text:
@interface FeTenDot ()
//Timer
@property (strong, nonatomic) NSTimer *timer;
@property (assign, nonatomic) BOOL isAnimating;

// Main View
@property (weak, nonatomic) UIView *mainView;
@property (assign, nonatomic) NSInteger indexDot;
@property (assign, nonatomic) CGPoint originCenter;

-(CGPoint) centerAtIndex:(NSInteger) index;
-(CATransform3D ) transform3DAtIndex:(NSInteger) index;
-(void) animate;
@end
@implementation FeTenDot

- (id)initWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];
    if (self) {
        // Initialization code
    }
    return self;
}
-(id) initDotAtMainView:(UIView *) mainView atIndex:(NSInteger) index
{

    CGRect frame = CGRectMake(mainView.center.x, mainView.center.y, 20, 20);
    self = [super initWithFrame:frame];

    if (self)
    {
        // Deafault
        self.backgroundColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
        self.layer.cornerRadius = self.bounds.size.width / 2;
        self.clipsToBounds = YES;
        _isAnimating = NO;
        _mainView = mainView;
        _indexDot = index;

        self.center = [self centerAtIndex:index];
        _originCenter = self.center;

        _originalTransform3D = [self transform3DAtIndex:index];
        self.layer.transform = _originalTransform3D;

        self.userInteractionEnabled = NO;
    }

    return self;
}

#pragma mark Main method
-(void) start
{
    if (_isAnimating)
    {
        return;
    }

    // Animate
    if (!_isAnimating)
    {
        // Set bool
        _isAnimating = YES;

        // First animate
        [self animate];

        // Run loop
        _timer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:2.7f target:self selector:@selector(animate) userInfo:nil repeats:HUGE_VAL];
    }
}
-(void) stop
{
    if (!_timer || !_isAnimating)
        return;

    if (_timer && _isAnimating)
    {
        [_timer invalidate];
        _isAnimating = NO;
    }
}
-(void) animate
{
    [UIView animateWithDuration:kDurationDot
                          delay:0
                        options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseOut
                     animations:^{
                         self.layer.transform = CATransform3DIdentity;
                     } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                         [UIView animateWithDuration:kDurationDot delay:1.2f options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseOut animations:^{
                             self.layer.transform = _originalTransform3D;

                         } completion:^(BOOL finished) {
                             [UIView animateWithDuration:0 delay:1.2f options:UIViewAnimationOptionCurveEaseOut animations:^{

                             } completion:^(BOOL finished) {

                             }];
                         }];
                     }];
}
-(void) reset
{
    [_timer invalidate];

    self.layer.transform = CATransform3DIdentity;

    self.center = _originCenter;

    _originalTransform3D = [self transform3DAtIndex:_indexDot];
    self.layer.transform = _originalTransform3D;
}

#pragma mark Helper method
-(CGPoint) centerAtIndex:(NSInteger)index
{
    CGPoint center;

    switch (index)
    {
        case 0:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x - 10, self.center.y - 50);
            break;
        }
        case 1:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x + 14, self.center.y - 43);

            break;
        }
        case 2:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x + 29, self.center.y - 24);
            break;
        }
        case 3:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x + 29, self.center.y);
            break;
        }
        case 4:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x + 15, self.center.y + 22);
            break;
        }
        case 5:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x - 10, self.center.y + 30);
            break;
        }
        case 6:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x -35, self.center.y + 22);

            break;
        }
        case 7:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x -49, self.center.y );
            break;
        }
        case 8:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x - 49, self.center.y - 24);

            break;
        }
        case 9:
        {
            center = CGPointMake(self.center.x - 34, self.center.y - 43);
            break;
        }
        default:
            break;
    }
    return center;
}
-(CATransform3D) transform3DAtIndex:(NSInteger)index
{
    CATransform3D t = CATransform3DIdentity;
    switch (index) {
        case 0:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, 10 - kMargeCenterX, 50 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 1:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, -14 - kMargeCenterX, 43 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 2:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, -29 - kMargeCenterX, 24 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 3:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, -29 - kMargeCenterX, 0 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 4:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, -15 - kMargeCenterX, -22 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 5:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, 10 - kMargeCenterX, -30 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 6:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, 35 - kMargeCenterX, -22 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 7:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, 49 - kMargeCenterX, 0 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        case 8:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, 49 - kMargeCenterX, 24 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);

            break;
        }
        case 9:
        {
            t = CATransform3DTranslate(t, 34 - kMargeCenterX, 43 - kMargeCenterY, 0);
            t = CATransform3DScale(t, 0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f);
            break;
        }
        default:
            break;
    }
    return t;
}
@end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
A sorting office or processing and distribution center (P&DC; name used by the United States Postal Service (USPS)) is any location where postal operators bring mail after collection for sorting into batches for delivery to the addressee, which may be a direct delivery or sent onwards to another regional or local sorting office, or to another postal administration.

Most countries have many sorting offices; the USPS has about 275. Some small territories such as Tahiti have only one. Sorting vans were used at various times; the UK had sorting vans, or carriages, in their Travelling Post Offices but those services were terminated in 2004. while in the USA the Railway Mail Service used a Railway post office for sorting the mail. As of 2017, Germany has about 95–98 sorting offices across the country.

The United Kingdom Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant Sorting Office was the world's largest sorting office at the beginning of the 20th century but is now only the largest one in London.

Military mail systems, such as the British Forces Post Office and U.S. Military Postal Service, have their own dedicated sorting offices.

See also
Mail Centre
Post Office Sorting Van
Sectional center facility (United States Postal Service)
Travelling Post Office

References

Postal infrastructure

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Disappointingly, last week none of the classes in school achieved the national average of 96% attendance.
This week's winners were Year 1, Year 3 and Year 6, all achieving above 97% attendance.
Let's try and make the last week of half term a brilliant week for attendance and see which class will win the pizza picnic for this half term!


text:
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Home > Wallpaper > Pattern: SG11210
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Wallquest Sg11210 Vinyl Peel and Stick
Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202
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Wallquest Sg11210 Vinyl Peel and Stick Total Square Feet
Wallquest Sg11210 Vinyl Peel and Stick Wall Dimensions
FT 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
IN 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


In Which Asexuality Goes Green. | The Venus of Willendork: Exploring A/Sexuality and Gender.
« Note to Teeth: Bite Me.
This entry was posted on January 5, 2009 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
A very thought provoking post! I think that it is this issue–finding lenses to use to understand asexuality–more than anything else that has kept me as involved in the asexual community as I have been. My own struggles to find ways to think about asexuality are what have led me to blog. Because it is such a new identity, there is very little to work with for developing any kind of framework. Using celibacy as a tool for understanding asexuality hasn't been used very much, but part of this comes from the fact that a distancing strategy has become standard in asexual rhetoric. On the other hand, the book "A History of Celibacy" features prominently on AVEN's recommended reading.
I definitely agree that we need to develop other tools and other ways of thinking about things in order to develop tools for making sense of asexuality and that asexuality has the potential to help us better understand sexuality–it challenges assumptions that need critical reevaluation.
Yeah, I don't think the "blues and yellows" I came up with were particularly ground-breaking. I'm still racking my brain for more interesting ones, and ones that perhaps are a little less explored by asexual thinkers than celibacy and homosexuality are. I think that's been my own major connection to the asexual community, though: the mental exertion of trying to understand something so new and so fascinating, within a community of people who are equally fascinated, and the constant search for new ways to expand and rethink that understanding.
Well, that, and feeling like there's somewhere I might belong even if I never become that lesbian who's comfortable in the meatmarket bar scene. 😉 Cheers!
Awesome post! I still contend that Polyamory is an interesting "yellow," as is the trans community. To me the most interesting thing about asexuality isn't the process of understanding it, it's the perspective that it brings to everyone else.
In your final point about sexuality you state that there aren't enough surrounding and complimentary territories for it, either. Asexuality, as the "opposite" of sexuality, is a pretty important one. I think that by defining asexuality we have a lot of power to define people's understanding of their own sexuality, and that's a pretty powerful position to be in. Unlike most other queer identities we can't be attacked morally, so it's harder to shut us up and take that power away.
Now I'm tempted to do a whole 'nother post about the environmental side of asexuality going green.
AVENguy: Polyamory and the trans community are definitely interesting yellows. The conversation between communities, and between people who have a stake or an identity in various combinations of them, is definitely fascinating. Asexuality raises interesting points in other areas, and other areas raise interesting points regarding asexuality. I ❤ that. … Also, I didn't mean to say that there aren't enough surrounding territories, necessarily, so much as that they are underexplored. Asexuality was definitely one of the informing territories I was thinking of in regard to that. … As for the environmental post, you totally should! I love when interests bridge, and something tells me you're more "qualified" to comment on this one. I was mainly just qualified to make the pun, ha ha.


