We are well aware of the fact that HBO doesn't share much information when it comes to "Game of Thrones". Recently they published several pictures from the upcoming season, but fans were disappointed because they don't actually tell us anything. However, the most loyal fans took the time to analyze them and of course they have a couple of theories.
One of the pictures shows Daenerys and her inner circle, Varys, Missandei, Tyrion and Grey Worm. They are pictured standing in formation before their army looking so fierce and determined.
Another interesting thing, besides the looks on their faces, is the way they are dressed. Tyrion and Varys are wearing the clothes they wore before, but Daenerys, Missandei and Grey Worm have a completely new outfit. The three look amazing all covered up in black leather. Their outfits tell us they are ready for the battle and that it is probably cold, which means that the long time ago heralded winter finally arrived.
However, that is not all. Grey Worm has a brand new collar in addition to the new outfit.
His collar has a pin with three dragon heads, but that is not the traditional Targaryen sigil. It is very close to the original, but still, it has more than obvious distinctions. So, what does that mean? Well, it is still a Targaryen nod. It has dragons that symbolize the house and the three dragons Daenerys has. The logical conclusion would be that Daenerys had decided to establish a new chapter for the Targaryens. She wants to pay respect to the past and bring something of her own to it because she is determined to take back the Iron Throne after so many years.
Another interesting thing is that in the first picture Missandei doesn't have the pin attached to her outfit, but HBO published a picture of Missandei standing alone wearing the same pin Grey Worm has in the first picture. That could mean that either she got a pin of her own or both of them have pins or something else fans would probably be angry about. Yes, since this is "Game of Thrones" that could also mean that Grey Worm dies at the very beginning of the season seven.
If he died, Missandei probably wears the pin to have something to remember him by.
One more fan theory says that Tyrion could actually be a Targaryen. They explained that Daenerys' vision where her brother, Rhaegar, told her about a dragon with three heads actually means that the dragon doesn't literally have multiple heads but that it represents the three dragon riders. The dragon riders have the same goal, think as one and have three dragons. In that case, the riders would be Daenerys, Jon, and Tyrion (who is secretly a Targaryen).
However, Daenerys could just as easily choose Missandei and Grey Worm to ride the dragons and in that case this theory would be false. One thing is absolutely certain, the pin is different for a reason and we are yet to discover the real truth about it.


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Reliance Industries Share: Over 500% Return In 10 years! What's Next?
Reliance Industries:
Return in 10 years
Shares of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) have delivered over 500% return to its long-term shareholders in the last 10 years
About Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is a Fortune 500 company and the largest private-sector corporation in India. RIL's operations span from the exploration and production of oil and gas to the manufacture of petroleum products, polyester products, plastics and synthetic fabrics
RIL stock on D-Street
Shares of Reliance Industries hit their 52-week high of Rs 2,855 on April 29, 2022, and a 52-week low of Rs 2,181 on March 8, 2022
RIL's share price
With a market capitalisation of more than Rs 17 lakh crore, the shares closed at Rs 2524.50 on December 26, 2022
ICICI Securities on RIL
ICICI Securities has revised its rating on the stock from HOLD to BUY with a target price of Rs 3,050
What should investors do?
"Long-term prospects and dominant standing of RIL in each of its product and service portfolios provide comfort for long-term value creation," said ICICI Securities
Motilal Oswal on RIL
Motilal Oswal has reiterated its Buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,875
Reliance Retail acquires
Metro Cash and Carry
Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) recently announced the acquisition of a 100% stake in Metro Cash and Carry India Private Limited
Motiwal Oswal on Reliance
Retail's acquisition
Through this acquisition, Motilal Oswal believes that RRVL would get access to an additional 31 large format stores of Metro India
The stock mentioned in the story is for information purpose only. Investors or market participants should consult their financial advisors before taking any position
World's Best Cuisines 2022: Indian cuisine - Shahi Paneer, Tandoori Chicken in Top 5
Next Visual Story
Story by: Tanya Aneja
Produced by: Prashanti
Designed by: Mohsin
Next: Multibagger stock: Up 220% in 5 years! What's next for L&T Tech?
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Mitad Del Mundo — the Middle of the World — is a pretty sweet landmark. Yeah, it's touristy (because it's cool). Yeah, new technology shows it's not "quite" the exact spot where the world is divided in half. Yeah, I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, I've straddled the equator. As I was walking toward the monument, I was trying really hard to pay attention to the entire space. But really, I was just looking for that yellow dividing line.
Heads up — that's not a zero, as in "zero degrees latitude." That's an "O," as in "Oeste" (Spanish for "West").
You can take an elevator to the top of the monument, and the views are pretty cool from up there, too.
As you descend the stairs, there are various landings where Ecuador's history and culture are on display. Once you're back on the outside, the grounds surrounding the monument are dotted with souvenir shops, museums, and a planetarium.
I think it speaks for itself.


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Global Insights | Perspectives
Guided by Science: Why We Need a National Climate Assessment
By Lynn Scarlett, Chief External Affairs Officer | November 28, 2017
Lynn Scarlett Chief External Affairs Officer
A decade ago, as Deputy Secretary at the Department of the Interior in the George W. Bush Administration, I established a Climate Change Task Force. We were seeing changes impacting lands, waters, wildlife and communities. Earlier snow melting affected the Bureau of Reclamation's ability to project water deliveries from irrigation projects on which thousands of farmers depended. Melting sea ice was contributing to severe coastal erosion along the Alaska coast, putting communities at risk. We were seeing changes in wildlife ranges.
Basic principles of good management, stewardship of public lands, and smart use of taxpayer dollars required us to know as much as we could about climate change, its current and likely future effects—and a deeper understanding of the relationship of human actions to climate change. We needed to understand—and build upon—the science to help us serve the public.
Congress understood this in 1990 when they required a quadrennial report on climate science—and what is called the National Climate Assessment—to "understand, assess, predict and respond to" climate change. We needed this knowledge then; we need it now.
March for Science The Nature Conservancy participates in the March for Science on Earth Day 2017 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. © Lawrence Jackson
This congressional mandate was not a matter of political symbols. It was a matter of advancing public health, safety, prosperity, management efficiency and the natural systems on which all life depends.
Science—then and now—helps us understand "how the world works." What we learn brings us new technologies; better management of risks to communities from fire, drought, erosion and storms; cleaner energy; and much more. Science helped my grandfather contribute to the development of ventilators at steel mills that improved air quality over seven decades ago. Science helped me at the Interior Department to understand why peatland restoration at Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge would reduce the risk of peatland fires that burn for months, covering large areas with thick smoke and leaving large swathes of land devastated. Science helps The Nature Conservancy better understand how to restore soil health in ways that improve agricultural productivity and bring environmental benefits.
Science is a perpetual discovery process. The world around us is dynamic. People initiate and respond to change, developing new priorities, identifying new challenges, and inventing new technologies and solutions. Congress was smart to require updated climate assessments every four years to keep up with the new findings, new observations of changing circumstances, and new decision processes—like scenario planning—to help us link science to decision making.
I took part in developing the 2014 National Climate Assessment—co-leading preparation of the chapter on tools, methods and processes. The information we included was vital to help people in their workplaces, communities and the public sector reduce risks, sustain infrastructure, improve environmental quality, and more.
Florida Sunset illuminates the wetlands along Lykes Brothers Ranch near Palmdale, Florida. © Mac Stone
Taking part in development of the assessment was illuminating. It was an arduous process, involving hundreds of participants from universities and the public and private sectors. Every single statement required documentation—a link from the statement to relevant research and experiences. There was an acute awareness and dogged devotion to the need for clarity, transparency, and forthrightness about levels of certainty in information and analyses provided.
The special report that sets the stage for the 2018 National Climate Assessment was released on November 3, and comes at a time in which political symbols shape public discourse on climate change. I understand the underpinnings of that symbolism: for some, calls for climate action are perceived as cloaking agendas of regulation, big government, and economic costs and constraints on businesses, while for others, commitment to climate action is about commitment to the basic future of the planet.
These symbols conflate science with policy decisions. Science is vital to understanding the planetary changes underway—the effects of rising temperatures on agriculture or permafrost thawing or sea ice melting, and why temperatures are rising, the role of greenhouse gases, and the likely contribution of people to those changes. The world is complex; change is ever-present; we are not omniscient so there are always some uncertainties. But as thousands of scientists observe, analyze and probe these intricacies, taking into account clouds and oceans and sun spots, using age-old ice samples to peer into the past, and employing models of ever-increasing complexity, we get a better understanding of climate change and the role of people in that picture.
Science does not dictate specific solutions—either for advancing cleaner energy and reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions or for reducing risks to people and places from a changing climate. Rather, it gives us insights that, combined with evaluating different policy, technological and marketplace responses, help us respond to climate change, avert potentially large impacts, and secure a more safe and prosperous world. It can take us away from the politics of symbols and provide a platform for practical deliberation.
America cannot afford to bet its future on political symbols. We have science and information available to help guide us.
When I was at the Interior Department, I could not afford the inertia of a politics of symbols. I needed to search for solutions—to make sure farmers received irrigation water; to enhance resilience of coastal communities to extreme storms; and to understand sea ice dynamics, the opening of the Arctic to ship transportation, and what that might mean for homeland security. I needed to have a better understanding of the dynamics of climate change and consider ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I needed to combine the science with a search for solutions that would be effective and efficient and empower people and the marketplace to innovate.
Policymakers, scientists, business leaders, city mayors and others have just met in Bonn, Germany, working together to address both the causes and effects of climate change. The effort is not a top-down exercise in global big government. It is a bottom-up effort with each country crafting its own pathways—and cities, companies and others shaping their own commitments. China is announcing more details on its cap and trade program. Corporations are developing and buying renewable energy; forest managers are restoring forests; the agricultural sector is keeping forests intact to sequester rather than release carbon. States across the United States are not waiting for the federal government to tell them how to reduce carbon emissions; they are taking actions on their own.
The National Climate Assessment is everything that Americans should hope for from its government—meticulously compiled with participation from many agencies and many scientists, with insights from many professions, subject to a commenting process so that its underpinnings can be scrutinized and reviewed. Like the scientific method itself, the process of inquiry is part of what makes it reassuring as a tool to assist in effective decision-making. America cannot afford to bet its future on political symbols. We have science and information available to help guide us. Like others around the globe, in the public and private sectors, we need to use that science to inform our actions.
Check out our latest thinking and real-world solutions to some of the most complex challenges facing people and the planet today. Explore our Insights
Lynn Scarlett is Chief External Affairs Officer at The Nature Conservancy.
More About Lynn Scarlett


