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Home > Journals > Rhodora > Volume 110 > Issue 944
Rhodora
VOL. 110 · NO. 944 | December 2008
Research Articles (4)
New Books (1)
NEBC Meeting News (1)
Reviewers (1)
Index to Volume (1)
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Habitat and Reproduction of Dirca mexicana (Thymelaeaceae)
William R. Graves
110(944), 365-378, (1 December 2008)https://doi.org/10.3119/07-21.1
KEYWORDS: Thymelaeaceae, reproductive biology, endemic plants, leatherwood
Little is known about the single reported population of Dirca mexicana. I monitored air temperature from mid-2005 through mid-2007, analyzed pH of soil, used the global positioning system (GPS) to define geographical boundaries of the population, explored for additional populations, and studied aspects of sexual and asexual reproduction in situ and among seedlings in greenhouses. Temperature ranged from −2 to 35.5°C, and weekly means were 7.4 to 18.1°C. Soil pH was 6.3. No other populations were found at sites nearby with similar slopes and aspects, but a second distinct cluster of plants was found 221 m from the portion of the known population described previously. Numerous individuals of Catasticta nimbice nimbice, a butterfly in the family Pieridae, visited flowers in mid-March, 2007. Drupes were observed in May four of five years, and drupe count per plant was 3 to 131 among individuals with basal trunk diameters of 10 to 46 mm in 2007. Genetic analysis of 45 individuals revealed no putative clones. Drupes of D. mexicana were longer and wider than those of the other two species in the genus, while size of seeds was intermediate. Seedlings isolated from pollinators in a greenhouse flowered for the first time and formed viable seeds during their fourth spring of development, demonstrating the capacity of D. mexicana to self-pollinate or to form seeds via apomixis. These observations improve our understanding of the habitat and reproductive biology of this endemic species.
Amelanchier alnifolia var. Pumila (Rosaceae) in Alberta, with Notes on its Classification and Identification
Paul M. Catling
KEYWORDS: Juneberry, Serviceberry, Shadbush, Saskatoon, Amelanchier alnifolia var. pumila, Rosaceae
Amelanchier alnifolia var. pumila (Smooth Saskatoon, Dwarf Serviceberry) is reported as new to Canada from the Crowsnest Pass and Castle Mountain regions of the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Alberta. It occurs in open prairie habitat in cool montane parklands. Completely glabrous with prominently toothed leaves, and with a discrete distribution including the Rocky Mountains and adjacent plains, A. alnifolia var. pumila is a distinctive taxon worthy of recognition. At the Canadian sites it occurs with A. alnifolia var. alnifolia and a range of putative hybrids. The Canadian collections are described, and compare well with the type material. A key to the Amelanchier taxa of Alberta and British Columbia is included.
Morphological Discrimination of Platanthera aquilonis, P. huronensis, and P. dilatata (Orchidaceae) Herbarium Specimens
Christopher J. Sears
KEYWORDS: Platanthera, ORCHIDACEAE, herbarium specimens, morphology
Several nomenclatural changes have taken place in Platanthera within the past decade, including the recircumscription of species and newly described segregate taxa. Collections in herbaria should be updated to reflect these changes, however Platanthera herbarium specimens are difficult to identify because diagnostic qualitative and quantitative characters present in the field are not always available in dried material. Such a problem is found in P. hyperborea s. lat. from continental North America, which is now known to comprise the diploid P. aquilonis and the putative allotetraploid P. huronensis. Platanthera aquilonis and P. dilatata are commonly regarded as progenitors of P. huronensis. Platanthera hyperborea s. str. is not known to occur in continental North America. I undertook a study to determine if herbarium specimens of P. hyperborea s. lat. and the closely related P. dilatata representing British Columbia populations could be annotated to reflect the current taxonomic treatment. I placed P. hyperborea s. lat. and P. dilatata herbarium specimens into groups using keys and descriptions provided in recent treatments. Principal components analysis (PCA) and ANOVAs were used to determine if groups existed in the data set. The univariate statistics supported the presence of three groups in the data set and individuals of known ploidy helped to confirm that phenetic clusters on the PCA scatterplot corresponded to the appropriate species. Using techniques outlined in this paper, Platanthera herbarium specimens can be annotated to reflect current taxonomic treatments.
Rapid Assessment Surveys of Fouling and Introduced Seaweeds in the Northwest Atlantic
Arthur C. Mathieson, Judith Pederson, Clinton J. Dawes
110(944), 406-478, (1 December 2008)https://doi.org/10.3119/07-4.1
KEYWORDS: rapid assessment studies, fouling seaweeds, biodiversity, Northwest Atlantic, introduced species
Rapid assessment surveys of fouling seaweed populations were conducted at 67 sites between Downeast Maine and Staten Island, New York during August of 2000, 2003, and 2005, plus July–August of 2007. A total of 126 taxa were recorded, including 29 Chlorophyceae, 31 Phaeophyceae, 55 Rhodophyceae, four Cyanophyceae, one Xanthophyceae, and six macroscopic colonial diatoms (Bacillariophyceae). Several species were fast-growing nuisance organisms (e.g., Ulva spp.), while seven were introduced taxa. Four introduced species originated from Asia either directly or secondarily (Codium fragile subsp. fragile, Grateloupia turuturu, Neosiphonia harveyi, and Bonnemaisonia hamifera), two were from Europe (Lomentaria clavellosa and L. orcadensis), and one from the North Pacific (Melanosiphon intestinalis). Neosiphonia harveyi was the most widely distributed introduced taxon, occurring at 48 sites (71.6%), while L. clavellosa and L. orcadensis were only found at 3 sites (4.5%). Repeated observations (i.e., 2000, 2003, and 2007) at three sites in Massachusetts documented a recent rapid expansion of the invasive red alga G. turuturu into the Gulf of Maine through the Cape Cod Canal. The numbers of taxa per site were highest between Maine and Massachusetts (28–42 taxa) and lowest (1–13 taxa) in southern New England and New York, presumably because of increased loading of various pollutants within Long Island Sound and near New York City. The highest mean (± SD) number of taxa per state was recorded in New Hampshire (28.8 ± 8.0) and the lowest in Rhode Island (7.1 ± 3.6). The green and red algae exhibited peak numbers in New Hampshire (i.e. 9.0 ± 3.1 and 11.6 ± 5.1), while brown algae were maximal in New Hampshire (8.2 ± 1.1) and Maine (7.8 ± 3.4) and much lower in Connecticut (1.0 ± 1), Rhode Island (1.1 ± 2.9), and New York (1.2 ± 1.0). Fifty-four species were limited to 1–3 sites (1.5–4.7%), while only 7 occurred at > 50% of the sites. The most ubiquitous seaweeds included three opportunistic green algae (U. intestinalis, U. lactuca, and Blidingia minima), two perennial browns (Fucus vesiculosus and Ascophyllum nodosum), and the introduced Asiatic red alga, N. harveyi. Thirty-six taxa were restricted to individual states (31.3%), with Massachusetts exhibiting the highest number of unique taxa (17 or 14.8%) and Connecticut and New York the lowest (one taxon each or 0.9%). Massachusetts also had the highest number of total and mean shared species (86 and 43.3 ± 10.7, respectively), while Connecticut had the opposite pattern (18 total and 15.0 ± 7.5 shared taxa). Cheney's floristic ratio indicated that seaweeds restricted to the north of the Cape Cod Canal formed a cold-water flora, while those limited to the south of the Canal were somewhat less boreal. Most taxa from each state were annuals and exhibited cosmopolitan local distributional patterns, occurring in both open coastal and estuarine sites.
In Defense of the Binomial Quercus elliottii (Fagaceae) for the Running Oak of the Southeastern United States
Robert L. Wilbur, Mengchi Ho
Thomas F. Lucy's Plant Collections, Donated to the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences in the Early 20Th Century
Danielle Tilden, Lee B. Kass, Todd P. Egan
Glistening Carnivores: The Sticky-Leaved Insect-Eating Plants
David M. Lane
110(944), 492-494, (1 December 2008)https://doi.org/10.3119/0035-4902-110.944.492
110(944), 495, (1 December 2008)https://doi.org/10.3119/0035-4902-110.944.495
NEBC Meeting News
Bryan Hamlin
Reviewers of Manuscripts 2007–2008
Index to Volume
New scientific names are in bold face


