text:
New York Times: Gay, transgender Catholics urge Pope Francis to take a stand
© Benson Kua
Deacon Greg Kandra - published on 07/28/15
From this morning's paper:
Lui Akira Francesco Matsuo said he was standing in line for communion one Sunday at his Roman Catholic church in Detroit when a fellow parishioner pulled him aside: Didn't he know that the archbishop had just urged supporters of same-sex marriagenot to take communion?
Mr. Matsuo, who is transgender, left and never returned to his parish. Now, two years later, he is among a large group of gay and transgender Catholics who are seeking a meeting with the pope during his first visit to the United States, in September, pushing him to take a stand on the issues of sexuality and gender that are increasingly dividing Catholics and causing rancor in the church.
"I want him to extend his hand openly, especially to the transgender community," said Mr. Matsuo, who is 28 and said he has identified as male ever since he was a toddler. "I am a practicing Catholic. I just don't have a parish I can call home."The pressure from gay Catholics and their families poses a unique challenge for Pope Francis as he tries to connect with an American church in flux. The hallmark of his papacy has been his pastoral approach to those living in the margins — especially the poor, immigrants and prisoners. But it is unclear whether he includes sexual minorities in his lineup of people in need of justice, and Catholic groups of all kinds are demanding answers, and discussion.
In a formal letter sent to Pope Francis at the Vatican, groups representing gay and transgender people, Catholics, and Hispanics said the church in America was in the midst of a "pastoral crisis" over gay issues and asked to meet with him while he was in the United States. While some American conservatives are eager to see Pope Francis make use of his popularity on this trip to advance the fight against abortion and same-sex marriage, gay Catholics want him to acknowledge their rejection by the church, and to welcome them as full members with equal access to sacraments like baptism and marriage.
A couple points worth making:
Gay Catholics who follow Church teaching—just like all baptized Catholics—already have equal access to all the sacraments, with the notable exception of sacramental marriage between people of the same gender. But that won't change. It can't change. Not gonna happen.
Elsewhere in the article, the reporter notes that the pope "has shown no indication that he intends to lead the church toward changing its teaching that gay people are 'called to chastity' and marriage is only for a man and a woman." What goes unmentioned is that in Catholic teaching all people—gay and straight, married and single—are called to chastity. There are not different standards or expectations for gays from everyone else.
As the catechism notes:
2337 Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman. The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift. 2348 All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ," the model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity. 2349 "People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single." Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence:
There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others. . . . This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church.
2350 Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow in chastity.


text:
چگونه coronavirus در حال تبدیل دوستیابی و رابطه جنسی آنلاین است
Last week, as shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders became increasingly common, a mysterious Google Form circulated among students at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business: "Love Is Blind, Bschool Edition." The name was inspired by the hit Netflix show where couples talk in isolated pods and subsequently get engaged without seeing each other.
The rules are simple: Make a fake email address and tell the creators the business school you attend, your sexual orientation, and your gender identification. The creators randomize that information and set up a match, introducing a pair to each other for email correspondence via the fake address; after a week, texting or video is permitted.
Welcome to dating and sex during the coronavirus pandemic. Dating apps have struggled; after all, the whole point of dating is to physically meet someone. Match—the company behind online dating giants Tinder and OkCupid—has seen stocks tumble 25%, and had to balance public health with mission statements.
"Tinder understands that our members are oftentimes meeting new people in-person, and, given the current environment, we wanted to remind them of the precautions they should take," the company said in a press release, citing the World Health Organization. The firm is now rolling out a feature that lets users match with people outside their immediate geographical area.
Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of dating app Bumble, was far more explicit in a public letter: "Please date virtually for now."
But what does virtual dating mean?
virtual dating? i'm ready for video call dates
— •saaims• (@kitaaayyy) March 23, 2020
One way to do it is by reinventing the speed date. Dawoon Kang, cofounder of Coffee Meets Bagel, says the app has begun hosting virtual meetups for 10 to 15 members at a time, consisting of a video call moderated by a company representative. A participant who is interested in another can email the representative; if two people feel sparks, the representative connects them.
Coronavirus is also upending what we thought were the ground rules of dating in the digital age. Pre-coronavirus, texting someone to set up a date was fine, but calling a person, let alone video-chatting before a date, was tiptoeing toward creepy.
Video call dates? Netflix party? We gonna change the dating scenario
— deeday (@JokesOnMi) March 22, 2020
Not anymore. By the end of February, JWed, a Jewish dating app, was an early adopter of in-app video chat. Bumble pushed its video chat and voice features, allowing users to talk to a date without breaking shelter-in-place mandates. Representatives at JWed told me that while these features had already been in development, the coronavirus crisis sped up implementation.
This is really good! Many other dating apps do not have a built-in call or video chat feature. They really should do that so that people can have some face time before exchanging numbers!
— Love for Nerds â ¤ (@worldtravellove) March 23, 2020
Went dating just now (read:video call). Felt nice.
— 𠓃𠒾𠓈. (@hrsatienna) March 21, 2020
The video calls serve as what some singles term a "vibe check," allowing them to gauge chemistry in a context beyond text banter. Kang predicts these vibe checks will be the norm long after the cure for Covid-19 has been found, as people seek to trade selfie culture's filtered photos for a more realistic image of a person. "At first, people don't feel like they look very good," Kang says, but "then they're forced to try it when they realize they won't meet people for a very long time. Once they try it, they're likely to do it again."
Jazz, a woman from London, has been on dating apps since 2014. Video calls have made dating less casual, she says.
"I can now have first meets on video and build an emotional connection with a man over the physical," she says. "Three weeks no-contact means you will be able to drop the fakes like flies and engage with the ones that are truly wanting to have something more."
Jazz claims she hasn't changed how she presents herself ("Loungewear and no makeup—if they like you like this, then they'll like you in any state") and enjoys the ease of the date: "I can also drink a glass of wine and roll into bed. Woohoo!"
sex at a distance
Coronavirus isn't just changing norms around dating: sex tech is also seeing a surge in popularity. Much of this is to do with the effects of quarantine, says Justin Lehmiller, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute. While the coronavirus and the resulting lockdowns are still too new to allow for real analysis, he says it's clear that the strange times we now live in are changing our behavior. People are trying out the newest sex gadgets, visiting virtual-reality strip clubs, attending Zoom sex parties, and even searching PornHub for very specific porn: homemade videos that fetishize coronavirus.
Polly Rodriguez, the founder of sex toy retailer Unbound Babes, says that when the coronavirus arrived, sex tech firms struggled. Many sex toys are made in China, which meant the supply chain was badly hit.
But demand remains high. Once the first patients started getting sick with coronavirus in the US, Unbound Babes raced to fill orders for vibrators and multipacks of condoms, which were up 30% the first week of March and then another 40% the second week. "This is usually our slowest time of year," she says. "People are stockpiling and anticipating this will take a while."
Lehmiller says this can be attributed to demographics. "The percentage of people who are single is higher today than it's ever been," he says. "We have a lot of people who aren't living with a partner or spouse than ever before."
But it's not only single people interested in sex toys; Lehmiller predicts that the coming months of lockdown will see committed partners begin to experiment. "You'll see an increase in remote-controlled sex toys where people can engage sexually with a partner through technology from a distance," he says. "You can sexually engage without oral transmission"—an attractive feature when we don't know how long we'll be isolated within our homes.
The pandemic will "set the stage for the sex tech revolution we've been all anticipating to take place sooner than we thought," says Lehmiller.
But not everyone is able to take advantage—particularly those who are facing the brunt of what appears to be the early days of a global economic recession. Vibrators and so-called teledildonics are still luxury goods and can cost in the triple digits. Step Tranovich of sex tech startup Cute Little Fuckers says, contrary to Unbound Babes' boom, his company's sales have been nosediving. His customers, too, are facing uncertain times. "My clientele is largely transgender and queer," he says. "They're already marginalized and have a less stable income stream. Unfortunately, when big things happen, they are the first to get laid off and financially disadvantaged."
Still, Lehmiller says that the pandemic and quarantine orders will lead to very different relationship rules. And that goes for dating apps, too. "The one thing I'm certain about is that the longer this prolongs, the longer this will be a permanent shift," Kang says. "People want to virtually connect."
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Shelly Heckert has been involved with the KC Recycling Depot for the last eight years, starting as an educator.
WARSAW — KC Recycling Director Shelly Heckert announced her resignation at today's Solid Waste Board meeting, April 18. Heckert's been with the Depot for eight years, starting as an educator, and has been director since 2014. Heckert's last day will be May 31.
The board recognized Heckert's achievements, praising her for the contributions she's made as director.
"I consider what you've done eight years of public service," commented Mayor Joe Thallemer who sits on the board, commenting that her dedication and service has not gone unnoticed.
Brad Jackson, Bob Conley and Rick Swaim of the board were chosen as the hiring committee responsible for interviewing initial candidates to fill the position. After the search is narrowed down, the board will interview the finalists and pick their choice.
Heckert will finish the events she has planned through May, and offered to be as involved with the new hire as the board wants her to be.
The Depot has seen 314 electronics customers in the first two weeks of the TV amnesty event. The Depot usually sees less than 200 in a month.
Litter Buster Campaign will continue through May.
The Depot will be accepting tires May 8-13.
Spring Into Recycling will be May 13, offering document destruction, HHW education and a City of Warsaw free tree giveaway.
The Depot is always in need of volunteers to help with TV collection through June.


