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snark: a (well-deserved) attitude of mocking irreverence and sarcasm
Salem needs to get past "blah, blah, blah" about climate change
As 2022 draws to a close, I'm hoping that 2023 is when Salem's city officials get past what climate activist Greta Thunberg calls the "blah, blah, blah" approach to reducing the world's greenhouse gas pollution.
Meaning, lots of talk, very little action.
The Salem City Council has passed a Climate Action Plan. It includes these goals:
By 2035, GHG Salem emissions shall be reduced to 50 percent of the citywide greenhouse gas emissions for the baseline year of 2016, and
By 2050, Salem should be carbon neutral.
But the Climate Action Plan isn't being taken seriously by city staff and the City Council. We're still in the "blah, blah, blah" stage. Lots of talk, very little action.
For example, there's an effort underway to bring commercial air service back to the Salem airport, even though this has been tried several times with no success.
Since air travel is one of the worst things people can do, greenhouse gas pollution-wise, the notion of bringing commercial air service to Salem should have been rejected by city officials as soon as it was raised.
But no, this bad idea is stumbling onward. Fortunately, our local 350.org chapter has started a petition, Oppose Costly and Polluting Commercial Air Service in Salem. I urge you to sign it. It'll just take a minute or two.
In the November 28, 2022 issue of The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert has a terrific story, "A Vast Experiment: The Climate Crisis from A to Z." The theme of the letter "B" is blah, blah, blah. Here's what Kolbert said:
On September 28, 2021, at the Youth4Climate conference, held in Milan, Greta Thunberg took the stage. Sitting near her was the city's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, wearing a mask. Thunberg, who is five feet tall, could barely be seen over the lectern. She had removed her mask and was smiling.
"Climate change is not only a threat, it is above all an opportunity to create a healthier, greener, and cleaner planet which will benefit all of us," she began. "We must seize this opportunity—we can achieve a win-win in both ecological conservation and high-quality development. . . . We need to walk the talk; if we do this together, we can do this.
"When I say 'climate change,' what do you think of?" she went on. "I think of jobs—green jobs." This received a round of applause.
"We must find a smooth transition towards a low-carbon economy," Thunberg said. "There is no Planet B. There is no Planet Blah—blah, blah, blah; blah, blah, blah." Her listeners, including Sala, started to realize that they'd been had. The applause died down.
"Build Back Better—blah, blah, blah," Thunberg continued.
"Green economy—blah, blah, blah.
"Net zero by 2050—blah, blah, blah.
"Net zero—blah, blah, blah.
"Climate neutral—blah, blah, blah.
"This is all we hear from our so-called leaders: words—words that sound great, but so far have led to no action," Thunberg said. "Of course we need constructive dialogue, but they've now had thirty years of blah, blah, blah, and where has that led us?"
It was thirty years ago that the world's "so-called leaders" gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the so-called Earth Summit. Everyone agreed that radical change was needed. To avert disaster, global CO2 emissions, which were then running at around twenty-two billion metric tons a year, would have to be reduced, eventually almost to zero. How this would happen, no one really knew. Still, the goal of preventing "dangerous" warming was enshrined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which President George H. W. Bush cheerfully signed.
"Some find the challenges ahead overwhelming," Bush said. "I believe that their pessimism is unfounded."
A follow-up conference of the parties, or cop, took place in Kyoto in 1997. By then, annual global emissions had risen to twenty-four billion tons. After much back-and-forth, it was agreed that something had to be done. The Kyoto Protocol, an addendum to the Framework Convention, laid out specific emissions-reduction targets for countries to meet.
"I am both determined and optimistic that we can succeed," Vice-President Al Gore told the diplomats gathered in Japan.
After Kyoto, global emissions kept on rising, only faster. By 2009, they'd climbed to thirty-two billion tons a year. That fall, President Barack Obama flew to Copenhagen for yet another conference of the parties—cop15. "I believe that we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of this common threat," he declared.
By 2015, emissions had increased to thirty-five billion tons a year. At that year's cop—No. 21—held in Paris, it was decided that, at last, really and truly, it was time to get serious. "The decisions you make here will reverberate down through the ages," the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, told the delegates. Nevertheless, emissions continued to rise. In the past thirty years, humans have added as much CO2 to the atmosphere as they did in the previous thirty thousand.
At some point during all the "blah, blah, blah"-ing—it's hard to say when, exactly—climate change ceased to be a prospective problem and became a clear and present one. Since Rio, the Arctic ice cap has shrunk by two-fifths. Greenland has shed some four trillion metric tons of ice, and mountain glaciers have lost six trillion tons. Heat waves are now hotter, droughts deeper, and storms more intense. In some parts of the world, the wildfire season never ends.
One conclusion to draw from this pattern is that the world isn't going to avoid "dangerous" warming. Global leaders will continue to gather at cops—this year's, in Sharm el-Sheikh, just concluded—and to speak loftily about "net zero" and "a low-carbon economy." But nothing will change, and, as a result, everything will change. There will be large-scale crop failures. The Greenland ice sheet will start to collapse—it may already be collapsing—and, owing to sea-level rise in some places and desertification in others, large swaths of the globe will become uninhabitable.
This conclusion is not, however, the one that Thunberg chose to draw when she spoke at the Youth4Climate conference. "Right now we are still very much speeding in the wrong direction," she told the crowd in Milan. "But, of course, we can still turn this around—it is entirely possible.
"The leaders like to say, 'We can do this,' " she went on. "They obviously don't mean it, but we do—we can do this. I'm absolutely convinced that we can."
Or, as Thunberg might put it, Blah, blah, blah.
Posted at 09:40 PM in City Council, City of Salem, Climate Action Plan | Permalink | Comments (0)
If a Democratic president acted like Trump, how would liberals react?
Today the January 6 committee held its final meeting to lay out criminal referrals to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol accused former President Donald J. Trump on Monday of inciting insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an act of Congress and one other federal crime as it referred him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.
The action, the first time in American history that Congress has referred a former president for criminal prosecution, is the coda to the committee's 18-month investigation into Mr. Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in a violent mob of the former president's supporters laying siege to the Capitol.
The criminal referrals were a major escalation for a congressional investigation that is the most significant in a generation. The panel named five other Trump allies — Mark Meadows, his final chief of staff, and the lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark and Kenneth Chesebro — as potential co-conspirators with Mr. Trump in actions the committee said warranted Justice Department investigation. The charges, including a fourth for Mr. Trump of conspiracy to make a false statement, would carry prison sentences, some of them lengthy, if federal prosecutors chose to pursue them.
The committee's referrals do not carry legal weight or compel any action by the Justice Department, which is conducting its own investigation into Jan. 6 and the actions of Mr. Trump and his allies leading up to the attack. But the referrals sent a powerful signal that a bipartisan committee of Congress believes the former president committed crimes.
Clearly this is a historic moment. As the above excerpt from a New York Times story says, never before has Congress referred a former president for criminal prosecution. Such didn't happen even with Nixon after his Watergate scandal was revealed. So says a TIME magazine story.
No congressional committee ever issued a criminal referral to the Department of Justice for Nixon. Rather, the reverse occurred, as Leon Jaworski, the special prosecutor tasked with investigating Nixon, sent Congress a "roadmap" laying out evidence of criminal violations Nixon was believed to have committed including bribery, perjury and obstruction of justice.
Because Nixon was a sitting president, Jaworski initially believed it made more sense for Congress to move forward with impeachment proceedings, than trying to prosecute Nixon in a court of law. Facing impeachment in the House, cratering support from his fellow Republicans, and looming criminal charges from a grand jury, Nixon resigned from office before facing prosecution.
So two Republican presidents have come closest to being prosecuted for crimes committed during their time in the White House. Nixon found little support from fellow Republicans, while Trump still enjoys considerable support from his base, though it is steadily slipping.
The question of how Democrats would respond to a Democratic president being credibly accused of crimes as bad as those committed by Trump interests me.
My wife, a Democrat like me, believes that members of our political party wouldn't stand for the outrageous behavior that Trump engaged in during his four years in office (thank heavens it wasn't eight).
Laurel thinks that Democrats care more about ethics than Republicans, who are more prone to being concerned about maintaining power in the sense of "ends justify the means." In large part I agree with her.
Republicans do appear to fall in line behind a leader more than Democrats do. This makes them vulnerable to a malevolent leader like Donald Trump who has been able to maintain much of his base in the Republican Party even as evidence of his numerous crimes accumulates.
My own view is a bit less confident in the willingness of Democrats to hold a Democratic president accountable for serious wrongdoing while in office. (Compared to Trump, I don't see what Bill Clinton did to be anywhere near as serious.)
I do believe that a Trumpian candidate wouldn't make it very far in Democratic presidential primaries. Democrats care about ethics. They also care about electability. I suspect that this would prevent a Trump-like Democrat from ever becoming president.
But if he or she did, another factor would come into play, the same one that helped Trump remain popular among Republicans during his time in office: producing results.
I try to imagine how I'd react if a Democratic president had managed to get several liberal Supreme Court justices confirmed; passed major legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ban assault weapons, increase taxes on billionaires, make Puerto Rico and the D.C. states, and other Democratic priorities -- then was enmeshed in a major scandal.
Would I be more willing to overlook the scandal because of all the good the Democratic president had ben able to accomplish? Sure, I would. And I think lots of other Democrats would feel the same way.
Thus while I'm fine with being critical of Republicans who stand by Trump no matter what horrible things he does, I have to admit that while I'd never be OK with a Democrat who acted just as badly, I'd overlook some ethical failings if that leader was able to produce significant benefits for the nation.
Which means I can't be totally holier-than-thou when it comes to Republicans defending Trump, though I am confident that I'd be less willing to go along with a Democrat doing everything Trump did while in office.
Posted at 10:08 PM in Donald Trump, National politics | Permalink | Comments (0)
We must keep supporting Ukraine, says Nicholas Kristof
This isn't the cheeriest time in Oregon. It's cold. We're approaching the shortest day of the year, so it's dark a lot.
But imagine that a malevolent foreign power who wants to make Oregon part of their country was attacking our electricity infrastructure with missiles and drones, causing our state to suffer massive electrical blackouts in winter.
And those attacks keep happening. As soon as we make repairs and get the lights and heat on again, the foreign power strikes another time, plunging a large share of Oregon's population back into cold and darkness.
Oh, and to make matters worse, that foreign power isn't only attacking civilian areas from afar. It first invaded Oregon eight years ago and has been fighting to take more of our territory ever since -- committing horrendous war crimes such as torture, rape, bombing of hospitals and schools.
What I just described is only imagination for Oregon. But it's reality in Ukraine.
Nicholas Kristof, after unsuccessfully attempting to run for Oregon governor this year, has returned to his job at the New York Times as a columnist. Yesterday the Times published a great piece by Kristof, Are We in the West Weaker Than Ukrainians?
Download Opinion | Are We in the West Weaker Than Ukrainians? - The New York Times
I highly recommend that you read the whole column, especially if you have some doubts that the United States should continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Putin's Russia invasion. Here's some excerpts.
"We will beat the Ukrainian out of you so that you love Russia," a Russian interrogator told one torture survivor I spoke to in Ukraine, before he whipped her and raped her. That seems a pretty good summation of Vladimir Putin's strategy.
It isn't working in Ukraine, where Putin's atrocities seem to be bolstering the will to fight back. That brave woman triumphed over her interrogators, albeit at horrific personal cost.
But I worry that we in the West are made of weaker stuff. Some of the most momentous decisions the United States will make in the coming months involve the level of support we will provide Ukraine, and I've had pushback from some readers who think President Biden is making a terrible mistake by resolutely helping Ukraine repel Russia.
...The fundamental misconception among many congressional Republicans (and some progressives on the left) is that we're doing Ukraine a favor by sending it weapons. Not so. We are holding Ukraine's coat as it is sacrificing lives and infrastructure in ways that benefit us, by degrading Russia's military threat to NATO and Western Europe — and thus to us.
"They're doing us a favor; they're fighting our fight," Wesley Clark, the retired American general and former supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe, told me. "The fight in Ukraine is a fight about the future of the international community."
If the war ends in a way favorable to Russia, he argues, it will be a world less safe for Americans. One lesson the world would absorb would be the paramount importance of possessing nuclear weapons, for Ukraine was invaded after it gave up its nuclear arsenal in the 1990s — and Russia's nuclear warheads today prevent a stronger Western military response.
"If Ukraine falls, there will certainly be a wave of nuclear proliferation," Clark warned.
For years, military strategists have feared a Russian incursion into Estonia that would challenge NATO and cost lives of American troops. Ukrainians are weakening Russia's forces so as to reduce that risk.
More broadly, perhaps the single greatest threat to world peace in the coming decade is the risk of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait that escalates into a war between America and China. To reduce that danger, we should help Taiwan build up its deterrent capacity — but perhaps the simplest way to reduce the likelihood of Xi Jinping acting aggressively is to stand united against Russia's invasion. If the West falters and allows Putin to win in Ukraine, Xi will feel greater confidence that he can win in Taiwan.
...In arguing for the West to stand with Ukraine, I've emphasized our national interest in doing so. But we have values at stake as well as interests, for there is also a moral question to face.
When one nation invades a neighbor and commits murder, pillage and rape, when it traffics in thousands of children, when it pulverizes the electrical grid to make civilians freeze in winter — in such a blizzard of likely war crimes, neutrality is not the high ground.
Let's not let Russia beat the Ukrainian out of us: The world could use a spinal transplant from brave Ukrainians.
Posted at 09:55 PM in National politics | Permalink | Comments (0)
Raphael Warnock for president. Someday.
It was quite a night for political aficionados like me yesterday.
I settled in to watch MSNBC's coverage of the Georgia runoff election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker around 5 pm. Between then and 8:30 or so, when the Senate race was called in favor of Warnock, I went through a bunch of ups and downs until the final Big Up.
I'm resisting talking about the lead changing hands, because this is an inaccurate way of describing what happened.
An election night isn't like a football game where the outcome is uncertain as the teams each score in an unpredictable fashion. The election result is decided once the polls close. All that remains is the counting of votes.
In this case, Warnock jumped out to an early lead because early voting and absentee ballots were counted first. Then Walker took the lead as lots of smallish conservative counties released their results. And just as in previous Georgia elections, Warnock ended up victorious when votes from the large Atlanta-area counties were counted.
I felt really good when MSNBC, along with CNN and Fox, called the race for Warnock. It would have been horrible if Walker had won. Herschel Walker was a great football player. He was a disastrous Senate candidate.
Walker was one of the least qualified people to ever run for the Senate. Aside from the fact that he had zero political experience, Walker lied incessantly, was ignorant of basic facts about the world, almost certainly paid for at least two abortions even though he claimed to be pro-life, and was accused of violence against women.
So it says a lot about the dismal state of the Republican Party that even with all of his failings, Walker still got almost 49% of the vote.
Given what a strong candidate Raphael Warnock was, Walker should have been trounced. But tribalism runs strong in the Republican Party.
And I have to admit that while Democrats aren't nearly as inclined to support a deeply flawed candidate, if my party put forward someone with credentials as bad as Walker's, and electing that person would markedly help the Democratic agenda, I'd be tempted to vote for them.
Fortunately, Warnock came out on top. I left the TV on so I could watch his victory speech. (Shared below via You Tube.)
Wow, really impressive. Raphael Warnock is a preacher, so it isn't surprising that he speaks well. But both what he said and how he said it went way beyond "well." We're talking Obama-level speechifying here. Warnock can even sound a lot like Obama in his cadence and tone of voice.
As an atheist, I'm not wild about winning candidates who praise God in their victory speech. Seems like they should also praise God if they lose, which I bet happens only rarely. Warnock spoke, if I recall correctly, about everybody having a spark of the divine in them.
But then he said something like, "If those words don't appeal to you, that's fine; we've got a big tent." And pleasingly, said that another way of putting it is that everybody has value. Nice. This showed me that while Warnock is deeply religious, he recognizes that we live in a pluralistic society where Christianity is just one of many options, including no religious belief at all.
It's hard to see Warnock being a presidential candidate in 2024, since he was just elected to a full six year Senate term. (Yet didn't Obama serve only two years in the Senate?) I can easily see him as a candidate in 2028 or later, though. He sure seems to have a bright political future ahead of him.
Here's his victory speech.
Posted at 09:54 PM in 2022 election, National politics | Permalink | Comments (0)
Peter Fernandez' retirement is good news for Salem
Peter Fernandez, the thoroughly sleazy Public Works Director for the City of Salem, announced he's retiring effective January 6, 2023.
This is cause for joy among those of us who follow goings-on at City Hall closely enough to be aware of what a disaster Fernandez has been during the fifteen years Salem has had to put up with his lies, dissembling, and poor decisions.
It's remarkable that Fernandez wasn't fired long ago, given how poorly he's performed as Public Works Director. This shows that Salem is willing to put up with a lot of crap, so long as the crap-producer is part of the Good Old Boys/Girls Network.
Hopefully the new City Manager, Keith Stahley, will hire a replacement for Fernandez who is much better suited for the job -- ideally someone who isn't now a Public Works manager, since those people have the stench of Fernandez associated with them.
From what I've said so far, does it sound like I can't stand Peter Fernandez? I sure hope so, since that's exactly how I feel.
Here's nine blog posts that I've written about Fernandez' failings. The first one set the stage for my subsequent criticisms of Fernandez, so I'll share a fairly lengthy excerpt from that post.
Sad stump with flower memorial to needless killing of this U.S. Bank tree
(1) Outrage: the true story of Salem's U.S. Bank tree killings
This is a case study of how city government shouldn't work.
Here the Public Works Director, Peter Fernandez, ignored the law, facts, expert advice, advisory committee recommendations, and lots of public testimony so he could keep a back-room verbal promise to the U.S. Bank president, Ryan Allbritton, to cut the five large, healthy, beautiful trees down.
The extra-legal promise itself is bad enough. Worse, Fernandez made that promise two years before the bank started the required process of filing an application to remove the trees.
Even so, Public Works Director Fernandez was all set to order that the trees be pruned, rather than removed, until bank president Allbritton reminded him of that "just between us" deal they'd made together. It didn't matter that Albritton was unable to give a single coherent reason why the trees needed to be killed.
After Fernandez spoke with the bank president, everything changed.
Allbritton got an unusual second chance to argue his extremely flimsy tree-killing case. He lobbied city councilors, who weren't bothered by Allbritton's mention of the verbal promise.
Maybe because this is the way the City of Salem habitually does things under its current leadership -- working out deals with special interests behind the scenes, then going through a show of holding public hearings and issuing a formal decision.
Like I say throughout the report, outrageous. There's more juicy details in the 18 pages, of course.
Download Outrage - Salem's U.S. Bank tree killings
The report includes an opinion letter from my land use and environmental law attorney which demolishes (1) Public Works Director Fernandez' false claim that he was obligated by an ordinance to allow the trees to be cut down, and (2) the repeated inaccurate assertion by City staff that Fernandez' decision couldn't be appealed.
(2) Why Salem's Public Works Director should be fired
(3) City Manager is OK with a developer illegally removing trees
(4) Salem City Council bamboozled by staff on Taybin Road property purchase
(5) Neighborhood association criticizes city officials for not enforcing tree ordinance
(6) City official issues tree removal permit 105 days after they were cut down
(7) Shady stuff associated with Salem City Council agenda item
(8) Devastating critique of Salem's Urban Forester program by a job applicant
(9) Key questions remain about Salem's botched response to toxic algae water problem
Posted at 09:57 PM in City of Salem, Peter Fernandez | Permalink | Comments (1)
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I hate war, but I love tanks going to Ukraine
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arun marwah on I hate war, but I love tanks going to Ukraine
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Appreciative Reader on Election looking good for Democrats in Oregon and nation