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The Vancouver Forest That Has Been Every Wooded Location on 'X-Files'
by Eric Grundhauser and Ella Morton June 15, 2015
The Vancouver Forest That Has Been Every Wooded Location on 'X-Files'
The world's second largest single-dish radio telescope, once used to contact E.T.
Tunguska Event Epicenter
Site of the largest impact event to occur over land in Earth's recorded history.
Fight the Future. (Photo: Flikstorage on Flickr)
The truth is out there… probably somewhere in Vancouver.
Many television and film crews have used the various landscapes of Vancouver, Canada as a cheaper stand-in for far-flung locales, and The X-Files was no exception. During the first five seasons of their globetrotting investigations into the paranormal, (the production moved to LA as of season six), Agents Mulder and Scully racked up a fictional travel bill that must have surpassed the national debt at some point. But the actors and production crew rarely ever left Vancouver's rainy climes.
Among all of the locations the show used to portray the agents' adventures, there is one forest that worked overtime. Throughout the first five seasons the show wanted us to believe that the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR, previously known as the Seymour Demonstration Forest) in Northern Vancouver was actually everywhere from Puerto Rico to Siberia. And we viewers did.
Although the resurrected The X-Files recently returned to Vancouver to shoot more episodes, there is no word as to whether the Seymour Forest will be returning along with series stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. In the meantime, let's look back at some of the forest's greatest hits, and unravel the truth behind the conspiracy of the forest that was everywhere. (For this list we used the terrific location guide X Marks the Spot as relayed here.)
Check out all of the places the LSCR has "been."
Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot
The LSCR makes an appearance in the very first episode, and is in fact the very first location used in the entire series. Standing in for the Collum National Forest in Oregon, the woods saw the abduction of Billy Miles and the introduction of Scully to the world of the X-Files.
S1, E4: "The Jersey Devil"
This time the location stands out as a forest outside of Atlantic City where police officers try to gun down a hirsute beast woman. They fail.
S1, E9: "Fallen Angel"
Now a gravel pit (which will become an especially favorite location for the series) in the forest takes us to Townsend, Wisconsin, where an unfortunate police officer (and later Mulder) have a run-in with a downed UFO.
"Mulder, if this is about watches again…" Scully gets suspicious in E.B.E. (All screencaps property of Fox)
S1, E17: E.B.E.
In this episode, the agents investigate an alien attack in rural Reagan, Tennessee, represented by the pine trees of the LSCR. Despite Mulder using his old favorite example of missing time, Scully still refuses to believe.
S1, E19: "Shapes"
Werewolves! In the course of their investigation of attacks by a wolf-like creature, Mulder and Scully attend a Native American funeral rite in Montana. Just kidding, it was filmed in the LSCR.
S1, E20: "Darkness Falls"
One of the weirder cases Mulder and Scully have ever fallen into, they are terrorized by prehistoric, neon green mites of some kind. Here the LSCR transports us to the Olympic National Forest in Washington state.
S2, E1: "Little Green Men"
For the first time in the series, but not the last, the LSCR stands in for a location not even on mainland America. In one of the series' classic episodes, Mulder travels to the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and finds an extraterrestrial transmission there in the jungle. The "jungle" being the LSCR.
Scully's Vancouver purgatory from One Breath.
S2, E8: "One Breath"
After being abducted by lovable madman Duane Barry, and subsequently by aliens, Scully is mysteriously discovered lying in a coma, in a hospital. The trustworthy LSCR stands in for none of this, instead it is used as Scully's dreamscape, as she sits in a metaphysical boat on the real-life Rice Lake, deciding whether or not to die.
S2, E9: "Firewalker"
Coming back down to Earth, the Seymour Demonstration Forest is here used as Mount Avalon, again in Washington State, where a supremely silly lava monster lives.
S2, E14: "Die Hand Die Verletzt"
The LSCR is here used as a bucolic New Hampshire forest where Satanic ritual killings take place, placing the investigating agents in between a fight among devil worshipers and a witch.
S2, E22: "F. Emasculata"
CONTAGION! This time a careless doctor in the faux-jungles of Costa Rica contracts a really gross disease from a dead boar. It's disgusting, but the LSCR is as convincing as ever.
S2, E24: "Our Town"
Back in the U.S. of A, fake-Arkansas to be exact, another forest murder takes place. Here by a killer in a tribal mask that has ties to a chicken processing plant. In the X-Files, the woods are the most dangerous place to be.
"A fat, little, white, Nazi, stormtrooper."
S3, E4: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"
Of course one of the best episodes of the series features one of its favorite locations. This time a gas tank on the grounds of the LSCR, described in the show by fatalistic psychic Clyde Bruckman, as "a fat, little, white, Nazi, stormtrooper" plays a key role. According to the episode, the location is in Glenview Lake, Minnesota.
S3, E8: "Oubliette"
Back to Washington State, the LSCR stand in for the woods near a town called Easton, in this episode where a mentally-disturbed woman shares a psychic connection with a kidnapped teenager.
S3, E10: "731"
Oh no! Mulder's trapped on an alien autopsy train that's rigged to explode! But first, the LSCR is used as a covert government research station in Perkey, West Virginia where a group of test subject are executed by the military.
S3, E18: "Teso Dos Bichos"
Break out the pan flutes. In this episode the LSCR stands in for the titular archeological site in Ecuador where locals unearth a cursed urn that makes its way to the States.
Lord Kinbote appears!
S3, E20: "Jose Chung's From Outer Space"
Another series highpoint, the Seymour Forest is used as the Klass County, Washington backroad where Air Force pilots dressed as aliens encounter a cyclops from the inner Earth by the name of Lord Kinbote. A series highlight.
S3, E22: "Quagmire"
In one of the far too few X-Files episodes about water monsters, the LSCR is just one of the locations used to represent the land around Heuvelmans Lake, home of rampaging sea monster, Big Blue. Specifically it is seen when the shopkeeper gets killed while creating fake monster tracks.
S4, E9/10: "Tunguska/Terma"
In season four, the show finally traveled to the site of the famed Tunguska incident, but really just decided to stay in Vancouver. While on screen it looks like Mulder is stuck in a Siberian work camp where he is forcibly infected with an alien life form, he was really just running around the oft-used gravel pit in the LSCR.
S4, E13: "Never Again"
Oh boy. It was inevitable that the X-Files would eventually go to the "living tattoo" well, but no one could have predicted how terrible the episode would be. The LSCR can be seen as a highway in Tennessee during the course of this tale about the time Scully got a tattoo. Let's just forget this one.
Scully has had it with these woods in Detour.
S5, E4: "Detour"
Nearly this entire episode is filmed within the LSCR as Mulder and Scully traipse through a Florida forest with guest star Anthony Rapp, looking for invisible, prehistoric forest people with red eyes. The soundtrack is almost entirely the sound of cicadas.
S5, E13: "Patient X"
And finally we have the Seymour Demonstration Forest's magnum opus. In this episode, the location stands in not just for a Kazakstan forest where some unfortunate teens have a run in with aliens, but also the Skyland Mountain National Park in Virginia. That's two international roles in the same episode. Truly the LSCR is one of the finest locations of its generation.
The Friendly Cult of Disney Tourists
televisionfilm locations
This Halloween, Step Into a Mannequin Graveyard
You can even take these unnerving, almost-human figures home with you.
Hannah Steinkopf-Frank October 5, 2021
A Cooking Competition in the Pacific Islands Has a Life-Saving Mission
Governments and celebrities are battling diet-related diseases with reality TV.
Anne Ewbank May 20, 2021
'Lovecraft Country' Is Haunted by the Ghosts of Real-Life Places
The characters in the acclaimed horror drama fight both monsters and white supremacy.
Keishel Williams October 19, 2020
When a Town Council and a Sci-fi Museum Went to War Over a Dalek
Thanks to support from the community and the world, the Doctor Who villain is rising again.
Bonnie Nicol October 15, 2020
Why Is There a Columbo Statue in the Middle of Budapest?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Kooga St Paul's Corinthians Football Kit has been a sensation! It is eye-catching and performance-enhancing. The design and production teams at Kooga were co-operative, prompt and attentive to my design needs. Nothing was ever a problem. The quality of the kit matched the quality of the service. The kit has been worn for a whole season in all conditions and it looks the same as it did when it was first unpacked. In our inaugural season it was important to have a football strip that symbolized the passion that all the players in the team possessed-and that's what Kooga delivered!
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Mesochorus torosus är en stekelart som beskrevs av Dasch 1974. Mesochorus torosus ingår i släktet Mesochorus och familjen brokparasitsteklar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Brokparasitsteklar
torosus

