Limited to 195 fine art limited edition prints + 20 artist proofs, 'The Road Runner' is available either mounted or mounted and framed. We also offer the framed print glazed with a high quality reduced reflection glass called ARTglass. Please select the format you require using the drop down list above.
The framed print is mounted as described and then framed in a 4.5cm wide distressed dark black/brown/rust coloured moulding. Supplied strung and ready to hang.


ULI Luncheon featuring Katharine Kelley, President and CEO of Green Street Properties (owned by Jamestown).
Definitely try to take advantage of these great upcoming events!
Want a job that pays $200,000 a year? We are seeking a senior controller for one of our clients in midtown, New York. Candidate must be willing to jump in with both feet, be a hands-on worker (not simply delegate responsibilities) and be knowledgeable with large retail properties. CAM recs, implementing accounting systems like Yardi and MRI, and strong Excel skills are all a must. CPA is preferred. Please send resumes to jobs@acgpro.com.
We just received a call from one of our clients who is seeking an acquisitions analyst. Candidates must have 1-2 years of practical Argus experience (using Argus as part of coursework is insufficient) and ideally should have some retail experience. MBAs should not apply. The minimum GPA of 3.3 is required with a business (finance or accounting) or math undergraduate degree. Please send all resumes to jobs@acgpro.com.
Borders Group Inc., the book and media retailer filed for chapter 11 on Wednesday. They will be closing roughly 200 stores including the five metro Atlanta locations listed below.
The St. Regis Atlanta has been purchased by the Tavistorck Group, a private investment company based in Florida. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Bank of America Plaza headed for default- BentleyForbes had originally bought the building at the height of the market for $436 million dollars. The special servicer is LNR Partners.
Reynolds Plantation golf course for sale- Linger Longer Development Co. is searching for a buyer to cover a $105 million payment due on a line of credit.
The lending side of commercial real estate took a big step in the right direction in 2010.
Make sure your keeping up with the times! See how people in the commercial real estate business are using social networking to their advantage.


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UNI HOME / College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences / Languages & Literatures / Majors / English Major
College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences / Languages & Literatures
English Major
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Build your skills in critical reading, effective writing, and creative problem solving – preparing you for a variety of career paths
An English major allows students to experience English studies in different areas by choosing courses focusing on writing, linguistics, and literature from a range of eras and genres.
It offers excellent preparation for graduate or professional study in almost any field and for a wide variety of careers, including writing, editing, publishing, post-secondary education and student services, law, library and museum services, and podcasting. English majors' workplaces can range from non-profit organizations and institutions to video game design companies.
Many English majors also choose to minor in creative writing, film studies or professional writing or to get a certificate in literary publishing.
Our students have the chance to publish their work in Inner Weather – UNI's student-run literary magazine.
Grad School Ready
Our graduates have gone on to succeed in nationally recognized graduate programs.
Making Literary History
Our department is home to the North American Review, which is the oldest literary magazine in the United States.
Learn More about English
Fill out your information here to receive communication about this major.
Department of Languages and Literatures
1001 Bartlett Hall
Cedar Falls, Iowa 50614-0506
langlit@uni.edu
Inner Weather is UNI's student-run literary magazine highlighting fiction, nonfiction, poetry and artwork. Each year, Inner Weather is created by UNI students who collect, select and compile the artwork, creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry published in the journal, led by an editor, assistant editor, art director and layout artist. Students and faculty are also encouraged to submit their own work!
Students interested in volunteering for Inner Weather are encouraged to contact the editor at inner-weather@uni.edu. Contributors may send submissions via email to inner-weather@uni.edu or drop them off in the English department, Baker 117. Each submission should include the author's name, phone number and email address.
Put your mark on the North American Review, the oldest literary magazine in the United States, which is published at UNI and recently celebrated its bicentennial. Students are involved in all aspects of the magazine from reviewing submissions to editing and layout to business operations.
Through the Creative Writing Practicum class, students can assist with the production of the North American Review, undertaking individual supervised reviewing, editing or design assignments outside the classroom environment. This course is worth 3 credits. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 hours. Prerequisite(s): junior standing. (Variable)
2019 UNI Poetry Slams
Why study English at UNI?
"The positive relationships and rapport I've built with professors here at UNI is something I will never forget about my college experience. Here, I contribute to the discussion in every class and try to avoid missing one not because of an attendance grade, but because my English professors make me actually want to be there.
Something really exciting about my time here is that I landed a position as an on-air host for Iowa Public Radio's Studio One. I've always had a passion for creating and enjoying music, but this was my first experience working at a radio station. I admit that this was an incredible stroke of luck, but that's where my advice stems from: you can do absolutely anything you want during your collegiate years if you stay motivated through passion, be your own best advocate, and strive to create a vast network of meaningful connections."
Study Abroad: French 2+2 Program
Two years at UNI — earn a B.A. in Individual Studies: French Language and Cultures. Two years at Université de Franche-Comté — earn a Licence Lettres et Arts: Lettres Modernes.
Live for two years in the medieval, mountain city of Besançon, near the Swiss border. The Université de Besançon is one of five campuses forming Université de Franche-Comté, a system enrolling 21,000 students, including 3,000 international students. Learn to speak French fluently and prepare for possible careers in business, diplomacy, translation, or interpretation.
Click here for a brochure about the 2+2 Program (Word document), and if you are wondering what it would be like to be in Besançon, check out this blog by 2+2 student, Juliana Herran.
English provides extensive instruction and practice in capable reading, effective writing, and creative problem solving. It offers excellent preparation for graduate or professional study in almost any field and for a wide spectrum of vocations, including careers in:
post-secondary education and student services
editing and publishing
law library and museum services
non-profit organizations and institutions
computer technology and software
Craft of Creative Nonfiction
Written exercises in forms, patterns, and techniques in creative nonfiction. Readings in creative nonfiction with particular attention to narrative structures and strategies.
Elements of Creative Writing
Attention to basic elements in the writing of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, including the imaginative uses of perspective and voice, narration and setting, story and plot, memory and reflection, dialogue and characterization, image and metaphor, and diction and sound.
The Profession of Editing
Examination of editing strategies and responsibilities in scholarly and professional settings. Emphasis on understanding of editing resources, editor roles in document development, and the politics of grammar and style.
Here, your education will be anything but textbook – you'll learn by doing. Professional writing students work with clients to produce websites and promotional materials. Creative writers publish work that began as class assignments. Students also have the opportunity to attend readings by regional and nationally-known figures and even share their own work at open mics.
Related Majors & Minors
English-Teaching Professional Writing Minor Creative Writing Minor

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This is it, folks. Game week.
I say it every year, and every year I mean it. I love football season. I never thought in a million years that I would be one of "those Aggies." I'm oh-so-glad I am, though!
Thursday can't come soon enough. What's worse, though, is that Mr. Gray has class and has made me promise I won't watch the game or check stats until he gets home. Killer. It's going to be killer. I can't break a promise, though.
Oh, did I mention it's an away game? Yep. Season opener on the road. Also killer. Kyle Field, I'll see you next week for our first SEC game. It's going to be fabulous–absolutely fabulous. Seats shaking, heart pumping, crazy. I can hear the drums now.
Ahhh! Just looking at the photos gets me all pumped up–even if it's not quite football weather just yet.
Baby Gray is pumped, too. He's been practicing the "Aggie Song" for weeks.


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IIHF World Championship
IIHF WC Game Day 9/Moncton vs. Calgary Memorial Cup Open Thread
By Bruce Peter May 15, 2010, 10:23am EDT
Share All sharing options for: IIHF WC Game Day 9/Moncton vs. Calgary Memorial Cup Open Thread
Can the German fans help their team upset Russia? (Photo by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images)
If you're up for the early games, realize it's the relegation round today. Of course, that means Team USA's surprising presence in the round, as they take on Team Kazakhstan... surely they should be able to score some goals today. Universal Sports is your broadcaster of Team USA games. The other early game is between France and Italy. If you want to watch that game, you'll have to go to the IIHF website. The relegation action has the tournament start new for these teams... no carryover points at all, which hurts USA because they were the only team to get points in the preliminary round of the 4.
The later games today (2:15 PM EST) should be better. The star studded Russian team takes on the host Germans. Can Germany's defensive posture hold off Russia's offence? Also going at 2:15 today is Switzerland vs. the Czech Republic, in what should be a highly competitive game.
The big news of the tournament today is that Norwegian captain Tommy Jakobsen has been kicked out of the tournament for his abuse of official penalty in the game against Canada yesterday. The disciplinary panel determined his shoulder shove to be deliberate, which ends Jakobsen's 18th World Championship appearance after just 4 games.
Kick back and spend your day here, hockey fans... there's no NHL games today!
EDIT: I guess I wasn't expecting the Memorial Cup game today to be an afternoon affair. They could have had saturday night to themselves. So we're adding Moncton/Calgary to this thread as well. Game is at 3 PM EST, and is webcast on Sportsnet.
UPDATE: USA finally wins in rout of Kazakhstan, France survives late Italian push
USA 10, Kazakhstan 0: A hat trick from Matt Gilroy, plus a combined shutout by Scott Clemmensen and Ben Bishop proved the USA are a lot better than their competition in the relegation round. Of note, Chris Kreider, the 20 year old star of the American gold medal winning 2010 WJC team, scored the final goal for USA.
France 2, Italy 1: An early third period power play goal by Laurent Gras proved the difference as France puts themselves in a position to earn a spot in next year's Championships in Slovakia. Italy/Kazakhstan tomorrow becomes a must win for both teams, and even that might not be enough.


