text:
From the Archive: David Milch
07/17/2019 Awardees, Blog, News
The following is an excerpt from a conversation with David Milch moderated by the late Edwin A. "Bud" Shrake. David Milch was the recipient of Austin Film Festival's 2006 Outstanding Television Writer Award. The full conversation can be accessed at The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, holder of Austin Film Festival's archives of more than 20 years of panel recordings. This excerpt has been lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bud Shrake: So, about the language in Deadwood; I know there was a tremendous reaction to it, and, of course, the classic Western would have nothing like that. Would you tell us how The Hays Code came into being and what developed the classic Western?
David Milch: The Hays Code was– we're all seated so I'm going to confide this to you. The entertainment business is pretty much run by Jews. And to the extent that that isn't 100% true now, it was 100% true when it started. They were flying under the radar. They'd come from Eastern Europe. They get to America and in NYC they got to sell fabric. In Hollywood, nothing. People are throwing money at you, so they want people to know they're not going to rock the boat. They're going to tell the Goyim stories that the Goyim want to hear about America and everyone getting along. That was after more of the adventurous Jewish folks started to tell naughty stories in the '20s. There were grumbles from certain quarters. The boys got together and got a gentile to front it, Judge Hays. They had this code which said, 'obscenity in word, thought or deed is an offense against natural law and the laws of God and will not be tolerated in our films.'
The thing about if you're an artist, you try to internalize …if I'm in there bullshitting with my bosses, I can take arms against them or try and find a way that their interests and mine coincide to some extent so I can function. That works at least 4% of the time. In the case of the great filmmakers of the '30s and '40s, you can try to figure out a way to tell the story without any obscenity in it. So, in Westerns, you get these stoic, monosyllabic towering figures, which allows the coincidence of the artistic—the exogenesis of the artist, with the exogenesis of commerce.
Now, when we receive and experience a story we bond with that. It becomes part of our experience. So to the people who came of age in the '30s and '40s and early '50s and saw these great works of Hawkes and John Ford and so on, that was the imaginative reality of the West. To the extent that it's a reality, even if it's imaginative, it's still real. So, you get people at that age saying they didn't swear in the West, it didn't happen. What they're really saying is 'I liked my time at the movies when I was nine years old.' That's fine, but it doesn't have anything to do with the West. It has to do with childhood.
Anyway, I had no commitment to obscenity. From my point of view, my whole life is an obscenity. The research I did suggested that, to the extent that an environment is without law, it's forms of order have to do with language and the verbalization of the willingness to be in conflict. So you don't actually have to fight. Apes do this—[grunts]. They don't have to duke it out with their fellow apes. In that sense, language, a disposition to obscenity, was the beginning, it seemed to me, of a civilizing process. An emergence from the primordial ooze.
Ian's [McShane's Al Swearengen] character was the combination of a man capable of violence with a good but brutalized mind. He had been savaged in his youthful experience, so didn't trust his verbal capacity, but had an extraordinary ability to verbalize as opposed to doing violence. Seth Bullock—and both of these were real guys—Seth Bullock was a guy who was another sort of evolutionary sport. He had a homicidal rage against order because he used to get beaten every night in full dress uniform. His old man was a retired sergeant major. You know, Stockholm Syndrome, where you identify with your captor – what Bullock did was develop as if he was in uniform all the time. He had a very rigid form of moving all the time. That combination of a willingness to do violence, housed in a repressive dress, when it encountered Swearengen's personality… that was how Deadwood, as opposed to a thousand other mining camps, a series of evolutionary accidents, to the extent that they found a way to live together, that made the recognition of community possible. Language in that sense, the kind of relentless obscenity, was my sense of why people in Deadwood spoke the way they did. I am more than tolerably persuaded that that's the way they spoke.
There's a second equation which is how to bring the viewer to stand in a particular emotional relation to the materials. For the people in Deadwood, obscenity was a step forward, whereas, for the viewer, the experience of relentless obscenity would be a corrosive process that finally wore away the viewer's expectation formed by any of his or her prior experience of stories in this genre.
The first scene in which Ian's character appears, I tried to present Swearengen as the custodian of all of the ways in which we begin to move past our individuality, of all of the pathological ways we express our community before we find spiritual expression. What are those ways? Intoxication of various sorts – with spirits, alcohol, gambling, with women. Simply using women as a vessel for the expression of 'we want to have something to do with the environment, but we want to control it.' The last thing is the symbol, which is either verbal or—and this seems key to our capitalist process and why we're doing such a great job dominating the world—if you can agree upon a neutral symbol, it liberates our energy to work as a group. It doesn't necessarily mean it exalts us, but if we can all say gold is worth x amount, gold has no internal worth in a barter economy, it has no function, it's an illusion agreed upon, and if we agree upon an illusion, we can act as a body.
The only problem is, if the agreed-upon illusion doesn't sink its root deep within our own nature, you can get the monstrous engine which is capitalism, which is part of the story I wanted to tell. In that first scene with Swearengen, he's got women there, he's got gambling there, he's got booze there, and he's got a scale. Which he makes available to the prospector. The prospector first turns in his gold and then chooses alcohol as his intoxicant. He picks it up and says 'first one today with this hand,' and he drinks and then as the intoxicant enters his body, he utters a stream of obscenities, which organize themselves into a kind of poetry. He says, 'I stand before you today beholden to no human cocksucker and not the US government or the savage fucking redman is going to tell me different.' And Swearengen, who understands how to channel human nature, says 'he better not try it in here.' What the prospector replies is, 'Goddamn you, Swearengen, I can't trust you as far as I can throw you, but I enjoy the way you lie.' So that the lie, the illusion agreed upon, is an advancement and Swearengen is the artist of that. That's about the obscenity.
Check out the trailer for Deadwood The Movie
David Milch is featured in On Story–The Golden Ages of Television which explores the transformation of television's narrative content over the past several decades. This excerpt is not included in the book but within its pages you will find interviews with some of TV's best creators and writers. Their insights, behind-the-scenes looks at the creative process, production tales, responses to audiences' reactions, and observations on how both TV narratives and the industry have changed make this book ideal for TV lovers, pop culture fans, screenwriting courses, and filmmakers and writers seeking information and inspiration.
David Milch is also featured in the Creating Memorable Characters On Story TV episode with Sydney Pollack and The Nice Guys, Shane Black, Sydney Pollack and David Milch On Story radio episode!
Awardees, Blog, News


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Q: Move constructor, non-const copy constructor, list's emplace in VS2010 I'm new to move constructor and quite confused with VS2010 behavior.
I design a move constructor (of class A) which in my knowledge is like this:
A(A&& input) {some code}

When I use list's emplace and put an instance of class A:
mylist.emplace(a);

My move constructor is not called, and a non-const copy constructor is called instead:
A(A& input) {the same code as move constructor}

On the other hand when I do this:
mylist.emplace(A(2));

My move constructor is called like it supposed to. So, my question is:

*

*Why is list's emplace call my non-const copy constructor instead of my move constructor?

*Is the non-const copy constructor is actually an alternative way to define a move constructor?

*Is this behavior is correct (for a c++0x compiler) or it just VS2010's behavior?

Thanks a bunch in advance.

A: mylist.emplace(a);

Here a is an l-value, hence it's copied rather than moved. You need to move it explicitely:
mylist.emplace(std::move(a));

