text:
Ken Toong
Executive Director, Auxiliary Enterprises
University of Massachusetts, Amherst Amherst, Massachusetts
Ken Toong has been the Executive Director of University of Massachusetts Amherst Auxiliary Enterprises (AE) since 2011, an operational entity that includes UMass Dining (Residential and Retail), Conference Services, Campus Center Complex, Hotel UMass, the UMass Store, the University of Massachusetts Club Boston, and the UMass Trademark and Licensing Administration for the UMass System. Under Ken's leadership UMass Auxiliary Enterprises has grown into one of the nation's largest operations. Nationally he is one of the most recognized faces and frequent presenters in higher education's dining and auxiliary segments. Ken is a big believer in building community and putting customers first, doubling down on the notion that a great auxiliary program can assist the university in attracting top students and enriching campus life while contributing to the financial well-being of the university.
Through Ken's visionary direction, UMass Dining has become one of the nation's most awarded programs for its innovative and quality programs, focusing on foodservice sustainability, authenticity, and health & wellness. Notable recognitions include the Global Restaurant Award in Sustainability in 2016 and most recently being voted #1 for Best Campus Food in the nation from Princeton Review 2023 edition, making it six years in a row.
In 2013, the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) recognized Ken as one of the recipients of the Silver Plate Award. In 2021, Nation's Restaurant News Magazine named Ken Toong as one of the most influential non-commercial operators in a reader picks poll. In 2021, the Produce for Better Health Foundation named Ken the recipient of Foodservice Leader of the Year Award. Most recently, UMass's Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) in the Isenberg School of Business honored him with Special Recognition Award for his contribution to hospitality and industry.
Ken is involved in the foodservice community as a member of the Harvard School of Public of Health- Culinary Institute of America Menus of Change® Sustainable Business Leadership Council, an executive committee member of UMass Amherst Community Campaign, Chair of the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) C&U council, and a member of the NACAS Research Advisory Group.
Ken received his MBA (Beta Gamma Sigma) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a BBA from Acadia University, Nova Scotia.
A simple, but crowd-pleasing recipe for sure—incorporate potatoes on pizza. Take thinly sliced pieces of your favorite potato and add to your white sauce-based pizza. Add bits of crunchy bacon and Ranch on top to add a flavor punch. This is very popular with UMass students.


Published 04/18/2019 12:23:30 pm at 04/18/2019 12:23:30 pm in Side Knife.
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A subfossil fragment of the deep-sea gorgonian coral Primnoa resedaeformis was 14C AMS dated along a radial growth transect. Dates ranged from 2600±50 at the outside, to 2920±60 14C years BP near the interior, suggesting an age of <300 years. The avergae radial growth was approximately 0.044 mm.yr−1. Based on comparisons with live-collected specimens, we estimate the entire colony may have been about 0.5–0.75 m tall, with a linear tip extension rate of 1.5–2.5 mm.yr−1. Towards the centre of the main stem, the coral skeleton is composed of alternating couplets, 200 μm in width, of gorgonin (a horn-like organic skeletal protein) and calcite. We believe these couplets are annual. Within this larger scale of banding are finer couplets of gorgonin and calcite, with frequencies suggesting lunar monthly periodicity. Both scales of banding may reflect fluctuations in food supply from sinking POM, or from tidally-resuspended bottom POM, along with benthic consumers. Outer skeletal growth is predominantly massive calcite with intermittent gorgonin layers. If carbonate precipitation in this zone were continuous, approximately 25 μm radial growth would be deposited every year. The Scleractinian Desmophyllum cristagalli lives to <200 years, and has rates of linear extension of 0.5–1.0 mm.yr−1. The skeletons show growth bands approximately 10 μm wide, which may be annual. Due to tissue extension and retraction in life, parts of the skeleton may be overgrown, or suffer dissolution. Although we have shown in previous publications that sea water temperatures may be obtained from analysis of this coral, periods of skeletal dissolution, coupled with isotopic disequilibrium, will make obtaining long climatic records extremely difficult.
2.Los Alamos National Laboratory, EES-1, MSD462Los AlamosU.S.A.


After camping out for the day in the Panic Room reception, it was on to our final game. We'd met a ridiculous number of their staff along the way – I'm pretty sure they had more people at the venue than there were games taking place at any given time, so there was usually someone willing to chat. It was pretty clear that they all had significant experience playing escape rooms, which bodes well: people who have been on the other side of the monitor are generally better at working out how to handle cluing and problems with the game.
The last game of the day was the Don, a mafia experience in the basement of the building.
You will be Infiltrating the den of the notorious mafia boss "Don Romano", with a vast resume of crimes against him it is finally time to take him down once and for all!
You and your team will need to break in, turn the place over and gather evidence of all of his crimes. He is an extremely paranoid man who kept everything locked up tight which is why he has evaded prison this long. Gather your team to gather your evidence and escape before he returns or you may end up sleeping with the fishes.!
The Don's an interesting room. It's not the sort of set that jumps out at you and screams how amazing it is. At heart, it's just another office game, but describing it in those terms underplays it. It's a well crafted room with beautiful old furniture that seems the sort of decoration that a mafia boss would choose to underline their wealth.
It's mainly a game of locks but there are a few high-tech moments in there. The locks are a great example of where the folks behind the Panic Room go that little step further than other game designers: where your average escape room would just keep throwing in padlocks, here there are a variety of interesting and unusual locks for you to get past. The highlight is one where finding out how the lock actually works is almost a puzzle in itself. But don't worry – it's nothing like a Houdini lock!).
The puzzles were all pretty good, covering the usual bases of observation, searching, a little bit of lateral thinking and some standard tropes. Nothing to blow you away but nothing much to get you frustrated either. Well, there was one thing that seemed to frustrate all of our teams. It was a puzzle that I came close to really liking. It was big, it was chunky and it gave you a good reason for its convoluted nature. Unfortunately, the instructions were weak, with the result that the solution was seriously ambiguous. Our team took about four or five attempts to find the right code from it, and that seemed typical. This was annoying because there were signs that they'd tried hard to avoid the confusion that often blights this sort of puzzle but then lost their way a little.
The game flowed smoothly from start to finish and the finale was just right. You're told beforehand exactly what you need to do, so you've got a pretty good idea throughout the game of where it will all end. The final puzzle is that right level of difficulty to ensure that you're not hanging around too long but equally that you don't just have a token puzzle blocking your way, and it's absolutely clear that you've completed the mission.
The two of us escaped in 42 minutes exactly having had around three nudges.
Of the five games we played at the Panic Room that day, this felt the most conventional. Looking at it objectively, it was a good room but, for me, it lacked the innovation that abounded elsewhere at the venue. Still, a pretty good way to round off a fun time, and a game I'd recommend for beginners and enthusiasts alike. We played as a two but groups of three or four enthusiasts would be fine. If you're beginners then I'd suggest up to five people.


Valli Schiller started sewing as a child and shows no signs of stopping any time soon. She's been making quilts since 1990, right around the time she discovered rotary cutters and computerized sewing machines. She's an avid machine stitcher who loves experimenting with new techniques and sharing them with others.
Valli's quilts are exhibited nationally and have won multiple awards, including blue ribbons at the IQA judged show in Houston and the AQS judged show in Paducah. Her Mille Fleurs quilt was featured on the cover of Quilter's Newsletter magazine. Her Common Threads quilt was a finalist in the 2007 $100,000 Quilting Challenge.
"My Life in Quilt Years" is a digital presentation and trunk show of Valli's quilts and the stories behind them. Her style ranges from traditional to contemporary, with an emphasis on innovative machine techniques. Quilters of all abilities will be encouraged and inspired as Valli shares her life in quilts.


The red ales of Flanders are the balsamic emperors of Belgian beer. Tart, complex and deeply fruity they are the product of long slow aging in wooden barrels. Baby Grand takes inspiration from Flanders and from the Bordeaux style wines of the Hawkes Bay resulting in a tart deeply fruity complex beer aged for 18 months in French oak cabernet sauvignon barrels.


We had a phenomenal experience with Tony as our sellers rep and Shane as our buyers rep. Shane connected with us first and waited patiently for over one year as we waffled on whether or not we were ready to sell our house and buy a new one. Then he connected us with Tony who sold our house in 4 days for a significant premium. Then Shane patiently shepherded us to the perfect next home and when the negotiations got rough helped us stick by our decisions to get a fair deal for both sides. Awesome!!!


