We have a monitoring system that can help you stay alerted to any change you wish to watch. If your environment goes down we can both be texted. This includes if your mail server gets attacked, database server stops running, web server slows to a crawl, etc.
We can write programs and scripts to monitor any kind of condition and alert you with a text message.
Even the smallest or heavily embedded situation can be monitored. Just ask us what you want to be alerted to.
We currently have a method to monitor your D3 environment's master and slave connection. When they get disconnected the queue of changes grows. If the master queue grows beyond a certain number of frames we can generate an alert. Receiving an alert will prevent you running out of disk space inside your D3 database.
Our method handles "false positives" to not turn into text messages as the queue grows and shrinks in normal daily activities.


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If you're a looking to travel to Italy, then visiting the Pompeii Ruins is a must. Italy is not just known for its finger-licking food, but its captivating architecture too that is bound to leave you in awe. Pompeii, once filled with luxurious villas, small shops, and one-of-a-kind temples, is now a world-famous historic site, visited by tourists from across the globe.
Located near the south of Naples, Pompeii was tragically destroyed by the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 A.D. The entire city and its surroundings were buried under volcanic ash, preserving the city for 1700 years. These ruins have been a go-to destination for over 250 years, and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
Here is a short travel guide inclusive of travel tips and some of the famous places to visit during your trip to the Pompeii ruins in Italy.
Best Time To Visit The Pompeii Ruins
The perfect time for sightseeing at the Pompeii ruins would be between mid-March and the starting of June. The weather around this time is pleasant, dry and warm, making it comfortable to travel and easy for you to visit the sites, as any Pompeii Ruins' guide would suggest.
How To Reach The Pompeii Ruins
By Air: The Naples International Airport, is located in the Capodichino region of Naples, which is about only 7 km away from the city's center making traveling to the Pompeii ruins, a breeze.
By Road: Pompeii ruins are located close to Naples, Rome and Sorrento and can be easily accessed by road from these places.
From Naples to Pompeii – 30 minutes
From Sorrento to Pompeii – 45 minutes
From Rome to Pompeii Ruins – 2.5 hours
From Florence to Pompeii – 4.5 hours
By Train: Since Pompeii is surrounded by cities, it is also easy to reach by train from Rome's Napoli Centrale Station and a few other train lines which travel back and forth from the site.
Timings Of Pompeii Ruins
This site is open every day except Christmas, 1st of January and 1st of May. From the 1st of April to 31st October, the ruins are open from 9 AM – 7:30 PM (6 PM being the last entry time).
Pompeii Ruins Entry Fee
In order to avoid waiting in line at the ticket booth, you can choose to order your Pompeii ruins tickets online, and also book tours in advance through the website. Admission is also free during the regulars hours of the first Sunday of the month for any visitor. Keep in mind to carry cash along with you during your visit to the Pompeii ruins, as the ticket office doesn't accept any credit cards.
Pompeii ticket fees: INR 935
10 Most Captivating Pompeii Ruins
You must not miss a visit to these fascinating Pompeii ruins that people come to see from far and wide.
1. Temple of Apollo
Take a stroll and witness the oldest structure still standing in Pompeii, the Temple of Apollo which faces the city's Forum, showcasing the different changes adapted in architecture starting from the early 6th century B.C., till its destruction in 79 A.D. You can also pay the National Archeological Museum of Naples a visit, and admire the grand bronze statues which use to once adorn the Temple of Apollo.
2. House of the Vettii
The House of Vettii is situated in the western part of the Pompeii ruins, it also one of the best- preserved Roman villas. The villas feature beautifully painted frescoes on a black background which were prized possessions of wealthy merchants who once resided in Pompeii. These villas were specifically designed to pamper and impress the guests and residents designed around an inviting courtyard enclosed with magnificent columns, water-spouting statues, sculptures, basins and fountains.
3. Lupanar
Lupanar of Pompeii is also known as the Lupanare Grande, it is one of the largest of the city's brothels. It is located east of the Forum and features 10 rooms where there are brick platforms with mattresses that once acted as beds. A few of the rooms in Lupanar are showcased with wall paintings that depict sexual scenes, which were considered to be a sign of dialogue, giving it its unique significance in the history of Pompeii.
4. House of the Tragic Poet
Located in the west section of Pompeii, this house is known for its beautifully painted frescoes and mosaics. This was the house of an important poet or writer who once resided here. The house has beautiful mosaics on the floor and also grand frescoes that are surprisingly big for the size of the house.
5. Forum of Pompeii
An expansive open area shaped like a rectangle, served as a market, commercial area for the city's political and commercial crowd. The Forum of Pompeii also housed a court, bathhouses and temples. This grand scale of space is still remarkable and it is easy to imagine the bustle of activities which occurred where the city once stood in all its glory.
6. House of the Faun
The famous House of the Faun received its name after a beautiful bronze statue of a faun. It is still one of the largest villas in Pompeii and takes up an entire block. This house holds some of the historic structures of Italy such as the Alexander Mosaic, depicting the great ruler Alexander the Great preparing against the battle with Darius III of Persia. This house features some of the most compelling artwork located in the Pompeii ruins.
7. Pompeii Thermal Baths
Public baths were a common feature across the Roman Empire, and a great place for people to meet, bathe and catch up with friends. Some of the houses had private baths, and a few were open to every social class, including slaves. The men and women always had separate sections for bathing. The beautiful baths were also elaborately decorated with intricate carvings on the ceiling.
8. Pompeii Amphitheatre
See the spectacular amphitheater of Pompeii that was built around 70 BC, and is considered one of the oldest structures still surviving in the world. This magnificent amphitheater was built out of stone and was a century before the Colosseum in Rome was built.
9. Villa dei Misteri
Villa dei Misteri, also known as the Villa of the Mysteries features beautifully preserved frescoes that adorn the walls against a beautiful red background. This Roman Villa shows a woman that is being initiated into a forbidden cult of Dionysus, known as Bacchus – the God of decadence. These paintings have been executed meticulously with its detailing and craftsmanship, the outdoor terrace and thoughtfully designed rooms just give you a sense of luxury.
10. Plaster Casts
The residents of Pompeii who weren't able to flee before the eruption were buried entirely by hot ashes falling from the sky. Giuseppe Fiorelli used a technique of filling the empty spaces of where the corpses had decomposed with liquid plaster, to reveal the perfect casts of the victims of the eruption in the Pompeii ruins. The "Garden of the Fugitives" has the largest number of plastered corpses of the victims during the eruption.
What To Pack For A Trip To Pompeii Ruins?
Since the site is exposed to the sun entirely and has very limited shade, it is best to come prepared with sunscreen, water bottles, hats, and sunglasses to keep cool. In case you miss them, they can be bought at the small town shops located near the Pompeii Ruins. The Pompeii maps are also easily available along with handy audio tour guides to help you understand the history of the Pompeii ruins in Italy.
Tagged Pompeii Ruins
ytwhome
Destinations Europe Switzerland
IMPORTANT TRAVEL TIPS FOR SWITZERLAND
Posted on October 16, 2018 Author ytwhome
Though Switzerland is located in Europe, Switzerland is not part of the European Union (so citizens from EU countries might have to pay customs when shopping in Switzerland). Four official languages are spoken in Switzerland. Most of Switzerland consists of the German-speaking part (north and east), while the south west speaks French, and Italian is the main […]
Destinations Europe France
Best Things to Do in France
France serves to delight the romantically inclined with fairy-tale castles, picture-perfect villages, soaring cathedrals, and still, the country manages to impress realists together with its progressive and yet contemporary styling. Whilst perusing the streets of Paris, be sure to take in the delights of the Eiffel Tower, which represents the modernized emblem of France. Then, […]
Destinations Europe Featured Switzerland
The very mention of a holiday in Switzerland is enough to send many into deliriums of ecstasy with the flurry of panoramic images that comes with it. Be it the craft beer and castles, new-age restaurants and waterfront bars, swimming in the Rhine or Limmat, and hiking on the snow-clad peaks, things to do in Switzerland […]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Pastor Mick has been in ministry since 1977 when he and his wife Sherrie started an outreach ministry on Franklin Street in downtown Juneau Alaska. Mick founded and pastored Calvary Fellowship Juneau for 13 years before leaving to do mission work in Russia. As well as church planting in Juneau, Sitka and Russia, Mick has served as the Chaplain at Lemon Creek Correctional Center, as an Interim Pastor for several Southeast Alaska church fellowships and currently chairs our local Evangelical Pastors Fellowship. He and his wife Sherrie have been married 41 years. They have three married children, their spouses and nine grandchildren.
John Unzicker was raised here in Juneau, Alaska. In 1996 he married Moriah. They have 3 sons, Guy, Solomon and Isaiah. John has been a professional musician since 1996. He received his Bachelor's of Music Education– 2004 from UAA, and a Master of Arts in Teaching Music– 2005 from UAS. He is currently employed as a Band Teacher at JDHS. He has been involved in a variety of ministries including leading worship on the UAA campus, created & led worship team at University Baptist Church Anchorage and served on the worship team at ABBC until he became the Worship Leader in Sept. 2006.
Liesel has attended Auke Bay Bible Church since 2008 and has been secretary since 2014.