Yes, the behavior is correct.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Cable Organizer, small and fast to print by 3iGRe0 is licensed under the Creative Commons - Public Domain Dedication license.
Although there are many very good cable organizers around here, i was in need of one little piece of crap, which just get the work done.
Turns out, it´s not that crappy at all.
You can put up to 6 Cables inside. Tell me what you think about it.
Version 0.2 has a slightly reduced height. That way it´s printing a bit faster. PLease tell me your results or ideas to that.
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text:
How 'Dude Perfect' Pulls Off Epic Trick Shots | Nightline | ABC News
They are the highflying, gravity-defying, trick-shot-making men behind the YouTube channel. Check out this interview with basket ball trick shot and extreme sports internet stars, Dude Perfect. SUBSCRIBE for the latest news and updates from ABC News ► http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=abcnews Watch more news stories from ABC News! Feel Good ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVGAI8o5i4o&list=PLQOa26lW-uI-OGtGrSH3xPaGciCMevaww Pop Culture and Entertainment News ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we333Q-VS80&list=PLQOa26lW-uI9C-A4y3bdC9ri4pDFzwe57&index=1 Follow ABC News across the web! Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/abcnews Twitter: http://twitter.com/ABC Instagram: https://instagram.com/ABCNews/ From the uplifting to the upworthy, ABC News has gathered the best stories to brighten your day, and give you a reason to smile. ABC News brings you the best trending stories and viral video moments that are collectively talked about at the water cooler, shared on Facebook, and dubbed upworthy on Reddit. From dogs rescuing puppies, US soldiers returning home to surprise their families, gorilla brothers reunited, senior citizens dancing, random acts of kindness, to school children helping the homeless; and much more! Join the discussion and follow the heartwarming moments and uplifting stories with ABC News. Nightline is a 30 minute late-night news program currently airing weeknights on ABC at 12:35am | 1:35am ET. Hosts Juju Chang, Dan Abrams and Dan Harris bring you in-depth reporting on the major stories, hot topics, and the day's breaking news. You can catch Nightline everynight just after Jimmy Kimmel Live! Make ABC News your daily news outlet for breaking national and world news, broadcast video coverage, and exclusive interviews that will help you stay up to date on the events shaping our world. ABC News' show roster has both leaders in daily evening and morning programming. Kick start your weekday mornings with news updates from Good Morning America (GMA) and Sundays with This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Get your evening fix with 20/20, Nightline, and ABC World News Tonight. Head to abc.go.com for programming schedule and more information on ABC News.
They are the highflying, gravity-defying, trick-shot-making men behind the YouTube channel. Check out this interview with basket ball trick shot and e ...
Children of Prisoners Reunite with their Fathers Behind Bars for a Day
Prison ministry program 'One Day With God' help children reconcile with their incarcerated parents.
Meet the Judge Who Went Viral For His Creative Punishments
Painesville, Ohio, Judge Michael Cicconetti say he believes in making the punishment fit the crime.
Kindergartener Gets School Absence Pardon From President
President Obama writes ultimate excuse note to 5-year-old Alanah Poullard's teacher.
Howie Mandel Talks About Living With OCD | 20/20 | ABC News
"Hand rails are my enemy" says "Deal or No Deal" host of obsessive cleanliness. For more, click here: http://abcnews.go.com/2020 SUBSCRIBE for the lat ...
College football player's horrific 40 hours of being held hostage, tortured
Niko Kollias tells ESPN "Outside the Lines" about his ordeal while on the University of Rochester football team when he was shot and brutally beaten.
The deals the 'Shark Tank' sharks regret never taking: Part 2 | ABC News
Mark Cuban says one deal he regrets not doing was with John Tabis' Bouqs Company. SUBSCRIBE to ABC NEWS: https://www.youtube.com/ABCNews/ Watch More ...
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Timothy Strohmeyer to receive law enforcement award after dash cam records heroic efforts.
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"There's no changing," Dalia Dippolito is heard telling an undercover officer. "I'm positive, like 5000 percent."

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text:
Military leaders from Ethiopia and the Tigray region have agreed on a peace roadmap
Brian Inganga
Chief of Staff of Ethiopian Armed Forces Field Marshall Birhanu Jula, left, and Head of the Tigray Forces Lt. Gen. Tadesse Werede, right, exchange signed copies of an agreement, at Ethiopian peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Top military commanders from Ethiopia and its embattled Tigray region have agreed to allow unhindered humanitarian access to the region and form a joint disarmament committee following last week's truce.
The commanders, who since Monday have been meeting in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, signed an agreement Saturday that they said calls for disengagement from all forms of military activities.
Both parties have agreed to protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the region of more than 5 million people, according to a copy of the agreement seen by The Associated Press.
The agreement states that disarmament will be "done concurrently with the withdrawal of foreign and non-(Ethiopian military) forces" from Tigray.
The lead negotiator for Ethiopia, Redwan Hussein, told the AP that Saturday's signing event created a conductive environment for ongoing peace efforts, noting that the next meeting of military leaders will "most likely" be held in Tigray in mid-December before a final meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, in January.
In a separate statement late Saturday, Ethiopia's federal authorities said that "efforts are being made to deliver humanitarian assistance to most of the Tigray region which is under (Ethiopian military) command."
That statement noted that representatives of Ethiopian and Tigrayan militaries meeting in Kenya discussed "detailed plans for disarmament" of Tigray forces, including an agreement on the entry of Ethiopian forces into the Tigrayan capital of Mekele.
The African Union-led talks in Nairobi followed the cessation of hostilities agreement signed by Ethiopia and Tigray leaders in South Africa last week.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is helping to facilitate the talks, said Saturday that "humanitarian aid should have resumed like yesterday." Former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also involved in the talks, thanked the commanders for their commitment to peace.
Brian Inganga / AP
Head of the Tigray Forces Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede, left, and Chief of Staff of Ethiopian Armed Forces Field Marshall Birhanu Jula, right, read a copy of an agreement at Ethiopian peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday.
The Tigray conflict began in November 2020, less than a year after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with Eritrea, which borders the Tigray region and whose fighters have been fighting alongside Ethiopian federal troops in Tigray.
Eritrea is not explicitly mentioned in the peace papers, and a diplomat who attended the talks in Nairobi said the issue of Eritrea was a sticking point this week.
The brutal fighting in Tigray, which spilled into Amhara and Afar regions as Tigrayan forces tried to break the military blockade of their region, reignited in August after months of lull that allowed thousands of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Tigray.
The war in Africa's second-most populous country, which marked two years on Nov. 4, has seen abuses documented on both sides, with millions of people displaced and many near famine.
Phone and internet connections to Tigray are still down, and foreign journalists and human rights researchers remain barred, complicating efforts to verify reports of ongoing violence in the region.


text:
Q: Change button background WPF mouseover property with c# conditions I have a huge problem and I don't know what to do. I am writing a client on c# WPF. I have 3 elements on my form (textbox, passwordbox, button). So I want to change my button background to "active(changing an image)" when people will fill textbox and passwordbox text. Something like login and password.
 private void eventhandler(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (login.Text.Length > 0 && password.Password.Length > 0)
        {

            ImageBrush myBrush = new ImageBrush();
            myBrush.ImageSource =
                 new BitmapImage(new Uri("pack://application:,,,/Images/Enter Enabled.bmp", UriKind.Absolute));
            Enter.Background = myBrush;

           }
        else if (login.Text.Length < 1 || password.Password.Length < 1)
        {

            ImageBrush myBrush = new ImageBrush();
            myBrush.ImageSource =
                 new BitmapImage(new Uri("pack://application:,,,/Images/Enter Disabled.bmp", UriKind.Absolute));
            Enter.Background = myBrush;
        }
    }

So I have this c# code. It works but now I have a problem. When I mouseover my button It changes it's background back to "Disabled".
Xaml
<Window x:Class="Test.MainWindow"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="MainWindow" Height="250" Width="288" Background="#FF494949">
<Window.Resources>
    <Style x:Key="ButtonStyle1" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
        <Setter Property="FocusVisualStyle">
            <Setter.Value>
                <Style>
                    <Setter Property="Control.Template">
                        <Setter.Value>
                            <ControlTemplate>
                                <Rectangle Margin="2" SnapsToDevicePixels="True" Stroke="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}}" StrokeThickness="1" StrokeDashArray="1 2"/>
                            </ControlTemplate>
                        </Setter.Value>
                    </Setter>
                </Style>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
        <Setter Property="Background" Value="#FFDDDDDD"/>
        <Setter Property="BorderBrush" Value="#FF707070"/>
        <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}}"/>
        <Setter Property="BorderThickness" Value="1"/>
        <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Center"/>
        <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center"/>
        <Setter Property="Padding" Value="1"/>
        <Setter Property="Template">
            <Setter.Value>
                <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
                    <Border x:Name="border" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" SnapsToDevicePixels="True">
                        <ContentPresenter x:Name="contentPresenter" ContentTemplate="{TemplateBinding ContentTemplate}" Content="{TemplateBinding Content}" ContentStringFormat="{TemplateBinding ContentStringFormat}" Focusable="False" HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}" RecognizesAccessKey="True" SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}"/>
                    </Border>
                    <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                        <Trigger Property="IsDefaulted" Value="True">
                            <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="border" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.HighlightBrushKey}}"/>
                        </Trigger>
                        <Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
                            <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="border">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <ImageBrush ImageSource="Images/Enter Disabled.bmp"/>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                            <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="border" Value="#FF3C7FB1"/>
                        </Trigger>
                        <Trigger Property="IsPressed" Value="True">
                            <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="border">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <ImageBrush ImageSource="Images/Enter Pressed.bmp"/>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                            <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="border" Value="#FF2C628B"/>
                        </Trigger>
                        <Trigger Property="ToggleButton.IsChecked" Value="True">
                            <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="border" Value="#FFBCDDEE"/>
                            <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="border" Value="#FF245A83"/>
                        </Trigger>
                        <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="False">
                            <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="border" Value="#FFF4F4F4"/>
                            <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="border" Value="#FFADB2B5"/>
                            <Setter Property="TextElement.Foreground" TargetName="contentPresenter" Value="#FF838383"/>
                        </Trigger>
                    </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                </ControlTemplate>
            </Setter.Value>
        </Setter>
    </Style>
</Window.Resources>
<Grid Margin="0,0,2,-4.478">
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="0*"/>
        <ColumnDefinition/>
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
    <Button HorizontalAlignment="Left" Name="Enter" Margin="46,92,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="127" Height="27" Grid.Column="1" BorderThickness="0" Style="{DynamicResource ButtonStyle1}">
        <Button.Background>
            <ImageBrush ImageSource="Images/Enter Disabled.bmp"/>
        </Button.Background>
    </Button>
    <TextBox Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Name="login" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Height="23" Margin="53,23,0,0" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120" TextChanged="eventhandler"/>
    <PasswordBox Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Name="password" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="53,59,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="120" PasswordChanged="eventhandler"/>

