text:
package org.apache.ode.axis2.httpbinding;

import junit.framework.TestCase;
import org.apache.ode.utils.http.HttpUtils;

/**
 *
 *
 */
public class HttpHelperTest extends TestCase {
    private static final String[] IS_XML = new String[]{
            "application/atom+xml; param1=value1; param2=value2"
            , "text/xml; charset=ISO-8859-4"
            , "application/xml"
            , "application/xhtml+xml; charset=ISO-8859-4; parameter=value"
            , "image/foo+xml"
    };
    private static final String[] IS_TEXT = new String[]{
            "text/xml-external-parsed-entity"
            , "text/xml-external-parsed-entity; charset=ISO-8859-4"
            , "text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-4"
            , "text/css; param1=value1; param2=value2"
            , "text/csv"
    };
    private static final String[] IS_IMAGE = new String[]{
            "image/jpeg"
            , "image/png"
            , "image/gif; param1=value1; param2=value2"
    };

    public void testIsXml() {

        for (String s : IS_XML) {
            assertTrue(s+" is an xml type", HttpUtils.isXml(s));
        }
        for (String s : IS_TEXT) {
            assertFalse(s+" is not an xml type", HttpUtils.isXml(s));
        }
        for (String s : IS_IMAGE) {
            assertFalse(s+" is not an xml type", HttpUtils.isXml(s));
        }

    }

    public void testIsText() {
        for (String s : IS_TEXT) {
            assertTrue(s+" is a text type", HttpUtils.isText(s));
        }
        for (String s : IS_XML) {
            assertFalse(s+" is not a text type", HttpUtils.isText(s));
        }
        for (String s : IS_IMAGE) {
            assertFalse(s+" is not a text type", HttpUtils.isXml(s));
        }
    }
}