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Home Expert viewpoint Customer satisfaction is everybody's business
Coinciding with national Lean Processes day in France on 29 September, OnBoard spoke to Jean-Philippe Delval, Lean Supply Chain Manager for Thales's avionics business, to find out more about these concepts and how they are changing the way Thales works.
Can you remind us what Lean means?
It started in the automotive industry with Toyota, then spread to other sectors. In the aerospace industry, aircraft manufacturers started the ball rolling and encouraged their equipment suppliers to follow suit. The original goal was to optimise production processes to maximise customer satisfaction — and that's still the case today. But nowadays Lean is part of a continuous improvement process involving stakeholders at every level of the supply chain.
How has Thales introduced the Lean approach?
The impetus came from our customers. They had benchmarked their processes against those in place in the automotive industry, and found there were significant opportunities for raising production rates without permanently straining the system. At Thales, we started at the local level with a project on a single manufacturing line, then progressively deployed the concept throughout the Group. Today we apply the Lean approach not only to production and production support but also, increasingly, to product development.
When did you reach a tipping point?
When we stopped focusing on process improvements for individual activities and started thinking in terms of just-in-time everything for the overall system. That shift in focus has allowed us to structure all our activities around a single, clearly defined goal.
How has the workforce responded?
People have welcomed the new approach because they have received the support they needed at every stage. We put in place a comprehensive support system starting with the Industrial Director and extending down to local management. We coached managers individually and then it was up to them to coach their teams and make sure everybody was on board with the ideas and understood the details.
Which activities have been affected the most?
Production and production support — in other words all our industrial activities — have definitely been the most impacted. This is where we have achieved the highest level of lean process maturity. But today we are introducing the Lean approach in areas well beyond the scope of production and production support, and in product development and engineering in particular. We are also in constant contact with our suppliers and customers to share our latest practices as much as possible.
What measurable results have you achieved?
Performance has improved in many ways. One example is our inventory management system, which we have completely overhauled. At each stage in the production process, inventory now stays at the supplier's premises until the customer needs it, so the supplier has a better perception of the customer's production flows. Another concrete example is the way non-compliances are handled. Today the production support team comes and analyses the problem and takes the measures needed to deal with the non-compliance at the operator's workstation, so that problems can be resolved quickly and efficiently.
What's next on the Lean agenda?
We will be building on the achievements in lean production to adopt the approach more widely. Other sectors such as engineering are already introducing lean processes. Of course we won't be replicating exactly what we did in production, but rather adapting the same methods to meet a different set of requirements. The support functions will follow.
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The Thales approach to Lean
Lean is above all a model of management based on developing each individual's contribution to team performance, and ultimately to customer satisfaction. The success of a Lean approach hinges on hands-on management involvement on the ground, a shared vision of the team's goals and objectives, and individual empowerment so that each team member can make their jobs more relevant and rewarding by improving their problem-solving abilities.
Deploying a Lean approach relies on unequivocal engagement by senior management to provide a clear vision and shared direction, maintain a strong local presence on the ground, and support teamwork at every stage in the process.
Find us on Twitter @thales_avionics, on our official Youtube channel Onboard TV and on LinkedIn Thales Aerospace.
#Avionics #Lean #process #thales
Expert viewpoint Jun 23. 2020
LinkedIn opinion piece: Pinpointing the levers that will enable a rebound in the aviation sector
Gil Michielin, Thales EVP for Avionics, has published another opinion piece on LinkedIn. In it, he talks about some of the key vectors that will get passengers back in the air.
Business Jan 29. 2020
New FlytX connected avionics suite selected by VR-Technologies for its civil helicopter
The FlytX avionics suite has been selected by VR-Technologies, a subsidiary of Russian Helicopters, to equip the future VRT500 light single-engine civil helicopter.
Business Oct 23. 2019
Thales to supply flight controls for Gulfstream G700
Thales announces that it will supply flight control computers for the new Gulfstream G700 aircraft. This selection by Gulfstream acknowledges the superior...


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Associative Meaning Fields: Interlingual Gaps and Overlaps
All languages have meaning fields, which is to say that words enter into associative networks formed by connotative variants that extend basic dictionary meanings into semantic nooks and crannies that accommodate subsidiary concepts. In the European languages that share Latin and Greek etyma as historical points of departure, post-medieval and modern developments do not necessarily dovetail, producing interesting differences in semantic utilization of recognizably similar or identical roots. An interesting case in point are the Latin and Greek antecedents of two common words, grammar and letter, in English and Russian.
In English the word grammar is given the following etymology in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed., 2006):
Middle English gramere, from Old French gramaire, alteration of Latin grammatica, from Greek grammatikē, from feminine of grammatikos, of letters, from gramma, grammat-, letter
In Russian the word is grammatika (грамматика), which adheres more closely to the Greek etymon. The latter, as it is captured in the above etymology, derives from the word for 'letter', which shows us how rules of language structure (alias grammar) and the symbols of written language were directly associated in Greek derivational morphology.
Our English word letter, by contrast, has the following Latin etymology (also from the AHD): "Middle English, from Old French lettre, from Latin littera." The adjective literal and the substantive literature no longer maintain the double t of the original and have departed from the Latin sense to configure the modern meanings we have today that are still rooted in the concept of being "lettered."
In Russian, the word litera, also from the same Latin patrimony, now has only a somewhat recondite meaning, viz. 'letter' (archaic) and 'type' (the typographical entity), although the word for 'literature' is practically the same as in English, namely literatura. Whereas English uses literal to mean 'adhering strictly to the letter', by contrast Russian resorts for this meaning to the adjective bukval'nyj, derived from the word bukva 'letter', which is of proto-Germanic provenience (whence E book; cf. G Buch 'book') and shows up as a borrowing from the same source and with the same meaning in all of the Slavic languages.
Russian deviates from Germanic and Romance, however, in how it treats the word borrowed from another version of Greek gramma, namely grammata (pl.) 'letters'. This comes into Russian as a singular noun gramota (грамота), with the primary meaning 'letters, the alphabet', as in (учиться грамоте) 'learn one's letters', i. e., 'learn how to read and write', whence the adjective gramotnyj 'literate'.
It is at this point that English and Russian part company when it comes to associative meaning fields, and just here we can discern how words determine not just thought but one's forma mentis, depending on the semantic peculiarities of one's native language.
Where English uses the word competent to denote either the person or the product that shows a certain level of skill or accomplishment, the older and (practically) demotic word for this concept in Russian is gramotnyj (грамотный), although kompetentnyj also exists as a newer vocabulary item. There is thus a strong association in Russian between being 'lettered' and being 'competent' that is scanted in English, despite the extended meaning of literate. This gives rise in Russian to phrases like gramotnyj kompozitor 'competent composer' and gramotno napisano 'competently composed' [of music] which define a whole conceptual field that is denied to its English counterparts.
One would be hard put to find a more perspicuous proof of pragmatism (in the Peircean sense) than this differential mapping of associative fields in the two languages.
Espying the Spondaic Anapest, Absolutely Voiceless Vowels and Vowel Loss


City Library is today located in a building erected in 1877. in a neorenaissance style used for the purposes of the first Saving Bank in Sombor that was established in 1868. The library was name after Karlo Bijelicki a chief accountant of the Saving Bank in Sombor who gave the building as a gift for establishing the library on the General Assebly held on the 2 nd of January 1859.
The library today has a possession of 300.000 copies of books and has a special collection of 309 rare books among which the olds is believed to be "Zbornik" by Božidar Vuković, printed in Venice in 1538. The library has a collection of books and magazines at the department of Local historic archive with more than 4000 printed publicatios. The library was declared to be the main library in the West Bačka distric and it consists of several departments: a main borrowing department for adults, a science department with a reading room, Internet center and Internet café, department for children and students of primary schools, bookbinding department, bookstore, etc.
The City Library prides itself with the publishing works reflected in the annual cultural magazine "Dometi", youth magazine "Novi Pokret" as well as a literary editions "Golub", "Laza Kostić" and "Seme".