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FUTURE GARDENS
PENINSULA EUROPE
BAYS OF SAN FRANCISCO
DEEP WEALTH OF SCOTLAND
LIVING FORESTS
VOICES FROM THE CENTER
LIVING FORESTS: A WHOLE SYSTEMS APPROACH
We (the Center for the Study of Force Majeure, P'isew 'Mangal, Sagehen Creek Field Station, National Forest Foundation, Shift Consulting and special advisor Amy Horne) formed a coalition that believes there is a major opportunity for a broad range of stakeholders to succeed in resolving in these seemingly intractable problems. We call our group, Living Forests.
The Living Forests (formerly known as Saving the West) team was organized in 2016 by the Center for the Force Majeure to promote a whole systems approach to the challenges of fire and drought in the Sierra Nevada and ultimately across the intermountain west. We have become a collaborative group bringing a range of individuals, organizations, artists, scientists, policy makers and community groups committed to building enduring environmentally informed end-to-end solutions. We believe success is available only when we can inspire the development a 21st century forestry model.
We're proud to announce that the Center received a Wood Innovations Grant from the US Forest Service to form a Wood Utilization Team for California and Nevada!
"The west covers 11 states, the west is a physical presence of 1.3 million square miles, the west is home for 72 million people, and within its terrain is 1.3 million of now fire endangered acres of forest"
Spoken again and again for understanding to spread
Decades of fire suppression and clear cutting in the western United States have produced forests overgrown with small diameter trees creating thickets that choke out biodiversity and act like a tinderboxes. This inflammatory mix results in forests in constant danger of mega fires, destroying property, wildlife and water supplies, and potentially devastating whole human and non-human communities.
We urgently need to restructure forested areas throughout the west by selectively removing the excess small diameter trees and brush and returning low burning, ground fires to the ecosystem. Fire is essential for forest health, cleaning up underbrush and helping seeds to germinate.
The restorative processes are deceptively simple
The Living Forests project is designed to promote ecological function by selectively cutting young, small diameter trees, restoring ground cover and leaving all the big old ones to preserve variable forest structure.
Massive tree death is becoming a frightening norm
The current backlog of dead timber from previous fires and massive tree mortality—100 million+ trees and counting—this has filled the major mills to capacity for the foreseeable future and left no market for live timber. Finding uses for Sierra timber is critical for the long-term well-being of California as a whole and the Tahoe-Truckee Region in particular. It will allow the thinning and restoration process to be self funded while revitalizing rural economies.
The amount of timber potentially available for extraction is staggering. Literally billions of board feet of timber will burn without control unless we change the way our public and private lands are managed.
The costs of fire control are shocking
Taxpayers spend over $1.5 billion annually on fire control to protect 15 million fire-endangered acres in California. With current burn rates approaching 500,000 acres per year and growing, we will lose the entire forest within a few decades if we don't change course. These fires also release vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, increasing total atmospheric carbon load under the business as usual regime. The Sierra may soon become a net carbon emitter rather than an agent for sequestration and bulwark against future climate change.
California water problems profound, characterized by flood and drought
California is intermittently in deep crisis around water; Over 5 years of drought reservoirs and groundwater levels were at historic lows. This year intense rainfall led to damaging, top soil eroding, floods and filled reservoirs but still left ground water levels at near historic lows. Forests supply and regulate 2/3rds of California's water, yet the focus during the drought is on the demand side, e.g., water conservation. We pay too little attention to protecting the supply of water at its source and the designed response to this new flood drought cycle is clearly insufficient. Large wildfires harm water supplies by degrading water quality with increased runoff carrying topsoil, debris, ash, and fire-fighting chemicals. Sediments reduce reservoir capacity. Global warming, as science has predicted,has made the extremes of flood and drought a new norm. Unprepared, we have just experienced this phenomena.
At stake is inventing a whole systems way of working
We start with specific successes in California, working closely with government agencies, foundations, community groups and entrepreneurs. The intent to broaden our geographic scope in the entire west where similar problems of fire suppression, drought, the need to implement work at scale and connect to a broader public through targeted communications and art. Yes art! We are working on solutions that integrate:
Low impact, ecologically designed forest management projects at the multiple stand and forest levels;
Long-term job creation focused on small business and underserved communities in economically depressed regions;
Support of a community-centric manufactured wood products industry based on renewable small-tree source materials to run/produce semi-stationary sawmills, cross-laminated timber, oriented strand board, small-scale biomass, woodchip, post-and-pole, and pallet production. Higher value small-diameter wood utilization will not only reduce the heavy carbon footprint of steel and concrete needed in building, it will store massive amounts of carbon indefinitely. New technologies for clean burning fuel will support local electrical generation and heating needs; and
The use of art to generate new ideas and metaphors that can convey complicated climate change, conservation and resource management messages to a far-ranging audience.
overview projects team join us blog


