text:
Q: Finding a coefficient that satisfies and intersecting condition Suppose I have the following polynomial:
GPrPo=354 x + 1143 x^2 + 2320 x^3 + 3811 x^4 + 5441 x^5 + 6403 x^6 +
 6829 x^7 + 6658 x^8 + 5571 x^9 + 4737 x^10 + 3560 x^11 + 2741 x^12 +
 2174 x^13 + 1579 x^14 + 1120 x^15 + 789 x^16 + 502 x^17 + 275 x^18 +
 215 x^19 + 117 x^20 + 59 x^21 + 30 x^22 + 30 x^23 + 21 x^24 +
 6 x^25 + 4 x^26 + x^27 + 2 x^28 + 3 x^29 + x^30 + 2 x^31

I also define:
GDPrPo = D[GPrPo, x]

Now let us have the following:
k = 6;
u = (3188 x^16)/x^k;
v = (x - x^k) u;
y = 1 + v/GPrPo - x/(382 GPrPo) (GDPrPo + D[v, x]);
Plot[{1, y}, {x, 2/381, 1},
 PlotRange -> {{0, 1.001}, {0.9999, 1.00001}}]

Which produces the following plot:

I am interested in the point where the orange curve intersects the line 1. Here I determined the coefficient with hand. Namely in u the coefficient 3188 is the appropriate one to satisfy my condition.
Let me explain the situation. For given k, in this case k=6, we want to find -- for all powers of x namely from x^6 to x^31 (corresponding to the powers of GPrPo) -- the coefficients where the orange lines intersects the line 1.
Another example is:
k = 6;
u = (2615 x^15)/x^k;
v = (x - x^k) u;
y = 1 + v/GPrPo - x/(382 GPrPo) (GDPrPo + D[v, x]);
Plot[{1, y}, {x, 2/381, 1},
 PlotRange -> {{0, 1.001}, {0.9999, 1.00001}}]

as you can see for x^15 the coefficient is ~2615.  I wonder how can I have a code which would determine the coefficients in u such that my condition is satisfied.

A: GPrPo[x_] :=
354 x + 1143 x^2 + 2320 x^3 + 3811 x^4 + 5441 x^5 + 6403 x^6 +
6829 x^7 + 6658 x^8 + 5571 x^9 + 4737 x^10 + 3560 x^11 +
2741 x^12 + 2174 x^13 + 1579 x^14 + 1120 x^15 + 789 x^16 +
502 x^17 + 275 x^18 + 215 x^19 + 117 x^20 + 59 x^21 + 30 x^22 +
30 x^23 + 21 x^24 + 6 x^25 + 4 x^26 + x^27 + 2 x^28 + 3 x^29 +
x^30 + 2 x^31

GDPrPo[x_] := D[GPrPo[\[FormalX]], \[FormalX]] /. \[FormalX] -> x

k = 6;
u[x_, c_, n_] := (c x^n)/x^k;
v[x_, c_, n_] := (x - x^k) u[x, c, n];
y[x_, c_, n_] := 1 + v[x, c, n]/GPrPo[x] -
x/(382 GPrPo[x]) (GDPrPo[x] + D[v[\[FormalX], c, n], \[FormalX]] /. \[FormalX] -> x);

sol[p_] :=
Cases[Reduce[y[x, c, p] >= 1 && c > 0 && 1 > x > 0, {c, x}, Reals],
And[_Equal, _Equal], \[Infinity]] // NSolve // First

Then use smth. like Table[sol[p],{p,6,31}] to find all values of your coefficient c.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I decided to write on this in the hope it will help someone else. I lost too much time on this problem.
Ha haaaa….. that's it. Rails must have new inflectors, and it does!
There you go. Hope it helps.
One of my most popular blog posts is this one, where I explain how you can have an old Rails application running on Snow Leopard.
Well now that Lion is out, it's time to update and again make sure our old projects are still maintainable (yes, I have customers that don't need to move to the latest and greatest – I wish).
Although this post targets old versions of Rails and Ruby, you can follow the same steps for the latest versions (1.9.2 and 3.0).
Since 2010, things have changed in the Rails world. Homebrew is now the preferred way to install packages on Mac OS X. And RVM is now a must for anyone that wants to do serious Rails and/or Ruby development.
So here we go, follow me through the installation of the Rails stack on Lion.
Note 1: I did a clean install of Lion. Not sure that my recipe will work on a "migrated" Lion. A colleague of mine had problems setting up ImageMagick after migrating to Lion. It might work, but why not take some time to clean everything up and all pieces installed properly. And why not archive some files at the same time?
Note 2: I'm using Textmate. If you are using Aptana, you might want to check on the web, I think I've seen some blogs describing some issues with RVM and Aptana. According to this post, starting Aptana from the command line makes it use the RVM interpreter.
Note 3: Phusion Passenger is awesome. But in the past, I tried using it on my development machine and I didn't like it so much. I still prefer starting the server myself and see the output in my terminal window. RMV supports Passenger, but I didn't play with it.
Note 4: I'm on a Macbook Pro 17″ Mid-2010. Your experience might be different if you are on a different architecture.
If you are still on Snow Leopard, prior to migrate to Lion, find an empty drive and use SuperDuper to clone your hard drive. This is an excellent backup solution (you can boot from the backup drive afterwards).
Format your drive and install Lion. But hey, how do I install Lion on a clean drive? If you have a newer Mac, when you boot, you will have a choice to install Lion from the internet. Otherwise, you may download it and "burn" the image on a USB key or external drive (I tried on a DVD, may it is VERY slow when installing). Follow these instructions.
Get the latest version of XCode on the Apple Developer Site and install it.
Boot from the image, install and optionally import only the general settings when the migration assistant makes you the offer. This will you will get some global preferences back, such as your network settings and printers. You're doing a clean install after all, and I prefer to move my files over myself so I can clean-up at the same time!
Once in Lion, click on the Apple and do a software update. For sure, there are some new updates to apply.
Then, let's install Homebrew (just one line, isn't that great?). First, start the Terminal application (you will find it in Utilities in the Launchpad). Then, copy and paste the following line.
Homebrew uses "live" recipees stored on Github. The behaviour described hereby might change in the future. So, if you see a discrepancy, please let me know so I can update them.
Yes. Install Xcode after Homebrew, as stated on the web page. Download it from the App Store.
Note: At some point during the install, it might ask you to quit iTunes, although it does not seem to be running. This is due do the iTunes Helper that might be still running. Open "Activity Monitor", search for the process iTunes Helper and kill it. The install will continue.
Now let's install some basic packages that we all love and cherish.
You have to agree that this is cool. No sources to download and untar, no configure command to run, … Homebrew takes care of doing all that. Of course, we don't have as much control, but this is fine with me so far.
Very important: read the text that Homebrew dumps at the end and follow the instructions. Otherwise, you will have all kinds of problems. If you want those messages back, use this command: brew info mysql.
But if I check the processes running on the Mac (ps -ef | grep mysql), MySQL server seems to be up and running.  Strange!
I also like to apply some changes to the default configuration. When you import one of your SQL backups, the default max_allowed_packet might be too small. So I like to boost it to 64M.
Oh well. This is always the worst thing to install on Mac OS X. I had so many problems yesterday installing it that it's worth explaining how I got it running.
Now you should have the following error (if not, you're lucky and most likely the ghostcript brew recipe was fixed).
To fix this, follow the instructions here and install once again ghostscript.
Now that we have the foundation installed, let's have fun with the Ruby Version Manager. RVM keeps multiple ruby environments isolated from each other. Each one has its own ruby version (compiled from source) and its own gems (which is awesome). You can also create "gemsets" to isolate even more projects that share the same ruby.
So instead of using the Lion out-of-the-box Ruby , let's set-up an environment for 1.8.6.
Important: do not forget to complete the install by performing 3 steps that are shown to you.
Then, let's install our first ruby.
This will install everything in the .rvm folder in your home folder. If you change your mind later, it's easy to uninstall: rvm implode.
You can confirm the installation by running rvm list.
That's it. You should be good to go now. I strongly suggest that you read on how to create and use gem sets.
Have fun, and "long live to Ruby on Rails"!
Please comment if you see an error in here so I can update it. Thanks!
Last week-end, I purchased a used PowerMac G4 Cube, an iconic product in the Mac community. I was wondering what I could do with it, given its performance limitation.
I thought of using it to rip some of my DVDs so I could watch the TV shows on my iPad. But the cube does not have the power to encode in X264. A 24 minutes episode was requiring 8 hours of encoding… That's insane!
Since I spend almost all my time in Ruby on Rails, why not setting up Rails on the cube, with nginx, Passenger and SQLite.
I could install Ruby using the great RubyOSX one-click install, but I wanted to make sure I had the full control on what I install. So I decided to install sources and compile everything.
Tiger comes with a very old version of Ruby: 1.8.2. Let's upgrade it to a more recent version. I followed Hivelogic instructions for doing so.
Be patient when compiling Ruby… It's only a 450Mhz PowerPC computer!
Now that we have rubygems, let's install the sqlite3 adapter.
There is a good chance that we will need git for some plugins for our Rails application. So let's install this as well.
Now, the "piece de resistance": Rails. This is pretty straight forward. Let's install it, without the documentation. Development will not be done on the G4 Cube. We will use Capistrano to remotely deploy our apps on it.
We need to install Passenger first, because we will need a passenger-nginx module later.
We could have installed nginx using Passenger, but let's take the complex route (Passenger has not been tested on Tiger).
When running "configure", at some point, you should get *** Phusion Passenger support files have been successfully compiled ***. That's a good sign!
Now let's create a script to automatically start nginx (thanks to Trevor for some hints).
If nginx did not start, look at the possible errors in /usr/local/nginx/logs/error.log.
Let's create a dummy Rails app to test our set-up.
Now, let's configure nginx. Instead of creating virtual servers for each Rails app, let's put them all under the same virtual server. This way, we won't have to create special hostnames and different server sections in the nginx configuration. And we will be able to access the applications by pointing to the G4 Cube ip address. We just need to make sure Passenger is aware of that by using the passenger_base_uri directive.
Now, the moment of truth. Rush to Safari and go to http://localhost/foo. After a few seconds (Passenger must start the app), you should get the bars scaffold.
Excellent! We now have a fully functional system for hosting utility apps on my home network. The next step is to write the apps!
Sometimes, I can't believe the amount of work I can accomplish with Ruby on Rails. Today, I finished coding a RSS feed aggregator that generates aggregated RSS feeds for a Joomla web site (it merges posts from multiple feeds into one single daily feed for Joomla).
It took only 19 hours to do all that. And it could have been faster if rendering the aggregated feed in Joomla would have been a lot easier (SimplePie does not support the "source" tag in RSS 2, but it does in Atom).
I'm very happy with the result. I wonder if the same results could be achieved using another framework, such as .Net or PHP, in the same amount of time. I think it would take more time, but hey, my opinion is biased.
Long live to Ruby on Rails!
Yesterday, I migrated to Snow Leopard. After a day of file transfers, disk formatting, apps installation, password and license keys recovery, I finally was ready to install the Rails stack. It's great to do a clean install, we can get rid of the crap that was installed in the last 2 years.
Today, I spent a few hours on the Rails stack. And I ran into some problems that I need to share with you because I didn't find an answer on the net.
I had to install the Rails stack, the framework I use in most (if not all) my projects. The challenge was that I still have a few Rails projects that run under 1.2.x. And Rails 1.2.x is not a good friend of Ruby 1.8.7, the version of ruby that ships with Snow Leopard.
Back on Tiger, I was using the amazing Locomotive application, which was a way to have dedicated environments for rails applications. Then, when I moved to Leopard, Locomotive was not supported and I had to deal with all the apps sharing the same gems, same ruby and same everything. Fortunately, ruby 1.8.6 was handling my Rails 1.2.x projects properly. I was also unsing Capistrano 1.4.2 along side 2.5.2 to deploy those old projects (i.e. cap _1.4.2_ deploy_with_migrations).
Now on Snow Leopard, I wanted to keep this flexibility. I looked at different ways to set-up Rails on my Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo). The one on the Rails wiki was interesting, and I was used to this set-up, but I wanted to do a bit more. I remembered that a new package manager was borned this year: homebrew. I heard some good things about it. And my last wish was to have multiple versions of Ruby on my system. This guide was a really good "instructor" on using RVM, the Ruby Version Manager. Using RVM, you can have ruby 1.8.6, 1.8.7, 1.9.1 and even jruby and ree (Ruby Enterprise Edition). This is cool, I will finally have a chance to start testing with 1.9.1 and eventually start new projects with it.
So I installed all that using my own recipee (which follows next), and everything was working fine with Ruby 1.8.7 and Rails 2.3.5. When I started to use Ruby 1.8.6, my rails apps were hanging so bad, I was forced to "kill -9" the processes (CTRL-C was not working). Anytime the Rails environment was loading, the process would hang.
After a few hours of investigation, I found out that the problem was with RMagick. And the problem was due to the use of NSLinkModule functions in dln.c (ruby 1.8.6 source code). Thanks to RVM, we have access to the source code of ruby. After applying a patch to ruby 1.8.6, as described in the bug report, everything started to work.
So here we go, follow me through the installation of the Rails stack on Snow Leopard.
Note 1: I did a clean install of Snow Leopard. Not sure that my recipe will work on a Snow Leopard migration. It might, but you will have to reinstall some 32-bit gems that compile some binary stuff.
If you are still on Leopard, prior to migrate to Snow Leopard, find an empty drive and use SuperDuper to clone your hard drive. This is an excellent backup solution (you can boot from the backup drive).
Format your drive and installer Snow Leopard.
We could use MacPorts, but Homebrew takes less space (it uses what we already have on Mac OS X) and it does not require being root. And Ryan Bates recommends it.
As mentioned on Homebrew's wiki, you can install it anywhere, but lots of 3rd party solutions expect to have things in /usr/local. And Homebrew's files are well isolated and the uninstall is well documented. So there is no danger installing it under /usr/local.
So let's change the owner of the /usr/local folder (otherwise, we always have to switch to super user). I know, this is not standard practice, but hey, we're on a mac and most likely you will be the only one using stuff in /usr/local.
Then, let's install Homebrew (just one line, isn't that great?).
You have to agree that this is cool. No sources to download and untar, no configure to run, … Homebrew takes care of doing all that. Of course, we don't have as much control, but this is fine with me so far.
Then, let's start the server and also install the launcher.
Now that we have the foundation installed, let's implement the Ruby Version Manager. RVM keeps multiple ruby environments isolated from each other. Each one has its own ruby version (compiled from source) and its own gems (which is awesome).
So instead of using the Snow Leopard out-of-the-box Ruby , let's set-up an environment for 1.8.7.
This will install everything in the .rvm folder in your home. If you change your mind later, it's easy to uninstall: rvm implode.
Now, to really see the power of isolated environments, launch bdoc from the command line. See? Only the gems that we just installed.
Then, you can install additional gems, or go into one of your Rails 2.x project and issue rake gems:install.
Now that we have ruby 1.8.7 working, let's install version 1.8.6 so that we can do maintenance in our old Rails projects running under 1.2.1. And let's make 1.8.7 the default interpreter when we open a new bash session.
Now, we have to install a backport from ruby 1.8.7 (patch) so that we can use RMagick under ruby 1.8.6 on Snow Leopard. I suspect that it also fixes some other weird bugs.
Finally, let's install the gems that we need.
And that's it. We now have 2 isolated interpreters and their gems. We are now in business for eventually migrating some projects to ruby 1.9.
Have fun, and continue to enjoy Ruby on Rails.
300M US$ par jours sur Twitter!
Pour la première fois depuis mon arrivée sur Twitter, j'ai décidé de ne plus suivre un collègue. Quand le gars envoie 88 tweets plus ou moins pertinents à mes yeux, et ce dans une journée, je considère ça comme du spam et ca m'agresse. Donc allez hop, good bye!
Entre 10 et 20 par jours – et avec de l'information pertinente – vous êtes un bon twitterien.
Entre 50 et 75, soyez avisé que si vous tweeter des niaiseries, ceux qui vous suivent vont se tanner assez vite merci.
Autres statistiques fort intéressantes, comme par exemple le nombre moyens de followers.
On peut maintenant se poser la question: mais où donc les twitteriens trouvent-ils le temps à consacrer à Twitter? En d'autres mots, combien de temps passent-ils sur Twitter par jours? Attachez votre tuque: en moyenne 2.75 heures par jours (selon cette étude)!
Qu'obtient-on? Les entreprises "investissent" 300 millions $US par jours en temps d'employés sur Twitter! Espérons que les retombées sont là!
Et on ne compte pas la possible perte de concentration tout au long de la journée, pour ceux qui "checkent" constamment Twitter.
Mais il faut aussi avouer que de temps en temps, on trouve sur Twitter de l'information qui peut bénéficier à notre entreprise/employeur. Ce n'est donc pas du temps perdu à 100%.
Mais tout de même, comme dirait André Ducharme de RBOs dans un de leur sketches: "Pensez-y"!