</Grid>

I know it's because of Mouseover image brush but how i can lock it or change in c# code with those conditions above.
Testapplication
I've uploaded testapp on takebin. So just fill textbox and passwordbox with text and mouseover a button and you will see what's the problem is.
Thank you all for replies and any help

A: Agreed. Remove this if you don't want such behaviour:
   <Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
       <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="border">
            <Setter.Value>
               <ImageBrush ImageSource="Images/Enter Disabled.bmp"/>
            </Setter.Value>
         </Setter>
    <Setter Property="BorderBrush" TargetName="border" Value="#FF3C7FB1"/>
  </Trigger>

A: The WPF button already has this functionality included in it.
you can bind the IsEnabled property of your button to a bool value in your view model and then define the style for enabled, disabled and moseover in your styles xml using visual states.
You'll find the source code for the default WPF button styling here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms753328(v=vs.110).aspx
Then you can also change the property bound to IsEnabled according to property changes on your textboxes.


I have finally managed to give this site a new look. It should look good on most screen sizes from tablets up.
In october 2008 we traveled to westeren canada again. The light and the colors where quite different than when we visited in spring 2005. I think I got nice pictures and have selected some for the website.
I have been ask to provide the model used in my tutorials, for people who want to follow it with the same model. You can download it here.
I think it would be best if you try the tutorial with your own figure, but with this download you have also the possibility to follow it with the same model.
I cover the joint setup and some assorted finishing steps. This complets the basic fiure setup for poser, but I will continue the series with morphing and maybe some clothing creation.
I have added a part about setting up the bones in the setup room.
I have added a part about setting up the body parts for poser.
I also changed the UV-Mapping tutorial a bit, to include optimizing of the head and lashes maps. Thanks to Peter Chov for the tip.
Tutorial series on poser figure creation series started.
I have started a series of tutorials should eventually cover the whole process of setting up a custom poser figure from a Wings3d model. It will cover modelling hints, UV-Mapping, figure setup, joint editing to morph creation and material setup. Maybe some things more.
Up now: Modelling hints and UV-Mapping.
New render: Into the Dark.
Small Update: I just added one new picture to the render gallery.
New pictures from a trip to the West of Canada. It was a very pleasant trip, the country is most beautiful and Canadians are very friendly people.
New gallery: Andalucia and Algarve.
I finally got the pictures from a spring 2003 trip to Spain and Portugal scanned and posted.
Another free Poser figure in downloads: Gnom the Stone Elemental.
My new free figure uses displacement maps made in ZBrush on a Wings3d model. Thanks to Benjamin for the concept art I have used for this model.
New Poser figure in downloads: Ukor the Ogre.
Finally, I have an other free figure for Poser online. His head was my entry to a monthly challenge at Renderositys Wings3D froum. I liked him so much, that I added a body and rigged him for poser. Have fun.
I also have a new picture of him in the render gallery.
A new gallery with an animation of my Ogre model. The model will come to the download section soon! Just have to think up a name for him up and package the poser files.
Also I did some polishing with the backgrounds of the site.
I have added a new gallery with Photos from a recent trip to the German National Park "Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft" at the coast of the Baltic Sea.
It is the first gallery with pictures taken with my new digital camera, a Canon Eos 10D. I am quit happy with the results.
It's done, my website is in a shape that I feel is ok to go live. Have a look at the galleries and if you are a user of Curious Labs Poser, you may find the download and the tutorial sections useful.
Many thanks to Christof for his PHP-code and help seting the site up.


This entry was posted	on samedi, juillet 25th, 2009 at 11:59	and is filed under Reportages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


text:
NATO's Secretary General Thanks Azerbaijan for Peacekeeping Efforts in Afghanistan
By Mushvig Mehdiyev August 23, 2021
Turkish and Azerbaijani peacekeepers at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 22, 2021 / Courtesy
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has highlighted the contribution of peacekeeping forces that continued to safeguard the security of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan after the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government and retook control of the country last week.
Stoltenberg has highlighted the service of the military forces of NATO allies and Azerbaijan, the only NATO partner country that has not withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan.
"I also thank the military forces of NATO Allies, in particular Turkey, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and our partner Azerbaijan, for their vital role in securing the airport. And I thank all the Allies who have today pledged to receive Afghans at risk," he said in a press conference that followed an extraordinary meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs on August 20.
Stoltenberg added that NATO's presence and the support of the whole international community have helped Afghans achieve unprecedented social, economic and political progress over the years. NATO now expects the Taliban to uphold its commitments, stop violence around the country, and stand by the fundamental rights of all Afghans, according to the NATO top official.
The US and its NATO allies entered Afghanistan in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks took place in New York. The Taliban, which controlled Afghanistan at that time, was confirmed to shelter the mastermind of the attacks, Osama Bin Laden.
The first peacekeeping unit from Azerbaijan arrived in Afghanistan in 2002 to join what was then the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Twenty-one Azerbaijani soldiers, one officer, and one non-commissioned officer were the first peacekeepers from the Commonwealth of Independent States region to serve alongside NATO troops.
In 2015, Azerbaijani peacekeepers joined Resolute Support – the NATO-led train, advise and assist mission in Afghanistan, which followed ISAF. As of May 2021, 120 Azerbaijani peacekeepers served there, including two medical officers, six staff officers, and soldiers. In addition to ground support, Azerbaijan has been helping transport goods to allied forces, making military logistics easier and faster. Around 40 percent of cargo destined for NATO troops in Afghanistan passes through Azerbaijan.
Photos and video footage showing Azerbaijani servicemen have gone viral over the recent days. In a video aired by Anadolu Agency, they are seen patrolling through the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul along with the Turkish forces. Turkish and Azerbaijani flags are also seen waving over the airport.
"Despite the very difficult situation, we are trying to establish tranquility and peace here [at the airport] with our Turkish brothers," one of the Azerbaijani peacekeepers said.
The Afghan government conceded the power to the Taliban after it captured Afghanistan's capital on August 15 to regain control 20 years after being ousted by US-led forces.
The militant group first rose to power in Afghanistan in 1996 and ruled most of the country until October 2001. In April 2021, US officials said President Biden would withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan through September 11, 2021. Simultaneously with the withdrawal of the US servicemen, the Taliban launched a massive offensive recapturing swaths of land, including major cities and provinces.
The fall of Kabul on August 15 has become the last phase of the Taliban's return to power. Militants entered the presidential palace in the capital city to finalize what was said to be the peaceful transition of power. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the country to avoid "bloodshed."
The Taliban forces are now controlling all ground-based border crossings. Foreign diplomats and citizens of some countries have been leaving Afghanistan via the Kabul airport.
Read more: Kabul, Taliban, peace, Resolute Support Mission, peacekeeping, Afghanistan, Caspian News, Turkey, Caspian, ISAF, NATO, Azerbaijan, news


A minimum of nine hours must be writing intensive hours, and 36 must be advanced.
For transfer students, 26-32 semester credit hours in computer science (or their equivalents) may be transferred from a Texas public institution of higher education for the Computer Science Field of Study and be applied to the Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Computer Science at Texas State University. More information about the Field of Study is available in the Academic Policies section of this catalog. If transferring additional computer science courses please contact the Department of Computer Science for assistance. The transferable Texas Common Course Number (TCCN) is listed below the Texas State University course number in the following course list.
Students pursuing this B.S. degree program are required to complete an additional 3 hours of English beyond the general education core curriculum. A grade of C or higher is required in these additional hours to satisfy the graduation requirements of the computer science major. Students may select from the following English courses. ENG 3303 or ENG 3313 is recommended.
5. Computer Science majors must complete 40 hours of CS including a CS project course from: CS 4318, CS 4326, CS 4371, CS 4380 or CS 4398.
6. A minor in Secondary Education is required.
7. In addition to the major, minor and general education core curriculum requirements, students must also complete 21 hours of professional sequence courses under the College of Education. All coursework must be completed prior to EDST 4681.
8. To satisfy graduation requirements for teacher certification, students must have at least a 2.75 Overall GPA. A GPA of at least 2.50 in all assigned courses in the professional sequence with no grade below a "C".
9. Students pursuing this B.S. degree program are required to complete a total of 17 hours in mathematics from: MATH 2358, MATH 2471, MATH 2472, MATH 3305, or MATH 3398.
10. If two years of the same language are taken in high school, then no additional language hours will be required for the degree. In the absence of language taken in high school, then two semesters of the same modern language (1410 and 1420) must be taken at the college level, and the requirement will be added to the student's degree audit.
Computer Science majors must take sixteen hours (4 courses) of Life & Physical Sciences from: BIO 1330/BIO 1130 & BIO 1331/BIO 1131; PHYS 1315/PHYS 1115 & PHYS 1325/PHYS 1125 [or PHYS 1430 & PHYS 2425]; CHEM 1341/CHEM 1141 and CHEM 1342/CHEM 1142; or GEOL 1410 & GEOL 1420. Eight hours (2 courses) must be from the same science (BIO, CHEM, GEOL, or PHYS) as listed above. Field of Study requirements of PHYS 1430 and PHYS 2425 will be used to satisfy this requirement.