text:
Unified User Management with LiquidFeedback
by Jan Behrens and Björn Swierczek, Berlin, July 27, 2018 other format: text version (UTF-8)
This article will present a technology based on the OAuth 2.0 standard to allow user identification on the internet: LiquidFeedback acts as an identity server, and, given a proper accreditation process for LiquidFeedback, other third-party software may use LiquidFeedback to verify identities when collecting quantified user input (single-sign-on with identity verification). This allows organizations or political administrations to build an extensible ecosystem of internet applications that are invulnerable to the sockpuppet problem where users create a number of (fake) internet identities to unfairly increase the impact of their postings or votes.
A necessary prerequisite to using this technology is a proper accreditation process of all participants who shall be eligible to take part in the deliberation process. This accreditation process is out of scope of this article and will differ according to the concrete application scenario.
For the most part of this article, we assume the reader is familiar with single-sign-on technologies as well as OAuth 2.0 as specified in RFC 6749.
Login screen with a language selection icon in the upper right corner, two text input fields for 'Login name' and 'Password', and two buttons 'Login' and 'Cancel'.
Figure 1: Login dialog of LiquidFeedback's unified user management
This article is in large part based on the UWUM Work Report [UWUM]. LiquidFeedback's OAuth 2.0 server support as well as the UWUM Work Report have been contributed by FlexiGuided GmbH as part of the WeGovNow project which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693514.
LiquidFeedback user interface with an additional navigation bar at the top: * San Donà di Piave, WeGovNow, * FirstLife, Crea sul territorio, * Improve My City, Migliora la tua città, * LiquidFeedback, Partecipa, discuti e vota, * Community Maps, Disegna e condividi la tua città, * Offers & Requests, Condividi e scambia, * Login or register. The LiquidFeedback user interface shows a map of San Donà di Piave on the left, with a marker labeled 'i1' that refers to one of the two initiatives shown on the right side: * i1: Più musica a San Donà di Piave! * i2: Cinema all'aperto
Figure 2: Use case 'WeGovNow – We Government Now!' serving different applications 'under the same roof' using LiquidFeedback's Unified User Management
In the previous issue of The Liquid Democracy Journal, we mentioned that a central problem of internet participation systems had already been stated in 1995 by Rob Lanphier: without a verification of identities, you cannot ensure the basic democratic principle of "one person – one vote". [Origins] Without that principle, even a single person may be able to manipulate the results of a vote. [Sockpuppet]
»The main problem facing electronic voting on the Internet is verifying that one person gets one vote, and that all people are represented (even those without Internet access). Verification of identity is a problem that plagues many applications on the Internet (such as making purchases on the net, or filing taxes on the net), and so this one will likely be solved regardless of whether electronic voting makes it an issue.«
Rob Lanphier, 1995
[Lanphier]
These findings cannot just be applied to electronic voting but are also valid for any other participation solution incorporating any form of opinion formation through counting of ratings (e.g. "likes", "+1" or "thumbs up"). Consequently, it is not possible to quantify people's opinions on the internet without verifying their identity.
For the sake of inclusion, it has been proposed to allow people to participate anonymously with a reduced voting weight. Disregarding that this is already a violation of treating each participant equally, it can furthermore be proven mathematically that reducing the voting weight of anonymous participants to a fixed (but non-zero) value cannot solve the problem that creating a finite amount of so-called "sockpuppets" (fake identities) is sufficient to overrule the results of a vote. [Sockpuppet]
Lanphier was optimistic in regard to a solution of the identification problem on the internet, but until today (more than 20 years later), there is no standardized way to identify people. Many corporations are using their own solutions for identifying people, e.g. as customer or owner of a specific bank account, some governments have developed electronic identity systems for use with the internet, but there is no generally available solution which is practically feasible and intended to be used to authenticate and authorize participants for democratic participation processes using the internet.
When talking about solutions for verifying one's identity on the internet, we have to distinguish between:
technologies (e.g. open source software, hardware appliances, standardized protocols, etc.) and
their particular application (e.g. solutions created by particular organizations or states).
In the remainder of this article, we present a technology based on the OAuth 2.0 standard [RFC 6749] that has been developed as part of the EU-funded WeGovNow project and which has been incorporated into the LiquidFeedback software version 4.0, which is to be published soon. Ensuring that each person has at most one account in LiquidFeedback will automatically enable other (third-party) software to use LiquidFeedback to identify their users and thus avoid any problems with sockpuppets.
Existing alternatives
There are existing standards for single-sign-on procedures on the internet, and these also allow user identification. As we will explain in the following paragraphs, none of these solutions have matched our needs.
The most notable standard for single-sign-on (SSO) is the "OpenID Connect" standard. [OpenID] Unfortunately OpenID Connect is a rather complex standard and requires extra implementation work compared to the underlying OAuth 2.0 standard (which is much simpler to adopt).
Another alternative in mind was pure OAuth 2.0, but OAuth 2.0 has been created with a different application scenario and is out-of-the-box not suitable to provide a secure user identification and authentication. Lodderstedt, McGloin, and Hunt state in [RFC 6819] ("OAuth 2.0 Threat Model and Security Considerations") that clients which wish to implement a user login should rather use "an appropriate protocol" such as OpenID or SAML instead of OAuth 2.0.
Nonetheless, using OAuth 2.0 with its "Authorization Code Flow" can still provide a lightweight way to create a secure authentication and identification service. Only a few (standard compliant) extensions are necessary to allow applications to query the user's identity. Similar approaches have been taken by platforms such as Facebook ("Facebook Login") but are often tied to a particular platform and cannot be installed in a separate realm with a secure and/or application-specific accreditation process.
Despite problems with existing solutions, it was our intention to stick to existing standards where appropriate. Even with necessary extensions, we managed to make LiquidFeedback's identification service to be fully compliant with the OAuth 2.0 specification [RFC 6749].
From OAuth 2.0 to a single-sign-on solution
In order to use OAuth 2.0 as a single-sign-on solution, LiquidFeedback takes the role of the "authorization server" according to [RFC 6749] while other (third-party) components can take the role of "clients" and "resource servers".
However, OAuth 2.0 provides different modes of operation (e.g. the "Authorization Code Flow" and the "Implicit Flow") and is by itself not sufficient for user authentication. Both the Authorization Code Flow and the Implicit Flow could be extended to provide user authentication and thus allow to implement a single-sign-on (SSO) system where third-party services on the internet can identify users. Because the Implicit Flow would require additional security mechanisms to be implemented at client side (where bad implementations result in security vulnerabilities), [RFC 6749, subsection 10.16] LiquidFeedback extends the Authorization Code Flow for user identification purposes.
In short, the Access Token Response of the OAuth 2.0 Authorization Code Flow gets extended by simply returning an additional field "member_id" which identifies the signed-in user. For details, refer to [UWUM].
(Dynamic) Client registration
The OAuth 2.0 standard [RFC 6749] requires a procedure called "client registration" without defining how this procedure is to be carried out. In the following, we explain about the problems that can come along with such a client registration and how we deal with them.
Client registration means that any component wishing to use the authorization server needs to be known to the authorization server beforehand. There are a couple of well-founded security reasons why this client registration is necessary. [UWUM, subsection 2.4.2] Nonetheless, this client registration is one of the biggest drawbacks of the OAuth 2.0 protocol: either clients can register without manual verification and approval by the operator of the authorization server, in which case the security concerns are often not fully addressed, or a manual verification is conducted in which case additional workload is imposed on the operator of the authorization server and/or certain clients might be excluded from using the authorization server. Furthermore, when using OAuth 2.0 for API authentication (which is its original field of application), manual client registration prohibits the creation of generic clients (e.g. alternative user interfaces) which may directly connect to any instance of a particular software installation (e.g. connect to LiquidFeedback instances in different municipalities or organizations).
The OAuth 2.0 specification [RFC 6749] does not care about these problems at all and simply states that client registration is out of scope of the standard and would "typically involve end-user interaction with an HTML registration form":
»Before initiating the protocol, the client registers with the authorization server. The means through which the client registers with the authorization server are beyond the scope of this specification but typically involve end-user interaction with an HTML registration form.«
[RFC 6749]
This form of client registration, however, is only suitable for a service-centered approach where a software provides only a single service (e.g. Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc). When considering an open source ecosystem, we expect more than one installation of a particular technological solution. It is therefore not sufficient to register a client at a single service provider if this client shall be usable for any authorization server using the same (open source) software.
One possible solution would be the creation of a central (i.e. world-wide) client registry. Such a central client registry, however, could be a single point of failure and would empower a central authority (e.g. the Public Software Group) to control usage of the protocol (e.g. it would be possible to block certain clients). We consider this approach contrary to the concepts of open source and open data.
Therefore, we implemented a dynamic client registration protocol that keeps implementational complexity at a minimum while providing good security properties. Dynamic client registration is described in subsection 2.4.2 of [UWUM].
Further tweaks
LiquidFeedback's OAuth 2.0 server implementation can also be used for all other purposes that OAuth 2.0 may be used for. Further improvements have been made to extend the basic OAuth 2.0 workflow. For example, subsection 10.4 of [RFC 6749] suggests refresh token rotation to provide better security properties but does not specify how old refresh tokens are invalidated. Always revoking the old refresh token after transmission of a new refresh token can have a bad effect on system stability, considering that transmissions might not be processed properly by the receiver. Furthermore, multiple backends of a client could simultaneously access the OAuth 2.0 token endpoint. Such legit accesses by two legit backends of the same client would need to be distinguished from accesses by a legit client and a malicious third party who obtained a copy of a refresh token. Subsection 2.15 of [UWUM] explains the mechnanisms employed by LiquidFeedback to mitigate the risk of refresh token abuse while solving the problems of race conditions during refresh token rotation.
Another improvement, for example, is to allow downgrading access token scopes to allow meta-API providers as explained in subsection 2.14 of [UWUM].
Arguably, the biggest problem with the OAuth 2.0 standard is that it only provides a framework for authorization while keeping cruicial details undefined such as client registration. Those details, however, must be well-defined in order to provide a secure yet flexible authentication service.
Integrating an OAuth 2.0 server with appropriate extensions into LiquidFeedback automatically empowers all organizations or political administrations which use LiquidFeedback to provide identity services to third-party applications, even those applications unknown to the organization at time of deployment.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 693514.
[Lanphier] Rob Lanphier: "A Model for Electronic Democracy?" Published at http://robla.net/1996/steward/ (accessed 2016-04-19) and also archived on October 27, 2005, available at http://web.archive.org/web/20051027051842/http://robla.net/1996/steward/ (accessed 2016-04-19) (referenced at: a)
[OpenID] The OpenID Connect 1.0 specification, available at: http://openid.net/connect/ (accessed 2018-02-10) (referenced at: a)
[Origins] Jan Behrens: "The Origins of Liquid Democracy". In "The Liquid Democracy Journal on electronic participation, collective moderation, and voting systems", Issue 5, May 11, 2017, pp. 7-17. ISSN 2198-9532. Published by Interaktive Demokratie e. V., available at http://www.liquid-democracy-journal.org/issue/5/The_Liquid_Democracy_Journal-Issue005-02-The_Origins_of_Liquid_Democracy.html (referenced at: a)
[RFC 6749] D. Hardt (Ed.): "The OAuth 2.0 Authorization Framework", October 2012. Available at: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749 (referenced at: a b c d e f g h)
[RFC 6819] Lodderstedt (Ed.), McGloin, Hunt: "OAuth 2.0 Threat Model and Security Considerations", January 2013. Available at: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6819 (referenced at: a)
[Sockpuppet] Jan Behrens: "A mathematical view on the sockpuppet problem". April 12, 2016, published July 27, 2018 as Appendix A to "The Liquid Democracy Journal on electronic participation, collective moderation, and voting systems", Issue 6, July 27, 2018. ISSN 2198-9532. Published by Interaktive Demokratie e. V. (referenced at: a b)
[UWUM] Behrens, Kistner, Nitsche, Swierczek: "Work report on Unified WeGovNow User Management (UWUM) development", December 12, 2016. Published as Appendix 2.1.2 (pages 125-151) to the WeGovNow Deliverable D3.1 ("Consolidated System Architecture") available at: https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/sites/futurium/files/d3.1_693514_consolidated_system_architecture_.pdf (also included as Appendix B to "The Liquid Democracy Journal on electronic participation, collective moderation, and voting systems", Issue 6, July 27, 2018, pp. 39-50, ISSN 2198-9532, published by Interaktive Demokratie e. V.) (referenced at: a b c d e f)
Issue 6, Berlin 2018-07-27 (electronic version 2019-02-23, rev2 2019-02-24)
The full issue is available at: http://www.liquid-democracy-journal.org/issue/6/
All rights reserved – Copyright © 2018, 2019 Interaktive Demokratie e. V., Berlin, Germany – http://www.interaktive-demokratie.org/