PS. Your time clock showed your email letter as sent on January 03, 2001 [see below]. It should have read as August 28, 2006. Please arrange for someone to correct it for you.
Sebastian Vadakel MST, Bishop of Ujjain.
Thank you immensely for your encouragement, prayers and blessings. Only your goodself, Bishop Thomas Dabre and Bishop Leo Cornelio acknowledged the report, out of all the nearly 170 Bishops of India whom I wrote to. It is simply shocking that the Bishops do not care to show their concern over such serious issues. I must console myself that there are at least THREE OF YOU Bishops who have taken note of the reported matter.
Dear Michael, Thank you very much for this report. I earnestly hope and that immediate and appropriate action will be taken against Fr. Jegat and others involved in this type of scandalous anti-faith activities. Keep up your good work.
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 11:33 PM Subject: Prayers!
This seems to be a nice article and more importantly, an eye opener. Confusion, immoral, etc are too heavy words. I'd just say, it pains to hear and read this article. Religious freedom, Religious tolerance, Inter-religion dialogue in the name of inculturation is just a farce, when we see such malafide acts, that too committed by the chosen ones and approved by the more chosen ones. Dialogue I meant was sitting and discussing faith, thereby sharing with the people about Our Almighty Father, bringing people nearer to the right path. Dialogue doesnt mean involving in the other faith so religiously and blaspheming Our Almighty Father. Fr. Jegath, remember the first commandment that Our Father himself has given to us and you are bound by that mandate.
I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me. Have you not gone against it? Jesus himself had gone to the temple and admonished people who were sacrileging the temple of God. Fr. Jegath, you yourself are a temple of God, by virtue of being a priest. What punishment will you bring upon yourself for going against the will of God.
Confirming to help a person about to sin, is a greater sin. Will all those who colluded with Fr. Jegath also bring upon themselves punishments in tune with Christianity? Can I get some answers?
All along, I have been asking one single question to all the religious.
If you people, who have been chosen by the CALL of God, the Almighty Father, through Jesus, and have been trained to walk in His path, commit mistakes, not really worthy of your life, then we as ordinary people, struggling to live our life, between family and God, whom should we look up to, considering that you people are our role models? I have not found an answer to this question till date. Will the kind priests and nuns among our members answer this question?
Dear All, I was in pain reading this report from Michael Prabhu. I only prayed as Jesus prayed and St. Stephen further reiterated the prayer of Jesus, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing". Yes, let the mind not control us. Let our will, the free will given by God, as a free gift, may not ruin us. Let us not throw our Lord's prayer into dustbin.
Let not the Apostles Creed be professed in utter disgrace. My dear brothers and sisters, happy are we, in spite of all this, keep our faith and beleive in Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Shall we say, God allows these to happen to teach the Catechism of the Catholic Church to his very own.
Lord I thank you for giving this forum where I can express my pain, sorrows and agony so freely. It hurts me O Lord, I dont know about you and all the others, who are reading and who have already read this report. But, I believe, there is pain in each heart who read this report. May be they have not expressed their pain, but you know them and their prayers. Lord, give the grace to all members, especially priests, nuns and catechists to express their views in this group, so that our faith is strengthened in you. Amen.
While thanking you, I would like to clarify some things. My report is in the context of my particular ministry and calling to expose New Age and other error. The two Bishops' responses are typical of several hundred which I have received from over 100 of them as well as the Cardinals, the Pro Nuncio and the Vatican in respect of earlier reports on other issues. All these Bishops have accepted this ministry as a positive and constructive one.
This ministry does not seek to defame the Catholic Church or her anointed priests. It seeks to draw the Bishops' attention to those errors that are already in the public domain, but which might have escaped the attention of those Bishops' Commissions that have the authority to arrest them. The reports made by this ministry are constructed only after collecting and thoroughly checking out all possible evidence. They are not made in a hurry. For instance this particular report was made after over 15 months of research, and publicly released only after my failing to evoke a response from the Bishops directly connected with the erring priest despite several communications.
The reports have a secondary and equally important purpose: to create an awareness among the Catholic faithful about the increase in secularism, relativism, syncretism and various other 'isms' that are plaguing the Church today.
We sometimes need to be reminded that WE are the Church. We need to also be aware that there are Vatican encyclicals that urge laity not to remain silent spectators in the face of error but to bring such things to the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities. As the Chairman Bishop of the Doctrinal Commission has repeatedly reminded me, this has to be done in a spirit of love and prayer. I would discourage those who write against priests with hurt and bitterness.
Events such as those described in my exposé are nothing new. They have always been with the Church, taking different forms. One does not therefore have to be either scandalized or despondent about the state of things. Jesus has assured us that He will always be with her and that she will prevail till the end of time.
Catholic Charismatic Renewal founder-pioneer Ralph Martin [who encourages this ministry with his letters] has written books that prophetically expose priests and Bishops who are guilty of serious errors, including non-doctrinal ones.
Catholic magazines such as Crisis [see Austine's posting "The Myth of Religious Tolerance" in KC Digest 300] have long played a leading role in voicing Catholic opinion, always identifying the individuals involved, and thus exercising influence on episcopal conferences to action in the face of error propagated by Catholic priests, laity and organizations.
Dear Frends, My mail two days back is just a reaction to the news that I read about the venture that this priest (Fr. Jegath) has got into. May i remind you all what was in the received in the mail itself.
And hence, I would like to revert back to you all and say that my mail is not and should not be used as a catalyst to ferment more hatred towards the priests and the nuns. They are humans too. Further, I ask and request all of you in the KC Family to pray and pray ardently for all the priests and nuns, especially those who consciously or unconsciously are embroiled in events or activities, that are not worthy of their cause or which are not mandated to them by their faith or congregation. On the prayer front, I agree with Valerian, Rupert and all those who have not reacted to this mail, but hearts of hearts must have prayed for this servant of God, Fr. Jegath. With Warm Regards, Lawrence Monteiro Hyderabad.
Please remove my name from your mailing list. I don't want to believe/ read such false stories.
Dear sister Abita Maria, I am removing your name as requested by you. I respect your feelings.
However if you had visited my website you would learn that I am in Catholic charismatic ministry for 24 years, was the founder of the Renewal in Delhi, and have the blessings of over 100 Bishops. The 3 Cardinals, the Pro Nuncio and some dicasteries of the Vatican in my crusade to expose erring Church leaders. Dozens of leading charismatic priests and lay leaders support this ministry. None of my reports are "false" but thoroughly researched and authenticated. If you wish me to include your name again anytime, it will be my privilege to do so.
Dear brother, Please accept my apology for being rude to you in that mail… I didn't mean to hurt you at all and I didn't know you… Unfortunately I knew some one with the similar name a couple of years back who used to mail me as part of his Hinduism propaganda.. i didn't read your mail Except the heading …and thought it was him again knowing that i am believer of holy christ… and my apology for that too. I am a strong believer of holy Christ and I do everything with his permission in my life… when i saw the heading ur mail i felt like he is going to hurt my feelings… that's the only reason i just put a mail back to the ID which was unknown to me…. a million apology from me for being so rude.
Thanks. Sure, the report is controversial. But it is CORRECT, MOST THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED AND DOCUMENTED, and from the CATHOLIC perspective. Moreover it is as good if not more objective than any secular press release, and some of the other topics posted on XXXXX.
MY RESPONSE: Dear brother, appreciating your sentiments, I am deleting your email address from my mailing list.
I am glad that you are praying for our priests. For my part it is my calling to do this ministry by drawing the attention of the Bishops and lay leaders to such aberrations, both for prayer as well as remedial action.
Dear Michael, This is very, very sad. What a grief for our Lord Jesus! Sister Gideona, Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, Aus.
Dear Br. Michael, Thanks for the information of the CD on Shiva, so much for the Catholic priests leading the entire flock to damnation, if not for God's blessing of people like you in order to bring to light the error and perhaps which I would call hideous crime on their part. Read the below as well. http://www.daijiworld.com/chan/exclusive_arch.asp?ex_id=390 It is a shame. The below is my feedback to Daijiworld in utter disappointment.
I am confused and ashamed of this foolishness. How can a person knowing the Bible, especially the commandments, go about doing things contrary to Word of God and the Teaching of the Church. Such a person should be excommunicated from the church. When you believe in the One true God, how can you practice pagan customs and worship false gods? This is ridiculous. And as for the knowledge of Bible and scripture, we sure know that, when satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, he quoted scriptures too. And should I quote a scripture too?
Please have my name removed from your distribution list.
Thanx man. May God bless u.
Dear Mr. Michael Prabhu, Today I went through your report on Gaspar. Now only I get a clear picture about his misdeeds.


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The current state of the business world is a global one and the economies of different and distant nations are often largely dependent upon their trade relationships with other countries for success and survival. Employees and executives from nations that have trade treaties in place with the United States may qualify to seek a visa/status on that basis to permit the transaction of vital business.
If you are a foreign national whose skills and professional expertise make you essential to the company for whom you work, then you may qualify for E-1 Visa/Status. Contact the Austin immigration lawyers of the Law Office of William Jang, PLLC today at 512-323-2333 today for more information.
E-1 Visa/Status is available for executives and essential workers who are citizens of a country that has a treaty with the United States allowing E-1 Visa/Status. Please click here for a list of those countries (last updated September 2010). In order to qualify, the majority interest and/or control of the invested business must be owned by a Citizen or Citizens of one of the treaty countries and the executive and essential worker must also be a Citizen of that country. In addition, the business must be engaged in substantial trade principally between the treaty country and the United States. In order to qualify as an essential worker, the worker must be a specially trained and highly qualified employee who is essential to the invested business.
E-1 Status is typically granted for two years. As long as the substantial trade and the business are still ongoing and viable, the E-1 status can be extended indefinitely (typically two years at a time).
Spouses and children (under 21 and not married) are eligible to obtain E-1 derivative status. They are allowed to accompany the E-1 treaty trader executive/essential worker and remain in the United States. In addition, spouses may apply for employment authorization, and once approved, may work at any legal jobs. Individuals holding E-1 derivative status may also attend schools.
The Law Office of William Jang, PLLC has experience representing clients to obtain E-1 status.
We can help you ensure that your E-1 Visa filing is in order and can help you throughout the entirety of the review process. Contact an Austin immigration attorney of the Law Office of William Jang, PLLC, at 512-323-2333 for the legal assistance you need.


