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Archival Series: Things held in Common by Islam and Liberalism
If you have not read the November, 2016 Shepherd's Staff, What If You Are Wrong About Islam? please do that before trying to read the following. If you need a copy of the November issue, ask for one by email.
The use of the term "Islam" in this article is meant to include the majority of those people in that movement who are obligated to obey the letter of the law in the Quran on the penalty of death. The use of the term "liberalism" is meant to include all those who hold a mindset that is based on lies and error. That way of thinking pretends to be intellectual and factual, but in practice it invents answers and protects them with vicious attacks on anyone who disagrees.
One way to tell if a movement has no intellectual or spiritual power is to observe what they do with those who disagree with them. In Islam, if you do not agree with them, you die. In liberalism, if you disagree you are said to be anti-intellectual, ignorant, stupid, and lacking any credibility. Liberalism allows dissenters no place in society, government, education, or discussion in the public arena.
These two movements share methods. They operate and defend by use of hate, intimidation, threats, and violence. They assign negative qualities to those who don't agree with them by using the very things they are guilty of. Islam identifies anyone who does not agree with them as infidels who are to be killed. It complains that it is being persecuted when the facts demonstrate that this movement is responsible for the most brutal acts of persecution worldwide. Liberalism does the same thing. Those who disagree with them are subjected to vulgar language and are called racists, xenophobes, homophobic, Islamophobic, and facists. Liberalism turns truth into lies and lies into truth.
AND THERE IS MUCH MORE
Both movements have a callous attitude toward human life. The murder, mayhem, beheading, burning, drowning, torture, and genocide by Islam is without debate. This destruction of human life is justified by simply changing the category of some humans to "infidels." Liberalism has done the same thing with the murder of unborn children. The abortion holocaust stands as the worst destruction of humans in the history of mankind. They did this by simply changing the category of the unborn, saying that they really are not humans. This is extremely similar to the tragic page in American history when black people were made slaves by simply changing their category. In Islam, there is no safety in age or place in society. Babies, children, women, the elderly - all are irrelevant; kill them all with no mercy. One can only wonder where the wicked mentality of liberalism will go. Anyone who would cruelly dismember a baby will have no trouble destroying old folks and anyone who disagrees with them.
The duality of both movements is also found in the matter of morality. From day to day, it is hard anymore to tell what is moral. The rules are changed at will, normally to benefit the elite or, in Islam, the male gender. Sexual slavery, rape, genital mutilation, multiple wives, and the animalization of women stand as unquestionable evidence. Driven by a preoccupation of sex in this world and the next, morality is adjustable. Liberalism capitalizes on the same thing, driven by what they call "freedom" when in fact it makes people slaves, not free. The celebration of sodomy and the invention of same-sex marriage are only examples of the moral freefall. The creation of things that do not exist and that are lies includes the transgender movement. Suddenly perversion has become popular in this "anything goes" society that benefits some elite, but enslaves many. In both movements, any protest of this growing degradation is met with a violent response.
AND THERE IS STILL VERY MUCH MORE
Liberalism cannot tolerate the true record of history. It must be adjusted to fit their propensity to have all things their way, and this is why liberalism has worked to destroy the Constitution. In its original form, it opposes everything liberalism stands for; therefore, it has been rewritten by them, deliberately and systematically. A true and honest record of history has been changed in print and in the classroom because liberalism cannot abide the truth. The same is true of Islam. World history and that of this movement has been changed to alter the respectability of a movement that is much more than a religion.
Every day there is a new report of how Islam is invading education with its precepts and goals. In true form, it is demanding new "rights" in every area, but at the same time is denying the same freedoms to others. The issue of clothing is only one way to soften up the opposition. The demand for Sharia law is much more egregious. This new legal system stands in direct contradiction to the US Constitution. To use it is actually treason. Education, however, is the major victory for liberalism. It deliberately moved from one-room schools to community schools to regional schools to state schools to federal schools. With each step, liberalism moved to ownership and created its own factory to press the liberal mindset on the populous. The lie of "public education" allowed them to drain the finances of the people, leaving them with no power to stop the moral and mental train wreck. All one has to do is to watch the news every day to see the kind of degraded society it has produced. Pseudo-science has produced a plethora of cruel lies - the Big Bang, evolution, global warming, etc., - and all the mind-numbed robots simply repeat what they have been told to believe.
THE WORST IS YET TO COME
One would think that people who call themselves Christians would know enough about God and the Word of God not to be caught up in these lies. Liberalism, however, has badgered and controlled even Christian education so that it follows like a lap dog, letting the enemies of God set the false standard like the people of God did when they chose Saul as king because they wanted to be like the rest of the nations.
Almost everyone you know has been influenced by the liberal mindset so that they now think like liberals. We are all victims of the liberal success in education. I live in the world of theology. Not one day goes by that I don't read or hear of people who handle the Bible like liberals do. Knowing my days are numbered, I press on to finish two books that deal with this problem. From theological articles to Facebook, I see the same thing. There is a mad rush to make the Bible say what people want it to say. The theological error of the month simply proves that our crowd has been taught to think like liberals. I know this is bold and pointed, but then these articles have one purpose - to make people think.
Shepherd's Staff was prepared by the lateC lay Nuttall, D. Min.
SHEPHERD'S STAFF – December, 2016
A communication service of Shepherd's Basic Care, for those committed to the authority and sufficiency of the Bible. Shepherd's Basic Care is a ministry of information and encouragement to pastors, missionaries, and churches. Write for information using the e-mail address shepherdstaff2@juno.com or Shepherd's Staff.
Labels: Clay Nuttall, Islam, Sharia Law
Archival Series: "Our Children Learn Not Only What We Teach Them, but by What We Tolerate."
In its history Northland International University (NIU), the former Northland Baptist Bible College, has not been in a situation requiring a strong call to separate. In the early days Northland was a refreshing voice because of it's good conservative stands, refreshing Northwood's feel, friendly campus, servant's heart, with a love for revival and the Lord Jesus Christ. Students were being discipled with a demerits system in place and properly emphasized for correction and growth. There are many fine pastors and Christian workers serving the Lord today because of Northland's ministry to them.
"Our children learn not only what we teach them, but by what we tolerate."
According to NIU alumni Dr. Les Ollila (former NIU Chancellor) said that over and over to the student body. With decisions made in recent weeks at Northland a new kind of teaching and tolerance has come to the campus.
In 2005, because of Rick Holland's inclusion as a speaker, Dr. Ollila pulled out of the God-Focused conference. It is believed that NIU president Matt Olson insisted Ollila withdraw. Just five years later Dr. Ollila along with Matt Olson, Sam Horn and Doug McLachlan reach out to and travel across the country to meet with John MacArthur, Rick Holland and Phil Johnson. Then Ollila/Olson/NIU have this same man (Rick Holland) speak in chapel to impressionable young people.
What changed between 2005 and 2010? It wasn't Rick Holland. He is today what he was in 2005: an advocate for Lordship Salvation1 and the founder of the Resolved Conference, which merges preaching with the world's CCM/rock culture and extreme Charismatic style worship.2 NIU embracing MacArthur, Johnson and putting Rick Holland in its chapel pulpit confirms they are willing to teach Lordship Salvation, teach/tolerate a neutered form of biblical separatism, tolerate and allow for the worldly culture of events such as the Resolved Conference.
Regrettably, in just five years, Les Ollila has changed. NIU is being transformed by its president, Matt Olson, and administration decisions. With and because of their change the historical trajectory of NIU has been radically altered.
With the changes at NIU many share concerns over ministry, direction and leanings of NIU. There is a declining interest in maintaining fellowship by many former alums, good Christian leaders and lay workers. Many who have some relationship with NIU are contacting the administration to express their concerns. Others will quietly pull away and encourage their young people to look elsewhere for a Christian college. Now unfortunately, because NIU's administration wants it both ways their friendship base will have to change just to maintain status quo not to mention growth.
Many alumni view what Northland is doing today as completely contrary to what was taught not very long ago. Students were told that they will become in the future based on two things: the friends you have and the books you read. Is it any wonder they have done what they have? If you live long enough, you will have to change your friends or change your doctrine. NIU is changing its friends for new ones in the so-call "conservative" evangelicalism. Certain doctrines, separatism in particular, is not far from being compromised for the sake of their new friends.
Why do men who claim a heritage and commitment to separatist Fundamentalism take the initiative to reach out to evangelicals who openly repudiate biblical separation in principle and in application? Is it possible that these alleged fundamental separatists want to retain the label they are comfortable with, but have lost the will to contend, to wage the battle for fidelity to the God-given mandates? Is it possible they will redefine the principles and application of separation to accommodate the need to tolerate, allow for and excuse aberrant doctrine and ecumenism for the sake of fellowship with evangelicals?
Have self-described fundamental separatists decided to move toward a safe, non-confrontational middle ground at the expense of fidelity to the Word of God on separation to be accepted and respected by evangelicals?
The "conservative" evangelicals have not and show no inclination of moving toward a Fundamentalist's commitment to authentic biblical separation. Someone is moving, someone is changing, and it isn't the evangelicals.
With recent revelations we are learning a great deal about Northland's new trajectory. NIU will try to placate alumni and donors while it moves further away from its historic stand. Matt Olson's recent open letter to Friends in Ministry was just such an attempt that, in the opinion of many, was an abject failure. If Northland maintains this new direction and discussions among concerned persons are any indication of a national response, I fear Northland's best days are behind it and the worst is yet to come.
Northland's new trajectory has a historic parallel. The devastating effects of introducing Evangelicalism's philosophy and practices into a biblical Fundamentalist setting are no more stark than the demise of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College.3
First Published Nov. 29, 2010.
Publisher's Addendum: On April 30, 2015 NIU announced its closure. See,
NIU Closes: A Continuation of the Pattern of Demise
For previous articles in this series see-
NIU's Convergence With Evangelicalism: What Does It Mean for Impressionable Students?
NIU Presents Executive Pastor of Grace Community Church to It's Student Body
1) An Example of Lordship Salvation's Man-Centered Message
2) The Merger of Calvinism With Worldliness, by Dr. Peter Masters
3) Discussion Over the Closing of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College
"Although Pillsbury struggled for a number of years to recover itself from the devastating effects of hob-nobbing with Evangelicalism, it never really dealt with (in any real tangible way) its ruined reputation. Although it was repeatedly brought before them by many friends of the college, they never really did what was necessary to regain the trust of the pastors and parents who send students."
Labels: Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, Les Ollila, Matt Olson, Northland Baptist Bible College, Northland Int'l University
Archival Series: Things held in Common by Islam an...
Archival Series: "Our Children Learn Not Only What...