text:
/* LibTomCrypt, modular cryptographic library -- Tom St Denis
 *
 * LibTomCrypt is a library that provides various cryptographic
 * algorithms in a highly modular and flexible manner.
 *
 * The library is free for all purposes without any express
 * guarantee it works.
 */
#include "tomcrypt_private.h"

/**
  @file der_decode_ia5_string.c
  ASN.1 DER, encode a IA5 STRING, Tom St Denis
*/

#ifdef LTC_DER

/**
  Store a IA5 STRING
  @param in      The DER encoded IA5 STRING
  @param inlen   The size of the DER IA5 STRING
  @param out     [out] The array of octets stored (one per char)
  @param outlen  [in/out] The number of octets stored
  @return CRYPT_OK if successful
*/
int der_decode_ia5_string(const unsigned char *in, unsigned long inlen,
                                unsigned char *out, unsigned long *outlen)
{
   unsigned long x, y, len;
   int           t, err;

   LTC_ARGCHK(in     != NULL);
   LTC_ARGCHK(out    != NULL);
   LTC_ARGCHK(outlen != NULL);

   /* must have header at least */
   if (inlen < 2) {
      return CRYPT_INVALID_PACKET;
   }

   /* check for 0x16 */
   if ((in[0] & 0x1F) != 0x16) {
      return CRYPT_INVALID_PACKET;
   }
   x = 1;

   /* get the length of the data */
   y = inlen - x;
   if ((err = der_decode_asn1_length(in + x, &y, &len)) != CRYPT_OK) {
      return err;
   }
   x += y;

   /* is it too long? */
   if (len > *outlen) {
      *outlen = len;
      return CRYPT_BUFFER_OVERFLOW;
   }

   if (len > (inlen - x)) {
      return CRYPT_INVALID_PACKET;
   }

   /* read the data */
   for (y = 0; y < len; y++) {
       t = der_ia5_value_decode(in[x++]);
       if (t == -1) {
           return CRYPT_INVALID_ARG;
       }
       out[y] = t;
   }

   *outlen = y;

   return CRYPT_OK;
}

#endif

/* ref:         HEAD -> develop */
/* git commit:  9c0d7085234bd6baba2ab8fd9eee62254599341c */
/* commit time: 2018-10-15 10:51:17 +0200 */

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Alternative, less demanding hiking trail connecting Juta village with Roshka.
Another trail connecting Juta village with Roshka which passes the mountains north of Roshkakhorkhi mountain (3562m). It offers a really nice scenery but doesn't climb as high as the adjacent crossing of the Chaukhi pass. For this reason, it´s relatively little-visited - hikers who hike only in one direction usually pick its more popular neighboring route. This trail is usually picked by hikers with more time - they combine it with the Chaukhi pass trail into a 2-day loop from Juta.
Also, it should be noted that in a few years, this hiking trail may be replaced by a road - Georgian government is currently planning a new road connecting Khevi and Khevsureti to open the latter region for tourists. This planned route is using the Sadzele pass since it´s the lowest and most accessible pass in the area. The project is currently stuck on the Environmental Impact assessment, but that may change in the future.
The distance and elevation are substantial enough to keep you occupied for the whole day.
There is no public transport to Roshka. To get there from Tbilisi, you will have to take a bus to Barisakho (it departs daily at 9:00 am from Didube station). From there, you can either hike (4 hours) or take a taxi to Roshka. Of course, you can take the taxi all the way from Tbilisi, it should cost something like 200 GEL.
Roshka can be also reached on foot, at the village end (or start) several hiking trails. Apart from Sadzele route described below, you can reach it also through the Chaukhi pass or from the Arkhoti valley. With the bottom of Aragvi valley is Roshka connected by a dirt road and also by a blue-marked hiking trail.
You will need a car to get out of Juta. Luckily, especially in the afternoon is the small parking lot at the beginning of the village full of taxi drivers. So you should be able easily able to find someone willing to drive you to Kazbegi - the usual price is 40-50 GEL.
If you are really low on cash, you can also prolong the walk and get to Kazbegi on foot, it takes 4 to 5 hours and Juta valley is quite nice (at least for the first 2 hours).
If you want to do the loop from Juta and have the camping gear, there is no need to hike all the way to Roshka. The much more attractive option is to cross the Chaukhi pass and camp by the Abudelauri lakes. On the next day, follow the trail towards Roskha, but there is no need to go all the way to the village since both hiking trails run for the last 4 km in parallel and distance between them is only 500 meters. Therefore, once you see the road at the other side of the valley, cross the Abudelauri river and head directly towards it, passing the huge boulders known as "Roshka stones".
The trail starts at the tourist pointer in the Roshka village - the Sadzele trail is marked by white/yellow rectangles. Following the direction on the pointer, leave the village using the newly built road to the Arkhoti valley (which replaced the original trail). You will stay on this road for one our. On your left, you will see "Roshka stones" - stone river made of boulders which were pushed here during the last Ice Age by the glaciers from the Chaukhi massif. In the Khevsur mythology, they are a remnant of a great battle of local deity Yakhsar with the evil spirits.
Almost 4 kilometers spent on the road, you will reach the spot where it sharply turns to the right and crosses Roshka river. Here you keep walking in the original direction and turn onto the small trail which branches off the main road to the left. The trail then slowly climbs until it reaches the small plateau at the elevation of 2500m. You will pass some cows and see the huts by the snowfields on your right.
Here starts the serious climb - steep serpentine zig-zagging uphill along the northeastern slopes of Roshkakhorkhi mountain. Once you make it to the 2650m, it "straightens up" a bit, but still noticeable climbs across the hillside. It also crosses two small streams. Then starts another steep climb, another series of switchbacks. Last 100 meters beneath the pass, the trail more or less turns into a field of shales. The whole climb from the junction to the pass should take about 2,5 hours with a camping gear (and 1,5 hours with a daypack).
From the Sadzele pass (3060m), descend into the Veshattskali valley to the west. The descent is first mild, but once you pass the small stream, it turns into a series of steep switchbacks. At the bottom of the valley, cross the river and join the trail heading from the Arkhoti valley (marked by red). There is also a nice campsite. Turn left and follow a river until you reach a large grassy plateau where it flows the Juta river - a little-visited trail branches from here to the south, crosses the river and climbs to the Chaukhi pass. Stay on the right bank on the river and follow the well-trodden trail until it crosses to the left bank.
Shortly afterward, you will come past border patrol where you have to show your passport - it lies at the opposite bank, but there is a small bridge. Continue, following the river down the valley. At these sections, you should reach the newly built road and follow it all the way to Juta.
The first draft of this trail description was written by Thomas Maas. I rewrote major part of it, but wouldn't get to it if he didn't send me that original version. So I would like to thank him for his support and willingness to contribute. Also, many photos used in this post were taken by James Salvatore. Didi madloba to him, too!


The Hutchinson Art Association is a membership and patron funded organization that has enjoyed community wide support throughout sixty-three years of showing, collecting, and contributing to the development of and appreciation for visual arts in our area.
Foremost among the Association's efforts is the Hutchinson Art Center, featuring three exhibition and sales galleries, educational programming, and serving as host location of numerous community events. In addition HAA sponsors monthly art exhibits at the Hutchinson Public Library, collaborates with other community organizations in supporting the arts, and of course sponsors the annual "Hutchinson Art Fair" a signature event in Hutchinson's Community Calendar.
Read through the list below. Is there some way you could assist the Hutchinson Art Center? Fill out the form below and click SUBMIT. The Hutchinson Art Center will contact you to answer your questions and get you started!


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Altadena Library District
Young Adult: Asian & Asian American Authors
Young Adult: Latinx Authors
Young Adult: LGBTQ+ Titles
Young Adult: Historical Fiction
Young Adult: Black & African American Authors
Zen/Fresh Start/New Skills
MONTH OF GIVING
Details for: Ghost town /
Ghost town /
by Rivers, Phoebe.
Material type: BookSeries: Rivers, Phoebe. Saranormal: 1.Publisher: New York : Simon Spotlight, c2012Edition: 1st ed.Description: 152 p. ; 22 cm.ISBN: 9781442453784 :; 1442453788 :.Subject(s): Psychic ability -- Fiction | Ghosts -- Fiction | New Jersey -- FictionSummary: Hiding her psychic abilities in hopes of living a normal life, Sara finds her circumstances complicated by her family's relocation to a paranormally active Jersey Shore town where she is pursued by a ghost in desperate need of help.
Home library
Books Altadena Main Library
Children's Collection Children's Fiction J RIV P. Available 39270004153874
In this start to a paranormal series, Sara's new town has a lot of history--and a lot of ghosts who want to tell her all about it.