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No-One Listens to Scholars
Yesterday I kvetched about how journalists who often know very little about their subject matter natter on as if they do, and the rest of us take it is as if they do, too. Today I came across the opposite phenomenon. Haaretz carried a story about how a new, 900-page report commissioned by ex-German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has documented that during the Nazi era the ministry contributed to the Holocaust: "German foreign ministry more involved in Holocaust than previously thought".
Previously thought by whom, pray tell? The reason I'm asking is that there's an excellent book by Christopher Browning about this precise subject, Final Solution and the German Foreign Office: A Study of Referat D III of Abteilung Deutschland 1940-1943 . The book is widely quoted by anyone who has published anything on the matter since its publication, it was as influential as such a book can be, and it launched Browning's illustrious career; if you ask me he's the most important scholar of the Holocaust in America.
Ah, and it was published... in 1978. I sent Chris a congratulatory e-mail this morning, about how someone has now uncovered the story he told 32 years ago; he says that a German publisher quickly had it translated just recently, to coincide with the publishing of the report that Haaretz refers to.
Sadly, I don't think this is an unusual case. Last week the Economist had a glowing review of a troubling book by Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin . Now I haven't read it yet, mind you, though I hope I will, but the excitement of the reviewer seems odd to me. The thesis of the book, about how Stalin and Hitler both engaged in mass murder on enormous scales in Eastern Europe, surely that can't be news to anyone, can it?
Did I ever mention that lots of people died in the Black Death? Just saying.
Labels: Books, Shoah History
here is Timothy Snyder in an interview with the Economist http://itunes.apple.com/de/podcast/bloody-lands/id151230264?i=88187706
and here is Anne Applebaum's review of the book
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/worst-madness/
whetehr it was in Applebaum's review or somewhere else it said that Snyder describes the killing methods - maybe a younger generation needs to read in detail how it was done - I suspect more often than not what I call horror porn
But that is not the only thing that makes me feel uneasy about the book. I wish I could nail it down, right now I have only a gut feeling that there is something wrong with his argument.
as to the foreign ministry I think I have read that it was discovered that they were far from lily-white as big great surprising news already 2 or 3 times in my lifetime. So now they got a report - the only part I'd be interested in would be whether Shirer or Weizsäcker is right about Weizsäcker senior.
Stalin killed people?!? I guess Robert Conquest will have to rewrite "The Great Terror".
Btw, that fight against unnecessary sarcasm didn't last long did it? Although I admit, that's quite a bit of provocation. That Economist reviewer sure sounds like he had a "Comprehensive education', either that or the British public (that's 'private' to everyone else) school system is in more trouble than I thought. We know the American system is hopeless, Barry Rubin was complaining recently that US students didn't know the USSR had been replace by Russia et al.
For those seeking the slightly more esoteric, I would recommend Snyder's book "The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke". It discusses the mutability of national identity through the life a Habsburg prince who in rebelling against his 'Polish' father became an ardent Ukrainian nationalist, briefly collaborated with the Nazis and was finally killed by the Soviets. Snyder does, in fact, write well.
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Prince-Secret-Habsburg-Archduke/dp/0465018971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288130683&sr=8-1
NormanF said...
The Nazis were destroyed in the end because of their arrogance and greed. If they had restrained themselves, they would still be around today.
We can thank history that it was Hitler's recklessness that finished off his regime.
Y. Ben-David said...
NormanF-
I strongly urge you to read the very impressive book "Wages of Destruction" by Adam Tooze. It discusses the economic policy and situation of Nazi Germany. He disagrees with the notion that the Nazis could have "restrained themselves" after the defeat of France. Tooze points out Hitler had put himself in an impossible position at that point because he had no way to defeat Britain who was backed all the way by the US (I am talking about the period before Pearl Harbor) added to the fact that he was just as dependent on the USSR as Britain was on the US. The Atlantic Charter signed in summer 1941 before the US entered the war, added to Lend-Lease which came earlier committed the US to doing whatever was necessary to help defeat Nazi Germany.
Tooze also points out (and this is important to note regarding a book about economic policy) that Hitler was 100% committed to his racial fantasies and he was sure the US, being "controlled by the Jews" as he saw it, would eventually come in to the war on an active basis, which answers the famous question as to why he declared war on the US first, before the US could do so.
A perfect example of Hitler's absolute committment to his genocidal policies was the fact that his regime murdered 7 MILLION potential laborers (mostly Jews and Soviet POW's, but also including Italians and others) at the same time there was a desperate labor shortage in the Reich!
Thus, once Nazi Germany went to war, they had to go all the way and end up destroying themselves.
NormanF,
if Hitler had the ability to restrain himself, he wouldn't have been a homocidal lunatic. Thus he wouldn't have started the War at all.
The unsuspected (and lucky!) victory over France convinced him of his "superiority".
That was most fatal in every sense of the word. Now he believed he was invincible.
Whatever "restrains" he might have had, were gone.
Regards, André
Yaacov said...
T34 -
I never said I'd stop being sardonic. A man's gotta live, you know. I said I'd try to lay off being nasty to lefties as a group. And I will (try).
Victor said...
Silke, do you have umlauts on your keyboard or do you type Alt-XXX codes?
I have a German bought piece and thus a keyboard that shows not only Umlauts but also ß as "normals". Since switching to Apple in retirement I haven't even bothered to find out in which menu my Sonderzeichen=special letters are hidden ;-)
I came across Tooze's name first during the (German) debate that erupted after Götz Aly's book on Hitler's beneficiaries, where he claimed that Aly got his figures wrong and Hitler Germany didn't get as much out of its looting spree as Aly claimed.
Recently I have read something by Tooze on something which made me loose interest in him -
I wish I could remember what it was - usually that happens when they are comparing in ways that make me feel uncomfortable. http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/tooze_a.html
Recently I came across a piece where it was claimed that one's chances to die on the Eastern Front were hugely "superior" to those of the Allies i.e. that the Allies spared their soldiers in "favour" of the Soviet ones.
As Snyder mentions in the interview that Russian Russians suffered comparatively little, could it be that there is a new battle on the Meinungshoheit (opinion sovereignty) going on as to whose contribution was more worthy, the west's or the east's?
If yes, I don't like it, discussions like that tend to marginalize (verbally) the ones who did the actual dying and suffering.
Barry Meislin said...
That argument has been raging for years. Standard Soviet (and post-Soviet) boilerplate.
Frankly, it makes a lot of sense....if one can ignore:
1. The Ribbentrop-Molotov Agreement
2. D-Day
3. etc.


The Contemporary Crafts Market returned to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for its 23rd season this weekend as the West Coast's premiere event for one-of-a-kind functional and decorative crafts. Over 250 artists exhibited their juried work including jewelry designers working in enamel, fibers, knotting and weaving to various gold and silversmiths of exceptional quality.
Most of the designers I met were gracious and wonderful about discussing their work and processes, though three vendors actually shooed me away saying that they didn't want me to take photos of their designs. VERY WEIRD if you ask me. Why, I wondered, would someone AT A SHOW, not want publicity on their work? Maybe someone out there can comment and educate me on this strange behavior.
But otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the best the west has to offer. A few of my favorites included the wire woven cuffs by Cynthia Downs, the elaborate seed bead pieces by Mary Darwall, the gold and silver fused cuffs and rings by Marne Ryan and the glass and silver designs by Alison Antelman and Amy Faust.
I hope the economy and gas prices didn't put a damper on the crowds. These talented designers deserve great success!
It *was* a wonderful show wasn't it! I bought a cup from Sandy Kreyer at Kiln House Pottery for a friend's b-day and a Kelp Basket from Leah Danberg. Had a lovely day.I think the reason folks didn't want you to take photos is copying. *You* wouldn't have done it, but it definitely goes on and artists are shy of photos of their booth.The vast majority of vendors at that show are very generous about talking with you about their process (if they don't have a real customer). I haven't asked to take pictures, although I did think about it for my own blog this morning.Glad you had a as great a time as I did.
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Next post: Natasha Jade: Beautiful Buttoned and Beaded!


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Q: Designing a library that is easy to use: composition or inheritance I have designed a small library for work that consists of a few exposed classes. These can basically be thought of as a server class and client class. But now that I am writing all the test cases and examples, I am questioning myself on whether the classes should be used in a class or inherited.
I know about the composition over inheritance theology but at the same time, the OOP basics pop into my head: has-a and is-a relationships.
My main question is which makes more sense and which would make it easier for the programmers that use my library?
I have already ready numerous topics on SO and Programmers regarding this topic, none really target my question though:

*

*Where does this concept of "favor composition over inheritance" come from?

*Why should I prefer composition over inheritance?

*Composition vs. Inheritance

A: Programmers should favor composition over inheritance in OO languages, period. Unless your library has a compelling reason to make forced inheritance more natural/effective, then you should assume that people will consume your library via composition.
Especially as a library writer since changing a class that is being inherited will cause more failure (in general) than one that is being composed.