We are The Astronauts, a small – several people at the moment – team founded in 2012 by the ex-owners and leads of People Can Fly, creators of Painkiller and Bulletstorm, lead by Adrian Chmielrz. We released The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - a weird fiction horror game - on both PC and PlayStation 4 as well as for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. It has been known for its novel approach to storytelling and the use of photogrammetry among other things. We believe that video games have the potential to be the ultimate form of both art and entertainment. We are focused on high-quality game experiences with imaginative visuals and rich story-telling.


text:
Q: termcal: superscript st, nd, th I'd like st, nd, and th of the dates to be superscript like this:
22nd
How do I do it?
MWE
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{termcal}

\newcommand{\WFClass}{%
\skipday % Monday (no class)
\skipday % Tuesday (no class)
\calday[Wednesday]{\classday} % Wednesday
\skipday % Thursday (no class)
\calday[Friday]{\classday} % Friday
\skipday\skipday % weekend (no class)
}

\newcommand{\Holiday}[2]{%
\options{#1}{\noclassday}
\caltext{#1}{#2}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\begin{calendar}{1/20/2020}{16} % Date Classes Begin & Length in Weeks
\setlength{\calboxdepth}{.3in}
\WFClass
% schedule
%\caltexton{1}{1.1, 1.2 Review}
\caltextnext{1.3, 1.4 Review}
\caltextnext{2.1, 2.2 Linear Equations}
% ... and so on

% Holidays
\Holiday{1/20/2020}{Martin Luther King Day}
\Holiday{3/8/2020}{Spring Break}
% ... and so on

\options{4/26/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/27/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/28/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/29/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/30/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\caltext{4/27/2020}{\textbf{Final Exam}}
\end{calendar}
\end{center}
\end{document}

A: You can use \textsuperscript (but you shouldn't; the superscripts are relics of the Victorian age, that a well-known word processor arbitrarily inflicted to all users thereof).
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{termcal}

\makeatletter
\renewcommand\@rdend[1]{\textsuperscript{\ifcase#1 th\or st\or nd\or rd\else th\fi}}
\makeatother

\newcommand{\WFClass}{%
\skipday % Monday (no class)
\skipday % Tuesday (no class)
\calday[Wednesday]{\classday} % Wednesday
\skipday % Thursday (no class)
\calday[Friday]{\classday} % Friday
\skipday\skipday % weekend (no class)
}

\newcommand{\Holiday}[2]{%
\options{#1}{\noclassday}
\caltext{#1}{#2}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\begin{calendar}{1/20/2020}{16} % Date Classes Begin & Length in Weeks
\setlength{\calboxdepth}{.3in}
\WFClass
% schedule
%\caltexton{1}{1.1, 1.2 Review}
\caltextnext{1.3, 1.4 Review}
\caltextnext{2.1, 2.2 Linear Equations}
% ... and so on

% Holidays
\Holiday{1/20/2020}{Martin Luther King Day}
\Holiday{3/8/2020}{Spring Break}
% ... and so on

\options{4/26/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/27/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/28/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/29/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\options{4/30/2020}{\noclassday} % finals week
\caltext{4/27/2020}{\textbf{Final Exam}}
\end{calendar}
\end{center}
\end{document}

I'm not sure why the left column produces overfull boxes.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Aveline Xu
CURRENT EMPLOYMENT
Avery Dennison, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Starting out as a Human Resource Assistant, Aveline Xu has made great strides in her career advancement within a short span of time. With a sharp mind and an outgoing personality, she was presented with the opportunity to join the sales team, which was her first foray into global trade. Today, she is a Senior Sales Manager at Avery Dennison, a Fortune 500 multinational manufacturer and distributor of pressure-sensitive adhesive materials, apparel branding labels and tags for some of the leading sportwear brands in the world, RFID inlays and specialty medical products. She credits her fast-tracked career to her master's education focused on international trade.
Read on to find out how hard work and higher education have enabled Aveline to advance her career in this exciting global business, moving from China, her homeland, to live in Ho Chi Minh City with responsibility for business in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
In a world of rapid globalization, what are some of the key skills that makes a successful leader? Aveline Xu has catapulted from a human resource assistant to a senior manager with substantial regional responsibilities in less than 10 years. In this exclusive interview, she reveals some of the key challenges prevalent in today's global trade sector and how to turn them into career growth opportunities. She also shares how she attained ongoing growth in her international career through lifelong learning, including graduating with a master's program focused on global trade.
Full Interview
What do you love about your career in global trade?
When I first started out with Avery Dennison as a human resource assistant in China, I wasn't quite sure what to expect in my first job. After two years into human resources, I was offered an opportunity in sales – and that was my first step into international trade. I took a leap of faith and have never looked back. Today, I am a Senior Sales Manager at Avery Dennison based in Ho Chi Minh City. I am responsible for facilitating trade of high-value pressure-sensitive materials – such as apparel labeling – across Southeast Asia for some of the leading sportswear and other brands in the world.
A career in international trade continues to be a very rewarding path, as I have been able to transcend the numbers and connect deeply with people from all walks of life and cultures. Working in trade provides me with a platform to forge mutually beneficial relationships with companies around the world and enables me to contribute to my company's sustainable business growth.
How did you develop your passion to work in international trade?
My passion for international trade grew from the global exposure it afforded me to advance my knowledge in cross-cultural human relations, communications and trade policy. With diverse skillsets, I was able to work across functional areas and connect with internal and external stakeholders.
In essence, the passion came from gaining knowledge and applying the learnings to clinch successful deals at work: That is the fuel that turbocharges my interest in international trade.
What are the growing opportunities for career advancement in international trade?
I believe there are three areas of growth for people looking to advance their career in international trade, namely: traceability, digitalization and sustainability.
There are many areas of opportunities in international trade. In the textile sector, I observed that sourcing of materials is constantly shifting to different regions, coupled with the global movement to reduce carbon emission. As such, there are great opportunities for people to grow their career in areas advancing sustainability.
For instance – and this is a bit technical, but it excites me – Avery partners with suppliers to develop world-class radio-frequency identification (RFID), electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects, which covers a wide range of inlay designs for operations in frequency bands.
The implementation of RFID has addressed one of the key challenges in global supply chain – traceability. With the use of RFID, companies can track the location of goods in the warehouse and during transit; monitor inventory turnover rate and optimize the inventory hold, thus, achieving cost efficiency and reducing wastage.
I foresee a huge demand for talent in digitizing trade processes to achieve sustainable growth: People should pay close attention to upskilling themselves to keep pace with sustainability trends and initiatives around the world.
How can leaders in global trade make a positive impact in the world?
As the countries advance their sustainability goals, implementing sustainability initiatives is one of the ways that trade leaders can make direct and positive impacts on the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit.
At Avery, we have moved to using environmentally friendly ink for printing of the labels and packaging. Not only does this enable sustainable profits, but we also empower our customers to meet their net zero targets. And that is important to all of us: Simply put, net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible to save our planet from the consequences of climate change.
We also continually explore solutions to optimize the supply chain. In a conventional setting, the printing of the labels takes place at different plants. We are currently exploring alternative methods to offer in-house printing solutions for our clients.
This will reduce the inefficiencies within the order-to-make process and accelerate time-to-market products. Most importantly, this reduces data governance and copyright issues arising from printing the logos offshore. We also provide software and hardware support for the in-house printing solutions to ensure customers meet compliance standards.
For career advancement in your sector, what educational pathway to enhance trade skills would you recommend?
Communication is the key for career advancement, as it helps to facilitate impactful conversations with internal and external stakeholders. And, with active listening skills, you will be able to pick up relevant information that is vital for identifying international business opportunities.
I recently completed the Master of Global Trade program at RMIT Vietnam thanks to a Hinrich Foundation scholarship, and it significantly advanced my knowledge and skills in international trade. This quality program equipped me with both experience and a powerful network to enhance my understanding and application of international trade practices. For instance, I was acquainted with thought leaders and mentors with rich expertise in the field of logistics, trade finance, trade law, policy advisory and more – right across global value chains. This greatly broadened my horizons and enriched my work experience.
Apart from international trade, a quality graduate trade program equips one with knowledge in accounting, operations, policy study and more. That has enabled me to become a recognised all-rounder high achiever at work. I would highly recommend that anyone considering a career in international trade – or fast-tracking their career in trade – pursue trade-specific higher education to gain valuable insight and build a diverse network.
When choosing a graduate program, it's important to look at the International Trade Rankings, which specialize in the ranking of graduate trade programs globally. With deep analysis in trade course offerings, program design, employability and work-ready experience, the International Trade Rankings provide a north star in the sea of graduate programs worldwide. This helps students to identify the right master's that will ultimately help them secure employment and advance their career.
What is the greatest challenge the sector is facing?
Recently, the greatest challenge in the trade industry is the conundrum between globalization and localization.
Undeterred by Covid, war and inflation, global trade hit a record high of $28.5 trillion in 2021. However, Covid has shifted consumer demand to durable goods, resulting in a disrupted supply chain. The supply chain gridlock is further constrained by the diminishing supply of raw materials, such as rare earth minerals or natural gas due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Rising interest rates have also weakened the appeal of local currencies in emerging markets, leading to a capital outflow to other markets. In fact, United States Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) fell from US $125.3 billion in the second quarter of 2022 to $69.5 billion in the third quarter.
Fueled by labor shortages and shipping delays, supply chain leaders are assessing how to reshape the supply chain for a post-Covid world. Based on my observations, some companies are reshoring and nearshoring plants to decrease global risk.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has cut its global trade forecast to 1 %. That said, is globalisation dead? Although international trade faces headwinds in 2023, globalization is still the economic vehicle that provides jobs, affordable consumer goods and increases GDP of trade partners. True leadership to be able to handle whatever challenges may come requires continuous lifelong learning.
How should one stay up to date on the latest trends in global trade?
It's tantamount to build intangible assets in your career to stay up to date on the latest trends in global trade. A nation's trade policy can influence the forces of the supply chain and how goods are exchanged with other countries, thus, driving economic opportunities and geopolitical stability. But, how do you keep up on complex trade policies between 195 countries around the world?
One of the ways is through the Hinrich Foundation's industry research and resources. The education hub for international trade provides trade research, reports and weekly news updates to keep you up to date about the latest industry trends – from foreign direct investment to sustainable trade. In a world of fake news, it has been my go-to channel for highly reliable information.
MORE TRADE CAREER PROFILES