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Speedy launches Regional Service Centre
By Leila Steed18 January 2021
Equipment rental company expands specialist hire services in the south west of the UK
Speedy's new depot aims to capitalise on planned housing and highway developments in the surrounding region
Construction equipment rental company Speedy has launched its new Regional Service Centre in the south west of the UK.
The 800m2 (8,500sq ft) centre in the town of Swindon will allow the company to expand its specialist construction hire services in the region, and to offer its range of lifting equipment to local customers for the first time.
Speedy said the regional depot was opened partly in response to planned developments in the region. According to the rental firm, plans for around 8,000 homes and two high rise developments have been lodged with local planning authorities.
Dylan Owen, Regional Director for the South West at Speedy, said, "Our investment in Swindon comes as a number of major schemes edge closer to breaking ground and local contractors are gearing up to develop the local housing, infrastructure and commercial space as the area builds for the future.
Speedy said that landmark office accommodation and highway improvements across Swindon are also expected to "buoy the local construction market". Its new depot aims to provide building firms and contractors with access to over 350 of its products, with both its four-hour delivery promise and click-and-collect service.
The company's green and eco-friendly products will also be available as part of the four-hour delivery service, alongside its selection of rechargeable cordless tools.
Speedy's investment in the Swindon depot is part of a nationwide effort to enhance and standardise the company's depot network, which currently comprises 200 sites across the UK and Ireland.
UK Rental operations Access Equipment Rental Equipment Access Rental
Speedy Hire and B&Q expand in-store rental trial
UK DIY retailer B&Q and rental company Speedy are extending a trial of hire outlets within B&Q stores


A common examination is conducted for students of all GEMS CBSE schools as a pre-final examination. It is an internally driven examination held on the lines of CBSE Board examination to give students a feel of the external examination. Question papers are drawn out of a common pool papers from across the GEMS CBSE schools in the UAE. This mock examination has three sets of question papers with wide variety of questions that provide students the opportunity to get ready for the external examination.
Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing is an external benchmarking assessment for all Indian curriculum schools and is a scientifically designed skill based testing system providing information on the strengths and weaknesses of individual students, entire class and across classes with otherAsian Schools. It benefits both student and teacher as it helps checking up on the understanding of a concept early on so that remedial action can be taken. .
The test consists only of multiple choice questions and provides feedback on students vocabulary levels, their ability to comprehend tests in varied forms, apply for concepts taught in real life situations and develop a love for learning understanding new things.
All students will receive a Certificate and the ASSET MyBook. ASSET MyBook is a personalized instructional material for each student based on the results. It contains: the detailed result highlighting the students strengths and weaknesses; practice questions along with the explanations and answers for the concepts that the student is weak in.


We don't really know eachother, but I'm Eric's friend Lacey. I read your blog because it's hilarious...not because I'm stalking you like "Tom." I just wanted to let you know that I am running the 1/2 marathon this weekend in Nashville and I read your recap of last year's race for inspiration! Thanks so much!
Thanks for the shout out! I am so pumped for the race!


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Nancye Tuttle, Wells: Reunion brings new spark to an old friendship before it's too late
If Peter Pan had had a twin sister, she would have been like my late college roommate, Carol Ann Hough. Called "Huff" or "Huffy" by those who knew and loved her during our college days in the 1960s, she was free-spirited, adventurous, a fun-filled sprite.
Nancye Tuttle, right, and her college roommate, Carol Ann Hough. Known as "Huff" or "Huffy," she was "feisty, rambunctious, refreshing – like a huff or puff of wind on a warm, spring day." Photo courtesy of Nancye Tuttle
Nancye Tuttle, a semi-retired journalist, lives in Wells. She has had many memorable reunions in her life. But this one stands out.
My fellow Glassboro State College friends and I dubbed her "Huff" when we first met on the campus of that South Jersey teachers college in 1962. Our circle of friends had an abundance of Carols, so she got that nickname early on. It fit her perfectly and it stuck. She was feisty, rambunctious, refreshing – like a huff or puff of wind on a warm, spring day.
Like Peter Pan, she lived life with a sense of wonder and joy with each new adventure. I was taken aback at first, when I awoke each morning to the mounted, stuffed squirrel staring me straight in the eye from Huff's dresser across the room. But I grew to appreciate this as one of Huff's special traits – a deep love for all nature and the need to preserve them. I even got used to the occasional road kill I'd find in the freezer, Huff's treasure for the taxidermist on some trip home.
We tolerated each other's differences, including her admittedly grudging acceptance of my smoking. Our tolerance grew into admiration and affection, and we roomed together all four years. She was in my wedding after our 1966 graduation. And I returned to New Jersey from Michigan for hers three years later.
But life inevitably got in the way. She taught in Ohio and New Jersey. I became a mom, moved with the family to Massachusetts and started a journalism career. Aside from yearly Christmas cards, Huff and I lost touch.
Until I got word in late winter of 1992 that Huff – just 47 – was in hospice with breast cancer. I had to see her and reconnect. So, I drove to New Jersey for this reunion of friends.
Despite her discomfort and our minimal contact, we reunited with love and laughter and rekindled youth. Stuffed animals, flowers, pictures and mementos filled her crowded room. Lying in bed and afflicted with pain, Huff, nonetheless, pulled out a stash of photos she had taken that chronicled our college years.
Memories flooded over us and we were carefree college kids again. I returned to my youth, brought back by Huff – Peter Pan's twin sister, who loved life, its joys and adventures and refused to stop savoring it, in spite of the cancer that ravaged her body.
Huff died a few weeks later. Other classmates and I gathered for her celebration of life, sharing memories and toasting our dear friend Huff, the kid in all of us who refused to grow up.
meetinghouse, Reunion
Local roundup: Cony boys basketball cruises past Erskine
Girls basketball: Hall-Dale muscles its way past Madison
Lewiston-Auburn
Survivors, supporters of anti-human trafficking groups brave cold to share their voice
Mt. Vernon man seriously injured in snowmobile crash in northern Franklin County
How to submit to:
On the first Sunday of each month and every Thursday for the rest of that month, we will publish stories by readers on the following topics:
"Quitting" – deadline for submissions Jan. 28.
"Mischief" – deadline for submissions Feb. 25.
"Grit" – deadline for submissions March 25.
Submissions should be roughly 200 to 500 words in length. Please include your name, hometown and a daytime phone number for verification. Also, give us a one-sentence description of who you are, and a digital photo of yourself or something that speaks to the theme of your piece.
Stories can be emailed to [email protected]; or mailed to Meetinghouse, Portland Press Herald, P.O. Box 1460, Portland, ME 04104-5009 (mailed photos should include a return envelope).


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Vladislav Yakovlev may refer to:
 Vladislav Yakovlev (rower)
 Vladislav Yakovlev (footballer)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