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Nostalgia, Fun, and Programming
36m read
elixir, gaming
When we recognize music, movies, old photos, or video games of the past, it sometimes has a powerful effect: nostalgia. It's a pattern of the past that we remember fondly.
When we write code, we also recall patterns of the past to consider as tools to help solve today's problem.
I'd like to have some fun exploring the connection between software development and nostalgia.
What is Nostalgia
The word "nostalgia" started as a medical condition. Doctors invented the word with the Greek roots 'nostos', meaning returning home, and 'algos' meaning pain. It was invented in 1688, when Swiss soldiers would miss home so much, that they would mentally break down, and no longer be able to 'be a soldier'; they longed for who they used to be.
The condition of 'nostalgia' evolved into much less than a medical condition, and more as a temporary emotion. The word is no longer associated with the negative effects to the person; in fact quite the opposite: it now means "fondly remembering the past".
Inducing nostalgia can boost psychological well-being, increase feelings of self-esteem, social belonging, and encourage psychological growth. Nostalgia can be a restorative way of coping with negative stress.
Marketing knows about nostalgia; it's a powerful selling tool. There are 11 Star Wars films; 10 Batman movies; 16 Final Fantasy games. Remasters of remasters, remakes on top of remakes. Remixes of older songs; you get it. Generally, folks want to be in that mental space.
Where Nostalgia Comes From
This is called the Lifespan Retrieval Curve.
0-5yrs Childhood Amnesia
10-30yrs Reminisence Bump (this is our nostalgic period)
30+ Period of Recency
Our autobiographical memory – that is, our psychological history of ourselves – on average shows that most of our memories are formed between the ages of 10-30 years old. Younger than 10 is considered childhood amnesia; greater than that is considered too recent. For the life of me, I can't remember what being 6 was like. Likewise, I couldn't tell you what I did 2 years ago that affected my life profoundly. It's unconsciously regarded as too recent to be formative of "who I am."
Our young adulthood is where we develop our self-identity; it's when we discover who we are and want to be. We'll come back around to that bit. For me, the time period is the 1990s and 2000s.
Back in the 1990s, there were several things that I did:
Listened to cassettes I recorded from the stereo on my fuzzy earphones.
Stopped at every Magic Eye book in Books-a-million, Borders, Hastings, or Barnes & Noble to see if I could see "it".
Spent 30 minutes or more just trying to decide what movie to rent; maybe it took so long because I couldn't accept that the movie I wanted to see didn't have the VHS behind it.
Got really excited when the phone rang.
Watched Bewitched and Dick Van Dyke on Nick-at-night.
Replayed in my head the "The Log Song" from Ren & Stimpy. It was an earworm that never left. To this day I still hum it.
I cleaned up poop from my Tamagotchi, jumped on goombas, and a little latter double-barrel shotgunned demons in Doom.
Let's stop at that last point: video games.
Theory of Fun
Super Mario. The hero plumber that would grow up to be the most iconic and recognizable video game character of all time. Made by a company formed in 1889: Nintendo.
Video games are a source of nostalgia for many people. They're fun. They're a way to escape the stress of the day. Many video games, such as Final Fantasy, are epic stories that we can get lost within; just like books, but these are interactive! Others, like classic Mario, have very little story and just focus on addictive game mechanics.
Video games are developed to be fun; otherwise why would we play them? Most gamers aren't playing for pure punishment (looking at you, Mega Man 9). Turns out, there's a lot of social science that goes into designing games to get and keep players!
The book "Theory of Fun" outlines some basics of what it takes to create a good game. In it, the author Raph Koster includes a quote by Chris Crawford saying:
fun is the emotional response to learning
And later Raph Koster:
Fun in games arises out of mastery. It arises out of comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun. With games, learning is the drug.
The idea was, games are systems built to help us learn patterns, and fun is a neurochemical reward to encourage us to keep trying.
These games are built to teach us patterns, and then delightfully introduce variations on them, which keeps us learning. We see new situations as the game progresses and have new ways to apply the learned patterns to them; or perhaps combine patterns.
Let's look at an example.
In the original Super Mario Bros, we know that Mario moves right to advance to the goal; we can tell because he's on the left side of the screen– you can't go left; you must go right.
The game introduces a pattern by establishing if you touch the Goombas, you die. Noted– don't touch bad guys.
Let's try pushing one of the buttons on the gamepad. Turns out Mario can jump! Let's avoid those bad guys. Noted– I can move right and jump
There are blocks now. Looks like if I jump into them, I might get something. If I jump on top, it acts as a platform.
It introduces a pattern by establishing if you touch the mushroom, you grow. Noted– there are power-ups that make me stronger
You experiment with two elements: Getting a mushroom, and then touching the enemy. Turns out that's a mistake and now you shrink back down. Noted– can't kill bad guys by only being big, and when I'm big and get hurt, I become small.
You experiment with two more elements: jump on the enemy's heads!. Noted– bad guys can be jumped on.
Now we're at a pit. Probably not safe to go in there, but maybe the screen will move down and reveal a new area. Let's try. Noted– can't go down pits.
These are universal patterns now in games. We know instinctively that we just don't touch enemies, and we should jump over pits.
Patterns are Fun
Earlier we talked about nostalgia. Remember, nostalgia is fondly remembering the past. It's remembering a pattern that may be long gone from our current life.
Like nostalgia, video games also has psychological benefits. "Theory of Fun" includes a study from 2011 released by East Carolina University, that found that casual gamers who played in 30 minute periods showed an 87% improvement in cognitive response time, reduced depression symptoms by 57%, and 215% increase in executive functioning. That's incredible!
I'm starting to get the idea that nostalgia and video games are good news for our brains and well-being. This isn't limited to video games either; although I'm focusing on them; these taught patterns also exist in music and movies.
Thinking about pop music, almost every song on the radio has a recognizable pattern, whether you've picked it out or not:
If we analyzed the musical notes, there are patterns of notes that musicians know sound good together called scales. Notes played that are not on the given scale will create a dissonant sound; an out-of-tune guitar, for example.
Likewise, movies and books typically follow a pattern:
Introduce characters and setting
Rising action or inciting incident.
Climax and Falling
Denouement (lessons learned)
Consider Tic-Tac-Toe; it's definitely a game, but the pattern is easily perceived and there is no continuing variation. Mastery of Tie-Tac-Toe is quick.
Consider Korean dramas; usually a love story between a jerk guy and a shy girl. A series of events leads to the shy girl turning away from jerk guy, almost falling in love with another fella but then jerk guy gets hit by a car BAM now he has amnesia. This turns jerk guy into nice guy. Shy girl now likes nice guy. They get together, and then OH NOEES nice guy remembers stuff and now he's a mostly-jerk-but-now-somehow-ok-guy. Seriously, every k-drama is this in a nutshell. Predictable.
Alas, there is a point where patterns become boring and no longer fun.
Delight tends to wear thin very quickly. Real fun comes from challenges that are always at the margin of our ability. When the balance is really perfect, people often zone out.
There has to be variance in the patterns to stay interesting. Games do this by having multiple stages or areas, power-ups, faster cars, etc. Music does this with different instruments, tempos, singers, etc. Movies does this new characters, settings, twists, etc.
Micro-lifecycles
We've explored nostalgia and patterns in popular media such as video games, movies, and music. What does this have to do with software development?
Generally, software development consists of applying code patterns to problems. Software developers, or really any artisans of their craft, notice and remember patterns. They remember which patterns work well and which don't; what problems those solution-patterns are good fits for and terrible fits for. Software developers are players in the game of software.
People are amazing pattern-matchers. They look for patterns in everything; sometimes even finding patterns where there wasn't supposed to be, like a cloud formation. In software, patterns that emerge are often collected into groups. At the macro-level, these patterns are called architectures, such as MVC (Model-View-Controller) common in backend frameworks, or MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) common in frontend frameworks, or REST (Representational state transfer) common in web communication.
At the micro-level, it looks like spoilers a game. This micro-lifecycle is how every game works. Let's look at the event loop of a game from the perspective of a gamer:
+----------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                          |
|              All forms of feedback:                      |
|     Art, animation, sound, music, movement, story.       |
+-------+-------------------------------------------^------+
|                 A GAME ATOM               |
| updates                                   |
|                                      +----+-----------+
|                                      |                |
+----v--------+    +---------------+        |  🔁  place     |
|             |    |               | input  |                |
|   problem   +---->  preparation  +------->+ +------------+ |
|             |    |               |        | |    core    | |
+-------------+    +---------------+        | |  mechanic  | |
| +------------+ |
|                |
+----------------+
Let's change some of these words around and apply it to software development.
|      code review, performance, test suite, correctness,  |
|               those dang customers                       |
|                 A SOFTWARE UNIT           |
+----v--------+    +---------------+        |  🔁  test      |
|             |    |               | write  |                |
|             |    |               | code   | |   logic    | |
+-------------+    +---------------+        | |            | |
This looks like test-driven development!
We're presented a problem
We prepare for a solution
Have a test (place)
Run the logic (core mechanic)
And adjust according to the feedback we experience.
Software developers and gamers experience the same micro-lifecycles! But let's call it what it is: it's a rapid pattern.
Software development revolves around languages, architectures, and frameworks. These are all codified patterns with dissertations, white-papers, systems, and books written about them. Coders leverage these patterns to solve their problems faster.
Ruby on Rails is considered a really productive and fast framework for the Ruby language. It introduced the MVC architecture to a lot of young developers. Many developers of folks find Rails enjoyable; you have to follow the patterns that they set out to keep progress smooth. PHP Laravel is similar. There are dozens of frameworks that are aimed to be productive.
It wasn't always like this though. Let's talk about JavaScript.
Back in the early 2000s, the web looked entirely different. JavaScript, believe it or not, wasn't as widely used as it is today. It was a mess; different browsers implemented different features, and sometimes the same feature but with different interfaces to it. There weren't many patterns. It wasn't as popular because it wasn't as enjoyable to work within. Think of it as the wild wild west; only those willing to leave the comforts of what they knew and explore the unknown would be able to move the language and its ecosystem forward and help define it.
2006 came around and so did a little library called jQuery, which codified how to do basic actions in JavaScript. It standardized, unofficially, how to access elements on the page, how to handle events, how to animate. It was an amazing contribution to the JavaScript community. It's still used today! jQuery inspired browser makers and some of those behaviors were codified into the language properly, and some of those APIs are integrated into the browsers now and work natively without the library.
Several years later in 2010, Google released a framework called Angular (known as AngularJS now). This was a full framework that applied the MVC and/or MVVM architecture to JavaScript.
Years later in 2013, another library called React was released. Together with other libraries like React Router, Redux and more, it essentially formed a new framework.
Shortly after in 2014, Vue was released, picking up some loved patterns from both Angular and React.
These islands of patterns are where developers congregated. Like little nation-states, they liked their leaders, disliked their leaders, stagnated, experienced rapid growth, poached employees, etc.
Together, the patterns that these libraries and frameworks introduced helped make frontend development much more enjoyable. JavaScript today is one of most prolific languages out there, no doubt in part because patterns emerged.
I think these patterns determine how much fun we're going to have programming.
Let's talk about a software language called Elixir.
Elixir is a relatively new (born ~2011) functional language.
Elixir is a dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications.
Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development, embedded software, data ingestion, and multimedia processing domains.
Elixir is beloved by developers, particularly seasoned developers, and I want to explore why. In fact, Elixir is the entire motivation for me to produce this content.
The Vault team [at Heroku] doing Elixir is only three engineers. Most of their apps are used internally, so they are generally not worried about performance. They continue using Elixir because they feel productive and happy with it. They have also found it is an easier language to maintain compared to their previous experiences.
– "PaaS with Elixir at Heroku"
What makes Elixir so enjoyable? As we have been exploring, fun is the emotional response to learning, and since people are amazing pattern-matchers, we constantly look for patterns. Perhaps Elixir has good patterns.
Let's look at some common Elixir programming patterns. These patterns can be found in many other language. Maybe these patterns are why it's enjoyable to develop in Elixir?
When we think about what an application accomplishes, we often frame it in our minds as a ruleset and transformation of data. That's where we start, at least.
Data comes in
Data is transformed
Data goes out
In Elixir, you can accomplish this with the pipeline operator:
"My   String"
|> String.trim()
|> String.replace("My", "Your")
|> String.upcase()
#=> "YOUR STRING"
The pipeline starts with a string "My String" and passes it into the first position of the next function String.trim/1. The result of that function is then passed into the first position of the next function String.replace(..., "My", "Your") and so on until the end when we have the result "YOUR STRING".
Elixir developers reading this are probably already bored. We've seen this pattern a million times. But stick with me!
It doesn't have to be all about transformation either. If at any point, we wanted to see what the data was between any of those functions, we could also throw in an IO.inspect() between the functions.
|> IO.inspect(label: "the string is")
#=> the string is: "My String"
Move the IO.inspect down a little bit…
#=> the string is: "Your String"
It's a simple and effective way to see the state of your string as it's passed through the pipeline.
The pipeline pattern is everywhere in Elixir, and it makes it clear how the data is being operated upon. We can see instantly that it's being trimmed, we're replacing a word, and upcasing the string. There's no need to name interstitial stages of the string while it's being operated upon. Opposed to this:
trimmed_string = String.trim("My String")
replaced_string = String.replace(trimmed_string, "My", "Your")
upcased_string = String.upcase(replaced_string)
This is a simple example, but your eyes have to scan to the right to see the beginning of the data transformation, and then search for where that variable goes in the next function.
Pipelines are everywhere with Elixir.
The pipeline operator |> is not in every language, nor does it need to be in order to write your code towards data transformation pipelines, but because the operator exists, it steers developers to work in such a pattern.
Another form of a data pipeline is using the with macro. You may have noticed in our simple example about that a string is passed in and out of all the functions; there wasn't a great way to check the output if it was successful; with helps with that. Let's look at that in our next pattern:
Monads
Ok, before I lose you, we're not going to explore what monads are; it doesn't matter. But, their effect is powerful and I want to explore a pattern that they enable. If you don't know what a monad is, that's totally fine. Here's a simple definition: A monad is a unit of data and metadata (for the developer) about the data.
Not to say that Elixir has complete support for academic and mathematical monads like Haskell, but the Elixir community's code style leans towards using monads, perhaps without even knowing it.
The best and smallest example I can think of for monads is the Result Monad:
case this_might_work() do
{:ok, success_data} ->
happy_path(success_data)
{:error, data_about_error} ->
unhappy_path(data_about_error)
In Elixir, we're pattern-matching on the result of this_might_work(), and that function returns a result monad. The monad in this case is a 2-item tuple. The tuple begins with either :ok or :error which is metadata about the accompanied data. {METADATA, DATA}
If the returned tuple's first element is :ok, then bind the data to success_data and move on. Likewise, if it's :error, then bind the unsuccessful data to data_about_error and move on.
This is a pervasive pattern in Elixir. I bet that 100% of Elixir codebases out there have this pattern in it. It's extremely effective in how to route the data in the pipeline.
Here's another one:
with {:ok, burger} <- McDonalds.order("burger"),
{:ok, fries} <- McDonalds.order("fries"),
{:ok, milkshake} <- McDonalds.order("milkshake") do
{:ok, [burger, fries, milkshake]}
{:error, error_message} ->
Emotions.frustrate()
Memory.remember(error_message)
{:error, "did not complete order"}
Look! We're combining two patterns now: a pipeline and result monads. Here, we are chaining several result monads together to form a pipeline with the help of the with macro. Inside the with statement:
order a burger. If you get a burger, then continue
order some fries. If you get fries, then continue
order a milkshake. If you get a milkshake, then you're done! Grab your food and go!
If they don't have one of the above items, then the pipeline will stop and return the first encountered error. SPOILERS the ice cream machine was broken, so we're going to get an error when ordering a milkshake.
The result monad is extremely effective in crafting how to route data in pipelines.
Happy Path
The previous example includes another pattern: seeing the happy path. I want to show you a couple of implementations of a process; one in Ruby and another in Elixir.
def order(params)
user = User.find(params["user_id"])       #| Happy path
return unless user                        #| Unhappy path
item = Warehouse.find(params)             #| Happy path
return unless item                        #| Unhappy path
money = Billing.charge_user(user, item)   #| Happy path
return unless money                       #| Unhappy path
schedule_delivery(user, item)
In this implementation, I can see that it needs a user, an in-stock item, and money charged before we schedule a delivery, but visually, I see a mixture of unhappy and happy paths. It's a little difficult to quickly pick out what the desired outcomes are supposed to be. Again, this is a simple example; real-world code is harder than this in many cases.
Let's try this in Elixir using the patterns we've identified earlier:
def order(params) do
with {:ok, user} <- User.find(params),               #|\
{:ok, item} <- Warehouse.find(params),          #| \ Happy Path
{:ok, _money} <- Billing.charge(user, item) do  #| /
schedule_delivery(user, item)                      #|/
else                                                 #|\
{:error, _} -> nil                                 #|_\ Unhappy Path
Here I can see that the happy path is consolidated into one area. I know exactly what is expected for the process to complete successfully. I also know where the error cases are handled.
This code focuses on the solution first, which is important because for many many developers, the first goal is to make it work, then make it fast, then make it beautiful. With the solution consolidated at the top of the function, any readers know what makes it work and where to handle error cases.
Elixir isn't perfect in this in all cases; it's possible in any language to obfuscate a function's happy path, but again the tool is here which helps visually organize the happy path.
Focusing on the solution is important; developers tend to think of what can go wrong and develop for those first. This leads to "gold-plating" your code before it often sees any real usage. More importantly, this way of thinking infects other areas of your psyche. It leads to anxiety!
Totality
Total functions are functions that give you a valid return value for every combination of valid arguments. Total functions are really about communication. In Elixir, this is accomplished with a mixture of pattern matching and typespecs.
Elixir is NOT a statically-typed language, so it's missing some tools here to ensure complete totality, but it does have tooling to help with communicating totality. Elixir can define types, and there's a tool called Dialyzer that can integrate with your editor of choice that can provide hints to the developer. ElixirLS is one of those tools.
The pattern of totality in Elixir, in a sense, is simply good documentation. Developers annotate their code with docs and types to communicate to other developers what the expected input and output should be, and state guarantees on how it should work.
A basic example: String.upcase expects an input string and outputs a string. It will always succeed if you give it that input, and will always return to you a string. It does not lie to you; it's total.
Here's another example:
defmodule HeroAction do
@type hero :: WonderWoman.t() | Batman.t()
@type baddie :: GenericBaddie.t() | BigBoss.t()
@type slogan :: String.t()
@spec fight_criminal(hero(), baddie()) :: {:ok, slogan()}
def fight_criminal(%WonderWoman{} = hero, %GenericBaddie{} = baddie) do
%FightScene{
protagonist: hero,
antagonist: baddie
|> beat_up(hero.bracelets_of_submission)
|> interrogate(hero.lasso_of_truth)
|> hand_to_police()
{:ok, "I will fight for those who cannot fight for themselves"}
def fight_criminal(%Batman{} = hero, %GenericBaddie{} = baddie) do
|> beat_up(hero.tools)
|> interrogate(hero.intimindation)
{:ok, "I am vengence"}
HeroAction.fight_criminal(batman, criminal)
The guarantee of this code is that you're able to hand it anything that matches the type of hero and baddie, and you will always get an {:ok, slogan} in return. There are no other possible way this could fail; it's a total function. The heroes always win and they take every opportunity to say their slogan.
Additionally, if you're using an ElixirLS-enabled editor, you can get some hints while developing:
Communicating with each other is an important part of developing software. Rarely is software developed by one and only one person, and even if developed solo, you have your future and past selves to communicate with. Documenting such typespecs assist you with creating total functions that let you compose functions safely. That leads us to our final pattern we'll explore today.
Here's the clencher, all the patterns we see above are repeated everywhere. When you have a big problem to solve with code, you approach it the same exact way as you would a small problem: with functions. You don't have to shift paradigms in how to solve a problem depending on its scale.
Object-oriented programming has objects in the large, and methods in the small.
Functional programming has functions in the large, and functions in the small.
– Scott Wlaschin: Functional Programming Design Patterns
This is comforting, because when we already have a business problem we're trying to solve, we don't need a language problem or tooling problem clouding our judgment. Our brain can focus on one thing at a time and "zone out" on solving the business problem with our familiar and patterned toolset.
In gaming, it's important to not frustrate the player with too much difficulty too soon. You have to give the player tools to solve the presented problems first. Once they've mastered the tools, then you can make them apply their newfound knowledge to the new problems. Likewise, we want Elixir (our tool) to not be one of the problems as we solve the main problem (the business). Otherwise they will give up and tell all their friends "this game sux."
These patterns are pervasive in all Elixir codebases I've seen, and because those patterns are common, developers have a good way to communicate with each other which is the ultimate goal.
Nostalgia has a positive effect on the person. These patterns of our past remind us of who we used to be or some aspect of how we identify ourselves. Most importantly, nostalgia increases our sense of belonging and encourages growth.
The Theory of Fun explains that fun is the emotional response to learning; the reward for continuing to learn. What people learn are patterns in a variety of settings: school, childhood, adulthood, that one time at the bar where I talked too much, competitions, and (like we explored) video games. We often have fun when seeing patterns reoccur.
Software development is chock-full of patterns. Developers apply patterns constantly to problems they encounter when trying to build something. I focused on Elixir here, but this is true for many languages and frameworks; some maybe more true than others. Elixir has excellent patterns, and developers that share the same patterns understand each other, which is all we really want in the end anyway – to be understood.
I'll leave you with a quote:
To [find good patterns] we must rely on feelings more than intellect.
To work our way towards a shared language once again, we must first learn how to discover patterns which are deep, and capable of generating life.
The specific patterns, out of which a building or a town is made, may be alive or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and, set us free; but when they are dead they keep us locked in inner conflict.
– Christopher Alexandar (author of A Pattern Language)
Want to learn more about this topic? Check out these inspiring talks:
Garrett Smith: The Timeless Way of Building Erlang Apps
Cameron Price: Micropatterns
Special thanks to Quinn Wilton for proofreading!
Share with me your thoughts. You can tweet me at @bernheisel or leave a comment at GitHub .