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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GOP Candidates Press Pro-Life Themes at CPAC Conference
Andrew Bair Feb 11, 2012 | 1:38PM Washington, DC
A frequent criticism of the Conservative Political Action Conference is its supposed lack of attention to pro-life issues. However, by the second day of the event, which draws over 11,000 conservative activists, it was clear right to life issues were not forgotten by key speakers or lost on attendees.
Friday kicked off with pro-life Governor Mike Huckabee, who also attended CPAC in order to attend a screening of his documentary "The Gift of Life."
Following the film, a panel featured pro-life leaders, which gathered to discuss current pro-life issues The panel, moderated by Lila Rose, included Carol Tobias, President of National Right to Life, Charmaine Yoest, President of Americans United for Life, Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America and pro-life speaker Rebecca Kiessling.
The panel delved into issues ranging from Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood to the recent fight over conscience rights. The headline of the discussion was "Advancing the Pro-Life Movement in the Media" and each of the speakers commented on the importance of using social media to share the pro-life message. Outlets like Facebook and Twitter give pro-life advocates the chance to operate outside of the restraints of the biased mainstream media. This technology gives pro-lifers the chance to engage their peers and share the truth about abortion across a wider network than ever before.
The second day of the conference also included Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia. McDonnell is well respected among Virginia pro-life advocates after signing key pro-life legislation during his first term in office including a law that holds abortion facilities to common sense health standards to protect women and their children. Many are speculating McDonnell could end up the Republican Vice Presidential nominee in November. On the presidential race, McDonnell was not shy about touting his support for Mitt Romney, the candidate he endorsed earlier this year. Top Gingrich endorsements, Rick Perry and Herman Cain, both addressed CPAC the previous day but curiously made no mention of their choice in their remarks.
McDonnell's plug for Romney came just minutes before Rick Santorum took the stage. Santorum received a warm reception from the CPAC crowd as he approached the podium flanked by members of his family. Santorum, who is already well regarded among pro-life advocates, decided to focus his remarks instead on pressing economic issues.
However, he did take an opportunity to hit President Obama on his pro-abortion health care law and call for its swift repeal. National polls are showing Santorum carrying a national lead over his Republican opponents after wins in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado last week. Momentum is clearly on Santorum's side, especially among those on the far right. With the results of the Maine caucus being unveiled on Saturday, Santorum needs another win to solidify his standing in the contest and finally pick up some delegates.
Ann Coulter, one of the conference's most anticipated speakers every year, fired up the audience with hard-hitting one-liners on President Obama's failed policies. She was especially strong on Obamacare, reminding CPAC that the 2012 elections are the only chance we have of repealing the pro-abortion law. Echoing sentiments of many pro-life leaders, Coulter called for unity within the conservative movement and to unite behind the candidate ultimately chosen to take on President Obama.
While some on the right remark that they are not particularly pleased with the slate of Republican candidates for president, Coulter told CPAC to be encouraged by this particular field. Among the remaining four candidates, all hold a pro-life view. Just four years ago, Rudy Giuliani posed a great threat to the pro-life movement in which voters would have had to decide between two pro-abortion candidates in the general election.
Shortly after Coulter, Governor Mitt Romney took the stage to enthusiastic applause. (Even Romney himself seemed taken aback by the unexpected level of support among the CPAC audience.) His remarks ignited the crowd, drawing standing ovations when describing repealing Obamacare as "the most important spending cut of all" or asserting, "Obama is the poster child of the arrogance of government."
Romney devoted the most time of any of the presidential candidates to pro-life concerns in his CPAC speech. He boldly declared that his presidency would be "a pro-life presidency." He noted his pro-life actions as Governor of Massachusetts including vetoing pro-embryonic experimentation legislation, vetoing a Plan B expansion bill and supporting abstinence education. Not easy tasks in one of the nation's most liberal states.
Laying out his pro-life plan as president, Romney called for reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prevents tax dollars from funding abortions overseas, cutting funding to the UNFPA, which aids in carrying out China's barbaric One Child Policy of forced abortions, and de-funding Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. Romney addressed the concerns over conscience rights raised by the recent HHS mandate, vowing to reverse Obama Administration regulations that attack religious liberty and innocent human life.
A panel featuring prominent pro-life conservative women like Star Parker, S.E. Cupp and Michelle Duggar and Kate Obenshain devoted time to discussing some of the failures of the modern feminist movement, which in many ways has thrown women under the bus in favor of the abortion industry. The recent Komen-Planned Parenthood debacle proved to be a clear example. The nation's leading breast cancer charity continues to fund Planned Parenthood, despite the fact that the nation's largest abortion provider does not even provide mammograms and evidence has shown abortion may actually cause breast cancer. Star Parker garnered enthusiastic applause when she called on conservatives to stop donating to Susan G. Komen on account of their dealings with Planned Parenthood.
Newt Gingrich took the stage next. Like Romney, Gingrich discussed several pro-life issues. He called for the repeal of Obamacare on first day in office, a reinstated Mexico City Policy and a complete undoing of all President Obama's violations of the religious freedom and conscience rights. As always, Newt connected with the audience while taking jabs at the mainstream media but overall the speech failed to outshine those of his opponents. Gingrich proved in debates to be quick on his feet with one-liners that left the moderators on edge. But the stump speech format does not give Gingrich the chance to unleash that quick wit. Without a recent debate and after a streak of primary and caucus losses, Gingrich has sunk in the polls. Perhaps the results of the Maine caucus or the CPAC presidential straw poll, which are both to be unveiled later Saturday, will provide him with a needed boost in momentum and delegates.


Hoping you all had a glorious bank holiday weekend. Ours was indeed just that. We headed down to Bruton in Somerset on Saturday morning, to spend a couple of days with Milo's Great Grandparents and Grandma, as has become a bit of a tradition for us. It's a beautiful and not too long train journey from Cheltenham, with just a quick change at Bristol, we arrived in time for lunch.


Goals: Increase international investment. Establish strategic projects with other cities.
A programme to identify and profile potential offshore investors and companies, business and R&D investment opportunities in Dunedin, and facilitate the matching of the investors with the opportunities. This will include developing collateral that articulates Dunedin's value proposition to businesses and investors in New Zealand and offshore (including through www.DunedinNZ.com). We will also work with other regional and local councils to attract investment.
Dunedin City Council, Ngāi Tahu, Otago Chamber of Commerce, Otago Polytechnic, Otago Southland Employers' Association, University of Otago, Immigration New Zealand, KEA, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
Second-phase project. A project team will be convened once the initial projects are well underway.
Identify specific two-way trade and investment opportunities (including for talent and education) between Dunedin and Shanghai, including assessing the extent to which political and Shanghai city ownership interests can be leveraged for the benefit of Dunedin businesses.
Shanghai will be the initial focus and, if successful, similar approaches will be made with other cities in China and offshore, incorporating lessons learned from Shanghai.
Dunedin City Council, Otago Chamber of Commerce, Otago Southland Employers' Association, University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Shanghai Association, Tourism Dunedin, business leaders.
A Visit to Shanghai in April 2013 resulted in five high schools signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Shanghai high schools to carry out co-operation between the schools. The Delegation met the Vice Chairman of Shanghai Tourism Authority and discussed strengthening cooperation in the tourism sector between Shanghai and Dunedin. The Delegation met Shanghai Zizhu to discuss collaboration on R&D between Shanghai and Dunedin. An MoU was signed between Otago Chamber of Commerce and Zizhu Hi-Tech Chamber of Commerce.
Businesses interested in trading with China in four key sectors (food and beverage, education, tourism and health and biotechnology) where Dunedin has a world-class advantage formed part of a delegation to Shanghai in October 2013. It was a successful trip with two out of three F&B businesses signing substantial deals, good interest in the technology sector, research opportunities and IP, and interest in investment into NZ.
The programme will identify ex-Dunedin residents to mentor Dunedin businesses, attract inward investment, and potentially provide employment pathways and connections.
Dunedin City Council, Ngāi Tahu, Otago Chamber of Commerce, Otago Southland Employers' Association, University of Otago, AlumniConnect (secondary schools), KEA, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Tourism Dunedin, multinational companies.


David Dimbleby chairs topical debate from Salford.
On the panel are home secretary Amber Rudd, moron, mayor of Greater Manchester Andy 'Reichsführer' Burnham, anti-extremism campaigner Sara Khan, extremist, head of the Police and Crime Commissioners Association Nazir 'racist if he wasn't a Muslim' Afzal, and peace campaigner Colin Parry.
Going Postal Summer party details here.


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I read the same tweet, and will miss Paget dearly, lets just hope they have learned a lesson here, about how you treat people, cause it came back to bite them. Paget is my favorite on the show and her portrayal of Emily Prentiss was awesome, but the way they treated her you could see this coming, i respect Paget decision and hope she picks up a new show soon. I guess it's easy to forgive but harder to forget.
Selina: I read her tweet too, she truly seems to love the people at CM! I will miss her greatly, she's (soon was) my fav woman characters on TV. Sniff, why can nothing last forever? Lessons learned hopefully... Farewell and following seas Paget hope to see you asap on a new show.
There is a time and a reason for everything, and while I have no doubt that TPTB's treatment of Paget is partly to blame for her leaving, it's time for her. And we need to respect that. We wish her well, and will watch anything new that she appears in and be glad we got to enjoy her for 6 years - she's wonderful!
Even though she wasn't my favourite character on the show she is a good actress, and I do wish her well wherever she goes next. This real estate offer coming up I am guessing that it means she will be leaving town, and starting fresh. You know what change is a good thing, and everyone needs to do that every once in a while. Now I am curious to see if there will be anymore exits after season 8.
By the way the show has been going lately I honestly don't see it going past season 8 but I do hope that it will be much better than this one.
Next year could be complicated contract wise since Thomas, Shemar and AJ (maybe even Joe)would need new contracts. Can they get all these cast members back?
Another variable would be who they cast to replace PB (be sure they will cast someone). And season 9 could have the Prentiss replacement, Garcia and Reid and a whole new cast? Who would watch that? I would love the show to end with the BAU family, and getting a PB cameo at the end.
That's kinda the reason. She had one more year left on her contract so she had to come back. She wanted an apology and a raise to go with it and they said they'd sue her if she refused to come back. So I guess she just doesn't want to be around those people.
We have lost Paget and Matthew still does not have a contract. He wants to come back. I am begging them to do everything they need to do to ensure his return. Criminal Minds without Reid is unthinkable.
I thought he was officially signed on for season 8...? Man, that's a little unsettling.
Meh, haven't liked how they've handled Reid most of the season, so oh well. At least this episode did feature him more.
The other thing I thought was a little odd was the ending, but again, overall I enjoyed watching the case play out.
its hard for me to say its great still when suddenly JJ is a sudden savant. i can only guess that they had to make her new contract deal include more lines as her new profiler just doesn't match her prior character. i also agree that they are treating reid like he has no life and is simply at their total beck n call. not liking the show as much lately.
Loved the episode and found it really creepy. It kept me confused and guessing all the way. Imagine if they'd done this for the valentine's day episode. Lots of symbolic hearts in this one. However, the one that sticks with me is the mark on Garett's heart during his execution. eeee. I'm not sure how i feel about Helen - i was traumatised, sympathetic and justice-seeking at the same time. Did you think the leap to the shuttle driver was a bit sudden?
There were several wonderful team moments and the plane scene at the end is one of my favourites, ever. It was just so perfectly balanced - the humour and then the sudden dip into melancholy. Nicely done. What i also loved in this episode were the contributions made by each member - they all felt true to the character and unique and charming. There was Prentiss feeling nostalgic about letters and envelopes - and Rossi had to shatter the moment in true Rossi style - have lived long enough kiddo to unprettify things. Classic. Thought Garcia was cute throughout, and she looked especially pretty imo. Reid's on a mission to demystify every aspect of my life it seems - from homes (only 60 tonnes!!!!! No!!!! My money, my poor money) to naps. I'm waiting for him to talk about Criminal Minds soon. Hotch's little tap (whack) at the end was perfect - it's really one of those snap, magical moments that are fairly revealing. Our Hotch is healing, and i'm loving every moment of it. I want to see Emily's house now, though - hmmm.
The Reid handshakenot - i didn't find it odd or rude.
Happy CM night for me - i'm going to have very sweet dreams....maybe....unless they involve wigs.
I thought that last night's episode was good it felt like a season 1 or 2 episode. I didn't see it from beginning to end so I am not fully understanding the connection with the copycat killer and the wife. Can someone explain?
Did he become obsessed with the wife or did he know her already? I can honestly say that this is the first episode this season where it actually felt like the original, and looked familar too. These past episodes I am not sure where they were going with them, but I pray that for the rest of season 7 and next season will be like last night(good).
Great episode, good story, kept me watching till the end, hope they continue this way. I just love the new JJ, and her profiling skills are starting to shine, and why not, she is working with the best profiling team around, JJ is giving me a reason to tune in for season 8. If Matthew doesn't return to the show, i hope he and Paget get to do a show elsewhere together, i love watching them on screen together, they look good.
The cast list for Profiling 101 lists Mackenzie Astin (this episode's unsub)--I wonder why Dylan is in the next episode.