Until last month, I'd never been to see a Tangerine Dream performance; the closest I'd ever come to witnessing the TD sound was seeing 'Berlin school' devotees Node at the Royal College of Music in 2015 (a performance that is just about to be released on CD), and I was also present at the rather intimate premiere of the Edgar Froese/Tangerine Dream film Revolution in Sound, part of the Doc 'n' Roll Festival, screened at the Barbican Centre last November.
My appreciation of Tangerine Dream spans back to being introduced to Phaedra (1974) by school friend Alan Lee and I bought 1975's Rubycon shortly after its release based on the promise of its predecessor. I can't remember where I first heard Ricochet which was largely recorded at a gig in Croydon's Fairfield Halls on 23rd October 1975 but I remember not being over-impressed with the next studio release Stratosfear (1976), which I thought made too many concessions towards mainstream rock, including the use of harmonica. I imagine it was becoming ever more difficult to maintain originality and find new things to write in the idiom they'd created but I also think the change in use of the sequencer from pulsed rhythmic intervention to near-rigid substitute electronic drumming had the overall effect of making the group more industry-friendly. I sold my copy of Rubycon some time before I left school in 1978 but regretted it, believing that it remains one of the ultimate albums to listen to in the dark through headphones. I bought a compilation CD From Dawn 'til Dusk 1973 - 1988 in the early 90s, a CD of Phaedra in 2005 and replaced my Rubycon on CD in 2009 and finally replaced both Phaedra and Rubycon CDs with original vinyl last year; over the last couple of years I've bought a second-hand vinyl copy of Ricochet, plus Stratosfear and soundtrack Sorcerer (1977) on CD and I inherited CDs to plug the gap from Encore (1977) to Hyperborea (1983) from friend Neil Jellis as he replaced his original CDs with remasters.
Their brand of electronica was swiftly accepted by the fans of British progressive rock, like myself, who were exposed to the band when Richard Branson signed them to Virgin Records. Though not virtuoso, the application of electronic keyboard-based instrumentation to the thinking of minimalist composers like György Ligeti put them at the forefront of a radical musical movement, with atmospheres created by sonic washes, sequencer pulses and haunting Mellotron, mapping both outer- and inner space.
My favourite line-up is the classic Froese-Franke-Baumann trio, responsible for the early-mid 70's classics, and who performed in some unusual places for a rock band, like the cathedrals at Reims in France, Liverpool and Coventry. The latter two are modern architectural masterpieces but Reims Cathedral (Notre Dame de Reims) is an 81m high gothic building dating from 1211, lacking in facilities for a crowd of rock fans whose behaviour would lead to TD being banned from ever playing in a Catholic church again. The idea to perform electronic meditations in these sacred places, whether or not you hold religious beliefs, was a stroke of genius because as a layperson with an appreciation of architecture, I find this thoughtful, sometimes reflective and often searching music is somehow very fitting for the space.
The journey from Brescia to the gig at the Union Chapel, Islington, was dictated by the easyJet flight schedule from Verona to Gatwick which fortunately ran on time. There were no disasters at Gatwick's railway station, or East Croydon or Victoria and I arrived at the venue to join the end of what was one of the biggest queues I've seen for a long time (that being for Steven Wilson at The Troxy in March 2015). This queue also contained Neil, who happened to be holding my ticket, and who fortuitously called me before he'd reached the entrance and disappeared inside. The one slight drawback with this rush was the rather stark temperature difference between Italy and the UK; it had been 26oC when I boarded my flight but the evening temperature in London was 14oC. I was wearing a T shirt and had no jacket.
The performances at the Union Chapel invited comparisons with the Reims show, and Bianca Froese-Acquaye suggested, as she introduced the evening's proceedings, that Edgar would have approved of the setting. I get the feeling that many of the fans did, too, certainly on the night I attended, Monday 23rd April. Froese-Acquaye had been present at the screening of the documentary at the Barbican, where she read an extract about meeting Jimi Hendrix from her husband's autobiography, Tangerine Dream: Force Majeure which had been published a couple of months before, and held a Q&A session following the film. She had obviously been given instructions that the group should carry on following Edgar's 'change of cosmic address' and the trio with the responsibility for the musical legacy, Thorsten Quaeschning, Ulrich Schnauss and Hoshiko Yamane, proved well qualified to do so, building on the critical acclaim of Quantum Gate (2017). I was a little concerned about the way Edgar Froese was addressed by his widow as she dedicated the performance to 'our master'; this may have been accidental miscommunication but it did come across as though we were being initiated into some form of cult, with Quaeschning named as Froese's 'chosen successor'.
The set list seems to have been comprised mostly from 80's material, plus a couple of tracks from Quantum Gate: It is Time to Leave When Everyone is Dancing and Roll the Seven Twice, compositions I really wasn't familiar with but thoroughly enjoyed because it sounded as though each piece had the right balance of instrumentation despite the reliance on midi-triggers and programming; during the mid 80s Froese reworked some of their tracks and added new layers of keyboard, guitar and rhythm, a move regarded by many as detracting from the stark elegance of the originals. One of the songs in the first set reminded me of Phaedra and I wonder if it was part of the 2005 reworking of that album, which featured Quaeschning, especially as a little research suggests that the selection includes more recent, post-Froese reworkings. The second set was more reminiscent of 70's TD; not only did they play Stratosfear but they also performed an extended improvisation, a Session in TD parlance, like one of the improvised pieces that made up their seminal live albums.
I had thought that the enigmatic Yamane was responsible for very little of the soundscape, as there were lengthy sections where her violin was held by her side, but I'm reliably informed she was responsible for triggering and controlling effects using Ableton Push. There were a few moments where the electronic drums became a little cheesy but the sequencer-driven beats, a trademark of the Berlin School acts, were always imaginative. Some of the projections appeared a little dated, too, though most seemed apt, fitting in with the music and making it difficult to work out whether to watch the band or to watch the lights play over the neo-gothic interior of the chapel. On balance I was probably more impressed with the second set; especially the improvised piece which shifted in unpredictable ways and where the involvement of the whole trio was much more evident.
The whole event was really enjoyable, from the setting to the playing to the music itself. It didn't matter that my preferred era of the band was one where there was less reliance on continuous sequences and the evolution of the tracks seemed more organic and free-form; I love Froese's Mellotron work, rating both Aqua (1974) and Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975) as Mellotron classics but their adoption and employment of digital technology can't be faulted, creating multiple layers of sound of uncertain origin that weaved and flowed over the crowd seated on the chapel's pews. Like Froese before him, Quaeschning picked up a guitar during a couple of pieces but I wasn't able to attribute a particular sound to the instrument; perhaps everything will become clear when the DVD is released because the entire performance was filmed.
...It was well worth the dash from Brescia to Islington.
I pay £1.47 for four pints (2.27 litres) of milk at our local Co-op, and I choose to pay almost half as much extra than is strictly necessary (there are supermarkets like Sainsbury's, which is also very close to me, where that volume of milk only costs £1) because a supermarket price war over essentials which began in 2015 depressed the price of milk to a level below production costs, threatening the UK dairy industry. Consumers suggested that they were willing to pay more for the product and the supermarkets, faced with protests involving cows being herded through their aisles, agreed to pay a minimum price for processed milk to the dairies, which was set at around 26p to 28p per litre. However, guaranteeing a minimum price for milk doesn't necessarily mean that dairy farmers will benefit because the large dairies supplying the supermarkets might not pay the minimum cost to the farmers. Something is broken in the economy when a staple like milk is sold for less than what it cost to produce so it's fortunate that consumers, who stand to benefit in the short-term from this high-street competition, have decided that paying 47% more is worth avoiding the collapse of the industry.
I've been buying a fair amount of vinyl recently, both new and second-hand, and I've started to wonder if today's prices are anywhere near equivalent to what I paid for albums in the 70s and 80s. Inflation in the UK was recorded at 2.9% in June and is expected to average out at 2.8% for 2017 and an online calculator shows me that the total inflation in the UK economy since 1973, the year I first bought an LP, is 1113.42%; if the laws of economics have held true, the equivalent of a new release costing £2.50 in 1973 would now set you back a little over £30 so it would appear that a new release 12" LP is good value for money compared to prices in the 70s. Of course I used to seek out bargains if I could but these tended to be old releases (my copy of Fripp and Eno's Evening Star for example, bought for £2.99 from Simons Records in a large basement on London's Oxford Street in 1981), and 'cut outs', sleeves with small slits in one corner or punch holes just off centre which would also penetrate the label in the middle of the LP. These items were slow selling records that had been returned to the record company by a retailer, subsequently bought by a third party at a reduced cost (they weren't selling well anyway) and put back into record stores where they were sold at a discounted price. During the late 70s and early 80s it is hardly surprising that albums by prog acts were slow selling and ended up at sale prices. My cut out edition of Livestock by Brand X cost £2.49 from Virgin Records in Oxford Street in August 1981.
It's interesting that a full price album, using Bryan Ferry's Boys and Girls as an example because it's still got the Our Price sticker on it, which cost £5.29 when it was released in 1985, would sell for £15.64 at today's prices and that the total inflation since 1985 is only of the order of 195%. The massive hike in inflation occurred in the mid 70s with CPI inflation peaking at around 24% in 1975 and high inflation persisting into the early 80s. The oil crisis of 1973, precipitated by an embargo by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Export Countries in response to US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War, generated inflationary forces which increased energy and commodity prices, quadrupling the price of oil in less than four months. At the same time, the world economy was in recession and this was mirrored in the UK economy. It was a period of 'stagflation', in which recession combined with inflation; inflationary wage increases were accompanied by a rise in unemployment, reaching one million in early 1976. High unemployment required increased government expenditure and borrowing.
The Labour Party was elected to government in February 1974 without an overall majority and they pursued a commitment to the 'social contract' (voluntary wage restraint in return for better bargaining rights) and public spending. Unfortunately, an international loss of confidence in sterling followed due to the combination of recession, instability and commitment to social expenditure, and led to the devaluation of sterling. Labour was again voted into power, this time with a tiny majority, after a further election in October 1974 and the subsequent budget in April 1975 attempted to reduce the deficit by increasing the basic rate of taxation to 35%, cutting the rate of growth of public expenditure and restricting the supply of money but it was viewed critically in the financial sector; the Wall Street Journal advised against investment in Sterling. By mid-1976 the economy was under extreme pressure and Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healy made a nationwide broadcast on TV in an attempt to reassure the markets and investigated the possibility of loan arrangements with the chairman of The Group of Ten (richest countries.) Late that year the government was forced to apply to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan of $3.9bn, with IMF negotiators insisting on deep cuts in public expenditure, which had a huge effect on immediate economic and social policy but also on the politics of the 1980s and beyond.
At this stage I'd like to point out that I have no faith in economic theory because movement of capital seems to be reliant on whim or the perception that a country or organisation may be at any given time in a state of stability or instability, and built on exploitation. The inflexibility of thinking within the IMF and the European Central Bank dragged out austerity and caused near-irreversible damage to most of the southern European countries and Greece in particular, spawning groups of right-wing nationalists looking for someone to blame for their economic misery. Furthermore, I believe that the global financial system is run by chancers and geared towards enriching those already with great wealth. When a government intervenes to bail out some venerable banking group because it's too big to fail, the bank denounces regulation and carries on as though nothing happened.
I should also make it clear that I'm not buying vinyl as an investment but because it has always been my preferred medium for listening to music. If there's anything nostalgic about my habit, buying LPs I used to own but got rid of because the music/band fell out of favour so that I stopped playing the records (Rubycon by Tangerine Dream, L by Steve Hillage, The Civil Surface by Egg, Camembert Electrique by Gong and Rick Wakeman's The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table) or because I needed to fund the replacement of old vinyl with shiny new CDs and maybe get some bonus material), it's the desire to hold a gatefold sleeve in my hands and look at the artwork as originally presented and maybe to count my leisure hours in (roughly) 20 minute chunks.
I don't buy very many LPs where I have some updated form of CD though replacing my original King Crimson and Pink Floyd albums was a must; I tend to look in second-hand stores for particular recordings or bands that interested me when I was a youth but never took the plunge – Spyglass Guest by Greenslade, Ricochet by Tangerine Dream, Aqua by Edgar Froese are examples, along with Mother Focus. One of my first excursions from home to see a gig at Lancaster University was for Focus, promoting the just-released follow-up to the excellent Hamburger Concerto. It was one of the most disappointing performances I've ever witnessed, where Philip Catherine had replaced Jan Akkerman and the new material was not of a good standard.
I thought it was worth testing the inflation theory some more, wondering if it applied to beer. I go to the pub perhaps every couple of months and on a night out earlier this month I was paying £4.50 for a pint of Shepherd Neame (the oldest brewery in the country) Bishop's Finger in the Bishop's Finger pub between St Bartholomew's Hospital and Smithfield market. I accept that's central London but when I first started drinking in 1977, a pint of Hartley's XB ('best') bitter cost 28p and by the same calculation I'd expect to pay £1.85 today. Of course Hartley's was brewed in Ulverston and there's a documented price disparity between northern and southern beers. I can't remember how much I paid for a pint of bitter when I first arrived in London because I actively had to seek out decent beers in an era when real ale in London was in decline and I was never a fan of Courage – the CAMRA Good Beer Guide was an essential part of the student survival kit. Two worthwhile London breweries were Young's of Wandsworth and Fuller's of Chiswick but there were a few free houses where the 70s equivalent of the ubiquitous Sharp's Doom Bar, Ruddles County, could be found. I'm pretty sure this used to sell for a little shy of 50p in 1978 so I shouldn't really expect to pay more than £2.86 for a pint in London today.
The bottom line (as economists might say) is that whether I'm searching for second-hand or new vinyl, in real terms I'm paying less than I did when I started collecting albums. Yes, you might see pristine original pressings of In the Court of the Crimson King selling for £50 but equally, it's possible to come across an original pressing of Tubular Bells with the black and white Virgin labels, etched stampers without matrix numbers, laminate sleeve, pinched spine top and bottom and a back cover which states "Printed in England by Robor Limited" in the bottom right corner (later sleeves were printed by E J Day), for just £5.50 and in excellent condition.
The Crystal Palace was originally built in Hyde Park for the first World Exposition in 1851, a structure designed to be temporary with the exhibition, themed around the industry of all nations, lasting from April to October that year. The success of the venture, attracting 6 million visitors (and subsequently spawning a litany of world fairs, the most recent of which was Expo 2015 in Milan) prompted architect Joseph Paxton to look for a permanent home for his Crystal Palace. He had tried to have the building remain in Hyde Park but, aware that there was considerable opposition from within parliament, he busied himself raising £0.5m to form a company to buy the building and a new site for its reconstruction. The materials that made up the structure were bought from building contractors Fox and Henderson (who had lowered their original Hyde Park bid in return for ownership of the materials when the structure was dismantled at the end of the Great Exhibition); the land chosen was an area of wooded parkland on Sydenham Hill and the Crystal Palace reopened in 1854.
The remains of the Crystal Palace, which burned down in 1936, are in the suburb of Upper Norwood, an area falling into four London Boroughs: Bromley; Croydon; Lambeth and Southwark. I moved to Upper Norwood from Balham while working at the Blood Transfusion Centre in Tooting. During 1985 I shared a basement flat in Colby Road, opposite Gipsy Hill railway station, with fellow Barrovian Eric Whitton; my friend Jim Knipe lived on the ground floor with his girlfriend Amanda. I'd shared a flat in Beechcroft Close, Streatham with Eric and Jim during my last year at university, so this was something of a reunion. From bass/guitar/reed organ/tin plate jam sessions in 1981, with the recruitment of Alistair Penny in 1984 we evolved into BCC2 and in 1985, augmented by vocalist Shirley Singh, became HTLVIII and played a fifteen minute set on each of three nights as part of a community revue. This fledgling outfit fell apart because Eric moved out to Clapham and my bass was stolen when the flat was burgled while I was on holiday in Tenerife.
A further Crystal Palace - Barrow connection was future Hairy Biker Dave Myers, another Goldsmiths' graduate who lived a short way up Gipsy Hill. The cost of renting Colby Road wasn't too high in the overall scheme of things, but the facilities were challenging. The bedroom, at the back of the flat, was rarely blessed with sunlight and was consequently somewhat cold, though it was apparently ideally placed to receive a Sunday morning pirate radio show, Alice's Restaurant, despite the transmitter being somewhere in 'East London'. Alice's Restaurant became London's biggest rock station but at the time I discovered it, I was only interested in the two hours of progressive rock that I could pick up on my Technics SA-101 receiver on Sunday mornings, where I first heard Caravan's Nine Feet Underground in full and promptly set off to buy the Caravan collection Canterbury Tales which included that particular masterpiece.
At the time, Upper Norwood was hardly the most salubrious of areas but it had all the right amenities. Gipsy Hill station was very convenient for trips into London and I could use it to get to work on the days I was too lazy to cycle (Gipsy Hill is long and steep!) and there were some good pubs selling good beer (the Two Towers at the bottom of the hill and the Railway Bell half way up were regular haunts); the library on Westow Hill was extremely useful; the Tesco supermarket where we'd donate food to the families of striking miners; some good restaurants (Joanna's and The Penny Excursion, the latter frequently changing hands and cuisine after I left the area); and Crystal Palace Park, including the site of the former Crystal Palace with its poorly barricaded entrance to the undercroft of the former High Level Station, a hidden vaulted space of beautiful Victorian brickwork (Grade II listed) and, for fans of palaeontology, the dinosaurs on islands representing different geological eras on the lower reservoir, creating a snapshot of paleontological understanding in the mid 19th century.
My time at Colby Road drew to a close when the shower in the ground floor flat above leaked into the hall and my hot water pressure became so low it wasn't practicable to run a bath. The landlord was an unpleasant individual who wasn't interested in getting things fixed, so I eventually left in the middle of one night and stopped paying him any rent.
Crystal Palace Park was also home to the National Sports Centre and athletics track. A couple of my school friends had spent some time training there in the mid 70s and I became a member for the squash courts and still play there today, though I now better appreciate the brutalist architecture (Grade II* listed) and the concomitant egalitarian nature of the facility, bringing affordable leisure facilities to local residents; a new People's Palace on the site of the old. The FA Cup used to be held on the football pitch which was where the athletics stadium now stands and Crystal Palace FC used to play there from when they were founded in 1905 until they were relocated due to WW I and moved to current ground Selhurst Park in 1924. I've been supporting them, through all their ups and downs, since 1995.
Crystal Palace Bowl was the venue for the Crystal Palace Garden Party between 1971 and 1980, originally a concrete semi-dome structure with a small lake in front, located in a natural amphitheatre at the northern end of the park. Pink Floyd played there in 1971, featuring a band-only version of Atom Heart Mother and famously killing off all the fish in the lake when they attempted to inflate a giant octopus, pumping smoke into the water. Yes performed there in 1972, which must have been one of the first gigs for Alan White, and Rick Wakeman performed Journey to the Centre of the Earth during the 1974 Garden Party, where he used inflatable dinosaurs during The Battle but more dramatically, was admitted to hospital the day after the gig having suffered three minor heart attacks. He had intended to perform there again in June 2012 headlining a one day rock festival, but there were structural concerns over the stage and the event was cancelled.
This neatly brings us to the present. Upper Norwood has undergone something of a renaissance since the opening of the East London Line of London Overground in 2010. This linked West Croydon and Crystal Palace in the south to Dalston Junction in the north, via Surrey Quays and Canada Water. The ease of the commute to the City meant that the area was a prime site for gentrification and property prices were relatively low in the down-at-heel suburb; the parallels with Shoreditch (the Overground stops at Shoreditch High Street) are quite remarkable and it's evident that hipsters have marked their territory around the Crystal Palace Triangle and that some of the old businesses have adapted to meet their needs. There used to be a rambling flea market down from Westow Hill, where amongst other things I picked up a copy of the 1972 debut LP by Tempest, featuring the extraordinary talents of the recently departed Allan Holdsworth. On the site of this former bazaar is Crystal Palace Antiques, where my wife likes to pick out reasonably priced art-deco items and I like to ogle the modernist furniture, at unreasonable prices, on the lowest of the four floors. There had been a spate of pub closures in the area but there's now an even better selection, covering a huge range of real and craft beers. There used to be an 'open mic' gig every week in the White Hart (on the corner of Westow Street and Church Road) to which a friend from squash, a Brazilian drummer, invited me and although I brought along a plectrum, I felt I was too rusty to participate and I knew very little of the music they played.
I've had an innate aversion to all things that instruct "Keep Calm and Carry On...", including the almost acceptable Keep Calm and Mellotron T shirt that I spotted during 2014's Resonance Festival in Balham, since these things began appearing in 2008 or 2009. I don't like the juxtaposition of the font and the crown but it's hard to pin down why it offends me so much. Fortunately, author and journalist Owen Hatherley has just done a piece for The Guardian in which he succinctly explains and justifies my hatred: probably resurrected as a joke this war-time phrase, seemingly innocent nostalgia, quickly took on a dark meaning as governments imposed austerity in response to the global financial crisis. From signifying that we should invoke the 'blitz spirit' and 'we're all in this together' as the poor, ill and disabled had their benefits cut and many had to rely on food banks, Hatherley coins the phrase 'austerity nostalgia' and suggests that the message is a return of the nostalgia of repression, when there was public spirit in the face of adversity; the real world is of course currently geared towards greed and selfishness.
Keep Calm and Carry On in all its countless forms encourages us to carry on consuming as though capitalism hadn't just taken a massive shock and I find it somewhat ironic that Past Times, a UK retailer based on the purveyance of nostalgia (and therefore just the sort of place you'd see Keep Calm and Carry On merchandise) went into administration in 2012. Austerity nostalgia transports us back to a time between roughly 1930 and 1970, encompassing a period before the decline of the Empire and the post-war revival and social revolution where health and housing were provided by the state and the call from Harold Wilson for 'a New Britain to be forged in the white heat of technology.' Though the Beatles, the swinging sixties and the birth of progressive rock are covered by this time frame, we don't appear to have been too successful in creating a better Britain through technology – government spending on R&D slumped below 0.5% in 2012. The privatisation of iconic council housing is a major contributory factor to the national housing shortage. My son came close to sharing a flat in Keeling House, a former Tower Hamlets council tower block designed by Denys Lasdun (completed in 1957.) Hatherley name checks this modernist masterpiece, an early example of a public asset being hived off to a private developer, as an illustration of how the romantic notion of design classics form part of this austerity nostalgia. The clean lines of the building (and an array of other iconic modernist edifices) have now been turned into limited edition prints and crockery to adorn the flats of hipsters, sold off by the local council and redeveloped by private equity barons. The reality is that Keeling House was emptied of council tenants in 1993 because of safety fears and was threatened with demolition; it was granted listed status that year but there was no council money to affect repairs and return it to the public housing pool.
Is the resurgence of vinyl part of this wave of nostalgia? It just about fits into the time frame and many diehard prog fans are now able to live their audiophile dreams, including me. I may have not been without a turntable since 1978 but I chose to play CDs when there was sufficient material available on that format, eschewing LPs because of the convenience of their digital cousins. However, the miniaturisation of the artwork and sleeve notes was always a problem, most evident on dual format releases like the eponymous Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album (1989); I bought the CD and struggled with the insert.
I last owned a pair of closed back headphones between (about) 1976 and 1983. I don't remember the make but the sound quality was far better than that from the speakers that came with our Philips stereo deck. Like much of that record player, the speakers were housed in plastic and the slide volume and tone controls matched the slide volume controls on my cans! I can't remember why I referred to headphones as cans, other than it was an adoption of a term used by professionals. I also assume that Rick Wakeman's adaptation of Brahms 4th symphony is called Cans and Brahms (from Fragile, 1971) because of the headphone association with recording. My headphones may have originally been used for their designated purpose but in addition I used to take them to student discos to obscure the music and later used them in lieu of a microphone when making primitive recordings with friends. A few years after their demise I requested a pair of headphones for Christmas and my wife very kindly bought me a Sennheiser HD414 Anniversary Edition which are on their third set of foam pads but still going.
Towards the end of last year I noticed that the high frequency response of the 414s was causing a bit of distortion which is why I acquired a pair of wireless Sennheiser RS165s so I could listen to music while other members of my family watched TV; wireless because unlike in my youth where the comfy armchair was in easy reach of the headphone socket on the stereo, my new listening position, a gorgeous Barcelona chair, is on the opposite side of the room to my amplifier. I exercised some brand loyalty in my choice; I also have Sennheiser ear buds for my mp3 player and I'm happy with the quality of them, so the opportunity to buy the RS165s for £159 seemed like a good move. It was. The sound quality is exactly what you'd expect. Within the myriad forms of progressive rock are an amazing range of amplitude, frequencies and tones, all of which are handled with effortless clarity. Another reason for getting a good set of cans was so that I could follow the instructions inside Edgar Froese's Aqua (1974) which features Gunther Brunschen's artificial head system to produce binaural recordings, allowing the listener to perceive the direction of the sound source. The experience of listening to Aqua through closed ear cans was reminiscent of listening to Tangerine Dream through headphones in the dark when I was a teenager.
Headphones were helpful to discern song words when the speakers were located in shoulder high alcoves in a Victorian dining room which made putting your ear to the cone on the uncomfortable side of awkward, taking into account having to go back to the deck to lift and replace the tone arm to replay a section of track. Working out the words in the absence of a lyric sheet was something of a hobby, one that I don't look back on with a warm and fuzzy feeling.