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
9/11: Time for a Second Look: David Ray Griffin - 14th April at 7pm
Gareth | 13.04.2009 22:03 | Anti-militarism | Social Struggles | Terror War | World
An important lecture by Professor David Ray Griffin, who is widely regarded as the most scholarly and credible academic to vocally criticise the official narrative of September 11:
"9/11 Time for a Second Look"
Tuesday 14th April 2009 at 7pm
City University, Angel, London
(more details below)
Here is an important lecture by Professor David Ray Griffin (Co-director of of the Center for Process Studies at Claremont Graduate University, California), who is widely regarded as the most scholarly and credible academic to vocally criticise the official narrative of 9/11.
"...the evidence that the official story is false is now overwhelming. The only problem is to get people to look at the evidence. Once they are willing to do this, they quickly see that the official story simply cannot be true"
Griffin, who has published 7 books regarding the events of 9/11, remains a highly respected academic, and has won praise for his work on 9/11 by credible figures such as former Wall Street Journal editor Paul Craig Roberts, British MP Michael Meacher, prominent US historian Howard Zinn, and former CIA officials Robert Baer, Bill Christison, and Ray McGovern.
The view Griffin is forwarding is no longer an extreme minority position. TIME magazine recently described the view as "a mainstream political reality", and a recent poll by World Public Opinion revealed that only 57% of Britons cite a belief that 9/11 was Al Qaeda's sole responsibility. In the US various professional groups have started to pop up, such as Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth and Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth. It is in this context that Professor Griffin is asking us to take a second look at these events, which after all were a pivotal event in modern history and surely deserve proper scrutiny.
We hope you can make it along to what promises to be a thought provoking, challenging and enjoyable evening for all who attend. The event will be comprised of a lecture and a questions and answers session with Professor Griffin, and is the first date of a European tour taking in 7 countries over the next month.
London Truth Action
9/11 Time for a Second Look by David Ray Griffin
Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre
The Tait Building
EC1V 0HB
6:30 doors, starts at 7pm
Tickets are £5.50 and can be purchased via www.timeforasecondlook.com/london
"David Ray Griffin establishes himself, alongside Seymour Hersh, as America's number one bearer of unpleasant, yet necessary, public truths." - Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law, Princeton University; United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, United Nations Human Rights Council
Griffin makes a compelling case that the imperial practices of the American government have become a destructive force in the world. And he clarifies the biblical and theological basis for Christians to challenge the resurgent American imperialism that often claims divine blessing on its destructive actions." - Richard A. Horsley, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion, University of Massachusetts, and author of Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder
"Never in modern history has an event of such cataclysmic significance been shrouded in such mystery. So many of the key facts remain unexplained on any plausible basis, and so many of the key actors have put forward contradictory accounts, only to be forced to retract or cover up later. David Griffin is a good person to guide skeptical readers through the miasma of spin and pretence that has clouded the truth." - Michael Meacher MP, Minister of state for the Environment 1997-2003
For more quotes visit www.timeforasecondlook.com/quotes
Homepage: http://www.timeforasecondlook.com/quotes
Core of Corruption — GFC