text:
Read The Union Label
Of all the cynical frauds of the Obama administration, few are so despicable as sacrificing the education of poor and minority children to the interests of the teachers' unions.
Attorney General Eric Holder's attempt to suppress the spread of charter schools in Louisiana was just one of the signs of that cynicism. His nationwide threats of legal action against schools that discipline more black students than he thinks they should are at least as damaging.
Charter schools are hated by teachers' unions and by much of the educational establishment in general. They seem to be especially hated when they succeed in educating minority children whom the educational establishment says cannot be educated.
Apparently it can be done when you don't have to hire unionized teachers with iron-clad tenure, and when you don't have to follow the dogmas in vogue in the educational establishment.
Last year, there was an attempt to shut down the American Indian Model Schools in Oakland, California — schools that had been ranked among the top schools in the nation, schools with the top test scores in their district and the fourth highest scores in the entire state of California.
The reason given was that the former — repeat, FORMER — head of these schools was accused of financial irregularities. Since there are courts of law to determine the guilt or innocence of individuals, why should school children be punished by having their schools shut down, immediately and permanently, before any court even held a trial?
Fortunately, a court order prevented this planned vindictive closing of this highly successful charter school with minority students. But the attempt shows the animus and the cynical disregard of the education of children who have few other places to get a comparable education.
Attorney General Holder's threats of legal action against schools where minority students are disciplined more often than he wants are a much more sweeping and damaging blow to the education of poor and minority students across the country.
Among the biggest obstacles to educating children in many ghetto schools are disruptive students whose antics, threats and violence can make education virtually impossible. If only 10 percent of the students are this way, that sacrifices the education of the other 90 percent.
The idea that Eric Holder, or anybody else, can sit in Washington and determine how many disciplinary actions against individual students are warranted or unwarranted in schools across the length and breadth of this country would be laughable if it were not so tragic.
Relying on racial statistics tells you nothing, unless you believe that black male students cannot possibly be more disruptive than Asian female students, or that students in crime-ridden neighborhoods cannot possibly require disciplinary actions more often than children in the most staid, middle-class neighborhoods.
Attorney General Holder is not fool enough to believe either of those things. Why then is he pursuing this numbers game?
The most obvious answer is politics. Anything that promotes a sense of grievance from charges of racial discrimination offers hope of energizing the black vote to turn out to vote for Democrats, which is especially needed when support from other voters is weakening in the wake of Obama administration scandals and fiascoes.
Eric Holder's other big racial crusade, against requiring identification for voting, is the same political game. And it is carried out with the same cynical promotion of fears, with orchestrated hysteria from other Democrats — as if having to show identification to vote is like a revival of the Ku Klux Klan.
Blacks, whites and everybody else can be asked for identification these days, whether cashing a check or using a credit card at a local store or going to an airport — or even getting into some political meetings called to protest voter ID laws.
But to sacrifice the education of children, especially children for whom education may be their only ticket out of poverty, is truly a new low. As someone once said to Senator Joe McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"
Why would they? THE AGENDA IS THE AGENDA and no one is allowed to get in the way of it. Period.
Standard | Posted in politics	| Tagged America, bi-partisan, charter schools, choice, Citizens, Common Core, competition, democrats, diversity, doublespeak, economics, Education, Fairness, faith, freedom, government, Jobs, liberty, Media, Ministry of Truth, Newspeak, Obama, obamacare, Orwell, politics, Race, racism, reform, Responsibility, socialism, taxes, tea party, teacher, union, vouchers, We the People	| 1 Comment
Just Shut The Hell Up!
Before you snatch defeat YET AGAIN from the jaws of obvious victory!
Principle: ObamaCare is failing and more unchecked immigration would ensure Republicans' demise, yet GOP leaders are surrendering on both issues. Poised to win big in November, their best strategy may be to shut up.
Sometimes it seems as if top congressional Republicans have seen the movie "Animal House" one too many times, specifically the hazing scene with Kevin Bacon repeatedly saying, "Thank you, sir. May I have another?" each time he gets paddled on his rear.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, sees a very dubious stat claiming that more than 600,000 residents of her state got new insurance through the state exchange, and she proceeds to declare that ObamaCare is a permanent fixture of American life.
"We need to look at reforming the exchanges" instead of repealing ObamaCare, said the fourth-ranking House GOP leader, whose election to that post a year and a half ago was described by TheHill.com as "a victory for party leaders over insurgent conservatives."
Wow, the Exchange Reform Party. That's really what Ronald Reagan had in mind when he emphasized that ideas have consequences, so Republicans must raise "a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors."
What would Rodgers' "reforming the exchanges" slogan be for the GOP congressional campaigns this year? "Fine-Tuning We Can Believe In"?
She — and, frankly, other GOP leaders, too — are allowing President Obama to set the political narrative.
Earlier this month, the president sneered that Republicans were going "through the stages of grief" over losing on ObamaCare. In other words, this is Social Security or Medicare all over again, with the GOP complaining and vowing to repeal a new entitlement, but eventually coming to accept and embrace it as irreversible.
With its skyrocketing costs, botched bureaucracy and numerous promises betrayed, ObamaCare is one of the least popular government schemes in history, yet "leaders" such as Rodgers are keen to follow whatever socialist unknown it leads to.
Pale pastel indeed. And not content with only flagellating themselves on ObamaCare, House Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders continue their needless, self-destructive push for immigration "reform."
As pointed out in the Washington Post over the weekend, registering a multitude of Hispanics through amnesty could quickly enhance their voting clout in now-solid red states such as Texas and Arizona, possibly "reducing Republicans' already weak standing with the Hispanic voters (and future voters)" — an unthinkable shot in the foot for the party to inflict on itself.
When Democrats accuse the Tea Party of holding a gun to the heads of the GOP, they have it mixed up. Republicans are holding a gun to their own heads. Why? Certain big business interests insist they do this so they can employ the cheap, unskilled labor that our Democrat-friendly immigration policies produce — and that an amnesty-based "reform" would only perpetuate.
If Republicans wish to win — a big if — it's time to stop the self-loathing, demand ObamaCare's repeal and refuse to legalize millions of new Democrats.
But they have "Jar Jar" Boehner as a Leader!
And Jar Jar was the deciding vote for the Empire.
Coincidence? I hope not.
Standard | Posted in politics	| Tagged 2014, America, bi-partisan, Boehner, choice, Citizens, competition, Congress, debt, defeat, democrats, diversity, doublespeak, economics, Fairness, faith, freedom, global warming, government, Health Care, Illegal Immigration, Insurance, Jobs, liberty, Media, medicare, Ministry of Truth, Newspeak, Obama, obamacare, Orwell, politics, Race, reform, Republicans, Responsibility, security, socialism, speech, taxes, tea party, victory, We the People	| 0 comments
Bear Facts
Live Science: "Melting Arctic sea ice has contributed considerably more to warming at the top of the world than previously predicted by climate models, according to a new analysis of 30 years of satellite observations."
Not Live Science: Five meters of ice– about 16 feet thick – is threatening the survival of polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea region along Alaska's Arctic coast, according to Dr. Susan J. Crockford, an evolutionary biologist in British Columbia who has studied polar bears for most of her 35-year career.
That's because the thick ice ridges could prevent ringed seals, the bears' major prey, from creating breathing holes they need to survive in the frigid waters, Crockford told CNSNews.com.
"Prompted by reports of the heaviest sea ice conditions on the East Coast 'in decades' and news that ice on the Great Lakes is, for mid-April, the worst it's been since records began, I took a close look at the ice thickness charts for the Arctic," Crockford noted in her Polar Bear Science blog on April 18th.
Well, that's Politically Incorrect. Can't have that…
"Sea ice charts aren't a guarantee that this heavy spring ice phenomenon is developing in the Beaufort, but they could be a warning," she wrote, noting that they "don't bode well" for the Beaufort bears.
"What happens is that really thick ice moves in because currents and winds from Greenland and the Canadian islands push it against the shore," Crockford told CNSNews.com.
"The male seals arrive in the area in early spring to set up breeding territories. They drill a hole through the ice to maintain breathing holes close to the shore. But there's a limit. They can drill through two meters (about seven feet) of ice. But too much beyond that and they're in trouble."
Ringed seal (NOAA)
"The reason that's important is that seals mate right after the pups, who are born in April, are weaned. So the male seal wants to be there, but he has to have breathing holes. If the ice is too thick, he has to move off someplace else," she explained.
But this is the same time that female polar bears are just emerging with their newborn cubs from maternity dens either on or near the shore.
"When those bears come out of their dens in the spring, they need to find seals right away because they will have gone six months without eating," Crockford said. "If there are no seals, they have to go further out, where there's thinner ice."
"Spring and early summer are really a critical time for polar bears. That's when they need to eat as many seals as they can because that's when they put on fat for the rest of the year. If they have trouble doing that in the spring, they're in big trouble."
There were comparably high levels of spring ice in the Beaufort Sea in 2004 and 2006, when bear counts were "one of the pieces of evidence used to have the bears listed as 'threatened' in the U.S.," Crockford pointed out.
"Polar bear biologists were finding some bears quite thin and found a population decline," she said, which they attributed to melting summer ice caused by global warming.
"But the biologists were not there to see the thick [spring] ice. All they saw was thin bears," she pointed out. "They blamed the poor condition of the bears on summer ice, instead of acknowledging that it was likely the condition of the ice in the spring that was the cause of the problem."
"Female [polar bears] with cubs having trouble feeding are one aspect of the repercussions of thick ice," Crockford added. "The other repercussion is that other bears, instead of hanging around and starving, probably left the area. They could have gone to the Chukchi Sea, which is located between the U.S. and Russia near the Bering Strait."
The international IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) conducted a polar bear population survey for the area in 2006. It reported a decline in the adult polar bear population and reduced cub survival rates, which was used to list the bears as a "threatened species" in the U.S. in 2008.
But the PBSG did not take into account the fact that polar bears "can just move" to other areas if their food supply is limited, Crockford told CNSNews.com. "If some of those bears were part of that count, it would look like they died," she pointed out.
In its 2013 status update, released on February 14th, the PBSG repeated its 2006 "reduced" population estimate, putting the Southern Beaufort Sea at 1,526 bears and "declining due to a negative trend in sea ice conditions, particularly over the continental shelf, resulting from the continuing effects of climate warming."
However, in what Crockford characterizes as an "astonishing admission," the update also stated that "it is important to note that there is the potential for un-modeled spatial heterogeneity in mark-recapture sampling that could bias survival and abundance estimates. A thorough re-assessment of survival and abundance is underway and a final result is anticipated in 2014."
"What's shocking is that the PBSG have now admitted that the 'movement of bears' issue essentially invalidates the 2006 population estimate and the much-touted 'reduced survival of cubs'," Crockford said in a March 24th blog post.
"This is a cyclical pattern that is quite specific to that part of Alaska, which has been known about since the 1970s," when wildife biologists noticed "ten times as many seals as usual in the Chukchi Sea. There were more bears, too," Crockford told CNSNews.com.
"It seems to happen every 10 years, so it should be expected by people who work in the area. And not just by people who study polar bears, but also people who study seals."
"It looks like similar conditions are setting up now, and we know the timing is right," she added. "We're keeping an eye on it." (CNS)
Standard | Posted in politics	| Tagged America, choice, Citizens, Congress, democrats, doublespeak, Fairness, faith, freedom, global warming, government, ICE, liberty, Media, Ministry of Truth, Newspeak, Orwell, polar bears, politics, Responsibility, We the People	| 1 Comment
Budget Busting
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) dealt the Obama administration yet another reality check when scrutinizing the President's FY2015 budget proposal. The Budget offered by the President does nothing more than increases our debt and deficits without any substantive reforms to the main drivers of spending.
In what has turned into a regular occurrence, the President will offer a policy with populist appeal — such as increasing the minimum wage – only to have the negative impacts of the proposal exposed by non-partisan analysis from those outside the West Wing.
CBO's latest report on the President's budget points out the mathematical reality: This is not a serious attempt to fix the nation's finances.
Remember when the CBO was the Darling of the Left because they fed them garbage about ObamaCare and got garbage out and they were all happy…Well, I bet this will unfriend them…:)
"CBO estimates that the federal deficit would total $492 billion in 2014 and that the cumulative deficit over the 2015-2024 period would amount to $7.6 trillion."
"Federal debt held by the public would increase from $12.8 trillion, or 74 percent of GDP, at the end of 2014 to $19.9 trillion at the end of 2024." Overall debt in the country will soon approach $20 trillion, adding to our already crushing debt burden. This will continue to exacerbate adverse effects on the economy. According to a CBO report published earlier this year, economic growth is projected to slow to 2 percent by 2017.
Mandatory Spending
"All of the proposed policies affecting Medicare other than freezing payment rates for physicians would reduce outlays by a total of $373 billion over 10 years." NOTE: Medicare and Social Security have a combined unfunded liability of $30.3 trillion according to the National Center for Policy Analysis.
Discretionary Spending
"Over the 2015-2024 period, the President's proposals other than those involving the reclassification of transportation programs and the phasing down of funding for overseas contingency operations would boost spending for discretionary programs by $433 billion.
Bottom Line: The President's budget fails the most basic test in trying to get our country back on a fiscally sustainable path. He increases spending across his budget while offering no real reforms to the real drivers of the country's debt i.e. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Instead of even starting a conversation about the country's spending problems the President makes things worse with this irresponsible budget – a budget that will leave American taxpayers drowning in red ink for years to come. (AFP)
"If anyone was hoping for a serious budget that did more than increase Washington spending and find new ways to tax job creators, it sure sounds like they'll be disappointed," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).(WSJ)
Like Democrats know how do anything else.
As for "bi-partisan compromise"? Well, the Democrats put out some bait. Then they said you have to raise taxes to take the bait. If you don't take the bait we'll bash you for "doing nothing" and if you do we'll bash you for raising taxes. We win!
Now that's "Bi-Partisan" 🙂
The following is a statement from Brian H. Graff, Executive Director/CEO of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) in response to the proposed fiscal year 2015 budget President Barack Obama released today:
"Unfortunately, this year's budget proposal includes the same wrong-headed attacks on employer-sponsored retirement plans as last year. The double tax on contributions to 401(k) plans and the misguided $3 million cap on the value of retirement benefits do not close any loopholes or curb any abuse. They punish small business owners who sponsor retirement plans for themselves and their employees. It is disappointing that an administration that claims to be concerned about giving more American workers access to retirement savings would discourage small business owners from maintaining the 401(k) plans they have now.
Under the "double taxation" budget proposal, small business owners earning more than $250,000 would have to pay tax on contributions in the year the contributions are made, and then pay tax at the full rate when contributions are distributed at retirement. This amounts to a penalty for saving through a 401(k) plan. Who could blame a small business owner for thinking that if the government is going to penalize them for saving in a retirement plan, maybe they should not have that plan?
In addition, if a small business owner has saved $3 million in his or her 401(k) account, or has a pension from another plan and a modest amount in their 401(k) or IRA, they won't be allowed to save any more. Without any further incentive to keep the plan, many small business owners will now either shut down the plan or reduce contributions for workers. This means that employees of small businesses will now lose out not only on the opportunity to save at work, but also on contributions the owner would have made on their behalf to pass nondiscrimination rules.
The proposed retirement savings cap in the president's budget is not closing a loophole and is not correcting some perceived abuse of the rules. There are already caps on contributions and a cap on the pay that can be used to calculate benefits. This proposed cap would basically punish savers for starting to save for retirement when they are young or investing "too successfully." EBRI estimates that even at current low interest rates, 1 in 10 current 401(k) participants will likely hit the cap if they continue to save in a 401(k) plan until retirement. Since the cap shrinks as interest rates increase, while account balances will grow faster, the higher interest rates climb, the more savers will end up being affected by the cap.
We think it is grossly unfair that this proposal would limit a small business owner to retirement benefits that are nowhere near as valuable as executives' at large corporations. Small business can't use the nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements that provide millions – even billions – of dollars in retirement benefits to big corporate executives. Every time retirement plan limits are cut, the corporate CEOs get more nonqualified retirement benefits. It's the small business owners and their employees who lose out, and that just isn't fair.
President Obama's own pension, based on reasonable actuarial assumptions, is worth at least $5 million. That's 40% more than the small business retirement savings cap permitted under the president's budget. Is the president saying his own pension is a loophole too? It's simply wrong to attack small business owners who have responsibly maintained retirement plans for themselves and their workers."
Standard | Posted in politics	| Tagged 2015 budget, actuarial, America, bi-partisan, choice, Citizens, Congress, debt, deficit, democrats, diversity, doublespeak, economics, Fairness, faith, freedom, government, Health Care, IRA, Jobs, liberty, Media, medicare, Ministry of Truth, Newspeak, Obama, Orwell, pension, politics, reform, Responsibility, retirement, savings, security, socialism, speech, taxes, tea party, We the People	| 0 comments
The Twilight of America
Our nation has now slipped into the twilight of its years from the sunlight of its heyday. Many are asking themselves "How did this happen", an even larger chunk of people are licking their Cheetos stained fingers, turning on the Kardashians and asking, "Gee what will I get for Christmas?"
Who's on "Dancing with The Stars"?
With the House still firmly in the hands of the GOP who have been labeled as woman hating corporate thieves, and the Senate now weakened by 2 more years of internal strife and struggle with the right wing, the power of the Presidency is now stronger than ever, and firmly in the hands of a leftist who uses the Constitution as a guideline rather than as the rule of law.
The impotent Congress will now be in no position to argue when Obama issues executive order after executive order in the coming months which will be merely be a further consolidation of power masked under the guise of saving us from a do-nothing Congress.
People often use the expression "how could this happen?" when things go horribly wrong, or the old standby "why me?", and blame the world around them for all perceived injustices that are perpetrated on their persons. Yet, they never look to the answer that any rational adult observing from the outside would offer them—namely to suggest that they should look in the mirror and examine their own lives a bit more carefully, as well as their voting record.
Assuming they vote of course. According to the math, the majority of Americans didn't even vote in the last 2 elections. Even less will now vote as they grow disenfranchised and dissatisfied with the specter of a government that watches our every move and waiting for a mistake to cash in on.
So pardon me if I don't weep too much for the fate that is about to befall them and the predicament their children will eventually be placed in. As the role and power of the Presidency grows, liberty will shrink and American lives will continually become more directed by an unfeeling and arbitrary bureaucracy. Compartmentalized and like a horse with blinders on, people will continue to vote for more government to solve their own problems and fulfill their own shallow needs without regard to the subtle implications of a nation that is financially and morally bankrupt.
Many will blame Obama for this change to a statist government; others still will blame the GOP or the minor political parties. Pseudo intellectuals will point out the finer details of campaign finance issues and cronyism. The wool scarf wearing Occupy Wall Street crowd will blame corporate greed. In the end, all of it is merely a load of pasture patties wafting on the wind. Obama is merely the symptom to a much greater problem of rampant self-interest and fueled by a desire to be famous and pretty rather than free.
The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of everyone who wakes up in the morning and puts on a pair of pants and turns on the TV and is more concerned about their own petty little needs rather than the question of the direction of society and the role of government in everyone's lives.
People will line up for their free pills, their subsidized housing, education and automobiles, and their government-sponsored health care and wonder why they have no money in their pockets. The elderly of previous generations will pass into the night and turn over their enormous wealth to the next generation not realizing that it has already been spent, with government confiscating more and more in the name of 'fairness'.
It is not the end of America despite what pundits are saying, it is a worse fate. Like a lame horse stumbling around the track while the audience gasps in horror, America will become a modern day Portugal, a nation of wandering sailors who drink lots of spirits and talk fondly of the 'good old days' when they ran the world.
Put a pillow over Uncle Sam's face please, it's the only decent thing to do.
People will exclaim 'we will become another Greece'. If only we were that lucky to have society collapse. At least then we would have a chance to rebuild, instead of living in a perpetual coma from a botched lobotomy, like Ken Kesey's Randall McMurphy, a symbol to all that would cross the American government, which is now a modern day Nurse Ratched.
As for me, I will remain to the bitter end and circling the wagons to defend what is left as best I can to try and preserve what I can of that golden time when men walked free in the sunlight, instead of basking in the glow of a solar panel powered utopic promise that is merely a roof over a tin shack run by our government slumlords. (Thomas Purcell)
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Cry Racism
The careless overuse of the word "racist" by people who try to gain by belittling those who disagree with them, has so cheapened the word that it really has no validity to me any longer.
Good people who don't have a racist bone in their entire bodies are routinely branded as racists by foul-mouthed opportunists and people who have never had an original thought in their lives, and are only capable of repeating what they have heard others say, people who can't defend their position against a rational premise so they resort to insults.
I have been called a racist by people who know nothing at all about me except that I have criticized Barack Obama for doing things that I genuinely feel are detrimental to the country.
It's little more than a knee jerk reaction, as a famous Englishman once said, "… sound and fury. Signifying nothing."
Never mind the validity of the supposedly "racist" statement or the intent with which it was made, it doesn't even matter what was said, but rather who it was said about that moves them to a frenzy of four letter words, comic innuendo, juvenile hyperbole and unreasonable name calling.
Any person who throws his or her hat into the rabid ring of politics should check their ethnicity at the door and take their heart off their sleeve because their stand on policy is going to be attacked by either the left or the right.
And what about the "war on women", another meaningless slogan that you can bet will be used frequently in the next presidential election.
We all know that Hillary Clinton is going to run in the presidential primaries, she may act coy about it but it's just part of the game and everybody knows that the lion's share of the media are going to be on her side, promoting, defending and making excuses for the things that took place during her tenure as Secretary of State and shadowy happenings from her distant past.
Those brave enough to take her to task can depend on being called misogynists, Neanderthals and 19th century throwbacks who can't accept the thought of a woman president. They will be soundly chastised and dragged through deep editorial mud for their "sexist" attitudes.
My question is, if Ms. Clinton and her media sycophants wither under the verbal sparring of political opponent: what is she going to do when she faces down Vladimir Putin, the Mullahs of the Middle East and the assorted nuts and bolts who rule their people with an iron hand and could care less about insulting a female?
There is definitely racism in America and it isn't confined to any one ethnic or social group, it is both overt and covert, some groups and individuals not even trying to hide their intolerance and others who veil theirs behind insincere words, but when someone criticizes a person of a different race for something they disagree with it's not racism, it is opinion and they have a right to express it.
Anti-Semitism is a way of life with some of the Islamic sects, but it seems the American media takes little notice of the fact.
Recently, the bureau of land management had a face off with Cliven Bundy, a rancher in Nevada over grazing his cattle on federal land and not paying the federal government for the grazing rights. The Feds showed up in force and were met by scores of concerned citizens who had gathered to support the rancher.
There were guns on both sides and the whole situation could have turned ugly had the Feds not used some rare common sense and packed up and left.
I am not qualified to argue Mr. Bundy's case, pro or con. He feels that the land he grazes his cattle on should not be controlled by the federal government, but faithfully pays his state and county taxes.
At least, in my estimation, the Feds overstepped their authority when they tried to round up Mr. Bundy's cattle and take them off the land.
Now turn the coin over. According to media accounts, Al Sharpton's National Action Network owes millions of dollars in back taxes and not one federal agent has shown up at his door to take away his possessions.
In fact, the president and the attorney general both spoke at their recent convention.
And what about the two New Black Panthers who intimidated voters at a Philadelphia polling place whom Eric Holder's Justice Department never prosecuted?
Is not selective enforcement of the law along racial lines not racism? And has it not been practically institutionalized during the Obama administration?
Power hungry politicians and hate mongers – with help from the media – have done a good job of keeping the racial pot stirred among Americans, using the results to their advantage.
I've never seen the nation this deeply divided.
Being born and raised in the Deep South in the days before the repeal of the Jim Crow laws, I know first hand what a racist is. Racism is motivated by ignorance and blind hate and manifests itself in hurtful ways, and none of them as mild as criticizing the policies of a minority politician.
Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.
Bless You, Charlie.
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High Cost of Liberalism
Liberals can be disarming. In fact, they are for disarming anybody who can be disarmed, whether domestically or internationally.
Unfortunately, the people who are the easiest to disarm are the ones who are the most peaceful — and disarming them makes them vulnerable to those who are the least peaceful.
We are currently getting a painful demonstration of that in Ukraine. When Ukraine became an independent nation, it gave up all the nuclear missiles that were on its territory from the days when it had been part of the Soviet Union.
At that time, Ukraine had the third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. Do you think Putin would have attacked Ukraine if it still had those nuclear weapons? Or do you think it is just a coincidence that nations with nuclear weapons don't get invaded?
Among those who urged Ukraine to reduce even its conventional, non-nuclear weapons as well, was a new United States Senator named Barack Obama. He was all for disarmament then, and apparently even now as President of the United States. He has refused Ukraine's request for weapons with which to defend itself.
As with so many things that liberals do, the disarmament crusade is judged by its good intentions, not by its actual consequences.
Indeed, many liberals seem unaware that the consequences could be anything other than what they hope for. That is why disarmament advocates are called "the peace movement."
Whether disarmament has in fact led to peace, more often than military deterrence has, is something that could be argued on the basis of the facts of history — but it seldom is.
Liberals almost never talk about disarmament in terms of evidence of its consequences, whether they are discussing gun control at home or international disarmament agreements.
International disarmament agreements flourished between the two World Wars. Just a few years after the end of the First World War there were the Washington Naval Agreements of 1921-1922 that led to the United States actually sinking some of its own warships. Then there was the celebrated Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, in which nations renounced war, with France's Foreign Minister Aristide Briand declaring, "Away with rifles, machine guns, and cannon!" The "international community" loved it.
In Britain, the Labour Party repeatedly voted against military armaments during most of the decade of the 1930s. A popular argument of the time was that Britain should disarm "as an example to others."
Unfortunately, Hitler did not follow that example. He was busy building the most powerful military machine on the continent of Europe.
Nor did Germany or Japan allow the Washington Naval Agreements to cramp their style. The fact that Britain and America limited the size of their battleships simply meant that Germany and Japan had larger battleships when World War II began.
What is happening in Ukraine today is just a continuation of the old story about nations that disarm increasing the chances of being attacked by nations that do not disarm.
Any number of empirical studies about domestic gun control laws tell much the same story. Gun control advocates seldom, if ever, present hard evidence that gun crimes in general, or murder rates in particular, go down after gun control laws are passed or tightened.
That is the crucial question about gun control laws. But liberals settle that question by assumption. Then they can turn their attention to denouncing the National Rifle Association.
But neither the National Rifle Association nor the Second Amendment is the crucial issue. If the hard facts show that gun control laws actually reduce the murder rate, we can repeal the Second Amendment, as other Amendments have been repealed.
If in fact tighter gun control laws reduced the murder rate, that would be the liberals' ace of trumps. Why then do the liberals not play their ace of trumps, by showing us such hard facts? Because they don't have any such hard facts. So they give us lofty rhetoric and outraged indignation instead. (Thomas Sowell)
Feigned, faked, and phony as a Liberal "deficit reduction". 🙂
So we get more fear tactics, because that's their main weapon.
No one expects the Gun Inquisition…
And it's Still "No!" 🙂
Standard | Posted in politics	| Tagged affirmative action, America, choice, Citizens, democrats, diversity, doublespeak, economics, Fairness, faith, Fourteenth Amendment, freedom, government, liberty, Ministry of Truth, Newspeak, Obama, Orwell, politics, putin, Race, racism, reform, Responsibility, russia, security, speech, tea party, Ukraine, We the People	| 0 comments