On behalf of the Faculty, I would like to thank our staff, students and faculty on another successful year. This has been a period of unprecedented achievements for the Faculty and we have provided a snapshot of highlights in this issue of the Newsletter, to reflect your hard work and achievements. The foundation of our Faculty is only further strengthened with each passing year through your dedication and commitment to Engineering at U of T.
We take pride in this year's accomplishments and the latest international rankings, which placed U of T Engineering as #1 in Canada, and #11 overall in the world. This recognition is a testament to the outstanding reputation that our Faculty has at the international level.
In previous years, we held Faculty Day in August, but we have heard your requests to schedule Faculty Day at a time when most academic and administrative staff can attend. August proved problematic due to vacation schedules, thus our next Faculty Day will be held sometime during reading week February 17-20, 2009. This year's theme will be "Globalization" and our event will feature seminars, workshops and panel discussions with a focus on understanding other cultures, teaching an international and diverse student body, and preparing for competing in a global environment. A final date will be confirmed soon.
To celebrate our achievements of the past year, I would like to invite all academic and administrative staff for a BBQ lunch on Thursday, August 28 (location to be determined). I look forward to seeing you at our BBQ and wish you a rewarding and enjoyable summer.
Our applicant pool for fall 2008 increased by 11% for Ontario applicants who selected Engineering as their first choice, and by 7% overall.
This is the rewarding outcome of our Faculty's outreach and recruitment efforts, which included many new on-campus events as well as recruitment visits to Nova Scotia, Alberta, British Colum bia, United Arab Emirates, China, and Malaysia.
With the exception of the double cohort, this year's application numbers are a historic high for the Faculty and have allowed us a greater selectivity in our admissions process.
Consequently, we have been able to reduce our target intake of undergraduate students this year, with the goal of reducing our attrition rate from 17% to 8%. The minimum cut-off for admission was raised this year to 82% - up from 80% last year, and 75% in 2005. The overall average of applicants is 89%, up from 86% last year, and the average for EngSci is 93%. With the exception of EngSci, all programs had reduced targets, which remained constant, and Track One increased by 50%.
As part of our continuing recruitment endeavors to increase the yield of top applicants, the Galbraith Scholars program was launched this year. This program adds a set of incentives for our top applicants, including a branded community with special programming, and a weekend at U of T where the students have the opportunity to stay overnight in residence, attend a special dinner with the Dean and faculty members, as well as attend workshops to learn what the University and Toronto can offer. We are delighted with the positive responses received thus far.
Last year, the Track One program was introduced for first-year students who had not yet identified their Engineering field of specialization. We are extremely pleased with the success of this program in its inaugural year.
This year several new educational opportunities and programs for undergraduate and graduate students in Engineering were initiated. As a result of the senior leadership retreat, two major Task Forces were established to respond to the ever-changing global challenges and opportunities, and address how we can prepare Canada's top Engineers to provide innovative solutions.
Led by Professor Doug Reeve, the mandate of this group is to build awareness of the intersection of Engineering/technology and public policy. Through panel discussions, focus groups for alumni and students, and student surveys, the Task Force has recently completed its report, which includes recommendations on educational programs (undergraduate minor and Master's) and organization in Engineering and Public Policy. Comments in response to the Committee's Report (PDF) are welcome; please send via the Dean's Office at dean@ecf.utoronto.ca.
This initiative, led by Professor Yu-Ling Cheng, has the mandate to explore how our Faculty can better prepare our graduates for a global workplace and how our research initiatives should be influenced by and proactively address global challenges. Here is the link to the Interim Report. Please send your feedback to the Task Force via the Dean's Office: dean@ecf.utoronto.ca.
In addition to the emerging areas of educational programming, we also continue to focus on Energy as a timely and important priority for our Faculty. A new Energy Systems major for Engineering Science students will commence this fall, and minors in Energy and Environmental Engineering are in development.
Also, in response to the opportunities in the area of Energy, the Division of Environmental Engineering expanded its mandate, which is reflected in its new name - Division of Environmental Engineering and Energy Systems.
The Faculty's robust research endeavours in this field have been further enhanced and highlighted by the creation of an Energy Research Network and a daylong energy event for industry, government, granting agencies and university officials.
This spring, the Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation and Technology in Engineering (ELITE) certificate was introduced as part of the MEng degree. We have developed a series of 10 courses, taught at the Faculty level, that are intended for Engineers who wish to advance themselves professionally by assuming greater leadership roles, and foster and manage innovation, while embracing global opportunities. The courses include Saturday and summer offerings, to ensure greater accessibility for part-time students.
In the coming years, the Faculty will seek to increase our graduate student enrolment - primarily in the professional Master's degree and PhD programs. Our five-year goal is to have a student population with 40% graduate students and 60% undergraduate students (presently 23% graduate and 77% undergraduate). We will intensify our efforts for the MEng/ELITE program and for the proactive recruitment of high calibre PhD students. Discussions will continue regarding direct entry and fast-tracking into our PhD program, five-year integrated BASc/MASc and BASc/MEng ELITE programs and a joint Engineering and Medicine degree. Watch the Engineering Newsletter for more information on these important emerging areas.
The academic year of 2007-2008 was an exciting and eventful time for leadership development activities in Engineering. Under the Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) banner there were 142 events with total attendance of 4,064 students. Since 2006, the program, which began in CHEM in 2002, has taken root in four more Departments and Divisions: ECE, MIE, MSE, and EngSci. A new course, APS 501- Leadership and Leading in Groups and Organizations, was offered for the first time and received exceptional reviews from students. Professor David Colcleugh, Engineering alumnus and former CEO and President of Dupont Canada will be teaching the course again this fall with support from the LOT office. Finally, a new co-curricular certificate program is set to launch in September 2008. Level one of the certificate program will focus on team-skills such as conflict resolution, group facilitation and self leadership.
This year, as in years past, proved testament to the diversity, talent and spirit of our student population. We continue to be exceedingly proud of our students' achievements through their participation this year in international competitions, awards, events and conferences.
Our students continue to excel and are rewarded for their efforts both within the University and across the nation. Notable student achievements this past year include: Adam Kirsh received the 2008 Governor General Silver Medal, eight Engineering students won Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Awards, and David Godri was named to Canada's Top 20 Under 20™ list.
Consistently willing to push boundaries and explore new, innovative ideas, intrepid members of our student community participated in world-class competitions like the SAE Formula races and Panasonic World Solar Challenge in Australia, organized academic and business conferences and competed against other students in national competitions.
As far as our students' reach is concerned, they are more than willing to explore the territory close to home. This year, several students interview ed members of the Faculty's senior leadership team, including Vice-Dean, Undergraduate, Grant Allen and myself.
We look forward to welcoming the newest U of T Engineering students who will join us in the fall and continue to infuse the Faculty with renewed energy and purpose.
In February, the Faculty's senior leadership team held a Town Hall to provide a forum for our undergraduate students to learn about the priorities and directions for the Faculty, ask questions, and provide input. The inaugural meeting was well attended and we enjoyed a productive dialogue. We look forward to continued discussions with our student body in the coming year.
Susan McCahan, Chair of First Year, in collaboration with Barbara McCann, Faculty Registrar, led the Faculty's effort on Student Retention this year to identify the causes of our high attrition rate and to examine impediments our students face while undertaking their studies. As a result, we are restructuring the Recruitment Office to include the transition and retention of first-year students into its mandate as well as recruitment and retention of female students. We will also be adding programs to ensure our students have the necessary support systems to successfully complete their studies.
Funding provided in support of the Faculty's Student Experience Fund submission this year will enable much-needed renovations to the Engineering and Computer Science Library, which will result in increased study space and improved access to reference materials. Upgrades will also be made to the Engineering Computer Facility that will allow undergraduate students to remotely access software required for Engineering courses. This initiative will reduce the needed computer cluster spaces in the Faculty.
Congratulations to the outgoing Executive members of Eng Soc for their hard work and excellent leadership. We enjoyed a successful year of collaboration and we look forward to working with the incoming Executive team to enhance student education and the student experience, including the continuing challenge of fulfilling club space needs, remodelling the Sandford Fleming atrium and student space.
U of T Engineering academic and administrative staff continue to work diligently to provide the Engineering community with strong and reliable support. This past year, our community received a number of University awards, including the President's Teaching Award in both 2007 and 2008, the Joan E. Foley Quality of Student Experience Award, and an Honorary Degree. For a complete list of these accolades and more, please visit our awards website.
Earl ier in the academic year, a number of our staff were recognized under the University's Stepping Up program for contributing to staff and faculty development and support, improving student services and portraying the University as an employer of choice. In May, Linda Espeut, from The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received the prestigious Agnes Kaneko Award for her outstanding contributions to the Faculty.
Over the past year, I have had the pleasure of meeting with academic and administrative staff to hear about their experiences and to solicit feedback on ways to strengthen our Faculty. A recurring theme during these meetings was the need for better communication within our Faculty. The Engineering Newsletter was developed and implemented as a result of this feedback. Although this is the 15th issue, our Newsletter is still evolving. We welcome your feedback on both the format and content. An online archive can be found on the Engineering website.
As we continue to increase the visibility of our educational programs and research by focusing on strategic themes, like energy, and by increasing our industrial outreach, we continue to enhance our international stature.
This has been a record year with over $59.6M in funding awarded to our faculty members. Tri-Council - mostly NSERC - funding has continued to increase and peaked at $18.7M.
Over the last year, we've fostered strong industrial partnerships with Motorola, AMD (formerly ATI), Ford, SABIC, ARISE and MKS. Even though our industrial funding increased to $6.5M this year, it still only accounts for a modest 11% of the total research funding. In the coming year, we will continue our efforts to grow strong industrial partnerships, which, in turn, will enable provincial and federal funding, the majority of which requires industrial partnerships.
As part of our philanthropic fundraising objectives, the Faculty's senior leadership team has defined a set of Faculty-wide as well as departmental specific priorities and is finalizing the major gift case for support document.
Our newly constituted Dean's Advisory Board on Academic Affairs, chaired by alumnus Paul Cadario, held its inaugural meeting this Spring. To provide additional counsel for strategic development and philanthropic fundraising, we also created the Dean's Council for Strategic Development. Chaired by alumnus George Myhal, this group of volunteers will assist in the following: identifying and cultivating prospects; providing information on the suitability of major gift donors; and collaborating with senior academic administrators and advancement staff to help develop and execute major gift strategies, including cultivation and solicitation when appropriate.
With our new Executive Director of Advancement and a case for support in place, philanthropic fundraising will be another major priority in the coming years.
In the past year, two ECE undergraduate teaching laboratories moved from the first floor of the Galbraith Building (GB) to new space created within the Sandford Fleming Building, which will enable us to use the GB space for the Faculty's administrative units and computing facilities.
Other major renovations this year have focused on improvements to our research infrastructure. CFI funding played a major part in many of these projects, but I should note that there is still a significant cost to the Faculty and the University to complete research infrastructure renovations.
The Emerging Communications Technology Institute (ECTI) lab project, soon to be completed, will house a nano-precision control tool that will supplement our local nano research facilities and enhance U of T's presence on the nanotechnology stage, as well as provide researchers across Canada with world-class cost-effective nanoengineering services.
Another major renovation is the creation of the Hydrogen Research Laboratory in the Haultain Building. This lab will support research into fuel cells, hydrogen energy and alternative fuels. With the renewed interest in alternative fuels, the field of alternative energy systems has re-emerged as an area of strategic importance for the Faculty.
Construction is about to commence on another major CFI funded research renovation: the renewal of the Structural Laboratories in the Galbraith Building and Sandford Fleming basements. This project will upgrade and modernize two existing Structural Laboratories in order to accommodate new state-of-the-art testing equipment. The equipment will enable researchers to undertake large-scale investigations into structural materials and systems under conditions representative of extreme natural or man-made disasters. In conjunction with École Polytechnique de Montréal and McGill University, the facility will form part of a national structural engineering super-laboratory for Canada.
This Lab allows researchers to perform stress experiments on samples, such as concrete and rock, and model the results in real time, at greater depth. U of T teamed with Dell Canada and Microsoft Canada to develop a high-performance computing cluster that will power the laboratory's research. The cluster consists of a group of network servers connected to a single, high-powered computer, which will perform trillions of calculations per second.
In the coming year, the Faculty will continue to upgrade and develop our physical infrastructure, including long-overdue renovations to older and cost-inefficient buildings. Starting this month, we will undertake a thorough space audit and infrastructure study to determine the level of space utilization and the quality of space, identify poor and unusable space and provide an assessment of what deficiencies can be overcome at a reasonable cost. This study, along with the Faculty's strategic plan and departmental input on short and long-term plans, will enable us to identify needs for capital projects and explore potential sites for future development.
We are delighted to welcome new professorial hires for 2008-2009 and will include biographical information in the Engineering Newsletter in September.
Last year, the Faculty witnessed the creation of the Faculty Committee on Nominations of Honours and Awards, chaired by Michael Charles. In the past two years, the number of major awards received is unparalleled in the Faculty's recent history, including the Killam Prize and Fellowships, AAAS Fellows, the 3M Teaching Award, NAE and RSC Fellows as well as Guggenheim Fellowships.
The Faculty's visibility among Canada's top Engineering organizations, such as the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) has increased. Of the seven categories of PEO medals given out this year, four (including the prestigious Gold Medal) were received by U of T Engineering faculty members or alumni. A listing of our awards is on the Engineering website.
Congratulations to everyone for this remarkable and well-deserved success!


