"Event Management" is an application of the Project Management.
Event means occasion, celebration or a concert where the gathering occurs.
Management means proper utilization of resources in proper order.
Events are the integral part of our lives. We use to have events like festival, ceremony, birthday, wedding and celebrations at our home, college or offices. Some events are so big like the Olympics, celebrities' award function, political oath ceremony, big wedding occasion, national & international level competitions etc.
The "Event Management" is a process of planning and executing the functions, festivals, occasions, ceremony, party, competitions and conventions".
Event Management involves the existing dates, budgeting, event site selection, security, support teams, transportation, parking, decorative, acquiring permits, anchoring, housekeeping, catering and emergency plan.
Get Latest Career Notification about Event Management Courses, by entering your details below.
The scope of event management is in trend and very demanding. The one who has leadership quality and interested in doing something different then it is best suited profession for you. As we know that in every programme or event the management of all things is very important parameter. So, it is that profession where you can find large numbers of job prospects in everywhere.
You can find the job in companies those individual organizing and hosting events. You can also take part in international events as a host. You can become an event manager in various sectors where events are organized nationally and internationally. You can also work as a public relation executive in different advertisement and media houses. You can also run your own business in this field.
Communication Skills: You have to be a frank nature person so, that you can easily communicate with the different kind of people. In event management you have to meet various kinds of people so, this skill is very important for you.
Organizational Skills: Under this, you have to know the techniques of balancing and managing people, schedules, vendors and many other things that come in the event managing.
Leadership Quality: This quality is the very important parameter which has to be present inside you to become a successful event manager. With this quality you can guide your team. This quality also takes you at a higher level.
Passion and Enthusiasm: An effective event manager should be active and energetic. Your passion and enthusiasm towards your work will give motivation to others.
Time Managing Skills: The key parameter of any event is the time management, which is demanding by the customers. So, you have to be focused towards time management.
There are so many numbers of institutions and universities which are offering the courses in event management leading to the diploma and degree courses.
For Diploma course: Candidate is required to pass class 12th in any stream from any recognized board.
For Master course: For admission in master courses, you must hold a bachelor's degree in any stream from any recognized college.
If you have completed your School education or graduate studies and wish to build your career in event management then you can choose any course from certificate, diploma to degree. As an event management professional, you should have leadership skills, planning skills, problem solving skills and marketing & communication skills.
To get the admission in MBA in event management, you must be appearing in entrance examinations after the completion of your graduation. After 12th you may go for the Integrated MBA (5 Years), or diploma programmes. You can get admission in management courses through XAT 2019, ATMA 2019, CAT 2019 & MAT 2019 exams.
Some of the affiliated universities conduct their own admission examination. You can do the professional course in event management while you had any stream in qualifying examination like medical, engineering, science, art and humanities.
Beside these you may join the event management company or the media house.
The remuneration in this field is variable to the type of industry, your role & responsibilities, the location of the firm, your experience and the business of your organizations.
You can establish your own event management enterprise and can bag huge amount in cash or cheque form. Freelance work is very popular in this field.
A fresher can earn the 2 lakh to 2.5 lakh per annum. Within 3 – 4 year of experience you may earn 3-4 lakh per annum.
For more information regarding Event Management, ask your queries below.
So after 12th we can do bba in event management right? l am thinking to do even management but i need guidance can you plzz help??
Sir actually after 12th i m doing BA…and i am in second year but my interest is in event management.
So can i do event management??
Sir I have completed my 12th . I'm interested to do event management course .
So I want to know some details about this course.
Check details here for event management.
I am residing in chandigarh and tell me in chandigarh which college or university is best for event management diploma 1 year program.
So after 12th we can do bba in event management right? I am in 12th & i am thinking to do even management but i need guidance can you plzz help??
Plz list the name of the colleges offering this course. Is diploma a better option or MBA?
Sir, I passed 12 by pcb what I will do for event management course please sir explain me in detail. Please sir reply me please. .
Hello sir i m doing BBA ty .in event management course greduation is required or not can we do on 12th base?how many year course is there for event management plz help me…..
Yes, you can apply for this course after 12th class.
Hello sir I want to do event management course is it good to join online event management courses ?
I want to do event management course can you explain me the jobs opportunities in event management course in India how I will get jobs at event management companies in India or out of India.
i want to do event management . But ive taken BA. is it possible for me to pursue it from BA only?
I want to do event management course, i droped out my b.com course… So please advice me which event menagement coure should i opt for….
this is very interesting blog for growth career in this field. As soon as Join this field.
I want to know the details for event management after 12th. An about its fee structure…. Plz provide all the info about it..
You can check the information above, we have covered everything, if you've any specific query you can ask us.
I want to ask how I could get into event management just after 12th,courses regarding event management and colleges and fees.
Hope I could get a detail idea as I need it badly.
Please list the institutions that offers event management courses to a 12th pass candidate..
please provide the list and details of collages or institutes offering event management courses.


The late Yegor Gaidar, when acting prime minister of Russia, thought up the idea of the Yeltsin Tax. The late Boris Nemtsov didn't think it was such a bad one when he was first deputy prime minister. The one still surviving officeholder responsible for the idea is Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of the state technology corporation Rusnano; he is unelectable to anything and fortunate to be alive. Their idea was the 100-percent withholding tax which Russians name after President Boris Yeltsin and his reforms.
In practice, it was the outcome of deliberate delay in paying wages by state and public institutions, for lack of budget funds from the federal Finance Ministry; and refusal to pay wages by commercial organizations, shareholding corporations, and private companies.
According to the Helmer theory of Russian political economy, first propounded in 2002, people who haven't been paid spend their time blaming the Kremlin for their pain. When arrears rise, the president's approval rating falls.
The first time this happened over a sustained period after Vladimir Putin commenced his first term as president was between May and August of 2000. For every 1% increase in the arrears, month to month, Putin's rating fell by 0.5%.The sharp fall in the public approval rating for the president in mid-2000 followed by one month an 8% increase in Finance Ministry-ordered wage arrears. The Kursk submarine disaster compounded the fall in Putin's rating at the time because it reinforced the public perception that he was powerless to stop catastrophe or remedy ills.
The trend up and down in arrears and in political rating continues to hold, even though the magnitude of the Yeltsin arrears has been much greater than the Putin arrears.
In 1996, immediately after Yeltsin's narrow reelection, the countrywide wage arrears total peaked over 103 billion rubles. It fell during 1997, then started up again in 1998, peaking in October of that year, just weeks after the financial crisis, at 88 billion rubles. In Putin's first term, the arrears number peaked in the spring of 2001 at a figure of 34 billion rubles. As the numbers went up earlier that year, the official statistics showed it was commercial or private enterprises rather than public or government bodies that were to blame. By imposing more budget discipline, Putin pulled both the arrears and his rating out of their common dive. For more, read this.
This year, since January the official statistics show that as the rate of inflation has risen to almost 17%, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been contracting – at a rate of 2.1% in January, 3.6% in February. The first sign that the government and private employers are passing on the cost of the contraction to wage-earners was in January. Before then it was reported that budget payments had been running on time almost everywhere in the country. In December the trend for corporate arrears was rising in 27 regions, but declining in 42. Total measured arrears that month came to less than Rb2.1 billion. The figure had declined in November and December.
The new monthly statistics show that the trend is now reversing, and arrears are growing. By March 1, Rosstat, the state statistical agency, reports the arrears aggregate has jumped 14.7% over the February report and is now Rb2.9 billion. More than half this number, Rb1.98 billion, comes from the state-funded sector, and the failure of these budget organizations to pay on time has almost tripled, compared to January. More regions are now reporting private business arrears than are reporting stable payment schedules. The worst region is Krasnoyarsk, in central Siberia, where the largest private employers are Rusal, the state aluminium monopoly run by Oleg Deripaska, and Norilsk Nickel, controlled by Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin. St. Petersburg is also prominent among the wage-payment laggers. The Crimea leads for payments on time.
A breakdown of arrears by industry sector reveals that at the moment manufacturing industries account for most of the problem, followed by construction, transport, agriculture and forestry.
The negative trend is a warning of political impact to come, though compared to the Yeltsin tax the magnitude of the current arrears is very much smaller than in the 1990s. For the last report on Putin's approval rating, as it has climbed in response to the events in Ukraine, European sanctions, and the US war for regime change, read this.
Alexei Grazhdankin, an analyst at Levada, confirms there is a correlation between wage arrears and disapproval of Putin's performance. Levada is monitoring the parallel trend as closely as the Kremlin is watching.
In January, a Levada Centre survey found there was a 7-percentage point gap for those whose pay has not arrived on time. According to the survey, 18% of respondents reported a delay in wage payments for themselves, their families or friends over the preceding six months; among this group approval for Putin was at 78%. This compared with an overall rating that month of 85%.
In the last week of February Levada measured again. Putin's rating was up a point to 86%; those reporting wage arrears dropped to 9%, and again the magic 7 percentage points – 79% Putin approval rating among those suffering a wage-payment delay.
The problem is getting measurably worse, however. According to Grazhdankin of Levada, asked if they are expecting wage payment delays in the coming weeks, 5% said yes. In that group, Putin's approval rating has dropped to 63%.