text:
Q: Accumulate function does not accumulate fact I am working on reduction of electrical circuit and having difficulties with serial connection. I have modeled branch with two nodes, and in order to detect serial connection I have written following rule:
(defrule serial
    ?b1 <- (Branch (node2 ?n1) (resistance ?v1))
    ?b2 <- (Branch (node1 ?n1) (resistance ?v2) (node2 ?n3))
    ?c <- (accumulate (bind ?count 0)
          (bind ?count (+ ?count 1))
          ?count
          (Branch (node1 ?n1))
          )
    (test (eq ?c 1))
     ?c1 <- (accumulate (bind ?count1 0)
          (bind ?count1 (+ ?count1 1))
          ?count1
          (Branch (node2 ?n1))
          )
    (test (eq ?c1 1))
     =>
    (modify ?b1 (node2 ?n3) (resistance (+ ?v1 ?v2)))
    (retract ?b2)
    )

I want to count how many branches have same starting node, if there is more than one,than this is not serial connection. Unfortunately this count returns 1 for following branches:
f-1   (MAIN::Branch (name AB) (node1 A) (node2 B) (resistance 2))
f-2   (MAIN::Branch (name BC) (node1 B) (node2 C) (resistance 2))
f-3   (MAIN::Branch (name BC) (node1 B) (node2 T) (resistance 5.0))

and treats f-1 and f-2 as serial connection. Is there any workaround for this problem?

A: The rule does not fire for the set AB, BC and BT, and I suppose it should not, since B connects to C and T. And I think a node that can be eliminated must not have more than one predecessor and not more than one successor. Therefore I suggest this rule:
(defrule myserial
  ?b1 <- (Branch (node1 ?n1) (node2 ?n2) (resistance ?v1))
  ?b2 <- (Branch (node1 ?n2) (node2 ?n3) (resistance ?v2))
  (not (Branch (node1 ~?n1) (node2 ?n2)))
  (not (Branch (node1 ?n2) (node2 ~?n3)))
=>
  (modify ?b1 (node2 ?n3) (resistance (+ ?v1 ?v2)))
  (retract ?b2)
)


"Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in baptism is indissoluble" (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 298).
St. George's celebrates baptism of adults and children on certain holy days every year at the 8:45 service, The Table, and the 11:15 service. There are a limited number of slots at each service. All baptism dates currently available for scheduling can be reviewed on the Baptism Request Form.
For the baptism of children, we ask that at least one parent should be a baptized, practicing Christian and a member of St. George's Church. An active life in God's church is essential to Christian faith and discipleship for both the newly baptized and his or her family.
In the Diocese of Tennessee, the Sacrament of Marriage (Holy Matrimony) is a solemn public covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God. At least one of the parties must be an active baptized member at St. George's. Follow this link to learn more about weddings at St. George's.
The Sacrament of Confession can be scheduled at any time with a priest and is strictly a voluntary request on the part of a penitent.
Questions? Contact any of our clergy at 615-385-2150.
A member of the clergy should be contacted as soon as possible after a death of a church member has occurred. Although burial is not a Sacrament in the Episcopal Church, we offer a holy time to pay respects to the deceased. View our Funeral Guidelines for funeral services at St. George's.
Funerals currently scheduled at St. George's can be found online here.
The Columbarium of St. George's Episcopal Church is a consecrated burial ground, set apart for the interment of the ashes of members of the parish and their families. The Columbarium is located in a courtyard adjacent to the Jane Tompkins Weeks Chapel. Plots may be purchased at any time.


