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We are continuously updating our site with topics and resources to help you grow in your relationship with Christ and study His Word. Here is a list of resources that you might be interested in as you continue your journey.
AmazingHealth.com – Discover 8 Bible secrets for a longer and stronger life!
Hope Channel is a Christian television network with 46 channels around the world, broadcasting in 57 languages. Their mission is to share God's good news for a better life today and for eternity. Programs focus on faith, health, relationships, and community. Programs on each channel are contextualized for the local culture and are broadcast in many languages including Spanish, Portuguese, German, Romanian, Mandarin, Russian, Tamil, Hindi, Ukrainian, Arabic, Farsi and Telugu.
"It Is Written" has been a staple on American television since premiering in 1956. The weekly program, currently hosted by John Bradshaw, applies timeless truths to everyday life, with many episodes dealing with issues such as loneliness, fear, low self-esteem and spiritual principles.
LifeTalk Radio reaches out to men and women, empathizing with them, ministering to their needs, winning their confidence, and leading them to Jesus! Through Satellite, Radio, and the Internet, LifeTalk Radio is broadcasting God's message of love and redemption 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Programs are designed to strengthen spiritual life and family values. LifeTalk Radio offers family friendly programming!
A leader in religious broadcasting for more than 89 years, the Voice of Prophecy focuses on God's love and heralds the soon return of Christ—providing hope to broken people and guidance for daily living. The Voice of Prophecy can be heard in nearly three dozen languages, and Bible lessons are available in more than 70 languages. Local Discover Bible Schools have been established at 2,400 churches across North America, with hundreds more around the world. And humanitarian projects in countries such as India and Myanmar are meeting physical as well as spiritual needs. As the Voice of Prophecy looks to the future, it will continue to focus on sharing the love of Christ with a hurting world, while using present tools and anticipating yet-to-be-developed technology.


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Eleven years of independence: Mediapart's 2018 results in facts and figures
Par Edwy Plenel
Blog : Les carnets libres d'Edwy Plenel
Every year in March, Mediapart presents its accounts in public. In 2018, your online journal continued to register strong growth, with subscriber numbers now totalling more than 150,000. Meanwhile, its operating income represented more than 18% of turnover, and net profits were almost 2 million euros. All of which is detailed here.
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Thanks to the constant and growing support of our subscribers, our online journal has, for the past 11 years, given life to the ideal of a free and independent press. A press that not only serves the public's right to know and its freedom to speak out, but which above all fulfils that mission without any outside interference, with no pressure from advertisers, with no subservience to financier share-holders, and with no dependence on state subsidies.
It is a press that Mediapart, since its creation in 2008, has demonstrated to be not only useful and vital, but also viable and – for the eighth year in succession – profitable, as detailed in our financial accounts. In what is a unique exercise in transparency in the French media world, we presented our accounts on Tuesday March 12th at our annual press conference, and you can find them detailed in our yearly brochure by downloading it here. (pdf, 1.7 MB)
In 2018, Mediapart once again saw continued strong growth in the numbers of its subscribers, who now total more than 150,000. More precisely, that figure is 150,553, of which 145,964 are individual subscribers, while the remainder is made up of group subscriptions (essentially, educational institutions, corporations, and local authorities). This total of subscribers is strictly that of paid subscriptions, unlike the circulation figures announced by press titles (whose income is in part from advertising) which are swollen by the inclusion of copies that are sold at a cut-price rate or even distributed free of charge (e.g. in trains, planes and hotels).
The yearly progress of Mediapart subscriber numbers between 2008 and 2018, with individual subscribers represented below the dotted line.
With an annual turnover in 2018 of almost 14 million euros (more precisely, 13,835,322 euros), Mediapart posted an operating income of 2,516,996 euros (more than 18% of turnover) and net earnings of almost 2 million euros (1,993,037 euros after tax and employee-participation payments). These results allowed for further significant investments in order to reinforce the editorial team and operational services staff – who altogether now number 87 employees –, and also to consolidate our capital. Since 2017, the salary scale within the company is 1-3.37, and salaries are strictly equal for men and women, established according to roles and responsibilities and with no gender distinction.
Progression of turnover (left) and operating income over the period 2008-2018.
Mediapart neither seeks nor receives subsidies, whether they be the state subsidies that are handed to the press in France or private funding of the media (such as from Google and Facebook). Ever since the creation of Mediapart, no dividends have been paid to its shareholders. Share-ownership has remained unchanged since 2018, while awaiting a response from the French tax authorities to our request to establish an endowment fund. This 'Fund for a free press' is a not-for-profit structure which would be able to take control over Mediapart's entire capital, in order to make it inviolable, protected from speculation and non-transferable, as is the case with our partnership structures with French websites Mediacités and Marsactu, and Infolibre in Spain.
We owe these excellent results – which allow us to exercise, in optimal conditions, our profession at the service of the public's right to know – to the support and loyalty of you, our subscribers. Beyond its economic model and editorial quality, Mediapart's originality is founded on a special relationship with its readers, who are active parties in its ecosystem, being free to write and contribute to it, managing blogs which are not filtered by our editorial team nor automatically subject to moderation.
It is a supplementary guaranty of independence, and above all a demonstration of confidence: to access and read Mediapart is also to have the power to criticise it or prolong its contents, to inform or alert it, and to complete it. This dialogue and connection with its readers are just as essential to Mediapart as its professional culture of investigative journalism. Since our creation in 2008, we have constantly developed the frequency of our organised events, including public debates and conferences, which in real life (and not only via the digital screen) maintain this concrete and lively relationship.
We marked our tenth anniversary in 2018 with a Festival of debates and exchanges between our editorial team, subscribers and the public at the 'Centquatre-Paris' conference and events centre, and its success has led us to repeat the exercise this year. The programme for the event, to be held on March 23rd, (a detailed presentation can be downloaded here) has as its theme the meeting of journalism and society, to debate citizens' concerns, questions and interests, their inventions and acts of resistance in face of societal issues, and their aspirations.
This 21st-century press which Mediapart has the ambition of representing, combines its role in providing information with the relationship it enjoys with its public. This essential intercourse, this permanent dialogue and necessary tension, is the only means of re-establishing a relationship of confidence between journalism and society. As we often like to insist, only our readers can buy us. Which means that we must constantly listen to you, and ensure that we are accountable to you.
That is the raison d'être behind the Festival, to which we hope you will be many in coming along to join us on Saturday, March 23rd. The event, open to all and with no entrance fee, is from 11am to 11pm at the 'Centquatre-Paris' centre, 5 rue Curial in the 19th arrondissement of Paris (75019).
Journaliste, président de Mediapart
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Les carnets libres d'Edwy Plenel
En complément de mes articles dans le Journal de Mediapart, ce blog mêle divers registres. Des résonances subjectives où je m'exprime à titre personnel. Des informations complémentaires, droits de suite…
ou explications de texte, où je réagis à des interpellations de lecteurs. Enfin, ce que l'on appellerait dans les hauts parleurs des gares des « avis de service » où je fais le point sur l'actualité de Mediapart, qu'elle soit éditoriale ou économique.
Mediapart, its new statutes and its new supervisory board 20 déc. 2020 Par Edwy Plenel
Mediapart, ses nouveaux statuts et son nouveau conseil d'administration 18 déc. 2020 Par Edwy Plenel
Pour soutenir la presse libre, faites un don au FPL 12 déc. 2020 Par Edwy Plenel
Mediapart et le fisc: un mystérieux acharnement 16 nov. 2020 Par Edwy Plenel
Pour saluer les 15 ans du Bondy Blog 27 oct. 2020 Par Edwy Plenel
Mediapart publishes its 2019 accounts and results 13 mars 2020 Par Edwy Plenel
Once años de independencia: nuestros resultados en 2018 14 mars 2019 Par Edwy Plenel
Onze ans d'indépendance: nos résultats en 2018 13 mars 2019 Par Edwy Plenel
Les vœux de santé de Yasmina Kettal, infirmière en Seine-Saint-Denis 31 déc. 2020 Par La rédaction de Mediapart
Journée portes ouvertes: vos échanges avec Mediapart 2 déc. 2020 Par La rédaction de Mediapart
Mediapart vous invite à sa journée portes ouvertes numériques 2 déc. 2020 Par La rédaction de Mediapart

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Located in a quiet neighborhood close to downtown Upland. Large 4BR 2Ba home with a large step down family room, and an updated kitchen. Laminate and wood flooring in the living room, hallway and bedrooms. Tile floors in the kitchen, dining and family room. The backyard features a large covered patio and a carport. The detached garage has finished walls, a kitchenette and bathroom.


text:
Q: Hide a specific navigation menu items from anonymous users I Want to hide some navigation menu items located in the master page from anonymous users,
and hide other items from users according to thier roles.