The 9/11 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan are among the best-known recent examples of asymmetric warfare: conflicts between nations or groups that have disparate military capabilities and strategies. RAND investigates political and military responses to — and the impacts of — counterinsurgency, terrorism, and other forms of irregular warfare.
Contemporary asymmetric warfare poses critical challenges for democracies. Can it be addressed through an overarching strategic framework, or must separate strategies be formulated for each circumstance?
An analysis of U.S. decisions related to the development or use of special operations forces can assist in future planning by the Army Special Operations Forces, the U.S. Army, and the joint special operations community.
Well-trained and resourced, Iranian-directed Shi'a foreign fighters pose a significant potential threat to U.S. interests. The more robust this network grows, the more opportunities it will have to expand abroad.
Given the recent focus on irregular warfare, it is essential that the United States Air Force has the capability to provide intelligence analysis in support of a broader range of operations. Past operations offer key lessons to help prepare for USAF intelligence in the future.
Unconventional options from the Swiss defense strategy during the Cold War could benefit Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These include training and equipping local defense units and preparing transportation infrastructure for demolition to prevent an invasion.
A Counterinsurgency Win in Afghanistan?
The 2015 counterinsurgency (COIN) effort in Afghanistan ranks among the low end of historical COIN winners. The Afghan government and security forces are capable of maintaining the current stalemate with the Taliban. This is the first step on the most promising path to peace: a negotiated settlement.


The Deshamanya Nandadasa Kodagoda 12th Memorial Oration will be held on Monday the 3rd August 2009 at 5.30pm at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo 7. This public event is organized by the Nandadasa Kodagoda Memorial Trust to commemorate the 12th death anniversary of the late Deshamanya Professor Nandadasa Kodagoda.
Professor Nandadasa Kodagoda a well known emeritus professor in Forensic Medicine, was a one time Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine for two terms, and the Chairman of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board also for two terms. He was a well known mass communicator, who actively engaged health awareness programmes and in alcohol, tobacco and drugs prevention work. He was the founder Chairman of the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC).
The 12th Memorial Oration will be delivered by the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, MP, on "Challenges facing Sri Lanka following the successful conclusion of the humanitarian operation".
The general public is invited by the memorial trust to participate at this event.


text:
EMS Simulation Center Availability for April, 2023
*1st Request: - Select Date - April 1, 2023 April 2, 2023 April 3, 2023 April 4, 2023 April 5, 2023 April 6, 2023 April 7, 2023 April 8, 2023 April 9, 2023 April 10, 2023 April 11, 2023 April 12, 2023 April 13, 2023 April 14, 2023 April 15, 2023 April 16, 2023 April 17, 2023 April 18, 2023 April 19, 2023 April 20, 2023 April 21, 2023 April 22, 2023 April 23, 2023 April 24, 2023 April 25, 2023 April 26, 2023 April 27, 2023 April 28, 2023 April 29, 2023 April 30, 2023 - Select Time - 0700-1200 0700-1800 0700-2200 1200-1800 1200-2200 1800-2200
2nd Request: - Select Date - April 1, 2023 April 2, 2023 April 3, 2023 April 4, 2023 April 5, 2023 April 6, 2023 April 7, 2023 April 8, 2023 April 9, 2023 April 10, 2023 April 11, 2023 April 12, 2023 April 13, 2023 April 14, 2023 April 15, 2023 April 16, 2023 April 17, 2023 April 18, 2023 April 19, 2023 April 20, 2023 April 21, 2023 April 22, 2023 April 23, 2023 April 24, 2023 April 25, 2023 April 26, 2023 April 27, 2023 April 28, 2023 April 29, 2023 April 30, 2023 - Select Time - 0700-1200 0700-1800 0700-2200 1200-1800 1200-2200 1800-2200
3rd Request: - Select Date - April 1, 2023 April 2, 2023 April 3, 2023 April 4, 2023 April 5, 2023 April 6, 2023 April 7, 2023 April 8, 2023 April 9, 2023 April 10, 2023 April 11, 2023 April 12, 2023 April 13, 2023 April 14, 2023 April 15, 2023 April 16, 2023 April 17, 2023 April 18, 2023 April 19, 2023 April 20, 2023 April 21, 2023 April 22, 2023 April 23, 2023 April 24, 2023 April 25, 2023 April 26, 2023 April 27, 2023 April 28, 2023 April 29, 2023 April 30, 2023 - Select Time - 0700-1200 0700-1800 0700-2200 1200-1800 1200-2200 1800-2200
4th Request: - Select Date - April 1, 2023 April 2, 2023 April 3, 2023 April 4, 2023 April 5, 2023 April 6, 2023 April 7, 2023 April 8, 2023 April 9, 2023 April 10, 2023 April 11, 2023 April 12, 2023 April 13, 2023 April 14, 2023 April 15, 2023 April 16, 2023 April 17, 2023 April 18, 2023 April 19, 2023 April 20, 2023 April 21, 2023 April 22, 2023 April 23, 2023 April 24, 2023 April 25, 2023 April 26, 2023 April 27, 2023 April 28, 2023 April 29, 2023 April 30, 2023 - Select Time - 0700-1200 0700-1800 0700-2200 1200-1800 1200-2200 1800-2200

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package org.apache.camel.component.exec;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.nio.charset.Charset;

import org.w3c.dom.Document;

import org.apache.camel.Exchange;
import org.apache.camel.Processor;
import org.apache.camel.Produce;
import org.apache.camel.ProducerTemplate;
import org.apache.camel.test.spring.junit5.CamelSpringTest;
import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.AfterEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.springframework.test.annotation.DirtiesContext;
import org.springframework.test.context.ContextConfiguration;

import static org.apache.camel.component.exec.ExecBinding.EXEC_COMMAND_OUT_FILE;
import static org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils.LINE_SEPARATOR;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertNotNull;

@CamelSpringTest
@ContextConfiguration(locations = { "exec-mock-executor-context.xml" })
public class ExecOutFileTest {

    private static final String FILE_CONTENT = buildFileContent();

    private static final File FILE = new File("target/outfiletest.xml");

    @Produce("direct:input")
    private ProducerTemplate producerTemplate;

    @BeforeEach
    public void setUp() throws IOException {
        FILE.createNewFile();
        FileUtils.writeStringToFile(FILE, FILE_CONTENT, Charset.defaultCharset());
    }

    @AfterEach
    public void tearDown() {
        FileUtils.deleteQuietly(FILE);
    }

    @Test
    @DirtiesContext
    public void testOutFile() throws Exception {
        Exchange e = sendWithMockedExecutor();
        ExecResult result = e.getIn().getBody(ExecResult.class);
        assertNotNull(result);
        File outFile = result.getCommand().getOutFile();
        assertNotNull(outFile);
        assertEquals(FILE_CONTENT, FileUtils.readFileToString(outFile, Charset.defaultCharset()));
    }

    @Test
    @DirtiesContext
    public void testOutFileConvertToInputStream() throws Exception {
        Exchange e = sendWithMockedExecutor();
        InputStream body = e.getIn().getBody(InputStream.class);
        assertNotNull(body);
        assertEquals(FILE_CONTENT, IOUtils.toString(body, Charset.defaultCharset()));
    }

    @Test
    @DirtiesContext
    public void testOutFileConvertToDocument() throws Exception {
        Exchange e = sendWithMockedExecutor();
        Document body = e.getIn().getBody(Document.class);
        assertNotNull(body); // do not parse it
    }

    @Test
    @DirtiesContext
    public void testOutFileConvertToString() throws Exception {
        Exchange e = sendWithMockedExecutor();
        assertEquals(FILE_CONTENT, e.getIn().getBody(String.class));
    }

    @Test
    @DirtiesContext
    public void testOutFileConvertToByteArray() throws Exception {
        Exchange e = sendWithMockedExecutor();
        byte[] body = e.getIn().getBody(byte[].class);
        assertEquals(FILE_CONTENT, new String(body));
    }

    private Exchange sendWithMockedExecutor() {
        Exchange e = producerTemplate.send(new Processor() {
            public void process(Exchange exchange) throws Exception {
                exchange.getIn().setHeader(EXEC_COMMAND_OUT_FILE, FILE.getPath());
                exchange.getIn().setBody(FILE_CONTENT);
            }
        });
        return e;
    }

    private static String buildFileContent() {
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        builder.append("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>").append(LINE_SEPARATOR);
        builder.append("<data>").append(LINE_SEPARATOR);
        builder.append("<element>data1</element>").append(LINE_SEPARATOR);
        builder.append("<element>data2</element>").append(LINE_SEPARATOR);
        builder.append("</data>").append(LINE_SEPARATOR);
        builder.append(LINE_SEPARATOR);
        return builder.toString();
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The pinning voltage is a key design parameter in Pinned Photodiode CMOS Image Sensors which significantly affects the device performances and which is often used by manufacturers to monitor production lines and for the optimization of technological processes. This work presents a comparative study of pinning voltage estimation methods, which are based both on electrical measurements performed on isolated test structures (or on test structures arrays) and on in-pixel measurements. It is shown, with the support of simulations and experimental measurements, that not all the estimation methods provide an absolute value of the pinning voltage. Moreover, this work demonstrates that the commonly accepted theoretical definition of the pinning voltage does not correspond to the physical parameter which is measured with the existing methods.
Thanks to the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). This paper is available at : http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6245494 "© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.