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A high-fat diet without the weight gain? Study says it's possible
By Honor Whiteman on December 6, 2017 — Fact checked by Jasmin Collier
When it comes to gaining weight, a high-fat diet is a key culprit. New research, however, suggests that there may one day be a way to avoid piling on the pounds as a result of eating fatty foods.
Researchers were able to prevent weight gain in mice fed a high-fat diet.
In a newly published study, researchers reveal how activating a specific protein pathway can prevent the growth of fat cells in mice in response to a high-fat diet.
Senior study investigator Fanxin Long, Ph.D. — who works in the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO — and colleagues say that their findings could bring us closer to a new treatment strategy for obesity, which is, at present, thought to affect more than a third of adults in the United States.
The researchers recently reported their results in the journal eLife.
Weight gain is most commonly caused by an energy imbalance, wherein the intake of calories is higher than the number of calories burned.
Over time, an energy imbalance causes the body to store fat. This can lead to weight gain and obesity — which is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.
Foods high in fat, particularly saturated fats, are thought to be a main driver of obesity, especially when consumed in large amounts. But Long and colleagues suggest that there could be a way to prevent weight gain induced by a high-fat diet.
Hedgehog signaling and fat cells
For their study, the team focused on the Hedgehog signaling pathway, which is a complex network of proteins that play a role in various developmental processes.
Previous research in mouse models has shown that the Hedgehog signaling pathway can also inhibit adipogenesis, or the formation of fat cells.
According to Long and his team, the majority of studies have looked at the effects of Hedgehog signaling on adipogenesis during embryonic development, so it has been unclear as to whether activating this pathway in adulthood influences fat cell formation.
To find out, the researchers engineered adult mice to possess genes that activated the Hedgehog signaling in response to a high-fat diet. These rodents were fed a high-fat diet for a total of 8 weeks.
While a control group of mice — whose Hedgehog signaling pathways were not activated when they ate fatty foods — became obese after 8 weeks of a high-fat diet, the genetically engineered mice gained no more weight than control mice that consumed standard chow.
"More importantly," notes Long, "when we did metabolic studies, we found that the animals with the active Hedgehog pathway not only were leaner, they also had lower blood glucose levels and were more sensitive to insulin."
A new way to fight obesity?
The researchers explain that by activating the Hedgehog signaling pathway in the rodents upon consumption of a high-fat diet, they were able to reduce the size of fat cells.
"Fat gain is due mainly to increased fat cell size," explains Long. "Each fat cell grows bigger so that it can hold larger fat droplets. We gain weight mainly because fat cells get bigger, as opposed to having more fat cells."
But the researchers note that applying their results to humans will be challenging; heightened Hedgehog signaling has been linked to increased cancer risk, so any strategy that targets this pathway would need to be approached with caution.
That said, the team believes that its results show promise for a new approach to preventing weight gain.
"If we can come up with strategies to carefully target fat cells, then I think activating this pathway could be effective in the fight against obesity."
Fanxin Long, Ph.D.
"What's particularly important," Long adds, "is that the animals in our study ate a high-fat diet but didn't gain weight, and in people, too much fat in the diet is a common cause of obesity."
Biology / Biochemistry
Nutrition / Diet
Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Foods for gaining weight quickly and safely
Medically reviewed by Grant Tinsley, Ph.D., CSCS,*D, CISSN
People can gain weight by increasing their calorie intake. Learn about a variety of foods that help boost carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats.
What to know about pregnancy weight gain
Medically reviewed by Carolyn Kay, MD
Gaining weight during pregnancy is healthy, and most people should expect to put on 25–35 lb at full term.
10 high calorie snacks for weight gain
Medically reviewed by Alissa Palladino, MS, RDN, LD, CPT
If a person is trying to gain weight, they may want to try adding high calorie snacks to their diet. Learn more.
Chemicals in everyday plastic items may lead to weight gain
New research finds that plastic household items contain thousands of chemicals, some of which can cause the growth of mouse fat cells.
What to know about Apetamin
Medically reviewed by Alexandra Perez, PharmD, MBA, BCGP
Apetamin, which contains the antihistamine cyproheptadine, is an appetite stimulant not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Learn more.


Air freight rates may have rebounded following severe weather disruption across Europe and the US, but one index is reporting a double-digit drop this week.
TAC Index claims China to Europe (at $2.68 per kg) and China to US (at $3.54 per kg) prices have fallen 12.6% and 9.7%, respectively, week on week.
And forwarders told The Loadstar today they have no explanation why.
Figures released yesterday by Freightos show China-US air freight rates at $6-$7 per kg, and the platform warned shippers to book now before a Chinese New Year price hike.
And chief executive of Freightos WebCargo Manel Galindo believes urgent shipments during the China shutdown could soar.
However, one forwarder suggested the TAC Index pricing was more in line with what he was seeing: "roughly $3 per kg for general China-US cargo and $5 per kg for express".
"This is completely normal for January – [as for higher prices] we have high volumes on this route that ensure our clients are covered from 'crazy' market movements," said the forwarder.
Another forwarder seemed perplexed that TAC's European rates were down by as much as 12.6%, believing the market remained strong.
"Europe remains a hot market, and the weather situation at the end of last year alongside the impending Chinese New Year has kept space tight," said the forwarder.
On the ocean side, Freightos reported China-US west coast at $1,362 per 40ft, China-US east coast at $2,319 per 40ft, China-Europe at $1,540 per 40ft and Europe-US east coast at $1,420 per 40ft.
Chief executive Zvi Schreiber said "savvy shippers" should book now to avoid the Chinese New Year rate hikes. But he added: "Ocean prices for shipping out of China are still well down on this time last year.
Again, though, there was disparity between Freightos rates and those of other ocean indices, with SCFI pricing China-Europe at $897 per teu – putting Freightos some $127 down on SCFI.
On the transpacific, SCFI quoted China-US east coast at $2,608 per 40ft (a difference of $289 with Freightos), while there was an $840 per 40ft gap between Freightos' China to US west coast and SCFI's of $2,211.
It is worth noting that Freightos's figure chimed more closely with those of S&P Global, which quoted USEC at $2,400 per 40ft, and USWC at $1,400 – with S&P expecting further declines on USWC rates.


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Microsoft 365: The Definitive Guide
As a business, you need to be flexible, agile, and ready to respond to rapidly-changing market demands, differentiating products and services in an increasingly competitive landscape and delivering exceptional service to customers.
As a business, you need to respond to the demands of tech-savvy employees and adapt to modern workplace trends, while protecting against the growing cybersecurity threat, meeting compliancy and data privacy regulations, and dealing with shadow IT and the use of personal devices in the workplace.
You might also be preparing for end of support for business staples Windows 7 and Office 2010 in 2020 (14 January and 13 October respectively), as well as for the retirement of Skype for Business in 2021.
Microsoft understands the challenges facing the modern business and has introduced a single platform that addresses mobility, collaboration, communication, security, productivity, and business insight requirements: Microsoft 365 - and incorporating the familiar productivity features of Office 365 and Windows 10 with the enhanced security of Enterprise Mobility + Security (EM+S).
Our eBook looks at:
Microsoft 365 — the features
Microsoft 365 — the different types of plans (Business and Enterprise versions)
Microsoft 365 — the benefits
Why buy Microsoft 365, rather than Office 365, Windows 10 and EM+S separately
And if you're not already, a brief look at the benefits of being in the cloud
Download your copy of Microsoft 365: The Definitive Guide
The Definitive Guide to Office 365
Introduction to Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams: Enabling intelligent communication
A Free Guide to Microsoft 365 Business Voice
Seizing the cloud opportunity


Carlingford Holiday Homes is a website that offers deals to stay in Carlingford, Co. Louth. Creating the opportunity to visit Carlingford Adventure complex.
The client approached us to help create a vibrant and friendly site that was easy to use both for the client and the admin. Using the strong magenta is subtle areas it helps create a visually striking and professional identity.


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archiwright
the responsible architect
(Main) Xiaozhou
Baitasi
Baishizhou
Chenjiaci
Chepi
Dashilar
Fairy Water
Liede
Yangji
Ongoing Progress
Biblio Links
Tag: Yangji
Yangji Village: full circle
CDRS Fieldwork, CDRS Project, Urban Heritage
As I leave China to return to the UK, the news of Yangji Village became hugely popular on TV and social media. This village was the first place where I stayed in in Guangzhou and when I was there in June, there was still construction work going on, probably the final phase of the redevelopment of the urban village.
On the 2nd October, the construction has been completed and a feast was thrown to celebrate the reopening of the village. Villagers organised and invited their relatives and friends to join in the celebrations and more than 1500 tables were needed to accommodate the 12 000 attendees.
According to the media, after the redevelopment, each villager was given on average 4 new properties in the high-rise towers. Yangji Village, because of its location in the city centre, has reached a property price of 56 000 RMB per square metre. Based on this price, some villagers would have gained more than 10 000 000 RMB of assest overnight.
The interesting thing was that the news became viral on social media, especially the inequality of the phenomenon. Villagers could become millionares overnight without doing anything in particular. The feast itself costed more than 1 000 000 RMB. What is also worrying is how the villager would spend the money – there are many stories of villagers who spent all of their newly gained money within the night, through gambling them away. Rural villagers are not incorporated into the city's social security net and the money represented these villagers' pension.
June 10, 2016 March 8, 2017 archiwrightBlog, China, Guangzhou, Urban Village, Yangji
Melanie (Ran) Miao is a recent graduate of the University of Cambridge, with an MPhil Architecture and Urban Design degree.


Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is a set of language extensions for querying data. LINQ was first introduced in .NET 3.5, where it attracted serious attention. However, developers had differing opinions about LINQ's practical value. Some thought it was little more than a cute frill, while others saw in it the entire future of data coding.


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Dornin is the surname of:

 Bernard Dornin (1761-1836), the first publisher in the United States of distinctively Catholic books
 Robert Edson Dornin (1912-1982), United States Navy captain and World War II submarine commander
 Thomas Aloysius Dornin (1800-1874), United States Navy commodore

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Today, a man making $50,000 an hour wants us to believe he's the victim.
Clare Stephens
For most of us, today is a regular Tuesday in June. But for former rugby star Israel Folau, it's a day where he's making roughly $1000 a minute.
On average, every hour, he's made about $50,000.
That's what some Australian workers earn in a year.
Why is he earning hundreds of thousands of dollars so rapidly? Because he's being persecuted. Because he's being discriminated against. Because Australia won't allow him his freedom. Because he's not allowed to share his religious views.
That's why everyday Australians have broken fundraising records to give him his voice. Because his voice (the same one asking for money) is being dangerously silenced.
Folau's fight started in April this year, when he shared a biblical passage on Instagram stating that hell awaited "drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolaters" unless they repented.
He was notified that the post constituted a "high-level breach" of the player code of conduct, outlined in his contract, and in early May he appeared in front of a Rugby Australia panel.
After the hearing, it was decided that Folau's four-year contract would be terminated.
Change.org executive director Sally Rugg on Israel Folau. Post continues below video.
Video by Q&A
"We want to stress that this outcome is a painful situation for the game," Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle said at the time.
"Rugby Australia did not choose to be in the situation, but Rugby Australia's position remains that Israel, through his actions, left us with no choice but to pursue the course of action resulting in today's outcome."
Folau has made it clear that he wishes to fight the decision, and last week, he launched a GoFundMe page asking Australians for money to fund the rest of his action in court.
"Rugby was my livelihood," the page read.
"Earlier this year, I uploaded some messages from the Bible on my Instagram page.
"I know some people do not like or believe in the Bible. Indeed, what makes our country so wonderful is that we have such a diverse community made up of so many different cultures and values. But my faith defines me as a person. I do not believe that it is fair or right that I be punished for my religious beliefs.
"I have lost my job, my livelihood, and the ability to play for my country. It looks like I will never be allowed to play rugby in this country again."
Folau stated that he had started legal proceedings against Rugby Australia and Rugby NSW, which could take years to unfold. "My wife Maria and I have already spent over $100,000 of our own money," he wrote.
The Robert Mueller Report
Tell Me Its Going To Be Ok
Image via Australian Christian Lobby.
"I have the fight of my life on my hands and every little bit will help."
Four days and $750,000 later, GoFundMe removed Folau's page.
"As a company, we are absolutely committed to the fight for equality for LGBTIQ+ people and fostering an environment of inclusivity," GoFundMe Australia's regional manager Nicola Britton said on Monday. "While we welcome GoFundMe's engaging in diverse civil debate, we do not tolerate the promotion of discrimination or exclusion."
The Australian Christian Lobby quickly responded.
By Tuesday morning, the group's managing director Martin Iles had tweeted a link to a new fundraising page on the Australian Christian Lobby's website, announcing that they would also be donating $100,000 towards his cause.
By early Tuesday evening, the page had raised over $1 million.
Speaking to media, legal experts like Kamal Farouque from Morris Blackburn Lawyers have estimated Folau's legal costs couldn't possibly exceed $300,000 in total.
So currently, there's a residual $500,000 that could be going directly to either the Australian Christian Lobby or Israel Folau himself - a man the Sydney Morning Herald estimates has a property portfolio worth $7 million.
How is a person whose freedom of speech has been taken away, who is the victim of religious discrimination, who is being punished for what he believes, able to raise so much money, so quickly?
How is someone who isn't allowed to speak his mind receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars to support his pursuit of doing just that?
Because Israel Folau is not, by any definition, a victim.
No one has taken his freedom away.
He is allowed to speak his mind, no matter how hurtful, how discriminatory, how ill-informed. He just isn't allowed to be paid $4 million a year by Rugby Australia while he does it.
The success of Israel Folau's fundraising efforts show exactly how bizarre it is that they exist in the first place.
This is not a man who is being persecuted.
This is a man who today, is making $1000 a minute. And counting.
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A blog that I've found myself reading more and more over the past few months is Youth Leaders Academy written by the lovely Rachel Blom. Originally from The Netherlands and currently residing in Germany, Rachel writes in English on experience of working with Christian young people and is consistently coming up with brilliant, practical advice for workers.
For examples, check out this post on preaching to young people, or this one on allowing mistakes in ministry.
I keep coming back to the site and find the wisdom and detail really helpful. I wish I had written some of the posts on there! Seriously, you should add the site to your blogroll. Got it? Great.
I am a qualified youth worker, writer and consultant based in Littlehampton, UK. I've worked in the voluntary youth sector for over 12 years, am married to Kirsty and we have two daughters named Hope and Eloise. Check out 'Journeying Together: Growing Youth Work and Youth Workers in Local Communities' and read my opening chapter.


Raphael Cavelli—archaeologist—wanderlust—heir to the Cavelli fortune–wonders why he isn't in some watering hole in Peru drinking a lukewarm cerveza next to a bosomy blonde. Instead, he's back in Chicago trying to stay one step ahead of the law for stealing the archaeological find of the century when he bumps, literally, into the reason he left seven years ago–the girl he traveled half way across the globe to forget.
Download a FREE copy of the Cavelli Family Recipe Book right now by joining our newsletter today!
Michael Vincente Cavelli would have been happy as a farmer; instead, he has a lot on his plate–being the only rational Cavelli male for starters, and then running the family's successful dairy. If that isn't enough, someone is out to cripple his business propelling him into lies and treachery weaving back a generation. So when a redheaded siren appears at his door the morning of his sister's wedding, he wonders about the deity's sense of humor.
"When we unearth an old family recipe, we become keepers of tradition, connecting our family to generations past."


Effectively Using Overture Yahoo To Get Website Visitors!
Overture or now known as Yahoo because of Yahoo's takeover, was the original inventor of the use of the P4P or Pay for Performance.
Overture saw that the internet was fast becoming the easiest and most convenient way to shop, and advertising was going to hit at an all time high because of the many businesses in the arena.
Yahoo/Overture utilizes the same principle as Google's Adwords. In fact, they are very similar to each other that they use keyword and keyword phrase searches and to determine which ads to show per search.
When a person types in a keyword or keyword phrase to search for anything, the search engines gives out the results in a page. Then at the right side of the page, you will see selected ads that have paid for their ads to be viewed with certain keywords and keyword phrases searched.
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THE heir to an aviation fortune who murdered his ex-girlfriend has now been convicted of killing his dad - six years after his death was ruled suicide.
Dellen Millard is already serving two life sentences for the murders of ex Laura Babcock and Tim Bosma in 2013.
Millard inherited millions when his dad Wayne was found shot in the head in 2012.
He wept in court as a judge in Ontario, Canada declared him guilty of killing his father.
Wayne's death was originally ruled a suicide with his son claiming his father had become a depressed alcoholic.
The day after his dad died Millard said: "He carried some great sadness with him throughout life that I never knew - he never wanted to share that with me."
But after Millard and his accomplice Smich were found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 2017 and Tim Bosma in 2016 police began looking into his past.
Employees at the family company, MillardAir, said there had been escalating tensions between the father and son.
Cops began re-examining Wayne's apparent suicide after his son was convicted of the two other murders of Babcock and Bosma.
Prosecutors accused Millard of wanting to kill his dad to protect his inheritance because Wayne was ploughing ever more money into the family business.
Days after his father's death, Dellen Millard fired everyone at MillardAir and wound the business up, the court heard.
He claimed to have been staying at his pal, and accomplice in the other two murders he was convicted of, Smich's house on the night of his dad's death.
But phone records proved that he returned to Wayne's home during the early hours of that morning.
Millard claimed to have discovered his dad in bed with a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
However the illegally purchased weapon found next to his father had Millard's DNA on it.
Smich was not charged in relation to Wayne Millard's murder.
Dellen Millard is set to be sentenced for his dad's murder on November 16.
Millard's ex Laura's body was never found but the court in Ontario, Canada, heard Millard and accomplice Mark Smich destroyed her body with fire.
Cops later found a twisted poem on Smich's iPad saying: "The b**** started off all skin and bone, Now the b**** lay on some ash stone, Last time I saw her was outside the home, And if u go swimming u can find her phone."
Tim Bosma had been trying to sell his diesel vehicle, and his wife Sharlene Bosma had posted an ad online.
Bosma joined the two for a test-drive - and never returned.
His human remains were late found on an incinerator on Millard's farm.
During the Babcock trial, a total of 65 handwritten letters that Millard sent to his girlfriend at the time, Christian Noudga, were discovered by police and seen as a key piece of evidence.
In one letter, Millard reportedly talked about "the night Laura disappeared" saying she overdosed in his basement after doing cocaine with Smich.
Christina Noudga pleaded guilty in 2016 to obstructing justice and helping Millard destroy evidence on Bosma's murder.


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Q: White flickering when keyboard pops up in my react native app I'm using expo sdk 40. Tried changing backgroundColor prop in app.json and still no change . Is it a known issue in react native?

A: If you're using Expo, changing the softwareKeyboardLayoutMode in the app.json worked for me.
"android": {
    "softwareKeyboardLayoutMode": "pan",
    ...(other properties)
}

Keyboard white flickering with React Native

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


There is nothing like soup to warm your body and your soul. It is the only dish that transcends class and rank. It is the only food equally adored by the masses. There is a good reason for this. Soup preparation is the oldest type of cooking that exists. It literally goes back to the roots of civilization. There is proof of ancient people cooking soup back to 6000 B.C.— when one of the main ingredients would have been hippopotamus!
If you think about it, making soup was one of the easiest cooking methods around: combine nutritious ingredients in a pot and boil until edible. In the beginning, there weren't any soup receptacles around to be put over a fire. This is where the legend of "stone soup" came from. I learned this tale back in kindergarten and it has always stuck with me.
A beggar knocks on a cottage door looking for food or a place to stay. A woman answers the door and is hesitant to let anyone enter her home. With a silver tongue he promises her the soup of a lifetime made from the stone in his pocket. He pulls out a smooth river stone, and she reluctantly lets him in. He sets the stone into the embers of her fire place until it is red-hot. He throws it into a cauldron of water. He tastes the soup thoughtfully. "This would really taste better with some vegetables and potatoes," he says. The woman hurriedly agrees and supplies the produce. After several more minutes and thoughtful tasting, he states, "This would taste so much better with some hen or fowl." She quickly butchers an annoying roaster chicken and throws it in the pot. After much deliberate thought, the beggar declares the rock soup perfect and they eat almost the whole pot. They leave enough for the woman's husband for when he gets home. The beggar licks the stone clean, puts it into his pocket. The woman thanks him profusely for the magical stone soup, and with a smile the beggar is on his way again.
I'm not going to lie. After hearing this story, I would put stones in my soup claiming it would make it better. It took a couple of years for the lesson to sink in. It's the heart, soul, and ingredients that you put into your soup (and food) that makes it magical. When you make a pot of wonderful, healing, and comforting soup this season, you know Savory Spice Shop can help with spices and recipes for soups from around the world. From seasonings and aromatics to demi glaces and bouillon cubes, we have all the components to build the layers of flavor in your favorite soup. You'll just have to provide the rocks.
Kate's Quick & Easy Tomato Soup: This takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and uses ingredients you likely already have in your spice rack, including tomato powder, bouillon cubes, garlic salt, and Turkish bay leaves.
Italian Style Vegetarian Farro Soup: This is a great excuse to try our fines herb bouillon cubes if you haven't yet. It would also work with other vegetarian bouillon like onion or truffle. I highly recommend the suggested sprinkle of Italian black truffle sea salt before serving this hearty meal.
Turkish Red Lentil Soup: This is a really simple, beautifully flavored soup. It features a uniquely Mediterranean combination of spearmint and sumac.
Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup: It's like eating tacos from a slow cooker! And it's incredibly easy to make—just throw everything into the slow cooker with our Taco Seasoning and you have a family-friendly meal by the end of the day.
Thai Pumpkin Soup: Featuring our Red Thai Curry and makrut lime leaves, this coconut creamy soup has a little kick and the flavor makes you feel like your sipping on a curry dish.


Why should you let Microsoft ruin an otherwise perfect day?
When I was younger, I got together with friends now and then for an evening of drinking beer and discussing the perfidy of Microsoft and just how bad Windows was technically, especially considering the endless amount of R&D money poured into it.
Nowadays I am tired of hating, and if I decide to take it up again as a hobby I can think of many better targets for my bile than Microsoft. Really. Certain terrorist groups, American politicians we won't name here, and N. Korean dictators are all worse than Microsoft when it comes to pure "ruin the world" evil. Even worse, Bill Gates has gone from exploiter and astroturfer-in-chief to (possibly) the most generous philanthropist in history.
I mean, how can you hate someone who goes around wiping out deadly diseases?
That depends on how long a memory you have, and mine can go to the moon and back, no problem, so Microsoft astroturf makes me madder today than it did when it was fresh because it was the original "fake news" that started chipping away at people's trust in American journalism — and you know where that led.
But I don't think anyone at Microsoft anticipated the 2016/2017 political scene back when they started down the highway to astroturf. They just wanted people to believe Windows was more reliable than it really was, and that Microsoft was a benevolent uncle of a company, not a greedy, grasping corporate monster.
I personally attribute this improvement in Windows to Linux. All that good stuff about competition, you know. So yes, every Windows user should say "thank you" to every Linux developer. It won't happen, but I've long thought it should.
Anyway, Linux and Windows are both far more usable by ordinary people than either one was 10 years ago. So why should I hate Windows or Microsoft? It doesn't do any good.
Besides, I now do nearly half of my "computing" in Android. Should I start hating Android now?
So! I guess the center in my brain responsible for that will never evolve after all. Who cares, it is the way I am. Blame, system, my parents, me self. Don't care about that stuff.
When I will trust MS, well there is four levels in the kernel and only two are accessible to the average programmer.
Why things need to be that complicated, well we know now.
I'm very grateful that old versions of Microsoft Windows crashed left and right. I would have never found Linux otherwise!
Today I care about free software because I care about freedom. Eighteen years ago I got interested in free software because I didn't have enough money to buy all the copies of Windows my family needed and I was sick to death of dealing with crashes and reinstalls.
What a splendidly written puff piece. Do you feel that Microsoft's advertising branch can't endear Microsoft to open source thoroughly enough?
Sure, Microsoft has been contributing to open source. Sure it has some redeeming qualities. But it still ships Windowson almost every computer on the market, it still bids against free software in the government sector, it has no real interest in interoperability or consumer choice.
It's nice that you've decided you're too old to care about these things, but don't try to normalize a corrupt and harmful corporation.
I guess I'm unrepentant… I would prefer to retain control of my computer systems.
Perhaps "hate" is too strong a term, but "Intense, active dislike bordering on paranoia" might be more accurate.
The old saw: "once burned, twice shy" is very accurate with respect to my experiences with the Redmond products.
I have burned that bridge, cut the telegraph wires and maintain an ongoing jamming operation for all things MSish.
"Hate" is indeed too strong a word, but I definitely think it's a good idea to treat Android with skepticism. Google is not your friend, and Android, while nominally open, is a security and privacy nightmare.
My phone's currently running LineageOS and doesn't have Gapps installed, so it's a lot better than a stock Android install. But that's not a reasonable solution for most users, and it still requires proprietary blobs to work.
In 2003, there was a writer who recommended something interesting. Put Windows as a shell, on a Linux core.
Guess effectively what Android is (and why you don't hate it).
I Cringely What Lies Beneath.
Everybody must decide for themselves, including if your going to use the provided for you computers on a job, that may be Windows. I keep a Windows box for games. I prefer Linux for everything else, but not all "my" pc's are mine to control, as both work and Microsoft have rights.
They are still the dirty aggressor they've always been.
If you use Windows, you've given up on privacy and the right to control your own data.
@Randal I have a Windows laptop that was "provided for me" by a publisher that employs me. I start it up once a week so it can update itself, but haven't used it since I received it. I do all of my work from my home office on my Linux desktop, and when I go to a conference I carry one of my Linux laptops. I personally find myself pulling hair from my head whenever I'm forced to work on Windows.
Like Mike S., I too found Linux when an update almost hosed my copy of Windows 2000. After 2 hours of fixing things the first thing I did was search on 'alternate operating system'. This thing called Linux popped up, starting a 17 year journey that is still going strong. I use Linux at work as well, so I can honestly say I wouldn't use Windows if you paid me.
They are in an embrace stage and we need to remain optimistic yet vigilant.
They change the GUI style quicker than the fashion industry changes clothing styles. It's gotten to the point where I have begun memorizing the cpl commands for the control panel because it is easier. Meanwhile at home I have been using gnome 2/mate for almost 2 decades.
@Kevin M: If I wanted to point to a stable UI that hasn't changed in radical and obnoxious ways, GNOME wouldn't be my first example. It's not so much that the Linux world doesn't see huge and unwelcome UI overhauls as that when it happens there, someone forks the old codebase instead of a bunch of people just staying on the previous version.


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Nilghai-antilopen (Boselaphus tragocamelus) er en stor, asiatisk antilope i underfamilen Bovinae blandt de skedehornede pattedyr. Den er udbredt i åben skov og på sletter i det sydlige Asien. Hannen er gråblå og kan veje op til 300 kg. Hunnen er brunlig. Kun hannen har horn, der er cirka 20 cm lange. På struben findes en hvid plet, hvorunder der hos hannen findes en løsthængende hårdusk. Nilghai-antilopen er den eneste art i slægten Boselaphus.

Noter

Eksterne henvisninger

Dyr fra Sydasien
Skedehornede


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Five FedEx Drivers Earn Honors at the Utah Truck Driving Championship
SALT LAKE CITY – June 11, 2013 – Five drivers representing FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) operating companies placed among the top finishers at the 2013 Utah State Truck Driving Championship in Salt Lake City on June 7-8.
Dan Brophy, owner of D&E Delivery Services, Inc. based at the FedEx Ground station in Provo, captured first place in the Step Van class.
Salt Lake City-based Ron Pease, a driver for FedEx Freight, and Steve Clark, a driver for Ugarte Trucking, Inc. based at the FedEx Ground station, finished second and third, respectively, in the 3-Axle class. Clark also posted a perfect score on the written exam portion of the competition.
Kent Pierson, owner of Mbongo, Inc. based at the FedEx Home Delivery station in Salt Lake City, and Ronald Haskell, a driver for Klien P&D Inc. based at the FedEx Ground station in Logan, completed the sweep in the Step Van class with their second- and third-place finishes, respectively.
Brophy will go on to compete at the American Trucking Associations' 2013 National Truck Driving Championships (NTDC), known as the "Super Bowl of Safety," August 20-24 in Salt Lake City. In addition, each state winner will be recognized by FedEx as part of its safe driving initiative, The Chairman's Challenge.
"Our company is represented by professional drivers who not only strive daily to ensure shipments are delivered on time, but also that they remain safe on the road. It's a fundamental priority in our company," said Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO, FedEx Corp. "The performance of these participants at the Utah state championship demonstrates the dedication to safety of our entire team."
The Utah State Truck Driving Championship is an opportunity for professional truck drivers to demonstrate their driving skills and safety expertise. The event includes a difficult driving-skills challenge, pre-trip inspection and written examination covering vehicle operation and knowledge of federal safety regulations.
In 2012, 137 driving professionals from 46 states representing FedEx Freight, FedEx Ground, FedEx Express and FedEx Custom Critical qualified to compete at the National Truck Driving Championships by winning their respective state's competition and driving accident-free for at least one year. One FedEx competitor captured the National Grand Champion title. In addition, FedEx drivers captured National Champion titles in the Flatbed, 3-Axle and Step Van classes. Eight other FedEx drivers earned top-three finishes in their respective vehicle classes.


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Build Your Own Gun: CZ Configurator Now Available in the United States
in Guns, Handguns
CZ first launched its Configurator in the Czech Republic and Europe as a proving ground to work out the kinks. Following its success in CZ's home country the company is now making the custom builder available to its US customers. As a result, you can build the custom CZ pistol you've always wanted, exactly the way you want it.
The CZ Configurator
When you first enter the Configurator, you are presented with three models to choose from as your base. The models available are the TS2, CZ Shadow 2, and CZ P-10. However, the models displayed for each country differ.
Once you select a model you're taken to a page with a complete list of available features. Each feature lists the price underneath, so you can select your components based on your budget. As you add features, a running total on the bottom lets you keep track of the overall cost.
The customization starts with the frame and slide where you can select the frame/slide/grip colors, barrel bushing, and magwell. Next you move on to sights, with an option to make it optics ready. Additionally, you can also select your front and rear sights, and a Trijicon optic, if you don't already have one.
You then move on to the controls where you start by selecting an improved trigger and hammer. Likewise, you can opt for an extended magazine catch and set the controls for right- or left-handed shooters. However, switching the magazine catch to left-handed comes with an additional fee. It comes with a standard flat manual safety but can be upgraded to a wide safety for right- or left-handed shooters.
Finally, you finish with the magazine base. The standard polymer +2 round base is included but you can upgrade to a colored aluminum base in standard capacity or +2.
Once you are done building your pistol, provide CZ with your FFL and they will ship it via FedEx. And it comes with CZ's full warranty. Also, if you would like you can share your build with friends via email or on Facebook with a unique link. Likewise, you can save an image of your build for other uses.
I selected the Shadow 2 for this exercise, and it starts with a base price of $1,410.00. Just in the interest of science, and because it was fun, I went all out on this build. I selected every upgrade possible in the builder, other than a couple of the colors (because I like subtlety).
By the time I finished this build, the cost reached $3,366.00. But, like I said, I went all in on almost every option available and built a CZ I would love to own.
As I mentioned earlier, you can share your build with friends via a unique link. For example, check out my build here. Likewise, using the image download provides a detailed, high-resolution image for personal use. An example of the build in this exercise is below.
The CZ Configurator is now available in the United States. Final product MSRP will vary based on your build. For more info, please visit CZConfigurator.com/US/.
A 3-Gunner's Dream: The Dark Storm Industries Variant 1 Rifle
The MAC Defense Industries MAC19 Is a Custom Glock 19 Built to Fight


The Journey Starts with Now.
The spiritual journey needs to start somewhere, and the contemplative way is to begin by focusing on ourselves.
According to the dharma, every state of mind can be worked with and everyone can benefit from mindfulness practice. Therefore, whatever we are experiencing right now is exactly what we need to work with and where the journey begins.
The spiritual journey often begins when we have hit bottom and are suffering deeply. It may be essential at this time to work with a trusted and experienced therapist until we are stable enough to confront and work directly with our own mind. Even though it is up to us to do the inner work of meditation practice, it is also important to enlist the help of others in our recovery.
The best medicine is to combine our work in psychotherapy with our spiritual practice.
Even if we have not totally bottomed out, but rather are starting to admit our overall dissatisfaction with life. On the outside, everything looks okay, but on the inside there is an empty feeling that nothing seems to fill. This is where dharma practice is especially helpful. The teachings encourage us to stop looking outside for our happiness. Rather, the instruction is to sit down, focus on our breath, and begin to look inside. Once we start to practice in this way, we will see how genuine happiness comes from within. It is not dependent on anything external.
Facing our dissatisfaction with life is not easy, but connecting with how badly we want to feel better is what gives us the motivation to do the work. In other words, we need the tools to be able to stay present and directly experience our suffering so that we can rouse the energy to get out of our suffering. This does not mean that we sink so far into despair that we are traumatized again. It means that we touch into our pain, see it for what it is, just enough to get to the root of how this whole thing started. This understanding is what allows us to develop compassion for ourselves and all the creative ways we tried to cope with the situations we were given.
We begin to see how we keep the momentum of our childhood psychological conditioning alive in our mind today. In subtle and gross ways, we perpetuate those patterns upon ourselves.
Interrupting this cycle, is what the Buddhist term, renunciation is all about. We can't go back in time to change the past and what happened to us. We can only start now by taking hold of our situation and giving up those habitual patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that keep us stuck. Even if we are not able to totally give up the habits, just by disrupting the momentum a little bit, we gain the upper hand so that they don't have such a firm hold on us. We can use our mindfulness practice to help us stay closer with our personal experience. If we continue to distract and numb out we won't be in touch with how we keep the unhealthy patterns alive in our own psyche. We won't be able to see the self negating beliefs clearly enough to remove them. We need to uproot the cause itself, the things we continue to do and say to ourselves that keep the whole cycle going.
We can't change the past, but we can change the way we treat our body, heart, and mind in the present moment. Remember that it is important to appreciate where we have gotten ourselves today, whatever that looks like. Even if we wish we were further along in our healing, we can feel good about all the work that we've done to be where we are right now.
The whole point of the spiritual journey is to find a sense of wealth by having contentment with who we and where we are every step of the way.


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PSG could look to team up Pep Guardiola with Xavi in the dugout next season - report
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola could be reunited with his former Barcelona charge Xavi Hernandez at PSG next season, say reports.
Xavi enjoyed an illustrious playing career with Barcelona before departing for Qatari club Al Sadd in 2015, and he retired earlier this year to become manager of the Doha outfit.
According to reports in Le 10 Sport, the PSG hierarchy are considering a move to bring the Spaniard to the French capital to work under Guardiola next season.
Current boss Thomas Tuchel has a contract with the Ligue 1 champions until 2021, but he has been linked with a move to Bayern Munich.
And Xavi is said to be respected by decision-makers in Qatar, who are keen to team him up with Guardiola at the Parc des Princes.
Guardiola has a contract with the Citizens until 2021, and he has denied reports that he has a break clause in his contract that would allow him to depart at the end of this season.
But PSG are encouraged by the fact that City have already fallen 14 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League title race, while they are one of the only teams who can match the €2m per month wages that the 48-year-old currently earns.
Guardiola is in his fourth season in charge of City and has won back-to-back league titles in the last two campaigns, as well as an FA Cup and two League Cups.
His side beat Oxford United 3-1 on Wednesday to book a place in the League Cup semi-finals against Manchester United, and they host second-placed Leicester in the Premier League on Saturday.
COLUMN: Andy Mitten: What we've learned from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first year at Manchester United
FFT100: The 100 Best Football Players in the World 2019: first 50 names released
Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, PSG, Bayern Munich, Xavi, Al Sadd, Premier League, Thomas Tuchel, Ligue 1
Tuchel: Guardiola's Bayern were nothing like Barcelona
Bayern Munich want to build long-term project around Pep Guardiola (again) - report
Pep Guardiola's agent refuses to rule out return to Bayern Munich
Gundogan hails 'father figure' Klopp ahead of Liverpool v Manchester City
Jamie Murphy joins Burton on loan from Rangers
Quiz! Can you name the top three all-time goalscorers for every current Premier League club?


When you join Bolton PTA, you join a community that encourages student achievement and enriches their learning environment. We believe in building partnerships. We believe TOGETHER we can help our children be successful.
The PTA offers a variety of items to make your school year a breeze! The class directory lists all students by classroom, and is great for phoning classmates for missed assignments, mailing invitations, and much more. The school message pads contain 50 sheets and make communicating with your child's teacher for common items like pickup changes and appointments a snap.
Otherwise, you may buy the items online below.
Prices are a little higher online due to fees that Paypal charges us. Please click on Add to cart and your items will appear in your cart on the right hand side. We need to charge for the app yearly to cover the cost of the subscription for the program that we use. Thank you for your understanding.
SMART PHONE APP/ONLINE ACCESS – $4.46 ($4.00 if paying by check).