A: You can use a LoginView. Just put any content you need invisible to anonymous users in the <LoggedInTemplate>:
<asp:LoginView
    runat="server">
        <AnonymousTemplate>
            <!-- anonymous users see this -->
        </AnonymousTemplate>
        <LoggedInTemplate>
            <!-- only registered, logged in users see this -->
        </LoggedInTemplate>

A: Theres is very good way of achieving this.You can use Control adapters to achieve this.
Please have a look at following thread..
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8708489/role-based-enabling-disabling-of-controls-in-asp-net

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The 2015 Subaru Outback is incredibly versatile both on and off the highway.
The flat H design of the powerful Outback engine allows for a low hood and excellent forward visibility.
The Subaru Outback has excellent cargo space and a neat roof rail system that's perfect for skiing and other outdoor activities.
The all-new 2015 Subaru Outback is a notable improvement over an already fine sport utility wagon. It's big enough for comfort and cargo capacity, but midsize for city commuting and parking. It handles all weather conditions effortlessly, but drives more like a sedan than an SUV.


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The Latest: EU says Russia's moves are 'an act of war'
Joey Tate February 22, 2022 8 min read
The latest news on the Russian-Ukrainian crisis (All times are local time):
BRUSSELS – A senior European Union official said Russia's recognition of Ukraine's breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states and sending troops into the territory is an "act of war".
The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said the 27-nation bloc was ready to implement sanctions against Russia.
Speaking to Belgium's RTBF channel, Reynders said a unanimous agreement was needed from EU member states to impose new sanctions.
He said that the expected measures will develop gradually, depending on the Russian actions. The first type is travel bans on individuals and sanctions against economic entities through confiscation of assets in Europe and abroad.
In addition, Reynders said, "It will be necessary to ensure that there are no more imports of goods or services from Russia, such as energy, and to end Russia's global access to financial services."
"Everything is on the table," he said, adding that member states were discussing how the moves would be incremental and the possibility of diplomacy to ease the conflict.
ATHENS, Greece – Greece on Tuesday strongly condemned Moscow's recognition of two breakaway republics in Ukraine, as the country's prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, called an emergency meeting of the government's top defense and foreign policy officials to discuss the crisis.
"Russia's recognition of the illegal and unilateral declaration of the 'independence' of the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk territories of Ukraine is a clear violation of the fundamental principles of international law, the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the Minsk agreements," a statement from the foreign ministry said. "We have repeatedly emphasized that Greece supports respect for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of all states and we condemn any decision that contradicts these basic principles of international law."
Greece, a NATO member, has traditionally friendly relations with Russia.
United Nations – Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations demanded that Russia rescind its recognition of the independence of the separatist regions in the east, immediately withdraw the "occupation forces" sent there by President Vladimir Putin, and return to negotiations.
Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, Sergei Kislitsia said Ukraine had called a rare evening session to protest and condemn Putin's "illegal and illegitimate" decision to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He said that Ukraine's borders "will remain unchanged regardless of any statements and actions of the Russian Federation."
He said Russia's occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk spoils the negotiating frameworks and "can be considered" Russia's unilateral withdrawal from the Minsk Accords aimed at restoring peace to eastern Ukraine.
See also Rand Paul suspends $40 billion in aid to Ukraine by refusing to unanimously approve in the Senate
"We are committed to a political-diplomatic settlement and do not succumb to provocations," Kiselzia said.
While Ukraine is entitled to self-defense, he said, "We are committed to a peaceful and diplomatic path and will continue to do so steadfastly. We are on our own land. We are not afraid of anything or anyone. We owe nothing to anyone, and we will not concede anything to anyone."
Kiselitsya urged the Security Council to support Ukraine and take measures to restore international peace and security, but that would be nearly impossible due to Russia's veto power in the council.
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey has criticized Russia's decision to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, describing the move as a "clear violation of Ukraine's political unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity".
In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in the early hours of Tuesday morning: "We consider this decision of Russia unacceptable and reject it."
"We affirm our commitment to preserving Ukraine's political unity and territorial integrity, and we call on all parties to use common sense and comply with international law," the ministry statement read.
NATO member Turkey has close ties with both Ukraine and Russia and has repeatedly offered to mediate to end tensions.
Separately, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement "strongly recommending" that Turkish citizens leave the eastern regions of Ukraine.
Seoul, South Korea – South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it had great concerns about the Ukraine crisis and called on the countries concerned to respect the Minsk Agreement while finding a diplomatic solution.
Ministry spokesman Choi Young-sam also said on Tuesday that diplomats were still trying to persuade 63 South Koreans in Ukraine to leave. There were about 600 South Koreans in Ukraine at the end of January.
"Our government has consistently supported Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial preservation," Choi said.
President Moon Jae-in earlier called on officials to prepare for economic repercussions in South Korea if the Ukraine crisis drags on.
United Nations – Russia's ambassador to the United Nations accused the United States and its Western allies of inciting Ukraine to an "armed provocation".
Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday evening, Vasily Nebenzia accused Ukraine of sharply increasing bombing in residential areas in the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk and in Russian towns and villages close to the border.
He said Ukraine had concentrated a military force of 120,000 soldiers along the line of contact with pro-Russian separatists in the east and that "subversive groups" had penetrated or attempted to penetrate the territory known as Donbas to sabotage vital infrastructure.
See also Poland indicates the intention to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine
"So it became clear that Donbass is on the verge of a new Ukrainian military adventure, as it was already in 2014 and 2015," he said.
This is why President Vladimir Putin announced earlier on Monday that Russia would recognize Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states and put Russian forces in the two countries as peacekeepers, Nebenzia said.
On Monday, the separatist authorities said that at least four civilians were killed in Ukrainian shelling in the past 24 hours, and several others were wounded. The Ukrainian military said two Ukrainian soldiers were killed over the weekend and another was wounded on Monday. Ukrainian military spokesman Pavlo Kovalchuk insisted that Ukrainian forces did not return fire.
Nebenzia said Russia was open to diplomacy but would not allow "a new bloodbath in the Donbass," and urged the United States and other Western countries not to worsen the situation.
UNITED NATIONS – China called for restraint and encouraged every effort to find a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, saying that Beijing believes that all countries should resolve disputes by peaceful means in line with the United Nations Charter.
China's ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, called on the main parties in the Ukraine conflict to "continue dialogue and consultation and seek reasonable solutions."
Zhang made very brief remarks at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday night called by Ukraine, the United States and six other countries after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would recognize the breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent countries and establish Russia. Troops in Luhansk and Donetsk as peacekeepers.
The Chinese ambassador did not refer to the measures taken by his usual ally, Russia, on Monday, saying only that "all parties concerned should exercise restraint, avoid any action that might inflame tensions", and "welcome and encourage every effort for a diplomatic solution." . "
Chinese state media reported that the Chinese Embassy in Kiev notified its citizens in Ukraine to raise their awareness of safety and avoid conflict areas.
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida criticized Russia for violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and said his country would discuss possible "strong measures", including sanctions, with the international community.
Kishida was responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin's signing on Monday of a decree recognizing the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and ordering his forces to "keep peace" in those regions. Putin's announcement raised fears of an imminent invasion.
"These actions are unacceptable and we express our strong condemnation," Kishida told reporters on Tuesday. "Japan is watching the development with great concern."
See also Venezuelan immigrants in shock and distress after new US immigration plan
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday that it is important that the Group of Seven nations that share values such as democracy and rule of law stick together and lead the international community.
UNITED NATIONS – The US ambassador to the United Nations has dismissed as "nonsense" Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement of Russian forces in the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine as "nonsense", saying their presence is "clearly the basis for Russia's attempt to create a pretext for further invasion of Ukraine" .
Linda Thomas Greenfield told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday night that the move and Putin's earlier announcement of Russia's recognition of the breakaway regions as "independent states" also represented an "unprovoked" attack on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. She said Putin's actions "tore to shreds of the Minsk Agreement".
Thomas Greenfield said Putin "has put before the world a choice" and "must not look away" because "history tells us that looking the other way in the face of such hostility would be a much more costly path."
She said Putin is testing to see "how far he can push all of us", and all countries must stand up for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries.
Thomas Greenfield warned that "the consequences of Russia's actions will be dire – throughout Ukraine, across Europe, and throughout the world."
WELLINGTON, New Zealand – New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaya Mahuta has said there is no basis under international law for recognizing breakaway regions, and that Russia is thus undermining Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We are concerned that this is a calculated act by President Putin to create a pretext for the invasion, and is clearly aggressive. "We once again call for urgent diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution," Mahuta said in a statement.
TRIBONA, Australia – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Russia must "unconditionally withdraw" from Ukrainian territory and stop threatening its neighbors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered troops to "maintain peace" in separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, hours after the Kremlin recognized the region's independence. The announcement raised fears that the invasion was imminent, if not already under way.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday in the Australian state of Tasmania, Morrison said Russia's actions were "unacceptable, unjustified and unjustified."
"It is important that like-minded countries denouncing this type of behavior abide, and I can assure you that the moment other countries impose strong and severe sanctions on Russia, we will be cooperating with them," he said. .
Joey Tate
"Coffee trailblazer. Certified pop culture lover. Infuriatingly humble gamer."
Previous Russia and Ukraine live updates: Moscow is ordering troops into separatist regions
Next The latest news of the Ukraine-Russia crisis: live updates
Iran thwarts drone attacks on a military site in Isfahan | military news
January 29, 2023 Joey Tate
They will not say Christian Nationalist Government, Jaishankar Jabs Foreign Newspapers
Exclusive: A senior US Treasury official warns the UAE and Turkey against evading sanctions