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Home E-commerce
Omnichannel brand Love, Bonito raises $50m to fuel global expansion
in E-commerce, Featured, Retail
Love, Bonito Senior Leadership Team
Love, Bonito, one of Southeast Asia's largest omnichannel womenswear brand, has announced raising $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Primavera Capital Group.
Adastria, Ondine Capital, and existing investors, including Openspace Ventures and Kakaku.com also participated in the funding round, as per the announcement.
The company said it will use the fresh funding to bolster efforts in existing omnichannel markets and to expand in international markets that are experiencing triple digits year-on-year growth.
These markets include Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, and the US.
Since its launch in 2010, Love, Bonito has achieved impressive growth, expanding into 10 key markets which include those in Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and East Asia markets, namely Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, as well as Australia and the US.
"I am more excited than ever for what is to come in the next decade," said Rachel Lim, Co-Founder of Love, Bonito.
According to the announcement, the brand will double down efforts within markets such as Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia that have omnichannel presence.
Other markets such as Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, and the US will see an expansion in omnichannels, new business verticals, strengthening of local community engagement and key collaborations, as well as the continuous optimisation of user experiences.
In the next phase of its growth, Love, Bonito aims to shake up the fashion industry by creating a more meaningful impact on its community across all life stages.
The brand is setting its sights on creating a thoughtful and well-rounded female ecosystem, supporting different facets of women's needs within Asian countries and reaching further into the Asian diaspora communities across the globe.
"We have built a strong foundation in understanding the everyday Asian woman in order to be pre-emptive in catering to her needs," said Dione Song, CEO of Love, Bonito.
Indonesian digital signature startup PrivyID bags US$17.5 million in Series B funding round
Philippine live streaming platform Kumu secures Series C funding

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Interview conducted by Tony Macklin. Audio interview originally published on June 9, 2009 @ tonymacklin.net.
Listen to the audio interview with Martin Scorsese (MP3 format, approximately 90 minutes).
My interview with Marty Scorsese was in his apartment in Los Angeles, high in the hills above La Cienega Boulevard.
I vividly remember his bookshelves and his multitude of books. During the interview I stepped out in the hall outside his apartment to give him privacy when he received a personal phone call.
In the hall I scribbled as many titles and authors as I could remember -- Bazin, Sarris, Farber, Agee, et al.
We were both men of words. And he was a man of unforgettable images.
Scorsese had studied film at NYU. It's no surprise that he later had a dedication to his professor Haig Manoogian at the end of Raging Bull, released in 1980, the year of Manoogian's death.
The most revelatory thing about our interview was when Marty interpreted the end of Mean Streets.
I'm still a bit leary about his comments about the end of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
But I can still hear the echo of his staccato voice shooting down my doubts.
Because we hit it off, he sent me his own copy of his documentary Italianamerican, which I showed in a film series in Dayton, Ohio.
The audience loved his mom and dad.
For audiences everywhere, Marty Scorsese is family.
The following is the introduction to the interview as it appeared in Voices from the Set: The Film Heritage Interviews (2000).
Born in Flushing, New York. Martin Scorsese has directed more than thirty-five films, including Mean Streets, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, and Casino. He received the Cannes best screenplay award for After Hours in 1986; Cannes' Golden Palm Aawrd for Taxi Driver in 1976; and British Academy Awards for best picture, best director, and best screenplay for Goodfellas in 1991. He was granted the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
The Scorsese interview was in his apartment in the hills above Los Angeles. Published in the Spring 1975 issue of Film Heritage.


The RJ31X jacks are designed to provide a fire or security alarm panel preference in dialing out in case of emergency. If any other terminal device (phone, fax, modem) is using the line when the alarm panel needs to call, the panel's internal circuitry breaks that connection and establishes its own. Do not plug any other device into the RJ31X jack: the jumpers between pins 1-4 and 5-8 are removed upon a 8P8C plug insertion, and the dial tone is not going to be delivered to house phones (trunk ports in case of aa KSU or PBX). The RJ31X jack always has to be located "upstream" from any other telephone equipment on the premise.
When a plug is removed, the house wiring gets connected to the phone company wiring through the 1-4, 5-8 jumpers, therefore it is not necessary to remove RJ31X jack if the fire alarm/security equipment has been uninstalled.


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@interface CWVLookalikeURLHandler ()

// Designated initializer.
// |webState| The associated web state.
// |lookalikeURLInfo| Encapsulates information about the lookalike URL.
// |htmlCallback| A callback that can be used to display an interstitial page.
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    initWithWebState:(web::WebState*)webState
    lookalikeURLInfo:(std::unique_ptr<LookalikeUrlContainer::LookalikeUrlInfo>)
                         lookalikeURLInfo
        htmlCallback:(base::OnceCallback<void(NSString*)>)htmlCallback
    NS_DESIGNATED_INITIALIZER;

@end

#endif  // IOS_WEB_VIEW_INTERNAL_CWV_LOOKALIKE_URL_HANDLER_INTERNAL_H_

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A Canadian study has found that almost one-third of patients never fill the prescriptions for the medicines they are told to take.
The analysis, published online in The Annals of Internal Medicine, was conducted in Quebec, where all residents are covered by health and drug insurance. There were 15,961 patients in the study.
Over all, 31.3 percent of prescriptions were never filled. But some types were filled more often than others. Prescriptions for headaches and migraines were filled more than half the time, but only 20 percent for bronchitis, and 25 percent for skin irritations. The more often a patient saw the doctor, the more likely the prescriptions would be filled, but medicines with high co-pays were less likely to be bought.
People under age 52 were much less likely to fill their prescriptions than older people, and men slightly less likely than women.
A version of this article appears in print on 04/08/2014, on page D6 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Patterns: Why Prescriptions Go Unfilled.


