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German elections: Life in the old dog yet
Jaqueline Katherina Singh Tue, 05/10/2021 - 10:09
The Social Democrats (SPD), led by Olaf Scholz, topped the polls with 25.7 percent in the September 26 German federal elections and will take first shot at forming a coalition government. Negotiations are quite likely to last until Christmas. Over the preceding year, both the conservatives (CDU/CSU) and the Greens took turns in leading in the opinion polls. The Greens did indeed win a record 14.8 percent. Angela Merkel's party, under her successor the colourless and gaffe-prone Armin Laschet, lost nearly 9 percent, falling to 24.1 percent, its worst result ever.
The Liberal FDP, which barely made it into the Bundestag in 2017, increased its vote to 11.5 percent, one of its best results. In the formation of any coalition government, it will play a key role in blocking any serious measures of social redistribution and will push for further austerity, deregulation and attacks on workers' rights. Although it lost votes, the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) still got 10.3 percent and was able to consolidate its position in the eastern regions of the country.
Although various government coalitions are conceivable, at the moment, two main options are emerging, named from the party colours: the 'traffic light' (SPD/FDP/Greens) and Jamaica (CDU/Greens/FDP) with SPD or CDU/CSU chancellors respectively.
Thus, the SPD, which fell steadily in the polls during its 'grand coalition' with Merkel, proved 'there is life in the old dog yet'. Its stress on job security, increasing the minimum wage to 12 euros, securing pensions and higher taxation on the rich, restored its popularity with trade unionists, reflecting its surviving organic roots in the working class. However, coalition with the FDP would probably give it the excuse to dump its more progressive social measures and put its links to the working class under strain once again.
The biggest loser from the SPD's revival is the Left Party (Die Linke). With a feeble 4.9 percent, it saw a halving of its vote. It could even have failed to get into the Bundestag but because it won three directly elected seats it will retain 39 seats overall. It failed to campaign vigorously for its progressive policies on climate change, the leadership believing it could somehow get into a coalition with the SPD. The party is divided between the so-called Movement Left, which is involved in various social campaigns, and the "government socialists" plus the anti-immigration faction around Sarha Wagenknecht.
In view of the necessary involvement of both the FDP, which channels the pressure of big capital, and the Greens, in any coalition, it is likely that continued budget controls and austerity measures, meaning further cuts in public services and further privatisations, could be sold as green or social reforms. The crises in education health, social security and especially pensions will continue.
An SPD-led government and chancellor would put renewed illusions in the party to the test but the unions, antiracists, climate change and housing movements should not wait for the SPD leaders' action. They need to continue fighting in the workplaces and on the streets. The Yes vote in the Berlin referendum to expropriate the private housing corporation, German Homes Ltd, by 56.7 percent on a 75 percent turnout, indicates the potential of such struggles which need to be expanded nationwide.
Equally important is the question of political leadership in the unions when it comes to waging upcoming industrial actions. Instead of hoping that others will fight against climate change, austerity or social attacks, against racism and militarism, we have to take it into our own hands!
Die Linke activists too are faced with an existential struggle; do they want to be a party able to give a lead in these struggles or do they want to try to pose as a responsible party of government or even coquette with anti-migrant chauvinism as Sahra Wagenknecht advocates.
An action conference of all organisations of the working class and left forces is needed in order to prepare for the coming attacks.
From our Programme
The Universal Class
The scourge of unemployment
Germany - News
Germany: The "traffic light" coalition
Compulsory vaccination against the Fourth Wave?
The Left Party's election debacle: a well deserved disaster
Germany: Elections and the political crisis of the bourgeoisie
Germany - Programme
A step in the right direction: Zero Covid!
Germany - Debate
Die Linke - squandered opportunity to break from reformism
Germany - Theory
1991 - A new beginning for German workers
The political revolution in East Germany
Party and Programme: from communism to social democracy - Part 1
The Crisis of Capitalist Globalisation and the Socialist Solution
League for the Fifth International Fri, 10/01/2020 - 12:27
An action programme for world revolution
Introduction Read more...
European Action Programme
International Secretariat, League for the Fifth International Wed, 05/06/2019 - 20:12
The crisis of the European Union Read more...
Germany - History
Germany: 30 years of reunification, nothing to celebrate
100 Years since Germany's November Revolution
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht - heroes of the revolution
November 1989: when the Berlin Wall fell
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text:
To my friends in Indian media: I wish there were a 'China Card'
Nepali journalists in Kathmandu have faced pressure of a different kind in the last two weeks: to match the vitriol of some TV channels in India.
Since the Bollywood actress and Nepali citizen Manisha Koirala has been vilified by several channels in India and even told something unspeakable, Bharaat ka khaaogi aur Chin ka gaana gaaogi? (You eat India's and sing Chinese song) The temperature on Kathmandu social media has risen to the level that would beat the summer heat of New Delhi. This vilification came hot on the heels of Indian Army Chief Manoj Mukund Navarane's assertions that anti-India protests are raging in Nepal at the behest of China. As if that was not enough, some Indian TV talk shows invited guests from Kathmandu and far from asking questions, started lecturing them on why Nepal should not ditch New Delhi for Beijing. Discussions on one of the TV talk shows last week focused on overthrowing the KP Oli government!
Since the mainstream Nepali media—be it TV, print or online—have largely ignored the relentless cacophony of the repugnant Indian TV channels, the Nepali audience is angry that Nepali journalists have not been up to the fight. Some of them have taken to social media and have gone as far as questioning the loyalty of Nepali journalists to the Nepali state!
Thankfully, the leaders in the mainstream Nepali media are aware that those cacophonous TV channels do not represent the vastitude of the Indian media. Nor do the chest-thumping former army generals or some self-serving Babus and politicians represent today's diverse India.
From across the border, we have watched in utter dismay how some of these TV channels routinely vilify minorities in India, incite religious and ethnic tensions, sabotage the opposition voice against the government, drumbeat support for it, and promote jingoism when it comes to foreign relations, especially with close neighbors. What they are doing now amid the rising boundary tensions between Nepal and India is therefore not surprising to us, nor does that worry us as much. We know that they are sourcing it very much from their DNA.
What has begun to bother us lately is the China angle that almost all the Indian mainstream media and intelligentsia bring in – even peddle – on almost all issues related to Nepal. The current boundary row could not have been an exception.
The facts on the ground are completely different.
Long before China had risen to today's prominence, economically and politically in the global stage, Nepal had raised the boundary issue with India. It is also important to note that Nepal's relationships with India were less rocky at that time, which points to the fact that it wasn't raised out of an impulse but with a measured hope to correct the historical wrong.
It was during his July 2000 visit to India that Nepal's late Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala raised the issue with late Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The then Nepali bureaucrats, especially in the New Delhi embassy, had advised Koirala that raising the Kalapani boundary issue would overshadow other agenda of the visit. Given Nepal's good relationship with India at that time, and the personal rapport that Koirala enjoyed with Vajpayee, the former overruled the bureaucrats and raised the boundary issue, particularly the stationing of the Indian Army at Kalapani.
Kathmandu and New Delhi agreed to conduct a field survey to demarcate Kalapani. A Joint Boundary Committee was given the task of providing reports, which was never completed and the Indian troops continued to stay there. Meetings between the Boundary Committee of the two countries since then have resolved boundary disputes in several places along the 1,800-km long Nepal-India border, except for Kalapani and Susta, another disputed boundary point between Nepal and India.
The Kalapani dispute remained in a limbo for long despite Kathmandu's continuous efforts to resolve it since the turn of the century.
It again came to the surface in 2015 when India and China agreed to develop Lipu Lekh in the Kalapani region as a trade and pilgrimage route between the two countries.
As soon as Kathmandu learnt with shock about the understanding between India and China on Lipu Lekh, the then Sushil Koirala government sent protest notes to New Delhi and Beijing.
By conveniently ignoring these historical facts the Indian Army chief imputed the China angle to the publication of new Nepali map that includes Limpiyadhura, Lipu Lekh and Kalapani. In doing so he did not only vitiate the environment but also provided fodder to the jingoistic Indian media and intelligentsia.
Many in India seem to wonder why Nepal chose to raise this issue now while it has been there for so long. The fact is, Nepal didn't choose the timing. She was merely responding to two unilateral actions by India—first, the 'cartographic aggression' in November 2019 and second, the construction of the road in the Nepali territory.
India published her new map in November 2, 2019 that included Kalapani region within India and on May 8 Union Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the road that passes through Nepali territory. After the publication of the new map by India, Nepal had urged for immediate dialogue to settle the dispute. The Indian side repeatedly postponed the proposed secretary-level talks. When India inaugurated the 'link road' two weeks ago, without heeding the calls for talks, Nepal responded by publishing her new map that included the Kalapani area within her boundary.
Therefore, there was no China angle in Nepal's action, least she was acting at the behest of China.
Instead, the sentiment in Nepal, on this particular issue, is against China too.
Nepalis see China as complicit in this. One top diplomat told me that China was aware of our concern on the Kalapani-Lipu Lekh region and yet it reached an understanding with New Delhi. Officials say Nepal's boundary agreements with China include Limpyiadhura as a border point. Therefore, there are rising calls in Kathmandu to immediately engage China as a follow-up to the protest letter sent to Beijing in 2015 and solicit assurance that it will not enter into further agreements with India on Lipu Lekh unless Nepal-India resolve the boundary issue amicably.
Once the Indian establishment, media and intelligentsia learn not to be distracted by the imaginary 'China hand' on the boundary dispute with Nepal, we can sit together, look at the historical evidence, can see what is in our best interests, and resolve the issue peacefully through diplomacy.
India should also do well to understand how Nepal has evolved over the years, particularly after the Indian blockade of 2015-16. Indian media and intelligentsia often complain that Nepal is tilting toward China and using a 'China card' against India.
How I wish there were a 'China card' or for that matter, 'India card' that we could use as we choose!
We fully understand that India and China are not just two countries, but they are resurgent civilizations in their own rights. They have huge stakes in the evolving geopolitics in the region and beyond. Their rivalry will continue in the years to come but so will their collaboration and bilateral trade. With bilateral trade approaching close to 100 billion dollars and the two economies poised to become world number one and two in the future, their economy and destiny will be intertwined more than ever in the coming years.
In this scenario, can Nepal, a small neighbor sandwiched between the two giants, use one against the other?
Is it possible that India agrees to be used by Nepal against China? If that is not possible, what makes New Delhi think that Beijing will agree to be used by Nepal?
Nepalis fully understand these geopolitical realities and do not have any illusions about a 'China card' or 'India card'.
At the same time, we do have a genuine commitment not to be used by either of our neighbors against the other.
We will maintain the best of relationships with China and India, and we have the best intentions to benefit from their rising economic stature. I know the real politics is not as clean as this, nor it is as simple. But I am also confident that the collective Nepali conscience will not allow politics to veer off the track or relapse to old ways.
Therefore, New Delhi worrying too much about Nepal tilting toward China or using 'China card' is an unnecessary waste of emotions and energy. At the same time, any effort to bring Nepal back into its orbit is a futile exercise.
Once New Delhi reconciles with the fact that Nepal will pursue her best interests, unhinged by the burden of pleasing one or the other neighbor, India will become realistic in dealing with Nepal. Then Nepal and India can look at the border dispute or any other dispute in the light of their own merits and will be able to solve them in the best interests of the two countries. It's then the history and evidence of the boundary dispute will come into play.
History and Evidence
The 1816 Sugauli Treaty between Nepal and East India Company determined Nepal's present day eastern and western borders with India. In the east, the Mechi River serves as the Nepal-India border. In the West, the Mahakali or the Kali River plays the same role.
It's the origin of the Mahakali River that is in dispute today and is complicating things. This complication again dates back to the time of the British India.
The maps produced by the British India in the 1820s, after the Sugauli Treaty, identifies Limpiyadhura as the origin of the Kali River. Any land East of the Kali belonged to Nepal and to its West belonged to India.
Several decades later, some of the maps produced by the East India Company in the 1860s started showing a relatively small river emerging from Lipu Lekh as the Kali River. But then there are maps of Garhwal and Kumaon regions from that era those still show Kali River originating from Limpyadhura as the boundary river between the two countries. Nepal has collection of those maps.
Perhaps oblivious to this new map issued by the East India Company, Nepal continued to assert her sovereignty over the area east of the Kali River that originates from Limpiyadhura. And neither the British India nor the Independent India staked claim to any area east of the Kali River. There are evidence that people living in this part of the land were included in the census conducted by the Nepali state, they took part in the first parliamentary elections of Nepal in 1959 and local elections three years later. The government records show they owned land registration certificates issued by Nepal.
Things, however, changed after the 1962 Sino-Indian War. Since then an Indian Army post has been stationed at Kalapani. There are two theories about when India did set up the military post there.
Following the end of the 104-year Rana oligarchy in Nepal in 1952, New Delhi convinced Nepal to establish 18 temporary military posts along her northern border under the pretext of the imminent threats from the Communist China. Since China had annexed Tibet in 1949 the threat seemed real to Kathmandu.
Nepal, therefore, conceded to the Indian demand on June 9, 1952. What were supposed to be temporary posts turned out to be permanent ones; the Indian Army showed no sign of leaving Nepal's northern frontier long after the end of the Sino-Indian war.
Hosting the Indian army for 18 years along her northern border, Nepal finally sent them packing in August 1970.
One theory is that, only 17 posts were removed and one was allowed to remain in the Kalapani region at India's request, given its security concerns about China following the war.
The other theory is more plausible. The military post at Kalapani was different from the 18 posts stationed along the Nepal-China border in 1952.
In the build-up to the 1962 Sino-Indian war, the Uttar Pradesh Armed Constabulary established its post in the Kalapani region. It is assumed that it was done with verbal consent of King Mahendra. It was soon replaced by the Indian Army post. Although India agreed to withdraw the 18 military posts stationed along Nepal-China border in 1970, the Kalapani post continued to remain there. The king had told his ministers that he had given permission for a temporary post and it would be removed in due course. The king perhaps relented to Indian demand to station a military post in Kalapani to assuage Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, who had sent a personal letter to King Mahendra urging him to restore multiparty democracy and release jailed leaders, following the 1960 royal coup. Since then the post has remained there. Gradually, the military post started to cut off Kalapani-Limpiyadhura region from the rest of Nepal.
It is for this reason Nepal has evidence of asserting its sovereignty over the Kalapani region only until 1960. After that Nepal has evidence of scant connections and communications with her own people.
The role of the media
As the tensions grow, we in the mainstream media in India and Nepal, must emphasize on dialogue and peaceful settlement.
We should press our respective governments to bring historical evidence to the table and negotiate in earnest.
I would like to request friends in the Indian media—those who I know personally and those I trust to use their best judgment—not to allow the public discourse on this issue be overtaken by jingoism and short-term narrow interest that will harm our centuries-old friendship.
There is no reason why the two countries, which share civilizational linkages and have a unique relationship, cannot resolve this amicably.
We are aware that Nepal needs India perhaps more than India needs Nepal. Our economy is intricately linked to the Indian economy more than any other economy in the world. And our relationship with India will have a large sway in our future prosperity. Alternately, flaring of tensions with India will have ramifications for the families living on the edge of the economy.
As much we acknowledge this, the Indian intelligentsia will also do well to realize that India needs Nepal too. An aspiring regional power, India cannot be without friends in her immediate neighborhood. Despite the current boundary tension, India and Nepal have a good chance of solving it and retaining their friendship unique to South Asia.
Sometimes, India takes this friendship for granted and uses economic leverages to settle differences, as it did during the 2015-16 economic-blockade imposed in Nepal.
As much as Nepalis value friendship with India, they also zealously guard their self-respect and independence. That's why they showed resolve and unity in facing the hardship caused by the months-long economic blockade.
In imposing the economic blockade, India failed to read the Nepalis and the Indian media, by and large, failed to report the event and the Nepali sentiment.
I just hope this time around, the Indian government understands Nepal's genuine interest to settle the border dispute in the Kalapani region in the light of historical evidence and my friends in the Indian media will give a fair and nuanced coverage on the issue.
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Stop KMC's thuggery

