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Tag Archives: Bob Bakish
Posted on October 16, 2016 by eamccann
Beth McCann, Divya Yeleswarapu, Hugh Sims
Viacom Logo [1]
VIACOM, INC.
viacom.com
Viacom Networks [3]
American media conglomerate Viacom, Inc. is a media company home to television, cinema, online and mobile networks and brands in over 160 countries and territories, reaching approximately 700 million subscribers around the globe.
Their leading brands include MTV, VH1, CMT, BET, Nickelodeon and its various channels, Comedy Central, Spike, and Paramount Channel. Viacom owns Paramount Pictures as well, which is a major producer and distributor for movies [2].
Viacom and CBS Logos [21]
Viacom got its start in 1971. Viacom acquired its various networks over the course of 30 years, purchasing various channels including MTV, Nickelodeon, and BET. In the 1990s they entered a merger with CBS [4]. However, the two separated into two companies in 2005, now known as CBS Corporation and today's Viacom Inc. The split was made to separate radio and television from the rest of the company [21]. Today, Viacom continues to create new shows for their various networks and launch new ideas.
CURRENT AND FUTURE MEDIA
Recently, Viacom has been concerned with attracting younger viewers from children's ages to young adults aged 18-25. They are trying to stay relevant in the developing world of streaming content but still trying to pull in viewers for live shows.
Rocko's Modern Life Poster [5]
On Nickelodeon, Viacom is attempting to draw in new and old audiences alike with programming reminiscent of shows on in the 1990s. Viacom announced in August they would have an hour long special of the classic 90s Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko's Modern Life [5].
In October they announced there would be a special of Double Dare, a game show from the 1980s and 1990s [6]. They later said they would be releasing Legends of the Hidden Temple: The Movie to come out based off of the popular 1990s Nickelodeon show [7]. They are attempting to appeal to a younger generation who has never seen this content as well as nostalgic young adults.
Legends of the Hidden Temple: The Movie-Official Trailer [8]
DirectTV Now Logo [15]
Viacom is also launching some of its networks on DirecTV Now, AT&T's streaming service. They want to deliver more content to fans in more places and allow them to stream content at their own convenience [9].
However, Viacom is also developing tactics to aid in the live viewing experience for consumers. Viacom Labs created what they called a "breakthrough television format" that they hope to launch in 2017 on MTV Music. They have created a TV format that pulls livestreams of fans in a real time feed during the scheduled television show [10]. It creates an interactive and unique experience for fans and will help to motivate people to watch shows in real time rather than stream them days later.
Philippe Dauman-Former CEO and President [11]
Within the last few months, Viacom has gone through some major changes in management. As of August 20th, Chief Executive Philippe Dauman resigned which ended the legal fight between members of the Viacom board and Redstone's National Amusements Inc. This is a privately held company that holds 80% of the voting shares of Viacom and CBS Corp. Under the agreement, Dauman received about $72 million and was replaced by previous COO Thomas Dooley who served as interim CEO until the end of Viacom's fiscal year [16].
Robert Bakish-New CEO of Viacom [12]
Recently, Viacom declared that Robert Bakish will be acting chief executive replacing Tom Dooley. Bakish, a 19-year company veteran who headed the company's international media networks, has also been named President and CEO of a newly created group called Viacom Global Entertainment Group [17]. The group will run Viacom's most popular networks including MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Spike and others [18].
FUTURE OF THE COMPANY
Leslie Moonves- CEO of CBS [13]
In terms of Viacom's future, there is a lot leaning on this merger with CBS. According to The Hollywood Reporter the Viacom special committee who is working exclusively on the merger hopes to wrap everything up by the year's end [19]. It is planned that CBS Corp. President and CEO Leslie Moonves would eventually oversee the combined entity. However, the company is determined to move forward whether as a stand-alone company or in a potential combination with CBS. Newest interim CEO Bob Bakish has a lot of goals and wants to push the company forward in terms of speed, sharing, and a global outlook. He is planning to invest in new content and to deliver significant audiences on genres other than high-dollar programming. Bakish said, "We're not going to stand still while the CBS merger is being evaluated. I believe there's a lot of work we can do in the near-term to make us stronger, no matter what the next chapter of Viacom is. It's time to move forward [20]."
The first day of trading since the split between Viacom and CBS Corporation showed a 2.8 percent increase in the shares of CBS Corp. to $26.20, and a 1.1 percent increase in the shares of Viacom, to $41.59 [21]. In the current year 2016, they averaged out their most recent 50-day span at $41.47 per share. As of November 2016, Viacom has a 6.1% market share and is among the top 5 competitors in the cable and entertainment industry [24]. Due to the ongoing internal management battle, Viacom's stock performance has gone down with -8.06% in the last 90 days, compared to the industry average of -0.22%. However, in comparison to CBS Corporation, Walt Disney Company, and Comcast Corporation, Viacom's recent one day and five day stock performance, 3.58% and 1.4% respectively, has exceeded them all [22].
Viacom 52 Week Share Price [14]
This major media company has had declining performance over the last 11 years, however, it has never made negative profits and instead managed to stay afloat, but the drop in total revenue has been alarming. Over the last year their 52 Week High was $47.17 and their 52 Week Low was $38.61 [23].
Their total revenue has capped off at 13.05 B which is not where they want to be, considering that their profit margin is 15.85% and the typical average for a media company is usually around 23% [22]. In 2012, revenue increased about 16.7% because NBC Universal merged with Comcast Corporation, which provided Viacom with unforeseen and extra production materials, allowing mega growth through 2013 and the year-end stock price to cap off at $87.34 [23].
The revenue has seen a sharp decrease over the last five years by dropping 3.74% and ending the year 2015 with a drop of 44.36% to a monetary outcome of $6.18B as their gross income. It was the lowest value over the defined period. That left them with a free financing cash flow of $2.17B, which was a 12.75% decrease from the previous year 2014. However, the little glimmer of hope that Viacom took from its bleak financials into the current year 2016 is that the net operating cash flow has only been seeing growth over the last five years, and capped at a 17.43% increase coming in [22][24]. Therefore, this media conglomerate has cash to grow and operate its company through the many bumps in the reel.
Despite turmoil within the company and stress from the possible CBS, Viacom continues to move forward by creating new content for their networks and trying to reach as large an audience as possible.