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by craigws October 1, 2017 June 13, 2022
Dedicated to St. Andrew, this church lies a short block from the more famous Cathedral of Cologne. The nave, aisles and west end were built between 1180 and 1245 in the romanesque style.
The choir and apsidal transepts were added in the 15th century in the high gothic style. The choir is longer than the nave, almost making two churches that meet at the crossing. Yet, the overall effect is very unified.
This church is the repository of some remarkable relics (giving them the benefit of the doubt for the moment). St. Andrew's arm bone is reputedly contained in a reliquary in the apse of the choir. The south transept holds a 16th century gilded reliquary that reputedly contains the bones of seven Jewish brothers and their mother. The apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees records their torture and death at the hands of Antiochus. When the synagogue near which they were buried was converted to a Christian church, their bones were recovered and eventually found their way to Cologne in 1164.
When the choir was built, the crypt underneath was sealed up. After WWII, the crypt was reopened and renovated. A chapel was opened up underneath the crossing to house the relics of Albertus Magnus, a Dominican scholar and scientist of the 13th century. The sarcophagus is a roman artifact once held at the nearby St. Ursula church. Albertus was canonized and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1931.
As unique as the shrine of the Jewish martyrs is, the reliquary in the vestibule (with St. Andrew in the background) is perhaps the strangest. I thought at first it was a baptismal font. It is in fact supposed to contain the blood of the virgins who were martyred with St. Ursula in the 3rd or 4th century. The stone "font" itself is 16th century.
Churches Dominikanerkirche St. Andreas, Köln GermanyChurch Cologne Germany Gothic Köln Medieval Romanesque
St. Gereon, Köln Part II
by craigws August 23, 2017 June 13, 2022
The unique decagonal nave of this church opens to east into a choir which was completed about 1156. Much of the original furniture was destroyed in WWII and the structure required significant repairs. Yet the heavy, round-arch, romanesque design elements are evident.
The apse retains most of the original wall paintings, including the enthroned Christ, St. Gereon, and a bishop brandishing a sword. The windows are modern.
Opening off the south side of the decagon is a baptistry built 1242-45. By that time the gothic style had taken hold in German lands. The font itself is of a somewhat earlier date.
Opposite the font is a late gothic altar. The wall paintings date to the mid-13th century, about the time of construction.
One of the most striking features of the church is a chapel with a 19th century pieta. Although the gilded vault and variegated marble panels are eye-catching, the monochrome sculpture stands out even more.
Churches Germany St. Gereon, KölnChurch Cologne gereon Germany Gothic Köln Medieval Romanesque
St. Gereon, Köln, Part I
by craigws August 1, 2017 June 13, 2022
St. Gereon Kirche is unique north of the Alps. The lower levels date to about 350-65. The central structure is oval with semicircular niches that may have once held memorials to early noble families. Some of the stone in the vaults of these niches was recycled from Roman structures. The upper portions of this structure were renovated and extended several times during the past millennium. The visual splendor can only be approximated in photos, but this view of the ceiling gives some idea of what it is like to stand in the center of this remarkable church.
Each of the niches mentioned has a different pieced glass window. Here are a few of them. They are just another indication that modern ideas of unified design did not obtain in the Middle Ages.
A fascinating aspect of these ancient churches is the stories they have to tell about the people who inspired them, built them and worshipped here.
St. Gereon was, according to tradition, one of fifty Roman soldiers from Egypt who were beheaded for refusing to deny their Christian faith. They were thrown into a well on the site of this church. Excavations after WWII failed to locate such a burial, but there are sarcophagi here from Roman times. These same excavations uncovered coins minted after 345, disproving the tradition that the church was founded by St. Helen. However, it is certain that the main oval structure was begun during the 4th century.
This sculpture of Gereon´s head is in the park adjacent to the church. It weighs 8 tonnes and measures about 8 feet from the neck to helmet. An international project in some sense, it was created by a German-Turkish sculptor in Thailand.
Churches Germany St. Gereon, KölnChurch Germany Köln Medieval Rhine
St. Pantaleon Kirche, Köln, Tenth Century HRE Family Connections
by craigws July 18, 2017 June 13, 2022
Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, who is entombed at Magdeburg, appointed his brother Bruno as Archbishop of Cologne. Bruno found St.Pantaleon in need of repair and began a massive renovation. He died in A.D. 965 and is buried in the crypt. In 972, Otto arranged the marriage of his son, Otto II, with Theophanu, a princess of the Byzantine Empire. After Otto's early death, Theophanu ruled the empire as regent during the minority of her son, Otto III. She installed her daughter Adelheid as abbess at St. Serviatus, Quedlinburg. She funded the extension of the westwork of St. Pantaleon, and on her death in A.D. 991, was entombed at St. Pantaleon.
Sarcophagus of Archbishop Bruno
Sarcophagus of Theophanu
The church is a quick guide to the history of art and architecture from roman times to the present. Beneath the choir, excavations have uncovered the foundations of a roman villa dating to the 3rd century.
Later this plot of land became a cemetery and a simple chapel was raised on the site in the 7th century. In the 9th century, under Bruno, this was lengthened and remains as the nave of the church. Theophanu's contribution was the western extension with these bi-color arches that were characteristic of 9th and 10th century Rheinland churches.
In the 12th century, side aisles with groin arches were added, a gothic rood screen followed in the early 16th century with further additions of a gothic apse, stained glass windows and a massive baroque altar (1747-9).
Rood Screen from 1503.
Gothic Apse, 1620, and Baroque altar 1740s.
The central nave was vaulted in the 17th century. But after damage in WWII, it was restored as a coffered ceiling more in line with the original design. The religious symbols etched in the panels are executed in a very 20th century style.
Churches Germany St. Pantaleon Kirche, KölnChurch Cologne Germany Köln Medieval Rhine Romanesque
Germany's First Gothic Cathedral: Magdeburger Dom
by craigws June 9, 2017 June 13, 2022
The massive Magdeburger Dom rises from a rocky outcrop along the Elbe River.
The gothic style first appeared in France at St. Denis in A.D. 1147. The style came to Germany 60 years later. I've often wondered why it took so long. How the style came to Magdeburg is clear however. Archbishop Albrecht II von Kefernburg (in office 1205-1232) had studied in Paris and seen the building of Notre Dame Cathedral. The 300 year old church in Magdeburg burned in 1207. Albrecht razed the ruin and re-built in the new style beginning in 1209.
Although the church includes pointed arched and ribbed vaults, there are no flying buttresses, and the overall visual effect is a blend of the late Romanesque and early Gothic. Some of this blend can be observed in the chancel: mixed round and pointed arches, mixed groin and arched vaults and thick rectangular piers with half columns supporting arches.
On entering the cathedral, one is tempted merely to absorb the immensity, the repetition of lines and curves, and 800 years of history.
There are many details to study as well. (Click each thumbnail for bigger images).
Cowgoyle at west portal
Space Organ
The parable of the ten virgins and the last judgment. North Transept.
I didn't catch his name, but he's looking right at me.
Pieta with Flowers
Screen inside West Portal
Otto I (d. 973) who was instrumental in consolidating and extending the German Empire, is entombed in the center aisle of the choir. We attended an Anglican evensong service here (in English, mit deutscher Übersetzung). The sound was glorious.
One evening, we were reading the notice board at the entrance to the Cathedral when a man on a bike paused to speak with us. He told us how, as a student in the DDR (East Germany), during a two week work period before the term, he had helped lay the cobblestone paving of the churchyard. The statue is St. Mauritius a third century African Roman soldier honored by the cathedral.
When we arrived just before sunset to photograph the west front of the Cathedral, a boy and his father were kicking a soccer ball in the plaza. I was waiting quietly, but impatiently, for them to move on. After about 5 minutes they did.
Churches Germany Magdeburger DomCathedral Church Dom Germany Gothic Magdeburg Medieval Romanesque
A Different Angle: Marktkirche St. Benedikti, Quedlinburg
Consecrated by a woman, rebuilt and repaired with dramatic asymmetry, this church stands in the center of a World Heritage town of narrow crooked streets.
The original cross-shaped, romanesque basilica on this site was consecrated in 1173 by Abbess Adelheid III. The bishop of Halberstadt objected to this procedure but was overruled by the Pope who confirmed the right of the Abbess to perform the consecration.
The first thing one notices on entering the nave is that the axis of the nave is offset significantly from the axis of the choir. The center aisle is more than a meter narrower on the right hand side than the choir. Furthermore, the first arcade opening on the south is several feet wider than the opening on the north.
The reason for this misalignment may have been funding. When the choir and nave were rebuilt in the 15th century as a Gothic hall church, the north side of the nave was widened, and new foundations were established for the piers of the arcade. On the south side, as apparent cost saving measures, the old foundations were retained, and a portion of the former transept was retained as the east wall of the aisle.
View to West. Notice the south wall (left) of the nave arcade is shifted inward from the line of the choir wall.
I can imagine the architect thinking, "If the client won't provide the funds to do it right, I'll build something they will regret for the next 1000 years." But seriously, the building is still in use 600 years after these practical measures were taken. That's more than we can say for a lot of more recent structures that have disappeared.
View from Sternkiekerturm of the Marktkirche
The asymmetrical spires are the result of reconstruction after fires in 1701 and 1901.
Kalandskapelle
The Kalandskapelle was the gathering place of the local chapter of a charitable society of prosperous citizens and priests who met on the first day of each month (i.e. of the calendar). The society was quite widespread from the 9th century through the end of the middle ages, and there are a couple chapters extant even today. The altarpiece dates to about 1480.
The high altar, dating to about 1700, includes the familiar, the apostles Paul and John, Moses, David, Christ on the road to Emmaus, as well as some unusual images for an altar, Jonah and the fish and Samson carrying the gates of Gath.
Carvings on the stair to the pulpit
Carvings on the pulpit
The pulpit dates to 1595 and is carved out of linden wood with images of the garden of Eden, the apostles, and the Passion.
16th century carving of King David.
This statue of David was once used as a support for the organ loft.
Information for this article was gathered at the church and from the booklet "Quedlinburg, Marktkirche St. Benedikti, Welterbe der UNESCO." ISBN 3-89643-598-1
Churches Germany Marktkirche St. Benedikti, QuedlinburgBenedikti Church Germany marktkirche Quedlinburg
A Visit to Speyer Cathedral
Walking down Maximillianstrasse in Speyer for the first time is dangerous. The eye is drawn so powerfully to the massive block of the west face of the Cathedral (Dom) that one is apt to collide with an oncoming pedestrian or bicycle. The alternating courses of red and yellow sandstone make the broad front seem even wider than it is. There is symmetry, rhythm and balance to the main face of the church. But the weathered roughness of two plain, red towers and a cupola rises behind, photo-bombing the finer detail of the main face.
I suppose that is why so many writers complain of the west front which was re-built in the 1800s. There is nothing wrong with it in itself, IMHO, but it conflicts with the 1000 year old feel of the rest of the church.
It is not the case however that the rest has survived unaltered. In 1689 the church burned, the western half nearly leveled, and it was not restored until about 70 years later. That first reconstruction though was fairly true to the original building and it takes a close look to find the boundary between the 11th/12th century original and the 18th century repairs.
Circumambulating the church, one is impressed by the length, 134m, the long rows of windows and arcades and the essential unity of style. Even the copper roof complements the red sandstone. Surrounded by parkland, it is relaxing to take some time doing this. Apart from the sacristy on the southeast corner, Speyer did not acquire the gothic additions that its siblings at Mainz and Worms did. Or rather, those it did acquire perished in the 1689 fire. Thus there is a stronger sense of unity and integrity here.
The square towers at the east end are the oldest structures, dating to the early 11th century. They are constructed of smaller, rougher stone than the rest of the church.
We enter from the west. The nave is very well lit. When the clerestory was updated in about 1125, the windows were unusually large and only superseded in size and luminance by Gothic construction. Also unusual for a Romanesque church are the tall half cylinder columns that were added in the early 12th century to support the vaults. They create a strong vertical element that draws the eye upward as effectively as the long arcade draws the eye toward the sanctuary.
There is a large-scale rhythm created by the twelve lower level arches, triforium level paintings, clerestory and vaults. As you move around the church, into the aisles and even to the crypt, the regular division of space and round arches create a harmonious whole. In the images above, taken to the east and west respectively, one can identify the demarcation between the original work and the 18th century reconstruction. On the left, the nearest transverse arch is entirely pink stone indicating it is part of the reconstruction while the farther arches alternate yellow and pink. On the right the closest several piers are mostly yellow stone from the early building while the farther pink sections in the west are from the reconstruction. The organ was installed in 2011.
The exterior of the eastern apse is built of finely finished ashlars, but the interior is built of rougher stone and the courses are not quite level. I suspect the reason was that it was easier and cheaper to build with small stones and not finish them smoothly if they intended to plaster and paint the wall. It could represent an economic decision rather than a skill deficit on the part of the early builders.
The crypt is the largest Romanesque crypt in the world. There are seven altars, a chapel and tombs of 8 German emperors from the 11th through 13th centuries, including Rudolf I, the first king of the Habsburg dynasty.
All visitors should climb the tower, where I received a bit of unexpected cultural education. A young guide was happy to chat about the view, cathedral, town and historical events. I asked him about the French invasion of 1689, the attendant fire and destruction. He earnestly responded that "we don't say French, we just say foreign army. We are all friends now." Message received. He does not want anyone to think he holds any modern person responsible for something that happened in the past.
The prospect from the top is spectacular. One can see the roof and towers up close with the backdrop of the Rhine on the east and a view over the town with the mountains of the Palatine Forest to the west.
There is much more that could be said about this special place but that will have to wait for another time.
Churches Germany Speyer CathedralCathedral Church Dom Germany Medieval Romanesque Speyer
by craigws July 3, 2014 June 13, 2022
The Wormser Dom or Cathedral of St. Peter is the smallest of the three Kaiserdoms (Mainz, Worms, Speyer), though only by a few meters, and it feels darker, moodier. Its Romanesque core sets the tone, but this church has more dominant gothic additions on the south elevation than the other two.
Most churches in this region suffered structural damage and loss of the original furnishings during various wars and shifts in the boundaries of Catholic and Protestant control. In the case of Worms the restorations extended into the 20th century and were set back again by World War Two. Many different approaches have been taken to restoration. At Worms a limited collection of sculptures have been gathered in the nave and aisles, while the main, eastern chancel has been furnished in the Baroque style.
The view below is toward the west with light falling on statues of St. Joachim and St. Sebastian.
Though each bay of the nave is identical in the first story, the space below the clerestory shows interesting variations. There are several bays with single blind archways above the nave arches, the westernmost bay and the easternmost on the north have only a flat wall. The second bay from the west on the south, opposite the organ has blind double archways. These can be seen below.
The transverse arches above the nave are supported by different pier configurations on the north and south. On the south, the transverse arches spring from half cylinder columns while the smaller diagonal arches and arches over the windows, spring from a rectangular shaft behind the half cylinder. On the north there is a second rectangular shaft behind first that separates the springing of the window arch from that of the diagonal arches. There are also variations in the capitols.
There is apparently no documentation as to why or how this occurred. Such variation in many cathedrals is due to changes in technique or style over long periods of time, but the nave here was built between 1160-1170, so time does not seem to be the main factor. My pet theory is that the bishop was nearsighted and the architect took advantage of this to experiment with different techniques.
To my eye, the view toward the west is most pleasing. That is to say the western chancel seems more consistent with the clean lines of the nave, yet it still provides an attractive focal point.
The eastern chancel is filled with gilded Baroque furniture and is quite eye catching, but it strikes me as clashing with the building as a whole.
The north aisle wall preserves a number of sculpture panels that were moved here when the adjacent monastery was demolished. The windows above them are modern and the rectangular designs clash a bit with the ancient setting.
The south aisle was augmented with a number of gothic chapels in the 14th century. The strong red and blue of the windows in the large Nicholas Chapel lends a sense of quiet solitude.
Variation in design is to be found outside as well as inside. The lower levels of the four staircase towers are similar, but the upper stories vary in height and windows design. This is the west elevation showing different height and window placement in each of the five upper stories. (Renovation seems to be a 'way of life' for these buildings, but I do wish they had not placed the containers directly in front.)
The north elevation once had an elaborate imperial entrance and a cloister that were destroyed, apparently in 1689. The western retains the outlines of damaged stone around the present doorway. In a couple places a rough patch or perhaps the rubble fill of the main wall is exposed. The eastern doorway which had been the imperial entrance was refurbished.
Eastern Portal on North
Western Door on North
For further information, see:
http://www.wormser-dom.de
Churches Germany Worms CathedralCathedral Church Dom Germany Medieval Rhine Romanesque Worms
The Mainzer Dom or Cathedral of St. Martin looms over the relatively small city of Mainz. The staircase towers on the east, shown below, date to 1009. The east choir and nave were complete by about 1137.
Though the building has too often suffered from fire, neglect, war and now the ravages of modern civilization, it remains in use as a center of Christian worship. As a point of comparison, by the time the Roman monuments were 1000 years old, they were ancient ruins, looted for their stone and their original purposes of little interest to the new residents of Rome. In addition to its age, the size of the building is hard to grasp. It is 109m (357ft) long and the nave is 28m (98ft) high. With the aisles the church is 32m (104ft) wide. Though a bit smaller than its Gothic successors, it till whelms the senses.
The core of the building is in the Romanesque style, marked by round arches and heavy, thick, flat walls. The windows are small, letting in but little light. The overall effect has been considered gloomy, but I'm not sure that gives proper credit to where this style fits in the development of architecture. If one had never seen a gothic church, with its skeletal frame and glass walls, this would seem spacious and light enough.
The blind arcade between the nave arches and the clerestory windows, which is adorned with paintings from the Gospels, was an innovation at the time.
The original building had a flat ceiling. The ribbed vaulting was installed in the late 12th century. This innovation seems to have come late to the Rhine churches. Such vaulting was already in use as early as the 11th century in England. The half-cylinder columns added to the inside of the rectangular columns support the vaults.
A number of german churches built in this time period had chancels/apses on both the west and east ends. In the case of Mainz the more elaborate chancel, is in the west and the pews face that direction.
The Romanesque core has been obscured somewhat by later accretions. Numerous monuments and decorative additions come from the high gothic and baroque ages. The transepts especially have numerous memorials in later styles (note also the early 21st century push-broom resting against the column in the background).
Chapels, funded by noble patrons who wanted to memorialize themselves, were added in the 13th century with large gothic windows, seen from the cloister in the image below, but many of these are shaded by buildings around the cathedral and do not add much light to the interior. This issue of patronage also gives one pause to consider the mixed personal and religious motives of donors.
Still today there are further additions, including a number of modern colored glass windows that to my eye clash a bit with the older elements.
Most other large churches from this age in western Europe were replaced at one time or another with newer, gothic structures. Together with Speyer and Worms, this church is a special representative of an important architectural style and a testament to the faith of those who built and rebuilt it.
Ernst Gall, Cathedrals and Abbey Churches of the Rhine, NY, Abrams, 1963
St. Martin's Cathedral, Mainz, ISBN 978-3-7954-4383-5
http://www.mainz-dom.de
Churches Germany Mainz Churches The Cathedral of St. Martin, MainzCathedral Church Dom Germany Mainz Rhine Romanesque