text:
As he bows out as California's GOP…
As he bows out as California's GOP chairman, Jim Brulte claims 'success' amid the losses
Party struggled in the former San Bernardino lawmaker's six years at helm, but he's credited with rebuilding the party organization
Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party and a former GOP leader in the state Senate and Assembly at his home in Fontana on Thursday, February 14, 2019. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
PUBLISHED: February 15, 2019 at 5:57 p.m. | UPDATED: January 9, 2020 at 1:04 p.m.
Not that he's counting down his days to freedom or anything, but Jim Brulte seemed keenly aware that the end of his time as California Republican Party chairman was 11 days away — not 10, not an even dozen — as he sat for an interview Thursday at his house in Fontana.
Brulte's successor will be chosen Feb. 24 by delegates to the state party convention in Sacramento, and take over the next morning. He's staying neutral in the election among declared candidates Travis Allen, Jessica Patterson and Steve Frank. Whoever wins, he said, he'll offer congratulations and some sobering advice.
"Make sure you disengage your ego," Brulte said he'll tell the next man or woman. "You play one part in an electoral (production) that has many leading actors. And, at best, you can win an award for best supporting actor."
It's a lesson Brulte has learned the hard way — and might still be learning.
Six years ago, he entered the party-chairman job admired for his tactical acumen, a reputation built as Republican leader in both the California Assembly and state Senate during 14 years representing parts of San Bernardino County.
It has proven to be the toughest job of his life. And he knows some casual observers will think of him as the man who presided over the California GOP's decline to record lows in voter-registration and catastrophic electoral defeats.
In what sounds like a combination of ego-soothing and reality check, Brulte, 62, claims some success during the longest tenure of any California GOP chairman in history. He also admits a major measure of failure. And he offers more ominous advice for future party leaders and candidates.
The successes:
He has led a rebuilding effort for a state party organization that was in disarray. When he took over from chairman Tom Del Beccaro, in March 2013, the state party had $1.3 million in unpaid bills (most more than 300 days overdue), 40,000 emails unanswered over an eight-month period, and a shuttered Sacramento headquarters.
And he has fulfilled a promise to his mother to define success in his political career by more than victories and defeats.
"I'm now 11 days from no longer being chairman of the party," Brulte said. "I've worked about as hard as I can work. I haven't compromised my principles. I haven't shredded my integrity. And so from a personal point of view, my job has been a success."
The failure:
"My biggest failure was (not) convincing enough candidates to talk about issues that the fastest-growing voter groups care about," Brulte said.
On Jan. 14, 2003, Jim Brulte, R-Rancho Cucamonga, then Republican leader of the Californai Senate, listens to the discussion concerning the state budget during a meeting between Gov. Gray Davis, left, Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, center, and other legislative leaders at the state capitol in Sacramento. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Casual in a salmon-colored shirt open at the neck, Brulte spoke from a sofa in the living room of a house he owns in the hills of Fontana, in southwest San Bernardino County, though he lives primarily at a townhouse he owns in San Juan Capistrano. Still, the decor offers hints that the owner is big in the Republican Party.
An elephant sculpture holds down center space on the fireplace mantle. One of the signs that marked the California delegation at the 2016 GOP national convention in Cleveland stands nearby. Here and there are photos of Brulte with political allies, and a framed collection of Reagan-Bush '84 campaign buttons in dozens of languages.
The buttons might be symbolic for a man who has been preaching for years that California Republicans must do more to expand its base of support.
Voice of warning
"Unless and until Republicans can figure out how to communicate much more effectively to non-white voters, we're going to have trouble in states like California," said Brulte.
It's not impossible, he said. He pointed to charter schools — something the GOP has backed — as an example of a conservative cause that can find an audience among Latino, Asian and black voters.
But his party hasn't spread many messages like that, and has lost ground among non-white voters.
California is one of five "majority minority" states today, but projections say that by 2044 more than half of the United States population will be non-white. Minorities tend not to register and vote Republican, turned off in part by the image and actions of the party that, in recent years, has been shaped by policies out of Washington, D.C.
In a widely quoted op-ed on The Hill political website in December, Brulte warned that the California GOP's unpopularity in California should be viewed by national Republicans as a "canary in the coal mine."
As bad as 2018 was for his party, Brulte suggested said Republicans in California are likely to continue their more than two-decade decline.
"It's going to get worse before it gets better," Brulte said, his voice rising above its usual calm, careful tone.
"That is not defeatist. That is a clear-eyed, rational look at what's happening. I said it in the '90s. I said it in the 2000s."
The 2018 election saw California Democrats pick up seven U.S. House seats, add to their already huge majorities in state Assembly and Senate, and again sweep statewide elections. Republicans also slipped from second to third in California voter registration last year, the GOP's 24 percent trailing not only the Democrats' 43.5 percent but also "No Party Preference's" 27.5 percent, according to state data.
It's pretty bad when John Cox's 23.8 percent loss to governor Gavin Newsom was actually the closest race for any Republican seeking state office in California last year — and that Cox has been invited to be keynote speaker at the GOP state convention to talk about growing the party's base.
Yet, using apples-to-apples comparisons of Republican candidates' results in similar districts, Brulte can make a case that the GOP's losses in California last year were no worse than in many other states.
And although Republicans' voter-registration deficit versus Democrats has grown from 15.0 percentage points before Brulte took over to 19.4 percentage points in October, the decline hardly began on his watch. The current 1-point-a-year rate of decline is actually less than the rate in the six years before Brulte.
Dan Schnur, a former Republican spokesman and strategist who now is a professor at USC's Annenberg Center, said Brulte shouldn't be blamed for the GOP's woes.
On Jan. 5, 2002, California state Sen. Jim Brulte, left, accompanies President George W. Bush at Ontario International Airport. Brulte helped to organize Bush's trip to Southern California to try to revive his economic security plan. (File photo)
"He's one of the smartest political minds in California — who happened to coincide with the Republican Party's worst stretch here in its history," Schnur said. "He didn't cause those problems. They were the result of forces far beyond his control.
"If California Republicans ever decide to remake themselves to be competitive in the state, Brulte has provided them with an infrastructure that can make that happen," Schnur added.
The state party seemed to recognize that. It extended a usual two-year term limit to allow Brulte to win two more terms as chairman. And Schnur said Brulte couldn't have stayed popular with party activists if he'd pushed back too hard against their drift to the right. While always insisting state party leaders' job was "nuts and bolts," and that decisions about ideological direction must be left to candidates, Brulte wasn't shy about supporting Donald Trump for president.
'Never an ideologue'
Brulte was recruited to run for state party chair and won the position in a vote of delegates to the California Republican convention in March 2013. Prior to that, he'd served 14 years in the Legislature. He'd been Assembly Republican leader from 1992 to 1995, missing out on being speaker when a Republican's defection to the Democratic Party cost the GOP a majority. He'd led the Senate minority from 2000 to 2004.
In Sacramento, he played hardball. In 2003, for example, he angered some Republican senators by threatening to oppose their re-elections if they voted to raise taxes to attack a state budget deficit. He made some missteps, such as a 1996 electricity industry deregulation bill he authored, a plan later blamed for the electricity shortages that led to Gov. Gray Davis' recall in 2003.
Brulte teared up Thursday as he talked about his favorite piece of legislation, a 2000 bill he sponsored that allows mothers to anonymously abandon newborns at hospitals without fear of prosecution.
Legislative colleagues viewed him fondly.
"Jim was never an ideologue. It was almost like, 'Nothing personal, I'm just representing my party,' " said Sheila Kuehl, a Democrat who served with Brulte in the Assembly and Senate and now is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Kuehl, who was the first openly gay person in the California Legislature, remembered meeting Brulte for the first time in 1994, when it appeared Brulte was going to be Assembly speaker. Brulte joked that he would seat her next to Republican David Knowles, whom Kuehl remembers as "one of the worst homophobes in the Assembly."
"I looked him in the eye and said, 'Would that be punishing me or him?' " Kuehl said Friday. "He paused, and then he laughed. I think he was surprised this person he saw as a grim feminist had a sense of humor."
Brulte had to go along with immoderate party policies, such as Republican fundraising "based on fighting the 'gay agenda,' " in order to maintain his influence and try to make the GOP more inclusive, Kuehl said.
Born in New York, Brulte moved to Ontario at age 4 with his parents, Bill, a pricing manager in the aerospace industry, and Helen, a pediatric nurse, older brother Bob, who runs the state capitol's radio station, and younger brother Rick, a teacher at their alma mater Chaffey High.
Jim's first political activity was placing Ronald Reagan-for-governor stickers on cars in 1966.
"I was 10. I didn't know you had to get people's permission," he said.
Before running for the Assembly in 1990, Brulte worked for U.S. Sen. S.I. Hayakawa, President George H.W. Bush and the Republican National Committee. He later was the top California strategist for President George W. Bush's 2000 campaign for the White House.
What he'll do after leaving the California GOP chairman's office is an unanswered question.
Still single as he nears his 63rd birthday in April — he has "a wonderful relationship with a woman in San Juan Capistrano" — Brulte said he doesn't know what he'll do next besides tending to two consulting firms he's involved with. He views his adult life in four acts, the first two of which were public service and building his businesses.
"The fourth act is heaven," Brulte said. "I'm trying to figure out what the third act will be."
It will have something to do with public service, he said, but it will not involve running for office again.
One thing he knows for sure: He and the next state GOP leader will be in touch.
"I predict," Brulte said, "whoever replaces me will call me sometime in the future and say, 'Geez, I didn't realize how tough this job is.' "
Southbound lanes on 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa closed for 2 hours after person jumps from overpass


text:
Q: Eggplant : How to read text with special characters like ' _ etc I am trying to read a text in a given rectangle using readText() function.
The function works correctly except when it has to read some text which has special characters like ' _ & etc.
I tried using validCharacters with readText() function. But it didn't help.
Code -
put ReadText((287,125,810,164),validCharacters:"_-'.ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz01234567890") into  Login