text:
Pre New Year's Eve Celebration Starring Mary J. Blige, K. Michelle and Queen Naija Will Take Place in Jacksonville, FL on Dec. 29
November 19, 2022 at 03:00 AM EST
Jacksonville, kick off your New Year's celebrations this December with the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
JACKSONVILLE, FL, November 19, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Grammy Award winning and Academy Award-nominated singer, songwriter, actress Mary J. Blige continues to captivate audiences nationwide with breathtaking performances on her Good Morning Gorgeous tour, and Jacksonville, FL will get to experience this treat during the finale of the holiday season. Mary J. Blige will perform on Thursday, December 29th with special guests K. Michelle and Queen Naija at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena to kick off celebrations welcoming 2023.
This show is produced by national concert tour and event company Fifth Degree Tours II. Reviews from previous Good Morning Gorgeous tour locations describe the show as empowering and inspirational, highlighting themes of self-love and resilience. It's the ultimate "Ladies Night Out" experience! The trio of powerful soulful voices is an exciting way for fans to jumpstart their new year.
Tickets are now available via Ticketmaster.com and the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena. This show is expected to SELL OUT quickly, so make sure to secure your tickets now!
"Mary is a powerhouse, and we are honored by the opportunity to partner with her on this special experience," explains the CEO of Fifth Degree Tours II, Wesley Hunter. Mr. Hunter shares "We're doing this in Jacksonville because this city has been good to us. It's a big military town and we want to show appreciation to our men and women in the service by bringing such a fantastic show to them. We want to put smiles on faces and create positive memorable experiences."
As we near the holiday season, Fifth Degree Tours II plans to donate concert tickets for December's show to local charities in the Jacksonville, FL area. The company previously donated 71 tickets to Hubbard House domestic violence center for their Maxwell Night Tour Hurricane Ian Relief concert October 2nd at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, in addition to supporting organizations throughout Florida providing relief to the survivors of Hurricane Ian. We're calling all R&B lovers from Florida up to Georgia and the Carolinas to come together as these three Gorgeous women fill your souls. Doors open at 7pm. Show begins at 8pm.
Mary J. Blige turns everything she touches to gold, revealed by her impressive track record of accolades. Blige's accomplishments include nine Grammy Awards (32 nominations), ten Billboard Music Awards, eight multi-platinum albums, two Academy Award nominations, a Primetime Emmy Award, along with many other honors and awards. Mary's career began in 1988 when she was signed to Uptown Records by Founder Andre Harrell. Her iconic debut album, What's the 411, uniquely blended Hip Hop and Soul on a mainstream platform – This sound earned Mary J. Blige her undisputed title as the "Queen of Hip Hop Soul." Both What's the 411 and her second album My Life are featured on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Blige has released a total of 15 albums, with legendary hits like "Real Love," "Not Gon Cry," "Be Without You," and "Family Affair." Every one of her performances is a sing-along affair. Mary J. Blige has also dominated in the television and film space through programs like Mudbound: The Umbrella Academy, Power Book II: Ghost, Respect and documentary Mary J. Blige's My Life. The world stood in awe during the February 2022 Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show in Inglewood, CA as Mary put on an unbelievable performance alongside Dr. Dre, Eminen, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar. With the release of her most recent album Good Morning Gorgeous, Mary has shown fans that she still shines bright, continuing to be a symbol of confidence, inner-beauty, and strength for women worldwide.
Memphis, Tennessee native K. Michelle is a talented singer-songwriter and impressive instrumentalist on the guitar and piano. She has amassed a cult following as a member of the Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta cast along with a number of other reality shows, including K. Michelle: My Life. Michelle began her music career in 2009 with Jive Records, releasing her first R&B-charting hit single "Fakin It" ft. Missy Elliot. Her follow-up singles "Fallin," "I Just Can't Do This" and "How Many Times" were also R&B-charting successes. Her debut album, Rebellious Soul, was released under Atlantic Records and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2. The album also enjoyed success on the US Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart in the No. 1 spot. Her second album, Anybody Wanna Buy a Heart sold 87,000 copies in the first week of sales! K. Michelle has won a Soul Train Music Award, an NAACP Image Award,and has received four BET Awards nominations. In 2015, she was honored with an ASCAP Women Behind the Music award.
Queen Naija got her start in the business as a YouTube vlogger, then participated in season 13 of American Idol. Naija self-released her first single, "Medicine," and drew the attention of industry leaders when the song landed on Billboard Hot 100 at No. 45. She then signed with Capitol Records and the rest was history. Naija's 2018 self-titled EP debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200, and earned her nominations for Top R&B Artist at the Billboard Music Awards and Best New Artist at the BET Awards. Her debut album, Misunderstood, debuted on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart at No.1, landed in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200, and has enjoyed three platinum-certified singles – "Butterflies," "Karma" and "Medicine." Queen Naija has received over three billion global streams to date and the best part is she is only getting started.
Fifth Degree Tours II is a national concert tour and event production company with over 30 years combined experience in the business.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Mexico Covid-19 (Coronavirus) hub
Mexico: "New normal" technical guidelines to go back to work
Mexico: On May 14, 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health (Secretaría de Salud) (SSA) issued an Order to establish the rules and process to restart social, economic and school activities in Mexico as of June 1, 2020, and to determine that mining, construction and auto manufacture will be considered essential activities.
Mexico's Ministry of Health extends extraordinary actions to face COVID-19 to May 30, 2020
Following the escalation to Phase 3 of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, on April 21, 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health (Secretaría de Salud) published in the Federal Register (Diario Oficial de la Federación) an Order amending the order establishing extraordinary actions to address the health emergency generated by the virus SARS-CoV2, published in the DOF on March 31, 2020. The order is effective as of April 21, 2020.
Mexico - Data Privacy & COVID-19 Challenges
Mexico: As the Coronavirus emergency state endures, companies are employing measures to prevent the outbreak and spread in their facilities. This six-point insight serves as a practical aid to in-inhouse counsel, privacy officers, and businesses that are addressing privacy challenges triggered by COVID-19.
Mexico: COVID-19 Emergency Declaration, Second Extraordinary Measures Order and Labor Inspection Procedures
Mexico: Up until March 30, 2020, the restrictions and limitations related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico, for the most part, had been implemented as recommendations to the population, causing some uncertainty regarding the impact that these measures have or had with respect to, for example, the performance of contractual obligations, labor matters, and the possibility of continuing to operate regularly.
Mexico's Federal Economic Competition Commission position on the COVID-19 crisis
Mexico: In the context of the COVID-19 epidemic situation, the Mexican Federal Commission of Economic Competition (Comisión Federa de Competencia Económica) (COFECE), has issued the following.
COVID-19: First preventive measures decreed by Mexico's Ministry of Health – Performance of contracts amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Mexico: On March 19, 2020, the General Health Council (Consejo de Salubridad General) ("CSG" for its acronym in Spanish) of the Mexican Government convened to declare the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV2 as a serious disease that requires priority attention. This decision by the CSG was published in the Federal Register (Diario Oficial de la Federación) ("DOF") on March 23, 2020.
View all insights for Mexico Covid-19 (Coronavirus) hub


