text:
require 'dhl_express_global/request/base'

module DhlExpressGlobal
  module Request
    class Shipment < Base

      def initialize(credentials, options={})
        super
        requires!(options, :service_type, :payment_info, :international_detail)
        @international_detail = options[:international_detail]
        requires!(@international_detail, :commodities)
        @commodities = @international_detail[:commodities]
        requires!(@commodities, :description, :customs_value)
        @payment_info = options[:payment_info]
        @label_specification = {
          :image_type => 'PDF',
          :label_template => 'ECOM26_84_001'
        }

        @label_specification.merge! options[:label_specification] if options[:label_specification]
      end

      def process_request
        puts api_response if @debug
        response = parse_response(api_response)
        if success?(response)
          success_response(response)
        else
          failure_response(response)
        end
      end

      def api_response
        @response ||= self.class.post(URI(api_url),
          body:    build_xml,
          headers: headers,
          verify: true
        )
      end

      private

      def build_xml
        builder = Nokogiri::XML::Builder.new do |xml|
          xml[:soapenv].Envelope( 'xmlns:soapenv' => "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/",
                                  'xmlns:ship' => "http://scxgxtt.phx-dc.dhl.com/euExpressRateBook/ShipmentMsgRequest") {
            add_ws_authentication_header(xml)
            xml[:soapenv].Body {
              xml[:ship].ShipmentRequest {
                xml.RequestedShipment {
                  xml.parent.namespace = nil
                  add_shipment_info(xml)
                  xml.ShipTimestamp @shipping_options[:ship_timestamp] ||= (Time.now + 10*60).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SGMT%:z")
                  xml.PaymentInfo @payment_info
                  add_international_detail(xml)
                  xml.Ship {
                    add_shipper(xml)
                    add_recipient(xml)
                  }
                  add_requested_packages(xml)
                }
              }
            }
          }
        end
        builder.doc.root.to_xml
      end

      def add_shipment_info(xml)
        xml.ShipmentInfo {
          xml.DropOffType @shipping_options[:drop_off_type] ||= "REGULAR_PICKUP"
          xml.ServiceType @service_type
          xml.Account @credentials.account_number
          xml.Currency @shipping_options[:currency].upcase
          xml.UnitOfMeasurement @shipping_options[:unit_of_measurement]
        }
      end

      def add_international_detail(xml)
        xml.InternationalDetail {
          xml.Commodities {
            xml.NumberOfPieces @commodities[:number_of_pieces] if @commodities[:number_of_pieces]
            xml.Description @commodities[:description]
            xml.CountryOfManufacture @commodities[:country_of_manufacture] if @commodities[:country_of_manufacture]
            xml.Quantity @commodities[:quantity] if @commodities[:quantity]
            xml.UnitPrice @commodities[:unit_price] if @commodities[:unit_price]
            xml.CustomsValue @commodities[:customs_value]
          }
          xml.Content @international_detail[:content] if @international_detail[:content]
        }
      end

      def add_requested_packages(xml)
        xml.Packages {
          @packages.each_with_index do |package, i|
            xml.RequestedPackages('number' => i + 1) {
              xml.Weight package[:weight][:value]
              xml.Dimensions {
                xml.Length package[:dimensions][:length]
                xml.Width package[:dimensions][:width]
                xml.Height package[:dimensions][:height]
              }
              xml.CustomerReferences @shipping_options[:customer_references] ||= "#{rand(10**10)}"
            }
          end
        }
      end

      def failure_response(response)
        error_message = error_response(response)
        raise RateError, error_message
      end

      def success_response(response)
        @response_details = response[:envelope][:body][:shipment_response]
      end

      def success?(response)
        response[:envelope][:body][:shipment_response] && !error_response(response)
      end

      def error_response(response)
        response[:envelope][:body][:shipment_response][:notification][:message]
      rescue
        response[:envelope][:body][:shipment_response][:notification].first[:message]
      end

      def headers
        super.merge!("SOAPAction" => "euExpressRateBook_providerServices_ShipmentHandlingServices_Binder_createShipmentRequest")
      end

    end
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I have been making it since. The recipe calls for apple juice. I want to minimize the bakery's expenses so I use water in place of apple juice. I use a mixture of strong bread flour, wheat germ and wheat bran. I add muesli , some raisins, apricots and prunes. The verdict so far was good. I will stick to it for now.


