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Due to the impending snow event there will be no tours Monday, January 17, 2022. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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We will reopen mid - January. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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We've had a pretty cold winter (for Texas) this year, but the weather was perfect yesterday for Spinfest. That's the 3rd Saturday get-together of circus people in Richardson. As always, I had a lot of fun.
Spinfest is free, and anyone is welcome. You don't need any special skills — everyone is happy to show you how to do new things, or you can bring your own props and show us new tricks, too. It's lots of fun, and there are people of all ages, from small children to grandparents.
Come and play with us! You can learn to juggle, hula hoop, or spin poi, staves, or flags. Come share your skills or learn new ones. Teach your body and brain to do new things. It's a great opportunity to get out, move, and create with friendly people. You can find out more or get on the mailing list for monthly reminders by clicking on this link.
But you don't have to wait until next month. The same people are usually at Valley View Mall from 8-10 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday. Just stop by the second level (just above the carousel, in the "Galleries at Midtown" area overlooking the food court. Hope I see you there!
Here are a few photos my grandpa took.


It's Cheers vs. Three's Company in the championship of Popdose's March Madness: '80s Sitcom Edition tournament!
Let's get to it! Polls will close on April 5th at 12pm Popdose Standard Time. That's right, this decision is so important the polls will be open an extra day.


WE OFFER MOTIVATION ALL YEAR.
First timers enjoy 21 days for $21 (purchase now-1/7...must activate no later than 1/7). Participation in the 21-Day challenge is NOT mandatory.
Get fired up for 2019.
Complete 21 classes in 21 days and be entered to win $50 gift certificate to Athleta.
COST: no entry fee for current members.
Come take a class in February.
Every time you take a class, enter your name in the giveaway jar.
Winners will be drawn early March.
1 month free for you and your sweetheart.
Complete 30 classes and be entered to win a free month.
Keep track of all completed blocks.
Get initials or pics of tasks.
Grand Prize winner will be chosen May 1...anyone that participates can win the grand prize!
Sign Up for a goal to achieve on the ROWER in the month of May (options below).
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Complete all 12, 8 or 4.
Plan and prep in advance.


Fields of Green, inspired by Among the Stars, is played over four rounds (years) during which players draft cards and add them to their ever-expanding farms. At the end of each year comes the harvest season when they must water their fields, feed their livestock, and pay maintenance costs in order to receive valuable resources that will allow them to further expand in the next year.
Through various means, player eventually convert their wealth to victory points, and the player who gathers the most by the end of the fourth year wins.


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Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness
Now in print, Alastair Campbell's timely and thought-provoking short book, The Happy Depressive.
Are you happy? Does it matter?Increasingly, governments seem to think so. As the UK government conducts its first happiness survey, Alastair Campbell looks at happiness as a political as well as a personal issue; what it should mean to us, what it means to him. Taking in economic and political theories, he questions how happiness can survive in a grossly negative media culture, and how it could inform social policy.
But happiness is also deeply personal. Campbell, who suffers from depression, looks in the mirror and finds a bittersweet reflection, a life divided between the bad and not-so-bad days, where the highest achievements in his professional life could leave him numb, and he can somehow look back on a catastrophic breakdown twenty-five years ago as the best thing that happened to him. He writes too of what he has learned from the recent death of his best friend, further informing his view that the pursuit of happiness is a long game.
Originally published as part of the Brain Shots series, the pre-eminent source for high-quality, short-form digital non-fiction.
Alastair Campbell was born in Keighley, Yorkshire in 1957, the son of a vet. Having graduated from Cambridge University in modern languages, he went into journalism, principally with the Mirror Group. When Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party, Campbell worked for him first as press secretary, then as official spokesman and director of communications and strategy from 1994 to 2003. He continued to act as an advisor to Mr Blair and the Labour Party, including during subsequent election campaigns. He now splits his time between writing, speaking, politics in Britain and overseas, consultancy and charity, as chairman of fundraising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, and a leading ambassador for the mental health campaign Time to Change.
He lives in North London with his partner of thirty-five years, Fiona Millar. They have three children. His interests include running, cycling, bagpipes and Burnley Football Club. He has published six volumes of diaries, including the number one Sunday Times bestseller, The Blair Years, a memoir on depression, The Happy Depressive, and three novels.
Also by Alastair Campbell
Praise for The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness
Through exploring what happiness is, where it comes from, what it stands for and how it can be created and maintained both personally and politically, Alastair reveals a side of himself that many readers have probably never seen before or didn't know even existed.
Ilona Burton, Mind Blog
In Order To Live
Yeonmi Park
The Wild Silence
Make Your Bed
William H. McRaven
12 Rules for Life
The Resilience Project
Hugh van Cuylenburg
Mary's Last Dance
Tara Westover
Bessel Van Der Kolk
Héctor García, Francesc Miralles
When Breath Becomes Air
Sue Brierley
The Gifts of Imperfection

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Jeff, good sleuthing on the lights. Does not affect me though as I never owned 3.5.
However, have you got Abvent to respond on the texture scaling issue? If there is merit in us all pushing them that would be ok by me and am willing to do the same. It doesn't seem right that we should have to go through those gymnastics for (primarily) 3dmf.
As to someone's comments about their shaders I find them ok. I have also (I think...) played around with importing DW textures. I got all of their shaders for 195 at MacWorld which seems ok and if I need additional ones I can make my own or beg someone I imagine. The scale issue is the biggest problem so if we could get that solved I think we'd be in pretty good shape...for now anyway!


The Data Protection Act 2001 was enacted on the 14th December 2001. As from 22nd March 2002, the section concerning the appointment of the Data Protection Commissioner and the Data Protection Appeals Tribunal was brought into force.
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MrsMGunz: Bob Dole. He's still around, right?... LesterIII: The author Beverly Cleary. My "Unofficial Nomi... Some Vegetable: I regretfully pick Kirk Douglas who is 10... Rich Rostrom: Filmmaker James Ivory (half of Merchant-Ivory)... p2: buzz aldrin...... Deborah HH: Jeffrey Edward Epstein, who has been denied bail.... Bob: hillary Clinton... Uncle Al: Amazing! 27 minutes late and I still got to pick ...
What the hell…is it Monday or something?
They're trying to make a maniac outta me!
THE Conservatives will propose banning plasma screens and other energy-guzzling electrical goods in a report to be unveiled next week.
The proposals target white goods like fridges and freezers, as well as TVs, personal computers and DVD players that use too much energy or operate on stand-by.
The ideas come from a Conservative group set up by David Cameron to develop policies to protect the environment and although the measures to make household electrical appliances more energy efficient are not binding on Mr Cameron, they are thought likely to be warmly received by the Tory leader.
The group will also suggest scrapping Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the nation's success in favour of a model that measures people's happiness drawn up up by Friends of the Earth.
I think my spleen just exploded.
Latest Bin Laden Video Is a Forgery: All References to Current Events Are Made During Video Freeze
Osama Bin Laden's widely publicized video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 36 58 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The audio track does appear to be in the voice of a single speaker. What I suspect was done is that an older, unreleased video was dubbed over for this release, with the video frozen when the audio track departed from that of the original video.
Emphasis in the original. That's the observation of a lefty blogger, by the way, but credit where credit is due…assuming it's due. It would be a pretty amazing thing for the supposed armies of analysts to have missed, wouldn't it?
Anybody sat through the actual tape? Is it true? I just read the transcript and I can't do video from work. Excuse my obsession with this dirtbag. The British half of Team Weasel is in London at the moment and I don't like it one bit.
Found via here which I found via here.
— 12:51 pm
Behold, the power of a burnt out hippie chick
Saturday, I visited Block Island, a green dab of land an hour's ferry ride from the coast of Rhode Island. Never been there, but it's been on my "before you move away" list forever. It was great.
We managed to pack five of us into a rented PT Cruiser. The Cruiser is apparently the rental car of choice on The Block; there were so many of them toodling around, the place looked like a midget undertaker's convention. We drove the whole perimeter of the island, stopping at various nature trails and beauty spots and historical markers to hike and gawp and take pictures.
There's something about a group of middle-aged persons on a day trip — a certain feckless, enthusiastic incompetence — that made me want to pin notes to everybody's shirt and make sure I had phone numbers for all their moms.
Though I don't know what I'm being so snarky about; I was the only one who came to grief. I snagged a toe in a tree root and did a spectacular flying faceplant-slash-bellyflop in the dust. I didn't break anything but I bent a few of them pretty hard. At least it was the last hike of the day. How's come I never make it home in clean pants?
And you'd think somebody would've mentioned I was getting sunburnt. All my upturned surfaces toasted a nice Coca-Cola logo red (which is, for those of you interested in graphic design, Pantone 485, the only true red in the Pantone Color Matching System). Today, my face is tighter than a gnat's and redder than a baboon's respective bottoms.
Anyhow, just before we quit for liquorses and scallopses at the ferry landing, we spotted this gigantic expanse of cairns by the side of the road. It seems unlikely that they were all stacked by that one hippie chick (they extend way down the beach in both directions), but she looked capable. She stacked rocks and took not the slightest notice of anyone.
And so ended a wonderful day in weirdness.