 Sara Collins is a normal twelve-year-old girl with an abnormal secret: She is psychic. She's had her abilities for as long as she can remember, but she doesn't like to talk about them. She hopes that if she ignores them, they might go away. Sara wants nothing more than to have a normal life, and to her, "normal" doesn't include anything paranormal.
 But Sara's life is about to be turned upside down, because she's moving across the country with her dad to an old shore town in New Jersey. A shore town with a lot of history...and more than its fair share of ghosts roaming around. As Sara tries to settle into her new home, she discovers that for the first time, the ghosts around her can communicate with her. One ghost in particular desperately needs something from her and won't leave her alone. Sara wants to help, but she's scared. Can Sara put her fear aside and help the spirit? Will doing so put her in jeopardy?
 Meanwhile, Sara meets a great local girl named Lily Randazzo, and against all odds, really bonds with her. Sara has made a true friend for the first time in her life. Maybe New Jersey isn't so bad after all....
Hiding her psychic abilities in hopes of living a normal life, Sara finds her circumstances complicated by her family's relocation to a paranormally active Jersey Shore town where she is pursued by a ghost in desperate need of help.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
<opt> <anon I1="BLANK" I2="BLANK">CHAPTER 1 "See, it's not so different. Open your window and smell the air," my father instructed as we turned off the highway. He pressed a button somewhere to the left of the steering wheel, and my window rolled down by itself. I cringed at the thought of what I might see out there and turned my back on the warm, summer breeze cutting through the stale odor of the rental car. "Do you smell the ocean air, Sara?" my father asked, a little too eagerly. "Just like home. I mean, like California. They smell the same, don't you think?" I didn't think so. The Atlantic Ocean smelled heavy and thick and salty. The Pacific didn't have a smell, or at least it didn't have one that I could remember. I stared at my chipped purple nail polish, unwilling to look out the window, unwilling to inhale more East Coast air. My dad was trying so hard to make me happy. But I had this huge knot in my stomach that just wouldn't go away and I couldn't pretend to be happy, not even for my dad. Not today. Pressing the automatic window button on my side, I heard the glass close, cocooning us once again in our bubble against the world. "Do you want to talk about it?" my father asked, for what was probably the hundredth time. His voice was gentle. "Come on, Sara, the move will be good for us." "How do you know that?" I asked, shifting my gaze from the oblong stain of unknown origin on the gray-blue upholstered seat to the gray faux-leather dashboard. I held tight to the belief that if I didn't look outside, New Jersey wouldn't exist. "I liked California." My dad ran one hand through his curly brown hair. "You'll like it here, too. Give it time." He turned his attention back to the road through the small town, clogged with late-summer beach traffic. Discussion over. That was classic Dad. He didn't like to dig too deep, or push too hard. He preferred to wait for me to come to him, which was fine when I was little, but it's a little more complicated now that I'm twelve. What I didn't get was why--now--were we suddenly diving in and moving across the country to some strange shore town where we knew no one? Dad said it was his job. But, seriously, although my long blond hair and blue eyes make a lot of people assume I'm a flake, I'm way smarter than that. New Jersey doesn't need another insurance claims adjuster, no matter how great my dad may be at his job. There was more to it. I just didn't know what. We drove in silence. A lot of people get freaked out by silence. I don't mind it. Dad and I often hang out together without talking. Dad's not a big sharer of thoughts or feelings. At my old school, the teachers always called me shy because I didn't speak much. I don't think I'm shy. I just realized early on that not everything needs to be vocalized. There's a difference between shy and quiet. "Our street's coming up," my dad announced. "I'm pretty sure I remember it from last time." He'd flown out last month to meet his new boss and find us a place to live. I'd stayed behind at Aunt Charlotte's house. We didn't visit my dad's younger sister much, and after four days of living with her and my crunchy uncle Dexter on their organic avocado farm, I could see why. Dad slowed the car, raised his aviator sunglasses, and squinted at the map from the rental counter at the airport. Then he turned right onto Seagate Drive. So my new street was called Seagate Drive. . . . I wrapped my arms around my knees and stole a look out the window. I couldn't help it. My curiosity was too intense. Old Victorian houses painted pastel colors lined the narrow street. I stared in amazement at a three-story lavender house with powder-blue trim. I'd never seen a house like that before! It was so different from the simple stucco house I'd grown up in. "Nice street, right?" my dad asked, driving slowly. "Nice" isn't the word I would have chosen. "What kind of people paint their house pink?" I asked instead, pointing to a pink house on our left. He let out an exasperated sigh. "Happy people." I wanted to reply, to say something nice so I didn't sound like such a brat, but the tingling had started. In my left foot. Always my left foot first. Go away, I prayed. Oh, please, go away. My heart beat rapidly. I knew what the tingling meant. Three houses down, a group of dark-haired kids played on a circular white-pebbled driveway. Bikes, skateboards, and jump ropes lay scattered about, and shrieking laughter wafted through my closed window. I watched them chase one another, certain they were all related. A girl about my age ran after a younger boy. I wondered what she was like. Then the tingling spread to my right foot and began to creep up my legs. "Here we are," my dad announced. He waited nervously for my reaction as our car stopped in front of a weathered gabled house. I blinked several times, struggling to focus. Willing the feeling to go away, I tried to focus on the details of the house. The sea air had weathered the once-vibrant siding. The painted burnt-orange trim was faded and peeling. A huge covered porch with decorative railings wrapped around the front. The second-floor windows opened to several small walkout balconies. Three large windows protruded from the roof, and an octagonal turret rose along the right side of the house. The tingling rippled through my entire body. My dad was saying something about Victorian architecture, but I barely heard him. They were here. I couldn't see them yet, but I could sense them. I knew they were here. So many of them. I squeezed my eyes tight, hoping to block them out. Then the nausea came over me, and I felt like I might throw up right there. The force of their presence pushed against me. I could feel them reaching for me . . . needing me. "Sara? Do you feel all right?" I opened my eyes and shook my head. "Must have been the airplane food," I managed to croak. "The house needs some work," my dad said. "Except for the little storefront, the house has been totally empty for quite a while. But what do you think?" My breath caught in my throat as they finally came into view. The old, hunched woman rocking in the swing on the porch. The young man in the cap hanging out the dormer window. The angry-looking man with the mustache by the front door. The slim woman in the long nightgown staring out the bay window. Everyone shimmered and vibrated slightly in the midday sun. My head throbbed. My father was wrong. The house wasn't empty. Dead people still lived there. And I could see them. Excerpted from Ghost Town by Phoebe Rivers All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.</anon> </opt>
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Horn Book Review
Sara's ability to see dead people draws her into their postmortem concerns: in Ghost Town, a 1920s real estate mogul wants Sara to stop a tragic fire in her New Jersey town; in Haunted Memories, a polio victim wants Sara to win the Harvest Queen crown she missed out on. These first installments are solidly structured, engaging, and gently chilling. [Review covers these Saranormal titles: Ghost Town and Haunted Memories.] (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


text:
Info for Presenters
NPS Archive
Prof Giuseppe Bersani
Prof Giuseppe BersaniMaster82019-03-04T15:56:06+00:00
Giuseppe Bersani is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Medico-Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, at both the Degree Courses of Medicine of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome. He has been for about ten years Head of the Clinical Psychiatry Unit at the Policlinico "Umberto I" inRome and he is currently Head of the University Psychiatry Unit at the Polo Pontino / Terracina Hospital. He has been active in research fields in clinical Psychiatry, as well as in Neurosciences and Pharmacopsychiatry. He is author of over 150 articles cited in international databases. His present research interests are also on the changes in psychopathology expression and course of mental illness with respect to psychopharmcology treatments and to the impact of use and abuse of old and novel psychoactive substances.
© Copyright 2012 - | VI NPS CONFERENCE by Novel Psychoactive Substances | All Rights Reserved | Powered by Novel Psychoactive Substances