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In machine learning and deep learning we can't do anything without data. So the people that create datasets for us to train our models are the (often under-appreciated) heroes. Some of the most useful and important datasets are those that become important "academic baselines"; that is, datasets that are widely studied by researchers and used to compare algorithmic changes. Some of these become household names (at least, among households that train models!), such as MNIST, CIFAR 10, and Imagenet.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to those kind folks who have made datasets available for the research community. So fast.ai and the AWS Public Dataset Program have teamed up to try to give back a little: we've made some of the most important of these datasets available in a single place, using standard formats, on reliable and fast infrastructure. For a full list and links see the fast.ai datasets page.
fast.ai uses these datasets in the Deep Learning for Coders courses, because they provide great examples of the kind of data that students are likely to encounter, and the academic literature has many examples of model results using these datasets which students can compare their work to. If you use any of these datasets in your research, please show your gratitude by citing the original paper (we've provided the appropriate citation link below for each), and if you use them as part of a commercial or educational project, consider adding a note of thanks and a link to the dataset.
One of the lessons that gets the most "wow" feedback from fast.ai students is when we study neural machine translation. It seems like magic when we can teach a model to translate from French to English, even if we can't speak both languages ourselves!
But it's not magic; the key is the wonderful dataset that we leverage in this lesson: the French/English parallel text corpus prepared back in 2009 by Professor Chris Callison-Burch of the University of Pennsylvania. This dataset contains over 20 million sentence pairs in French and English. He built the dataset in a really clever way: by crawling millions of Canadian web pages (which are often multi-lingual) and then using a set of simple heuristics to transform French URLs onto English URLs. The dataset is particularly important for researchers since it is used in the most important annual competition for benchmarking machine translation models.
Often considered the oldest science, it was born of our amazement at the sky and our need to question Astronomy is the science of space beyond Earth's atmosphere. Souvent considérée comme la plus ancienne des sciences, elle découle de notre étonnement et de nos questionnements envers le ciel L'astronomie est la science qui étudie l'Univers au-delà de l'atmosphère terrestre.
The name is derived from the Greek root astron for star, and nomos for arrangement or law. Son nom vient du grec astron, qui veut dire étoile et nomos, qui veut dire loi.
Astronomy is concerned with celestial objects and phenomena – like stars, planets, comets and galaxies – as well as the large-scale properties of the Universe, also known as "The Big Picture". Elle s'intéresse à des objets et des phénomènes tels que les étoiles, les planètes, les comètes, les galaxies et les propriétés de l'Univers à grande échelle.
NLP, including datasets for language modeling, translation, and text classification.
The datasets are all stored in the same tgz format, and (where appropriate) the contents have been converted into standard formats, suitable for import into most machine learning and deep learning software. For examples of using the datasets to build practical deep learning models, keep an eye on the fast.ai blog where many tutorials will be posted soon.
This post is tagged: [ courses technical ] (click a tag for more posts in that category).


text:
Q: Cordova - App not installed after zipalign I have successfully signed apk file and when I installed the apk on the device it worked fine. Then I ran this command:
zipalign -v 4 android-release.apk FileName.apk

and at the end I got the message "Verification successful"
When I tried to install that apk on the device I got an error " App not installed".
I don't know what could cause this problem.
Edit 1:
When I tried to upload apk that is optimized with zipalign I got an error:

You uploaded an APK with an invalid signature (learn more about
  signing). Error from apksigner: ERROR (Jar signer CERT.RSA): JAR
  signature META-INF/CERT.SF indicates the APK is signed using APK
  Signature Scheme v2 but no such signature was found. Signature
  stripped?

And the apk that hasn't been optimized with zipalign can be uploaded on play store.
Edit 2:
The problem could be that I had signed an APK file before I optimized it with zipalign.
As soon as I test it I will post the update here.