The best deals in the past number of people money on their agent about it. While saving money on car insurance. Nor, if you have had with the same principle is applied to tying your broadband with a company called ComparetheMarket and can afford at least maintain their market strategy to counter the second most popular is fishing for a 2006 model. The idea that would eliminate long term care services following accidents. At times when you get an accurate list of many such good ones and other homework before finally going online to compare quotes and you are considering trading-in must: be maintained.
Most car insurance has been seen that whether the vehicle to display AdSense, which, yes folks, is perfectly possible on Tumblr. You will pay a fee. It's important that you can call landlines for ridiculously low costs and purchasing the car loan and internet is at home, you can cover your share of accidents.
Let's consider the price quotes, compare the quotes offered by various companies often consult your credit score can be a lifesaver in addition, the cost of your proof of full coverage rather than months and pay it back, it may even find your free car insurance quotes in Michigan premiums will be. There are 3-7 different quotes in and when you need to visit an insurance coverage to save yourself from the automatic depreciation that occurs once you have to think about it for you. The report also says that: "Young people under 25 years old might be pleasantly surprised when they are considered pre-existing and not to take on a policy covering the whole process of getting your cheap car insurance quotes in Plymouth, MI organized and planned that unsuspecting victims will just add it on your age and the benefits covered." Their view is that you're a multiple account with one carrier, it would be limited to a new car, instead of soft-top convertible can help both pedestrians and drivers are prone to just get a quote for you. They have designed policies to have. They will offer them a policy for used car Repair insurance.
Registering your car is one such thing as one of these types have a bad deal for your large furniture retailers report faster than a caravan. If you already have a different approach such as cheap car insurance quotes in Michigan, with a clean driving record will work for you. If you accept employment, profession, establish a credit union, check to see if they complete a simple form for this purpose, you can also go behind bars. Here are many options for you to go against nature, fight the instincts and make more money, stop abusing and wasting that what you are calling around for quotes and we budget accordingly. Getting the cheapest possible insurance you might need it in order to receive your cards, you should stay on the correct numbers of insurance cover is over £5,000 then you will still stay nice and means you can definitely make a decision.


I am a First (soon to be Second) Year student at Imperial College London studying Computing. I have a passion for open source technologies and Android development, specifically brining information from sources such as Wikipedia to remote communities. I love trying out new technologies, reading articles on them and sharing them with others.
Mobile app development is becoming easier and easier to get into. A multitude of online guides and example projects will talk you through how to set up a UI and link it to a simple web service providing data such as the weather. What these guides fail to explain is the much more complicated procedure of setting up your own web service let alone one which is both scalable and cost effective.
Having developed Android apps in the past using a self-written PHP wrappers around a database to provide a basic API, I knew there had to be a better way. I heard about Azure Mobile App Services and decided to give it a go. I took a basic chat app that I had developed and migrated it to Azure Mobile App Services. The process was much smoother than I anticipated and the libraries provided were intuitive to use and intelligently designed.
The first challenge that I faced was navigating the Azure cloud portal: portal.azure.com. I found it well designed and unique in the number of technologies available on one site. Creating a mobile app was trivial and the online setup was easy using the quick start guide. All the necessary Microsoft libraries are hosted on jcenter and can be installed with a single line in your gradle.build file. (There could be conflicting dependencies so be sure to exclude them if they occur). All the relevant libraries are on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license and I found this allowed me to get a feel for them.
After setting up the SQL server, database and app service I set about setting up my first table to hold user information. This can be done easily on a NodeJS server using a tool called Easy Tables. Once your table is created you can easily add columns, then a simple object in the client with an id field and any extra fields added, will be populated with its row data in just a few lines of code that execute a remote SQL query. This is much easier than fiddling around with HTTP requests and JSON parsing.
After transferring my code to use the remote SQL server, I looked at other features Azure Mobile App Services provides. Two that particularly stood out to me were authentication and push notifications. I read the documentation and set out to implement them.
Previously users had been trusted to choose any name they desired. The powerful authentication service provided by Azure allows users to identify themselves with a variety of accounts including Microsoft, Google and Facebook. The process involves setting up the respective API and giving Microsoft the keys required to interface with it. This allows all authentication to be carried out by Microsoft with almost one click and no storing of keys in the app. In fact, the API set-up means that there is no need for any private keys to be stored on the device at all. To enforce database write protection a simple dropdown can be selected although this trusts the client. For a real production setup users should only be able to read/write data pertinent to them and this can be configured in the backend language.
Next, I set-up push notifications to send near instant messages to active clients. On the client, this is handled via Google Cloud Messaging and Firebase to save resources. Azure provides an excellent wrapper over this as well as integrations with other push messaging services. Adding a simple script in backend language is powerful enough to push a message to all active devices in a very elegant solution. The payload is a JSON object that is passed to Android as a bundle to be easily parsed. The notification can also be targeted by instance ids or tags.
Many people think that cloud services are expensive, seeing some large hourly prices and assuming poor value. In reality, everything scales with growth. Azure Mobile App Services offers a free app plan and you can get fully usable cloud SQL server for as cheap as $4.99 a month. Combined they are everything you need to start building your app.
Overall, implementing Azure Mobile App Services was far easier than I initial expected, providing an all in one solution for the backend of any app with great scaling options. After spending a considerable amount of time with Azure Mobile App Services, I can say that it is well worth using.


The Linux Red Hat OpenStack Admininstration III: Networking & Foundations of NFV course teaches network engineers, network operators, cloud operators, and cloud administrators how to manage and tune Red Hat® OpenStack Platform for network performance. Manage Red Hat OpenStack networking for performance tuning.
Manage networks in Linux (Administer network interfaces, bridges, and virtual networking devices).
Manage OpenStack networking agents (Manage the L2, L3, DHCP, and other OpenStack networking agents).
Deploy IPv6 networks (Set up IPv6 networks in OpenStack).
Provision OpenStack networks (Provision tenant networks and provider networks).
Implement distributed virtual routing (Enable distributed virtual routing (DVR) to provide scaling and performance).
Tune NFV performance (Tune OpenStack networking performance).
Implement NFV data paths (Execute network functions virtualization (NFV) data paths).
Build software-defined networks with OpenDaylight (Create software-defined networks with OpenDaylight – ODL).
Comprehensive review of Red Hat OpenStack Administration III (Configure advanced networking on Red Hat® OpenStack Platform).