Fixed costs in the Multi Track - where are we?
The online solutions court - developing a business model.
Withdrawing admissions - to permit or not.
This lecture will be presented by ANDREW MCLOUGHLIN – Andrew has been a Solicitor in Private Practice since 1983. He has been granted Higher Rights of Audience for Civil and Criminal proceedings and sits as a Recorder in the Crown and County Courts. He recently attended an updated Judicial College residential seminar on all aspects of the CPR.


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Home » Biographies » Nelson Mandela
Posted on August 16, 2012 by Emily Mace
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (born July 18, 1918) was the first president of South Africa to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. Before his presidency he was a prominent anti-apartheid activist who, while imprisoned for 27 years, was involved in the planning of underground armed resistance activities. The armed struggle was, for Mandela, a necessary last resort; he had remained steadfastly committed to non-violence.
Through his 27-year imprisonment, much of it spent in a cell on Robben Island, Mandela became the most widely known figure in the struggle against South African apartheid. Although the apartheid regime and nations sympathetic to it considered him and the ANC to be communists and terrorists, the armed struggle was an integral part of the overall a campaign against apartheid. The switch in policy to that of reconciliation, which Mandela pursued upon his release in 1990, facilitated a peaceful transition to fully representative democracy in South Africa.
Having received over a hundred awards over four decades, Mandela is currently a celebrated elder statesman who continues to voice his opinion on topical issues. In South Africa he is often known as "Madiba," an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela's clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela. Many South Africans also refer to him reverently as "mkhulu" (grandfather).
Click here for supplemental reading about Nelson Mandela on Amazon.
Series Navigation << Bernard LownDavid McClelland >>