( For a real- life analogy, drivers take turns slowly). Solve your money problem help get what you want across Los Santos Blaine County with the occasional purchase of cash packs for Grand Theft Auto Online.
Superfast heroes rely on good footing and would probably need a lot of space to do things like turns. Grand theif auto vice city mobile game download. Cash is king in this town.


There has been a longstanding problem of rampant mental illness among inmates in California's prison system. Stanford Law School's Justice Advocacy Project carried out studies on the problem of mental illness among prison inmates in California in 2017. They utilized data provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in their studies and concluded that the problem is worsening as time passes by. According to these studies, in 2000, less than 15% of California's prisoners had received treatment for a mental disorders and that number currently exceeds 30%. Over the last 5 years dramatic increases have occurred in mental disorders such as schizophrenia, psychotic disorder or bipolar disorder. Ironically, recent criminal justice reforms may be one of the driving forces behind this increase in mentally ill prisoners.
The Public Safety Realignment Act and the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act are reforms directed to reduce prison populations by rewarding good behavior in prison with early release. However, for mentally ill prisoners, prison conditions often exacerbate their illness thereby causing the prisoner's condition to deteriorate even further. Conditions in California prisons serve to worsen mental illnesses and cause the development of overt symptoms. Mentally ill prisoners may attempt suicide, have a psychotic episode or lash out at other inmates all of which result in conduct violations and sanctions meaning a loss of custody credits that reduce the time the prisoner has to serve in incarceration.
Another problem in this regard is that the CDCR has a shortage of psychiatric staffing. The new state budget has earmarked $117 million to address mental health programs and services for mentally ill prisoners. However certain lawmakers believe more money is not the answer. They are pushing for reforms that would keep the mentally ill out of the prison system altogether. This proposed legislation requires the courts to consider a defendant's mental illness in sentencing and allow the courts discretion to order some defendants to treatment instead of incarceration. It has also been proposed that mental health professions, law enforcement, social workers, and the courts work together to address this growing problem. Certain lawmakers have also cited the Dutch model as a better solution. In Holland, mentally ill prisoners are streamlined into facilities that are separate from the general prison population.
Dutch law allows a person to be judged responsible for a crime on a sliding scale of sorts where people adjudged to be least culpable for a crime are those whose mental illness played a role in their crime. The important point is that mentally ill prisoners are placed in separate prison facilities where the system addresses the conduct of mentally ill prisoners separately from other prisoners. It is important to keep in mind the fact that mentally ill prisoners are the most vulnerable in a general prison population. The Dutch approach allows the mentally ill prisoner to be better protected from harm inflicted by other prisoners and from themselves. All mentally ill prisoners in Holland receive psychiatric care. The Dutch system is a pragmatic and successful way of reducing reoffending of high-risk offenders.
The exponential rise of a mentally ill prison population is a problem society must address. Failure to do so means risking an ever-increasing criminal class of incarcerated individuals that commit crimes not intentionally but due to mental illness. Criminal defense attorney Doug Miranda is a strong advocate for his clients who defends individuals being prosecuted by the state for alleged crimes. Contact him if you have any sort of criminal issue with law enforcement agencies in California.


Pomander Scented Candle from Blithe & Bonny remind us the joy and laughter of holidays filled with family.
This specialty soy wax and beeswax candle in glass with a 40 hour burn time. You can feel good about giving them as gifts since their candles are Eco-Friendly, Artistically Crafted, and Socially Responsible.


The 2019 EAA National Executive Compensation Survey, gathers compensation, benefits, and pay practice data provided by participating organizations throughout the country. Breakouts of data will be included across five variables: sales volume, organizational size, industry, organization type, and geographic location–including Northeast Ohio.
This survey is open to ERC members only and requires a unique participation link for your organization. If you have not received a unique participation link from ERC and would like to participate, please email surveys@yourERC.com or call 440-684-9700.


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Sonic Frontiers targets Breath of the Wild fans with late 2022 release
Brittany A. Roston | Dec 11, 2021
As recent leaks had claimed, Sega is gearing up to release another Sonic the Hedgehog game and it'll be called Sonic Frontiers. The name refers to the nature of the upcoming title, which will be unlike any past installment in the Sonic universe. Put simply, it sure looks like Sega is hoping to draw in Breath of the Wild fans with its next Sonic game.
Amazon's The Expanse hit sci-fi show is getting its own Telltale game
Telltale Games plans to turn Amazon's hit science fiction series The Expanse into a video game. The announcement was made during Thursday's The Game Awards 2021 show, and it included a one-minute teaser trailer. Players will, Telltale revealed, operate as XO Camina Drummer aboard the Artemis, a spaceship where "a blood mutiny breaks loose."
Elden Ring game trailer delivers on George R.R. Martin hype
Eric Abent | Dec 10, 2021
At this point, it would seem that Geoff Keighley and Elden Ring are eternally linked (or at least linked until the game comes out next year). For what surely felt like years, Keighley was badgered by the Souls lovers of the world for an Elden Ring reveal, and then earlier this year, he was finally able to deliver it during his Summer Game Fest event. Keighley isn't done with bringing us new Elden Ring trailers, as The Game Awards served up another one that Souls fans will want to check out.
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course DLC release date finally revealed
Brittany A. Roston | Dec 9, 2021
"The Delicious Last Course," the hotly anticipated Cuphead DLC that has been in the works for years, finally has a release date. Though fans have known for a while that another DLC is in the pipeline, they've been left to speculate about when it may finally arrive. That changed at The Game Awards 2021 with a precise launch date.
Wonder Woman's first solo game was just announced and no one saw it coming
JC Torres | Dec 9, 2021
The DC comics franchise sprawls many properties that revolve around its heroes, from printed materials and animated films to live-action movies and games. The lion's share of attention has been given to Superman and Batman, but fans are aware of how important a third hero is in the DC universe. Wonder Woman has been given a bunch of attention recently, especially now that Gal Godot has taken on the role, and now she's finally getting her own solo game.
Alan Wake is finally getting a sequel after a decade of waiting
Only a few months after releasing its major Alan Wake remaster, Remedy Entertainment is back with a similarly major announcement: the classic title is getting a sequel and it'll be hitting shelves in 2023. According to Remedy's Creative Director Sam Lake, the team had already been planning to create a sequel when working on the first game -- and though more than a decade has passed since the title's release, that sequel is finally in the pipeline.
Star Wars Eclipse confirmed with stunning cinematic trailer
One of the first new games announced at The Game Awards 2021 is Star Wars Eclipse, an action-adventure title set in the universe's High Republic era. Though details about the upcoming title are slim at this time, LucasFilm and developer Quantic Dream revealed the game with a stunning cinematic trailer nearly three minutes in length.
3 ways to experience The Matrix Resurrections before you watch the movie
Chris Burns | Dec 7, 2021
Before you see the movie The Matrix Resurrections, we have a list of related media you should consume. This isn't one of those situations where you absolutely must view or experience what we're about to show you before you watch the movie, but your viewing of the movie may very well be enhanced by what you're about to see.
Resident Evil "nightmare" movie trailer shows horrors of Raccoon City
Brittany A. Roston | Nov 7, 2021
The next installment in the cinematic Resident Evil universe is called "Welcome to Raccoon City," and it just received another trailer. Fans get another look at the action-horror movie, which will hit theaters for the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. This time around, the "Welcome to Raccoon City" trailer shows off the various horrors lurking in the aging town.
Stranger Things season 4 gets another trailer: New life in California
Netflix has dropped yet another trailer for the upcoming fourth season of Stranger Things, this time giving fans a look at Eleven and Will in their new life after moving away from Hawkins, Indiana. Though the duo has moved away from the city where all the madness happened, the season four trailer reveals that their history has caught up with them.
Buzz Lightyear trailer starts the Easter Egg hunt with WALL-E
Chris Burns | Oct 27, 2021
If you were waiting for a point at which Chris Evans' Captain America were able to be brought back to life, you might like this movie trailer. The movie is Lightyear - a spin-off of Toy Story, made to show the "origin" of the character Buzz Lightyear*. This is a 3D animation sort of film, directed by Angus MacLane, based on characters by Pete Docter, and it's expected to be released on June 17, 2022. That's according to the latest list of releases from Pixar and Disney, which have been known to change.
Dune 2 greenlit, as if there were any doubt
The first Dune movie released by Legendary and Warner Bros was given the go-ahead for a sequel. The Dune sequel, AKA Dune: Part Two, has an expected theatrical window of October 2023. This should give us just enough time to view the first movie in its entirety.