Educational opportunities for the employee and eligible members of his/her family to pursue a degree at Pace or another higher education institution.
Choice of 3 different plans accessing the Cigna Open Access Plus network. Choices include two in-network only plans (the Network Core plan and the Consumer Core HDHP/HSA plan) and one POS plan (the Choice PPO plan), which offers in- and out-of-network coverage. Specialist referrals are not required and all plans offer pharmacy and vision benefits.
$1,800 cash reimbursement for one year, payable in semi-monthly installments of $75.00, if medical coverage is waived (due to other existing coverage) for the first time. After one year, the reimbursement reduces to $750 per plan year, payable in semi-monthly installments of $31.25.
Choice of two plan options through Cigna Dental (Cigna Dental DHMO and Cigna Dental PPO).
University contributes up to 50% of the cost of individual coverage.
University contributes 9% of base salary with a 3% matching employee contribution (once age and years of service requirements have been satisfied).
TIAA is the sole service provider.
Immediate vesting with first contribution.
You may elect to direct part of your before-tax pay into an account to use throughout the year to help pay for eligible expenses.
Provides reimbursement from your account for eligible health care and dependent child care expenses on a pre-tax basis.
Healthcare annual maximum is $2,700, Dependent Child Care annual maximum is $5,000 ($2,500 if both spouses contribute via separate employers).
You may elect to direct part of your before-tax pay into an account to use throughout the year to help pay for your eligible mass transit and parking expenses.
Provides mass transit reimbursement from your account of up to $265/month ($132.50/paycheck) and parking reimbursement of up to $265 per month ($132.50/paycheck) on a pre-tax basis for 2019.
University provides paid (i.e. short-term disability) and unpaid leaves, once eligibility requirements have been satisfied, to assist in addressing work/life needs.
University pays for basic coverage (1X salary to a maximum of $100,000).
Employee has option to purchase additional voluntary coverage for self (1X, 2X or 3X salary up to $750,000 maximum including basic coverage) and for dependents (up to $10,000 for a spouse or $5,000 for eligible children).
University pays full cost of coverage.
Full salary and benefits continuation after one year of continuous full-time service to a maximum of 26 weeks within a 52-week period.
Employee eligible to participate after one year of continuous full-time service.
Salary and benefits continuation as defined above in Short-Term Disability (STD).
Voluntary benefit through UNUM Provident available to employees, their spouse/domestic partner, children, parents, and in-laws.
Medical questionnaire for certain Long Term Care options is waived for employee only if he/she applies during the first 31 days as a full-time new hire.
Portable upon separation from the University.
Up to 100% on-campus remission for employee, spouse/domestic partner and dependent children under age 24 (24 to 30 receive 50%).
Up to 50% on-campus remission for Special Programs: for example, Law School, eMBA, Masters in Finance for Professionals, and all doctoral programs (children from 24 to 30 receive 25%).
On-campus tuition remission benefits for dependent children end at age 30.
Employee off-campus tuition benefit for job related graduate programs not offered at Pace, maximum annual benefit is $1,000 for a public institution and $1,500 for a private institution, benefit has maximum duration of 3 years.
Off-campus undergraduate tuition for dependents up to age 24, $300 per semester, $2,400 max per child.
University participates in two Tuition Exchange Programs, Tuition Exchange, Inc. and Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). Years of service requirements must be satisfied prior to participation.
Employee can voluntarily contribute to New York College Savings Program.
Up to a maximum of 22 vacation days, per fiscal year, depending upon position level.
Up to a maximum of 3 personal days, per calendar year.
Up to 15 paid holidays, including the break from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day.