5. Your own condo at Vista Cay Resort- if you're reading this, we may be lucky enough to have you as a guest in our resort! Our condos and townhomes are great for the whole family to celebrate the holidays. With full kitchens to make a special meal and spacious living rooms to decorate, it's the perfect way to gather with your loved ones this holiday season.
Orlando is a wonderfully festive place to spend the holiday season with your loved ones. Even with the lack of cold weather and snow, the tourist corridor is busting at the seams with holiday cheer. There are so many things to see and do near the Vista Cay Resort. With all the options, and the holidays quickly approaching, we've narrowed down our Top 5 favorite ways to celebrate the holidays in Orlando.
1. ICE! at the Gaylord Palms- This event is fun for the whole family! Each year, the Gaylord Palms Resort transforms into a beautiful winter wonderland, with over two million pounds of hand carved ice sculptures. This year's theme features "A Charlie Brown Christmas", showcasing all of your favorite characters carved in ice, as well as ice slides, an ice bar, and a Christmas tree light show in the hotel atrium.
2. Disney Springs- this has always been one of our favorite ways to get the magic of Disney World, without the price tag of the parks or hotels. Disney has tons of holiday fun for the whole family set up throughout Disney Springs. They have two separate dance areas with holiday DJ's, a nightly Christmas tree lighting, holiday photo-ops, and photos with Santa. Don't forget to stop by the Christmas Tree Trail, where each tree has a different theme! When you're ready for a bite to eat, check out our list of our favorite Disney Springs restaurants here.
3. Frosty's Christmastime Lounge- adults only on this one! This bar in Downtown Orlando is arguably the most festive place in town, decked out in holiday décor from floor to ceiling. So pull up a stool at the bar, order yourself some homemade eggnog or an alcoholic snow cone, and delight in the mix of Christmas carols and 80's throwbacks as "snow" falls on your head.
4. Disney's Grand Floridian Resort– this is not to be missed! Each year, the Grand Floridian builds a beautiful life sized gingerbread house in its lobby. If you're heading to the parks, jump on the resort monorail and stop here for a photo-op first. The entire lobby smells sweet like cookies, and there are lots of gingerbread items for sale as well.
Happy Holidays from Orlando Resorts Rental!
Known as the home to more than a dozen theme parks, Orlando Florida, otherwise known as the "Theme Park Capital of the World," offers no shortage of entertainment! Travelers seeking entertainment beyond rides and restaurants can also find plenty of popular performances.


text:
class T::InterfaceWrapper
  extend T::Sig

  module Helpers
    def wrap_instance(obj)
      T::InterfaceWrapper.wrap_instance(obj, self)
    end

    def wrap_instances(arr)
      T::InterfaceWrapper.wrap_instances(arr, self)
    end
  end

  private_class_method :new # use `wrap_instance`

  def self.wrap_instance(obj, interface_mod)
    wrapper = wrapped_dynamic_cast(obj, interface_mod)
    if wrapper.nil?
      raise "#{obj.class} cannot be cast to #{interface_mod}"
    end
    wrapper
  end

  sig do
    params(
      arr: Array,
      interface_mod: T.untyped
    )
    .returns(Array)
  end
  def self.wrap_instances(arr, interface_mod)
    arr.map {|instance| self.wrap_instance(instance, interface_mod)}
  end

  def initialize(target_obj, interface_mod)
    if target_obj.is_a?(T::InterfaceWrapper)
      # wrapped_dynamic_cast should guarantee this never happens.
      raise "Unexpected: wrapping a wrapper. Please report this bug at https://github.com/sorbet/sorbet/issues"
    end

    if !target_obj.is_a?(interface_mod)
      # wrapped_dynamic_cast should guarantee this never happens.
      raise "Unexpected: `is_a?` failed. Please report this bug at https://github.com/sorbet/sorbet/issues"
    end

    if target_obj.class == interface_mod
      # wrapped_dynamic_cast should guarantee this never happens.
      raise "Unexpected: exact class match. Please report this bug at https://github.com/sorbet/sorbet/issues"
    end