text:
Programming with Passion Algorithms, Mobile Development, Robotics
LeetCode (Algorithms#9) ‒ Palindrome Number
Determine whether an integer is a palindrome. Do this without extra space.
First, note that the complexity of the problem should be on the order of the number of digits in the integer. Thus, as long as you only use numeric data types (single instances, not arrays), your code will run in O(1) space. The problem is again similar to that of Reverse Integer, but with some optimizations we can make.
There are a few cases that can be determined to produce an early decision for the function, these are in the first few lines of the code below (note the last line, which decides in O(1) whether a two digit number is a palindrome). Other than these conditions, the main optimization is to only reverse half of the number. We do not actually know the length of the number, so we keep checking for equality between the original and reversed portion of the number until the original becomes shorter than the reversed: x / 10 =< xr.
Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(n)
Runtime percentile: 89.99%
public boolean isPalindrome(int x) {
if (x < 0 || (x!=0 && x % 10 == 0)) return false;
else if (x < 10) return true;
else if (x < 100) return x % 11 == 0;
long xr = 0;
while (x > 0 && x/10 > xr) {
xr = xr*10 + x%10;
x /= 10;
if (x == (int)xr || x/10 == (int)xr) return true;
else if (xr > Integer.MAX_VALUE) return false;
Labels: algorithms, leetcode
LeetCode (Algorithms#13) ‒ Roman to Integer
LeetCode (Algorithms#12) ‒ Integer to Roman
LeetCode (Algorithms#11) ‒ Container With Most Water
LeetCode (Algorithms#10) ‒ Regular Expression Matc...
LeetCode (Algorithms#8) ‒ String to Integer (atoi)
LeetCode (Algorithms#7) ‒ Reverse Integer
LeetCode (Algorithms#1) ‒ Two Sums
Problem Given an array of integers, return indices of the two numbers such that they add up to a specific target. You may assume that eac...
LeetCode (Algorithms#6) ‒ ZigZag Conversion
Problem The string "PAYPALISHIRING" is written in a zigzag pattern on a given number of rows like this: P A H N A P L S...
Problem Given n non-negative integers a1, a2, ..., an, where each represents a point at coordinate (i, a_i). n vertical lines are drawn s...
LeetCode (Algorithms#3) ‒ Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
Problem Given a string, find the length of the longest substring without repeating characters. Examples: Given "abcabcbb", t...
Problem Implement atoi to convert a string to an integer. Note: It is intended for this problem to be specified vaguely (ie, no given...
LeetCode (Algorithms#15) ‒ 3Sum
Problem Given an array S of n integers, are there elements a, b, c in S such that a + b + c = 0? Find all unique triplets in the array whi...
LeetCode (Algorithms#2) ‒Add Two Numbers
Problem You are given two linked lists representing two non-negative numbers. The digits are stored in reverse order and each of their node...
LeetCode (Algorithms#14) ‒ Longest Common Prefix
Problem Write a function to find the longest common prefix string amongst an array of strings. Solution For a set of $n$ strings, the ...
LeetCode (Algorithms#10) ‒ Regular Expression Matching
Problem Implement regular expression matching with support for '.' and '*' . '.' Matches any single character....
Problem Determine whether an integer is a palindrome. Do this without extra space. Solution First, note that the complexity of the p...