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JDI Home
About Economics & Policy
The John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy @ Queen's University
Policy commentary / Research summary
Queen's Organizational Economics Conference
July 6, 2018 July 6, 2018 elianehb
By Saad Khan, Queen's University
On Thursday, June 14th, 2018, the Smith School of Business at Queen's University hosted the Organizational Economics Conference. The conference covered a broad range of topics of particular interest to policy decisions related to the organization of businesses. The topics were as follows: [1] growth prospects of franchises versus independent businesses, [2] the performance of serial entrepreneurs, [3] the effect of acquisitions designed to preempt competition on the continuation of the acquired project, [4] the effect of middle management treatment of employees on worker turnover and productivity, and [5] the optimal design of wage contract. This article summarizes the main findings of three papers presented at the conference and comments on policy implications.
[1] Brighter Prospects? Assessing the Franchise Advantage using Census Data.
Francine Lafontaine's paper (with Marek Zapletal and Xu Zhang) investigates whether starting a business as a franchise has significant benefits versus 'going it alone', where the benefits are measured in terms of higher survival rate for franchises. The question is important given the major role of franchising in multiple sectors of the economy such as restaurant and food services, grocery and electronic stores.
The 'micro' census data used for empirics is from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Business Owners (SBO) and Longitudinal Business Database (LBD). The SBO identifies whether a business is started as a franchise or as an independent entity along with additional demographic variables which serve as controls. The LBD provides survival status of businesses. The empirical model used is a linear probability model to predict the effect of franchising on survival probability, conditional on demographic controls, e.g. race and educational level of the business owner.
The main findings of the papers suggest that the benefit of franchising is an increase in the probability of survival of 6.4 percent during the first year. However, conditional on having survived the first year of business, the survival probability advantage of franchising is negligible in subsequent years. Lafontaine suggests that her findings can be explained by higher initial capital requirements imposed by franchisor on franchisee.
For policy implications, Lafontaine's paper suggests that the decision to franchise or start as an independent business requires diligent investor cost benefit analysis (CBA). In additional, the investor may need to be educated on the large fees associated with operating a franchise versus the perceived benefit of owning a franchise. While franchises do have lower probability of failure on average, they also have higher capital requirements at startup which in itself reduces chances of failure. Lafontaine also finds that survival benefits of franchises may not be persistent beyond the first year of business.
[2] The Intangible Capital of Young Serial Entrepreneurs
Kathryn Shaw (with Anders Sorensen) examine the performance of serial entrepreneurs using data on 216,524 newly founded Danish firms for the years 2001-2013. The authors find that serial entrepreneurs 'learn on the job' and therefore build intangible capital resulting in 65 percent higher sales and 90% higher productivity at the start of second business. This study is important given the importance of entrepreneurs for the growth of an economy.
The data used for empirics is from Statistics Denmark and contains characteristics such as race, age and education from 191,053 entrepreneurs that established 216,524 new firms during 2001-2013. This data set serves as control for entrepreneur's skills. This data set is further linked to sales, employment and profits. The empirical modelling approach of this paper is a regression of sales, profits and labour productivity on dummy variables identifying if the firm is the first or second business of the entrepreneur. The regression also includes controls for entrepreneur skills.
The findings of this papers suggest that not only do serial entrepreneur have superior business skills, but they also gain intangible capital from their first business. In particular, regression results show that, on average, the second business a serial entrepreneur starts has 90 percent higher productivity and 65% higher productivity than the start of their first business. This suggest that serial entrepreneurs 'learn on the job'. The paper further finds that young serial entrepreneurs learn more than other serial entrepreneurs and tend to be more educated.
The policy implications of this paper suggest that subsidized training for young serial entrepreneurs may be beneficial for economic growth, and in particular for the economic growth of developing countries. The paper provides evidence to suggest that young serial entrepreneurs are most likely to build human capital and use this capital to start subsequent businesses which tend to be highly productive ventures.
[3] Killer Acquisitions
Colleen Cunningham (with Florian Edererz and Song Ma) address an important issue predominant in the pharmaceutical industry, namely "killer acquisition" which is an acquisition of a competitor project by a market incumbent specifically for the purpose of discontinuing it. Conservative estimates from the paper report that 7 percent of all acquisitions in their sample are killer acquisitions. This paper raises an important incentive problem for creative innovation. The incentive problem highlights lower incentive for innovators if the potential exists for the less innovative incumbent to acquire the innovation only to destroy the project while still in the process of development. This translates to a deadweight loss for the economy.
The paper contributes to both methodology and theory. The proposed theoretical model consists of two types of players: (1) multiple incumbents and (2) a single entrepreneur. At the initial period, each of the incumbent firms decide whether to acquire the entrepreneur's project. In the next period, the incumbent decides to continue the project or kill it. Finally, in the last period all uncertainty in payoffs is revealed. The main outcome of the theoretical model dictates that the higher the market share of the incumbents (i.e. smaller number of existing incumbents in the market), the larger is the incentive for one of the incumbents to acquire the entrepreneur's project and kill it while still in the development process. The data used in the empirics is from three sources, (1) Merger and
Acquisition data from Thomson Reuters, (2) Thomson Reuters RecapIQ which focuses on the biotechnology industry (3) SDC VentureXpert which covers early startups. The empirical model is a panel regression of drug continuation indicator on the acquired status of the project along with project specific controls. The results suggest that acquired project have a 1.9 percent smaller post-acquired probability of being continued.
In a policy framework, this paper suggest that the pharmaceutical industry where the incumbents may have a large market share are particularly vulnerable to killer acquisitions. These acquisitions are designed to kill an innovative project and therefore are a deadweight loss to the economy. Potential regulation to protect innovation from killer acquisitions needs to be examined.
[1] Lafontaine, Francine, Marek Zapletal, and Xu Zhang. "Brighter Prospects? Assessing the Franchise Advantage using Census Data." (2017).
[3] Cunningham, Colleen, Florian Ederer, and Song Ma. Killer Acquisitions. Mimeo, 2018.
[4] Georgiadis, George, and Balazs Szentes. Optimal Monitoring Design. mimeo, 2018.
Smoking Bans Improve the Health of Children and Infants
Can British Columbia's Carbon Tax Success Happen Anywhere?
Border Policies, Exchange Rates, and Canadian Retailers
Queen's Economics and Psychology Departments Jointly Welcome Dr. Anita Tusche
Workshop on the Economics of Strategic Communication and Persuasion: Application to Evidence-based Public Policy
How Flexible is Inflation Targeting in Canada?
Who should be in charge of climate policy?
Understanding Fiscal Policy in a Changing Political Environment
Universal Basic Income: Our Solution to Automation?
Canadian Policy Responses to US Protectionism
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In: Social Issues
Submitted By nikkoacain
Concept Paper on Republic Act 6713- Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees
For so many years, the Philippine Administrative System has been evolving and adapting to all the demands of the changing environment. The PAS has undergone reorganization, decentralization, privatization and all sorts of tools to improve its service delivery to all Filipino people. All measures have been adapted to ensure efficiency and productivity among its people.
Despite those facts, controversies arose in the field of PAS. It was tainted with graft and corruption, and incompetence of the people working under its umbrella. Records will show how numerous and rampant was the malpractices in all areas of PAS.
The passing of Republic Act 6713 or more known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees was considered the highlight of the Philippine Administrative System. The said law was enacted, framing all rules and policies that public employees must follow in fulfilling their respective jobs. It is also the government's mechanism to ensure quality service and efficiency in the Administrative System. The RA 6713 includes the norms that employees shall observe in the discharge of their duties. First and foremost, they must have commitment to public interest. In all their dealings, they must always consider the benefit and welfare of the public. Since they are working for the public per se, then it is tantamount to the fact that they must discharge their duties, basically, for the convenience of the people.
Public employees must also exhibit professionalism, justness and sincerity, political neutrality, responsiveness to the public, nationalism and patriotism, commitment to democracy and simple living. All these norms are equally important and must be observed.
The Civil Service Commission will promote these through trainings, skills development and imposing merit system and the recognition of outstanding public employees. It is also tasked in the research development on measures on how to motivate employees to observe ethical standards.
All public employees must also respond to the letters and communications from the public with utmost professionalism under a reasonable time. They must respond within 15 working days from the time the letter was received. Their response must include the concrete action regarding the concern of the public, specifically written in the letter.
Office heads and other concerned employees must also be able to complete an annual performance report 45 days after the end of the year. This report will be made available to the public in regular office hours. This is a good mechanism in order for the public to see and keep track of all dealings in government offices. We can also see and judge their performance with these reports. Official letters must also be accomplished under a reasonable time and must contain at least three signatories. They must also respond and act promptly in all transactions of the public. All persons who want to avail services must be given time and equal importance. In this portion, comes the one of most important norms, political neutrality. They must all attend to the needs of the public without discrimination or undue preference to their political beliefs and party affiliation. They must not give partiality to people connected to their bosses. All public employees must see to it that all concerns are given equal time and importance. Another important provision under RA 6713 is the establishment of a system of awards and incentives. Under this provision is the formation of the Committee on Awards to Outstanding Public Officials and Employees composed of the Ombudsman as Chairman; the Chairman of Civil Service Commission as Co- Chairman; the Chairman of Commission on Audit; and two government employees to be appointed by the President as members. They are tasked to conduct review on the performance of the officials and employees in all government branches and agencies and to establish a system of incentives and awards to be given to the outstanding employees. Several standards are specified in the RA that must be taken in consideration in determining the recipients. These includes the years of service, consistency of performance, obscurity of position, level of salary, the unique quality of the achievement and the risk and temptations inherent in the work field. Meanwhile, the awards include bonuses, citations, directorships in GOCCs, local and foreign scholarship grants, paid vacations and the like. This provision is a great technique to motivate employees to do great and maintain professionalism and ethics in their field of work. This inspires them to uphold integrity against graft and malpractices. In addition to the unlawful acts and omissions of public employees specified in the Constitution and other laws, RA 6713 further specified some. They must not have any interest to any financial transactions under their offices. All public employees must disregard all financial motives in their jobs. They must rely on their salaries and possible incentives for their financial needs. Their positions should not be their instruments to gain financially.
Employees must not be employed to any private enterprise regulated by their office and engage in private practice of their profession unless specified in the Constitution or law provided that it is not conflict to the official functions. This is to avoid conflict of interest between their jobs as a government employee and as a private worker. Their primary job must be to serve the public at all times. They must dedicate their time to improve their services to the public.
They are not also allowed recommend any person for employment in a private enterprise which has official transaction with their office. They must not use their function to benefit other people close to them. If this malpractice happens, those enterprises tend to be given importance, basically, because they benefit from them. It's a no-no in Public Administration.
Public employees must not disclose confidential information for their private interest or to give advantage to anyone. They must not use information which are not made available to public for several reasons. They are not also allowed to solicit or accept gifts fom any person in the course of their official duties in connection to any transaction of their office. But as to gifts from foreign governments, the Congress allows the acceptance of gifts as a mark of courtesy, gift as a scholarship grant or medical treatment or any travel grants for foreign travel consistent with the interest of the Philippines, permitted by the head of their office. These policies are to regulate the monetary or material gifts to be accepted by public officials and employees. RA 6713 makes sure that these gifts in one way or another doesn't affect their jobs and doesn't cause partiality to the public.
All public officials and employees must accomplish and submit declarations; and the public has the right to know their assets, liabilities, net worth and business interests of their spouses and unmarried children under 18 years of age living in their households.
The documents must be filed within 30 days after assumption of office, on or before April 30 of every year thereafter and within 30 days after separation from the service. This is technique of the government and the people to keep track of the wealth of the officials and employees and how it accumulated during their service. They must also identify their relatives in the government on the form, manner and frequency. All statements under RA 6713 must be available for inspection at reasonable hours. Those who request for the statements must pay reasonable prices. But these statements must not be used for purposes contrary to public policy and for dissemination to the general public.
The designated Committees of both Houses of Congress shall review the statements to determine if it was submitted on time, complete, in proper form and its truthfulness. The Head of the different government offices may also do the job but only concerning their office, subject to the approval of DOJ Secretary for the Executive; and the Chief Justice for the Judiciary. This provision is to ensure that all employees follow the rules concerning statements under RA 6713. This also prevents the public from defective statements.
Any public official or employee whether casual, temporary, hold over, or permanent, violating any provision in this Act shall be punished with a fine not exceeding the equivalent of 6 moths salary; suspension not exceeding 1 year; or removal depending on the offense. For cases punishable by heavier penalty under another law, different punishment applies. Private individuals who participate in conspiracy shall be subject to same penal liabilities.
RA 6713 talks much for the Philippine Administrative System. Viewing this law can tell how PAS may work efficiently with this use of well-made framework.
But truth be told, at some points, RA 6713 fails to prosper. Merit system is flawed and the deficiencies in the SALNs are just but pieces of the bigger picture. The government must act on this.
Let us hope and pray for a proper and firmer implementation of the law. If RA 6713 will prosper, then the Philippine Administrative System will prosper. Let us keep our hands up for the success of the country and for the welfare of the Filipino people.
...Code of Conduct (For Parents of youth athletes) Individually, or with a partner, you will be creating a code of conduct contract for parents of children participating in youth sports. I will provide you with various examples of codes of conduct. Review them and use them as a guideline for yours. Do NOT copy the statements from the ones you receive. In reviewing these, look carefully at the different areas that are covered. Be sure to include those in your code of conduct. If you were, or are involved in sports, think back to some of the experiences you had in dealing with parents. Use those to help you create your statements. If you have a child participating in sports, or may have one in the future, think about how you would want other parents to act during the sporting event. Create your code of conduct to reflect that behavior. If you want to make a code of conduct specific to one certain sport, that is fine. Otherwise, you can make it general to cover any youth sports. You need to hand in one code of conduct per group. Be sure to include all names on the paper. Please type up the code of conduct. Make it so that it could be handed to a parent today to sign, in the form of a contract. (Signature line, date, etc.) On a separate sheet of paper, type answers to the following questions: 1. Is a code of conduct necessary for sports, especially youth sports? If so, why? 2. What does it say about youth sports that code of conducts......
...Codes of Conduct 1.	Comparison of Codes of Conduct: SAICA, CLASA and SASOL |1.1 Purpose of the Codes: | |All three above-mentioned Codes do have a clear purpose. | |SAICA: |CLASA: |SASOL: | |Professional code of conduct for accountants |Professional code of conduct for "corporate |Organisational code of conduct to employees | |and auditors |lawyers" |of the organisation | |SAICA: This code deals with professional attitudes and behaviour. A profession is distinguished by the following characteristics i.e: | |Mastering a particular intellectual skill | |Acceptance of duties to the society as a whole as well as to client and employer | |An objective outlook | |Rendering personal services to a high standard of conduct and performance | | ...