I tried working with character collections. But that doesn't seem to be right because the text trying to pick is a dynamic text combination of numbers alphabets and a special character. So one cannot create a library of character collection of every alphabet (a-z, A-Z), numbers(0-9) and special characters.
Example of text trying to read:
Login_Userid1_1, Login'Userid1_1
So how do I read such text correctly

A: Debugging OCR is a bit of an imprecise science. EggPlant has a lot of OCR Parameters to tweak. When designing test cases it's best to try use other mechanisms to gather information whenever possible. ReadText() should be considered a last resort when more reliable methods are unavailable. When I've used it I've often needed to do a lot of trial and error to find the right set of settings, and SearchRectangle to get consistent results. Without seeing exactly what images you are trying to read text from it's difficult to impossible to troubleshoot where the issue might be.
One thing that does stand out to me is that you're trying to read strings that may contain underscores. ReadText() has an optional property IgnoreUnderscores which treats underscores as spaces. By default this property is set to ON. It defaults to ON because some OCR engines have problems identifying underscore characters consistently.
If you want to have ReadText() handle underscores you'll want to explicitly set this property to OFF.
ReadText(rect, validCharacters:chars, ignoreUnderscores:OFF)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Shane Suzuki, public affairs officer for the Miami VA Healthcare System, which oversees the medical center, said administrators reiterated their "strong disagreement" with allegations that the facility had not complied with HIV testing requirements.
Suzuki referenced the VA's own investigation from January 2017, which did not substantiate the worker's allegations.
The federal healthcare center, which serves about 150,000 veterans in Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, was investigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs in October 2016.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said it prompted the VA to investigate a worker's concerns that the Miami facility was slow to adopt the latest HIV testing methods as required by an agency mandate.
VA investigators reported that they were unable to substantiate the worker's claims. But the OSC blasted the agency's investigation, noting that VA investigators loosely interpreted the deadline for the Miami facility to comply with the HIV testing requirements.
In a letter to President Donald Trump, Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner said Miami VAMC administrators ignored the worker's concerns until after he complained to the OSC in May 2016 and then made his whistle-blowing public by hand delivering a notice to Miami VAMC Director Paul Russo on June 30, 2016.
"I am incredulous that compliance with Directive 1113 [the policy] and implementation of fourth generation HIV testing occurred only after Mr. Miguel's disclosures and OSC's intercession," Kerner wrote in the letter to President Trump.
The new HIV testing policy was implemented in May 2015 and involves general processes and programs for HIV testing as part of the VA's routine medical care. It includes guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for recommended and alternate testing sequences that updated the standard used since 1987.
VA facilities were required to comply with the directive by May 2016. But the worker alleged that Miami VAMC officials ignored his repeated concerns and continued using outdated HIV testing even after the deadline.
Though the Miami VAMC had repurposed a piece of lab equipment in October 2015 to comply with one of the testing protocols, according to the OSC, the facility continued to use outdated methods for confirmatory testing.
In September 2016, the Miami VAMC began sending HIV test samples to Quest Diagnostics, an outside lab, for confirmatory testing because the equipment needed to perform those secondary tests had not yet been ordered. The OSC said the employee responsible for procurement had been on extended leave.
The necessary equipment was not installed and completed at the Miami facility until December 2016, about seven months after the deadline, according to the OSC.
During their investigation of the Miami facility, VA officials identified eight veterans whose HIV test results from outside labs differed from the Miami VAMC's test results — including one patient who was deemed "high risk" for HIV and tested positive for the virus after follow-up screening.


Hardcover, 10 x 11.5 in. / 208 pgs / 142 color / 14 bw.
Edited by Lluís Permanyer. Photographs by Melba Levick.
"Color in architecture must be intense, logical and fertile," wrote Catalan architect and designer Antoni Gaudí in his diary in the late 1870s. Known for his sensuous, curving, almost surreal Art Nouveau buildings, Gaudí (1852–1926) is today one of the best known architects in the world. Over the course of four decades, he designed an incredible variety of architectural structures, including apartment houses, private residences, park complexes and religious and secular institutions, most of which were erected in or around Barcelona—such as the Park Güell, the Casa Batlló, the Casa Milà and his masterpiece, La Segrada Familia. With nearly 150 color reproductions, this volume offers a new standard overview of his extraordinary career. Here, Gaudí's undulating tiled roofs, pinnacles and towers that rise like plants or tentacles, chimneys that take on phantasmagoric shapes and colors are accompanied by plans and drawings that provide a clear picture of Gaudí's structural innovations. Luís Permanyer places the architect's ouevre within the context of Catalan and wider European developments of the time, but he also describes the more personal mystical impetus that lay at the core of Gaudí's inventions. For those already familiar with the architect's work, Melba Levick's superb and detail photographs will prove a revelation; for those just discovering Gaudí, this book is the next best thing to experiencing the buildings themselves.
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 11.5 in. / 208 pgs / 142 color / 14 b&w.