The attitude of humans especially American citizens towards marijuana (also known as weed or pot) have significantly varied from the time its use was illegalized in the 1930s to the present day. In 1970, the US Congress considered marijuana has "no accepted medical use" and placed it in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. However, public opinion demand for legalization of marijuana has been rising steadily since early 90's. So far, 25 out of 50 states in the US and DC have legalized the medical use of marijuana. One of the most egregious outcomes of weed prohibition is that many sick people cannot legally access the medicine that would work best for them. Numerous forces including the Drug Policy Alliance (PDA) are dedicated to legalizing weed at both the state and federal levels. They are also committed to improving medical marijuana programs to protect the rights of patients and access to medicine better. In the contemporary world, whether or not to legalize marijuana for medicinal use is still debatable even among scientists, pharmacists, and doctors. All in all, I fully support medical marijuana having come across pieces of evidence that revealed its medicinal effect on loss of appetite, vomiting/nausea, chronic pain control and kids with grand mal seizures among other cases (Porche). This paper will focus on proponents of medical marijuana and their ideologies on how marijuana can transform the health care system and change millions of lives.
First, there is a myriad of research done in the 21st century that supports the use of marijuana as treatment. A 2001 study showed that several analogs and pure tetrahydrocannabinol showed significant therapeutic benefits in the relief of vomiting and nausea as well as stimulation of appetite in patients with wasting syndrome. There are also pieces of evidence that clearly illustrate antispasticity and analgesic effects that prove to be clinically useful. Although some may argue that bronchodilation in asthma and intraocular pressure in glaucoma are not reliable, sufficiently strong or long lasting to provide a valid basis for therapeutic use, the anticonvulsant effect of marijuana's cannabidiol is promising to warrant further well-designed clinical trials. Pure cannabinoids administered parenterally, orally or rectally have proved to be effective and are free of the risks of chronic inflammatory disease or upper respiratory cancer related to smoking crude cannabis (Kalant). Furthermore, the American pharmacopeia in the 19th century listed marijuana as useful in treating; tetanus, rabies, neuralgia, dysentery, hemorrhage, anthrax, typhus, cholera, opiate addiction, gout, incontinence, insanity, convulsive disorders, tonsillitis, and excessive menstrual bleeding.
· Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
This is a clear indication why states like Massachusetts, California and New Jersey have legalized the medical use of cannabis.
The relationship between American state laws permitting medical marijuana and adolescent marijuana abuse is controversial. There's a growing concern that marijuana acceptability would increase its use after passage that could lead to adverse effects (Hasin et al.). This assertion is entirely misguided since as I stated above, the law allows only "primary caregivers" or people using it to combat illnesses marijuana can cure. Otherwise, it would be illegal possession.
Legalization of medical marijuana is justified because indeed some studies reveal that it can cure a myriad of illnesses. We can even project that in the future, all states will legalize medical marijuana.
A. Ballot initiatives in states like California have made it possible for its residents to use pot for medical purposes.
B. The passed Proposition 215 permits possession and cultivation of weed by "primary caregivers" or individuals using marijuana to combat "any…..illness for which it (pot) provides a relief".
A. There's a growing concern that marijuana acceptability would increase its use after passage that could lead to adverse effects.
A. Legalization of medical marijuana is justified because studies reveal that it can cure a myriad of illnesses.
B. Implementation: In the future, all states will legalize medical marijuana.