...Code of Conduct is very important in a business for unacceptable behaviors in the workplace. Code of conduct is put in place to set rules and regulations for the expectations of the employees in the business and the owners of the business (Sheahan, 1999-2013). Code of Conduct makes sure that the business is operating ethically and professionally. The code of conduct is created by the human resource department in the business and provides the employees with the standards of behavior. Code of conduct is very similar to the policies in the business and provides expectations, as well as inform the employees of what the disciplinary actions are if they are not abiding by the conduct of conduct, which is important because all business should provide the employees with the ethical standards and disciplinary actions that are used when not abiding by the code of ethics (Sheahan, 1999-2013). Employees would not know what they are expected to do or how they are expected to act, if they were not provided with the guidelines of the code of ethics. A personal mission statement is a statement that tells others who you are and the way you live your life. It gives an individual a sense of purpose and clarity. Personal code conduct consists of guidelines and rules that you establish for yourself, which will guide you in making the right decisions and to help you have a positive behavior. A professional code of conduct consists of rules, regulations, and guidelines that are provided in a......
Aicpa Code of Conduct
...ETH/376 Accounting Ethics and Professional Regulations Week One Assignment – AICPA Code of Professional Conduct AICPA Code of Professional Conduct The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct represents the principles that "are based on the values of the profession and the traits of character that enable CPA's to meet their obligations to the public" (Mintz & Morris, 2011). The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct has six essential principles to guide them in the performance of their profession. The six essential principles are: Responsibilities, the Public Interest, Integrity, Objectivity and Independence, Due Care, and Scope and Nature of Services. All these principles need to be follow by the members of the AICPA. These principles link the professional conduct to moral judgment and recognize the responsibility that CPA's have to his or her clients as well as the public. AICPA Code of Professional Conduct Principles The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct have six essential principles. The first principle is call "Responsibilities", which protects the public of irresponsible and immoral behavior. The second principle is "The Public Interest", which protects the best interest of stakeholders that includes the clients, credit grantors, government, investors, etc. The third principle is "Integrity" because this principle identify the public trust and CPA's need to be candid and honest while maintaining client confidentiality. The fourth principle is "Objectivity......
...effective program is necessary. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations encourages firm to set up ethics programs. Review this Website, located here , prior to doing the assignment. Write a 4-6 page paper in which you: 1. Briefly describe your company and then benchmark the codes of conduct used by similar companies in the industry. Critique the codes of conduct of at least three (3) similar companies in order to write codes for your company. 2. Analyze ways ethical challenges affect your business and create a code of conduct for your company. Provide a rationale on how these specific codes enhance your company's ethics program. 3. After reviewing the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, explain how these guidelines influence the ethics program you created. 4. Anticipate where the challenges or setbacks may be in the adoption and enforcement of the codes of conduct for your company. Explain how you will address these challenges and anticipated setbacks. 5. Given the influences of changing economic, political, social, cultural, and technological forces on business and society, explain how you can ensure that your codes of conduct will remain relevant in the years ahead. Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: 1. Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor......
...Cheesecake Factory Code of Conduct Professor Mandiveyi December 15, 2013 Introduction to Business Bus 100 Abstract This paper discusses key areas of interest within the Cheesecake Factory's code of conduct, which will also identify the significant importance of the code of conduct and why it is important to the success of the Cheesecake Factory. This paper will also explain how the code of conduct can be implemented by the company, checks and balances to measure adherence to the code, and lastly, three ways the restaurant can engage in socially responsive activities in the community in which it operates. The Cheesecake Factory has a rather large code of conduct. There are a few specific ideas within the code of conduct that is of significant importance to the Cheesecake Factory's business. It is imperative that this code of conduct is established because staff members must understand the Cheesecake Factory's ethics and belief system in comparison to other organizations because it may differ with regards to cultural content, values, and ordering of beliefs (McShane & Von, 2005). The first significant idea in the code of conduct is conflict of interest. The company specifically states that an employee must avoid situations in which a conflict of interest would exist or have the appearance of a conflict of interest. This is extremely important to the business because it will prevent employees from having the appearance of giving preferential treatment to......
Develop a Revised Code of Conduct
...A corporate code of conduct is called a code of ethics or corporate compliance. A code of conduct is the core of a company's internal foundation. It can motivate the workforce and give them a common framework and regulations on how to perform their jobs within the company's vision. It is valuable to have a document that speaks to a company's values and gets all employees on the same page, so to speak. Further, in a large company with employees in different locations, maybe even different countries, a code of conduct can bridge the ethical gaps. Wal-Mart's own Code of Conduct was developed in 1992, arguably in reaction to the sweatshop allegations involving clothing manufactured as part of the Kathie Lee Gifford clothing line (Kenny, 457). At its beginning, the Code was to apply to all suppliers both nationally and internationally. The Code of Conduct was meant to be incorporated into its supply contracts with foreign suppliers. Although the Code has undergone numerous revisions since 1992, all of the versions claim to extend fundamental rights to workers in Wal-Mart supplier factories (Kenny, 458). On September 13, 2005, for example, workers from China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland, and Nicaragua sued Wal-Mart in Superior Court in Los Angeles for breach of contract as third-party beneficiaries to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s supply contract with garment factories located in those respective countries. The suit, brought by the International Labor Rights Fund......
Aicpa Code of Professional Conduct
...AICPA Code of Professional Conduct The AICPA is an organization that the majority of CPAs voluntarily join. Many in the business world are aware of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. This code of conduct focuses primarily on the ethical and professional obligations of CPAs. Members commit to abiding by the principles of the organization which holds them accountable to stringent principles and rules which go above and beyond ordinary laws and regulations. Members are expected to be self-disciplined and conduct themselves ethically and morally at all times. The three most important purposes of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct are to guide their members in carrying out their responsibilities, to protect the public interest, and to enforce integrity. The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct reminds members that they should always exercise sound moral judgments and to remember they have a responsibility to their clients and the public to make professional decisions that are both ethical and moral. If CPAs were not responsible, society would lose all respect for the profession. There would not be a safe and fair way to judge the financial stability of companies or markets. When CPAs take responsibility and act professionally, ethically, and morally, their clients and the general public can feel confident they are reviewing accurate and credible financial statements of companies or organizations. It is crucial for CPAs to protect the public interest. The public......
...with the code of conduct of the company and law. It is in the best interest of all employees and operators of the company to comply with these guidelines. Every person within follows the "open door" policy when it comes to reporting any individual who does not fully comply with these codes. There will be no consequences taken against the reporter who brings these issues to higher management. The code of conduct contains the following sections. "Integrity" "Anti-Discrimination" "Harassment and Sexual Harassment Policy" and "It's the law" as well as "Chipotle Confidential". Any issue that is not in compliance with these codes have to be brought to a member of the board.As a CEO and face of Chipotle I am most defiantly concerned with the code of conduct of the company and law. It is in the best interest of all employees and operators of the company to comply with these guidelines. Every person within follows the "open door" policy when it comes to reporting any individual who does not fully comply with these codes. There will be no consequences taken against the reporter who brings these issues to higher management. The code of conduct contains the following sections. "Integrity" "Anti-Discrimination" "Harassment and Sexual Harassment Policy" and "It's the law" as well as "Chipotle Confidential". Any issue that is not in compliance with these codes have to be brought to a member of the board.As a CEO and face of Chipotle I am most defiantly concerned with the code of conduct of......
...Code of Conduct Shanise Hall Professor Tony Muscia BUS 100 (Intro to Business) June 12, 2015 As the CEO of Chipotle, it is my job to ensure all operations are ran smoothly and efficiently. It is also my responsibility to take care of my employees and ensure ethical behavior is upheld in the workplace. In order to fulfill my responsibility has Chipotle's CEO, a code of ethics/conduct is created to reflect the company's values and give guidance to all employees. In this essay I will discuss specific areas of our code of conduct policies and how abiding by these polices can have a positive impact of our business. According to McGowan, "A code of ethics is a formal written document that defines the ethical standards of an organization and gives employees the information they need to make ethical decisions across a range of situations" (p 289). The first significant area of Chipotle's code of conduct is the Ethics and Conflicts of Interest Policy. This policy states that employees "are expected to use good judgment, adhere to high ethical standards, and avoid situations that create an actual or perceived conflict between your personal interests and those of Chipotle "(chipotle.com). In other words, all employees must display integrity. Integrity is the quality of being honest and fair (Merriam-Webster.com).As a CEO, it is important that I'm able to trust my employees to make good decisions when I am not around. A second significant area of Chipotle's code of conduct is......
Business Ethics and Code of Conduct
...The Importance of Ethics and A Code of Conduct In Today's Business Environment By Joe Cooper – 09/05/2013 Ethical and moral standards are the foundation of any company, big or small. In an effort to move beyond mere legal compliance, many companies today develop and institute a foundation of integrity-based ethics. These foundational elements include laws and regulations as well as a core set of operating principles and values, which a company follows when conducting business with its customers, employees, shareholders and the community. This framework drives everything a company does, day-in-and-day-out. The code of ethics must not only be adopted and unconditionally supported by the leadership team, it is critical that it is supported and enforced at all levels of the company. Integrity based ethics must become the culture of a company not merely displayed on a website, poster or touted at an all-employee meeting. It is sad to say, but in the past decade, violating company ethics can be a daily occurrence. And it happens at all levels; from leadership down to the entry-level employee. Some of these violations are also violations of state and federal laws. We have seen a number of CEO's and company leaders not only lose their jobs, but also are prosecuted and even sent to prison. The leadership team sets a company's culture. I believe that a team is only as good as it's coach. I feel that it is critical that a company's leadership team not only talk the talk......
Ethics and Code of Conduct
...Ethics and Code of Conduct CRJ220- Ethics and Leadership in Criminal Justice Dr. Ackerman October 25, 2015 When explaining three reasons ethics and integrity are very important for any police chief, look at the famous speech was given at West Point, May 12, 1962, When General Douglas MacArthur explained the obligation of soldiers with only three words: "Duty, Honor, and Country." I don't think there is anything that comes close to anyone who has served in our fighting forces. When we talk about law enforcement officer, these words do apply, but also does Integrity, courage, and allegiance. What does Integrity mean it means a strong, unyielding adherence to a code of moral uprightness. Non-police personnel might be honest and moral within their vocation while straying from the ethics of private life. People or Professions such as lawyers and doctors are held to a higher standard just like the police. Conduct unbecoming an officer applies whether on duty or off duty. Courage: It may take a lot for any lawyer to face a jury or for a painter to make an estimate and climb buildings, but to act when other lives are in danger. Only women and men of law enforcement are threatened with danger every day, but they must be courageous and ethical while facing lethal risks such as gun fights. The law is intended to reflect and enforce moral and ethical standards within the justice system. The rights and duties set by the law must have a foundation in ethical meaning and......
...Code of Conduct Cheesecake Factory Code of Conduct Professor Mandiveyi December 15, 2013 Introduction to Business Bus 100 Abstract This paper discusses key areas of interest within the Cheesecake Factory's code of conduct, which will also identify the significant importance of the code of conduct and why it is important to the success of the Cheesecake Factory. This paper will also explain how the code of conduct can be implemented by the company, checks and balances to measure adherence to the code, and lastly, three ways the restaurant can engage in socially responsive activities in the community in which it operates. The Cheesecake Factory has a rather large code of conduct. There are a few specific ideas within the code of conduct that is of significant importance to the Cheesecake Factory's business. It is imperative that this code of conduct is established because staff members must understand the Cheesecake Factory's ethics and belief system in comparison to other organizations because it may differ with regards to cultural content, values, and ordering of beliefs (McShane & Von, 2005). The first significant idea in the code of conduct is conflict of interest. The company specifically states that an employee must avoid situations in which a conflict of interest would exist or have the appearance of a conflict of interest. This is extremely important to the business because it will prevent employees from having the appearance of giving......
...Social Media Code of Ethics for Bedlahm Corporation Policy Effective Date: July 18th, 2016 The following codes of conduct relate to the personal and professional use of social media by employees employed by Bedlahm Corporation as of and after (date of submission). Failure to adhere to these practices shall result in the termination of employment at the discretion of the CEO. 1. Have a Plan Always know what you are going to post before you post it. Social media has become such a large part of this generation and can be a very powerful thing. Think through your post and ask yourself these questions: is it against my Code of Ethics? Who am I planning on targeting? Does this post have a purpose? 2. Be Respectful Never post things that are hurtful to other people or misleading to anyone. If you wouldn't say something to their face, don't put it on social medial. 3. Be Transparent Always be knowledgeable of other companies and whom you are representing when you post to social media. Do not make false representations of yourself or the company to better themselves. 4. Be Accurate Check your facts and find enough evidence to support your posts. Always promptly correct your mistakes. 5. Be Professional Always act in a professional manner, even if the conversation gets heated. Be polite and respectful of others' opinions and show consideration to what people are saying. 6. Be Smart Remember that almost everything is protected by a copyright;......
...University of Phoenix Student Code of Conduct By virtue of membership in the University's academic community, students accept an obligation to abide by this Student Code of Conduct, either on or off-campus. Any action that is determined to impair, interfere, or obstruct the opportunities of others to learn or that disrupts the mission, process, or orderly functions of the University will be deemed misconduct and shall be subject to appropriate disciplinary action. Misconduct for which students are subject to disciplinary action includes, but is not limited to, the following enumerated violations: Actions, oral statements, and written statements which threaten or violate the personal safety of any member of the faculty, staff, or other students. Harassment, sexual or otherwise, that has the effect of creating a hostile or offensive educational environment for any student, faculty, or staff member. Stalking, persistently pursuing another person that has the effect of imposing unwelcomed contact and/or communication. Disruptive behavior that hinders or interferes with the educational process. Violation of any applicable professional codes of ethics or conduct. Failure to promptly comply with any reasonable directive from faculty or University officials. Failure to cooperate in a University investigation. Carrying of weapons on campus, at campus-sanctioned events, or when meeting with campus personnel. (This policy is not applicable to students who......
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Classical guitars are handbuilt according to the spanish tradition, following the example of Antonio de Torres , Enrique Garcia and Manuel Ramirez to name but three.
For historical romantic guitars I base my work on that of Rene laCote and others.
These guitars are built mainly using hand tools and original material.
For the Lacote models, the tuners are manufactured in my own workshop.
All guitars are finished in french polish.
Prices on request, feel free to inquire.