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Stand Your Ground: Michigan Act Similar To Florida Law Used In Trayvon Martin Case Provokes Repeal Effort
By Kate Abbey-Lambertz
The case of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teen who was shot to death by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, has provoked Michigan lawmakers to attempt to rid the state of a law similar to the one Zimmerman initially used in his defense.
On Thursday, Democrats in the state House announced a bill to repeal Michigan's "stand your ground" law, which currently protects citizens who use deadly force in self-defense. As the law stands, if a person believes he is at risk of being subjected to deadly force, great bodily harm or rape, he can use deadly force without first retreating. Many states have some version of the law on the books.
"We have seen the destruction that 'Stand Your Ground' laws have had in Florida," said state Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), one of the bill's sponsors. "Here in Michigan, we don't need to wait for a similar disaster before we get rid of our version of that dangerous law."
"While people have a right to protect themselves, they also have the responsibility to only use deadly force as a last resort," she added.
Introduced by state Rep. Tim Bledsoe (D-Grosse Pointe), the new bill seeks to repeal the current self-defense act. It has several other Democratic sponsors and will now go to the judiciary committee.
The original Michigan self-defense law was enacted in 2006 and signed by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who now supports the repeal effort, according to the Detroit News. It builds on the "Castle Doctrine," which protects homeowners' use of deadly force on their own property in some circumstances.
While justifiable homicide cases, both in private and public spaces, don't occur in huge numbers in Michigan, the cases can provoke questions about the consequences of the law and the way it is interpreted. And justifiable homicides seem to be on the rise, though accurate numbers are difficult to come by.
According to the Free Press, numbers vary depending on who's recording the crime statistics, with different stats from the Michigan State Police and the FBI. MSP data showed no more than four justifiable homicides in the decade leading up to 2006, but the number climbed steadily to 16 in 2010, according to the Detroit News.
At odds with those numbers, Fox 2 reports Detroit alone had 19 justifiable homicides in 2010 and 34 in 2011.
Clinton Township Criminal Defense Attorney Richard Marcil told CBS Detroit he had seen claims of self-defense go up significantly since the "stand your ground" law was enacted.
Democrat lawmakers who want to repeal the law say it encourages violence in favor of "common law," which requires people to make an effort to flee before using force if they believe they are in danger. But others, including some Republicans and gun-rights advocates, believe the law doesn't promote violence or crime. Instead, they say, it protects individuals from it.
The Michigan version of the "stand your ground" law is not quite as protective of defendants as Florida's law. According to the Free Press, the key difference is in Florida, cases can be dismissed before even going to trial.
Kate Abbey-Lambertz
On Assignment For HuffPost
George Zimmerman Trayvon Martin Trayvon Martin Case Jennifer Granholm Michigan


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Q: How to retrive first row, first column cell value of a command process output using linux command I want to get the value 385 which is in the process output of below code, I want to do this through command itself, is there any way to do this.
I don't have enough knowledge in Linux commands, please help me to achieve this.
#ps -u root|grep java|awk '{print $1}'

385
2018
2048
4242
21290
25110
25589
26166

A: You could put the output in a shell variable like
var=$(ps -u root|grep java|awk '{print $1}'|head -1)

and you may be happy to learn more about pgrep.
As GoT answered, the head -1 command gives you the first line, and you put it into $var
I suggest to read the advanced bash scripting guide

A: You can add head -1
#ps -u root | grep java | head -1


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Jeremy O. Harris Alanis Morissette Tina Turner Baz Luhrmann Arts and entertainment Coronavirus Infectious diseases Diseases and conditions Health Lung disease Celebrity Entertainment COVID-19 pandemic Theater awards Theater Performing arts Tony Awards Plays Rhythm and blues Music Musical theater Award shows
The long-delayed Tony Awards finally have a date — Sept. 26
By MARK KENNEDY - May. 26, 2021 12:23 PM EDT
FILE - Workers prepare for the 73rd annual Tony Awards in New York on June 9, 2019. Producers of the telecast announced Wednesday that the Tonys will be held Sept. 26 and will air on CBS as well as Paramount+. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The long-delayed Tony Awards have been given a fall air date and a four-hour streaming canvas to celebrate the pandemic-shortened Broadway season that upended the theater world.
Producers of the telecast announced Wednesday that the Tonys will be held Sept. 26 and will air on CBS as well as Paramount+. As if making up for lost time, the usual three-hour event has added a fourth hour.
This year, the award show will start at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on Paramount+ exclusively, then two hours later continue on CBS with a live concert event "featuring superstar Broadway entertainers and Tony Award winners re-uniting on stage to perform beloved classics and celebrate the joy and magic of live theater." Capping the evening will be the awarding of the three top awards: best play, best play revival and best musical.
"There is nothing that compares to the magic of live theater — and we are thrilled to be able to share its celebratory return and the incredible talent and artistry of the abbreviated 2019-2020 season with theater fans everywhere," said a statement from said Charlotte St. Martin, president of The Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing.
There was no word on whether there would be a host.
The news was met with excitement from theater fans but with grumbles that the bulk of the awards — the acting, directing and technical ones — would only be accessible to Paramount+ customers. The plan is similar to that employed by the Grammys — the bulk of those awards are streamed in a pre-show event — although that is accessible for free.
Broadway theaters abruptly closed on March 12, 2020, knocking out all shows — including 16 that were still scheduled to open in the spring. Broadway shows have been given the green-light to restart and the first will be "Hadestown" on Sept. 2.
Organizers are looking for a Broadway theater to be the base for the in-person event. But presumably, the Sept. 26 date for the Tonys means that the nominated shows can be ready to perform on the telecast from their respective home theaters to cut down on overcrowding.
This season's nominations were pulled from just 18 eligible plays and musicals, a fraction of the 34 shows the season before. During most years, there are 26 competitive categories; this year there are 25 with several depleted ones.
The sobering musical "Jagged Little Pill," which plumbs Alanis Morissette's 1995 breakthrough album to tell a story of an American family spiraling out of control, has the most nominations with 15.
There are three best musical nominees: "Jagged Little Pill," "Moulin Rouge: The Musical" and "Tina — The Tina Turner Musical." And there are five best play nominees: "Grand Horizons," "The Inheritance," "Sea Wall/A Life," "Slave Play" and "The Sound Inside."
Nipping on the heels of "Jagged Little Pill" for overall numbers of nominations is "Moulin Rouge!," a jukebox adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's hyperactive 2001 movie about the goings-on in a turn-of-the-century Parisian nightclub, that got 14 nods.
Two very different offerings are tied with 12: "Tina — The Tina Turner Musical," which tells the rock icon's life with songs that include "Let's Stay Together" and "Proud Mary," and "Slave Play," Jeremy O. Harris' ground-breaking, bracing work that mixes race, sex, taboo desires and class. The dozen nods make "Slave Play" the most nominated play in Tony history.
Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits


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Home / Product Manufacturer / Motorbooks
Harley-Davidson® 2023: 16-Month Calendar – September 2022 through December 2023
Fire Trucks in Action 2023: 16-Month Calendar – September 2022 through December 2023
The Art of the Formula 1 Race Car 2023: 16-Month Calendar – September 2022 through December 2023
Supercars 2023: 16-Month Calendar – September 2022 through December 2023
American Muscle Cars 2023: 16-Month Calendar – September 2022 through December 2023


Are you confused? Burned out? Disillusioned by your church experience? Discover how intimacy with the Living God and his family can fulfill your deepest hungers.
THE NAKED CHURCH is an invitation for believers to forsake superficial Christianity and discover true intimacy with God. This compelling book will challenge you to look beyond the externals of contemporary church life with its glittering buildings, extensive programs, beloved celebrities and political muscle and find a relationship with God that will bring his powerful, life-changing presence into everyday circumstances.
At a time when it's popular to be "spiritual" and easy to be "religious," Wayne Jacobsen sounds the call back to the joy and freedom of a dynamic relationship with the living God.
I had recently met Wayne Jacobsen and my walk with Christ took the next step. Wayne had just released, "So you don't want to go to Church anymore? I asked permission to read The Naked Church on MP3. Here you'll find the 21 Chapters of the Naked Church Audio Book and MP3 series all free of course.