text:
Thailand Morning News For June 28
By John Le Fevre on June 28, 2018
Foreign experts join rescue mission
Three cavediving experts from UK arrive; US assistance on the way as search for 13 footballers in cave continues.
— The Nation (annoying auto-play video popups)
ASP warns of 5-year capital outflow high
Capital outflows from Thailand's stock market are expected to persist and could reach a five-year high of 200 billion baht this year, mainly due to the US's macroeconomic policies, says Asia Plus Securities (ASP).
— Bangkok Post
His Majesty urges streamlined rescue of youth soccer team
His Majesty the King has urged authorities in charge of the operation to locate and rescue the team of young soccer players believed lost in a large cave complex in Chiang Rai province, by reducing the number of officials in the cave for greater efficiency.
— The Nation
Social media lights up with concern for missing boys
FOR FIVE DAYS NOW, Thais have been glued to media and online social networks for news of the mission to rescue 12 young footballers and their coach missing inside a huge cave in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district.
TDRI: Government badly needs AI strategy for competitiveness
Thailand has yet to formulate its strategy and allocate significant budget for artificial intelligence (AI) development, said Somkiat Tangkitvanich, president of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).
Environmental tax could cut e-waste
The Finance Ministry has floated the idea of imposing an environmental tax in a bid to reduce electronic waste.
Foreign workers urged to register with government before 30 June
Provincial Employment Department offices nationwide are urgently identifying the nationality and processing work permits for foreign workers by 30th June, since this deadline will not be extended again.
— News Today (video)
Support team races against clock to install water pumps as water levels rise in cave
A SUPPORT TEAM involved in the rescue mission to save 12 young footballers and their coach who are stranded in the flooded Tham Luang Cave in Chiang Rai province said the situation inside the cave was worsening due to the rising water levels and they were working against the clock to install water pumps.
Japan to cooperate for Thailand joining TPP free trade talks
The foreign ministers of Japan and Thailand agreed on Wednesday to step up cooperation for Bangkok to join talks on participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade framework.
BTS told to change spectrum band in bid to end breakdowns
THE National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has suggested that the Skytrain operator shift to another spectrum band for its signalling system as a long-term solution to the jams that have hit Bangkok's Skytrain service 10 times within a single month.
Thailand -Cambodia coordinate to protected areas and trans-boundary
Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) hosts a workshop between Thailand and Cambodia on Protected areas and Trans-boundary Biodiversity Conservation Landscape management.
— NNT
Press council asks media to do their jobs properly in their coverage of the rescue operations
The National Press Council sought cooperation from members of the media who have been covering the search and rescue operations at the Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non to do their job in an orderly manner that will not pose an obstruction to the officials, to check facts to ensure accuracy and to take into consideration the privacy right of the missing 13 footballers and coach.
— Thai PBS
Thaland hosts CEAPAD III on Palestine's social, economic development
Thailand reconfirmed its commitment to helping Palestine achieve internal social and economic development by hosting the third Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD III).
Transport Ministry makes progress in high speed railway development
The Ministry of Transport has issued a report to China Radio International (CRI) regarding railway infrastructure development being undertaken by Thailand and China.
TOT switches off mobile phone network along BTS route for two days
TOT has agreed to shut down its 2300 MkH bandwidth mobile phone network along ten stations of BTS skytrain route for two days to prevent disruption of the radio communication in the signal system of the train.
Bangkok's governor sends a warning letter to BTS after service failure
Pol Gen Aswin Kwanmuang, the Governor of Bangkok said today that Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has sent a warning letter to Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company Limited (BTSC) due to the frequent service failures early this week. BTSC claims that the problem will be resolved by Friday.
Nine arrests net 70 million baht in drugs and assets
Five successful drug busts had led to the arrest of nine suspects along with 700kg of marijuana, 2.8kg of cocaine, 306,000 methamphetamine pills, 2kg of crystal meth or "ice", four vehicles and 12 cell phones.
— The Thaiger/ The Nation
CPF set to revolutionise broiler supply chains
Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) has introduced cloud technology in a bid to increase operation efficiency across its broiler business.
— Food Navigator-Asia
Phuket residents protest CPF pork-processing plant
Local residents in Mai Khao, at the northern end of the island, yesterday (June 26) staged a protest against a pork processing plant from being built in their neighbourhood, saying that it will directly affect the local environment and their community.
— The Phuket News
Commerce Ministry organizes Thailand-Singapore Business Networking
The Ministry of Commerce organized an event titled Thailand-Singapore Business Networking to create opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Higher rates may trigger next crisis
THE next global financial crisis would be caused by higher interest rates, not trade tensions or geopolitics and political factors, said Samy Chaar, chief economist of Lombard Odier, a Switzerland-based private bank, yesterday.
Go-Jek reveals new brands for Thailand and Vietnam
Indonesian ride-hailing app Go-Jek revealed the names and branding for the separate units it is establishing in Thailand and Vietnam, two countries which are part of the company's $500 million regional expansion plan, Tech in Asia reported.
— Investvine
Thailand ranked fourth for least amount of unemployed citizens
Thailand has been ranked fourth in the world among countries with the least unemployed citizens, underlining the government's efforts to support employment.
Visa brings e-payment options to Thailand
Visa, the world's leader in digital payments, is now processing debit transactions in Thailand.
TAT launches 'Phuket Surf Series 2018+ Khao Lak' this surfing season
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in collaboration with Surfing Thailand and Phuket Surfing Club is organising the "Phuket Surf Series 2018+ Khao Lak" that will run from June to October 2018.
— TAT News
Call to focus on cyber crimes
Asean law enforcement officials must work together to create a channel where they can communicate and share information about cyber crimes as the offences are transnational, according to permanent secretary for justice Wisit Wisitsora-at.
ttps://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1493490/call-to-focus-on-cyber-crimes
10 global food and beverage trends transforming the Thai market
10 food and beverage trends around the world have already trickled into the Thai market in 2018, and are starting to shape the 'next generation' of consumer demands.
PH Capital to double number of Pizza Hut outlets
PH CAPITAL, which owns the franchise rights for Pizza Hut restaurants in Thailand, yesterday said it plans to double the size of the business by 2020.
Cabinet agrees to set up new PPP fund, extend lease deal with Thai Oil
The Cabinet has given a green light to the establishment of a new public-private partnership (PPP) fund as well as the extension of the land lease agreement with Thai Oil Public Company Limited for another 30 years.
Local auto market sales could pass 1m
Thailand's car market is expected to exceed 1 million units sold in 2018 after many Japanese car makers witnessed double-digit growth the first five months.
MQDC claims a first in upcycle of waste
MAGNOLIA Quality Development Corporation Ltd (MQDC) plans to spend Bt6 billion over the next 10 years on the research and development (R&D) of innovative products and for the upcycling of waste for use in building construction, chief executive officer Visit Malaisirirat said yesterday.
Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce reports higher confidence index for Q2 of 2018
The Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (TCCC) has released its overall confidence index for the second quarter of this year, which rose on an improved outlook for future economic growth among Thai businesses.
Thailand reconfirms status as top tapioca exporter during World Tapioca Conference
The Ministry of Commerce opened the World Tapioca Conference 2018 with Thailand currently being the world's top tapioca exporter.
Siam Cement to unload 60% stake in SSC
SET-listed Siam Cement Plc (SCG), Thailand's largest cement maker and industrial conglomerate, is divesting itself of a 60% stake in Siam Stabilizers and Chemicals Co Ltd (SSC), to be taken up by Sakai Chemical Industry Co Ltd (SCI).
Feature photo d.goodman86
Find our previous morning news feature photos in the AEC News Today Morning News Feature Photos gallery where you will find a pictorial display of daily life throughout the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
Thailand morning news by AEC News Today is your one stop source for Thailand news on matters of governance and policies affecting Asean business communities. It is published M-F by AEC News Today: Governance, not government; policies not politics.
Thailand Morning News For June 28 added by John Le Fevre on June 28, 2018
View all posts by John Le Fevre →
John Le Fevre
Thailand editor at AEC News Today
John is an Australian national with more than 40 years experience as a journalist, photographer, videographer, and copy editor.
He has spent extensive periods of time working in Africa and throughout Southeast Asia, with stints in the Middle East, the USA, and England.
He has covered major world events including Operation Desert Shield/ Storm, the 1991 pillage in Zaire, the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the 1999 East Timor independence unrest, the 2004 Asian tsunami, and the 2009, 2010, and 2014 Bangkok political protests.
In 1995 he was a Walkley Award finalist, the highest awards in Australian journalism, for his coverage of the 1995 Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) Ebola outbreak.
Prior to AEC News Today he was the deputy editor and Thailand and Greater Mekong Sub-region editor for The Establishment Post, predecessor of Asean Today.
In the mid-80s and early 90s he owned JLF Promotions, the largest above and below the line marketing and PR firm servicing the high-technology industry in Australia. It was sold in 1995.
Latest posts by John Le Fevre (see all)
COVID-19 in Asean: update for July 26 — 16 mln case barrier breached, Vietnam records community transmission – July 26, 2020
COVID-19 in Asean: update for July 25 — new high for daily infections, 16 mln infection barrier to break today – July 25, 2020
COVID-19 in Asean: update for July 24 — Asean tops 230,000 cases, nudges 90,000 active – July 24, 2020
Thailand morning news for July 24 – July 24, 2020
Vietnam Morning News For January 3
Philippines morning news for July 22
Lao Morning News For July 26
Cambodia Morning News For September 19