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2012 U.S. Open Preview: 7 Races to Watch in Indy
Tennessee's Kelsey Floyd highlights the lineup at the U.S. Open (Photo Courtesy: ©Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)
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It's not quite time for swimming fans to exhale yet. This upcoming week, we've still got the open water 10k in London's serpentine (full preview of that event here), and the 2012 U.S. Open in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The "U.S. Open" designation makes this meet a National Championship, but available to swimmers of all nationalities both in prelims and finals. Sometimes this is restricted when the meet is being used as a World Championship selection event, but this year it's fair-game for all.
Psych Sheets.
Live Results.
Many countries are taking advantage of that opportunity. The Brits are sending 21 of their top young swimmers over, including butterflier Jack Marriott, backstrokers Jessica Fullalove and Georgia Hohmann, and breaststroker Molly Renshaw, who despite meeting the FINA automatic qualifying time at Britain's Trials in March was not taken to the Olympics as a second entry in the 200 breast.
Other major squads that will be in attendance include groups from
Australia (Declan Potts, Daniel Lester, Matthew Abood, Andrew Abood, Kenneth To, Robert Hurley, Josh Beaver, Grant Irvine)
Canada (Sandrine Mainville)
France (Camille Gheorghiu, Beryl Gastaldello, Mehdy Metella)
New Zealand (Samantha Richter, Shaun Burnett)
For the Americans, this meet will serve as their only selection meet for the 2013 World University Games in Kazan, Russia. The top two swimmers who are also college students this coming year (though not necessarily competing in NCAA swimming) will be eligible to make the trip. This two-per race came after some debate when the plan initially was only to take a half-roster of 26 total swimmers. Now, there can be up to 52 swimmers, which is generally speaking enough to cover top two in all individual events. Full selection criteria here.
This meet, combined with the Olympic Trials and Olympic Games, will be the official American selection meet for the Short Course World Championhips in Istanbul, Turkey. Many big swimmers decline invites to that meet, especially in Olympic years so this could be a chance for a lot of swimmers to break-through. Even in 2010, an off year, the world was introduced to one Missy Franklin, who took silver in the 200 back even though Liz Pelton and Elizabeth Beisel were entitled to the spots.
Here's some big races to watch at the U.S. Open this year:
1. Men's 100 Free – The Australians are bringing three outstanding sprinters to this party. That includes the Abood brothers – older brother Matthew was on Australia's World Championship 400 free relay at last year's World Championships. They also bring former teen phenom Kenneth To, now just past his 20th birthday. The real shining star, though is France's 20-year old Mehdy Metella – the best kept secret in the country's rising swimming program. He has a best of 49.17 in the 100 free, and a 52.8 in the 100 fly. He will be the number-two seed in this race. The Americans' two answers will be Tyler Reed, a Kentucky post-grad, and Aaron Wayne from Stanford, both of whom cracked 50 seconds at Trials.
2. Women's 200 Fly – The best night of this meet might be the first. Aside from the 100 free above, we'll also see the women's 200 fly. 2008 Olympian Kim Vandenberg comes in as the favorite, but Kelsey Floyd from Tennessee's vaunted butterfly program and 2011 World Championship team member Jasmine Tosky are close behind. Tosky struggled at the Olympic Trials, and we'll find out in Indy what she's been doing since then. Floyd shocked a lot of people by finishing 4th in both butterfly events at Trials. Pushing the Americans will be Great Britain's Elena Sheridan. She's only 16, but has already been a 2:10.40 en route to the 2011 European Junior title.
3. Men's 400 Free – Men's 400 frees are rarely "top races" in American competition of late, but this one could be a great one. It will feature three finalists from the U.S. Olympic Trials: Michael Klueh, Ryan Feeley, and Michael McBroom who other than McBroom will all soon be training together at Michigan. Close behind them is former National Team'er Sean Ryan, another Michigan Wolverine, and Jan Daniec from Virginia. Trying to spoil the party will be Australia's Robert Hurley. Hurley is a former World Record holder in the 50 short course backstroke, but is truly a middle-distance specialist. He is the third-fastest Australian in this 400 free this year.
4. Women's 100 Back – Georgia Bulldog Megan Romano, a finalist at the Olympic Trials, will be looking to dip under a minute for the first time and is a huge favorite to make a second-straight WUG's team. She will be chased, though, by Cal's NCAA Champion Cindy Tran, who seems to have made big leaps in her long course swimming this summer. Bonnie Brandon, that other incredible high school backstroker from Colorado, has a top 5 seed as well. She was the country's highest-ranked recruit in the class of 2012 and will be going to Arizona next season. The international lineup here is just as, if nore more, exciting, though. Japan's timeless Noriko Inada, at 34-years old, is the number two seed, and all will be going against a phenomenal British trio of Lauren Quigley, Jessica Fullalove, and Georgia Hohmann. The three are 17, 16, and 18 respectively, and are quite reminiscent of the Gemma Spofforth-Lizzie Simmonds group that we saw go through Britain's junior level a few years ago en route to European and World Records.
5. Men's 200 Back – This race could mirror pretty closely the 200 backstroke final for the 2020 Olympics (if not 2016). Top American juniors Jacob Pebley and Jack Conger, both Olympic Trials finalists, won't see countrymate Ryan Murphy in this race, but they'll get the best teens from the UK and Australia instead. British 19-year old Craig McNally and Australia's Josh Beaver both have bests at 1:58, like their American counterparts. New Zealand's Kurt Bassett and France's Eric Ress are both in their very-early 20's, but fall into that same time range.
6. Men's 200 IM – This battle looks like on paper to be a two-man battle, as it will square off Australia's Kenneth To, a former Australian Junior Record holder and their fastest overall in 2011, against Texas Longhorn Austin Surhoff, who across-the-board had a phenomenal Olympic Trials in late June. They are the only two who are seeded under two minutes, but watch out for spoilers in Arizona's Cory Chitwood, a phenomenal backstroker, and former National High School Record holder Kyle Whitaker of Michigan. Whitaker had a solid Olympic Trials, but looked like maybe he was saving his full taper for this meet rather than battling Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte for IM spots on the Olympic Team.
7. Women's 200 Breaststroke – This race will be a mini-preview of next year's NCAA Championship final. Andrea Kropp, preparing to begin her first season with USC after a redhisrt transfer year, will be the top seed followed by Texas' Laura Sogar, who has had a phenomenal summer of long course swimming. Louisville's Gisselle Kohoyda is little-known but loaded with talent, and Haley Spencer is a former NCAA Champion. Emma Schoettmer is the top breaststroke recruit in next year's freshman class, and all of them will match up with Britain's Molly Renshaw, who at only 14 has already been a 2:26.8.
« Medals, Medals, Everywhere, But What Does It All Mean?
The Swim Bachelorette »
Bonnie Brandon
Jack Conger
Jacob Pebley
Kenneth To
Michael Klueh
Michael McBroom
Molly Renshaw
Sean Ryan
McBroom going to Michigan too?
How can you tell that Whitaker looked like he was saving his taper for US Open?
I have a question. For swimmers that are retiring, like Phelps and Berens, are two more slots on the national team created? If you take the top 6 times in the 200 free for example, will it still be the top 6 times but only 4 swimmers or do Tarwater and Klueh get the nod for that event.
you still have to be in the top 16 in the world, so if they still are that, then probably so
Not for national team you don't. That is only for the athlete partnership agreement. National team is strictly top 6 times.
just so you know Matthew Abood, Andrew Abood, Kenneth To, Robert Hurley, Josh Beaver, Grant Irvine are all Australian Swimmers
Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …
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Monopoly the Board Game Is Headed for Broadway
By: Kate Kershner
The musical is sure to include an epic song-and-dance number called "Do Not Pass Go," right? Hasbro/Scott Barbour/Aaron Foster/Getty
While playing Monopoly for going on three hours — after a fight about who gets the top hat, but before the tears over a broken alliance — have you ever found yourself thinking, "Wow, this horrible tedious game would make a delightful evening of song and dance"?
Well, happy news for you strange few. Hasbro Inc., which manufactures Monopoly, announced it's partnering with the Broadway producing company Araca Group to launch a musical version of the game.
If you're thinking the whole thing sounds a bit bizarre, remember that Hasbro isn't exactly treading new territory here. In 2007, Hasbro had an extremely successful partnership with the entertainment industry when some little toys called Transformers made their $70 million opening weekend box office debut. (Let's forget about 2012's "Battleship," as Hasbro probably wants to.)
Hasbro is looking to capitalize on the reach of its Monopoly brand just as the company would with any other toy. And that means finding ways to nudge different age groups and audiences to interact with it in nontraditional ways. Instead of just trying to get people to play board games, that means creating a cartoon featuring characters from the game, or a roller coaster themed to it or a musical based on it. Hasbro, in fact, doesn't even make its own board games anymore.
There's certainly no public hint to what the show would be about (and remember it'll take a few years to hit the Great White Way), but there are promises about bringing to life some characters from the game. Matthew Rego of the Araca Group did have this to say to Variety though: "I can tell you this: It's not going to be a musical about people sitting around playing Monopoly."
Fingers crossed that Scotty Dog gets a speaking role.
Also, if Hasbro's My Little Pony Equestria Girls Live Show is any indication, Mr. Monopoly better get his best sparkly skirt to the cleaners right quick.
NOW THAT'S INTERESTING
One suggestion for a dramatic backstory in "Monopoly: The Musical"? A discussion of how Rich Uncle Pennybags slowly morphed into the character of Mr. Monopoly, eventually losing his old name entirely.
Kate Kershner "Monopoly the Board Game Is Headed for Broadway" 7 September 2016.
HowStuffWorks.com. <https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/leisure/traditional-games/monopoly-board-game-headed-broadway.htm> 15 January 2021
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This week Lebanese blogs discusses circumcision, the environment, the Pope's quote on Islam, Lebanese politics, post war hardships and suspicions among other things.
Let us start this weeks sampling by answering these questions: What if Google was used to settled battles … who would win? Interested in knowing? Lazarus has graphical answers to a number of world conflicts.
Female brains work in mysterious ways. Even for a female observer. I have seen the tantrums, the jealousies, the possessiveness, the suspicion, the disregard… But male brains… not to be sexist or anything…. Men have this PC-inspired quality: shut down completely before updating the information. Tonight, an American female friend, after 3 hour of chatting and 1 glass of wine (or was it the other way around?) finally gathered the courage to ask me: so is circumcision a big thing in Lebanon?
What do you think of the environment in Lebanon? Take a look at the photo of the sad state of the Beirut River taken by Anarchorev.
Now let us look at the topic which had the most posts in the Lebanese blogosphere this week: the Pope's quotation about Islam during one of his lectures. The reaction to the Pope's quote was not just a simple attack or defense. They were in fact very diverse. They range from a call for inter-faith marriage to declaring that all religions are intrinsically intolerant.
I myself am very much fed up with the whole religion issue, and I think my best contribution to this society has been to marry someone of a different faith. And when I think about it, all my good friends are mixed couples. We've got a Christian-Druze couple, a catholic-Sunni, an orthodox-Sunni, a Shia-protestant, a Shia-Sunni, to name just a few. And these are all marriages of 13 years or more. They all have kids that are oblivious to the fact whether someone is a Christian or a Druze or a Muslim. You want to do something for your country? Marry someone from the other sect. And make it fast. Time is running out.
I think interfaith dialogue is a waste of time. It's sort of like Lebanon's National Dialogue—the participants come to talk at one another, each believing that he and only he is right. And then war erupts, and nobody learns anything. I also find it tragic that some people still expect one religion to exhibit tolerance and understanding towards other religions seen as wrong and inferior. People forget that tolerance cannot be a property of religion. Anyone who describes a particular religion, be that Islam, Christianity or Judaism, as tolerant, is delusional. Anyone who tries to devise/promote a tolerant form of religion is probably wasting our time. By definition, organized religion is an invitation to intolerance towards the "other". Period.
Should not Muslims be insisting (also at least) that their rulers apologize to them for their offensive words AND deeds?
Dr Victorino explains why Pope Benedict is wrong about Islam by posting about Saint Aquinas' natural law and Saint McLuhan's law of the media.
Vox defends the Pope's position and right to free expression.
While N10452 suggests that the Islamic leaders reactions proved the Pope right.
At the end of the day, Fouad Siniora is just a loyal employee of Hariri Inc. (Not to use harsher descriptions thrown his way.) His failed 13+ months experiment as Prime Minister was nothing more than a lesson in the grooming process of his boss. While he was dizzy being pushed around in different directions, Boss was lounging on a Mediterranean island beach doing lines and taking notes on the Dos and Don'ts of Prime ministering. Siniora's usefulness seems to be expiring soon and while his name has been battered in many circles, his non-committal Boss is unscathed. Welcome to Feudal Leadership 101.
Charles Malik discusses in length what he sees as crisis in the Lebanese Christian community.
Lazarus outlines the necessity of a new marketing campaign for the March 14 bloc (another name for the Cedar Revolution) after observing their failures.
The issue unexploded ordnance and the post-cease fire casualties caused by them is still a topic discussed Lebanese blogs: Tears for Lebanon posts on the case of a 12 year old boy who is the first case to be taken abroad for treatment from mutilation caused by cluster bombs dropped by Israel.
Sophia also highlights this subject and other war crimes in view of the latest war between Israel and Lebanon.
Finally, this week witnessed the 24th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps (in Beirut) massacres. This subject was discussed in length by Anarchorev.
You should see the Beirut River after December.
Aside form that, that was a nice overview of posts. I tend to agree with AbuKais on the issue regarding the pope, with a qualifier; it is MISSIONARY religions who cannot get along.
In any case, regardless of whether the pope was righ ro wrong, he was supremely right in voicing an opinion, especially one as well researched as his. Those who disagree would better object to his opinion, instead of responding with one liners and bombs.