    @target_obj = target_obj
    @interface_mod = interface_mod
    self_methods = self.class.self_methods

    # If perf becomes an issue, we can define these on an anonymous subclass, and keep a cache
    # so we only need to do it once per unique `interface_mod`
    T::Utils.methods_excluding_object(interface_mod).each do |method_name|
      if self_methods.include?(method_name)
        raise "interface_mod has a method that conflicts with #{self.class}: #{method_name}"
      end

      define_singleton_method(method_name) do |*args, &blk|
        target_obj.send(method_name, *args, &blk)
      end

      if singleton_class.respond_to?(:ruby2_keywords, true)
        singleton_class.send(:ruby2_keywords, method_name)
      end

      if target_obj.singleton_class.public_method_defined?(method_name)
        # no-op, it's already public
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        singleton_class.send(:protected, method_name)
      elsif target_obj.singleton_class.private_method_defined?(method_name)
        singleton_class.send(:private, method_name)
      else
        raise "This should never happen. Report this bug at https://github.com/sorbet/sorbet/issues"
      end
    end
  end

  def kind_of?(other)
    is_a?(other)
  end

  def is_a?(other)
    if !other.is_a?(Module)
      raise TypeError.new("class or module required")
    end

    # This makes is_a? return true for T::InterfaceWrapper (and its ancestors),
    # as well as for @interface_mod and its ancestors.
    self.class <= other || @interface_mod <= other
  end

  # Prefixed because we're polluting the namespace of the interface we're wrapping, and we don't
  # want anyone else (besides dynamic_cast) calling it.
  def __target_obj_DO_NOT_USE # rubocop:disable Naming/MethodName
    @target_obj
  end

  # Prefixed because we're polluting the namespace of the interface we're wrapping, and we don't
  # want anyone else (besides wrapped_dynamic_cast) calling it.
  def __interface_mod_DO_NOT_USE # rubocop:disable Naming/MethodName
    @interface_mod
  end

  # "Cast" an object to another type. If `obj` is an InterfaceWrapper, returns the the wrapped
  # object if that matches `type`. Otherwise, returns `obj` if it matches `type`. Otherwise,
  # returns nil.
  #
  # @param obj [Object] object to cast
  # @param mod [Module] type to cast `obj` to
  #
  # @example
  #   if (impl = T::InterfaceWrapper.dynamic_cast(iface, MyImplementation))
  #     impl.do_things
  #   end
  def self.dynamic_cast(obj, mod)
    if obj.is_a?(T::InterfaceWrapper)
      target_obj = obj.__target_obj_DO_NOT_USE
      target_obj.is_a?(mod) ? target_obj : nil
    elsif obj.is_a?(mod)
      obj
    else
      nil
    end
  end

  # Like dynamic_cast, but puts the result in its own wrapper if necessary.
  #
  # @param obj [Object] object to cast
  # @param mod [Module] type to cast `obj` to
  def self.wrapped_dynamic_cast(obj, mod)
    # Avoid unwrapping and creating an equivalent wrapper.
    if obj.is_a?(T::InterfaceWrapper) && obj.__interface_mod_DO_NOT_USE == mod
      return obj
    end

    cast_obj = dynamic_cast(obj, mod)
    if cast_obj.nil?
      nil
    elsif cast_obj.class == mod
      # Nothing to wrap, they want the full class
      cast_obj
    else
      new(cast_obj, mod)
    end
  end

  def self.self_methods
    @self_methods ||= self.instance_methods(false).to_set
  end
end


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text:
Q: Input from JOptionPane, output in JTextArea in JFrame? How do you make a JTextArea in the JFrame that accepts multiple input from JOptionPane? Is that even possible? Thanks to whoever helps!

A: *

*Create a new class and extend JFrame

*add a JTextArea to it. Make it a member variable

*add a button to the frame. In the action method call open the input dialog

*when the dialog returns, append the text to the JTextArea using its append method (don't forget to check for empty/null string)

Here is a sample program:
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;

public class InputTest extends JFrame {

    private final JTextArea textarea;
    private final JButton button;

    public InputTest(String title) {
        super(title);

        this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        textarea = new JTextArea(5,30);

        button = new JButton("new input");
        button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                String input = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(InputTest.this, "Please enter some text");

                if((input != null) && !input.isEmpty()) {
                    textarea.append(input);
                    textarea.append(System.getProperty("line.separator"));
                }
            }
        });

        JPanel p = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        p.add(textarea, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        p.add(button, BorderLayout.SOUTH);

        this.getContentPane().add(p);

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        InputTest it = new InputTest("Input Test");
        it.setSize(200, 200);
        it.setVisible(true);
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
itbusinessedge > Blogs > Enterprise Software > Happy/Sad Thanksgiving Day 2008 from Cape Cod, Where It All Began
Happy/Sad Thanksgiving Day 2008 from Cape Cod, Where It All Began
By Dennis Byron, Posted November 27, 2008
This is my annual "personal" blog post, which I permit myself because I live near where the U.S. Thanksgiving tradition began. But if you make it to the end of this post, you will find there
This is my annual "personal" blog post, which I permit myself because I live near where the U.S. Thanksgiving tradition began.
But if you make it to the end of this post, you will find there is an IT connection.
https://o1.qnsr.com/log/p.gif?;n=203;c=204663295;s=11915;x=7936;f=201904081034270;u=j;z=TIMESTAMP;a=20410779;e=i
The rock that my grandchildren are standing on in this picture from last summer is not Plymouth Rock. But it is on a beach along which the first English colonists in this area sailed in 1620, according to their records, looking for the harbor they finally found in Plymouth. The colonists possibly even walked along here in 1620, but it wouldn't have taken them long to realize that that big sand bar in the background of the kids' picture would make it hard to get from their ship, the Mayflower, to the shore.
In addition, I am definitely not a Mayflower descendant. Most of my ancestors were growing potatoes and stealing each others' cows in Ireland at the time of the first Thanksgiving. Because they are mostly "Western Irish," unlike the Cape Cod Native Americans (called Indians by the politically and geographically incorrect), the colonization of my ancestors' lands by the English had not yet officially begun at the time of the first Thanksgiving in 1621. The official colonization of Ireland by the English did not start until 1650, although they and the Scots had been encroaching since the 1500s.
The Thanksgiving Holiday Connection
This week, because I was passing through and not because of any particular Irish-Indian anti-English-colonialism affinity, I stopped for breakfast at a welcoming "townie" breakfast place in Mashpee, where many of the remaining Native Americans on Cape Cod proper still live. I thought I'd mingle in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday. I say Cape Cod proper because there is also a Native American village on the island of Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod's south shore. Mashpee is on the south (that is, the "protected") side of Cape Cod; the Native Americans obviously knew something about which way the tides ran and the winds blew, and where the fish were. I live and fish on the north side; I think it's my Irish ancestry.
For our non-U.S. readers that don't get the connection between all of this and the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, it was the Cape Cod Native Americans that "greeted" the first European immigrants to land in this part of North America (if you want to call running away after being shot at a "greeting"). The colonists, now commonly called the Pilgrims, landed first on Cape Cod and shortly thereafter moved 30 miles across the bay to North America proper in what is now called Plymouth Harbor, named in honor of the English town from which they had sailed.
The first winter (December 1620-March 1621) was hell for the Europeans. About half of them died. But with the help of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (also according to the Pilgrims records), the colonists planted in the spring, had a good harvest and celebrated by feasting with the tribe "to give Thanksgiving" sometime in September-October 1621 after the crops came in.
They certainly would not have feasted in late November. Although today is a typical late autumn day on Cape Cod with a skim of ice on the ponds to start with and a likely high temperature 3 C degrees (about freezing), in past years I have dug my way out of two feet of snow on Thanksgiving in order to get to grandmother's house. (Of course, I've also played golf some Thanksgivings before going to grandmother's house.)
As a sign of how things have changed on Cape Cod in the last almost 400 years, despite its outward appearance to me as I drove through, the welcoming breakfast place in the "Mashpee Indian village" was a Dunkin' Donuts. It was welcoming, though.
The IT Connection
As I promised, there is a real IT connection to this blog post. One of the leading Mashpee "chiefs" (actually called President) was the late Russ Peters, a marketing manager at Honeywell back when the idea of marketing IT had just begun. He had worked for IBM before Honeywell, I believe. He left Honeywell in 1974 (where he regularly beat me in the golf league) to work on various Native American affairs full time.
Here are his bittersweet Thanksgiving comments from 1998 on what the Wampanoag call the National Day of Mourning (instead of Thanksgiving). I say bittersweet because Peters said in these comments that the original Thanksgiving did prove that everyone could get along for at least one generation.
The ultimate irony is that because the U.S. Federal government recognized the Wampanoag as a tribe in 2006, 30 years after Peters began his effort to get the recognition (and after he passed away in 2002), everyone here on Cape Cod with the remotest DNA link to the tribe now wants to be considered a Native American.
The tribe had 800 recognized members when he started working on Native American affairs in 1974; that number has grown to around 1,500 by 2,000 and another 2,000 or so are on the waiting list to be "voted in." That's because - also for the benefit of our non-U.S. readers - with U.S. Federal tribal recognition comes ownership of legal gambling via casinos funded (to really close the circle of oppressed people) by South Africans.
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Freddy521 used to be a pet Pokemon of the God-Before-Dean-Who-We-Won't-Name before he fell off a cloud and landed in Epsilon. He is unofficial head of the military for Dean, and like to make fireworks and let them off. Indoors.