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Analyst Downgrades: GoPro Inc, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc, and Apple Inc.
Analysts downwardly revised their ratings on GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Josh Selway
Analysts downwardly revised their ratings on GoPro Inc (GPRO), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX), and Apple Inc. (AAPL)
Analysts are weighing in on action camera maker GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), and tech titan Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on GPRO, VRX, and AAPL.
GPRO is set to drop 6% this morning, after the shares were hit with another downgrade. This time it was Morgan Stanley who weighed in, reducing its outlook to "underweight" from "equal weight," and slashing its price target to $12 from $23. More downgrades could be forthcoming for GoPro Inc, since the majority of analysts still rate it a "buy" or better. The equity has dropped almost 70% in 2015, settling at $19.15 on Friday.
VRX is edging higher in pre-market trading, even though RBC cut its price target to $194 from $206. Then again, this still represents more than twice the security's current level, last seen at $93.06. The stock has dropped over 57% in the past three months in the wake of Citron Research's short-seller report. As a result, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc has reportedly hired an attorney, as well as public relations specialists. Option traders are hoping the shares can make up some of their lost ground. VRX's 10-day call/put volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) stands at 2.75, which ranks higher than 89% of all comparable readings from the past year.
AAPL got hit with a price-target cut to $150 from $155 at Barclays, and is now looking at a 1.3% drop out of the gate. In addition, Morgan Stanley trimmed its target to $143 from $152, citing an expected drop in iPhone unit sales. The shares closed last week at $113.18, hanging on to a 2.5% year-to-date lead. Most other analysts maintain a bullish outlook for Apple Inc. Twenty-two of the 31 brokerage firms with coverage on the stock say it's a "buy" or better, and AAPL's average 12-month price target of $148.31 stands in never-before-charted territory.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As learning styles and teaching techniques are vast, many parents ask about the learning opportunities within child care. Though there are numerous curriculum options, it is evident that children learn best by playing with each other, this is called Play Based Learning. The example that I often find myself using is a scenario where two toddlers are fighting over a truck. Typically, if a parent or nanny observed this fight, their instinct would be to approach the children, take the truck away and hand it to the child who had the truck first, stating "she had it first!". An ECE teacher or their assistant would go over to the crying child and say "use your words and tell your friends 'no', please don't take my truck". This helps develop healthy self esteem as the child feels empowered to deal with their own social issues.
I have been following the stories in the Globe and Mail this month about All-day Kindergarten and the benefits of play based learning. A key message that radiates from these articles is that social skills such as self regulation (how to get along with your friends) leads not only to good self esteem, but motivated learners.
Evidently play based learning is becoming more prominent in the education world, and the children can only benefit from this. What experiences have you had with you child and their learning?


I love it all. This blogging malarky.
Nearly a decade on and I'm still doing it. Maybe not as much, but still here, plugging away.
And it's collabs like this one that make me happy – Ashish and River Island. I know it's not particular new now, but it IS the first time I've put this sweater on.
And now I want the whole collection.
I might just buy it all. Just call me the poor man's Isabella Blow.
SS2018 MINI TREND ALERT: ZEBRAS!


« Sayonara to Hello now Available on DVD!
Beery Media just put together a demo reel that focuses on directing actors and dialogue. It is exciting to see how snippets of films and productions work away from the whole film in which they are a part of. I hope you enjoy this demo reel.
This entry was posted by Nic Beery on August 20, 2012 at 7:32 pm, and is filed under Uncategorized. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


There is some problems with it, first off I wanna say it has an awesome selection of edits you can choose from however when you save the picture only 3 out of the 4 edits I did to a picture to affect.
free download skyfire browser for java mobile?
contacts apk application not installed.
It has all the standard good things about photo editing apps, with a little extra. My only real complaint is that the slimming option basically just shrinks the photo horizontally, making it look smushed and weird. I would suggest adding a tool for people to swim the areas that they need rather than skimming the entire body at one. Aside from that, very good app, definitely a new fave!
When I first bought the app it worked great. Now everytime I try to select one of the little effects you can place in your picture like the bokeh and sun flares, etc. I hope they fix it soon. App Store Preview. This app is only available on the App Store for iOS devices. Description Be an artist with Artist! Make your photos more textured, we have added more special effects: Overlay effect is more natural.
This photo editor app is suitable for both complete beginners and experienced iPhone photographers. With the Snapseed tools, you can easily improve exposure, color, and sharpness. And you can crop, rotate and straighten images. Selective tools and brushes allow you to edit certain parts of your image. And the Healing tool is great for removing unwanted objects. The Portrait tool is perfect for creating flawless portrait photos with smooth skin and sparkling eyes.
Filters make it easy to convert your photos to black and white or create a vintage look with textures. Unlike many other photo editing apps, there are no extra in-app purchases to pay for. The vast collection of VSCO filters allow you to create the look of classic film in your iPhone photos. These filters are perfect for adding a vintage feel to your images.
Many of them have a soft, faded look for beautifully understated edits. You can adjust the strength of the filters to suit your taste. It comes with 10 free filter presets and a set of photo editing tools. Afterlight 2 is easy to use despite its comprehensive set of editing tools.
But it also has a set of advanced tools, such as curves and selective color. These allow you to fine-tune the colors and tones in your photos to get the very best out of your images. The filters and overlays in Afterlight 2 are great for enhancing or changing the mood in your photos.
The app comes with a basic set of filters, and you can add more collections of filters for free.
The customizable text and artwork is a fun way to add graphics to your images. And the double-exposure tool lets you create unique combinations of blended images. It promises to never have any extra in-app purchases or subscriptions. And the app is even updated with new free content every month. Click here to learn how to create unique iPhone photo edits with Afterlight 2.
As well as traditional editing tools and filters, it has a fantastic selection of artistic effects.
You can turn a picture into a drawing or painting , and add unique design elements to your photos. The Mask tool allows you to apply effects to just certain parts of an image. This gives you ultimate control over your editing. You can also create double-exposures and fake-miniature tilt-shifts. And you can display your favorite images in a beautiful collage.
Whether you want to perform a simple edit or create an artistic masterpiece, you can do it all with Enlight! Click here for an in-depth Enlight tutorial with step-by-step videos. Simply use your finger to highlight the object you want to remove. That said, there are plenty of reasons to use other photo editing apps over Instagram filters. Don't do anything till you've read this. Read More for iPad Pro. Two standout features are the liquify tool, which allows you to blend and stretch images for subtle or wacky adjustments, and the defocus mask, which is perfect for faking depth of field in your shots.
However, it has no support for RAW editing. Adobe Photoshop Fix. Prisma is an app unlike any other here.
These styles are modeled on great artists like Picasso and Matisse, but also venture into comic book and futuristic territory. You can adjust the strength of the filter, which is fortunate since the app produces a mixture of impressive and slightly-off images. Some filters produce images that really look like computer-generated artwork; others transform images into something weird and wonderful. Prisma has some of its features locked behind a premium subscription. This app is all about emulating the look of fancy glass, weather effects, and lighting.
It also includes some basic photo editing tools, and uses layers to blend various effects together. In addition to lens distortions, like blurs and flares, the app includes bokeh balls, fog, rain, snow, and shimmering effects.
Darkroom – Photo Editor on the App Store.
telephone mp3 song by pota.
You can adjust the intensity, position, and scale of the effects as you see fit. Lens Distortions. To its credit, the app has improved over the years with better labels on its editing tools and a more straightforward approach to image editing. Read More.
There are hundreds upon hundreds of different photo editing apps for iOS in the App Snapseed – Free. It's one of the top iPhone photography apps out there.


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<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Algebra - I</title>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

PROBABILITY MODELS

Sample spaces, events, probability, discrete and continuous random variables,
Conditioning and independence, Bayes�  formula, moments and moment generating
function, characteristic function, laws of large numbers, central limit theorem,
Markov chains, Poisson processes.

Books

  Ross, S.M., Introduction to Probability Models,  Academic Press 1993.

  Taylor, H.M., and Karlin, S., An Introduction to Stochastic Modelling,
  Academic Press, 1994.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Haven Point
15 books in series
Snow Angel Cove Publisher's Summary
Nothing short of a miracle can help Eliza Hayward. Precariously close to being destitute, Eliza needs a hero, but she's not expecting one who almost runs her down with his car!
Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Caine. At first, putting the renovation of his lakeside guest lodge in Eliza's hands assuages his guilt. But is he willing to risk his heart on a yuletide romance that could lead to forever?
©2014 RaeAnne Thayne (P)2014 Recorded Books Inc
Snow Angel Cove
By: RaeAnne Thayne
Narrated by: Celeste Ciulla
Nothing short of a miracle can help Eliza Hayward. Precariously close to being destitute, Eliza needs a hero, but she's not expecting one who almost runs her down with his car! Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Caine. At first, putting the renovation of his lakeside guest lodge in Eliza's hands assuages his guilt. But is he willing to risk his heart on a yuletide romance that could lead to forever?
Nothing short of a miracle can restore Eliza Hayward's Christmas cheer. The job she pinned her dreams on has gone up in smoke - literally - and now she's stuck in an unfamiliar, if breathtaking, small town. Precariously close to being destitute, Eliza needs a hero, but she's not expecting one who almost runs her down with his car! Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Caine.
Narrator ruined it for me
By Melissa on 12-18-15
Redemption Bay
McKenzie Shaw would do anything for her hometown of Haven Point. It may be small, but it's never let her down...unlike gorgeous, infuriating Ben Kilpatrick. He was her childhood hero until he closed his family's factory, leaving the town's economy in shambles. Now his tech firm is considering opening a local facility. For Haven Point's sake, McKenzie has to grit her teeth and play nice.
very poor narrator.
By Dolores on 12-18-16
Evergreen Springs
Christmas is the last thing on Cole Barrett's mind this year. He's barely hanging on trying to care for his two grieving children since his ex-wife died in a tragic accident. For the reclusive Cole, this is no time for gift giving and celebration - and certainly not for a sunny-natured optimist to blow into his screwed-up life. Physician Devin Shaw has long researched the curative powers of Lake Haven's mineral waters. Unfortunately the hot springs are on Barrett property, forcing Devin to strike a bargain.
Awful narrator
By Janet Josly on 03-31-16
Riverbend Road
Narrated by: Vanessa Johansson
Protecting the streets of Haven Point isn't just a job for police officer Wyn Bailey; it's a family tradition. But lately she's found herself wanting more, especially from her boss - and her overprotective brother's best friend - sexy chief of police Cade Emmett. The only problem is getting Cade to view her as more than just a little sister.
Snowfall on Haven Point
It's been two rough years since Andrea Montgomery lost her husband, and all she wants is for her children to enjoy their first Christmas in Haven Point. But then Andie's friend asks a favor - to keep an eye on her brother, Sheriff Marshall Bailey, who's recovering from a hit-and-run. Andie will do anything for Wyn, even park her own misgivings to check on her grouchy, wounded bear of a brother.
Fabulous after Christmas read!
Serenity Harbor
Computer-tech millionaire Bowie Callahan is about the last person that schoolteacher Katrina Bailey wants to work for. As far as she can see, he's arrogant, entitled, and not up to the task of caring for his young half brother, Milo. But Kat is, especially if it brings her closer to her goal of adopting an orphaned little girl. And as her kindness and patience work wonders with Milo, she realizes there's more to sexy, wary Bo than she'd ever realized.
Sugar Pine Trail
Librarian Julia Winston is ready to ditch the quiet existence she's been living. She's made a list of new things to experience, but falling for Jamie Caine, her sexy military pilot neighbor, isn't one of them. Julia's looking to conquer life, not become the heartbreaker's latest conquest. But when two young brothers wind up in Julia's care for the holidays, she'll take any help she can get. Happy to step in, Jamie reveals a side of himself that's much harder to resist. Not only is he fantastic with kids, he provides the strength Julia needs to tackle her list.
The Cottages on Silver Beach
Megan Hamilton never really liked Elliot Bailey. He turned his back on her family when they needed him the most and it almost tore them all apart. So she's shocked when Elliot arrives at her family's inn, needing a place to stay and asking questions that dredge up the past. Megan will rent him a cottage, but that's where it ends - no matter how gorgeous Elliot has become. Coming back home to Haven Point was the last thing best-selling writer Elliot Bailey thought he'd ever do.
By Frequent Shopper on 12-16-18
Season of Wonder
Dani Capelli has never truly belonged anywhere. And from her earliest days as a foster child in Queens, she would have been lost if it weren't for her love of animals. Until high school, when she fell hard for the wrong boy, and found herself pregnant - and married - by graduation. Two daughters later, Dani realized her mistake and filed for divorce, and with the help of scholarships and loans - and a lot of macaroni and cheese dinners - she enrolled in vet school. Things were finally looking up, until her ex-husband became her late husband, in the most notorious way possible.
By Betsy on 06-21-20
Coming Home for Christmas
Haven Point, Book 10
Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn't quite see the way back to her husband, Luke, and their two beautiful children...until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. But now, seven years later, Luke finds her in a nearby town and brings Elizabeth back home to the family she loves, just in time for Christmas. Being reunited with Luke and her children is better than anything Elizabeth could have imagined.
Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn't quite see the way back to her husband and their two beautiful kids...until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. And when she finally remembered the sound of little Cassie's laugh, the baby powder smell of Bridger, and the feel of her husband's hand in hers, Elizabeth worried that they'd moved on without her. That she'd missed too much.
wonderful story
By Sandra S on 01-21-20
Summer at Lake Haven
Samantha Fremont may still be grappling with her mother's death, but this summer she's determined to build a new life for herself. Starting with making her friend's dream wedding dress and establishing herself as a boutique fashion designer in the process. What she does not need is a surprise litter of puppies, the voice in the back of her mind saying she can't do any of this - or her friend's gorgeous brother who's visiting from England for the wedding.
Aspiring fashion designer Samantha Fremont has put her love life on hold to focus on herself. She certainly doesn't need a complication, like her new neighbour, turning out to be a sexy, brooding English professor. He might be dreamy, but he's also rude. But keeping her distance proves difficult when his two children wind themselves into Sam's heart. Combined with a litter of cute puppies, Sam might just have found what she was looking for.
Christmas at Holiday House
This New Year will bring widowed nurse Abigail Powell a fresh start in a different city. Excited about the chance to create an unforgettable Christmas for her young son in picturesque Silver Bells, Colorado, Abby has been hired to take care of her dear friend's recuperating grandmother. But sprightly senior Winnie insists she doesn't need looking after. What she does need is help decorating her historic mansion, Holiday House, for a seasonal town fundraiser. Abby warms to the festive task, but she'll have to contend with her own personal Grinch: Winnie's prickly grandson.
Started out slow
By azcatlvr on 12-09-20


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What's more terrifying than two pythons fighting for dominance? Two pythons fighting for dominance inside your home.
An Australian mom recently walked into her bathroom to witness the snakes coiled around each other inside her shower.
"I'm just glad the shower was clean so I was able to get some photos and video without it being embarrassing," Petrina Murphy, 41, joked in an interview with Caters News.
She said her family has always known there were 30-pound snakes living on their roof from the sounds coming from the rafters, but they had never made an appearance until her 16-year-old son, Callum, was in the bathroom and spotted the reptiles.
The snakes tangled around each other through the skylight, so she used the handle of her broom to make them fall through the window in hopes of dealing with them once and for all.
She let them fight for a couple minutes with their tails tangled in the shower before sweeping them outside.


text:
This is a list of 277 species in Gelis, a genus of ichneumon wasps in the family Ichneumonidae.

Gelis species

 Gelis abortivus (Spinola, 1851) c g
 Gelis acarorum (Linnaeus, 1758) c g
 Gelis aciculatus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis adili Bogacev, 1946 c g
 Gelis agilis (Fabricius, 1775) c g
 Gelis alator Aubert, 1989 c g
 Gelis albanicus (Fahringer, 1923) c g
 Gelis albicinctoides Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis albicinctus (Ruthe, 1859) c g
 Gelis albipalpus (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis albopilosus Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis alegininus Carlson, 1979 c g
 Gelis algericus (Habermehl, 1920) c
 Gelis alogus (Viereck, 1905) c g
 Gelis alopecosae Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis alpinus (Strobl, 1901) c g
 Gelis alpivagus (Strobl, 1901) c g
 Gelis alternatus (Cresson, 1872) c
 Gelis anataelianus Ceballos, 1925 c g
 Gelis anatolicus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis aneichi Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis annulatus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis anthracinus (Forster, 1850) c
 Gelis apantelicidus (Viereck, 1913) c g
 Gelis apantelis Cushman, 1927 c g
 Gelis aponius Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis apterus (Pontoppidan, 1763) c g
 Gelis araneator Seyrig, 1926 c g
 Gelis areator (Panzer, 1804) c g
 Gelis areolatus Ceballos, 1927 c g
 Gelis ariamus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis asozanus (Uchida, 1930) c g
 Gelis asperatus (Fonscolombe, 1852) c g
 Gelis athracinus (Förster, 1850) g
 Gelis atratus (de Stefani, 1884) c g
 Gelis austriacus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis avarus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis balcanicus Horstmann, 1993 c g
 Gelis balteatus (Cameron, 1905) c g
 Gelis belfragei (Ashmead, 1890) c g
 Gelis bellicus Bogacev, 1963 c g
 Gelis bicolor (Villers, 1789) c
 Gelis bicoloratus (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis birkmani (Brues, 1903) c
 Gelis brassicae Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis brevicauda (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis brevis (Bridgman, 1883) c g
 Gelis brevistylus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis brevithorax Roman, 1936 c g
 Gelis bruesii (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis brunneellus Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis californicus (Ashmead, 1890) c g
 Gelis campbellensis Townes, 1964 c g
 Gelis canadensis (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis canariensis Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis carbonarius (de Stefani, 1884) c g
 Gelis caudator Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis caudatulus Horstmann, 1997 c g
 Gelis caudatus (Rudow, 1917) c g
 Gelis cayennator (Thunberg, 1822) c g
 Gelis cinctus (Linnaeus, 1758) c
 Gelis circumdatus (Schiodte, 1839) c g
 Gelis claviventris (Strobl, 1901) c g
 Gelis cockerelli (Brues, 1910) c g
 Gelis coloradensis (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis columbianus (Ashmead, 1890) c g
 Gelis compactus (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis constantineanui Ciochia, 1974 c
 Gelis crassulus (Brues, 1903) c g
 Gelis cursitans (Fabricius, 1775) c g
 Gelis curvicauda Horstmann, 1993 c g
 Gelis cushmani Carlson, 1979 c g
 Gelis cyanurus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis davidsonii (Ashmead, 1896) c g
 Gelis debilis (Provancher, 1886) c g
 Gelis declivis (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis delicatus (Cresson, 1872) c
 Gelis delumbis (Brues, 1910) c g
 Gelis dendrolimi (Matsumura, 1926) c
 Gelis difficilis (Hedwig, 1950) c g
 Gelis dimidiativentris (Rudow, 1917) c g
 Gelis discedens (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis dispar (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis divaricatus Horstmann, 1993 c g
 Gelis drassi (Riley, 1892) c g
 Gelis edentatus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis elongatus (Rudow, 1917) c g
 Gelis elymi (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis escalerai Ceballos, 1925 c g
 Gelis exareolatus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis excellens (Hedwig, 1961) c g
 Gelis fabularis Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis falcatus Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis fallax (Forster, 1850) c
 Gelis fasciitinctus (Dalla Torre, 1901) c g
 Gelis fenestralis (Brues, 1910) c g
 Gelis ferruginosus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis festinans (Fabricius, 1798) c g
 Gelis formicarius (Linnaeus, 1758) c g
 Gelis forticornis (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis fortificator Aubert, 1980 c g
 Gelis fortunatus Schwarz, 1993 c g
 Gelis fossae Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis foveatus (Brues, 1910) c g
 Gelis fumipennis Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis fuscicorniformis Ciochia, 1973 c g
 Gelis fuscicornis (Retzius, 1783) c g
 Gelis gallicator (Aubert, 1971) c g
 Gelis gelechiae (Ashmead, 1890) c g
 Gelis gibbifrons (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis glacialis (Holmgren, 1869) c g
 Gelis gracillimus (Dalla Torre, 1902) c
 Gelis habilis (Brues, 1910) c g
 Gelis hammari (Viereck, 1912) c g
 Gelis hebraicator Aubert, 1971 c g
 Gelis heidenreichi Habermehl, 1930 c g
 Gelis helleni Kolarov, 1993 c g
 Gelis hispanicus Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis hortensis (Christ, 1791) c g
 Gelis hypsibatus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis inermis (Viereck, 1903) c g
 Gelis infumatus (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis insolitus (Howard, 1897) c g
 Gelis intermedius (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis inustus (Gravenhorst, 1829) c g
 Gelis inutilis Cushman, 1927 c g
 Gelis karakurti (Rossikov, 1904) c g
 Gelis keenii (Harrington, 1894) c g
 Gelis kiesenwetteri (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis kukakensis (Ashmead, 1902) c
 Gelis kumamotensis (Uchida, 1930) c g
 Gelis latrodectiphagus (Hesse, 1942) c g
 Gelis leiradoi Ceballos, 1925 c g
 Gelis lemae (Sonan, 1930) c
 Gelis leptogaster (Forster, 1850) c
 Gelis limbatus (Gravenhorst, 1829) c
 Gelis liparae (Giraud, 1863) c g
 Gelis longicauda (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis longipes (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis longistylus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis lucidulus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis lymensis (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis macer (Cresson, 1872) c
 Gelis macroptera (Strobl, 1901) c g
 Gelis maculatus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis maderi (Fahringer, 1923) c g
 Gelis maesticolor (Roman, 1933) c g
 Gelis mangeri (Gravenhorst, 1815) c g
 Gelis manni (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis margaritae Bogacev, 1946 c g
 Gelis marikovskii Kuzin, 1948 c g
 Gelis maruyamensis (Uchida, 1932) c
 Gelis meabilis (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis meigenii (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis melampus (Strobl, 1901) c g
 Gelis melanocephalus (Schrank, 1781) c g
 Gelis melanogaster (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis melanogonus (Gravenhorst, 1829) c g
 Gelis melanophorus (Forster, 1851) c g
 Gelis merceti Ceballos, 1925 c g
 Gelis merops Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis meuseli (Lange, 1911) c g
 Gelis micariae (Howard, 1892) c g
 Gelis micrurus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis minimus (Walsh, 1861) c g
 Gelis mitis Schwarz, 1994 c g
 Gelis monozonius (Gravenhorst, 1829) c g
 Gelis mutillatus (Gmelin, 1790) c g
 Gelis nahanojus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis napocai Ciochia, 1974 c g
 Gelis nigerrimus (Dalla Torre, 1902) c g
 Gelis nigritulus (Zetterstedt, 1838) c g
 Gelis nigriventris (Brues, 1903) c g
 Gelis nigrofuscus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis nitidus Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis nivariensis Schwarz, 1993 c g
 Gelis nocuus Cushman, 1927 c g
 Gelis notabilis (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis obesus (Ashmead, 1902) c g
 Gelis obscuratus (Strobl, 1901) c g
 Gelis obscuripes Horstmann, 1986 c g
 Gelis obscurus (Cresson, 1872) c
 Gelis operosus Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis ornatulus (Thomson, 1884) c
 Gelis ostarrichi Schwarz, 1996 c g
 Gelis ottawaensis (Harrington, 1896) c g
 Gelis pallipes (Forster, 1851) c
 Gelis pamirensis Bogacev, 1963 c g
 Gelis papaveris (Förster, 1856) c g
 Gelis parens Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis parfentjevi (Meyer, 1926) c g
 Gelis pauxillus (Kokujev, 1909) c g
 Gelis pavlovskii Jonaitis, 1981 c g
 Gelis pennsylvanicus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis perniciosus (Viereck, 1913) c
 Gelis petraeus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis pettitii (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis pezomachorum (Ratzeburg, 1852) c g
 Gelis philpottii (Brues, 1922) c g
 Gelis picipes (Gravenhorst, 1829) c g
 Gelis piger (Kokujev, 1909) c g
 Gelis pilosulus (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis popofensis (Ashmead, 1902) c g
 Gelis potteri Barron, 1987 c g
 Gelis povolnyi Sedivy, 1968 c g
 Gelis problematicus (Seyrig, 1952) c g
 Gelis problemator Aubert, 1989 c g
 Gelis prospectus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis prosthesimae (Riley, 1892) c g
 Gelis proximus (Forster, 1850) c
 Gelis pulicarius (Fabricius, 1793) c g
 Gelis pusillus (de Stefani, 1884) c g
 Gelis rabidae Barron, 1987 c g
 Gelis ragusae (de Stefani, 1884) c
 Gelis recens Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis robustus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis rotundiceps (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis rotundiventris (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis rubricollis (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis ruficeps (Rudow, 1914) c g
 Gelis rufipes (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis rufogaster Thunberg, 1827 c g
 Gelis rufoniger Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis rufotinctus (Bridgman, 1883) c g
 Gelis rugifer (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis sanguinipectus (Schmiedeknecht, 1932) c g
 Gelis sapporoensis (Ashmead, 1906) c g
 Gelis schizocosae Barron & Bisdee, 1977 c g
 Gelis scvarskii (Rossikov, 1904) c g
 Gelis semirufus (de Stefani, 1884) c g
 Gelis sessilis (Provancher, 1874) c g
 Gelis seyrigi Ceballos, 1925 c g
 Gelis shafae Jonaitis & Alijev, 1988 c g
 Gelis shawidaani Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis shushae Jonaitis & Alijev, 1988 c g
 Gelis sibiricus (Szépligeti, 1901) c
 Gelis solus Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis speciosus (Hellen, 1949) c g
 Gelis spinula (Thomson, 1884) c g
 Gelis spiraculus (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis spurius (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis stanfordensis (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis stevenii (Gravenhorst, 1829) c g
 Gelis stigmaterus (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis stigmaticus (Zetterstedt, 1838) c g
 Gelis stigmatus (Ashmead, 1890) c g
 Gelis stilatus (Rudow, 1914) c g
 Gelis striativentris Schwarz, 2003 c g
 Gelis stricklandi Townes, 1944 c g
 Gelis takadai Momoi, 1970 c g
 Gelis tantillus (Cresson, 1872) c g
 Gelis taschenbergii (Schmiedeknecht, 1897) c g
 Gelis tauriscus Schwarz, 1998 c g
 Gelis tenellus (Say, 1835) c g b
 Gelis tenerifensis Schwarz, 1993 c g
 Gelis terribilis Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis texanus (Cresson, 1872) c
 Gelis thersites (Schmiedeknecht, 1933) c g
 Gelis thomsoni (Schmiedeknecht, 1933) c g
 Gelis thripites (Taylor, 1860) c g
 Gelis tibiator Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis trux (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis tubulosus (Fahringer, 1923) c g
 Gelis turbator Schwarz, 2002 c g
 Gelis uniformis (Dalla Torre, 1902) c g
 Gelis urbanus (Brues, 1910) c g
 Gelis utahensis (Strickland, 1912) c g
 Gelis vagabundus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis vasiljevi (Kokujev, 1912) c g
 Gelis venatorius (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis viduus (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis virginiensis (Ashmead, 1890) c g
 Gelis vulnerans (Forster, 1850) c g
 Gelis westerhauseri Gistel, 1857 c g
 Gelis wheeleri (Brues, 1903) c g
 Gelis yakutatensis (Ashmead, 1902) c g
 Gelis zeirapherator (Aubert, 1966) c g

Data sources: i = ITIS, c = Catalogue of Life, g = GBIF, b = Bugguide.net

References

Gelis

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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West Campus Expansion Proposal
Posted by Jayson Wittrup on Jul 29th, 2020 // No Comments
NEW! More questions answered at this link. (Original post is below.)
On April 30th, 2017 at a regular quarterly business meeting, the Faith Baptist elders invited the whole Faith family to prayerfully consider a "directive" to launch a second site in Sioux Falls. After months of prayer, research, discussion, and public forums, Faith Baptist voted overwhelmingly at a special business meeting on September 10th, 2017 to start a second site on the west side of town. Pastor Jayson was chosen to lead the effort and recruited 70 Faith Baptist adults and children to start Faith Baptist West. A special giving opportunity called "Stepping Forward" was also launched at that time. These funds helped start the west campus and were used to make some needed improvements to the south campus at 57th and Minnesota.
In early 2018, Faith Baptist voted to sign a 5-year lease for the current west campus building at the corner of 26th and Ellis Road. The first public service at Faith West was held on September 9th, 2018. Several months after launch, the Sunday attendance was already approaching maximum capacity. Faith West held two services for its first Easter Sunday in 2019 and had 7 baptisms that morning. Faith West began regularly holding two services by the first anniversary of its launch on September 9th, 2019. Attendance grew steadily to around 180 before the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. Despite the recent setbacks of the pandemic, Faith West has proven to be a "hit" not only in terms of growth in Sunday attendance but in lives impacted for Christ.
What is the need?
There is a clear need on the west side of Sioux Falls for the kind of biblically faithful, gospel-centered ministry that Faith Baptist strives for. Knowing that the current lease only runs until 2023, the elders began discussing next steps at the spring retreat in 2019. A task force was assembled consisting of Pastor Jayson, TJ Philips (elder chairman), Matt Paulson, and Ben Whitley. The team conducted interviews and solicited feedback from west campus attenders. The feedback indicated that "westies" are truly excited about "their church." They want to grow, serve, and reach out. There is great momentum. Many often ask, "What's next?" One of the key factors that brings people to Faith West is the great location. "Please don't move the church!" is something we hear often. Many guests visit because they move to the west side and see there is a church nearby. The past two years have been wonderful, and westies are extremely grateful for the location and facility. However, the smaller worship center and limited education space for Sunday school and other programs hinders the west campus from fully becoming all that Faith Baptist Fellowship values. The first two years have concentrated on gathering and connecting. The need now is for greater discipling, equipping, and serving which is the hallmark of Faith Baptist.
What exactly is being proposed?
The proposal from Peska would include a new ~5000 sq. ft. worship center and new nursery space to be built on the currently undeveloped land to the south of the existing west campus building (see the DRAFT layout). The current worship space (~2000 sq. ft.) and foyer would be remodeled into classroom space for a total of 7 classrooms. Additional restrooms will be included and a small kitchenette (not pictured). Peska would build the addition to suit at no up-front cost to Faith Baptist. Peska is proposing the church sign a new 7-year lease with terms comparable to the existing lease. This new contract would replace the current 5-year lease. The proposed completion date for the addition and start of the new lease is June 1st, 2021.
Why are we considering this now?
Peska's overall site plan has been known for some time. With the completion of the Ellis Road expansion project last year, Peska is now ready to move forward with the development of the rest of the Ellis Road property. The prominence and visibility of the location make it very attractive. There will undoubtedly be interest. Peska has been very happy with Faith Baptist as a tenant and has essentially given "first right of refusal" to lease an additional portion of the space adjacent to our current facility. If additional ministry space at the current location is ever desired, the time to act is now.
What other options have been discussed/considered?
The task force and elders also considered:
Purchasing land and building a permanent facility
Purchasing/remodeling an existing building
Leasing a different building at another location
A future merger with another church that owns a building
Continuing to lease the current building as-is indefinitely
Close the west campus at the end of the current lease
Many of these options are hypothetical and not based on anything available or possible at the moment. The two real options for discussion at this time are "upgrading" the current west campus facility or moving toward purchasing land and building a permanent location.
Why not purchase land and build a permanent building?
Based on the terms of the new lease, the expanded west campus facility would cost around $2M in lease/NNN payments and utilities over the seven years of the new lease. To buy land and build a comparable building* to what Peska is proposing would cost at minimum $5M according to the task force's best estimates. To be more affordable, Faith West would likely need to move 1-2 miles out of town. This would be further away from the people the church is seeking to reach and serve. Also, several years of planning and heavy fundraising would be required to build. The church would likely need to raise close to $1M just for a down payment. Continuing to lease allows Faith West to focus on its immediate mission to make disciples of Jesus, equipping them for growth and service, rather than raising money for a building project. The elders do not believe that now is the right time for the west campus to purchase land and build a permanent building. However, the reception and momentum of the west campus encourages us to "keep going" and take additional steps of faith. Faith West has great potential to become an established ministry in west Sioux Falls for years to come. But the desired focus is ministry and growing the church as a group of people who embrace our 5 Loves and live out our 5 Commitments, not building and maintaining a large property at this time.
* It is worth noting that if the church decided to build before the 7-year lease was finished, Peska would release Faith Baptist from the lease if Peska were hired to build the new church building.
How would this get paid for?
The original intention was for Stepping Forward funds, along with gradually increased giving, to cover the operations and ministry costs of the west campus for the first three years. Praise God that the increased giving came even sooner than anticipated! The west campus has been supported by the Faith Baptist general fund since late-2019. Once again, there will be no up-front build-out costs for the new addition. Given the strong financial position of Faith Baptist as a whole, and overall giving trends since the west campus launch, the elders believe that the newly increased lease payments for the west campus can be included in the overall budget for 2021 and years to follow. Even during a pandemic, the faithfulness of Faith Baptist's givers has been incredible!
What is the timeframe for this project?
Peska would like to begin construction this October. They will complete the new addition first, allowing ministry activities to continue in the existing space during the construction. Once the addition is complete, they will begin remodeling the existing space. The tentative completion date for the full project is June 1st, 2021. Peska has requested a decision from Faith Baptist by August of 2020.


Queries allow you to run free form SQL queries on your database.
You can either build a query using the Scope Conditions method or enter an arbitrary raw SQL query that you might have previously built.
By default the results of a query are presented as a table but you can also choose to create a graph with the results.
When displaying query results as a table, the cells corresponding to a column which has Reference data associated to it will display the labels corresponding to the values.
Also, cells which content resembles an email address or an URL will be automatically linked.
If you select only one value per row, a frequency distribution graph will be drawn. This means that similar values will be grouped and the resulting graph will show you the count for each distinct values.
If you select multiple values per row, the first value you select will be used as the x-axis of the graph, the following values will be used as datasets. This implies that the first value you select can be a string or a number while the subsequent values must be numbers in order to be graphed properly.
If you want to graph the results as a scatter chart, you need to select two values per row and they have to be numbers.


ILEX Construction is featured in volume 3 of The Scout Guide Washington, DC Magazine.
ILEX project, Red Barn, featured in November 2, 2016 issue of C-ville Magazine.
ILEX project, River's Edge, featured in March/April 2015 issue of Home & Design Magazine.
ILEX Construction's project, River House, is featured in the Local Living section of the Washington Post.


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U.S. Mint Shares Details on Cumberland Gap ATB Quarter Launch Ceremony
March 29, 2016 By Coin Update Leave a Comment
The U.S. Mint has shared information on the upcoming launch event for the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Quarter, scheduled for Monday, April 11 at 11 a.m. ET. The ceremony is open to the public and will take place at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Visitor Center on Pinnacle View Road in Middlesboro, Kentucky. Two local fourth-graders will host the ceremony and 2,200 (!) children aged 5-13 will be sworn in as junior rangers.
Representatives of the park, local government, and the U.S. Mint will also be in attendance. The event will include a coin exchange in which members of the public can trade cash for rolls of the new quarters. There is a one-roll ($10) minimum and 10-roll ($100) maximum in place for the coin exchange.
On the evening prior to the launch (Sunday, April 10), the Mint will host a Coin Forum at the C.V. Whitney Convention Center in Pine Mountain State Resort Park, located at 1050 State Park Road in Pineville, Kentucky. It will take place from 3 to 4 p.m. and give members of the public a chance to learn more about the U.S. Mint's upcoming initiatives, and weigh in on their ideas for future coinage.
The Mint's press release can be viewed below, along with a brief video detailing production of the new quarter.
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Quarter Launch Ceremony Set for April 11
Local school kids take charge of ceremony welcoming the 32nd America the Beautiful Quarters® Program
WHAT:Join the fun, Monday, April 11, 2016, when two Middlesboro Elementary School fourth-grade students take the helm at the United States Mint launch ceremony for the America the Beautiful Quarters coin honoring Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.
The event starts at 11 a.m. at the park's visitor center on Pinnacle Road in Middlesboro, Ky. Event highlights include an en masse swearing in of more than 2,200 junior rangers. The free event will conclude with a coin exchange, where the public can trade cash for $10 rolls of newly minted Cumberland Gap National Historical Park quarters.
U.S. Representative Hal Rogers
National Park Service (NPS) Deputy Director Peggy O'Dell
NPS Director, Southeast Region, Stan Austin
United States Mint at Philadelphia Plant Manager Marc Landry
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Superintendent Sula Jacobs
Middlesboro Elementary School student Hattie Landen (master of ceremonies)
Middlesboro Elementary School student Makaya Patterson (master of ceremonies)
INVITED:
U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell
U.S. Senator Rand Paul
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell
NPS Director Jon Jarvis
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin
11 a.m. ET, Monday, April 11, 2016
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Visitor Center
Pinnacle Rd.
Coin Forum
The United States Mint will host a coin forum the afternoon before the launch ceremony–3 to 4 p.m. ET Sunday, April 10–at the C.V. Whitney Convention Center in Pine Mountain State Resort Park at 1050 State Park Road in Pineville, Ky. The coin forum is an opportunity for members of the public to express their views about future coinage, and learn about upcoming United States Mint coin programs and initiatives.
The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park quarter is the 32nd release in the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program, a 12-year initiative to honor 56 national parks and other national sites authorized by Public Law 110-456. Each year, the public will see five new national sites depicted on the reverses (tails sides) of the America the Beautiful Quarters. The United States Mint is issuing these quarters in the order in which the national sites were officially established.
Fort Moultrie Quarter Launched with Musket Fire Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument) Quarter-Dollar Launch Event Set for November 17
Filed Under: America the Beautiful Quarters, Coin Articles, Coin Events, Press Releases, United States Mint, US Coins


This cultural tour covers western Bhutan and also offers the visitor a brief moment to discover the history of some of the Dzongs (fortresses) and monasteries of Bhutan's prominent areas.
The itinerary takes you around Thimphu which is the capital city of Bhutan allowing you to discover the history, arts, architecture and traditional life of the Bhutanese people which still remains amidst the vast development activities taking place in the country. Other places of visit are Paro where the Taktsang Monastery is "nested" and Punakha – once the old capital of Bhutan and now the winter residence of the Central Monastic Body of Bhutan.
The journey leads through the twisting mountain roads and through one of the highest passes in Bhutan called Dochu La. Weather permitting, one can experience beautiful views of the mountain ranges located far up in the northern territory of Bhutan.
The hike to Taktsang (Tiger's Nest) Monastery is definitely the highlight of this trip presenting a memorable trip to Bhutan.
Institute of Zorig Chusum (commonly known as the Painting School) where you can see young children learning and practicing the ancient arts and crafts of Bhutan. Zorig Chusum literally means the "thirteen traditional arts and crafts".
Visit the Textile Museum, which provides an excellent introduction about the techniques, style of various textiles woven in the country along with exhibitions of the national dress 'gho' for men and 'kira' for women.
Blessed with a temperate climate and drained by the Phochu and Mochu rivers, is the fertile valley of Punakha. The District has hosted several historical events such as serving as the Capital of Bhutan since 1651 till 1956. The First King, Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck was enthroned in 1907 and the first session of the National Assembly was held in 1955. It is still the winter residence of His Holiness the Je Khenpo (Chief Abbot of Bhutan) and Zhung Dratshang (the Central Monk Body).
In Paro, visit Rinpung Dzong (the fortress on a heap of jewels). The Dzong was built by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel in 1646.
For the local people it is a place of pilgrimage, but for a tourist, a hike up to the viewpoint opposite the monastery is exhausting, thrilling and mystical. Legend has it that Guru Rimpoche is said to have flown to the site of the monastery on the back of a tigress and meditated in the cave.
Drive to the end of the valley and visit the ruins of Drugyel Dzong. It was built by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel in 1649 to commemorate Bhutan's victory over the Tibetan invaders.
Enroute to Paro town, visit Kyichu Lhakhang. Kyichu Lhakhang is said to have been built by King Songtsen Gampo of Tibet. It is believed that it holds down the left foot of an ogress, so large that it covers Bhutan and most of eastern Tibet. It is one of the 108 temples built by the Tibetan King in one day throughout the region of the Himalayas; according to legends. The temple also houses a museum dedicated to late Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche and hosts a range of artefacts belonging to the Rimpoche.


You are here: Home / Parenting / Help Your Baby Walk!
Baby walking development toys help babies use and develop the key muscles they need to walk; these toys are also designed so babies learn how to balance and position their bodies to walk at different speeds. Toys that require pushing and pulling while standing effectively encourage babies to use their basic motor skills, since these toys provide some support as babies begin to stand and take those first few steps.
Baby walkers are essential tools for helping babies sit and stand up straight as they practice using their legs to move. Many baby walkers are equipped with trays and toys that will keep your baby busy as she moves around the house. Allowing babies to walk without shoes in the walker develops the important muscles in their ankles and improves flexibility in the soles of their feet.
These toys encourage babies to balance, squat and walk with ease, since babies must move ahead of them. These lightweight toys encourage your child to crawl and move ahead or take a few steps as the toy follows. Any pull toys that also make noises (such as quacking or squeaking) can teach your baby to recognize and respond to new sounds. The classic Radio Flyer wagon is another popular choice for babies and toddlers at all stages of development.
Push toys such as lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners and shopping carts make excellent toys for teaching babies how to walk because they encourage babies to get up and lean on the toy for support as they move. It doesn't take long for babies to learn how to stand up and use these toys, and the process helps them learn important walking and maneuvering skills so they can walk on their own.
Imitation vehicles that require babies to use their feet to move around are also valuable for strengthening key muscles in their lower bodies. These toys encourage babies to use their legs and feet to move and navigate around the home, and some are equipped with other toys and puzzles for extra stimulation.
Sabah Karimi is an experienced freelance writer who enjoys writing about lifestyle, parenting, and childhood education topics. Sabah runs a web copywriting and marketing consultancy business in Orlando, Florida.


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Covid19 Emergency Appeal
Fewdays
Celebrating one of our most successful alumni
A look at the life of Fewdays Chibanga is a way of seeing how the support of Cecily's Fund during a person's early years transforms their later life.
Today, Fewdays is a pastor and a successful businessman who owns his own company providing telecoms and related services. His wife, Melody, works as a nurse at Kitwe Teaching Hospital and the couple have a young family.
Fewdays credits Cecily's Fund with helping him achieve the life he now has. After the loss of his father in 1996 when he was 14, Fewdays was initially unable to continue with his schooling. Then a very new organisation, Cecily's Fund was working with CINDI (Children in Distress), and was able to help pay Fewdays' school fees. Fewdays' mother had also volunteered with CINDI.
Cecily's Fund "helped me to finish my education and gave me a chance to learn how to live without having AIDS, through various workshops and seminars", Fewdays says. "Today, I can go anywhere and survive because of the foundation of education."
Looking back on that time, Fewdays remembers it as being "not easy and very challenging", and strongly believes that the support of Cecily's Fund and CINDI laid the foundation of his later success.
The church at which Fewdays is a pastor is one that he set up himself, after formerly working as a youth pastor. His own company is doing well, and he is looking into expanding into the timber business. In all things, Fewdays desires to "be a blessing to anyone" and to support others around him, just as he was supported by Cecily's Fund and CINDI so many years ago.
Cecily's Fund is registered in England and Wales under charity number 1071660 and at Ground Floor, 6 Church Green, Witney, OX28 4AW. We use cookies to improve your experience using this website.
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How Ghanaian President John Mahama Blew $28,692 On Family Trip To South Africa
by How Africa News April 13, 2016, 10:06 am
President John Dramani Mahama has been cited in the Auditor-Generals report on Public accounts of Ghana as having used his office as the vice president in 2011 to spend $28,692 on his family while he was in South Africa.
The Auditor-General's report indicated that Ghana's High commission in Pretoria, South Africa, spent that money on the president and his family for their transport, accommodation and repair of a vehicle while they were in that country.
Then matter cropped up at the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) of Parliament's sitting yesterday when the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hanna Tetteh, and officials from her ministry appeared before it to respond to questions on the 2011, 2012 and 2013 reports of the Auditor General on the various Ghanaian missions abroad.
ALSO READ: New Evidence Shows: Nelson Mandela's Alliance With Gaddafi Irritated The West!!
The Member of Parliament for Atwima Mponua, Isaac Asiamah, who raised the issue, wanted to find out from the minister the kind of visit the then vice president undertook with his family that warranted the Ghanaian mission in South Africa spending that amount on him and his family.
He also wanted to know the actual number of family members on that trip. But the chairman of the committee, Kwaku Agyeman –Manu, said that the report had also captured the amount as having been settled and so there was no need to belabour that issue.
ALSO READ: I Will Never Legalize Homosexuality in Ghana – President Akufo-Addo
The Atwima Mponua MP, who is a member of the Public Accounts Committee, told daily guide that the matter of the president being cited in the Auditor-General's report was so important that it could not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, especially when all those captured in the report in one way or the other had been found culpable of violating the relevant laws of the public financial management and were also said to be financially indisciplined.
"For the Auditor-General to be bold to mention the president's name in its report for such financial impropriety, then it means that there is indeed something wrong somewhere and we all as Ghanaians must start asking questions," he said, stressing that this development could be seen as unprecedented in the history of this country.
He said Ghanaians must be told to ask whether the president's trip to South Africa which warranted that expenditure was an official trip or not and the reason for that trip.
"Ghanaians must be told the full details of the trip for which the money that was not officially sanctioned for was paid," Mr. Asiamah charged, stressing that full details of the money refunded to the state must also be made public.
Asiamah stressed that this is very unhealthy for the management of public funds, adding that when such situations happen they seriously affect the official work of Ghanaian missions abroad.
Sources: Daily Guide and Ghanavibes.com
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After a successful twenty-year career teaching college-level history (University of Michigan, Union College, and Sarah Lawrence College) Phyllis Vine resigned her tenure at Sarah Lawrence College and undertook journalism training (at Columbia University's J School). Informed by a masters degree in Public Health (from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health), she became a full time writer and editor of a website hosting opinions and reader contributions about behavioral health, while aggregating news and information about mental illnesses. MIWatch.org (now defunct) enabled some of the earliest conversations introducing recovery-oriented initiatives into the larger community. Partly due to her family's experience of mental illness in every generation, and partly because she taught the history of health care to graduate students studying health advocacy, writing about mental health is a natural byproduct of her life's journey.
In addition to three previous books, Vine's work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals as diverse as the History of Education Quarterly, American Journal of Orthpsychiatry, to chapters in specialized volumes such as Research in Community and Mental Health. Later, her investigative reporting appeared in City Limits, The Nation and Extra!
Vine applied the Page 99 Test to her new book, Fighting for Recovery: An Activists' History of Mental Health Reform, and reported the following:
Page 99 of Fighting for Recovery drops the reader into First Lady Rosalynn Carter's publicity campaign to make mental health reform a national priority. This is the fifth of the background chapters setting the stage for understanding the passions driving reform. Chapter Five, A First Lady's Law, portrays Carter's 1978 appearance on Good Morning America. It is timed to the release of a report from the President's Commission on Mental Health which carries a consequential price-tag of $500 million. Page 99 explains footage recorded the day prior, when an ABC film crew tracked Carter's visit to the Green Door. It was a community program for discharged patients "honing skills for independent living and employment." Rosalynn Carter engages with former patients who are shopping at the local grocery, preparing a meal, and discussing difficulties finding jobs. This footage sets the scene for the interview (on the next page) where she reacts to an interviewer's stigma about mental illness, and graciously puts him on a path to a better understanding about the needs of discharged patients who, she says, can live outside of a hospital with proper supports.
The Page 99 Test confirms what readers can expect. Throughout the book, activists challenge fictions and notable larger-than-life personalities command the moment; there are specific examples of former patients building a life in the community, and there is backlash. In the midst of all of this, long before the public comprehends illnesses which were fraught with misunderstanding and are largely feared, state hospitals were closing. Fighting for Recovery reveals how activists of all stripes – disability rights lawyers, former patients with lived experience, politicians, families, researchers – fought a war of medical and popular opinion to set a course for a recovery movement. Although the field was crowded, this narrative is inspired by the grassroots activists whose recovery from mental illness included creating networks for building programs with person-centered choice, autonomy, and self-help. Each chapter of Fighting for Recovery brackets something unique, such as a conflict, a situation, or an individual -- Rosalynn Carter is one of many – accruing results with initiatives pointing toward recovery. Today we recognize these in the advocacy training of peer services, or among non-medical first responders whose crisis intervention techniques include diversion from jail or hospital. Beginning with the mandate to close hospitals nearly 70 years ago, campaigns for recovery continue, and the final chapters of Fighting for Recovery reveal how the strategies and programs continue to warrant attention.
Visit Phyllis Vine's website.


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Govt. must constitute GST tribunal: SC
Home » Govt. must constitute GST tribunal: SC
The Supreme Court said that the government had no option but to constitute the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Appellate Tribunal. The tribunal has not been constituted even four years after the central GST law was passed in 2016.
GS-III: Indian Economy (Taxation), GS-II: Governance (Government Policies and Initiatives), Prelims
What is GST and the GST Act?
GST Council
What is GST Appellate Tribunal?
Constitution of the GST Appellate Tribunal
Decisions taken by the Appellate Tribunal
Can the Appellate Tribunal amend its own order?
GST is a destination-based indirect tax and is levied at the final consumption point. Under it, the final consumer of the goods and services bear the tax charged in the supply chain. GST is a transparent and fair system that prevents black money and corruption and promotes new governance culture.
GST Act
Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act came into effect in 2017.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced by the Government of India to boost the economic growth of India. GST is considered to be the biggest taxation reform in the history of the Indian economy.
The power to make any changes in the GST law is in the hands of the GST Council. GST Council is headed by the Finance Minister. One hundred and first amendment act, 2016 introduced the GST in India in July 2017.
Goods & Services Tax Council is a constitutional body for making recommendations to the Union and State Government on issues related to Goods and Service Tax.
As per Article 279A (1) of the amended Constitution, the GST Council has to be constituted by the President within 60 days of the commencement of Article 279A.
The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2016, for the introduction of Goods and Services Tax in the country was introduced in the Parliament and passed by Rajya Sabha on 3rd August 2016 and by Lok Sabha on 8th August 2016.
GST Council is an apex member committee to modify, reconcile or procure any law or regulation based on the context of goods and services tax in India.
The GST council is responsible for any revision or enactment of rule or any rate changes of the goods and services in India.
The council contains the following members:
Union Finance Minister (as chairperson)
Union Minister of States in charge of revenue or finance (as members)
The ministers of states in charge of finance or taxation or other ministers as nominated by each state's government (as members).
Matters on which GST Council makes recommendations:
Taxes, cesses, and surcharges levied by the Centre, States and local bodies which may be subsumed in the GST;
Goods and services which may be subjected to or exempted from GST;
Model GST laws, principles of levy, apportionment of IGST and principles that govern the place of supply;
Threshold limit of turnover below which goods and services may be exempted from GST;
Rates including floor rates with bands of GST;
Special rates to raise additional resources during any natural calamity;
Special provision with respect to Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand; and
Any other matter relating to the goods and services tax, as the Council may decide.
The GST Appellate Tribunal (GSTAT) is the second appeal forum under GST for any dissatisfactory order passed by the First Appellate Authorities.
The National Appellate Tribunal is also the first common forum to resolve disputes between the centre and the states.
Being a common forum, it is the duty of the GSTAT to ensure uniformity in the redressal of disputes arising under GST.
It holds the same powers as the court and is deemed Civil Court for trying a case.
The Appellate Tribunal shall have the same powers as a court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, for trying a case. It will be a deemed Civil Court.
National Bench: The National Appellate Tribunal is situated in New Delhi, constitutes a National President (Head) along with 2 Technical Members (1 from Centre and State each)
Regional Benches: On the recommendations of the GST Council, the government can constitute (by notification) Regional Benches, as required. As of now, there are 3 Regional Benches (situated in Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad) in India.
State Bench and Area Bench
The Appellate Tribunal can confirm, modify or annul the decision or refer the case back to the First Appellate Authority [or the revisional authority].
It may also refer the case back to the original adjudicating authority, with directions for a fresh decision after considering any additional evidence. The Appellate Tribunal shall give the decision within a period of one year from the appeal filing date. A copy of the order passed will be given to-
The First Appellate Authority or the revisional authority, i.e.., the original adjudicating authority
The appellant
The jurisdictional Commissioner of CGST and
The jurisdictional Commissioner of SGST.
How will decisions be taken by the Appellate Tribunal?
The powers and functions of the Appellate Tribunal will be discharged by Benches. The State Bench & Area Bench shall consist of-
1 Judicial Member (Judicial)
1 CGST Member (Technical)
1 SGST Member (Technical)
State President
A single member can dispose of any case where the amount involved is below 5 lakhs.
The Appellate Tribunal can amend its order passed to rectify any apparent mistake within a period of three months from the date of the order.
The mistake may be noticed by the Appellate Tribunal itself or may be brought to its notice by the Commissioner of GST or the other party to the appeal.
Any amendment which will increase the tax liability or decrease the refund or input tax credit will be done only after a reasonable opportunity of being heard has been given.
If the order is stayed by an order of a Court or Tribunal, the period of such stay shall be excluded from the one year period.
-Source: The Hindu
Judicial Majoritarianism: The Importance of Dissenting Opinions in Constitutional Cases


Hello. I would like to help you with server ip addreses issue. I have expeience. Please read my feedbaks. Thank you.
hello, tell me more what exactly u need. Im 7 years experienced system admin, so i will help you in this matter.
I have a long experience with all this software and I can help you to implement necessary configuration.
Hi. Are you talking about a desktop program and if so what platforms do you want to support? Also a little description of what exactly needs to be done will be helpful.


Stephan Hawkins announced he will travel space and one of the most dynamic and innovator businessman on earth Mr .Richard.Bronson who is known for his daring activity and innovative business ethics is making Virgin Space which will carry Hawkins.
Whenever winter bloom like newly wed couple ,his rays blush like that women who is just awaiting her first night with her husband with full of charm and passion.I spend most of the day in daydreaming looking or playing with sun whole day on roof.I thought,how this singing Sun shows both side of life.One,how energy giver he is,due to him entire universe exist but at the same time I see his another face or side,how this same singing sun in noon, could eat entire earth in few minutes if our Ozone layer get thinner and thinner as day passes by.But,I thought,why should I worry about Sun and its effects while millions of other things to do here.
Human beings are most selfish beings on earth at least it seems now to me,we always search for escaping roots or easy answers or short cut.We never thought of things which can concern planet as whole like Global warming(How many country has tried to cut its pollution level?).However showing concern to planet would directly or indirectly benefit us.