A: I've found that for Android 5 and under you have to zipalign AFTER apksign Android 6 works either way, and Android 7 only works if you apksign AFTER zipalign.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
About CJDA
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Donate and Give Back
Camp Jeanne d'Arc
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info@campjeannedarc.com
Young Ruth McIntyre stood out in the middle of frozen Lake Chateaugay on snowshoes, took in the panoramic mountain view around her and, smiling, turned to her mother and said, "This is it. This is where I want my camp to be."
It was the winter of 1922, and it had taken Ruth and her mother three days to travel to the snow-covered Adirondacks from their home in Philadelphia.
Ruth dreamed of running her own camp ever since she, as a young Girl Scout leader, had traveled to France at the beginning of World War I. Her work there brought Ruth in contact with many young French girls and she thought they had much in common with the Polish and Italian girls she had worked with in Philadelphia.
In 1922 Joan of Arc was a popular topic of conversation, since the French had recently mounted a campaign to have her canonized. Ruth greatly admired the qualities of faith, endurance, courage, and confidence exemplified by the young 15th-century girl, and decided that Joan would be a wonderful inspiration for young women. From the very beginnings of Camp Jeanne d'Arc, Ruth wanted to bring girls together from all over the world. She felt that if children could get to know each other and realize that all human beings are the same regardless of their differences, more global understanding and greater world peace would result.
Camp Jeanne d'Arc's first season brought together about 20 girls, ages 15-17. They didn't feel comfortable calling their young camp director by her first name. A popular book series, The Little Colonel, was in vogue at the time, so Ruth was affectionately tagged "Colonel" by her campers – and the name stuck.
"Colonel" met Captain Charles Joseph McIntyre in 1924. They married in August 1925 on the steps of Woodsheart, one of camp's original buildings. Captain "Mac" was a teacher and soon started Camp Lafayette for boys. He returned to military service when World War II began and eventually, Mr. and Mrs. McIntyre came to be known as "Colonel" and "Colonel Mac".
The senior McIntyres ran camp for fifty years. In the early 1970's Colonel's eldest son, Joe, and his wife, Fran, took over operation of the camp. For ten years Joe's eldest daughter, Jehanne, and her husband, Michael Edwards, took over as owners, re-establishing Camp Lafayette for boys in 2013. When it came time to sell, the McIntyres knew it was important to find a family eager to continue on in the well-established traditions of Camp Jeanne d'Arc, and the original vision of "Colonel." They found just the family. Today, Sandy and Randy Abbott (along with their 4 children) own and operate the camp with the assistance of valued alumni, some going back four generations. As Jeanne d'Arc nears the full century mark, the values and traditions begun so long ago continue to inspire new generations of campers each summer.
Our History in Photos
The Environment Is Safe and Nurturing
My 14 year old daughter will be a third year camper this summer and has loved every minute of the experience. The campers and counselors are friendly and caring. There are activities suited for everyone and the environment is safe and nurturing. We feel good knowing our daughter is enjoying the outdoors while also learning to become an independent and responsible young woman. Thank you Camp Jeanne d'Arc!
Hope P., Parent from NYC
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DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION OR WANT MORE INFO?
We are happy to help and will respond within 24 hours.
About Camp Jeanne d'Arc
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Excitatory amino acid-mediated responses and synaptic potentials in medial pontine reticular formation neurons of the rat in vitro.
Neurons of the medial pontine reticular formation (mPRF) are involved in the execution of numerous behaviors including initiation of locomotion, eye movements, startle responses, and rapid eye movement sleep phenomena. Approximately half of the afferent projections to mPRF neurons come from within the reticular formation (Shammah-Lagnado et al., 1987). In spite of the importance of reticulo-reticular connections, virtually nothing is known about transmitters mediating these synapses. In order to identify a candidate excitatory neurotransmitter, the actions of excitatory amino acids (EAAs) on the membrane properties of mPRF neurons recorded in rat brainstem slices in vitro were studied. Standard intracellular recording methods, including single-electrode voltage clamp, were used to examine the postsynaptic actions of EAAs. We also tested whether EAA antagonists block EPSPs evoked by stimulation of the contralateral reticular formation in the slices. mPRF neurons responded to both non-NMDA and NMDA agonists. NMDA-induced conductances were voltage dependent and depressed by physiological concentrations of magnesium. Stimulation of the contralateral reticular formation elicited EPSPs that were depressed by the general EAA antagonist kynurenate. Evoked EPSPs were partially depressed by 6,7-dinitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione. The evoked EPSP was further reduced by the NMDA antagonist (+/-)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid in some cases. These results suggest that excitatory reticulo-reticular neurotransmission is mediated by an EAA. Both non-NMDA and NMDA receptors contribute to EAA neurotransmission in the mPRF formation and play an integral role in reticular formation function.


text:
namespace star
{
	DebugDraw::DebugDraw()
		: Singleton<DebugDraw>()
		, m_PointSize(1.0f)
		, m_Shader(nullptr)
		, m_ColorLocation(0)
		, m_MVPLocation(0)
		, m_PositionLocation(0)
		, m_DrawOpTriangles(0.5f)
		, m_DrawOpLines(1.0f)
		, m_DrawOpPoints(1.0f)
	{

	}

	DebugDraw::~DebugDraw()
	{
		delete m_Shader;
	}

	void DebugDraw::SetDrawOpacityTriangles(float32 opacity)
	{
		m_DrawOpTriangles = opacity;
	}

	void DebugDraw::SetDrawOpacityLines(float32 opacity)
	{
		m_DrawOpLines = opacity;
	}

	void DebugDraw::SetDrawOpacityPoints(float32 opacity)
	{
		m_DrawOpPoints = opacity;
	}

	void DebugDraw::Initialize()
	{
		static const GLchar* vertexShader = "\
			uniform mat4 MVP;\
			attribute vec2 position;\
			void main()\
			{\
			  vec4 NewPosition = vec4(position, 0.0, 1.0);\
			  NewPosition *= MVP;\
			  gl_Position = NewPosition;\
			}\
			";

		static const GLchar* fragmentShader = "\
			precision mediump float;\
			uniform vec4 color;\
			void main()\
			{\
			  gl_FragColor = color;\
			}\
			";

		// create program
		m_Shader = new Shader(vertexShader, fragmentShader);

		m_ColorLocation = m_Shader->GetUniformLocation("color");
		m_MVPLocation = m_Shader->GetUniformLocation("MVP");
		m_PositionLocation = m_Shader->GetAttribLocation("position");
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawPolygon(
		const vec2* vertices,
		int32 vertexCount,
		const Color& color)
	{
		CreatePolygonVertices(vertices, vertexCount);
		AddToVertexQueue(Lines, vertexCount, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawSolidPolygon(
		const vec2* vertices,
		int32 vertexCount,
		const Color& color)
	{
		CreatePolygonVertices(vertices, vertexCount);
		AddToVertexQueue(Triangles + Lines, vertexCount, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawCircle(
		const vec2& center,
		float32 radius,
		const Color& color,
		uint32 segments)
	{
		CreateCircleVertices(center, radius, segments);
		AddToVertexQueue(Lines, segments, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawSolidCircle(
		const vec2& center,
		float32 radius,
		const Color& color,
		uint32 segments)
	{
		CreateCircleVertices(center, radius, segments);
		AddToVertexQueue(Triangles + Lines, segments, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawSegment(
		const vec2& pos1,
		const vec2& pos2,
		const Color& color)
	{
		m_Vertices[0] = pos1;
		m_Vertices[1] = pos2;
		AddToVertexQueue(Lines, 2, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawPoint(
		const vec2& pos,
		float32 size,
		const Color& color)
	{
		m_PointSize = size;

		m_Vertices[0] = pos;
		AddToVertexQueue(Points, 1, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawLine(
		const vec2& pos1,
		const vec2& pos2,
		const Color& color)
	{
		m_Vertices[0] = pos1;
		m_Vertices[1] = pos2;
		AddToVertexQueue(Lines,2,color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawString(
		int32 aX,
		int32 aY,
		const tstring& text)
	{
		//[TODO] Implement this through the font manager,
		//draw text on screen on given pos.
		LOG(LogLevel::Warning,
			_T("DebugDraw::DrawString is not yet implemented!"),
			STARENGINE_LOG_TAG);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawRect(
		const AARect& rect,
		const Color& color)
	{
		m_Vertices[0].x = float32(rect.GetLeft());
		m_Vertices[0].y = float32(rect.GetBottom());
		m_Vertices[1].x = float32(rect.GetRight());
		m_Vertices[1].y = float32(rect.GetBottom());
		m_Vertices[2].x = float32(rect.GetRight());
		m_Vertices[2].y = float32(rect.GetTop());
		m_Vertices[3].x = float32(rect.GetLeft());
		m_Vertices[3].y = float32(rect.GetTop());
		AddToVertexQueue(Lines, 4, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawRect(
		const Rect& rect,
		const Color& color)
	{
		m_Vertices[0] = rect.GetLeftBottom();
		m_Vertices[1] = rect.GetRightBottom();
		m_Vertices[2] = rect.GetRightTop();
		m_Vertices[3] = rect.GetLeftTop();
		AddToVertexQueue(Lines, 4, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawSolidRect(
		const AARect& rect,
		const Color& color)
	{
		m_Vertices[0].x = float32(rect.GetLeft());
		m_Vertices[0].y = float32(rect.GetBottom());
		m_Vertices[1].x = float32(rect.GetRight());
		m_Vertices[1].y = float32(rect.GetBottom());
		m_Vertices[2].x = float32(rect.GetRight());
		m_Vertices[2].y = float32(rect.GetTop());
		m_Vertices[3].x = float32(rect.GetLeft());
		m_Vertices[3].y = float32(rect.GetTop());
		AddToVertexQueue(Triangles + Lines, 4, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::DrawSolidRect(
		const Rect& rect,
		const Color& color)
	{
		m_Vertices[0] = rect.GetLeftBottom();
		m_Vertices[1] = rect.GetRightBottom();
		m_Vertices[2] = rect.GetRightTop();
		m_Vertices[3] = rect.GetLeftTop();
		AddToVertexQueue(Triangles + Lines, 4, color);
	}

	void DebugDraw::CreatePolygonVertices(
		const vec2* vertices,
		uint32 vertexCount)
	{
		ASSERT_LOG(vertexCount <= MAX_VERTICES,
			_T("DebugDraw::CreatePolygonVertices: \
more vertices than allocated space"),
			STARENGINE_LOG_TAG);

		for (uint32 i = 0; i < vertexCount; ++i)
		{
			m_Vertices[i] = vertices[i];
		}
	}