COLOUR AS A PATHWAY TO SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE – If you have attended the Art of Meditation 1 retreat already, or are a practicing meditant and want to strengthen your meditation practice in the beautiful surroundings, peace and tranquillity at Riverslea Retreat, in Otaki, then this March 2019 retreat is for you. Take time out from your demanding daily routine and immerse yourself into a space of meditative enquiry, equanimity and calm relaxation. We will also have time for personal contemplation, be it a walk in the bush, a stroll or swim by the river or quiet solitude before a delicious evening meal.
On this retreat we will be exploring the world of colour as a doorway to spiritual insight and self-development. Through simple artistic exercises and contemplative enquiry we will explore how colour can create inner soul experiences of a universal nature opening our perception for supersensible phenomena.
The colours we experience in nature exist at a boundary, or threshold, between sensible and supersensible worlds. Every moment of the day we are having colour experiences but are largely not aware of it. When we gaze upon a beautiful sunrise or sunset we can be drawn forth from our mundane awareness, through feelings of awe and wonder, and be lifted to a higher more numinous experience. This is why colour perception is so useful in a meditative process in helping us transcend the material world and ascend into supersensible realms.
Colour works deeply into our emotive and psychic life in subtle ways, often affecting how we feel. It is used therapeutically to bring to conscious experience that which would otherwise lie uncovered in the unconscious, inaccessible to intellectual investigation. Through learning to become aware of the non-subjective reality of colour, as a pathway into higher realms of consciousness – we pass, unfettered, through the phenomena of the senses to a supersensible reality that lives beyond the material world. However it is also important to note that through processes such as these we develop sensitivity for the qualities and forces that underlie all phenomena, both material and non-material. The heightened awareness that can be developed through meditation, can help us be awake to the underlying nature of so many socio-political, environmental and personal challenges that confront us on a daily basis. Meditation can make us active and awake citizens of the world! Remember – meditation is not just about our self, but also about service to the world!
Emily, Mark and Catherine look forward to you joining this enriching retreat. Register now or contact us if you have any questions. We recognise people have differing financial circumstances so if money is a problem contact us and let's talk about a plan.