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/**
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 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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Now Reading: Shock & Awe
Shock & Awe
How Texas conservatives are manipulating a budget crisis of their own creation.
Forrest Wilder Feb 9, 2011, 3:37 pm CST
Gov. rick Perry photo by Kelly Lynn James
"While some are worried, conservatives should be excited. This challenge should be viewed as an opportunity." -Andrew Kerr, executive director of Empower Texans, a conservative group.
What's Kerr so excited about? Oh, just Texas' little old $27-billion budget hole.
Conventional wisdom holds that tax increases are "off the table" and that violent cuts to core government services must be made. State lawmakers across the political spectrum almost unanimously lament the "painful" choices they will have to make this session. They make it sound like the butchery they are contemplating is inevitable. It's not.
Legislators could build new revenue streams from the immense wealth in this state. They might, for example, devise a state income tax, as 43 other states have, which would also make the regressive state tax code more equitable. They could maintain essential state services, including public education, health and human services and higher education. It is unlikely that any of that will come to pass. Instead, we hear that "everyone will have to do their part" and "all options are on the table"—platitudes that the powerful use to signal an unpopular decision has already been made. The public hears this kind of thing from leaders when they are preparing for war—whether it involves tanks and bombers or a full-frontal assault on one's own government.
For many Texas legislators and conservative activists, the budget crisis is a thing of wonder—a once-in-a-generation chance to drown government in the bathtub, to use anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist's infamous phrase. As Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst succinctly put it in his inaugural speech: "We pronounce the word 'C-R-I-S-I-S' as 'opportunity.'"
If you're looking to understand this legislative session, look no further than the Shock Doctrine. In a 2007 book by the same name, Naomi Klein argues that acolytes of far-right economic theory use "moments of collective trauma to engage in radical social and economic engineering."
Whether it was post-apartheid South Africa, Chile after the coup that toppled socialist Salvador Allende, or New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the engineers of Milton Friedman-style economics swooped in with a three-prong agenda of privatization, government deregulation and deep cuts to social spending. Disasters, natural and manmade, create the conditions for changes that couldn't otherwise happen—an economic shock-and-awe campaign so swift that nobody notices until it's too late.
You can see it at work in Texas now.
First, the numbers: Maintaining current services for the coming biennium requires about $100 billion. That sounds like a lot until you consider that Texas already spends less per capita than almost any other state, despite a diverse, booming population with complex needs, not to mention a variegated economy, vast infrastructure and intractable problems. The state is short $27 billion, more than one-quarter of the state's $100 billion discretionary budget. About 91 percent is consumed by public schools, higher education, and health and human services. That means "devastating" cuts are all but certain.
In case anybody's looking for a culprit, Gov. Rick Perry said Texas' deficit was "reflective of the national recession's lingering impact on state revenue." In fact, the recession has little to do with the $27 billion shortfall. Back in 2006 the Legislature concocted a Rube Goldberg-style measure that simultaneously cut property taxes, imposed a new "margins" tax on business and rejiggered the way public schools are financed. Wowee zowee—three birds with only one stone! Problem was, as the state Legislative Budget Board pointed out at the time, the plan's math didn't wash because the margins tax wouldn't bring in as much as the Legislature thought. In fact, the board said, it would leave a $5 billion hole in the state budget every year. The upshot: Perry, who pushed the swap, knew full well he was helping to create today's "crisis."
The budget shortfall is not the cause of the pain. It's the justification. For 30 years, antigovernment forces have been in the ascendancy with a platform of free markets, deregulation, privatization, the evisceration of social programs and the systematic debasement of the greater good. In Texas, where Republicans control more than two-thirds of the state House and a little less than two-thirds of the state Senate, this ideology now has its moment in the sun.
"The bottom line is there are no excuses now," Republican Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, the right-wing radio talk-show host and founder of the Tea Party Caucus, told the Associated Press in January. "It's a perfect storm, in a positive way, for conservatism."
Free market fundamentalists are champing at the bit to slash into the marrow of state government. The influential Texas Public Policy Foundation, which carries the mantle of Milton Friedman-style economics, is not shy about its agenda. It sees an opening to privatize state-supported living centers; cut the state's Medicaid program with a reckless goal of allowing "the quality of Medicaid-covered health care services to deteriorate in order to prevent the crowd-out of private health coverage"; and eliminate the state's successful Renewable Portfolio Standard, which has made Texas the nation's leader in wind energy.
The foundation's wish list isn't likely to be enacted in full. But take a stroll through the news in the past few months, and you see that the Texas Shock Doctrine is in full effect. Things once unthinkable, such as savage cuts to public schools, are now imminent.
Schools consume 44 percent of the state's general revenue, making it virtually impossible to spare schools from the ax. Austin lawyer Buck Wood, a veteran of school finance lawsuits, told the San Antonio Express-News that a 5-percent cut in education funding would mean $30 million less for San Antonio's Northside school district, forcing larger classes and staff reductions. "School districts right now are in a state of shock," Wood said. "Things are much worse than even I thought just a few months ago."
A draft budget floated by chief House budget writer state Rep. Jim Pitts, a Waxahachie Republican, whacks state community mental health funding by 40 percent. Texas already spends the least of any state on mental health, and those in the field warn that further cuts could lead to a permanent crisis, with mentally ill people off their meds and literally wandering the streets. Untreated mentally ill people often commit crimes. Jail, never a cheap prospect, ends up being the de facto mental ward.
Another prime target: colleges and universities. At minimum, drastically reduced state funding for higher education will translate into higher tuition and fees, and less financial aid. In 2003, the last time we had a budget deficit in Texas, the Legislature "deregulated" tuition, allowing governing boards of universities to raise it unilaterally. Legislators can't "deregulate" again, so the assault on colleges and universities will be more direct: faculty layoffs, bigger classes, a construction freeze and the elimination of courses, perhaps whole programs. The House draft budget proposes to cut state funding for four community colleges.
University leaders expect the austerity measures to become a permanent fixture.
"State support at the level we have enjoyed for the last 15 or 20 years is never coming back," Stanton Calvert, Texas A&M University's vice chancellor for governmental relations, told regents earlier this month. "There will almost surely be less money for a long time going forward."
The Shock Doctrine "relies heavily on the element of surprise," writes Klein. "A state of shock, by definition, is a moment when there is a gap between fast-moving events and the information that exists to explain them." That's where Texas is right now.
Sen. Kirk Watson, a moderate Austin Democrat, has proposed one modest fix; the Honesty Agenda. Watson's idea is to force legislators to be transparent about accounting gimmickry, hidden taxes and structural deficits. Watson warns that this might be the last chance to fix state finances before "our budget crises become chronic," consigning Texas to a future of second-rate schools, health care and infrastructure.
Most of Watson's plan involves changes to the process: requiring five days to "lay out" the final budget before voting on it; abandoning taxes and fees that don't go toward their advertised purpose; and eliminating unfunded mandates. "In a sane world, they wouldn't be controversial at all," Watson said in a December speech.
We don't live in a sane world. Conservatives have a simple story: Government is bad, and taxes are bad, so we must balance the budget by cutting spending. If progressives and moderates find a compelling counternarrative to explain why bombing state government is bad in the short term and worse in the long term, then perhaps some of the damage in store for Texas can be mitigated. Sometimes cooler heads need to be fiery.
Forrest Wilder, a native of Wimberley, Texas, is the editor of the Observer.
Lawmakers gathered for the start of the 140-day session Tuesday as the coronavirus continues to rage in Texas. by Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune
Lege in the Time of Coronavirus
An uncontrolled pandemic. An economic crisis. A bruising loss for Democrats. The Texas Legislature is back in session. by Justin Miller
Editorial: Look Down Ballot for Democratic Wins in Texas
The GOP-controlled state Legislature reconvenes next week. But Democrats flipped seemingly obscure seats, from justice of the peace to county sheriff, that have outsized impacts on Texas families. by Evan Mintz


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Richmond Community Garden
Past Avebury Events >
Matariki in the Zone 2020
Avebury Night Market 2019
Teddy Bears Picnic 2019
Matariki 2019
Avebury Gala 2019
Wedding Open Day 2018
Dementia Walk 2018
Avebury House History
Richmond History Group
Events and Room Hire
The Richmond History Group is based at Avebury House. The group maintains a collection of books, photographs and other memorabilia illustrating and recording the history of Avebury House and the development of the surrounding suburb of Richmond. We seek to expand the collection and have begun a project to digitise items from the collection and make them available online. This is a work-in-progress and we will be adding items to this site from now on.
If you have photographs or other material concerning Richmond's past, we would love to hear from you. Perhaps you would like to donate items to the collection, or allow us to view the material and if suitable, borrow items for recording and adding to our digital archive. We would of course return the items to you in the same condition as we received them.
If you would like to learn more about the group, or become involved, please contact Andrea at 381-6615.
Businesses of the Stanmore Road North End — a Potted History
The photo above shows the old shops on the western side of Stanmore Rd near the intersection with North Avon Rd in the late 1970s. These buildings were demolished soon after to make way for the construction of Richmond Village.
The four-page document below contains transcriptions of two letters written by Roy Burn, proprietor of the North Avon Shoe Store Ltd, 333 Stanmore Rd. Pages 1 & 2 give the text of a hand-written document prepared in 1980. Roy appended a note at the end: "1980 on the opening of the new Richmond Village". The document provides a potted history of many businesses in the commercial area at the north end of Stanmore Rd, over many years of 20th century. It may help readers locate some of the businesses mentioned in the document, to refer to the 1940 Stanmore Rd map prepared by Noeline Hansen and Shona Ward — see the item "Stanmore Road, Richmond — 1940" below on this page.
On p3 is another letter from Roy Burn about the same time, when the new Richmond Village opened at the corner of Stanmore & North Avon Rds. This letter outlines in more detail the story of the shoe repair business at 327 Stanmore Rd, taken over by Roy Burn's father, Albert, in 1928 and how this developed into the shoe retail business at 333 Stanmore. This letter and short introduction were printed in the August 2006 issue of the Richmond Community News (Issue 39).
The final page includes a map graphic advertising the North Avon shopping centre and its mix of businesses. This is dated 1972 in a handwritten note on the reverse.
The original documents are housed in the Richmond Room at Avebury house, along with much other material covering the history of the Richmond area. The document was transcribed by David Hollander, July 2018. The transcription has been edited lightly; correcting spelling and punctuation, but otherwise leaving the document as it was written.
businesses_of_the_stanmore_road_north_end-a_potted_history.pdf
The Richmond History Group is based at Avebury House.
Avebury House
Business/Commerce
Local Families


