Happy New Year! Sorry I have so many notes to catch up on. I finally submitted my NIH proposal Jan 3, hoping to prevent people from getting cancer with an inexpensive tablet. Cross your fingers – only 1 in 20 chance of funding around July. Below are brief headlines with longer notes here.
The Economist – Inflammation is a major cause of cancer and heart disease. Reduce inflammation with fish/oil, exercise, no fours diet!
"LDL isn't really as bad as they make it out to be – at least not until it becomes oxidized." Roc comment: That is why I tell people it is important to take 500 mg vitamin C twice a day, as that prevents LDL oxidation!
Reduced caloric intake and more protein increase healthspan in multiple studies. Overall, the results from multiple studies show that both reduced calories intake (CR) and the ratio between macronutrients, namely the protein to carbohydrates ratio, positively impact lifespan.
New Yorker 9/11 – Metastasis of cancer depends not only on the cancer, but also the person who has it. Inflammation is one of the main triggers of metastasis, so reducing inflammation can reduce heart disease, cancer, and metastasis of cancer.
Use of Dietary Supplements among older adults continues to be high in the United States, with 29%of users regularly taking $4 DSs, and there is a high concurrent usage of them with prescription medications.
For diabetics, a no-needle glucose meter is expected this year.
READER NOTE: People with a sensitive stomach may have alternatives to taking aspirin to prevent heart disease – sent by a qualified reader.
Preventing plagiarism in college (follow this link).
Cancer Is promoted through obesity-induced inflammation. Science 358: 1130 – Obesity is a growing global epidemic and rivals smoking as the leading preventable risk factor for cancer incidence and mortality, being responsible for an estimated 20% of cancer-related deaths in adults. Obesity underlies a number of distinct but interconnected health conditions that have profound consequence for physiology including hyper-nutrition, dysbiosis, hypercholesterolemia, metabolic syndrome, and chronic inflammation. Inflammation, in particular, is known to be a potent driver of cancer initiation and progression.
This study suggests older adults who are trying to slim down should consider lifting weights. The diets that cause muscle loss are usually low calorie, low-protein diets. Deficiencies in protein and calories cause the body to break muscle down. This provides amino acids the body needs to maintain organ function. So if you're on a low-calorie diet to lose weight, make sure you're eating enough protein. But there's more you can do.
Injection that melts fat is in clinical trials. Israeli startup Raziel Therapeutics has developed an injectable molecule that apparently melts away fat cells. The new synthetic small molecule was discovered by Professor Shmuel Ben-Sasson of Hebrew University almost by accident. Raziel is conducting phase 2a clinical testing on 32 US patients.
Dietary interventions have been shown to influence various cognitive and behavioral tests in rodents indicating that nutrition can influence brain aging and possibly neurodegeneration. COGNITIVE and behavioral evaluation of nutritional interventions in rodent models of brain aging and dementia. There are an increasing number of studies that have evaluated nutritional interventions including caloric restriction, intermittent fasting, and manipulation of macronutrients.
The predominant sleep position in adults is on the side. This preference increases with age and BMI. SLEEP positions and nocturnal body movements based on free living accelerometer recordings association with demographics lifestyle and insomnia symptoms.
For people over 50, smiling improves effectiveness of flu vaccination, as does 400iu of vitamin E for 3 days before and after the shot. AARP – For 2016, the vaccine worked for people 50-64, but was ineffective for those over 65, unless they were feeling happy when they got vaccinated. It may be that stress hormones suppress the immune system, or that mood is linked to sleep, diet, and exercise.
READER NOTE: Rethinking cholesterol – more evidence to avoid statins.
"LDL isn't really as bad as they make it out to be – at least not until it becomes oxidized." Roc comment: That is why I tell people it is important to take 500 mg vitamin C twice a day, as that prevents LDL oxidation! It is oxidized LDL that becomes sticky and causes plaque. Instead of statins, consider just exercise, wise eating, and vitamin C. Get an LDL/HDL ratio less than 3.5 to 1 (2 to 1 is great), and that is what matters – relatively high HDL and lots of antioxidants in the diet. Statins have not been shown to benefit anyone but those who have had a heart attack already – and are likely to harm people who haven't had a heart attack.
Perhaps you should have your doctor check your apoB level instead of cholesterol to avoid heart attacks? Science 358:1237-8 Is it time to retire cholesterol tests? It is cheaper to measure apoB, which may be a better measure of risk for heart disease. LDL cholesterol may not be good enough. It misses many who get heart attacks, and indicates many who have no problems.
You can work toward brain health by following recommendations of the Alzheimer's Assoc or Am. Heart Assoc, or by reading how to rejuvenate your brain.
Coming soon – Curing glaucoma in the blink of an eye. Israel's Belkin Laser has developed an innovative laser ray system that can treat glaucoma in just one second every year, instead of daily eye drops. There is no need for direct contact of the equipment with the eye. Belkin recently raised $5 million of funding.


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Novi senior named top tech student
Kirsten Betts is a second-year student in the culinary arts and hospitality program at the Oakland Schools Technical Campus Southwest in Wixom.
Novi senior named top tech student Kirsten Betts is a second-year student in the culinary arts and hospitality program at the Oakland Schools Technical Campus Southwest in Wixom. Check out this story on HometownLife.com: http://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/local/novi/2018/04/25/novi-senior-named-top-tech-student/33950009/
Published 12:00 a.m. ET April 25, 2018
Kirsten Betts, shown with one of the wedding cakes she has created.(Photo: submitted)
Novi High School senior Kirsten Betts has been named Oakland Schools Career & Technical Education Outstanding Student of the Year.
Betts is a second-year student in the culinary arts and hospitality program at the Oakland Schools Technical Campus Southwest in Wixom.
Program administrators selected Betts for demonstrating the highest level of excellence in technical skills attained, certifications received, class leadership, academics, student organization participation, work-based learning experiences and community service. Betts will now represent the CTE campus Wednesday, May 2, at the ninth annual Career and Technical Education Student Recognition Program.
In total, Betts will receive more than 23 certificates during her time in the culinary program. All of her efforts have led to maintaining an 'A' average in the two years with the program.
Betts's leadership has stood out as she has been responsible for the program's baking and pastry department during the afternoon session this year. Her contributions to catering and providing desserts to a variety of events has also been critical to the program's success. She's made wedding cakes as well as prepared handmade pastries for the Urgin' for Sturgeon event at Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium last November.
Betts has said she would ultimately like to open her own bakery.
"The contributions she has already made to our class, the technical campus and (Novi High School), as well as the community, demonstrates she is on her way to open that bakery with success," said Charles Neal, a culinary arts/hospitality instructor.
Besides Betts's academic portfolio, she also maintains a busy schedule by volunteering at her church, where she works with the parish youth on fundamentals, behavior, reading and hosting Sunday School. In addition, she also participates with the Delta Academy, where she works with underprivileged youth in foster homes, economically depressed areas and orphanages.
"Kirsten has been a wonderful addition to our program over the past several years and is committed to our industry," Neal said. "She will be a leader in the hospitality business in the near future and for years to come."
Read or Share this story: http://www.hometownlife.com/story/news/local/novi/2018/04/25/novi-senior-named-top-tech-student/33950009/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As we contemplate the modern erosion of philanthropy-based cultural funding sources, what resource and options exist or must be created (or re-created) and distributed for privileged or nonprivileged artists seeking to establish their craft? How do we normalize and act with equality in the arts with finite fiscal resources instead of rhetoric?
As DIY galleries are predominantly lead by white art school graduates, how can their assembly and agency create a support system for POC artists? Do they have inclusion obligation, even within the system of autonomous or independent curation? What is a sustainable and fair curatorial model, if one exists?
DIY Galleries and artists are typically membership driven. At a currently challenging figure, Little Berlin is still essentially only able to afford rent (Author is treasurer). Certainly inaccessible to many emerging artists that would want to be members, the agency created by the micro/'non'-institution actually owns some of the responsibility to offer discounted rental rates, if any, to those of less privilege. How is this done fairly and sustainably?
Tnmot Aztro is a 7 person dance company from Hartford, CT, led by Director Arien Wilkerson Established in 2016, Tmnot Aztro has created movement experiences for sold out audiences across the east coast. The company's performances have found success at art galleries, institutions and incubator spaces such as The Historic Town and County Club of Hartford, the Wadsworth Atheneum, University of Saint Joseph, Scapegoat Garden Center for Contemporary Dance, Ted Hershey Dance Marathon, New Britain Museum of Art, Connecticut Dance Alliance, and the CT Dance Awards.
Arien Wilkerson is an award winning choreographer, and movement, video, and installation artist. The Hartford, CT native began his dance training within the wisdom of Jolet Creary, and has been a student at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, The Artists Collective, Earl Mosley Institute of the Arts, and the Batsheva Dance Company's "Gaga Intensive" in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 2008, he was a scholarship recipient for travel to Cape Verde, Africa to participate in CulturArte, a youth arts residency program. There, he studied with Deborah Goffe (Artistic Director of Scapegoat Garden) and Mano Preto (Artistic Director of Raiz di Polon). In his role as founder and Artistic Director of TNMOT AZTRO, Arien has been commissioned by Hartford's Town & County Club to develop his sold-out show BLACK BOY JUNGLE, which went on to sell out the Wadsworth Atheneum. As an Artist in Residence at The Garden Center for Contemporary Dance (2013-2014), Arien developed three iterations of "The Projector Series. The fourth iteration of The Projector Series went on to being the first sold out dance performance at its venue Real Art Ways in 40 years, selling out all 3 nights. Arien served as co-facilitator for the Invisible City Project Cooperative, a space and program with the goal of supporting Greater Hartford dance artists in making their best work. Wilkerson was recently named Take Magazine's 2017 "Artist to Watch".
Date and Time: June 22nd, 23rd, 24th Performances at 7pm and 9pm each night.
New Cast: Kailah King, Henry Olivo, Erica Nelson, Lauren Horn, Brian Syms Jr, Joseph Heitman Arien Wilkerson.