If you do test-driven development, there is rarely more than an iteration's worth of at-the-end testing. When I coach teams who are transitioning to test-driven development, I recommend they plan for one iteration at the end for final system test and customer acceptance test. Once the team has more experience with test-driven development, they can plan better. I have found there is always a need for some amount of customer acceptance testing at the end. The amount of testing time varies by project and how involved the customers were all along. If you're using an Agile lifecycle even without test-driven development, I recommend starting with one iteration's length of final system testing. I am assuming that the developers are fixing problems and refactoring as necessary during an iteration, which is real Agile development, not code-and-fix masquerading as Agile.
But I suspect many of you are not yet using Agile lifecycles with short iterations.
If you're using any of the following . . .
a serial lifecycle such as phase gate or waterfall–then planning for testing is difficult because it depends so much on what the developers provide, and you won't know until you start testing.
I'd expect as much testing time as development time, but it doesn't have to come all at the end as final system test like it looks in the waterfall pictures. Any proactive work you do–such as reviews, inspections, working in pairs, unit testing, integration testing, building every night with a smoke test, fixing problems as early as they are detected–can all decrease the duration of final system test. If you're the project manager, ask the developers what steps they are taking to reduce the number of defects they create. If you're the test manager, work with the project manager and the developers to create a set of proactive defect-prevention practices that make sense for your project.
Wherever you are in the organization, recognize that final system test includes several steps: testing the product, finding defects, and verifying defects. Your first step is to separate these tasks when you estimate the duration of final system test.
One question you should be able to answer is, "How long will one cycle of 'complete' testing take?" We all know we can't do complete testing, so your version of complete is the tests you planned to run and any other exploratory tests or other tests you need to run in one cycle of testing to provide enough information about the product under test. I realize that's vague and depends on each project. I don't know how to be more explicit because this is a project-by-project estimate. If you work with good developers, the cycle time can decrease a bit from the first cycle to the last–because the testers know how to set up the tests better and the product has fewer defects, which allows the testing to proceed faster.
Once you know how long a cycle of testing takes, estimate how long it will take the developers to fix the problems. I use this data: the number of problems found per cycle in the last project, my gut feel for how many more/less we should find per cycle in this project, and bug-tracking system data telling me the average cost to fix a defect pre-release. If I knew that the first cycle in the last release found 200 problems, that it took the developers half a person-day each to fix the problems, and I have ten developers, I estimate ten working days to fix problems. That's a long time. And yes, I was on a project where that's what it took. It was agonizing—we thought we'd never finish fixing problems.
Now that you know how long a cycle should take, estimate the duration for fixes after the first cycle. How many cycles of testing do you plan? When I set up projects, I tend to use some proactive defect detection and prevention techniques, so I generally plan on three cycles of testing. In a casual conversation with Cem Kaner a number of years ago, he mentioned a product for which he planned on eight cycles of testing. For one project, for which I was a contract test manager, we had almost thirty cycles of testing. I can't tell you how many cycles of testing you'll need because that depends on the product's complexity, how good your tests are, and the initial count of product defects before this project started.
Here's what I have noticed from my work with multiple organizations. The groups who want to decrease testing time tend to perform the least proactive work reducing the overall number of defects, and they typically perform primarily manual black box testing at the end of a project. I understand their desires, but they've set up their lifecycle and processes to produce exactly the wrong result. The best guess I have is to estimate the number of cycles you'll need for testing, the duration of one cycle, and the time it takes for developers to fix problems between cycles. Add up the testing plus fixing/cycle and multiply by the number of cycles you think you'll need, and you'll have an estimate of the testing time needed. By the way, when I do this, I never give a single number; I always give time per cycle ("It will take us six days per cycle"), my estimate of the number of cycles ("We'll need four cycles"), and my estimate of defect-fixing and verification time ("Plus three days between test cycles for developers to fix problems"). That way I can show the costs of not performing proactive defect prevention in a nice way. And I can show my uncertainty in my estimation ("That's a minimum of thirty-six working days, longer if the defects take longer to fix and verify").
If you want to reduce testing time and create a low-defect product, test all the way through the project with a variety of test techniques. Use test iterations so you know at the end of one test cycle where you stand with defects. The lower the number of defects and the more sophisticated your tests, the faster your testing time.


They were the best of the best of Russia's special forces — and they were shooting at Alexander Litvinenko.
Images of elite Spetsnaz troops using pictures of the murdered former Russian spy for target practice prompted fresh accusations yesterday that the Kremlin was behind his killing.
The pictures were taken at a training camp outside Moscow where 90 troops from the Interior Ministry's Vityaz (Hero) brigade were competing to earn the coveted maroon beret of the special forces.
Footage from the Vityaz training centre, filmed for publicity purposes, shows young soldiers weaving through an obstacle course before a live-fire exercise, in which they pump rounds from revolvers into a photograph of Litvinenko. His face was quickly riddled with 9mm bullet holes.