Tap The Thumbnail Bellow to See Related Gallery of "Twin Bed Comforters Sets Mustache Bedding Comforter Set Full Queen King Size Duvet 1"
Image Title: Twin Bed Comforters Sets Mustache Bedding Comforter Set Full Queen King Size Duvet 1. Filename: twin-bed-comforters-sets-mustache-bedding-comforter-set-full-queen-king-size-duvet-1.jpg. Image Dimension: 680 x 680 pixels. Images Format: jpg/jpeg. Publisher/Author: Jillian Deckow. Uploaded Date: Tuesday - December 12th. 2017 11:47:08 AM. Category: Architecture. Image Source: diy.com.


Software testing are becoming more challenging now a days. Software, Website and mobile applications have become an important role in our lives both economically and socially, so it is very important to get tested and focus on quality. Any software or website should possess quality attributes such as functionally, User Friendly, compatibility, Correctness, Maintainability and portability. Unicode Technologies has successfully completed 9 years in the field of Software Testing Training that provides professional IT services and full Software testing training like selenium, manual testing, automation testing, jmeter, security testing, qtp training in Ahmedabad/baroda For more information visit our website www.unicodetechnologies.in or call us on +91 98257 26467 today.
There is JAEWON in the center of the fourth industrial revolution for the bright future of mankind. Our company is a technology innovative Company that specializes in the development & production of robots and precision stages for manufacturing. Our main product, precision Stage, is a precise measuring instrument that is used for precise positioning of objects in LCD, LED, OLED, AMOLED display and semiconductor manufacturing process and various inspection processes. Not only plays a key role in improving quality and productivity, but is also used in precision machinery such as 3D rigs for optical, medical, and broadcasting applications. Super slim X-Axis Part Number MA-B-C · A :Axis · B : Table size · C :Height Product Features • Super slim Auto Stage • Increase accuracy · We can provide other customizing Products · Minimize backlash & Precision design · Selectable servo or step motor Precautions • The product may malfunction due to external act and force. • Attaching the wrong part or attaching too much force may adversely affect the drive part. • When used above the maximum speed, the product life can be shortened. • Exceeding the travel range may damage the product. Linear Stage Part Number MA-BC-D • A: Axis • B: Table Size • C : Motor Type ( A : 2 Phases Step Motor. B : 5 Phases Step Motor , S : Servo Motor , C : Mechanism ) • D : Sensor Position ( L Left . R : Right ) Product Features • Standard X, Y. Z Axis Stage • Minimize backlash & Precision design • increase accuracy • Selectable Servo or Step motor • We can provide other customizing Precautions • Are you looking for Automation Precision Stage Manufacturer and supplier in Korea? Super slim products-the main features are Super slim Auto Stage, Minimize backlash & Precision design, Precision Motorized Linear Stage Korea, Increase accuracy, Select table Servo or Step motor, We can provide other customizing products.


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Transgender Woman Attacked and Beaten in Denver
Addison Herron-Wheeler May 3, 2019
FeaturedNews 0
An attack outside a LoDo bar on Sunday, April 28 left a Denver woman with severe injuries.
Amber Nicole, the woman who was attacked, stated that she was leaving a downtown bar around 1:20 a.m. when she started getting harassed. Cell phone footage shows the woman walking to her car covered in blood, although it did not capture the attack.
A friend she was at the bar with drove her to the hospital, where her mother met her.
"I was horrified to see my baby like that, and all I could do was thank God that she was alive, but then I didn't even know if she would wake up," said her mother, Juls, according to CBS Local. "Then I was just so angry, because things were running through my head like how? Who? Why?!"
"There's so many people who can see an incident and stop it or do something about, or make a report about it, but nobody does, and I don't understand why," Amber told CBS Local after watching the video footage."It feels like it's because I'm different."
The attack has left Amber with her face and jaw broken in several places and nerve damage to the right side of her face that could lead to permanent paralysis.
If you want to help Amber, consider donating to her GoFundMe page. If you have any information on the attack, please come forward to the Denver police.
Blush & Blu is also holding a benefit for Amber on May 8.
Previous ArticleEquality Act Passes Phase One
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Addison Herron-Wheeler
Addison Herron-Wheeler is OUT FRONT's interim editor and friend to dogs everywhere. She enjoys long walks in the darkness away from any sources of sunlight, rainy days, and painfully dry comedy. She also covers cannabis and heavy metal, and is author of Wicked Woman: Women in Metal from the 1960s to Now.
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Play @ Cemetech
We try to work hard here at Cemetech, teaching programming and hardware hacking, welcoming students, teachers, and professionals, and spreading the joy of mastering technology. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, though, so we also enjoy a bit of recreational video gaming on the side. Two of our particular loves are Unreal Tournament 2004 for its cathartic action and Minecraft for its creative potential.
mc.cemetech.net is our Minecraft 1.10 server, subtitled "Intelligent Survival". It is a PvE creative survival server, gradually filling with more and more impressive houses and structures. The Build World is open to all, once they are approved by a moderator. The rules are simple: no hacks, no stealing, no griefing, and have fun. There is also an expansive Museum World, showcasing our best builds from the past four years, including cities, bridges, railroads, mansions, and more. There is no whitelist, so hop on now and explore!
World Map (DynMap)
Rank Statistics
ut.cemetech.net just may be the longest-running Unreal Tournament 2004 server still in operation. Although the game is over a decade old, it still provides pure FPS fun that's hard to find in any more modern games. We have a particular love for ArenaMaster and Team ArenaMaster (AM/TAM) matches, Vehicular Capture-the-Flag (VCTF) and every-man-for-himself DeathMatch (DM), though we don't restrict ourselves to those. We have hundreds of maps and a powerful, low-latency server; come relive the joy of quad-jumping while blasting a flak cannon at your opponents! The server has a password; feel free to log into Cemetech and ask for it, and we'll be happy to share.


The son of a former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, was on Wednesday remanded in the transit cell of Tinubu Chief Magistrates' Court, Lagos for disobeying a court order.
Aminu was alleged to have disobeyed an order made by Chief Magistrate Kikelomo Ayeye on October 11 over the custody of six-year-old Amir Abubakar, who he was alleged to have taken away from the custody of his enstranged wife, Fatimo Bolori.
This comes as his famous father is seeking a return to public life with an expected bid for the presidency in 2019.
Ms. Ayeye had earlier ordered the respondent in the suit marked FCL/29/2017, between U. F. Bolori Vs M. A. Abubakar to produce Amir Abubakar at the first hearing of the case.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that when the case came up on Wednesday for the discharge of "Emergency, Evacuation/Protection Order" made by the court, the court was informed that the parties were planning to settle out of court.
In response, Ms. Bolori's lawyer, Nwabuzor Okoh, denied receiving any notification from the respondent to settle out of court.
Consequently, Chief Magistrate Ayeye cited Aminu for contempt for disobeying court order issued on October 11.
She ordered that the respondent be remanded in transit cell and the case stood down pending when he would produce the boy.


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Trout & Co
The flyfishing online magazine
Flyfishing in New Zealand : back to reality
2020-03-03 | Benjamin Kerthe
We have been road tripping around New Zealand for the last 9 months. Many would consider that we are living the dream. This country is often described as the trout bum heaven. It is advertised as an Eldorado where trophy size trout (who weighs more...
Fly fishing in Scotland : an easily accessed scenery
2020-02-17 | Eric Bacon
Scotland is worldwide famous for its whiskies, Nessie, its castles (sometimes haunted), the kilt, Harry Potter for the youngest and, for us, fly fishermen, its renowned salmon rivers. But it is also an excellent destination for trout fishing and...
Grayling's fishing in Swedish Lapland
2019-08-27 | Simon Scodavolpe
It's 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday 26th of June and we started to drive 7 hours earlier with my mate Olivier, heading north from Stockholm airport. The quick meal at the beginning of the trip seemed so far away. Even though the remaining high luminosity...
Road trip in the Canada Rockies
2019-06-25 | Pierre Rigalleau
Written by Pierre Rigaleau Translated from French by Benjamin Kerthe My girlfriend and I finished our respective contracts at the same time and had the whole month of September 2017 available to travel. We thought about several destinations and...
Crossed Views from the American West
by Violaine Capet and Eric Bacon. He spoke of it as a pilgrimage. The time spent in the North American Rivers was a sacred journey that was both physical and spiritual, and an experience that a person must make at least once in their life.
Tasmania, explore the possibilities
If the 7.6 billion Earth's inhabitants lived like Australian, the overshoot day would be on March 31st. We would also have done much more irreversible damages and would suffer, inter alia, lack of water, global temperature warming, disappearing of...
Trout & Co : The flyfishing online magazine - Copyright © 2021 - All rights reserved.