Weekend in Italy (WiI) wants you in our family. Whether you are an independent traveler or a travel professional (or, an aspiring one), WiI offers ways to step out of the ordinary into extraordinary Italy travel experiences. Start by joining the Weekend in Italy Club and downloading our new App.
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Join the Weekend in Italy Travelers Club. Automatically receive 10% discounts on all your Italy tours and museum visits. Make last minute reservations to Italy's best attractions. Meet fellow independent travelers. Click here to sign up.
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National Sewing Month: Sewing Costumes for 'The Help' (Part 3): Mae Mobley and More
September 8, 2011 by AllFreeSewing 12 Comments
It's National Sewing Month! To celebrate, AllFreeSewing.com is hosting a special blog series throughout the entire month. Check back daily for posts featuring our favorite projects, new sewing videos and tutorials, guest blogs from talented designers and more. We're also giving away a HUGE sewing prize at the end of the month. You won't believe how EASY it is to WIN!
Leave a comment on any of the blog posts with the headline "National Sewing Month". Your comment will count as an entry into the giveaway. You are free to comment as often as once per blog post (for a total of 30 chances to win!). At the end of the month, we'll pool all of the comments together and pick one lucky winner to win the mystery grand prize. And trust us; you want to win this one!
Whether you're already a sewing enthusiast or new to the craft, our hope is that this September will encourage you to create wonderful sewn projects.
Here's today's post:
Kathleen Farris is a costumer from Memphis, Tennessee who has made costumes for hundreds of theater performances, concerts, ballets, operas, and films over the past two decades. I recently talked to her about her latest work sewing for the film The Help as part of costume designer Sharen Davis' team. This week, I'll show you a behind-the-scenes look at her work sewing costumes for several of the characters, including Mae Mobley Leefolt, Celia Foote, and Hilly Holbrook.
A copy of The Help signed by author Kathryn
Stockett with a scrap from Mae Mobley's
dress as a bookmark
Over the past two weeks, I've given you an insider's glance at film costumer Kathleen Farris' work making costumes for the characters Elaine Stein and Elizabeth Leefolt. This week, I'll talk about some of her other work for the film, as well as her impressions of working on a film set.
Kathleen sewed and altered the costumes for the character Mae Mobley Leefolt, Elizabeth's daughter who is raised primarily by Elizabeth's maid Aibileen. The toddler was played by three-year-old twins Emma and Eleanor "Ella" Henry. Kathleen loved working with them and still speaks of them fondly, calling them "cute little precocious girls."
Aibileen holding Mae Mobley, who is wearing
a purchased dress that Kathleen
altered for the film
(image courtesy of DreamWorks Studios)
Costume designer Sharen Davis wanted Mae Mobley's clothes to look as though she is growing out of them throughout the film, so Kathleen made her pajamas and dresses a little bit snug. One of the dresses she sewed for Mae Mobley was made of a pink and green checked fabric with miniature rick-rack.
Aibileen with Mae Mobley, who is putting
on one of the green checked dresses
that Kathleen made
Kathleen actually made four copies of this dress because each twin needed two dresses for different scenes. She also sewed chiffon nightgowns and changed purchased children's clothing for the girls, altering them and making them unique. The final cut of the movie did not include several scenes in which Mae Mobley is shown growing over the course of one year; for those scenes, Kathleen made dresses that suggested the child was aging.
Kathleen also made a skirt for Jessica Chastain's character, Celia Foote, a woman who is new to Jackson, Miss., and is ostracized by Hilly, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. The pencil skirt, made of pink, blue, and purple wool tweed, is meant to reflect Celia's bright and ostentatious wardrobe style. In the film, Celia wears it with a purple-maroon sweater and a wide black belt belt when she attempts to bring a pie to one of Hilly's social events.
Celia Foote's pink pencil skirt that
Kathleen made for the movie
In another scene, Celia accidentally tears the sleeve from Hilly's green dress at a large charity auction. Kathleen was one of the costumers responsible for ensuring that the sleeve ripped properly. First, she lightly stitched the seam and clipped the stitches, which tore just fine in testing, but when it came to actually shooting the scene, the seam would not rip.
For the final scene, they lightly attached the sleeve with spray glue used for scrapbooking. Bryce Dallas Howard had to hold very still so that the seem would not fall apart too soon, and the sound editors had to add a more dramatic ripping noise afterward. The scene required about eight takes to shoot, so the costume team made one dress with twelve different bodices.
Hilly's green dress:
Kathleen helped ensure that the sleeve
tore properly during the auction scene
Overall, Kathleen says working with the costume team was a great experience. "[Sharen Davis] was the glue that held our department together. She was respectful of everyone, and kind and compassionate toward everyone," Kathleen says. She also enjoyed working with fellow costumer Julie Yrjanson, who made many dresses for Aibileen, played by Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis. Kathleen tells me that the entire cast was pleasant to work with, especially Allison Janney, who played Skeeter's mother, and Leslie Jordan, who played Skeeter's editor in Jackson and kept the costume studio entertained while they altered his costumes to make them more characteristic of the 1960s.
Aibileen and Minnie, two of the film's leading ladies;
costumer Julie Yrjanson made many of Aibileen's costumes
Of course, this costume team is highly experienced. Sharen Davis won acclaim as the Costume Designer for the films Ray, Dreamgirls, and The Great Debaters, among others. Kathleen, the stitcher for The Help, has also made and altered costumes for The Notebook, Castaway, and A Painted House, among others. The costumes in The Help are unique because, instead of one overall costume theme, each character has her own unique style and color palette. I, for one, will be surprised and disappointed if Sharen Davis does not win the Academy Award for Best Costumes this coming awards season.
Thanks to Sharen Davis' creative vision, each character in
The Help has a unique style and color palette
What do you think of these costumes? Do you think they will win awards this year? Would you enjoy working on films like Kathleen does? Have you designed or made any clothing based on those in films before?
If you like these costumes, try one of these great vintage sewing patterns from AllFreeSewing.com!
Ruffled Collar Tutorial
Vintage Embellished Bolero
Petticoat Tutorial
Retro Pincushion
Vitnage Sewn Notecard
Filed Under: Sewing Tagged With: costumes, fabric, help, kathleen farris, kathryn stockett, movies, National Sewing Month, Sewing, sharen davis, The Help, vintage clothing patterns, viola davis, wearable crafts
National Sewing Month: Sewing Costumes for 'The Help' (Part 2): Elizabeth Leefolt
Kathleen Farris is a costumer from Memphis, Tennessee who has made costumes for hundreds of theater performances, concerts, ballets, operas, and films over the past two decades. I recently talked to her about her latest work sewing for the film The Help as part of costume designer Sharen Davis' team. This week, I'll show you a behind-the-scenes look at her work making costumes for the character Elizabeth Leefolt, played by Ahna O'Reilley.
Last week, I gave you an insider's look at Kathleen Farris' handiwork in The Help making costumes for the character Elaine Stein. Kathleen also made dresses for the character of Elizabeth Leefolt, one of the white residents of Jackson, Mississippi and a childhood friend of Skeeter and Hilly. Elizabeth's daughter, a little girl named Mae Mobley, has been primarily raised by her black maid, Aibileen, while Elizabeth attends social functions.
In the movie and the book, Elizabeth desperately wants to be included in Jackson's high class social circle, but she is not wealthy enough to buy the expensive, fashionable dresses of her peers. She compensates by making her own dresses, with limited success.
Kathleen sewed or altered most of Elizabeth's costumes. In accordance with Elizabeth's character in the book, Kathleen needed to make everything Elizabeth wore look homemade. The lavender dress pictured below was made using a 1950s Butterick pattern. Kathleen used a shiny, floral polyester and included a raw neckline, unfinished hems, and untrimmed threads hanging out at the seams.
Elizabeth's lavender dress,
hanging in the studio
The less-finished version of the dress
in the film (image courtesy of
DreamWorks Studios)
Kathleen actually made two versions of this dress; the one pictured above is less completed than the one in the scene below, during which Elizabeth's character is attending a bridge party.
The more finished version of the dress
The following photo shows Kathleen posing with another of Elizabeth's dresses, a cotton cowl-collar dress with chenille dots and 3/4 pleats. The costume team dyed the fabric blue because white clothing often appears overly bright on camera.
Kathleen posing behind Elizabeth's
blue dress on a mannequin
Some of Elizabeth's clothes were pulled from a stock of vintage 1960s clothes ordered from a costume warehouse in Los Angeles. Kathleen altered and embellished many of them to fit Ahna O'Reilley and to complement her performance.
One of our readers, Pam Thompson, posed a couple of questions for Kathleen on last week's post. Check out Kathleen's answers below!
Pam: How much research did the costumers do to make the clothes seem authentic to the time period?
Kathleen: The costume designer [Sharen Davis] had a 1962 Montgomery Ward catalog that we referenced for design ideas, and we had a number of vintage patterns from that time period. Some of us were old enough to remember that era, and there are plenty of TV shows from then that we could access on YouTube.
Pam: How much influence did the descriptions from the book have on the choices of costumes (color etc.)?
Kathleen: There was an effort to stay true to the book; however, the costume designer gets hired for her interpretation of the story. For example, the maids' uniforms are white in the book, but the designer chose gray for the movie. A few of the costumes on screen were actual vintage clothing from that era, so the colors and styles are true to that time.
So, have you seen the movie? What did you think? Which costume was your favorite? Post your questions and comments below, and Kathleen will answer them next week when I write about her work on Mae Mobley's costumes and her contributions with the rest of the costume team!
In the meantime, look at these amazing vintage clothing patterns from AllFreeSewing.com!
Dirndl Skirt
Bow Belt
Roxanne Retro Headband
Filed Under: Sewing Tagged With: costumes, fabric, help, kathleen farris, kathryn stockett, movies, National Sewing Month, Sewing, sharen davis, The Help, vintage clothing patterns, wearable crafts
Sewing for the Movies: Costumes in 'The Help'
August 25, 2011 by AllFreeSewing 8 Comments
Kathleen Farris is a costumer from Memphis, Tennessee who has created countless costumes for theater productions, concerts, ballets, operas, and films over the past three decades. I recently talked to her about her latest work on the set of the recent film The Help, which was released in August 2011. This week, I'll show you a behind-the-scenes look at the costumes she made for the character Elaine Stein, played by Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen.
Based on the novel of the same name by Kathryn Stockett, The Help tells the story of three women striving to change the rigid social restrictions and racial discrimination that gripped Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. On set in Greenwood, Mississippi, Kathleen sewed as part of Academy Award-nominated costume designer Sharen Davis' creative team, whose primary objective was to create a diverse collection of historically accurate and stylistically unique costumes for Stockett's distinctive cast of characters.
Image courtesy of DreamWorks Studios
Over three and a half months of filming, Kathleen created, sewed, repaired and altered over 400 costumes for the entire cast. She primarily worked on the costumes for the characters Elaine Stein, Elizabeth Leefolt and Mae Mobley Leefolt.
Kathleen takes particular pride in her work sewing costumes for Elaine Stein, played by Academy Award-winning actress Mary Steenburgen. In the film and the book, Elaine speaks to and publishes a novel for Skeeter, one of the three leading ladies. A female editor working in New York in the 1960s, Elaine is a seasoned professional and a woman before her time.
Professional costumers like Kathleen create costume patterns to match the personality of each character. "Everything [Elaine Stein] wore had to be on the cutting edge of fashion," Kathleen explains. "She is smart and professional, a woman who would shop in Paris, a woman of high income and title."
This production photo shows Steenburgen dressed in one of Kathleen's creations, a checked green business suit made of a tweed-like wool. The design and material for this suit pattern are befitting of a 1960s progressive businesswoman.
Kathleen also made the skirt and finished the blouse for the costume above. The knot of pearls complements the pearly buttons on her blouse, suggesting high status and wealth. The pencil skirt pattern is made of navy blue wool.
Kathleen says her favorite costume she made for the movie was a set of pajamas for Steenburgen's character, made of a two-ply, buff-colored silk with pink trim. "They were just so completely luxurious," Kathleen gushes. Steenburgen liked the pajamas so much that she actually kept them after filming ended!
If you see the movie, look for Kathleen in the credits! She's listed as the Stitcher. Next time, I'll feature Kathleen's work sewing costumes for the character of Elizabeth Leefolt, played by Ahna O'Reilley.
What do you think of Kathleen's artistry? Have you read the book or seen the movie? I will be in touch with Kathleen, so post any comments or questions for her below, and I'll answer them in the next post.
If you like the dress and skirt pictured above, check out these great vintage sewing patterns from AllFreeSewing.com!
The Pinwheel Skirt
50's Headband
Waistband Bow Skirt
Retro Orange Flowered Apron
Vintage Sheet to Maxi Dress
Filed Under: Sewing Tagged With: costumer, costumes, films, kathleen farris, kathryn stockett, mary steenburgen, movies, professional costumer, Sewing, sewing professionally, sharen davis, The Help, theater
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Watch our video to see how a prototyping tool can improve software development projects, from gathering and validating requirements to reducing rework and costs.
The Standish Group's 2015 Chaos Report made for tough reading for those involved in software development. According to the report, almost 20% of the year's software development projects failed, and among larger Enterprise projects the figures were even worse: only 2% of 'grand' projects from 2011 to 2015 counted as successful. Scary stuff.
Understandably, everyone involved in these projects, from business analysts and product managers to developers and end users, would benefit from better management of software development projects. So the team at Justinmind put together a video on the role of interactive prototyping in enhancing the definition and management of software specifications. Discussing everything from how to avoid writing textual requirements to using interactive protoypes to validate and iterate requirements over project lifecycle, our Enterprise Solutions Specialist Stephen Lu provides expert advice on how to gather, validate and share software specs to promote efficiency and project success. Watch it right here!
Aligning business with IT: Why?
What's the business case for integrating interactive prototyping into Enterprise software projects? By looking at the challenges and opportunities currently found in software development, examining the Software Development Life Cycle up close, and giving an overview of interactive prototyping, the video lays out how prototyping can streamline activities and alleviate common pain points.
You'll also be introduced to Justinmind and walked through its Enterprise features: collaborative requirements definition and management, interactive comments systems, on-device testing and related functionality through realistic use cases.
Watch the video above or go to our YouTube channel to find out more about Justinmind.