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Welcoming a New Life in Jordan
Little Mariam visited CNEWA's office in Amman just two months after she was born. (photo: CNEWA)
The CNEWA team in Amman, Jordan, was happily surprised recently by a small visitor — one who owes her life, in no small part, to CNEWA's donors. We'd like you to meet one of our success stories, 2-month-old Mariam.
Before Mariam was born, her parents came to CNEWA, looking for help. The mother was older, and it was clear she needed a Caesarean delivery. The CNEWA staff directed the family to the Italian Hospital, supported by CNEWA in Amman, and helped pay for the surgery.
The delivery went well, but the doctors discovered that Mariam has a small hole in her heart. She is being treated with drugs and, in time, it is hoped the hole will close and Mariam will have a long life.
What a blessing to see Mariam alive and well — and to see the joy on her parents' faces.
So often, we at CNEWA start to feel a bond with those we serve, especially refugees in need of help. It's not just a matter of providing food or milk or health care. It is a matter of love — as Jesus commanded us, "Love one another, as I have loved you."
Mariam and her parents stopped by CNEWA's Amman office to express their gratitude. (photo: CNEWA)
Tags: CNEWA Jordan Amman
Picture of the Day: 'A Culture of Encounter'
Pope Francis met with representatives of Dharmic religions — including Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Sikh — at the Vatican on Wednesday 16 May. He said religious leaders need to foster "a culture of encounter … at the service of life, human dignity and the care of creation." (photo: Vatican Media)
Tags: Pope Francis Interreligious Dialogue
Pope Francis passes a crucifix as he walks down steps during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican 16 May. During his audience, the pope called for efforts to stop the "spiral of violence" in the Middle East. (photo: CNS/Paul Haring)
Pope issues plea for peace in Middle East (Vatican News) Pope Francis on Wednesday once more expressed his deep concern at the worsening violence in the Middle East. "I am very concerned at the escalation of tension in the Holy Land and in the Middle East, and the spiral of violence that is moving away further from the path of peace, dialogue and negotiation," he said at the end of his general audience in Rome's St. Peter's Square…
Syrian rebels leave last besieged area (Reuters) The remaining fighters started to withdraw from the last rebel-held enclave in central Syria on Wednesday, state television reported, sealing the government's control over the area and opening a major stretch of the country's most important highway…
Lebanon's president: country will not wait for a political solution on refugees (Middle East Monitor) Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that his country refuses to wait for a political solution before returning the Syrian refugees to their homeland. "We are surprised by the position of some parties which obstruct this return or do not encourage it," Aoun said during a meeting with foreign delegations in the presidential palace. "Lebanon faces many challenges with 1.8 million displaced people on its territory since 2015," he said…
Shi'ite cleric's win puts Iran to the test in Iraq (Reuters) Already pressured by the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran faces a major test in managing Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr, a formidable opponent who beat Tehran's longtime allies to achieve a shock victory in Iraq's parliamentary election…
Pope meets with Buddhists, Hindus, others at Vatican (Vatican News) Pope Francis on Wednesday briefly met a delegation of Buddhists, Hindus, Jains and Sikhs who participated in a one-day conference in the Vatican, and another group of Buddhist monks from Thailand...
Tags: Iraq Pope Francis Lebanon Middle East
Picture of the Day:
Crying Out for Peace in the Holy Land
Mourners carry the body of 8-month-old Palestinian Laila al Ghandour, who died after inhaling tear gas at the Israel-Gaza border during a 15 May protest against the U.S embassy move to Jerusalem. (photo: CNS/Mohammed Salem, Reuters)
As the world witnesses "another outburst of hatred and violence, which is once again bleeding all over the Holy Land," the head of Jerusalem's Latin Patriarchate called for prayers for peace.
"We need to pray more for peace and our conversion and for all," said Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the patriarchate, or diocese.
The Associated Press reported that the same day the United States was inaugurating its embassy in Jerusalem, Israeli forces shot and killed 57 Palestinians and injured more than 2,700 during mass protests along the Gaza border 14 May. In addition, a baby died from tear gas inhalation, the Gaza Health Ministry said, bringing the death toll to 58.
"The lives of so many young people have once again been shut down and hundreds of families are mourning their loved ones, dead or wounded," said the statement from Archbishop Pizzaballa. "As in a kind of vicious circle, we must condemn all forms of violence, any cynical use of human lives and disproportionate violence. Once again we are forced by circumstances to plead and cry out for justice and peace!"
He announced that 19 May, the eve of Pentecost, the church would hold a prayer vigil at the Church of St. Stephen at L'Ecole Biblique. He asked the entire diocese to dedicate a day of prayer and fasting for the peace of Jerusalem and that the liturgy on Pentecost be dedicated to prayer for peace.
"We must truly pray to the Spirit to change our hearts to better understand his will and to give us the strength to continue to work for justice and peace," the archbishop said.
Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital and now feel that, with its embassy there, the U.S. cannot be a fair broker in the peace process with Israel.
Many Israelis see opening the embassy as the long-awaited official recognition of Jerusalem as their capital and the fulfillment of a promise made by numerous U.S. presidents to move the building from Tel Aviv.
Tags: Gaza Strip/West Bank Palestine Israel Holy Land Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In the video above, ambulances in Cairo carry caskets with the remains of martyred Egyptian Copts. They were executed by ISIS on a beach in Libya in 2015. (video: Al Jazeera/YouTube)
Remains of Egyptian Copts executed by ISIS arrive in Egypt (Libya Herald) The remains of 20 Egyptian Copts ceremoniously murdered while being recorded on video by the terrorist organization ISIL during its control of Sirte, were returned to Egypt yesterday. Their remains were flown from Misrata airport after completion of the relevant procedures by Libyan authorities, Libyan state news agency LANA reports…
Uneasy calm falls over Gaza after Monday violence (The New York Times) Gaza awoke on Tuesday to a grim agenda: Funerals for protesters killed along the fence bordering Israel, including one for an 8-month-old baby girl overcome by tear gas; and still-frenzied work treating the thousands of people wounded, in hospitals so overrun with patients that tents were set up in their courtyards. There was also uncertainty about whether the demonstrations would grow, fade, or give way to an outright armed conflict. The death toll in the protests reached 60 overnight…
Delhi archbishop launches election prayer campaign (UCANews.com) Delhi Archdiocese has started a year-long prayer campaign ahead of federal elections, saying India faces a turbulent political future that threatens the country's democracy. In a pastoral letter read out on 13 May in all the national capital's parishes, Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi called on Catholics in his archdiocese to start a campaign of prayer and Friday fasting ahead of elections in due in April 2019…
Modi's party claims victory in crucial Indian state election (UCANews.com) Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party emerged wining more seats in a crucial election in the southern Indian state of Karnataka in a major setback to their rival Congress party, setting the tone for national elections early next year…
Syria's lost generation: school kids who can't go to school (Haaretz) Syria's Education Ministry recently published detailed directives on finding and punishing students who have forged diplomas — another action by which the regime seeks to show that the areas under its control are being properly run. Actually, these directives are meaningless. The real details on the number of forgers are unavailable, and the need to forge documents stems not only from a desire to cheat, but from the loss of documents during the war, documents students need to get jobs or complete their studies…
Tags: India Egypt Gaza Strip/West Bank ISIS
The Priestly Adventure in India's 'Great North'
Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara visited CNEWA's New York offices Monday morning. (photo: CNEWA)
This morning, we were privileged to welcome to CNEWA's New York offices Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, who heads the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Faridabad in India.
It's not a small job.
His eparchy stretches across six states in the "great north" of India, bordering Nepal — "at 19,000 feet, it's the highest diocese in the world," Msgr. John E. Kozar, CNEWA's president, explained by way of introduction. The territory embraces about one million square kilometers (just under 400,000 square miles) and counts a population of 120 million people — nearly all of them non-Christian.
But into this vast territory, he is bringing the Gospel — and with the help of CNEWA and our generous donors, helping the message of Jesus to be heard.
As he told the CNEWA staff during a meeting this morning, his main focus at the moment is Punjab, a region on the northern border of India with a culture and a government that are tolerant. Unlike many other parts of India, Punjab does not have an "anti-conversion bill" on the books — that is, a law whereby anyone who is converted without the knowledge and approval of civil authorities can be arrested. Punjab permits Christianity to be taught and practiced, and Archbishop Kuriakose is helping lead the way.
With CNEWA's support, he has just established the 19th mission in the area. He described how these missions work.
"We rent out a building," he explained, adding that conditions are, by Western standards, primitive. "In many houses, priests do not even have running water. They have to take a bucket, collect water, come to the mission house where they live. Often, in the work, they are helped by catechists. Priests do not always master the language, so we have one or two paid full-time catechists. Then I have a seminary student who is an intern. All these go to the villages and they make a presence. They have singing, they spend time with them, praying with them."
There is also great effort to attract vocations.
"To go to such a primitive, remote area, to work in such conditions, you need dedicated priests," he told us. "This is my blessing. I have young people who are eager. We are promoting a kind of priestly adventure. 'Come here,' we say. 'Live here three years.' And they are coming."
"What he is doing is wonderful," Msgr. Kozar said of the archbishop's work. "He's using the resources of the south, by inviting them on this 'priestly adventure,' to come and learn about a whole new dimension of the church in India, a church that is hungry for people to know Jesus, and to form the local church up in the 'great north.'
"This is really the model for what evangelization is supposed to be."
Archbishhop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara and Msgr. John E. Kozar. (photo: CNEWA)
Tags: India CNEWA Evangelization
Ethiopian Catholic Bishop Visits CNEWA Canada
by Carl Hétu
Carl Hetu, national director of CNEWA Canada, meets with Ethiopian Catholic Bishop Lesanu-Christos Matheos of Bahir Dar-Dessie. (photo: CNEWA)
Today I had the pleasure of meeting with Ethiopian Catholic Bishop Lesanu-Christos Matheos.
Three years ago he was named the bishop of the Eparchy (Diocese) of Bahir Dar-Dessie, in Ethiopia. It is a new and developing Eparchy that is equivalent in size to Italy.
He was also given, by the Ethiopian Bishops Conference, the responsibility of caring for all Ethiopian Catholics living outside the country. It was for this purpose that he was in Canada and why I had the opportunity to meet with him.
We were happy to meet, as CNEWA has been supporting several of Bishop Matheos' ministries over the years. A couple of years ago we helped him build a modest church in an isolated part of his Eparchy for the Gumuz tribal people. We also helped in providing Catechesis ministry to this same tribe. He joyfully shared that, last year alone, more than 800 people were baptized through the works of these ministries.
CNEWA has also been supporting his youth ministry initiatives, particularly those on university campuses. This is a ministry that is very important to him, so after our meeting I dropped him off at the headquarters of Catholic Christian Outreach — a university student movement dedicated to evangelization, with a wealth of experience and written materials from which he hopes to draw ideas.
Thank you to CNEWA's donors who have supported our important work in Ethiopia over the years. If you would like to make a donation towards our Ethiopian program please click here.
For more information on Bishop Matheos Mission with the Gumuz you can visit this blog post.
To support CNEWA's Ethiopian program please click here.
Tags: CNEWA Canada Ethiopian Catholic Church
Picture of the Day: A Future Saint for Iraq?
by Catholic News Service
The Rev. Ragheed Aziz Ganni is among four Iraqi clergymen who will be investigated for possible sainthood. They were martyred outside their church in Mosul in 2007. (photo: AsiaNews)
The Vatican has given its permission for the opening of the sainthood cause of an Iraqi priest and three deacons who were murdered by armed gunmen in Mosul.
The Congregation for Saints' Causes gave the "nihil obstat" ("no objection"), permitting a diocesan bishop to open a local inquiry into a candidate's sanctity, according to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, 14 May.
Fides confirmed that the Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle of Detroit would be handling the process because of the difficult conditions facing the church in Mosul.
Chaldean Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, his cousin Deacon Basman Yousef Daud, and Deacons Wahid Hanna Isho and Gassan Isam Bidawed were killed on 3 June 2007, in front of the Holy Spirit Church in Mosul. Father Ganni had just finished celebrating Mass for the feast of Pentecost.
The three deacons had been accompanying Father Ganni because of increasing threats against him by militants. According to AsiaNews, armed gunman shot the four men and then booby-trapped their car with explosives to prevent others from safely recovering the bodies.
Father Ganni was born in Mosul in 1972. He graduated in engineering and studied theology from 1996 to 2003 at Rome's Pontifical Irish College and the Pontifical University of Thomas Aquinas the "Angelicum," where he received a license in ecumenical theology.
Tags: Iraq Iraqi Christians Priests
Palestinians carry a demonstrator injured during clashes with Israeli forces near the border between the Gaza strip and Israel east of Gaza City on 14 May 2018. Dozens were killed in the latest protests ahead of the controversial opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. (photo: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)
Gaza: 52 Palestinians killed on deadliest day since 2014 (BBC) At least 52 Palestinians have been killed and 2,400 wounded by Israeli troops, Palestinian officials say, on the deadliest day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Palestinians have been protesting for weeks but deaths soared on the day the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem.Palestinians see this as clear US backing for Israeli rule over the whole city, whose eastern part they claim…
Vatican and Jordanian institute underscore dignity of human life (Vatican News) The Vatican and a Jordanian institute dedicated to inter-faith studies have issued a statement urging for the protection of and respect for human life, especially that of migrants, refugees and victims of human trafficking. The call came from the delegates of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, who held their fifth colloquium in the Jordanian capital Amman, 9-10 May, on the theme, "Religions and the Dignity of Life: Christian and Muslim Viewpoints"…
India's government accused of blocking Christian judge (UCANews.com) The collegium of India's Supreme Court has met to reconsider its recommendation to elevate a Christian judge to the top court amid allegations that the pro-Hindu federal government had rejected him for ideological reasons. The collegium of judges met on 11 May to consider its January recommendation to elevate Chief Justice K.M. Joseph of Uttarakhand High Court to the Supreme Court, local reports said…
Mideast faith leaders say life influences how people deal with the environment (CNS) It's hard to discuss detrimental environmental effects of using the diesel fuel needed to run generators in Gaza when people only have three hours of government-provided electricity a day, said Tahani Abu Daqqa, former Palestinian Minister of Culture. Daqqa participated in an interfaith conference aimed at bringing religion into play for the environment — not an easy task in a region where religion has often been a force for separation rather than cooperation and where many people live under poverty and hardship…
Tags: India Palestine Vatican
Friday Film Festival: Our Eastern Siblings
One of the great resources published in ONE magazine was a comprehensive series on the Eastern churches. The driving force behind it — and the author of the series — was the magazine's editor and CNEWA's director of communications, Michael J.L. LaCivita.
When the series concluded in 2012, he reflected on the wide world he'd written about and offered some thoughts on the Eastern churches CNEWA is privileged to serve.
You can find the entire series here.
But check out his video below.
Tags: Christianity Eastern Christianity Eastern Churches


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Update: Viking Sky cruise ship arrives in port after near disaster at sea.
A Viking Ocean Cruises cruise ship with about 1,300 people on board is in distress in heavy weather just off the coast of western Norway. Search and rescue teams have begun evacuating passengers by helicopter. As of now the ship is holding anchor with one engine running approximately 2 km from shore. As of 1826 UTC, it appeared from AIS (below) that the ship may be underway further from shore.
By Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche OSLO, March 23 (Reuters) – Rescue helicopters were evacuating people from a cruise ship which suffered engine failure on Saturday in stormy weather off the west coast of Norway, police and rescue workers said.
Passengers were hoisted one-by-one from the deck of the vessel and airlifted to a village just north of the town of Molde on Norway's west coast. About 100 people had been evacuated by 1530 GMT, police said.
"If we need to evacuate everyone, it will take a long time," rescue service spokesman Einar Knudsen told Reuters.
The Viking Sky, built in 2017, belongs to Viking Ocean Cruises, part of the Viking Cruises group founded by Norwegian billionaire Torstein Hagen. According to the company's website, its passenger capacity is 930.