I'm excited to share this latest update to my course, Mastering the SharePoint Framework for developers. Today's update, packaged as sprint 13, includes two new chapters and a few updates… and it's a huge release… the biggest yet adding over 3 hours of new content!
To celebrate this milestone, we are offering $50 off the price of the Fundamentals or Ultimate Bundle for the next two weeks. Use the code FUNDAMENTALSISDONE to save $50 today… this offer expires at 11:59pm on Friday, February 22, 2019 EST so don't delay!
While SPFx already had an API that we could use to call open REST APIs, the HttpClient, it wasn't terribly easy or possible to call Azure AD secured endpoints. In SPFx v1.6.0, Microsoft introduced a new API, AadHttpClient, that you use with the new server-side infrastructure to call Azure AD secured REST APIs.
This chapter is huge… over 2 hours & 17 minutes long with loads of demos!
The chapter then moves onto the topic of REST APIs that are secured with Azure AD. I explain how you call these services from server-side code, such as .NET Framework, ASP.NET, .NET Core or Node.js to name a few. It's important to understand how this works so you can understand the challenge when working with client-side solutions like SPFx.
The Mastering the SharePoint Framework Fundamentals Bundle is now content complete! To celebrate this milestone, we are offering $50 off the price of the Fundamentals or Ultimate Bundle for the next two weeks. Use the code FUNDAMENTALSISDONE to save $50 today… this offer expires at 11:59pm on Friday, February 22, 2019 EST so don't delay!
So what's next? I'm pushing ahead with the Ultimate Bundle. At the start of the year, I planned out the first half of 2019 with the goal of reaching content complete on the Ultimate bundle ASAP.
Want to learn more? Well, you need to tune into the Facebook Live Sprint 13 GO LIVE! next Monday, February 11, 2019 at 1p EST where I'll explain the plans & answer any questions you have.


For a band yet to reach the dizzy heights of indie stardom, The Horn The Hunt's third album, Terrafidella, is an incredibly accomplished listen. Preferring to quietly bide their time in Leeds, this indie pop band blend an almost chimaeric force of soaring vocals, desert guitars, primal drums with a heavy dose of melodic synth. With past releases barely noticed outside those willing to spend time exploring Bandcamp, this wider release could see them finally muscle past some of the drearier opposition (Warpaint, for argument's sake).
On opener 'Black Fire' Clare Carter's sultry vocals immediately set a subtle yet anthemic tone for the rest of the record. While their effortless ability to craft a hook from a mere raised vocal note or swift change of chord is a talent not to be sniffed at, their most impressive asset comes from the variety of background sonic layering. Synths and drums flutter in from nowhere, while icy guitar tones mold around the weight of Carter's vocals. The title cut adds a mesmeric, progressive edge to the proceedings, with the occasional blip only due to the record's own hefty pacing. Occasionally disjointed but never boring, The Horn The Hunt have delivered a series of carefully formed moments that delight as much as they do intrigue.


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You are here: Home / The Man / Influence / George Michael and His Stand Against Conversion Therapy
George Michael would have turned in his grave with the ruling of the U.S. court that banning conversion therapy violates the First Amendment (Read the court's full decision here).
The pop superstar, who passed away in 2016, was one of the first celebrities who have spoken out against conversion therapy back in the late 90s.
What is Conversion Therapy?
Conversion therapy is the process of attempting to change someone's sexual orientation or gender identity. It rests on the premise that "you are bad and need to change." It is based on the false and incredibly damaging idea that homosexuality is a mental health issue that can be "cured". In practice, conversion therapy ranges from "praying the gay away" to torture.
However, many studies have shown that conversion therapy is not only ineffective but damaging. A Cornell University study showed that "there is no credible evidence that sexual orientation can be changed through therapeutic intervention." Even worse, conversion therapy "is ineffective and/or harmful, finding links to depression, suicidality, anxiety, social isolation and decreased capacity for intimacy."
The practice has been discredited through the years. Prior to this new ruling, about 20 states in the US have banned the practice and many groups, including American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and American Psychological Association oppose the practice.
George Michael's Stand on the Issue
George was compelled to speak out against conversion therapy after reading an article about American centers that aim to cure children from homosexuality or conversion therapy centers. In the late '90s, he read the piece "Hiding Out" by Tomas Mournian, an investigative feature about gay youths who escaped from reparative therapy bootcamps into an underground network of safehouses. It was first published by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and reprinted in the British gay magazine Attitude.
I'm constantly shocked by people's attitudes towards their children. And I feel incredibly strongly about attitudes towards gay children. The strongest motivation I ever had [for protecting gay children] was an article in Attitude magazine about centres in America to which young people are taken to cure them of homosexuality. These places torture people — they attach electrodes to their genitals and try to give them aversion therapy.
These places are inhumane, but they're not illegal. In fact, when the kids run away, the police take them back.
The article hit George so hard that he contacted the writer, Tomas Mournian, and asked him to create a documentary based on the article. As Mournian recalled in a Huffington Post article,
I listened to George Michael describe how he'd read my article "Hiding Out" in a British magazine. I got out of bed and looked outside. It was dark and I wasn't dreaming. George Michael really was telling me, "I was very moved by the story. I want to make a video." He wanted to know: could I hook him up with the kids who'd escaped from gay-to-straight "hospitals" into an underground network of safe houses?
The short film that George Michael produced ( written by Tomas Mournian and directed by John Keitel) was played at the Equality Rocks in Washington D.C. on April 29, 2000 (read "When George Michael Produced a Documentary on Gay Teens"). Even though the documentary was met with lackluster reception – MTV refused to broadcast the video – George spending his time and resources to tell the world about the horrors of conversion therapy showed how deeply this issue affected him and how much he wanted to try to help these embattled youths.
George was most passionate about the well-being of young gays. He cared deeply about gay youth, who he pointed out were his incentive to continue to fight when his life was at its most turbulent:
"I continued to fight because it was of great importance that gay youth shouldn't see it as the end of my career."
However, this ruling would set back the gains so far achieved and will put in danger many LGBTQ+ kids subjected to the treatment. And that would most likely break George's heart if he was alive today.
When George Michael Produced a Documentary on Gay Teens
George Michael: Unzipped (Marie Claire, 2004)
George Michael's Acts of Charity
Review of George Michael's A Different Story
Wham! You're On Your Own, George (Sunday Times, 1986)
Filed Under: Influence Tagged With: Gay Icon


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Post-Adoption Reporting Requirements for Kazakhstan
Overview of Post-Adoption Reports to Kazakh Government
Kazakh Government Requests Submission of Outstanding Post-Adoption Reports
Simplified Reporting Requirements
Submitting the Reports
Update: As of July 12, 2019, intercountry adoptions of Kazakh children by Americans remains suspended due to the failure of many U.S. adoptive parents to comply with Kazakhstan's post adoption reporting requirements [see blog]. The DOS strongly encourages U.S. adoptive parents of Kazakh children to comply with the post adoption reporting requirements in order to convince the Kazakh government to lift its suspension of future adoptions by U.S. parents.
On June 16, 2017, the United States Department of State (DOS) issued a notice tiled "Adoption Notice: Kazakhstan's Streamlined Reporting Requirements" [PDF version].
Under Kazakhstani family law, adoptive parents of children from Kazakhstan are required to submit post-adoption reports every six months for the first three years after the adoption was finalized, and annually until the child reaches 18 years of age. These reports must be submitted to the Adoption Committee at the Ministry of Education and Science.
The DOS notice explains that Kazakhstan's Ministry of Education and Science is requesting the submission of all outstanding post-adoption reports for Kazakhstani children adopted by U.S. families. Kazakhstan's Ministry of Education and Science has found 220 post-adoption reports that have not been submitted in accord with Kazakh law.
The DOS noted that Kazakhstan's Ministry of Education and Science has simplified reporting requirements in order to make reporting easier for adoptive parents. Adoptive parents may avail themselves to an adoption service provider for assistance in compiling and submitting the post-adoption report. Please see the following PDF for a list of U.S. adoption service providers authorized by the Kazakh government [PDF version]. However, the DOS explains that the report must nevertheless include:
The name(s) of the parent(s);
The child's name;
The child's date of birth; and
The region where the child was adopted.
Furthermore, the post-adoption report should include a summary on each of the following points relating to the adoptive child:
Health and development;
Education;
Activities; and
Family adjustment.
The post-adoption reports should also include recent photos of the child taken in various situations. These may include family photographs.
The DOS explains that post-adoption reports may be submitted in English. The Kazakh government no longer requires that the reports be translated. However, they must be apostilled and notarized.
The DOS states that families may submit post-adoption reports directly to the Kazakh Adoption Committee at the Ministry of Education and Science at the following address: [email protected] The DOS encourages adoptive parents to copy the DOS at [email protected] in order to help ensure that the Kazakh government receives the post-adoption reports. Furthermore, the DOS asks that parents who have already submitted their post-adoption reports as required by Kazakhstani law to inform the DOS by email so that it can confirm receipt with the Kazakhstani government (note to DOS if it is the first post-adoption report submitted).
Post-adoption reports may also be submitted to the Kazakh Embassy to the United States:
Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Visa and Consular Section
Internet: kazakhembus.com
Learn About a Country
The DOS explained why it is important for adoptive parents to comply with Kazakhstan's reporting requirements:
Compliance with Kazakhstan's post-adoption reporting requirements would also contribute to an understanding of the positive impact that intercountry adoption has for children from Kazakhstan who are living in the United States.
The Kazakh government has discretion over its intercountry adoption policies with respect to the United States. Timely submission of the post-adoption reports from adoptive parents can both show the Kazakh government that Kazakh children benefit from being placed with U.S. adoptive parents and also reassure the Kazakh government that U.S. adoptive parents respect Kazakh laws regarding intercountry adoption.
In short, submitting the post-adoption reports as required by Kazakh law will help foster trust with the Kazakh government and benefit prospective adoptive parents from the United States who hope to adopt children from Kazakhstan in the future.