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O P I N I O N S
Editorials | Article | Middle | Oped-Tribute
N-Liability Bill
Welcome compromise between govt, Opposition
Despite the acrimony between the government and the Opposition on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill, the nation heaved a sigh of relief with the controversial piece of legislation getting the Lok Sabha's approval on Wednesday. This became possible after a compromise between the two sides reached over the contentious provisions.
'No' to Vedanta project
Lessons to learn for states and industries
Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh's rejection of clearance to the Vedanta Alumina's $1.7-billion bauxite-mining project at Lanjigarh in Orissa's Kalahandi district is perfectly in order. He has upheld the rule of law by withdrawing the Stage I forest clearance, given in 2008, and rejecting the Stage II clearance that the promoters had applied for.
Sops to exporters
Communal designs
Rising China, emerging India
The Sant and the accord
Mockery of justice
Pragmatism on N-Bill
MPs deserve more
A nation of assets, but...
Superbug scare
Leh calamity
PM's healing initiative
Mute response
Green's red signal
Combat immigration fraud, show compassion
THE UK minister for immigration, Damian Green's comment that the huge influx of immigrants into Britain in recent times is leading to "social unease" in some sections of the British society is blunt, as it also reflects a certain shade of racism that seems to be prevalent in recession-hit Britain.
Neighbourhood blues
Need for high-powered group on policy making
by S.D. Muni
IN his address to the nation from the Red Fort on the 64th anniversary of India's Independence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mentioned about India's difficulties with the neighbours and named Pakistan for its consistent failure in denying the use of its territory for terrorist operations against India. While Pakistan is a category by itself, and so is China, Indian policy is facing difficulties in relation to almost all other neighbours.
The dark shades of life
by V.K. Kapoor
The concealed terrain within our skins is both fascinating and frightening. In my visit to the jails, I saw the submerged part of human nature. The part which never sees the sun. I saw eyes without hope. The torments of the dolphins pleading for help, caught in the propeller of circumstances.
OPED-tribute
She spoke of loving, caring and sharing
On the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa's birth, her biographer, Navin Chawla, writes about the life and healing touch of the Nobel Peace Prize winner who was "the most powerful woman in the world".
MY first meeting with Mother Teresa, in 1975, left the experience indelibly printed on my mind. That morning I had accompanied Delhi's Lieutenant Governor, with whom I was then attached, to her home for the destitute. I was taken aback when I came face to face with her. She was smaller than I had imagined, dressed in a spotless, hand-woven sari that was neatly darned in several places. Her back even then was bent. I noticed that her feet were twisted and her hands were gnarled, testimony to her arduous life in the streets and slums.
Desire to serve
Bina Deogun
I first met Mother at a 'Bandage Rolling' session in 1959, but only came under her sway in 1979 when I heard her explain what she meant by a 'giving of yourself'. Prior to this, 'giving' had only meant a donation of some sort.
Despite the acrimony between the government and the Opposition on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill, the nation heaved a sigh of relief with the controversial piece of legislation getting the Lok Sabha's approval on Wednesday. This became possible after a compromise between the two sides reached over the contentious provisions. The opposition parties, mainly the BJP and the Left, which wanted the word "and" between Clauses 17 (a) and (b), and the expression "intent to cause nuclear damage" to be removed have finally had their way. Now the supplier of nuclear equipment and other materials needed to run a nuclear reactor will not be able to go "off the hook" in the event of an accident. However, the Indian law will be more stringent than the one enacted by South Korea, so far acknowledged as the toughest legislation on the subject. The South Korean law has it that the "nuclear operator shall have a right of recourse only insofar as there has been a wilful act of gross negligence by the supplier of the materials concerned or by his employees".
After the enactment of the law India will now be in a position to reap the benefits that it hoped to get after clinching the civilian nuclear deal with the US. Global suppliers of nuclear reactors had been eagerly looking for the liability law to do business with India. How they react remains to be seen. India has plans to purchase at least 25 nuclear plants needed to meet its ever-growing energy demand. If the nuclear suppliers show reluctance in doing business with India it will be a major setback for the country's nuclear industry. They may point out that elsewhere in the world it is the operator who has to pay compensation to victims if a nuclear disaster occurs. The Indian law, once it finally enters the statute book, will have it that it is the suppliers' liability to compensate the affected persons. The liability cap has been tripled from the initial Rs 500 crore to Rs 1500 crore.
The controversy that got generated over the Nuclear Liability Bill could have been avoided if the UPA government had adopted a more transparent course. It should have handled the objections raised by the Opposition with greater preparedness, which was missing. The government should have taken the Opposition on board from the very beginning, particularly when it needed its support for the adoption of the Bill by Parliament. The government's image has received a beating during all that happened with regard to the Bill.
Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh's rejection of clearance to the Vedanta Alumina's $1.7-billion bauxite-mining project at Lanjigarh in Orissa's Kalahandi district is perfectly in order. He has upheld the rule of law by withdrawing the Stage I forest clearance, given in 2008, and rejecting the Stage II clearance that the promoters had applied for. The decisions follow the recommendations of the Forest Advisory Committee that found serious violation of the Environment Protection Act, the Forest Conservation Act and the Forest Rights Act. The Dongriya Kondh tribals are bound to heave a sigh of relief because they have been opposing the project, apprehending that bauxite mining would not only destroy the Niyamgiri hills, which they worship, but also dry up about a dozen perennial streams. What is of serious concern is the manner in which the Vedanta Alumina and state government officials have colluded to forge records to show that they had obtained the consent of the tribal groups and village councils.
Moreover, without environment clearance, how did the company manage to go ahead with its capacity expansion plan (from one million to six million tonnes a year)? The Kalahandi District Collector, the State Forest Secretary and the Orissa Mining Corporation Chairman will have to explain how and why did the project occupy 26.123 hectares of forest land in blatant violation of the laws? The company claims to have obtained the Supreme Court's "in-principle clearance" in 2008. However, Mr Ramesh, citing the Attorney-General's opinion, has justifiably maintained that he was free to reject the final clearance to the project based on the new information received by the Union Government.
The Centre's decision holds out a lesson for all state governments and industrialists. The issue in question should not be strictly viewed as one of development versus conservation. While industrialisation is necessary for growth, the industry as also the state governments need to be fair and transparent in their dealings and follow the due processes of law. Nobody has the right to trample upon the laws enacted by Parliament to protect the rights of the tribals and indigenous people. In the backdrop of Vedanta, it would be interesting to watch whether the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, the brainchild of the late Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, would pass the Centre's test. It is feared that this project will submerge 300 villages and displace 1.7 lakh primitive tribals (the Konda Reddis and the Koyas).
THE UK minister for immigration, Damian Green's comment that the huge influx of immigrants into Britain in recent times is leading to "social unease" in some sections of the British society is blunt, as it also reflects a certain shade of racism that seems to be prevalent in recession-hit Britain. It is the job of the British government to ensure equitable race relations in such a way such that all sections of society, including immigrants and visitors, feel safe and secure, and handle those who feel "unease" at increasing immigration. However, he is right in asking the government to help unearth and punish unscrupulous agents who are aiding people in illegal migration to Britain. The UK has been tightening its immigration policies and as a result of this, around 100 immigrants are deported to India every month.
Britain has raised the bar for the skill sets it wants and thus highly-skilled people and good students are welcome, others are not. While the police in both nations is cooperating, resulting in increasing number of detection of cases of fraud, there have been reports about people with genuine credentials being denied immigration on weak grounds.
Green has gone out of the way to meet various officials and address the concerns of Indians regarding immigration. A substantial numbers of Indian immigrants have made the UK their home in the last century or so, and today their contribution to British society is well documented, and often appreciated. The Government of India must ensure full cooperation with the British government in cracking down on unscrupulous "travel agents" who tarnish the image of the nation, exploit gullible people, even as they break the law. Thousands of Punjabis, especially those from Doaba, have made Britain their home. Even as Britain tightens its laws it should ensure that the UK Border Agency adopts a compassionate attitude towards genuine cases, especially those regarding family unification, education and career enhancement.
Everything is funny as long as it happens to somebody else. — Will Rogers
In Afghanistan, India has spent more than $1.3 billion in capacity building and infrastructure projects, but President Karzai is coming under increasing pressures, mainly from Pakistan, to curtail India's help and constructive role. In Nepal, Indian policy and the Indian Embassy are most unpopular and being blamed for interfering to micro-manage its internal political equations. The result is a persisting political stalemate in the Prime Ministerial elections.
In Sri Lanka, President Rajapaksa continues to ignore India's concern for a lasting ethnic resolution while encouraging China to expand its presence and stakes. In the Maldives, it was not India but Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa who came forward to mediate in the internal conflict between President Nassim and Parliament. Only subsequently Ibrahim Hussain Zaki, Nassim's close associate, was invited to Delhi to size up the situation.
Bangladesh has been unhappy with the slow movement on the Indian side for implementing the assurances given to Prime Minister Hasina Wajed on trade, transit and developmental issues during her official visit to Delhi in January 2010. In the case of Bhutan, there are no apparent contentious issues with India, but unexpressed unease persists on pending border settlement with China. The Myanmar junta is, of course, happy with India's endorsement of their moves to hold a farcical elections in coming November, but this policy of India has come under close scrutiny of the international community.
The Indian establishment is, no doubt, aware of its difficulties in the neighbourhood. That's why, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was sent on August 7 to assuage Dhaka's feelings of neglect and disappointment. There he declared India's largest ever offer of a $1 billion soft loan for infrastructure projects. Around the same time, on August 4-6, Shyam Saran visited Nepal as the Prime Minister's special envoy to see if the Nepali political class could be persuaded to evolve a consensus for installing a stable government and writing the Constitution. His mission failed to produce the desired results and was dubbed as an uninvited interference in Nepal's internal affairs.
A couple of months back, National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon visited Beijing to see if China could be dissuaded from helping Pakistan build a civil nuclear programme, and also persuaded on expediting border negotiations with India. China, of late, has lowered its anti-India media noises and gestures, but there are no signs of its making any expected move on Pakistan or border issue.
Behind the confusion in India's neighbourhood policy is its failure to cope with the growing Chinese assertiveness and the internal political dynamics in each of these countries. China's assertiveness in South Asia, in some ways, is a defensive move as it finds itself vulnerable in Tibet, Xinjiang and the Indian Ocean. But China has deep pockets, cultural distance and a suave diplomacy to create and cultivate constituencies in India's neighbouring countries. China has also been cashing on India's lapses in these countries and the more India bungles there, the more China gains.
Take for instance Nepal. China had no hesitation in arming King Gyanendra to crush the Maoists and the people's resistance against monarchy. But as soon as the monarchy was thrown out, the Chinese quickly moved to establish a workable rapport with the mainstream parties like the Nepali Congress and the Communists (UML), as also with the Maoists whom the Beijing had earlier accused of misusing the name of their great leader Mao-tse Tung.
As against this, India which earned unprecedented goodwill with the victory of the people's movement in April 2006, has managed to become politically the most controversial country. In the case of Sri Lanka, China used its military assistance to President Rajapaksa in his anti-LTTE war to penetrate India's traditional strategic space in the Tamil-dominated areas of the island's north and east, in the name of reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war-torn region. It was also India's indifference and reluctance towards the Hambantota port project initially that enabled China to get into this project, which happens to be located in Sri Lanka's Sinhalese-dominated south and on the strategic edge of Indian Ocean trade traffic.
India's neighbouring countries have passed through the waves of political turbulence during the past five years or so in the process of their transition to different degrees and forms of democracy. Even Myanmar is now moving towards an elected government. India associated itself in this turbulence with the popular aspirations and forces of change as the turbulence precipitated crises of stability and order. But this association and identification with the popular forces was not sustained and soon allowed to be vitiated in search of short-term interests and policy options conceived by a handful of critically placed mandarins in South Block. The result has been the erosion of gains as is starkly evident in Nepal.
In countries like Sri Lanka, short-term interests were allowed to put India's principal and traditional interests in ethnic resolution on the back-burner and this has brought about a sense of alienation between India and the Tamils of Sri Lanka. Even in the case of Bangladesh, Delhi became complacent with the Awami League's massive victory, ignoring the hard reality of Bangladeshi politics, where any ruling party and its leader have to trade cautiously in carrying forward a policy of constructive engagement with India. This slackness in consolidating India's identification with the forces of change in the neighbourhood are creating difficulties for India's day-to-day policy and sharpening long-term challenges for it in carrying the neighbourhood along. India's policy makers know very well that until they have a firm handle on neighbourhood policy, India's aspirations to play a meaningful and constructive role in Asia and the world cannot be realised.