	void DebugDraw::CreateCircleVertices
		(const vec2& center,
		float32 radius,
		uint8 segments)
	{
		// [TODO] Fix this bug in eclipse:
		// (undefined reference to 'star::DebugDraw::MAX_VERTICES')
		//ASSERT_LOG(m_CircleSegments < MAX_VERTICES,
		//	_T("DebugDraw::CreateCircleVertices: You can only draw "
		//	+ string_cast<tstring>(MAX_VERTICES)
		//	+ _T(" vertices per primitive")).c_str(), STARENGINE_LOG_TAG);
		const float32 increment = float32(2.0 * PI / segments);
		float32 theta = 0.0f;

		for (uint32 i = 0; i < segments; ++i)
		{
			vec2 vec = center + radius * vec2(cos(theta), sin(theta));

			m_Vertices[i] = vec;
			theta += increment;
		}
	}

	void DebugDraw::AddToVertexQueue(
		uint32 primitiveTypes,
		uint32 count,
		const Color& color
		)
	{
		PrimitiveInfo tempInfo = PrimitiveInfo();
		for(uint32 i = 0; i < MAX_VERTICES; ++i)
		{
			tempInfo.vertices[i] = m_Vertices[i];
		}
		tempInfo.primitiveType = primitiveTypes;
		tempInfo.count = count;
		tempInfo.color = color;
		tempInfo.opacityLines = m_DrawOpLines;
		tempInfo.opacityTriangles = m_DrawOpTriangles;
		tempInfo.opacityPoints = m_DrawOpPoints;

		m_VertexBuffer.push_back(tempInfo);
	}

	void DebugDraw::Begin()
	{
		m_Shader->Bind();

		float32 scaleValue(ScaleSystem::GetInstance()->GetScale());
		mat4 scaleMat(Scale(scaleValue, scaleValue, 1.0f));

		glUniformMatrix4fv(
			m_MVPLocation,
			1, GL_FALSE,
			ToPointerValue(
				scaleMat *
				GraphicsManager::GetInstance()->GetViewInverseProjectionMatrix()
				)
			);
	}

	void DebugDraw::Flush()
	{
#ifdef DESKTOP
		Begin();

		for(const auto & elem : m_VertexBuffer)
		{
			glEnableVertexAttribArray(m_PositionLocation);
			glVertexAttribPointer(m_PositionLocation, 2, GL_FLOAT,
				GL_FALSE, 0, elem.vertices);

			if ((elem.primitiveType & Triangles) != 0)
			{
				glUniform4f(m_ColorLocation, elem.color.r, elem.color.g, elem.color.b, m_DrawOpTriangles);
				glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLE_FAN, 0, elem.count);
			}

			if ((elem.primitiveType & Lines) != 0)
			{
				glUniform4f(m_ColorLocation, elem.color.r, elem.color.g, elem.color.b, m_DrawOpLines);
				glDrawArrays(GL_LINE_LOOP, 0, elem.count);
			}

			if ((elem.primitiveType & Points) != 0)
			{
				glUniform4f(m_ColorLocation, elem.color.r, elem.color.g, elem.color.b, m_DrawOpPoints);
				//[TODO] only works for windows..
				glPointSize(m_PointSize);
				glDrawArrays(GL_POINTS, 0, elem.count);
			}
			glDisableVertexAttribArray(m_PositionLocation);
		}

		End();
#endif
	}

	void DebugDraw::End()
	{
		m_Shader->Unbind();
		m_VertexBuffer.clear();
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


What is a Doctor of Public Administration Degree(DPA)?
Want to become a leader in the public sector? If so, a doctorate in public administration could be a great fit. A Doctor of Public Administration(DPA degree) will teach you the skills to become an in-demand leader.
Public Administration doctorate programs include several terminal degrees where students may conduct independent research. Depending on the type of program, those students who enter with a masters degree and study full-time might be able to finish in four years. Those who enter without a masters degree and study full-time might complete their program in five to six years.
A Doctor of Public Administration or DPA degree, is a terminal degree for practitioners. It is often planned-out to help students evaluate current theories and practices to make decisions that create value for the public. DPA students often conduct valid, reliable, and ethical public administration research which may aim to effect positive change.
administration. This may include public policy analysis, strategic planning, accounting and finance.
Graduates may study to add their voice to critical issues through public administration policies, administrative processes, and leadership. Through a DPA student's research and final dissertation, s/he may learn to craft fair solutions that take into consideration diversity and the globally connected community.
DPA degree students may be required to take about 20 required courses, all of which might discuss issues, concepts, practices and research methods for public service and within public administration. This may include public policy analysis, strategic planning, accounting and finance.
A PhD in Public Administration is a research degree and the highest award for scholars and prospective professors. PhD students may study research-based leadership strategies used to address some of the challenges faced in our global economy.
Because research is central to a PhD program, public administration students may work one-to-one with a faculty mentor to develop skills related to academia. In addition to formal courses, some curricula may include research seminars by faculty and other scholars. This aspect of their program might expose students to innovative research and may provide an opportunity to interact.
While credit load and other requirements vary, some programs may have PhD students who enter with a masters degree, complete about 54 credit hours of coursework. These may be divided into public administration courses, a second field and research methods.
Core topics could include a discussion of organizational theory, public management, democracy and policy implementation. A second major field could be, for instance, in Public Policy, American Politics, Comparative Politics, Justice, or Law and Criminology.
After the core courses are taken, students are usually evaluated through a broad-based exam. Once this has been successfully passed, the remainder of the program could largely be devoted to dissertation research.
A Doctor of Business Administration – DBA degree, is a terminal practice doctorate for experienced managers. Like its predecessor the MBA, students may choose to focus their studies around public administration or nonprofit management. It is essentially a degree that often aims to help students achieve their leadership potential.
To earn a DBA in Public Administration, students may need to complete around 60 credits, and applicants are usually seasoned professionals who have a masters or MBA degree.
The format for the program could vary but usually centers around core business courses and advanced business research methods. Students might also study strategic ways to allocate and manage finances, personnel, and supply-chains in addition to executive coaching methods and decision-making.
DBA students also generally take cognate courses which are essentially courses in their major. For instance, someone who wants to work toward a DBA in Nonprofit Leadership might study topics such as strategic communication, grant acquisition and workforce planning.
Why wait? You future Doctorate in Public Administration Program could be one click away!


of the different HYDAC product divisions.
The information in these brochures relates to the operating conditions and applications described. For applications or operating conditions not described, please contact the relevant Technical Department. Subject to technical modifications.


text:
Metro Briefs May 26
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will present its communitywide all-night study session on Tuesday, May 30 beginning at 10 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. Choose from opportunities to study with local rabbis and thinkers in a festival of learning from across the Jewish spectrum. Visit http://jfedpgh.org/shavuot for more information.
Teens in grades six to 12 are invited to Pittsburgh's first communitywide Teen Tikkun May 30 from 10 p.m. to midnight at the JCC Second Floor (Robinson Building). Snacks will be provided. Visit http://jfedpgh.org/teen-tikkun for more information.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will present "50 Years Since the Six Day War: A Retrospective Evening" on Monday, June 5 at 7 p.m. in Levinson Hall at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. The panelists will be Shimon Mercer, spokesperson and consul for media affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in New York; Laurie Eisenberg, professor, historian of the Modern Middle East at Carnegie Mellon University; and Rabbi Danny Schiff, Foundation Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
The event is free to the public but registration is encouraged. Visit https://jfedpgh.org/6-day-war to register.
Contact Eric Probola at eprobola@jfedpgh.org or 412-992-5247 for questions about special accommodations.
Chabad of Pittsburgh will sponsor the sixth annual Sound of Jewish Music event for women on Wednesday, June 7 at Bellefield Hall with a dessert reception at 6:30 p.m. and the program starting at 7:15 p.m.
The Sound of Jewish Music, which brings together hundreds of Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds, features the musical performances, words of inspiration and original artwork of over 50 local Jewish women.
Tickets for the event are $20 in advance and $25 at the door; discounted tickets are available upon request.
Tickets can be purchased at SoundOfJewishMusic.com or by calling 412-421-3561. Contact caltein@chabadpgh.com for more information.
Gary Gulman, a stand-up comedian the Village Voice called the next comic "to break huge," will be the special guest at this year's Annual Campaign Thank You Event presented by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, in appreciation of donors to the 2017 campaign. The event will be held on Thursday, June 8 at Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Ave. The evening will include two award presentations. This year's PNC Community Builders Award winner is the Rudolph family. PNC Bank President and CEO Sy Holzer will present the award to acknowledge the family's volunteer efforts to enhance the strength and vibrancy of the Greater Pittsburgh community.
Joel Smalley will receive the Campaigner of the Year Award, which recognizes a volunteer whose work on behalf of the annual campaign serves as a role model for others.
The Ira and Nanette Gordon (z"l) Endowment Fund of the Federation's Jewish Community Foundation sponsors the event. Invited are donors who have made a contribution of at least $1,000 to the 2017 campaign. Dessert will be served following the program, and dietary laws will be observed. The couvert will be $10 per person.
Register online at jfedpgh.org/acty or contact Tiffany Babinsack at tbabinsack@jfedpgh.org or 412-697-6649. Babinsack can provide more information and will coordinate requests for disability-related accommodations.
The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh will honor 19 local educators from early childhood centers, day schools and part-time religious schools at the Federation's Unsung Jewish Heroes celebration on Sunday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Levinson Hall at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill. The awards recognize local educators, staff and volunteers who make a lasting impact in Jewish education.
The Harold Grinspoon Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education recognizes skilled, innovative educators in day schools, religious schools and early childhood centers. This year marks the 17th year the Harold Grinspoon Foundation has presented an award to an educator in up to 80 North American communities and has recognized over 700 outstanding educators in the United States and Canada.
Honorees are nominated by the organizations they serve. In Pittsburgh, the award is supported by the Barbara and Lester Parker Fund for a Jewish Future Endowment, which is part of the Federation's Jewish Community Foundation. Barbara Parker will present this year's Grinspoon Award at the celebration to Ellen Drook, an early childhood educator at Temple Emanuel Early Childhood Development Center, where she teaches kindergarten enrichment.
Rabbi Amy Bardack, director of Federation's Jewish Life & Learning department, will serve as master of ceremonies at the Unsung Jewish Heroes celebration. Light refreshments will be served; kosher dietary laws will be observed. The event is free; registration is requested.
Contact Christa Maier at 412-992-5249 or cmaier@jfedpgh.org for more information and to register. A complete list of the 2017 Unsung Jewish Heroes Award honorees and their organizations is available at jfedpgh.org/UJH2017.
The Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh is pleased to host the Kandy Ehrenwerth Memorial Lecture on Monday, June 19 at 7:15 p.m. at New Light Congregation. A dedicated Zionist, Charlene "Kandy" Ehrenwerth was a prominent Pittsburgh trial lawyer known for her aggressive protection of human and civil rights. Ehrenwerth was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1992.
Rabbi Mark Staitman will speak on the "Rapidly Evolving Jewish Community: Big Challenges and Creative Solutions." The lecture is sponsored in loving memory of Kandy Ehrenwerth by the Ehrenwerth and Reidbord families.
The lecture is free and open to the community; reservations are required. Contact Pittsburgh@zoa.org or Stuart Pavilack, executive director of the ZOA, at 412-665-4630 to make reservations.
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation and the Fine Foundation announced winners for the 2017 Fine Awards for Teamwork Excellence in Health Care. They provide recognition and a financial award to teams of professionals in Western Pennsylvania that provide innovative, quality improvement-centered treatment for mental health and substance use problems.
The 2017 Fine Award winners were selected by a panel of independent judges following a request for applications from teams in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties. The winning teams were chosen based on their submitted project's level of innovation, sustainability and spread of best practices within and beyond their respective organizations.
The $20,000 winners:
>> Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Center for Inclusion Health — "Medical Respite: Innovative Care to Vulnerable Populations." The Center created a post-acute care model that allows vulnerable individuals (including injection drug users and individuals lacking stable housing) to recuperate from serious illness in a residential environment while receiving home health care and social support services.
>> Prevention Point Pittsburgh (PPP) — "Overdose Prevention Project." PPP developed a training curriculum on how to prevent and respond to heroin and opioid overdoses, while also working to increase the availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. The training curriculum includes information on factors that raise the risk of an overdose, best practices in responding to an overdose and proper techniques to administer naloxone.
>> UPMC Center for High-Value Health Care (Tie) — "Optimizing Behavioral Health Homes for Adults with Serious Mental Illness." The UPMC Center for High-Value Health Care tested a model to strengthen the capacity of community mental health centers to help patients with serious mental illness reach health and wellness goals. UPMC partnered with Community Care Behavioral Health (a behavioral health managed care organization) to pilot the model in local community mental health centers, with the goal of increasing patients' self-management skills and engagement in primary and specialty care.
>> Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) of UPMC (Tie) — "Peer Navigation Project: Embedding Peer Recovery Support in Acute Care Settings." WPIC developed a pilot project which trained peer navigators who help patients suffering from a substance use disorder transition to the next level of care and coordinate post-discharge care.
The $2,500 winner:
>> AHN Forbes Hospital — "Failure to Rescue: Improving Healthcare Provider Recognition of Human Trafficking." To better recognize potential victims of human trafficking, Forbes Hospital developed a systematic screening process and training curriculum for hospital staff.
Visit jhf.org/fine-awards for more information about the Fine Awards.


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text:
Audio, Sound & Speakers
Jak Connor
@JakConnorTT
Published May 7, 2020 7:05 PM CDT
Manufacturer: Fnatic (C-HS0003)
9 minute read time
Introduction & Specification Details and Close-up
Design & Software
Performance & Microphone
TweakTown's Rating: 96%
The Fnatic REACT is one of the best competitive gaming headsets on the market. You will struggle finding a better FPS gaming headset for the price.
Fnatic has jumped into the headset market with the REACT, a headset specifically designed for eSports performance.
Fnatic is currently transitioning from an eSports team to a company that produces its own gaming peripherals, and one of the products that Fnatic is pushing is the REACT gaming headset. Fnatic boasts on the website that "the only things that really matter for a gaming headset is directional audio with great clarity, crystal clear comms, and an amazing mic". We are going to see if that is all that it takes for a gaming headset to get my tick of approval.
The Fnatic REACT sports 53mm Drivers that have been "calibrated for eSports", premium leather ear-cups that have thick memory foam padding, and comfort designed for long gaming sessions. I'm going to put all this to the test, breaking down the design of the REACT, the audio performance, it's build quality, the microphone performance, and overall, the experience with the headset itself. Let's start things off with a close up of the design.
First off, we have an image of the front of the box. Here we can see what REACT looks like, and also get a look at the packaging. The packaging is discrete and straightforward, something I personally really enjoy.
Moving onto the side of the box, we have some simple, yet effective, plain text spelling Fnatic. The text is silver and metallic, and I love the look.
The back of the box showcases all of the REACT features, and also gives a short story about Fnatic and an introduction to the REACT.
The final side of the box showcases some of the accolades Fnatic has achieved over its time as a professional eSports gaming brand.
Taking the headset out of the box, we can see some simple packaging, and a Fnatic symbol right in the middle.
This side of the box features a sly comment saying, "it's too late" to turn back now.
In the above image, we are taking a look at the earcup, and we can see that Fnatic has opted for a simple design on the earcup with no flashy colors or lights.
Moving onto a close-up image of the earcup, we can see that Fnatic has equipped the REACT with a metal frame. In this image, we also can see that the headband has a nice leather coating, just like the earcups.
This is another angle of the REACT earcup. Here we can see the thin metal frame, as well as the smooth leather and a connecting wire.
Here we have a close up image of the earcup, I will get into how comfortable these are later on in the review, but for now, I can tell you that the cushioning is memory foam, and the leather is very soft and pleasing.
Here we have an image of the microphone port. Fnatic has decided not to go with any more controls on the earcup, and keep things simple and sleek.
Moving onto the provided microphone, here we have an image of it plugged into the headset. As you can see, it comes with its own pop filter, and is made out of bendable metal.
Here we have a close up of the mute microphone button and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Moving on, we have the provided splitter cable, which comes in at a total length of 2 meters.
Lastly, we have a shot of the fabric that's under the headband. This fabric is very soft, and breaths very well.
Jak's Test System Specifications
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero X570 (Wi-Fi) (buy from Amazon)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X @ 4.4GHz (buy from Amazon)
GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER XC GAMING (buy from Amazon)
Cooler: be quiet! Silent Wings 3
RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 3200MHz (buy from Amazon)
SSD: GALAX HOF Pro SSD PCI-E M.2 2TB
Power Supply: Corsair CX Series 750 Watt (buy from Amazon)
Case: be quiet! Silent Base 600 (buy from Amazon)
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (buy from Amazon)
Fnatic REACT Gaming Headset
* Prices last scanned on 1/28/2023 at 10:03 pm CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.
The Fnatic REACT has a straightforward yet effective design. The headset has an aluminum frame and has large over-the-ear earcups that sport soft leather with memory foam inside. The frame of the REACT has two metal hangers that are positioned on the left and right side of each earcup, allowing for both earcups to mold the users' head vertically.
Since Fnatic decided to go with this design of the frame, the REACT's earcups cannot swivel, meaning that the headset isn't the comfiest when placed around the neck. As for the earcups themselves, they have a hard plastic coating that features a simple Fnatic logo on the outside of each earcup, as well as a wire coming out the top of both. Inside the earcups are the letters L and R, indicating which side is left and which side is right. There are no LEDs present on the entire headset, which really gives the REACT a low-profile kind of feel that I really enjoy. The headset can be adjusted vertically, and Fnatic has put little circle indentations on each side of the headset so users can match both sides equally.
The REACT's headband is also very comfortable; it has similar cushioning to the earcups and also features the words 'REACT' engraved on the top. When holding the REACT, I noticed that the overall build quality of the headset feels very strong, yet flexible. I believe the exposed metal frame is what gives me this feeling, and for a headset that only comes in at the cost of $80, this is extremely surprising.
Moving onto the lack of controls on the earcups, usually, nowadays, you would find a plethora of multimedia controls on a gaming headset's earcup. These controls are typically mute microphone, volume controls, multimedia controls, and sometimes even a secret microphone. Fnatic has decided to keep everything very simple and has only opted for a single microphone port. Instead, Fnatic has placed a volume wheel and a mute microphone button about 30cm down from the headset's earcup.
I enjoy having these controls on the earcup, but I can understand that Fnatic decided to go for the cord controls to cut back costs. The controls work as intended and don't do anything special.
Fnatic decided to go with a strong and decently high-quality microphone. The REACT's microphone is one of my favorite headset microphones as the metal arm is just awesome to use due to its flexibility and stiffness. Users can put the microphone at almost any angle, and it holds its position with ease. This awesomeness is backed up by the quality of the microphone, which I will get more into in the performance side of this review. Fnatic also added a pop filter to the microphone, which gets rid of any excess breathing being picked up and also adds to the aesthetic look of the microphone.
Fnatic went with a 1.2-meter cable wired into the headset, which can be plugged into a mobile device. For PC users, the 1.2-meter cable plugs directly into a 2-meter splitter cable that gives access to the microphone.
Overall, I can see that Fnatic really tried to keep costs down with the REACT and did so by cutting out some luxurious features such as earcup controls, swiveling, LEDs, and more. With the money they have saved ruling those features out, they have doubled down on what they want the REACT to shine in, long last comfort, a sturdy microphone and a strong, yet flexible headset. Lovely work here, Fnatic.
Fnatic has equipped the REACT with 53 drivers and has boasted on their website that they are specifically fine-tuned for eSports gaming. I put this claim to the test, and I can say after playing upwards of thirty hours of games with the REACT that this claim is completely true. I would even go as far as to say that the REACT is one of, if not the best headset I have played FPS games with. Let me explain why.
It honestly took me about five hours or so to realize just how good the REACT was at competitive shooters. Why did it take me so long? Because I was too busy feeling like I was hacking in Apex Legends and Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Why did I feel like I was hacking? Because when wearing the REACT, I felt like no one could ever sneak up on me, and I knew where everyone was at the same time. It felt like I was always the one at a positional advantage. I could hear footsteps and reloads before all of my other teammates could, meaning I was the one making all of the calls before they were.
Why was this happening? Because FNATIC has finely-tuned the mid and highs in the REACT while tightening the base. Meaning that every sound is that is heard in the mid to high range is crystal clear through the REACT, and is hard to miss by the player.
This also means that the REACT is specifically designed for listening to key competitive sounds such as reloads, footsteps, and gunfire. As for the base, it doesn't have very much oomph to it, but that is easily counteracted by how good the mid to high range is. I found these advantages especially noticeable in FPS games.
For a headset that only comes in at the cost of $80, I am absolutely blown away with the gaming audio quality. I have never felt more calm and collected in a competitive shooter than when I was wearing the REACT. I heard every step, every movement, and every mistake my enemy made. The directional audio is unparalleled, and I'm yet to find a headset that can match its quality and price.
Music/Movie Listening
With such heavy emphasis on competitive gaming, it was expected that the REACT would fall off when it came to music listening, and it did. Hip-hop, movie soundtracks, and basically anything with bass didn't have a nice deep kick to it. This wasn't the end of the world, though the bass quality is passable. The REACT isn't designed for music listening, but if you happen to listen to music with it, you won't be that upset about it.
The REACT's microphone is awesome to use. I absolutely love that Fnatic decided to go with a metal arm as it's extremely sturdy and feels good to move around. Users are able to put this microphone at almost any angle they want, which means it will be able to comply with virtually any gamers positioning needs.
As for the quality of the microphone, I'm happy to report that the REACT sports an above-average microphone. Communication doesn't get lost, and in-game calls have never been easier. I listened to the microphone through Windows and found that all of my words sounded clear and that the microphone didn't cut out when I was talking for long periods. I also did a keyboard test of my MX Cherry Red Switches, and even when typing at full speed, the microphone didn't pick up any keystrokes.
I also asked my friends on Discord what they thought of the microphone and if I was clear and to them. They said that the microphone sounded a bit better than an average headset microphone but not as good as my desktop microphone (Razer Seiren X). That response was expected and proves that the REACT's microphone is up to scratch for competitive gaming communication. Overall, the microphone is very impressive for an $80 headset.
The REACT doesn't have many features, but the features it does have are finely tuned to perform extremely well. Here's what is hot: the directional audio is almost next to none, the price, the build quality is sturdy and will last users a long time, and the comfort of the earcups is fantastic.
What's Not
The REACT lacks earcup controls, earcup swiveling, and the line controls could have been much better.
So, would I recommend Fnatic's REACT? If you are a competitive gamer that is explicitly looking for a headset to complement the FPS games or battle royale games you play, then don't look any further than the REACT.
Why do I say don't look any further? Well, one of the reasons is because of the price. The REACT comes in at only $80, and if your use case is specific to competitive FPS games, there's almost no point in shopping around for a better headset because you will struggle to find one without spending possibly hundreds of more dollars. I wouldn't recommend the REACT to someone who plays a wide range of games such as RPG titles that have awesome soundtracks, or single-player story games that have a wide sound stage, as I believe there are other headsets on the market that would be better suited for these games.
Honestly, the REACT is one of the best headsets I've used, and this is because of the price in comparison to the features it offers. Even though it doesn't come with many features, the features it does have are finely tuned to what it's designed to do - give gamers the edge in competitive games. I fully back up the claim that the REACT does make you feel like you have the edge of your enemies, and I'm more than excited to see what Fnatic has in store for the next version of the REACT.
Lastly, Fnatic claims on its website that "The only things that really matter for a gaming headset is directional audio with great clarity, crystal clear comms with an amazing mic, and comfort for those long grinds." For most gamers, this statement is true, and the REACT is the headset that proves it.
Jak joined the TweakTown team in 2017 and has since reviewed 100s of new tech products and kept us informed daily on the latest science and space news. Jak's love for science, space, and technology, and, more specifically, PC gaming, began at 10 years old. It was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on an old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms. Instead of typical FPS, Jak holds a very special spot in his heart for RTS games.
Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX Gaming Headset Review
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X Wireless Gaming Headset Review
HyperX Cloud Stinger 2 Gaming Headset Review
Astro A30 Wireless Gaming Headset Review
SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3 Gaming Headset Review
Logitech G535 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset Review
Fnatic REACT
REACT review
Gaming headset review
FPS headset
Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 brings Mini LED and TV tech to a 43-inch 4K display
DirectStorage causes a 10% performance hit on the RTX 4090 in Forspoken


We always do the job to be a tangible group making sure that we can provide you with the top top quality as well as ideal value for Art Cake Candles , Art Large Candles , Cartoon Cake Candles , We cordially welcome shoppers from in the home and overseas to hitch us and cooperate with us to enjoy a better future.
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text:
package com.skysport.interfaces.action.info.material;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Scope;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

/**
 * 类说明:
 * Created by zhangjh on 2015/7/15.
 */
@Scope("prototype")
@Controller
@RequestMapping("/system/maincolor")
public class MainColorAction {

//    @Resource(name = "mainColorService")
//    private IMainColorService mainColorService;
//
//    @RequestMapping(value = "/info/{projectId}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
//    @ResponseBody
//    public String[] queryMainColor(@PathVariable String projectId) {
//        List<MainColor> mainColorList = mainColorService.queryMainColorList(projectId);
//        return MainColorHelper.SINGLETONE.turnListToArr(mainColorList);
//
//    }
}


Since the mid-1970s, the NHLBI has collaborated with researchers and practitioners to develop clinical practice guidelines focused on the management of risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In 2007, the Institute undertook an important project to convene expert panels to update the clinical guidelines on high blood cholesterol in adults and overweight and obesity in adults. Part of this project also involved cross-cutting work groups to consider topics of cardiovascular risk assessment, lifestyle modification, and implementation issues.
In 2011, while these experts were developing the documents, the Institute of Medicine issued two new reports that established new "best practice" standards for generating systematic evidence reviews and developing clinical practice guidelines. The reports underscore that these are two distinct, yet related, activities that require careful intersection and coordination.
Based on their recommendations and that of our Advisory Council Working Groups, the NHLBI will now transition to a new model of generating valuable systematic evidence reviews. These systematic evidence reviews can then be used by professional societies to construct high quality evidence-based practice guidelines for a wide variety of conditions.
These systematic evidence reviews are the product of some of the most rigorous evidence-based systematic reviews conducted to date. They followed a unique model of precision unequalled in this field and will truly be a gift to the community by the expert panel members.
This new process will allow the organizations that are at the front line of clinical practice to take the lead in guidelines development in partnership with us and using the NHLBI evidence reviews as a resource for doing so.
This new model will allow us to continue to convene the best minds to help us synthesize the latest research, develop systematic evidence reviews, and collaborate with professional societies to use this knowledge to develop the clinical guidance needed by the clinicians who treat patients and the individuals committed to living healthier lives.


Chris Leutzinger joined the RTA Board of Directors in 2018. Chris works with SunTrust Community Capital, LLC as First Vice President. Chris attended the University of Georgia where he earned a BBA in Real Estate and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earning a Master of City and Regional Planning. In addition to his service on the RTA Board, Chris is an Advisory Board member of the Urban Land Institute of Atlanta.


Beautiful quilt and quilting. When I use the Hera marker, I too, have trouble seeing the markings and sometimes lose my place. I've got an additional light on my machine that sometimes I can get angled in such a way that I can see the markings. I've tried different times of the day hoping it would help. I really thought it was my eyes. Did all the quilting cross in the middle? Such a wonderful job.
Wonderful piece and wonderful quilting! I use the Hera sometimes, but often finds it disappears to quickly for me. Maybe I do need more light.


text:
De kabeljauwachtigen (Gadiformes) vormen een orde van straalvinnige beenvissen.

Lijst van families
Volgens FishBase:
 Bregmacerotidae Gill, 1872 – Doornkabeljauwen
 Euclichthyidae Cohen, 1984
 Gadidae Rafinesque, 1810 – Kabeljauwen
 Lotidae Bonaparte, 1832 – Kwabalen
 Macrouridae Gilbert & Hubbs, 1916 – Rattenstaarten
 Melanonidae
 Merlucciidae Gill, 1884 – Heken
 Moridae Moreau, 1881 – Diepzeekabeljauwen
 Muraenolepididae – Aalkabeljauwen
 Phycidae – Oost-Atlantische gaffelkabeljauwen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Pajama Press is thrilled to announce that three of our titles have been nominated for the 2017 Willow Awards.
French Toast, written by Kari-Lynn Winters and illustrated by François Thisdale, is a finalist for the Shining Willow Award.
In this picture book, Phoebe, the daughter of a white French-Canadian mother and a Jamaican English-speaking father, dislikes her school nickname of "French Toast." Gently prompted by her blind grandmother, she uses descriptions of familiar foods from both cultures to explain the family's varied skin colors—and realizes she can take ownership of the nickname proudly. Quill & Quire says it is "simply told and cleverly imagined" in their starred review.
Sky Pig, written by Jan L. Coates and illustrated by Suzanne Del Rizzo, is also a finalist for the Shining Willow Award.
In Sky Pig, Jan L. Coates weaves a story of sweetness and whimsy, ingenuity and empathy. Plasticine artist Suzanne Del Rizzo brings dimension and energy to the tale of a pig who wants—against all popular truisms—to fly. He may never reach the sky on homemade clockwork wings, but Ollie still dreams as hard as ever a pig can dream. And Jack, a true friend, realizes that just because a pig can't fly in the ways they have tried doesn't mean he can never soar. An uplifting picture book for anyone who has tried and tried again. Sky Pig is also a 2016 Best Books for Kids and Teens selection.
The Hill by Karen Bass is a finalist for the Snow Willow Award.
Jared's plane has crashed in the Alberta wilderness, and Kyle is first on the scene. After a night spent on the hilltop the teens discover something odd: the plane has disappeared. And worst of all, something is hunting them. Karen Bass, the multi-award-winning author of Graffiti Knight and Uncertain Soldier, brings her signature action packed style to a chilling new subject: the Cree Wîhtiko legend. Inspired by the real story of a remote plane crash and by the legends of her Cree friends and neighbours, Karen brings eerie life—or perhaps something other than life—to the northern Alberta landscape. The Hill was also a White Ravens 2016 selection, and a 2016 Best Books for Kids and Teens selection.
For more information about these awards, please visit the Willow Awards website.
See the full list of 2017 Willow Awards finalists here.


text:
U.S. hate crimes rise for second straight year - FBI
People take part in "Black Lives Matter" march in Charleston, June 20, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of hate crimes committed in the United States rose in 2016 for the second consecutive year, with African-Americans, Jews and Muslims targeted in many of the incidents, the FBI said on Monday in an annual report.
There were 6,121 hate crime incidents recorded last year, an almost 5 percent rise from 2015 and a 10 percent increase from 2014, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Hate Crimes Statistics report said. It did not give a reason for the rise.
Black Americans were targeted in about half the 3,489 incidents based on race, ethnicity or ancestry, the report said, followed by whites who were targeted in 720.
About half the 1,273 incidents that involved religion were against Jews. Muslims were targeted in 307 religion-based crimes, up 19 percent from 2015 and double the number in 2014.
There were 1,076 incidents involving lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people, with almost two-thirds of those targeting gay men.
The hate crimes recorded last year included nine murders and 24 rapes, the report said. Of the 5,770 known offenders, 46 percent were white and 26 percent were African-American.
The report was based on data voluntarily submitted by about 15,000 law enforcement agencies.
Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Grant McCool


UPDATE: It looks like three-day IIFA 2014 tickets will cost you upward of $1,800.
UPDATE 2: The awards have been moved to April 24-26.
So, it's official: We're hosting the IIFAs next summer.
Tampa will be the first city in the United States to host the awards, which are going on today in Macau for 2013.
Yours truly is completely over the moon. If a stranger on the street handed me $1,000, that still wouldn't make me as happy as this news has.
The reasons for Tampa will play host are numerous but include these: The Indian community here is large and active; Florida is a great place for tourism and is always prepared for huge amounts of tourists; Tampa has the capacity for huge events; Tampa Bay has recently surged in movie popularity (Spring Breakers and Magic Mike, anyone?).
I fully expect much of the Bollywood blogging community to turn up among the thousands of others expected to flock in (the estimated impact to the local hotel industry is 24,000 room nights). And I'm the organizer/head of a Bollywood movie group here that as of this morning had 81 members. So the Bollywood spirit here is strong, and if you choose to come, you will certainly be in good company.
As a local, I'm issuing this open invitation to any and all attending to meet up with me and my Bollywood compatriots in my home base and/or ask me any questions about the area (the one thing I probably can't answer is what restaurants are good). Email: caitlineoconner @ gmail.
The "bay area" is comprised of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Events may be held across all three, though most would likely be in Tampa.
Collectively, the area is referred to as Tampa Bay, also the name of the big body of water that we're all situated around. The bay separates Tampa/Hillsborough County from St. Petersburg-Clearwater/Pinellas County.
This metro is in the top 20 for Indian-American populations in the U.S.; it has the second-largest Indian population in Florida, behind Miami-Fort Lauderdale (where, coincidentally, there is an internationally used cricket ground).
Gujaratis are the most prominent.
Tampa Bay is home to a football team, a baseball team, Hulk Hogan, Hooters (yep, the original) and its own movie star: Winter the dolphin of Dolphin Tale.
In June, the temperatures will likely be in the 90s F (33 C); the heat index may top 100 (40 C). It will also rain. A lot. Hurricanes are a possibility, though one is unlikely.
The beaches are in Pinellas County (Clearwater-St. Pete); Clearwater Beach is considered the most tourist-friendly.
Tampa is no stranger to the national stage: It has hosted four Super Bowls and last summer hosted the Republican National Convention.
I'm so happy for you, Caitlin! It sounds like you'll have a fantastic time. When the IIFA came to Bradford I was really excited too; Bradford is only about 30-40 miles from where I live. However, I had chronic fatigue at the time and wasn't able to attend any of the screenings etc. Not only that but I didn't have any fellow Bollywood fans to take me. Since then I have also set up a bit of a Bollywood group. I, however, have only about a dozen in mine, rather than 80! That's a big thing to organise, as I know because I've just help start up a Women's Institute branch and we have 70 members. It's a bit overwhelming at times. I'm sure you'll all have a great time!
And yes, it is a bit overwhelming at times! The group is growing daily, especially now in summer. We're up to 86 today. However, we usually only have about a dozen folks at a time at our events, so that does make it slightly less daunting and more manageable.
i am beyond jealous! Have a blast!
You could come for a visit!
Please update me on tickets!!!
can someone please tell me how to purchase tickets?


Michelle: Ew, what was that?
Michelle: … But only really gay lesbos kiss each other on the mouth. Keep that, like, in mind.
Michelle: Bye. I gotta go.
Did anyone else notice that if you read the word bubbles while looking up this comic in the archives, everything is written in German?
so where do regular Lesbos kiss?


text:
Expanding the Educational Impact of High School Theatre
By Barry Donnelly on May 09, 2018 hst
The foundation of every high school performing arts program lies in its educational benefits. Such programs foster a greater appreciation of art, music and literature while developing self-confidence, public speaking and presentation skills. In addition, these programs provide hands-on opportunities to learn about stagecraft and the engineering issues that underlie set construction, as well as sound design, videography and lighting. Educational benefits such as these are implicit in the actual productions themselves.
For cast and crew, academic value is added when the preparation and rehearsal of these shows has an explicit educational component. For instance, for the 2012 production of A Few Good Men at St. Joseph Regional High School (Montvale, New Jersey), we invited a member of the U.S. Marine Corps to come and drill our student-actors; in preparation for our 2015 production of Miss Saigon, a history professor from Fordham University spoke to the cast and crew prior to the show about the culture of Vietnam and the impact of the war on its people.
In 2015, we took the students who would be involved in our spring production of You Can't Take It With You to one of the final performances of that show's Broadway revival starring James Earl Jones and Richard Thomas. Afterwards, we enjoyed a talk-back with the Broadway cast, and when we revealed that we were staging the show ourselves that spring, we were invited to take as many of the props from the actual Broadway stage that we could transport to school when the show closed the following week. Needless to say, we found a big truck!
But every show, be it a musical, comedy or drama, can also provide opportunities for learning and academic growth that extend beyond the cast and crew.
The most direct way to engage an entire school community in a learning experience is to develop lesson plans for classroom use. For our 2014 school musical, Cabaret, lesson plans were developed that focused on everything from the rise of the Nazi party in prewar Germany (history) to a lesson on how the source material, Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories," was adapted for the original Broadway production and then, in a different way, for the 1972 movie (literature). The packet also included a series of ethics-based lessons on social responsibility and bigotry as they applied to the Holocaust and to modern culture today.
For our 2016 production of Urinetown: the Musical, we created a comprehensive packet of lesson plans focused on the issues of government intervention vs. individual rights, water conservation, population growth and global environmental concerns as well as such literary conventions as dramatic structure and parody.
Engaging the larger school community in an educational experience built around a particular production requires the development of a more broadly themed initiative. With Miss Saigon, we encouraged students to reach out to family members and neighbors who were veterans of the Vietnam War in order to better understand their view of that conflict. Students were also asked to reflect on the dilemma of the show's main character (sacrificing herself to better the life of her child) and to consider the things in their lives that they considered important enough to be willing to die for. A video showing the responses of both students and vets ran in the lobby prior to each performance.
When we did West Side Story in 2008, as a corollary to the show, we organized a program called "Project H.E.A.R.T. (Harmony, Empathy, Awareness, Respect and Tolerance) Being the Face of God in a Diverse World." The program called on students to discuss race, culture, religion, immigration and (in)tolerance from a historical perspective, and to consider how to bring the virtues of harmony, respect and empathy to life in their relationships with those around them, especially at school.
For our 2017 production of the same show, we hosted a "Day of Inclusion" that considered many of the same issues. Preparation for this day-long event was built around student surveys about their own experiences with prejudice and exclusion. The committee that developed the program included both faculty members, students and the producer of the show. The program itself included a presentation by psychologist/actor Dr. Mykee Fowler, followed by group discussions led by faculty members about the issues raised in the school survey and Dr. Fowler's presentation.
Another element of educational impact can be seen in lobby displays. For our 2018 show, Curtains, the lobby committee designed several bulletin board presentations on the history of mystery fiction along with profiles of other Broadway thrillers (not to mention a Sherlock Holmes cut-out on the roof of the theatre and an actual car, a replica Boston police cruiser on the sidewalk). Students were invited to submit their own short stories to a mystery contest with cash prizes.
With Urinetown the Musical, our lobby display included a functioning water wheel, along with a student-created video about issues of water conservation world-wide. What's more, by mimicking the storyline of the show (having a donation basket for people using the public restrooms), we raised more than $1,000 for Water. org, an organization dealing with the water shortage in Africa.
Expanding a production's educational impact can also be as simple as inviting other schools to attend a performance. At our school, we host a pair of student previews for middle school students (typically grades 6-8, depending on the show). Visiting teachers receive a binder with educational materials and lesson plans to direct a discussion of the show after students return to class at their schools.
Some shows lend themselves to a host of topics that have obvious educational impact; others require a measure of creativity. Either way, engaging, thoughtfully designed lesson plans have the dual benefit of making each year's production a true "school-wide" experience, and of providing the entire student body with a theatrical experience that is both entertaining and educational, which is a very powerful combination.
Barry Donnelly
Barry Donnelly has been the president/principal of Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, New Jersey, for the past 11 years. The school's performing arts program, under the direction of John T. Asselta, received national recognition in 2008 when its production of West Side Story was selected as one of five High School Showstoppers by the USA Today Weekend magazine. The SJR school musical has been a six-time recipient of the Papermill Playhouse "Educational Impact Award," selected from among the more than 100 schools in the state of New Jersey that submit materials each year.


The story tracks a closeted relationship between two men in the context of the Xhosa initiation ritual of Ulwaluko. Xolani, a factory worker, joins the men of his community at the annual initiation ceremony in the mountains of Eastern Cape. In addition to serving as a mentor to the boys undergoing the ceremony, Xolani looks forward to the annual tradition due to the fact that it provides him the opportunity to reestablish his sexual and romantic relationship with Vija. When Xolani is assigned to be the mentor of Kwanda, a young man from Johannesburg, he quickly realizes that Kwanda is also gay, and Kwanda soon realizes the nature of the relationship between Vija and Xolani. Tensions soon rise between the three men.


text:
Q: How can I read MrSID files in Python (using gdal)? I have to read a large number of MrSID images and process them in Python. I usually access GIS file formats using the gdal application and the gdal Python library. However, the gdal package for Python does not come with MrSID support (I use the portable WinPython and the precompiled gdal package from here). Then I also use QGIS that comes with gdal support: here, gdal does support MrSID out of the box (command: gdalinfo.exe --formats).
I was wondering if there is a gdal package for Python that does support MrSID out of the box, or do I have to compile it from the source (using Windows 8.1 64-bit).
I tried to just copy the QGIS dll "...\gdalplugins\gdal_MrSID.dll" to the same folder in my Python gdal library, but this makes the command "gdalinfo.exe --formats" to stop with an error.
This is the code that I use in Python to see if gdal supports MrSID:
import gdal

gdal.AllRegister()
for i in range(1, gdal.GetDriverCount()):
    drv = gdal.GetDriver(i)
    print drv.GetDescription(),

Using this after implementing Kersten's solution, the list does not include the entry "MrSID". Calling the command "gdalinfo --formats" however, does list the entry "MrSID (rov): Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database (MrSID)".

A: Instead of using the binaries provided by Christopher Gohlke you can use the GDAL binaries from GISInternals:
For your case you would need:

*

*GDAL core

*MrSID plugin

*GDAL Python 2.7 bindings

A: Can't you call it with subprocess?
https://docs.python.org/2/library/subprocess.html


text:
Black holes in education spending
nick weller April 9, 2002 0
Oregon's budget crisis is a blessing in disguise for schools. It has helped expand education debates from a myopic focus on total funding to a more useful discussion about spending priorities.
Despite an 11 percent increase in the K-12 education budget from the previous biennium, core education services are being cut. It appears that we have some black holes in our education budgets. The following are likely suspects:
Benefits: A March 18 Oregonian article reported that health insurance and retirement benefits for Oregon teachers have each gone up by about 39 percent since 1996.
Special education: These costs are rising faster than non-special education expenditures. For example in Portland special education costs have risen 78 percent in the past decade.
Non-core services: Portland Public Schools discovered that it was overspending for custodial services by $5 million when compared to the private sector. Both the Forest Grove School District and the Evergreen School District (Vancouver) save 30 percent by contracting custodial services. Savings could also be found in transportation and food service.
Department of Education: The current operations budget is $120 million per biennium and about 500 employees work at the Salem office. With fewer mandates from the state many of these positions could be eliminated.
Were it not for the current budget crisis Oregonians might never have realized that core services were being defunded — that funding increases weren't getting to the classroom. The debate cannot be just about how much money is spent on education. We need to ask where and how the money is spent.
Nick Weller is an education policy analyst at Cascade Policy Institute, a Portland, Oregon based think tank.
© 2006, Cascade Policy Institute. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided the author and Cascade Policy Institute are cited. Contact Cascade at (503) 242-0900 to arrange print or broadcast interviews on this topic. For more topics visit the QuickPoint! archive.


The Southeastern Conference (SEC) today announced the winners of its first ever Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Awards. The awards honor professors from SEC universities with outstanding records in teaching and scholarship who serve as role models for other faculty and students. The University of Kentucky's recognized professor is Steven W. Yates, professor of chemistry, physics, and astronomy in the UK College of Arts and Sciences.
In presenting the awards, the SEC becomes the only Division I conference within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) currently recognizing university faculty for their achievements, unrelated to athletics or student-athletes.
SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners, one from each university, will receive a $5,000 honorarium and become his or her university's nominee for the SEC Professor of the Year Award. The SEC Professor of the Year receives an additional $15,000 honorarium and will be recognized during the annual SEC Spring Banquet in May.
Chosen by a selection committee of SEC Provosts, the SEC Faculty Achievement Awards and the SEC Professor of the Year Award are part of a set of non-athletically related academic initiatives the Southeastern Conference has undertaken through its SEC Academic Consortium to encourage academic leadership and collaboration within the SEC membership.


PayPal's Venmo app on an iPhone.
PayPal's popular payments app Venmo is on track to process $20 billion in payments per year, according to PayPal CEO Dan Schulman. The company announced the milestone on a call with analysts after it released better than expected earnings for the third quarter of 2016.
PayPal (pypl) acquired Venmo, a payment app popular with younger users, as part of its $800 million acquisition of payment processing startup Braintree in 2014. Now Venmo is one of the shining stars in PayPal's portfolio. Its mobile app lets users send money to each other instantly and is a lot like PayPal's core service. People tend to use it for small, cashless transfers, like reimbursing a friend for dinner or pay their share of the rent.
In the third quarter, Venmo processed $4.9 billion of in payments, up 131% from the same quarter in 2015. In the second quarter of 2016, Venmo processed $4 billion in payments volume.
Although Venmo is growing fast, it's still unclear if PayPal makes much money from the app. Earlier this year, PayPal started generating revenue from Venmo by letting merchants to accept Venmo as a payments option. As a result, companies like food delivery service Munchery and event tickets seller Gametime accept Venmo payments from customers who place orders through Venmo's iPhone apps. For each transaction, merchants are charged a small fee. PayPal hasn't yet released information on how much money the company makes from Venmo.
Overall, it was a strong mobile payments quarter for PayPal. In total, the company processed nearly $26 billion in mobile payments, up 56% from last year, and representing 29% of PayPal's total payments volume for the quarter. Looking forward, Schulman predicted that PayPal would generate $100 billion in mobile payment volume within next 12 months.


text:
Lars Jørgen Madsen (* 19. Juli 1871 in Vordingborg Kommune; † 1. April 1925 in Randers) war ein dänischer Sportschütze.

Erfolge
Lars Jørgen Madsen nahm fünfmal an Olympischen Spielen teil. Bei den Olympischen Spielen 1900 in Paris wurde er vor Ole Østmo und Charles Paumier du Verger mit dem Armeegewehr im stehenden Anschlag Olympiasieger. Mit 305 Punkten blieb er sechs Punkte vor dem Zweitplatzierten Østmo. Im knienden Anschlag belegte er den achten Rang sowie im liegenden Anschlag Rang 16. Im Dreistellungskampf wurde er Fünfter im Einzel und Vierter mit der Mannschaft. Da 1904 keine Schießwettbewerbe ausgetragen wurden, erfolgte Madsens zweite Teilnahme anlässlich der Olympischen Spiele 1908 in London, bei denen er zwei Wettbewerbe bestritt. Mit dem Armeegewehr verpasste er im Dreistellungskampf mit der Mannschaft erneut als Vierter einen Medaillengewinn, das Einzel beendete er auf Platz 14. Weitaus erfolgreicher verlief der Dreistellungskampf mit dem Freien Gewehr 1912 in Stockholm. Das Einzel beendete er hinter Paul Colas und vor Niels Larsen auf dem Silberrang, während er gemeinsam mit Ole Olsen, Niels Larsen, Niels Andersen, Laurits Larsen und Jens Hajslund Bronze im Mannschaftswettbewerb gewann. Mit dem Kleinkalibergewehr im liegenden Anschlag wurde er mit der Mannschaft Fünfter, mit dem Armeegewehr Achter. Darüber hinaus trat Madsen auch im Wettbewerb mit der Freien Pistole an, kam jedoch nicht über den 14. Platz hinaus. Acht Jahre darauf startete er in Antwerpen in insgesamt elf Disziplinen. Ihm gelangen dabei fünf Top-Ten-Platzierungen, davon zwei auf dem Podium: mit dem Armeegewehr sicherte er sich im stehenden Anschlag hinter Carl Osburn und vor Lawrence Nuesslein die Silbermedaille. In der Mannschaftskonkurrenz wurde er gemeinsam mit Niels Larsen,
Anders Peter Nielsen, Anders Petersen und Erik Sætter-Lassen Olympiasieger vor der US-amerikanischen und der schwedischen Mannschaft. Seine letzten Spiele bestritt Madsen 1924 in Paris, bei denen er mit dem Kleinkalibergewehr und dem Armeegewehr jeweils im liegenden Anschlag den 24. Platz belegte. Mit der Mannschaft erreichte er mit dem Armeegewehr den 6. Platz.

Bei Weltmeisterschaften war Madsen ebenfalls sehr erfolgreich. Bereits 1899 wurde er in Loosduinen Weltmeister mit dem Freien Gewehr im Dreistellungskampf und gewann in der Mannschaftswertung Bronze. Im stehenden Anschlag sicherte er sich Silber. Weitere Titelgewinne folgten 1900 in Paris und 1908 in Wien mit dem Freien Gewehr im stehenden Anschlag, zudem belegte er 1911 in Rom den zweiten Rang. 1914 und 1922 gewann er in Viborg bzw. Mailand insgesamt fünf Bronzemedaillen in verschiedenen Disziplinen mit dem Freien Gewehr: im Dreistellungskampf und im liegenden Anschlag 1914, im stehenden Anschlag 1922 und beide Male mit der Mannschaft im Dreistellungskampf. Auch 1924 in Reims gewann er mit der Freien Pistole Bronze. Außerdem wurde er 1924 Vizeweltmeister mit dem Freien Gewehr im knienden Anschlag.

Madsen schloss 1900 ein Medizinstudium an der Universität Kopenhagen ab. Von 1900 bis zu seinem Tod 1925 praktizierte er in Randers.

Weblinks

Sportschütze (Dänemark)
Olympiasieger (Sportschießen)
Weltmeister (Sportschießen)
Olympiateilnehmer (Dänemark)
Teilnehmer der Olympischen Sommerspiele 1900
Teilnehmer der Olympischen Sommerspiele 1908
Teilnehmer der Olympischen Sommerspiele 1912
Teilnehmer der Olympischen Sommerspiele 1920
Teilnehmer der Olympischen Sommerspiele 1924
Däne
Geboren 1871
Gestorben 1925
Mann