A: In the first place, any class you do write should be inheritable/extendable.  C# seems to seal all its system classes and so causes me no end of trouble.  Inheritence is tricky, particularly when the superclass programmer doesn't know what the subclass programmer will need and the subclasser can't modify the superclass.  (And in some cases cann't even look at the superclass's code.)  But inheritance can give your end users a lot of power for very little effort on their part.
But otherwise, I'd go with composition.  I frequently start with a base class, extend it in all directions, then realize the base class should be an interface.  If it's all in my code, this is no problem, but people using your library are going to be stuck with your choice.  In Java I've ended up with two classes that look identical as far as my needs are concerned.  If I could make each of them implement my own simple interface (by adding "extends myInterface"--they've both already got the methods) I'd be all set, but I have to treat them as distinct, unrelated classes.
The best idea might be to provide good interfaces and default implementations so the end users can do whatever they want.  I guess my point is that your library's users should be the ones to make the composition vs. inheritance decision; your job is to give them the option.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Football Flights to Forget
There is an idea among NFL fans that columnists who head out making a course for cover football match-ups have it made. At the point when I worked at KDKA-television in Pittsburgh, during the 80s, I went with both the Steelers and hardship conceived, one-year wonder, USFL Maulers. I generally had individuals telling me, "Amazing, you have the most thrilling position, of all time. You get to go with the group, get into the games free and see such countless enormous urban communities." Indeed, those perceptions are valid. In any case, you will scarcely believe, we didn't generally fly the agreeable skies.
Presently, it used to be that NFL proprietors in a few significant urban communities would frequently foot the airfare for chose nearby recorders, radio and television sports folks, videographers and photographic artists to fly with the group. I don't think it was an absolutely philanthropic signal with respect to the executives. They were likely of the outlook that their generosity เว็บพนันบอล ดีที่สุด would assist with guaranteeing positive announcing.
The flights I took with the Steelers and Maulers were completely sanctioned. What does that have to do with anything? Indeed, there are just such countless players to fill every one of the seats on a 727 or 737. Furthermore, after a portion of the excess seats are loaded up with staff members, hot shot backers, and allies, there are as yet a number left over for the media. In this way, on the off chance that you were a correspondent (with the exception of the group's detailed breakdown and variety commentators who generally got seats) you sort of flew "Reserve Status" – at times not knowing whether there was space accessible until two or three days before the game.
Incidentally, there is a hierarchy for seating. The lead trainer generally gets the principal seat toward the front. There is no "sandwich seat" for expert football players. The standard – one void seat will exist between two football players. Need an additional seat? Find it a few spot past both the offense and guard. Gracious, and most of us travelers? Stuffed in as tight as possible.
Talking about sandwich, that helps me to remember the custom began by Steelers' Lead trainer Throw Noll on plane flights. After each game, as the group and most of us loaded onto the plane, we would be given a hoagie (certain individuals consider it a "submarine") sandwich. Furthermore, on the off chance that the group won, we as a whole got a reward, two jars of brew were apportioned to every one of us entering the plane. Everybody was blissful, and it was a decent flight home. Yet, assuming the group lost – Noll's standard – no lagers for anyone. Since the group was at that point having a down outlook on the misfortune, this action was surely not the picker-upper it required. Can't help thinking about what persuaded the Steelers to dominate every one of those enormous matches and Super Dishes during the 70s? It was the possibility of no brew. It must be.
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Veterans TRICARE Choice Act of 2016
By: Jim McDermott
Issues: Veterans Health and Health Care
Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
While we are here today to debate H.R. 5458, which focuses on one small part of the transition for veterans completing their service and entering the civilian workforce, I wish to take a moment to reflect on a broader issue.
While many veterans enter the workforce, and some may even be offered a health savings account as part of their insurance coverage, many millions depend on Medicare and Medicaid. Now, we in the Congress can't forget the role these programs play in caring for our veterans and their loved ones as they return to the workforce, as they age, or as they live with disabilities.
For more than four decades, Medicare and Medicaid have helped Americans from all walks of life by improving their financial and health security; but if you have been paying attention to the news lately, you know these programs are under grave risk next year with a new Congress and a new President.
As we speak today to honor veterans' service to our country, we must also think about the safety net that has been in place for many years to offer security. For example, today, nearly 1 in 10 veterans lacks health insurance at all. More than 340,000 uninsured veterans and their spouses live in States that have chosen not to expand Medicaid to cover more residents. If those States offered coverage, these veterans would have insurance if we really cared about them--but their Governors apparently don't.
In Florida, more than 55,000 veterans and their spouses would be Medicaid eligible had the State chosen to cover individuals earning less than $21,000 a year. In North Carolina, 32,000 veterans and their spouses, and in Texas 67,000 veterans and their spouses would be eligible. But their Governors saw fit not to care.
Slashing Medicare funding by more than $1 trillion, as Speaker Ryan has proposed, is not a way to help veterans. Yet that is what will be in store next year. That is what people are talking about as what we are going to do in the new year. Turning Medicare into a capped voucher, privatizing the program, shifting more costs on beneficiaries, won't help either.
Now back to the bill at hand. For veterans who are receiving coverage through TRICARE, using employer coverage that offers health savings accounts coupled with high-deductible health plans can cause a problem.
Under present law, eligibility for TRICARE coverage disqualifies a retiree from HSA eligibility because the TRICARE program is not a high- deductible plan. This, I believe, is a good thing, and it keeps health care affordable for veterans, especially those who do not have the option for other coverage.
While there is a difference of opinion in the committee on tax- preferred health accounts, the legislation recognizes that some veterans may have that coverage and could run afoul of current law because of enrollment in TRICARE. H.R. 5458 would provide that military retirees may disclaim their eligibility for the TRICARE program. This would allow a retiree who enrolled in a high-deductible health plan to receive or make HSA contributions.
When we considered this bill in the Committee on Ways and Means, the Department of Defense as well as the House Committee on Armed Services had some concerns with the approach in this bill, in particular, that TRICARE eligibility is a statutory entitlement that cannot be waived.
If the NDAA conference language is passed later this week, this legislation will no longer be needed as TRICARE enrollment will be voluntary and retirees can move between employer-sponsored insurance and TRICARE, depending on which coverage is best for their current needs. In other words, this bill is going to last about 3 days, until we pass the NDAA on Friday and it is signed into law.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this bill is one of those things that you fill time with, and I guess it is not going to hurt anything. So I would recommend that all of my colleagues vote for it. It will be moot on Friday, when we pass the NDAA.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to again thank Mr. Stewart for his efforts. This is a good bill that, as the gentlewoman from Hawaii mentioned, will help many folks--certainly, those that she has heard from and I know others have as well. I support more veterans having more options. I support the bill's passage and urge my colleagues to support it.


text:
Q: Stored procedure to find out if row exists before insertion SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[SS_InsertApplicationStatus]
    @CustomerID int,
    @EventType nvarchar,
    @EventDateTime datetime,
    @Comments nvarchar,
    @EmployeeID varchar,
    @ApplicationDate date
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    IF NOT EXIST(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [dbo].[SS_CustomerCard]
                 WHERE SS_ID = '@SS_ID')
    BEGIN
        INSERT INTO SS_ApplicationStatus (CustomerID, EventType, EventDateTime, Comments, EmployeeID, ApplicationDate)
        VALUES (@CustomerID, @EventType, @EventDateTime, @Comments, @EmployeeID, @ApplicationDate)
    END
END

There is an error on the line IF NOT EXIST; I copied this from MySQL.
What I want to do is

*

*IF no ROW exists, then I want to perform 2 inserts as shown here:
  -- Insert statements for procedure here
  INSERT INTO SS_ApplicationStatus (CustomerID, EventType, EventDateTime, Comments, EmployeeID, ApplicationDate)
  VALUES (@CustomerID, "Application Submission", @EventDateTime, @Comments, @EmployeeID, @ApplicationDate)

  INSERT INTO SS_ApplicationStatus (CustomerID, EventType, EventDateTime, Comments, EmployeeID, ApplicationDate)
  VALUES (@CustomerID, @EventType, @EventDateTime, @Comments, @EmployeeID, @ApplicationDate)

*if a ROW does exists
  -- Insert statements for procedure here
  INSERT INTO SS_ApplicationStatus (CustomerID, EventType, EventDateTime, Comments, EmployeeID, ApplicationDate)
  VALUES (@CustomerID, @EventType, @EventDateTime, @Comments, @EmployeeID, @ApplicationDate)

A: There is logical error in following statement
IF NOT EXIST(SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [dbo].[SS_CustomerCard] WHERE SS_ID='@SS_ID')

You are using aggregate function COUNT(*) in your queries which will always return single row with a numeric value 1 or 0 based on your WHERE condition.

A: Why use procedural logic? Make it fully set based. Of course you need to explain where @SS_ID comes from since it doesn't exist in your code snippet.
INSERT INTO SS_ApplicationStatus (CustomerID, EventType, EventDateTime, Comments, EmployeeID, ApplicationDate)
    SELECT @CustomerID, @EventType, @EventDateTime, @Comments, @EmployeeID, @ApplicationDate
    WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM [dbo].[SS_CustomerCard] WHERE SS_ID = @SS_ID);

Note in SQL Server:

*

*the keyword is EXISTS not EXIST

*you don't quote parameters, so it should be @SS_ID not '@SS_ID'


NASA released a stunning image snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope of the Messier 94 galaxy. It's about 16 million light-years from Earth.
The European Space Agency says new stars are quickly forming inside a bright, starburst ring around the galaxy.
As gravity pulls gas and dust together, stars are created.