A politically vibrant neighbourhood needs careful nursing at a time of challenging globalisation. Neither the Foreign Ministry nor the Prime Minister's Office has adequate institutional memory, intellectual expertise and time to sensitively handle the contemporary and emerging challenges in the neighbourhood. There is need to have a small but high-powered advisory group, on the lines of the Economic Advisory Committee for the Prime Minister, to assist the policy establishments in making right choices and implementing constructive initiatives.
The fire-fighting mode and chess-board style of neighbourhood policy when one works through pliant individuals and institutions as pawns may not carry us very far in future. India has to maintain synergy between its own critical long-term interests and the rising aspirations of the people of the neighbouring countries. For this Delhi needs to do serious home work on its policy choices.
The writer is Visiting Research Professor, Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore.
The concealed terrain within our skins is both fascinating and frightening. In my visit to the jails, I saw the submerged part of human nature. The part which never sees the sun.
I saw eyes without hope. The torments of the dolphins pleading for help, caught in the propeller of circumstances. There is a smell of sorrow, smudged rages, dead brain cells, vulnerable somersault of hope and despair, and foul innards of accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows poisoned by putrid moments.
There was an air of innocent vulnerability about a young man. The dialogue was in Punjabi. I asked him what brought him to the jail. 302 (murder), he replied. Whom did you murder? He smiled wickedly, and said: "Saheli maar ditti" (I murdered my girl friend). Why? She went away with somebody else. I told him he could have found some other. He laughed innocently and said: "Garmi kha gaya, chunni naal gala ghutt ditta" (I lost temper and strangulated her with her chunni). One has to pay heavily for these mad moments in life.
Passion has two ends — delightful and deranged. This I found in the women's barrack. There were three lady doctors. One had murdered her husband in a swanky hotel after a fight. She was undergoing life imprisonment.
The second doctor had her lover assassinated when he refused to marry her. Infidelity is nature's way. Revenge is a passionate emotion. Revenge is also a kind of wild justice.
The third doctor told me that her husband had committed suicide, but in his dying declaration, he said that she had poured kerosene on him, and set him on fire. The lady was calm and composed.
I remembered my small encounter with Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi. I was coming out of Parliament. The guard saluted me, and then he saluted again. I looked back and found Phoolan Devi who was an MP coming. I stepped aside and said: "Behen jee pehle aap". She looked at me cynically. I have never seen a more dangerous look. Then she said sardonically: "Lo ab ye sale police wale bhi mujhe Behan Jee kehte hain." It was her intense hatred which led to the massacre at Behmai when she said "Aaj yahan koi suhagan nahi bachegee" (No husband will remain alive).
What really shook me was a heart surgeon of a prominent hospital who in collusion with a chemist was putting sub-standard stents in the hearts of his trusting patients. There is no limit to greed.
I remember another young man, whom I helped in doing Masters in English Literature in jail. I asked him why he was doing MA in English Literature. He told me that the girl whom he loved asked him to do so. I told him she must be a good girl. How did I know that she was a good girl, he asked me with suspicion. I told him that since she was giving him good advice, she was a good girl. He relaxed and smiled.
I found that most of the prison inmates found solace in God and religion. The storm in its very nature is transient. The effort of nature as that of the human heart is to return to repose, for God is peace. Time is the true healer of pain. Either the pain disappears when it runs its course or a person learns to live with it.
Whenever, I came out of the jail, I thanked God that I went there only as a visitor. Nietzsche said: "There is a secret garden in all of us, which is another way of saying that we are all volcanoes that will have their hour of explosion".
Mother Teresa (August 26, 1910 - September 5 , 1997)
Sketch: Sandeep Joshi
Her words moved me profoundly. She spoke of simple things, of loving, caring and sharing. She seemed at many levels a very ordinary woman. Yet she was a powerful communicator and reached straight into the heart of those who were listening to her. Within a short while I realised that she was no different from those she served, for she and her Sisters seemed to be as poor as those surrounding us.
Her coming to India itself was a mystery, a word I use in its mystical sense. Born in 1910 in Skopje, Yugoslavia. Agnes as she was then known, was raised in relatively frugal circumstances by a fiercely Catholic mother, the youngest of three children. As a young girl, her imagination was stirred by stories of Yugoslav Jesuit priests who worked in distant Bengal. At the age of 14, barely a teenager, she asked her mother for permission to join the Church and work in India. At 18, she had her way and when she bade her mother goodbye, she was never to see her again.
She had said to me, as she had said to others before, that it was a lesser wrench for her to leave mother's home than it was for her to leave the Loreto Convent in Entally. In her 20 years as a Loreto nun, first a teacher and later Principal, she developed the discipline of an Order; in its most simplistic sense, her life was regulated by the ringing of the school bell. Here there was order and security, but also some exposure to the disadvantaged, as many of her wards were orphans and children of poor parents, with whom she could speak in Bengali with ease.
She was happy in her work, but restless too. The world she glimpsed from her classroom window was made up of slums and abject poverty: it seemed to be the real world, and she slowly sensed that her vocation belonged there. She began to attempt this almost impossible transition from convent to street, but with her vows intact: a Catholic nun within the Church order, yet outside of it. In these many divides of life, she resorted to prayer that deepened her faith. I often found that she faced dilemmas by first a retreat to prayer, and then renewed attempts, until the object was achieved or otherwise. Two years later, surprisingly but perhaps not, the Vatican made its first exception of this kind.
The biography I wrote on Mother was an accident. I had known her for a number of years and helped her with her concerns in Delhi. In all that time it never struck me to write a book. One day when we were in conversation she said something enormously funny and we both laughed. It was then that I remarked that none of the books that I had read about her had brought out that side of her personality. Perhaps I should write a book, I said. She was not inclined to agree: "So many books have already been written." I blurted out: "Why, Mother, does one have to be a Catholic, can't a bureaucrat and a Hindu write?" I immediately regretted my words and fell into an embarrassed silence. However, she took that seriously and said: "All right, but don't write about me, write about the work."
Although she herself remained fiercely Catholic, her brand of religion was not exclusive. Convinced that each person she ministered to was Christ in suffering, she reached out to people of all faiths. The very faith that sustained her infuriated her detractors who saw her as a symbol of a right-wing conspiracy and, worse, the principal mouthpiece of the Vatican's well-known views against abortion. Interestingly, such criticism went largely unnoticed in India, where she was widely revered.
As her biographer, I confronted her with accusations in some quarters that she accepted money for her work from some rather dubious sources. Her answer was concise: "I have never asked anybody for money. I take no salary, no government grant, no church assistance, nothing. But everyone has a right to give. I have no right to judge anybody. God alone has that right." The Missionaries of Charity remains perhaps the only global charitable organisation that explicitly forbids fund-raising.
I once called her the most powerful woman in the world. She replied: "Where? If I was, I would bring peace to the world." I asked her why she did not use her undeniable influence to lessen war. She replied: "War is the fruit of politics. If I get stuck in politics, I will stop loving. Because I will have to stand by one, not by all."
The large bequests and donations were gratefully received and immediately ploughed into wherever the need was most pressing, from leprosy stations spread across Asia and Africa to homes for orphans and disabled children all over the world. Yet, it was the "sacrifice money" that she never forgot — the Calcutta beggar who emptied his day's earnings of a few coins into her hands; the young Hindu couple who loved each other so much yet refused a marriage feast so that they could offer her the money they thus saved.
When Mother Teresa was alive, I had expressed concern to her whether the organisation she had built from scratch had not overly grown and whether it would be difficult to sustain after she passed on. I had seen several other organisations begin to wither away soon after their charismatic founders became either physically debilitated or died. Why would this Order be any different, I asked? The first time I posed this question to her, she merely smiled and pointed her fingers heavenwards. The second time I asked, she set my question aside with a smile saying, "Let me go first." On my persistence, some weeks later, she finally answered, "You have been to so many of our 'homes' (branches) in India and abroad. Everywhere the Sisters wear the same saris, eat the same kind of food, do the same work, but Mother Teresa is not everywhere, yet the work goes on." Then she added, "As long as we remain committed to the poorest of the poor and don't end up serving the rich, the work will prosper."
The last time I met Mother Teresa was in Delhi a few months before she died. She was on her way back from America to her beloved Calcutta and stopped for a few hours to change planes. She spoke then of simple things, of loving, caring and sharing. She held my hand in hers and said, "You must always work for the poor and the good of all people. You must continue to touch the poor."
She was also criticised for conversion. Yet in all the 23 years I knew her she never even whispered such a suggestion. However, I asked her if she did convert. Her answer was direct. "I convert," she said. "I convert you to be a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Protestant, a better Sikh. Once you have found God, it is up to you to do with Him as you wish." She believed that conversion was God's work, not hers.
What would happen to her mission when she passed away, I asked her. She laughed and said, "Let me go first." I asked again and this time she replied: "You have been to so many of our 'homes' (missions) in India and abroad. Everywhere the Sisters wear the same saris, eat the same kind of food, do the same work. But Mother Teresa is not everywhere. Yet the work goes on." Then she added: "As long as we remain committed to the poorest of the poor and do not end up serving the rich, the work will prosper."
The very last time that I met Mother Teresa was in July of 1997, two months before she died. Because she passed through Delhi unexpectedly, very few people knew of her transit, which is why I was able to spend several hours with her. During those hours, she recapitulated simple things: loving, caring, and sharing. She reminded me of my promise that I would not leave government service, as I had wanted to do some years earlier. She reminded me that I must work for the poor and the good of all people. "You must continue to touch the poor," were among her last words to me in private. This was a part of the legacy she left to me.
The writer is former Chief Election Commissioner of India and
author of the authorised biography of Mother Teresa.
Her explanation unleashed something in me — a something I had not even known existed. It was as if a tap was turned on and I was being flooded with a deep desire to serve. I became conscious of a new development, a totally new dimension within me. But what could I do? Was I capable of being any real help? Like many in my strata of society, I too was rendered helpless by a retinue of domestic servants and pampering parents.
I need not have worried. There was plenty to be done at the Missionaries of Charity and over the years I found myself doing all sorts of work. My friends, Rani, Kamma, Bapsi and I pitched in wherever help was needed — stitching, knitting, teaching children, accompanying the Sisters on medication rounds and even addressing school children.
There was a sense of fulfilment and a warm glow within. I am no seamstress, yet after every baby frock that I stitched I felt that I had just finished my 'pooja'. This feeling is not easy to describe — you have to experience it, but I'm sure the thousand who have worked with Mother will know exactly what I mean.
I met her many times over the years and on one occasion I told her: "Mother I am not from a business family and when the sisters desperately need a big amount urgently I feel inadequate and helpless and don't know who to turn to."
"Oh child you have not understood the Lord, you don't have to go anywhere for help, it will come to you and through you His poor will be helped. Just surrender yourself to God and God will help you to do His work".
This is exactly what happened. There were numerous occasions when the needs of the Home were barely brought to our notice and lo and behold some donor would appear on the scene with a desire to donate the exact thing that the home was asking for! At first I put it down to a mere coincidence, but as the years went by I began to change my mind. Strange things began to happen and many a time the amounts being offered would be exactly the amount needed for a particular job. What this is — I leave you to decide. As for me I know now that 'more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of'.
Her rules were simple, no charge for any service rendered, no appeasement of the rich and the mighty, and no fund raising events. Caste creed or colour played no role in her life. Her Sisters were busy administering to the sick and the wounded and had no time to ask the sick their names, leave alone their religion or caste!
The beauty of it all is that when people give anything to her they are giving to her poor and are really not bothered about which sect or creed it will go to, whether it will go to the Hindus, the Sikhs, Muslims or Christians. In her home for the aged there was a woman who had been abandoned by her family but she knew the Vashishta Yoga well and she used to sing the Hanuman Chalisa for those who cared to listen. Why then do some say she cares only for the Christians?
Decades earlier, Mother Teresa may have belonged to India, but today all national barriers have been surmounted and the poor all over the world claim her. Though my head tells me that she came to reduce the misery and the suffering throughout the world, my heart tells me that she only came to bring joy to me and my family, for such was the power of her communication — she took us in her fold. She was not only concerned for her 'lillies of the field' — the poor, but was just as concerned for the needy — the needy in spirit. The word covers anyone who has less than you mentally, materially and emotionally.
I pledge to honour her teaching and to continue to give of myself to those who have less than me. This way I can pay homage and express my gratitude to the great soul, who, though penniless herself, conquered the hearts of all and, who, though short in stature, stood tallest amongst mankind — to Mother Teresa, God's Gift to India.