text:
Home » Hospitals take their best shot to fight flu with new emphasis from JCAHO
Hospital / Hospital Employee Health
Hospitals take their best shot to fight flu with new emphasis from JCAHO
Hospitals take their best shot at the flu
Under the gun to act, hospitals in Washington state put their hopes on seven "best practices" to curb non-emergent use of their EDs by Medicaid patients
New York and California are forging new coalitions in fight to insure their states
Hospitals take their best shot to fight flu with new emphasis from JCAHO | Single Article
Hospitals take their best shot at the flu | Single Article
Under the gun to act, hospitals in Washington state put their hopes on seven "best practices" to curb non-emergent use of their EDs | Single Article
The pressure is on to improve vaccination rates
Ramp up your flu vaccine campaign. This year, the heat is on for hospitals to improve their health care worker vaccination rates. Despite strongly worded recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and missives from infection control and health care quality organizations, the rate of health care worker vaccination remains a tepid 42%.
Now, even surveyors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will be checking hospital flu vaccination rates. JCAHO's new standard requiring hospitals to monitor and improve their rates on influenza vaccination goes into effect in January 2007.
So what are you doing to increase your vaccination rates?
Many strategies are tried and true: educating health care workers about the risks of influenza to themselves and their patients; countering myths about flu vaccination; and making flu vaccination free and accessible. Some hospitals are asking health care workers who choose not to receive the vaccine to sign a declination statement; others are convinced that they can improve rates without adding a punitive tone or administrative burden.
Current success no secret
Nationally, the Veterans Health Administration succeeded in vaccinating almost 55% of its work force last year — about 10% better than the national average. Yet its success is no secret. The VA followed widely used strategies initially developed and refined by Kristin Nichol, MD, MPH, MBA, an influenza vaccination expert at the Minneapolis VA, and other occupational health leaders.
"The very successful facilities had done what everyone says they should," says Michael Hodgson, MD, MPH, director of the VHA's occupational health program — "information campaigns, mobile flu clinics, vaccination available to all three shifts, and visible leadership."
The tools and strategies are available as the VA Influenza Toolkit at www.publichealth.va.gov/flu/flu_toolkit.htm. It includes a manual as well as posters and templates for buttons that can be used to promote vaccination.
"You have to do it in a way that makes it easy for employees and you have to provide 'management incentives,'" Hodgson says. For example, as one network director performance measure — an accountability tool tied to an annual financial incentive for top managers — every facility must vaccinate 60% of employees.
"The managers are being asked to document their plan for improvement and tracking, report their actual vaccination rate, examine what worked and what didn't, and prepare to improve next year," he says.
So far, the VHA has chosen not to use declination statements, and the VA manual does not contain a sample declination statement. Instead, the VA uses an annual survey to track vaccination rates and one-on-one interviews to identify reasons that employees decline vaccination, says Hodgson.
Accounting for the vaccination status of every employee, many of whom are vaccinated as veterans through their health insurance or through public sites, would be a time-consuming effort, without much documented benefit, Hodgson says.
For example, almost 15% of health care workers nationally have asthma and are likely to receive their flu shot from a private physician, he notes. So a hospital's actual vaccination rate likely is higher than the number of doses they deliver.
Meanwhile, a high rate of vaccination provides "herd immunity," or protection against an outbreak; it's not necessary to reach 100% vaccination, he says.
Still, the VHA continues to strive for improved rates. "The goal is to ratchet up the penetration [of health care worker immunization], and we'll see how far we get. Our goal is 80% by 2011," Hodgson says.
Campaign begins with a blitz
Every fall, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, approaches the flu campaign with a blitz. It begins with a blast of publicity through the intranet, an internal news-letter, and e-mail. This fall, the medical center plans to add a message scrolling along the bottom of TV screens in employee areas.
Almost 100 "campaign coordinators" — mostly nurses — provide the vaccinations throughout the medical center, which encompasses four campuses, a medical school, 30 physician practices, 40 operating rooms, and numerous clinical centers. Employee health nurses also set up satellite sites and vaccinate in the employee health department.
The success rate: About 75% of 12,500 employees, volunteers, students, and physicians receive the vaccine.
"[Annual influenza vaccination] has become part of our culture," says Scott Spillmann, MD, MPH, director of medical center employee and occupational health services.
In fact, it's a year-round effort. A broad-based task force includes administrators, clinicians, pharmacists, and representatives from the medical school, wellness program, marketing, and public relations; the trained vaccinators often are supervisors who provide the vaccine on every shift. Wake Forest maintains a web page dedicated to influenza vaccination and provides a hotline during the campaign to respond to employee questions or concerns.
The vaccinations begin in October. "We typically run the vaccination campaign until either we run out of vaccine or until the [flu] season ends," says Spillmann.
The president and CEO of Wake Forest University Health Sciences, the medical school's dean, the hospital president and CEO, the board of trustees, and other administrators publicly get the vaccine and tout the campaign. "We have the support of every single top person in this medical center," Spillmann says.
The medical center emphasizes the core reason for employees to get the vaccine — to protect their patients and themselves. Every employee signs either an informed consent to receive the vaccine or those who decline are asked to sign a declination (see vaccination form).
In the declination, the medical center asks employees why they chose not to be vaccinated. About 14% say they fear getting the flu from the vaccine — although the injectable vaccine is inactivated and cannot transmit influenza. "We try our best to dispel that [myth] every single year," Spillmann says.
The risk of transmission is very small from the live, attenuated virus used in the nasal vaccine, but that vaccine is not recommended for health care workers caring for severely immunocompromised patients, such as in a transplant unit. However, that vaccine is useful for the 3% who fear injections.
About 25% of those who declined the vaccine said they didn't think they would get influenza or simply didn't want the vaccine.
Although Wake Forest's vaccination rate is almost double the national average, the medical center still hopes to take it higher. "We're not resting on our laurels," says Spillmann. "We're not stopping here. We're continually seeking ways to reach people, to educate people, to encourage people."
Hospital Employee Health
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Successful campaigns for vaccinating HCWs
Hospitals merge pertussis vaccination with flu shots
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JCAHO Update for Infection Control: JCAHO standard targets resistance to HCW flu vaccinations
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This page displays sold house prices for Cwrt Y Babell in Newport.
Cwrt Y Babell in Cwmfelinfach, Newport consists predominantly of semi-detached houses. Properties on Cwrt Y Babell typically have values around £150,000 - £200,000, ranging upwards of £200,000 for larger semi-detached houses.
Map showing Cwrt Y Babell in Newport.


While packing for my 10-month Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Nová Paka, Czech Republic, I struggled to fit my formal dress between my winter coat and rain jacket. In our handbook, we were encouraged to pack a "nice dress" for the balls we would be attending in the winter. Based on the brief description I received when I asked about this special occasion, I was always told this dance was similar to American prom. Yet after experiencing my first Maturitní ples (graduation ball), Americans need to take note. I penciled my first Maturitní ples into my calendar after students handed me a formal invitation in December. A maximum of 10 teachers were allowed at my prom as chaperones, not as attendees. Yet these students asked every teacher at the Gymnázium (high school) to attend. For 160 crowns (approximately $7.00) I purchased my ticket. My US prom ticket cost me nearly $70.00 in 2012! At this point I began to realize that the Maturitní ples experience would have little in common with my American prom. I headed to the bus stop closest to my flat dressed in my black cocktail dress with snow boots on (heels in hand!) and boarded a free coach bus provided by the school. There was no music bumping or disco lights flashing on this bus—it was just like the bus I take to Prague some weekends. The bus arrived at Masarykovo divadlo (theater), where the interior was so elegant that not a single decoration was needed. The foyer was filled with attendees of all ages—children to grandparents. While I was begging my parents to stop taking photos of my date and me during my senior prom, it was heartwarming to see how overjoyed my students were when they saw their families. Although it was the students' special night, it was an equally proud moment for the families who helped guide them to this momentous occasion.
After Šerpování, the night began to resemble an American prom. But instead of the Macarena, partners were skillfully dancing the polka and waltz.
I headed to the balcony to get a birds' eye view of the dances performed by the sophomore and senior classes. Each class choreographed a 5-minute dance. Logically, this never could have happened at my high school prom, where I graduated with 300. Yet, in these classes of about 30 students, these five minutes showcased their creativity and tireless work outside of the classroom. In a way, I felt as if I was attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, watching this spectacle unfold. Everything was extravagant, but I did not feel out of place, even as a foreigner. After the seniors performed their dance, it was time for Šerpování. Each student had a moment of fame as they walked onto the stage to their favorite song to receive a sash and red rose, signifying their academic achievements thus far. Similar to having rice thrown at a wedding, peopled popped confetti cannons as their loved one's name was called, while others tossed coins at them. At the end, students sweep up the coins from the floor and use it to help finance the cost of their prom. So, if you are ever in attendance, make sure you have tons of coins to throw (while my students loved receiving 50 crowns, try not to aim at them: they leave a mark!) After Šerpování, the night began to resemble an American prom. But instead of the Macarena, partners were skillfully dancing the polka and waltz. Here in the Czech Republic, students attend formal dancing lessons around the age of 15. This portion of the prom also included a dance for students and teachers. I was so honored when one of my students sought me from my hiding place, no longer allowing me to be a wallflower. After about five minutes of twirling in circles for the polka, I made a beeline for the bar.
Although a complete foreigner, my students made me feel so welcome at every moment throughout the night. At times, I had a hard time recognizing them because they transformed into princes and princesses for the evening.
In the Czech Republic the drinking age is 18, so alcohol is readily available. While underage drinking at American prom may sometimes occur in order to give dates some liquid courage to dance together or confess their love, it is simply celebratory at Czech balls. I believe a lot of this has to do with the fact that Maturanti students (seniors) do not bring dates. It is not part of the tradition. What is part of their tradition, however, is taking shots with teachers. So, as the Czechs say Na zdraví—cheers! Other than that, the end of the night is identical with popular music playing and everyone dancing and singing their hearts out until the early morning. When I got home to my bed slightly after 1am, I processed everything I had just experienced. Although a complete foreigner, my students made me feel so welcome at every moment throughout the night. At times, I had a hard time recognizing them because they transformed into princes and princesses for the evening. While I missed the Cha-Cha Slide and Wobble, which had played at my prom, I realized that my prom had missed a key element that was exhibited at the Czech ball—class unity. When you spend eight years together with the same 30 students, I imagine that bond is unbreakable. They twirled each other on the dance floor, drank shots together and took a beautiful photo that will commemorate the night they will always remember. I know I will always look back at all the Maturiní plesy I attended as some of my fondest memories of my time in the Czech Republic. Even I felt like a princess for the night.
Lovely article. It brought back nice memories of the charished years I lived Czech Repuplic. Your piece captured the specticle of "the Czech prom" perfectly. I remember also being impressed that it is such an inclusive affair, while also making sure every sure every student has their moment to shine. I agree that American prom could take note.
Thank you so much Marie! I was so fortunate to attend 3 during my time here. It really is beautiful to see each student have a shining moment. Everyone certainly is made to feel special and important that night.


text:
Peter Meyer is a former News Editor of Life magazine and the author of numerous nonfiction books, including the critically acclaimed The Yale Murder (Empire Books, 1982; Berkley Books, 1983) and Death of Innocence (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985; Berkley Books, 1986). Over the course of his three-decade journalism career Meyer, who holds a masters degree in history from the University of Chicago, has touched down in cities around the globe, from Bennington to Baghdad, and has written hundreds of stories, on subjects as varied as anti-terrorist training for American ambassadors to the history of the 1040 income tax form. His work has appeared in such publications as Harper's, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, New York, Life, Time and People. Since 1991 Meyer has focused his attentions on education reform in the United States, an interest joined while writing a profile of education reformer E.D. Hirsch for Life. Meyer subsequently helped found a charter school, served on his local Board of Education (twice) and, for the last eight years, has been an editor at Education Next. His articles for the journal include "The Early Education of our Next President" (Fall 2008), "New York City's Education Battles: The mayor, the schools, and the `rinky-dink candy store'" (Spring 2008), "Learning Separately: The case for single-sex schools" (Winter 2008), and "Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?" (Spring 2007). Meyer also writes and edits, mostly on education, for the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute, and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, where he is a Senior Visiting Fellow.
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A fascinating story in the New York Times about schooling in India has a few things to teach American educators; mainly, that the poor really do want a good education.
Looking Back to Look Forward: A List of Lists
Last year I attempted to rank the top education stories of the year using Google. It was fun, but it was bit too nuanced (algorithmically speaking) to work.
'Twas the Night Before De-regulation
The controversy over the recent New York Times front-page slam of K12 Inc. was ostensibly about the company's inability to deliver online education, but one of the more interesting parts of the ensuing debate was not about computers and education but about delivering education for profit.
The Bold & the Beautiful: The Mind Trust Plan for Indianapolis
By combining mayoral authority and parental choice, the Mind Trust proposal would create a marriage made in heaven.
A Christmas Carol For Our Schools
A new round of the popular education board game, Poverty Matters, began last week with a New York Times op-ed by Helen Ladd and Edward Fiske, titled, "Class Matters: Why Won't We Admit It?"
What's Not to Like About Newt's Education Proposal?
Newt's never been known for soft-and-cuddly and he does make an easy target for bleeding heart liberals as he joins his Darwinian socio-economic observations with a delivery crisp enough to shatter good china. The problem is, though, that he's mostly right.
Holiday Feast: STOP THE PRESSES!!! And pass the gravy.
I must interrupt this program to urge readers to cozy up to ednext.org and be thankful for the new issue of Education Next. Cover-to-cover, it's a blessing.
How About Better Parents? Ask Clarence Lee
Reading Thomas Friedman in yesterday's New York Times, I couldn't help but think of the Shel Silverstein classic, "Clarence Lee from Tennessee," a 1993 poem suggesting that kids could trade in their parents for new ones.
Steve Brill's Diane Ravitch Moment
It's hard to tell whether Joe Nocera's op-ed essay in the New York Times last week, "Teaching With The Enemy," is wonderfully nuanced or just silly. That's surely what some education observers might wonder about the notion that Randi Weingarten, former head of New York City's teacher union and current head of the American Federation of Teachers, should be chancellor of New York City schools.
The Secret to Good Parenting? Good Schools
Schools and parents have different responsibilities – and we need to appreciate the differences.
More Money to the Parents; More Power to the People
University of Chicago economist John List is following more than 600 students in several Chicago schools to find out whether investing in teachers or, alternatively, in parents, leads to more gains in kids' educational performance.
What money can't buy: Facebook happiness in Newark?
Reading the New York Times update on the progress of the $100 million Mark "Facebook" Zuckerberg donation to the Newark public schools this morning, I couldn't help but think of the time our superintendent convened a meeting of parents to announce a $20,000 grant for a "Parent University" project. Wow!
News of the world… Or, catching up on Rupert, Nick, Alexis, and the NAACP
Whatever happens with ESEA reauthorization, I am convinced that the genie of education excellence is out of the bottle; administrators, teachers, aides, security guards – they are getting with the program.
A progressive school finds some accountability religion
I was prepared for a rant against all things reform when I started reading the New York Times Q & A interview with Maria Velez-Clarke, the principal of the Children's Workshop School in Manhattan's East Village, about the school's C-grade from the City.
Back to the Future: Re-Inventing Local Control
As much as it pains me every time I hear Checker Finn say it, school boards may indeed be irrelevant. And Checker's new essay in National Affairs lays out a pretty persuasive case for why they will disappear; not, why they should go away, but why they will simply die on a vine that is no longer part of a healthy education system.
New York Leaps into the Middle School Trap
What was so odd about Dennis Walcott's announcement that New York City was opening 50 new middle schools is that the most recent research suggesting that a middle school grade configuration is probably not the way to go was done in his city.
Teachers Breaking Out of the Box
I gave up bashing teachers years ago, when I realized that, as with soldiers in the trenches, they had their hands full just staying alive. What I never understood, however, since this wasn't really a war, was why teachers seemed to hide behind their unions.
Zen and the Art of School Board Maintenance
The problem is that local school boards can't wait around for the folks who have caused our cancers to cure them.
A Bronx Cheer for Bloomberg? A New Poll is Harsh
I felt a bit sad reading this morning's New York Times poll report showing that New Yorkers are now broadly dissatisfied with their school system and that most say the city's school system has stagnated or declined since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took control of it nine years ago.
A New Leader for New Orleans
Podcast: John White talks with Education Next about his goals for the Recovery School District.
More Power Politics in New York. Or, Another Hacking Victim
New Yorkers were reminded yesterday that politics can be bloody when the state's comptroller pulled the plug on a multi-million-dollar no-bid contract to Wireless Generation to set up a data-base for New York City's schools.
The Union Wins a Big One in New York: Judge Tosses Out Most of Teacher Eval System
On Wednesday a state judge in Albany ruled that student test scores on state exams could not be used for 40 percent of a teacher's evaluation and that NYBOR's and NYSED's cut scores for grading teachers was unfairly slanted to favor those student scores.
The End of the Era of Accountability?
My only hope is that we don't let education policy get hijacked by the same partisan bickering that flavored the debt-ceiling standoff a couple weeks ago. Our education system lost its AAA rating several generations ago.
The Information Gap – Serious Policy Implications
It would be too simplistic to say that the difference between good schools and bad is in the quality of the information the public gets about its schools. But the swing in public opinion the size of that reported by the PEPG/Ed Next survey should be a wake-up call: get the information out.
Cheating in the Keystone State
Michael Winerip is on a roll. After a good piece of reporting on the Atlanta cheating scandal a couple of weeks ago, he has turned in a solid story about the testing mess rolling into Pennsylvania.
The Christian Brothers and their Public Schools
Podcast: Peter Meyer reports from Chicago, where two public schools have been launched by a Roman Catholic religious order.
News of the World: rocketships, suburban charters, parent triggers, cheating, merit pay — and even Winerip does good
Okay, it's not exactly what Rupert might condone, but since he and his crew are preoccupied, I offer some education highlights from my weekend reading.
Reading is NOT Fundamental: Knowledge Is
It is encouraging news that New York City's three-year-old pilot project testing the content-rich Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum has proved so far "a brilliant experiment in reading."
Winerip v. Moskowitz: Success Wins
I'll hand it to Michael Winerip. This morning he takes on one of the charter movement's fiercest competitors, Eva Moskowitz
History Lesson: Where's The Declaration?
It is hard to read the Declaration of Independence without being moved by the document's plainspoken audacity, especially recalling that it wasn't then a "document," but a rather blunt call to arms.
Brooks is Brilliant: An Op-Ed To Savor
There are no knock-out punches in this fight, but David Brooks comes close with a perspective-setting essay about school reformers and their adversaries.
The RTTT Honeymoon is over in New York
After the sweetness-and-nice between New York State Education Department and the New York State United Teachers to win $700 million from the federal Race to the Top fund last year, NYSUT sued the state's Board of Regents and NYSED's acting commissioner over the decision to ratchet up the importance of student test scores in a teacher's annual evaluation.
Winerip: Another Missed Diss
The New York Times' education columnist Michael Winerip spoiled another good story yesterday.
The Newest Achievement Standard: Divine Intervention!
There has been the "silver bullet" debate, the "secret sauce" battle, the "demonize teacher" tirades, and the "cracking the code" kerfuffle over Waiting for Superman. Now, according to Diane Ravitch, it's the miracle workers perfidy.
Where's the Tea Party When You Need It?
How we got from a state constitution requiring that the legislature "provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein all the children of this state may be educated" to laws taking away the right of citizens to determine what they spend for that "free" education is a long and hard legal and policy road.
Memento Mori: Let Us Now Praise the Power of Memory
As educators, we need to remember that good memories are paths to good living – and our schools must do whatever they can to teach the habit of remembering.
A Times Derby: Gates, Parents, Rhee, and, of course, "Beyond Tests" with Michael Winerip
The New York Times has had a veritable flock of noteworthy education stories the last several days and, at the risk of bursting readers' 20 article bubble, I would recommend all five.
Teacher Evaluations: The Alternatives to Nothing?
In a lengthy essay for the Washington Post New York State Regent Roger Tilles provides more evidence for why the Empire State has slipped so badly educationally in the last couple of decades: the tendency to fiddle while Rome burns.
Field Notes: Vote Early, Vote Often
It's school budget voting day in New York. And in my little district, with fewer than 2,000 K—12 students, voters are being asked to approve a $41,249,180 budget, which is a remarkably lean one, considering that it is just .77 more than last year's budget.
Spring Cleaning: New Evidence that Off-Cycle School Board Elections are Bad for Democracy
The well-intentioned folks who believed that separating school district elections from the hurly-burly of the hoi-polloi would result in something more dignified and professional — well, apparently, they were wrong.
Squaring the Teacher Salary Circle: It Can be Done
Last week, Dave Eggers and Ninive Clements Calegari wrote an essay for the New York Times titled The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries. What is refreshing about Eggers and Calegari's approach is that it picks up on some of the more important findings of the recent McKinsey report, but I urge them to avoid the briar patch of "low pay" unless they understand the enormous costs already absorbed by system inefficiencies.
Zuckerberg 2.0: Cami Anderson and Newark
Anderson has some serious creds, having managed Joel Klein's initiative aimed at creating schools for New York City's most challenging students. And she gets kudos from Randi Weingarten. Still, I would advise Anderson not to pose for the cover of Time holding a broom.
New Jersey Governor Visits Harvard School of Education: Sparks Don't Fly
According to yesterday's New York Times Chris Christie went to "the heart of liberal darkness" yesterday – and kept his cool.
Poverty? Ask J-C Brizard
My argument about poverty is simple: there are too many millions of people like Brizard who "used the U.S. education system" to drag themselves out of poverty to count them as exceptions that prove some demography is destiny rule.
Education Unbound*
Unfortunately, in his Limits of School Reform essay this morning, the newest op-ed columnist for the Times, Joe Nocera, shows the limits of logic in thinking about the subject.
Richard Iannuzzi on How New York Won the Race to the Top
Highlights from my interview with Richard Iannuzzi, the head of the New York State United Teachers.
Steiner Wins Race to the Top but Won't be Going to the Promised Land
When David Steiner, a reformer's reformer, announced last week that he was giving up the reins as New York state's Commissioner of Education, the education world seemed to take a collective deep breath.
Joe Williams on How New York Won the Race to the Top
The inside story of how the legislation to raise the charter cap and remove the firewall between student data and teacher evaluations came to pass.
David Steiner on How New York Won the Race to the Top
An interview I did with New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner about New York's bid to win Race to the Top funds
A Plague of Violence in Chicago: What Can Schools Do?
Though violence is contagious, you don't solve the problem with classes about it – you provide a zone of safety, a "culture of peace," within which you then do the hard work of education.
The NEA Girds for Battle
A brilliant report from Mike Antonucci at the Education Intelligence Agency (EIA) paints a dark picture of what the recent public union defeats in Wisconsin and elsewhere mean to the National Education Association.
Field Notes: Budgeting while the Ship is Sinking
At Monday night's school board budget "workshop" I felt the sinking sensation that passengers on the Titanic must have felt: it's too late for life boats.
The Digital Divide and the Knowledge Deficit
Are we letting our digital obsessions distract us from obligations to teach knowledge?
School Funding: Do We Have to be as Poor as Our Neighbor?
In a provocative new school funding case, a federal court judge in Kansas City ruled against parents from the suburban Shawnee Mission school district who had wanted to increase property taxes above the state mandated limit. This is a local control debate that is sure to heat up as we stumble through the current financial crisis.
Teachers and Their Bitter Harvest
"Teachers wonder, why the heapings of scorn?" is the front page headline over a Trip Gabriel story in today's New York Times. And, indeed, teachers have been taking it on the chin of late.
That's the subtitle of my new story, about an experiment to take a successful religious school education model to the public sector. Let the walls come tumbling down!
The Next Frontier (abyss?): Testing and its Kissin' Cousin, Cheating
On Friday, at the end of a bang-up Education Writers Association conference on improving teaching quality, at the Carnegie Corporation in New York City, I was approached by a newspaper education editor who asked whether I thought charter school test results were real. "Are they cheating?" she asked, more pointedly.
If it Bleeds it Leads – That's not Denver
ED's two-day Advancing Student Achievement through Labor Management Collaboration conference was quite a confab, one which highlighted the success of collaborations in places like Helena and New Haven as well as the pioneering union-friendly work of Green Dot, the charter management organization.
You Think You're Ready for College—Think Again
In their continuing drive to ratchet up learning standards, New York State's education leaders are now sounding the alarm about high school diplomas. According to a new study, done for NY's State Ed department, fewer than half the kids in the state holding a diploma are ready for college.
Atlanta: Still Burning
If there's a Pulitzer nomination for investigative reporting worth making, it's the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for the work its team of reporters has been doing on the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal. In fact, scandal does not quite capture what would seem to be a systemic failure of huge proportions.
Randi's Catching a Wave
The Times had some kind words for Randi Weingarten yesterday, praising her and her union for having "wisely chosen to work with state legislatures and local school districts" in releasing "a plan for speeding up disciplinary hearings." The Times calls this "a good starting point for more discussion." And indeed it is. But readers should read Weingarten's January 12 speech, "A New Path Forward: Four Approaches to Quality Teaching and Better Schools," to get a flavor for the politics of the thing.
Choice Marches On: Charters for the Middle Class?*
From the beginning, charter schools have been sold as a vehicle of choice for the poor – and they have done a remarkable job, for the most part, providing that outlet. Now, according to this morning's New York Times, public school choice may be coming to a more affluent neighborhood near you.
School Boards: Our Indicator Species
I am now in my fourth year on my school board – not counting the six months of horror I endured there at the end of the 20th century — and "endure" is certainly a wise term for the experience.
Today's Times: the Good, the Bad, and the Outrageous
It's great to have Saturday morning education stories to mull, but the New York Times may be pushing the envelope with this line-up.
Peoples' Choice (via Google): Top 20 2010 Education Stories as of RIGHT NOW!*
Without further ado, rationalization, explanation, or caveat, here are Google's top 20 education "stories."
Bobbing and Weaving in DC–-By Way of Detroit
In the education-reform movement there have always been two schools of thought—when there aren't a dozen—about what makes a good reform superintendent.
The Coin of the Realm: A Plea for Curriculum
As I got into this business through the curriculum reform door, opened by E.D. Hirsch, I can't pass up an opportunity to promote the need for comprehensive and rigorous curricula.
What's a Good Teacher Worth? How about $400,000
Stanford economist Eric Hanushek "investigates the interplay between teacher effectiveness and the economic impact of higher student achievement, specifically in terms of test scores."
Tax Caps and Tidal Waves: Now? or Never?
Our public schools face a "fiscal tsunami" that will change our public education system for years to come.
Pass the Anchovies: What's with Singapore Math and Sputnik?
The wake-up call and Sputnik moment has already happened. We've already looked.
Crossing the Hudson: Cerf to Trenton
One-time NYC deputy schools chancellor Christopher Cerf has been appointed commissioner of education for New Jersey. Not a surprising choice, given Governor Chris Christie's determination to remake the Garden State's schools.
Ready, Aim, Fire: California's Parent Trigger
California's new law lets parents in failing public schools vote to turn their school over to a charter school operator. The fact that California's teacher unions calls the law the "lynch mob provision" must mean the bill's backers are on the right track.
Grading Gotham's Teachers — No Ruling Yet
In a case the NY Times said would "propel New York City to the center of a national debate about how student test scores should be used to evaluate teachers," a bunch of lawyers fought it out in a NYC courtroom yesterday.
Smile! You're on Not-So-Candid Camera
Sam Dillon tackles the question of teacher evaluations in the Times today with a front-page story pegged to Bill Gates' investment of $335 million in overhauling teacher evaluation systems.
Act I Ends in NYC: Steiner can get some rest
The official announcement comes on Monday, but this being New York, word had "leaked" out on Friday. "Mayor and State Reach Deal on a Schools Chief," was the front-page headline in the Times.
'All together now' Meets Differentiated Instruction
It's one thing to think about the achievement gap between races and socio-economic groups, but our relatively recent headlong rush to celebrate diversity—and integration and "mainstreaming"—has brought with it new achievement gap challenges.
Competition Works!
This is the conclusion of David Figlio and Cassandra Hart in their new study of Florida's pioneering Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC) for Education Next.
The End of an Era: Ravitch v. Klein
Diane Ravitch took some parting shots at Joel Klein last week with a short post on the New York Review of Books' blog headlined "New York's New School Czar."
End of an era in New York City
The public education world shook yesterday with the news that New York City's Chancellor Joel Klein was resigning.
To Close or Not to Close? Not a Question in Gotham
While the research jury may still be out on the turnaround versus closure question, New York City has at least come to appreciate the human dimension. Instead of just announcing a school closure, as it has done in the past, this year school officials are meeting with parents and staff "before making a final decision."
The Culture of Poverty — or the Poverty of Culture?
Bottom line: our education system has perpetuated the culture of poverty legend long enough, not by failing to integrate schools, but by failing to teach black children.
Be Quiet! Sit Up! Listen! Tie Your Shoes! Character Ed Takes It on the Shins!
Why was I not surprised to read the Education Week story on a new federal study, "the largest…to date," says Ed Week, that pooh-poohs character education? (ie. It doesn't work.)
Carroll to Charter Colleagues: Just say NO!
Thomas Carroll, one of New York's leading charter school directors, has just sent out a memo to fellow charter network operators in the Empire State urging them NOT to participate in Race to the Top. Carroll says that the red tape that comes with the money is not worth it for charters.
From "Sailing the Ocean Blue" to "I Pledge Allegiance"
I was gratified to see the new book on the Pledge of Allegiance that I co-authored with Jeffrey Owen Jones reviewed in the Wall Street Journal yesterday morning. Unfortunately, I never met Jones whose book this was — and is. A gifted television and film producer who stumbled onto the Pledge tale while teaching at the University of Rochester, Jones unfortunately died before he could finish the project. Tom Dunne, a longtime friend and publisher with St. Martin's Press, asked me if I could help.
And the Answer Is? (Shh! We Can't Tell You!)
Though nothing that most educators didn't know, Jennifer Medina's front-page story in the New York Times this morning is worth reading—if you like reviewing, in slow motion, the tape of a train wreck.
King of the Mountain!
David Steiner, the New York State Education Commissioner, surely knows that politics in New York state is a blood sport and that the powerful teachers union plays it well. But he also seems to be wise enough not to shout "King of the Mountain!"
Just Because the Sky's Not Falling Doesn't Mean Your School is Good
Far be it from me to take on Nicholas Lemann – former Managing Editor of the Washington Monthly, former staff reporter for the Washington Post, staff writer for The New Yorker, author of The Big Test (about the SATs), and current dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism – but…his current "narrative of crisis" complaint in The New Yorker gets the plot wrong.
"Dominick, Go Frisk 'em"**
Catholic schools are back in the news as the New York Diocese prepares for what the Times is calling an "aggressive effort to close or consolidate elementary schools" — as many as 30 of the 216 in the system, reports the Times.
Forget the iPad — Get Me a Livescribe Smart Pen
Many of us still buying print were pleasantly surprised yesterday to find the New York Times magazine devoted to education. The issue of technology is the essential question of "The Education Issue." What will the digital revolution do to–and for–our schools?
Testing Testing Testing — It's Good For You
The New York Times' Week in Review on Sunday followed up on its Science Times story from last Tuesday, "Forget What You Know About Studying," with a page-one story called "Testing, The Chinese Way."
Austan Who?
The headline in the Washington Post was "Austan Goolsbee: triathlete, improv comedian, economist." Given the state of the economy, Obama's new Chairman of the Council on Economic Advisers might need the improv comedian talents more than anything. But what might not show up in the quick list of resume references is an interesting story Goolsbee and Jonathan Guryan (both professors of economics at the U. of Chicago) penned for Education Next in 2006: World Wide Wonder? Measuring the (non-)impact of Internet subsidies to public schools
A Misplaced Race Card
My jaw did the proverbial drop when I read this opening sentence in a front page story in Sunday's Albany Times Union: Albany's charter schools have created a second school system that is almost entirely segregated.
For Labor Day: School Should Be a Child's First Job
The debate about poverty's impact on education is close to ridiculous in large part because our poverty is as much intellectual as it is economic, especially when it comes to education.
Field Notes: My Piece of Kafka
If I were to write an education book, it would be called, "Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry: Life on the School Board." Of all the emotions accompanying these events — and school board meetings are more full of emotion than anything else – the feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or cry is one of the more common and consistent ones – for me.
Forget STEM: "To the dreadful summit of the cliff"*
Mark Bauerlein has a wonderfully refreshing piece in the new Education Next. It is especially welcome to those beleaguered liberal arts and humanities folks among us who feel so un-21st century. But I hope that even die-hard periodic tablists among you would be impressed by Bauerlein's subtle skewering of the current head of the National Endowment of the Arts, Rocco Landesman.
Stop the Presses!*
Another front-page story in the New York Times this morning is sure to stoke the Gotham education fires. "Triumph Fades on Racial Gap in New York City Schools" makes it pretty clear that the recent goal line adjustment made by New York State's new education Commissioner David Steiner did not affect all groups equally.
The Gray Lady, Part 2: The Other Shoe Drops
What seems central to Winerip's reportorial DNA is a sympathy for the little guy, whether the disabled kid or the handicapped school. Though I can't claim to have studied his writings thoroughly (nor have I communicated with him), if Winerip does have political or ideological views about the education system, it would appear that he sees the thing through the prism of leaving no child or school behind – that is, before allowing any child or school to get ahead, we must pick up those behind. The market place, which allows success and failure, is a threat; the social safety net is wide and deep.
Money Talks – But Does It Educate?
This is American education's sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. Or is it $64 million? Billion? Or, how about $26 billion? That's the number moving through the Capitol at the moment.
Sexting and Other Constitutional Issues
It is hard to be a reporter in America for very long, including as one trying to fathom our richly diverse public education system, without having to deal with a Constitutional issue.
Voice in the Wilderness: Save NCLB!
Despite the bashing the ten-year-old federal law has been taking–much of it deserved–on the ground, in the provinces NCLB has succeeded in beginning a much-needed change in the culture of public education: from a system focused on adults to one looking behind all the curtains to see how kids are doing. It hasn't been a pretty launch, of course, but the ship is only barely out of port.
Union Dues
The fall 2009 issue of Ed Next included an article I wrote about some remarkable charter schools in Albany. In that article, I described how the teachers union had fought hard to limit the role charters could play in Albany and elsewhere in New York. Richard Iannuzzi of the NYSUT claims that "New York's anti-union charter spokesmen misstated" the union's position on charter schools.
The Real "Crisis" in Catholic Education?
A story in the October 12 issue of Time Magazine on the "crisis" in Catholic schools, brought me back to a question I have been asking myself for several months: what's the connection between the health of Catholic schools and the health of the Catholic church?
The other day I delivered to my school board president, via email, a list. "This is what I found in my 'followup' folder for just the last month!" I wrote. "Obviously, we can't get it all in at a single meeting, but can we chip away at it?"
School Board as Cheerleader, Leader, and Micromanager
I recently got a wake-up call from a fellow school board member, upset about a comment I made to a reporter that turned up in a page-one story that morning. Was it a mistake? And should I have talked about it? To the press?
Charter Schools in Albany
Podcast: Peter Meyer tells Education Next how the city of Albany hit the jackpot: high-quality charter schools, and lots of them.
Trench Warfare on the Board of Ed
I was the infamous "rogue" board member, the person that school board associations give seminars about.


The rain had stopped by the time we rose at 7 o'clock, but it was a bad place to have been camping in a cloudburst.
The dust had turned to mud and spattered up all over the tent and onto our packs, which we had to rinse off before we could wear them. We sat on a stone seat beside the boulodrome to have our muesli, and left at 7:45.
By the time we got over to the old town, the bar we had visited yesterday was open, although devoid of customers.
We were the first, and with our coffee we had the apricot tart saved from last night.
Then, by a miracle, we managed to get straight onto the D34 without a mistake, using our inadequate map. It was a small road going towards la Force, and it proved to be flat and pleasant, at the base of a line of low wooded hills on our right, and bordered by a mixture of houses and fields.
As we drew near to la Force, the road suddenly veered uphill onto the rise and we were in tree-lined streets.
The name on all sides was Jean Bost, who turned out to be a nineteenth-century Protestant reformer. After the crushing of the Camisards in the early eighteenth century, the king had proclaimed Protestantism dead in France, but it actually continued quite vigorously.
Jean Bost started as a talented musician, a protégé of Liszt, but was called to religion as a young man, and founded a refuge for orphans and other unfortunates in la Force.
It was a long, strung-out village, and we were getting anxious about our chances of a bar by the time we came to one at the far end, a fine-looking hostellerie with a colonnaded verandah.
We bought pastries in the boulangerie across the road and consumed them on the verandah with our coffee.
Taking a descending road from the town, we resumed our peaceful way over the river flats, crossing one major road (the D32) and wending through a scattered hamlet to arrive at the Dordogne. There was a bridge leading to the village of Gardonne, and we could see the camping ground on the opposite bank.
When we got there, the reception was closed but an old lady bustled up to explain that the guardian would be back at 2 o'clock, and that we were to make ourselves at home meanwhile.
We had showers, nice new ones, and for lunch we took possession of a plastic table and chairs that were standing abandoned near the water, as the grass was still wet from last night's rain.
Apart from a few foreigners like ourselves, the inhabitants of the camping ground seemed to be a settled community of elderly French couples, who all knew each other and were eating lunch together when we arrived. One enormously fat man had the word "BAR" printed over the doorway of his tent.
In due course the guardian approached and Keith went with him to the office. "You are English?" he asked in French. Keith said no, he was Australian, and the amazing answer, in heavily accented English, was "So am I, mate!".
The story was that he had emigrated to Australia with his wife, and lived in Adelaide for 28 years, only returning to France in 2002. He was torn between his two beloved countries, but could not afford to go back even for a visit, although his daughter still lived in Adelaide.
With our washing fluttering near the river and our clean clothes on, we lay down for a rest on our mats, but it was hard to strike a balance between too hot and too cold as the sun came and went amongst the hurrying clouds.
We went for a walk around the village and it was not an edifying sight, just a row of dead and dying shops on either side of the highway. The church was attractive but not old.
My spirits started to sink, and when we entered the only bar in town, an ugly, cramped little bar/tabac, they sank even lower.
There was only one restaurant in town, a decrepit pizzeria, whose deserted front room did nothing to restore my mood, but in fact there was also a wide covered terrace at the back, cheerfully decorated and full of diners. My estimation of Gardonne rose abruptly.
Keith had lasagne and I had spaghetti aux fruits de mer (we never have pizzas unless there is no other choice) and with wine the bill came to €20. When we got back to the camping ground the old French couples were sitting in a circle laughing and talking as they drank their wine.


Cash trade was undeveloped through Tuesday afternoon, but expectations grew for higher prices based on the paltry volume of trade last week and the continued decline in carcass weights. Dressed steer weights for the week ending Feb. 9 were 4 lbs. lighter year over year at 885 lbs., according to USDA's Actual Slaughter Under Federal Inspection report. Dressed heifer weights were 11 lbs. lighter at 822 lbs.
Cattle futures continued higher Tuesday, led by Live Cattle, which received support from the notion of higher cash prices, as well as continued strength in wholesale beef values. Lower grain prices also helped underpin Feeder Cattle support.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 45¢ higher (25¢ higher to $1.02 higher in spot Feb).
Corn futures closed mostly 2¢ to 4¢ lower through near Dec and then mostly 1¢ lower.
Soybean futures closed 5¢ to 8¢ lower through Mar '20 and then mostly 3¢ lower.
Wholesale beef values were steady on Choice and lower on Select with light to moderate demand and moderate offerings, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 12¢ higher Tuesday afternoon at $219.67/cwt. Select was 84¢ lower at $213.73.
Major U.S. financial indices edged lower in choppy trade Tuesday, amid mixed economic news.
For instance, in a report delayed due to the government shutdown, privately owned housing starts in December were 11.2% less than in November and 10.9% less year to year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
On the other hand, in testimony to Congress yesterday, FOMC Chairman, Jerome Powell described strong domestic economic growth with estimated GDP last year of just less than 3%; strong employment numbers; inflation near the target of 2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 33 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 2 points lower. The NASDAQ was down 5 points.
When the Cattle inventory report finally comes out—scheduled for this Thursday—David Anderson, Extension livestock economist at Texas A&M University expects to see a slight increase in beef cow numbers.
"We are likely about to the end of the growth part of the cattle cycle, as heifers on feed in the Cattle on Feed report, and cow and heifer slaughter data indicate," says Anderson, in the latest issue of In the Cattle Markets.
In his weekly market comments, Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University explains the estimated 7.28 million head of steers on feed at the beginning of the year were 0.7% less than a year earlier.
Likewise, Anderson explains through early February heifer slaughter was up 8.5% and steer slaughter was down about 0.6%.


That's it for now, but I will post new bookings as they arise. There's agood chance I'll be in Philadelphia during the week of October 22nd for the Book and the Cook, but don't have the details yet. It won't be a class, just a great dinner event featuring some of the new breads from the book at one of the participating restaurants; should know which one soon.
Okay, it's a start. By this time next year I hope to have visited many more cities. If you live near a cooking school that likes to bring in visiting authors or travel teachers, please contact them and encourage them to contact me (please, don't write to me about a school near you that I should contact--I'd rather that the school contact me first). The best e-address to give them is: recipetesters@yahoo.com Because of my teaching obligations at Johnson & Wales it's very tricky to travel all the time, but I am planning on leaving time in June and July for this, so hang in there and I'll try to get to a city near you sooner or later.


Thou shalt, with one hand, hold your nose!
Thou shalt, with the one remaining hand, grasp the waistband of your big-boy pants and tug them up!
Thou shalt, if a clothespin can be borrowed from your friendly Republican election judge, take your first hand from your nose (while the second hand holds your big-boy pants securely to your waist) and use it to gently clamp the pin to your nose!
Now thou hast a free hand to realize the purpose for which you were placed on this planet!
Thou shalt, exercise free will... no scratch that.
Thou shalt do the bidding of the Republican Party who owns you!
Dare not concern your weak mind with thoughts of baby parts being harvested from those denied a chance to be born!
Dare not contemplate that your tax dollars will support the mills that dismember the innocent!
All is as it should be, for a Republican enshrined it into law and therefore it is not an acceptable reason to deny your master his will.
Okay, so the last part is new this election cycle. Who says the Republican Party can't shake things up a little? The last time abortion diva, Diana Rauner's hubby was running, the commandment varied slightly but the direction was the same. Now, four years later, decent people are reminded to block the promises of the past from their memories and march on toward the polling places. After all, "Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia" and it was never proclaimed that Rauner had no social agenda.
The more conservative among Illinois voters are herded into the cattle cars in order to be "on the train" as opposed to the only other option: "be run over by it!" It does not matter if a voter is such a simpleton that he or she has values. What matters is that the Republican Party wins! One might wonder what victory is won by supporting a candidate with whom he disagrees. It is not to be understood, but to be taken on faith.
"But I am not a Republican any longer..."
Shut up. Your Republican Party still owns the rights to your vote. Always has. Always will.
I personally haven't been this disgusted by a statewide Republican candidate, rejected by part time conservatives in the primary only to be embraced (while holding their noses and tightening the belt on their big boy pants) since The most radical of pro-abortion, Cap and Trade voting, lying about his military service Mark Kirk ran for U.S. Senate. I guess I need to heed the advice of the pragmatic prostitute for the Republican Party and consider that this, like every election before it and every election to come, is the most important election of our generation (or at least of this election cycle) and it is too important to concern myself with agreeing with a candidate.
Values voters, conservative voters, a.k.a single-issue voters induce nausea in the part time conservatives who can't grasp that they too are single-issue voters. It just happens that their single issue is the party's will. They also ignore that there are multiple issues the likes of Diana Rauner's husband are horrible on, like his sanctuary state leanings, but hey there is no room for honesty when such a critical election is at hand. Additionally, we should consider the influx of illegal aliens who will drain social "safety nets" and support Democrat politicians a blessing to our state and to our Republican Party. If you are wondering how pandering to future guaranteed Democrat voters is a good thing for the Republican Party, you should shut up and fall in line!
Of course the erudite, pragmatic part time conservatives never seem to be able to answer the paradox they create. If winning is what matters and it matters not at all if the candidate is aligned with your values, then why not just vote for whoever is ahead in the polls, regardless of party affiliation?
The answer is, of course, because the Republican Party owns you and you will obey.


text:
using System.IO;

using UnsafeAM.Runtime;

using JetBrains.Annotations;

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;

namespace UnitTests.UnsafeAM.Runtime
{
    [TestClass]
    public class SerializationUtilityTest
    {
        [NotNull]
        private CanaryClass _GetCanary()
        {
            return new CanaryClass
            {
                Name = "John",
                Age = 3
            };
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_RestoreNullable_1()
        {
            // ReSharper disable InvokeAsExtensionMethod

            CanaryClass first = _GetCanary();
            MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
            BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(stream);
            SerializationUtility.WriteNullable(writer, first);

            byte[] bytes = stream.ToArray();
            stream = new MemoryStream(bytes);
            BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream);
            CanaryClass second = SerializationUtility.RestoreNullable<CanaryClass>(reader);
            Assert.IsNotNull(second);
            first.EnsureSame(second);

            // ReSharper restore InvokeAsExtensionMethod
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_RestoreNullable_2()
        {
            // ReSharper disable InvokeAsExtensionMethod
            // ReSharper disable ExpressionIsAlwaysNull

            CanaryClass first = null;
            MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
            BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(stream);
            SerializationUtility.WriteNullable(writer, first);

            byte[] bytes = stream.ToArray();
            stream = new MemoryStream(bytes);
            BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream);
            CanaryClass second = SerializationUtility.RestoreNullable<CanaryClass>(reader);
            Assert.IsNull(second);

            // ReSharper restore ExpressionIsAlwaysNull
            // ReSharper restore InvokeAsExtensionMethod
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToFile_1()
        {
            string fileName = Path.GetTempFileName();
            CanaryClass first = _GetCanary();
            first.SaveToFile(fileName);
            CanaryClass second = SerializationUtility.RestoreObjectFromFile<CanaryClass>(fileName);
            first.EnsureSame(second);
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToFile_2()
        {
            const int ArraySize = 10;
            string fileName = Path.GetTempFileName();
            CanaryClass[] first = new CanaryClass[ArraySize];
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i] = _GetCanary();
                first[i].Age = i;
            }
            first.SaveToFile(fileName);
            CanaryClass[] second = SerializationUtility.RestoreArrayFromFile<CanaryClass>(fileName);
            Assert.IsNotNull(second);
            Assert.AreEqual(first.Length, second.Length);
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i].EnsureSame(second[i]);
            }
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToMemory_1()
        {
            CanaryClass first = _GetCanary();
            byte[] memory = first.SaveToMemory();
            CanaryClass second = memory.RestoreObjectFromMemory<CanaryClass>();
            first.EnsureSame(second);
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToMemory_2()
        {
            CanaryClass first = new CanaryClass();
            byte[] memory = first.SaveToMemory();
            CanaryClass second = memory.RestoreObjectFromMemory<CanaryClass>();
            first.EnsureSame(second);
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToMemory_3()
        {
            const int ArraySize = 10;
            CanaryClass[] first = new CanaryClass[ArraySize];
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i] = _GetCanary();
                first[i].Age = i;
            }
            byte[] memory = first.SaveToMemory();
            CanaryClass[] second = memory.RestoreArrayFromMemory<CanaryClass>();
            Assert.AreEqual(first.Length, second.Length);
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i].EnsureSame(second[i]);
            }
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToString_1()
        {
            CanaryClass first = _GetCanary();
            string text = first.SaveToString();
            CanaryClass second = text.RestoreObjectFromString<CanaryClass>();
            first.EnsureSame(second);
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToString_2()
        {
            CanaryClass first = new CanaryClass();
            string text = first.SaveToString();
            CanaryClass second = text.RestoreObjectFromString<CanaryClass>();
            first.EnsureSame(second);
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToZipFile_1()
        {
            string fileName = Path.GetTempFileName();
            CanaryClass first = _GetCanary();
            first.SaveToZipFile(fileName);
            CanaryClass second = SerializationUtility.RestoreObjectFromZipFile<CanaryClass>(fileName);
            first.EnsureSame(second);
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToZipFile_2()
        {
            const int ArraySize = 10;
            string fileName = Path.GetTempFileName();
            CanaryClass[] first = new CanaryClass[ArraySize];
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i] = _GetCanary();
                first[i].Age = i;
            }
            first.SaveToZipFile(fileName);
            CanaryClass[] second = SerializationUtility.RestoreArrayFromZipFile<CanaryClass>(fileName);
            Assert.IsNotNull(second);
            Assert.AreEqual(first.Length, second.Length);
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i].EnsureSame(second[i]);
            }
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToZipMemory_1()
        {
            CanaryClass first = _GetCanary();
            byte[] memory = first.SaveToZipMemory();
            CanaryClass second = memory.RestoreObjectFromZipMemory<CanaryClass>();
            first.EnsureSame(second);
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void SerializationUtility_SaveToZipMemory_2()
        {
            const int ArraySize = 10;
            CanaryClass[] first = new CanaryClass[ArraySize];
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i] = _GetCanary();
                first[i].Age = i;
            }
            byte[] memory = first.SaveToZipMemory();
            CanaryClass[] second = memory.RestoreArrayFromZipMemory<CanaryClass>();
            Assert.AreEqual(first.Length, second.Length);
            for (int i = 0; i < ArraySize; i++)
            {
                first[i].EnsureSame(second[i]);
            }
        }
    }
}


text:
Cralopa är ett släkte av snäckor. Cralopa ingår i familjen Charopidae.

Kladogram enligt Catalogue of Life:

Källor

Landlungsnäckor
Cralopa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


She says: "I'm not going to accept this."
The children explain: "We learnt a lot of things at school."
She says: "I'm so happy right now."
He claims: "I know better."
She tells me: "I have a new boyfriend."
Quelle proposition correspond à la transposition de la phrase suivante au discours indirect ?
She explains: "I was in shock."
She explains that she was shocked.
She explains that she was in shock.
She explains that she is in shock.
She explains to be in shock.
She says that she leaving.
She says that she was leaving.
She says to be leaving.
She says that she's leaving.
He explains: "I didn't know you were there."
He explains that he didn't know I was there.
He explains that he hasn't known I was there.
He explains that he didn't knew I was there.
He explains that he doesn't know I am there.
She claims: "We are all doomed."
She claimed that we are all doomed.
She claims that we all doomed.
She claims that we were all doomed.
She claims that we are all doomed.
She says: "I'm having a great time."
She says that she was having a great time.
She said that she was having a great time.
She says that she's having a great time.
She says that she had a great time.


TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that Iran is not afraid of the negotiating table but noted that the U.S. should return to the 2015 nuclear deal and make up for the past.
During a session of the Administrative Council of Gilan Province, Rouhani said that Iran has the power to negotiate and is not afraid of the negotiating table.
"We have strong logic and reasoning, to the extent that we have gained victory against the U.S. in the international courts. We have no fear of the negotiating table, legal discussion and (even) war," he stated.
On May 8, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump officially withdrew his country from the international nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and reinstituted sanctions against Iran.
"I'd meet with anybody. I believe in meetings," Trump told reporters at the White House.


We've got approval to use the Contractor Education innovation credit for the Kathmandu project and I'm working on it this morning.
Deliver training on the core concepts of global warming, climate change and the health impacts of minimum building practices.
And a bunch of other good stuff.
I'm intrigued with the first item. There's an assumption that the people working on the project have no idea what global warming and climate change is, and yet this morning the Climate Institute released a report saying that 70% of Australians believe that climate change is occurring and 48% believe that humans are at least partially responsible.
I've been unhappy with the climate change talk beginning for a while now, it means that we start with the bad news that everyone already knows, which is both boring and depressing. How do you keep an audience interested and engaged when you do that? I'm certainly not going to use my own words – this is a message that lots of people have already worked on.