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The sexy isometric hack-and-slash game "Blade II: The Return of Evil" is coming to the Nintendo Switch
by Robin Ek> in General news - 05/10/19 at 7:47 PM
I honestly never thought that I would live to see the day when Nintendo would become the better option when it comes to lewd, adult and sexy waifus in video games…
The Unreal Engine 4 has done wonders on the visual front in "Blade II" with no doubt *cough cough*
Well, that's now a reality since Sony has gone all in on their censorship madness when it comes to erotic content and sexy females in video games (much more will follow for sure, violent video games is up next, mark my words).
Asian game developers sure know how to make sexy and attractive female game characters, more power to them! (in this case, props, love and respect to Action Square!)
Anyways, I know that things might look very dark and bleak on that front at the moment, but I actually do have some good news to share on that exact front.
Say hello to the sexy female wizard and assassin class from "Blade II" :3
You see, I just found out that Action Square's (they are a South Korean-based game development studio) sexy isometric hack-and-slash/ARPG game "Blade II: The Return of Evil" is coming to the Nintendo Switch ("Blade II" was originally a mobile game for iOS and Android).
Nintendo Switch has been bashed quite a lot as of lately when it comes to visuals and raw hardware power. Nevertheless, I still have to admit that "Blade II" looks pretty darn good on the Switch.
In other words, we will get to enjoy killing monsters and whatnot all while feasting our eyes on some really beautiful and sexy waifus.
Furthermore, "Blade II" runs on the Unreal 4 Engine, and so far I have to say that the game looks really good on the Switch.
If you're into thick and sexy waifu babes that kicks all sorts of ass (of course you are!), then "Blade II" might just be the game for you.
Even so, it's worth pointing out that "Blade II" is a TBA title for the Switch at the moment, so we will have to wait a little longer before there is a nailed down release date for the game.
As impressive as the "Blade II" Nintendo Switch trailer might be, there is still no release date for the game just yet.
Nevertheless, I'm still very much impressed with what I've seen from "Blade II" so far. You don't have to take my word for it though, just check out the "Blade II" Nintendo Switch announcement trailer further down the page 😉
Does "Blade II" have what it takes to become a great hack-and-slash ARPG on the Switch? Only time will tell.
And with that said, what's your take on "Blade II" so far? And are you excited for the upcoming Nintendo Switch release of the game?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!
About Blade II: The Return of Evil:
Brace yourself for the ultimate action! The shadow of evil looms over the peaceful realm of Elysium once more. The Destiny of Light calls upon you to become the savior of Elysium.
Play your role as Gladiator, Assassin, Wizard, and Fighter to avenge the dead and bring an end to the tragedy for good. Fight to survive, and survive to fight.
Blade 2 is a fast-paced, responsive action RPG that requires players to learn the patterns of enemies and master the timing of counter attacks and dodges.
Your skills above all else will determine your success. Our combat system is simple to pick up, but can only be mastered by the skillful and the dedicated.
Find and perfect your favorite play style, optimize your skill trees, find the most powerful gear, and dominate your foes. Fight without fear. You are the last hope. Another level of action RPG, right in your hands.
Blade II: The Return of Evil will be heading to the Switch sometime in the future, as it has received a rating by the Taiwanese games rating board. Hopefully we get the release date and Switch-specific details soon.
– 4 stylish Classes – Gladiator, Assassin, Wizard, and Fighter
– Progress through different regions to fight against multiple bosses
– Challenge yourself against endless waves of enemies to win the rarest of gears
– Master timing your counter attacks and dodges to beat enemies without getting hit
– Compete against your friends on time attacks and PvP
Dante Nintendo Switch World
Robin "V-Act" Ek
Twitter: @TheGamingGround
More by Robin Ek:
"Prison Architect" will no longer be available for download via Introversion's homepage after August 13th
"Pirates Outlaws" is getting a new game mode called "Arena" on July 17th
The dark silhouette sci-fi ARPG "Dark Sword 2" is now available for iOS and Android
Khainsaw just released her ultra-sexy cosplay as Echidna from "Queen's Blade"
Interview with DEVGRU-P – The waifu holocaust, censorship, lewd games and "Mein Waifu is the Fuhrer"
Tags: Action Square, ARPG, Blade II, Blade II: The Return of Evil, Hack and slash, Nintendo Switch, Sexy, The Return of Evil
Psyonix has just announced "Radical Summer" television content for "Rocket League"
Press release: SAN DIEGO – July 16, 2019 – Psyonix, San Diego video game developer, has revealed ful[...]


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Home » National » Selection Panel recommends 3 names for APTEL Chairperson, position vacant for last 7 months
Selection Panel recommends 3 names for APTEL Chairperson, position vacant for last 7 months
The other two names recommended by the panel are Sanjay Yadav, the former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, and R.S. Chauhan, the former Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court.
The panel has sent its recommendation to the government, but the government is yet to make the final selection for the Chairperson's position.
According to industry experts, the position of the APTEL chairperson remains vacant since August 2021 i.e for seven months now.
Keeping such an important post vacant is not only causing a delay in the decision-making in power sector but also derailing the power sector reforms. Such an important position of a tribunal body needs to be filled at the earliest in order to speed up the decision making process and also for the smooth functioning of the tribunal body.
Last month, the Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India had reprimanded the centre for not filling the position of APTEL Chairman. The court had even issued notices to the Centre and Attorney General and sought their response on the matter of the APTEL chairperson's appointment
Last year in September, there was a standoff between the apex court and the Centre as the latter asserted the right to reject names recommended by Supreme Court judge-led panels for appointments to tribunals
But a bench comprising Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and L.N. Rao had said that in a democratic country governed by the rule of law under the Constitution, the government cannot say it will not accept these recommendations.
APTEL is working without a full-time chairperson since August 2021. The appellate tribunal is currently working with three members - one judicial member and two technical members.
Apart from chairperson, the tribunal is also short of a technical member.
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz
Actress Anasuya Bharadwaj Latest Glam Stills
Delhi man held for kidnaping 5-yr-old boy to 'gift' to uncle


..Outstanding Achievement, It was for the West Highland Way Double and I recieved a lovely piece of etched glass for my trouble. I did it in aid of the Aurora Centre but did not expect an award, but it is nice to be appreciated. So thanks for the help in doing the do guys and hope we can keep going.