After Rihanna received dazzling reviews with her racy lingerie line to close out New York Fashion Week, she sparkled with her Diamond Ball fundraiser.
"Insecure" star Issa Rae hosted Thursday's event in New York City as VIPs including model Joan Smalls and rapper A$AP Rocky among others sip Jay-Z's Armand de Brignac champagne and saw Childish Gambino perform a short set.
The ball, which benefits the Clara Lionel Foundation, raised nearly $6 million, PageSix.com reports.
CBS This Morning co-anchor (and Oprah's BFF) Gayle King asked the website " Do I look like a twerker?" The TV broadcaster later said she's more of a twirler and praised Rihanna's evolution from a performer to a humanitarian.
Rihanna reportedly wore more than 100 diamonds in her gown. "She is the Rihanna. She's a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, fashion icon, philanthropist," said Rae the event's host, during the gala, Rolling Stone reports.
Earlier this year, the foundation launched a "$25 million emergency response philanthropic fund" to improve response to natural disasters.
"The new fund is structured to provide emergency solutions and supplies including prearranged access to food and water, generators, temporary shelters and, hygiene products as well as issue grants to relief organizations within 48 hours of a disaster," the foundation said.


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181022-N-TP832-1009
181022-N-TP832-1009 OKINAWA, Japan (Oct. 22, 2018) Cmdr. Joseph Harder, commanding officer of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 3, delivers remarks during a Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority ceremony at Camp Shields in Okinawa, Japan, in which NMCB-3 received authority of the camp from NMCB-5. NMCB-3 is forward deployed throughout the Indo-Pacific region and United States ready to support major combat operations, theater security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Seabees provide general engineering and civil support to Navy, Marine Corps and joint operational forces globally. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael Lopez/Released)
Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael
NMCB 3, RIP/TOA, OKINAWA, NMCB THREE, NAVAL MOBILE CONSTRUCTION BATTALION 3, CAMP SHIELDS, SEABEES


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Q: Suppose (1+$\lambda$)A = A+$\lambda$A. Why must A be convex? Let $A \subset \mathbb R^d$ and $\lambda \in \mathbb R$.
Suppose $(1+\lambda)A = A+\lambda A$. Why must $A$ be convex?
If $x \in A+\lambda A$, then $x = a + \lambda a$ for some $a \in A$. Then, since $\mathbb R^d$ is a vector space, $a + \lambda a = (1+\lambda)a$. So $x \in (1+\lambda)A$.
I can't figure out where I'm going wrong with that argument.

A: Partial result:
Note that if $\lambda=0$ the equation is just $A=A$ so it brings no constrain on $A$.
$a+\lambda b=(\lambda+1)\bigg(\frac 1{\lambda+1}a+\frac{\lambda}{\lambda+1}b\bigg)=(\lambda+1)\bigg(ta+(1-t)b\bigg)$
with $t=\frac 1{\lambda+1}\in[0,1]$ (so you need hypothesis $\lambda>0$)
When $A$ is convex then $c=ta+(1-t)b\in A$ so $a+\lambda b=(1+\lambda)c$
And we have our inclusion $A+\lambda A\subset (1+\lambda)A$.
Convexity of $A$ is sufficient, but I'm not sure it is necessary...


The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament" (CCC 1601).
Marriages are conducted by appointment only. Couples wishing to marry must make arrangements with a priest at least one year in advance of the proposed date and prior to the social arrangements.
All couples are required to participate in the Pre-Cana Program.


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Home / TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEWS / AUSTRALIA / George Street, Sydney, Looking North from Market Street.
George Street, Sydney, Looking North from Market Street.
Arthur Collingridge de Tourcey (1853 - 1907)
Scarce colonial engraving looking north from Market Street, Sydney. From the original edition of the Illustrated Sydney News.
S/N: NS-ISN-840412008–215390
Categories: NSW – Sydney, AUSTRALIA, TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEWS
Hand coloured engraving.
Scarce colonial engraving looking north from Market Street, Sydney.
From the original edition of the Illustrated Sydney News.
Collingridge was a painter, illustrator and teacher who became staff artist for the Illustrated London News and The Graphic both very successful London newspapers, before emigrating to Australia. He was one of several sons in an old Catholic family from Godington Manor, Oxfordshire. Like his brother George , he mostly dropped the 'de Tourcey' in Australia. came to Sydney in 1879 where he worked as an illustrator for the Sydney Mail , the Town and Country Journal. He founded the New South Wales Art Society and was staff artist of the Illustrated Sydney News. Collingridge exhibited widely, mainly in New South Wales and was a founding member of the Royal Art Society of NSW 1880.
View other items by Arthur Collingridge de Tourcey
"A Day's Picnic on Clark Island."
Botany Bay, New South Wales.


Smithtown Appliance in Smithtown, NY is an authorized dealer of Danby Products. Danby was founded in 1947, as a family owned manufacturer of small electrical appliances. Danby opened its U.S. home office in Findlay, Ohio in 1992 as business expanded across North America. Danby's reputation as a leader in serving the appliance market has been achieved by producing innovative, quality products at competitive pricing. All of Danby's products meet and exceed all environmental safety standards and offer UL, CSA, NRTL, and ETL recognized standards approvals.
So if you are looking for Danby products in Smithtown, St James, Stony Brook, Commack, Northport, Dix Hills, Huntington, Centereach, Port Jefferson, Lake Grove and Hampton Bays, or if you have any questions about Danby products, please feel free to call us at (631) 265-2270 or simply stop by Smithtown Appliance at any time and we would be glad to help you.


Mason Wells (1906 - 1984) watercolor dated 1946 and shows view of 936 Lake Shore Drive. Mason Bacheller Wells was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts, attended Harvard, Yale and San Francisco Art Institute. He was active/lived in California, Massachusetts. Mason Wells is known for geometric non objective, mod imagery. He was in Post Painterly Abstraction (a term created by art critic Clement Greenberg as the title for an exhibit he curated for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1964, which subsequently travelled to the Walker Art Center and the Art Gallery of Toronto.). His family were founders of the American Optical Company.


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Q: What's wrong with this Interpolation search implementation? This is a common C/C++ implementation of the Interpolation Search algorithm found around the Internet. However, when used with a sorted array of some 100000 integers, the mid-variable starts generating negative array-indexes, causing a Segmentation Fault. What could the problem be?
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
int interpolationSearch(int sortedArray[], int toFind, int len) {
    // Returns index of toFind in sortedArray, or -1 if not found
    int low = 0;
    int high = len - 1;
    int mid;

    while (sortedArray[low] <= toFind && sortedArray[high] >= toFind) {
        mid = low + ((toFind - sortedArray[low]) * (high - low)) /
              (sortedArray[high] - sortedArray[low]);

        if (sortedArray[mid] < toFind) {
            low = mid + 1;
        } else if (sortedArray[mid] > toFind) {
            high = mid - 1;
        } else {
            return mid;
        }
    }

    if (sortedArray[low] == toFind)
        return low;
    else
        return -1; // Not found
}

int main(void) {
    srand(time(0));
    int arr[100000];
    for (int i=0; i<100000; i++) {
        arr[i] = rand()%100000;
    }

    int length = sizeof(arr)/sizeof(int);
    qsort(arr,length,sizeof(int),order);

    for (int j=0; j<10000; j++) {
        interpolationSearch(arr,rand()%100000,length);
    }
}