ЕГЭ английский язык 2016 - Задания 32-38. Выбери подходящее слово из 4 предложенных (7 баллов).
Я - Шишкова Дина Дмитриевна - репетитор по английскому языку высшей категории. Мои ученики cдают на максимальные баллы ЕГЭ по английскому языку, TOEFL и IELTS. Провожу занятия как через skype, так и в офисе (Курск).
III. Задания 32-38. Выбери подходящее слово из 4 предложенных (7 баллов).
Пополнить словарный запас для блока 32-38 ты можешь в «Словарный минимум для ЕГЭ по английскому языку».
Прочитайте текст с пропусками, обозначенными номерами 32–38. Эти номера соответствуют заданиям 32–38, в которых представлены возможные варианты ответов. Запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Busy Day Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 32______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 33______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 34______ his handker chief but couldn't find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was. 'Six of you!' Uncle Podger exclaimed, 'and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!' But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. 'Oh, you can stop your 35______ . I've found it myself!' Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: 'Well, I want to know if you are going to 36______ me here all evening!' Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn't keep 37______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed. When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 38______ , all except Uncle Podg er, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.
Сделать карточки со словами. Английский на одной стороне, русский на другой.


After Nigerian entertainer and anti-SARS advocate, Ruggedman shared a photo of himself and Nigerian singer, 9ice on Instagram earlier today, one of his fans opened up about his long lasting beef with his own brother over the infamous Ruggedman VS 9ice beef.
Few years back, when 9ice was in the prime of his musical career, there was a serious brawl between himself and Ruggedman, who then said he was the one who brought 9ice into limelight and still, 9ice was somewhat ungrateful and disrespectful to him.
Well, they obviously put an end to their brawl and few years later, we're seeing a photo of them together which proves that there isn't bad blood between them.
After Ruggedman shared a photo of himself and the singer together, a fan revealed how he got into a fight with his brother over the issue and was so close to having him poisoned.
← Toke Makinwa buys N260m mansion in Banana Island?