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Blog : MoCCA: MAD Man, Minus Minus
MoCCA: MAD Man, Minus Minus
Comics, Travel June 28, 2009 seaking 1
A few weeks ago I traveled to NYC for the day, and attended the MoCCA Art Fest – an indie comic convention that I've been to twice before.
As I did last year, I drove to Norwalk, CT, and then took the train into Grand Central Station. I was able to walk to the convention from there, as they were holding it at a new venue – the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Ave. It was about 16 blocks South of the train station.
On my way down to the con, I discovered that several blocks (6 to 8?) of Lexington were closed off for a street market of some kind:
There were several booths selling clothing, jewelry, souvenirs, etc. as well as lots of food and drink booths. I needed to get some lunch, so I got a chicken kabob/pita sandwich, and ate it while I walked the rest of the way.
The con was supposed to start at 11:00am. I got to the building at 11:40 and found that they hadn't started admitting people yet. Apparently, movers were late getting con supplies there and unloading, so the organizers were still getting setup. The line to get in snaked around the corner and halfway up the block on 26th St. After I got in line, many more people lined up after me, eventually snaking around the next corner.
Here's the line in front of me:
and behind me:
I was standing in the sun, and hadn't brought a hat (or any sunscreen). Fortunately, I had my laptop bag with me (sans laptop) that I was able to hold on top of my head (and managed to balance it there for quite a while). It provided much needed shade.
While waiting in line, I saw this gold topped building:
Not sure what it is (I haven't tried looking it up – anybody know?).
The line finally started moving around 12:30, and within 10 minutes I was inside. Unlike previous years in the Puck Building, they had all the exhibitors in one big space (so big I couldn't get it all in one picture):
A brief rundown of people whose tables I visited, in no particular order:
Dylan Meconis
Bill Roundy
Laura Wilson
Pat Lewis
Jim Ottaviani
Jim O. was supposed to be debuting his new book at the con. It's called T-Minus, and it's about the space race leading up to the moon landing. It was written by him and drawn by Zander and Kevin Cannon. Unfortunately, Jim's agent, who was supposed to be bringing the copies of the book for Jim to sell, never showed up. Jim sold plenty of his older books, but it was still disappointing for him. The Cannons were there as well, at a separate table, and they had some copies they'd apparently gotten from their local comic store. I ended up buying the book from them, and then taking it to Jim for a signature.
I went to a few panels during the day. The first was the Comics Bakery panel. That's the name of a collective of 4 artists: Raina Telgemeier, Dave Roman, Marion Vitus, and John Green, and the panel was them going through the history of how they all met and started collaborating, and eventually got married (well, they're 2 married couples). Here's a pic of 3 of them (Vitus, Green, and Telgemeier) during the panel:
The room where the panels were held had murals on all 4 walls of scenes from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars (it is a National Guard building), which made for an unusual backdrop for the presentation (why no, there's nothing distracting about Confederate soldiers being bayonetted by the Union Army!).
The second panel I sat through was less interesting. It was about the state of comics publishing, and had 7 publishers on it. Not much to report from it.
The third panel was about the humor magazine Humbug. I had never heard of it before this con, but it was apparently published for 2 years in the late '50's, and involved 5 writers/artists, some of whom had worked for MAD Magazine. Two of the founding members were on the panel: Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee (left and center, respectively):
They talked about working on Humbug, and various other topics that may or may not have been related, and were pretty funny throughout. Jaffee was the reason I was there, as I am very familiar with him from reading MAD.
This was him talking to the moderator after the panel.
Al Jaffee wrote and drew various features for MAD, including 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions'. He also was responsible for the MAD Fold-In, which was always on the inside back cover of the mag, and featured an image and question, which yielded a different image and the answer when you folded the right side over to meet the left side.
After the panel, Roth and Jaffee were doing a signing. I have a bunch of old issues of MAD from the '60's that my Dad had collected, and though they're falling apart, I still have most of the covers. I brought a few fold-ins with me for Jaffee to sign.
Click here to see the fold-ins, and to "fold" them.
The con ended for the day at 7, I went and had a lovely dinner at a Middle Eastern deli, and then walked back to Grand Central to head home. The end.
Gretchen June 29, 2009
Quite a fascinating title, Sean!
Is that the NY Life building? There's a pic here: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=115516
Nice post! 🙂


Delight in a fun-filled trip that involves snorkeling and fishing in Coco Beach, Goa.
With your arrival here, you will be taken to the Grand Island in Vasco, where you will be provided with the snorkeling gear and fishing rods.
This marks the the beginning of your thrilling adventure.
You can then opt to go for snorkeling or fishing.
An unforgettable experience for me. For the first time got a chance to get into snorkeling and see the marine life. Thanks alot guys for an amazing experience.
It was so fun going for so many fun activities with family. Really enjoyed a lot. Specially the snorkeling part of the trip was a very nice experience.
Had an amazing experience during the trip. Went with may family and enjoyed alot. This was our first time we went for snorkeling and fishing. Snorkeling was easy, but fishing will take time for you to understand properly the functioning of the fishing rod.
Looking for a refreshing experience from your busy life, this is the activity you must go for. Away from the hustle and bustle of city, it is amazing to be on the trip. We really enjoyed snorkeling and fishing. everyone of us were really happy and ready for the coming week of work.
Really amazing activities, totally fun. Loved the snorkeling and fishing on the boat. A total refreshing experience with family. It was a very peaceful and serene.
Very neat planning and organization. The snorkeling experience was very unique, I had never done this kind of activity before. I did fishing for the first time and it was also quite interesting. I totally loved this trip on a cruise. Would love to do this activity again.
A really good experience. We all enjoyed a lot. Though we caught only few fishes, the snorkeling was amazing. It was my first time trying it and I truly enjoyed it.


Seferi's corner pulled him out in between rounds, to hand Fury his 26th professional win and put him on track towards the world titles he once owned.
Bellew has been calling for a fight with Fury for several months, and wrote in his Metro.co.uk column that he would be coming for his British rival if he continued to take on 'clowns' like Seferi.
The Liverpudlian was not in attendance for Fury's return in Manchester, but was clearly not overly impressed with the performance he saw on TV.
Fury addressed Bellew's call-out in the post-fight press conference after Frank Warren refused to dismiss the challenge out of hand.
Warren said it was 'down to Tony Bellew' to chase a clash with Fury, at which point his fighter interrupted.
'I want someone big,' Fury said.
'Small ones, I don't like them. Big. Look at [Anthony] Joshua and [Deontay] Wilder, they're all over 6ft 5in.


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace Sabio.Web.Domain
{
    public class SquadEvent
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; }
        public DateTime DateModified { get; set; }
        public string UserIdCreated { get; set; }
        public DateTime EventStart { get; set; }
        public DateTime EventEnd { get; set; }
        public string Description { get; set; }
        public string Location { get; set; }
        public int SquadId { get; set; }
        public string Color { get; set; }
        public string Timezone { get; set; }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


So after writing this blog semi-regularly for four to five months, it became painfully apparent that it does, indeed take a good bit of serious time and effort in order to publish a decent quality blog on a regular basis. My last post was six months ago, as I was about to embark on my annual trip to Europe for Oktoberfest, and due to being pre-occupied by travel and life in general, I stopped posting.
For the last six months, I've missed it.
So here's what I'm going to do — my goal is give it my best effort to get back in the game and make some regular postings. There has been a ton going on in the travel-related miles and points world — the landscape for earning and redeeming miles has changed considerably in the last six months. All in all, I hope to get some useful material posted. I aim to hit on travel-related news stories, tips and tricks for traveling, earning and burning miles, and of course some detailed trip reports that highlight the adventures that I've been able to plan and subsequently experience. As usual, there are a number of trips that I have in the pipeline, so as always, I'll provide insight into what I'm doing to plan those trips.
In a matter of fact, I leave Tuesday for Venice to embark on a 12-night cruise to the Greek Isles and Turkey, as well as a stop in Ireland before flying home.
Hopefully, I'll regain your attention as a reader of my blog, and that this foray into the blogging world won't be as short-lived as my last!