A: The problem is with the expression that computes mid. The product can easily overflow even with 32 bits integers. Then it becomes negative. It would probably be better to perform division before product.
Changing the mid computing to use 64 bits integers (at least for intermediate computings) fix problems.
Below is my modified version (int64_t is defined in <stdint.h>:
int interpolationSearch(int sortedArray[], int toFind, int len) {
    // Returns index of toFind in sortedArray, or -1 if not found
    int low = 0;
    int high = len - 1;
    int mid;

    int l = sortedArray[low];
    int h = sortedArray[high];

    while (l <= toFind && h >= toFind) {
        int64_t high_low = (high - low);
        int64_t toFind_l = (toFind - l);
        int64_t product = high_low*toFind_l;
        int64_t h_l = h-l;
        int64_t step = product / h_l;
        mid = low + step;

/*        mid = (low + high)/2;*/
        int m = sortedArray[mid];

        if (m < toFind) {
            l = sortedArray[low = mid + 1];
        } else if (m > toFind) {
            h = sortedArray[high = mid - 1];
        } else {
            return mid;
        }
    }

    if (sortedArray[low] == toFind)
        return low;
    else
        return -1; // Not found
}

An even simpler fix would be to make it a dichotomic search instead of interpolation by just using: mid = (low + high) / 2. even if it converges slightly slower than interpolation, it avoids several operations including a product and a division thus making the inner loop faster. Not sure the potential faster convergence of interpolation compensates for that loss of simplicity.
I did some performance tests. The source of my test program is included in this question
Suprisingly (for me) using floats gives a more efficient program than using large integers. On my system binary search became faster for about 1000 items in the array. For arrays of size 100000 interpolation search is nearly two times faster than simple binary search.

A: The sub-expression: ((toFind - sortedArray[low]) * (high - low))
... can easily evaluate to something like:  ((99999-0) * (99999-0)) == 99999^2
... which is much larger than 2^31 (== the range of 32-bit signed integers).
Once it exceeds 2^31-1, the integer will overflow into negative numbers, hence your negative indices.  If it exceeds 2^32 (which it also could do), then (most likely, technically undefined) you'll lose the high-order bits and you'll end up with effectively random offsets, both positive and negative.
To avoid all of this, you need to do your math carefully to make sure none of your sub-expressions yield an integer overflow.  Usually the easiest way to do this is to convert to floating-point whose range is many orders of magnitude larger than 32-bit integers.
In the final analysis, interpolation such as this for binary search is usually not worth it -- the expense of computing the interpolant is typically greater than the few extra iterations of the loop that it "saves".

A: As the other answers have explained, you're trying to compute an expression of the form
A * B / C

but this goes wrong because A * B overflows. The suggestion to revise the expression to
A * (B / C)

won't work, because typically B is less than C and so the integer division will truncate to zero.
The suggestion to switch to floating-point would work, but would be costly. But you could use fixed point by transforming the expression to:
A * ((B * F) / C) / F

(where F is a carefully chosen power of two).


text:
Save Alexander Hamilton!
By Ron Chernow, for Politico Magazine
There is something sad and shockingly misguided in the spectacle of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew acting to belittle the significance of the foremost Treasury secretary in American history, Alexander Hamilton, by demoting him on the ten-dollar bill. In announcing the move Lew implied that Hamilton wouldn't disappear altogether from the bill, but would somehow share the space with an illustrious woman. Since the two would obviously look awkward side-by-side, the strong likelihood is that the female personage will be emblazoned on the front with Hamilton banished to the murky back side.
The desire to elevate a woman into the select pantheon of Americans on our currency is altogether laudable and I, for one, would be thrilled to see Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Susan B. Anthony grace the twenty-dollar bill. But to pounce on Hamilton as the victim of this long-overdue change is to correct one historic injustice by committing another.
And talk about bad timing! What makes Lew's decision so woefully ironic is that Hamilton's standing has risen sharply in recent years, assisted by a slew of favorable biographies, my own included. And now, with its vibrant young, multiracial cast, the magnificent new musical "Hamilton," created by the brilliant Lin-Manuel Miranda, is introducing a new generation to his manifold accomplishments. Miranda has done something miraculous, making early American history hip, cool, and erudite. Oddly enough, I received the news about Lew's decision as I headed out for the first rehearsal of "Hamilton," which is inspired by my book and is now en route to Broadway in July. Lew's action threatens to undo the show's splendid work in rescuing Alexander Hamilton from the historical shadows and restoring his luster.
For a long time, Hamilton was a misunderstood and overlooked figure, consigned to a curious limbo. Among the major founders, he was, aside from Ben Franklin, the one who never made it to the White House and therefore lacked the reverent attention we bestow on presidents. He was also reviled by a succession of political enemies—John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe—who made it to the top and conspired to slant our long-term view of him. As a result, Hamilton's face was never chiseled on Mount Rushmore, nor did he receive a fancy memorial in Washington. The statue of him outside the Treasury Department is risibly small. The one distinction he could claim was an honored niche on the ten-dollar bill, lifting him into the rarefied company of political immortals.
Hamilton was undeniably the most influential person in our history who never attained the presidency. That he started out as an illegitimate, effectively orphaned, and penniless immigrant from the Caribbean, who didn't know a soul when he arrived in North America at the start of the American Revolution, makes his story worth celebrating in a nation of immigrants. His contributions to forging our country were gigantic and pervasive, starting with his starring role in the Revolutionary War, when he served as aide-de-camp and chief of staff to George Washington, and as a battlefield hero at Yorktown...
Read full article (External Link)


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Kent County doesn't need a new tax on hotel stays: Opinion
Clint Brothers
Quite a blunder.
DE Turf recently sought funding to pay for improvements and bid fees to attract large national tournaments, and the economic stimulus they bring with them, to Kent County Delaware.
The problem is from the get-go, it seems steps were not taken to ensure vast public support. The legislation (SS2 for SB 178) would have enabled Kent County Levy Court to tax hotel guests in Kent County at up to 3% of their total bill for each hotel room stay.
This in itself was not controversial, as Sussex and New Castle County and certain municipalities were granted similar tax enabling legislation. The obvious difference was that this legislation directed the revenue to go, not to the Kent County general fund, but directly to DE Turf.
This, coupled with the hastiness in which it was passed, raised many eyebrows and prompted unfortunate investigative pieces from The News Journal.
According to State Sen. Trey Paradee, at least three Levy Court Commissioners were involved in early discussions with DE Turf regarding the potential tax to include my opponent. It was also recounted that the county administrator went to Dover in order to speak in favor of the legislation giving the revenue directly to DE Turf.
REPORTING THE DE TURF BILL
Should there be an ethics investigation into DE Turf tax?
Paradee to undo state bill that approved DE Turf tax
I do not fault DE Turf in wanting to bring in revenue to compete and secure bids for the large national tournaments. I fault the legislators on not providing the guidance on what will work.
Who is the loser in all this? Kent County.
If they believed a lodging tax was the best course of action — and I don't believe it is — it should have been directed to the Kent County general fund so that Levy Court could have control over the funds.
One of the DE turf board members stated that they had suggested it, but did members of Levy Court?
Lessons could have been learned from earlier in the year when SB 50 failed. This was the legislation that created a statewide property tax to fund maintenance projects at Del Tech.
Funds were to be collected by each county, then dispersed directly to the Del Tech campuses in said counties. For example, the tax collected in Kent County would have funded maintenance at the Terry Campus in Dover. The legislation proved to be quite unpopular and the bill was stricken.
So where do we go from here? Start over. And possibly with some fresh ideas and faces.
A new tax on hotel stays in Kent County is not needed. Currently an 8% lodging tax is collected at the state level, with 5% going to the general fund and 1% to the Office of Tourism.
EDUCATION: Intervening early in reading problems can ensure student success
No one has a Magic 8 ball that can predict whether DE Turf can secure the bid fees for the larger national tournaments, although we hope they can.
This is why I believe the General Assembly should approve one-time funding through the Bond Bill for the improvements and bid fees for DE Turf to attract the national tournaments. Let's see if it works then go from there.
Let's also remember it is not only Kent County seeing economic stimulus when the tournaments roll in. If you go to the tournament hotel booking site (deturfhotels.com) you will see that rooms are booked as far south as Dewey Beach or as far north as Wilmington in some cases.
Let's bring in a fresh voice and a fresh set of eyes and avoid future blunders. Kent County's future depends on it.
— Clint Brothers, Republican candidate for Kent County 5th District Levy Court Commissioner


Show Summary We pause to consider what we've learned about Emotional Labor. Laura digs deeper into the problems she's encountered because of the connection she made between work ethic and approval (and perhaps more importantly, disapproval).
061 – Emotional Labor Pt. 1: What are we even talking about?!!!
056 – Happy 2016! It's Okay to Start Slow. Really.
Show Summary We pause from our normal schedule to give thanks. No music, no production, just two mics and a thankful posture. We'll return with a "normal" show next week.


Watching Macho Man Randy Savage beat Tito Santana for the Intercontinental Championship on TV made me want to become a professional wrestler. I lept at the opportunity to join Incredibly Strange Wrestling in 1999. As a member of ISW, I travel the United States and Canada with the Vans Warp Tour and Europe with the Deconstruction Tour. The ISW ended in 2007 and so did my dream of being a pro wrestler.
Captain Colon Vs. The Man from M.O.N.K.


Josh is a multimedia journalist covering business and technology news at the South China Morning Post. He joined the Post in 2016 as a cadet reporter, and has previously covered community news in Pittsburgh for two years during his undergraduate study at the University of Pittsburgh. He has a degree in philosophy, nonfiction writing and Asian studies. Follow him on twitter at @TheRealJoshYe.
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