text:
Home > Roundtable entry >
We should really worry about nuclear winter
By Alan Robock, August 14, 2008
The greatest danger that humans pose to Earth isn't geoengineering, ozone depletion, or even global warming. Rather, it's the climatic consequences of nuclear war. As recent work by Brian Toon, Gera Stenchikov, Luke Oman, Rich Turco, Chuck Bardeen, and myself has shown, we now understand that the atmospheric effects of a nuclear war would last for at least a decade–more than proving the nuclear winter theory of the 1980s correct. By our calculations, a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan using less than 0.3 percent of the current global arsenal would produce climate change unprecedented in recorded human history and global ozone depletion equal in size to the current hole in the ozone, only spread out globally. We need to solve this problem so that we have the luxury of worrying about global warming and the consequences of geoengineering.
Still, geoengineering research needs to be federally funded at a robust level in addition to funding for research on nuclear winter and for mitigating global warming. It needs to investigate the efficacy, costs, and positive and negative effects of all proposed geoengineering schemes and should be based on an agreed set of scenarios for all researchers to use–as was done with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–so that results can be compared.
These scenarios need to include business-as-usual or mitigation scenarios for greenhouse gas and tropospheric aerosol emissions, combined with gradual and instantaneous aerosol injections into the stratosphere. We'll only be able to decide which scenarios are "realistic" after far more research on whether it's even possible to execute them, and what the climate responses will be. In the meantime, without a large injection of research support, we'll have to learn from ongoing efforts, which will produce results slowly.
As I reported in my recent Science article, an Energy Department white paper entitled "Response Options to Limit Rapid or Severe Climate Change"–prepared for President George W. Bush's National Climate Change Technology Initiative in October 2001–recommended $13 million per year be directed toward a national geoengineering research effort, but the paper was never released. I suspect that's because it would've been tantamount to the Bush administration admitting that global warming is a real problem.
As I wrote in Science, "It is not too late to make up for lost time, but we must avoid further delay. A research program, more generously funded than the one proposed in 2001, supported by the federal government with international cooperation, will allow us to compare the efficacy, costs, and consequences of the various options of responding to global warming, mitigation, sequestration, geoengineering, or doing nothing, so that an informed public can agree on the best courses of action."
Topics: Climate Change
Alan Robock
A meteorologist, Robock is associate director of the Center for Environmental Prediction at Rutgers University, where he is a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences. His exper...
Cover the climate crisis like it is one
By Dawn Stover | Climate Change, Columnists


With all of the hoopla now surrounding Daft Punk and their delicious piece of "stripped-down" electronica that's been released this month, we decided to unveil a few careful tidbits about the album's origins, development and its present-day majesty. Many of the music mags and online bloggers have already given out their report cards on the album and are doing everything they can to expand on their coverage, as if the robots are taking over the Earth, but you may have missed out on these factoids.
Compare the front and back of Random Access Memories with Michael Jackson's landmark 1984 album Thriller and you'll witness the similarities they both have. So Daft Punk didn't want to be found hugging up with a baby tiger on its front cover; big deal. What we have learned is that both albums bear a black background and the same font style. Weird coincidence? Or are we just paying homage to greatness? You be the judge of that.
Straight from the robot's mouths, Daft Punk admits that they were looking to embrace the sounds of the West Coast.
When you look at the actual directory of musicians collaborating on this album, you could clearly see this as their need to pull of a Quincy Jones production.
What's old is new again. It's a common phrase that's used from time to time, and here is no exception. Not only has Daft Punk done all they could to bring live instrumentation to their latest offering, but they are dropping their full-length episode on vinyl. Two 180-gram double vinyl records will be encased in gatefold packaging and will also include an eight-page booklet archiving all the album's personnel For fans of anything digital, you'll get a bonus treat: a digital download code comes with the full album. It's common courtesy nowadays in vinyl editions of newly-released records to put digital download cards inside the sleeves.
Indie stores are quickly selling out of their vinyl versions and are having a hard time stocking them. "They're just selling really quickly," said a clerk at Rasputin Music on Powell Street in San Francisco, explaining why he wouldn't put a copy on hold for us. The store only had two vinyl editions left as of 3:45 this afternoon. Amoeba Music in Berkeley sold out of the album around 11:30 or noon today, according to the store's clerk.
Can't get to a mom-and-pop store? Copies are available at Amazon.com and at MyPlayDirect's website.
Daft Punk's career stretches all the way back to the '90's, but Random Access Memories will become a milestone on their resume when it takes the Number One spot next week on the Billboard 200. That's what forecasters and SoundScan analyzers are predicting. Thanks to a large amount of online pre-orders, iTunes LP pre-orders and anxious fans who want to "get lucky," the group's 2013 album is expected to sell somewhere near 300,000 on its first week. That's a major start for the French EDM-chiseled pair, becoming the second-largest debut week in 2013 so far. Justin Timberlake currently holds the crown for having the most units sold in its first week for The 20/20 Experience (968,000).
And that's not even the end of the good news. Random Access Memories is expected to sell more copies in its first week than Daft Punk's last album, 2005's Human After All, has sold to date.
"Get Lucky" is also doing a fantastic job on the Billboard Hot 100, as it jumps 15-10 this week. It is their first Top Ten hit of their career and is already the biggest selling single of 2013 to date.
French EDM giants Daft Punk discovering Chic on vinyl. Look closer at the vinyl record in the front of them and you can probably make it out to be Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Before #trendingtopics were thought of, Daft Punk made a name for themselves with their magical collection of artsy concept videos. We've seen their brilliant work shown in videos for the emotionally driven "Da Funk," the cool-looking "Around the World" and the Gem and the Holograms-looking "One More Time." With Random Access Memories here and now dear to us, the pair have been a bit tight-lipped about producing concept videos for this album. The possibility is still there, since the demand is definitely there. Tribute videos made by fans pasting 'Get Lucky" on top of old footage of Soul Train dance lines can be easily located on YouTube, and Parnex has even used clips of futuristic simulation gaming on a two-minute version of "Instant Crush." If Daft Punk had enough time to whip out one-minute commercials with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers playing alongside them for SNL and Coachella, then there's a strong possibility that a music video might be constructed. But Billboard spent a little time out of their busy schedule to ditch the idea.
A masterful eight episodic series was developed and released before the album dropped. Produced by intel and Vice, each segment focused on a guest collaborator and went through the motions of detailing their experience with Daft Punk and the music at hand. Naturally things kick off with synth wiz and famed Donna Summer producer Giorgio Moroder. And then comes UK garage/house producer Todd Edwards and next was Chic guitarist and famed producer Nile Rodgers, who worked on three of the album's tracks. And the ball just kept on rolling. DJ Falcon, Panda Bear, Pharrell Williams, pianist Chilly Gonzales and album influence Paul Williams (the brains behind the Phantom of the Paradise score) all contributed to the series. It would be nice of a "behind-the-music" documentary complied all of this important footage for a future expanded version of Random Access Memories, but they are all featured at the album's official website and at The Creators Project channel at YouTube.


So many times in life we tend to judge people and situations without fully understanding certain dynamics. We take what we have read or what someone else has told us about people and situations and accept that as the truth. I admit, I am guilty of this and many times I have discovered that what I had been told or what I thought was not necessary true. Although certain judgements may be true regarding certain individuals, it is not fair to judge.Rather than prejudging people and their situations, first attempt to obtain the facts, and from there you can truly understand why people possess certain traits.Judging can be taught or it can come from within. Many times the people that we associate ourselves with tend to influence our judgements of others. So, if you continue to find yourself around others who are constantly judging people without a factual basis, please be a part of the solution and remove yourself from that negative circle. So with that said....tune in for my next posting soon!!!!!!
Nam, I have learned in dealing with people it is better to let people discover and get to know the personalities and habits of others on their own. I say this because how I may feel about a person may not be the way you feel about the peron once you get to know them. Of course, if the person is a felon, murderer, child abuser,criminal,etc, than I would forewarn you and then let you make the decision to continue your relationship. However, i would make sure my facts are true.


I'm trying to get one of these units working, and managed to get into the configuration panels and change some settings.
Unfortunately something must have gone wrong typing the new PW, since I cannot log in any more. The unit did change the IP address to match my network, so some of the changes were actually made.
No worries, a factory reset will bring me back to the basic. But how? I tried the description on the web, but no result.
This reders to an ESP, I assume.
The module I was terugging with is another type.
Meanwhile, with the help of Remco, I found out what was wrong. I will put a description and warning in the build description (OTGW with UTP interface).


text:
US polo player death: Jail after clothes hidden
Polo NewsAustralasia
A Christchurch engineer who hid the clothes of a US polo star after she died at his hillside mansion has today been jailed for 20 months.
Lauren Biddle died suddenly, most likely of a drug overdose, at Joseph Douglas McGirr's Clifton property on October 22, 2018.
McGirr had denied supplying the 22-year-old the Class-B controlled drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and attempting to pervert the course of justice by burying Biddle's clothing after her death.
He was acquitted on the drug charges by a jury late last year, but found guilty on the attempting to pervert the course of justice charge.
Judge Tom Gilbert ordered McGirr serve 20 months' imprisonment for this, at his sentencing today in the Christchurch District Court.
Leave was granted by the judge for him to apply for home detention, but only to a residential rehabilitation centre.
McGirr was discharged in relation to growing cannabis.
He was acquitted on the drug charges by a jury late last year but found guilty on the attempting to pervert the court of justice charge.
During the four-day trial last year, the jury heard two accounts of what happened on that tragic night – one version from Higginson, and one from McGirr.
McGirr himself took the witness stand to explain how he was "freaking out" after witnessing someone just die "in front of my eyes" and how he buried Biddle's clothes and belongings in an act of "spiritual reconciliation". Joseph McGirr at Christchurch District Court. Photo / Pool (John Kirk-Anderson)He claimed he'd had an "innate desire to do something reverential" with her belongings, he said, and wanted to "commemorate her life".
"At no time did I ever try to hide anything from the police," McGirr told the court.
"I was very upset and shocked, affected by alcohol and drugs."
Biddle's bikini top has never been found, the court heard.
McGirr claimed he had four party pills at his house that night.
Someone had given them to him at a party, he says, and didn't know "whether it was ecstasy or some kind of herbal". To this day, he says he's not sure of the pills' "exact composition".
After crushing one up on a chopping board in the kitchen, he says he snorted the pill's powder before returning to the spa pool where he, Biddle, and Higginson had been drinking and hanging out.
Claims earlier in the trial by his friend, North Canterbury polo player Higginson, that McGirr came out of the house to the spa with three 3cm long lines of ground up "kind of blue… bluey" powder which he took for ecstasy were "absolute rubbish", McGirr said.
Higginson says it was him who pulled Biddle out of the spa and tried to revive her with CPR, while an aggressive McGirr – wearing an ankle bracelet for a drink driving conviction – refused to call an ambulance, alleging he said, "F*** off. The police aren't coming around here."
Higginson bundled her into his car and drove to the top of McGirr's steep driveway where he phoned 111 and says he continued with CPR.
Emergency services arrived quickly but Biddle was declared dead on the roadside at around 1.20am.
But McGirr said it was him – and not Higginson – who tried to save her life.
He recalled turning around and seeing an unconscious Biddle "head down in the pool".
"I immediately pulled her out and started performing CPR," McGirr said.
After a while, he thought CPR was "futile". He looked back to the spa and saw Higginson "gurgling water".
"He was, in my opinion about 30 seconds away from drowning," said McGirr, who claims he pulled him out and put him into the recovery position, saving his life.
Biddle was dead before she left his house, McGirr believes.
McGirr, "freaking and peaking", started tidying up. He placed the lid on the spa pool, put alcohol cans and bottles away, and when he was taking fish guts in a bucket outside, he stumbled across her clothes and bag. He saw her passport photo and a "huge amount of sadness" came over him.
McGirr went down the steep slope of his property "threw her stuff on the ground".
He used a shovel to cover Biddle's items with "leaves and what not" and pushed them into a cross formation, said a prayer, repeating the psalm 'The Lord is my Shepherd' and then "kind of felt like she lifted".
He said it might sound a bit weird but "when someone dies in front of you feel like you need to do something".
"It was just a peaceful moment actually, down in the native bush with her stuff … I was pretty upset to put it mildly," McGirr said.
"I just had an innate desire to find some kind of spiritual reconciliation immediately after the event."
McGirr then had a sleep wrapped in a duvet down on the ground on his hillside property before coming up to his house at 3.30am and being met by police officers.
He claims he told an officer about the clothes immediately – and later led them to exactly where they were.
The Crown says Biddle was very drunk – nearly four times the drink-driving limit – and found with a high concentration of MDMA in her system around 15 times greater than the "normal recreational use" of the drug.
A post-mortem found her cause of death was most likely a drug overdose that caused a sudden cardiac arrest.
NZ Herald
*Lauren Biddle died in Christchurch in October 2018. Photo: Supplied


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Hi! My name is Allison Frye and I am the Owner of Concord Children's Academy. Previously, I was the Administrative Director at a five star, franchised, educational preschool for 10 years. I hold my Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education and am a member of the Director's Leadership program for Mecklenburg County. I am a Level III Director with the State of North Carolina.
It is very common in the childcare industry for daycare and even preschools get bogged down in the daily schedules of taking care of children. That just should not be the case. As the song goes children are OUR future, teach them well and let them lead the way - this is so true. At Concord Children's Academy, we are pleased to offer the newest, most exciting, innovative programs in childcare. Our Outdoor Naturescape Experience comes direct from Europe. The Infant/Toddler Sensory and Tactile Classroom is unique in that it targets the younger students to assist with their fine and gross motor skills, sensory stimulation and social interactions . Our character education program promises to benefit the younger children, but also our afterschoolers who can always use extra positive affirmation and guidance. The Handwriting Without Tears program is proven to guide the Preschoolers through the difficulties of alphabet recognition, phonics and pencil skills needed for Kindergarten readiness. Our healthy eating and healthy body initiative is new to childcare and exciting to share with parents and children. There are just so many wonderful programs that are a part of the educational foundation of Concord Children's Academy that I cannot list them all!
I hope that you decide to tour our school and become part of our team - the team for children. I look forward to meeting you and your family.


Win a Survivor event with maximum health. Unlock in Arcade Challenge.
I managed to get this achievement in one try so I'm hoping this achievement isn't too difficult for anyone else to unlock. Survivor mode won't unlock until after you're done with the Rookie levels in single-player. Survivor is basically Last Man Standing; everyone has one life. However, everyone's health also drains and the only healing items come from dead enemies.
First things first: make sure you're in Arcade Challenge and not story or Free Play. Select any map (I usually just stick with the first map given) and then choose Iron as your character (violet pick-up truck. Stats are 1 DEF and 2 POW, if I remember correctly). This vehicle does a huge amount of damage while ramming into other vehicles head-on. You'll need to do this to kill your foes easily. Also, this character can absorb a bit of damage.
From what I recall, there were actually repair kits in the levels still, so I was able to keep my health up even if there weren't any enemies. Killing them should be easy enough. When you're down to just 2 or so opponents, they tend to drive off in other directions. Kill them ASAP. When you get your last kill, you'll automatically get a health bonus. Hopefully it is enough to put you back at maximum (again, you shouldn't have lost too much health with Iron).
There are currently no gaming sessions for the Endurance achievements that you can join - why not register and make a new session?


You hired highly independent leaders and professionals. You need them to become a team.
Your team needs to build trust and encourage collaboration so people work cohesively and efficiently.
You need to avoid petty competition and turf wars that waste energy and risk quality of service.
Some team members don't take responsibility for communication lapses.
Most team members don't know how to effectively work through conflicts.
Explore the team's challenges through interviews and a team survey.
Discuss the impact of individual style risks on overall teambuilding.
Reshape critical input into real-time candid feedback that creates needed change.
Replace non-productive team habits with new ways to create true accountability and teamwork.
Rate effectiveness with team members in key areas.
Explore how patterns and personas limit teamwork.
Triangle Drama: Identify villain, victim and hero roles that block teambuilding.
Feedback Agility: Learn how to deliver feedback that people will act on.
Accountability: Develop team commitments to making and keeping agreements.
Defensiveness vs. Learning: Transform resistance into an openness to learning.


At Dumpster Labs, we strive to bring you the best service at the best price available. We have a wide selection of dumpster sizes in stock in Livingston, CA, with flexible & timley pickup and delivery. Give us a call today for all your dumpster rental and roll off needs.
Your roll-off dumpster in Livingston, CA is only a phone call away. Don't delay!
If you remodel at times there is just stuff that the trash tote can not have. Big things that you can not convey a trash tote still have to end up being thrown away. Looking to throw the things away can be quite a big ache but if you experienced your own dumpster it would not be. You can walk up to it and throw that in to be a dumpster is big plenty of to handle the big waste pieces.
Besides the portable toilets which do are available in certain different styles depending on what they're to be used pertaining to, some 40 Yard Dumpster in Livingston, CA companies have these recycling centers which can make it a breeze to break down various components of your current waste material. Possibly you have seen these kind of centers up for grabs parking tons, and often at weekends. Although those usually are for metal cans and bottles etc., the concept is the similar.
You can put your aged master bedroom front door into the dumpster. You might also put a cheap baseboards you will no longer want resulting from breaking or when they just are not the style you were looking for.
With regards to the size of the household room and all of the items being done will depend on the size of dumpster you need to rent. For all of the items over it is most likely advised to rent a considerable dumpster. The large dumpster will haul 10 pickup truck plenty or nearly four tons.
A final word of advice - be ready for this dumpster before that shows up. Apparent space in your yard if that is in which you're going to want to buy set up or make sure the curb is free recommendations where it'll be parked. If you're ready to the 40 Yard Dumpster in Livingston, CA company to go off your current trash receptacle, your life along with the project you will be working on will be so much easier.
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Guam can be unincorporated territory associated with US; it is one of several five US areas. The state develops its overall economy primarily on tourism Industry, Division of Defense installations, and also locally held businesses. Guam will be the southernmost and also largest island in the Mariana island chain which is the largest island in Micronesia.
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Fishing and Hunting | 2018 július 20.
Fishing and Hunting | 2018 május 17.
Fishing and Hunting | 2018 április 19.
Fishing and Hunting | 2018 április 5.
Fishing and Hunting | 2018 március 21.
Fishing and Hunting | 2018 március 13.
Fishing and Hunting | 2018 január 25.
Fishing and Hunting | 2018 január 10.
Fishing and Hunting | 2017 december 27.
Fishing and Hunting | 2017 december 23.
Fishing and Hunting | 2017 december 21.
Fishing and Hunting | 2017 december 20.


text:
Home Politics Tasued TASUED Students Unionism set to adopt E-Voting
Tasued News
TASUED Students Unionism set to adopt E-Voting
The Independent Tai Solarin University of Education Students' Union Electoral Commission ITEC Chairman 2018/2019, Hon. Ajayi Emmanuel has emphatically stated that this year's Students' House of Senate (SHS) elections will be based on e-voting system.
During an interview with the independent Press Council Tasued, He expressed satisfaction with the activities of the CEC election despite the decries by some people over irregularities in the proceedings. In his response, while reacting to the post-CEC election. He said "Actually everyone has the right to react on what they think it's unfair.
"I think the bone of contention in the last election was the presidential results and ITEC announced the results available with them and the aggrieved presidential aspirant has taken many steps which we have witnessed".
Do you support adoption of E-Voting in Tasued Unionism?
You can share your view
He furthermore explained that the reason for delaying the Students' House of Senate (SHS) election was as a result of what transpired in the last CEC elections, he said "During the last CEC election we all witnessed what happened and for security purpose, we delay the SHS election for the right time"
While speaking on the proceedings and status of how the SHS election will be done via E-Voting, He however stated emphatically that the SHS election will be done through E-voting because of the issues that emanated at the recent CEC election and hence the e-voting shall be transparent because there will be viewing centre for proper monitoring of the E-election.
He stated that it was the ITEC idea to use the e-voting system because the management doesn't have an interest in the election. Speaking on the modalities for the elections, he said "prior the commencement of this E-election/voting, we shall educate/orientate TASUEDITES on the procedure and benefit of this E-election.
However, TASUED isn't the first institution that will practice E-election as it's done in UNILORIN, FUNAAB, FCE-ABK etc. We are in a globalized world". "Before the commencement of this election, we shall create an avenue to educate Tasuedites and also sample their opinions".
The ITEC Chairman stressed that the union can't continue with the ballot voting based process; that's why there's need to test-run this E-election at this dispensation. When quizzed on possible influence from the management, he said "There won't be any interference from the management because we're the one that proposed this E-voting.
ITEC is the one that will conduct the election while the school management shall provide us with the necessary facilities and anyone that doesn't register for this E-election shall not be eligible to vote".
He further said "anyone that doesn't register will not vote because there will be a code that will be sent to the person to vote". When asked when the SHS E-election will be done, he said: "Next week by God grace".
While speaking on the disenfranchisement of some Tasuedites especially with this new innovation, he assured that it would be checkmated, he said: "We have thousands of students on campus, so those who have an interest shall participate even in Nigeria not all citizens participate in the election".
Ajayi Emmanuel Tasued Itec Chairman 2018/2019
CEC election
CEC elections
E-election
FCE-ABK
Hon. Ajayi Emmanuel
ITEC Chairman
presidential aspirant
Students' House of Senate
TASUEDITES
UNILORIN
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TASUED SU holds "Transport Day"
E-Campus Television team kick-start tour across tertiary institutions in Nigeria
TASUED SU President appoints Chief Judge of the Union Judicial Arm


This post was inspired by watching Stephen Colbert (pictured in what must have been a documentary here) talk with a Harvard professor last night. But, before I get into that, I also just found out that fellow Daily Show alum Steve Carell went to Denison, which is in the same conference as Wabash. Crazy times! He says he played hockey there, too, but I wasn't aware that Denison had a hockey team, so I'm still not entirely sure if that's true or a joke.
Anyway, back to Colbert. He was interviewing a professor from Harvard (which made him a smarty-pants, in Colbert's words) who teaches a class simply titled "Justice." Apparently you can find it on YouTube and he wrote a book about it, too. I haven't looked any of that up, but that's what I was informed last night. The guy (not unsurprisingly) sounded pretentious as hell talking about his class and the material, but I have to admit I think I would find it terribly interesting if I could get past the guy's personality. He said he mostly taught the class by asking questions and encouraging the students to debate. The example he used last night was Alex Rodriguez and the average schoolteacher. A-Rod gets paid $27,500,000 a year to play third base for the Yankees. The average schoolteacher, at least according to the guy last night, makes about $45,000 a year. As you can see, there's a bit of a difference on the zeros there. His question: Is that fair?
Colbert gave an answer that, while not exactly humorous per se, was still very funny in that it was extremely by the book, in character, and totally right.* He said A-Rod gets paid what the market would bear/demands, which is determined by the "invisible hand" we've all heard so much about. So, yes, it's completely fair. There was more to the discussion from there, but the answer really seemed to take the Harvard guy off-guard and left him a bit flat footed. And the thing is, he is right.
*At least in economic terms as I understand them. For reference, I got as far as Econ 101. And, of course, "right/correct," "moral," and "fair" are terms that don't necessarily have much to do with each other.
You might have guessed this won't have much to do about sports, but so it goes. And also keep in mind that this is coming from somebody who really wanted to be a teacher, then got burnt out on the whole academia thing, and then had that goal reignited when it was too late. At least, too late to make it happen during undergrad. I still haven't totally written off going back to grad school. In any case, I'm not the anti-ivory tower guy. I desperately would like to get back into that tower if I could. Back to the story.
*At least in the developed world. I'm not sure if that term is still in vogue or not, but I'm using it.
**Not that $45,000 is awful. I've read in multiple places the average household income in the US is $50,000.
A-Rod, on the other hand, is unique. For one, there are not as many positions for Major League Baseball players. There are 750 players to fill out the entire league.* There are quite a few more teaching positions in this country. There are also quite a few less people with the ability to fill these roles, although probably many more who are willing. Do they add as much to society as teachers? Probably not, but don't fall into the argument that it's meaningless. A society without its distractions isn't really a society at all. And baseball (along with sports in general) are a major civic distraction. Add to that A-Rod is at the top of his field (arguably the best player on the planet in his younger days), his profession generates more money than teachers, and plays for the team with the deepest pockets.
*725 in this country. Damn Blue Jays.
Is any of this news? No. We all have a sense of this. Whether we agree with it or not, as Colbert pointed out, this is what the market dictates, and we dictate the market. So, yes, it is fair, and I'm oh so very tired of hearing the argument from teachers that teachers are so vital to his world that they ought to be paid like ballplayers.