Conquests – An Australian focused, easily scrollable blog full of newly released software, books and magazines.
Update 03/10/2016: By combing the power of myself and Alex Lukacz we bring you the complete package of software and booklet.
On the 23rd of May 2016 I spoke with Greg Preston, president of the now folded NSW Computer Education Group. Greg remembered Turtle well and brought my attention to the lower right corner "CEU 013", and suggested that was book 13 of about 150.
This has been processed using Photoshop to correct levels and Adobe ClearScan in the older Acrobat 11 to clean up the text and de-skew pages.
"Turtle requires a 48k APPLE II computer with a disk drive".
How does an eBay auction for a PCI Macintosh Video card lead to archiving unique Apple II software?
It took 2 years, countless emails and dedication.
On the 28th of October 2014 my usual eBay searches turned up a 'SuperMac PCI video card' located in 2605, Canberra. Finding something for vintage Macintosh computers in Canberra was special and I emailed the seller to ask if they had more gear available. I didn't need the video card at that stage as the collection was just getting started. A quick reply came from David who creatively spelt out his email address (eBay filter messages out if they contact direct contact details). I introduced myself as looking for Apple memorabilia and System Software 6 era machines (e.g. Macintosh SE, Macintosh II). David confirmed he had good prices on gear I was interested in (Apple CD300e SCSI CD ROM) but needed time to go through his items.
1st of November I visited David at his home to find a garage with a beautiful older Porsche car and Mac gear dotted around the shelves. He had brought out some machines from a second room in the garage to show me, which at the time caught my interest as my imagination pondered what else could be in there but I didn't dare assume I could just walk in. So we had a look at the gear put aside and talked about the issues a collector faces when electrolytic capacitors are turning Apples into time bombs. He suggested earlier Macs such as the 512K and Plus were stable and showed me in sunlight a Mac Plus analogue board that looked brand new. David showed me an SE/30 with no sound and couldn't boot from a Hard Drive but booted immediately from a Norton emergency boot floppy.
I came home with a Portrait display, Macintosh Iici, SE/30, Apple CD300e and ADB keyboard and mouse device. I emailed him back with notes on each as I had cleaned them up and tried to get them working. David replied with some suggestions like buying a 3.6V PRAM battery to suit the IIci (hoping to get Video out).
16th of November 2014 I emailed again asking if he would consider selling more gear as I was having such a nice time tinkering. David confirmed he would but needed more time.
Fast forward to the 23rd of July 2015 where I next heard back with an apology but an offer of good prices on computers and time to come by. I went over on the 30th of July to pickup more computers and tinker.
Now for some context to my vintage computer collecting. Early joyful memories are of an Apple IIe system at Macquarie Primary School, Canberra. I think it was year 5 primary that MPS had a huge school fete where they were clearing out all of their old electronic gear. I remember the day clearly, and walking around the tables setup with computer packages. I convinced my dad to buy a complete IIe system (Colour Composite monitor, DuoDrive, IIe Platinum), IIc System (IIc and matching green phosphor monitor) plus a milk crate full of software.
My parents had separated well before then but it was decided the IIe was for Mums house and the IIc to stay at Dads. I remember playing 'Carmen Sandigeo' games on the IIc and wondering why the graphics were very sharp but only green and black. Taking my favourite floppy disks back and forth I had the colour on the IIe to remind me of what I thought the graphics should look like.
The IIe was sold at a garage sale as we planned to move interstate and the IIc no one remembers where it went but I sure remember missing that little computer.
It would have been great to find an Apple II system again but I had to focus collecting on Macintosh simply because nothing Apple II existed. I didn't have any of the connections that I do today and relied on searching eBay and gumtree. Those Apple II systems that did come up were at priced at a minimum of $400 and often were the machine only, I was looking for the games I remembered.
How I further focused on Macintosh collecting will be another post! Back to David and the Apple II link!
Another year later and 20th of March 2016 I contact David mentioning I found a group called 'Apple ][ Australia' that had a users group meeting come up and wondered if he had anything Apple II around. To my true surprise he replied "OK- I'll see what I can find- probably an Apple ][ e, monitor, and duodisk- sound ok?". I was floored as not only had I failed to ask back in 2014 about the II gear but he described exactly the IIe setup at Mums house back in the day. His one line reply sent me into Apple II research mode where I read many articles, book extracts etc. on the various models and how one can service them to get them working again.
One particular thread that proved invaluable was a posting to Overclockers Australia by Dean Claxton on how he restored an Apple II power supply that had capacitors leaking. The journey to finding someone who was able and had time to fix 'leaky caps' is again worthy of another post. Quick read is Dean has become the go to guy for both Macintosh and Apple II repairs. I've referred friends and online contacts to him as I am assured I'm not the only one with power supplies blowing smoke.
On the 20th of April 2016 I came home with a car full of treasures including books, software and Apple II computers. Tucked away a tub of David's was a book 'Programmable Turtle' which was a teachers guide on lessons using LOGO to draw shapes on an Apple computer screen. Note: Affixed to the back of the booklet is the matching software disk which us unfortunatly unreadable.
The booklet struck me as seriously important as it was the first Australian publication on using the Apple II had seen and it listed author's names.
Chris Bakon; Ted Duffy; John Messing and Greg Preston.
I'll admit to some nerves in calling these guys out of the blue – what would I say? Was it possible they had software or even Apple hardware after all these years? Programmable turtle was published in 1985, 31 years ago! Call me fashionably late.
I should mention that all four names above gave me time out of their day to talk and make suggestions as to next look as they no longer had Apple II items. Ted was spot on when he suggested a specific journal to place an advertisement in. I had to think this one over – was my target audience still reading this journal? Was it worth the cost?
Andrew Ganesan of the NSW Teachers Federation charges $16 per ten words, I agreed for this to be published for I think $35 "80s Apple computer collection needs contributions, I save resources+hardware used in schools,focus on Apple2, jeremybh1@gmail.com 0410586345".
With the advertisement out there I continued on practically hunting down more Apple connections in my spare time. Honestly it could be just the initial of a first name and last name plus a suburb to get me started. My strategies of going through 80s advertisements and contacting businesses took time for little reward as the businesses had closed well and truly.
1st of July 2016 an email comes through titled 'Apple resources' by John Hill. He found my advertisement in the NSW TF journal. I replied with my fingers gliding over the keyboard quickly to organise a time to pick them up, facing a 6.5hr drive return. My partner and I happened to be taking a holiday to New Zealand and would be driving back to Canberra, almost going right past John's suburb on the way. John and I agreed on pickup after arriving back to Australia.
9th of July my partner and I are in the Volkswagen golf, boot half full with skis, luggage and more. We found John's house easily, and I was met at the door with a welcome and invitation to come in. Neatly set out was a Macintosh LCII, Apple IIe Platinum, Clone Apple IIe, software, manuals and more. We loaded the car and sent on our ways back to Canberra with a promise to keep John informed of my work to archive the software and maintain the equipment.
This past week (today is the 16th of July) has been stressful at time due to my lease expiring at my Unit where all the collection is housed and I had a 5.25" box of wonderful software staring back at me.
I set about 'imaging' the disks, a task I had no idea would be as challenging as it was.
Cable arrives and the connection works first go – finally the Apple IIe and MacBook are talking to each other at 115200 baud via terminal emulation.
Start with the first disk, Apple IIe crashes a few seconds into the file transfer, debug, turns out the disk has mould which has affected the drive head.
Celebrate as I made it through a total of 66 floppies with only 8 not working.
Going through the software using an Apple II emulator allows me to quickly check the images are working, make screenshots and add details such as the year and publisher to my spreadsheet.
The next step is to upload the disk images to Archive.org and take on scanning the manuals.
I plan to contact more people after I move house and see what else I can find – John Hill's software is mainly Australian written and published software that for the first time can live on thanks to my efforts. Not only can the disk images be written back to real floppies but they can be used in emulation in a web browser requiring no configuration.
January has proven to be a great month for my Apple collection. This post is to thank those who have generously given me their vintage gear or sold it at a bargain price. I clean everything in my collection thoroughly with various styles of micro-fibre cloths, gumption, eucalyptus oil for the stickers and windex. Keep in mind that computers of this age do collect a fair amount of dust so they have to be cleaned anyway.
SE 800K – The SE 800K has programmers switches and original everything. It turned on first go with a very loud, clear chime into SSW 6.0.2 – 20meg hard drive installed too making it quite heavy. Screen brightness is high and geometery correct. Boots from floppy, reads quickly and ejects fine.
The Performa 580 is interesting to me as I have the Performa 580CD and assumed they all came with a CD drive. Apparently not – this one just has a smooth line through where the CD drive is. So a pretty useless machine for the time – a huge colour classic!
Over the past few days I've been playing with a new Amstrad PCC640. I recived it in as new condition with absolutely no sign of use – even the floppies were sealed. The bag however was filthy, blanketed in very fine dust that must have built up over the years. The unit itself though is like a time machine, after a once over with a micro fibre cloth it shines!
I formatted a real DS DD floppy to 720kb in windows and simply copied Commander Keen 4 CGA edition onto the floppy. Boot the Amstrad with the offical DOS 3.3 disk in A, this game in B. Run the executable and within seconds I had Commander Keen 4 with all it's PC speaker glory.
The screen is nice with a desk lamp for text, but as I discovered today – motion isn't good. Quite blurry with horizontal scrolls making Keen the wrong game for this display type.


When our robots become as integral to your perceptions of "me" as your hand or your arm, you will remember Emerge 2014. That's the time you first saw amazing musicians teaching drones to sing. The choreographed quadcopters will perform with New-Yorker-magazine-immortalized experimental "interspecies" musician David Rothenberg, who will be flying in from Berlin, as well as the band There Is Danger, whose specialty is the "4 a.m. drive out of town" sound. The multi-talented drones will swarm out of the ASU labs of Srikanth Saripalli.