In addition to our culinary offerings, there is a whole range of cultural activities to be enjoyed at Mirage, such as live concerts, film screenings and get-togethers. Whatever the occasion, you're sure to find a colorful mix of interesting people here – gourmets and young creative types as well as neighbors. One of our "shop windows" houses the Vitrine Blanche, which features works by local designers and artists.
On Friday evenings you'll hear live acoustic concerts and jam sessions that may spill out onto the street, bringing new impulses to the neighborhood. Community events such as Diner en Blanc, food and vinyl flea markets or live concerts for the annual Fête de la Musique enliven otherwise often neglected Nettelbeckplatz square.


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Maria Bittner
December 24, 1928 - December 3, 2022
(nee Ettmayer) Of Sussex. Was peacefully called home to be with the Lord on December 3, 2022 at the age of 93. Beloved wife of the late Adam. Dedicated and nurturing mother of Frank and the late Joseph Bittner. Beloved sister of the late Konrad (the late Katarina) Ettmayer, the late Anton (the late Katherine) Ettmayer, Theresa (the late Helmut) Rohmann, John (Joan) Ettmayer and Elizabeth (Edward) Stefl. Also survived by nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, other relatives and many, many dear friends.
Maria was also a long time member of the United Donauschwaben of Milwaukee and head cook for 55 years of the club. She was a member of the Senior Donauschwaben Club and Frauengruppe. She served for 30 years as Food Captain for Germanfest.
Visitation Friday, December 9 at ST. JAMES CATHOLIC CHURCH, W220N6588 Town Line Rd, Menomonee Falls, from 9:00 AM until Mass of Christian Burial is celebrated at 11:00 AM. Interment at Holy Cross Cemetery.


I hope you don't feel my lunch box ego is getting out of hand. Truthfully, posting photos and sharing ideas keeps me in line. I've been on a mission for awhile now: to fill my kids' bellies with the healthy stuff. And when it comes to packing lunches, I want to reach for the good before the processed, you know?
These muffins are always devoured. They also double as a great on-the-run breakfast or after-school snack.
Preheat to 375 degrees and grease 12-cup muffin tin.
Pour milk over oats in medium bowl. Stir and let stand for 20 minutes.
Add peaches, egg, butter and vanilla.
Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder/soda, salt, cinnamon in a large bowl.
Add oat mixture to flour mixture and stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.
Divide batter among 12 cups.
Bake for 20 minutes until toothpick is clean.
I've been using this collection of recipes for 10 years. The ingredients are always easy-to-find and the steps easy-to-follow (no matter how many children are hanging off your legs).