James Kyd is the Head of Global Brand and Marketing at Xero. Before joining Xero, James was CMO at founder-led global business Coretex and before that CMO at one of New Zealand's largest tech companies, Tait Communications. Prior to that at IBM over more than 15 years he had global sales and strategic marketing roles including focussing small business markets, along with running Asia Pacific brand and communications.
In an interview with Connect Intelligence, James shares why being 'human' is especially important in a digital world and how his employees are the best brand ambassadors.
1. What strategies do you employ to turn your employees into brand ambassadors? How do you model this?
Align to the company purpose: We ensure our staff understand and feel a real sense of alignment to our purpose and mission. If your purpose is clear and relevant to your people then they are in a better position to help champion the brand.
Build a strong sense of brand and culture: We've built a strong brand and culture, and that's empowering our staff to drive our passion out through the range of channels they use for work and to communicate in on a personal level.
Hire the right people: To empower our staff, we need to trust them. It's therefore been crucial for us to hire the right people. We look for employees who are well-aligned to the company's vision and values so they naturally operate with in the right framework when they represent the business. Many of our managing directors meet every person before they are hired. Why? At that stage it's not about deciding whether they have the skills for the role but ensuring they have the right values.
Get feedback: Asking our employees how they're feeling and what we can do to make things better is really important. Every week we seek feedback online using Officevibe to try to better the Xero workplace.]Model behaviour: Xero leaders are passionate about our business and brand and we actively demonstrate this. Recently I found myself in a room with 20 CMOs from Australasia. I had thrown on the jacket I wear to work most days which happens to have a Xero logo. I looked around the room and realised out of the 20 or so senior marketing leaders present, I was the only one touting their brand. It made me realise if the leaders charged with championing their companies' brand aren't doing so, how can they expect their employees to? Having a genuine love and passion for a brand is rare – but it must be built and ingrained in the culture from the top down.
2. How do you best connect with your consumers via technology? Are there are emerging technologies that you are going to implement like chatbots or AI?
For a brand like Xero, connecting with our customer via technology is in our DNA. It's how we are wired. The power of a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform is that we have the ability to observe behaviour at a fine level, 24/7. But what we focus on more than past behaviour is really understanding our customers' motivations and creating an open dialogue with them. We use tools like social media, discussion boards and our in-house customer experience channel to connect with customers. Staff are empowered to to be present in communication channels like social media and have direct dialogue with customers on their own account.
As a technology company, we are relentless in experimenting with emerging technologies to uncover value. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are very significant capabilities being used in our production environment to enable our platform and ultimately increased customer value.
We won't always take the technologies we test into full production. Timing is important when experimenting with new technologies, but what's most crucial is to have an agile mindset and be open to learning and improving.
3. How do you plan to remain a 'human' brand in a digital world?
First we need to ask what being human really means. I'd call it a state of mind. We're living in a human world. We believe that digital is an enabler for business that doesn't take away the primary place of people.
For us, human is not just something we just talk about. It's a core value for the business. Being a technology company that prioritises the human aspect helps makes our brand unique and draws people to us.
How do we build human into our brand? It starts with letting our staff to be themselves, to be individual. You don't want brand robots but people who talk to your customers like one person to another. This behaviour manifests itself in the customer experience and helping them feel more connected to the brand.
4. How do you ensure consumers have a positive brand experience with Xero?
We put our customers first in everything we do, and we don't flinch from criticism when we fall short. We actively keep a look out for unsolicited feedback on how we can improve.
We're guided by a strong set up brand values and empower our staff to deliver the experience in the best way possible.
Beyond that, we look at the wider network effect and how we can empower other groups whose work relates to what we do. We've built a community of accountants and bookkeepers that supports small business and acts as an extended channel and feedback loop. It all helps consumers to feel valued and part of something vibrant and caring.
James Kyd, Head of Global Brand and Marketing at Xero will be expanding on his insights at Brand Forum, 21 & 22 February 2018, Sofitel Wentworth, Sydney. Register now to be part of a decision making audience.


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You can see Kanye West naked for $4 million & we have so many questions
by Olivia Truffaut-Wong
Sep 01, 2016 at 8:00 pm EDT
Image: KanyeWestVEVO/YouTube
If you saw Kanye West's "Famous" music video and thought, "I wish I could be there in bed with all those fake naked celebrities," you're in luck. Over the weekend, in a special two-night event, the "Famous" celebrity sculptures were put on display at Los Angeles' Blum & Poe gallery. Because life-size replicas of naked celebrities are art, apparently.
Directly following the event, rumors emerged that West was selling the sculpture — including all 12 celebrity lookalikes, the bed and sheet — for $4 million. A rep for Blum & Poe has dismissed rumors in a statement to E! News, saying, "Unfortunately that was misinformation — the work was never for sale, is not currently for sale, and a price has not been discussed nor agreed upon." So, you can't pay to actually own a piece of the "Famous" video, but it's likely that West will take the sculpture on the road. Before West's art show comes to a city near you, we have some questions to ask.
1. Is it legal? Did celebrities approve the creation?
Famous Exhibit at Blum & Poe Art Gallery
A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Aug 27, 2016 at 9:49pm PDT
West's "Famous" sculpture features life-like silicone sculptures of 12 celebrities: Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Caitlyn Jenner, Amber Rose, Anna Wintour, Ray J, Bill Cosby, Donald Trump, George W. Bush and, of course, West and his wife Kim Kardashian. While it's possible he got approval from a handful of the real celebrities, it seems obvious he mostly just went ahead without giving anyone a courtesy call (Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian will probably reveal all at some later date).
Logically, there's just no way Trump or President Bush would approve of being portrayed naked in a giant, celebrity orgy. Also pretty unlikely are Cosby, Wintour, Ray J and Swift (especially given her response to the song itself). The bottom line is, the only people we know for sure who agreed to have their naked likeness in the video and displayed at Blum & Poe are West and Kardashian.
More: Looks like Kimye has forgiven Beyoncé & Jay Z for not attending their wedding
2. Are the sculptures anatomically correct? Do they have genitals?
Last night at Blum & Poe LA #kanyewest #kimkardashianwest #famous #sculpture #blumandpoe
A post shared by BLUM & POE (@blumandpoe) on Aug 27, 2016 at 4:09pm PDT
Other than the nudity clearly visible in the video — Kardashian's famous derrière, Rose's breasts, etc. — are the sculptures anatomically correct? Putting aside the fact that there's no way the celebs featured provided West with their exact measurements, it would make sense that the sculptures wouldn't be entirely detailed. After all, portions of each are covered by a carefully draped white sheet, obscuring the view of the complete body. According to CNN, the sculptures were commissioned to be "anatomically correct." So, in other words, yeah, it's likely they have genitals, though it doesn't seem that anyone provided a mold.
3. How did West decide what the bodies would look like?
Wait did you guys really see his ass!???!?!!!! https://t.co/ouRRDhThBB
Kardashian, Ray J, Rose, Rihanna and Chris Brown have posed for thousands of photos, a lot of them scantily dressed. So, it's not hard to imagine how West and his team of artists set about ensuring the precision of the celebrity sculptures. But what about Swift, who has never posed nude publicly, or Trump? To ensure that the sculptures were as accurate as possible, West had a team of celebrity stylists, consultants and analysts who spent hours studying photos and Instagram accounts to get proportions as accurate as possible. The figures were then rendered via computer animation and later created from silicone. Details were reportedly hand-sculpted, with the additions of freckles, tattoos and even human hair meant to create a truly life-like replica.
More: We tried to decode Kanye West's VMAs speech and failed — now you try
4. Is this even art?
We're not going to be able to answer the question of what makes something art based on West's "Famous" video, but it seems fair to wonder about the artistic value of his piece. "The work alone is extraordinary and completely succeeds as a sculpture and multi-media installation," Blum & Poe cofounder Tim Blum told CNN of the piece. After all, the sculpture is more than just a creepy rendering of naked celebrities. The piece uses mechanics to create soft breathing motions — each sculpture's chest moves slowly up and down, as if in deep sleep. It does seem, then, like a work of modern art.
5. Is Taylor Swift cool with it?
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/754894689900359680
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no, she isn't. Swift has not commented on West's decision to show the work. In fact, she's refrained from commenting on anything Kimye-related for the past month and a half, ever since she famously asked to "be excluded from this narrative" of her alleged feud with West.
More: Kimye's rivalry with Taylor Swift has done wonders for their relationship
6. Where is the sculpture going next?
According to The New York Times, someone form West's team confirmed that the sculpture is "on its way to its next location." Where and when it will pop up next, nobody seems to know for sure, but just like West, it's not going away anytime soon.
7. Does this really deserve our attention?
Here's the thing with West's sculpture: It's ethically suspect. Honestly, it gives me the creeps. The fact is, whether it's their real bodies or not, most of the celebrities depicted in this voyeuristic art installation did not give their consent to be viewed this way, specifically not for profit, which, let's face it, is what all of this boils down to. For someone like Swift, who carefully curates her image, West's "artwork" seems to directly defy her control and autonomy over her body. For whatever reason, Swift has chosen not to pose naked for the public eye, and West should respect that. Other celebrities, like Rose or Rihanna, have gotten naked for the public, but they were always in control of how, when and why they decided to disrobe. West's "Famous" sculpture disregards that choice, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
At the end of the day, Kanye West is going to do what he's going to do, but that doesn't mean I need to care about it. And this is one of those things I'm choosing not to care about.
Before you go, check out our slideshow below.
Image: Noel Velazquez/Getty Images
Kanye West kim kardashian Taylor Swift


u-JAYS headphones review: Is a $200 pair of headphones worth it?
"One of the sound design intentions is that u-Jays are capable of producing higher quality audio at a lower volume, which is certainly the case. Listening to a more nuanced artist, where many layers of music can be present at one time, the range becomes apparent, and it is worth noting that with the u-Jays, on certain songs, I did notice elements in the middle range that I had not when listening before on other headphones. The sound dimensionality is very strong, and opposed to similar market headphones that seem to be obsessed with music-distracting heavy bass, u-Jays find a sweet spot in the low-middle.
The design of u-Jays may lend itself best to quiet listening, but I find them perfectly sufficient for street and subway use, they are not noise canceling, but the firm ear cushion fit allows for a warm, surrounding sound; I found this is especially evident when listening to talk podcasts, which have a tendency to sound one dimensional and flat, but with u-Jays, you feel in-the-room.
All things considered, u-Jays do a first-class job at both looking sharp and producing complex sound."
Thank you The Aesthetic Post for reviewing the u-JAYS On-ear headphones!
"Everything nowadays feels disposable, particularly our tiny, seemingly impossible to repair electronics. But it doesn't have to be that way, and here to prove that are Jays' q-Jays Earphones. [...] The earphones themselves are of course built to last with a CNC-machined and laser-cut housing that's finalized with a tough physical vapor deposition finish, and sound quality competes with the best of them thanks to precisely tuned dual balanced armature drivers in each side, tailor-made acoustic filters to clean the sound, removable laser-cut filters, and multiple sizes of silicone or foam ear tips."
Thank you GearHungry for featuring the q-JAYS Reference earphones.
"If there's one thing our Northern European friends have taught us, it's that you don't need brash style or bright colors to create a handsome pair of cans. [...] brands like Sweden's JAYS offer refreshing alternatives, making minimalist designs and understated style look good. The latter company has been following that same less-is-more philosophy since its inception in 2006, and Jays' new u-Jays on-ear headphones distill the stark styling to its very core.
With sleek lines, perfectly circular earpieces, and not a single hinge or wire exposed, the new u-Jays are almost audacious in their minimalism. And lest you think these might be yet another pair of bass blasters in disguise, the sound follows the same principle, making these among the brand's most balanced headphones we've encountered."
Thank you TrueViralNews for reviewing the u-JAYS On-ear headphones.
"The cutting-edge engineering and design, complete with the supreme materials and sturdy construction has assured me enough about its utmost quality."
Thank you Reinaldo for sharing your experience of the q-JAYS Reference earphones.


While porting the game Tumiki Fighters to the iPhone, I had a hard time with audio. Making background music and sound effects work well together, work well with the iPod playing its music, and handling other things that may happen on the device isn't a task as simple as it seems at first glance. Turns out I've made my own audio engine for this game, and today I make it available to help other iPhone developers who are struggling with audio issues. Introducing the Asounding Audio Engine for iPhone OS.
My first attempt at an easy solution was to use the AVAudioPlayer class to play the background music and SystemSounds to play the sounds effect. This was pretty simple, and worked to an extent. As soon as a couple of sounds started to play however, the background music noticeably gained in volume and got distorted until all sounds effects would stop. This solution proved unworkable.
My second attempt was to use the SoundEngine code from a now-retired Apple sample code. I won't tell you were to find it because it's buggy (no wonder Apple removed it), but it was a somewhat better temporary solution than SystemSounds simply because it worked correctly (most of the time) and thus I could concentrate on other things than audio. Once the game was in a better shape, and after collecting a couple of crash logs, I decided that debugging a race-condition in SoundEngine wasn't something I wanted to try, and decided to move to something else.
In addition, you can choose to disable iPod playback, and you can manually disable background music, sound effects, or all audio from the program (useful to enforce user preferences).
Special care was given to what happens when the user starts iPod playback while the application is running by double-clicking the Home button.
Asounding is now available to everyone as open-source (GPL) and for commercial licensing in closed-source applications. If you are an iPhone game developer, please give it a try and look at how much implementation and debugging time it will save you.
You can see Asounding at work in the game Tumiki Fighters (App Store link).
I am no expert in either iPhone development or Objective C, but I've taken a look at your code anyway. It looks very nice, very clean - another one of your little gems: short, to the point, but covering all essentials, and in only 78K of code.


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Home » Daily » Exclusive: Concord University Pays For Students To Protest WV Campus Carry Bill
Exclusive: Concord University Pays For Students To Protest WV Campus Carry Bill
Mar 13, 2019 by Infowars
University spokesman confirmed the trip was both organized and paid for by SGA
Image Credits: Ibro Palic | Flickr.
West Virginia school's student government organized a protest at the state capitol in West Virginia, including arranging transportation.
Concord University's Student Government Association (SGA) sent out an email with the subject line "EMERGENCY. GUNS ON CAMPUS," encouraging students to attend a protest at the West Virginia state capitol put on by the SGA. The SGA stated that the protest would be their "last effort to stop this bill," according to the email, a copy of which Campus Reform obtained.
"Please, please, please be there. We need you," the email reads.
"Concord University students are joining college and university students from across the state for a rally against House Bill 2519, The Campus Self Defense Act, at the West Virginia State Capitol on Monday, March 4. The Concord students are planning to be at the capitol at 9 a.m.," a separate email sent from the CU Office of Advancement, which Campus Reform also obtained, states. "Concord Student Government Association (SGA) President Haley Fields said students are planning to 'show up in force' in an attempt to make their voices heard to state legislators."
The CUOA email prompts students who are interested in attending the protest, organized by the SGA, to meet outside of the Student Center at 7 a.m. on March 4. HB 2519 would allow citizens with a concealed carry permit to carry their concealed weapon on certain parts of West Virginia public campuses, according to Metro News.
In a statement to Campus Reform Monday, a Concord University spokesman confirmed that the trip was both organized by and paid for by SGA.
"SGA organized a trip to Charleston to speak to lawmakers in the hopes that their voice would be considered in the decision-making process," the spokesman said. "Some students drove on their own. Those that could not drive were offered transportation provided by SGA, paid for by SGA. All students were invited, regardless of where they stood on this issue."
One source told Campus Reform that a university employee said the vehicles were rented from Enterprise.
According to another email obtained by Campus Reform, Concord marketing professor Susan Williams told her classthat she would not take roll because of the protest and encouraged students to go: "I wholeheartedly encourage each of you to take the trip to Charleston if the campus carry bill is an important topic for you," Williams stated in an email, a copy of which Campus Reform obtained.
The university president, Kendra Boggess, expressed her frustration about the bill in a Facebook comment using her personal page, in which she claimed that "the gun lobbies [were] controlling the conversation."
"I cannot understand it…party politics, the gun lobbies controlling the conversation…it's absolutely beyond my ability to comprehend," she said. "We have argued, we have pleaded, we have lobbied, we have been told repeatedly…there is no way to stop this and if we make 'them' angry, they will take out the few concessions that have been made," Boggess wrote on Facebook. "Any ideas? I'll be glad to try anything to keep guns off our campuses, but we haven't been successful so far. 30 other states have said no to guns on campus, 13 have them, WV will have one of the most permissive laws in the country. SMH [so much hate]."
Campus Reform asked Boggess about SGA paying for students' transportation to protest the state's campus carry bill.
"Our students are voters," Boggess told Campus Reform. "They saw decisions being made that directly affected them, so they organized to have their voices heard. While Concord University had nothing to do with this decision, we are proud of all our students who made a point to speak with lawmakers, regardless of the side they chose."
One student at Concord, Lydia Warner, told Campus Reform that among other reasons, she is against the bill because she does not think 18-22-year-olds should have a weapon on campus.
"18 to 22-year-old students in this brand [new] environment for them should not have access to such deadly weapons, for many students living on campus this is the first time they've lived unsupervised ever, for some students that kind of freedom can be detrimental," Warner said. "Also many college students suffer from depression and anxiety, by having guns on campus you are quite literally putting the gun in people's hands for students to end their lives with."
Another student, Carley Lee, told Campus Reform that she would feel unsafe if the bill were passed.
"Personally, I would feel unsafe on campus if people had guns," Lee said. "One of the things about the bill that was going to help keep people at ease was not allowing [guns] in buildings where there would be more than 1,000 people at a time, but at a school like Concord, you're not going to find that anywhere."
Lee even told Campus Reform that she knows students who would drop out of the university if the bill passed.
However, not all Concord University students are against the bill.
Jack Garwood, another student, positioned his support of the bill to Campus Reform as a result of his belief that self-defense is a right.
"I support campus carry because I don't think the rights of students & staff to keep and bear arms for the defense of self – in WV's constitution, Article 3 Section 22 – should be denied by school administrators who aren't sitting ducks in class every day," Garwood said.
A Concord University spokesman told Campus Reform that all of the SGA members "unanimously voted against the Campus Carry measure."
[RELATED: Anti-gun student group creates 'Student Body Armor' ad]
HB 2519 will next be addressed by West Virginia's Senate Judiciary Committee.
Source: Exclusive: Concord University Pays For Students To Protest WV Campus Carry Bill