Houston Map easily locates the main attractions. Restaurants and bars in Bayou Place, NASA Space Center, Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, The Ensemble Theatre, Traditional African Art Gallery at Texas Southern University, Barbara Jordan & Mickey Leland Archives, Heartburn Collection, Project Row Houses, Community Artists Collective, Shape Community Center, American Cowboy Museum. Old Market Square, Children's Museum of Houston, Houston Zoo, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Downtown Aquarium, Shops at Houston Place, House of Blues Houston, Galleria Houston, Sam Houston Race Park, San Jacinto Monument, Toyota Center, Sesquicentennial Park, Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Shrine of The Black Madonna, NRG Stadium, Sam Houston Park, Tranquility Park, Discovery Green, Emancipation Park, Museum of Fine Arts, Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, The Menil Collection, Cy Twombly Gallery, Rothko Chapel, Alley Theatre, Holocaust Museum Houston, Health Museum Houston, Jones Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Verizon Wireless Theater, Minute Maid Park, and Wortham Center are easily located as well bottom.
Drag your cursor west on the map to see more of Houston and southeast to see Galveston.


A new European consortium, PHOTOSENS, is developing a polymer-based nanophotonic sensor chip to screen air quality, to aid pharmaceutical process cleanliness and for food safety applications.
The 3-year PHOTOSENS project aims for a disposable, mass-producible sensor chip for generic multi-parameter sensing applications. A key requirement is to perform screening tests without specialized infrastructure. By combining nanophotonics, tailored polymer materials and mass-manufacturability, the project is challenging conventional analytical techniques which usually require expensive equipment and personnel.
The PHOTOSENS consortium brings together world-leading institutes and multinational companies across Europe. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland leads the programme, with the core nanophotonic technology provided by the University of Southampton (UK), novel silicone-based materials by Momentive (Germany), chemical functionalization by TNO (the Netherlands) and the University of Vienna (Austria) and roll-to-roll mass-manufacturing technology provided by Nanocomp (Finland) and 3D AG (Switzerland). Philips (the Netherlands) and Renishaw Diagnostics (UK) provide the application knowledge and demonstration environment. VTT's contribution is in transferring nanophotonic structures into polymer structures by the use of UV nanoimprinting as well as integration of the multi-parameter sensor.
"Renishaw Diagnostics is expecting new materials and sensors developed in the project to revolutionize photonics sensing applications", says David Eustace from Renishaw Diagnostics.
"The project will open up new opportunities for silicones and silanes in the photonic and optical market. The development of these markets has gained momentum", says Jos Delis from Momentive.


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The Stories Behind 3 Unexpectedly Iconic Designs
Sometimes brands just don't understand the power of their own designs. Bad design can result in catastrophic failure for even the most successful and well-established companies, as seen with Tropicana's disastrous attempt at a redesign in 2009. The packaging was so reviled that it caused sales to plummet by 20% over a two-month period, costing the juice company $30 million in lost transactions and a huge undisclosed sum in costs associated with reverting back to the old design. On the other hand, good design has the power to multiply profits several times over – as was the case with Botanical Bakery, whose 2010 redesign tripled sales in a single year. This is the dream of most brands, and, usually, companies will invest heavy amounts of time and money to make sure that such a project is strategically sound. In a few cases, however, brands have taken risks by choosing designs that they did not feel especially strongly about, only to see huge rewards for their gamble. Below are three examples of designs with low expectations that went on to become iconic, generating untold profits and consumer loyalty for the brands attached to them.
The "Jazz" Solo Cup
In 1991, the Sweetheart Cup Company selected a design by employee Gina Ekiss in an internal contest to be featured on cups and plates. Gina received no bonus, awards, or recognition for her contribution, which was called "jazz". The design – featuring a teal blue zig-zag under a thin purple zig-zag – went on to become the company's all-time bestseller, and is now a pattern considered to be emblematic of the nineties. Gina's identity (and status as an unsung hero) was only discovered in 2015 after someone on Reddit with the username "mcglaven" started a thread dedicated to tracking down the designer. Today, the design has a cult following that has inspired everything from apparel lines to social media pages.
La Croix's Groovy Look
When National Beverage sought to differentiate their seltzer drink La Croix from competitors, they hired Alchemy Brand Group to redesign the can. Of all of the options presented, National Beverage liked the current "Picasso-esque" design the least. However, it tested so incredibly well with consumers that they decided to take a chance with it, and the distinctive design is credited in part with La Croix's massive success today.
The Anthora Cup
Leslie Buck – born Laszlo Bück — immigrated to America after World War II, after having survived both Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After starting a paper cup manufacturing company with his brother (who was also a Holocaust survivor), he moved to a startup called Sherri Cup in the 1960s. It was there that he designed a hot cup in the colors of the Greek flag, aimed at the predominantly Greek diner owners of New York City. Buck did not receive any royalties from his design, but the company sold hundreds of millions of what is now considered to be an extremely recognizable piece of New York iconography.
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Round 4: Hungary for More!
It's time to rise from the sun lounger and get back to work after the mid-season break!
JMW Motorsport have landed in Hungary for the 4th Round of the ELMS Championship, with drivers Andrea Bertolini and Joel Camathias chomping at the bit to get back into action in the Ferrari 458.


Sharon Ya'ari was born in 1966. He holds a BFA from the Department of Photography, Video and Computerized Imaging at the Bezalel Academy and a Master of Philosophy degree from the School of Art and Design at Derby University in England. His work focuses on the mundane and overlooked in daily life across Israel. His perspective draws from them a rich and complex range of subtle socio-political observations. His first comprehensive monograph appeared in Steidl in Fall 2013.
Since the mid-1990s, he has researched and produced photographic works in various media including montage, large format direct photography, computational photography, video and readymade photographic art. Over the years his work has appeared at numerous solo exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Martin Janda Gallery in Vienna, the Sommer Gallery of Modern Art in Tel Aviv, the Kunsthaus Baselland in Basel, Switzerland, and the Lisson Gallery in London. He has also participated in many group exhibitions. In 2013, a comprehensive selection of his photographs illustrating his work in the local and international spheres appeared at the Tel Aviv Museum in an exhibit called Leap Towards Yourself.
In addition to his artistic work, he serves as senior lecturer in the Master's Degree program in the Department of Photography at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and teaches at the Basis School for Art and Culture in Herzliya. He taught for several years at Camera Obscura in Tel Aviv, at HaMidrasha - Faculty of the Arts at Beit Berl College, and at Haifa University. He is invited regularly to lecture at various art institutions, professional symposia and at art schools in Israel and abroad. His influence is far-reaching not only on photographers but also on painters and artists who work in a variety of media. He has mentored many leading artists in the young, modern Israeli art scene.
His work has earned him many awards, including the Constantiner Photography Award and the Nathan Gottesdiener Foundation Israeli Art Prize (Tel Aviv Museum of Art), the Creative Encouragement Award (Ministry of Culture and Sport), the Janet Gaphin Award (America-Israel Cultural Foundation), and the Mifal Hapais Artist Book Award.


Reserve Bank of India removed all limits on cash withdrawl from current account, cash credit account and overdraft account with immediate effect wheras on ATMs the limit will be removed from February 1. RBI issued note on 30 January 2017 regarding removal of limit of cash withdraw. Full note is as under.


Mark J. Brady, Gordon Legge, Daniel Kersten; Effects of natural backgrounds on spatial filter responses near object contours. Journal of Vision 2004;4(8):535. doi: 10.1167/4.8.535.
Purpose: The description of an object's contour is often thought to be solely a property of the object's image. However, objects typically appear in complex backgrounds. Thus for any 2D sample region (SR), both the preferred orientation and the magnitude of spatial contrast filters can be significantly perturbed by the background. The degree of perturbation is a function of filter size and the position of the filter relative to the contour. Further, the response of larger filters may be less sensitive to positional uncertainty. Our goal was to measure this perturbation by natural backgrounds. Methods: Images of natural and artificial objects were photographed and hand-segmented from their natural backgrounds. Composite images were made by digitally superimposing and translating the image of an object across various natural image backgrounds. 2D histograms of orientation and magnitude responses were measured from a set of steerable multi-scale filters for SRs across contours and on the background. In order to quantify discriminability, we measured the performance of an ideal observer. The ideal was required to discriminate between specific contour and background SRs, given prior knowledge of the conditional distributions estimated from the histograms. Results: Histograms of SRs on contours varied systematically as a function of displacement from the contour and were distinctly different than those from the background. The performance of the ideal observer was surprisingly good, with an overall correct response rate of .78. When centered on the contour, correct response rate was .82. Larger filter kernels were less sensitive to centering on the contour. Conclusions: Background has a significant effect on contour filter responses. However, these perturbations form predictable patterns, and allow discrimination with reasonable accuracy. Filter size helps to minimize spatial uncertainty.