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Language Testing in Asia
Can the National Center Test in Japan be replaced by commercially available private English tests of four skills? In the case of TOEFL Junior Comprehensive
Nobuhiro Kamiya ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3237-58111
Language Testing in Asia volume 7, Article number: 15 (2017) Cite this article
The National Center Test is a test that high school graduates take in order to be matriculated into the majority of universities in Japan. Its English section (NCT), though, is scheduled to be replaced by commercially available private English tests of four skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) due to the fact that NCT currently measures only the receptive skills of reading and listening. A concern has been raised, however, regarding the score comparability between NCT and those tests of four skills. Thus, this study was conducted in order to examine to what extent the score of NCT and TOEFL Junior Comprehensive (JC)—one of the commercially available private English tests of four skills—correlate with each other and to what extent their test constructs overlap from the viewpoint of L2 competence structure.
One hundred forty-four twelfth graders in Japan took NCT and JC. Pearson's correlations and an exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood) were conducted. Moreover, confirmatory factor analyses and chi-square difference tests were performed in order to compare several models.
The results show that the scores of the two tests are highly correlated with each other, indicating that JC can be a proper candidate to replace NCT. Moreover, an exploratory factor analysis revealed that all of the six scores can be subsumed under a single factor. According to the results of a series of confirmatory factor analyses and chi-square difference tests, the correlated skill model was shown to be the best fit model, but the unitary model was almost equally a good fit as well.
The results overall indicate that, regardless of tests and skills to measure, English proficiency as a general construct may determine the major portion of these scores. This poses the question of whether, in order to assess learners' English proficiency, all four skills need to be measured separately.
In Japan, most high school students who wish to be matriculated in universities are required to take a common examination titled the National Center Test for university entrance examinations. Commencing in 1990, its English section (NCT; henceforth) started with a reading section only, to which the listening section was added in 2006. After 20 years of implementation, however, NCT is scheduled to be replaced by commercially available private tests due to the criticism of its incapability to measure four skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) despite the fact that the ministry's curriculum guidelines stipulate that these skills are expected to be acquired in a balanced manner in English education in school (Ministry of Education 2010).
Traditionally, there were only a handful of English tests in which four skills could be measured; however, following the abovementioned trend, several new tests have recently emerged, and as far as the author knows, there are now over 10 kinds extant as can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1 Commercially available private tests of four skills
Among these, TOEFL Junior Comprehensive (JC; henceforth) was listed as one of the prospective candidates as a replacement for NCT (Eigo yonginou shikaku kentei kondankai 2016). However, a concern has been raised regarding the degree of correspondence in scores between these tests and NCT for three reasons. Firstly, whereas NCT measures only the receptive skills, others additionally measure productive skills. Secondly, whereas NCT strictly follows the guidelines on high school curriculum published by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT; henceforth), others have no such constraints (see In'nami et al. 2016). GTEC CBT, TEAP, and TEAP CBT are developed specifically geared toward Japanese high school students, so their test constructs loosely follow the guidelines; however, GTEC CBT also asks questions beyond them (Benesse 2000–2017), and TEAP (CBT) does not refer to this issue at all (Eiken Foundation of Japan n.d.-c, n.d.-d), implying that their restrictions are not as rigorous as that on NCT. Finally, the aim of these two tests significantly differ from each other: JC aims to "measure the full range of language uses that students encounter in English-medium school settings" (So et al. 2015, p. 4) whereas that of NCT is to "improve the selection of candidates for admission to Japanese universities, and thereby to promote education at universities, high schools, and other educational institutions" (National Center for University Entrance Examinations 2015, p. 1). These three issues pose a question of whether not only the total scores but also the test constructs are comparable between them. Therefore, the current study was conducted with the aim to examine the concurrent validity of NCT and JC, namely, to what extent the scores of these two tests correlate with each other and to what extent the test constructs of these tests overlap from the viewpoint of L2 competence structure.
Structure of L2 competence
Language tests are supposed to represent L2 competence that learners have. If a test measures a single dimension of L2 competence, the test score (an observed variable) should be subsumed under a single factor of L2 competence (an unobserved latent variable). For instance, a score from a speaking test may have a one-on-one connection with a factor of speaking skills. However, if multiple tests measure a single dimension, all of them should be subsumed under a single factor of L2 competence. For example, the scores of two distinct listening tests may be measuring a single construct of listening skills. By examining the scores of various tests taken by the same test takers via factor analysis, researchers have sought to discover the structure of L2 competence. Thus far, four major models have been proposed:
A unitary or unidimensional model: L2 learners have only a single construct of L2 competence, which can explain all of test scores, regardless of skills or knowledge to be measured. For example, all of the test scores of four skills are subsumed under a single factor of L2 proficiency (Fig. 1; squares represent observed variables whereas circles represent unobserved latent variables, henceforth).
An uncorrelated model: Rather than one, multiple constructs exist among L2 learners and each of them separately subsumes the test scores purported to measure the same construct, but those factors are uncorrelated. For example, the scores of the listening test and reading test are subsumed under a factor of receptive skills whereas those of the speaking test and writing test are subsumed under a factor of productive skills, but the two factors of receptive skills and productive skills are unrelated and, thus, not correlated with each other (Fig. 2). This validates such a claim that receptive skills and productive skills need to be measured separately on the assumption that each of them develops independently.
A correlated model: Similar to the uncorrelated model, multiple constructs exist among L2 learners; however, the unobserved latent factors are correlated with each other. For example, the two factors of receptive skills and productive skills are connected with a line with arrowheads at both ends (Fig. 3). This also validates such a claim that receptive skills and productive skills need to be measured separately because, although they develop in tandem rather than independently, their development is still not perfectly synchronized.
A higher-order, second-order, or hierarchical model: Similar to the correlated model, multiple constructs exist among L2 learners; however, instead of directly connecting those factors, they are subsumed under another unobserved latent factor placed on the higher level. For example, the two factors of receptive skills and productive skills (first-order factors) are connected with another factor of L2 proficiency newly added on the right (Fig. 4; please note that the lines are single arrow-headed this time). This model also validates such a claim that receptive skills and productive skills need to be measured separately because, although they are both affected by another higher factor, how the factor influences each of them is not related to each other; thus, their development is not perfectly synchronized either.
A sample of unitary model
A sample of uncorrelated model
A sample of correlated model
A sample of higher-order model
Although the past literature has not reached an agreement concerning which model best explains L2 competence, at least, the unitary model and the uncorrelated model have been scantly supported thus far. As one of the proponents of the former, Oller (1979, 1983) reported a series of proofs that a single trait (Oller himself does not define what the trait is in a clear and consistent manner though) could explain the major portions (over 70%) of the total variance of various tests, including TOEFL PBT. He goes so far as to say, "the current practice of many ESL programs, textbooks, and curricula of separating listening, speaking, and reading and writing activities is probably not just pointless but in fact detrimental" (p. 458). However, his argument has been refuted, partly owing to the fact that he used principal component analysis (see Fouly et al. 1990, for the criticism), which prompted studies onward to adopt confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis with the Schmid-Leiman procedure instead, resulting in negating at least the strong version of the unitary model.
Most of the literature since the 1980s advocates adopting either the correlated model or the higher-order model, which are statistically indistinguishable from each other when the number of first-order factors is three (for examples, see Fouly et al. 1990; Sasaki 1996; Shin 2005). Fouly et al. (1990) examined the scores of various tests, including TOEFL PBT, collected from 334 university students in the USA with diverse L1s, and found that the three-correlated-factor model and the higher-order model were equally well fit. Similarly, Sasaki (1996) analyzed scores of several English tests taken by 160 Japanese university students and concluded that both the higher-order model and the correlated model equally fit. Shin (2005) investigated scores of TOEFL PBT and SPEAK (Speaking Proficiency in English Assessment Kit) taken by 738 participants divided into three different levels based on their English proficiency, which resulted in the higher-order model with three first-order factors of listening, speaking, and writing modes being the best model across the three groups, i.e., regardless of their proficiency. Investigating to what extent two distinct assessments measured the same language ability construct taken by 1224 English learners in the fourth grade in California, Llosa (2007) also found a model with three first-order factors (listening and speaking, reading, writing) under a higher-order factor (English proficiency) to be the best fit. More recently, In'nami et al. (2016) analyzed the factor structure of TEAP and compared it to that of TOEFL iBT. The higher-order model was found to be the best fit for TEAP, and also, the test constructs were similar between these two tests, both measuring academic English skills.
When the number of first-order factor is as few as two, the higher-order factor is not even susceptible to verification, and a decision is often made based on some other criteria. As one of the earliest studies that used confirmatory factor analysis, Bachman and Palmer (1981) compared over 20 models using the data of speaking and reading collected via three distinct methods for each from 75 Mandarin native speakers aged between 19 and 35 residing in the USA. They found that the correlated model with two factors and the higher-order model were equally well fit but, based on the fact that the former is simpler with one less factor, concluded the former to be the best choice. Another study conducted by Bachman and Palmer (1982) examined the three traits of communicative competence (grammatical, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic) collected via four methods with 116 participants aged between 17 and 67 with various L1s residing in the USA and reached the conclusion that the higher-order model is superior to the correlated model based on the results of chi-square tests (However, see Fouly et al. (1990), for criticism on Bachman and Palmer's studies.). More recently, In'nami and Koizumi (2012) analyzed TOEIC scores of four listening and five reading subskills collected from 569 EFL learners, most of whom were Japanese university students. Among several models that they tested, they found the correlated two-factor model (listening and reading) to be the best fit. Due to the identification problem, the higher-order model was not considered.
Somewhat more pertinent to the present study in terms of the same TOEFL tests of four skills, a series of large-scale studies with 2720 participants have been conducted to explore the factor structure of TOEFL iBT (Sawaki et al. 2008, 2009; Stricker and Rock 2008). They commonly adopted the higher-order model with four first-order factors of four skills, which is in line with the TOEFL score convention to report each skill-based score along with a single composite score. Lastly, Gu (2015) is perhaps the only study that has examined the factor structure of JC (although its pilot form), in which a total of 436 EFL learners aged 11–15 took the test. Using item-level raw scores, three models were compared: the unitary model, the correlated four-factor model (reading, listening, speaking, writing), and the higher-order model with those four first-order factors. The results show that the higher-order model was the best fit with a high-order factor being assumed as general learning ability.