So we're sort of getting back to our roots a bit here. There are many, many ways to punch a comedic premise, but our favorite is easily the death punchline (for reference, our second favorite is a well-placed slash.) I like to think of these jokes as a kind of inverted gallows humor, where instead of softening a grim situation with irony, we harden a mundane or stupid situation with the gravestone's edge.
Posted on August 28, 2017 by Sarah Yoshi and filed under Cultural, Current Events, WTF and tagged Gravestone Comic Gravestone Lark Alt-Right 4chan Never eat pizza with a knife and fork.


text:
package com.ibm.g11n.pipeline.maven;

/**
 * Language ID styles.
 *
 * @author Yoshito Umaoka
 */
public enum LanguageIdStyle {
    /**
     * BCP 47 language tag. For example, "pt-BR" for Brazilian Portuguese
     */
    BCP47,

    /**
     * Modified version of BCP 47 language tag, using '_' for separating
     * subtags instead of '-'. For example, "pt_BR".
     */
    BCP47_UNDERSCORE,
}


ABU DHABI: The introduction of VAT and a "sin tax" on tobacco, coupled with the rise of free trade zones that underpin the GCC's reputation as a global trade hub, are creating a gateway to counterfeit goods and illicit trade across the region.
In a bid to diversify government revenues and strengthen economic development, the Gulf Cooperation Council instituted a value-added tax; Saudi Arabia and the UAE implemented VAT at 5 percent from January 1, 2018, while the other GCC states are expected to follow suit. In parallel, a separate excise tax of 100 percent is being selectively levied on harmful products such as tobacco.
Last June, Saudi Arabia also became the first GCC country to impose an excise tax at 100 percent on tobacco products and energy drinks, and 50 percent on soft drinks, following ratification of the tax treaties by the General Secretariat of GCC on May 23, 2017. The move was shortly followed by the UAE, which also imposed the same hike from October of last year.
He said the GCC can learn from countries such as Russia, which has seen a huge rise in illicit trade because of disparity in taxes, resulting in a huge underground trade of tobacco originating from Belarus. Also, in New York, LeMoult said, when it comes to tobacco trade, about 60 percent of tobacco products sold are counterfeit as a result of high tax hikes, a figure similarly seen in Malaysia.
He said the GCC can prevent this by taking a unified and long-term approach when it comes to taxation.
"There are good practices, and the GCC can build on that by implementing moderate and stable taxation plans," he said. "Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the wider GCC can all take action to stop illicit trade.
"The UAE works fantastically well with us in gathering information on illegal products and taking action. The law enforcement is doing a great job. They take the information we give them, and they have made significant seizures.
He said tackling the health perils that come with tobacco consumption means reducing affordability for the customer – which has additional befits to the economy – but said the problem with hiking prices will always come with some consumers turning to the black market for cheaper, more affordable options.
The conference also addressed how, while e-commerce has been dubbed the next frontier for retail in the Middle East, with the market forecast to reach $48.8 billion, this shift online presents a new channel for illicit trade, while criminals are also exploiting loopholes in Free Trade Zones (FTZs) to conduct illicit activity such as the trade of counterfeit goods, intellectual property crimes and money laundering.
While FTZs can be of huge benefit to a country's GDP and employment rates – the UAE's flagship Jebel Ali Free Zone, for instance, attracts more than 20 percent of the United Arab Emirates' foreign direct investment – FTZs can be blind spots for regulators and law-enforcement agencies, according to Christopher Clague, managing editor, Asia and global editorial lead, trade and globalization at The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Michael Morantz, policy analyst of illicit and counterfeit trade with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), described free zones as "magic black boxes" which will continue to facilitate illicit global trade, unless uniform and more stringent measures are introduced.
However, there is a lack of physical access for law enforcement to oversee free trade zones, coupled with a lack of cooperation with businesses and a lack of transparency that allow many companies to use free trade zones to operate illegal activity, he said.
Raed Safadi, chief economic advisor to the director-general at the Dubai Government, said combating illicit trade was "very high on the agenda" within the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but there is a lack "real data" to show the breadth of the problems. While illicit trade's existence is well-known, the nature of the trade itself makes its size hard to determine: estimates range from $650 billion to over $3 trillion globally.
David M. Luna, chief executive at risk assessment firm Luna Global Networks, said he was "really worried and concerned" about the current state of play in the global illicit trade market.
"You can really see the breadth and scale of the issue; from trading illicit tobacco to alcohol, to counterfeit medicines, to human trafficking – these are booming issues. We are talking about an industry worth trillions of dollars –and the fact is some of these issues will double in a few years. Within the international community, partners, many are trying to fight illicit markets across borders.


On his new album Scorpion, Drake admitted his year lyrics to fathering a secret love child, rapping, "Now it's rough times / I'm out here on front lines just trying to make sure that I see him sometimes / It's breaking my spirit / Single father, I hate when I hear it." In fact, the entire saga has inspired a rap battle of sorts between Drake and Pusha T who rapped, "A baby's involved, it's deeper than rap / We talkin' character, let me keep with the facts / You are hiding a child, let that boy come home / Deadbeat ****** playin' border patrol." Although rumors swirled, Drake never publically admitted fathering a child until his own album dropped.
The mother of Drake's child is reportedly Sophie Brussaux, who formerly worked in adult films, though now is a painter. Earlier this year, text messages from the rapper were allegedly sent to Sophie, in which the hip-hop star was less than gentlemanlike, urging Sophie to terminate the pregnancy, accusing her of being a gold digger, and using foul language. The only photo of the child is seen here with his mother, she has since made her Instagram account private.


Tuscany makes some of the best olive oils in the world but quality varies hugely between the big brands and the good small producers.
Castello Sonnino's extra virgin olive oil is an excellent example of the latter. Alessandro's family have been making olive oil here for over two centuries. Their olive groves are immaculately tended, hand harvested and the olives are milled and left to settle in terracotta 'coppi' (jars) in the estate's cool, dark cellars before bottling.
Yields are very small per tree but as a result the quality of fruit is exceptional and the careful handling prior to milling ensures that none of the flavour is lost in the final product. Alessandro has won numerous prestigious international awards for his olive oil and can of his 2018 would be a seriously good addition to any kitchen.


text:
#BreakingNews RIP Fr. Peter Colapietro - Beloved New York Priest dies at 69 - Friend of Actors and NYPD
The Rev. Peter M. Colapietro — one of the city's most beloved priests and The Post's resident Catholic expert — died of emphysema on Monday night at the age of 69.
He spent two decades at Church of the Holy Cross parish on West 42nd Street, where he served as pastor and parish administrator then reassigned to St. Monica's on the Upper East Side.
Father Pete grew to become one of New York's most personable priests. He famously stopped actor Mickey Rourke from killing someone by placing the gun behind the statue of Saint Jude.
Everyone from Mickey Rourke to former NYPD police commissioner Bill Bratton pulled up a stool to shoot the breeze with Father Pete.
Richard Johnson, former editor of Page Six is reported to have said, "But Father Pete Colapietro was a real priest. He loved people, all people, and they loved him back."
Father Pete befriended dozens of Post reporters and editors over the years, and also penned columns.
"He was the Pope of 42nd Street," joked former Postie Jeane MacIntosh.
In the past few months, MacIntosh had been visiting Father Pete in the hospital.
It was that lovable sense of humor and down-to-earth attitude that made Father Pete a favorite among residents, particularly police officers.
"In some respects, he's one of the iconic figures of the city of New York," explained Bratton.
Bratton told The Post that Father Pete was considered one of the NYPD's "unofficial chaplains,"
Bratton added, "He was just a great guy. He brought humanity to the religion. If there were more Father Petes, churches would be overflowing."
Edited from the NyPost


text:
O krai de Stavropol ()) é uma divisão federal da Federação da Rússia. Foi criado em 12 de janeiro de 1943. Geograficamente situado na região da Ciscaucásia, no sul da Rússia, é administrativamente parte do Distrito Federal do Cáucaso do Norte. A população do krai era de , de acordo com o censo populacional de 2010.

A cidade de Stavropol é a capital e maior cidade do krai, e Piatigorsk é o centro administrativo do Distrito Federal do Cáucaso do Norte.

O krai de Stavropol faz fronteira a oeste com o krai de Crasnodar, a noroeste com o oblast de Rostov, a norte com a Calmúquia, a leste com o Daguestão, e a sul com a Chechénia, Inguchétia, Ossétia do Norte-Alânia, Cabárdia-Balcária e Carachai-Circássia.

É uma das divisões federais mais etnicamente diversificadas, com trinta-e-três grupos étnicos diferentes com mais de {fmtn|{2000|indivíduos}} cada.

A parte ocidental do krai é considerada parte da região histórica de Kuban, território tradicional dos cossacos de Kuban, e mais de metade da população do krai habita na bacia hidrográfica do rio Kuban.


Apr 24 Hezbollah- Anti-Zionist Extremist to Operate Lebanon- Is It Threat to Western Countries?
Hezbollah is an anti –Zionist militancy group which spread its influence different states of Lebanon. Hezbollah believes that they are fighting for peace. It is a party of God/Allah and it is not an anti-Semitic extremist to kill Jews for political reason. Hezbollah extremists have opted for jihad to control Jews in Lebanon. Hezbollah is inspired by Shia's ideology. In Lebanon, this extremist militia has become powerful to influence people to elect representatives to form the government.
Way back to 1982, Israel attacked Lebanon and snatched a strip of important place controlled by SLA. This militia was actually supported by Israel to disturb the local government. However, Israel force possessed this pocket and planned to go ahead to obtain more strength to rule the country. In between, Iranemerged asahiddenspy withintention todeployarms andgunpowderto Hezbollah supporters to putpressure onIsraeli occupants. The rivalry snowballed into bloodshed melee, violence and political disturbance. Hezbollah reinforced its para-military troops which seemed to overtake national army of Lebanon. The strong commandos and military force of Hezbollah participated into a number of battles to smash Israeli troops and foreign invaders to protect Lebanon. Hezbollah has formed Jihad Council and Loyalty party to join the Lebanese parliament. It tries to mix with local people.
Even Hezbollah communicates with local television channels and electronic media to spread anti-Zionist messages. They want to launch more awareness campaigns making people aware of the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. They are not anti-Semitic to terminate Jews individually. They have broad feeling and they are anti-Zionists to go against Jews. It is a religious sentiment instead of boosting up any political interest or personal revenge.
People need to understand this delicate difference in these two ideologies. So Hezbollahrebels dolot of anti-Zionistpropaganda andcampaigns inLebanon to revolt against the nationalizationof the establishment ofJews ethnic sectwhich claims a separatestate for Jews.
Even Hezbollah has mobilized their intimacy and interest in Holocaust denial. It is a new theory which was adopted by Hitler supporters to fight with Jews. Holocaust deniers never admitted the extermination of innocent Jews people in Germany. They claim that Jews were just shifted from Germany to other countries. They had no intention to kill Jews in Gas Chamber. Holocaust deniers want to call them revisionists instead of Holocaust deniers. However, the reflection of Holocaust revisionism is visible to energize the principles of Hezbollah to force Israeli troops to leave for Lebanon.
Right now, instead ofrushing towards Israel to wipe outall Jews, Hezbollahchoosesthe defensive anti-Zionistjihad torestorelost places controlledoroperated by Israelis.
Status of Hezbollah - Resistance Movement or Terrorist?
Hezbollah and Amal are two major political wings in Lebanon. These two political parties support Shiite Muslims. Amal controlled South of Lebanon whereas Hezbollah prioritized three important areas to run their own administrative machinery.
Hezbollah became popular in Beirut and Beqaa valley including Hirmil zone. Gradually, Hezbollah entered into the Parliament through general election. This party won 14 seats out of total 128. What is the present status of Hezbollah?
Many countries in Europe and Middle East call Hezbollah terrorists. However, Arab World brands Hezbollah as the resistance movement militia which is also seen participating in national army of Lebanon. It is not an extremist party.
However, in 1995 Pentagon declared Hezbollah as terrorist outfit which had the nexus with Al Qaeda.
The US doesn't support any militancy group or extremist which grows hidden understanding with ISIS. US government lambasted this anti-Zionist party for its notorious activity to involve in Beirut bomb explosion in which many American officers were killed.
The close intimacy with Imad Mughniyeh jolted the UK to urge the EU to shortlist Hezbollah as the extremist group to instigate terrorism in the world. 1994 AMIA bomb explosion in Argentina increased the possibility of the presence of Hezbollah suicidal squads to turn the Jewish cultural hub into debris by exploding powerful bombs. Western countries and American society reacted strongly to terminate this extremist group from Lebanon.
Finally, Saudi Arab is determined to wipe out Hezbollah extremists in Lebanon. Iran is backing up this resistance movement group because of accelerating its power to destabilize GCC nations. Saudi has highlighted the embedded connection between Hezbollah and ISIS extremists to give rise to tension and political destabilization.
May 29 Russian Su- 35 Jet Planes and Dumb Missiles Overlook Raqqa and Mosul –Strike Aleppo-Why?


text:
Inspiring Leader Spotlight: Veronica Vijil
Aug 13, 2021 | Inspiring Leader Spotlight
TASA's "Inspiring Leaders" tagline is not just a reminder of TASA's commitment to leadership development; it describes our members themselves — school leaders who inspire others as they work to prepare future-ready students. Meet Veronica Vijil, one of those Inspiring Leaders.
For more than two years, Dr. Veronica Vijil has served as superintendent of Fabens ISD, in the El Paso area. With a background in education that spans more than 30 years, Vijil is the first Latina superintendent in the district, and she says that she is exceptionally proud of the way Fabens ISD embraces the local community's rich history.
"It's fitting that as a farming community, our school calendar embeds a day when we celebrate the work of Cesar Chavez with lessons that promote social justice and civil rights," Vijil says. "We are a rural school district located along the U.S.-Mexico border. We consistently look for areas to expand programs and opportunities for all students."
Outside of her work in Fabens, Vijil is also an active member of the Texas Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (TALAS), a group through which she serves as a mentor, recently to Linda Garcia, assistant principal at Kyle Elementary School in Hays ISD.
"I was very fortunate to be paired with Dr. Vijil as part of the TASA/TALAS mentoring program," Garcia says. "What I have valued most about being her protégé is her ability to listen to my perspective and share her experience as a district leader to offer insight and advice. She has definitely helped build capacity in me as a school leader and I know that she will continue to do so with others in her area and around the state."
While stress and work challenges are inevitable for any administrator, Vijil says she views them as learning opportunities.
"If I truly dedicate the time to be the reflective practitioner I need to be, then the personal and professional growth outweigh the challenges I have to overcome," she says. "Surrounding myself with positive people is key to forging ahead."
As an inspiring leader, Vijil is open to learning and growing, no matter what the source of knowledge or new information might be. Recently, a new staff member in Fabens told Vijil that a successful leader must first be able to follow, and the words resonated with her.
"We have to put egos aside and understand that there is much to learn from others," Vijil says. "I seek out colleagues with whom I can exchange ideas, vent, and learn. There is a synergy that is created when a group of peers work toward a common goal. Through TALAS, I have the extreme pleasure of mentoring protégés like Linda Garcia and Eva Quiñones; as a person who listens intently to the numerous mentors and colleagues with whom I have connected, I become a better mentor to them."
MEET MORE INSPIRING LEADERS


On Friday 30th September Swanlea School were host to workshops run by The Hitachi Group. Hitachi is a global technology firm with divisions all over the world with a vision to "Inspire the Next" and our students were certainly inspired!
The Hitachi Group ran a STEM workshop with 40 of our highest attaining Year 8 students. Senior team members from the UK division of the Hitachi group attended the workshop to support the students in the various activities that took place. The workshops were based around the different skills and traits needed for jobs roles within the Hitachi Group. The students were split into four groups, with each group competing with each other to complete Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths based challenges. Our year 8 students successfully rose up to the challenges, pleasantly surprising the staff at Hitachi. One Maths challenge was given that was so difficult that even the Hitachi volunteers struggled but four of our students managed to solve the problem and get it right.
A massive thank you to the Hitachi Group for this incredible learning experience and we can't wait to work with them again.


Blog - Bidding is expensive, but not bidding can be even more expensive.
Bidding is expensive, but not bidding can be even more expensive.
At openopps.com we know that it's the small details that make the difference, that's why we gather data from over 1,000 different publishers every day to bring you every tender we can.
But it's not enough to know that an opportunity exists, to make the best bidding decisions you need to gain real insights into your targets and your market. Our new spend tool can show you future opportunities, as well as detailed insight into the spending of hundreds of public sector buyers in the UK.
We've gathered over 100m transactions from across the public sector to give you the ultimate insight into your market. For bid managers who need to make the best decisions, OpenOpps Insights will give you the detailed information that you need to find the right targets and to submit winning bids.
With instant access and easy downloads of the data, our subscribers can be sure of bidding less and winning more.


This Thai mall's latest attraction is sure to draw throngs of visitors. Source: Shutterstock.
RISING from the banks of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand is ICONSIAM, the country's biggest and fanciest shopping mall which has just opened on Nov 12, 2018.
Positioned to be a global new attraction, ICONSIAM is said to be the "Mother of All Malls" as it challenges the burgeoning retail scene in Bangkok.
A major landmark in the bustling Thai city, it boasts 500 shops and 100 restaurants from more than 30 different countries, an indoor floating market, an art gallery, an exhibition space, and impressive views of the breezy riverside.
From stores selling high-end brands to regional handicrafts to tasty food offerings and gourmet meals, ICONSIAM has it all under one roof.
Recently, it just unveiled a work of art that is sure to draw throngs of visitors – the ICONIC Multimedia Water Features, Southeast Asia's longest light and water show.
The 400-meter water feature was created by world-renowned Spanish fountains and water feature specialist GHESA Water & Art, which has over 35 years of experience in the design, installation, and maintenance of ornamental, cybernetic, musical and multimedia fountains.
GHESA Water & Art has conceived more than 3,000 fountains around the world.
Visitors can expect to be mesmerized by the spectacular lighting designs, sounds, and multimedia which will undoubtedly add a sparkle to both ICONSIAM and the Chao Praya River.
Tall and luminous water jets which use cutting-edge compress air technology to create 2D, 3D, and 4D simulations and a magnificent water fountain are perfectly choreographed to dance to the soothing tunes of Thai instruments.
"The ICONIC Multimedia Water Feature is another of the great attractions we promised to place on the ICONSIAM site as part of our civic duty to create shared value by driving global interest in Bangkok and Thailand," ICONSIAM Co., Ltd. director Mrs. Chadatip Chutrakul said.
ICONSIAM's dazzling ICONIC Multimedia Water Features is open to the public free of charge with three performances daily at 18:30, 20:00, and 21:00.
To get to ICONSIAM, take the BTS to Sapan Taksin Station and heading to the pier to hop on the free river shuttle that drops you off in front of the mall. Alternatively, you can go to Krung Thon Buri station and take a free shuttle bus.
For more information, visit ICONSIAM's website.