There is a big difference between having egg and chips in a greasy spoon truck drivers café and having eggs and chips at the Savoy in London (Not that they'd do it of course!).
And this is like trying to use a technique successfully when playing Chi Sau.
By this is I mean that there is never just 'The technique'.
"The student makes the simple look difficult and the master makes the difficult look simple".
Now the reason for this is that the student will often use, let's say a Pak Sau for instance, by just using a Pak, but the advanced practitioner (or the master) will first create a pressure, gain an awareness of stance and perhaps force an added distraction, all before executing the move, therefore putting all the odds in their favor before even attempting the Pak (should it be on at all that is).
And this is the difference in the egg and chips analogy.
In the cheap café when you ask for egg and chips, you get egg and chips (no surprises there then), but when you ask for the same thing in a high-class restaurant, the flavor will blow you away.
Because of all the little extras that you are not aware of, the type of eggs and potatoes used, the seasoning and flavoring, the cooking/baking methods used, the blending of herbs and spices, and even down to the presentation.
All these little additions make for a delicious outcome.
So don't be content with playing Chi Sau like a short order cook when you can be playing like a tip class chef.


text:
The EU AI Act Will Have Global Impact, but a Limited Brussels Effect
The European Union's (EU) AI Act (AIA) aspires to establish the first comprehensive regulatory scheme for artificial intelligence, but its impact will not stop at the EU's borders. In fact, some EU policymakers believe it is a critical goal of the AIA to set a worldwide standard, so much so that some refer to a race to regulate AI.
This framing implies that not only is there value in regulating AI systems, but that being among the first major governments to do so will have broad global impact to the benefit of the EU—often referred to as the "Brussels Effect." Yet, while some components of the AIA will have important effects on global markets, Europe alone will not be setting a comprehensive new international standard for AI.
The extraterritorial impact of the AIA will vary widely between sectors and applications, but individually examining the key provisions of the AIA offers insight into the extent of a Brussels effect that can be expected. Considering three core provisions of the AIA reveals that:
AI systems in regulated products will be significantly affected around the world, demonstrating a clear Brussels effect, although this will be highly mediated by existing markets, international standards bodies, and foreign governments.
High-risk AI systems for human services will be highly influenced if they are built into online or otherwise internationally interconnected platforms, but many AI systems that are more localized or individualized will not be significantly affected.
Transparency requirements for AI that interacts with humans, such as chatbots and emotion detection systems, will lead to global disclosure on most websites and apps.
Overall, this analysis suggests more limited global impact from the AIA than is presented by EU policymakers. While the AIA will contribute to the EU's already significant global influence over some online platforms, it may otherwise only moderately shape international regulation. Considering this, the EU should focus on a more collaborative approach in order to bring other governments along with its perspective on AI governance.
The debate between EU institutions regarding what exactly the AIA will do (even the definition of "AI" is still being debated) continues, yet the proposal is sufficiently settled to analyze its likely international impact. The EU's AIA will create a process for self-certification and government oversight of many categories of high-risk AI systems, transparency requirements for AI systems that interact with people, and attempt to ban a few "unacceptable" qualities of AI systems. Other analyses from the Brookings Institution have offered broad overviews of the legislation, but only some of the provisions are especially important for how this law will shape global algorithmic governance. Three categories of AI requirements are most likely to have global considerations, and warrant separate discussion: high-risk AI in products, high-risk AI in human services, and AI transparency requirements.
These AIA provisions will unquestionably have some extraterritorial impact, meaning they will affect the development and deployment of many AI systems around the world and further inspire similar legislative efforts. However, the idea of a Brussels effect has important implications beyond simply influence outside the EU's borders—it specifically entails that the EU can unilaterally set rules that become worldwide standards, not through coercion, but through the appeal of its 450 million-strong consumer market.[1]
The Brussels effect manifests in two related forms, "de facto" and "de jure," which can be distinguished using the case of the EU's data privacy rules, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive. Rather than developing separate processes for Europeans, many of the world's websites have adopted the EU's requirements to ask users for consent to process personal data and use cookies. This reflects the de facto Brussels effect, in which companies universally follow the EU's rules in order to standardize a product or service, making their business processes simpler. This is often followed by the de jure Brussels effect, in which formal legislation is passed in other countries that align with the EU law, in part because multinational companies strongly oppose rules that would create conflicts with their recently standardized processes. This, in part, is why these privacy regulations have led to many other countries passing conforming or similar data protection legislation.
Therefore, like in data privacy, to best understand the possible effect of the AIA, one should consider both of these components: What will be the international repercussions of the AIA (the de facto Brussels effect); and to what extent will it unilaterally impact international rulemaking (the de jure Brussels effect)?
EU lawmakers have cited the Brussels effect as a reason to quickly pass the AIA, in addition to its core goals of protecting EU consumers and, to a lesser extent, spurring EU AI innovation.
This idea, that being the first major country to pass horizontal AI regulation will have a significant and lasting economic advantage, is prevalent among EU policymakers. However, a recent report from the Center for European Policy Studies argues that Europe may lose its competitive advantage in digital governance as other countries invest in digital regulatory capacity and catch up to the EU, which is a key enabler of the EU's influence over global rulemaking. Other academic research has argued that the underlying conditions of the AI market, such as the high costs of moving AI companies to the EU and the difficulty of measuring the impact of AI regulation, mean there is less value in regulatory competition, which aims to attract businesses through clear and effective regulations.
These broader perspectives offer reasons to be skeptical of the AIA's global impact, but they do not analyze the AIA's individual requirements with respect to actual business models of digital firms. Yet it is this interaction between the AIA's specific provisions and the architecture of AI systems deployed by technology companies that suggests a more modest global impact. This paper will focus on three core components of the AIA (high-risk AI in products, high-risk AI in human services, and AI transparency requirements) and attempt to estimate their likely global impact. Notably, this requires attempting to forecast the change in corporate behavior in response to the AIA—a difficult endeavor, rife with potential for miscalculation. Despite this risk, anticipating the reactions of corporate stakeholders is necessary for evaluating and understanding the true effects of the AIA, and discerning how to build toward international consensus.
HIGH-RISK COVERED BY PRODUCT SAFETY LEGISLATION
The proposed AIA covers a wide range of AI systems used in already-regulated sectors, such as aviation, automotive vehicles, boats, elevators, medical devices, industrial machinery, and more. In these cases, the requirements of the high-risk AI are incorporated into the existing conformity assessment process as performed by sectoral regulators, such as the EU Aviation Safety Agency for planes, or by a mix of approved third-party organizations and a central EU body, as in the case for medical devices. This means that extraterritorial companies that are selling regulated products in the EU are already going through the conformity assessment process. The AIA only changes the specifics of this oversight but not its scope or process.
Still, these changes are not trivial. Broadly, they require that companies placing AI systems into regulated products to be sold in the EU will have to pay at least some specialized attention to those AI systems. They will need to implement a risk management process, conform to higher data standards, more thoroughly document the systems, systematically record its actions, provide information to users about its function, and enable human oversight and ongoing monitoring. Some of these requirements have likely already been implemented by sectoral regulators who have been dealing with AI for a long time, but most are likely new. The result is that AI systems within regulated products will need to be documented, assessed, and monitored on their own, rather than just evaluating the broader function of the product. This sets a new and higher floor for considering AI systems in products.
In the AIA's text, the extraterritorial scope is limited to products sold to the EU, yet there is still a high likelihood that this leads to international conformity. To continue exporting to Europe's large consumer market, foreign companies will have to put these processes into place. Although the new rules are limited to the function of AI systems, many of these products are manufactured in large-scale industrialized processes—imagine a conveyer belt. Consistency in these conveyor belt processes means a cheaper product and more competitive prices for companies, whereas variations require different conveyor belts, plus varying testing and safety processes, and will be generally more expensive. It's therefore reasonable to assume that many foreign manufacturers will adapt to the AIA's rules, and once they have, they will often have a strong incentive to keep any domestic laws as consistent as possible with those in the EU.
This, on its face, appears as a classic instance of the Brussels effect, and academic research has found that the EU is most influential when it has the power to exclude products from its market, as it does here. Yet, the EU unilaterally setting rules is not a certain outcome. There are three factors that will reduce Europe's influence on these new rules—existing markets, international standards bodies, and foreign governments.
First, because these new rules will affect already regulated products, there will be many foreign companies already selling products in the EU that will be monitoring these rules closely. This includes major exporters to the EU, such as medical devices from the US, robotic arms from Japan, vehicles from China, and many more. These large international businesses will not be regulated out of the EU without any say in the matter but will actively engage to make sure the rules don't disadvantage their market share.
These companies will be helped by how the EU standards bodies are integrated into global standards organizations. The AIA does not directly establish specific standards for the myriad of products that use AI, as it is broadly understood that this would be impossible for any legislative body to do. Rather, the AIA delegates significant authority to the European standardization organizations (ESOs) for this task.[2]
Critically, the ESOs do not operate solely in the European context. There is a "high level of convergence" between the ESOs and international standards bodies that date back decades.[3] This strong connection to international standard bodies gives foreign companies a clear path to being hard as the EU standards are written. In fact, the work by standard bodies inside and outside the EU has been ongoing for years, paving a long runway for global corporations to offer expertise and engage in political influence.
Lastly, foreign governments will also work to affect standards development through the ESOs' work. This is most apparent in the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council, which has included a working group on technology standards. It is also worth watching if the newer EU-India Trade and Technology Council also tackles AI standards. This continues a recent trend in which countries including the United States and China have become far more actively engaged in strategic approaches to international standard setting as a method of international technology competition. With active engagement and influence from international companies, global standards bodies, and foreign governments, the EU can only be said to be demanding that there are rules for AI in products—but will not be alone in setting them.