All in all, the accumulation of the past literature leads to the hypothesis that the structure of L2 competence is most likely to be either a correlated model with several first-order factors or a higher-order model subsuming them.
National Center Test
All of the Japanese high school students and graduates who wish to be matriculated in public universities and most private universities take the same test concurrently on the same day nationwide once a year in January. Among over 1100 four-year and junior colleges in Japan, around 850, including all of the national and public universities, currently require applicants to take the test (National Center for University Entrance Examinations n.d.-a), and over 550,000 applicants, comprising over a half of new high school graduates, take the multiple-choice tests of various subjects (National Center for University Entrance Examinations n.d.-b). The test items are made strictly in accordance with the guidelines on the high school curriculum stipulated by MEXT.
NCT consists of reading and listening sections (Table 2). Test booklets are printed and distributed to test takers. For the listening section, IC audio recorders are distributed to test takers, each of whom listens to the audio via earphones individually. Test takers complete multiple-choice questions by marking their answers on answer sheets.
Table 2 Structure of NCT
As far as the author knows, there are only few studies that investigated the correlations of scores between NCT and other commercially available private tests (Eiken Foundation of Japan 2015; Otsu 2013, 2014; Yamanishi 2001). For instance, Otsu (2014) analyzed the relationships of scores between TOEIC, TOEFL PBT, and NCT and found that its correlation was 0.80 between TOEIC and NCT and 0.70 between TOEFL and NCT. However, the number of participants was as few as 63 and 28, respectively, and their TOEIC and TOEFL scores were self-reported. Besides, the time lag between when they took those tests and NCT was not controlled for. Thus, the reliability of the scores is not ensured. Also, the English proficiency of the participants was skewed to advanced level, so they may not represent the typical sample. Remedying these shortcomings, Eiken Foundation of Japan (2015) analyzed the data in a more robust procedure. As many as around 1000 participants took TEAP and Eiken 3 or 4 months after they took NCT. The study found that the correlation between NCT and TEAP is 0.80 and that between NCT and Eiken is 0.89. However, none of the tests examined in those abovementioned studies (i.e., TOEIC, TOEFL PBT, TEAP, and Eiken) contained speaking or writing scores even if the test had those sections; thus, it is unknown to what extent the scores derived from the accumulation of four skills correlates with NCT scores, which is currently an issue of more importance. Finally, as far as the author knows, the factor structure of NCT has not been examined in any of the previous studies thus far.
TOEFL Junior Comprehensive
JC was created by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and first implemented in 2014. Primarily, the test was targeted toward a group of English learners who find TOEFL iBT too advanced, and thus, it was "developed to address the increasing need for objective measures of English language proficiency for young adolescent learners, who are being introduced to English as a second or foreign language at a much younger age than ever before" (So et al. 2015, p. 1), measuring "how successfully a test taker can complete test tasks that are designed to represent the range of communicative tasks encountered in English-medium middle schools" (p. 6). Because it was intended to be implemented worldwide and also created by the Education Testing Service in the USA, it had no restrictions imposed by the guidelines on the high school curriculum stipulated by MEXT. It consisted of four sections: reading, listening, speaking, and writing (Table 3). As can be seen in Table 3, the score bands of reading and listening are quite distinct from those of speaking and writing, which So et al. (2015) explain as follows:
Table 3 Structure of JC
Because the speaking and writing section scores will not be equated, the scores are not strictly comparable … To avoid any incorrect impression on the part of stakeholders that the speaking and writing scores are comparable across forms, as the reading and listening section scores are, it was decided that the speaking and writing scales would be made clearly distinguishable from the reading and listening scales. (p. 17)
Following this concept, instead of total scaled scores, overall score levels compatible with CEFR (see Tannenbaum and Baron 2015, for details) are reported in JC ranging from 1 to 6 (see Papageorgiou et al. 2015, for details). The use of different scoring scales for receptive skills (reading and listening) and productive skills (speaking and writing) imply that at least these two constructs need to be separately posited in the model.
The test is conducted via computers, and all of the questions are displayed on a computer screen. Some of the test items in the speaking and writing sections are integrated with listening. Unfortunately, the test became defunct at the end of 2016.Footnote 1 , Footnote 2 Although GC&T (Global Communication & Testing), the organization that operated JC in Japan, has a single data set that explored the relationship between JC scores and NCT scores, they are not publicized, thus inaccessible (personal communication, June 23, 2017).
All in all, the present study sought to answer the following two research questions.
How are the scores of NCT and JC correlated with each other?
Which of the five models (unitary, uncorrelated skill, correlated skill, uncorrelated test, and correlated test) best represents the test constructs of NCT and JC?
A total of 144 twelfth graders (F = 114, M = 30) in nine Japanese high schools took part in this study. All of them were native speakers of Japanese. Efforts were made to recruit students with diverse L2 proficiencies in order to secure a high reliability of data (Mizumoto 2014). They all officially took NCT in January of either 2016 or 2017. Their scores were validated by the official score reports sent by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations. The total scores were calculated simply by adding the scores of reading and listening as it is the conventional way. Their descriptive statistics on the national level along with the number of participants are shown in Table 4. Due to the relatively small discrepancies, no score adjustments were implemented between the scores of these 2 years. The participants also took JC in either March or May after an interval of 2–4 months following NCT. JC reports a composite score in addition to each of the four skills; however, the composite score ranges only from 1 to 6. Such a rough scoring with a small scale inevitably incapacitates the analysis from being fine-grained, which likely masks the precise relationship between the variables. Thus, a decision was made to calculate a total score that better reflects score variations. Because JC reports two different score bands for skills, in order to equalize their weights, the raw scores were converted to the scale of 0–20 (Table 5). The scale of 0–20 was adopted in order to utilize the original range of the raw scores as much as possible (20 for reading and listening and 16 for speaking and writing) because using a smaller range will conceal the difference in the raw scores. For analyses, Pearson's correlations, an exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood), confirmatory factor analyses, and chi-square difference tests were conducted.
Table 4 Descriptive statistics of two NCTs on the national level and the number of participants
Table 5 Score conversions of JC
Descriptive statistics and correlations
Table 6 shows descriptive statistics of the results of the two tests. A wide score range was observed for each section of both tests. As can be seen in Table 7, the Pearson's product-moment correlation matrix indicates that the two tests are highly correlated with each other not only for the scores of identical skills (reading: r = .78; listening: r = .75; Figs. 5 and 6, respectively) but also for the total scores (r = .86; Fig. 7), indicating a high concurrent validity between them. Excluding total scores, the lowest figure was observed in the combination between NCT listening and JC speaking at 0.59 and the highest was between the two readings at 0.78.
Table 6 Descriptive statistics of NCT and JC
Table 7 Results of correlation matrix
Scatter plot of reading scores
Scatter plot of listening scores
Scatter plot of total scores
An exploratory factor analysis
Because all of the six scores were highly correlated, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted in order to detect the number of latent factors, using raw scores. Although strong correlations were observed between reading and total scores of NCT (r = .99) and between listening and total scores of JC (r = .90), since total scores were excluded for factor analysis, none of the variables tested in a factor analysis had a correlation of over 0.8. Also, the determinant was 0.01. Thus, multicollinearity was not at issue. A Bartlett's test was significant at p < .001, indicating that it is significantly different from an identity matrix. The value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin statistic was 0.917, verifying the sampling adequacy. No univariate or multivariate outlier was detected using z scores and Mahalanobis distance (max = 20.309), respectively. All of the values for skewness and kurtosis fall within the range of |3.30| (z score at p < .01), securing univariate normality (Tabachnick and Fidell 2007). Mardia's normalized estimate of multivariate kurtosis was 0.871, which is well below 5, securing multivariate normality (Byrne 2016).
Maximum likelihood extracted a single factor, explaining 68.97% of total variance. Furthermore, as can be seen in Table 8, all of the communalities were over 0.50, and all of the factor loadings were over 0.70. Judging from these figures, the reading score of NCT represents the largest portion of the factor.
Table 8 Results of exploratory factor analysis
Confirmatory factor analyses
The results of the exploratory factor analysis imply that, regardless of tests and skills to measure, a general construct, supposedly general English ability, determined the major portion of these scores, which supports the unitary model. Thus, in order to verify whether the unitary model would show the best fit over others, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, comparing three models: unitary (Fig. 8), two uncorrelated latent factors of receptive and productive skills (Fig. 9), and two correlated latent factors of receptive and productive skills (Fig. 10). Moreover, although high correlations were observed between these two tests, each of them was made for different aims and, thus, may have divergent test constructs from each other. Thus, for the sake of comparison with the three models above, two additional models, two uncorrelated latent factors of NCT and JC (Fig. 11), and two correlated latent factors of NCT and JC (Fig. 12) were analyzed. The higher-order model was not considered due to the fact that the number of first-order factors was two.
Unitary model
Uncorrelated skill model
Correlated skill model
Uncorrelated test model
Correlated test model
First of all, the two uncorrelated models (Figs. 9 and 11) were rejected as they were unidentified. Although this issue was solved by setting the weight of another regression path as one, such a treatment is not theoretically supported, and additionally, the models were found to be a poor fit (p < .001). Thus, these models are not considered further.
The results of the remaining three models are shown in Tables 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 and Figs. 13, 14, and 15. Table 9 indicates that both the unitary and the correlated skill models are satisfactorily well fit in terms of all of the indices (i.e., χ 2 /df. < 1.5, CFI > 0.95, NFI > 0.95, TLI > 0.95, RMSEA < 0.05, SRMR < 0.05). Besides, the differences in AIC and CAIC are quite small and the lowest value in the confidence interval of RMSEA was 0, indicating that neither of the two models is significantly better than the other. Thus, because the unitary model is nested in the correlated skill model, a chi-square difference test was performed, whose results show that the latter was slightly better than the former (χ2 difference = 4.039, df difference = 1, p = .044). The correlation between the two latent factors of receptive skills and productive skills was 0.93.
Table 9 Results of model fits
Table 10 Unstandardized regression weights of unitary model
Table 11 Unstandardized regression weights of correlated skill model
Table 12 Unstandardized regression weights of correlated test model
Table 13 Variances of unitary model
Table 14 Variances of correlated skill model
Table 15 Variances of correlated test model
Table 16 Squared multiple correlations
Standardized regression weights of unitary model
Standardized regression weights of correlated skill model
Standardized regression weights of correlated test model
Table 9 also shows that the correlated test model was also as well fit as the unitary model for all of the indices except RMSEA at 0.053 > 0.05. A chi-square difference test indicates that the degree of fit of these two models are not significantly different from each other (χ 2 difference = 0.746, df difference = 1, p = .388). The correlation between the two latent factors of NCT and JC was 0.98.