Check out Bad Thing by TwinSetterz on BTRU Entertainment. After blessing us with their single 'One Day' the TwinSetterz decided to double up (for the sake of being twins) with a second single in 'Bad Thing'. Sharing both songs originally on Soundcloud where we ran across their music, the duo has recently started sharing their best songs on to the platform and have been buzzing since. With polished songs that you can even imagine hearing on the radio, its not long before the TwinSetterz pick up a mainstream buzz. You can support the wave and hear more music by connecting with the duo on Soundcloud.


As an ED Educator I am frequently tasked with training nurses who are new to the Emergency Room. It is true that every nursing unit has their own culture, practices, and sometimes jargon. But, it seems that the ER is just special in how we approach patient care (I'm admittedly biased). But a concept called "schemas" is one way to approach the sometimes demanding and rapid-fire workflow. Conditions in the ER can change minute by minute so nurses (and techs and providers) must be flexible in their thinking. They must also be quick to change direction when needed. This is where schemas come into play. I first utilized schemas as a paramedic early in my career, but didn't realize what they were until I learned the concept later in educational theory.
So what is a schema? Schemas have many definitions but a good one is, "A schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information" (Cherry, 2015). Piaget, a well-known psychologist, coined the term and popularized the concept (Cherry, 2015). Piaget recognized that we group information into mental packages, which are schemas. We all do this without thinking all the time. By describing schemas in this way, we can make it easier to develop them.
A new nurse will have to think about each step (in a process is called conscious competence). Over time and repetition, this schema will be strengthened and become unconscious. The key is to develop these schemas in a way that makes sense to you. You would start to build this schema by observing the procedure, studying the policy, and practicing.
There are obviously many, many, schemas in play in the course of a routine shift. The challenge for the new ED nurse, is to start to organize what you are learning as you gain experience. Since the schema is about organizing information, you clearly must have the information to start with. I recommend an excellent text, Sheehy's Manual of Emergency Care published by the Emergency Nurses Association (I am a member of ENA but have no other ties to the organization). The information is organized by problems and gives step-by-step advice on what you need to know for the pathologies you will see in the ER.
You also have many resources at your disposal such as policies and procedures published by your organization. You can study TNCC or other sources. What do you see your coworkers do? But ultimately you should be prepared to answer the question in your mind, "what do I do if my patient has X"? This will prepare you for when you have to do it. Think of the schema as a package you will open that contains everything you need to know.
All nurses know how the body works, and what wellness is. But the approach of the ED nurse is to drill down into what can go wrong. Injury and illness produce somewhat predicable patterns within the body. So based on a complaint, an experienced nurse will start their assessment and test, reject, and eventually arrive at the correct interventions using their schemas. This includes ruling out injury or illness based on the situation.
So as an example, a patient is coming in via EMS with a leg fracture. Just based on that information, the nurse can probably predict what assessment and interventions will be needed. The schema on fractures would include: mechanism of injury, physical assessment, x-ray, pain control, infection control, splinting, and education (among others). Obviously the nurse must be flexible because the information could be incorrect to start with. If the patient takes a blood thinner, for example, that would add another schema for that issue. Or if the injury was the result of domestic violence, that would add yet another schema.
Schemas can be described as a tool kit. Visualize a huge backpack with all your ER nursing knowledge. For each patient, you will take out smaller packages that contain each schema, customized for what they need. I made reference earlier to testing and rejecting schemas (you might call this ruling-out). If a patient is short of breath for example, you should "test" each schema within that problem. If during your assessment you find their lungs are clear, you could put your asthma schema back in your tool kit, but you would continue to test other schemas.
Cherry (2015) writes that there can be problems with schemas. You must be flexible and be able to incorporate new information into your schemas. You can't accept the schema as an "end product" that is perfect and needs no revision. If you do, you will have trouble in adapting to changes that will inevitably occur.
Hopefully, you recognize the schemas that you know and use. By understanding how they work, they can be used to help you develop and improve your practice. Take a problem, investigate all the possible actions and solutions, and this is your schema.
For the new nurse, develop your schemas as you gain experience. For each patient problem, think about the care that was given and the outcomes. As I wrote earlier, use the reference materials at your disposal to war-game all the possibilities.


The Vermont Workers Center hosted a two-part process in this period. In September 2015 they brought together their Human Rights Council for a People's Convention/Just Transition Assembly planning meeting that included testing out some of the curriculum and discussing the links between the Human Rights and Just Transition frameworks. Then in late April 2016, the VT People's Convention/Just Transition Assembly brought together over 400 adults, youth and kids to strategize about Just Transition in Vermont, making links to migrant rights, feminism, anti-militarism and healthcare, and concluding with a May Day march.
Check out photos from the event and the event website!
Jobs with Justice engages workers and allies in campaigns to win justice in workplaces and in communities where working families live.


text:
THE BEST FILMS IN ACTION, DRAMA, HORROR, AND MORE
Film Review: Bleed for This
Miles Teller swings his hardest to keep Ben Younger's film fresh
on November 15, 2016, 11:30am
Next month, Rocky turns 40 years old. It's hard to believe we're four decades removed from John G. Avildsen and Sylvester Stallone's Academy Award-winning boxing drama, but the years are easier to stomach when you actually consider how many similarly acclaimed titles have followed the Italian Stallion up those steps. Since then, we've seen 1980's Raging Bull, 1999's The Hurricane, 2004's Million Dollar Baby, 2005's Cinderella Man, 2010's The Fighter, and six more Rocky films (including Ryan Coogler's Creed). That's without mentioning the B-level fluff, too, from this year's forgettable Hands of Stone to last year's already forgotten Southpaw to the great beyond of mediocrity consisting of late-hour cash grabs (see: Grudge Match) and Meg Ryan as a coach (see: Against the Ropes). None of this is really surprising; after all, when something obliterates the box office and impresses critics, as Rocky did back in 1976, Hollywood will milk the thing until it turns to dust. But, as you can see from the range of impressive films above, the genre has endured over time, namely because those filmmakers remembered the most important rule of the match: A boxing movie is only as great as its story outside the ring.
To his credit, filmmaker Ben Younger has one hell of a story on his hands with Bleed for This. It's based on the true life tale of former world champion boxer Vinny Pazienza, who refused to retire from the sport, even after he suffered a near-fatal spinal injury from a serious car accident, and became the second fighter in boxing history to win both the lightweight and junior middleweight world championships. It's an interesting narrative that should arguably be turned into a film, one that deserves a spot in the never-ending glut of boxing dramas. What's more, Younger also nabbed an inspired cast in Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal, Ciarán Hinds, and Ted Levine. The problem is that, for all its charms (and there are some), Bleed for This never finds its own identity, pulling its punches with regards to character development and eschewing any sense of a nuance for plot-driving tropes — there's the rise, the fall, the montage, and the win. Despite Pazienza's own pitfalls and perils, the film never registers as anything more than a boilerplate boxing drama, which is a shame because the material is all there, it's just hamstrung by a flimsy screenplay that refuses to let its characters exist on their own.
But they try, especially Teller and Eckhart. Both actors are coming off a series of lows themselves and there's a gravitas to their performances that speaks to this reality. Teller still hasn't found the right post-Whiplash role, having slummed it through miserable DTV rom-coms (Get a Job, Two Night Stand), piss-poor popcorn fare (Insurgent, Fantastic Four), and straight-up misfires (War Dogs), but he's alive as Pazienza, echoing his muscular turn in Damien Chazelle's Oscar-nominated debut. The guy does some heavy lifting here, both literally and figuratively, and he truly shines midway through, around the time when Pazienza starts prepping his post-traumatic comeback. There's one scene, late into the second act, when the doctor removes his halo, and his reactions are so livid and so real — it's great stuff. As for Eckhart, who plays his down-on-his-luck trainer Kevin Rooney, there's a certain pathos to his role that stems from the simple fact that he's really the only salient figurehead for a good two-thirds of the film. Sadly, he's straddled with this addiction narrative that falls through, but you can see Eckhart rise above the material and, along with his turn in this year's Sully, it's nice to have him back.
That leaves Younger. In hindsight, the 44-year-old filmmaker likely sees Bleed for This as a comeback of sorts himself. His last film, 2005's Prime, managed to charm the box office, but also left critics cold, disappointing those who thought he might be on to something after he turned heads with 2000's surprise hit crime drama, Boiler Room. So, there's something to be said about this particular film and how Pazienza's narrative parallels the talent at hand. Much like Teller and Eckhart, Younger tries his darnedest, too, and you can see it in a few of his more stylistic decisions, from the silent, intimate portraits that open the film to the way he attempts to stay at an arm's length from the actual narrative to a couple of riveting moments during the final match. Still, he often leans heavily on motifs from past boxing dramas and sometimes during the exact same scenes; for instance, Coogler would probably smirk at the mini-montage that rushes through Pazienza's head before he comes back swinging. It's orchestrated the same exact way as Creed and arrives right at the same time … and this is supposed to be The Big Moment. Sure, it's rousing and hits the soul in the right way, but it doesn't feel earned — and that's a big problem when you're trying to knock us out.
It's just not that simple anymore.
Nicki Minaj turns Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles" into "Black Barbies" — listen
Dawes announce massive North American tour, perform on Kimmel Live — watch

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Are Rowan Tree Berries Poisonous?
Credit: Tim Green/CC-BY-2.0
World's Most Poisonous Plants - What Is The Most Toxic Plant?
healthprep.com/Poisonous-Plant
Find out how to detect and identify these extremely poisonous plants right now. Discover the most poisonous plants in the world and how they affect the human body.
Raw rowan tree berries are poisonous as they contain parasorbic acid. However, if they are cooked well, the parasorbic acid turns into sorbic acid, which is not poisonous to ingest.
The rowan tree, or Sorbus aucuparia, is a fast-growing tree with red berries that grows plentifully in Europe, Africa and Asia. It is a small tree that has gray-brown bark and compound leaves. The flowers on a rowan are sweet-smelling and creamy white in color. The sweet scent of the blooms attracts many flying insects. Along with oak and birch trees, rowan trees are very common in the Caledonian forest region.
Are Rowan Berries Poisonous to Dogs?
Are Laurel Berries Poisonous?
Are Honeysuckle Berries Poisonous to Humans?
What Type of Tree Has Red Berries on It?