HIGH-RISK FOR AI FOR HUMAN SERVICES
The second category of high-risk AI systems does not fit into the EU's pre-existing regulatory framework but is instead comprised of a specified list of AI systems that affect human rights. Sometimes called "stand-alone" AI systems, these include private-sector AI applications in hiring, employee management, access to education, and credit scoring, as well as AI used by governments for access to public services, law enforcement, border control, utilities, and judicial decision-making. Recently suggested changes from the European Parliament could add insurance, medical triage, and AI systems that interact with children or affect democratic processes. The requirements on government use of AI will be important for Europe (where a broken algorithm for social welfare fraud led to the resigning of the Dutch government) but will, at most, serve as inspiration for the rest of the world, not new rules. The global impact will instead fall on the private sector AI systems in human services.
Understanding the regulation's effect on private-sector AI in human services first requires a distinction between AI used in platforms and AI used in other software. This distinction is critical to examining the extraterritorial effects of the AIA—the more an AI system is incorporated into geographically dispersed (rather than localized) platforms, the more comprehensively the AIA's requirements will affect its whole, rather than just its use in the EU.
Linkedin, as an entirely interconnected platform with no geographic barriers, provides a useful example on one end of this spectrum. Many of LinkedIn's algorithms may fall into the high-risk category of the AIA,[4] including those for placing job advertisements and recommender systems for finding job candidates. These AI systems use data from LinkedIn's network of users and their interactions, meaning it is difficult to isolate the models in any clear geographic sense. This suggests that changes to the modeling process or function, as well as the documentation and analysis of the AI systems, will be somewhat universal to the platform.
This also means that it would be very difficult for LinkedIn to meet the EU standards and a hypothetical different set of regulations from another country. Any conflicts would create an immediate issue for LinkedIn, possibly requiring them to create different risk management processes, try to minimize varying metrics of bias, or record multiple different entries for record-keeping. It could even require them to change the function of the website for users in different geographies, a type of change that platforms are loath to make. As a result, LinkedIn and its parent company, Microsoft, can be expected to strongly resist additional legislative requirements on AI from other countries that are incongruous with the AIA, in turn making them less likely to be passed—a clear manifestation of the Brussels effect (both de facto and de jure).
This Brussels effect becomes far less pronounced for AI human services that are not connected to dispersed platforms but are instead built on local data and have more isolated interactions with individuals. For instance, consider a multinational company that outsources the development of AI hiring systems to analyze resumes and assess job candidate evaluations. This AI developer will build many different AI systems (or more precisely, AI models) for different job openings and possibly for different geographic regions (already made necessary by, for instance, different languages). Another example is Educational Technology software, which may connect a network of students, but will generally be deployed independently in different localities.
In these situations, it is quite likely that the developer would only follow the AIA requirements for the AI systems used in the EU, thus subject to the AIA. For the models not directly subject to the AIA, the developer would perhaps more selectively follow the AIA rules. The developer may choose to always generate and store logs that record the performance of an AI system since once this is developed it may be easy to apply universally and may be further seen as having value to the company. Yet there is no reason to assume the AIA requirements will be universally followed, especially those that require significant effort for each AI system. Although there are some efficiency gains in having a consistent process for building models, code is far more flexible than a "conveyor belt" industrialized process. Further, companies may not be as scrupulous in data collection and cleaning or model testing without any possibility of oversight, as would often be the case for the non-EU models. Human oversight and active quality management could be especially expensive. Thus, many companies may decline to perform these services outside the EU.
Broadly speaking, the less an AI system is built into an international network or a platform, the less likely it is to be directly affected by the AIA, resulting in a lessened Brussels effect. However, this distinction between AI in platforms versus localized software is easy to blur. For example, AI systems in employee management software (which will qualify as high-risk AI) will often be built into platforms that are shared across a business. While this is not a broadly accessible online platform, any multinational business with employees in the EU that uses this software will need the AI system to be compliant with the AIA. In this case, it is not obvious what might happen. It's possible the vendor would comply with the AIA universally so its clients can freely use its software in the EU. However, it is also possible that to cover additional costs from the AIA, the vendor would charge higher subscription rates for the software to be used in the EU.
So, will the AIA have a Brussels effect on AI human services? it is safe to say yes for high-risk AI systems that are built into international platforms, and otherwise, perhaps not as much.[5] Certainly, between the AIA, GDPR, and the recently passed duo of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, the European Commission will have an enormously influential set of tools for governing online platforms—far beyond any other democratic government.
DISCLOSURE OF AI THAT INTERACTS WITH HUMANS
The AIA will create transparency obligations for AI systems that interact with people but are not obviously AI systems. The most immediate international repercussions will arise from chatbots used for websites and apps, although one can imagine this eventually affecting AI avatars in virtual reality, too. If a chatbot doesn't fall into a high-risk category (as it might by advising on eligibility for a loan or public service), then the only requirement would be that people are informed that they are interacting with an AI system, rather than a human. This would cover the many chatbots in commercial phone apps (e.g., those used by Domino's and Starbucks) and websites, likely leading to a small notification stating that the chatbot is an AI system.
On websites, it is reasonable to expect the AIA to have a notable worldwide effect. Generally, adding a disclosure that states that a chatbot is an AI system would be a trivial technical change. This requirement is therefore unlikely to convince companies to create a separate chatbot for European visitors or, alternatively, deny Europeans access to the chatbot or website—the most likely outcome is that there would be universal adoption of this disclosure. Since these companies would be generally complying with the EU law globally without being forced to do so, this would be a clear instance of the de facto Brussels effect.
Chatbots used within smartphone apps may play out differently. Many commercial apps are already designed and provided specifically for different countries due to different languages or other legal requirements. In this case, the apps within European markets will disclose, but those operating elsewhere may not feel any pressure to make this change.
The transparency requirements also apply to emotion recognition systems (these, as defined by AIA, are rarely built into websites) as well as deepfakes. Regardless, while the disclosure requirement of the AIA may become widespread practice, the impact of this change will be relatively minor, even if it may be one of the more visible global effects of the AIA.
CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
A careful analysis of its provisions broadly suggests only targeted extraterritorial impact and a limited Brussels effect from the AIA. The rules on high-risk AI in products will be mediated by global market forces while the high-risk AI in human services will be most widely impactful only on international platforms. Further, the transparency requirements will lead to only minor changes, and the few banned qualities of AIA systems will mostly be restricted to the EU. There may be other effects, such as inspiring other nations to establish AI regulation, potentially on the same high-risk categories of AI, but this would not reflect voluntary emulation, rather the more coercive side of the Brussels effect that is considered here.
Of course, the extraterritorial impact of the EU AI Act will be complex, as many businesses will respond based on their own unique circumstances and incentives, and unintended consequences are certain. This complexity makes prognostication, especially concerning the reactions of commercial actors, quite risky. However, it is worthwhile to try to anticipate the AIA's outcomes for global governance for two reasons. First, understanding the specifics of the extraterritorial nature of the AIA is helpful for other governments to consider how they respond to the AIA, especially when implementing their own regulatory protections. Second, this analysis challenges the common European viewpoint that the economic benefits of being the "first mover" and the resulting Brussels effect are good reasons to quickly pass the AIA.
"Of course, the extraterritorial impact of the EU AI Act will be complex, as many businesses will respond based on their own unique circumstances and incentives, and unintended consequences are certain."
For the rest of the world, while the effects of the AIA may not overwhelm, they still warrant consideration. Sectoral-specific business models and AI applications could lead to unexpected situations and possibly lead to conflicts with existing regulations. Working on rules for interconnected platforms will be particularly difficult, especially for those with high-risk AI systems. Other countries can get more proactive in working towards cohesion, both through the standards process and through regulatory stocktaking. For the U.S., it would be especially valuable to follow through on the November 2020 guidance from the Office of Management and Budget that asks agencies to review their own regulatory authority over AI systems. Despite the deadline being months ago, only the Department of Health and Human Services has released a thorough public accounting of its AI oversight responsibilities. Rather than waiting for the EU and the AIA, the Biden administration should instead follow through on the promise of an AI Bill of Rights.
As for the EU, there are many good reasons to pass the AIA—fighting fraud, reducing discrimination, curtailing surveillance capitalism, among others—but setting a global standard may not be of them. This is particularly important to the EU's economic argument for the AIA, as many European policymakers have argued that being the first government to implement a regulatory regime will, in the long term, benefit the EU companies that adopt it. This line of thinking argues that, when the EU implements a regulation, its companies adapt first. Then, when the rest of the world adopts the European approach, the EU-based companies are best prepared to succeed in a global market with rules they have already adjusted to. Yet this logic only holds if the EU rules significantly impact the global markets, which, as this paper has shown, is uncertain, if not unlikely.[6]
This conclusion also suggests that the EU should advance the AIA on a timeline that meets Europe's needs, rather than rushing to the finish line. The AIA has already been significantly delayed by political disputes, so if EU lawmakers see an urgent need to address AI harms (as is well demonstrated in the U.S.), then, by all means, they should press quickly ahead. However, doing so for the purpose of setting a global standard is misguided in the case of the AIA. That the AIA will not have a strong Brussels effect also has implications for the EU's political messaging. The EU might have more to gain by signaling more openness to feedback from and cooperation with the rest of the democratic world, rather than saying it is "racing" to regulate—or else the EU may find itself truly alone at the finish line.
Governance, Risk & Compliance July 6, 2022
A Company Applies Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Simplify Expense Auditing