RQ1: How are the scores of NCT and JC correlated with each other?
The correlation of scores between NCT and JC turned out to be all high. The high correlation of the total scores (r = .86) indicates that JC could have been a proper candidate to replace NCT for their total scores (however, see In'nami et al., 2016, for a criticism of such a claim). This figure is somewhat compatible with those found in past studies that investigated correlations between NCT scores and other commercially available tests (r = .70 for TOEFL, r = .80 for TOEIC and TEAP, r = .89 for Eiken) (Eiken Foundation of Japan 2015; Otsu 2014). These results imply that whether the test follows the restriction of the guidelines on high school curriculum published by the MEXT exerts little impact on the test results. However, the unique contribution of the present study lies in the fact that this is perhaps the first study that proved that this applies to a commercially available test of not only two receptive skills but also those measuring four skills. Unfortunately, JC has already stopped its operation and, thus, cannot be a replacement for NCT. Still, the high compatibility between NCT and JC scores may be a good omen for other four-skill tests without the curriculum restriction to be named as prime candidates to replace NCT. To be cautious, however, such verifications need to be empirically tested in future studies. That is partly because the difficulty of those tests may not be compatible from the perspective of preparation. It is relatively easy to prepare for NCT because (a) the test content falls within the scope of curriculum guidelines, which limits the coverage of what to study; (b) a large number of exercise books are constantly published; and (c) the test becomes open to the public once the test is over every year, and the accumulation of the questions used in the past makes it easy to anticipate the types of questions to be asked. In contrast, those other tests of four skills lack all or at least one of these three points. Perhaps the test with the least disadvantage is Eiken because numerous exercise books are published, and it publicizes the questions used on the website; still, it is without the restriction of the curriculum guidelines, making it rather difficult to anticipate what to study for the test. All in all, more studies are expected to be conducted to see the compatibilities of the scores of those tests and NCT.
RQ2: Which of the five models (unitary, uncorrelated skill, correlated skill, uncorrelated test, and correlated test) best represents the test constructs of NCT and JC?
In the present study, the unitary model and the correlated test model were equally well fit according to the chi-square difference test. However, when two models are equally well fit, the model should be chosen based upon the principle of parsimony. That is to say, the simpler model with more degrees of freedom (unitary model) should be preferred over a more saturated model with fewer degrees of freedom (correlated test model). Together with the fact that the RMSEA value was over 0.05 in the correlated test model, this model should be rejected. This indicates that these two tests are not only similar but also even close to being identical in terms of their test constructs; thus, they do not warrant being distinguished from each other by test types. The high correlation between the two factors of tests (r = .98) in the model also corroborates this decision because previous studies adopted the correlation of over 0.9 as a criterion to detect extremely highly correlated factors as they are statistically indistinguishable. In fact, based on this notion, Gu (2015) discarded the correlated four-factor model.
Furthermore, the two models, the unitary model and the correlated skill model, were equally well fit. The chi-square difference test showed the latter was marginally better than the former if the conventional alpha level of 0.05 is adopted. Actually, some of the figures in Table 9 indicate the superiority of the latter (e.g., CFI = 0.995 vs 1, TLI = 0.992 vs 1, RMSEA = 0.048 vs 0). However, because the P value was only slightly lower than 0.05 (p = .044), if the more restricted alpha level is adopted (even at 0.04), both models fit equally well. Then, following the principle of parsimony, the unitary model should be chosen over the correlated skill model. Additionally, the two latent factors are estimated to be correlated at as high as 0.93, and for the abovementioned reason, these two factors are statistically indistinguishable.
It should be noted that, in In'nami et al. (2016), the unitary model was found to be the best fit both for TEAP and TOEFL iBT when the endogenous (observed) variables were skill-based scores: reading, listening, speaking, and writing of TEAP and TOEFL iBT, and claimed that this evidence indirectly supported the higher-order structures. However, an important difference should be noted between their study and the current one. At least for TEAP, In'nami et al. rejected the correlated model with two first-order factors of receptive skills and productive skills due to the low TLI value (0.718). On the contrary, in the current study, it was exactly this model that was found to be the best choice (TLI = 1), which indirectly negates the possibility of the higher-order model.
Thus, depending upon what perspective to take, either the unitary model or the correlated skill model can be the best candidate. If the correlated skill model is to be adopted in line with numerous previous studies that examined the factor structure of language competence, this study suggests that at least receptive skills and productive skills warrant being measured separately. (Due to the fact that a single variable was obtained for speaking and writing, this study does not avail to claim that each of these two skills should be measured separately.) However, if the unitary model is to be adopted, this is quite an unexpected result because the model has been almost uniformly rejected in most of the past literature on empirical grounds. This study is most likely the first study to analyze the factor structure of NCT, so there is no study to refer to; however, at least one study, Gu (2015), examined that of JC, so it warrants comparing with the current study.
Table 17 shows some contrastive features between these two studies. Regarding participants' ages, Gu's study is perhaps the study targeting one of the youngest cohorts in this line of studies, but the results were in accordance with other studies that targeted older learners, typically university students. Furthermore, ages are often intertwined with proficiency, but Shin (2005) negated its effects on the model choice. Thus, neither age nor proficiency can account for the discrepancy. Next, although the participants in both Gu (2015) and the present study were learning English as a foreign language, the former come from 15 different countries, over a half of them were Koreans, whereas all of the learners in the present study were Japanese, which could potentially be a culprit. However, Sasaki (1996), targeting only Japanese university students, also rejected the unitary model outright as it was poorly fit. Finally, according to Gu's (2015) descriptions, the pilot version and the authentic version of JC have some differences; however, assumingly, which are rather minor. To summarize, all of these abovementioned scenarios must be ruled out.
Table 17 Comparison between Gu (2015) and the present study
Gu (2015) speculated that those test items that require integrative skills to tackle may load on multiple factors, tested a model that allowed cross-loadings, but found that this model was not tenable as all of the loadings on the secondary factors turned out to be non-significant. Such a verification was possible because the analysis was done on the item level. Here, although speculatively, lies the reason for the discrepancy in the models to be adopted in the two studies. Perhaps, on each item level, the loading on the secondary factor is too weak to be significant, but as a composite score of a few items on multiple factors, their effects may have become significant, which may explain why the correlations among the first-order factors of the four skills were all highly correlated at around 0.9, and thus, the correlated model was consequently discarded in Gu's study. It should be noted that, in contrast to Gu's study, the present study adopted even broader categories of two factors for the first order: receptive skills and productive skills, and this practice even likely facilitates blurring the boundaries between first-order factors. In JC, some of the test items in the speaking and writing sections are integrated with listening. Thus, the receptive skill (of listening) is also measured in productive skills (of speaking and writing). Unfortunately, the uncorrelated/correlated models in which receptive skills are also loaded on JC speaking and writing were unidentified in this study. However, setting the regression weights from productive skills to both JC speaking and writing at 1 in the uncorrelated model, the estimated value from receptive skills to JC speaking and to JC writing turned out to be significant at 0.435 (p < .001) and 0.475 (p < .001), respectively. Thus, although tentatively, the abovementioned hypothesis is supported.
As a final note, Alderson (1991) claims that, when exploring the nature of language proficiency, a homogeneous group should be recruited because test takers with a variety of background of ethnics, cultures, languages, and education may yield different outcomes, leading to confounding results. Sasaki (1996) also posits that learning contexts may exert on disproportionate development of each skill. The present study followed Alderson's (1991) advice, but this practice, of course, comes at the expense of generalizability; thus, the results of the present study cannot be generalized beyond Japanese high school students. Then, it is somewhat surprising that the unitary model could be adopted for them because, generally speaking, English education in Japan tends to emphasize receptive skills over productive skills partly owing to the fact that the NCT measures only the former. However, the results of the present study indicate that even productive skills develop relatively evenly with receptive skills among Japanese high school students, which is in line with Sasaki (1996). All in all, this study showed that what Sasaki found among Japanese university students may be applicable even among Japanese high school students.
Assuming that all of the six sections in the two tests are measuring a single construct, a question one could ask is, in order to assess learners' English proficiency, do receptive skills and productive skills need to be measured separately? Since the communality of NCT reading was 0.81, 81% of NCT reading scores can be explained by a single factor. JC speaking had the lowest communality, but still, it was over a half (0.52). Then, it is possible to claim that, by assessing learners only through NCT reading, we can quite confidently surmise their English proficiency.
Nevertheless, this paper was written without any intention to propose that only reading should be assessed for university entrance examinations in Japan. Such a practice will naturally lead English classes to heavily focus on reading only, possibly via the Grammar Translation Method. In order to foster communicative skills in a balanced manner among students, including productive skills, tasks in which students utilize all four skills should be implemented. For that sake, the washback effect imposed by such a high-stake test as NCT is useful, if not indispensable. It is sincerely hoped that, through implementing the system to require all students to take the tests of four skills for university entrance examination, English education in Japan will cultivate all four skills among students more than ever.
Readers may wonder why a defunct test was chosen and claim that a test still in use should be targeted instead. The abolishment of the test was announced after a large portion of data were already collected, all of a sudden by ETS. So this incident unpredictably happened.
The deadline was postponed until the end of March 2017 for some exceptional cases, including the present study.
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First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Atsushi Mizumoto and Yo In'nami who gave me valuable comments on statistical procedures and also to Neal Snape for proofreading the paper. Second, this study was not feasible without the technical help of Kazuma Shigeno for his technical help and the help of the five staffers at GC&T, Sota Hori, Kotaro Kurihara, Naoko Ohno, Hiromi Ando, and especially Mikihiko Takawa; so I greatly appreciate their continuous support. Lastly, I thank all of the participants and the high school principals who kindly allowed me to recruit students at their schools and, not to mention, the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and patience.
This study was supported by KAKENHI (JP15K02789).
Department of International Communication, Gunma Prefectural Women's University, 1395-1 Kaminote, Tamamura-machi, Sawa-gun, Gunma, 370-1193, Japan
Nobuhiro Kamiya
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NK singly designed the study, collected the data, performed the statistical analysis, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Nobuhiro Kamiya.
The author declares that he has no competing interests.
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Kamiya, N. Can the National Center Test in Japan be replaced by commercially available private English tests of four skills? In the case of TOEFL Junior Comprehensive. Lang Test Asia 7, 15 (2017) doi:10.1186/s40468-017-0046-z
L2 competence structures
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