[1] Viacom-HoiTalent. Retrieved November 25, 2016. http://hoitalent.com/company/viacom/
[2] About Viacom. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://www.viacom.com/about/pages/default.aspx
[3] Dampier, Phillip. April 1, 2014. Stop the Cap! Viacom Demands 100% Rate Increases for Hundreds of Small Cable Systems, Military Bases. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://stopthecap.com/2014/04/01/viacom-demands-100-rate-increases-for-hundreds-of-small-cable-systems-military-bases/
[4] Viacom Timeline. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://www.viacom.com/about/pages/history.aspx
[5] Acquire Media. August 11, 2016. Nickelodeon Brings Back Rocko's Modern Life for Brand-New, Original One-Hour TV Special Based on the Classic '90s Hit Animated Series. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://ir.viacom.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=984177
[6] Acquire Media. October 6, 2016. Nickelodeon Announces Brand-New Double Dare Special Commemorating Iconic Game Show's 30th Anniversary Year, Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://ir.viacom.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=992484
[7] Acquire Media. October 6, 2016. Nickelodeon's Original TV Movie Event, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Bows Saturday, Nov. 26, at 8 P.M. (ET/PT). Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://ir.viacom.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=992490
[8] July 23, 2016. Legends of the Hidden Temple: The Movie l First Official Trailer I Nick – YouTube. Retrieved November 25, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7eHPW7n7Ko
[9] Acquire Media. October 4, 2016. Viacom Networks to Launch on DIRECTV NOW. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://ir.viacom.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=992023
[10] Acquire Media. October 24, 2016. First Ever Livestream-to-TV Format Pioneered by Viacom Labs, Greenlit for On-Air Series. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://ir.viacom.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=995056
[11] January 15, 2015. Viacom Extends Employment Agreement with President and Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman Through 2018. Retrieved November 26, 2016. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150115006254/en/Viacom-Extends-Employment-Agreement-President-Chief-Executive
[12] Senior Management. Retrieved November 26, 2016. http://www.viacom.com/about/pages/seniormanagement.aspx
[13] Salem, Yasir. November 19, 2015. What's next for the TV industry? Find out from CBS CEO Les Moonves at IGNITION 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2016. http://www.businessinsider.com/cbs-ceo-les-moonves-to-speak-at-ignition-2015-7
[14] Viacom, Inc. Retrieved November 26, 2016. https://www.google.com/finance?cid=703770
[15] DirectTV Now Logo. Retrieved November 16, 2016. http://www.multichannel.com/sites/default/files/public/styles/blog_content/public/DirecTV%20Now%20400×300.jpg?itok=Mb9HjA3j
[16] Reuters. August 20, 2016. Viacom Says CEO Dauman to Resign Post Immediately; Dooley Steps In. Retrieved November 12, 2016. http://fortune.com/2016/08/20/viacom-ceo-to-resign-immediately/
[17] Reuters. October 31, 2016. Viacom names Bob Bakish acting CEO. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://fortune.com/2016/10/31/viacom-has-a-new-acting-ceo/
[18] Yu, Roger. November 1, 2016. Viacom names Bakish as acting CEO. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/10/31/viacom-names-bakish-acting-ceo/93083054/
[19] Masters, Kim. November 10, 2016. CBS-Viacom Merger Intrigue as Les Moonves Pushes for Clear Control. Retrieved November 14, 2016. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cbs-viacom-merger-intrigue-as-les-moonves-pushes-clear-control-945477
[20] Lieberman, David. November 9, 2016. Viacom's Bob Bakish Vows To Accelerate Growth As It Weighs CBS Merger. Retrieved November 16, 2016. http://deadline.com/2016/11/viacom-bob-bakish-accelerate-growth-plans-consider-cbs-merger-1201851548/
[21] Alfano, Sean. January 3, 2006. CBS, Viacom Formally Split. Retrieved November 16, 2016. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-viacom-formally-split/
[22] List of VIA's Competitors and Stock Performance. Retrieved November 16, 2016. http://csimarket.com/stocks/competitionNO2.php?code=VIA
[23] Viacom Inc. – Stock Performance. Retrieved November 16, 2016. http://ir.viacom.com/stockquote.cfm
[24] IBISWorld US – Industry, Company and Business Research Reports and Information. Retrieved November 16, 2016. http://clients1.ibisworld.com/reports/us/industry/majorcompanies.aspx?entid=1245
Posted in TRF235 Fall 2016, TRF235.1	| Tagged AT&T, BET, Bob Bakish, CBS Corporation, CMT, Comcast Corporation, Comedy Central, DirectTV Now, Double Dare, Inc, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Legends of the Hidden Temple: The Movie, Leslie Moonves, media, media conglomerate, MTV, MTV Music, MTV Networks, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Philippe Dauman, Redstone's National Amusements, Robert Bakish, Rocko's Modern Life, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, SPIKE, The Walt Disney Company, Tom Dooley, VH1, Viacom


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Q: How to get the order of the members of a struct using SWIG Given a C++ struct, using SWIG, I am able to get the names of the members of the struct in Lua (see this blog entry). Unfortunately, I noticed that my retrieval of the member names does not provide accurate information about the order by which the members were declared in the C++ struct definition.
Is there a way to obtain the declared order of the members of a C++ struct using SWIG in Lua?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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After George Floyd
Chicago activists worried as federal officers head their way
Some say dealing with racial injustice, low-performing schools and high unemployment would be a better solution.
Trump sending federal law enforcement to Chicago amid showdown with some city leaders
July 23, 2020, 1:09 AM UTC / Updated July 23, 2020, 2:32 PM UTC
By Safia Samee Ali and Erik Ortiz
CHICAGO — The latest gun violence to pierce the South Side, jolted by a shootout this week outside a funeral home that left 15 people wounded, has shaken city leaders and community members who are begging for an end to the bloodshed.
NewsGun violence disproportionately affects minorities. Data shows it's getting worse.
"Put your guns down," Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said at a news conference after a 3-year-old girl was shot in the head early Wednesday.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said: "We all had restless nights last night, me included. But I woke up this morning with even more resolve to do all we can to stop this violence."
The effort to stem the surge in shootings will now include support from the federal government, the Justice Department announced Wednesday afternoon. "Anti-violent crime task forces" will be deployed in Chicago; Kansas City, Missouri; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, cities where the Trump administration believes its federal agents can help with unsolved murders and gang violence.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news and alerts
The task forces are being rolled out under Operation Legend, named after a 4-year-old boy who was killed in a shooting last month in Kansas City.
But community activists and criminologists in Chicago say they are concerned that the tensions, reinvigorated protests and questionable arrests involving federal agents in Portland, Oregon, in recent days could flare in Chicago, America's third-largest city.
"Sending in federal agents without any real specificity and clarity for their presence is a very slippery slope," said David Stovall, a professor of Black studies and criminology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "If they are just going to ramp up what is existing, then that could mean more arrests and, in the worst case, more fatalities."
Stovall added that "a crackdown on crime and guns only gets more people arrested and doesn't actually address the core issue behind violence."
The task forces will comprise agents from the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; and the Department of Homeland Security. More than 200 federal agents have already been sent to Kansas City, with a similar force expected in Chicago and more than 35 officers in Albuquerque.
About $3.5 million in federal funding would also be directed to Chicago to compensate local authorities for overtime, equipment and other expenses that support the federal agents, Attorney General William Barr said.
A Chicago police spokesperson said Wednesday that if federal agents are deployed, "it is critical that they coordinate with the Chicago Police Department and work alongside us to fight violent crime in Chicago."
Lightfoot suggested Tuesday that she would support the possibility of an "actual partnership" with federal agencies that could provide more resources to "help manage and suppress violent crime in our city." She said there are "some things the feds are uniquely qualified to do, and we would welcome that."
Federal agents coming to Chicago
July 23, 202007:02
But she warned that the "Trump administration is not going to foolishly deploy unnamed agents to the streets of Chicago."
President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening called Lightfoot to confirm his administration's plan to bring agents into the city to supplement violent crime investigations. In a statement, Lightfoot's office offered caution, saying that "the mayor has made clear that if there is any deviation from what has been announced, we will pursue all available legal options to protect Chicagoans."
Under no circumstances will I allow Donald Trump's troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents.
— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) July 21, 2020
It remained unclear late Wednesday the exact roles the federal agents would play, making their arrival more unnerving for people in the communities they may interact with.
"I need to understand what their true purpose is and know how it's different from what's currently happening, because what's currently happening isn't working," said Asiaha Butler, a South Side community activist who is executive director of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood. "I don't know how you add more to what's not working."
Trump had directed federal officers to Portland following an executive order that punishes the vandalism of federal monuments and government property. But in the case of Chicago and other cities, he said, combating crime is at the top of the agenda.
Chicago has been beset by high levels of gun violence and gang activity, and it has been reeling in recent weeks from a spike over a year ago.
There were 559 shootings over the past 28 days before July 19, up more than 100 percent over the same period in 2019, according to crime statistics analyzed by Christopher Herrmann, a former crime analyst supervisor with the NYPD and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
His analysis also found that murders in Chicago reached 116 over the 28-day period, an almost 200 percent increase from the prior year.
For year-to-date 2020 over the same period in 2019, shooting incidents are up 47 percent and murders are up 51 percent, Chicago crime data show. Reported sexual assaults, robberies and thefts, however, are down.
The rise in shootings and murders isn't relegated to Chicago. Other cities that Herrmann examined, including New York and Atlanta, also showed increases.
Herrmann said across major U.S. cities during the first six months of the year, murders and shootings were down, attributable to people staying indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.
But he told NBC News that as cities have reopened, the combination of these unique circumstances have led to a rise.
"Not only is it summertime violence, but there is COVID-19, police protests and job loss," he said. "All of those factors are going to exacerbate violence, especially in communities that were already vulnerable."
Trump threatens to send federal agents to major cities amid surge in violence
In more recent years, Chicago police have generally credited the addition of more than 1,000 new officers to the streets as well as the use of gunshot-detection technology and predictive analytics for helping to stave off shootings and homicides.
But Brown said Wednesday that conflicts among the more than 117,000 estimated gang members in Chicago and their warring factions are feeding the "cycle of violence."
"Someone gets shot, which prompts someone else to pick up a gun," Brown said. "This same cycle repeats itself, over and over and over again. This cycle is fueled by street gangs, guns and drugs."
But criminal experts say the issue is much deeper.
"As tragic as the shooting is, we have to connect it to what it means to historically live under the conditions of not having quality education, quality health care, living-wage employment and access to nutrition," Stovall said. "The best way to address violence is to be in a relationship with people before the event occurs."
Friends and family attend a vigil for 10-year-old Lena Nunez on June 29, 2020 in Chicago. Nunez was shot and killed by stray bullet while watching television with her brother in her grandmother's Logan Square home.Scott Olson / Getty Images file
Arthur Lurigio, a professor of criminology and psychology at Loyola University Chicago, said that law enforcement should be involved but that it is never the main solution.
"There has to be a programmatic response that involves members of the community and, most importantly, an understanding of why these mostly young men are picking up guns and shooting one another," he said.
Many community activists say beefing up law enforcement or adding more federal agents would be a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
"We've just been clipping at the weeds, but that doesn't stop the weeds from coming up again," said William Calloway, an anti-violence community activist.
Calloway said that he is open to help from different sources, including the federal government, but that he believes the larger issues of poverty and disenfranchisement are being overlooked.
Jahmal Cole, an activist who founded a community organization on the South Side called My Block, My Hood, My City, said violence is largely the result of disinvestment from the communities that are hardest hit by racial injustice, poverty, low-performing schools and high unemployment.
"I don't think adding more officers is the solution," he said. "It's not about more police. It's about more resources and investing, giving us the money we need so we can put it into our communities. If you're not willing to do that, then you can't change violence."
Safia Samee Ali reported from Chicago and Erik Ortiz from New York.
Safia Samee Ali
Safia Samee Ali is a reporter for NBC News Digital, based in Chicago.
Erik Ortiz
Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It is a process of increasing the scope of a job by adding more tasks to it.The related tasks are combined.The widwned and more complex job is expected to satisfy the higer order needs of employee.Due to varity of tasks,an employee gets the opportunity to make greater use of his mind and skills.In words of Strauss ans Styles,"It implies taht,instead of assinning of one man to each job,a group of men can be assigned a group of tasks and then allowed to decide to themselves how to organise the work such changes permit more social contract and grreater control over the work process".
Definition: Job Enlargement is the horizontal expansion of a job. It involves the addition of tasks at the same level of skill and responsibility. It is done to keep workers from getting bored. It is different than job enrichment (see sidebar).
Examples: Small companies may not have as many opportunities for promotions, so they try to motivate employees through job enlargement.
Job enlargement (sometimes also referred to as "horizontal loading") involves the addition of extra, similar, tasks to a job.
In job enlargement, the job itself remains essentially unchanged. However, by widening the range of tasks that need to be performed, hopefully the employee will experience less repetition and monotony that are common on production lines which rely upon the division of labour.
With job enlargement, the employee rarely needs to acquire new skills to carry out the additional task, and the motivational benefits of job enrichment are not usually experienced.
One important negative aspect is that job enlargement is sometimes viewed by employees as a requirement to carry out more work for the same amount of pay.
"Job enlargement is doing different tasks and not just the same thing all the time. It may involve taking on more duties and adds variety to a person's job. Horizontal loading is often used which is giving people more jobs to do that require the same level of skill".


51 years ago and a Stanier 8F trundles towards Tamworth station with a mineral train from the North.
A London bound "Pendolino" set tilts into the curve at Tamworth station,whilst a northbound member of the class approaches in the distance.
60091 pulls out of Elford Loop and passed Portway on the last leg of its journey to Kingsbury oil terminal.


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Natalie Bennett: The Lords must be an unlikely champion of young climate strikers
9 January, 2020 (2 weeks ago)
We can't trust the Commons on the climate so the Lords must take up the fight.
At the end of last year, the Today programme brought directly together for the first time the 93-year-old Sir David Attenborough and the then 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, who was guest editing the programme.
On Tuesday, when speaking in the House of Lords debate on the Queen's Speech delivered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in December, I reminded members about that encounter.
Given the age profile of the Lords, it is a clear model for them – as is the response of Sir David to Greta, in acknowledging the debt of gratitude older generations should have to the young.
I have to say the "Queen's Speech in December", for it was the third Queen's Speech in 2019 – the third time the monarch had to set out a proposed government programme, reflecting a year of political turmoil, inertia, and failure, on the climate emergency and much else.
That's a year of failure that crowned a decade of the same. For it is a decade since the failed Copenhagen climate talks and the global financial crash and in neither keystone of our civilisation has progress been made.
In 2009 the urgency of climate action was already evident in the science. A decade on, it is now evident on the ground, in British floods and Australian fires, in melting ice and rising temperatures.
The level of environmental collapse, of "insectageddon", of the Sixth Extinction, is also visible to both expert and lay eye.
In 2009 the failure of neoliberal Thatcherite model of economic growth, soaring inequality and financialisation – the model propounded by Gordon Brown in his infamous Mansion House speech of 2007 – was already evident. Yet in the lost decade that has followed, we've failed to develop an alternative model.
Collapse, environmental and social, is the lived reality of the generation now coming to adulthood. It is their world, all they know.
A sign at the huge Bristol climate strike march last year said there was "No point in learning when the Arctic is burning".
I talk regularly to audiences of young people who can see no economic future for themselves, their peers and communities – growing up in communities with high streets of pound shops, charity stores and betting outlets, schools with funding cut to the bone and further education disappeared, the huge weight of student debt dominating their futures.
And yet so many of them are not giving up. They're becoming active, getting involved, fighting, on the streets, in their workplace as union organisers, in their universities and colleges.
But, as Greta regularly says, they can't do it on their own.
The House of Lords, with its arcane terminology and theatrical pageantry, its appointment by patronage and antique idea of heredity, not to mention its age profile, might look like an unlikely champion for the climate strikers.
But it is all they've got to represent them in Westminster.
It is all the 56% of people who didn't vote for a Tory government, a Tory dictatorship delivered by an undemocratic electoral system, have to represent them.
Decisions will be made in No 10 by a Prime Minister who has a record of embracing climate change deniers, who is funded by the financial sector that's bled the country dry since the financial crash and continues to fund the destruction of the planet on which we all depend, a national leader who represents the failed ideology of decades allied with the careless populism savagery of Donald Trump.
That's not the programme that Boris Johnson was elected on in December, or the programme that's presented in the Queen's Speech, but we have to fear that is what will be delivered.
The Queen's Speech made, on climate and environment "some of the right noises", as it did on tackling the social crisis caused by a decade of austerity added on to decades of privatisation and regional inequality.
But the Commons is not going to hold Boris Johnson to account on delivering what his manifesto offered, not going to effectively point out the failings and hold back legislation until it meets its stated aims.
The independence of mind it showed last year has been blasted away by the first-past-the-post electoral system.
The largest Opposition party is taken up by the need in defeat to seek a new leader and philosophy, the second-largest concerned entirely with the issue of breaking away from the dead hand of the ancient centralisation of Union.
It is traditional in the Lords for members to be deferential to the Commons, to bow to the power of the "elected house", to say that they can't overturn decisions there, but can just smooth around the edges, gently adjust, use a frown and a grumble to try to strengthen, just a little, an inadequate measure or an unduly harsh one.
And it is a commentariat standard to downplay its potential. Nineteenth-century Economist editor Walter Bagehot was only leading a large pack in suggesting: "The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go to look at it."
But I know from my short period in the chamber that there is a huge amount of knowledge, experience, and potential in the Lords.
We might not be graced by Sir David, but there's a lot of people who, like him, can listen to young climate strikers, understand what they are saying, and bring that message here. And they are free of the stultifying hand of party discipline that has such an impact in the Commons.
The House of Lords can represent, far more effectively than the Commons, the young who aren't represented in what we call "The Other Place".
It is a tragedy for British politics, that the failure to develop a functional, democratic system of government has brought us to this point.
But if the House of Lords – leading on the existential issue of the climate emergency – steps up to its potential, demands genuine climate action, then we can offer that most crucial possibility to Greta's generation, that resistance is possible, that hope exists.
We only have the next decade to turn this around. That's true for the climate, and also true, I fear, for the possibility of delivering democracy in the UK.
Natalie Bennett is a former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, a new member of the House of Lords and a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward.
6 Responses to "Natalie Bennett: The Lords must be an unlikely champion of young climate strikers"
January 9, 2020 (2 weeks ago)
Not sure if the Lords is going to be much help.
Even the majority of Labour MPs voted for the Heathrow 3rd runway – against Labour's own policy.
There's no reason to assume the undemocratic Lords can avoid a similar corporate stitch-up.
The Greens would do better to campaign for the abolition of the Lords.
The climate scam continues.
john zims
With one MP & a couple of people in the Lords & shortly no MEP's the Greens are on their way back to irrelevance..
Chester Draws
January 10, 2020 (2 weeks ago)
Collapse, environmental and social, is the lived reality of the generation now coming to adulthood.
"The lived reality"? See, I look around, and I don't see any environmental collapse. If you measure it, farm production is up, and food is better than ever (and that's pretty much worldwide — except for socialist countries). I'm assured the collapse is just round the corner — but then I've been being assured that for my entire life. But it isn't anyone's "lived reality".
I don't see social collapse. There is an issue in the West with new immigrants struggling to fit in — but since Natalie is 100% in favour of them coming, I don't think that can be the problem. The rest of us would like to ensure the non-collapse of society by making sure we have houses for our own countrymen first, because we're "racist".
Natalie is a chicken little. Some things may get worse, and some will almost certainly get better. That's the way of the world. Pretending it's all falling apart around us is just nonsense.
Meanwhile, those poor "climate strikers" will all get a vote at the next general election. Yes, us meanies won't let them vote until they are 18, but it's not like we are going to prevent them voting forever. The Greens have pinned their hopes on the young voting for them forever, but they always forget that over time the young learn stuff — and one of the things they tend to learn is that the Greens are full of it.
What is 'unlikely' about an alliance between a bunch of deadbeat scroungers with a tax-free income and know-nothing teenagers?
Has this lady ever met a lord or a teenager?
Now that the Labour Party is finished and the Greens appear to be placing faith in the Establishment – the only viable alternative is Extinction Rebellion.


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Robstown's Cedillo, Garcia and Garza all sign with schools
Robstown baseball players Jesse Ray Garcia, Ryan Garza and Eric Cedillo all sign to play with colleges on Thursday.
Robstown's Cedillo, Garcia and Garza all sign with schools Robstown baseball players Jesse Ray Garcia, Ryan Garza and Eric Cedillo all sign to play with colleges on Thursday. Check out this story on caller.com: http://www.caller.com/story/sports/high-school/baseball/2016/06/02/robstowns-cedillo-garcia-and-garza-all-sign-with-schools/91522420/
Corpus Christi Caller-Times Published 2:18 p.m. CT June 2, 2016
Caller-Times File Robstown's Jesse Garcia Garcia Saenz Montoya Zepeda Warnke Jones Gaddis Olivarez
ROBSTOWN — Three Robstown baseball players signed with schools on Thursday at the high school.
Senior shortstop/pitcher Jesse Ray Garcia and outfielder Ryan Garza signed with Texas A&M-International, and catcher Eric Cedillo is signing with Jarvis Christian College.
Garcia finished his senior season with a 12-2 record as a pitcher with a 1.73 earned-run average and 115 strikeouts in 89 innings. He also hit .378 with 11 doubles, three triples and 33 RBIs.
Garza had a .351 batting average with 12 doubles, four triples, one home run and scored 39 runs.
Cedillo hit .293 with 10 doubles, one triple, two home runs and 29 RBIs this season.
Texas A&M-International is an NCAA Division II school in Laredo and Jarvis Christian College is an NAIA school in Hawkins.
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Home » Airbus to Construct UK Assembly Plant
Airbus to Construct UK Assembly Plant
BROUGHTON, U.K.-Airbus will invest more than €400 million here in the next 12 months as it prepares to start production of its latest aircraft, the A350XWB. The aerospace giant has started constructing a 46,000-square-meter factory at its site in Broughton, North Wales, which will build the A350's wings and help to secure 10,500 jobs in Britain for the next decade.MORE
UK Lending $560 Million to Airbus
BAE to Construct Oklahoma Assembly Plant
Medical Device Assembler to Construct California Plant
Manufacturer of Tanks, Cylinders to Construct New Plant


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Rob Kittle is First Realtor in Colorado to Join Nonprofit 'Sell a Home, Save a Child' — Donates $9,000 to Help Impoverished Children All Over the World!
(Fort Collins, CO – June 25, 2017) Real Estate is one of the largest grossing industries in the US and a new national nonprofit organization is inspiring colleagues in the real estate industry to be part of transforming the lives of vulnerable children throughout the world. Northern Colorado realtor Rob Kittle with Kittle Real Estate recently joined Sell a Home, Save a Child (SAHSAC) and is the very first real estate professional in Colorado to participate in this worthwhile charitable movement.
According to UNICEF, there are more than 150 million orphans in the world, and twice as many vulnerable children. SAHSAC began when two Realtors, Nick Shivers and Erik Hatch, decided to create a movement in the Real Estate industry to help materially poor and vulnerable children around the world build brighter futures. They partnered with Forward Edge International because they wanted to use their success and influence as two of the top 1% of Realtors in the nation to inspire a movement of difference-makers in the Real Estate Industry. After countless volunteer hours and significant financial donations, Erik and Nick's dream came true, and they launched Sell a Home, Save a Child in 2015. Today, members are transforming the lives of vulnerable children through their generous donations that help support child-focused community development programs in Haiti, Kenya, Mexico and Nicaragua.
How the program works is that real estate professionals commit to giving monthly towards helping at-risk children around the world break free from the effects of extreme poverty. SAHSAC is open to any individual or company in the Real Estate Industry, including Realtors, title companies, land developers, and contractors and with this movement there is quite an opportunity to make significant differences in the lives of thousands of impoverished children.
Kittle Real Estate is a proud member of SAHSAC and they are committed to giving monthly to the program. At an industry conference recently in San Diego, Rob Kittle presented SAHSAC with a check in the amount of $9,000.00 which guarantees a full month of care for 72 children in Nicaragua, Kenya, Haiti, Cuba and Mexico and puts him at the Platinum level of giving. The organization provides nutritious meals, holistic health care, safe drinking water, education, school supplies, uniforms, tutoring, and mentoring. One hundred percent of all membership fees go to Forward Edge International. More specifically, SAHSAC funds are used to support Forward Edge's programs for vulnerable children in Haiti, Kenya, Mexico and Nicaragua. Rob Kittle and Kittle Real Estate is the very first company in Colorado that has signed on as a member partner of SAHSAC.
In October 2016, Rob Kittle presented local radio personality Jimmy Lakey a check for $10,000 for his River's Promise nonprofit organization. Click here to learn more about the work Jimmy's foundation is doing for Rwandan orphan children.
Photo: Jimmy Lakey, in hat. Rob Kittle is on Jimmy's right. The Kittle Team helped present the check at their fall quarterly retreat.
Kittle Cares pioneers an innovative way for the Kittle Team to create a significant, on-going funding stream for our Selected Agencies by simply conducting business as usual. This leads to a positive impact and permanent life changes for those in need by combining the strengths of Kittle Real Estate's vast network and marketing power through transaction-based funding.
Are you thinking about buying or selling your home? Do you know anyone who is? Please contact us to initiate an interview. If you like us, let us meet your buying or selling needs, and we will give a $150.00 donation to Sell a Home, Save a Child for every home sold and for every home purchased from your successful transaction! Contact us for more information. 970-460-4444.
#1 ranked real estate team in Northern Colorado since 2012.
Rob and his team are consistently ranked in the top 200 by The Wall Street Journal in its ranking of the best realtors. The Wall Street Journal annually recognizes the country's top 1000 realtors out of the nearly two million real estate agents in the country.
1999 – 2014 while at Keller Williams, Rob Kittle was the top producing agent in Colorado and the top 20 nationwide.
2014 – 2016 while at Coldwell Banker, Rob Kittle was the top producing agent in Colorado and top 10 nationwide.
2016 – Present, Kittle Real Estate is recognized as Colorado's top producing real estate team and is ranked in the top #216 in the entire country.
Read more about the Kittle Team.


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Let's start with some definitions. In Joomla!, an Article is some written information that you want to display on your site. It normally contains some text and can contain pictures and other types of content. For many Joomla! sites, articles form the majority of the information presented in the website.
It is important to understand that, with Joomla!, the content of the site (for example, Articles) is totally separate from the formatting of the site — the way it looks on the page. So it is best to think of articles as pure content, independent of the way it might be presented. For example, the same Article might be shown with different fonts, colors, headings, and background, and might be shown in different locations on the page.


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Home Uncategorized U.S. opposes Nigeria's plan to hand $100m Abacha loot to Kebbi State...
U.S. opposes Nigeria's plan to hand $100m Abacha loot to Kebbi State Governor
•President Muhammadu Buhari
By William Clowes
The U.S. is opposing plans by Nigeria's government to hand about $100 million the American authorities say was stolen by deceased former dictator Sani Abacha to a top ruling party official.
The disagreement may hamper future cooperation between the two nations to recover state money moved offshore by Abacha, who Transparency International estimates may have looted as much as $5 billion during his 1993-98 rule.
A commitment by Nigeria to transfer the funds to Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Bagudu appears to undermine Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's pledge to quell rampant graft in Africa's top oil producer.
The U.S. Department of Justice says Bagudu was involved in corruption with Abacha. The DoJ also contends that the Nigerian government is hindering U.S. efforts to recover allegedly laundered money it says it's traced to Bagudu.
Buhari's administration says a 17-year-old agreement entitles Bagudu to the funds and prevents Nigeria from assisting the U.S., according to recent filings from the District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington.
"This case illustrates how complex and contentious repatriating stolen assets to Nigeria can be," said Matthew Page, an associate fellow at London-based Chatham House and former Nigeria expert for U.S. intelligence agencies.
"Instead of welcoming U.S. efforts, Nigeria's lawyers appear to be supporting the interests of one of the country's most powerful families."
Neither Bagudu nor a spokesman for Attorney General Abubakar Malami responded to requests for comment. A spokesman for Buhari said the settlement and the litigation were matters for Malami. A spokesman for the DoJ declined to comment.
Successive Nigerian governments have sought to recoup the money looted by Abacha, who died in office, and have so far repatriated more than $2 billion with the cooperation of other countries, according to U.S. court filings.
In the case involving Bagudu, the U.S. in 2013 initiated a forfeiture action against a host of assets, including four investment portfolios held in London in trust for him and his family, according to the district court filings.
The DoJ said in a February 3 statement that Bagudu, 58, was part of a network controlled by Abacha that "embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria." Bagudu is the chairman of an influential body of governors representing the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Despite the forfeiture action being initiated following a Nigerian state request in 2012, Buhari's government now says it can't assist the U.S. because it's bound by a settlement Bagudu reached with the administration of then President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, according to the court filings.
Under the terms of that accord, which was approved by a U.K. court, Bagudu returned $163 million of allegedly laundered money to the Nigerian authorities, which in exchange dropped all outstanding civil and criminal claims against him "stemming from his involvement in government corruption," according to a December 23 memorandum opinion by District Judge John D. Bates in Washington D.C.
That meant "Nigeria renounced any interest whatsoever" in Bagudu's trust assets, including those the U.S. is attempting to recover for the West African nation, the opinion stated.
After Bagudu successfully sued Nigeria for violating the 2003 settlement, the government reached a new agreement with him in October 2018, according to the court filings. That would result in the transfer of ownership of the investment portfolios, worth 141 million euros ($155 million) to the Nigerian state, which would then pay 98.5 million euros to Bagudu and his affiliates, according to Bates' December 23 opinion. The funds are currently restrained by the U.K. at the request of the U.S.
Nigeria's government claims the updated 2018 agreement with the Kebbi governor, which requires court approval in the U.K., will "curtail and mitigate its looming exposure" from the judgment in Bagudu's favour.
The full texts of neither settlement was published in the court filings.
Buhari's administration submitted the 2018 deal to the U.K. court in September to support its application to unfreeze the assets so they can be sent to Nigeria, according to the opinion. The court has yet to make a decision.
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The (semi) stainless steel exhaust system fitted as standard does last well, but will sooner or later corrode through at the rear silencers and bends. Mild steel replacements are available but will usually rust through within a couple of winters - fit a good quality stainless system and it will be there for life.
The majority of audible leaks will usually be due to failed manifold-to-head gaskets, as there are insufficient studs to clamp adequately. There is no real fix, other than to change the gaskets as soon as a leak is noticed to avoid erosion of the head face. Catalysts, where fitted, can often last the life of the car, but the lambda sensors will degrade after about five years, increasing emissions and reducing fuel economy - treat them as a consumable item.
Last but not least, at every service check the exhaust clamps cautiously as they are prone to both corrosion of the bolt and splitting of the stainless steel band.


When we first started working on this side project in late 2013 to early 2014, my friends and I just wanted to build an app that tracked movie prices. For our own purposes, the app worked really well. For a few folks who really understood the concept, and who were extreme power users, they were able to get a lot of value from the app too. However, for the broader public, people had a hard time associating with the idea of "hunting for a movie". This year, I've decided to revisit the project, and apply human centered design process that I've developed over the years to this particular problem. Please note this is still a work in progress.
Below is a quick glimpse of where I landed with the exercise. For more of my process, keep scrolling!
How do we help people watch as many movies as possible?
With the problem space defined, I started to see the options that are already out there, and how are people discovering and watching movies today.
By doing a quick ad hoc research session with friends, and drawing from my own movie watching experiences, I mapped out the path that a person takes from discovering a movie they want to watch, all the way to finally watching it in theatre or their living room.
Create the one place to discover, watch, and buy movies.
One additional design principle I added to the project, since this time around its more of a theoretical project, where engineering deadlines does not need to be considered, I wanted to push myself to explore as many new interaction patterns as possible, where ever applicable.
Due to the circumstances and scope of this particular project, I modified my regular design process to accommodate for the shorter timeline. Usually I like to create a scale based on different values, and iterate different design ideas along that scale. In this case, based on the feedback I've collected from people's current movie discovery and watching flow, I came up with two somewhat conflicting ideas, and iterated designs based on those two different ideas.
One idea is to focus around the concept of "where" can I watch it. I believe this would work better for more casual movie watchers. Can I watch it in a theatres right now on a Friday night? Or can I find something to watch digitally on a relaxing Sunday afternoon at home? For this idea, I focused around the simplicity and strong recommendations algos to make the best decisions for you. Just pick how you wanna watch it and the app will surface you a bunch of movies.
The other idea is focused around the concept of good quality movies. This would have a stronger appeal for movie buffers and collectors. Instead of focusing on where and how, the app curates different movies based on their genre and quality. It has a powerful filter that allows passionate movie watchers.
From there, I started exploring different ways to achieving those goals via the grid view. Because this is more of an iteration, and we are leaving much of the original flow intact, I focused on exploring around key pages of the app instead of changing the architecture as completely.
Is the grid view really sufficient for movies in theatres today? Can we make it more actionable?
Iterating on the filters. Here, we really thought it was a good opportunity to let through some personalities for the app. Instead of using traditional rating language of stars or percentages, we decided to try something more fun.
Besides the home screen of the list view, another really crucial experience to KINOHUNT is the movie detail view. Here is where users come and learn a bit more about the movie, and take key actions. Whether it's to track a movie's availability and price, or make the decision to purchase it, this is where they do it all. The design decision here is to really find a good balance between all the CTAs that needs to live on the page, and key information people look for when evaluating a movie is worth watching or not.
Beyond that, I wanted to make the experience of browsing through multiple movies as easy and quickly as possible. So I asked myself, instead of a stand alone page, does this really need to take users out of the context they were in before? How can we make it extremely easy for people to jump from one movie to the next?
Once the card metaphor was decided on, I really wanted to come up with a powerful action sheet that could be leveraged for all the complex actions one might wanna take on any individual movie. Everything from seeing upcoming show times at near by theatres, to quickly give the movie a rating after marking it as watched.
As a designer, one of the most important things to do in my opinion is to constantly question yourself and the decisions that you've made. Can this be even easier? Is this the right approach? Have I explored all the possibilities?
Here, I wondered if there's an even easier way for people to quickly interact with the movies they've found. For example, if I've seen the trailer for Lo and Behold else where, and seeing it again in the app, I just want to buy tickets for it RIGHT NOW. Going back to the design principle defined earlier, I promised myself to try out new design patterns whenever applicable, I decided to try something a little out there.
Tap and hold to get the menu, drag your finger up and down to select options, release finger to act on the selected option. See quick interaction prototype below.
As a designer, another important quality to have is trusting in your intuitions. Based on your knowledge in the field, past experiences, your ability to put yourself in the shoe of the actual users, and the design goals you've set out for yourself at the very beginning, you should be able to make decisions when needed. In this case, where user feedback was limited, and real world in product testing was not an option, I went ahead and made the decision to finalize on one of my two ideas.
Because when we first created KINOHUNT, our goal have always been to go after people who LOVED movies, I moved forward with the idea that I believe would appeal more to movie lovers, instead of casual movie watchers. Though if I were to build this project out, I would love to partner closely with engineers in building both of these ideas out and quickly see which of these would have a broader appeal.
Prototyping this flow out and getting feedback for continued iterations.
Finalizing the nav, is there room for improvement based on all the new features and interactions?
Fine tuning how the grid view interacts with filters, is there an easier way for people to quickly filter movies?


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The World's Fastest Woman Wins Post-Olympic Meet In Spanking Form
August 22, 2021 5:41 pm Views: 21
Photo credit: Citizen59
"I've wrestled with alligators / I've tussled with a whale / I done handcuffed lightening / and throw thunder in jail / You know I'm bad, just last week I murdered a rock / Injured a stone, hospitalized a brick / I'm so mean, I make medicine sick" — Muhammad Ali.
The quote in the foregoing is that of the world's greatest boxing legend Muhammed Ali, but it could have very well come from the lips of Jamaica's double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah.
And in the words of former pop star Michael Jackson — she could now say, "I am bad!"
Thompson-Herah turned up the heat at the Prefontaine Classic, Wanda Diamond League meet in Eugene, Oregon, on Saturday to confirm her status as one of the world's greatest track athletes.
The Jamaican was in a no-nonsense mood when she easily dismissed a top-quality field to stop the clock at 10.54, just .05 second outside of the world record set by the United States' Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 and bettering her personal best time set at the recently held Olympic Tokyo Games.
Her compatriots Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson also played second fiddle at the meet, placing second and third, respectively.
The American upstart and flamboyant sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson who failed to make it to the Tokyo Olympics because of a 30-day ban after testing positive for a chemical found in marijuana after her victory in the 100-meter finals at the Olympic trials on June 19, got the opportunity to match her skills against some of the Olympic athletes.
However, the American sprinter did not live up to expectations and bombed-out last, running a slow time of 11.14.
In a post-race interview with NBC, Richardson said, "It was a great return back to the sport."
She said further, "I wanted to be able to come and perform having a month off. … Not upset at myself at all. This is one race. I'm not done. You know what I'm capable of."
"Count me out if you want to. Talk all the s— you want, 'cause I'm here to stay. I'm not done. I'm the sixth-fastest woman in this game, ever. And can't nobody ever take that from me. Congratulations to the winners. Congratulations to the people that won, but they're not done seeing me yet. Period," she added.
The fact of the matter is that Thompson-Herah had the last say, and fans will continue to expect great things from her going forward.
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Tags: athlete, Jamaican, muhammed ali, Olympic, thompson-herah


Appearance: Clear, red-brown coloured infusion with a golden hue.
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Flavour: Cocoa, dark chocolate, mocha flavours on the front, with a slight hint of leathery and earthy notes at the back.
Mouthfeel: Well-rounded, smooth, velvety liquor with lingering malty finish. Fine astringency.
Black Dragon Pearl is a black tea from Fengqing, Yunnan Province, China, which is the hometown of high quality Yunnan Black Tea, "Dian Hong". Misty mountains and winding rivers in the region provide an ideal habitat for tea bushes and ancient wild tea tress are still growing in the region, some dating back more than a millennium.
Our Black Dragon Pearl black tea is made from carefully hand-picked, tender, spring-harvested leaves and buds. Artfully hand-rolled into a beautiful pearl shape, the tea offers a full-bodied, luscious liquor. While brewing, the tightly rolled pearls start to unfurl elegantly, releasing decadent, cacao and chocolaty aromas. The liquor is very smooth and mellow with pronounced flavours of dark chocolate and mocha, with a lingering malty finish.
An indulgent, luscious black tea that pleases the eyes as much as the palate.


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Premier League transfer news and rumours
CONFIRMED: Everton sell Lucas Digne to Aston Villa
Frenchman departs after three-and-a-half years with the Toffees
By Tom Mallows@TomMallows_ Jan 13, 2022, 9:30am GMT
Share All sharing options for: CONFIRMED: Everton sell Lucas Digne to Aston Villa
Photo by Chloe Knott - Danehouse/Getty Images
Everton have confirmed the departure of defender Lucas Digne to Aston Villa.
A terse, three-line statement announced the news, with the France international, who has signed a four-and-a-half year deal, reportedly costing around £25m with add-ons.
He departs having made 125 appearances for the Blues, scoring six goals.
The former Roma player joined from Barcelona in the summer of 2018 as one of Marco Silva's early purchases and quickly proved himself a worthy successor to Leighton Baines in the left-back slot.
Digne only signed a new long-term contract last year and looked set to spend the rest of his career at Goodison, but on Wednesday night he was writing an emotional goodbye on Instagram.
How quickly things can change.
Lucas Digne has completed a transfer to Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee.#EFC
There are likely to be mixed feelings among Evertonians given the controversial nature of the move.
On the face of things, it looks good business. Digne has given Everton three years of solid service during his peak years and leaves at a profit six months before his 29th birthday, while the proceeds of the sale have already been reinvested in two young full-backs who have already been capped by their country.
It is the kind of savvy transfer business we have been crying out for the club to do for several years.
However, Everton are losing one of their most influential players at a time when the team is already struggling. I don't buy the argument that he has been poor over the last 18 months - the stats show that not to be the case. Yes, his form has dipped at times but so has the rest of the players.
The Toffees are also directly strengthening one of their rivals for the European places (though you could argue the likes of Watford, Burnley and Newcastle are Everton's rivals right now).
Then there is the messy, fractious nature of the departure.
Digne had been effectively forced out because Rafa Benitez said he was more concerned about his own stats than the team, so argues he had little choice but to sanction the sale.
Critics will point to the fact Digne was happy to play for the club before Benitez's arrival and only signed a new contract last year, while Benitez has a history of falling out with players wherever he has been.
It was clear their relationship had deteriorated beyond repair and a transfer was best for all concerned, but it leaves a sour taste.
Most Evertonians will wish him well given his performances over the last few years while nervously hoping his replacement Vitaly Mykolenko will hit the ground running.
In a twist of fate, Digne could find himself back at Goodison Park in only a matter of days, with Villa heading to Merseyside on 22 January. With Philippe Coutinho also in the Villa ranks and Steven Gerrard in the dugout.
We all fear what might happen.


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The Waste Land
by T. S. Eliot
Discuss the presence of the historical figures and their meaning in the "The Waste Land."
Lynnette Wofford
"The Waste Land " by T.S. Eliot is distinguished by its plethora of allusions to real and literary figures, replete even with footnotes. Some of the figures are historically minor but significant in Eliot's personal life, while others have cultural significance. The allusions tend to be brief and fragmentary,...
"The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot is distinguished by its plethora of allusions to real and literary figures, replete even with footnotes. Some of the figures are historically minor but significant in Eliot's personal life, while others have cultural significance. The allusions tend to be brief and fragmentary, illustrating Eliot's sense of modernity, in which cultural traditions have fractured and remain only as "fragments I have shored against my ruins."
Countess Marie Louise Larisch von Moennich (24 February 1858 – 4 July 1940), daughter of Ludwig Wilhelm, Duke of Bavaria (1831–1920) and cousin to Crown Prince Rudolf was a member by marriage of the Austrian nobility. She recounted her memories of the Hofgarten to Eliot, and they stand in the poem for the decadent and luxurious, but also, to a degree, innocent lives of young European aristocrats before the devastation of World War I.
Many of the apparently historical characters are ones refracted through the lens of literature and tradition. Philomel was a daughter of Pandion I, King of Athens who was raped by her sister's husband and eventually turned into a nightingale. She appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses. She signifies sorrow that has been transmuted into beautiful song.
Tiresias, the blind prophet found in Sophocles, is evoked both for his ability to see past, present, and future, and his experience of having been both male and female. He is a sort of universal narrative voice who perceives individual events from an almost god-like perspective in which all knowledge can be viewed as a mosaic rather than sequence of events, emphasizing the theme of fragments of tradition as they shape the present of the individual literary consciousness.
All of the figures are part of the concept of an image which by its reference evokes not just an individual event but all of its literary and historical associations in a single phrase, achieving a specificity and network of connections to other images and works that would not be present in a generic description such as "a mourning woman" or "a wise man."
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What is the main theme in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot?
What does the term "Datta, Dayadhvam, and Damyata" signify in "What the Thunder Said" in the poem The Waste Land?
Describe "The Waste Land" by T.S Eliot as a modern poem.
In The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, why does he say, "April is the cruelest month"?
What does "I will show you fear in a handful of dust" mean?
What is the meaning of water in The Waste Land?
Latest answer posted June 27, 2020 at 11:20:25 AM
Who is Tiresias, and what is his role in The Waste Land?
Latest answer posted April 25, 2012 at 12:35:26 PM
What are some main figures of speech in The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot?
Latest answer posted April 11, 2013 at 9:01:26 AM
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What is the meaning of the first stanza of "The Waste Land"?


Bestselling author and Certified Divorce Coach Cherie Morris talks with Opportunist's Managing Editor Leslie Stone about how she helps her clients navigate separation and divorce and why it's important to have an objective thinking partner during the process.
Opportunist: Nearly 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce. Any idea why the divorce rate is so high?
Cherie Morris: That's an interesting question. There are many reasons. One that Vicki and I have observed, anecdotally of course, is the dissolution of family support for many couples. When they can't turn to extended family for support, the situation may seem hopeless. So they turn to divorce without finding a way to end the conflict. Also, as women have become more economically self-sufficient, they have more choices and more power to exercise those choices. As a result, they may decide to end the marriage and reenter the workforce knowing they can support themselves and their children.
Opportunist: What are the benefits of hiring a divorce coach?
Cherie Morris: The benefits are pretty practical and pretty clear. Again, our inspiration was to offer support that Vicki and I may have wanted but didn't have, such as the concept of an objective thinking partner. Your legal advocate is your legal partner but sometimes may inadvertently cause more conflict. A divorce coach helps you decide what works for you, your partner and your children. It's like having someone hold your hand as they guide you through the chaos and help you make a daily plan of how you're going to live your life for a while. We don't provide psychological counseling, but we do provide emotional support and clear plans for people to follow before, during and post-divorce. We have also tried to create a real circle of trust by developing relationships with counselors, Realtors, parent coordinators and financial planners whom we can refer our clients to so they can save time and avoid the agony of wondering 'Who am I going to call?' We do the screening and make the appropriate referrals as they need them.
Opportunist: What services do you provide?
Cherie Morris: Our services include coaching, financial expertise to help our clients set budgets and contemplate how to generate additional income when needed, conflict resolution tools, setting appropriate boundaries and even language to get the job of divorce done and resolve conflicts. If someone is contemplating divorce, we first take them through coaching exercises to help them figure out whether they actually need a divorce or if there is some other dissatisfaction in their life. We don't encourage divorce. In fact, we provide a realistic framework for people to understand the consequences and help them see that there may actually be alternatives if the marriage is not the true source of their dissatisfaction. Each situation is obviously different. Sometimes couples counseling might help, but if there has been physical or even emotional abuse, we help our client become clear about the resources they should seek. If they're simply unhappy, we can help them evaluate the reasons for it and help them collaborate with their partner to make changes in the marriage.
Opportunist: How can someone navigate a divorce if the other party is unreasonable, spiteful or even dangerous?
Cherie Morris: The single most important recommendation we try to give our clients is setting effective boundaries with their soon-to-be exes—we call them STBXs—because they need to establish a new and different relationship going forward, especially as they co-parent their children. We encourage them to use email as a first and best medium. During a divorce, even texting can become fraught with turmoil except for the last minute 'I'm going to be late' logistic issues. If the STBX poses a real danger, we encourage clients to file a complaint with the local police so they have a record of what is going on or get protective orders if necessary. Most of the time, however, we find it less common for an STBX to be a danger and more common that they are merely trying to engage the other party through toxic communication to make them respond emotionally. We do everything we can to encourage clients to get coaching or therapy to learn different manners of response. Most people will stop trying to engage you if you do not engage with them at their emotional level of toxicity.
Opportunist: Narcissism has become a popular buzzword in today's selfie-obsessed society, but what if one party to the divorce truly has a narcissist personality disorder? Can there be a positive outcome?
Cherie Morris: Narcissism is clearly an overused term in popular culture; however, there is real narcissism that creates a dysfunctional relationship. It's extremely important to learn how to co-parent with someone who only sees things through their own lens and how it impacts them. This goes back, again, to creating good boundaries. If you're forced to co-parent with a narcissist you'll need to set clear boundaries and find a way to deal with them in only the most rudimentary fashion because narcissists violate boundaries constantly. When children are supposed to be home at a certain time, for example, the narcissist is constantly pushing and violating boundaries to try and achieve their own results—and, frankly, they are not even recognizing their responsibility in that. A narcissist will constantly find new and invasive ways to be toxic in your life. If your child is half this person, you want to not disparage them but create very clear boundaries and emotionally disengage so that when you do get the email or text it's no longer a trigger; it's just an item on your to-do list. It may sound simple to do, but it's not. It can take lots of coaching and work to understand how to disengage from a narcissist.
Opportunist: Do you work with many men and, if so, how do their situations differ from your female clients?
Cherie Morris: Yes, we do. An important part of our mission is to work with men in separation and divorce and we are very clear about why. We feel that if both parents are well supported by divorce coaching they will treat each other with more respect in the co-parenting. We find men are often more emotionally unprepared to deal with the fallout of divorce. There are probably lots of reasons, including the emotional disconnect that men often feel generally and culturally in our society. Men tend to be less in touch with their emotions, have fewer support systems than we as women do and typically do not have a therapist to talk with. It's not universal, but it can exist. Men need to know they can function as a co-parent even if their role in the family has not been as primary caregiver. They can become involved in helping to fulfill the daily needs of their children and we help them understand how they can do it. We take them through a daily agenda of how to make that a reasonable part of their skill set and understanding of who they are as a father. Another point that we try to address is helping men to not be defined only by economics and realize they are more than just a paycheck to their family. The nurturing they do with their children is as important as what the mother is doing. It's a shared burden and their role is greater than financial provider.
Opportunist: Are there any stories from the 'trenches' that you can share with us?
Cherie Morris: One client's husband simply moved out on her. He left the marital home and her—certainly in an emotional sense—but continued to provide support for the family. Not knowing if he was coming back left her in a state of uncertainty and, as a stay-at-home mother, she felt her financial options were limited. When she came to us as a client, we felt it was important to help her decide what she wanted and to create some boundaries around her husband's entry and exit from the house and his time spent with the kids. He was not motivated on keeping the marriage and she needed a separation agreement. Our goal, as her objective thinking partner, was to help her figure out how to co-parent when she was still emotionally devastated. She was an educated, smart competent woman with an M.B.A. who would be just fine reentering the workforce. The kids would be OK. But her STBX might have to step up to do more caretaking if he wanted the divorce. She learned to reimagine her life and recognize that it was not disastrous. We typically help our clients figure out how to imagine a future that is different from the one they thought they would have. It's simple but not easy and can take a lot of coaching work. This client has cleared many hurdles but still has a long way to go and will probably need some therapeutic intervention and financial tools. It's not that we are a one-and-done deal. We are very much an objective thinking partner that can exist before and during divorce or even in post-divorce complications.
Opportunist: Do you have any new features planned that you can tell us about?
Cherie Morris: We are planning to expand our coaching reach. We really enjoy the coaching we do with individual clients. Most of my clients are in D.C. and Vicki's are in New York. We can meet with local clients in-person at the office, in their homes, or a bookstore/coffee shop. It's really about making them comfortable and putting them at ease. Many times I will take walks with my clients if that's the way they're able to process what is going on.
We also have clients all over the United States and a couple in Western Europe. We want our reach to be international and have various campaigns on Facebook and Twitter to reach people worldwide. We very much enjoy providing coaching-on-demand, where a client calls in with specific concerns and receives instant coaching. Providing people with help in the moment gives them a sense of ease when they have nowhere to turn and can help change the framework of their divorce and improve their ability to set boundaries or just to feel heard by someone objective who has had the experience of divorce and can relate in all respects. We reach people all over the world, wherever they are in the divorce process, and readily and easily give them access to us by phone, by Skype and by text, and provide those coaching-on-demand services.
previous Mooring Financial Corporation: "We Will Go Where No Fund Dares Tread"


We are proud to partner with Microsoft to bring you this great event focused purely on Integration.
After months of preparation we are finally happy to announce the registrations for INTEGRATE 2016 (May 11th to 13th) is now open. The event has grown organically year on year since our first event back in 2012 and now it stands as the only premier event focused on Integration in Microsoft stack across the world. When we started the event back in 2012 it was purely BizTalk server focused event, today the integration technology has expanded its horizon exponentially in the last 4 years.
Today when we talk about Integration (just within Microsoft stack), we need to cover at least 10 different technologies like BizTalk Server, Azure App Services (LogicApps, API Apps), IoT, Service Bus, API Management, Power BI, Stream Analytics, Application Insight, Operations Insight etc. To reflect the wider technology adoption, we rebranded the event as "INTEGRATE". There will be 22 sessions over the period of 3 days, covering a wide variety of topics in Integration space. You'll hear about the roadmap of BizTalk Server 2016 and beyond.
This is also the first year we are extending the event to 3 days in London. We started off with one-day event in 2012, then to two days event in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and now 2016 is going to be 3 days at the prominent ExCel Exhibition Center, home for some of the top technology conferences in London like Microsoft Azure Roadshow, Microsoft Future Decode, AWS ReInvent etc.
You don't often get a chance to hear directly from the horses mouth, but that's not the case at INTEGRATE 2016. We are lining up 24 speakers for the event, 10 of them are from core Microsoft product group. This is the first time ever you are going to see all the core members of the Microsoft product group (BizTalk, Azure App Services, API Management and Service Bus) present directly. Recently there were some organisation restructuring with these teams and you'll get a chance to see the new leadership team at INTEGRATE 2016. On top of this, we have 14 Microsoft Integration/Azure MVP's all presenting real-world case studies and the deep-dive sessions on various topics related to integration.
Listening to the sessions from product group and industry leaders is one thing, and the opportunity to get a chance to speak to 100's of attendees over 3 days period is invaluable. In any conferences, the most interesting part and the place where you gain maximum knowledge is by interacting with people during lunch and coffee breaks. All the speakers are staying in the venue for the duration of the event, hence, you'll find enough time and opportunity to speak to them. In addition we expecting close to 400 attendees this year from across the world, all come with vast experience and willingness to share their learning's.
We just wanted to be as transparent as possible in organising and running this event. We are running the event as a pure community activity, taking the responsibility for pulling this together. The budget for this event is $200,000, we are taking 100% risk in organising this. The funding for this event is mainly driven by attendees fees and a small portion from the sponsors. In order to break even (in other words not to lose any money from our pocket), we need to achieve 300 attendees. We are very comfortable in reaching those numbers given the value proposition for the attendees we are bringing and previous years experience. If you look at the pricing table below, you can see clearly the event is not priced to make any profit.