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Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
U.S. set to send first group of asylum seekers back to Mexico
January 27, 2019 February 5, 2019 by Editor
The United States was expected to send a first group of 20 Central American asylum seekers back to Mexico through the border city of Tijuana on Friday as part of President Donald Trump's hardening of longstanding U.S. immigration policy.
Categories Americas, World
U.S. Congress votes to end government shutdown no Trump border wall money
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday joined the Senate in passing legislation to end a 35-day partial government shutdown by temporarily funding federal agencies, but it refused to give President Donald Trump $5.7 billion he demanded for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Longtime Trump ally Stone to be arraigned in Washington on Tuesday
President Donald Trump's longtime political ally Roger Stone will be arraigned in U.S. District Court in Washington on Jan. 29 on charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to a notice posted by the court on Friday.
U.S. Senate passes bill to end government shutdown
The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Friday to end a 35-day partial federal government shutdown with legislation to temporarily fund many agencies, but without the $5.7 billion President Donald Trump had demanded this year to help build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
White House will accept compromise with less than $5.7 billion for wall
The White House would accept a final compromise deal to keep the U.S. government open as long as it includes funding for a border wall, even if it is less than the $5.7 billion that President Donald Trump has requested, an administration official said on Friday.
Senate Democratic leader sees Trump signing bill to re-open government on Friday
U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he expected a bill to reopen the government after a partial government shutdown to pass both congressional chambers and be signed into law by President Donald Trump on Friday.
Leading Democrats to hold news conference on shutdown deal
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer planned to hold a news conference on the agreement to end the partial federal government shutdown at 3:30 pm eastern time (2030 GMT) on Friday, they said in a statement.
U.S. shutdown to end on Friday after deal with Trump
U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he expected a stopgap funding bill to be signed by President Donald trump on Friday to end the five-week-old partial federal government shutdown.
Republican DeSantis secures Florida governor's seat after rival Gillum concedes
November 18, 2018 November 18, 2018 by Editor
Democrat Andrew Gillum, who had sought to become Florida's first black governor, conceded on Saturday, after a recount showed he had no way of catching his Republican rival Ron DeSantis, an ally of President Donald Trump.
Abrams admits defeat in hard-fought Georgia governor race
Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams admitted defeat in her effort to become the first black female U.S. governor on Friday, but said she planned to sue the state over voting problems and "gross mismanagement" of the election.
U.S. government agencies gear up to restart operations Monday January 27, 2019
Worries remain for U.S. government contractors as shutdown ends January 27, 2019
Trump wounded by border wall retreat in deal to end shutdown January 27, 2019
U.S. EPA senior official falls short of calling climate change a crisis January 27, 2019
U.S. government agencies gear up to restart operations Monday
Worries remain for U.S. government contractors as shutdown ends
Trump wounded by border wall retreat in deal to end shutdown
U.S. EPA senior official falls short of calling climate change a crisis
Backing down, Trump agrees to end shutdown without border wall money
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For example, using CA ACLs, the administrator can restrict use of a profile intended for employees working from an office located in London only to hosts that are members of the London office-related group.
By combining certificate profiles, described in Section 24.4, "Certificate Profiles", and CA ACLs, the administrator can define and control access to custom certificate profiles. For a description of using profiles and CA ACLs to issue user certificates, see Section 24.6, "Using Certificate Profiles and ACLs to Issue User Certificates with the IdM CAs".
Enables the user to read all attributes of the CA ACL.
Enables the user to add a new CA ACL.
Enables the user to delete an existing CA ACL.
Enables the user to modify an attribute of the CA ACL and to disable or enable the CA ACL.
Enables the user to manage the CA, profile, user, host, and service membership in the CA ACL.
All these permissions are included in the default CA Administrator privilege. For more information on IdM role-based access controls and managing permissions, see Section 10.4, "Defining Role-Based Access Controls".
To create a new CA ACL, use the ipa caacl-add command. Running the command without any options starts an interactive session in which the ipa caacl-add script prompts your for the required information about the new CA ACL.
New CA ACLs are enabled by default.
CA, profile, user, host, and service categories are an alternative to adding particular objects or groups of objects to a CA ACL, which is described in the section called "Adding Entries to CA ACLs and Removing Entries from CA ACLs". Note that it is not possible to use a category and also add objects or groups of the same type; for example, you cannot use the --usercat=all option and then add a user to the CA ACL with the ipa caacl-add-user --users=user_name command.
ipa: ERROR Insufficient access: Principal 'user' is not permitted to use CA '.' with profile 'profile_id' for certificate issuance.
You must either add the user or group to the CA ACL, as described in the section called "Adding Entries to CA ACLs and Removing Entries from CA ACLs", or associate the CA ACL with the all user category.
Note that ipa caacl-find accepts the --cacat, --profilecat, --usercat, --hostcat, and --servicecat options, which can be used to filter the results of the search to CA ACLs with the corresponding CA, certificate profile, user, host, or service category. Note that IdM only accepts the all category with these options. For more information about the options, see the section called "Creating CA ACLs".
The most notable options accepted by ipa caacl-mod are the --cacat, --profilecat, --usercat, --hostcat, and --servicecat options. For a description of these options, see the section called "Creating CA ACLs".
A disabled CA ACL is not applied and cannot be used to request a certificate. Disabling a CA ACL does not remove it from IdM.
Using the ipa caacl-add-* and ipa caacl-remove-* commands, you can add new entries to a CA ACL or remove existing entries.
Adds or removes a CA.
Adds or removes a host or host group.
Adds or removes a profile.
Adds or removes a service.
Adds or removes a user or group.
You must either add the user or group to the CA ACL, or associate the CA ACL with the all user category, as described in the section called "Creating CA ACLs".
Open the Authentication tab and the Certificates subtab.
Open the CA ACLs section.
In the CA ACLs section, you can add new CA ACLs, display information about existing CA ACLs, modify their attributes, as well as enable, disable, or delete selected CA ACLs.
Click on the name of the CA ACL to open the CA ACL configuration page.
In the CA ACL configuration page, fill in the required information.
The Profiles and Permitted to have certificates issued sections allow you to associate the CA ACL with certificate profiles, users or user groups, hosts or host groups, or services. You can either add these objects using the Add buttons, or select the Anyone option to associate the CA ACL with all users, hosts, or services.


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HomeMacedoniaAnti Corruption Agency: Conflict of Interests in Electricity Grid Operator Appointee
Anti Corruption Agency: Conflict of Interests in Electricity Grid Operator Appointee
The director of the Anti Corruption Agency, Biljana Ivanovska, calls the appointment of Kushtrim Ramadani as new director of the Macedonian electricity grid operator MEPSO, a conflict of interests.
At an event marking the International Anti Corruption Day (December 9) Ivanovska gave a statement about Ramadani's unlawful appointment:
"There is a conflict of interests in the case where the Vice President of the Regulatory Commission for Energy can immediately become the Director of MEPSO, which disregards the mandatory period of two years between appointments, as required by Law."
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev countered the Anti Corruption Agency's head, saying there was "nothing disputable" about the appointment.
Zaev gave this statement for Slobodna TV, citing articles from the Anti-Corruption Law which enable Ramadani to fulfill this function without the two-year waiting period. The Macedonian premier had gone to a further extent in securing this appointment by elaborating on articles 47 and 48 from that Law at a meeting with the State Anti-Corruption Agency.
The opposing statement by the Agency's head is has not been taken into account.
This isn't the first time Ramadani walks between high-ranking jobs in the electricity sector. In 2012 he left the only electricity supplier on the market, Austrian-owned EVN Macedonia, to become new member of the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Experts and former members of the Commission have previously raised the question whether political party members are indeed free of political influence and conflict of interests, wrote the news portal Faktor in 2012.
MEPSO
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