BOSTON, MA — It's a good thing we toss and turn in bed. That movement continually redistributes the pressure between our bodies and the mattress. If illness or injury prevents you from moving around, pressure builds up on specific areas of the body. This can cause skin and other tissues to die, creating a bedsore. A few simple steps, however, can help prevent these painful, dangerous, and costly sores, reports the November 2006 issue of the Harvard Health Letter.
Bedsores, as with any other type of open wound, create a ready opportunity for infections that may spread to the surrounding skin, deeper tissue, bone, and the blood. They can also cause loss of fluid and protein, leaving patients dehydrated and malnourished. The cost of treating a bedsore is extremely high. According to one estimate, caring for a single, deep-tissue bedsore can cost upwards of $70,000.


Joppke, Christian Georg (8 July 2015). Religion as Culture? How European and American High Courts Endorse Majority Religion (Unpublished). In: 22th Conference of Europeanists, Council for European Studies (CES) - "Contradictions: Envisioning European Futures". Paris, France. 08.-10.07.2015.
This paper examines a trend in European and American High Courts to endorse majority religion by transforming it into "culture", and thus by secularizing it. To dissociate religion and state is the hallmark of the liberal state. However, no state has ever managed a perfect separation, not even the American. Under conditions of mounting religious pluralism and ongoing secularization, there is pressure on the state to live up to its "neutrality". A main strategy to square the circle of neutrality and incomplete dissociation from religion is to declare it "culture", which gives the state the license to associate or even identify with it (as guardian of nationhood). The paper compares recent American and European High Court rules on religious symbols (especially crucifixes) that exhibits this strategy, addressing similarities and differences as well as the limits and pitfalls of "culturalizing" religion.


I've amassed quite the collection of Lilfox organic beauty from my beauty boxes over the years, and with the latest Beauty Heroes box it seems about time I break down the hits and misses for me of this brand.
This mask is in powder form so you need to mix it with water or an essence to make a paste to apply to your face. This subtle mask seems lackluster at first when applied to your skin, but my face always feels FANTASTIC when I rinse it off. If youre skin needs a total reboot, this is a nice gentle mask to start with. However the price point is fairly high if you're new to skincare and you need to be ok with a very interesting, herbal scent.
Once you get past the very intense herbal scent, this is a fantastic cleansing "mud". Honestly, this is like a lower price answer to May Lindstrom the Honey Mud (the Lilfox version is about $15 less expensive). This cleanses well but gently and leaves skin feeling so soft and refreshed. Love the antioxidant packed cacao and of course the added rose hip seed oil to help treat my melasma. This is on my list to buy again.
I received this in an Art of Organics beauty box last year. Ummmmm. Ehhhhhh. Honestly, not sure what to say about this because i just didn't get it. Weird texture. Not really soap like. Smelled odd. Gave it a try 10 times but I just couldn't figure it out.
OK so at the time in 2016 when I got this mist in a Glowing Beets box, I just didn't think they were that helpful. Times have changed and so has my opinion on face mists! Stay tuned I have a major update to my previous setting mist review. Meanwhile I had given this to a friend when I received it and she couldn't stop raving about it.
Yes. This product. Yes. This "nectar" is more like a face oil but it absorbs so well and it's so gentle. I don't even like rose things but I love this face nectar. I can't believe how much my skin just drinks this up. And yes another great product with rose hip seed oil too! PUT THIS ON YOUR LIST!
I actually bought this last year when a beauty store was closing and this was on sale, but I was excited to get the newer formula in this month's Beauty Heroes box. I had read about prickly pear as a brightening treatment for hyperpigmentation and I had high hopes it would help my melasma. However, I don't use this product consistently enough because it also contains jasmine oil which has such a strong aroma. Hoping to try this and have an updated perspective for yall on how this bright yellow-green face oil helps my melasma.
It's only been a few days but I think I like this eye treatment better than the Maya Chia version that launched this year because LilFox Kalahari absorbs more easily into my skin. This unique very light eye serum treatment contains rare prickly pare combined with watermelon and coffee bean too to awaken the eye area. I'll take any dark circle treatment I can get as a new mom 🙂 My favorite part of this eye serum? It uses a soothing glass rollerball instead of most rolling eye treatments that use a few harsh, cold metal ball. I'd definitely recommend giving this ago. And if you're looking for more African oil inspired skincare, check out my review of Elewa naturals.