Large-scale machine learning (ML) algorithms are often iterative, using repeated read-only data access and I/Obound matrix-vector multiplications to converge to an optimal model. It is crucial for performance to fit the data into single-node or distributed main memory and enable very fast matrix-vector operations on in-memory data. Generalpurpose, heavy- and lightweight compression techniques struggle to achieve both good compression ratios and fast decompression speed to enable block-wise uncompressed operations. Compressed linear algebra (CLA) avoids these problems by applying lightweight lossless database compression techniques to matrices and then executing linear algebra operations such as matrix-vector multiplication directly on the compressed representations. The key ingredients are effective column compression schemes, cache-conscious operations, and an e!cient sampling-based compression algorithm. Experiments on an initial implementation in SystemML show in-memory operations performance close to the uncompressed case and good compression ratios. We thereby obtain significant end-to-end performance improvements up to 26x or reduced memory requirements.
Ahmed Elgohary is a third year PhD in computer science student at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is co-advised by Professor Douglas Oard and Professor Philip Resnik. His research interests in natural language processing include computational semantics, multilingual learning and textual inference. Along with his co-authors, he has won the best paper award of VLDB 2016 for his work on speeding up machine learning with compressed linear algebra. He is also a co-recipient of the best paper award of the first workshop on evaluating vector space representations for NLP 2016 and the best paper award runner-up of ICDM 2014. Ahmed has been named a 2017-2018 IBM PhD Fellow.
Matthias Boehm is a Research Staff Member at IBM Research – Almaden, where he is working since 2012 on optimization and runtime techniques for declarative, large-scale machine learning in SystemML. He received his Ph.D. from Technische Universitaet Dresden in 2011 with a dissertation on cost-based optimization of integration flows under the supervision of Prof. Wolfgang Lehner. His previous research also includes systems support for time series forecasting as well as in-memory indexing and query processing. In 2016, he received the VLDB Best Paper Award.
Peter J. Haas has been a Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center since 1987, where he has pursued research at the interface of Information Management, Applied Probability, Statistics, and Computer Simulation. He is also a Consulting Professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He was designated an IBM Master Inventor in 2012, and his ideas have been incorporated into products including IBM's DB2 database system. He is a Fellow of both ACM and INFORMS, and has received a number of awards from IBM and from both the Simulation and Computer Science communities, including several Best Paper awards and an ACM SIGMOD 10-year Best Paper award. Other work has included the Splash platform for collaborative modeling and simulation, techniques for massive-scale matrix completion, Monte Carlo methods for scalable querying and machine learning over massive uncertain data, automated relationship discovery in databases, query optimization methods, and autonomic computing. He serves on the editorial boards of ACM TODS, Operations Research and ACM TOMACS, and was an Associate Editor for the VLDB Journal from 2007 to 2013. He is the author of over 100 conference publications, journal articles, and books.
Frederick R. Reiss is the Chief Architect at the IBM Spark Technology Center in San Francisco and is one of the founding employees of the Center. Fred received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2006, then worked for IBM Research — Almaden for the next nine years. At Almaden, Fred worked on the SystemML and SystemT projects, as well as on the research prototype of DB2 with BLU Acceleration.
Berthold Reinwald is a Principal RSM at the IBM Almaden Research Center. His research areas include scalable analytics platforms and database technology. He is the technical lead for SystemML. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, Germany.


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AND IN THE "TOUR DE FRANCE" WILL WIN… THE POWERMETER
by joserra | Jul 17, 2018 | Competition, Training | 0 comments
Greg LeMond adjusted his helmet seconds before entering the exit ramp of the last stage of the Tour de France in 1989. Already in position, he took a deep breath, took the handlebar and fired towards the Champs-Elysees. He had just 24km of time trial to turn around a colossal company: recover 50 seconds of disadvantage with which he start to be able to snatch Laurent Fignon the yellow jersey in Paris, at home, the last day of the Tour.
The Frenchman wore his hair ribbon, his golden hair pulled back with a tail and his rounded glasses: it was his usual image. But what about LeMond? The American came to the final stage with an attire that many at that time seemed to them the image of a Martian on wheels: aerodynamic glasses, aerodynamic helmet, aerodynamic bicycle and … a very strange handlebar.
LeMond had seen these new handlebars for the first time in the Hawai'i IRONMAN, a competition that since 1978 marked the beginning of triathlon as it is known today. These new inhabitants of the Sport Planet, the triathletes, began to bring innovations and LeMond noticed one that would be key: the aerodynamic handlebar (also known today as aerobar).
On that strange rounded tube the cyclist supported his elbows, lowering the position of the trunk and, therefore … eureka! said LeMond, reducing the resistance to the cyclist's progress. It was the first time that a bicycle like that was seen in professional cycling and the premiere could not be better as research shows that, in time trial races, the advantage of TT bikes on road bikes is so great that those 58 seconds that LeMond stole from Fignon in just 24km, thanks to the equipment he used. That innovation gave him the final victory, that July 23, by a difference of just 8 seconds, the smallest in the history of the Tour. Fignon on reaching the finish line collapsed and the whole France cried, as they could not believe what had just happened: a cyclist dressed as a Martian had just conquered the Champs Elysees.
From that moment on, cycling experienced a revolution based on the science applied to the bicycle and accelerated in such a way that today it continues to take advantage of that inertia.
Since then the investment in science and technology is constant, always looking for the optimization of the cyclist's performance. The decade of the nineties featured the heart rate monitor, a tool widely used today. And next to that, the foundations were laid for creating lighter and more resistant materials, bicycles with different geometries according to whether the goal is a time trial, a flat or hilly mountain stage, intelligent fabrics and helmets and even clothes more aerodynamic. All this accompanied by the enormous evolution of the individualized training plans.
And today: where is the key to maximizing the performance of a cyclist? When the professionals are asked what they would always carry for a training or a competition, the answer coincides forcefully: the powermeter. That is a tool to measure (in watts) the power exercised by the cyclist every time he applies force on the pedal. Thanks to the enormous amount of information that it gives, it is possible to get the athlete to reach his/her maximum level, to such an extent that some classic voices of cycling ask that its use must be prohibited since it provides so much data and is so accurate that for them cycling stops pedaling with the soul, with emotions and becomes pure mathematics, pure physiology. Although the fact is that the powermeter provides even more possibilities, it is enriching and helps the cyclist and his coach get to know each other much better, something that allows many more doors to open when conquering a competition, as Froome did during the last Giro d'Italia, attacking from afar, in the old style, while everyone expected everything to be decided in the last climbs of each hilly stage. And is that the powermeter, well used, enriches cycling.
The Tour de France is already underway for a week and surely the cyclist who will dress in yellow on the last day in Paris will have been attentive at all times to the watts he has been generating, calculating every detail to be the final winner without giving advantages that may mean that another LeMond appears, this time in the 21st century, again in the Champs-Elysees.
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