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The Hardin jail saga just keeps going on. Is that any surprise with a $20 million dollar facility? Now the city if Hardin and Two Rivers Authority, the economic development authority, have sued the State to overturn the Attorney General's opinion. Not once have we heard about any Legislative remedy that might fix this problem. Let's just run to the courts for our solution. Having just been through some legal proceedings of my own, I can guarantee you the only thing the Judaical process does is piss money away into the lawyers pockets. The Judaical route is one very expensive way to go. I guess if you are $27 million in the hole with no end in sight, what does it matter if you piss away you money.
There is a second article in the paper about the Jail supporters trying to get support from the Hardin business community. You will note they don't say they got the support, just that they were looking for it. Another interesting little tidbit.
The 12 members agreed to send a letter to the Big Horn County Commission, asking the board to support the project or explain why it will not do so. The chamber board is expected to complete a letter to the commissioners next week, so the members can get on an agenda and attend a meeting to get the response before the first of the year.
The county has not thrown support to the project, including declining to sign an interlocal agreement to partner with Two Rivers so the facility would qualify as multijurisdictional.
So, the County doesn't appear to be supporting this. Not a surprise to me. The city of Hardin and the County have had a very contentious relationship over the years with the city screwing the county over every chance they get and the County is very tired of it. It will be interesting to see if the County responds to the letter.
They said the lawsuit is the only option left for Hardin.
Should we translate this a little bit? Since they can't get any local support from Legislators to change the law, which would be the appropriate way to handle this, we are going to have to rely on a sympathetic Judge to get our point across.
I note that they filed suit in Helena and not in Hardin for this little legal action. Does that say something about the local perception of the Jail, Two Rivers Authority, and some of the backers of the jail mentioned in the story? I'll guarantee you it does.
Local politics and old feuds, ain't they fun.


What influences the cost of life insurance?
As with all insurance products, risk is the primary culprit in determining the cost of your premium.
Do you know what type of Life Insurance you need?
The exact benefits and payout will be determined by the provider of your life insurance, but typically there are 2 types of life insurance options in South Africa.
Life insurance is a product many of us try to ignore thinking about for as long as possible because of the unpleasant connotations around it. But as it is designed as a means of provision and support for your family in case of loss, there are few insurance products as important.


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In this fast changing realm of competition and development, it's been a proven fact that people hardly get lots of time to spend at their homes, taking care of themselves. It's mandatory for all of us that we spend at least half from the days amount of time in workplace, doing our responsibility. If the office lacks in proper tools and amenities for that employees, the employees start getting serious health problems. Likewise, the decorum and the equipments from the offices are supplied enormous importance. These days, the majority of the equipments are chosen inside a cautious manner in order to ensure the workers comfort and ease. One such essential product in the office is the ergonomic office seats. As majority of the workplaces have ended up being wise, meaning they rely more on device than hard physical work, ergonomic desk workplace chairs are specifically designed for such workplaces. They are the seats used for the use of the workplaces getting computer work stations. These have been developed specifically seats that help within the reduction of pressures around the several nerves of the spine cords, thereby restricting the chance of muscle and nerve illnesses. Also they assist in maintaining the right physique position. It aligns the forearms, arms, lower back, neck and also the mind in the appropriate jobs, thereby decreasing lower back pain, work associated bone and joint disorders and other this kind of illnesses. And if you simply looking for a seat to unwind, then consider among the recliner chair from our checklist. In this article we will discuss about the top 15 greatest ergonomic seats to be able to provide the readers using the correct understanding so that once they buy such seats, it might be simple for them to choose the most appropriate one.
The good thing that compensates for that time lost the glory from the buyers is its design without problems. Only for the look of the upholstery, you receive a nice and tasteful environment. It comes in wealthy strong shading, emulating as incredible formal attire. While maintaining an honorable prominence, the fabric upholstery can be cleaned very easily. You should not rue after generating a glass of drink in your nice couch. You just need to clean the spot for ever and ever exactly if this hits the upholstery. Despite the fact that great repute accompanies delicacy, it's not the situation right here. This incredible couch is fed having a shape growth and development of solid wood. You're much more unwilling to hear squeaks and walking sounds.
This reclining loveseat takes the second spot simply because its an excellent affordable, super comfortable option that may participate in most home decorations styles. Its wood body is cushioned with coils (for some springtime) and high-denseness foam (for some gentle), and padded with dark brown fake leather-based which makes it an ultra-flexible piece of furniture. Add it to the person cave for any comfy spot to view the game (and dont worry about any spillsits vinyl fabric furniture tends to make cleanup easy) or your living room with a few decorative throw cushions for the perfect spot to cozy up following a long day. Real-life clients adore this lying loveseat simply because its comfy, durable, easy to put together 1 rater even mentioned that they was able to assemble two models within forty-five minutes! and delivery from the merchant is easy.
This plush set of urban-stylish sofas is made to provide an embellished domain. In fact, even your moderate areas may have you obliged for an perfect film evening. Place him down to obtain a completely changed mattress. This auparavant-garde person futon mattress is accessible in different shades. This includes some vibrant shades out of control for example Orange, Mild Azure, and lightweight Crimson. Place them inside your innovative research or loft to assess the exuberance. It's also accessible in lowering tones for example dark, darkish and darkish. These nuances, once more, print a respectable aspect of the upper course. Using the splitting component of the back, you can rest to your favorite position. This couch appears wealthy with tufted fabric consistency upholstery. The good thing is that it's personalized with hypoallergenic filling up. A definitive outcome provides a comfy rest.
The Lawson might be known as quintessential United states sofa style. It's comfortable and straightforward: The boxy form is generous and characteristically has 3 back cushions as well as 3 seat cushions. The traditional Lawson also offers A taller back again and container-shaped soft cushions that have welts at the sides, as do the rear cushions. Well suited for snuggling and napping, this couch style was designed for Jones Lawson, a united states copper tycoon in the turn of the century. He desired a settee that was quite different from the fussy Victorian designs that were typical at that time. Present versions of the Lawson can also include metal or wood contained in the hands. Most importantly, this couch design is the one that will morph its feel with the fabric you select for that furniture. The shape is really versatile that it can be attractive, magnificent, industrial, casual or formal depending on your fabric option.
This sofa is worked with the gong-formed shape combined with the higher armrest from the cushioning. Additionally, the top is supported by blocked corner sides. The legs, nevertheless, have joined the phony wood wrapping. The sofa provides a comfortable and lavish sensation. This is actually the immediate result of very flexible cushioning within the polyester upholstery. You are able to take a seat easily for now to relax. Each of the tones provided with this sofa demonstrates its significant element, Flexible style. The red sculpt could be ideal for each topics with light and dark shades. That remains constant for various tones that it offers as well. The couch is situated in room. Regardless of whether its Thanksgiving holiday or a huge loved ones gathering, you can trust it. Marathon-viewing yet still time collapsing on your couch with your buddies is really a genuine choice.
This set is upholstered in a push and comfy textured cushioned velvet. This gives it the incredible comfort that its cherished for. Once again it supports chaise style seats for adequate comfort and ease. Furthermore, the nose springtime foundation adds to the durability and comfort. Furthermore, the sofa has hard wood frames that increase its toughness and sturdiness. The sofa has cushions on the seat and the back again. But still, the sofa can change from a sitting placement to a reclined position easily. Having said that, simply to replicate, the couch is extremely soft and gives outstanding comfort.
English folded equip couches are additional comfy thanks to the large, pillows at the back and for the chairs. Reduced hands are comfy for laying and also the uncovered legs keep this sofa style from sensation too heavy or imposing. It really came from in the turn from the hundred years and can be related to some thing usual for the English countryside. Differentiating characteristics generally include low exposed thighs, soft, generous cushions, a good back again and recessed arms. Though it may be considered a classic design, it is also an ideal accessory for a modern day space because of its comfy and versatile look.
The Bridgewater is a sofa design that's mainly casual and definitely comfy. This style may be the darling of many an artist because you can use it to produce a informal, friendly space. Bridgewater couches are flexible, depending on the upholstery you choose. Done in an unbiased material, this style of sofa does not compete with additional factors in the room that may be much more dramatic, such as artwork or other large features. More formal fabric will yield a more grand style of sofa. A number of qualities differentiate Bridgewater couches: Usually they have reduced hands and a high back, which contributes to the casual look. Most in addition have a tailored skirt that hides the thighs and loose cushions for the chair and back. This particular design was designed to accommodate slipcovers, that also give a casual atmosphere to the sofa.
This ultra-elegant, high-sovereign couch is designed to assistance reducing-edge living room development. It's produced as a 2-item sofa couch coupled with an attractive chair. It also offers mobile arm rests and beneficial back again assistance. The beautiful tapestry is completed with dark false leather, securely tufted. You can feel comfortable padding with foam within the chair cushions. This ensures a delicate feeling when you rest after a monotonous day time. The sofa is reinforced with wooden advantage engrossed in dark artificial leather. Fake tufted leather-based and powerful pine give severe brightness. It is a fact that it requires a second appear because it is more expensive of computer truly seems to be. Talking about size, its huge! This is exactly what adds more stars for this established. The peak is also impressive for high and brief people.
10.Carleton Leather Sleeper By Wayfair Custom Upholstery?
Read more about Carleton Leather Sleeper By Wayfair Custom Upholstery?
This established includes a 1 left arm couch established, two armless sofa models and something part sofa set. This provides sufficient room to accommodate your friends and relations. The material is 100Percent polyester for sufficient comfort and durability. The advantage of this sofa established is the mixing and matching of seats in the space in the room for any perfect form. As well as enables fitting even just in little areas. It requires just light assembling.Additionally, it functions push soft cushions for maximum comfort. You might want to try this established. It does the job well.
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Close Your Eyes - The official music video is out!
Nowadays people don't listen to music. They watch it on YouTube!
Which is why having a video for all your songs is essential… Like it or not, YouTube is still the number 1 music discovery website far more than any other platforms.
Which is a bit silly, really, because I remember that back in the days we used to listen to albums, sometimes with eyes closed, to get engulfed into the sound and music and dream our own movie… I suppose we have became too lazy today to just listen to music without image support?
So, if you are making music nowadays, you need to create videos. And of course that's another hole in your budget/time, either you hire people to work with you on videos, or you have to learn to do it yourself (and not everyone can be gifted at everything) and this takes more time away from what your focus should really be which is writing/playing/recording music.
For this song, which is supposed to be the feature song of the EP, I wanted to make a special "Official" video. And I was fortunate to find Gareth Kay, a video artist from London - UK, who accepted to work with me on a limited budget but with a dedication to create the best content possible. We talked about a loose scenario and directives that included someone between life and death trying to make a sense of his life in "out of body" experience sequences. I wanted the end to be hopeful, like the song ultimately is, after a psychotic experience seen from evocative images.
I'm very happy with the result which looks sleek and professional, despite the budget, and nicely bring along the viewer on an emotional journey.
Today I received the first draft edit of my new official video for "Close Your Eyes" which is going to be the feature song and video from my new "Infinite" EP.
It is directed by Gareth Kay, from London, UK - you can check him out at http://www.garethkay.co/ Gareth is a very talented indie artist who has worked on numerous music videos and has also worked on another video of mine (unreleased yet, it will be used for the promotion of my second album).
I'm pretty excited about this new video! We took the time to build a cool story line that goes well with the theme of the song which is about questioning your life and looking for hope and redemption, ultimately finding it where it counts.
The song is kind of an epic for me, with a rather large sound reminiscent of stadium progressive rock bands (I leave you to guess who :)), so it seemed like a natural candidate for a video narrative, and we hope that it will take the viewer and listener through a visual and musical journey that is rewarding.