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George Pickens D'Andre Swift Kirby Smart Andre Joe Burrow Lawrence Cager Sports SEC Football Championship Game College sports FBS College Football Playoff College football Football Athlete injuries Athlete health
Georgia Tech ACC Auburn SEC Georgia LSU
Offense vs Defense: No. 1 LSU vs No. 4 Georgia for SEC title
The Associated Press - Dec. 05, 2019 02:39 PM EST
LSU quarterback Joe Burrow (9) is carried off the field by teammates Tyler Shelvin (72) and Zach Von Rosenberg (38) after defeating Alabama 46-41 in an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019, in Tuscaloosa , Ala. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
No. 1 LSU (12-0, 8-0 SEC, No. 2 CFP) vs. No. 4 Georgia (11-1, 7-1, No. 4) in Atlanta, Saturday at 4 p.m. EST (CBS).
Line: LSU by 7.
Series record: LSU leads 17-13-1.
Georgia needs to knock off the unbeaten Tigers to earn a berth in the four-team College Football Playoff. If the Bulldogs lose, they'll likely have to settle for either the Sugar or Orange Bowl as a consolation prize. Given the quality wins on its schedule (Alabama, Auburn, Florida), LSU is probably headed to the playoff even with a loss to Georgia.
LSU's offense vs. Georgia's defense. The Tigers rank second in the nation at 48.7 points per game and have been held below 36 points in only one contest (a 23-20 victory over Auburn). LSU has scored at least 50 points in its last three games but figures to find a much tougher go of it against Georgia's stout defense. The Bulldogs have allowed the second-fewest points in FBS (10.4 per game) while posting three shutouts for the first time since 1981.
LSU: QB Joe Burrow. Already a big favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, he'll be looking to finish off what's left of the competition with another dazzling performance. Turning the Tigers into an offensive juggernaut, he has completed more than 78% of his passes (314 of 401) for 4,366 yards, with 44 touchdowns and six interceptions.
Georgia: RB D'Andre Swift. The junior has rushed for 1,203 yards (6.2 average) and seven touchdowns, but he went out of last week's victory over Georgia Tech with a shoulder injury. While Swift appeared to be in great pain as he left the field, coach Kirby Smart downplayed the injury and said his star runner should be able to go in the SEC championship.
Georgia's receiving corps will be without one of its top receivers for the entire game, and another for the first half. Lawrence Cager (33 receptions, 4 TDs) appears done for the season after undergoing ankle surgery last week. George Pickens (33 catches, 6 TDs ) will have to sit out the first two quarters as punishment for throwing a punch at a Georgia Tech player, leading to his ejection from the regular-season finale. ... While LSU's offense gets most of the attention, the defense is coming off its best performance of the season. The Tigers had six sacks, three interceptions, recorded a safety and gave up just 169 yards in a 50-7 win over Texas A&M. ... LSU posted its first perfect regular season since 2011, which also marked its last appearance in the SEC championship. ... Georgia is making its third straight appearance in the conference title game.


Aug. 21, 2017, 4:38 p.m.
The Executive Director of the National Population Council, Leticia Adelaide Appiah is advocating for the government to use incentives to encourage Ghanaians to use family planning methods as a way of controlling the country's fast-growing population.
According to her, the population growth rate if not checked would reduce the quality of human resource in the country and stagnate economic development.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Dr Appiah said despite the importance of population growth, it must be regulated to correspond with economic development.
"Population growth is good, but it should be regulated so that it does not outstrip economic development," she said.
The 2016 Population and Housing Census pegged Ghana's total population at 28.21 million.
China is among the few countries in the world who have adopted a major population control policy to restrict childbirth.
In 1979, the country started the "one child per family policy" (Juali Li 563) which stated that citizens must obtain a birth certificate before the birth of their children.
A state government in India has instituted a policy to offer newlyweds a cash grant of 5000 rupees or $106 to wait two years to have their first child. Other states have also made having more than two children a disqualification from holding public office.
But Dr Leticia Appiah said Ghana must not necessarily place a cap on the number of children couples are allowed to produce but reward those who take up family planning initiatives such as spacing and delaying childbirth.
"If the person wants it [a child] you cannot deprive them…Our problem is population growth, why don't we incentivize family planning uptake?" she quizzed.
She called on the government to make family planning services more accessible to encourage its patronage.
Dr Appiah further noted that government could consider placing a cap limit on the number of children per family to benefit from some of its social intervention programs to encourage family planning.


I have previously penned why we need to celebrate the importance of Queensland Small Businesses and Monday 28 May 2018 marks the start of Queensland's Small Business Week 2018. To mark this occasion QEAS has prepared a resource to assist small businesses to be able to plan better.
With the State Budget just around the corner I wanted to pen a quick analysis of trends in state taxation receipts and other own source revenue including royalties and GOC dividends.
Much of the work QEAS does is behind the scenes for individual clients. It is great to see some this work underpin recent advocacy by Master Builders Queensland in the public domain. Their media release is below together with links to the QEAS research.
The ABS today confirmed that wages growth in Queensland remains stubbornly and well short of the long-term average of 3.3 per cent. Queensland's Wage Price Index grew by 2.2 per cent over the past twelve months and compares to a national rate of 2.1 per cent.


text:
package formats

import (
	"os"
	"path/filepath"
)

type Folder struct {
}

func (f Folder) MakeWith(str string, loc string) (string, error) {
	newPath := filepath.Join(loc, str)
	return newPath, os.MkdirAll(newPath, os.ModePerm)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Learn more about our vibrant church community, serving the spiritual needs of Springwood for well over a century.
Our parish ministry groups work with the church in reaching the community.
Learn more about our patron saint, St Thomas Aquinas.
Find out about the history of St Thomas Aquinas in Springwood, from our beginnings in 1839.
MINISTRY GROUPS
Our Parish Team oversee the running of St Thomas Aquinas parish.
Learn about our Parish Priests, past and present.
Located in New South Wales, in the lower Blue Mountains within the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta, our Parish is home to the many Catholic families who live in the Springwood area. At the heart of St Thomas Aquinas Springwood Parish is a faith community whose foundations date to 1839.
Today, we are active in ministry, pastoral care and outreach within our Parish as well as the wider Mountains community, including through St Vincent De Paul conferences, an Over 50s Group, Children's Liturgy, Youth Group, Rosary, Choir, Parish Playgroup, Parish representation with the Trustees of Catholic Healthcare, Centreing Prayer, Catholic Womens League and Life Ascending.
If you are new to the Springwood area and would like to become a part of our Parish community, we look forward to meeting you at Mass, or please feel free to contact us at any time.
Our Parish Team oversees the running of St Thomas Aquinas parish, including our ministry teams.
PARISH PRIEST
Fr Paul Slyney
Assistant Priest
Fr Shinto Francis
SACRAMENTAL TEAM
Chris Joy and Deborah Breytenbach
Deborah Breytenbach
Chris Joy
ST THOMAS AQUINAS: THE PATRON SAINT OF OUR PARISH
Saint Thomas Aquinas OP (Italian: Tommaso d'Aquino, lit. 'Thomas of Aquino'; 1225 - 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio.
He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism; of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Unlike many currents in the Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle-whom he called "the Philosopher"-and attempted to synthesise Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. His best-known works are the Summa Theologiae and the Summa contra Gentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle also form an important part of his body of work. Furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy.
The Catholic Church honours Thomas Aquinas as a saint and regards him as the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood, and indeed the highest expression of both natural reason and speculative theology. In modern times, under papal directives, the study of his works was long used as a core of the required program of study for those seeking ordination as priests or deacons, as well as for those in religious formation and for other students of the sacred disciplines (philosophy, Catholic theology, church history, liturgy, and canon law).
Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologians and philosophers. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools." The English philosopher Anthony Kenny considers Thomas to be "one of the dozen greatest philosophers of the western world".
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas)
A brief history of St Thomas Aquinas parish
The history of the Church at Springwood dates back to 1839 when it was part of Penrith Parish under Rev Charles Sumner. Mass was celebrated at Thomas Boland's Springwood Inn and later at their home. The Bolands were at one time the only Catholic family in the area.
In 1907, the resident priest in Springwood, Rev James Sheridan, arranged a boarding school under the control of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The parish was first entrusted to Rev PC Cregan, who had been sent by Cardinal Moran to build St Columba's Seminary.
In 1920, St Thomas primary school opened in the old church, which had been moved to Hawkesbury Road.
A new era began in 1935 with the arrival of resident parish priests, assisted by seminary staff. Rev Daniel Galvin built a presbytery and new school between 1935 and 1946; Rev Thomas Leen erected a retaining wall and Rev Canavan built another school.
Between 1969 and 1977, Rev Leslie Bagot added a second storey to the original school. Rev James O'Meara saw the old seminary become a co-ed Catholic high school in 1979 and in 1981, 1983, 1985 and 2001, four stages of a new primary school were built on parish property.
In 1986, Rev Michael McGloin moved the old parish to the St Columba's site and a retirement community, Aquinas Court, opened on the old site. It was subsequently transferred to Catholic Healthcare in April 2006.
For further information or to get involved in any of our Ministry Groups, please contact the Pastoral Office.
The Ministry of Acolyte is known to exist in the Latin Church as early as the 3rd Century. It takes its name from the Greek word akoloulos meaning 'one who follows' and was used to describe an assistant who served the presiding bishop or priest but lost its way around the 10th Century when these functions were taken over by ordained ministers.
In 1972 Pope Paul VI called for reforms in this area and the Ministry of Acolyte as we know it today was formed. The restoration of the acolyte is a direct effect of the Church's work of renewal in the direction set by the Second Vatican Council and is a ministry of service to the people of God in the Parish.
An acolyte must successfully complete a 12 week training programme and on completion of the course is installed in his ministry by a Bishop.
St Thomas Aquinas, Springwood supports approximately 20 Special Religious Educators (SREs) or Catechists who teach or assist in teaching the Catholic Religion each week at 4 local State Primary Schools (K-Yr 6) and 2 State High Schools (Yr 7).
Classes are between 30-45 minutes, once a week on Tuesday or Wednesday. Teaching Manuals that contain all the lessons for the year are supplied to each Catechist.
Training will need to be undertaken by new Catechists and this is managed by the Parramatta Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD).
Please notify the Pastoral Office if you are interested in becoming a Catechist or would like more information.
The purpose of this ministry is two-fold: firstly, to allow parents to be able to listen and contemplate the readings of the day; secondly, for the children to listen to the Gospel of the day at a level they can understand, then be shown how to apply this to their daily life.
We do this through discussion as well as activity sheets. The resources we use are from liturgyhelp.com
CENTREING PRAYER GROUP
Our Catholic tradition from 4th Century contains many forms of prayer, some more active than others. Pope Paul VI himself called forth contemplative monks to help the whole church rediscover the contemplative dimension of prayer - known today as prayer of the heart or Centering Prayer. It is a very simple way of prayer for anyone who wants to be with God, to experience his love and presence.
It is a prayer of longing that leads into his presence. Centering prayer is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, 'when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees all that is done in secret will reward you' (Matthew 6:6) and inspired by the writings of John Cassian, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux and Thomas Merton.
You are most welcome to attend the Centering Prayer Group which meets every Thursday 7.30pm-8.30pm in the Pastoral Centre.
The Catholic Women's League promotes the spiritual, intellectual and social development of women, uphold the dignity of all women and children by awareness of injustice to the vulnerable members of our society.
They support the vocation of Christian marriage and family life, promote and support vocations to the Priestly and Religious life, financially assist the chosen Diocesan Charity of the Year and provide a forum for the voice of CWL organiasations in NSW.
Our branch of CWL meets on the 3rd Friday of the month after the 9.30am Mass. All women of the Parish are warmly invited to join our very friendly group.
EAST TIMOR - SPRINGWOOD EAST TIMOR SUPPORT GROUP (SETSG)
The SETSG is a small charity group originating in this Parish in 1998. We support health and education initiatives in East Timor particularly the projects of the Mary MacKillop Mission in Dili.
Eight meetings are held each year and focus on organising the Annual Trivia night and dinner.
Only through the generous support of the parishioners and the wider Springwood community over the years has the SETSG been able to make a significant difference to people in Timor-Leste.
EXERCISE GROUP
Classes began in February 2013. These classes are open to everyone regardless of age or fitness. Each person has a different goal: weight loss, fitness, but regardless, the focus is on exercise at your own pace and comfort.
Come and join the group on Monday's after the 9.30am Mass in the large meeting room of the Pastoral Office.
Enjoy morning tea and a chat afterwards.
EXTRAORDINARY MINISTER OF HOLY COMMUNION (AT MASS)
These are the lay people who have the role of distributing the Eucharist at Mass. They assist with the the distribution of Holy Communion when the Priest is physically unable to or if the number present at Mass would cause unnecessary delay.
These ministers are not ordained, may be male or female, and need to be in a state of grace so they also are able to receive the Eucharist.
EXTRAORDINARY MINISTER OF HOLY COMMUNION (TO THE SICK)
We have a dedicated team of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion who take Holy Communion to the sick of our Parish.
We visit Endeavour, Buckland and Uniting Care Nursing Homes each Friday and private homes and Springwood Hospital on Sundays. In addition, Father Paul celebrates Mass 5 times a year at each Nursing Home. Ministers are on a roster and are only required once a month.
If you are interested in becoming a Minister or know someone who needs Communion please contact the Pastoral Office.
Family Groups exist to build the community called CHURCH. They are a simple mechanism that brings together parishioners of all ages and family arrangements who can get to know one another so as to live out the call of the Gospel to 'love one another'.
Three family groups are active in the Parish, meeting for low or no cost activities about once every month.
The motto of family groups is 'A Family for All'.
Ministers of the Word
Readings at Mass introduce the theme for that particular Sunday. Readers prepare beforehand so that they are presenting the Scriptures in a clear, confident and correct manner.
Preparation prevents unexpected names like Nebuchadnezzar causing difficulty and reminds us to read more widely to enhance our understanding of God's word.
New readers are always welcome.
Mother's Prayers
Mother's Prayers is a worldwide group in 100 countries which was started by 2 mothers in England in 1995, who felt led by Jesus to start the group.
OurMother's Prayers group meets locally each fortnight and specifically pray for our children - we surrender our children to Jesus and put them in his care. From this has come many blessings worldwide.
It's a very warm and encouraging group of mothers/grandmothers who come together full of love and hope for their children. Groups usually consist of up to 8 ladies - we have a booklet to guide us and keep it simple.
We have 6 groups that look after the music at our weekend Masses. Five of the groups are rostered throughout each month, each providing music for approximately 2 Masses per month.
Since the liturgical worship is given a more noble form when celebrated in song, the leaders of each group select music that supports the theme and readings of each Mass.
We would welcome anyone who would like to join the Music Ministry as either singers or instrumentalists.
Sacramental Program
Preparation for the Sacraments is Parish based and family centered. When a child is presented for Baptism the parents assume the responsibility of bringing the child up in the Faith.
Parents/Carers with the aid of an appropriate programme share the Faith with their children. Small groups are formed and these meet on a weekly basis for 4 weeks to share and discuss the lesson for that week.
In sharing the Faith with our children we deepen our own knowledge and faith.
STARugs (St Thomas Aquinas Rugs)
A STARug is a handmade rug given to those in our local community who may need something colourful and personal to keep them warm.
Members of our Parish knit and crochet whole rugs or 25cm squares that are sewn into whole rugs. The rugs are distributed to the needy by our local Vinnies conferences and are very much appreciated for their warmth and the care they represent.
During the last 9 years, 269 STARugs have been made.
Donations of wool as well as knitted or crocheted 25cm squares are always needed to enable this Ministry to function.
These are the friendly people who greet those arriving for Mass with a smile and a simple, 'how are you', while handing on the Bulletin.
Welcoming the congregation personalises and values every person's arrival at St Thomas Aquinas Parish.
There are very few rostered welcomers and anyone who can begin 20 minutes before Mass to greet arrivals would be showing the human face of Christ in our Parish community.
PARISH PRIESTS: PAST & PRESENT
1935 - Rev Daniel Galvin
1946 - Rev Thomas Leen
1960 - Rev Canavan
1969 - Rev Leslie Bagot
1977 - Rev James O'Meara
1986 - Rev Michael McGloin
1996 - Rev Renato Paras
1999 - Rev Peter Connelly
Parish Priest - 1999 - 2011
Pastor Emeritus 2011 - 2013
2011 - Rev Paul Slyney
Current Parish Priest


Zend Studio is a convenient environment to code in PHP, which is why many Drupal developers are using it. But some settings are necessary to ease its use, due to the specific extensions Drupal uses.
Zend Studio 5.x comes bundled with PHPDocumentor and some integration work done. while PHPDocumentor is not the standard documentation tool for Drupal, which uses DOxygen instead, it is still very convenient, notably as most tags are compatible between the two systems anyway.
That's it ! You can now generate docs for your Drupal code from within Zend Studio. Don't forget to add the comments into your code, now !
Cool, here's a more general howto of how i got zend studio and drupal working in the first place.
5- Add each extension needed by Drupal: *.module, *.engine, *.theme, one at a time.
Zend Studio for Eclipse is a great environment for developing Drupal, especially now I've got debugging working locally and FTP sync using Aptana.
It is available as soon as you create your project from the root of your (multisite) install, just like in PDT and Aptana.
The problem is that in that case you are not working remotely but locally, and syncing to the remote. But it is indeed convenient to have the whole API in autocompletion in Studio.
This being said, I tend to prefer working with the "classical" version of Studio, which can manage remote projects transparently, including autocompletion. Your Zend Studio for Eclipse normally allows you to use the classical IDE too, if you want to try it.


text:
package com.udacity.bakingtime.injector;

import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;

import java.lang.annotation.Retention;

import javax.inject.Scope;

@Scope
@Retention(RUNTIME)
public @interface PerFragment {
}


On the q.t. J.S.Paint works on cars and when they are released all people are satisfied.
It happened the same way this time. He updated the original Westfield Megabusa from World Racing 2.
This means in details he created a dash for the car, replaced the driver with a different one and added 25 new vinyls.
As a special service he gave an update for this car immediately because of some critics of flaws on the cockpit textures.
Both, the download of the car itself and the update are available in the addons section for World Racing 2, which you can find directly with the link at the end of this news.
öhhm, da steht doch , dass er jetzt ein Cockpit hat, sollte der auch ne Cockpitansicht haben oder hab ich irgendnen Fehler beim installieren gemacht ???
bei mir gibts nämlich nur ne nsicht auf der Motorhaube, aber keine IM Cockpit.
P.S: Warum sind die Rechnungen immer so schwierig ???
Der hat die selben technischen daten wie der Wiesmann roadster.
Hallo JSP,mal wieder eine super arbeit und erst mal die Vinyls,fabelhaft.


After Rajini and Shahrukh, will it be Vijay?
After wrapping up work on Kaththi, directed by A.R.Murugadoss, Ilayathalapathy Vijay will move on to his 58th film, to be directed by Chimbu Deven. While we had earlier reported that A.R.Rahman is in talks to do the music composing for the movie, we now have concrete info that Deepika Padukone is almost sure to sign on for the lead heroine role.
There has been huge buzz surrounding both Deepika and Priyanka Chopra, as possible candidates to romance Vijay in this movie, but the current indications are towards the 'Chennai Express' beauty, thereby marking a huge casting coup by the team. The tall beauty was recently involved in Superstar's Kochadaiiyaan and is currently sharing the screen space with the 'King Khan', Shahrukh in Happy New Year. Will she return to the South this time for Vijay?
We aren't clear yet about the genre of this film as all the focus is on Kaththi now. The shoots of Vijay 58 will begin in August, after Vijay completes work on Kaththi.
We'll keep you posted on more.
People looking for online information on Chimbu Deven, Deepika Padukone, Kaththi, Vijay, Vijay 58 will find this news story useful.


Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) are three building blocks of future success in life. They are closely linked to each other and often bracketed together as one area of learning and development.
Personal development (Being me) – how we come to understand who we are and what we can do, how we look after ourselves.
Social development (Being social) – how we come to understand ourselves in relation to others, how we make friends, understand the rules of society and behave towards others.
Emotional development (Having feelings) – how we come to understand our own and others' feelings and develop our ability to 'stand in someone else's shoes' and see things from their point of view, referred to as empathy.
and ultimately to feel good about themselves.
What do children learn in Reception to support their Personal, Social and Emotional development?


Dubai Financial Market-listed Dubai Islamic Bank posted a net profit of AED 2.80 billion for nine months period ended September 30, 2015. This is up 36% compared with AED 2.06 billion for the same period last year. Total income also increased to AED 5.52 billion, up 20% compared with AED 4.61 billion on a yearly basis, the bank said in a statement announcing its results for the period.
The bank also showed improvement on other matrices such as NIM that improved to 3.72% from 3.38% while cost to income ratio improved to 34.1% from 34.8% for the same period of 2014. Apart from robust profitability growth, the banks also showed strong growth in earning assets across all business segments as well as continuous improvements in asset quality.
The bank showed strong capitalization and liquidity position, with capital adequacy ratio rising to 16.5% vs 14.9% at end of 2014. Net impairment losses declined to AED 341 million for the period ending September 30, 2015 compared with AED 538 million for the same period in 2014, a clear sign of consistent improvement in asset quality. Non-performing assets have shown a consistent decline with NPL ratio improving to 5.9%, compared with 8% at the end of 2014.


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Welcome to the Iowa State University Digital Press site for Aperiodic 2018. Abstracts will be submitted and published via the Digital Press.
Please click here for general information about the conference.


text:
Home Votewatch » Top 100 most influential EU Parliamentarians
Top 100 most influential EU Parliamentarians
Published in: Influence Assessment, Insights, Politics & Institutions, Society, Varia Antonio TajaniEuropean electionsEuropean parliamentGuy VerhofstadtInfluence AssessmentInfluencersManfred WeberRoberto Gualtieri
This report shows which EU Parliamentarians have been the most influential towards the end of the parliamentary term. The study also reveals which national groups have been punching above/below their weight when it comes to influencing European policies through the EP. The assessment is based on the collection of all available information concerning the various actions of each MEP while exerting their mandate. MEPs' scores are based on three main categories: direct shaping of Parliament's reports, leadership roles in parliamentary bodies (bureau, committees, etc) and strength of the person's political network (positions within the group, party, access to government).
Note: in this context, "influential" is a neutral term, it does not indicate in which direction the MEP has exerted influence when shaping the direction of EU policies, e.g. progressive vs. conservative or federalist vs. nationalist (to assess that part, we are developing different kind of analysis).
**In order to find out which MEPs/ political forces come closest to your views, check out our dedicated platform for the EU elections: YouVoteEU. Our tool allows you to vote on 25 key issues that have been voted on in the European Parliament and discover which MEPs voted in the same way as you did. If you are a media organization and want to embed our widget in your website, feel free to contact us by email! We can provide you with the code to embed the widget for free (the widget is also available in languages other than English: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Greek, Swedish, Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Slovak). **
How should the results be read?
This is not an assessment of the best and the worst, or the good and the bad. The "good" and the "bad" it's mostly a matter of perspective, depending on one's political views and interests. "Influence", however, it is a neutral term in this context, indicating the level of power that a MEP masters in order to get things done. The study does not tell whether he/she uses that power in line with the interests of a certain segment of the public (constituents) or a stakeholder group. For example, a MEP may be highly influential, but have different views than those promoted by a particular group of citizens (in which case he/she cannot be their champion). In this case, interestingly, that particular group would be better off is that MEP were less influential or active. Concurrently, a MEP may be portraying himself/herself as the champion of the interests of a particular citizens group, but, while he/she may be sharing the views of that group, he/she lacks the needed influence to get things done in the Parliament.
The level of influence of each MEP changes continuously, due to the high dynamics in the EP (such as positions reshuffle or rapporteurship appointments), national politics (e.g. parties in power change, Brexit) and visibility of a topic on the current political agenda (e.g. when migration is high on the agenda, the MEPs dealing with it receive a boost in influence, after which their influence decreases). It goes without saying that the EU elections are the biggest factor of distortion of MEPs' influence, as many of them will lose their job, while others will take their place. However, we estimate that about 60% of the top 100 most influential MEPs are likely to be re-elected, whereas we estimate that only 40% of the incumbent MEPs will be re-elected to the next Parliament.
If you are interested in discovering the names of the 751 likely members of the next European Parliament, feel free to send us an email to [email protected]
Importantly, this is an overall assessment that measures dissipated influence. This means that if MEP X comes out as being overall more influential than MEP Y, this does not mean that X has more influential that Y on every single issue. On the contrary, MEP Y can hold substantial concentrated influence (more so than X) on a specific area or dossier (e.g. data protection), as political influence is highly dependent on the context and the timing in which decision-making is taking place.
In order to assess to what extent a MEP has been a champion of a cause or a citizens group, a more complex analysis is required, that would combine 1) the MEP's true views (e.g. how he/she has voted on specific points of interest) and 2) his/her level of influence on that topic. If you are interested in that kind of analysis, feel free to contact us at [email protected]
Who are the most influential MEPs overall?
Click here to find out the full list of the top 100 most influential EU Parliamentarians at the end of the 8th legislative term of the European Parliament.
Below we are showing who are the top 15 most influential MEPs out of the total 751 at the end of the 2014-2019 parliamentary term.
The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani (EPP), is tapped to have exerted the most influence because of his key role as the head of the Parliament itself. The second and third most influential MEPs are the leader and spitzenkandidat of the EPP group, German Manfred Weber, and the chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Italian Roberto Gualtieri. Weber, who is currently the youngest group leader in the current Parliament as well as the youngest ever leader of the EPP group, is the favorite to become the next President of the European Commission. Gualtieri has the highest score on rapporteurship criteria since he has contributed in shaping more than 30 reports on economic policy between 2015 and 2019.
The chair of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Romanian Adina-Ioana Vălean (EPP), is ranked fourth in the influencers' list. The fifth most influential MEP, German Udo Bullmann, is the chair of the socialist group (S&D) as well as a member of several Delegations of Euro-Latin American Parliamentary relations.
Austrian Othmar Karas (EPP) is number six, mainly thanks to his contribution in shaping a high number of reports on economic policy. Spanish Eider Rubial Gardiazabal (S&D) occupies the seventh position in our list, thanks to her role in shaping a high number of reports on budgetary matters. Another Spanish Social Democrat, Inés Ayala Sender, political coordinator of S&D in the Committee on Budgetary Control, comes tenth.
Polish Danuta Maria Hübner (EPP), chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, is in eighth place. She is also a member of the Delegation for relations with the United States. The top 10 is closed by the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt (9th position), the vocal chair of the centrist group (ALDE) as well as the representative of the European Parliament for the Brexit negotiations.
Which MEPs saw an increase in their influence?
Some MEPs jumped to the top, others saw a decline in their clout over the past 2 years, since our previous assessment. This is due to the changes that took place in the interim, such as the reshuffle of key positions in the EP, as well as the assignment of new legislative reports. Keeping track of the performance of all MEPs is challenging, hence we decided to focus our attention on the fastest rising MEPs, namely the MEPs which obtained the largest increase in their influence recently.
– Antonio Tajani: the former Vice-President of the European Parliament has maintained his power and visibility after his election to the helm of the legislative institution.
– Roberto Gualtieri: the chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee has climbed from the 5th position in our previous ranking to the 3rd, due to his extensive contribution on parliamentarian reports.
– Eider Rubial Gardiazabal: the member of the Committee on Budgets has risen two positions, from the 10th in 2017 to the 7th in 2019. She is one of the few candidates that has not been replaced in the Spanish socialist list for the European Elections.
– Othmar Karas: the chair of the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee has jumped from the 11th position in 2017 to 5th in 2019. This change is explained mainly through the fact that he has contributed to the shaping of several parliamentary reports in economic matters.
However, not all changes in the positions of MEPs are the consequence of either gain or losses in influence, as their scores were also affected by the adjustments that were applied to the algorithm.
As mentioned in the methodology, this study is a snapshot of the state of affairs at the end of the legislative term. The dynamics of influence in the EU institutions will change dramatically after the elections, due to the reshuffling of key positions in the EP and the different balance of power between and within the European political families.
What are the trends by country?
If we look at the influence by EU Member State, the size of the country, or more concretely its population (translated into the number of MEPs), plays a key role. For example, the Germans, as a the biggest national group in the EP, have been the most influential, followed by other big national groups such as the Italians, the French, the Spanish, the Polish, the Romanians, the Dutch, etc. (and, of course, with the special "footnote" in the case of the British).
As this was no big finding, we decided to take also another approach that would place the countries on an equal footing: by dividing the total amount of influence of a country to the number of MEPs it has, we get the "average influence per MEP", which allows us to have comparable results among the countries. These results can be read as "which countries have punched above their weight and which below their weight"?
The answer is that Belgium, Czechia and Finland are at the top of national groups punching above their (otherwise relatively small) weight.
As one of the smallest but most densely populated European countries hosting the capital of the European Union, Belgium has to some extent a unique position in the EU. Its high average influence is given by the fact that several Belgian MEPs have occupied key positions in the European Parliament. Although Belgian MEPs are spread across different groups, most of them are part of the most influential centrist groups. Guy Verhofstadt (leader of the ALDE group), Kathleen Van Brempt (vice-chair of S&D), and Philippe Lamberts (co-chair of Greens/EFA), hold influential positions within their political groups, whereas Belgian MEPs have also been quite active in shaping legislation as rapporteurs (e.g. Bart Staes and Gerard Deprez).
Czech members got the second highest average influence per MEP in the European Parliament. While a relatively small delegation, Czech influence comes mostly from the leadership roles of prominent Czech MEPs, such as Pavel Telička (Vice-President of the European Parliament), Pavel Svoboda (Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs), Petr Jezek (Chair of the Special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance), Pavel Poc (Vice-Chair of ENVI and political coordinator of S&D in the special PEST committee) and Jan Zahradil (President and spitzenkandidat of the ACRE party). Interestingly, Czech members scored the highest when it comes to influence (average per MEP) exerted through formal leadership positions in the European Parliament's bodies (bureau, committees, groups, etc.), whereas they have been less prolific with regards to their legislative activities, ie. directly shaping reports (but still above the EP average). This trend of aiming to exert influence through holding formal leadership positions is observable among the countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Conversely, the Nordics, for example, have a different tactics of shaping reports directly through legislative activity (rapporteurship).
For example, the Finnish members scored the highest with regards to rapporteurship positions (proportional to the size of their delegation). Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA), Petri Savarmaa (EPP) and Sirpa Pietikainen (EPP) were among the most prolific MEPs in this respect. Finnish members were somewhat less successful when it came to gaining key leadership positions, although there are a few exceptions: Heidi Hautala is Vice-President of the European Parliament, whereas Petri Savarmaa is vice-chair of the Committee on Budgets.
From among the big national delegations, German members had the highest influence in the EP even when we control for the size of the delegation. This means that the Germans manage to exert much more influence in the EP than countries with a size close to Germany, like France or the UK, for example. Interestingly, the high level of influence of the Germans is given by the fact that they are able to secure and control leadership positions in the EP's bodies, whereas the influence exerted through direct shaping of legislation (rapporteurship) is within the EP average. In particular, since German parties were often the largest within several political groups, German politicians had good chances of becoming the leaders of these groups. Two Germans were leading the two largest groups in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber (EPP) and Udo Bullmann (S&D). Far-left group GUE/NGL is also led by a German, Gabriele Zimmer, whereas Ska Keller is co-chair of the Greens/EFA group. The former EP president, until the mid-term, Martin Schulz, was also a German.
Under these circumstances, there is no surprise that the Secretary-General of the European Parliament, Klaus Welle (who is appointed by the MEPs) comes from the same country. His counterpart in the European Commission, the much more notorious Martin Selmayr, confirms the pattern, even though we are talking about a different EU institution (whose power distribution patterns are the object of a separate research that we are currently working on).
The level of influence of Italy has dropped several positions in comparison to our last assessment. Italians are currently neither punching above nor below their weight. Although Italians maintained important positions such as the presidency (MEP Tajani) and vice-presidency (MEP Castaldo) of the European Parliament, it lost the leadership of the S&D group, due to the resignation of MEP Gianni Pittella in 2018, following his election to the Italian Senate.
Despite the instability of the internal Spanish politics, the influence of Spanish MEPs has remained stable over the past few years. Among the top 10 most influential MEPs, there are two Spanish whose high scores stem from their prolific activities as rapporteurs. However, when taking all Spanish MEPs into account, Spain, just as Italy, is neither punching above, nor below its weight.
A similar finding regards Poland. Polish MEPs scored quite high with regards to leadership positions in the Parliament, whereas they engaged directly in shaping reports to a lesser extent than their colleagues. High-scoring Poles in our ranking usually held key positions, as in the case of the chair of AFCO, Danuta Maria Hubner, Jerzy Buzek (chair of ITRE and former EP President), Ryszard Antoni Legutko (co-chair of the ECR group), and Bogusław Liberadzki (Vice-President of the European Parliament).
From among the big continental countries, France is the one that punches way below its weight in the EP (the picture is quite different in the Council and the Commission – those are the object of our separate research). The victory of the National Front in the EP elections in 2014 was one of the main reasons that explains the low influence of France in the EP. Concretely, the victory of Le Pen (ENF) led to a decrease in the size of the French delegations in the most influential political groups. Conversely, the group founded by Marine Le Pen had a low level of influence in the European Parliament, since their proposals faced the rejection of the other political groups. For example, no single amendment proposed by the ENF was approved by the EP's plenary! Additionally, no member of the ENF group was provided with leadership positions in the European Parliament. After the upcoming elections, the influence of France in the EU Parliament may increase depending on how Macron will play his cards.
Likewise, UKIP victory in 2014 undermined substantially British influence in the European Parliament. Also, the lack of British parties within the influential EPP, as well as the small British representation within ALDE, further explains the low average level of influence of the Brits. After the Brexit referendum in 2016, the UK has been further losing influence, and the British lost some of their leadership positions, such as the chair of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, which had been held by British members for several legislative terms.
As in our previous update, Greek MEPs score the worst in terms of average influence, punching way below their weight. This is explained mainly through the fact that the Hellenic country does not have a big number of MEPs within the most influential groups and several Greek members are not attached to any political group. This translated into less influential positions inside the EU Parliament, both in legislative and leadership terms. Interestingly, the situation is quite opposite in the European Commission, where Greeks are over-represented (as shown by our preliminary findings in a separate research).
Annex:
The information regarding who is influential, how influential they are, and on which EU policies is fundamental to the public, who needs to be aware of the personalities that shape the laws that affect half a billion citizens. Political institutions, in this case, European institutions specifically, take responsibility for their decisions and their implementation. Between 2013 and 2019, more than 70 new parties and political alliances emerged in EU Member States, some of which campaigned successfully and are likely to have a seat in the EU Parliament.
Therefore, in order to strengthen the democratic processes, the citizens also need to know which politicians within the institutions have played a bigger role in shaping the policy of the EU. This is especially the case for the EU's institutions, whose complexity have led many citizens to feel disengaged with the political system, in the relative absence of (locally-known) human faces that they can easily associate decisions with.
Equally important, many MEPs have pointed out that they find it very difficult to communicate to their own citizens the importance of the work that they do in Brussels and Strasbourg. For this reason, MEPs argue that their contributions are not fully recognized by the local/national public arenas, hence their own leverage in the debates "at home" is sometimes disproportionately small compared to that of local and national politicians. Our initiative also aims to provide the public with a tool to get to know the work of the MEPs better, the areas they are active in, and the level of influence they exert (other reports done by VoteWatch also show the actual views of the MEPs on several subjects).
As the 2019 European Parliament elections get closer, this updated assessment contributes not only to increase the visibility of the activities of MEPs, but also to feed into the general debate on European decision-making. Our assessment is based on concrete facts (activities undertaken) combined with qualitative insights. Notably, the development of an algorithm requires a careful weighting of many criteria, which is a tremendous operation inherently vulnerable to subjectivity, as different people have different views as to which position is more important, or which legislative dossier carry the biggest weight. Nevertheless, this problem was mainly solved by asking a group of specialists to contribute to this task: by increasing the number of evaluators, the impact of personal biases has been marginalized.
We tried to include as many (reasonable) suggestions as possible in the last updated version of our influence assessment and we warmly invite our readers to keep providing us with their valuable feedback.
How was the algorithm built?
Our initial survey was answered by 234 respondents, out of whom 42% are interacting with MEPs on a daily basis, whereas 24% of respondents do the same on a weekly basis.
A relative majority of answers came from people working in the EU institutions (42%), while the rest of the contributors work in the private sector (17%), academia and think tanks (13%), NGOs (9%) and others.
Those surveyed pointed out some interesting elements, such as the different importance of Committees in the EP, for example chairing ECON or ENVI is deemed to be more important than chairing CULT or DEVE (we have granted different weight to the committees). Also the low or no relevance of some criteria was noticed by the respondents, such as the number of questions asked to the Commission. In fact, according to some respondents, the quality of the questions is more important than the number, as asking "hundreds of silly questions cannot be compared to more tailored and well-thought requests". At the end, we have decided to exclude Parliamentary questions from the set of criteria.
According to the respondents, important offices held in the past do not play such an important role when shaping policies in the European Parliament. In fact, being a former Commissioner, Minister or even former President of the European Parliament was deemed to be less important than being the current coordinator of a political group in a Committee. Indeed, both political coordinators and Committee chairs were deemed to be highly influential. Instead, among the different positions in the EP, chairs and deputy chairs of EP interparliamentary delegations are among the least influential.
Rapporteurship-wise, the higher importance of the reports under the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (previously known as co-decision) is shown by the higher score assigned to the shadow rapporteurs on these files than the ones to the lead rapporteurs of other types of files. However, as the comments pointed out, the shadow rapporteurs are not created equal, as the members of the two largest groups, EPP and S&D, are more influential than the others due to sheer numbers behind them.
Some suggestions from our respondents could not be fed into the algorithm, mainly because certain factors are difficult to quantify (such as measuring the in-depth knowledge by the MEP of a certain topic). The suggestion to include the number of languages spoken by MEPs as a crucial factor for assessing their influence was raised by a few respondents. We acknowledge that this is the case, but unfortunately, this is hard to measure accurately (unless language tests are applied to all MEPs).
The participants also mentioned several individual MEPs as deserving extra points for their achievements or for their "behind the scene" influence (ie. influence not highlighted by the numbers but felt in interactions). For this reason, we have created a category called "EP insights", which considers the qualitative assessment of MEPs by insiders.
Political groups-wise, some respondents pointed out at the dominance of the two largest political groups in the Parliament, EPP and S&D. Indeed, this dominance is taken into account in our algorithm, as, for instance, shadow rapporteurs from these groups are being granted extra points vis-à-vis the shadow rapporteurs of the other political groups.
MEPs who are performing well in terms of participation in votes and being on the winning side in votes within their own political group, and within the EP plenary, have also received influence points, according to clear thresholds. Lastly, upon suggestions from the public, we have also assigned influence points to those MEPs whose parties control the government in their own Member State (both senior and junior coalition partners).
What has changed about the algorithm? Upon suggestions from the public, we added the quaestors to the list of key positions considered for the algorithm. The scores assigned to the Vice-Presidents of the EP, as well as the leaders of the political groups, have also been increased.
In our first assessment, we also assigned additional points to the rapporteurs on files that were deemed to be particularly important by the respondents to our survey. In this case, we decided not to arbitrarily classify some of the most recent reports as deserving additional points. For this reason, bonus points for special reports have not been included in this updated version of our assessment.
2 thoughts on "Top 100 most influential EU Parliamentarians"
Paolo Guerriero says:
The second and third most influential MEPs are the leader and spitzenkandidat of the EPP group, As far as I know Gualtieri is not in the EPP Group
Radu Gheorghe says:
Dear Anna hereunder is your answer .
Donald Tusk, is the President of the European Council
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/Yale/APAC/news/Homedec(524x224).jpg
With over 600 booths and more than 200 companies exhibiting, HOMEDEC (Home Decoration Exhition) is a tradeshow for homeowners planning a renovation, or in need to refurish or even to redecorate their homes - a marketplace with a wide range of products and choice for better home solutions, new products, interior design ideas, trends and tips for good living.
Launched in 2003, it is now the most established and sought after platform for this purpose and is reputed as Malaysia's No. 1 exhibition for manufacturers, supplier, agents, dealers and businesses in the renovation, refurishment or redecoration industry.
For Yale, this year's show provided an opportunity to globally launch the new Yale safes, and showcase other Yale Products including the Y-series Padlock, Travel Lock, Locksets and Digital Door Lock.
Andrew Eng, General Manager, Sales & Marketing for Yale APAC believes Yale's presence at this year's show acknowledged the brand's ongoing endeavour to manufacture and market innovative and quality hardware products.
"Yale products are recognised worldwide for their quality, design and innovation, and our stand displayed all these attributes to great advantage," says Andrew. "Feedback from those visiting the Yale stand was very positive, Interest and sales generated from new Yale safes, current padlock ranges, travel locks and locksets over the four day event at this year's show were record-breaking!" One of the star attractions amongst the younger demographic was Yale's digital door lock.
"Today we are looking to bring Yale out of its conventional confines and into the broader environment," concluded Andrew.


Makur Designs established in 1995, is a family ownes and operated business. Designer Masis Hagopian's goal is to capture the unexpected beauty of everyday objects. His fascination with color, shape, and texture is eveident in his unique collections.


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The Warrior Within
About Krav Maga
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Warrior Training Programme
'Warrior Leadership' for the Project Management Institute's 50th Anniversary
'Warrior Leadership' for the Project Management Institute's 50th Anniversary The project Management Institute (PMI) recently celebrated their 50th anniversary in style at the De Zalze Lodge, with the WTC's Claudio Chiste invited as guest speaker to present a talk on Warrior Leadership at the PMI's Western Cape Chapter (other guest speakers included the co-founder of Snapscan and Luno Crypto, Carl…
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Inaugural WTC Grading Ceremony for Krav Maga Cape Town
Inaugural WTC Grading Ceremony for Krav Maga Cape Town The End-of-Year club function turned into a celebration for more reasons than one, as the Krav Maga Cape Town club celebrated its one-year anniversary and the inaugural grading ceremony was held. This was an occasion for the club students, who have worked hard throughout the year dedicating their weekends, to share…
Self Defence Classes to Empower Female Learners at Star College
Self Defence Classes to Empower Female Learners at Star College Crime is a real problem. Krav Maga is a real solution. Krav Maga is fast becoming the self defence of choice for women around the world, who are looking for an effective, easy to learn system aimed at defending oneself against an attacker who is bigger and stronger. Jennifer Lopez,…
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MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING FOR SINENJONGO RUGBY TEAM
MENTAL TOUGHNESS TRAINING FOR SINENJONGO RUGBY TEAM The Warrior Training Centre (WTC) conducted Mental Toughness training for the Sinenjongo High Rugby team. Rugby is a sport well known for high-impact collisions, in which players have to exert extreme force in pursuit of the ball, whether directly or by colliding into the opposing player. Injuries are frequent, with the probability of…
SALDANHA RUGBY TEAM MAINTAIN CONDITIONING WITH WTC'S KRAV MAGA TRAINING
SALDANHA RUGBY TEAM MAINTAIN CONDITIONING WITH WTC'S KRAV MAGA TRAINING The word is spreading that WTC's Krav Maga training can help you achieve your strength, health, and fitness goals by using basic Krav movements alongside other aerobic and resistance exercises. Recently the pride of Saldanha, Saldanha XV, won the 'west coast trophy' after defeating their bitter rivals, Vredenburg. (see article…
'Warrior Leadership' Development Programme for the SA military
'Warrior Leadership' Development Programme for the military The SA Navy's Military Training for Ratings Part 2 (MTR2) had WTC's 'Warrior Leadership' course as part of their formative training. Leadership, simply put, is about leading people. In most organisations this typically tends to manifest itself as the leader-follower model. There is a well-known saying which I used to hear leaders of…
The Return of the Springbok Haka
The Return of the Springbok Haka There was a time when the South African national rugby team, the Springboks, used to perform a Zulu war cry, since been called the "Springbok Haka" or "South African Haka". This was reportedly last carried out at an official ceremony in the 1950s, after this practice was sadly stopped by the nationalistic government of…
WTC Carries Out Inaugural Self-Defence Training for Youth Leadership Development Programme
WTC Carries Out Inaugural Self-Defence Training for Youth Leadership Development Programme Almost 600 young South Africans successfully completed Youth Leadership Development Programme (YLDP) training at Thaba Nchu NARYSEC College run by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) for the final phase held in Saldanha. The Warrior Training Centre (WTC) carried out…
Warrior Training Centre leaves its mark with female debutante boxing star
Warrior Training Centre leaves its mark with female debutante boxing star Apart from the odd bruise during one of London's major Ultra White Collar Boxing charity match held on 24th November 2018, one of the stars for the evening, Laura Moffat, successfully won her match in her boxing debut. Weeks before the bout, the WTC's Claudio Chiste had a training…
The Spirit of Chief Maqoma 'the uncrowned Xhosa king' Lives On
The Spirit of Chief Maqoma 'the uncrowned Xhosa king' Lives On The most renowned Xhosa chief and arguably one of Africa's greatest military leaders of the 19th Century. He was the Right Hand Son of Ngqika, ruler of the Rharhabe Kingdom of the Xhosa nation (what was known as the Ciskei). He was a man of considerable intellect and eloquence,…
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Please check out 2018-19 Key Dates below as some activities have changed due to adding three snow days onto the end of the school year. The last day of school is Friday, June 14. Dismissal will be at noon.
TRACK TRYOUTS - APRIL 15 TO MAY 10. CHECK CALENDAR FOR DETAILS.
An important topic which will be explored during our guidance classes over the next month or so is the topic of forgiveness. Like courage and gratitude, forgiveness is an important aspect of living a happy and productive life.
Kids, by nature, are very forgiving and able to be flexible thinkers. Through our discussions and stories, kids will solidify their understanding of the freedom that comes with forgiveness. We talk about the fact (and I offer personal examples) that when you "hold a grudge" you are punishing yourself as much as you're punishing the person who has wronged you. Along with this, we discuss strategies to communicate with people which can allow the forgiveness to take hold. We also talk about the courage required to forgive!
On another note, I am so excited to share that our monthly Conversations over Coffee group is growing!!! This month nine of us had lively conversation about the appropriate time to give children a cell phone, the struggles we face when it comes to giving our kids a bit more freedom, strategies to make playdates run smoothly, and ways to open conversations with our kids about their day. A huge thank you to the parents and grandparents who attended! Your input is valued!!! Our next gatherings will take place on April 3, May 1 and June 5. We hope you can join us!!!
CHECK HERE TO SEE IF YOU WON!
LOST AND FOUND! DID YOU CHILD LEAVE THEIR HAT AT SCHOOL? JACKET? MITTENS? ALL ITEMS WILL BE REMOVED FROM SCHOOL DURING APRIL VACATION. CONTACT YOUR CHILD'S TEACHER OR CALL THE SCHOOL TO CLAIM ANY ITEMS.CHECK HERE TO SEE IF YOU RECOGNIZE ANYTHING.
We would like to express our heartfelt thank you to all those involved in the building of our new playground. It was truly a group effort and we appreciate everyone who was involved. The students at BES are thrilled with their new play structure! We would like to thank each and every person involved with the project, especially our financial supporters: Casella, NH Charitable Foundation- Tender Corp, The BES NEST, The Raichle Family, Mascoma Savings Bank Foundation, Heidi and Martin Glavic, Garnet Hill Inc, Kristin and Mike Bruno, Bethlehem Village Store, Wal-Mart, and the Littleton Coop Partner of the Month Program. We would also like to extend our thanks to all the community members who supported NEST fundraisers, ran in the 5K/ Color Run, supported us at The 99 Dine for a Cause, or supported any other of our fundraising events.
The physical building of the playground could not have been done without the support of an amazing group of people. We would especially like to thank: Joel St. Pierre of O'Brien and Sons, Kevin Roy from Casella for the donation of sand, Brett Jackson and the Bethlehem Town crew for the removal of the equipment, Presby Construction for the dumpster donation, the staff of Lowes (thanks for the great turn out), Profile School for the use of their tractor, and all of the volunteers who helped to build the structure.
For those who were not mentioned, your efforts did not go unnoticed. We would like to thank you in person at our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on October 1 from 4:30-6:00 pm at the playground. There will be live music provided by White/Steer and Alburritos' food truck will have dinner available for purchase or bring your own and have a picnic. We would love for you to join us and see firsthand the joy you have provided for our students and local community.


How Often Should You Take A Physical?
Prescription Overdose is the Number 4 Killer in the U.S.
Why Do People End Up On So Many Medications?
Why So Many Medications for High Blood Pressure?
We are all obsessed with numbers in our lives — our age, our weight, our height, etc. But there are some numbers that can literally save your life, but only if you know what they are and understand what they really mean.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death today. Cancer is number 2, Diabetes is number 3, however, Diabetes is the number one killer in the African American community.
When you have all 3, like many people today because of eating GMOs and living and working in toxic environments, it is a perfect storm for an early death.
Many people are 30 days away from some type of PREVENTABLE illness or disease, and to prevent it all they need to do is bring their numbers back in range, but the problem is most people don't have any idea what their numbers are supposed to be.


Australia needed to create history to claim first win of the series.
The first Test match of the Ashes is England's to lose after a telling century from Ian Bell at Trent Bridge.
Thanks to Bell's 18th Test match hundred and his second against Australia, the Three Lions finished on 375 for their second innings, setting the tourists 311 for victory.
Restarting his innings on 95, Bell did not waste any time in securing his ton after scurrying through for a quick single when on 99 before punching the air in celebration.


Not all studies will stand up to replication, but a new study shows that a duplication failure may not doom a scientist's career.
A single scientific study often represents years of sweat, tears and sometimes even blood. But it never stands alone. In science, success and validation of a finding depends not on the original work and person doing the experiments, but on the ability of other people to find the same thing.
What happens when they don't?
A new study suggests that for Handley and others in his situation, it's not as bad as they fear: Scientists overestimate how negatively other scientists will view them.
"The climate around replication as being a threat rather than a compliment has produced some unfortunate discussions that suggest a scientist's reputation hinges on being right, rather than getting it right," says Brian Nosek, a psychologist the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and executive director for the Center for Open Science, which runs the Reproducibility Project.
But replication is not an insult. It's central to the scientific process. "There are always going to be things that are wrong in our science. No one should be blamed for having things be wrong or demonized for trying to correct them," says Adam Fetterman, a social psychologist at the University of Essex in Colchester, England. "It should be about the research and not about researcher." But he says with social media promoting near-instant reactions, failed replications quickly get personal. "People are mocking failed replications and they're equating a failed replication with questionable research practices, incompetence or cheating," he explains.
Fetterman and his colleague Kai Sassenberg of the University Tübingen in Germany decided to find out if a failed duplication is really as bad for a scientist's reputation as people fear. Via social media, they recruited 281 scientists who had published scientific studies.
In a survey, participants were asked to imagine a scientific result — either one of their own or a colleague's. Imagine that someone has tried to replicate the result and failed. The scientist tweaks the methods, tries again, and fails again.
Given this cringe-inducing scenario, survey participants were asked to rate how much other researchers would trust their work afterward, if they might call other results into to question and if their future work might come under the microscope.
When it was their own work, the scientists assumed the impact of a failed replication would be larger than if the work was someone else's. While the study can't predict the effect of a replication failure on a scientist's reputation in the real world, the results do suggest that scientists overestimate the negative effect on their reputations.
"It's a lot like the spotlight effect," Fetterman says. Just as when you think the world is watching when you slop coffee down your front, in reality, few notice, and those that do probably won't judge you as hard as you are judging yourself.
If a repeat study proves the original wrong, is it better to stand by your findings? Or admit that the original results were wrong after all? When confronted with these options, the survey participants ranked those who admitted they were wrong more positively than those who defended themselves, Fetterman and Sassenberg report December 9 in PLOS ONE. Better to eat some humble pie in the face of a failed replication.
A single duplication failure shouldn't doom an idea to the scientific dustbin, says Carina Sonnleitner, a psychologist at the University of Vienna in Austria. Sonnleitner was part of the team that tried to replicate Handley's work. She explains that the failure to replicate is not a sign that Handley's results were bad, or even wrong. The statistics involved in every scientific study are always about probability, she says. So there is always a chance, however small, that the first study — or its replication — was just a fluke. Many replications, and analysis of all the replications together, need to be done before drawing a conclusion.
Reputations are important, but of course, the real question is, can Fetterman and Sassenberg's finding be replicated? "Maybe," says Fetterman. "There's another set of researchers doing similar research. From the people I've talked to, they seem to have similar findings." But the proof, as in the rest of science, will be in the eventual replication.