The Eldoret Hospital pharmacy is a registered premises and runs under cap 244 of Pharmacy and Poisons Act. It's managed by trained professionals and operates 24 hours with a qualified pharmacist always available. The pharmacy is dedicated to maintain safe medication practice and prevention of medication errors. It's aim is to improve patient compliance, rational drug use, educate patients on the dangers of misuse of drugs and maintain patients' confidentiality.
Outpatient services - issuance of drugs prescribed and over the counter (OTC).
Clinical aspect include rational behind drug regimes, calculating correct dosages according to age, weight and body surface area, check for drug interactions, adverse reactions and contraindications according to a patient's need.
The pharmacy is focused on providing high standard services on which its core principles aim at increasing patients' satisfaction on rational drug use.


text:
We Cannot Reduce Urban Inequality Unless We Fix Inequality in Exposure to Disaster Risk
Fadi Hamdan, Beirut.
8 March 2016 Essay, Place & Design, Science & ToolsClimate change, Disasters/Red zone, Economics, Infrastructure, Justice, Planning, ResilienceFadi Hamdan
Inequality is on the rise! Recent statistics published by Oxfam on the economy of the 1 percent show that the richest 62 billionaires own as much wealth as the poorer half of the world's population. The report goes on to show that the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010, a drop of 38 percent. This decrease occurred against an increase in the global population of around 400 million people. Meanwhile, the wealth of the richest 62 individuals has increased by more than half a trillion dollars, to $1.76 trillion U.S. dollars. The report concludes that the fight against poverty cannot be won until the inequality crisis is tackled.
The dominance of interests and drive for quick profits is leading to degradation of existing infrastructure and lack of investment in renovation.
I would add that the inequality crisis cannot be successfully tackled unless we tackle all the manifestations of inequality, not simply wealth and income inequality. We cannot reduce urban Inequality unless we fix inequality in exposure and vulnerability to disaster risk and inequality in the distribution of disaster losses.
Chinatown section of Bangkok. Photo: 1000 Words, Shutterstock
How urban inequality shows itself
At the urban level, inequality takes different shapes and forms, including inequality in:
Wealth and income
Employment possibilities: legal vs. informal, safe vs. unsafe, healthy vs. hazardous, with or without health benefits, with or without child support, amongst others
Infrastructure: (availability and quality of water, availability and quality of wastewater networks, availability and quality of road networks and public transportation
Crime, law, and order: frequency of burglaries, frequency of violent crime, drug-related crime, frequency of crime against more vulnerable groups including women, children, the elderly, and the homeless
Basic education and health services: in particular access to and quality of: primary education, secondary education, of university and higher education, health services and hospitals
Housing: size and quality of housing, safety of housing, safety of land
Vulnerability to risk
Why is inequality on the rise? Why aren't all forms of inequality being recognized?
Before deciding on what needs to be done, we need to understand what has recently happened such that inequality is increasing at such rates. In this regard, it is important to recognize the recent rise of the interests of financial capital and the rentier sector versus industrial capital and other forms of productive economic activity. It is this dominance of interests, and the drive for quick profits, that is often leading to a degradation of existing infrastructure and to a lack of sufficient investment in the renovation of infrastructure. This trend is also leading to the real estate sector, and unchecked urban expansion, being a main driver of economic growth in many countries. Notwithstanding the importance of all these sectors to GDP growth, these are now acting as disaster-risk drivers that must be promptly addressed in order to reduce inequality.
What is currently being done?
Governments are increasingly recognizing the rise in this inequality worldwide. Similarly, UN and international donor agencies are also trying to reduce this inequality. However, due to the prevailing compartmentalized approach of developmental work, efforts to reduce the above forms of inequality are not sufficiently recognizing the inequality in the exposure and vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change, and the inequality in the disaster losses arising from them.
Flooding—Bangkok. Photo: 1000 Words, Shutterstock
How does inequality in exposure and vulnerability to hazards manifest?
Inequality in exposure to and vulnerability to hazards manifests in different forms, including:
Exposure of jobs, infrastructure, housing, and basic services to natural hazards and climate change risks.
Vulnerability of jobs, infrastructure, housing, and basic services to natural hazards and climate change risks.
Distribution of disaster losses (in jobs, infrastructure, housing and basic services) caused by natural hazards and climate change.
Exposure, vulnerability, and distribution of disaster losses due to conflict.
How can urban inequality be reduced?
Urban inequality can only be reduced by first recognizing that a holistic approach is required. It is no longer acceptable to suppose that a compartmentalized approach can work. For example, efforts to improve the quality of health and education services should recognize the inequality in the vulnerability and exposure of school buildings. In addition, efforts to create more jobs in order to reduce unemployment and poverty must ensure that these jobs and livelihoods are resilient against natural hazards and climate change.
However, this can only be done once citizens recognize that they must scrutinize the implications of financial and economic policies that favour the real estate, rentier, and financial sectors at the expense of the job-rich pro-poor sectors, including industry and agriculture. For example, the following, but by no means exclusive, government decisions have direct implications on the exposure and vulnerability to natural hazards and potential losses from them:
Not providing safe, affordable land for housing inevitably implies that poorer families will build on unsafe land that is more vulnerable to natural hazards such as landslides, mudflows, and storm surges, among others. Failing to provide safe, affordable land for housing also leads to poorer families moving into the vicinity of hazardous polluting industries. In turn, this translates into a higher degree of direct and indirect losses.
Not investing in the retrofitting of infrastructure inevitably means that poorer neighborhoods, where infrastructure networks tend to be older and weaker, and where population concentration is higher, will be more exposed to weather related hazards, which are increasing in both frequency and severity due to climate change. It also implies that poorer neighborhoods will not receive the necessary prompt assistance by rescue and evacuation services. This trend should be contrasted against current estimates of an infrastructure gap reaching $57 trillion U.S. dollars, without accounting for sustainable development, which may lead to a larger gap.
Not investing in rehabilitating slum neighborhoods, and providing land titles, inevitably leads to housing with high vulnerability to natural hazards, thereby explaining the high degree of fatalities in the wake of hazardous events.
Not developing a national strategy for financing disaster risk management solutions often leads to the lack of availability of micro-finance and micro-insurance, thereby implying that the most vulnerable households, communities and livelihoods cannot invest in reducing risk or in insuring against disasters.
Favouring reducing inflation, at the expense of reducing unemployment, inevitably leads to more poverty, which—as a main disaster-risk driver—leads to poorer households living on unsafe lands, unable to invest in resilient housing, and unable to find decent jobs to lift them from poverty and allow them to invest in building resilience.
Favouring the rentier and real estate sector at the expense of the pro-poor, job rich, industrial, and agricultural sectors inevitably leads to higher unemployment, leaving millions unable to afford safe housing or to invest in building resilience.
Flooding—Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Donatas Dabravolskas, Shutterstock
It is these decisions that often lead to high degrees of inequality in terms of exposure, vulnerability, and disaster losses. Citizens and various stakeholders, including NGOs and various urban pressure groups, can address this inequality by 1) recognizing that it happens, 2) scrutinizing the decision-making process and the vested interests that lead to decisions being made, 3) tracing the decision-making process that leads to risk being constructed due to certain decisions, 4) tracing the transfer of new and existing risk between sectors, 5) forming alliances between NGOs, sectors, urban communities, and vulnerable stakeholders in order to lobby governments and big donors to recognize and address these issues. Only then will the aspirations of donor organizations such as the World Bank's—We dream of a world without poverty—stop being a dream and become a reality!
Fadi Hamdan
Fadi works on the interaction between risk governance and communication, disaster risk management, resilience, sustainable development, growth, and use of resources in cities.
Fadi has more than 25 years international experience in helping various sectors, companies, cities and countries in protecting people, assets and the environment against man-made conflicts, natural hazards and the interaction between them. In 2004, Fadi set up the Disaster Risk Management Centre (DRMC) to help municipalities, cities, governments and the private sector. DRMC currently works in both Europe and the MENA region with clients including EU, IAEA, UNDP, UNHABITAT, UNISDR, WB, ESCWA, UNICEF, Save the Children, World Vision, amongst others. Fadi has given more than one hundred workshops to sectorial and multi sectorial delegates on all matters related to risk governance and communication, disaster risk management, resilience, sustainable development and protection of investment and development gains in general. Fadi obtained his Ph.D. from Imperial College, London (UK) in 1993. He is a Chartered member of The Institution of Structural Engineers and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (MRINA-UK). View all posts by Fadi Hamdan →
← How To Put Information, Transparency, and Communities at the Center of Resilience Planning Footsteps Through Thailand's Cities and Rural Areas →
3 thoughts on "We Cannot Reduce Urban Inequality Unless We Fix Inequality in Exposure to Disaster Risk"
Pelle says:
Hi Fadi, you make some excellent points and the link between inequality and disaster risk should be household in any analysis of vulnerability as a fist step to affecting change.
In addition to the points you already made I am wondering about your views on how unequal exposure to risk manifests itself differently in the different political economy scenarios (e.g. industrial/brics versus financial capital dominated economies, vs rentier economies) that influence urbanization and urban governance?
Aline Rahbany says:
Thank you for this very informative piece of work! I have a couple of questions that I would like to share with you:
1- What can be different roles played by central governments, local authorities, national and international NGOs and private sector in addressing urban inequalities? especially as related to inequality in exposure and vulnerability to disaster risk and inequality in the distribution of disaster losses.
2- What needs to change in the donors' approaches / mechanisms to funding poverty reduction initiatives that would result in less urban inequality?
3- Is urban inequality manifested in the same way across the humanitarian-to-development continuum or are there specific characteristics that stand out and would require distinct approach(es) to addressing them based on the different phases disaster management cycle?
The Long Ride
Scot Spencer, Baltimore
If you have never been to Baltimore, you should come to visit. From Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, you can ride the light rail to downtown in 25 minutes for one of the best deals in the country. If you ride the train between Boston and Washington, you can...
Cities in Imagination
Resilience is the word of the decade, as sustainability was in previous decades. No doubt, our view of the kind and quality of cities we as societies want to build will continue to evolve and inspire new descriptive goals. Surely we have not lost our desire for sustainable cities, with...
Justice from the Ground Up
Julie Bargmann, Charlottesville
Soil contamination is a baseline condition for most of the sites I've worked on over the past two decades. The toxic imprint derives from industry—steel production, shipbuilding, fabrication of automobile and machine parts, to name just a few—in both urban and rural settings. But it also comes from lead-containing gasoline...
6 June 2016 Burden or Futureproof? Sam Holleran, New York City
A review of Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World, Edited by Jared Green. 2015. ISBN: 161689300. Princeton Architectural Press. 176 pages. Buy the book. In the last several years our culture has taken a dystopian...
21 April 2018 Positive Visions for Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Cities Marta Berbés-Blázquez, Tempe
David Iwaniec, Atlanta
Nancy Grimm, Phoenix
Timon McPhearson, New York
It is beginning to feel like the anticipated future under climate change is even closer than we once thought. After a particularly harsh hurricane season in North America and following another year of record high global temperatures in 2017, many people recognize that we are entering a new climate reality. Current and projected trends in extreme weather events highlight the need for...
22 June 2016 What Should We Make of Jane Jacobs' Critique of Parks in The Death and Life of Great American Cities?—TNOC Podcast Episode 8 Philip Silva, New York
Also available at iTunes. Story Notes: Andy Hernandez walked into Washington Square Park on a sunny afternoon in 1981 with a cameraman, a boom box, and a mandate to make a music video for a medley of new songs by Kid Creole...
Today's post celebrates highlights from TNOC writing in 2016. These contributions, originating around the world, were widely read, offer novel points of view, are somehow disruptive in a useful way, or combine these characteristics. Certainly, all 550+ TNOC essays and roundtables are...