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Paul Pelosi Avoiding Jail for DUI Criticized: He Could've 'Killed Someone'
Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, will avoid jail time after pleading guilty on Tuesday to driving under the influence of alcohol leading to a car crash in May—prompting criticism from some conservatives who argued he should face a steeper sentence.
Pelosi, 82, was arrested in Napa County on May 28 after his Porsche became involved in a car crash with a Jeep, causing "major collision damage" to both vehicles. He was arrested with a 0.082 percent blood alcohol content, higher than the legal limit of 0.08, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation, according to San Fransisco-based news station KGO-TV. Pelosi already served two days in jail and received "conduct credit" for another two, according to the Associated Press. He will work for one day in a court work program instead of serving the remaining fifth day in jail.
Pelosi will spend one year with an ignition interlock device, which requires him to submit a breathalyzer test before operating his vehicle, according to KGO.
He will also have to pay $7,000 in fines, the AP reported.
Paul Pelosi is seen in a Washington, D.C., meeting on May 16. Some conservatives criticized his sentence on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty and avoided further jail time for a May DUI.
Some conservatives and Pelosi critics took issue with the sentence, arguing that he should face more punishment for the DUI.
"Another slap on the wrist for the elite. No big deal he could have killed someone," tweeted talk show host Joe Pags Pagliarulo.
another slap on the wrist for the elite. No big deal he could have killed someone. https://t.co/ZYVC8LiKi5
Paul Pelosi is clearly a low life.
— Joe Pags Pagliarulo (@JoeTalkShow) August 23, 2022
Conservative commentator Brigitte Gabriel wrote: "Paul Pelosi could have killed someone. Anyone else would be facing the possibility of jailtime."
Paul Pelosi could have killed someone. Anyone else would be facing the possibility of jailtime.
— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) August 23, 2022
Nick Adams, another conservative commentator, wrote: "Paul Pelosi deserves jailtime."
Paul Pelosi deserves jailtime.
— Nick Adams (@NickAdamsinUSA) August 23, 2022
Despite these criticisms, his sentence appeared to be fairly standard for a first-time DUI offender in California, who typically receive probation, rather than a jail sentence, according to DrivingLaws.org.
"It's possible for a first offender to receive 48 hours to six months in jail. But if the judge orders probation—which occurs in most cases—there's no mandatory jail time. Oftentimes, judges are lenient on first offenders and don't order time in jail as part of the sentence," the website reads.
On Fox News, criminal defense attorney Jonna Spilbor was pressed about whether there was "favorable treatment" for Pelosi. She said avoiding jail time in a case like Pelosi's is "pretty standard."
"I've handled thousands of DWI or DUI cases in my day and this case was entirely run of the mill, but for one thing—and that's the defendant himself," she said.
Newsweek reached out to Speaker Pelosi's office for comment.
New monkeypox treatment trial launched by Covid researchers
Chantel Everett, says her 'intuition is never wrong' as Pedro Jimeno posts mystery woman


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Our most robust examples showing all sorts of implementations
can be found in our sister library [lightning-bolts](https://lightning-bolts.readthedocs.io/en/latest/convolutional.html#gpt-2).

______________________________________________________________________

## Basic examples

In this folder we add 3 simple examples:

- [MNIST Classifier](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/blob/master/pl_examples/basic_examples/simple_image_classifier.py) (defines the model inside the `LightningModule`).
- [Image Classifier](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/blob/master/pl_examples/basic_examples/backbone_image_classifier.py) (trains arbitrary datasets with arbitrary backbones).
- [Autoencoder](https://github.com/PyTorchLightning/pytorch-lightning/blob/master/pl_examples/basic_examples/autoencoder.py) (shows how the `LightningModule` can be used as a system)

______________________________________________________________________

## Domain examples

This folder contains older examples. You should instead use the examples
in [lightning-bolts](https://lightning-bolts.readthedocs.io/en/latest/convolutional.html#gpt-2)
for advanced use cases.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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203rd RED HORSE helps with AASF improvements
Mr. Mike Vrabel
– September 3, 2020Posted in: 203rd RED HORSE, 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation, Air Guard, Army Guard
Virginia National Guard Airmen assigned to the Virginia Beach-based 203rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers Squadron use heavy equipment to remove a large berm from a plot of land July 30, 2020, at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Sandston, Virginia. (U.S. National Guard photo by Mike Vrabel)
SANDSTON, Va. — Virginia National Guard Airmen assigned to the Virginia Beach-based 203rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers Squadron, 192nd Wing, completed several improvement projects July 27 – Aug. 7, 2020, at the Virginia National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility in Sandston, Virginia.
During the two-week project, the RED HORSE engineers removed a large earthen berm to make room Aviators to conduct Army Combat Fitness Tests, as well as made some improvements to the facility's flight line.
For the berm removal, the engineers used heavy equipment including a backhoe, a front loader and an excavator to remove approximately 4,000 tons of earth. Once the opened-up space is graded and planted, the result will be a new area that allows Aviators at the AASF to exercise and conduct ACFTs, according to Col. William X. Taylor, Virginia's state aviation officer and commander of the VNG's Army Aviation Support Facility.
"This berm removal allows aviation to have an area to work-out and conduct an ACFT," said Taylor. "This allows AV to meet it requirements, improve morale, and provides long-term benefit for the units."
On the flight line, the RED HORSE engineers conducted maintenance work to important grounding points and aircraft tie-downs to help ensure safety to aircraft and personnel alike.
"The flight line work provides the ability to safeguard our expensive assets and increases operational readiness and overall unit readiness," explained Taylor. "We only have so many parking pads. If we can't ground them properly, we increase our risk every time we refuel and during weather events. We need to protect our personnel and assets and ensure they are ready when called."
Before the RED HORSE could begin working not he projects, they had to overcome some unique challenges, according to Lt. Col. Jeffery Getz, the 203rd's commander.
"COVID-19 restrictions caused delays in material shipping and required extra social distancing practices," said Getz. "The weather front from Hurricane Isaias caused weather delays and extra preparedness steps to ensure equipment was not damaged."
Besides the obvious benefits to personnel and assets, having the RED HORSE perform these projects saves the AASF a significant sum of money since the work would have otherwise been contracted out, Taylor said.
"The benefits in costs and labor are huge. They did the study and work," said Taylor. "We wouldn't have been able to do the berm work without them. The cost would have been prohibitive."
It also provided practical job experience and time on equipment for the RED HORSE's Airmen, critical training for future federal missions.
"We get free labor and they use their equipment," said Taylor. "They do what they do in theatre and get experience, and we benefit cost-wise as a result.
Getz concurred and said working in the AASF environment provided additional benefits.
"The RED HORSE mission requires a breadth of expeditionary construction skills," said Getz. "Having the opportunity to interact with a live active airfield while performing the mission better prepares the unit for realistic wartime experiences."
The 203rd RED HORSE provides a highly mobile civil engineering response force to support contingency operations worldwide.
"We are the Air Force's heavy construction capability, responsible for building the airfields and operational facilities in an expeditionary environment to give a location for the air frames to land, refuel, and re-arm to continue their missions," said Getz. "This could be airlift, air to ground, or air-to-air combat and enables the Air Force to fly, fight, and win. We have proven our capabilities since 9-11 and are now utilized by all the services to provide airfields or facilities to allow them to complete their missions."
Gate City-based detachment named top unit in Va. Army Guard
#StayHome & COVID-19: Reflections from VNG's Director of Psychological Health
29th Infantry Division begins mission in the Middle East


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CBS Beats Q4 Earnings Estimates And Says It Will Add $1.5B To Share Buys This Quarter
By David Lieberman
David Lieberman
Financial Editor
@DeadlineDavidL
More Stories By David
Viacom Secures Data Leak That Research Firm Deemed Potentially "Catastrophic"
T-Mobile And Sprint Shares Rise On Report Of "Active Talks" About A Merger
Herb Scannell Tapped To Be CEO Of Mitú, Latino-Focused Video Producer
CBS shares are up in post market trading after it reported the ambitious stock repurchase plan — bringing Q1 buying to $2B — and Q4 results that exceeded forecasts just about everywhere except in local broadcasting and its billboard operation. The company generated net earnings of $470M, +19.6% vs the period last year, on revenues of $3.91B, +5.8%. The top line exceeded predictions for $3.82B. Adjusted earnings at 78 cents a share topped the consensus estimate for 76 cents. The Entertainment unit, which includes the CBS network and stations, drove the results with revenues +11% to $2.21B and cash flow (measured by operating income before depreciation and amortization) +27% to $418M. The company says much of the increase was due to a rise in sales of re-runs including Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, and Elementary into domestic syndication along with other deals with streaming services. Ad sales at the TV network were up 4%. At Cable Networks, which includes Showtime, revenues were up 9% to $477M with cash flow +8% to $199M. Here, too, the company benefited from licensing deals along with increases in Showtime's rates and subscriptions. CBS' local TV and radio stations couldn't match late 2012 which included election advertising: Local Broadcasting revenues fell 9% to $719M — TV was -12% and radio -4% — with cash flow down 19% to $263M. If you factor out the political ads, local TV would have been +9%. Meanwhile, the Simon & Schuster publishing unit was helped by the odd bedfellow combination of Rush Limbaugh (with Rush Revere And The Brave Pilgrims) and Doris Kearns Goodwin (The Bully Pulpit). Revenues were up 5% to $225M with cash flow +19% to $37M. And at CBS Outdoor, which the company plans to spin off this quarter, revenues were +2% to $347M with cash flow +28% to $120M. Once the IPO takes place, CBS will be "much closer to a pure content Company, with about half of our revenue coming from steady and recurring sources," CEO Les Moonves says. "Looking ahead, we are extremely excited about all the opportunities that we have in the marketplace that's exploding with new ways to engage with the best content."
Here's how the revenue mix looks:
Netflix Stock Gets Pummeled, Closing At Lowest Level Since April 2020 After Disappointing Earnings & Wall Street Downgrades - Update
'Peter Pan & Wendy' Star Alexander Molony Signs with Atlas Artists
AFL-CIO's Department For Professional Employees Urges Congress To Approve Increased Funding For The Arts & Public Broadcasting
Sofia Vergara Signs With CAA


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Book Review: The Radium Girls
January 27, 2018 November 3, 2017 by cupe1989
Library Workers + Union = Labour Book Reviews!
This post debuts a new feature on the CUPE Local 1989 website: labour-themed book reviews and readers' advisory lists. (Readers' Advisory is library-speak for suggesting books or movies you might enjoy.) If you read a book or see a movie that you'd like us to review, drop us a line at president@cupe1989.org.
If you're a certain age, you may remember clocks and watches with glowing green dials. The dials were painted with radium, the radioactive element discovered by Marie Curie. We had clocks like this when I was growing up. I have a distinct memory of my mother saying, "The women who worked in the factories where these were made got very sick. They had to put the paintbrushes in their mouths, in order to paint the tiny numbers and dots, and they all got sick, and some died."
I never forgot that — yet I never heard it mentioned anywhere else. Who were those women? Why were they putting a radioactive substance in their mouths? When I saw the title The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, I knew that someone finally had answered those questions. The story of those women was finally told.
And what a story it is.
The young, working-class women in Orange, New Jersey, and Ottawa, Illinois, who painted radium dials thought they had it made. Not only was the pay better than most work available to women, but they got to work with radium, the exciting glow-in-the-dark substance that everyone was talking about. When one "girl" got sick and died, a doctor ruled the cause of death was syphilis (despite zero evidence and the impossibility of that claim). Another death was ruled pneumonia (also wrong). But as more and more of the workers became sick — with horrific and inexplicable symptoms — the pattern became obvious.
When the watch-painting first began, in the late 1920s, the danger of radioactive substances was still largely unknown. Faced with suspicions as multiple workers became sick, the company commissioned a study… then suppressed the findings.
As the women lost their teeth, suffered broken bones, lost their hair, lost pregnancies, became weak, and died, their employers worked overtime at suppressing the truth, denying responsibility, refusing to pay for medical care, and blaming the workers themselves.
If this story was fiction, the companies' actions would be barely credible; readers would say the author laid it on too thick, making the company out to be monsters. Some of the dirty dealings left me gasping. At one point, the women were all seeing the same doctor. They didn't know that the doctor worked for the company. Then it turned out he wasn't even a doctor! Officially, the women died of radium poisoning. But this book leaves no doubt: these workers were murdered.
Labour laws at the time were in their infancy: if a disease wasn't on a short list of specific conditions, workers had no legal recourse. What's more, even those few conditions were subject to a strict statute of limitations — for which radium poisoning, by definition, would never qualify.
The media and publicity were much different, too. The two factories in two different states, with workers suffering through the same ordeals, were unknown to each other. When the New Jersey cases finally garnered national and international attention, the workers in the Illinois factory realized they were in the same situation. And when the Illinois women took the company to court, the town turned against them. With the country in the grip of the Great Depression, anyone who could supply jobs was welcome. (This itself is a sad and telling commentary about working-class life.)
Sick, disabled, and dying, the women were truly on their own. But they fought back, and they didn't give up. Their fight changed the world. Labour laws changed, scientific and medical knowledge were advanced, and precedence was set for greater corporate accountability.
Fans of Hidden Figures and the less famous but equally amazing Glass Universe will want to read this book. If you enjoy hidden histories, stories of struggle and perseverance, and real-life heroes a la Erin Brockovich and Karen Silkwood, this book is for you.
My only criticism of The Radium Girls is the writing itself. It could have used another round of editing to tighten up excessive detail and delete some unprofessional colloquialisms. Whether anyone who is not a writer or editor will notice, I don't know. Any qualms I have about the language are far outweighed by the riveting story.
(Versions of this review has appeared on wmtc.ca and the Mississauga Library Nonfiction Book Blog.)
— Laura Kaminker
Categories News Post navigation
CUPE 1989 Celebrates Ontario Public Library Week
A Huge Win for Workers: Bill 148 Becomes Law


Usain Bolt has been seen in Lederhosen at the Munich Oktoberfest last week. The record breaking athlete could though not help to give the Oktoberfest 2014 a record breaking run.
The legendary Oktoberfest 2014 ended on Sunday. Again millions of beer fans from around the world gathered in Munich to celebrate, eat and get drunk. The Oktoberfest 2014 did not break any records though. There have been 6.3m visitors, which is 100,000 less than last year. More dramatic, the beer consume sank from 6.7m liter (Mass) to 6.5 million Mass. Even record breaker Usain Bolt could not lift the biggest beerfest in the world to a new record.
Usain Bolt was visiting the Octoberfest last week in full Bavarian Lederhosen outfit. He tweeted the photos below from his Oktoberfest experience.


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Q: How to integrate third party app apk in my android studio project? friends, i am making a messenger app in the android studio, I want to add Swift Braille Soft keyboard app APK in my app project.I want that when any person touch to type message just open Swift Braille Soft keyboard except default android keyboard.

A: You can try looking into integrating a 3rd party library called SwiftBraille. It may be what you are looking for.
And then to give the user a choice of keyboards to pick from, you can use:
InputMethodManager inputManager = (InputMethodManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
inputManager.showInputMethodPicker();

You can take a look this other answer if you are having trouble with switching keyboards.


The Poncho for iPhone 6 is a super tough water resistant slip on cover for your Quad Lock equipped iPhone 6. Made from crystal clear TPU, the Poncho adds an extra level of protection while keeping mud, rain, sweat and dust out of your iPhone's buttons and ports while you ride. The soft TPU casing allows all buttons to be accessed while covered and a thin film allows full functionality of the touch screen.
The Quad Lock Poncho is a super durable and water resistant cover which fits over your iPhone whilst it is in the Quad Lock case. If you have unfortunately been caught out in sudden down pour and have had to stop to remove your phone from the mount then the Poncho is the one for you. The Poncho is a super tough water resistant slip on cover for your Quad Lock equipped iPhone 6. Made from tough crystal clear TPU, the Poncho adds an extra level of protection while keeping mud, rain, sweat and dust out of your phone's buttons and ports while you ride. The soft TPU casing allows use of the volume and sleep/wake buttons and the thin screen cover allows full functionality of the touch screen. The Quad Lock Poncho is must, keeping your phone safe from the harmful natural elements that you face every time that you step out of your front door.
This poncho is warranted for one year from the date of purchase against manufacturing defects. Although this poncho will work well in all the conditions, it is NOT warranted against breakages caused during crash or fall situations. No such guarantee is given or should be perceived.


Gucci Mane has an estimated net worth of $500 thousand. Dropped The State vs. Radric Davis in December 2009 and promptly headed to jail to serve sentence for a previous parole violation. Released in May,Mane's decided to change his his label's name from So Icey Entertainment to 1017 Brick Squad Records. Gucci made the Forbes 2010 Hip-Hop's Top 20 Earners with $5 million,despite his penal hiatus thanks in part to a spate of lucrative guest appearances with the likes of Black Eyed Peas, Mario and Mariah Carey. New album tentatively The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted, was released on September 28, 2010.The first single from this release was titled "Gucci Time",produced by Swizz Beatz.
The below financial data is gathered and compiled by TheRichest analysts team to give you a better understanding of Gucci Mane Net Worth by breaking down the most relevant financial events such as yearly salaries, contracts, earn outs, endorsements, stock ownership and much more.


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HOME > Global
Secular Turks see red over airline's lipstick ban
Samaa Digital
ISTANBUL: Turkey's national airline has barred female flight attendants from wearing red lipstick and nail polish, striking a nerve among secular Turks worried the country is becoming more Islamic.Turkish Airlines, Europe's fourth-biggest carrier, said the ban was aimed at keeping crews "artless and well-groomed with makeup in pastel tones", as a natural look improved communication with passengers."As a consequence of our current cabin uniforms not including red, dark pink, et cetera, the use of lipstick and nail polish in these colors by our cabin crew impairs visual integrity," the statement said.Turkish Airlines declined a request for further comment.The guideline follows other restrictions on employees' appearance and on serving alcohol. Critics say they reflect the influence of the government's conservative religious values at the fast-growing state-run airline, one of Turkey's most recognized brands."This new guideline is totally down to Turkish Airlines management's desire to shape the company to fit its own political and ideological stance," Atilay Aycin, president of the airline's Hava-Is labor union, told Reuters."No one can deny that Turkey has become a more conservative, religious country."Turkey is 99 percent Muslim but the NATO state and European Union candidate has a secular constitution.Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which traces its roots to a banned Islamic party, has relaxed the state's control over the expression of religion, such as once-strict limits imposed on wearing the Islamic-style headscarf.Such restrictions were aimed at reining in Islamism and improving women's rights, but effectively prevented many devout women from studying at university or taking government jobs.Turkish Airlines scrapped its own ban on the headscarf more than a year ago, and covered women now work at check-in counters and at other positions in the company, Aycin said.Other Turkish carriers also have guidelines on the appearance of cabin personnel.HIDDEN AGENDA?The flag carrier caused a stir earlier this year when newspapers published mockups of a new Ottoman-style uniform for stewardesses with ankle-length dresses, a proposal the airline's management appears to have since abandoned.That was followed by a ban on alcohol on planes flying to most domestic destinations and some Islamic countries."They are objecting to the lipstick and nail polish that we have been using for years," said Asli Gokmen, 30, a flight attendant who lost her job with more than 300 others last year during a union protest and is petitioning for her position back.No current employees were available for comment.Turks worried the government is undermining the country's secular order see a hidden agenda.On Twitter, women posted pictures after applying red lipstick. One wrote: "Why not just ban stewardesses altogether so we can all breathe a sigh of relief?"Some male Twitter users were indignant over the insinuation that red lipstick would induce a sexual frenzy.Turkish Airlines passenger Ahmet Yerli, 33, said he did not think the new guideline was a sign of creeping Islamization but that the ban was still "absurd.""I've never heard of a plane crashing because of a women's lipstick," he said before his flight. – Reuters
airline	ban	lipstick	red	secular	turks
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YouTuber Jaclyn Hill faces backlash for selling 'hairy,' 'lumpy' lipsticks
No roads will be dug up in Quetta for the next six months
Trump lauds arrest of JuD's Hafiz Saeed
Muslim man assaulted for consuming beef soup in India
'Kidnapped' Indian man found waiting for his girlfriend in park
El Chapo expected to get life sentence from US judge