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Something We Don't Talk Enough About When It Comes to Healing and Going to Therapy
Maybe it's the Millennial in me, but I'm an avid Miley Cyrus fan. Her Tom Petty cover, "Wildflowers" came on a playlist I was listening to this morning and it reminded me so much of the healing that goes on in therapy. If you haven't heard it yet, I highly recommend listening to it on a day when you need a heartfelt song to belt out to.
This time of year can be weird for those of us who are working on changing generational dynamics. Maybe we were the peace keeper in our family or the therapist who helped calm our parents down as kids. Maybe we've seen these patterns show up in our adult lives and we're in therapy or working hard otherwise to not carry the weight of those behaviors and generational patterns in order to heal.
During this time of year, we might find ourselves spending more time both alone and with others. With that, we might notice that we feel pulled to mask and pretend everything is fine with certain people or in certain situations, to accept an invitation or get pulled into a conversation with someone somewhere where we feel small and unimportant, or keep engaging with people or situations in our life that make us feel less than our best self. We might notice the ways in which we still need to wear our masks and armor in order to show up and feel comfortable or safe.
On the flip side, as we heal, we might also notice ways in which our masks and armor can no longer be put back on. One way this shows up: we might notice that a relationship in our life is slowly fading/becoming more distant, not because we are doing something wrong but maybe we've outgrown the old ways in which we would mask/armor up around that person. Or maybe we've become more "sensitive" and no longer afraid of letting our emotions just be, causing others to be more uncomfortable around us. Again, you're not doing anything wrong. You're just feeling. You simply can no longer put the armor back on. Maybe you've done enough work that it hurts more to carry the armor and masks than it does to take them off and shoulder the weight of the difficult emotions.
If you're at the beginning stage of healing and taking off your masks and armor: know that it gets easier. Relationships might shift a lot and you might feel shitty and grieve a lot in the process. But it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. My advice for getting through this process is to take time to grieve and stay curious about taking the armor for as long as you need before you take it off entirely if needed. Give yourself permission to take it on and off when needed, especially in an environment that doesn't feel safe to take it off.
When you're ready, notice what it feels like to take it off when you're around people who make you feel good. Our bodies help protect us by paying attention to the situations that could put us in harm's way but we often forget to remind our bodies what it feels like when we are in a place of safety. Remember that healing isn't linear and it's okay if we need to mask around certain people/environments for the rest of our lives even. I think the most important piece of masking and unmasking is developing awareness around when we are doing it and not doing it. It's about self-awareness, self-understanding and self-compassion for the ways in which our bodies have protected us all these years.
Lastly, if you need this reminder: life is supposed to feel uncomfortable at times. If it's been comfortable up until you chose to go on this journey of self-awareness and growth, know that this pain might just be about you choosing yourself over repeating generational cycles. Healing feels uncomfortable when you choose to take off your masks.


Digital channels continue to expand, but each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Each has different best practices and laws of the land. Creating a digital strategy that plays to those differences can take your marketing from mediocre to best-of class.
That digital strategy begins with an understanding of your audience. Who are your customers? What channels do they love or loathe? What types of content or times of day do they favor? The answers will be different for every industry, every company, every topic.
That's why creating a digital strategy is so important. Good marketing takes effort, and a lot of time and money can go to waste on tactics that were doomed from the start. Set your team off on the right foot.
It's one thing to create content, it's another to create a content strategy that supports your content. Check out our content strategy cheat sheet and follow the four steps to creating a strategy that works for everyone!
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 20% of small businesses fail by the end of their first year. If there is one thing that almost all small business owners struggle with, it would bemarketing.
CHARGE is here to help. Our team of marketing experts have created worksheets, checklists and graphs to guide you through five key areas of marketing for small businesses such as branding, personas, websites, local SEO and social media.
SEO, or search engine optimization, can be a terrifying topic. It's punishingly technical and complex. Updating the code of your website can be a high-stakes proposition. And that's all once you already know WHAT to do. It's miraculous that anyone without a computer science degree even makes the attempt.
That's why we here at CHARGE wanted to create this small business SEO guide. We've compressed SEO down to a few core projects that any website owner can (and should) do.
Social media is only as great as the people you follow. You probably already follow sportsbiz social media powerhouses like Schefter, Rovell and SBJ. That's why CHARGE compiled a list of 10 social hidden gems from the sports business world.