text:
Home Cooperative History
The First Laguna Electric Cooperative, Inc. (FLECO) was incorporated and registered with the National Electrification Administration (NEA) on April 3, 1973 under Presidential Decree 269. The operation of FLECO commenced on September 1, 1973 when it took over seven (7) private electric franchises and municipal systems, namely: Siniloan Electric which covered the towns of Siniloan, Pangil, Pakil, Mabitac and Sta. Maria; Pagsanjan Electric System; Paete Electric Service; Lumban Electric System; Kalayaan Electric System; Cavinti Electric System and Calim &. Jamilano Electric Co., which served the town of Famy.
Initially, FLECO contracted a loan with the NEA to pay for taken-over private systems and to fund the rehabilitation of old lines and its service expansion.
FLECO provides electricity to 11 of the 16 municipalities in the 4th District of Laguna and has attained 100% energization of the 164 barangays in its coverage area. The municipalities within the FLECO franchise area are Cavinti, Pagsanjan, Lumban, Kalayaan, Paete, Pakil, Pangil, Siniloan, Mabitac, Famy, and Sta. Maria, all located in the northeastern part of the Province of Laguna, covering about 571 square kilometers.
On the technical aspect of its operation, the Cooperative sources 100% of its power requirement from GNPower Ltd. Co., San Miguel Energy Corporation, and Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines. FLECO has five (5) substations with a total capacity of 55 MVA. Since the implementation of the feeder metering system, areas of the cooperative with high system losses were identified and pinpointed. The average system loss as of December 31, 2021 is 9.19%. The Technical Services Department has been prioritizing the implementation of various technical projects in areas that need service improvements. Year 2021 recorded 23,799 kW peak demand, 58.66% system load factor, and 97.68% system power factor.
On the financial aspect, FLECO purchased from its power suppliers a total of 135,355,795 kW worth over P 835M in 2021. It recorded net energy sales of Php 969.4M with 99.30% average collection efficiency. The Cooperative's gross income was P 134.3M while its operating expenses reached P 149.4M. Other income worth P 62.6M was recorded from pole rental, bank interest, private construction and sale of certain electrical materials, prompt payment discount from power suppliers, and others. Net income was P 779K and cash at end of year 2021 was P 61M.
On the institutional aspect, there are 76,339 house connections and a total membership of 71,505 as of December 2021. FLECO has attained the "AAA" rating in the Overall Performance Assessment of the NEA for six (6) consecutive years. This is the highest categorization awarded to electric cooperatives in the country. The Cooperative accomplished several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects in 2021 which include MCO Community Pantry, donation of nebulizers and blood pressure monitors, Brigada Eskwela in 53 schools, donation of hygiene kits to Siniloan and Kalayaan fire victims, gift-giving project with 550 recipients of noche buena packages, donation of Christmas raffle items, and implementation of the Pantawid Liwanag Program with 430 beneficiaries of cash assistance from the PHILRECA Party-List in cooperation with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).


