satisfy the anti-
Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion, $\mathrm{d}\protect\mu /\mathrm{d}N>0$, which
is a necessary condition for the stability of solitons supported by a
repusive nonlinearity (see the main text). }
\label{muVortex}
\end{figure}

Systematic numerical results, collected in Figs. \ref{abspsi} and \re
{muVortex}(a), demonstrates that the GSs with $S=0$ and $1$ are trapped in
the trough with $n=1$, GSs with $S=2$ and $3$ choose $n=2$, ones $S=4$ and $5
$ choose $n=3$, and so on, obeying an empiric relatio
\begin{equation}
n_{\mathrm{main~peak}}=1+\left[ S/2\right] ,  \label{main}
\end{equation
where $\left[ {}\right] $ stands for the integer part. Figure \ref{muVortex
(a) also shows that the vortex modes with odd $S$ have their energy
decreasing with the growth of $S$, while the energy of ones with even $S$
exhibit a very slow increase of the energy, starting from $S=2$. Further,
the mode with odd $S$ has its energy always higher than its counterpart with
even vorticity, $S-1$, sharing the same position of the density maximum.

The linear dependence in Eq. (\ref{main}) for large $S$ can be explained in
a qualitative form. Indeed, the strongest dependence of the energy of
ring-shaped solitons on the ring's radius, $R\approx \pi n$ for large $n$
[see Eq. (\ref{min})], is provided by the second term in Eq. (\ref{K}),
E_{S}~\approx \left( S/R\right) ^{2}N$ [for comparison, the DDI energy,
defined as per Eq. (\ref{EDDI}), can be estimated as $\sim \kappa N^{2}/R$].
On the other hand, the energy term which provides for the trapping of the
ring-shaped mode in the annular trap, is estimated as $E_{\mathrm{trap
}\approx 2V_{0}N$. Then , the balance of the two terms predicts $R\sim S
\sqrt{V_{0}}$.

The dependence of the chemical potential, $\mu $, on norm $N$, which is
displayed in Fig. \ref{muVortex}(b) for the GS families with $S=0,1,2,3$,
demonstrates that they obey the \textit{anti-Vakhitov-Kolokolov criterion},
\mathrm{d}\mu /\mathrm{d}N>0$, which is a necessary condition for stability
of solitons supported by any kind of repulsive nonlinearity \cite{VK1,VK2}.
The same is true for still larger values of $S$, up to $S=11$ (largest $S$
considered in the present work).

\subsection{The radial lattice with $\protect\delta =\protect\pi $
(potential minimum at the center)}

\subsubsection{Fundamental gap solitons ($S=0$)}

Radial potential (\ref{ring})\ with $\delta =\pi $ gives rise to a set of
potential minim
\begin{equation}
r_{\min }=\pi n,~n=0,1,2,3,...,  \label{min2}
\end{equation
cf. Eq. (\ref{min}). In this case, is natural to expect the existence of
stable fundamental GSs with a density peak at $r=0$, which corresponds to
the zeroth minimum, in terms of Eq. (\ref{min2}). This expectation is borne
out by numerical results, see a typical example in Fig. \ref{Fundsoliton}.
\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{6a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{6b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{6c.eps}}
\caption{(color online). A fundamental ($S=0$) gap soliton trapped in the
center of the radial lattice potential (\protect\ref{ring}) with $\protec
\delta =\protect\pi $. (a) The density profile of the soliton $|\protect\psi
(x,y)|^{2}$. (b) Its cross-section, $|\protect\psi (x,0)|^{2}$. (c) The
cross-section of the simulated evolution of $|\protect\psi (x,0)|^{2}$,
which demonstrates stability of the soliton. Its norm is $N=0.5$, and the
strength of the potential is $V_{0}=2$ in this case. }
\label{Fundsoliton}
\end{figure*}

To characterize the family of the fundamental GSs, we define its effective
area as
\begin{equation}
A_{\mathrm{eff}}={\frac{\left( \int |\psi (x,y)|^{2}\mathrm{d}x\mathrm{d
y\right) ^{2}}{\int |\psi (x,y)|^{4}\mathrm{d}x\mathrm{d}y}}.
\end{equation
Along with the chemical potential, $\mu $, it is shown, as a function of the
norm, $N$, and the potential depth, $V_{0}$, in Fig. \ref{Aeff}. In
particular, Fig. \ref{Aeff}(a,b) show that, quite naturally, the size of the
fundamental GS increases when the self-repulsive DDI becomes stronger, but
decreases with the growth of the trapping potential. Further, Fig. \ref{Aeff
(c) corroborates that these solitons satisfy the anti-Vakhitov-Kolokolov
criterion. In agreement with this finding, the family of the fundamental GSs
is entirely stable.

Finally, the transition from $\mathrm{d}\mu /\mathrm{d}V_{0}>0$ in the
relatively shallow radial lattice, at $V_{0}<2.3$, to $\mathrm{d}\mu
\mathrm{d}V_{0}<0$ at $V_{0}>2.3$ implies that properties of the soliton
family are dominated by the nonlinear interaction in the former case, and by
the linear trapping potential in the latter one. Indeed, direct simulations
demonstrate that the trapped mode with $S=0$ \textquotedblleft almost
exists" in the deep potential with $V_{0}>2.3$ in the absence of the
nonlinear interaction ($\kappa =0$), exhibiting very slow decay.
\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{7a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{7b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{7c.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{7d.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) (a,b) $A_{\mathrm{eff}}$ for the fundamental gap
soliton ($S=0$), trapped in the central well of radial potential with
\protect\delta =\protect\pi $ [$n=0$ in Eq. (\protect\ref{min2})], versus $N$
and $V_{0}$, respectively. In panel (a) $V_{0}=2$, and in (b) $N=0.5$. (c)
\protect\mu $ versus $N$ with $V_{0}=2$. (d) $\protect\mu $ versus $V_{0}$
with $N=0.5$. Other parameters are $\protect\kappa =1$ and $\protect\epsilon
=0.5$.}
\label{Aeff}
\end{figure*}

\subsubsection{Ring-shaped and vortex solitons}

Besides the fundamental GSs trapped in the central potential well, the
radial lattice with $\delta =\pi $ supports stable ring-shaped GSs, trapped
in annular potential trough, also with $S=0$, as well as ring-shaped vortex
GSs. A typical example of the stable ring mode with $S=0$, placed in the
trough with $n=1$, is displayed in Fig. \ref{anotherringsoliton}. Further,
Fig. \ref{deltapiVortex} shows an example of a stable soliton with high
vorticity, $S=5$, which is trapped in the trough with $n=3$ [see Eq. (\re
{min2})].
\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{8a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{8b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.55\columnwidth]{8c.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) A typical example of the fundamental ring soliton (
S=0$) trapped in the radial potential (\protect\ref{ring})\ with $\protec
\delta =\protect\pi $. (a) The density profile of this gap soliton, $
\protect\psi (x,y)|^{2}$. (b) Its cross-section, $|\protect\psi (x,0)|^{2}$,
which clearly shows that it is trapped in the annular trough with $n=1$, see
Eq. (\protect\ref{min2}). (c) Cross-section of the simulated evolution,
which confirms the stability of the soliton. The norm of the soliton is
N=1.3$, and the half-depth of the radial potential is $V_{0}=2$. }
\label{anotherringsoliton}
\end{figure*}

\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{9a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{9b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{9c.eps}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{9d.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) An example of a stable vortex gap soliton with a
high topological charge, $S=5$, trapped in the third annular trough of the
radial potential (\protect\ref{ring}) with $\protect\delta =\protect\pi $.
Parameters are $N=1.3$ and $V_{0}=2$. (a) and (b): The density and phase
profiles of the vortex soliton. (c) The cross-section of the simultated
evolution, which corroborates the stability of the vortex. (d) The same as
in Fig. \protect\ref{muVortex}(a), but for potential (\protect\ref{ring})
with $\protect\delta =\protect\pi $  (the energy of the soliton with $S=0$
trapped at the center of the lattice, $n=0$, is $E_{0}=1.943$, which is not
displayed in this panel, as it is much larger than the values presented
here). Other parameters are fixed as $N=1.3$, $V_{0}=2$.}
\label{deltapiVortex}
\end{figure*}

Numerical results produce the same relation between the location of the
ring-shaped solitons and their vorticity which is identified above for the
radial potential with $\delta =0$, see Eq. (\ref{main}) (the same
explanation for the linear dependence on large values of $S$, as that
outlined above, is relevant in the present case too). Namely, the GSs with
S=0$ and $1$ are trapped in the trough with $n=1$ in Eq. (\ref{min2}), ones
with $S=2$ and $3$ are placed at $n=2$, the solitons with $S=4$ and $5$ are
trapped in the trough with $n=3$, etc. These results are summarized in Fig.
\ref{deltapiVortex}(d). Similar to the case of $\delta =0$ [cf. Fig. \re
{muVortex}(a)], the energy of the trapped states with odd $S$ is higher than
the energy of their counterparts with even vorticity, $S-1$, with the same
position of the density maximum. A difference from the case of $\delta =0$
is that the modes with even $S$ feature increase of their energy with the
growth of $S$, starting from $S=2$, while the energy of the modes with
odd $S$ remain virtually constant.

\subsection{Stable coexistence of double and multiple solitons}

The existence of stable ring-shaped GSs with different topological charges,
located in different annular potential troughs, suggests that such modes
with different values of $S$ may have a chance to coexist in the system as
concentric modes, one embedded into the other. The coexistence of adjacent
layers with different topological charges implies that they must be
separated by zero-amplitude circular lines. Numerical results, produced by
direct simulations of inputs built as superpositions of two ring vortices
corroborate this conjecture, if the radial separation between the concentric
rings is large enough (i.e., the interaction between them is sufficiently
weak), as shown in Figs. \ref{Vortexsuperpose}(a-c). Due to the relation
between the radial location of the ring soliton and $S$ [as per Eq. (\re
{main})], the latter condition implies that the concentric rings must
pertain to sufficiently different values of $S$. Moreover, Figs. \re
{Vortexsuperpose}(d,e) demonstrate a similar result produced by the initial
superposition of three concentric GSs, under the same condition that they
are separated well enough. On the other hand, an input with conspicuous
overlap between the initial vortex rings gives rise to unstable evolution,
see Fig. \ref{Vortexsuperpose}(f,g).
\begin{figure*}[t]
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{10a.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{10b.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{10c.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{10d.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{10e.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{10f.eps}}
\subfigure[]{\includegraphics[width=0.49\columnwidth]{10g.eps}}
\caption{(Color online) (a) The absolute-value profile of the concentric
superposition of ring vortices with $S=1$ and $S=8$ (inner and outer rings,
respectively), used as an input for direct simulations, with potential
\protect\ref{ring}) that has a minimum at the center ($\protect\delta
\protect\pi $). (b) The output pattern of the simulation initiated by the
input in (a) at $t=2000$. (c) The cross-section along the $x$ axis,
illustrating the stable evolution of the concentric complex in the direct
simulations. (d) The same as in (a), but with the input formed by the
concentric superposition of three rings, with $S=0$ (placed at the the
center), $S=4$, and $S=10$. (e) The stable output pattern produced by the
evolution of the input from (d) at $t=2000$. (f) The same as in (a), but for
the input taken as a superposition of ring vortices with $S=1$ and $S=2$; in
this case, a conspicuous interference in observed in the input. (h) The
result of unstable evolution initiated by the input from (f). In all the
cases, parameters are $N=0.5$ and $V_{0}=2$.}
\label{Vortexsuperpose}
\end{figure*}

\section{Conclusion}

We have elaborated a setting which makes it possible to readily stabilize
bright vortex solitons with arbitrarily high values of the topological
charge, $S$. The setting is realized as a two-dimensional dipolar BEC
trapped in an axisymmetric radially periodic potential, with dipole moments
of particles polarized perpendicular to the system's plane, which gives rise
to the isotropic repulsive DDI (dipole-dipole interaction). The radial
potentials with both the maximum and minimum at the center were considered.
The interplay of the radial lattice potential and repulsive interactions
creates families of stable annular GSs (gap solitons) with $S=0$ and $S\geq 1
$. Unlike the similar setting with contact repulsive interactions \cit
{Bakhtiyor2006}, where the annular vortex GSs are (weakly) unstable, the
present system gives rise to GS families which are completely stable (at
least, up to $S=11$). The ring-shaped GSs have their main density peak
located in an annular potential trough whose number grows, for large $S$, as
$S/2$ [see Eq. (\ref{main})]. The linear growth of the vortex' radial
location with $S$ was qualitatively explained on the basis of the energy
considerations. Further, sets of concentric annular GSs with sufficiently
large radial separation between them, i.e., with essentially different
values of $S$, stably coexist in the present system. The optical angular
momentum becoming an important factor in modern information-processing
technologies \cite{OAM1,OAM2}, the setting analyzed in this work may find
application to the storage of data encoded in values of the vorticity.

A challenging extension of the work is to construct three-dimensional bright
GSs with embedded vorticity in the dipolar BEC, which will make it necessary
to combine the radial potential with the a term which periodically varies
along the transverse coordinate, $z$ [such as $\cos \left( qz\right) $], so
as to build an axially stacked version of the radial potential lattice, that
should feature a full three-dimensional bandgap in its spectrum.

\section*{Acknowledgments}

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(Grant Nos. 11575063, 11204037, 61575041). B.A.M. appreciates a Ding Ying
visiting professorship provided by the South China Agricultural University
(Guangzhou). The work of this authors is supported, in part, by the joint
program in physics between NSF and Binational (US-Israel) Science Foundation
through project No. 2015616, and by the Israel Science Foundation through
grant No. 12876/17.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Organist Colin Lynch '06MM releases debut solo album
Colin Lynch '06MM has released his debut solo album, The Organ of Stambaugh Auditorium, on the Raven Label. In the recording, he plays works by Whitlock, Parry, Roger-Ducasse, and Vierne on the four-manual, 67-stop E.M Skinner organ in Stambaugh Auditorium, Youngstown, Ohio.
The hall and organ were built in 1926 at the bequest of Henry H. Stambaugh. In 2010, A. Thompson-Allen Co. restored all of the original equipment of the organ.
Mr. Lynch is Associate Director of Music and the Organist at Trinity Church in Copley Square, Boston, MA.
alumni, colin lynch, organ, recordings


Automations help you manage your workflow and, potentially, improve performance and customer satisfaction by alerting you to tickets that remain unresolved and need to be escalated.
Automations are similar to triggers because both define conditions and actions that modify ticket properties and optionally send email notifications to customers and agents. Where they differ is that automations execute when a time event occurs after a ticket property was set or updated, rather than immediately after a ticket is created or updated.
Check the Triggers & mail notifications article on how to add and manage the triggers.
Automations are time driven, thus while configuring an automation it is required to add at least one time based condition.
Add conditions and actions as per your requirement and click the Save Automation button to complete the automation configuration.


text:
Q: Why this C++ program not working for few testcases? On the first row, we write a 0. Now in every subsequent row, we look at the previous row and replace each occurrence of 0 with 01, and each occurrence of 1 with 10.
Given row N and index K, return the K-th indexed symbol in row N. (The values of K are 1-indexed.) (1 indexed).
Examples:
Input: N = 1, K = 1
Output: 0
Input: N = 2, K = 1
Output: 0
Input: N = 2, K = 2
Output: 1
Input: N = 4, K = 5
Output: 1
Explanation:
row 1: 0
row 2: 01
row 3: 0110
row 4: 01101001

Link to the Problem:
https://leetcode.com/explore/learn/card/recursion-i/253/conclusion/1675/

Solution:
class Solution {
public:
    int kthGrammar(int N, int K) {
        if(N==0||K==0)
            return 0;

        string result="0";
        string finals;
        int i,j;
        for(j=0;j<N-1;j++)
        {

            for(i=0;i<result.length();i++)
            {
                if(result[i]=='0')
                    finals.append("01");
                else
                    finals.append("10");
            }
            result=finals;

        }
        return result[K-1]-'0';
    }
};

A: Your finals string remains with old contents. Seems you need to clear it at every loop turn.
Anyway, your approach is not suitable for large inputs - so instead of (huge) string generation consider calculation of needed symbol with some math.

A: def f(n,k):
   if n == 1:
     return 0
   if k<=pow(2,n-2):
     return f(n-1,k)
   else:
     return 1-f(n-1,k-(pow(2,n-2)))

the above is a better soln. written in python but same logic can be used


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If you have a mosquito problem, contact Integra Termite and Pest Control, the Fort Worth mosquito control experts today at 817-498-5816.


text:
Telling Real Stories: Filmmakers Hesham Issawi and Sayed Badreya Shatter Stereotypes in Hollywood.
From dragonfire
by Robert Hicks in New York, New York USA
Everything changed for Arab-Americans working in Hollywood after 9/11. Just ask Egyptian-Americans Hesham Issawi and Sayed Badreya, whose forthcoming film, American East, faithfully portrays the social realities of Arab-American life and the struggles faced by Arabs and Jews working together in post-9/11 America.
"We usually see 9/11 not from Arabs' point of view," says Issawi, whose earlier film, The Interrogation, won Best Creative Short Film at the 2002 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. "It should be really interesting to see how Arabs really feel about 9/11 and how it affected their lives, not in the Middle East, but in America."
A veteran Hollywood actor, writer and producer, Badreya knows all too well the typecasting that Arab-American actors, writers, directors and producers must face on a daily basis in Hollywood. He assumed the role of a Palestinian hijacker in Stuart Baird's Executive Decision. He played an Iraqi commander in David O. Russell's Three Kings. He portrayed a Hezbollah gunman who fires upon his own people in Michael Mann's thriller, The Insider. He has blown up people, sneered at hateful Americans, become an Arab pilot helping Americans fight the alien invaders and epitomized evil, all in keeping with Hollywood's negative, stereotypical images of the Tinseltown Arab.
"We want to tell our story now," says Badreya. "If you look at the history of cinema, people can't tell their story unless they do their own story. Like African-Americans before Spike Lee didn't have a strong storyteller to tell the story of the African-American in America. We've always seen our Arab-American story told by an American guy from Ohio, or from New York, or from Los Angeles. They tell our story from a different side, so we've decided to tell our story from our point of view."
Badreya sees Arab stereotypes dating back to America's silent film era. "The silent films had the ugly, big-nosed Arab," he says. "It's the same thing with the stereotype of the American Indian. Then wars came and we see the Korean, the German and the Japanese. We see the Vietnamese and the Russians. This time, it's the black and the Arab. Stereotype is [an unfortunate] part of cinema. The Egyptians used it against the Jew and the [non-Egyptian] African."
Badreya and Issawi have worked hard to make their way into American film life, but they've encountered stereotypes along their way to success. "It's difficult to find someone who will allow you to tell your story. Until now, nobody had believed anybody could make a story about Arab-Americans. Before 9/11, it was impossible. Now because of 9/11, Arab-Americans are part of everyday life in the American living room. You hear about us when something bad happens. You hear about us when something horrible is happening in the Middle East. You don't see us, though, unless you go to the 7-11 or you go to the gas station. Sometimes you see us in the hospital as a doctor, but you don't recognize us, because you don't think an Arab, Muslim or Egyptian is smart enough to be a doctor, or whatever," says Badreya.
Issawi also says that moviegoers in the West have certain expectations if a film is produced by someone from the Middle East. "People always expect me to make films about Arabs," Issawi says. "I want to make movies really. I want to make genre movies. I want to make noir. I want to make thrillers. It doesn't have to be about the Arab community. I just want to make cinema. It just so happens that I'm from the Middle East."
On the other hand, Badreya and Issawi want to counteract American prejudgments of Arab-Americans. Several years ago, they wrote a feature script and shopped it around to various Hollywood producers and filmmakers, including Peter Farrelly (Something About Mary, Stuck On You). Badreya, who has also been cast as a doctor, stockbroker and professor in Farrelly films, knew the Farrelly Brothers (Bobby and Peter) from his days as a film student at New York University in the 1980s.
"Basically, Peter said you guys should go make a movie about ourselves. You should write a story about Muslims and Arabs in America. Write something so that people will get to know you from it. It really became something personal. Our goal was to write something about the plight of Arab-Americans after 9/11," says Issawi.
They're already working on that goal and are in pre-production on American East. It's the story of Mustaf Marzoke (Sayed Badreya), an Egyptian widower who is struggling to raise his two children while practicing his traditional Muslim faith, starting a restaurant business with his Jewish friend, Sam (Lebanese-American actor Tony Shalhoub, star of the TV series Monk) and pursuing the American dream in the Culver City section of Los Angeles.
"I want to tell a story first, and I want to tell it cinematically and visually. My goal was to tell the story through the grammar of cinema while making it interesting and entertaining for people to watch. I want to tell the story of Middle Easterners living in America," says Issawi.
Mustaf and Sam face resistance from their respective communities, so they struggle to maintain their friendship and business partnership. Meanwhile, Mustaf's 30-year-old sister, Salwah (Sarah Shahi), revolts against traditional arranged marriages among Muslims. She wants to marry a true friend, perhaps even an American. Mustaf's 12-year-old son, Mohammed (Richard Chagoury), is teased at school for being Muslim and faces an identity crisis. Omar (Kais Nashef) is a young Arab-American actor who gets typecast in stereotypical film roles and eventually lives out people's false expectations of him in real life. Other story lines reveal the tension between old and new traditions, as well as other facets of Muslim life in America.
"It's really a movie like Crash. There are all these stories, but they're all connected to each other," says Issawi. "Each story line presents something different about the plight of Arab-Americans."
He added, "The challenge was to make it visually interesting and to make people see them, feel those characters, know what they are going through in America."
American East was shot in 35mm color with a running time of one hour and 50 minutes with a cast of over 45 actors in the Glendale section of Los Angeles in summer 2006. Producers Brian Cox, Mohamed Malas, Anant Singh and Ahmad Zahra helped finance this groundbreaking look at Arab-American life.
"We wrote the script together," says Badreya. "I come from the school of Clint Eastwood. It's a one-shot deal or a two-shot day. My story is not coming from 15 takes or 16 takes."
Badreya and Issawi first worked together on the TV movie, Falafel City. Badreya wrote, directed and produced it, and he hired Issawi to edit the short film. It concerned an actor who tried to make positive movies about Arab life in America. Turned down by Hollywood producers, he hijacked a film and turned it into his own vision of Arab-American life.
Badreya is also concerned about the preservation of Egyptian film classics from the 1940s through the 1960s. He and Issawi worked together on a 52-minute documentary titled Saving Egyptian Film Classics, which featured commentary from American directors Martin Scorsese and Arthur Hiller, in 2001. It focused on the preservation of film negatives by the Academy of Motion Picture and Consolidated Film Industries (CFI, a division of Technicolor Entertainment Services), the leading film preservation center in Hollywood.
A year later, Badreya produced and Issawi directed, wrote and edited their award-winning short film, The Interrogation, about two men interrogating one another. Badreya acted in and produced and Issawi wrote and directed their short called After Dark.
Former CBS news consultant and film critic Jack Shaheen examined Hollywood's obsession with negative portrayals of Arabs in his 2002 book, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. The film industry in much of the Middle East hasn't done much better at honestly portraying Arab life since the 1970s. One exception is the flourishing film industry in Iran, and there is also good contemporary cinema in Morocco and Palestine. For the most part, though, serious Arabian filmmakers have almost become an extinct species in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, where light comedic fare has become a thin substitute for realistic filmmakers, such as Atef al-Tayeb, Salah Abu Seif, Yusuf Chanine, Toufic Saleh and Niazi Mustapha who rose to fame during Egypt's Golden Age of cinema from 1940-1970.
"Everything made in Egypt now is a comedy," laments Badreya. Issawi adds, "The problem with most films coming out of Egypt right now is they're never true to what's happening in Egypt now. It's all about the past or recycling ideas. Artists need to explore new things, but that's really tough in an oppressive society." Censorship and funding are constant concerns for filmmakers in Egypt.
Both Badreya and Issawi grew up watching American and Egyptian films. Badreya, 49, hails from a ghetto in the business city of Port Said, Egypt. He remembers watching John Wayne in American cowboy movies, Clint Eastwood in spaghetti westerns and other American actors in big epic films as a way of escaping from the daily terrors of the Six Day and Yom Kippur wars against Israel.
"I've watched movies all my life. I'd go to the double features with an American movie and an Egyptian movie, and I fell in love with American life," he says.
He studied English at Emerson College in Boston in 1979 before moving in with actor Woody Harrelson and other friends in New York, where he studied directing, acting and film at New York University in 1980. Six years later, he moved to Santa Monica.
"I started to make money just as an actor playing theme roles," he says. "I studied films and starting shooting films to tell the Arab-American story." To help translate those stories into cinema, he formed Zoom In FocusProductions, Inc.
Issawi, 37, grew up the son of a geologist and journalist in Cairo, Egypt. He saw a lot of American cowboy movies and westerns, too, but his generation was more immersed in American culture in the 1980s than the older generation of Badreya. He left his homeland to study photography and film at Octon Community College and Columbia College in Chicago in 1990. He worked on documentaries in the Windy City before moving to Los Angeles in 2000. He worked as an editor for TV reality series before opportunities arose for him to do his own independent films in Hollywood.
"I grew up around a lot of books and reading with a thirst for knowledge of the outside world," says Issawi. "America was always a dream for me. I'm still searching."
The question remains whether the majority of Americans can drop their prejudices about Arab-Americans so that Badreya and Issawi can truly be seen as Americans, not just stereotypes, working hard to fulfill their dreams.
Robert Hicks last interviewed Poet Laureate Ted Kooser and is a contributing writer forDragonfire.
Posted by mshahin in Islam & Muslims, Islam and Muslims, Middle East, Society, World
One thought on "Telling Real Stories: Filmmakers Hesham Issawi and Sayed Badreya Shatter Stereotypes in Hollywood."
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text:
Patrick Murray kan syfta på bland andra:

* Patrick Murray (1811–1882), irländsk romersk-katolsk teolog
 Patrick Murray, 1:e lord Elibank (död 1649), skotsk peer
 Patrick Murray, 2:e lord Elibank (död 1661), skotsk peer
 Patrick Murray, 3:e lord Elibank (död 1687), skotsk peer
 Patrick Murray, 5:e lord Elibank (1703–1778), skotsk författare och nationalekonom


The decision for P-MAN VIII to have a one month duration remained a good one, correctly balancing exploratory zeal and fatigue.
This year's team was smaller than planned, as regular Flip Colmer suffered a knee injury during a world record skydive attempt in Thailand (another team member, Dan O'Brien, completed the same jumps in Thailand and made the record-breaking skydive). But every team member had been to Palau at least once on a BentProp mission: thus no time was lost bringing newbies up to speed.
Like each of our previous missions, P-MAN VIII had its unique characteristics. We continued conducting interviews with locals, producing more information concerning the Japanese forces within Palau than ever before. We also made many courtesy calls throughout Palau, visiting the President's Chief of Staff several times, meeting Palau's Vice President and several Senators, Governors and Chiefs. We gave another BentProp presentation at Sam's Tours (dive shop) to an audience with continuing interest in our activities.
This year we spent some time under water and much more time in jungles, both coral and volcanic. Not surprisingly, we found that we had to break up long stretches of jungle work with other tasks, such as interviews, in order to keep the team healthy. Even with excellent planning and execution, dehydration and loss of electrolytes crept subtly into our performance - something that only a team who has worked together would notice. But by enforcing safe practices, the team successfully completed this mission without injury. And in the process did answer some questions (with discovery of a new Avenger crash site on Peleliu) and continued to "peel the onion" one layer at the time in our search to the executed American POWs buried somewhere on the big island of Babeldaob.
Unlike prior reports to the BentProp website, this report not only describes "on-the-ground" findings in detail but also research in progress. We are finding information which is part of Palau's past, some of which may help in the future, but which we feel we should share now. None of what is presented here violates confidentiality concerning key locations or people.
Since its inception, the BentProp Project has recognized that our searches within Palau occur within an independent and sovereign country. Hence, we understand that we owe the Palauan people an explanation of our intentions before proceeding and a summary of our findings afterwards. With that recognition, the P-MAN VIII team continued to communicate with key offices, both national and state, with Chiefs and with key individuals throughout Palau to insure their understanding of our interests and goals. The BentProp Project does not take lightly the generosity of the Palauan people, both on an official and informal level, and we are determined to work hard to retain the trust we have been able to create with the people of Palau.
The BentProp Project also feels that, as we are investigating historical matters concerning our forces during WWII, we owe the American people a summary of our efforts. Accordingly, we coordinate our activities, as appropriate, with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Hawaii (JPAC), the U. S. Navy Historical Center (NHC), Washington, DC, the US Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA), as well as Ms. Deborah Kingsland, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the United States of America in Palau. We send confidential reports to these agencies, as appropriate, and we also provide a non-confidential version to the public through our website: www.bentprop.org.
To all of the above, the members of the BentProp Project express our deepest gratitude for the spirit of cooperation, patience and interest that we receive from each person and organization.
Introductory Note: As with prior BentProp Project missions, P-MAN VIII generated a lot of information in a non-linear manner - by which I mean that we typically explored more than one site in any given day and revisited sites according to need, weather and opportunity. Since this apparent chaos does not lend itself to a cohesive chronological review, I have pooled descriptions by event and not by date. As many P-MAN VIII personal events are ably captured in the daily logs on the BentProp web site through our webmaster, Reid Joyce, the summary below will focus more on the key findings. All references to specific identities of deceased individuals (who are currently subjects of ongoing investigations), human remains, and GPS readings have been removed from this report. Such information is considered by the BentProp team as CONFIDENTIAL as specified by the President of Palau, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Hawaii (JPAC), U. S. Navy Historical Center (NHC) and the Palau Historical Preservation Office (HPO) and other related agencies of Palau. These and other agencies have, in parallel with this report, received a CONFIDENTIAL report with all specific information.


This is the First Edition of the "new" True American. The "original" True American was published in 1845 by Cassius Marcellus Clay, a cousin of the famous speaker Senator Henry Clay, also of Kentucky and former Ambassador to Russia. Ambassador Clay argued unsuccessfully for a gradual emancipation. The failure of the American people to listen to his arguments resulted in the Civil War.
In advance of the Midterm elections, Democrats are on the offensive on health care with the "Medicare for All" idea. According to Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar's AP article in January, Democrats are shifting to offense on health care, emboldened by successes in defending the Affordable Care Act. Their ultimate goal is a government guarantee of affordable coverage for all. BCS Consultants has been advocating for the most cost effective way of achieving this goal for over a year now. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is quoted as saying, "We're tired of just playing defense. It is now time to talk about the next Big Idea. It is a good time for everybody to put their Big Ideas on the table." So far, in this 115th Congress, the Democrats have introduced at least 5 major Health Reform Bills and come up with a few more proposals that have not yet been introduced as potential legislation. As far as we know, the Republicans have not introduced any Bills.
And in the wake of the last presidential election, the DNC and Bernie Sanders are still making waves with the "Medicare for All" proposal, and it will drive votes for the Democrats in the mid-term elections. Elizabeth Warren has successfully urged all democratic candidates running for office to make health care an issue in their campaigns. In the conservative state of Kentucky, Amy McGrath won the Democratic primary in the 6th Congressional District, over the very popular Mayor of Lexington, David Gray, with an Ad decrying Andy Barr's support for Mitch McConnell's opposition to the ACA/Medicaid expansion. In the liberal state of New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beat Joe Crowley, the 4th most powerful Democrat in the House, by advocating the expansion of Medicare to people of all ages.
Health insurance is a vital issue in the upcoming midterms, and the Democrat and Republican candidates have an opportunity to overwhelm their opponents with this "Medicare for All" issue. Most Republicans are AWOL (absent from one's post without intent to desert) on this issue, while alternatively, the Democrats are on fire with it!
Our seniors with Medicare Advantage coverage have all the advantages that the democratic politicians are promising right now, present day, here and now. This is doing "Medicare for All" the Right way. Obviously, Medicare Advantage is an important part of the Medicare system and covered by the provisions for Medicare Part C. This program has a proven track record. It started with broad bipartisan support with the passage of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. Medicare Advantage continues to benefit from strong bipartisan congressional support. There is widespread agreement that competing health plans are the key to re-invigorating Medicare, the nation's largest health insurance program. So, why do the democrats that advocate "Medicare for All" want to re-invent the wheel? This is a damn good question!? Why don't you ask them?
Contact Your Congressional Representative and ask them, "So, What's in your Wallet?" What program would you like your political Party to promote? If my arguments for "Medicare Advantage for All" make sense to you, download the The True American document from our Home page and share it with your friends. If your congressional representatives DO NOT HEAR FROM YOU ON THIS ISSUE, who are they going to hear from? You can easily Contact your Congressional Representatives at: Tel: 1-202-224-3121 or send them an email from their official web pages. This one telephone number will connect you directly with each one of your representatives, and you will be allowed to leave personal voicemail messages with each one of them. Send them to my website! Their Contact web pages also allow you to compose personal emails. Presumably, their staff will summarize your ideas and relay their substance directly to your representatives. How can you get more responsive?
"We the People" want high-quality affordable health insurance coverage for everybody. Democrat candidates are running for their offices advocating "Medicare for All". Republican candidates are concerned about runaway costs and long-term access to health care and the failure of the ACA. Both of our political parties are very concerned about the upcoming midterm elections. Now is our chance to do something about this problem!
Give your Rep's this "winning" idea and remind them that if they want to win elections and stay in office, they need to care about this issue and give us some help with it right away, in the Right Way! Please go to: www.bcsconsultants.net for more details.
Q. do you think it would help their chances of winning their seats in the upcoming mid-term elections?
The answer of course is "yes." If you are a Democrat and you are promoting "Medicare for All", the Republicans are going to counter that proposal with a recent study completed by the Mercatus Center at Georgetown Uninversity that records the fact that your program will cost 32.6 Trillion Dollars over ten (10) years." And honestly, the fee-for-service Medicare Plan A, B, and D probably will cost that much! Our country has just exceeded a total of 20.7 Trillion of dollars in debt. There are a lot of conservatives that don't want this situation to continue. The American people do not have the stomach to take on a costly new health care program, the cost of which is likely to exceed the total national debt over ten years. This high-cost argument against Medicare for All will prevail as long as the Republicans maintain their majority in Congress.
The Republicans have failed with their promise to repeal and replace the ACA/ Obamacare. They have been unable to come up with a viable health insurance reform act of their own. They have muddled the legislative requirements for administering the program, withholding CSR payments and the risk-corridor payments from the carriers. They reduced the ACA open enrollment and cut CMS's meaningless advertising campaign. They have neutered the individual mandate and refused to defend the ACA's constitutionality in the courts.
However, both parties are really to blame for the failure of the ACA. The Democrats and Republicans have both failed to pass the necessary market stabilization funding to keep ACA going smoothly. They have virtually stifled competition in the health insurance markets by presiding over the creation of a government sponsored cartel, and now the Americans living in most of the official county jurisdictions in the United States have only one health insurance company from which to choose. And, finally, both political parties have critically failed to repeal the onerous "Cadillac tax," the health insurance tax and the medical device tax that hang over the insurance companies, who are doing their best to extend affordable health insurance to the American people. And, our Congressional Representatives on both sides of the aisle don't seem to care that much. Both sides just want the problem to go away and are willing to throw our money at it, regardless of what it costs.
From our perspective, the very structure of Obamacare is the real culprit, and until both parties recognize that fact and do something about it, things are not going to get any better. While Democratic candidates for federal office may have a degree of flexibility over what they may advocate in their campaigns, they hit a "hot' button" when they campaign for "Medicare for All" in the wake of Republican failure to repeal and replace Obamacare. Even Republican Party stalwarts are reeling from this failure and still trying to figure out what to do about it. This failure was one of the greatest disappointments for conservative and libertarian activists in our history. This disappointment has turned into anger toward Republicans in general. And, the Democrats that run on the health care issue reinforce their Party's earthy vitality and the success of their "resistance" in their fight for health care affordability and access for their caring constituents. The problem for both political parties is the absence of a viable health insurance "Plan that will Work". Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) is the Program That Will Work!
In this important discussion, it is paramount that we recognize, with all due respect, the big government centralized single-payer Medicare For All type system is something with which we in the United States of America have very little experience! It is a very popular structure for socialist and communist countries because of their reliance on strong central governments. We can't blame Congress for not being able to solve this problem. Our representatives are lawyers, not health insurance executives. They have no idea what it takes to run a health insurance program any more than they understand their own health insurance coverage. In Congress, more than 90% of our congressional representatives are covered by comprehensive health insurance contracts through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB). Most of them choose the High Option BCBS coverage. Federal Employees, in general, have consistently been more favorable toward FEHB than ACA/Obamacare and as a result, Congress has exempted itself from the ACA law. They exempt themselves from the laws they pass all the time. Obamacare is good enough for the tax-payers, but it is NOT good enough for our congressional representatives, even though the taxpayers cover the cost of both programs for them and they pay next to nothing for their coverage. Even President Obama does not have Obamacare for his family. How can we expect our congressional representatives to know how to fix a program with which they have ZERO (0) experience?
Senator Bernie Sanders(D-Vt.) developed the concept of "Medicare for All". It sounds great, doesn't it? He has a Bill in the Senate that has a slew of the Democratic senators signed on to it. Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) before resigning from Congress, re-introduced a related National Single-Payer Health Care Bill in the House.
Do you know which entity Bernie Sanders has picked as the "insurer" in his proposed Medicare for All program? It is not actually a company or an organization per se, it is a "person." In his Senate Bill, Bernie Sanders is proposing to make the "Secretary" (presumably the Secretary of Health and Human Services) the "insurer"! What Bernie is trying to do with his legislation is make the federal government into an insurance company. The average American citizen knows our government is NOT an insurance company. The United States Government was never intended to be an insurance company. Our Founding Fathers did not explicitly include being an insurance company as a responsibility of our government under the Constitution. The very act of trying to legislate making the Secretary of a Department of the Executive Branch of our government, into an "insurer" could be, in and of itself, construed by some, as Un- American! The suggestion that Bernie Sanders is anything but a patriot will have his ears burning.
After all, Bernie Sanders is not a businessman. He is not an expert on health insurance. He has probably never done anything in this regard beyond making claims for himself and his family under the FEHB. He doesn't realize that the federal government is not an "insurer." The federal government does not insure anything. It is a "payer," and not even a good single-payer. But Bernie has made a Freudian slip with the verbiage of his "Medicare for All" Bill. He has identified the need for an insurer. However, in my opinion, rather than the Secretary, he needs a real health "insurer". He needs an insurer that knows how to quantify health risks and underwrite them. A real health insurer that pays claims and takes responsibility for making commitments on the ability to pay claims. In short, Bernie needs an insurer with the ability to meet the obligations of a "Medicare for All" program, deliver the program to the people, negotiate with providers and develop health and wellness programs. Even though Bernie knows that he needs all these things, I don't see that he has made provision for many of them in his "Medicare for All" Bill in the Senate.
Perhaps this is too strong a criticism of Bernie Sanders? We all understand what Bernie is trying to do. He fervently and admirably believes that health care is a Right for all Americans citizens, like our freedom of speech. He wants everyone to have it, and he is just trying to get the government to make that happen. So, we can forgive Senator Bernie Sanders because we understand his passionate good intentions. His followers don't need to forgive him. They don't care how he does it, as long as he solves the problem! But here's the BEEF? We the People do not absolve Bernie, or any of the other senators, from knowing what they are doing. Their virtuous intentions do not absolve them from knowing how BEST to do it, nor their obligation to DO IT RIGHT! After all, isn't that what we elected them for? OK, so we can disagree on how best to do it, but we don't have to pretend that there is only "one" way to do it or that the "best" way to do it, is to have Big Government do it.
Bernie Sanders, bless his heart, is a socialist. He looks around the world, and he sees that most governments have taken over the responsibility of providing health care for their people. They haven't done so by treating it as a Constitutional Right of the people, as much as they have just backed into doing it, because of their unique circumstances. They needed to provide adequate health care for their people, and that was their only path forward.
In the United States, we DO NOT lack the ability to provide adequate health care for our people. Anyone that can come from other nations around the world, abandon their national health systems. They come to the United States for their health care. We have arguably the best health care system in the world. When the Arabs wanted to build a mega-center for the best health care in the world in Dubai, they came to America and asked our great university medical schools to help them set up their health care facilities, to attain their desired goal. So, when the rich and famous go to Dubai for their health care, it is like coming here. Our health system is an American innovation. Many of our university medical schools, teaching hospitals, and interdisciplinary clinics were built by true visionaries in the field of medicine. Our health care system needs to be respected, as being more than a tool of a capitalist elite bent on depriving our own people of health care! It is a huge mistake to try and cheapen the qualities of our medical system by making it more like other government-run systems throughout the world.
Our health care system in the United States has grown to become one of the largest sectors of our economy. It accounts for approximately 18% of our gross national product (GDP) and employs more people than any other single segment of our economy. There is NO reason why we cannot provide adequate health care to all our citizens, but there is a Right Way to do it and a Wrong Way to do it. And, declaring that the Secretary, "shall be treated as the insurer," as Bernie Sanders has proposed in his Senate "Medicare for All" Bill is absolutely, categorically and unequivocally the "Wrong Way" to do it!
The public-private partnership between health insurance companies and the federal government is arguably the largest and most successful such partnership in the history of the world. It covers well over 110 Million Americans, most of whom are very satisfied with their health insurance coverage and with their health care. Admittedly we are not perfect. Even with Obamacare, we have 12.2% of our adult population without health insurance. This is the last and greatest remaining challenge that we face as a nation with our health care system. And, so far, Obamacare has failed miserably to solve this problem. The ACA program was ill-conceived by politicians and too easily acquiesced to by the health insurance industry. It was an experiment, and it has failed, for all the reasons covered here and, on my website, www.bcsconsultants.net. Now it is time to move on to a New Program that will Work, and that is what I like to call the next generation ACA product – "Medicare Advantage for All Americans (MAAA)".
Let's consider the approach to covering the uninsured suggested by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT.) and his former counterpart in the House of Representatives, John Conyers, Jr.(D-MI.) Representative Conyers, as most people know, was forced to resign his office. His Health care Bill remains in House Commitee under new sponsorship. In the Senate Bill, Bernie wants We the People to put it all on the "Secretary" and let him or her sweat out the details. John Conyer's Bill has an even better idea. It creates a Big non-profit entity to handle a universal single-payer health care system for all. Coincidentally, Americans had a system like that forty years ago.
Forty years ago, Americans had 60 state-chartered non-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans in this country. In those days the Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans formed a unified system of skilled non-profit corporations dedicated to providing affordable health insurance in every state and in every area they served throughout this fair nation. They generally worked in close concert with one another; and that was right up until Congress decided to tax all of these non-profits. This greedy and arbitrary congressional act basically forced the break-up of the non-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield system. This congressional action was an unnecessarily destructive way to get new federal tax revenues. The for-profit commercial insurance companies may have successfully lobbied Congress for a more level playing field? Whatever the motivation, you will note that, for the most part, the last health insurance carriers standing by the ACA/ Obamacare are Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. And, that is a testament not only to their expertise but also their commitment to the communities they serve. Many of the for-profit commercial health insurers carriers have dropped out of the ACA markets. Absurdly, Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans are now fighting anti-trust allegations in federal court for following their State Charters and serving their customers within the boundaries that the courts themselves restricted them too, to avoid former allegations of racketeering. This only goes to show you that when the government decides to take things over, as it did with ACA/ Obamacare, and control or unduly influence an industry or private enterprise, everything GETS SCREWED UP!
I have never met an American citizen who disagreed with the above statement. No one in their right mind thinks that our government can do a better job of ANYTHING over that of our private enterprise system. Americans only let the governement do what private industry can't do. That doesn't mean we don't regulate our businesses and make sure that what they are doing is in the best interests of the American people. We have learned from watching the Soviet Union and China which are moving toward private enterprise. We see the failures of central governements in Central America and in the economies of Iran and North Korea. our health care system is not like a public utility. If we let our health care system go the way of the VA or of the ACA, we are going to need all the help we can get. The problems with these programs are everyday headlines. Big government is NOT the answer!
The government telling insurance companies how to rate their products, requiring among other things, community rating even though we know that certain segments of the population end up paying more than their fair share of the cost.
Artificial rating to prevent the true pricing of health care risks that would otherwise lower the cost of health insurance for younger people and those with healthy lifestyles and raise it for the older people, smokers and high-risk individuals.
Minimum Health benefits regardless of a need for coverage, so that everyone must pay for all the coverage levels regardless of their need for the coverage or that level of benefits, which artificially raises the cost of insurance for everyone.
The need to eliminate deductibles and coinsurance for people at or just above the poverty level, despite the obvious need for incentives for the proper use of the benefits, like emergency rooms, etc. because people of poverty should pay less for their health care than the other people who are not so poor.
Enrollment in a health plan should be through unlicensed non-profit Marketplaces and not through the insurance companies that need the information to pay claims; because of course it is fairer and clearer for the consumer to listen to these disinterested unlicensed third parties, than listening to the companies that are in the business of administering these benefits, paying the claims and legally required to use licensed and trained agents to sell their products.
It is better to regulate the amount of money an insurance carrier can pay out for a consumer even if the regulation forces the company to raise their rates and increase reimbursements to providers to improve their bottom line performance and increase their profitability.
Allow anyone to sign up for health insurance at any time and be placed in the same programs in the same risk pools and at the same rates as those people who have maintained health insurance for many years and paid into the programs under which they have coverage, increasing the cost for everybody due to adverse selection.
Force the non-renewal (cancellation) of non-qualified health insurance plans and the limitation of temporary plans providing affordable coverage for many Americans, because legislators feared people would not join the ACA or drop out of it, even when these limitations forced many Americans to join the ranks of the uninsured.
As a Consultant in this industry, I could go on and on with more examples of what the government did wrong when they passed the ACA. The way the ACA handles the items noted above unnecessarily raises the cost of the product for everybody. Collectively they make health insurance less affordable for the American people. It is no accident that the ACA enrollment is declining, with only 9 Million people left on the program and most of them urban dwellers, 75% of which have their premiums largely paid for by the taxpayers. Even though three-quarters of Obamacare participants are heavily subsidized by federal government, we can't call them free loaders because without the government subsidy, they would be just like the rest of the 28 Million people without any health insurance.
We must remember we still have 28 Million people, who don't want to touch the ACA program with a ten-foot pole, mostly because they can't afford it. That is why the Republicans eliminated the ACA's individual mandate. It was a tax burden that did not cause uninsured people to sign up for the program. The penalty was too low, and it had so many waivers, it worked more like a sieve than a bowl. The uninsured population that was aware of the ACA Mandate (those that paid taxes) welcomed the tax penalty as long as they could avoid having to pay the ACA premiums.
John Conyers is quoted as follows, "Passage of the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act was an important initial reform, which will provide health insurance to millions of our nations uninsured (fake news) and eliminate many of the worst practices of the health insurance industry." However, contrary to John's assertions, it is my opinion, and the belief of many leading health practitioners and experts, that establishing a non-profit universal single-payer health care system is NOT the best way to effectively contain health care costs and provide quality care for all Americans. John also beleived, "It is time for Members of Congress, health policy scholars, economists, and the medical community to begin a serious discussion of the merits of a universal single-payer health care system." It is beyond time to have a discussion of the merits of single-payer.
John Conyers Bill H.R. 676 H.R. has been introduced every year in Congress since 2003 and has a broad base of support among universal health care activists, organized labor, physicians, nurses, and social justice organizations across the nation. The bill has been endorsed by 26 international unions, Physicians For A National Health Program, two former editors of the New England Journal of Medicine, National Nurses United, the American Medical Students Association, Progressive Democrats of America, and the NAACP. Last Congress, 77 other Members in the House of Representatives signed on as cosponsors of the legislation. In 2011, the Vermont legislature passed legislation that lays the foundation for a single-payer health care system in the state.
With all due respect, in the United States, we have never tried to do such a thing the way John Conyers and Bernie Sanders have suggested it be done. On the other hand, we have Price Waterhouse projecting that Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment will grow by 8 percent to a total of 21 million beneficiaries, almost three times bigger than ACA enrollment. The previous research from A.M. Best and the Kaiser Family Foundation also found that MA premium revenues grew from $69.9 billion in 2007 to $187.5 billion in 2016, indicating an upward trend in popularity (Reference). MA now covers over 35% of all Medicare beneficiaries and with 11,000 aging into the program daily, 50% are choosing Medicare Advantage within their first year of eligibility. NOW IS THE TIME FOR CONGRESS TO EXTEND THIS FANTASTICALLY SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM TO ALL AMERICANS.
Medicare Advantage for All Americans (MAAA) has everything most Republicans want in a national health plan. It is private insurance. MAAA does not require more bureaucracy, because HHS already has everything in place to manage the program. MAA is fully grounded in free market principles. MAA is real health insurance, underwritten by the public-private partnership and paid for by the federal government through capitation reimbursement. Deficits in the program's funding do not accrue to the national debt, and there is no unfunded liability associated with the program. The government regulations in place are flexible enough to permit creativity and experimentation by the insurance carriers. There are minimum standards but few mandates. MAA is slightly less expensive than the ACA, and if the extension product is designed properly, it can be a lot less expensive.
There are no ACA type mandates that arbitrarily require carriers to do things that increase rates and cause insurmountable problems like the ones that make the ACA programs so unaffordable. MAA is in place for over 21 Million seniors over age 65. However, the program would have to be modified to be responsive to the needs of a younger clientele. This would include the expansion of Health Savings Accounts and the Medicaid Modernization, especially as it relates to the way we handle pre-existing condition coverage.
None of these additions will take away from the fact that seniors (voters) and their politicians love the Medicare Advantage program. Democrats and Republicans alike will WIN the public's support for doing the Right thing if they propose extending Medicare to all in this responsible fashion. Our nation will benefit from the removal of the threat of government incursion into the health insurance and health care systems. Our economy will benefit from the continued vibrancy of the health care sector and the support we give to the public-private partnership that makes it all possible. Medicare Advantage will be a Winner in 2018 and 2020!


text:
Whatsapp To Stop Working On Millions Of Phones By End Of December
WhatsApp has announced it will soon stop working on millions of phones around the world as they reach the end of their supported lifespan.
That means users on a variety of older handsets could end up losing access to the messaging app. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has confirmed via its support page that it will stop supporting these devices on December 31, 2019. The company says that any phone running the Windows Mobile operating system will not be supported after this date.
However, that's not all. Any iPhone running software older than iOS 7 will no longer be supported and neither will any Android device with version 2.3.7 installed.
Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com


text:
Assurant Sets GHG Reduction Targets
Published on: 15 Dec 2022
by KnowESG,
Assurant, Inc.
Assurant, Inc., a leading global business services company that supports, protects, and connects major consumer purchases, has said it wants to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40 per cent by 2030.
The goal, which is in line with the Paris Agreement and the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi), was set as part of the company's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) guiding principles to ensure that its facilities around the world follow sustainable practices.
Assurant's president and CEO, Keith Demmings, said, "Our new climate goal shows that we are still committed to incorporating the effects of climate change into how we run our business. With global operations in 21 countries that serve the mobile, auto, and home markets, we want to make a positive impact on all of our stakeholders by setting ambitious goals to reduce our impact on the environment. Our ongoing real estate consolidation strategy will help support this objective, as well as the implementation of energy-saving measures at our facilities and, eventually, renewable energy generation."
Assurant's goal is to cut Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 40% by 2030 from a 2021 base year. In addition, the company is working to improve its emissions reporting. In 2021, Assurant began Scope 3 reporting, which includes areas such as the investment portfolio, acquired goods and services, and use of sold products, which is specific to its mobile business, which repairs and refurbishes devices.
Assurant also says that it has kept its "B" CDP score for the fifth year in a row by being open about how the company impacts the environment and what it is doing about it. CDP is a global non-profit that runs the best platform for sharing information about the environment in the world. In its most recent CDP report, Assurant reaffirmed its climate-related actions and said that in 2021, the company saw a 10 per cent drop in Scope 2 compared to the previous year, which was mostly due to a decrease in U.S. energy consumption.
The company also talked about the creation of the Assurant Responsible Investing Commitment, which says how the company wants to use ESG factors and screenings in investment decisions and gives important examples of how sustainability is being built into products and services, especially in the mobile, auto, and home businesses.
For more environmental news
Source: Assurant
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U kyaw Swar Soe, the President of the MFDP (Farmers Wealth Public Bank Limited) revisited Japan (his previous visit was in August 2013) at the invitation of our foundation.
When he visited Prime Minister Abe on August 21st, he asked for Japanese support for the modernization of Myanmar agriculture, which provides the livelihood of 70% of the country's population.
FWPB and APAID is agreed with and signed the document when U kyaw Swar Soe visited to Japan.
SAFA reached agreement with FWPB and APAID to promote friendship based on this agreements.
Myanmar is major agricultural country which food self-sufficiency rate is more than 130 %.
For this purpose, SAFA agreed to introduce to Japanese companies for contributing the development in Myanmar, support for development of human resources and improvement especially in agricultural field, and support acceptance of trainees and dispatchment of specialists by Japanese government and nonofficial organizatons.
2014.4.24: We exchanged opinions with Mr. Sai Ike Pangu and a tribal representative. These two people from Myanmar and SAFA chairman Shimanuki reached a tripartite agreement in response to a request concerning a project under discussion.
A discussion of wind power generation.
▲From the left, President Shimanuki (SAFA), President Kyaw Swar Soe (FWPB), Mr. Frank Greco from the U.S.A.
The first general meeting for improving living standards in the Myanmar tribal nations was held as a gathering of the tribes throughout Myanmar.
Giving presentation about Myanmar wind turbine generators for improvement in living standards of people in Myanmar.
Mr. Frank Greco from the U.S.A.
U kyaw Swar Soe, President of the FWPB and representative of the Myanmar tribes, visited Japan in order to further develop interchanges between the two nations, and asked for further support of Myanmar by Japan.
The Union of Myanmar is a democratic country with 135 tribes. They established the FWBP (Farmers Wealth Public Bank Limited) in order to help create a modernized country. They aim to improve the living standards of the farmers living in Myanmar, and improve technology that would foster the development of both large and small businesses..


The research activity of the PowDeR (Power devices, Detectors and Reliability) Group is focused on the characterization, numerical simulation and development of power devices for RF application, such as GaAs pHEMTs and GaN HEMTs, Si-based detectors and their reliability.
Compound Semiconductors such as Gallium Nitride (GaN), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Indium Phosphide (InP) represent the current and future solution for all the applications where high output RF power is involved.
This page was last edited on 29 April 2008, at 15:57.


Each drawer features a safety trigger that will prevent accidental opening and drawer blocking mechanism, to prevent tipping.
Rubber top tray with raised sides, to prevent roll-off.
125mm castor set (2 fixed, 2 swivel and brake) allows you excellent manoeuvrability and stability.
All drawers have 100% extension rails and are centrally lockable.
Maximum weight capacity of 50kg per drawer.
Finished in powder coated grey steel framework and blue drawer fronts.
Adjustable drawer dividers available to create a range of small component storage.
Mobile cabinet, offering office flexibility and ideal storage for small and medium tools/parts.
Mobile cabinets for safe and convenient storage in any location.


Condos, Lofts and Townhomes For Sale in 85022 | Phoenix Condo Mania!
Currently, there 20 ACTIVE Condo Listings at this time for the zip code 85022. Asking Prices range from $95,000 to $269,000 with an average price of $183,033 and a Avg Price Per Square Foot of $151.
The resale activity for condos in 85022 for the first quarter increased 22.7% with 54 sold compared to 44 in the first quarter of 2018.
The Median Sale Price for condos sold in 85022 for the first quarter increased 15.6% with a median price of $185,000 as compared to $160,000 in the first quarter of 2018.