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Macoto Tezuka: Stardust & Cinema
by J. Fletcher|31 March 2022 31 March 2022 |Features, Interviews, Post Category
Although destiny can be a rather philosophical musing, certain individuals do seem more disposed to its sway via historical or genetic association. One such induvial who falls into this unique community of outliers would have to be Japanese multi-hyphenate, Macoto...
It's A Summer Movie!: Review
by J. Fletcher|21 February 2022 21 February 2022 |Film Reviews, Post Category
In what feels like a throwback to Japan's golden comedy era of the early 2000's, where films like Swing Club, Waterboys, DMC and Hula Girls enjoyed both box office and critical acclaim, It's a Summer Film! deftly manages to update...
Satoshi Kon: I'illisionniste: Review
by J. Fletcher|02 November 2021 25 February 2022 |Film Reviews, Post Category
Those familiar with the feature length anime genre know that the entire Western permeation of the artform lies with a handful of auteurs, Mamoru Oshii whose Ghost in The Shell delivered a masterful blend of science fiction and metaphysics with dark drama...
The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill: Review
After the overwhelming success and popularity of the first Fable (2019) film, it came as no surprise when the studio Shochiku announced a sequel had been fast-tracked, continuing the misadventures of Akira Sato, one of Japan's most notoriously efficient assassins,...
Hold Me Back: Review
by J. Fletcher|28 October 2021 26 February 2022 |Film Reviews, Post Category
Based on the 2020 novel from Risa Wataya, Hold Me Back takes an interesting approach to the modern day rom-com, delivering a poignant and moving glimpse into the lives of young Japanese women tackling the new gender norms and dating...
Japanese Film Festival: 2021
by J. Fletcher|17 October 2021 27 February 2022 |Interviews, New, Post Category
With the Japanese Film Festival having just launched its full 2021 program, the popular film festival is set to emerge from the pandemic with a slew of pop-cultural extravagance, heartfelt drama, bold documentaries, and some rather eclectic fare from the...
Josee, The Tiger & The Fish: Review
by J. Fletcher|09 June 2021 23 February 2022 |Film Reviews, Post Category
Having received a live action adaption back in 2003, author Seiko Tanabe's classic short story Josee, the Tiger & the Fish has finally been granted the anime treatment thanks to animation studio BONES, the team behind the wildly popular fantasy series My Hero...
Penguin Highway: Review
by J. Fletcher|13 September 2018 07 March 2022 |Film Reviews, Post Category
Whenever a new anime feature film causes a stir at the Japanese box-office or creates ripples within in the industry, the inevitable platitudes of a possible 'New Hayao Miyazaki' or a new 'Studio Bones' seems to get throw about with...
Your Name: Review
Taking the star-crossed lover theme to extraordinary new heights, Makoto Shinkai's (Children Who Chase Lost Voices) latest animated feature film, Your Name, has not just dominated the Japanese box office - where it maintained the number one position for nine straight...
Attack on Titan: Part One: Review
by J. Fletcher|24 August 2015 24 February 2022 |Film Reviews, Post Category
While Japan's anime industry is revered domestically as something of a national treasure, it's still often relegated to its own quirky niche within the larger entertainment sector. However the absolute fanaticism that has sprung up around the dark-fantasy series Attack...


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Celebrate Charlotte's Black history and culture during our free annual African American Heritage Festival. The 2021 festival was a combination of virtual and in-person events that explored dance, visual art, historic memory, and enslavement and segregation through the stories of those who lived here.
The 2021 African American Heritage Festival was made possible with support from the Arts & Science Council and Pride Magazine.
Charlotte Ballet Dance Demo
Take a lunch break and dance along with the Charlotte Ballet! The Charlotte Ballet hosted a livestreamed dance demonstration featuring West African dance traditions. The program explored movement, music, costuming, and more.
Lunch & Learn: What's in a Name?
Listen in to a conversation with Charlotte community history Tom Hanchett, JCSU archivist Brandon Lunsford and representatives from Tuskeegee and Fisk universities as they discuss the origins of the Rosenwald Fund, which helped build thousands of schools for African American children in the South during the Jim Crow era.
Lakeetha Blakeney: Bridging Then & Now
Playwright and actress Lakeetha Blakeney joins the Museum for a livestreamed conversation that explores African American food, hair, and fashion as they were, as they are now, and how they could be in the future.
JazzArts Concert
JazzArts performed a small-ensemble concert in-person at the Museum, featuring a musical timeline of genres and styles created by Black musicians beginning in the 19th century to today. The concert was exclusive to attendees, but you can watch a clip on our social media here,
See Facebook Livestream Here
Afternoon on the Grounds
The Museum welcomed back visitors for African American Heritage Festival! Visitors learned about Charlotte's Black history and culture on the final day of the Festival. Performances included the "Chronicles of Adam," a powerful first-person historical narrative with interpreter Dontavius Williams as well as an interactive drum circle with Drums 4 Life. Our brand-new Siloam School exhibit opened. The exhibit explores the story of the historic Rosenwald-era school. And with help from our partners at Charlotte Is Creative, four local artists brought history to life with their unique portraits of notable Black Charlotteans. Featured local artists are Makayla Binter, Abel Jackson, Marcus Kiser, and Ricky Singh. Read more about the paintings from Charlotte Is Creative.


Wanting to see more African characters in children's books—both in Africa and internationally—publishers Sarah Odedina and Deborah Ahenkorah have formed a new partnership.
Under the aegis of Ashleigh Gardner, Wattpad Studios' deputy general manager for publishing, the reading and writing platform at last has announced the development of its own publishing wing, Wattpad Books.
The Publishers Association's second annual diversity survey found that racial and ethnic criteria were where progress is slowest in the UK industry.


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Erika Nichols-Frazer
Valley locals race up Mt. Washington
Two Waitsfield local residents, Eric Reisner, Warren, and Seth Achilles, Waitsfield, participated in the Climb to the Clouds car race up to the 6,288-foot summit of Mt. Washington on August 15. Founded in 1904, the race is billed as the oldest automotive hill climb in North America and is 7.6 miles up a steep, technical, winding road to the highest peak in the White Mountains. Reisner noted the race is "the most challenging hill climb" he'd done and called it "mentally-challenging, for sure." Eighty racers out of approximately 200 applicants were selected. "It's an honor to be selected," he said.
This was Reisner's second time in the race, which happens every three years. He credits Achilles with getting him into hill climb racing and lending him his first race car. Achilles has completed the race several times over the last 20-plus years, as well as volunteering and working at the race for Vermont Sports Car, though he experienced engine failure the last time the race was held and was unable to complete it. He purchased his first race car in 1999 to compete in the Climb to the Clouds, but the race was put on hiatus for more than a decade. "It's something I've always wanted to do," he said. It had been more than 20 years since he'd completed the race. His time was 7:53, while Reisner came in at 8:15.
"Just making it to the top is satisfactory," Reisner said. He described the upper section of the climb being above the tree line and said there are parts "where all you see is sky." He added that the weather on Mt. Washington is often unpredictable and "we were lucky to have good weather."
Achilles said that, while many other hill climbs in New England are closed to spectators due to insurance policies, the Climb to the Clouds is open to spectators and called it "quite the production," with a stage and Jumbo-Tron screens to watch. "It feels good to have spectators at the event," he said. He added that the race is always looking for volunteers and called it "a good, free way to be involved if you're into motor sports."
"I would love to do it again," Reisner said.
Previous Article The 20th Green Mountain Stage Race roars into The Valley tomorrow
Next Article Meet Aaron Burros -- turning a trauma into an opportunity
Mt. Washinton	Reisner	Achilles


Unlike IE, Firefox won't update itself automatically when security patches are available.
Unlike IE, Firefox won't update itself automatically when security patches are available. But updating the browser is a snap—once you realize an update is ready and waiting. Unfortunately, the diminutive upgrade notification icon is located inconspicuously in the upper right corner of the Firefox window. If any critical updates are available, the button looks like a white arrow on top of a red circle (the notification for updates to your extensions is blue). Click it and Firefox will begin the upgrade process. If there aren't any upgrades for anything you're running, said button will be barely noticeably absent.
Clicking on the easy-to-miss gray circle next to the upgrade button will take you to the Firefox home page, or Firefox Central. From there, you can take the initiative and personally update your browser with all the latest plug-ins, extensions, and themes; you can also check via the Tools menu—it's under Options | Advanced | Software Update.
You can also update your extensions and themes from their respective management windows. Click the Tools menu, then Extensions or Themes. From there, you can see a list of all the extensions and themes you have installed and individually check each one for updates.


AT&T Foundry and Hanger, Inc. have worked together to help patients overcome the challenges of adjusting to life with a prosthesis.
AT&T and Hanger have developed a trailblazing proof of concept for the industry's first standalone, network-connected device for prosthetic limbs.
AT&T has entered discussions with technology suppliers to begin testing and building Project AirGig equipment to bring super-fast internet to suburban and rural areas.


Eaton is hitting on all cylinders today, but it still looks like a reasonably priced high-yield stock with plenty of room to grow.
Diversified power management company Eaton Corporation plc (NYSE:ETN) isn't exactly a household name, but that makes sense since the industrial giant sells primarily to other businesses. With a 3.2% yield, however, dividend investors looking for a reliable and growing stream of income should get to know this company. Here are three reasons you'll want to consider buying Eaton Corporation today.
Eaton's 3.2% yield is more than 50% above the yield you would get from buying an S&P 500 Index fund. It has increased its dividend annually for nine years, which is nice but not exactly impressive considering the list of companies that have dividend streaks of 10 years or more. That said, the dividend was held steady, not cut, around a decade ago. And the long-term trend has been for generally higher dividends over the last couple of decades.
Eaton's price-to-earnings ratio of around 11.8, meanwhile, is below its five-year average of 16.4. The P/E is also lower than the average for the industrials group of 17.8, using Vanguard Industrial Index Fund ETF as a proxy. To be fair, Eaton's price-to-sales, price-to-book value, and price-to-cash flow ratios are suggesting that it is, at best, fairly priced relative to its own history. But even there, two of these three metrics are lower than the index's numbers. While Eaton may not be a screaming buy, it looks like it is trading at a fair to decent price.
All in all, in today's expensive market, Eaton looks like a solid option for income-focused investors.
One of the most compelling things about Eaton today, however, is that management believes it has several years of solid market growth ahead of it. Of the 16 largest end markets that Eaton serves, only three appear to be in the late stage of their typical cycles. Six, including key construction markets, commercial aerospace, and U.S. utilities, are in the mid stage. The rest are in an early stage of their cycles, including mining equipment, data centers, defense aerospace, and agricultural equipment.
Data source: Eaton Corporation plc.
That suggests that the company's robust growth over the past year or so has room to keep going. Helping that along should be a new division created this year, eMobility. It's tiny right now, at a run rate of less than $400 million in revenue annually. But it is already winning contracts, and Eaton thinks it could be a $4 billion-revenue business by 2030. This division, as its name implies, is intended to serve the electric vehicle market, which is quickly growing in importance.
The third reason Eaton should be of interest is that it has finally worked through the Cooper Industries acquisition, the largest deal in its history. Management had been reluctant to make any big portfolio changes, notably sizable acquisitions and dispositions, while it was methodically focused on integration. Now, however, it is generating lots of free cash and is more willing to tinker with its business. And that could give management another lever to drive long-term growth.
One clear sign of this shift was the 50/50 joint venture it entered into with Cummins Inc. in mid-2017. The new company, controlled by Cummins, serves the mid- and heavy-duty truck market with high-tech transmission products. It's still early days for the partnership, but this move by Eaton is noteworthy in that it signals management's willingness to adjust its portfolio in a meaningful way. The new eMobility division is another positive sign here.
That said, acquisitions are back on the table, with CEO Craig Arnold explaining during the second-quarter conference call that "the company is certainly in a position today both from an organizational capacity standpoint and from a cash standpoint that we have the ability today to reenter the M&A market." He added that the company is actively looking at opportunities but that it will be disciplined in its investments.
ETN Free Cash Flow (TTM) data by YCharts.
The company estimates its cost of capital to be between 8% and 9%. Management is looking for returns of at least 300 basis points above that level after the new asset has been fully integrated. Arnold says those numbers must be met or it will take a pass, so don't expect a lot of deal activity. That said, prudent acquisitions are better for investors than deals made at any price just to push the top line higher. And when a deal does get inked, you can be confident that management thinks it will add long-term value for shareholders.
When you step back from industrial giant Eaton Corporation plc, you might be tempted to yawn even though recent results have been pretty strong. That's understandable, since this more-than-100-year-old company is largely outside of the public spotlight and rarely takes big risks. However, with a high yield and decent valuation, strong recent growth and solid prospects for continued growth, and the shift back toward portfolio management (notably that the leadership team is again open to acquisitions), Eaton looks like a good stock for income investors to put on their buy lists today.


Bicalutamide is an oral non-steroidal anti-androgen used in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer (D2 metastatic prostate cancer) and hirsutism. Bicalutamide (Generic Casodex ) was first launched in 1995 as a combination treatment for advanced prostate cancer and subsequently launched as monotherapy for the treatment of earlier stages of the disease.
Bicalutamide is used for the treatment of stage D2 metastatic prostate cancer in combination with a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogue or as a monotherapy.
Bicalutamide is contraindicated in females and children and must not be given to any patient who has shown a hypersensitivity reaction to its use.
Bicalutamide is a teratogen and must not be handled by females who are or may become pregnant. Bicalutamide is known to cause fetal harm.
Side Effects of Bicalutamide Tablets include reproductive system and breast disorders, breast tenderness, gynaecomastia, hot flushes, gastrointestinal disorders, diarrhoea, nausea, hepatic changes (elevated levels of transaminases, jaundice), asthenia and pruritus.
The recommended dosage of Generic Casodex Tablets (Bicalutamide) is 50 mg once daily, either in the morning or evening, in combination with a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone analogue.


Aromatherapy means mental and physical healing using natural scents derived from flowers, trees, fruits and other vegetation.
This line of healing has been rapidly gaining popularity worldwide and approximately 150 different kinds of essential oil scents are produced.
Aromatherapy improves physical and mental health. It relieves stress and fatigue, alters the mood, and helps in relieving from pain. Also, it affects the skin making it softer, smoother and vibrant. Some essential oils act as natural aphrodisiacs.
Though aromatherapy benefits can be derived by both, men and women, yet many men shy away from the concept.
They have a wrong notion that aromatherapy is a healing process meant especially for women. However, the concept of aromatherapy is fast getting hold in man's world too.
Aromatherapy affects men and women differently. The impact of a particular essential oil might be different for men from women and even between two men.
It is due to difference in sensory stimulation of brain by a scent. For example, a woman might find an aroma pleasing while a man might discard it for some reason of his own.
Although women have a higher number of scent receptors as compared to men, the beneficial effects of aromatherapy can be enjoyed by men too; the only thing to keep in mind is that man's needs differ from that of women and their choices too.
For enhancing the mental and physical health of men, the scents used should provide for their specific needs and must be of their liking.
According to the research, age also a factor on which scents man's likes. For older men, they tend to response strongly to vanilla than younger men.
Unlike women, men do not generally appreciate floral and fruity smells for themselves. No men would prefer to smell like a flower. They like strong and masculine smells.
The essential oils can be used by men in room diffusers, aromatherapy inhalers, massage, bathwater, lotions and crèmes.
The scents strongly favored by most men are Patchouli, Sandalwood, Bay, Oak moss, Ginger, Black pepper, Vetiver and Citrus oils. One may not think vanilla as a manly scent, but some men do have much liking for it.
Agarwood is an essential oil known to be most powerful herbal aphrodisiac. It has an ecstatic, sedative and sensual effect on the nervous system. It can be used in diffusers and kept in bedrooms or it can be used in a massage.
Jasmine oil is another aphrodisiac for men. It increases the energy level and elates the mood setting it right. It also helps in treating sexual problems like impotence and frigidity.
Cedarwood has a strong outdoors aroma which many men enjoy a lot. It reduces daily stress and rejuvenates them. It can be used in massage for enjoying its therapeutic effect through inhalation as well as absorption through skin.
Lavender, although having a floral aroma, is liked by many men due to its calming effects. It can be used in bath water or massage or can be used in candles. It also helps in reducing stress and anxiety. It gives a great blend when mixed with other masculine scents.
Rosemary though sounds feminine but it has a strong woody smell which most men appreciate and it can be used in massage for its added benefits.
Aromatherapy for men also involve in evoke more powerful sexual feeling. Robert Tisserand mention in his book that an aromatherapist treating a man who had been impotent for some years.
Aromatherapy for men, it isn't about sexual appealing or stimulate your love mood but it can reach beyond of that. In the next upcoming articles, I might want to discuss about that. So keep coming back to see its update.


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Parking available Hotels in Manchester
Top neighbourhoods in Manchester
Northern QuarterManchester's Northern Quarter neighborhood is known for its restaurants and museums, and entices visitors with attractions including Greater Manchester Police Museum and Affleck's Palace.
Old TraffordManchester's Old Trafford neighborhood is known for its bars and coffeehouses, and entices visitors with attractions including Old Trafford and Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
TraffordManchester's Trafford neighborhood is known for its bars and restaurants, and entices visitors with attractions including Trafford Centre and Old Trafford.
photo by Nicola Cunningham
DidsburyManchester's Didsbury neighborhood is known for its bars and restaurants, and entices visitors with attractions including Wilmslow Road and Didsbury Park.
SpinningfieldsManchester's Spinningfields neighborhood is home to attractions such as Manchester Opera House and Deansgate.
CastlefieldManchester's Castlefield neighborhood is known for its bars and restaurants, and entices visitors with attractions including Museum of Science and Industry and Deansgate Locks.
Top landmarks in Manchester
Old TraffordImagine soaking up the atmosphere at Old Trafford, a major stadium in Old Trafford. Our travelers also like the museums in the area— your cultural tour starts here. It's also full of great shops and restaurants, so you can spend the afternoon having a wander. If you think Old Trafford is cool, you also might like AO Arena and Old Trafford Cricket Ground, both located nearby.
photo by Gordon Simpson
Heaton ParkHang out at Heaton Park, one of the most popular parks located 3.2 mi (5.2 km) from central Manchester. Our travelers also like the museums in the area— your cultural tour starts here. It's also full of great shops and restaurants, so you can spend the afternoon having a wander. Want to stretch your legs some more? Head to Piccadilly Gardens and Peel Park, both nearby.
AO ArenaWhy not catch an event at AO Arena, a major stadium in Manchester City Centre. Our travelers also like the museums in the area— your cultural tour starts here. It's also full of great shops and restaurants, so you can spend the afternoon having a wander. If you think AO Arena is cool, you also might like Old Trafford and Etihad Stadium, both located nearby.
Salford QuaysImagine strolling along Salford Quays for some great waterfront pics. It's located 1.4 mi (2.2 km) from central Salford. It's also full of great shops and restaurants, so you can spend the afternoon having a wander. If you want to experience more of the culture Salford has to offer, head to Old Trafford, Manchester Opera House, and Manchester Palace Theatre.
photo by Aliya Bokhari
Trafford CentreIf you want to give your credit card some exercise, head out to Trafford Centre, a popular place for shoppers in Trafford Park. Our travelers also like the museums in the area— your cultural tour starts here. It's also full of great shops and restaurants, so you can spend the afternoon having a wander.
DeansgateIf you want to give your credit card some exercise, head out to Deansgate, a popular place for shoppers in Manchester City Centre. It's also full of great shops and restaurants, so you can spend the afternoon having a wander. Splash some more cash at Deansgate Locks, Manchester Arndale, and Canal Street.
Find out more about Manchester
What's Manchester Like for Hotels with Free Parking?
Whether you're going to Manchester on a road trip or you want to explore your destination, a place to stay with free parking could be what you're looking for. You can take a look at our accommodations offering free parking on Hotels.com. Take advantage of your hotel's free parking and plan out your itinerary around this welcoming destination. Travelers to Manchester absolutely love the shopping and bars. Some nearby attractions you may want to add to your itinerary are Manchester Opera House, Piccadilly Gardens, and Manchester Palace Theatre.


Still not exactly sure how Social Security works? That's OK – it's only been around since 1935. Just kidding … this stuff can be confusing. Let's see if we can help a little.
When President Roosevelt first signed the Social Security Act, it was a reaction to the Great Depression, and all the unemployment and poverty that resulted from it. The system is designed as a way for Americans to deposit a portion of their income into a fund, which is then used to provide social insurance to the poor, disabled, and elderly. The deal made with Americans is that they pay now, but they can collect later when they are senior citizens, or in the event that they became disabled or the survivor of a deceased spouse.
To receive full retirement benefits from Social Security, you have to have put the required amount into the system, which usually requires you to have worked for at least 10 years. You can begin to receive Social Security benefits at 62, but it will be at a reduced amount. The age at which you can begin to receive full Social Security benefits depends on when you were born, but it will be somewhere between 65 and 67. Check the chart below for your exact year.
*If you were born on January 1st of any year you should refer to the previous year.
Of course, to receive any of these benefits, you have to actually apply for them. But that can easily be done at a local office or online.


We tend to think of OPEC as a cartel whose goal is to set the price of oil - and set it high. But stability is also an important goal. Without a cartel controlling supply, oil can be the most volatile of commodities.
Which, of course, we are learning anew, as we've watched oil fall from $115 a barrel to about $60 in the last six months. In 2008, Saudi Arabia stepped in both when the price was rising rapidly and again when it dropped. And guess what happened? Nothing. Most of the rest of OPEC didn't follow Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis were exposed as having lost their ability to single-handedly control the price of oil.
This time around, what has been most noticeable as the price of oil has dropped is that the Saudis seem completely uninterested in trying to prop it up. The Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, gave an interview to CNN in which he declared that Saudi Arabia would "never" cut production, despite the steep drop this year. "We are going to continue to produce what we are producing," he said. "We are going to continue to welcome additional production if customers come and ask for it."
Part of the reason for this new Saudi attitude is that the country's leaders are tired of doing all the heavy lifting for the other OPEC members — who then keep their spigots completely open and take advantage of the high prices the Saudis are making possible.
Part of it is that the Saudis are unwilling to lose market share to other countries, and they have the wherewithal to withstand lower prices for a much longer period than virtually any other exporter. But part of it is also that Saudi Arabia doesn't want a repeat of 2008.
"The worst thing from the Saudi point of view would be to announce a production cut, and the prices keep falling," said Jason Bordoff, the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. It doesn't want to be seen as the emperor with no clothes.
And then, of course, there is the effect of the shale revolution in the United States, where oil production has risen to 9 million barrels a day from 5 million a day in the space of six years.
The conventional wisdom holds that the Saudis "fear" the influx of shale oil onto the market - as The Wall Street Journal put it Monday - and that they want to see the price go down in order to drive out some of that shale production.
But the Saudis don't really fear shale oil. "I've heard officials in Saudi Arabia call shale a blessing," said Robert McNally, the founder and president of The Rapidan Group, who is also affiliated with the Center on Global Energy Policy. "Shale oil is light," he added. "Saudi oil is medium and heavy, and their real competitors are the Iraqis and the Iranians." The Saudis can adjust to shale oil more easily than many other countries.
In effect, shale has the potential to play the role of the "swing supplier," which is the role the Saudis used to play. At a certain price, it will be uneconomical to drill for shale oil, at which point the price will stabilize. But the shale revolution is still too new to know what that price is. In a sense, what is going on now is an effort to discover how low oil has to go before shale production declines and the floor is found for the price of oil.
OPEC, McNally reminded me the other day, is hardly the first group to try to control the price of oil. In the early years of the industry, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil controlled the price. For decades before the formation of OPEC, the Railroad Commission of Texas (now the Texas Railroad Commission) would have a monthly meeting to set production quotas.
More than anything else, the events of these past months, as oil has dropped and dropped again, show that it is the market, rather than a cartel, that will dictate the price of oil for the foreseeable future.
Hold on to your seat belt.


Real Magic--where science meets imagination! This innovative musical web series (with puppets!) dares viewers to explore the world around them.
The Real Magician, also known as "Magic Josh," films, produces, and stars in magic videos for YouTube. The result is something never before seen in magic.
Alakazam Magic is the largest UK magic dealer and a leading, world famous brand of unqiue magical products. From tricks & DVDs to books & downloads Alakazam Magic has it all! Leading professional artists the world over choose Alakazam Magic!
Launched - March 2017 in Singapore & July 2017 in India My new book 'The Magic Within' The protagonists are real people who have dealt with the demons of their past and emerged victorious.
If I Had A Magic Carpet and Liam's Magic Carpet Adventures is a fun and magical way to teach children about the power of being kind and about the world .


On arrival to Sri Lanka you will be met by our representative at the airport and transferred to Sigiriya on the visit Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and watch the elephant activities, later Sigiriya Rock Fortress Check in hotel. Overnight stay at Sigiriya.
After breakfast checkout hotel and transfer to Kandy check in hotel visit Temple of the Tooth Relic, Peradeniya Botanical Garden, Cultural Dance Show. Overnight stay at Kandy.
After breakfast checkout hotel and transfer to Nuwara Eliya visit places like Sri Bhaktha Hanuman Temple, Ramboda Waterfall, Tea factory & Tea Plantation, Nuwara Eliya City Tour, Lake Gregory, Seetha Amman Temple. Overnight stay at Nuwara Eliya.
After breakfast checkout hotel and transfer to Bentota check in hotel visit Madu River Boat safari, Turtle Farm. Overnight stay at Bentota.
After breakfast checkout hotel and transfer to Colombo. Proceed to Colombo city Tour Gangarama Temple, Independent Memorial Hall, Old Parliament, Galle Face Green, BMICH. Overnight stay at Colombo.


Title I just have to ride the half-pipe / by Jessica Gunderson ; illustrated by Jorge H. Santillan.
Imprint Mankato, Minn. : Stone Arch Books, c2012.
Description 49 p. : col. ill., col. map ; 19 cm.
Sports Illustrated kids. Victory School superstars.
Summary Kenzie uses her super strength skill to learn snowboarding.
Added Author Santillan, Jorge, ill.


There just are no answers, and there might never be, which really pisses me off. What has medical science been doing for all these years that there are still no answers in one of the most devastating situations ever that SO many women go through? I'm also mad at my body for not doing its job. I'm mad at Facebook for showing me all of my pregnant friends' happy pregnancy posts. I'm mad at the rest of the world for continuing to spin and function as usual when my world has completely crashed down around me. I'm mad at myself for getting so wrapped up in pregnancy that it became my whole world. I'm mad at the fact that women who don't take care of themselves or their unborn babies have completely healthy pregnancies, that women who don't want or love their babies still carry them to term, that we were supposed to be in the clear, having made it squarely into the 2nd trimester, and that we'd gotten so excited and told everybody the news just to have it completely shattered.
There are a lot of ways to deal with anger. I wouldn't say that I did any of these things intentionally or even consciously, but they are what has happened in/to me regardless. I'm going to write this as sort of a how-to guide, but with the caveat that your process might look very different from mine, and that's ok.
Honestly, I'm still angry about some of the things from that early post, although for the most part, as time has passed, my anger has been downgraded to frustration or converted to sadness. I'm extremely frustrated that there are no answers. In fact, at this point, my doctor has brand new questions instead of answers – questions that will require more tests that may only reveal more questions. It's like my body has sent us all on a very sad, frustrating scavenger hunt.
As for Facebook, well, I've just hidden the people I couldn't bare to see for now. This is a trick I've learned within the past year with Facebook: It is precisely what you make it, so if you don't want to be angry, unfriend or unfollow the people who make you angry. If someone always annoys you with their posts, you are under no obligation to look at their posts. Remove them from your news feed, and move on with your life. This is what I have done with a lot of pregnant friends. It's not that I have anything against them personally. It's just that I can't handle their particular joy (or even struggles) at this particular moment. When I feel up to it, I'll add them back into my news feed, but I think it will probably be next spring before I'm really ready for that. I have a couple of friends who are due right around my due date, and I know that when they start posting baby pictures and I don't have a baby, that will be really hard for me, so I'll just wait. I'm not mad about it, though, just sad.
I am still a little angry that there are women who abuse their bodies during pregnancy, potentially harming their unborn babies, but who still deliver healthy babies at full term; meanwhile, other women are desperate to conceive, go to great lengths to get pregnant, do everything right, and have one miscarriage after another. It just isn't fair. Lots of things aren't fair in the world, though, and I have to either learn to accept it or fight to do something about it. I don't know which direction to go on this issue or how to go about it either way, but knowing my options helps a lot with my anger. If I know I need to do something, but I'm not doing it, then the only person I have to blame is myself. If I know there's nothing to be done, then my anger turns more easily into sadness, which isn't the most desirable emotion to have either, but it's better than bitterness. Sadness softens the heart; bitterness hardens it.
I'm not mad at myself anymore for getting excited about being pregnant or for getting wrapped up in the whole business. It was my first pregnancy, and I was both excited and terrified. I needed to do all the things I was doing in an attempt to wrap my brain around reality. There was nothing wrong with it, and it just shows how much I already loved my daughter. I'm also not sorry AT ALL that so many people knew we were pregnant and then knew that we'd lost her. Would I do it again if I had the choice? Absolutely not. Am I eternally grateful for the generous outpouring of love and support that happened as a result of a thousand people knowing about our loss? You have no idea.
Don't be scared of it.
Anger is really hard for me because I'm not an angry person, and I don't want to become one. I don't want my heart to become bitter and hard. I don't want people to walk away from encounters with me feeling stressed out, negative, or defensive. But experiencing anger and dealing with it is very different from holding onto anger and embodying it, and just because you feel angry, that doesn't mean you are becoming an angry person. It means you are having an emotion – the right emotion for you to be having in that moment, most likely – and you can handle it. Acknowledge the anger, figure out where it's coming from and where it's directed, make sure it's directed appropriately, and do something constructive with it (forgiving, taking control, working toward change, or accepting).
My friend Derrick once told me that any bad situation can be improved with mint chocolate chip ice cream and The Three Amigos. I can attest to the truth of this, but there are some situations that are so bad, even Martin Short can only just barely make a dent. I don't think laughter ever hurts, though, and maybe little by little, every smile and chuckle can add up to some amount of healing.
We watched a lot of comedies and action movies right after our miscarriage – comedies because we needed the laughter to offset all the crying we were doing naturally and not spiral into depression, and action movies to escape from real life for a couple of hours at a time and remember that there is good in the world fighting (and defeating) the bad. Both kinds of movies/shows were helpful, but laughter and escape are only small parts of the healing process.
Before I go any further, I want to say that I think escape can be a valid, healthy part of grief. Your brain and heart can only handle so much for so long. You need to step out of your real life sometimes just to give yourself a break from the crap you're dealing with. Of course you can't stay checked out forever, but in small doses, I think it's helpful.
Now, back to what I was saying before. Laughter and escape are only small parts of the healing process. There's also rest, uncontrollable crying, hugs/snuggling, food, action, intellectual processing, spiritual processing, emotional processing, research, receiving love/care, and so on. Laughter is a great medicine, but in times of deep loss and grief, I think you need a more comprehensive approach.