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Q: MIT vs GPL license The MIT license is GPL-compatible. Is the GPL license MIT-compatible? i.e. I can include MIT-licensed code in a GPL-licensed product, but can I include GPL-licensed code in a MIT-licensed product?
It seems to me that the chief difference between the MIT license and GPL is that the MIT doesn't require modifications be open sourced whereas the GPL does. Is that correct? Is the GPL is more restrictive than the MIT license?

A:
It seems to me that the chief difference between the MIT license and GPL is that the MIT doesn't require modifications be open sourced whereas the GPL does.

True - in general. You don't have to open-source your changes if you're using GPL. You could modify it and use it for your own purpose as long as you're not distributing it. BUT... if you DO distribute it, then your entire project that is using the GPL code also becomes GPL automatically. Which means, it must be open-sourced, and the recipient gets all the same rights as you - meaning, they can turn around and distribute it, modify it, sell it, etc. And that would include your proprietary code which would then no longer be proprietary - it becomes open source.
The difference with MIT is that even if you actually distribute your proprietary code that is using the MIT licensed code, you do not have to make the code open source. You can distribute it as a closed app where the code is encrypted or is a binary. Including the MIT-licensed code can be encrypted, as long as it carries the MIT license notice.

is the GPL is more restrictive than the MIT license?

Yes, very much so.

A: IANAL but as I see it....
While you can combine GPL and MIT code, the GPL is tainting. Which means the package as a whole gets the limitations of the GPL. As that is more restrictive you can no longer use it in commercial (or rather closed source) software. Which also means if you have a MIT/BSD/ASL project you will not want to add dependencies to GPL code.
Adding a GPL dependency does not change the license of your code but it will limit what people can do with the artifact of your project. This is also why the ASF does not allow dependencies to GPL code for their projects.
http://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html

A:
Can I include GPL licensed code in a MIT licensed product?

You can. GPL is free software as well as MIT is, both licenses do not restrict you to bring together the code where as "include" is always two-way.
In copyright for a combined work (that is two or more works form together a work), it does not make much of a difference if the one work is "larger" than the other or not.
So if you include GPL licensed code in a MIT licensed product you will at the same time include a MIT licensed product in GPL licensed code as well.
As a second opinion, the OSI listed the following criteria (in more detail) for both licenses (MIT and GPL):

*

*Free Redistribution

*Source Code

*Derived Works

*Integrity of The Author's Source Code

*No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

*No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

*Distribution of License

*License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

*License Must Not Restrict Other Software

*License Must Be Technology-Neutral

Both allow the creation of combined works, which is what you've been asking for.
If combining the two works is considered being a derivate, then this is not restricted as well by both licenses.
And both licenses do not restrict to distribute the software.

It seems to me that the chief difference between the MIT license and GPL is that the MIT doesn't require modifications be open sourced whereas the GPL does.

The GPL doesn't require you to release your modifications only because you made them. That's not precise.
You might mix this with distribiution of software under GPL which is not what you've asked about directly.

Is that correct - is the GPL is more restrictive than the MIT license?

This is how I understand it:
As far as distribution counts, you need to put the whole package under GPL. MIT code inside of the package will still be available under MIT whereas the GPL applies to the package as a whole if not limited by higher rights.
"Restrictive" or "more restrictive" / "less restrictive" depends a lot on the point of view. For a software-user the MIT might result in software that is more restricted than the one available under GPL even some call the GPL more restrictive nowadays. That user in specific will call the MIT more restrictive. It's just subjective to say so and different people will give you different answers to that.
As it's just subjective to talk about restrictions of different licenses, you should think about what you would like to achieve instead:

*

*If you want to restrict the use of your modifications, then MIT is able to be more restrictive than the GPL for distribution and that might be what you're looking for.

*In case you want to ensure that the freedom of your software does not get restricted that much by the users you distribute it to, then you might want to release under GPL instead of MIT.

As long as you're the author it's you who can decide.
So the most restrictive person ever is the author, regardless of which license anybody is opting for ;)

A: You are correct that the GPL is more restrictive than the MIT license.
You cannot include GPL code in a MIT licensed product. If you distribute a combined work that combines GPL and MIT code (except in some particular situations, e.g. 'mere aggregation'), that distribution must be compliant with the GPL.
You can include MIT licensed code in a GPL product. The whole combined work must be distributed in a way compliant with the GPL. If you have made changes to the MIT parts of the code, you would be required to publish the source for those changes if you distribute an application that contains GPL and MIT code.
If you are the copyright owner of the GPL code, you can of course choose to release that code under the MIT license instead - in that case it's your code and you can publish it under as many licenses as you want.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Norske Reker. Whole Shrimp Scandinavian Style. Cold Water Shrimp. Pandalus Borealis is a species of Caridean Shrimp found in cold parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oce..
Pillede Norske Reker. Peeled Shrimp Scandinavian Style. Cold Water Shrimp. Pandalus Borealis is a species of Caridean Shrimp found in cold parts of the Atlantic and Paci..


Vieux Carre is a cozy cognac cocktail created by the team at Rosewood Sand Hill's Michelin-starred Madera in Menlo Park. (Photo courtesy of Rosewood Sand Hill).
Warming spices, velvety froth and a little boozy sweetness. Isn't that what winter sipping is all about? The much-needed rain and crisp weather helps us retreat indoors, where a roaring fire or oven-baked treats warm us and ready our palates for a cocktail or three.
So he tops the trattoria's Cioccolata Caldo con Amaro, which gets its richness from a mixture of three parts chocolate and two parts half-and-half, with Italian doughnuts. Yes, really.
Don't do punches? Stick with a light, silky egg-white cocktail, like Michael Mina's A Star Anise … Is Born. Lead bartender Anthony Attanasio developed the after-dinner drink, which is made with Amrut Indian whiskey, Sandeman Port, Amaro Nonino and spiced orange syrup, just for the holidays. He also makes an apple-centric fall version.
"Amaro Nonino helps aid in digesting the meal, and the egg white adds a frothy meringue-like consistency that helps elongate the orange and spice flavors," Attanasio says. Vegan? A tip from Elizondo: Use an ounce of aquafaba, the reserved water that legumes have been cooked in, to replace an egg white in any cocktail.
Directions: Steam the half-and-half until hot (a steam wand will work if you don't have an espresso machine). Stir in the chocolate syrup to make a rich hot chocolate. Preheat the mug, then pour in the hot chocolate and stir in the amaro and Orangecello. (If it's a large mug, double the recipe). Top with garnish; we use Italian doughnuts, but whipped cream or toasted marshmallows work, too.
Directions: Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake without ice for 20 seconds. This is to create aeration in the egg white and begin to break down the proteins. Add ice and shake until thoroughly chilled and properly diluted. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and garnish. We garnish with angostura bitter drops, port drops, dehydrated orange, shaved cinnamon and viola flowers.
Directions: Add all liquid ingredients to a mixing glass, adding the bitters last. Add ice and stir. Strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube, and express a lemon twist over the cocktail.
Directions: Divide four grapes, an orange slice, 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 dashes bitters in each of four rocks glasses. Muddle the ingredients together. Fill the glasses with ice. Add 3 ounces bourbon to each glass and stir well. Top off each glass with seltzer and serve.
Going ice skating at San Francisco's Union Square? Afterward, head for Tratto at 501 Geary St. with rink ticket in hand and enjoy complimentary Cioccolata Caldo con Amaro and Italian doughnuts. The treats are available after 11:30 a.m. on weekends and 3 p.m. on weekdays through Jan. 21.


Had a good month of colouring and now I want to get back to some actual drawing, lest my faculties wither and drop off. Inked up a few more recent 10 minute portraits to loosen up before carrying on with a couple of commissions.
These ones are Dashiell Hammett, Harpo Marx, Joe Strummer, Michael K Williams, Alan Turing & Sissy Spacek.
All for sale as usual (apart from Joe - he's promised to someone already), A4 on nice cartridge paper and priced £12.50 plus postage.
El Bigote - La Noches De Los Muertoads!
Another slice of El Bigote colour!