Apophenia is the propensity to see patterns in random data. It was first coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad – a German neurologist and psychiatrist who, perhaps a little ironically, was attempting to identify early indicators of psychosis.
An apophany (an instance of apophenia) can perhaps best be defined in contrast to an epiphany. An epiphany is a moment of sudden and striking realization that leads a person to a greater degree of clarity in the nature of reality – a discovery of a truism, often hidden in plain sight. An apophany is having the experience of an epiphany, but you're just plain wrong.
We've all heard some version of the old adage that correlation does not imply causation.
It can be clearly demonstrated that in neighborhoods where there is an increase in ice cream consumption, there is a roughly equivalent spike in aggravated assault incidents. We'd be foolish to assume that eating ice cream makes people irrationally violent, but that doesn't mean there is nothing valuable to learn from this. When we broaden the lens a bit, and include other variables, the connections become clearer.
In overpopulated urban environments, where there is a greater concentration of disenfranchised people – people who are statistically more likely to commit poverty crimes, and statistically less likely to have air-conditioned homes – heat waves usher in higher levels of frustration, lower levels of tolerance, and more people eating ice cream. You can also sharpen the focus by throwing in aggravation over public transit failures, brown-outs and black-outs, lower productivity, and countless other factors.
So, while enjoying tasty dairy products does not necessarily incite violence, the correlation between ice cream consumption and violence is not meaningless. Ice cream consumption analysis may indeed provide value as a leading indicator, or bellwether, of the potential for violent acts trending upward in a given community. If not a bellwether, it certainly is a valid correlation – as opposed to a simple coincidence.
The purpose of regression analysis is to identify those variables (referred to as independent variables) that help reveal valid correlations in the phenomena one is attempting to predict (the dependent variable).
Regression analysis is a tricky beast to harness. When the whole point is to find hidden correlations that may even defy intuitive understanding, it can be tempting to throw in the entire kitchen sink and see what comes out. The greatest perceived risk in that arises from patterns that may align, but are nevertheless invalid. These coincidences are referred to as 'spurious relationships'.
If the patterns of some spurious relationship(s) happen to align with the patterns of other independent variables in a regression analysis model, the accuracy of the model will be impacted, and could be dramatically impacted.
It would be foolish to place any faith in all those quirky coincidences we always hear about with sports teams, for example. There is no reasonably conceivable way the first initial of the middle name of the first child born in some small town after the start of a sport's season could predict the outcome of a team's playoff standings – but I'd be genuinely surprised if there wasn't some spurious relationship to be found there.
On the other hand, we do have a valid argument for replacing the dramatic orchestra strike that foreshadows violent crime in movies with the sound of an ice cream truck.
How do we strike the balance between the desire to uncover hidden variables that provide valuable insight into trends, and the fear of creating an apophenic, potentially psychotic, regression analysis model?
Almost invariably, we simply do not push far enough.
Should stock market analysis include things like weather patterns, celebrity news stories and grade school holidays?
Classical stock market analysis techniques don't work as well as they used to. Why? Frankly, we have a greater number of ignorant people playing the market. The proliferation of "Day Traders" has crippled the old market truisms, because so many people who are affecting the market dynamics don't have any classical training. The things that affect the moods and daily lives of 'normal people' need to be considered, because 'normal people' are far more active in the markets than they used to be. If they don't play by the rules, then some of those rules simply cease to apply.
Apopheniphobia is fueled by fears of falling prey to spurious relationships. Who wants to be known as the person who unleashed a dangerous psychotic algorithm into the world?
For example, did you know that there is a direct correlation between the per capita consumption of margarine and the divorce rate in Maine? Cheese consumption is far more dangerous than margarine consumption – it correlates with the number of people who die by becoming tangled in their bed sheets. (And you thought lactose intolerance was a bad reaction?) The number of people who drowned by falling into a pool also correlates with the number of films Nicholas Cage appeared in from 1999 through 2009.
In IT, we have a tendency to drive toward 'proving' clear, unambiguous relationships that quantify efforts, justify means and, more often than not, clearly align to our own preconceived notions. We want to be able to show clear lines of progression and indisputably direct relationships – we tend to believe anything less will not be trusted by those who hold the purse strings.
Our hyper-rational modes of thinking have a tendency to overshadow our creative imaginations – which, almost inevitably, leads to hampered understanding.
Perhaps the greatest value of regression analysis is that it allows us to challenge our preconceived notions and learn something new. The greatest challenge with it is rarely throwing too much data at our models – it's not having enough.
Yes, I know… We're IT. We're awash with data. We're swimming in lakes of data and constantly inhaling the fumes of endless data exhaust. What we're missing is the meaningful data extracted from unstructured information sources – in other words, the extraordinarily valuable information that's locked away in language that has historically been inaccessible to machines – human language.
Estimates have been telling us for a decade or more that 80% of all information in a given organization is in the form unstructured, human-readable text. I think there is nowhere that rings more true or significant than in trying to understand customer experience. I'd also argue that the majority of the most important service information is within that 80%.
Customer Experience Personalization absolutely depends on translating that human-readable text to machine-actionable data.
When it comes to understanding and deriving value from actionable insights within our customer interactions, we must extract as much understanding from that unstructured text as possible and add it all to the other data in our regression models. Apopheniphbia be damned!
While it's, admittedly, an oversimplification, it's convenient to talk about two general approaches to extracting data from text.
Text Analytics/Mining breaks the textual input into digestible chunks of string variables and uses statistical modeling techniques to find patterns in those variables.
The ideal of Natural Language Processing is to develop a translation engine between human language and machine language. It uses some of the same statistical modeling approaches as Text Analytics, but goes much further by applying semantic and syntactic analysis to extract meaning, intention, sentiment and key concepts (among other things) covered in the text.
Our best opportunity to achieve our vision of industry-leading Customer Experience Personalization is to take advantage of Natural Language Processing. That barely scratches the surface of what's possible. Natural Language Processing will enable us to step aggressively toward extracting real meaning from the vast amount of otherwise machine-invisible, extraordinarily valuable content we have. Using that extracted meaning, in conjunction with our structured data points, will allow us to build truly valuable regression analysis models to understand our customers like never before.
Keep pushing until the model breaks, then dial it back a scosche. That is the path to progress.
Apopheniphobia is the enemy of personalization and Customer Relationship Management.
This is why I've decided to launch the Apopheniphobia Awareness Campaign.
I need to come up with a design for the lapel pin… Maybe a ribbon with as many digits of pi I can squeeze on it – with all the prime digits bolded?
Maybe we can schedule a charity walk… Follow streets in alphabetical order, maybe?


text:
Q: When try to call /shutdown on springboot, requeries authorization header instead just correct shutdown application I have app on spring-boot
added
endpoints.shutdown.enabled=true
endpoints.shutdown.sensitive=false

to application.properties
and try to call:
 curl -i -X POST devapp583.netcracker.com:26810/shutdown

But requres Auth header instead just shutting down:
{"errorCode":403,"userMessage":"No 'Authorization' header","stacktrace":null,"remoteMessage":null}

A: It seems like a bug, take a look here. (If you use @EnableResourceServer)

According to the docs for 1.3 for health access restrictions, a
  non-sensitive health endpoint should allow anonymous access. However,
  this stops working if the @EnableResourceServer annotation is found.
  When the OAuth2 resource server is enabled, even non-sensitive
  endpoints require full authentication.

Also there you can find a workaround:

I did manage to work around the problem for the health endpoint by
  adding the following bean definition.
@Bean
ResourceServerConfigurer resourceServerConfigurer() {
    new ResourceServerConfigurerAdapter() {
        @Override
        void configure(ResourceServerSecurityConfigurer resources)
                throws Exception {
            resources.resourceId('blah')
        }

        @Override
        void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
            http.authorizeRequests()
            // allow anonymous access to health check endpoint
                    .antMatchers("/manage/health").permitAll()
            // everything else requires authentication
                    .anyRequest().authenticated()
        }
    }
}

However I have not tried it myself

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Experts Report 1 of 2 Remaining Types of Polio Virus May be Eliminated in Pakistan
Polio cases worldwide reached historic lows in 2012, and for the first time there were no new outbreaks beyond countries already harboring the disease, leaving researchers confident that a massive and re-energized international campaign to eradicate polio is on a path to success, according to presentations today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).
Globally there were 177 polio cases through October 2012, a drop from 502 during the same period last year. Despite the dramatic drop, polio experts noted challenges in Pakistan posed by parents who refuse to vaccinate their children and in Nigeria where polio cases more than doubled in 2012 and threatened to re-infect currently polio-free countries. Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic and are the battle grounds of efforts to make polio only the second human disease, after smallpox, to be completely eliminated.
Steven Wassilak, MD, a medical epidemiologist and polio expert at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said new data from Pakistan show that of the two types of wild polio virus (WPV1 and WPV3) circulating in the country, the one known as WPV3 - or Type 3 - is close to being eliminated.
There have not been any Type 3 cases reported for six months, which is the longest gap in incidence there to date, he says. CDC works with Pakistan officials to monitor different chains of transmission over time and Type 3 is now down to only one chain, which is an indication that we are close to breaking the last link of Type 3.
The CDC, which has led the effort to establish a global network of laboratories to track and sequence the genome of the wild polio virus, is one of four partners spearheading the Global Polio Eradication Initiative along with Rotary International, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), with great support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In September, the partners along with leaders from Pakistan, Nigeria, and Afghanistan met at United Nations Headquarters in New York to reaffirm the Emergency Action Plan against polio, launched in May. The initiative includes a surge of human resources involving 4,000 people who have been deployed to complete the eradication effort.
New Study Finds Vaccine Refusals Remain Barrier to Elimination
At the ASTMH conference, Anita Zaidi, MD, a pediatrician at Aga Khan University in Karachi who serves on Pakistans National Immunization Technical Advisory Group, is presenting new data showing that while Pakistan has made major progress against polio by expanding immunization campaigns, the remaining challenge is not one easily solved by additional resources.
We found that in Karachi, a key reason children fail to get immunizations is not due to lack of access, but because their parents refuse to participate, Zaidi said. That is a big challenge and not something that can be overcome only by expanding immunization campaigns.
In a study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO), Zaidi and her colleagues found that in Karachi, parent refusal was the most common reason given for the failure of children to participate in two recent polio supplementary immunization activities, accounting for 74 percent of missed immunizations.
While opposition to polio vaccinations has been widely reported in the remote, restive tribal territories in the north, less examined, Zaidi said, has been the situation in the urban environs of Karachi, which her study describes as the only megacity in the world that has not succeeded in interrupting polio transmission. Nationwide, Pakistani health officials believe vaccine refusals, driven by false rumors that immunizations cause sterility and are contaminated with HIV, actually are declining. But Zaidi said that recent events in Karachi suggest the intensity of those who remain opposed appears to be rising.
She pointed out that in just the last few months, a health worker in Karachi involved in the polio campaign was killed and the child of another was kidnapped (though later returned unharmed). Zaidi said that she recently participated in a polio seminar in Karachi where concerns about violence prompted the organizers to avoid any publicity. Given the current volatile environment and continued evidence of widespread viral transmission in sewage sampling, Zaidi said that while Pakistan is making considerable progress in reducing polio cases, eradication by 2013 appears unrealistic.
Efforts should focus on building trust through grassroots efforts using community elders in populations with high vaccine refusal rates, she said. By providing vaccination at mass transit sites such as bus routes used to travel up-country throughout the year, we can at least isolate the viral reservoirs and make sure we avoid what happened last year, which was exporting the virus to China.
In Nigeria, Working With Traditional Leaders, Nomadic Groups
Meanwhile, opposition to immunizations is also a major challenge in Nigeria, where the number of polio cases has risen for the second straight year, said Adamu Nuhu, MD, with Nigerias National Primary Healthcare Development Agency. He said cases are at least confined to the northern part of the country where opposition to immunizations is rooted in religious or political differences and, as in Pakistan, has been stirred by rumors of vaccine-induced sterilization and HIV infection.
We are working now with traditional leaders in the north who are respected by local people to change the perceptions of polio immunization and encourage more participation in immunization efforts, Nuhu said. There is evidence that overall, immunization rates among children at risk are rising to 80 percent.
He described a campaign that is now literally going house-to-house to identify family decision makers and talk with them about the importance of polio immunization. Also, health officialswho are working closely with international partners including the WHO, UNICEF and the CDCare pursuing new strategies to improve immunization coverage in nomadic groups.
Even though they are often moving, they have a leadership structure and we can work through these leaders to provide polio immunizations, Nuhu said. But we understand that you will not be able to immunize any children unless you can reach them on their pastoral routes and camps.
The persistence of polio in Nigeriain 2012 the country has documented 99 casesis especially worrisome because cases in Nigeria have spread in the past to Sudan, Chad, and 23 other countries. All these countries are now once again polio-free except for Chad. The CDC reported in October that Chad could interrupt wild polio transmission by the end of this year, but that failure to stop transmission in Nigeria could prompt new outbreaks.
Vaccine Refusal: Lessons from India?
The CDCs Wassilak said the refusal by parents in Pakistan and Nigeria to vaccinate their children presents a challenge to eradication. Karachi is a densely populated area where you need a high degree of immunity to interrupt polio transmission, so every child counts, he said.
But Wassilak said vaccine refusal is not an insurmountable barrier to global eradication. We saw similar problems in India, and while they were not resolved overnight, eventually we saw immunization coverage increase and polio cases halted, he said. It requires working more closely with community leaders and greater political commitment at all levels, which is what we are seeing in both Pakistan and Nigeria.
India has not reported a polio infection since January 2011 and the entire Southeast Asia Region of WHO could be certified polio-free in 2014 if no new cases arise. Wassilak said advisors from India are now working in Nigeria to share their lessons learned. Meanwhile, the CDC is providing technical support to the global eradication effort, tracking the different types of polio that are circulating in the affected countries and training volunteers to assist in polio vaccination campaigns.
This urgent international push for polio eradication means that soon no child will be hurt by this disease. The relentless drive to alleviate pain and suffering is the spirit of this Society and permeates every session and every hallway conversation at this meeting, said ASTMH president James W. Kazura, MD, FASTMH. We will get this done.
Source: American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene


Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, was established on 8th February 1962 to support the increased U.S involvement in South Vietnam. MAAG-Vietnam initially remained in control of training the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (RVNAF) before being absorbed by MACV in May 1964.
However, MACV did not command the RVNAF, nor was it in charge of the bombing of North Vietnam, which was controlled by the 7th Air Force. The CIA and the U.S. ambassador ran the covert war against the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese in Laos.


This document explains how to request secondary email addresses to be added to your S/MIME digital certificate.
If you have additional email addresses you would like to add onto your digital certificate, please contact UW Digital ID Administration at uwdigitalid@doit.wisc.edu with the secondary addresses you would like to add.
Any new addresses you request will go through some form of email verification, to prove that you own that email address.
Once you've retrieved your certificate, you will need to reinstall the certificate and configure your email client(s) to use the new certificate. Please refer to the below documents for instructions on installation and configuration.
Your old certificate will be revoked when you request additional addresses and a new certificate is issued to you. If you encrypted documents and / or emails with your old certificate, do not remove the old certificate from your computer; you will lose the capability to decrypt those documents / emails if you remove the old certificate.
UW Digital ID cannot restore your old certificate once new email addresses have been added.
Once additional emails have been added to your certificate, you will no longer be able to use the certificate issuance website to manage your certificate. You will need to contact UW Digital ID Administration at uwdigitalid@doit.wisc.edu to manage your new certificate moving forward.


Do substituted amphetamines produce a distal axotomy of brain serotonin neurons?
Yuan J, McCann U, Ricaurte G.
We studied in vivo expression of the serotonin transporter (SERT) protein after 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), p-chloroamphetamine (PCA), or fenfluramine (FEN) treatments, and compared the effects of substituted amphetamines to those of 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine (5,7-DHT), an established serotonin (5-HT) neurotoxin. All drug treatments produced lasting reductions in 5-HT, 5-HIAA, and [(3)H]paroxetine binding, but no significant change in the density of a 70 kDa band initially thought to correspond to the SERT protein. Additional Western blot studies, however, showed that the 70 kDa band did not correspond to the SERT protein, and that a diffuse band at 63-68 kDa, one that had the anticipated regional brain distribution of SERT protein (midbrain>striatum>neocortex>cerebellum), was reduced after 5,7-DHT and was absent in SERT-null animals, was decreased after MDMA, PCA, or FEN treatments. In situ immunocytochemical (ICC) studies with the same two SERT antisera used in Western blot studies showed loss of SERT-immunoreactive (IR) axons after 5,7-DHT and MDMA treatments. In the same animals, tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH)-IR axon density was comparably reduced, indicating that serotonergic deficits after substituted amphetamines differ from those in SERT-null animals, which have normal TPH levels but, in the absence of SERT, develop apparent neuroadaptive changes in 5-HT metabolism. Together, these results suggest that lasting serotonergic deficits after MDMA and related drugs are unlikely to represent neuroadaptive metabolic responses to changes in SERT trafficking, and favor the view that substituted amphetamines have the potential to produce a distal axotomy of brain 5-HT neurons.
Impaired recognition of sadness and disgust?


This time of year marks a familiar tradition here at the Review, one that's spent compiling a list. It's not just any list, (in our eyes at least, but hopefully our readers agree). Rather, it's an attempt to tie a bow on the past year by assembling a time-capsule-like toolkit, full of the best tactical wisdom that seasoned company builders had to offer in the last year. To that end, we parse through every article we published in between the bookends of January and December, on the hunt for the pieces of advice that stood out and swam upstream against the currents of conventional thinking in tech.
While considering how to frame this year's constellation of insights, we kept returning to the fact that this is the sixth installment of our annual list. (To quickly retread through the Review archive, revist volumes one, two, three, four and five.) And as we sit on the brink of writing our 400th article, we can't help but pause to reflect on where we started and what we set out to achieve.
Although much has changed in the tech world since we first took up the pen in 2013, we're grateful to still be serving as a tool that helps incredible entrepreneurs excavate insight from their experiences and pass it along to the current operators and future founders who will certainly stand on the shoulders of their wisdom. From classics to new additions, these stories have covered topics ranging from practicing radical candor and giving away legos to finding an engine for product/market fit and writing a manual for employee/manager relationships.
But now to return to the task at hand. As always, we hope you find relevance and resonance in the following roundup of the 30 best pieces of advice from our articles last year. We're already looking forward to what 2019's list will hold.
1. Ask these questions to move past conversational cowardice and build a meaningful network.
2. Distill product principles by writing your product's memoir.
What's your least favorite part of the product — why and how do you think we got there?
What part of the product are you most proud of?
What feature/aspect of the product do you think customers are most excited about? Why do you think that is?
Afterwards, Miller thumbs through her notes to look for recurring themes as well as outliers, compiling an initial list of 10-12 proposed product principles that the entire product team eventually whittles down to five.
Product principles, like product features, will require trade-offs. You don't want a product — or a product team — that isn't forged by tough choices.
3. Pen a user guide — for yourself.
As a first-time founder and CEO of health technology startup PatientPing, Jay Desai had seen too many teams stall out because of subtle misunderstandings on how to best work with each other. So he wrote a user guide — similar to the kind that'd accompany a rice cooker or bassinet — but this one deconstructed how he operated optimally, when he might malfunction, and how others could use him to their greatest success. The goal was to help set blindingly clear expectations on how to collaborate without the extra second guessing that inevitably accompanies relationship building. To give insight into the defaults, directives and warnings across the dozen categories of his user guide, Desai shared it in full with the Review. For a deeper dive into his approach, read through the marginalia that accompanies each section: his reflections on why these topics matter and considerations to bear in mind should you author your own user guide.
4. Measure — and optimize — product/market fit with this framework.
One of the few universal truths in Silicon Valley is that every early-stage startup has its eyes set on achieving product/market fit. But when it comes to figuring out how to get there, most founders are grappling in the dark.
Enter Rahul Vohra, CEO and co-founder of Superhuman. After spending more than two years struggling to get his startup off the ground, Vohra was stuck at a crossroads and searching for a compass. Encountering only post hoc, unactionable descriptions, he set out to build his own methodology for finding product/market fit — and generously agreed to share his experiences with us on the Review. After the article racked up many thousands of views and was enthusiastically shared on social by founders and investors alike, it's clear that Vohra's approach struck a chord (perhaps even finding product/market fit itself). What follows is a condensed glimpse inside his framework — be sure to read his article in full to soak in the meticulous thinking that fuels this engine at every stage.
4. How can we improve Superhuman for you?
The goal? Make sure at least 40% of users would be disappointed without the product in their lives. But in its first survey, Superhuman's results were considerably below this threshold.
In order to move the needle on this product/market fit "score," Vohra used the other three survey questions to: segment the data to find supporters, build a profile of Superhuman's high-expectation customer, identify the main product benefit, highlight high-impact areas for improvement and build a product roadmap that was divided between doubling down on what users already loved and the addressing what was holding others back. By making the product/market fit score the most highly visible metric and continuing to survey new users and tweak the product, Superhuman was able to nearly double the percent of 'very disappointed' users to 58% in just three quarters.
5. Cut through the small talk with these exercises for more vulnerable conversation.
Founders don't just want advice — they want something that works, because they don't have time for it not to. But in tech, there's an endless parade of conferences and cocktail parties, filled with small talk and surface level recommendations. To host an event that generates action and leaves an impression, Anita Hossain (the former Head of Knowledge at First Round) recommends making vulnerability the centerpiece.
When we're all saying that things are awesome, we're not getting to the core of what's difficult or finding the help we need. It just creates more distance. The best events shrink that gap.
6. Turn offer calls into celebrations.
To try this tactic out yourself, get three to four people from the hiring panel to join in on the offer call. When the candidate calls in, explain that other folks are in the room because you are all thrilled to extend an offer. (That's the cue for the cheering and clapping.) Let everyone in the room go around and share how the candidate impressed them during the interviews. The specifics make a big difference in signaling you've found strong alignment. Then walk through the actual offer details more privately with the candidate.
7. Dive down to look at diversity on the team level.
Reporting is increasingly becoming a central component of diversity & inclusion efforts in tech. But according to Atlassian's Aubrey Blanche, you need to change how you approach D&I data by looking at the diversity of teams, not just the company as a whole. "What matters is that each team is diverse, that underrepresented groups aren't stuck in stereotypical silos. The team level is where you're really going to feel the impact of experiencing the different perspectives you need to make better decisions and arrive at better outcomes in your day-to-day work," she says.
Using team level insights can also make it easier to affect change in more meaningful ways. For example, at the corporate level, Atlassian saw that 14.6% of technical employees were women in 2017. But when Blanche looked at the team cut of the data, she learned that two-thirds of the smaller teams developing software had only one woman. This broad distribution probably led to feelings of isolation, so Blanche set to work to create ways for women to connect across teams, such as an informal coffee date program and more structured peer mentorship rings.
Most company-wide aggregate stats don't actually measure diversity — they measure representation. It doesn't matter if 30% of your company is women if they're all in HR, and the men are in engineering.
8. Depend on this investor email template for an extra dose of discipline.
Since Collin has started angel investing, her faith in the power of demonstrating focus to investors has only increased. "After a founder sends me two or three update emails, I can immediately get a sense for whether or not that company will succeed," she says.
9. Grab a shovel to dig for nonobvious startup ideas.
In his roles as an operator and angel investor, Elad Gil has watched, led or advised numerous companies as they've scaled dramatically on the heels of a nonobvious idea. Drawing on his experience, Gil buckets archetypes that those with the founder's itch to scratch should go after. There's the classic case of the market that looks crowded at first, but upon second glance is actually revealed to be empty due to a lack of a great product or lots of players with little differentiation. Then there's the seemingly niche, which Gil breaks down into four flavors: too small, too boring, too high-end and too personally unfamiliar. Finally there's new technology, the pockets of innovation that are hidden in growth rates or extrapolated technology curves, rather than current numbers.
But Gil's biggest piece of advice is to just grab a shovel and dig. "When you think you may have stumbled onto something, push past the skepticism and envision a world where that seemingly nutty idea can take off. Because if you don't, others certainly will — and they'll go build it without you," he says.
10. Make a growth pact with your senior leaders on their first day — about their last day.
11. Rely on this calculator to scale sales sustainably.
Many founders feel the pressure to spin up sales quickly to hit growth targets, but seasoned sales leader Karen Rhorer knows firsthand that this unsustainable strategy can lead to painful layoffs down the road. "A growth-at-all-costs mindset is a recipe for out of control burn and topsy-turvy unit economics," she cautions. From basic to advanced CAC and CLV to payback ratios, there are a slew of calculations to understand before scaling sales hiring in order to avoid a painful future of upside-down metrics that burn through cash. To help make all this number crunching easier, Rhorer created a simple metrics calculator. (We recommend spending time with all of the wisdom and details of her approach and then turning to her template.) Plug in your own numbers to calculate CAC and CLV, as well as to confirm that the ratio and payback period are both on track.
12. Look at your org chart in 3D.
Engineering leader Varun Srinivasan had a front-row seat as Coinbase scaled to meet an explosion in demand for cryptocurrencies over the past few years. Along the way, he spearheaded org design changes that helped the engineering team gear up for hypergrowth. One learning was clear: If you design your organization by just looking at org charts alone, you're going to get it wrong. To anchor this assertion, Srinivasan pointed to an unexpected parallel from the world of cartography. While maps are more convenient, these 2D representations offer incomplete perspectives of the globe's 3D reality — just as the function and hierarchy of org charts misses the nuances of how teams actually work together. In order to create a different lens to view the org in 3D, Srinivasan relied on work maps that captured every big strategic objective and the set of teams or individuals that need to work together to make it happen. This enabled him to spot people who were overloaded, identify cross-dependencies or flag teams that weren't sitting close enough for effective collaboration.
13. Make your employee experience stand out with "internships" and a "TEDX" conference.
"One thing I've always found surprising and unfortunate is that as companies get bigger and have more money, they actually become worse places to work. That's terrifying." That's how Dave Gilboa, co-founder of Warby Parker kicked off his talk at First Round's most recent New York Founder Summit, and it's a glimpse into why he and his co-founder have maintained their conviction that creating an extraordinary employee life cycle is just as important as developing a killer product.
To build in defense mechanisms and create systemic ways for employees to try new things and grow their skill sets, Warby Parker holds an annual internal conference. At "WarbyCon" people get to teach a crowd of their colleagues through TED-style presentations about anything they want to talk about. There have been impassioned discourses on the history of pop music and how to make the perfect gin and tonic, as well as segments related to people's day jobs. Warby Parker also offers a "Special Projects" program, similar to internships but for employees. Departments can propose an impactful project that they need support on (or overseen entirely) for several months and post an internal application, to which other employees can apply.
14. Pass down credit — but avoid undermining creativity and "celebrating" failure.
When researching how teams can continue to bring creative ideas to the table, Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant found a surprising source of inspiration in the writers' room of "The Daily Show." The most transferable lessons for startups? Build psychological safety. Grant was struck by the environment created by host Trevor Noah, one in which writers weren't afraid to toss out a joke that might tank. While psychological safety takes time and vulnerability, Grant noticed that Noah also did something more incremental and subtle: quick interjections to give credit where it was due. In fast-moving creative groups, it's easy to lose track of who said what, while all the praise and blame goes to the leader, so be sure to pass down the credit through quick, verbal kudos. To further bolster psychological safety, Grant recommends taking a wider lens view on how creativity is undermined, thinking of accountability as a 2x2 chart that plots outcome against the thoroughness of the process. The tendency to reward lucky successes and punish failed outcomes that had a good process is a reason why Grant isn't a fan of Silicon Valley mantras on taking risks or failing fast. "You don't want to celebrate failure, you want to normalize it," he says.
15. Ruin surprises on purpose and gut check your messaging.
If founders are serious about nabbing funding, winning talent and building momentum, they need to focus less on refining the company vision and more on tapping into the neuroscience behind persuasion, says Reddit's Tyler Odean. Here's a taste of what he means: Against the backdrop of a tech world that's all about game-changing innovations and dramatic reveals, it might be unexpected to learn you should take as much surprise out of your messaging as you can to set others at ease. "If you actually want someone to buy into what you're saying or offering — and you don't have the massive credibility of let's say Apple — one of the best things you can do in a presentation where you're sharing something new is say, 'In the course of this talk, I plan to show you X' before actually showing them anything,'" Odean says.
16. Gauge if you're powered by steam or wind.
17. Watch out for these pricing mistakes.
Mistake #1: Prices are conjured without customers. All the answers are in your customers' heads, which is why Gaffney recommends taking 3-5 daily customer meetings.
Mistake #2: Prices are set in stone, not in motion. When it comes to setting a product's introductory price, many founders fall into the trap of picking what should be a pricing starting point, but sticking to it as if it's a permanent solution.
Mistake #4: The pricing structure is overengineered. Many customers are used to buying in a certain way, such as a monthly fee or per transaction. Gaffney cautions against trying anything too far afield, such as charging per API call or charging per-location instead of per-employee, as it can be a high barrier for to understand and adapt.
Speaking to customers about pricing can be stressful. But I promise you that not talking to them and attempting to interpret their silence is more excruciating.
18. Use these time management markers to find your footing as an early startup employee.
Months 1-6: Avoid the context-switching that comes from wearing multiple hats by mapping out two-week sprints centered around a theme (such as selecting a design agency). This will help you balance breadth and depth to achieve maximum flexibility and focus.
Months 6-9: Standardize how you triage, using the "eyes-on, hands-on, horizon" framework La picked up from her mentor, Airbnb's Head of Design Alex Schleifer. "Eyes on" is work that you don't need to do, but need to be informed about. "Hands on" are actions that you need to work on independently, while "'Horizon' is a category of themes and developments that are a month to six months out.
Months 9-12: Migrate your focus from building your part of the product to your corner of the organization. Document all of your institutional knowledge and share it with the rest of the team to jumpstart this transition to org design.
19. Keep bean counters at bay with this response.
"Decades ago, I considered leaving medicine and went to business school. Almost immediately, I realized that the best thing that I could do to contribute to the business world was to continue to practice psychiatry," says Dr. Jody Foster, a clinical professor at the University of Pennsylvania. This realization led her to develop a taxonomy of the eight different personality types that others find difficult at work. Let's spotlight one: the Bean Counter.
20. Ace your interviews by blocking, bridging and avoiding the negative.
Eventbrite's Terra Carmichael has decades of experience in comms. Her biggest piece of advice for leaders entering the arena of publicity is to remember that the goal of an interview isn't to answer questions — it's to deliver your messages.
21. Follow these commandments to make mentorship work.
Mentorship can be an incredible career accelerator, but it requires diligence and preparation. That's why we were delighted to kick off our First Round Fast Track mentorship program at the end of 2018, the culmination of two years of experiments, five cohorts and hundreds of participants — all overseen by Whitnie Low Narcisse, First Round's VP of Talent & Community Resources.
Here's a sampling from her 10 commandments for making mentorship work: Mentees need to make sure that the relationship doesn't start to feel like a one-sided transaction by investing time in understanding their mentor's career path, goals and lifestyle. Show up prepared with questions and send over discussion points in advance, treating meetings like a 1:1 with the boss. To avoid boiling the ocean in every meeting, pick 2-3 questions that can be tackled in the space of an hour. As for mentors, Narcisse notes that while mentees may ask about X, they really want Y — a new way to think about their work. That's why it's critical to look across agendas and meeting notes to spot patterns and batch themes.
22. Spot flagging motivation and turn things around with this pyramid.
At Pinterest and LinkedIn, product leader Jack Chou learned firsthand how vital it is to keep people motivated as a company scales. Now Head of Product at Affirm, he leans on a pyramid he developed as a tool. For Chou, chemistry between people is a precursor to a feeling of ownership, which is a prerequisite for effective measurement and metrics. And to sustain motivation that brings employee longevity, teams must ladder up to an unwavering mission and purpose.
23. Ask these questions to bolster your credibility and reliability as a new employee.
As the terrain at startups changes rapidly, people move onto new roles and challenges, bringing in an influx of new people. If you're one of those new people, however, there's no time to be doubted. Anne Raimondi has headed up product, marketing and operations at big names throughout tech, and there's one tool that's helped her with every new role: the trust equation.
To improve your credibility as a new employee, Raimondi recommends asking open ended questions of the people around you to understand what matters to them, how they want to work with you, what they expect from you, and what they want to make happen. This can turn people's doubt about your abilities into excitement about what you'll do that's new. To boost reliability, figure out where to jump in and make impact in a way that's useful. Raimondi suggests asking someone "What's that one thing you want to do but that's last on your list?" and then taking it off their plate and getting it done quickly.
24. Don't be afraid to put a click in between a customer and a sale.
It helps reduce bias. "Say you send in two interviewers: one's a man and one's a woman. You'd be surprised how often the candidate will only talk to the man, even if the woman asks the question," says Rogers.
It splits the acts of engaging from observing. "When you're one interviewer, who's doing both the engaging, observing and timing, it's a challenging to be present and do the job right," says Rogers.
It simultaneously trains your more green interviewers and elevates the perspective of less experienced employees. There's no substitute for interview experience, so including more folks in the process is great practice. And while it's tempting to only tap your senior people to interview candidates, Rogers notes that less experienced people get a different signal — namely, if they think they can learn from and be led by a candidate.
26. Sketch out early levels and ranges in your diary to hold yourself accountable on comp.
27. Boost transparency by mapping out how decisions are made for all to see.
While leading engineering at Instagram, James Everingham spotted a problem: the inevitable dip in transparent decision-making and communication as teams scale. To pull back the curtain on how decisions are made, his engineering team adopted the RACI framework as a decision-making process. To bring this model to life on a practical level, Everingham turned to another acronym: RAM, or a responsibility assignment matrix that helps ensure only one individual makes the call.
28. Get to the root of the problem to clean up your team's emotional issues.
From bone deep competition and imposter syndrome to a lack of feedback, there are many dynamics lurking beneath the surface of every team — the key is to catch the cracks before they become chasms. As an executive coach, Laura Gates has repaired interpersonal dynamics for orgs such as NASA, Shell Oil and the military. So she knows firsthand that the price of not addressing conflict is simply too high. That's why Gates recommends laying it all out on the table in a frank, guided discussion at a team retreat or offsite. Beforehand, send an anonymous survey about interpersonal issues, asking about what is and isn't working well about how the team relates to each other.
When did you first notice this problem? What happened that led you to feel negatively?
What conclusion did your draw from that example? What other evidence have you seen that supports this conclusion?
Gates emphasizes that it's the facilitator's responsibility to make sure conversation isn't cut off prematurely. "Sit with the silence. If people jump in too soon to soothe someone and make them feel better or try and change the subject to avoid the discomfort, they end up fixing a superficial problem, but not the underlying issue," she says.
The stress to be outstanding at all times literally triggers fight or flight. It's like we're all trapped in survival mode over something as innocuous as an email exchange.
29. Land a sustainable growth loop by asking these questions.
The most celebrated companies are lauded for swift, exponential user growth — a reality that most startups fail to replicate. But the good news is that it's not the only path. And according to scaling and growth advisor Casey Winters, it's not even the best one. While at Pinterest and Grubhub, he instead successfully relied on content loops, which involve publishing and sharing media that is then shared by others in a way that triggers additional signups, activations and user engagement.
Can we build or retain users who are consistently finding value in our product?
Can we monetize those users in a way that will support the business?
Do answers to the previous questions lend themselves to a sustainable acquisition strategy?
30. Make sure the first mile of your product's experience isn't an afterthought.
Customers make sweeping judgments in their first experience interacting with a product. Scott Belsky calls this the "first mile" — and deems it the most critical yet underserved part of a product. "It's almost an afterthought. When we spend so much time focusing on making what's behind a locked door so brilliant, we sometimes forget to give the user the key," he says.
The first 30 seconds in particular are a sprint that determines if people will keep running the whole distance. Customers need to feel successful quickly, so it's important that they know three things: why they're there, what they can accomplish and what to do next. They don't need to actually know how to use your entire product at the beginning — the task is to create a hook that pulls them in and pushes past their lazy, vain and selfish tendencies. "Don't think you're above needing a hook. Nobody is," says Belsky. And as your product reaches beyond early adopters, keep in mind that the first mile will need to be even simpler to account for vastly different groups of "newest users," not just the power users you were originally hoping to attract.
The first mile of your customer's experience using your product cannot be the last mile of your experience building the product.
Photography by Bonnie Rae Mills and Michael George. Top illustration by Alejandro Garcia Ibanez, featuring (from left) Rahul Vohra, Mathilde Collin, Marco Rogers and Stacy La.


text:
Almohadové (v německém originále Die Almohaden) je poslední opera ve čtyřech jednáních českoněmeckého skladatele Johanna Josefa Aberta na libreto Adolfa Krönera na námět hry Juana Paloua y Coll. Poprvé byla uvedena dne 13. dubna 1890 v operním divadle (Neues Theater) v Lipsku.

Vznik a historie díla
Almohadové je poslední z pěti Abertových oper. Vznikla s odstupem dvanácti let po předchozím díle, opeře Ekkehard (1878), a to opět na libreto stuttgartského vydavatele a Abertova přítele Adolfa Krönera. Abert, bývalý kapelník stuttgartské opery, byl v té době již na odpočinku (od roku 1888).

Základní motivy a zápletku Kröner převzal z dobově populární hry Zvon z Almudainy (La Campana de la Almudaina), kterou napsal španělský (katalánský) dramatik Juan (Joan) Palou y Coll a která měla premiéru v madridském divadle El Circo de Madrid roku 1859. Stejně jako u Ekkeharda však Körner děj předlohy podstatně upravil. Původní děj, odehrávající se v první polovině 14. století za bojů aragonského krále Petra IV. s jeho synovcem mallorským králem Jakubem III., přenesl o století dříve do doby bojů Španělů (Aragonců) s maurskou dynastií Almohadů o nadvládu nad Baleárskými ostrovy. Důvodem byla divadelní účinnost, zejména možnost využití exotického orientálního prostředí v hudbě i divadelní výpravě. Ze stejného důvodu byl podstatně změněn i závěr směrem k vystupňování děje v ansámblové scéně.

Historicko-romantický děj i Abertova hudba, vycházející zejména se slohu velké opery, již v 90. letech 19. století stály mimo proud hudebního vývoje i dobový vkus a Almohadové nezopakovali úspěch Astorgy a Ekkeharda.

Osoby
 Zoraya, vypovězená almohadská kněžna vystupující pod jménem "doña Elvira"
 Ismael, její syn
 Zelima
 Salem
 Don Gilabert de Centellas, guvernér Malorky
 Galceran, důstojník ve španělských službách
 Veltran, důstojník ve španělských službách
 Centellasovo páže
 Muezzin
 Španělští lovci, Maurové a Maurky, tanečnice, pážata, mnichové, jeptišky

Děj opery
Odehrává se na Malorce ve 13. století (zmiňuje se bitva u Las Navas de Tolosa 1212).

1. dějství

(Zahrada před venkovským domem doni Eleny) Před několika lety se Malorky zmocnili Španělé. Don Gilabert de Centellas tehdy porazil a zabil Almansora (al-Mansúra), posledního maurského vládce z rodu Almohadů, dal uvěznit jeho syna Ismaela a nyní je guvernérem aragonského krále na ostrově. Křesťané však dosud nemají vládu pevně v rukou. Ve srážce s muslimskými oddíly byl aragonský oddíl poražen a raněný guvernér našel útočiště v domě doni Eleny. Avšak pod tímto jménem se skrývá Zoraya, vdova po zabitém emírovi, která zde žije se svou dcerou Zelimou a doufá v osvobození syna a návrat maurské vlády,

Nyní je guvernér zotaven a může opustit dům. Jeho pobočník Calceran činí přípravy a jen nerad zde zanechává Zelimu (árie Wie schnell die Zeit entschwand seit jener Stunde). Zelima hledí z terasy na moře a jímavě vzpomíná na svého uvězněného bratra (árie Euch, ihr lauen Winde, frag' ich). Calderan padá k jejím nohám a slibuje jí otroctví a věčnou poslušnost. I Elena zaslechne tuto přísahu, děkuje za ni a naznačuje, že jeho pomoci bude třeba, pak však Calcerana posílá pryč. Zelině vypráví, že muž, kterého vyléčila, je její smrtelný nepřítel Centellas. Avšak zákony pohostinnosti velí, aby mu nebyl zkřiven vlas, dokud je hostem v jejich domě (duet Brecht auf, ihr meines Herzen Wunden!). Totéž musí vysvětlit maurskému předákovi Salemovi, který jí přináší dobrou zprávu: Ismael uprchl ze zajetí a blíží se k domu své matky (tercet Liebliche Klänge, vom Seewind getragen).

Scéna se zaplní vyděšenými marskými ženami a křesťanskými lovci (sbory Weh uns Armen! a Am Eisenhut die Jägerzier). Centellas děkuje Eleně za záchranu (duet Wie sol ich, edle Frau, Euch danken). Dozvídá se, že Elenona syna potkal špatný osud, a na oplátku jí vypráví o tom, jak on sám před mnoha lety ztratil milovanou ženu a dcerku (árie In meiner Jigend blüthereichsten Tagen). Ze zahrady je slyšet píseň (Von fern her komm' ich gezogen). Elena a Zelima poznávají Ismaelův hlas. Ten vstupuje v převlečení za trubadúra a zpívá romanci (Vom hohen Minaret, umblitzt von Abendhelle). Důstojník Veltram Ismaela pozná a Centellas jej rozkazuje zajmout. Elena a Zelima se guvernérovi dávají poznat jako Ismaelova matka a sestra a prosí o milost, ale Ismaelova bojechtivost, naléhání španělských vojáků a vlastní závazek věrnosti králi donutí Centellase, aby na svém rozkazu trval; Ismael je znovu zajat (finále: kvintet Ich darf an's Herz nich sinken a ansámbl Genug nun des Frevels!).

2. dějství
(Náměstí v Palmě) U studny se scházejí obyvatelé města (sbor Murmelnder Brunnen, ach wie so gerne). Maurští muži a ženy tančí za zpěvu pážete (píseň Kommt heran nun, rasche Tänzer), dokud je hlas muezzina nesvolá k modlitbě. Na náměstí přichází též Zelima ve španělském mužském převleku, jejím cílem je dostat Ismaela z vězení (árie Allein, der Mutter fern… O Ismael, mein Leben). Zpovzdálí sleduje, jak Calceran vyhledal dva maurské povstalce a smlouvá s nimi osvobození jejího bratra. Zelima se k nim připojí a zaručí se za Calceranovu spolehlivost, jeho náklonnost však odmítá (kvartet Die Schwester Ismaels, die überwunden).

3. dějství

(Sál v paláci Almudaina se zvonicí) Centellas má výčitky svědomí a přemýšlí, jak by mohl vyhovět Elenině žádosti a zachránit Ismaela; zdá se mu, jako by za něj orodovala i jeho ztracená manželka (árie Wie rührt Erinn'rung mich mit weichem Schauer… Gedenke, o Vater). Dává si ještě jednou předvolat svého vězně a přesvědčuje ho, aby si zachránil život i svobodu tím, že se poddá aragonskému králi a zřekne nároků na trůn. To ale Ismael hrdě odmítá (duet Der König, unser Herr). Centellasovi nezbude, než dát příkaz k popravě, ta však nemá být vykonána dříve, než zazní znamení palácového zvonu.

Právě probíhá maškarní ples u guvernéra. Mezi masky se vmísí i Elena a Salem. Brzy přitančí Centellas s krásnou maskou, pod níž rozezná Elenu. Ta mu připomíná, že jí je zavázán vděčností, a znovu jej žádá o milost pro syna, i ona však odmítá vzdát se nároků na trůn a poddat křesťanské moci. Marně ji Centellas prosí, aby ho nesváděla ke zradě na králi (duet Als einst zu mir du kamst). Nakonec mu Elena svěří, že jí kdysi jedna umírající žena svěřila svou dceru: byla to Zelima a Centellas je její otec (árie Mein atte war gefallen). Nyní je Centellas ochoten udělat cokoli, jen když mu Elena přivede jeho dítě.

V té chvíli vypuká útok maurských povstalců na guvernérský palác (sbor Ha, die Verrräter). Aby zabránil jejich vítězství, hrozí Centellas, že dá zvonem signál k Ismaelově popravě (árie Almuidas Glocke trägt) Ale Elena přechází do zoufalého protiútoku. Posílá Salema za Zelimou a přikazuje mu, aby ji na stejný signál probodl. Cantellas opět ustupuje: za dceru dá Eleně i Ismaelovi volný průchod. V té chvíli zazní zvonění. Všichni strnou, není to však signál k popravě, ale Calceranův signál povstalcům k Ismaelově osvobození.

Vítězní povstalci přivádějí Ismaela a holdují mu jako králi. Ismael chce dát Centellase ihned popravit, na naléhání matky – a přes varování Salema – jej však nechá volně odejít. I Elena plné své slovo a dává přivést Zelimu. Ta je náhlým nalezením otce a současnou ztrátou "matky" a "bratra" zmatena a chtěla by zůstat, ale Elena ji posílá pryč. Zelima provází Cantellase na španělskou pevninu. Calceran zjišťuje, že zradil svého krále nadarmo. I Ismael želí Zelimina odchodu, ale matka jej utěšuje korunovací za malorckého krále (finále: sbor Dem echten Königssprossen, arieta Ismaela Frei von Tyrannen ist das Land a ansámbl 'Dies' holde Kind wär' mein Tochter).

4. dějství
(Zahrada paláce Almudaina na mořském pobřeží) Ismael spí a maurské ženy zpívají noční romanci (Holde Nacht, breit' aus die Flügel), situace mladého krále je ale vážná. Jak sděluje Salem Eleně, jsou Maurové pevně obklíčení aragonským vojskem a chystané posily z pevniny byly poraženy u Tolosy. Blíží se poslední beznadějný boj (árie Salema Bald naht die Stunde, wo in heißer Schlacht). Maurové a jejich ženy nejprve tancují a zpívají na počest Ismaela a Eleny (Schlinget den Reih'n in des Mondes Pracht), pak muži vyrážejí do boje (bojová píseň Im Paradiese da grünt ein Baum). Modlitby žen nepomáhají (píseň Eleny a sboru O, Gott im Himmelshöhn), Salem se vrací se zprávou o porážce a spolu s Elenou se vydává alespoň zapálit španělské lodě. Ismael přivádí raněnou Zelimu, která cantellasovi uprchla a snažila se dostat zpět k němu a své "matce". Nyní, když vědí, že nejsou sourozenci, pochopí pravou povahu svého vzájemného citu (duet Hier berg' ich dich, geliebte Schwester… Nicht bist du Schwester mir!). Avšak Zelima umírá. V poslední vyprovokované šarvátce zabije Ismael Calcerana, sám je však smrtelně raněn. Skoná před očima Centellase a Eleny. Za zvonů z Almudainy jsou královnin syn a guvernérova dcera spojeni ve smrti (závěrečný sbor Sie sind vereint).

Odkazy

Reference

Literatura

Externí odkazy
 Libreto Almohadů

Opery Johanna Josefa Aberta
Opery v němčině
Opery z roku 1890
Opery poprvé uvedené v Lipsku

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The report portraying all-inclusive research of the global "Special Gas Detectors market" includes the growth rate of the market over the estimated period. Providing a succinct synopsis, the report includes the estimation and volume of the global Special Gas Detectors market in the upcoming period. It also comprises the foremost contributing factors of the development of the global Special Gas Detectors market as well as dominant players in the market along with their market share. The well-established players in the market are MSA, Honeywell Analytics, Drager, Industrial Scientific, New Cosmos Electric, Tyco International, Riken Keiki, Emerson, Oldham, UTC, 3M, Hanwei, IGD, Sensit Technologies, Shanghai Aegis, Martin Bruusgaard.
The report offers helpful data of the foremost players in the market along with their segmentation, business outline, and product contributions. The global Special Gas Detectors market study also analyzes the development of the leading market players with the help of SWOT analysis. Furthermore, the global Special Gas Detectors market report involves the main product category and segments Portable Gas Detectors, Fixed Gas Detectors along with their sub-segments Oil & Gas, Mining, Energy&Power, Manufacturing Industry, Other.
The global Special Gas Detectors market helps the user in initiating a strategic move to expand their businesses. It is segmented on the basis of types of the product, end-user, and application sections. The progress of each segment is assessed in the upcoming period. The significant factors and statistics gathered from the regulatory authorities are obtainable in the report to calculate the growth of the segments. Further, the global Special Gas Detectors market is also separated on the basis of the region covered such as the Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America, and Europe.
Chapter 13, 14 and 15, Special Gas Detectors sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.


text:
Taylor Swift releases album to mark 31st birthday
10/12/2020 Bang Showbiz 0
Taylor Swift is releasing an album to mark her 31st birthday.
The 30-year-old singer – who will celebrate her birthday on Sunday – will drop her ninth studio album 'Evermore' at midnight on Thursday (10.12.20) to give back to her fans who have been "thoughtful" on her past birthdays.
She wrote on Instagram: "Ever since I was 13, I've been excited about turning 31 because it's my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now.
You've all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you."
A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)
The surprise album release has been announced after the songwriter released 'Folklore' in July and she's dubbed the upcoming record a sister-album.
Taylor wrote on Twitter: "To put it plainly, we just couldn't stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. (sic)"
What's more, Taylor is set to release a music video for her single 'Willow' on YouTube and is "grateful" to those who have been able to help her develop the project amid the pandemic.
She wrote in a post: "Tonight the story continues, as the music video for "willow" drops at midnight eastern. I'm forever grateful to the following creatives who have helped and guided me to be able to direct my own videos: Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, producer Jil Hardin, 1st AD Joe 'Oz' Osbourne, Co-1st AD Ev Salomon, Exec Producer Rebecca Skinner, editor Chancler Haynes, set designers Ethan Tobman and Regina Fernandez and visual effects geniuses Grant Miller and David Lebensfeld. Thank you to our medical inspector who made sure every precaution was taken for our safety. I'll see you guys in the YouTube premiere page chat before midnight to answer some questions. (sic)"
MAGENTA MAGAZINE
Categories: Celebrity Entertainment Featured Lifestyle Music YOUR CULTURE
Author: Bang Showbiz
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Broken run. Dark alley gauntlet. Blood. Leaping garbage pails. There were sirens, blue-red flashing lights, and a whistle that bleated. Out of breath, body trembling, down Rio Grande Street, past the wog market, clamoring cars, another black alley. Down one block, crooked old Jews strewn on the barbed fence, bent like swastikas, another breath.
Past shattered windows, duct tape crosses stretch across glass, scarlet-streaked graffiti scribbles, steel-barred entrance. Past them. Slipping on the crumbled flower pots, these nights keep getting darker. Past them all. Tombs of shale and bone. Mothers' doctor, the orthodontist's, across the crimson square. Whirling on concrete. Up the fence, straight to the moon.
Another corner, ricochet gunshots. Tailor made jerkin sleeves waving to me, smiling hatred. Turning, a dark resonant voice, "Hey you…" Past the five and dime, reeling on stone, tuning the horsey-go-round. Grabbed from behind, screaming at fingers clutching, can't escape. Sprawling on the sidewalk, head full of blood. Answers not fast enough, these nights keep getting darker. Explosion, store front fracturing. The fingers tighten, body twitching, wet chest on my face. Kicking at the dead weight, pulling and clawing; release.
Feinstein's pet shop, old jewfish, jaws pried apart, prayers draining; a cylinder hole in glass. Jeweler's, reeling echoing plea, "Stop! You!" Blackened by the swirling veils of night. Don't get close. Close to the buildings. Too many exits, posterns, outlets, eyes peer out from arms of wool cardigan. Past them, past the stores, these nights keep getting darker. Liquor spitting from hidden cradle of riddled plate-glass, neon flashing CLOSED still buzzing. Turn to take, it waving. Kaboom!
Lunge and go. Ricochet whining. Turn that strip ghetto left. The wind drinking me in, my feet no longer touching. that final stretch, steep and straight, head full of blood. A scream and gunshot, these nights keep getting darker.
Burning up the night, all those windows flying by. The invisible world before me…only one man left peripheral on the horizon…it went through my head a million times. Seeing him there by my side, with a good angle. Taking aim. I've watched him all my life close in.