text:
Science Fiction Movies & Series
Zone 414 (2021)
In the near future on a colony of state-of-the-art robots, a private investigator is hired by the colony's creator to bring his missing daughter home.
Genre: Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller
Synapse (2021)
An addicted memory dealer is chased relentlessly by federal narcotics agents bent on keeping the secrets he has locked in his mind hidden.
Megalodon Rising (2021)
When history's greatest aquatic predator returns, the armada of modern warships sent to destroy it has no chance at all.
Escape From Area 51 (2021)
When conspiracy theorists raid the famous military base Area 51, an alien warrior uses a power glitch to escape from captivity which attracts the attention of her arch space rival….
Genre: Comedy, Science Fiction
Escape Room 2: Tournament of Champions (2021)
Six people unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive as they discover all the games that they've played…
Genre: Action, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller
When LeBron and his young son Dom are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I., LeBron must get them home safe by leading Bugs, Lola Bunny and the…
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family, Science Fiction
The Stairs (2021)
In 1997, 11 year old Jesse finds a mysterious staircase in the woods and disappears – – 20 years later, a group of hikers, set off into the very same…
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021)
Arcadia may look like an ordinary town, but it lies at the center of magical and mystical lines that makes it a nexus for many battles among otherworldly creatures, including…
Country: Mexico, United States
Genre: Action, Adventure, Animation, Family, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Risen (2021)
Disaster unfolds when a meteor strikes a small town, turning the environment uninhabitable and killing everything in the surrounding area. Exobiologist Lauren Stone is called to find answers to the…
Country: Australia, United States
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller
Reminiscence (2021)
Nicolas Bannister, a rugged and solitary veteran living in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas, is an expert in a dangerous occupation: he offers clients the chance to relive…
Genre: Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction
Zone Drifter (2021)
In the distant future, a former soldier battles through a ravaged post-war wasteland, and faces an army of programmed killers while searching for his missing brother.
River (2021)
After disappearing for over a week, River tries to put her fragmented memory back together, while teetering on the brink of insanity and questioning what's real vs a dream.
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Ascendant (2021)
Kidnapped and held hostage in a high-speed elevator in a 120-floor building in Shanghai, Aria Wolf has no memory of her past, who her captors are, or what they want…
Out Of Time (2021)
Three mysterious figures emerge from the Mojave Desert and make their way to Los Angeles, leaving a trail of bodies in their path. To thwart their plans for global genocide,…
Genre: Action, Drama, Science Fiction
Mount Adams (2021)
A team of UFO investigators find themselves fighting for survival as alien monsters hunt them on the slopes of Mount Adams.
Mondo Hollywoodland (2019)
Homage to the cult classic "Mondo Hollywood", a groovy mushrooms dealer and a man from the 5th dimension journey through Hollywood to find the meaning of "Mondo."
Boonie Bears: The Wild Life (2020)
Our favourite bear brothers Briar, Bramble and their human friend Vick embark on an adventure to the Wild Land, where humans are being transformed into animals with gene-altering bracelets. To…
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Science Fiction
The Return (2020)
After the death of his father, a brilliant college student returns to his family home where he learns that the horrors from his childhood aren't as dead and gone as…
Robot Apocalypse (2021)
When expert hacker Tara tries to stop a powerful, sentient A.I. as it takes over the world's military, the A.I. marks her as a terrorist that must be exterminated.
Jurassic Hunt (2021)
Female adventurer Parker joins a crew of male trophy hunters in a remote wilderness park. Their goal: slaughter genetically recreated dinosaurs for sport using rifles, arrows, and grenades. After their…
Destination Marfa (2021)
While on a road trip from a long weekend at the Terlingua cookoff, four lifelong friends decide to veer off road and venture into a small West Texas town known…
Astro Loco (2021)
An inquisitive spaceship computer tasked with overseeing a safe voyage must cultivate a deeper sense of humanity in order to be effective amid the spread of cabin fever.
Finding Callaro (2021)
The once beautiful Planet Kepler is now dry and near destruction after its precocious Callaro plant was exploited to extinction. Three brave space kids – Axel, Jono and Gaga –…
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Science Fiction
Extinct (2021)
The original adventure-comedy follows Op and Ed, two adorable donut-shaped animals – flummels – who accidentally time-travel from 1835 to modern-day Shanghai. There they discover traffic, trans fats, and worst…
The Tomorrow War (2021)
The world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future, mankind is losing a global…
The Superdeep (2020)
The film is based on real events when, in the 1970s, the deepest well in the world with a depth of more than 12 thousand meters was drilled in Murmansk…
Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller
In the not-too-distant future: after a global catastrophe has wiped out nearly all of humanity on Earth, an elite astronaut from Space Colony Kepler must make a decision that will…
Country: Germany, Switzerland
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller
Settlers (2021)
Remmy and her parents, refugees from Earth, have found peace on the Martian outskirts until strangers appear in the hills beyond their farm. Told as a triptych, the film follows…
Country: South Africa, United Kingdom
Let's Dream (2021)
Let, a reclusive, insomniac photographer, is hired to photograph a mysterious client in the forest late one night, and soon finds himself pulled into a bizarre, otherworldly quest.
Evan McCauley has skills he never learned and memories of places he has never visited. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, a secret group that call themselves…
A Quiet Place Part 2 (2020)
Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize that the creatures that hunt by…
Unit Eleven (2020)
In the year 2035, survivors of a now almost completely evacuated post-apocalyptic Britain compete for a government bounty to retrieve a mysterious bio weapon known only as Unit Eleven…
The Deep Ones (2020)
A married couple rents a beachside Airbnb, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. They soon discover they are in the grip of a mysterious cult and their…
Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam (2021)
The Teen Titans are visited by the Nerdlucks, the Space Jam villains who tried to capture Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes. Astonished to discover his fellow Titans have never…
Genre: Action, Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Lockdown 2025 (2021)
In the shadows of a highly contagious virus, a normal family seeks shelter in the safety of their own home during a nationwide LOCKDOWN in which MARTIAL LAW is declared….
Hatched (2021)
Something has been discovered, and this time, a city is under attack by a fast growing T-Rex.
Genre: Action, Horror, Science Fiction
Stellanomicon: Future Fear (2021)
In a distant future, an archeologist must use ancient technology in hopes of finding a way to fight back an army of alien attackers and escape the planet.
Alien Conquest (2021)
Sibling astronomers discover Martians are threatening to attack Earth, but no one believes them, until Martians land and nearly destroy all of New York City. As the siblings try to…
Zooey (2021)
When a young boy, Noah, meets Zooey, a young girl living in a motel, they form an unbreakable bond. Soon after Noah discovers a secret about her that changes the…


text:
Q: How to style cards in css So I have this 2 cards aligned the way i want whit bootstrap and display: flex;. When i try to do some some changes in CSS like moving the details class in middle,  or to change the width and height of the card etc it won't work. How can i do it ? Here is the code:

Guided hiking tours

        <button class="activbutt" type="button" name="button">
               SEE DETAILS
               </button>

          Duration

Max adults:10

Max children:3

Rent a bike(4 hours)

      <button class="activbutt" type="button" name="button">
             SEE DETAILS
             </button>

        Duration

QUARTER DAY

Max adults:9

Max children:0

A: I think you should use the card class from bootstrap. https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/card/. Then you will be able to change the default width & height of the card by overriding it from custom CSS.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Hello, how can I solve problem in fragment - get edit text to string private void showAllUserData() {

    Intent validation = getActivity().getIntent();
    String user_username = validation.getStringExtra("username");
    String user_email = validation.getStringExtra("email");
    String user_password = validation.getStringExtra("password");
    String user_name = validation.getStringExtra("name");

    fullNameLabel.setText(user_name);
    userNameLabel.setText(user_username);
    fullname.getEditText().setText.toString(user_name);
    email.getEditText().setText.toString(user_email);
    password.getEditText().setText.toString(user_password);

}}

My get all user data method has a problem here, in the edit text to string section, I don't how to use it in a fragment.
here is how my code looks like in android studio

A: Please post your code as text and not as images next time. This article contains information on how to ask a good question on StackOverflow.
Are full_name_profile, email_profile and password_profile EditTexts in your XML layout? Because in that case, the variables fullname, email and password are already EditTexts and you can just remove getEditText() from your code and set the text like this: fullname.setText(user_username)


Some of our clients that use PEERNET software are customer-facing, and have a need for a website with extensive information guides, brochures, and the like. Often in the corporate environment, these come in the form of PDFs.
There are several things you can do to optimize PDFs for better visibility in search engine rankings. In an ideal world, the best thing to do is to convert the PDF documents to web pages and allow the search engine spiders to crawl them that way. But depending on your time and resources, that might not be feasible for your business, in which case optimizing your PDFs for search engines is the way to go.
If you have PDFs that you would like to be indexed by Google, Bing, and other search engines, there are basic on-page factors that influence a document's search engine ranking. Here are some tips on how to optimize the documents for maximum visibility.
Ensure the filename of the document is relevant and search engine friendly. Use terms that people are likely to search for, but make it specific enough to ensure that it's targeted. As an example, let's say you were creating a brochure for your company's 2014 line of baseball cards.
Make sure the PDF starts with a relevant, meaningful title. The search engine results page is likely to display the first text it crawls on the first page of the document. Ensure that the document title tells the reader exactly what the PDF is about. From a search engine perspective, it's better to be straightforward with the title than to be creative.
Use keywords throughout the content of the document. As search engines have evolved over the years, they've gotten much better at identifying what content is useful and relevant to searchers. One of the most important factors in determining a documents search engine ranking is consistency. So it's fairly important that the main keywords you are using to target searchers in the filename and document title appear in the content. Just don't over-do it: search engines have also gotten quite good at identifying "keyword stuffing" and will punish a document where it's obvious that the author has artificially used keywords where it's not necessary. One to three mentions per page is a good range to shoot for.
Build internal links throughout your documents, if possible. Ever wonder why whenever you search a topic on Google, the Wikipedia page shows up near the top? A big factor is the amount of internal links throughout the site. Google's algorithm considers internal links as a sign of the site's authority, and helps it achieve a higher PageRank. Anyone can use internal links on their site to build up their value to search engines — but as with the use of keywords, don't overdo it.
For PDFs to be crawled by search engines, they have to be text-based. In simple terms, that means that the PDF contains text that a user can highlight on the document… not images that contain text in them. As noted, all that search engines can crawl on images are the image title and alt tags.
Ideally, you want your PDFs to be as small as you can make them. For purposes of displaying and being found on the web, it's better to sacrifice high quality images for quicker loading files. This is better both for both the search engines' crawlers, and from a user perspective.
Ready to optimize your organization's PDFs for search engines? Check out PEERNET's PDF Creator Plus, software designed with businesses in mind.