Import/Export Clearance of Shipments with Plants and Wildlife Clarified: International Trade Law Firm | Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.
The Fish and Wildlife Service reports that there has been a reoccurring issue with respect to which government agency – the FWS or the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service – provides inspection, validation of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora permits, and clearance for imports and exports that contain both CITES-listed plant species and either CITES-listed or non-CITES-listed wildlife species.
As a result, effective immediately and until further notice, FWS and APHIS have reached an agreement under which FWS wildlife inspectors will do the following for such shipments.


Looking to hire a copywriter / expert blog writer for [iniciar sesión para ver URL] (men's dress sock line) You will need to understand men's fashion...post a week) To bid: Please send over price, Sample one paragraph entry that shows how your writing style will be for our company, Previous work/clients and your strategy / plan for coming up with writing content.
My dress sock company [iniciar sesión para ver URL] is in search of a good SEO partner to help us rank on search engines, collect traffic data and bu...deliver a strategy / timeline and goals, and have a current client list / portfolio for good success in the past. Looking to move forward with a partner ASAP. Please submit to a plan to us for consideration. Thanks.
Hi, I am looking to build a house in the Solomon Islands. I need to produce working plans of house from photos and produce material list and timber cu...to produce working plans of house from photos and produce material list and timber cutting list, etc to build. It will be slightly increased in size and varied from the floor plan shown in the photos.


text:
Size matters: 5 tips for creating LEAN programmatic creative
Programmatic ads now account for a majority of display ads in the US, and columnist Victor Wong believes that advertisers must craft their creative to win in this environment.
Victor Wong on November 29, 2016 at 1:31 pm
Advertisers and publishers have no choice but to go "LEAN" — lightweight, encrypted, AdChoices-supported and non-invasive.
Why? There's the recent founding of the Coalition for Better Ads and the updates to the IAB LEAN standards. There's ad blocking and the fact that people don't want to use their mobile data for advertisements. There's Google announcing it will begin to enforce new policies, starting in January 2017, in which publishers using ad formats that interfere with the user experience, such as pop-ups and standalone interstitials, will be penalized with lower Google rankings. Plus, Google charges advertisers more for serving "heavy" ads.
Speeding up load time doesn't just improve the ad experience for consumers — it dramatically affects ad viewability, according to new research from Thunder, a programmatic creative platform (disclosure: my company).
The data show that the lightest ads have the highest viewability, at 52 percent to 70 percent. In ads under 50KB, there is a 3 percent drop in view rates for each 10KB after the initial 10KB. That is followed by a 0.5 to 1 percent drop in view rate per extra 10KB beyond that. Average viewability bottoms out at around 25 percent in the 150–200KB range — the IAB recommended maximum.
All of this has created an emphasis on creating consumer-friendly ads with lighter file load sizes and fewer server calls. Programmatic advertising now accounts for more than two-thirds of all digital display ad spending in the US, but since it calls for multiple ad versions, creative best practices aren't as widely known or easily executed.
Here are five tips for creating effective LEAN ads, particularly for programmatic creative executions.
1. Emphasize creative relevance
Programmatic advertising requires intelligent audience segmentation and the customized creative to match. Since you can't rely as easily on bells and whistles with LEAN ads, you need to make sure you're serving the message that is most likely to resonate with the recipient.
Smart customization at scale takes time and talent, and it is not something most organizations are doing right just yet. But if advertisers are going to rely more on user-friendly ads with quick load times, they need a targeting strategy that includes custom creative that means something to the people who see it.
2. Optimize every image
Image compression is a standard step in building digital ads. Designers crop and save their images, then compress them. But this is a manual process, and it is sometimes overlooked in programmatic creative executions. No matter how many versions of an ad you are running, optimizing images will help keep file size down and load time and viewability up.
3. Use lightweight animation
Creating lightweight animation is a multi-step process, with designers trying a number of tactics, including trimming animation; reducing the number of frames when possible; optimizing file sizes; reducing the size of HTML, CSS and JavaScript files; and using HTML5 built-in tools and features. Programmatic advertisers must make sure they optimize every ad version to stay LEAN-compliant, just as they would in a single creative execution.
4. Have a plan for custom fonts
Most brands use a custom font or two, but they can slow down page load times since the browser has to download the font before it can begin page rendering. Web designers try a handful of tricks for getting around this, including turning text into images so they load faster. These workarounds can be time-consuming to do at scale, and they are not built into dynamic creative solutions.
Advertisers must consider the impact of custom fonts in their programmatic advertising and build processes for using them wisely, whether via an automated solution or in-house resources.
5. Double down on testing
In this world of LEAN, there is a greater emphasis on testing. Since you can't get away with making huge, flashy ads, you have to rely more on the power of the message. Adopt the agile marketing mantra of "test and learn" — monitor the performance of every ad version closely, and refine accordingly.
LEAN ads are more important than ever, and as advertisers invest more in programmatic solutions, they have to devise an approach for creative optimization at scale. Optimization techniques are more challenging to execute when you are running many ad variants, but they are no less important. The list of consequences has become too long to ignore — programmatic ads must be LEAN.
Victor Wong
Honored in AdAge's 40 Under 40 while still in his 20s, Thunder CEO Victor Wong has been the guiding force in the company's vision and success since its founding in 2008. He served as the IAB Local Committee Co-Chairman in 2010 and coauthored the IAB Local Targeting Guide. Victor holds a BA in economics from Yale University and is a fellow of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute.
Channel: Martech: AdvertisingMartech ColumnProgrammatic Advertising & Media Buying


text:
<?php

namespace app\modules\adminportal\Models\entities\portalpravaler;

/**
 * @Entity
 * @Table(name="tb_regua")
 */
class InteresseAlunos
{
    /**
     * @Id
     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     * @Column(type="integer", name="id_regua")
     */
    public $id_regua;

    /**
     * @Column(type="string", nullable=false, name="nm_completo")
     */
    public $nm_completo;

    /**
     * @Column(type="string", nullable=false, name="cd_cpf")
     */
    public $cd_cpf;

    /**
     * @Column(type="integer", nullable=false, name="nm_email")
     */
    public $nm_email;

    /**
     * @Column(type="integer", nullable=false, name="cd_telefone")
     */
    public $cd_telefone;

    /**
     * @Column(type="string", nullable=false, name="ds_ja_estuda")
     */
    public $ds_ja_estuda;

    /**
     * @Column(type="string", nullable=false, name="cd_tipo_produto")
     */
    public $cd_tipo_produto;

    /**
     * @Column(type="string", nullable=false, name="cd_nota_enem")
     */
    public $cd_nota_enem;

    /**
     *
     * @Column(type="datetime", name="updated_at", nullable=false, columnDefinition="TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NULL")
     */
    public $updated_at;

    /**
     *
     * @Column(type="datetime", name="deleted_at", nullable=false, columnDefinition="TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NULL")
     */
    public $deleted_at;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub