Will Ferrell is the kind of comedic actor I root for.
He was one of the only good things about "Saturday Night Live" for years. When he was popular enough to break out into movies, it was in forgettable SNL spin-offs like "A Night at the Roxbury," "Superstar," and "The Ladies Man." He had funny, memorable roles in "Zoolander" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," but they weren't really main characters.
By the time he finally landed a starring role, it was in "Old School," a very mediocre film in which Ferrell ultimately stole the show.
Now, with "Elf," Ferrell finally has a great movie he can call his own. And like Jack Black, earlier this year in "The School of Rock," this movie seems to be written specifically with him in mind.
Ferrell has always had a child-like quality in his humor. He's immediately endearing to audiences because of his natural playfulness. In "Elf," you don't see a man who is supposed to be one of Santa's elves running rampant through modern day New York City and getting into all kinds of trouble. You see that Farrell IS Buddy, the human who was raised as an elf, and believe him every step of the way.
The early scenes at the North Pole do a good job setting up this charming holiday movie, but things really start getting funny once Buddy hits Manhattan. Screenwriter David Berenbaum hits all the traditional marks for a Christmas movie.
Will Christmas be ruined? There must be the familiar Scrooge factor (Buddy's biological father, played by James Caan). And of course, the lack of Christmas spirit is an old favorite plot point. But seen through Buddy's eyes, these elements almost become fresh again, and "Elf" rises above the glut of terrible Christmas movies that get made every year.
This is a true Christmas miracle. "Elf" is a genuine movie that works, and it is made possible by Will Ferrell and the director, Jon Favreau.
Favreau is an indie director, probably most famous for writing "Swingers" and writing and directing "Made." He has made some unusual choices for a family film. The cast is peppered equally with cult comedy heroes, fantastic actors who traditionally star in smaller films, and older, established icons.
People like Zooey Deschanel ("The Good Girl"), Amy Sedaris (TV's "Strangers With Candy"), Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), Andy Richter (TV's "Andy Richter Controls the Universe") and Peter Dinklage ("The Station Agent") share the movie with Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Mary Steenburgen, and of course, James Caan. Favreau, an actor himself, even joins the movie for a brief, enjoyable bit.
There also is a lot of humor for adults, and Favreau and Ferrell probably were responsible for fine-tuning "Elf" into the positive-message movie it is without losing the audience by including too much holiday schmaltz. When things do get cheesy toward the end, it's too late to turn back because Buddy is so damned cute, you can't help but get sucked in.
It's ironic that two of the best family films this year were directed by indie-spirited directors and starred casts of largely unproven box-office draws. Both "The School of Rock" and "Elf" should signal a change in Hollywood. Hopefully good word-of-mouth will spread on "Elf" like it did with "School," and we'll be seeing less stale family films where the budget went to pay Tim Allen's unreasonably large paycheck.
Instead, I'd like to see that money be spent on scripts, directors, and actors who want to make something the whole family can enjoy and not feel insulted by.
Next post: Crowe steers "Master and Commander"


text:
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Ash Wednesday: Come In Sorrow and Contrition
February 22, 2012: On this day, the Christian church on earth begins the season of Lent. During the next forty days (plus Sundays), it has long been the custom to recall and contemplate the sufferings and death of Christ Jesus. Needless to say, the mood of the season is one of sorrow and mourning, but the sufferings and death of Christ Jesus are not the reasons for sorrow.
The Christian church calls the first day of the Lenten season Ash Wednesday. As early as the eighth century, Christians have had ashes applied to their heads on Ash Wednesday as a sign of their sorrow and contrition. The abbot Aelfric (955-1020) explained: "We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins" (Retrieved from: http://www.orlutheran.com/html/ash.html). The book of Job contains an example of what the Christian church sought to imitate. Having been rebuked by God, Job confesses, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6).
It may not be our custom today to apply ashes, but the message of Lent remains the same. On Ash Wednesday, God's Word reminds us that we—as sinners—need a Savior. As we ponder our sinfulness and its consequences, we should be moved to sorrow and contrition before God.
Most people understand that contrition over sin involves feelings of sorrow and guilt. Job expressed such sorrow. Sensing his guilt and shame, Peter went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:62).
But true contrition involves faith in God's solution to our sinfulness. The Apostle Paul serves as an example: This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief (1 Timothy 1:15). Without faith in Christ Jesus as Savior, there is no genuine contrition and the individual remains in sin. Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition (John 17:12), regretted betraying Jesus, but did not believe and committed suicide instead. However, by faith in Jesus, we join with other Christians echoing the psalmist: "I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin" (Psalm 32:5).
During the Divine Service on Ash Wednesday, or prior to Holy Communion, the pastor may ask us, "Do you promise that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will amend your sinful life?" Our answer, "I do so promise," is the Christian's response to God's mercy. Redeemed, restored, and forgiven, we are motivated by the words of Jesus, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more" (John 8:11).
In the spirit of contrition and amendment of life, let us follow the example of Christ Jesus and conduct ourselves as His own dear children. The Gospels show us many examples. After believing in Christ Jesus, the tax collector Zacchaeus promised to repay those from whom he stole. The prodigal son was willing to humble himself to become a bond-servant. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urged, "If you…remember that your brother has something against you…be reconciled to your brother" (Matthew 5:23–24).
With all this in mind, may this Ash Wednesday be a grand opportunity for repentance and spiritual renewal in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bruce Schwark is pastor of Pinehurst Lutheran Church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
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Home News Entertainment Forcing Meghan to name five of her friends in court battle 'unacceptable...
Forcing Meghan to name five of her friends in court battle 'unacceptable price to pay' – lawyer [VIDEO]
The Duchess of Sussex has applied to the High Court to stop The Mail and Mail on Sunday from being able to reveal the names of five of her friends who spoke anonymously to a US magazine about the bullying she said she has faced.
The women's names were given to the judge and to the newspapers for its defence, confidentially, by the duchess earlier this month as part of her ongoing lawsuit against the papers' publisher, Associated Newspapers (ANL).
At a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Meghan's barrister Justin Rushbrooke QC said forcing the Duchess of Sussex to make public the identities of her five friends was "an unacceptable price to pay" for pursuing her legal action against ANL.
He said Meghan's five friends were entitled to "a very high level of super-charged right of confidentiality".
Meghan is suing ANL over five articles, two in the Mail on Sunday and three on MailOnline, which were published in February 2019 and reproduced sections of a handwritten note she sent to her estranged father Thomas Markle, 75, in August 2018.
Lawyers for the duchess claim the story breached her privacy.
ANL claims it only included the letter because it had already been referenced by Meghan's friends in an interview with People magazine in the US, published in February last year.
A confidante told the American publication about its content: "She's like 'Dad, I'm so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship'."
Associated Newspapers said in a defence court document: "Information in the People interview about the claimant's relationship and dealings with her father, including the existence of the letter and a description of its contents and the claimant's father's letter in response, could only have come (directly or indirectly) from the claimant."
It added that Mr Markle had revealed the letter to correct the "false" impression Meghan's friends had given about his actions in their interview.
The duchess's five friends who gave the People interview are identified only as A-E in court documents.
Her legal team has claimed in court documents that she did not know the People magazine article was due to appear, would not have agreed to the letter's contents being revealed, and after its publication she phoned friend A to express "her distress".
Mr Rushbrooke said "there is ample evidence before the court" to support the duchess's application to maintain the anonymity of her five friends.
He added that one of the five, known only as friend B, had provided a witness statement to the court in support of the application.
Mr Rushbrooke said Friend B was "the best possible person" to provide evidence as "she is the one who actually orchestrated the interviews".
He told the court: "These were confidential sources who gave the interviews on condition of anonymity."
Mr Rushbrooke also said: "The defendant, in its own coverage – going right back to the first article… that gave rise to this entire litigation – they themselves describe the interviews as anonymous."
In a witness statement submitted as part of the application, Meghan accused ANL of attempting to "create a circus and distract from the point of this case" to "evade accountability".
She said the women "made a choice on their own to speak anonymously with a US media outlet more than a year ago, to defend me from the bullying behaviour of Britain's tabloid media".
"Each of these women is a private citizen, young mother, and each has a basic right to privacy," she said, claiming the threat to expose them was "for no reason other than clickbait and commercial gain".
She said the move was "vicious" and one that "poses a threat to their emotional and mental well-being".
"The Mail on Sunday is playing a media game with real lives," she added.
Antony White QC, representing ANL, told the court the five friends have already been identified in court papers.
He added: "The question is not 'should their identities be disclosed', that has happened, it is 'should they be anonymised in these proceedings?'"
Mr White said: "There is no proper evidential basis (for the application).
"There is no evidence at all from four of the five friends and the evidence from the fifth (friend B) has been shown to be unsatisfactory."
Earlier in the hearing, Mr Rushbrooke appeared to accidentally say the surname of one of the five friends.
Mr Justice Warby immediately directed that the individual's name was not to be reported.
He said he will give his decision on the duchess's application in writing at a later date.
© Sky News 2020
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"At the start of 2018, we released Striking the Right Balance, the only statewide analysis of body-worn camera use by local law enforcement in Mississippi. What we found was that police and sheriff's departments using body-worn cameras largely failed to ensure the technology was being deployed in a way that promoted transparency and accountability while balancing citizen privacy. At that time, of course, the Jackson Police Department had not acquired BWCs. However, months later, we learned that JPD had plans of purchasing them and we immediately contacted the former (interim) and current police chief to discuss the need for a policy. Unfortunately, that conversation has yet to take place.
"We, therefore, urge the Jackson Police Department to adopt a policy that establishes certain mandatory criteria governing how BWCs are deployed, how long data is kept, who has access to the data collected, and consequences of failure to comply with policy regarding their use.


text:
Le Dernier Métro est un film français réalisé par François Truffaut sorti en 1980.

Lors de la  des César, le film fait un triomphe, obtenant dix César, dont les cinq plus prestigieux, ceux du meilleur film, du meilleur réalisateur, du meilleur scénario, du meilleur acteur (pour Gérard Depardieu) et de la meilleure actrice (pour Catherine Deneuve).

Synopsis
Depuis que la moitié Nord de la France a été envahie par les nazis, les Parisiens passent leurs soirées dans les salles de spectacles, pour ne pas avoir froid. En septembre 1942, l'actrice de renom Marion Steiner ne pense qu'aux répétitions de la pièce norvégienne, La Disparue, qui va être jouée dans le théâtre Montmartre, dont elle assure la direction à la place de son mari Lucas Steiner, Juif Allemand exilé qui s'est officiellement réfugié en Amérique. En réalité, il vit dans les caves du théâtre. Chaque soir, Marion lui rend visite, recueille ses directives et commente avec lui le travail des comédiens, notamment celui du jeune premier de la troupe, Bernard Granger. Grâce à un tuyau d'aération relié à la scène, Lucas dirige les répétitions par personne interposée, son collaborateur Jean-Loup Cottins (metteur en scène introduit auprès des milieux collaborateurs), et se rend compte que sa femme est tombée amoureuse de Granger. Ce dernier, désireux de s'engager dans la Résistance, est le seul de la troupe à aider Lucas lors d'une perquisition de la Gestapo. La pièce est un succès et les spectateurs rejoignent chaque soir leur habitation par les rues sans lumière et sans taxis, d'où l'importance du dernier métro. Mais le théâtre connaît des jours difficiles, du fait de la jalousie d'un critique de théâtre antisémite et hargneux. Excédé par un de ses papiers, Bernard est à l'origine d'un scandale qui l'incite à abandonner le théâtre et rejoindre la Résistance. À la libération, Marion rend visite à Bernard, blessé, à l'hôpital… mais le rideau tombe, révélant qu'il s'agit de la dernière scène d'une nouvelle pièce dirigée par Lucas Steiner désormais réhabilité et acclamé par la foule.

Fiche technique

Distribution

Box-office
Le film a réalisé plus d'un million d'entrées à Paris. Il réalise  en France, seconde meilleure réalisation de Truffaut au box-office, derrière Les Quatre Cents Coups.

Distinctions

Récompenses
Lors de la  des César en 1981, le film remporta ces récompenses :
 César du meilleur film
 César du meilleur réalisateur - François Truffaut
 César du meilleur scénario original ou adaptation - François Truffaut et Suzanne Schiffman
 César du meilleur acteur - Gérard Depardieu
 César de la meilleure actrice - Catherine Deneuve
 César de la meilleure musique originale - Georges Delerue
 César du meilleur décor - Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko
 César de la meilleure photographie - Néstor Almendros
 César du meilleur son - Michel Laurent
 César du meilleur montage - Martine Barraqué

Le Dernier Métro fit l'exploit de remporter dix césars dont les cinq césars les plus prestigieux (meilleur film, meilleur réalisateur, meilleur scénario, meilleur acteur et meilleure actrice). Aucun autre film à ce jour n'a réédité la performance.

Nominations
 Nomination au César du meilleur acteur dans un second rôle - Heinz Bennent
 Nomination au César de la meilleure actrice dans un second rôle - Andréa Ferréol
Pour le César de la meilleure actrice dans un second rôle, Andréa Ferréol fut battue par une actrice fétiche de Truffaut : Nathalie Baye.

Production

Scénario
Truffaut écrit le film entre mai et septembre 1979 avec Suzanne Schiffman dans la maison de cette dernière, à Vaison-la-Romaine. Deux semaines avant le tournage de manivelle, découvrant L'Atelier, une pièce de Jean-Claude Grumberg, il demande à celui-ci de réécrire certaines scènes. Touchant au Paris de l'occupation tel qu'il l'a vécu, mais aussi à ses origines juives, qu'il n'a découvertes qu'en 1968, c'est pour Samuel Blumenfeld "l'œuvre la plus secrète et la plus intime du réalisateur".

Musique
On entend pendant le film plusieurs chansons des années 1930 et 1940. Entre autres, deux chansons interprétées par Lucienne Delyle, Mon amant de Saint-Jean et la Prière à Zumba, ainsi que Sombreros et Mantilles interprété par Rina Ketty.

Tournage
Le film a été tourné du  au .

Les scènes de théâtre ont été tournées au théâtre Saint-Georges à Paris.

Le tournage a ensuite eu lieu dans une chocolaterie désaffectée, rue du Landy à Clichy transformée en studio de cinéma pour reconstituer Paris sous l'Occupation.

Une des dernières scènes est tournée devant le domicile de Jean-Loup Cottins, 1 avenue de Camoëns ( arrondissement de Paris).

Inspiration
Largement inspiré de l'ouvrage  du journaliste Hervé Le Boterf La vie parisienne sous l'Occupation publié en 1978, Le Dernier Métro raconte pour partie la vie de Margaret Kelly (la danseuse Miss Blubell) et de son mari Marcel Leibovici pendant l'Occupation. L'intrigue est calquée sur la pièce de théâtre Carola de Jean Renoir, adaptée à la télévision américaine en 1973 avec Leslie Caron et parue à L'Avant-scène en 1976.

Le film comprend également de nombreuses références à l'actualité culturelle française des années 1940. Les arrestations successives, à la Libération, du personnage incarné par Jean Poiret sont très librement inspirées des déboires de Sacha Guitry. La scène où le personnage de Gérard Depardieu s'en prend au critique de Je suis partout est tirée d'un incident qui opposa Jean Marais à Alain Laubreaux.

Truffaut se cite aussi lui-même : les paroles d'amour de la pièce de théâtre jouée dans le film par les personnages de Catherine Deneuve et Gérard Depardieu sont tirés de son film La Sirène du Mississipi avec en particulier les expressions « C'est une joie et une souffrance » et «  L'amour fait mal ».

Restauration et reprise
Le film fut restauré en haute définition et projeté au Festival de Cannes 2014 dans la section Cannes Classics avant de ressortir en salle le  pour commémorer les 30 ans de la disparition de Truffaut (parallèlement avec l'exposition consacrée au réalisateur à la Cinémathèque française).

Autour du film

 Le groupe de musique parisien Le Dernier Métro a décidé de s'appeler ainsi pour rendre hommage à un film « qui les a totalement bouleversés » (Technikart - juin 2014).
 Une pièce de théâtre, adaptée du film, est créée en 2018 par la compagnie STT, dans une mise en scène de Dorian Rossel. Le projet est notamment soutenu par l'ONDA (Office national de diffusion artistique). La pièce est jouée au Théâtre des Célestins de Lyon, à Annemasse et au Théâtre de Chelles.

Notes et références

Annexes

Articles connexes
 Paris sous l'Occupation allemande
 Liste des longs métrages français proposés à l'Oscar du meilleur film en langue étrangère

Liens externes

Film français sorti en 1980
Film dramatique français
Film romantique français
Film de guerre français
Film réalisé par François Truffaut
Film avec une musique composée par Georges Delerue
Film sur l'Occupation allemande en France
Film se déroulant dans les années 1940
Film se déroulant à Paris
Film tourné dans le 9e arrondissement de Paris
Film sur le théâtre
Film sur l'infidélité conjugale
César du meilleur film
Film avec un César des meilleurs décors
Film avec un César du meilleur montage
Film avec un César du meilleur scénario original ou adaptation
Film avec un César de la meilleure photographie
Film avec un César de la meilleure réalisation
Film avec un César de la meilleure musique originale
Film avec un César de la meilleure actrice
Film avec un César du meilleur acteur
Film avec un César du meilleur son
Shoah en France

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
require 'bio-ucsc'
describe "Bio::Ucsc::Hg19::NtOoaHaplo" do

  describe "#find_by_interval" do
    context "given range chr1:1-200,000,000" do
      it "returns an array of results" do
        Bio::Ucsc::Hg19::DBConnection.default
        Bio::Ucsc::Hg19::DBConnection.connect
        i = Bio::GenomicInterval.parse("chr1:1-200,000,000")
        r = Bio::Ucsc::Hg19::NtOoaHaplo.find_all_by_interval(i)
        r.should have(1).items
      end

      it "returns an array of results with column accessors" do
        Bio::Ucsc::Hg19::DBConnection.default
        Bio::Ucsc::Hg19::DBConnection.connect
        i = Bio::GenomicInterval.parse("chr1:1-200,000,000")
        r = Bio::Ucsc::Hg19::NtOoaHaplo.find_by_interval(i)
        r.chrom.should == "chr1"
      end
    end
  end

end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Web Seminar: "Intergenerational Feminist Dialogue", 3 November 2021 12.00-1.30 PM CET
on October 25, 2021 June 4, 2022 by wideplusnetwork
This webseminar will reflect on experiences of perceived differences and commona-lities among different generations of feminists to come to concrete suggestions on how to improve our collective work.
With the large scale street protests that have been visible in the past years, such as the Women's Strike, Ni Una di Meno, Black Lives Matter and climate change protests, many women and others joined feminist activism for the first time in their lives. They joined the many feminists that enabled new groups to build on previous activism.
This webseminar will be in English with Spanish and French interpretation.
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mVYEvDzQRayN5ZOcpgfVMA
Marlize Andre, is a medical student, transgender woman from South Africa where she began her advocacy work. Currently she is involved in activism in Germany as a part of International Women Space's Break isolation group. She's also partnered with several NGOs search us LesMigras and Casá Kua. Focusing on racism, Transgender rights and refugee rights. Listen to a recent podcast with her.
Srilatha Batliwala, is senior advisor knowledge building with CREA (Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action), She has also designed and taught CREA's leadership building institutes for (young) feminist activists in South Asia, East Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. Previous work has been with AWID (Association for Women's Rights in Development), Harvard University's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Ford Foundation, and over twenty years in grassroots work in India, contributing to building large-scale grassroots women's movements.
Twasiima (Trica) Bigirwa, is a feminist writer, lawyer and activist, who has worked tirelessly to shift public perception of minoritized people in Uganda for several years. She currently works for Segal Family Foundation where she drives its strategy and oversees grantmaking in Uganda. She also serves as a part of the Board of Trustees at Womankind Worldwide and is on the advisory committee of FRIDA, the Young Feminist Fund. And her work a author consists of for example, many articles on African Feminism.
Silke Steinhilber, activist researcher on transformative feminist policies and independent consultant providing research, evaluation, capacity development for gender justice, based in Germany. In addition to publishing many articles, she has worked with, among others: UN Economic Commission for Europe, UNICEF, UNDP, UN Women, ILO, the World Bank, Council of Europe, trade unions, women's organizations and other CSOs.
Tagged: Feminism in Action intergen intersectional approach
Previous Entry: Series of 4 webseminars: "Implementing an intersectional feminist approach" organized by FES and WIDE+, November 2021
Next Entry: Web Seminar: "Racism, Classism and Gender discrimination intersectional feminist approach in strategy and analysis", 16 November 2021, 1.00-3.00 PM CET


The Law Office of Laura A. Panos provides employment law counsel to businesses, executives and employees throughout Massachusetts and across the country. We offer our clients effective, aggressive representation and the unique perspective that comes from understanding all sides of the workplace relationship. Contact us at (617) 484-9600.
Our exclusive employment law focus supports strategic workplace counseling and training. Every workplace problem is an opportunity to create positive change and advance our clients' interests.
We collaborate with our clients to create exceptional and innovative outcomes. Our small size allows us to offer prompt, cost-effective, and practical representation for a range of legal issues in the workplace.


All GIA graded diamonds purchased from Gage Diamonds are eligible. Does not apply to lab grown diamonds, moissanites or colored gemstones.
You will receive credit equal to 100% of the original price (excluding any applicable sales taxes) toward the purchase of a new diamond.
Your diamond must be in its original condition.
Any damage to the original diamond will disqualify the diamond from the upgrade program.
You must return the original diamond grading report in reusable condition. If the diamond grading report is not reusable, then a fee will be applied for damaged reports.
Keep in mind that insurance appraisals do not transfer over to the new diamond.
You will not receive credit for the value of your setting. The credit value is based solely on the value of the diamond.
If you would like to use your original setting and the new diamond fits the original setting, then we can set the new diamond into your original setting. We will restore your original setting for a fee of $200 for 14K gold settings, $250 for 18K gold settings and $350 for platinum settings.
If your original setting cannot be reused or you would like to purchase a new setting, you have the option of keeping the setting or recycling the setting and receiving credit based on current metal prices. Only settings made of 14K gold, 18K gold and Platinum may be recycled.
If you financed your original purchase, your original loan must be paid off in full before you can qualify for the upgrade program.
If you plan to finance the purchase of the upgraded diamond, you will need to submit a new application for approval. There is no guarantee that you will be approved for the full amount in order to purchase the upgraded diamond.


text:
Liverpool to compete with Arsenal for 23-goal striker?
by adminlivetipspro2 | Apr 6, 2021 | Non classé | 0 comments
April 5, 2021 20:18 GMT (UK), by Sri Aswin
Daka wanted by Arsenal and Liverpool
Liverpool could compete with Arsenal in the race to sign Patson Daka from Red Bull Salzburg during the summer transfer window.
The Zambian has been in superb form for the Austrian champions this term, registering 23 goals in just 19 league outings.
His progress has caught the eye of the Gunners, but The Star claims that they could face stiff competition from the Reds.
Despite Saka's development, Salzburg may have to sell him on the cheap with a release clause of just £17m on his existing contract.
A number of clubs in La Liga and Bundesliga are also keen on landing his signature, particularly after the success of Erling Braut Haaland.
Daka is likely to want assurances of regular playing time to join a bigger club and it remains to be seen whether he is lured to England.
Salzburg have developed plenty of young players over the years and they most recently sold Dominik Szoboszlai to RB Leipzig.


You'll probably pay less when you visit doctors or other health care professionals in your plan's network. Already a UnitedHealthcare plan member? See if your doctor is in the network.
The program uses national standardized measures to evaluate for quality and local geographic area benchmarks for cost efficiency across 16 specialties and 47 sub-specialites, including family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, cardiology and orthopedics.
The designation results are displayed publicly in UnitedHealthcare's physician directories (e.g., myuhc.comOpens a new window) to support informed decision-making by members when making health care choices and by physicians when making referrals.
More information on the UnitedHealth Premium program.
1 Asch, Steven M. et al. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2006 March 16; 354: 1147-1156.


text:
Q: Realm query equalTo results in nullpointerexception I'm trying to make a query in realm. But I keep getting a null pointer exception in equalTo("id", 38)
This is the exception:
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke interface method 'java.lang.Object java.util.Map.get(java.lang.Object)' on a null object reference
    at io.realm.RealmQuery.getColumnIndices(RealmQuery.java:140)
    at io.realm.RealmQuery.equalTo(RealmQuery.java:199)
    at es.treenovum.paedocuments.services.OfflineService$WidgetOpsNewest.loadTags(OfflineService.java:340)
    at es.treenovum.paedocuments.services.OfflineService$WidgetOpsNewest.doInBackground(OfflineService.java:228)
    at es.treenovum.paedocuments.services.OfflineService$WidgetOpsNewest.doInBackground(OfflineService.java:1)
    at android.os.AsyncTask$2.call(AsyncTask.java:288)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:237)
    ... 3 more

The exception happens on the equalTo line here:
Category categoryResult = realm.where(Category.class)
      .equalTo("id", category.getId())
      .findFirst();

The int category.getId() is not null or empty. realm neither.
If its the first time I run the app the db is empty. Would that cause this? Shouldn't there return null or 0 in result instead of throwing an exception?
EDIT: Category Class added. All getters and setters generated by eclipse.
import io.realm.RealmObject;
import io.realm.annotations.RealmClass;

import com.google.gson.annotations.SerializedName;

@RealmClass
public class Category extends RealmObject {

    @SerializedName("id")
    private int id;

    @SerializedName("text")
    private String text;

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getText() {
        return text;
    }

    public void setText(String text) {
        this.text = text;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


As a resident or business owner in Pasadena, you are able to choose Reliant Energy rates on supply because your neighborhood is in the Reliant Energy service area. Thanks to deregulation legislation, however, Reliant Energy rates on supply are not your only option for electricity. When exploring all Pasadena electricity plans, you should keep in mind the electricity plans offered by Reliant Energy in Pasadena listed below. This way, while you're shopping, you can compare Reliant Energy plans to other providers.
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You could say…Parisienne on a budget.
With 2017 coming to a close, would I really be a blogger without a post to cap off the year?
Three weeks in Paris has taught me more than I ever thought I could learn in that time. My partner and I are having an amazing time - no, better than that. Each moment is amazing and that means that altogether the experience is....well....incredibly amazing. So what was I missing?
Find something to suit you.


text:
Posted inGovernment
Critical Access: What Mississippi counties are giving away for ambulance service
by Erica Hensley July 24, 2019 December 12, 2019
An ambulance sits outside of the emergency entrance.
JACKSON — On paper, it takes an ambulance less than 10 minutes to reach most patients living in Hinds County. In reality, it could take a lot longer.
That's because Hinds County's contractual arrangement with its emergency medical services provider can make response times appear shorter than they are.
According to the agreement Hinds County struck with Colorado-based American Medical Response, the ambulance company must respond to most emergency calls within eight minutes.
However, the contract contains a number of exceptions such as high volume periods and inclement weather that do not count against the company's response times, a Mississippi Today/WLBT analysis of statewide contracts shows.
In 2018, there were more than 32,000 emergency calls in Hinds County, the most populous in the state. A review of those calls showed an average trip time — starting from the time the ambulance is dispatched to when a hospital admits a patient allowing the ambulance to go back in service — of an hour and a half.
Last year, half of calls were exceptions, which includes delays caused by weather, construction, and what the contract defines as excess volume. In Hinds County, excess call volume — essentially, when the ambulance company's fleet is maxed out — kicks in at eight or more active trips at one time. In 2018, one-third of all emergency runs, more than 10,000 trips, were exempt from AMR's response time performance due to "unusual system overload."
Rick Narad, a national emergency medical services researcher and professor at California State University at Chico, called the agreement unusual and akin to a get-out-of-jail-free card.
"You've got a combination of a very friendly contract and inadequate oversight," because excluded response times are omitted from the contract's accountability measures. "That scares me because it means that we don't really know what the provider is doing. We've given them an exclusive (contract), but we're not holding them accountable."
Jim Pollard, a public affairs manager with the company's Mississippi office, defends the Hinds County agreement as a good deal for taxpayers. Under the contract, Hinds County agrees to pay the company just 15 cents per Hinds County resident (roughly $36,000 per year) to provide critical emergency services.
In return, Hinds County agreed to allow certain exceptions as well as granting AMR exclusive rights to non-emergency calls such as taking nursing home patients to scheduled doctor visits; these calls provide the bulk of revenues for emergency medical service providers.
"That path is for government officials to select, through a competitive process, one and only contractor who transports all of the community's emergency and non-emergency ambulance patients," Pollard said in a written response. "If local government allows multiple companies to provide non-emergency transports, then the contractor for 911 transports will be financially crippled."
Across-the-board gambit
Hinds County is a microcosm of the challenges facing the emergency medical services industry across the U.S. as well as communities grappling with myriad problems of shrinking government budgets and crumbling roads and bridges.
Nationwide, emergency systems provide $2.9 billion worth of uncompensated care yearly, according to a 2016 National EMS Advisory Council report that recommended increased federal reimbursement rates. The report points out that total loss includes charity care, under-reimbursement from Medicare and 911 calls that do not result in trips to the hospital.
Pollard explains that such exclusivity agreements as its Hinds County provision provides a degree of stability in an otherwise unpredictable business climate. For example, when patients lack health insurance, emergency medical service providers lose money. And even insured patients come with varying reimbursement rates.
In areas with high poverty rates and uninsured rates like Jackson, many ambulance trips can go uncompensated. Kyle Greer, Hinds County's emergency services coordinator who authorizes AMR's response times and excluded calls, says the long waits, high volume and uncompensated care costs are systemic across the country.
"It's not just an ambulance issue. It's not just a hospital issue. It's the whole across-the-board gambit. … It's a Catch-22 in so many different ways. The whole system is broken from start to finish but nobody can really go in and fix the entire system," Greer said.
Hinds County is one of the few across the state that mandates response times in their ambulance contract. The county requires the company to meet 85 percent of its Jackson and Clinton emergency calls in eight minutes or less. AMR has to respond to outer-Hinds County calls in 18 minutes or less.
When someone calls 911, the call goes to a dispatcher run by a local police department or an answering service that sends an ambulance to the patient. Depending on where the ambulance is coming from and the size of the ambulance company's fleet, the minutes can add up, especially in rural areas. In a perfect world, the paramedic gets to the patient quickly, takes them to the nearest hospital, hands off the paperwork and hits the road for next patient trip.
But there's another complicating factor in calculating response times, according to paramedic reports, research and our analysis. Paramedics dub it wall time, which refers to the amount of time it takes to get a patient from the ambulance stretcher to a hospital bed. Wall time, emergency medical service providers say, has long plagued providers of all sizes. In smaller counties, it could mean hours without a dedicated ambulance provider.
Industry experts agree that ambulance response times will get longer before they get shorter. In Mississippi, increasing consolidation among ambulance providers, deteriorating infrastructure and the rate of rural hospital closures are increasing the length of calls.
In Hinds County, wall time eats up half of all emergency calls — an average of about 45 minutes every time a paramedic picks up and drops off a patient. Data show that wall times compound over the course of the day. Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. is when call volume peaks, creating ambulance log-jam at emergency departments that are unable to return to service.
Big companies with large fleets, like AMR who contracts with 19 Mississippi counties, can better absorb some of these losses or work with counties to carve out exceptions for them in their contracts. Smaller companies have to eat it, but many small operators fear that it could drive them out of business, weakening the public safety of ambulance providers and, possibly, cause corporations to raise their prices as competitors die off.
"Nobody knows it yet because we're that duck paddling like hell under the water and staying afloat. But we're actually in crisis and it's going to hit critical mass. I don't know what it's going to look like but it's not going to be healthy for people … If we ever take this veil down, people will realize that it's really kind of scary," said Tyler Blalock, who operates Rural Rapid Response in southwestern Franklin and Lawrence counties.
A question of oversight
Blalock, a former AMR paramedic who started his own company in 2012, echoes the California professor in calling for more accountability in his industry. But debate has long swirled over who exactly should provide the oversight.
Tyler Blalock, owner of Rural Rapid Response.
In Mississippi and around the nation these life-and-death matters are determined by a largely unregulated patchwork of private EMS providers making deals with local counties, and emergency medical providers striking loose unregulated and unenforceable compacts amongst themselves. No state agency independently regulates response times, and a federal database maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration relies on emergency medical services providers to voluntarily provide response time data.
In short, emergency medical service providers, which emerged in response to an increasing number of car wrecks in the 1960s, are regulated and paid mostly as transportation companies that the U.S. Department of Transportation oversees rather than medical providers.
The Mississippi State Department of Health inspects and regulates the equipment on emergency medical vehicles, and licenses some 2,100 paramedics and emergency medical technicians across the state. Otherwise, accountability rests with individual counties in enforcing the terms of their contracts and acting in the best interest of their citizens.
In a longstanding dispute between emergency service providers and hospitals over the question of who is responsible for patient care at the emergency department, the state attorney general's office recently advised the health department that under federal law, hospitals are responsible for patients when on hospital grounds.
Emergency services experts agree that more such clarity is needed. In the meantime, as pressures mount on ambulance service providers, so does the risk for patients.
"You better hope you're not the third heart attack in the county that night or you're gonna be waiting a very long time," said Ryan Kelly, director of the state's rural health task force.
"If you have something very serious, there's two ambulances out on a call and you're the third call, you better get in the car because you're going to be waiting hours. And that's a very scary thought that you may live or die depending on whether you were first in line."
This is the first part in an occasional series about emergency medical services in Mississippi. In Part II, we look at the challenges facing small rural providers.
We requested 2018 emergency transports from Hinds County. Using the total length of time of each trip – from dispatch to going back in service – we subtracted the time spent at the hospital to get total "wall time" for each trip. We also calculated the average and the median time spent treating/transporting patients as well as wall time.
This same dataset included the total number of calls that were excluded from overall response times for each month. We used this data to average the number of calls across the year not used toward AMR's performance metrics outlined in its Hinds County contract.
After sorting the transport data in chronological order, we used a formula to count how many trips were ongoing each time a new call was received.
This told us how many times a trip was the eighth (or higher) simultaneous trip, meaning that it was excluded from AMR's performance metrics due to what the contract calls "unusual system overload."
References to an average day, the busiest or least busy day are based on the number of trips per day in 2018.
We also requested total wall time for transfers from hospitals across the state from Mississippi State Department of Health, to calculate how many trips left their region to seek care in Jackson.
by Erica Hensley, Mississippi Today

Critical Access: What Mississippi counties are giving away for ambulance service

by Erica Hensley, Mississippi Today
July 24, 2019

JACKSON — On paper, it takes an ambulance less than 10 minutes to reach most patients living in Hinds County. In reality, it could take a lot longer.

That's because Hinds County's contractual arrangement with its emergency medical services provider can make response times appear shorter than they are.

According to the agreement Hinds County struck with Colorado-based American Medical Response, the ambulance company must respond to most emergency calls within eight minutes.

However, the contract contains a number of exceptions such as high volume periods and inclement weather that do not count against the company's response times, a Mississippi Today/WLBT analysis of statewide contracts shows.

In 2018, there were more than 32,000 emergency calls in Hinds County, the most populous in the state. A review of those calls showed an average trip time — starting from the time the ambulance is dispatched to when a hospital admits a patient allowing the ambulance to go back in service — of an hour and a half.

Last year, half of calls were exceptions, which includes delays caused by weather, construction, and what the contract defines as excess volume. In Hinds County, excess call volume — essentially, when the ambulance company's fleet is maxed out — kicks in at eight or more active trips at one time. In 2018, one-third of all emergency runs, more than 10,000 trips, were exempt from AMR's response time performance due to "unusual system overload."

Rick Narad, a national emergency medical services researcher and professor at California State University at Chico, called the agreement unusual and akin to a get-out-of-jail-free card.

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"You've got a combination of a very friendly contract and inadequate oversight," because excluded response times are omitted from the contract's accountability measures. "That scares me because it means that we don't really know what the provider is doing. We've given them an exclusive (contract), but we're not holding them accountable."

Jim Pollard, a public affairs manager with the company's Mississippi office, defends the Hinds County agreement as a good deal for taxpayers. Under the contract, Hinds County agrees to pay the company just 15 cents per Hinds County resident (roughly $36,000 per year) to provide critical emergency services.

In return, Hinds County agreed to allow certain exceptions as well as granting AMR exclusive rights to non-emergency calls such as taking nursing home patients to scheduled doctor visits; these calls provide the bulk of revenues for emergency medical service providers.

"That path is for government officials to select, through a competitive process, one and only contractor who transports all of the community's emergency and non-emergency ambulance patients," Pollard said in a written response. "If local government allows multiple companies to provide non-emergency transports, then the contractor for 911 transports will be financially crippled."

Across-the-board gambit

Hinds County is a microcosm of the challenges facing the emergency medical services industry across the U.S. as well as communities grappling with myriad problems of shrinking government budgets and crumbling roads and bridges.

Nationwide, emergency systems provide $2.9 billion worth of uncompensated care yearly, according to a 2016 National EMS Advisory Council report that recommended increased federal reimbursement rates. The report points out that total loss includes charity care, under-reimbursement from Medicare and 911 calls that do not result in trips to the hospital.

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Pollard explains that such exclusivity agreements as its Hinds County provision provides a degree of stability in an otherwise unpredictable business climate. For example, when patients lack health insurance, emergency medical service providers lose money. And even insured patients come with varying reimbursement rates.

In areas with high poverty rates and uninsured rates like Jackson, many ambulance trips can go uncompensated. Kyle Greer, Hinds County's emergency services coordinator who authorizes AMR's response times and excluded calls, says the long waits, high volume and uncompensated care costs are systemic across the country.

"It's not just an ambulance issue. It's not just a hospital issue. It's the whole across-the-board gambit. ... It's a Catch-22 in so many different ways. The whole system is broken from start to finish but nobody can really go in and fix the entire system," Greer said.

Hinds County is one of the few across the state that mandates response times in their ambulance contract. The county requires the company to meet 85 percent of its Jackson and Clinton emergency calls in eight minutes or less. AMR has to respond to outer-Hinds County calls in 18 minutes or less.

When someone calls 911, the call goes to a dispatcher run by a local police department or an answering service that sends an ambulance to the patient. Depending on where the ambulance is coming from and the size of the ambulance company's fleet, the minutes can add up, especially in rural areas. In a perfect world, the paramedic gets to the patient quickly, takes them to the nearest hospital, hands off the paperwork and hits the road for next patient trip.

But there's another complicating factor in calculating response times, according to paramedic reports, research and our analysis. Paramedics dub it wall time, which refers to the amount of time it takes to get a patient from the ambulance stretcher to a hospital bed. Wall time, emergency medical service providers say, has long plagued providers of all sizes. In smaller counties, it could mean hours without a dedicated ambulance provider.

Industry experts agree that ambulance response times will get longer before they get shorter. In Mississippi, increasing consolidation among ambulance providers, deteriorating infrastructure and the rate of rural hospital closures are increasing the length of calls.

In Hinds County, wall time eats up half of all emergency calls — an average of about 45 minutes every time a paramedic picks up and drops off a patient. Data show that wall times compound over the course of the day. Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. is when call volume peaks, creating ambulance log-jam at emergency departments that are unable to return to service.

Big companies with large fleets, like AMR who contracts with 19 Mississippi counties, can better absorb some of these losses or work with counties to carve out exceptions for them in their contracts. Smaller companies have to eat it, but many small operators fear that it could drive them out of business, weakening the public safety of ambulance providers and, possibly, cause corporations to raise their prices as competitors die off.

"Nobody knows it yet because we're that duck paddling like hell under the water and staying afloat. But we're actually in crisis and it's going to hit critical mass. I don't know what it's going to look like but it's not going to be healthy for people ... If we ever take this veil down, people will realize that it's really kind of scary," said Tyler Blalock, who operates Rural Rapid Response in southwestern Franklin and Lawrence counties.

A question of oversight

Blalock, a former AMR paramedic who started his own company in 2012, echoes the California professor in calling for more accountability in his industry. But debate has long swirled over who exactly should provide the oversight.

In Mississippi and around the nation these life-and-death matters are determined by a largely unregulated patchwork of private EMS providers making deals with local counties, and emergency medical providers striking loose unregulated and unenforceable compacts amongst themselves. No state agency independently regulates response times, and a federal database maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration relies on emergency medical services providers to voluntarily provide response time data.

In short, emergency medical service providers, which emerged in response to an increasing number of car wrecks in the 1960s, are regulated and paid mostly as transportation companies that the U.S. Department of Transportation oversees rather than medical providers.

The Mississippi State Department of Health inspects and regulates the equipment on emergency medical vehicles, and licenses some 2,100 paramedics and emergency medical technicians across the state. Otherwise, accountability rests with individual counties in enforcing the terms of their contracts and acting in the best interest of their citizens.

In a longstanding dispute between emergency service providers and hospitals over the question of who is responsible for patient care at the emergency department, the state attorney general's office recently advised the health department that under federal law, hospitals are responsible for patients when on hospital grounds.

Emergency services experts agree that more such clarity is needed. In the meantime, as pressures mount on ambulance service providers, so does the risk for patients.

"You better hope you're not the third heart attack in the county that night or you're gonna be waiting a very long time," said Ryan Kelly, director of the state's rural health task force.

"If you have something very serious, there's two ambulances out on a call and you're the third call, you better get in the car because you're going to be waiting hours. And that's a very scary thought that you may live or die depending on whether you were first in line."

This is the first part in an occasional series about emergency medical services in Mississippi. In Part II, we look at the challenges facing small rural providers.

Our Methodology

We requested 2018 emergency transports from Hinds County. Using the total length of time of each trip – from dispatch to going back in service – we subtracted the time spent at the hospital to get total "wall time" for each trip. We also calculated the average and the median time spent treating/transporting patients as well as wall time.

This same dataset included the total number of calls that were excluded from overall response times for each month. We used this data to average the number of calls across the year not used toward AMR's performance metrics outlined in its Hinds County contract.

After sorting the transport data in chronological order, we used a formula to count how many trips were ongoing each time a new call was received.

This told us how many times a trip was the eighth (or higher) simultaneous trip, meaning that it was excluded from AMR's performance metrics due to what the contract calls "unusual system overload."

References to an average day, the busiest or least busy day are based on the number of trips per day in 2018.

We also requested total wall time for transfers from hospitals across the state from Mississippi State Department of Health, to calculate how many trips left their region to seek care in Jackson.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Erica Hensley
Erica Hensley, a native of Atlanta, has been working as an investigative reporter focusing on public health for Mississippi Today since May 2018. She is a Knight Foundation fellow for our newsroom's collaboration with local TV station WLBT and curates The Inform[H]er, our monthly women and girls' newsletter. She is the 2019 recipient of the Doris O'Donnell Innovations in Investigative Journalism Fellowship. Erica received a bachelor's in print journalism and political science from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and a master's in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia Grady College for Journalism and Mass Communication.
More by Erica Hensley


text:
Daniel Ricciardo: The man behind the big smile.
Daniel Joseph Ricciardo, born in Perth, Australia is a 31-year-old racing driver currently racing in Formula 1. Daniel is the son of an Italian father: Joseph (Joe) and an Australian mother: Grace. He also has a sister named Michelle. His parents owned an Italian restaurant in Duncraig, near Perth, but they closed the restaurant a few years ago.
Some of his earliest memories of motorsport were made at the nearby Barbagallo Raceway. Daniel's mother always took little Dan to watch his father race. Daniel started karting himself at the age of nine, won a scholarship into the Asian Formula BMW championship and won two races in his debut season. In 2007 Daniel switched to a different racing category: Formula Renault and entered the European and Italian championships. In 2008 Daniel stayed at Formula Renault for another season and won the European title.
"If the sparkling wine is cold, then it tastes good. If it's warm then you might get the sweat through"
Daniel Ricciardo – Formula 1 driver
A little flash-forward to 2009. Daniel tested for Red Bull during a young-drivers test at Circuito de Jerez, Spain. Making this his first ever debut behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car. Daniel managed to clock the fastest time of the entire test. Around November 2010 Red Bull Racing confirmed Daniel as a representative for the post-season test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. A few days after the test in Abu Dhabi, Daniel was confirmed as a test and reserve driver for Toro Rosso for the 2011 season and he was able to take part in three FP1's of each race weekend.
The 2011 British Grand Prix was Daniel's official Formula 1 debut. He joined HRT that year after a deal was struck with Red Bull Racing, this because he was their test and reserve driver for Scuderia Toro Rosso. He chose to drive with number 3 on his car. In 2012 Daniel joined Toro Rosso full-time up to the 2013 season. This was after they changed their driver line-up and decided to switch to Ferrari powered engines. As of 2014 Daniel got promoted again, this time to Red Bull Racing after Mark Webber announced his retirement in Formula 1.
In 2014, his first year with Red Bull, Daniel drove alongside Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull made the change to a Renault power unit. At the end of the season Daniel finished third in the championship and managed to get his first three Formula 1 wins at the Grand Prix of Canada, Hungary and Belgium.
Unfortunately, after his debut season at Red Bull Racing, Daniel had two years without a single victory, this becau
se the RB11 was mostly only capable of showing good pace at the slow downforce tracks that have lots of corners, which truly showed the cars very strong chassis but wasn't enough for a race win. At the end of the season Daniel finished eighth in the championship with 92 points. Only three points behind his Russian teammate Daniil Kvyat, while he was able to out-qualify Daniil 14 to 5.
Fun fact: Some drivers in Formula 1 are known by their nicknames, same goes for Daniel. Since his time at Toro Rosso, Daniel has been known as 'The Honey Badger'. A Honey Badger is an animal that is famous for their strength, brutality and fearlessness. During his early Toro Rosso years, Daniel was praised for his qualifying pace. When he got promoted to Red Bull, his aggression increased with his daring overtakes. A style that was compared to the honey badger, who is known to both attack and defend itself.
The 2016 car that Red Bull had developed was thankfully a much more competitive car. The season started off great finishing 4th at his home race in Australia. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Daniel was joined by the Dutch youngster Max Verstappen who became his new team mate after Red Bull Racing dropped Daniil Kvyat.
During the Monaco Grand Prix Daniel scored his first pole position. Unfortunately he couldn't bring home a win in Monaco after a very long pit stop that took nearly 40 seconds, the pit crew didn't have his new tyres ready when he came in to stop. In Germany he finished second and that's exactly when and where the iconic 'Shoey' moment was born. This celebration is called a 'Shoey' because instead of drinking the champagne straight from the bottle, like we usually see during the Podium Ceremonies, Daniel poured it into his racing shoe and drank it straight out of his shoe. This is a typical and very popular Australian way of celebrating a victory in several sports. He repeated this very funny kind of celebration with many other races and tried to persuade the interviewers to also drink from his shoe. He 'did shoey's' with people such as Mark Webber, Sir Patrick Stewart and actor Gerard Butler. Daniel once said the following about the Shoey: "If the sparkling wine is cold, then it tastes good. If it's warm then you might get the sweat through it but the cold taste kills the bad stuff… so it's delicious."
During the Malaysian Grand Prix, after starting fourth, Daniel moved up to second into turn one after Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg collided. He took the lead later on in the race after a beautiful fight with his teammate Max Verstappen. When Lewis Hamilton had to retire from the race because of an engine failure, Daniel finally took his first victory during the 2016 season. On the podium, Daniel did the Shoey again and was able to persuade Christian Horner, his teamboss and the other podium finishers Max Verstappen and Nico Rosberg to do a Shoey as well. At the end of the 2016 season, Daniel managed to finish third in the driver's championship for the second year in a row.
In 2017 Daniel did not have a great start of the season, qualifying 10th in his home grand prix in Australia after spinning into the barriers. This resulted in a five-place grid penalty because the gearbox had to be changed due to the amount of damage caused by the crash.
At Baku Daniel got into a better flow. After qualifying 10th again, Daniel this time won his fifth Grand Prix at the first ever Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He finished on the podium five times in a row between the Spanish and the Austrian Grand Prix. Between Singapore and Japan he finished on the podium three times in a row and maintained his fourth position in the driver's championship. But retirements in three of the last four rounds got him dropping back in fifth in the championship, only 5 points behind Kimi Räikkönen who was driving for Ferrari that year.
At the end of 2017, Daniel started working with Michael Italiano, his performance coach. Michael and Daniel met when they were kids, as they both grew up in Perth. They kept in touch ever since. It all started with some informal training sessions when Daniel was back home in Perth during the winter break. Daniel eventually sent Michael a message saying he needed a performance coach and asked if he was onboard for a new adventure. Since Daniel Ricciardo can be quite a joker, Michael rationally thought it was a joke. After some discussions Michael agreed to take on this role. Michael is responsible for preparing Daniel to perform at the highest possible level as he is taking on the physical and mental aspects. This is because racing is a very demanding sport , drivers need to be physically fit to take on the G-forces and mentally strong because Formula 1 is by heart a very dangerous sport with no place for fear. Add the crazy travel schedules in the mix and you can imagine a coach can come in handy.
The 2018 season started with a fourth place in Australia, coming from eighth on the grid after a three-place penalty for speeding during a red flag. In Bahrain he scored a DNF after an electrical failure on the second lap. The Chinese Grand Prix was so much better after claiming a victory by almost 9 seconds, starting from P6 on the grid. During the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Daniel was fighting for P4 with teammate Max Verstappen in the last half of the race. It all ended when his front wing made heavy contact with Max's rear, and the incident caused a massive crash where both drivers had to retire. A very dramatic moment for both the team and the drivers since they didn't score any points that race.
Christian Horner and Helmut Marko allowed them to race wheel-to-wheel without team orders, but it's very painful when you don't leave enough margin for your teammate. You definitely have to show some respect, when it's not for the other driver, then at least for the other 1000 people who have been working on these cars that allow you to battle on track. That's why Red Bull demanded the two drivers to come to the factory to apologise to the staff.
Arriving at the Monaco Grand Prix, Daniel and Max were considered favourites to win the race because of their great chassis and downforce based car. Daniel ended up first in all three practice sessions before qualifying and he broke the lap record every session. This eventually made Daniel secure his second career pole in Monaco after being at the top of every qualifying session and setting a new lap record once again. During the race, Daniel held-off Sebastian Vettel to take his first Monaco Grand Prix win and his first win coming from pole position. It was a very tense race since Daniel had to manage a loss of power due to a MGU-K power issue during the race. After the race, Daniel went to the floating Red Bull Energy Station based in the Monaco harbour and took a dive into the pool. This led to an iconic moment as this is a tradition that began in 2006 when Red Bull scored its first podium finish.
In 2018 Daniel managed to score the fastest lap of the race 4 times: in Australia, China, Spain and Hungary and he finished the season being sixth in the driver championship with 170 points.
After a few amazing moments and the Monaco Grand Prix being a highlight, Daniel unfortunately had to claim 8 retirements in total that season. A very frustrating thing for a racing driver. During one of Daniel's favorite Grand Prix's: the American GP in Austin, Texas in 2018, Daniel had enough of it. After his seventh retirement of that year, the normally smiling Australian couldn't control himself anymore and at some point he was even afraid of himself. Daniel punched his hand into the wall of his motorhome.
Quoting Daniel: "I went back to my room and hit the wall hard. It was cheap material so I flew right through it. I hit a metal piece with my hand. Then I kicked again and my foot ended up in Max's room. Luckily he was still on the track. Afterwards, I got a message that he thanked me for decorating his room." Daniel continued: "My hand began to swell. For about an hour I had a very dark feeling about myself. I thought I'd broken my own hand." Luckily it was not so bad for Daniel and after three days of keeping ice on his hand, he was able to step back in his car for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo eventually left Red Bull Racing after this painful year.
The Australian was defeated by his younger teammate Max Verstappen while many of his defeats were due to the Renault power source. Ironically, Daniel made the move and signed a two-year contract with the F1 team of Renault. Exactly, the team that, being Red Bull Racing's engine supplier, caused him many moments of misery.
In his first season with the Renault F1 Team, Daniel drove alongside Nico Hülkenberg. The Australian had a disappointing start of the season with retirements in the first two races. In Azerbaijan, Daniel reversed into Daniil Kvyat when both cars stopped after a failed overtake by Daniel, causing damage to both cars and forcing Daniel in his third retirement in four races. Six consecutive race finishes followed.
At the Italian Grand Prix, Daniel finished in 4th place, his best result of the year while teammate Nico Hülkenberg finished in 5th, managing Renaults best finish since 2016, when the team returned to compete at the pinnacle of motorsports. The Australian ended a disappointing first season for Renault in 9th place in the championship, with 54 points, ahead of teammate Nico Hülkenberg.
As I write this, the 2020 World Championship, which started in July due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus, is still going on. A year where Renault moved a little more to the top compared to last year, with Daniel scoring strong results in the free practice and qualifying sessions and finishing fourth at Silverstone, Belgium and in Mugello.
After two years at Renault, Daniel will join McLaren for the 2021 Formula 1 season to replace Carlos Sainz Jr. His teammate for 2021 will be Lando Norris who is currently set to be staying with the team until at least 2022. Daniel admitted to press that before signing for McLaren he had talks with Ferrari about taking over Sebastian Vettel's seat, but Ferrari had signed Carlos Sainz Jr. instead.
I'm personally looking forward to seeing what's in store when Daniel will drive with a Mercedes powered car next year in the very strong McLaren. I know for sure he and Lando will make a great team together and will give us many funny moments to enjoy since Lando can be quite a joker too.
I can definitely say that Daniel Ricciardo, the always smiling Honey Badger, is someone who always strives for perfection in a sport where perfection is one of the keys to success. Unfortunately there have been a few tough days in F1. He is a creative and beautiful person inside and out, but there can definitely be some inner steel behind his smile. Hopefully he will become a Formula 1 World Champion in the future, but only time will tell. Daniel is, with the experience of being on many podiums, a big one in Formula 1, one with a very big smile.
That Daniel shares his 3 favourite songs every Tuesday in three Instagram Story posts called: Three x 3? And that he releases a 'Dan's Diary' every now and then where he speaks his mind out about different subjects?
He is an ambassador of 'The Inner Ninja Foundation'? A charity that helps and supports people with their mental health and suicide prevention
That Daniel once stood on a podium with his fave Australian metal band Parkway Drive and that he is a big fan of Mumford and Sons?
That Daniel loves to take every possibility to change his helmet designs? He had amazing creations inspired by Texas for several US Grand Prix's. A purple helmet as tribute to the late Kobe Bryant and one with a Honey Badger with a sombrero on it for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Daniel released three of his own limited edition merchandise collections, designed two kinds of socks, co-designed caps and designed swim shorts.
That Daniel is known for his quotes? 'Holy Testicle Tuesday', 'Lick the Stamp and Send it', 'I like them vulnerable', 'I won't apologise'.
That Daniel loves to shake up the official press moments by saying inappropriate words before starting.
That he loves to swear on Dutch TV and during the press conferences he is known for his funny encounters with other drivers that even makes them cry from laughter sometimes?
Category: Formula 1By Jacobine van den Berg October 8, 2020
Tags: australiadaniel ricciardof1formula 1honey badgerred bull racingrenault formula 1 teamsmile
Author: Jacobine van den Berg
https://twitter.com/jacobinevdb
Jacobine van den Berg (1994) is a young woman who is passionate about motorsport. In daily life when not watching racing she works as a Medical Assistant.
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A garden festival is a festival and exposition held to celebrate the arts of gardening, garden design, landscaping and landscape architecture. There are local garden festivals, regional garden festivals, national garden festivals and international garden festivals. The idea probably originated with Germany's Bundesgartenschau. The UK held five garden festivals in the period 1984–1992.

To qualify as an international exhibition, an expo must be recognised by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which was established by a diplomatic international convention, signed in Paris, in 1928. Horticultural expos can also be recognised by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (IAHP / AIPH). To qualify as a national exhibition, a garden festival must be recognised by a national government.

Because garden design is becoming more popular and featuring on TV, there is an ever-growing number of garden festivals: permanent and temporary, official and non-official. One of the best known is International Garden Festival held on a permanent site at Chaumont in France. Despite the name, Chaumont does not come within the BIE definition of an 'international' festival. Other shows feature garden design but describe themselves as 'flower shows'.  The best-known example in this category, the Chelsea Flower Show, emphasises garden design.  It spun off a Chelsea Fringe events in 2012 which featured a variety of unusual gardens and gardening across London.

List of International Garden Festivals (BIE recognised)

List of other garden festivals

References
Andrew C. Theokas Grounds for Review: The Garden Festival in Urban Planning and Design (Liverpool University Press, 2004 )

External links

AIPH official website
BIE official website

Landscape
Festivals
Flower festivals


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Greg Hancock
When Bruce Penhall began mentoring Speedway motorcycle racer Greg Hancock before the age of 10, many predicted that the Costa Mesa, Calif. native would go on to similar success. They were right, as "Grin" has many highlights most notably as FIM World Speedway Champion in 1997, 2011 and 2104. Greg also won the United States Speedway Championship in 2005, 2004, 2003, 2000,1998, and 1995.Hancock will once again compete in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix Series all over the world, in addition to riding in the Polish Elite Leagues for the famed Torun team. All of Greg's bikes run with Red Line 40WT Race Oil. Greg has his European base in Sweden with his wife Jennie and three sons. Aside from speedway racing Greg enjoys motocross, surfing and playing golf.


The idea of account-based marketing (ABM), treating B2B customers as individual marketing targets, has been around for a while. Technology has made it more practical approach in recent years, but a new survey reveals there are still factors holding back its use.
Business insights firm Avention has carried out a survey of 100 B2B sales and marketing practitioners about their use of ABM techniques and strategies. While more than 90 per cent of those surveyed believe ABM is relevant to their businesses, respondents say that their number one roadblock to starting an ABM program is lack of access to the right data and the ability to use it.
The results show ABM is in productive use by only 38 per cent of businesses surveyed, 15 per cent are piloting it, with a further 21 per cent planning to implement a program within six to 12 months.
When asked about the challenges of ABM, 70 per cent say they're not able to identify companies that meet their target segment, and when they can find the right companies, 75 per cent say they can't find the right contacts to make their marketing effective. More than half say they lack the ability to gather real-time intelligence on target accounts.
"Almost two-thirds of the marketers responding to our survey report not having access to a single source of truth for customer data. This obviously impedes starting an ABM program and running it to successful conclusion, as such programs demand access to accurate and continually updated market and account data. ABM offers enterprises the opportunity to quickly fuel their customer acquisition, growth and retention strategies," says Steve Pogorzelski, CEO of Avention.
"To make data a strategic revenue and growth enabler within the enterprise, Avention's OneSource ABM solution combines three key elements: consolidation and visualisation of in-house customer data for sophisticated segmentation; deep account and contact insights, including predictive indicators; and CRM and MAP ecosystem connectivity".
Avention will be hosting a webinar to discuss the results on May 3. You can find out more and register to take part on the company's website.


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Lux Battle Royale as new Jaguar XK8 takes on BMW 650i
Joel Arellano
Jul 8th 2006 at 12:38PM
Inside Line has published a comparo of the new 2007 Jaguar XK8 Coupe and the 2007 BMW 650i. The $86,125 (MSRP) Jag comes armed with a 300-horsepower, 4.2-liter V8 engine and a six-speed automatic transmission, while the BMW 650i is equipped with a similar six-speed automatic transmission, but with a 360-horsepower, 4.4-liter V8 engine. The BMW's price, meanwhile, was lower at $81,140 MSRP.
This Jaguar is the brand's latest salvo in its battle against obsolescence in the super luxury segment. Inside Line found the coupe "drop-dead gorgeous" and commented that it offered plenty of luxurious comfort. Unfortunately for the venerable cat, the 650i beat it in virtually every other category with a better backseat, more truck space, and superior fit and finish, all for a lower asking price than the Jaguar.
Full details can be found at the link.
[Source: Inside Line via Business Wire]


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← The Meaning of Life Blitz
Violently in Pieces Reveal →
by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | October 3, 2019 · 5:00 am
Dark Justice – Tour
Romantic Suspense / Contemporary Romance
She's in love with her sister's killer…
Lauren has loved Luke since first grade. They planned to marry—until he murdered her sister. The moment he was sentenced to prison, Lauren fled with her secret baby and made a new life. Now she'll do anything to keep their daughter safe. But her hard won peace shatters when Luke is exonerated, and it sets her on a path of mixed emotions to discover the truth. Letting a killer into their tightly knit family is out of the question. Or is it?
She almost destroys her life by threatening his…
Prison stole his future with Lauren and twelve years of Luke's life, so the last thing he needs from her is a knife in the back or a gun in his face. Lauren believes he killed her sister, and he has no plans to pick up where they left off. Luke can't afford to trust her, but he wants nothing more than to convince her he's worth fighting for.
Their daughter is in danger…
Luke is heartbroken when he learns they had a child together. Now his daughter is in danger. Lauren trusted the wrong person for far too long, but he hopes she'll now trust him. Luke will risk everything to keep them safe. And Lauren will risk everything if she lets him into her heart.
Adapting to the openness had taken awhile. In prison, he'd been alone, despite the crowd. But here, he was out in the boondocks with the crickets croaking and the coyotes yapping, echoing and prolonging the eerie silence afterward.
He loved it. But after his release, he dreaded every moment. The silence. Feeling incredibly alone. He'd considered a pet, but the upkeep was more than he was willing to handle at the moment.
He jumped when the door slammed and Lauren waltzed out.
"I love jalapeno poppers," she said. "Can't remember the last time I've grilled some of those."
"I've got the makings if you want to do it."
She clapped her hands together. "Yes, let's do that."
"I picked enough jalapenos this morning, but we can always grab more from the garden if you want."
"Too dark and I'm afraid of snakes. I'm sure you have plenty."
She prepped the poppers and he prepped the fire, and they drank another margarita while the food cooked. They sat around the fire under the stars instead of the deck, near a large oak tree that had been the focal point of many parties with friends and family. They chatted about the weather, the river and the current news. Once the poppers were done, they ate a few and chatted more, but nothing too serious.
"You wanna just eat jalapeno poppers and margaritas tonight?" he asked, never wanting this night to end.
"Sounds wonderful."
He grabbed a stick and thrust a wiener on it. "How about we at least roast wieners?"
Laughing, she seized the stick and jabbed it in the fire. "I thought I had already roasted yours."
His loins jumped. "That you did."
She removed the burning wiener from the fire and blew on it. As she took it from the stick she muttered. "Hot, hot, hot."
He grabbed a paper plate and placed it under the wiener, where she let it fall. "Of course, it's hot silly. It just came from the fire."
She set the plate on the table and blurted, "I'm sorry I didn't trust you."
"You didn't trust that the hot dog was hot?" He took his from the fire and blew, but laid it across the plate before sliding it from the stick.
"No." She swept her hand through the air. "About everything else. For years I thought you had slaughtered my sister. How can I step away from that and remember what things were like before?"
Shadows skimmed Lauren's body. The dim light from the fire and from the deck's lighting flickered around her, enough to discern most of her features. He leaned closer and brushed a finger across her cheek. "Knowing me the way you did, how could you even think I would do something like that?"
Lauren shrugged. "Maybe I had a few doubts, but I called it wishful thinking. Then I went through such pain and heartache I didn't have room for doubts. Everyone convinced me. Your cap. Your knife. Your motive. Clint…" Her voice bubbled, a tenuous thread of something he couldn't name. Regret? Remorse? Confusion?
Luke jerked away. His muscles tensed, gut twitched.
"We became friends. Not like you and I were, but he was there for me—"
"Of course he was." His voice was harsh, hot like the fire steaming from his pit.
"As Laramie grew up, he became her godfather. But she didn't like him and never wanted to be alone with him. She never accused him of anything, but she steered clear of him. Even her instincts were right and I couldn't see through my pain."
He stood. Yes, they should have this conversation. They needed to have this conversation at one point. And now was as good a time as any. But it was too hard to sit. Too hard to face the demons that Lauren's mistrust in him had stirred.
"If I had doubts, I…I—"
"You had too many people lying to you."
She stood and planted her palms on his chest. "But you never lied, did you? You were the only person who didn't."
Angela Smith is a Texas native who, years ago, was dubbed most likely to write a novel during her senior year in high school. She always had her nose stuck in a book, even hiding them behind her textbooks during school study time. Her dream began at a young age when her sister started reciting 'Brer Rabbit' after their mom read it to them so often. She told her mom she'd write a story one day and never gave up on that dream even though her mom was never able to see it come to fruition. By day, she works as a certified paralegal and office manager at her local District Attorney's office and spends her free time with her husband, their pets, and their many hobbies. Although life in general keeps her very busy, her passion for writing and getting the stories out of her head tends to make her restless if she isn't following what some people call her destiny.
Outrunning the Devil Blitz
Thriller/Romantic Suspense Date Published: August 27, 2019 Laura's life is shattered overnight when her family
Crimson Roses Blitz
Romantic Suspense Date Published: October 2019 Pepper Chan tried to leave the scars of her
BENI Blitz
BENI by Bethany-Kris Guzzi Legacy, #4 Publication Date: October 7, 2019 Genres: Adult, STANDALONE, Romantic
Dark Justice Release Blitz
Romantic Suspense / Contemporary Romance Date Published: September 17, 2019 She's in love with her
Tagged as angela smith, contemporary romance, Dark Justice, romantic suspense
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OneSignal Raises $50 Million in Series C Funding to Accelerate Global Expansion of Customer Messaging and Engagement Platform
OneSignal, the world's leading customer engagement platform, today secured $50M in Series C funding to advance its unified messaging and orchestration capabilities, enhance its mobile data-driven email product, and deepen its geographic footprint in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The funding brings OneSignal's total investment since founding to more than $80 million, led by BAM Elevate, an investment division of Balyasny Asset Management with participation from Nimble Partners and existing investors SignalFire and Zach Coelius. They will join OneSignal's other existing investors, including Rakuten Ventures, Yes.vc, HubSpot, and Y Combinator.
"Every modern business understands the need to have a strong mobile presence and the importance of engaging with customers across multiple channels," said George Deglin, CEO and Co-Founder of OneSignal. "We're moving quickly and decisively to meet the requirements of today's marketers and developers. We're excited to have BAM Elevate's backing to help us accelerate our mission to democratize customer engagement for millions of businesses worldwide."
The round's proceeds will be used to enhance OneSignal's omnichannel messaging & orchestration capabilities. In particular, OneSignal recently released Journeys, a workflow automation tool that allows businesses to customize their customer journeys to automate personalized messaging at scale. Other product focus areas include continued development of best-in-class email messaging capabilities, expanding analytics tools to provide customers with actionable insights, and bolstering the company's leading position as the easiest-to-use customer engagement platform on the market. The company will also deepen its geographic footprint, particularly in Europe, APAC, and Latin America, with global offices in London and Singapore.
In conjunction with the round, Jamie McGurk also joins the OneSignal board, bringing 20+ years of operating and investing experience. Prior to BAM Elevate, McGurk was a Managing Partner at Coatue Management and spent 7 years as an Operating Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. As an Operating Partner, he built out Andreessen Horowitz's Corporate Development operating team and helped raise more than $20 billion in financing and close over $20 billion in M&A transaction value for various portfolio companies.
Also Read: Businesses Plan To Invest More in Automation To Ease Workflow
"We are excited to continue supporting OneSignal's tremendous growth in partnership with Jamie and BAM Elevate. From the beginning, we recognized the strength of OneSignal's product and the exceptional team they had assembled. We are looking forward to leveraging Jamie's deep experience in supporting high-growth startups as OneSignal continues to invest in its world-class team and rapid business expansion," said Ilya Kirnos, Founding Partner at SignalFire.
"Today's users expect hyper-personalized, relevant, and timely communication across every touchpoint. Creating a multichannel communication strategy is a must and OneSignal allows you to do this quickly and easily," said McGurk. "It's an honor to join the OneSignal team and I'm looking forward to working with George and the rest of the leadership team to continue on the great progress the company has made."
Transworld Systems Inc. Appoints Joel Petersen as President
Stacey Wetterer Enters Directions Inc to Bolster Talent Acquisition and DevelopmentAmerica


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History of Panmunjom
ⓒ YONHAP News
Civilian tours to the truce village of Panmunjom resumed on November 6, after more than a year of suspension due to the African swine fever and COVID-19 outbreaks. The application system has now been unified under a single website operated by the Ministry of Unification and the application process has been simplified.
In today's installment of Inside North Korea, we'll learn about the history and significance of Panmunjom. Let's hear from Dr. Bong Young-shik from the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies.
After assuming his post, South Korean Unification Minister Lee In-young expressed his hope to pave the way for inter-Korean cooperation in a creative fashion, starting with something small.
As part of the drive, the Unification Ministry said last month that it would resume tours to Panmunjom on November 6. Pilot tours involving 80 people took place on November 4.
Formerly, those hoping to visit Panmunjom could apply for tours through the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of National Defense or the National Intelligence Service. But the application system has now been unified under the Unification Ministry's new tourism support center. Previously, applications should be made at least 60 days in advance, but now, visitors may apply just two weeks ahead of time. The ministry has also lowered the age eligible for the tour program from ten to eight. In the past, only group tours consisting of 30 to 40 people were allowed to visit the area. But would-be visitors can now apply for the tours on an individual or family basis so that many more people may tour the truce village more easily.
In fact, Panmunjom is not the original name of this border village. Its former name was "Neolmun-ri tavern village." Neolmun means "wooden door" and ri stands for an administrative unit of the village. The farm village in northwestern Gyeonggi Province was called that way because it had houses with wooden doors and a bridge a long time ago. But why did the name of this village change?
During the Korean War, preliminary talks for the armistice began in northern Gaeseong on July 8, 1951. Twenty rounds of negotiations were held there until the U.N. Command proposed that they move the meeting venue, citing the danger of frequent military activities of the North Korean troops nearby. The North Korean side suggested a new meeting place in the nearby Neolmun-ri village known for its tavern. So, the negotiations resumed at a tent in the village on October 22, 1951. The talks involved the U.S.-led U.N. Command and the North Korean and Chinese militaries. To make it easier for Chinese representatives to find the new location, the village name was written in the Chinese characters on a sign.
The Chinese characters for the "Neolmun-ri tavern" were pronounced Panmunjom, with pan, mun, and jom meaning "wooden board," "door" and "tavern," respectively.
Also, a bridge inside the truce village was originally called Neolmun Bridge. But after the Korean War armistice was signed in July 1953, this bridge crossing the military demarcation line was renamed, "The Bridge of No Return." It was used for prisoner exchanges at the end of the war. A final ultimatum was given to prisoners of war before their repatriation, as they would never be able to return once they cross the bridge. That's why the bridge got this name.
At first, the Panmunjom meeting place was nothing but a shabby structure where a tent was set up. As the ceasefire was drawn out, temporary, attached buildings there, including the conference buildings of the Military Armistice Commission and the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission conference room became permanent facilities.
Concrete buildings such as the Freedom House and Panmungak were built inside Panmumjon in 1965 and 1969, respectively. As South and North Korea engaged in more talks in the 1980s, the Peace House was built on the southern side of the village, while Tongilgak was constructed on the northern side.
The Freedom House stands opposite to its North Korean counterpart Panmungak. Between the two buildings, blue conference buildings of the Military Armistice Commission lie in the central part of the Joint Security Area. On the southern side, the Peace House is located about 100 meters from the Freedom House. On the northern side, Tongilgak stands 100 meters away from Pamnungak.
Speaking of South Korean-controlled buildings, the Freedom House, which used to handle South-North liaisons, was renovated on July 9, 1998.
The three-story Peace House accommodates a press room and a small conference room on the first floor. The second floor has meetings rooms and a waiting room, while the third floor houses a large meeting hall and other rooms. The Peace House was the very location where the inter-Korean summit was held in April 2018.
Today, South and North Korean guards standing face-to-face symbolize the Joint Security Area of JSA of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone. But that was not the case in the past. The armistice agreement was signed in July 1953, but there was no clear border line within Panmunjom. People from each side freely moved around the area. Soldiers from the two sides had conversations with each other and even took photos together. But the mood completely changed when a brutal incident occurred there in 1976.
In 1976, ax-wielding North Korean soldiers killed two American officers sent out to trim a tree at Panmunjom. After the notorious "ax murder incident," the Bridge of No Return was closed and a military demarcation line was drawn within the JSA. A concrete slab that is 50 centimeters wide and 5 centimeters high was installed to mark the line and prevent possible clashes.
Panmunjom has sometimes revealed hostility between the two Koreas. But it has also been used as the venue for inter-Korean talks. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held their first summit at the Peace House in Panmunjom on April 27, 2018. A month later, on May 26, they held their second summit for two hours at Tongilgak in the same truce village. The scenes of the two inter-Korean summit talks in Panmunjom remain as a warm memory for many South Koreans.
I still vividly remember the Moon-Kim summit in April 2018. Kim Jong-un came out of Panmungak and walked toward the military demarcation line, wearing a bright smile on his face. After Kim walked over the line, he unexpectedly invited Moon to briefly cross the border to the North Korean side. So, the two leaders cross the border together into North Korea and returned to the southern side. Indeed, the memorable scene symbolized cross-border reconciliation and cooperation.
On August 20, 1971, Red Cross societies from both sides made their first contact in Panmunjom. The two Koreas held their preliminary Red Cross talks there on September 20 that year. On August 15, 1989, South Korean college student Lim Su-kyung and Catholic priest Moon Kyu-hyun returned to South Korea via Panmunjom after an unauthorized visit to North Korea. In 1994, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter crossed the inter-Korean border into North Korea through Panmunjom. And the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung traveled through Panmunjom to North Korea in June and October in 1998 to donate 1,001 cattle to the North. The number 1,001 reflected his hope that cross-border exchanges would not end there but begin again so inter-Korean cooperation would continue.
Tours to Panmunjom resumed this month. With the application process simplified and the scope of visitors eligible for tours expanded, many more people are expected to visit this spot, the symbol of peace. Here's hoping that the truce village will be the cornerstone of free travel between the two Koreas, as agreed upon at the Panmunjom Declaration and an inter-Korean military agreement.