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Tag Archives: budgets
"The great British sell-off" – losing community assets to balance budgets
Posted on December 3, 2018 by heathercameron25
Image by John Stratford via Creative Commons
Since 2016, local authorities have been allowed to invest the proceeds of assets sold by April 2019 (now extended to 2021-22) into transforming frontline services, something they were previously prohibited from doing. Following years of austerity and the extent of recent government funding cuts, it is not surprising that councils have used such money in this way.
However, the rate at which such assets are being sold has raised concerns over the potential loss of publicly-owned buildings and spaces. Earlier this year, coinciding with the launch of their Save our Spaces campaign, Locality highlighted that on average more than 4,000 publicly owned buildings and spaces in England are being sold off every year – "more than four times the number of Starbucks in the UK."
'Financial predicament'
This year's National Audit Office (NAO) report on the financial sustainability of councils highlights the financial predicament facing councils across the country. While it notes that the sector has done well to manage substantial funding cuts since 2010-11, financial pressure has increased markedly since 2014. In real terms, there has been a reduction in government funding of 49.1% since 2010, representing a reduction in local government spending power of 28.6%.
These cuts are coupled with rising demand for services and other cost pressures. For example, demand has increased for homelessness services and adult and children's social care. The NAO highlights that from 2010-11 to 2016-17:
the number of households assessed as homeless and entitled to temporary accommodation under the statutory homeless duty increased by 33.9%;
the number of looked-after children grew by 10.9%; and
the estimated number of people in need of care aged 65 and over increased by 14.3%.
Other cost pressures have included higher national insurance contributions, the apprenticeship levy and the National Living Wage.
It is perhaps no shock that Northamptonshire county council became the first local authority since 1998 to be issued with a section 114 notice earlier this year, indicating it was unable to balance its books and at risk of being unable to set a legal budget for 2018/19. Nor is it indeed a shock that the NAO have identified other councils that are in danger of following suit in the next three years.
Despite this dire financial situation, it seems worse is to come. It has been recently announced that local services are to face a further £1.3bn cut in government funding in 2019/20. The revenue support grant, the main source of government funding for local services, will be cut by 36% next year – "the largest annual deduction in almost a decade".
While the 2018 Budget has made provision for extra funding for adult social care, recent analysis suggests this falls short of what is needed to plug the projected funding gap.
Plugging the gap
In a desperate bid to raise finances, councils have been trying to find alternative income streams. A growing reliance on the use of reserves to offset funding reductions is an approach highlighted as unsustainable by the NAO. Most councils plan to increase or introduce charges for various services and many have also been making use of the government's flexibility offer of using capital receipts to make improvements to services.
According to the NAO, in the year to April 2017, £118.5m of such capital receipts were used in this way. Locality has reported that the rate of asset sales has been consistently high for the last five years, with an average of 4,131 publicly owned buildings and spaces being sold off each year. Many councils are hoping to sell off their historic town halls to save much needed money. But it's not just buildings that are under threat; council-owned parks and other land are also at risk. A recent parks survey, published by the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE), found that 85% of councils surveyed expect a cut in parks and green space funding in the next year. In January, Knowsley council voted to go ahead with proposals to sell 10% of its parkland to fund the running of its remaining parks, since funding for its green spaces is to end in March 2019.
Locality warns that selling such assets on the open market could result in them being lost to the community forever as they have no real influence over what they will be used for; and could potentially lead to social, economic and environmental decline.
Indeed, concerns have been raised over the programme of disposing of council assets by Norfolk County Council, which has recently been reported to be looking to save £10m by selling its assets.
Locality suggests that community ownership is the answer to saving such assets under threat. Community Asset Transfer, set up in 2003, enables councils to sell assets to community organisations at below market rates in return for demonstrable community benefit.
In a bid to increase affordable housing supply, for example, Leicester City Council has sold council land worth more than £5m for less than £10 as part of deals with housing associations. However, the Locality report shows that less than half of councils have a Community Asset Transfer policy. It also notes that while community ownership is a 'powerful alternative' to losing public buildings and spaces, it is not straight forward, and community organisations face a number of barriers, including:
funding;
lack of expertise;
limited time; and
a lack of clear process.
With 95% of councils surveyed expecting the sell-off of publicly owned buildings and spaces to play an increasingly important role in the next five years, it is surely paramount that something is done to protect important community assets from being lost.
Locality has called for the government to create a Community Ownership Fund and for a change in legislation to make it easier for community organisations to gain control of such assets.
Or perhaps councils could follow the example of others who, instead of selling their assets, are using them to generate revenue. Lewisham Council for example, is planning to raise £500k through hosting large commercial events in its parks.
Whatever route local authorities take, it remains to be seen if others will follow in the footsteps of Northamptonshire or succeed in counteracting continuing cuts to maintain services and balance budgets; and indeed protect important community assets.
If you enjoyed reading this you may also like our previous blogs on the civic use of heritage assets and the value of green spaces.
Follow us on Twitter to discover which topics are interesting our research team.
Posted in Government and politics, Regeneration and community development	| Tagged assets, austerity, budgets, community assets, councils, cuts, FINANCE, funding, impact, local government, parks, public buildings, public finance, revenue | 1 Comment


It was a great day for whale watchers off the coast of Pacifica on Friday. Sky7 caught several animals frolicking in the water.
PACIFICA, Calif. (KGO) -- It was a great day for whale watchers off the coast of Pacifica on Friday. Sky7 caught several animals frolicking in the water.
About 200 yards from the pier, we caught a few whales, a dolphin, and two sharks.
Watch the video player above for highlights from our time in the sky and click here for a look back at more videos of whales in the Bay Area.
Incredible sights like this have brought whale-watchers from all over to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.


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Q: How to use the copyright and trademark symbols in REST API? How to use copyright symbol and trad mark symbol in rest api call (I need to pass  one of the Json parameter )
I need to get it in Java code and save the values in DB .
Anyone have an idea on this?

A: If you want to use special characters you will to escape it.
Please read answer from this topic:
How should I escape strings in JSON?
Or you can use this service (for manual inputs):
https://www.freeformatter.com/json-escape.html
Or any modern JSON library with escaping support.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange