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Race and Class Discourse from an Ivory Tower in Connecticut
It is Time to End the Insanity of our Nation's Drug Laws
Back in the early 80s, when I was still in high school, I was asked if I wanted to sell drugs by two kids I knew who lived in the Brewster-Douglass Homes public housing projects. It was not the first time – nor would it be the last time – I was asked about getting into the drug game.
It would have been easy to become a drug dealer. I lived only two blocks from the Brewster-Douglass Homes, at the time, the largest, and one of the most dangerous, housing projects in the city of Detroit, a place where out-in-the-open drug dealing was easy to find and easy to get involved in.
Brewster-Douglass was actually two housing projects. The Brewster Homes, the nation's first federally funded public housing development for blacks, were completed in 1941. The Fredrick Douglass Homes were built between 1942 and 1952. The combined housing projects were five city blocks long and three city blocks wide. At their peak, somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people lived in them.
During the 1970s, when I was growing up, the Brewster's as we called them, was one of the worst areas of concentrated poverty in the city of Detroit. Joblessness, single-parented households, welfare dependency, drug abuse, crime, and gun violence were major problems.
By the 1980s, when the crack epidemic hit the city of Detroit, the problems in the "projects" got even worse. But, crack seemed to be different from other drugs I had seen in the neighborhood such as heroin. Crack was cheaper, the high was very intense, and it seemed to be everywhere, wrecking the lives of individuals and their families, destroying the very fabric of the entire community with a force unseen before.
Few families, including my own, were untouched by crack.
Although I never sold drugs (and though I have seen people get high, I have never tried crack), I must admit: I was tempted to hustle!
Selling crack was a way to make quick money, and lots of it. I saw young men that I grew up with become, what I called at the time, "ghetto superstars." They drove fancy cars, wore thick gold chains and expensive leather sneakers (we call them gym shoes back in the "D"), and sported fur lined Max Julian coats. And, they had, I envied the most, all the "pretty" ladies.
It should come as no surprise that for many young black males growing up in the extreme poverty of the Brewster-Douglass projects, the lure of the drug trade was powerful and too hard to resist. With all the money to be made and women to be had, it is easy to see why so many young men become "street entrepreneurs."
Drug dealing was certainly glamorous; but, drug dealing was also extremely dangerous, generating unparalleled levels of gun violence and death.
Hence, on the one hand, the demand for crack was phenomenal and the profits from selling drugs were through the ceiling. On the other hand, as rival drug crews – such as, "Young Boy Incorporated," "Best Friends", "Pony Down", "Black Mafia Family" and "The Chambers Brothers" – fought over territory, the body count increased all over the motor-city, especially in the Brewster projects.
By the mid-1980s, widely exaggerated claims about the extreme potency of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine and violent turf battles over drug markets in America's inner-cities caught the attention of then President Ronald Regan and members of Congress. A "War on Drugs" was declared and Congress passed the notorious 100 to 1 sentencing quantity disparity between crack and powder cocaine.
Sentencing policies, as a consequence of the war on drugs, resulted in a dramatic increase in the prison population.
For the last several decades, criminal justice and prison reform advocates have been pushing members of Congress to treat powder and crack cocaine the same. Under current federal law, 5 grams of crack cocaine will get you a 5 year minimum sentence. With powder cocaine, you need 100 times that amount to trigger a similar sentence.
As most people know, the crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity has had a major impact on people of color. Excessive and harsh, current drug laws have generated huge racial disparities in the U.S. prison population.
General speaking, the nation's prisons are bursting at the seams. According to The Sentencing Project, America leads the world in incarceration, with about 2.3 million people in prison and jail. The racial dimensions of the U.S. prison population are staggering. They report that about 6 out of 10 prisoners are people of color. Astonishingly, one in ten (10.4%) black males aged 25-29 was in prison or jail in 2008, as were 1 in 26 (3.8%) Latino males, compared to 1 in 63 (1.6%) white males, in the same age group.
As a result of the so-called "war on drugs, roughly three out of four people in prison for a drug offense are a racial or ethnic minority. For black males, one out of eight is in prison or jail on any given day.
Congress enacted these drug laws during the height of the so-called crack epidemic of the 1980s. Widely embraced by both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans, over the years, efforts to change this outrageously insane 100 to 1 ratio have received stiff opposition, until now.
At last, a bit of sanity is emerging in the nation's Capital. On March 17, members of the Senate passed the Fairness in Sentencing Act of 2010, a bill that will change the punishment for crack cocaine to 18 to 1.
Although the Senate bill is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough to eliminate the racial disparities that have been created by the nation's failed drug policies. The Senate bill still maintains a disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine.
In order to become law, this bill must be reconciled with a House bill that made it out of committee last year. The bills are different. The House Judiciary committee version of the Fairness in Sentencing Act completely eliminates the sentencing disparity.
It is time to end the insanity of our nation's drug laws. There is no reason to treat powder and crack cocaine differently. They are the same drug! Please call your members of the Senate and encourage them to support the House's version of the Fairness in Sentencing Act.
Posted by Bilal Dabir Sekou, Ph.D. at 9:20 PM
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Excellent Sources of Progressive Race and Class Discourse
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Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Politics In Color
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That Minority Thing
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Truth Dig
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Progressive Organizations on the Web
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Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
Center For Economic Policy And Research
Coalition On Human Needs
Connecticut Center for a New Economy
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Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute
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Eisenhower Foundation
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Incite: Women of Color Against Violence
Inequality.org
International Socialist Organization
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United For Fair A Economy
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Department Of Numbers
International Socialist Review
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Humanist Websites
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Black Atheists Of America
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Pan-African News Wire
Reading Marx's Capital with David Harvey
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Once you know the values you want to track, you can simply go to Google�s URL Builder, enter these values into the parameters, click �generate URL,� and bam, you are set. The wonderful thing about UTM codes is that you can change the code whenever you like to adjust the medium, month you may be running something, or any other factors you need tweaked.... In the context of Google Analytics, a custom campaign is your website URL which contains UTM parameters. Through custom campaigns you can send detailed information about your marketing campaigns to Google Analytics.
Google Campaign UTM parameters � we know we need to use them but they make our URLs look so ugly! And a URL shortener results in losing out on brand-friendly URLs.... By using different UTM parameters for different placements, you are able to find out how much traffic comes from a particular Facebook post or FB Ad instead of Facebook referrals in general. After the campaign ended and was evaluated, we recorded, with the use of Google Analytics, 10 000 visitors from Facebook. 3000 visitors came thanks to a post on Page or other sources from Facebook.
Heyo, there is a better way to create UTM parameters than Google�s URL builder. If you use Rebrandly.com you can save and load UTM presets then instantly shorten the links under your own branded URL shortener, probably saves about 30 seconds a link.


The Management Board is the European Medicines Agency's integral governance body. It has a supervisory role with general responsibility for budgetary and planning matters, the appointment of the Executive Director and the monitoring of the Agency's performance.
It has legally enforceable rule-making authority for implementation of certain parts of the fee regulation. It adopts the Agency's financial regulation and its implementing rules, which are binding texts for the Agency, the Board and the Executive Director.
It has a key role to play in the 'discharge' (sign-off) process of the Agency's accounts by the European Union's budgetary authority. As part of this process, the Board conducts an analysis and assessment of the Executive Director's annual activity report. This forms part of the package of controls and reports that lead to Executive Director receiving discharge for the Agency's budget. The Board also gives its opinion on the Agency's annual accounts.
It has close ties with the Agency's accounting officer, who is appointed by the Board, and with the internal auditor, who reports to the Board and to the Executive Director on audit findings.
It is consulted on the rules of procedure and the membership of the Agency's committees.
It is responsible for adopting the implementing provisions for the practical application of the rules and regulations applicable to officials and other EU staff.
The tasks and responsibilities of the Management Board are set out in the Agency's legal background.
The members of the Management Board are appointed on the basis of their expertise in management and, if appropriate, experience in the field of human or veterinary medicines. They are selected to guarantee the highest levels of specialist qualifications, a broad spectrum of relevant expertise and the broadest possible geographical spread within the EU.
one representative of veterinarians' organisations.
In addition to the members, the Management Board also has one observer each from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The representatives of the Member States, European Commission and European Parliament are appointed directly by the Member State and institution concerned. The four 'civil society' Board members (patients', doctors' and veterinarians' representatives) are appointed by the Council of the European Union, after consultation of the European Parliament.
The representatives of the Member States and of the Commission may have alternates.
Board members are appointed for a three-year term, which may be renewed.


Enjoy Live Music: Live music abounds on Vancouver Island! From live bands in the local pubs to a dedicated live music lounge, your ears are in for a treat. Click here for Ground Zero Acoustic Lounge, or check your favourite pub for its live-music schedule.
Walk miles of beaches: Qualicum Beach's waterfront is fully accessible from BC Highway 19A. Parksville offers sweeping bay access at the Community Park downtown (take Highway 19A to Corfield Street or Beachside Drive) as well as the unspoiled Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park (take the Resort Drive exit off Highway 19A, turn west on Resort Drive, and take an immediate right-hand turn onto Rathtrevor Road).
Visit quaint Qualicum Beach: Qualicum Beach is a haven of one-of-a-kind boutiques – no chain stores are allowed! Walking its quaint streets, you may recognize some of the scenery: Qualicum Beach also serves as the set for the popular TV series Chesapeake Shores.
Choose Your Adventure: Sport-fishing charters? Whale-watching excursions? Marine adventures ranging from kayaking to a scenic day trip on a working freighter? Learning to surf? Whatever adventure your heart desires, you'll find it here on Vancouver Island.
There's so much to see and do on Vancouver Island!
To get paper copies of visitor guides, visit the Parksville Visitor Centre at 1275 East Island Highway, Parksville; or drop into any gas station.


Over my career I've heard people decry the preponderance of "bad news" in the media, but no where is that complaint heard loudest but in the technology industries. What is interesting, however, is no one can actually give a definition of bad news other than there was once a story that portrayed their company or technology in a bad light. In other words, it didn't exactly line up with what the CEO want the article to say.
Last week, we had a long conversation on the blog with Ry Schwark of Mentor Graphics who complained that start ups in his industry got the lion's share of the coverage in trade publications (which isn't true except in his own perception) but that too can be considered "bad news" in some circles.
This weekend, while standing in line at Safeway I picked up an issue of Newsweek with the subhead "The real media bias." The article inside stated that what the media is really biased toward is not political, but in favor of conflict. Regardless of what you believe, Newsweek makes a good point. I logged on to SFgate.com (the SF Chronicle site) and took a look at the articles on the front page and all but one had to do with some sort of conflict.
Having considered all this for the past few days I now have a good definition of what "bad news" actually is. It is conflict. Anything that states a position of perception that is contrary to what an entity in power considers correct is bad news. An industry leader (and that means anyone who doesn't call themselves a leader in the news release) is going to consider any news coverage of a competing start up as a conflicting message and therefore bad news.
Let's contrast that with what might be considered "good news." For an entity to call something good news it would have to be something that agrees with its position. But everyone else competing in that space would have to consider it either "bad news," or worse, "a puff piece."
In that definition any news that does not directly benefit an individual is either bad news or puffery.
But I'm going too set a definition of news that most journalists would agree to. "Bad news" is anything that presents a conflict, like a lawsuit or bad financials. Good news is anything that benefits the larger community, like a cure for cancer or a way to cut the cost of semiconductor design. And real news is information that someone may not have had before... regardless of anyone's marketing plans.
If we want to get back to real journalism, we have to accept that we live in a community larger than our own household.


Help Open The Doors To Serve Up To 150 Teens In Need Each Day (Beulah's Place) – What If We Could?
BEULAH'S PLACE >> Beulah's Place will soon have a new home, although its new to us, it needs a little work. After repairs are complete, we will be fully functional and can serve up to 150 teens per day! In order for us to open, we need to repair and replace portions of the bathrooms and a full sized water heater for hot water. We have a contractors bid of $2,502 for all the work we need to move in. With your support we can be serving these deserving teens soon!
Thank you for your willingness to help support Beulah's Place – your donation will go a long ways towards getting us open – and serving 150 teens per day!
Your email and information has been forwarded on to the staff at Beulah's Place, I can assure you they are excited about your donation and are looking forward to serving these teens in need.
Thank you again for supporting this worthwhile organization.


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Home Clothing 90s Hip Hop Fashion Guide: Outfits, Brands, and Trends (Women's Edition)
90s Hip Hop Fashion Guide: Outfits, Brands, and Trends (Women's Edition)
Ana Luisa Pimentel
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90s hip hop fashion trends represent one of the most iconic times for fashion. While during the 90s, many new trends appeared, hip hop fashion stands out as one of the most significant.
Hip hop fashion was created as a movement based on up and coming musicians of the era. There were many women in hip hop how framed the movement. These included Queen Latifah, Lil' Kim, Lauryn Hill, Foxy Brown, Eve, Aaliyah, the list goes on.
Through their musical works and personal style, they created a fashion aesthetic that made an impact throughout the decade. With fan followers, Hollywood films, and the fashion industry.
We have put together a guide on 90s hip hop and rap fashion, including information on outfits, brands, and the trends for womenswear inspired by the genre that characterized the decade.
What is Hip Hop Style?
80s Hip Hop Fashion
Early 90s Hip Hop Fashion
Mid 90s Hip Hop Fashion
Late 90s Hip Hop Fashion
Urban Fashion Designers
Modern Hip Hop
Types of Clothing
90s Hip Hop Brands
Hip Hop Fashion Styles and Trends
Preppy Hip Hop Style
Elite Hip Hop Style
Urban Hip Hop Style
Summer Hip Hop Outfits
Spring Hip Hop Outfits
Fall Hip Hop Outfits
Winter Hip Hop Outfits
Hip hop is said to have first formed in the Bronx, New York City in the early 70s. This was a time during which the United States was suffering the effects of an economic recession.
Hip hop was created as a distraction during these tough times— by people enduring both financial and psychological difficulties. It is said to be a form of expression by marginalized social groups.
The culture based artistic movement was created by a mix of African Americans, Latin Americans, and Caribbean Americans. While the genre was first introduced in the 70s, it was further developed during the 90s.
The influence of hip hop still predominates among youth communities, fashion trends, and musical styles today.
Hip hop fashion styles are based primarily on urban apparel and the self-expression of 'slang' and streetwear. It also incorporates thematic motifs such as social awareness, civil rights, political activism, justice, and social awareness. As hip hop began growing as a cultural movement, its impact on fashion quickly developed.
The style was originally only worn by a marginalized society. It then later began making a shift. Now, all social classes and ethnic groups value it. Brands that explore the hip-hop style include Adidas, Puma, and PRO-Keds. Higher end fashion brands such as Supreme, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci have incorporated the hip-hop aesthetic into their designs.
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The hip hop movement continued to grow during the 80s, a time remembered as one of the most important for the development of the movement— both nostalgic and old-school hip-hop fashion were developed. Hip hop fashion received influence from other fashion movements that were consistently growing, such as the preppy aesthetic.
During its initial period, the majority of up and coming hip hop singers, both women and men, aspired to one day become part of elite society. This was done through their own interpretation of it. They purchased just from 'Americana' brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Timberland, and Polo Ralph Lauren.
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During the late 80s, and early 90s, African American culture became the staple influence on hip-hop style. Big, blown up pants were made famous as a hip hop look unisex garment. As were heavy gold chain accessories, dreadlocks, and various hats such as the kofi.
The staple color palette was centered around red, black, and green—the colors linked to Black nationalism. Some of the most influential figures of the 90s hip hop fashion scene were names like Queen Latifah and Aaliyah, whom both promoted black nationalist ideas.
Popular womenswear fashion trends, reflecting 90s west coast fashion, included white tees, Air Jordan sneakers, Raiders bomber jackets, and baseball caps worn backwards.
During the early 90s, high end luxury brands began incorporating hip-hop culture into their designs.
Chanel displayed influences of the culture in all of the early 90s collections—including black leather jackets, heavy gold chains, and heavy silver chains featuring a padlock.
Read: 90s African American Fashion Trends that Shaped an Era
The mid 90s characterized a shift within hip hop apparel; the subculture began taking inspiration from styles worn during the 30s and 40s, specifically by Mafia members and organized criminal groups. New trends included silk blouses, animal fur coats, alligator leather accessories, and baggy silhouettes.
Women represented a sense of empowering feminism within the hip hop community. These women were tough, with their wardrobe consisting of baggy clothing, and portraying a 'badass' attitude. Their aggressive way of dressing was meant to intimidate and consolidate their positions within a community led primarily by men.
Back in the mid 90s, and progressing through the late 90s, many brands began working with hip hop culture. Calvin Klein, Dona Karan New York, and Nautica were some of the few. Aaliyah was known to always be wearing Tommy Hilfiger.
Her outfits consisted of tube tops worn with matching pants. Her aesthetic appealed to young girls hoping to recreate her look.
Tube tops became a staple piece within new hip hop womenswear fashion trends. Tommy Hilfiger was smart when it came to marketing; in campaigns and advertisements, they featured African American models and spokespeople.
This linked the hip-hop community with the brand, forming a lasting bond that is still present even today.
Additions to womenswear trends included stomping boots, thick black sunglasses, and baggy working pants. During the late 90s, silver jewelry became more popular within hip hop culture in comparison with gold jewelry. The 'bling' often included diamonds. Hip hop fashion was based on the idea of showing off your assets; both physical and economical.
Tommy Hilfiger was a leading designer of hip-hop fashion who focused on creating styles within the 'preppy' subcategory. His self-titled clothing brand was officially established in 1985, and rose to fame partially because of the hip-hop movement.
Read: 24 Preppy Brands that Will Turn You Seriously Ivy League
American fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi was highly influenced by hip-hop trends of the decade. His collections during the late 80s and early 90s were said to be inspired from the culture. He saw the elevator operator at his building wearing a thick gold chain, and decided to release collections featuring the hip-hop aesthetic.
Isaac was one of the most significant fashion designers of the 90s.
American creative director Karl Kani was also considered one of the most influential designers of the decade. He worked closely with 90s r&b fashion. His brand, Karl Kani, was known as a 'hip hop fashion brand'.
An American born of Latin American parents, Karl grew up in Brooklyn, New York and grew up around the beginnings of the hip-hop movement. He is credited for recognizing an area within the market of fellow hip hop lovers.
He then developed his designs according to consumer demand. He was very successful with his brand, and is still continues working as a designer today.
Modern hip-hop trends are very different from those seen during the 90s. The concept has shifted due to the appearance of various contemporary, high end streetwear brands. These include brands like Louis Vuitton, Rick Owens, and Yeezy.
Womenswear hip hop trends today include casual sportswear, minimalistic sweatsuits, oversized hoodies, loose overalls, baggy pants, dark denim, crop tops, the bomber jacket, and multiple piercings. American rapper Cardi B and Spanish singer Rosalía are known as of the biggest influencers of hip-hop womenswear in modern fashion trends.
They both represent a sense of throwback 90s ghetto fashion, while wearing hip hop designer clothing. Their personal styles are inspired by trends of the 90s, and create a revival of the biggest trends of the decade.
The types of clothing that define hip hop style are usually loose, oversized, and most importantly—comfortable.
Garments like basketball jerseys, both modern and vintage, were a staple of the style. Various t-shirts, and tanks, usually unicolored and featuring graphic designs were commonly seen worn by musicians.
Pants were low waisted and baggy. Baggy overalls were a huge trend of the decade among hip hop singers. Female rappers were known to represent sex appeal through the clothes they wore, and they did so by wearing highly comfortable garments.
While there were many brands that made-up hip-hop fashion during the 90s. Some of the most iconic were British hat company Kangol and Timberland lace up boots.
Designers like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren Polo were made very popular and worked with the concept of logomania.
FUBU, meaning 'For Us, By Us' was an American clothing company that was founded by young African American Daymond John and a group of friends. The concept of the brand was to represent hip hop culture by the people who participate directly within the culture itself.
Nike was an iconic brand of the 90s, with the drop of the Air Jordan's, perhaps the greatest and sought-after shoes in contemporary fashion.
Read: 17 Definitive Brands of the 90s We Still Want to Wear
Within the hip-hop subculture, there are several variations to hip hop as a fashion style.
Part of the attraction towards hip hop were the variations.
Styles include:
The preppy hip hop fashion style first emerged during the 80s, during the initial stages of the subculture. Preppy attire included the use of button up collared shirts, capri cut pants, and alluded towards an American socialite attitude.
All tops, even button up polos, could be cropped. Lauryn Hill was known for combining elements of classic hip hop style with Americana style elements of the preppy style.
Her style was described as both classy and hip hop-esque.
During the 90s, the most influential people in fashion were musicians and singers. Female rap singers became icons of style.
They were the ones setting trends. They were also the ones working closely with designers on new collections, and the biggest promoters of many brands. The elite hip hop style was heavily influenced by the party scene of celebrities, away from public eye.
Throughout this time, many gathered wearing the latest designs by the most famous brands. This style of dressing was the most eccentric, with no limits in terms of creativity. The elite hip hop style was also seen consistently at red carpet events.
Lil' Kim is the female rapper with the biggest reputation when it comes to creative fashion choices. Vintage photos by paparazzi always entail her unique fashion style.
The urban wear hip hop style of the 90s was characterized by combining sporty elements with the hip-hop aesthetic. Famous brands who worked with this concept included Reebok, Nike, Adidas, and many others.
These brands focused solely on the hip-hop market segment, and targeted a specific audience who loved the combination of streetwear with hip hop. The result was a style titled urban hip hop style; still very famous today. It is praised for being comfortable without compromising style.
Read: Reebok vs Nike: Battle of the Footwear Brands
The best hip hop trends of the 90s included sleeves skin tight camisoles, acid wash dungarees, close up multicolor prints, bucket hats, matching tracksuits, military print, puffer jackets, old school varsity jackets, among multiple others. They are easy to find and shop for today, as many elements are still considered trendy.
How to Wear a Bucket Hat with Most Outfits
90s Puffer Jacket Styles and Trends
How to Style Overalls: 17 Ways to Look Effortlessly Wonderful
Summer hip hop outfits are centered around the idea of showing off skin. A pair of low-rise baggy jeans a form fitting tube top or crop top, and a funky pair of plastic framed sunglasses would be the ideal summer hip hop outfit. The look could be finished off with a pair of Nike Jordan's for a vintage 90s touch.
Amazon: NYX Lip Cream | boohoo: Mom Jeans | Amazon: Nike Jordan's | Amazon: Sunglasses
Spring is a bit fresher than summer, and a classic pair of dungaree style overalls are the ideal garment to bring back the 90s. Paired with a camisole beneath, a colorful bucket hat, and a pair of Timberland waterproof 90s style boots. This is the ideal nostalgic spring hip hop outfit.
Amazon: Timberland | Amazon: Denim Overall | Amazon: Mascara
The weather gets significantly colder during the fall, meaning more fall appropriate garments are necessary. The ideal fall hip hop outfit would include a plain black tee, baggy oversized joggers, black boots with undone laces, and a sweatshirt on top. A heavy silver chain necklace would be the perfect way to accessorize this otherwise simple look.
boohoo: Joggers | Amazon: Sliver Chain | Amazon: NYX Butter Gloss
Hip hop winter outfits are very characteristic, and they can be easily replicated. Lil' Kim was the icon of winter hip hop fashion, and her looks managed to truly represent the meaning behind the concept of the style.
While many thought her style was costume-esque, it was her own personal interpretation of what hip hop meant. Black shorts or an above the knee black skirt, thigh high boots, and fur coat are the ideal garments to create a winter hip hop outfit that will impress, and take you straight back to the 90s.
boohoo: Black Skirt : Amazon: Red Faux Fur Coat
Hip hop accessories were centered around 'bling'—informally considered iconic hip hop gear. While gold jewelry has always been the most timeless choice, silver became the most popular way to accessorize outfits. The more bling, the better. Accessories were often exaggerated, oversized, heavy chains embedded with diamonds.
Diamond earrings were highly common among high class women. During the 90s, hip hop was a style defined by extravagance. The idea of 'from rags to riches' fueled the concept of bling within the female hip hop community.
While African American women ruled the hip-hop scene during the 90s, many opted for changing their hair by straightening it with a flat iron.
During the 90s compared to the 80s, you can see that flat, smooth, and shiny hair was all the rave.
It was the most popular style worn by artists of hip-hop culture. Cuts were made to be around shoulder length. A popular hair accessory became bandanas, which would be tied around the head. They featured the classic bandana styles Western print.
Amazon: Bandanas 100% Cotton
Makeup trends from the 90s hip hop scene can be described as subtle. A typical routine included the application of a matte base, finishing powder and bronzer for contouring.
It also included thin eyeliner worn with a round edge rather than a cat eye, and nude color lipsticks with wine colored lip liners. Many artists and musicians amped up makeup tutorials by applying matte, unicolor eyeshadows that matched their outfits.
Amazon: NYX Contour Palette | Amazon: NYX Liquid Eyeliner | Amazon: Matte Lipstick
For the women of hip hop, the theme has become a way of promoting sex through apparel. The majority of backlash and criticism that the hip-hop scene receives is its objectification of women through song lyrics.
However, the leading figures of female hip hop during the 90s were considered empowering, feminists, and women who were not afraid to display their rough side to the world. That is what the hip-hop attitude is about. A lifestyle that seeks to empower.
Who are your favourite artists and styles of 90s hip hop? Let us know in the comments below!
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Ever since her childhood Ana Luisa has been passionate about fashion. Ana currently studies Business of Fashion at Polimoda in Florence, Italy and is always amazed at how fashion brings people together and creates a sense of belonging for people who may feel like outcasts. Ana loves seeing reflections and evolutions of 90s trends as modern comebacks in the fashion industry today. Ana is also a fan of 90s supermodels and would wishes she could live a day in 90s Manhattan.
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This weekend marked the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, the failed insurgency which left the Dublin City Centre in ruins, nearly five hundred dead, and over two and a half thousand wounded.
The Rising has been touted by politicians as something heroic. Something glorious. But let's be completely clear. It was a blood sacrifice. That was its purpose. To subject the Irish people to such degrees of bloodshed and violent reprisal that public opinion would sway towards the goal of Irish independence.
And it worked, in the end.
Is it something to be proud of? More than half of those killed were civilians. Innocent people who were shot in crossfires, mistaken for rebels, or caught in explosions from artillery.
But that was the plan. A romantic notion of glorious defeat. Of course, no-one told the young men and women putting their lives on the line. No-one told the thousands of civilians who would be injured and killed.
I look at were we are today; a nation whose non-existent government is utterly out of touch with the needs of the people, and lacking in common humanity. Politicians who make and break promises, who dither along while their inaction leaves people to die, who bend to prejudice and bigotry in the name of "fairness." People who have the luxury of regarding every social issue in purely academic terms. Who tell us that we'll all pull through if we live a little leaner, and all pitch in to do our part.
A romantic notion.
Makes me wonder what their plan is. The one they're not telling us about.
Just some thoughts on the 100th anniversary of a blood sacrifice.


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Chapter 38: Allergic Disorders
Ronina A. Covar; David M. Fleischer; Christine Cho; Mark Boguniewicz
Covar RA, Fleischer DM, Cho C, Boguniewicz M. Covar R.A., & Fleischer D.M., & Cho C, & Boguniewicz M Covar, Ronina A., et al.Allergic Disorders. In: Bunik M, Hay WW, Levin MJ, Abzug MJ. Bunik M, & Hay W.W., & Levin M.J., & Abzug M.J.(Eds.),Eds. Maya Bunik, et al.eds. Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Pediatrics, 26e. McGraw Hill; 2022. Accessed January 28, 2023. https://accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=3163&sectionid=266226511
Covar RA, Fleischer DM, Cho C, Boguniewicz M. Covar R.A., & Fleischer D.M., & Cho C, & Boguniewicz M Covar, Ronina A., et al. (2022). Allergic disorders. Bunik M, Hay WW, Levin MJ, Abzug MJ. Bunik M, & Hay W.W., & Levin M.J., & Abzug M.J.(Eds.),Eds. Maya Bunik, et al. Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Pediatrics, 26e. McGraw Hill. https://accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=3163&sectionid=266226511
Covar RA, Fleischer DM, Cho C, Boguniewicz M. Covar R.A., & Fleischer D.M., & Cho C, & Boguniewicz M Covar, Ronina A., et al. "Allergic Disorders." Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Pediatrics, 26e Bunik M, Hay WW, Levin MJ, Abzug MJ. Bunik M, & Hay W.W., & Levin M.J., & Abzug M.J.(Eds.),Eds. Maya Bunik, et al. McGraw Hill, 2022, https://accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=3163&sectionid=266226511.
Conditions That May Increase Asthma Severity
ALLERGIC RHINOCONJUNCTIVITIS
URTICARIA & ANGIOEDEMA
Special Considerations: Infant Anaphylaxis
ADVERSE REACTIONS TO DRUGS & BIOLOGICALS
1. Antibiotics
2. Latex Allergy
3. Vaccines
4. Antiepileptic Drugs
5. Radiocontrast Media
6. Insulin
7. Local Anesthetics
8. Aspirin & Other Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
9. Biological Agents
10. Hypersensitivity to Retroviral Agents
11. Adverse Reactions to Chemotherapeutic Agents
INSECT ALLERGY
Allergic disorders are among the most common problems seen by pediatricians and primary care physicians, affecting over 25% of the population in developed countries. In the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 54% of the population had positive test responses to one or more allergens. According to a recent National Center for Health Statistics survey, the prevalence of food and skin allergies has increased over the past decade; with prevalence in 2015 of 5.7% and 12%, respectively. While the prevalence of respiratory allergies has been stable, it is still the highest among children (10.1%). In children, asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis have been accompanied by significant morbidity and school absenteeism, with adverse consequences for school performance and quality of life, as well as economic burden measured in billions of dollars. In this chapter, atopy refers to a genetically determined predisposition to develop IgE antibodies found in patients with asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis.
ESSENTIALS OF DIAGNOSIS & TYPICAL FEATURES
The diagnosis of asthma is based on recurrent episodes of cough, wheezing, dyspnea, or chest tightness, with various triggers, most commonly respiratory infections, exercise, aeroallergens, cold air, and irritants. At least 80% of children with asthma have an allergic predisposition.
Chronic airway inflammation, variable expiratory airflow limitation, and bronchial reactivity characterize the disease, but presentation is heterogeneous, and course over time, especially in children, is variable as well. The clinical course can be subtle for some children, but the risk of a severe, even life-threatening, asthma-related event is present.
Assessment of severity can be challenging particularly if comorbidities and adverse effects of chronic disease and medications are present. Hence assessment of control is helpful when treatment changes are being made.
The mainstay of asthma management involves targeting the inflammatory response and bronchoconstriction, avoidance of known triggers, identification of early warning signs, and creating an appropriate action plan. Regular assessment of response and control is necessary to prevent consequences of either poor disease control or medication side effects.
Recent strategies using intermittent ICS with SABA at the onset of a respiratory illness or intermittent ICS-formoterol for rescue are now recommended.
Biologic therapy modulating T2 immune responses can be helpful in reducing morbidity in a subgroup of children with asthma.
The Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention (www.ginasthma.org) report gives a definition of asthma as "a heterogeneous disease, usually characterized by chronic airway inflammation. It is defined by the history of respiratory symptoms such as wheeze, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and cough that vary over time and in intensity, together with variable expiratory limitation."
Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting 6.2 million children in the United States. While current prevalence rates for asthma had increased in the past decade, there has been an indication of a decrease in prevalence since 2011 (most recent estimate in children < ...


A popular place for healthcare providers to begin developing business intelligence applications is with service line analysis. After all, most of the organization is already organized into service lines. Doctors and most other clinicians are hired into and practice in specialties. Facilities, equipment, supplies and medications are lined up this way as well. Insurance coverage is provided for specific types of services, and claims are generated, adjudicated and paid for these specific services. Most people inside as well as outside the organization understand service lines.
Despite this strong alignment along service lines, many provider organizations such as hospitals, physician practices and others struggle to get a clear, comprehensive picture of the performance of their service line portfolio. There are a number of obstacles to getting this picture. These obstacles can be political, procedural and technical in nature. Without such a picture, though, a provider organization can experience significant slippages in its day-to-day financial, clinical and operational performance. In addition, strategic investment decisions are likely to be severely hampered without a view into the trends and emerging patterns – both within as well as across service lines.
Business intelligence can help. First of all, business intelligence and analytics can help to get a comprehensive picture of the standard financial and clinical performance measures. But, perhaps more importantly, business intelligence can help the organization to build on these standard measures to find trends and patterns within each service line, across service lines and even across dimensions other than service lines.
Every business has "lines" of some sort. Manufacturers have product lines. Retailers have departmental groupings called "softlines" and "hardlines." Insurers have lines of business. Accountants, attorneys, doctors and consultants organize themselves into practices, which are essentially service lines. Even governmental institutions have "lines of business," but these are known as bureaus, departments and divisions.
Healthcare providers, being service businesses, have service lines as well. Different types of providers have different types of service lines. For instance, hospitals tend to have surgical lines of business such as cardiac surgery, orthopedic surgery, colon and rectal surgery. Other service lines in hospitals include emergency medicine, intensive care and birthing centers. Physician practices have different types of service lines, usually focused on the type of anatomical specialty being practiced (e.g., cardiology, endocrinology or hematology) or the group being served (e.g., family practice, geriatrics, gynecology or pediatrics). Still other service lines focus on the patient's activities (e.g., aviation medicine, military medicine or sports medicine).
These are the traditional service lines. There are also some emerging service lines such as retail clinic services, medical tourism services and integrative medicine services.
Each of these types of service lines has a standard set of measures of success including financial success, return on investment, service level success, marketing and branding success, and clinical quality success.
Service line performance analysis is a highly complex and ongoing process, which makes it a particularly ripe area for the application of business intelligence. Leaders such as service line directors, financial managers, practice administrators and chief operating officers, as well as strategy and marketing managers need a variety of information from a number of sources in order to plan, develop and grow the organization's service lines.
Choosing service lines to invest in. Demographic trends help you to choose service lines that are right for your hospital or practice. For instance, if your patient population is getting younger, then you may want to add (or increase) investment in pediatrics.
Determining the level of investment. Market information is needed to conduct feasibility studies, prepare financial and market projections, and measure projected direct and indirect return on investment.
Setting goals for your lines. Financial information helps you gauge the direct and indirect impact of each new or existing service line on your bottom line. Marketing, sales and service information helps you identify direct and indirect market share and growth benefits of the service line.
Allocate resources more effectively. Staffing, equipping and supplying your service lines can be done more effectively with information about the performance of the line and through the ability to drill into the details of that performance.
Maintaining profitability. Performance trends help you on both ends of the profitability spectrum. On the revenue side, they help you position and market yourself to your "feeders," (i.e., referring organizations). Also on the revenue side, analytics help you understand changes in payment and reimbursement patterns so you can adjust your operations to improve them. On the cost control side, this type of information helps you negotiate better contracts with vendors of equipment, supplies, labor and services.
Changing direction for your lines. Information about the competition and patient demographics helps you understand if you are delivering your services through the right channels (e.g., campus-based delivery vs. retail clinic-based delivery).
Retiring a service line. Trend data helps you decide whether or not to get out of a service line. You may find that your market is shrinking or your services are not meeting goals. Conversely, your service line may be growing, which makes it a potentially salable asset.
Profit & Loss (P&L) Measures. Outpatient revenues, inpatient revenues, reimbursement rates, adjustments, write-offs, costs of labor, materials, overhead, direct contribution margins, (i.e., within the service line) and indirect contribution margins (i.e., benefiting another complementary service line).
Investment Measures. Facilities purchases, equipment purchases and cost of various forms of capital.
Operational Statistics and Ratios. Cases, clinic visits, discharges, patient days, average length of stay (ALOS), case mix index (CMI), emergency room (ER) visits, admissions and productivity measures.
Clinical Quality Measures. JCAHO and HEDIS scores.
Slicing and dicing the data this way leads to the ability to find opportunities and uncover problems along the entire life cycle of the service line.
Regardless of where your organization is in terms of development of its service lines and in the development of its business intelligence and performance management capabilities, it just plain makes sense to exploit your data to the fullest to make both more successful. Your organization as a whole and your service lines in particular will be more profitable, more marketable and more exciting as a result.
Scott is the Healthcare Analytics Director for Cipe Consulting Group. He has more than 30 years of experience in business intelligence strategic planning, analytics application development and business analysis across numerous industries including hospitals, physician groups, healthcare payers, laboratory research, insurance, lending, manufacturing, retail and state government. Scott can be reached at scott.wanless@cipeconsulting.com.
Editor's note: More healthcare articles, resources, news and events are available in the BeyeNETWORK's Healthcare Channel featuring Scott Wanless and Laura Madsen.


Abstract: In the following article we present the Internet based system for TeleCAD course preparation anddelivery. The system was developed to meet the Distance Education Centre at Technical University(DECTUG) needs. The Centre delivers Internet based courses, and is involved in course productionat local and international level. Example instructions (documents) concerning the pilot course willbe presented.
Keywords: Distance Education (DE), Internet, Web Based Training (WBT), AutoCAD, teleworking.


What marketers have come to know as "content marketing" has gone through several iterations, including the strategy of creating large quantities of articles of very marginal quality for use in posting on artificially created blogs that nobody reads for the purpose of gaming the search algorithm. That strategy continues today, and is the main cause of the frustratingly low quality of what's on the Web. Results are always poor, but it's a cheap strategy, and providers continue to offer it.
The idea of content marketing is not a new one. Before there was such a thing as content marketing, public relations agencies became skilled at creating thought leadership articles with original, fresh content, written to journalistic standards, and submitting them to industry publications relevant to their clients' value.
There is considerable overlap and much confusion as to how we define content marketing, thought leadership marketing, brand journalism, SEO, influencer marketing, and traditional public relations. Depending on which descriptor the provider attaches to their website, they may insist that there is a difference and that theirs is the best solution. In fact, the definition of content marketing has changed rapidly, and today it incorporates elements of each of those sub-fields. Content marketing has become something quite transformational, if the right tactics are applied.
Abdullahi Muhammed, entrepreneur and CEO of content marketing company Oxygenmat, addressed some of the modern misconceptions of what content marketing is – or should be – about. "A lot of marketers have come to expect immediacy and a quick ROI," said Muhammed. "And the proliferation of SEO scammers who offer low quality content have created an illusion of speed which doesn't really exist in this market." While there are some disreputable content marketing practitioners who promise dozens of backlinks in a week's time and who sell them on a commodity basis like so many buckets of paint, more realistic and more effective providers recommend a six- to nine-month campaign to see meaningful, long-lasting results that have a real impact on brand visibility and sales.
Older content marketing tactics, such as cheap bulk content generation, submission to private blog networks and directories, and keyword-stuffing have long since proven to be ineffective and even harmful, and the Google algorithm has advanced to the point where these black-hat and grey-hat tactics are easily detected – and those marketers who use them are quickly punished with either a lower rank, or even worse, de-indexing. Muhammed shares with us four new rules for content marketing which have transformed this strategy into a more professional, and highly effective, segment of any marketing campaign.
Content marketing is not all about the numbers. "There are times when metrics get in the way of good results," said Muhammed. "Too much of a focus on numbers of backlinks, domain authority, and dofollow/nofollow ratios can get in the way of the quality objective." It is possible – and happens often – that a marketer achieves goals in terms of pure metrics, but still delivers very little in terms of actual growth.
Introduce brand journalism. Larger brands like Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Krogers are all creating sections on their websites, or completely separate domains, which offer entertaining and informational content and present it in the form of a journalistic endeavor. Those sites usually do not directly promote the brand, but rather, offer insights and news related to the interests of their customers. The purpose of those sites goes beyond simply trying to sell a product or establish backlinks, their primary purpose is to build a loyal audience by providing them with relevant content.
Marketers are only just beginning to change how they think about content marketing. Approaching it with a defined strategy and set of goals that go beyond simple backlink metrics will yield far better returns in the long run.
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text:
Q: Median of medians algorithm: why divide the array into blocks of size 5 In median-of-medians algorithm, we need to divide the array into chunks of size 5. I am wondering how did the inventors of the algorithms came up with the magic number '5' and not, may be, 7, or 9 or something else?

A: The number has to be larger than 3 (and an odd number, obviously) for the algorithm. 5 is the smallest odd number larger than 3. So 5 was chosen.

A: I think that if you'll check "Proof of O(n) running time" section of wiki page for medians-of-medians algorithm:

The median-calculating recursive call does not exceed worst-case linear behavior because the list of medians is 20% of the size of the list, while the other recursive call recurses on at most 70% of the list, making the running time

The O(n) term c n is for the partitioning work (we visited each element a constant number of times, in order to form them into n/5 groups and take each median in O(1) time).
  From this, using induction, one can easily show that

That should help you to understand, why.

A: You can also use blocks of size 3 or 4, as shown in the paper Select with groups of 3 or 4 by K. Chen and A. Dumitrescu (2015). The idea is to use the "median of medians" algorithm twice and partition only after that. This lowers the quality of the pivot but is faster.
So instead of:
T(n) <= T(n/3) + T(2n/3) + O(n)
T(n) = O(nlogn)

one gets:
T(n) <= T(n/9) + T(7n/9) + O(n)
T(n) = Theta(n)

A: See this explanation on Brilliant.org. Basically, five is the smallest possible array we can use to maintain linear time. It is also easy to implement a linear sort with an n=5 sized array. Apologies for the laTex:

Why 5?
The median-of-medians divides a list into sublists of length five to
get an optimal running time. Remember, finding the median of small
lists by brute force (sorting) takes a small amount of time, so the
length of the sublists must be fairly small. However, adjusting the
sublist size to three, for example, does change the running time for
the worse.
If the algorithm divided the list into sublists of length three, pp
would be greater than approximately \frac{n}{3}   3 n       elements and
it would be smaller than approximately \frac{n}{3}  3 n     elements.
This would cause a worst case \frac{2n}{3}  3 2n        recursions,
yielding the recurrence T(n) = T\big( \frac{n}{3}\big) +
T\big(\frac{2n}{3}\big) + O(n),T(n)=T(  3 n    )+T(  3 2n     )+O(n),
which by the master theorem is O(n \log n),O(nlogn), which is slower
than linear time.
In fact, for any recurrence of the form T(n) \leq T(an) + T(bn) +
cnT(n)≤T(an)+T(bn)+cn, if a + b < 1a+b<1, the recurrence will solve to
O(n)O(n), and if a+b > 1a+b>1, the recurrence is usually equal to
\Omega(n \log n)Ω(nlogn). [3]
The median-of-medians algorithm could use a sublist size greater than
5—for example, 7—and maintain a linear running time. However, we need
to keep the sublist size as small as we can so that sorting the
sublists can be done in what is effectively constant time.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Artistic portrayals of the Holocaust
31.10.2011 03.Cheschwan. 5772 Ta'anit BH"B
Painful shouting about the Holocaust has reverberated in books, exhibitions, films and on the stage ever since the war; as early as 1946, actors portrayed Holocaust victims on the stages of Broadway.
"To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric," said the social critic Theodor Adorno in 1949. Some 17 years later, he corrected himself: "Perennial suffering has as much right to expression as a tortured man has to scream."
Painful shouting about the Holocaust has reverberated in books, exhibitions, films and on the stage ever since the war. As early as 1946, actors portrayed Holocaust victims on the stages of Broadway, as in the play "A Flag is Born" by Ben Hecht. In it, Marlon Brando played the role of David, an angry young man who survived a concentration camp. Despite the fact that it had all the elements of a Broadway production and was well received by the critics, "A Flag is Born" was not exactly a play and, according to its promotional materials, it had no intention of entertaining people, but rather wanted "to make money to provide ships to get Hebrews to Palestine."…
← IDF aircraft strike rocket launching cell in Gaza Students choosing to study business, not math →


text:
Features Hot topics Research
By Laura King
In September, we asked you to help us help the fire service make its case for more funding for training, apparatus, personal protective equipment and public education.
We based our country-wide survey of fire departments on what we thought we knew – that equipment is out of date, that volunteer recruitment and retention is a challenge, that training in volunteer departments is an overwhelming task that sometimes doesn't get done properly, and that public education gets short shrift in the budget.
We were right.
Now, it's time for next steps.
The story below summarizes the survey results, the reactions of fire officials from coast to coast and their suggestions for action to correct budget inequities and other challenges. For another take on the survey, turn to Peter Sells' Flashpoint column on page 46. To see the survey results, go to ww.firefightingincanada.com. And for a list of the winners of our survey contest, see page 4 or go to www.firefightingincanada.com.
Lastly, we'd like your input on the survey results and your thoughts on proposed solutions to the challenges of training, funding, aging equipment and volunteer recruitment and retention. E-mail us at lking@annexweb.com. We'll post your thoughts on our website and in our May issue.
FFIC's national survey of fire departments found that large percentages of fire service equipment – bunker gear, SCBA and apparatus – are older than recommended by the NFPA; in some departments, all bunker gear is more than 10 years old.
Are Canada's fire services in a state of emergency? If you're a glass-half-full person you might interpret our survey results this way: two-thirds of departments have high-tech thermal imaging cameras; most firefighters at a scene carry a radio to communicate with each other; and all departments have working apparatus suitable for their municipalities. Sounds good, right?
But if you're a glass-half-empty thinker you'd see the data like this: apparatus, bunker suits and SCBA are getting old and unsafe; the average budget for public education is less than the cost of a week's worth of fire-hall groceries; one-third of departments don't have TICs; and training volunteer firefighters to appropriate standards is like trying to convince the Ontario government of the need for mandatory residential sprinklers – darned near impossible.
State of emergency? Most of the fire officials with whom we shared our data in February agreed that Canadian fire services are underfunded, undertrained undervalued and accustomed to making do with aging equipment and strained resources rather than operating at optimum levels of safety and performance. Somebody call 911.
Survey stats
A four-page survey was designed jointly by Fire Fighting in Canada and Readex Research. The survey was bound into 5,300 copies of the September 2008 issue of Fire Fighting in Canada.
Data was collected via mail, fax and electronic survey from Sept. 19 to Dec. 10. The survey was closed for tabulation with 490 usable responses, a nine per cent response rate.
The margin of error for percentages is ±4.2 per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level. That is, 95 per cent of the time we can be confident that percentages in the actual population would not vary by more than this in either direction.
■ The big picture
Clearly, from the 490 responses to our survey (most of which were from volunteer departments) many volunteer departments operate on shoe-string budgets with aging equipment and apparatus, no time and little money to train and less funding for public education than Stephen Harper spends on a suit.
Not only that, the survey results show that although more than half (53.3 per cent) of firefighters are under 40 years old, the other half (46.3 per cent) – you guessed it – are over 40. Once again, it depends how you look at it but there's no question that Baby Boomers are retiring and many departments are having trouble with recruitment and retention.
"If you take these numbers and factor in the number of departments that are not full time (in other words, rural), you might see that there is a crisis brewing in recruiting firefighters in smaller rural departments," says Randy Vilneff, training officer at the 27-member Marmora and Lake Fire Department in Ontario, about half way between Ottawa and Toronto.
Bernie Turpin, a district chief with Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service and president of the Maritime Association of Fire Chiefs agrees: "The large number of Baby Boomers retiring from the career departments has made openings for new blood in the career departments, thus lowering these averages. [But] in small rural departments, like my old one in Blandford, the average age is over 50 years."
■ Aging apparatus
As expected, the survey results show that more than one in three fire trucks in use today was built more than 15 years ago. That's before 1994 – before free trade, before the Lillehammer Olympics. Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it?
base: 490 respondents (multiple answers)
*"other" includes mutual aid partners, other fire departments, dispatch, public works, each other/base, DNR, and any other mention
"This not only creates problems in servicing the trucks," Vilneff says, "but also in them being up to standard with regards to safety features, lighting (strobes, flashers and scene) and pump capacity."
According to the data, 20 per cent of volunteer departments said all their pumpers are more than 15 years old, 22 per cent said all their tankers are more than 15 years old and four per cent said all their aerials are more than 15 years old.
By contrast, no full-time departments have pumpers over 15 years old; all pumpers and tankers at three per cent of full time departments are more than 15 years old.
Bruce Whitehouse, president of WHITING Canada in Burlington, Ont., parent of roll-up door maker Amdor Inc., looks at the results from a manufacturing point of view, noting that if aging apparatus are not replaced now, in five years almost 40 per cent of equipment will be more than 20 years old and replacement costs will be even higher.
"The process to spec and build apparatus can take many months – for some larger and more complex pieces it can take well over a year. We can't just decide to take action today and take delivery tomorrow. It is time to fix the fleet issues before they become a problem that is too big to deal with."
According to the survey, more than 80 per cent of departments have between one and four pumpers; 72 per cent have between one and four tankers and 27 per cent have between one and four aerials. This appears to be an accurate reflection of the fact that rural departments don't need aerials and urban departments don't need tankers.
■ PPE
On average, according to the survey, 32 per cent of bunker suits and 35 per cent of SCBA are more than 10 years old. What's more, 12 per cent of departments indicated that all of their SCBA are older than 10 years.
According to the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, there have been on average 28,569 fires a year in the province over the seven years between 2001 and 2008, resulting in 101 deaths, 862 injuries and almost $414.3 million in property damage.
In its February 2008 submission to the Ontario Liberal government, the OAFC said these numbers show that fire is deadlier than all natural disasters combined, yet funding for the increased demands on fire department has not kept pace.
The OAFC's own 2008 survey indicated that 42 per cent of all fire vehicles in Ontario are over 15 years old, 17 per cent of all firefighter bunker suits are over 10 years old, 22 per cent of all self-contained breathing apparatus units are over 10 years old and only 12 per cent of departments have radios that are capable of communicating with police and ambulance during emergencies.
"This aging equipment does not meet industry standards, and the insurance industry would find equipment of this age suspect," OAFC president Richard Boyes said. "We're worried that the equipment may fail when it is needed most.
Vilneff, whose department is volunteer / paid on-call, is a glass half-full kind of guy: "Reverse the stated age percentages [in the FFIC survey] and you discover that two-thirds of all gear and SCBA are under 10 years old," he says. "This is probably the best statistic in the report. Perhaps it shows a serious commitment to personal protection."
Halifax's Bernie Turpin, whose sprawling, regional department comprises volunteer and career operations, sees it differently: "The age of PPE and SCBA is also alarming. One-third of the PPE and SCBA is more than two NFPA standards revision cycles old and the technology is out of date; the gear is likely well worn."
Tom DeSorcy, the chief in tiny Hope, B.C. (population 8,000) is pragmatic. "I think this stat won't help a department with a low call volume as it's very hard to justify replacing old equipment that doesn't appear to get used, at least in the eyes of the ratepayers."
And Whitehouse, a manufacturer and member of a joint manufacturers-association governmental committee pushing for federal funding for fire equipment, takes a big-picture approach.
"If a safety inspector enters into an industrial establishment and finds someone operating with out-of-date safety equipment there are serious consequences. Why should the same governments that enforce the safety standards for industry be allowed to turn a blind eye when 35 per cent of SCBAs and almost one-third of bunker gear are beyond the age that is generally considered safe for use?"
Len Garis, the chief in Surrey, B.C., worries 10-year-old bunker gear and SCBA do not provide the best personal protection, regardless of the amount of use, given the technological advancements in the last decade.
■ Other equipment
Almost two-thirds of respondents said their fire department has one or more thermal imaging camera; one-third of departments surveyed have no TICs.
"With the price of technology today, it is almost a crime that we can't equip every truck with this tool that can be so effective at saving the lives of the public and fire service personnel," says Whitehouse.
Others, like Garis, aren't so keen on thermal imaging technology.
"I am not personally sold on this equipment," he Garis. "It invites firefighters into areas that may not be suitable."
■ Public education / fire prevention
Smoke alarms. Carbon monoxide detectors. Escape plans. We know public education works. But the next step – educating builders and governments about the benefits of residential sprinklers – is a big one. Although 58 per cent of respondents indicated their fire departments have a fire prevention / public education officer, typical respondents indicated their 2008 public education/fire prevention budget was just under $2,000; 30 per cent reported budgets of less than $1,000. Certainly, those numbers apply to volunteer departments and not large, urban centres with full-time public education officers and the budgets to match.
"These numbers are appalling," Vilneff says. "Fifty per cent of departments have a PE/FP budget of under $2,000! This is, in my humble opinion, definitely the worst statistic in the report."
■ Training
Respondents were asked about their biggest training challenge. A full list of responses is on our website at www.firefightingincanada.com but here's a sampling:
Access to proper training facilities and materials;
Cost of training courses and cost to travel to courses/facilities;
Attendance at training sessions;
Funding;
No training officer;
No live fire training facilities;
Keeping trained volunteers.
Hope, B.C.'s Tom DeSorcy sums it up: "On the subject of training, I can't help but stress the difficulty in training firefighters to a career standard on a volunteer schedule. It's next to impossible. Yes, training dollars are important but you can't buy time."
Garis offers some solutions.
"We hear this loud and clear in B.C. from both career and volunteer. I think this is mostly driven by standards that make it harder to meet, especially by volunteers and probably the circular nature of volunteer turnover. Most [volunteers] do not get the experience by the sheer lack of calls. I call this the cycle of concern. It is endless and will get worse as standards drive us even further into professional qualifications.
"Clearly, as the fire service is largely volunteer the cycle of concern needs careful examination; perhaps there needs to be a distinction around qualifications matched with size of service, call experience, risk in the community served to grade of service provided. Oh, and, of course, liability is a strong driver; perhaps an exemption might relieve some of this pressure."
Vilneff says the short-term fix is to pump more money into fire departments as was done several years ago in Ontario through government grants. Long term, Vilneff says, municipalities and the public have to think differently about their fire departments.
"Instead of calling our fire departments and firefighters volunteers, let's call them by their correct name. It is a municipal fire department and the firefighters are paid on-call firefighters. Unless they are true volunteers, then the name should be ditched.
"As long as we continue to refer to ourselves as volunteer, there will not be the profile (and respect and budget) given to the departments by politicians and the public. I don't think that we can depend on the departments to initiate this change; it should come from the fire marshal's office in each province as an initiative or directive."
Volunteer Vision: Getting our training priorities straight
Back to Basics: Re-introducing the 2.5-inch hose


The main feature of all civil litigation is that there is a dispute between individuals, partnerships or companies and if an amicable agreement cannot be reached between the parties, by way of negotiation and settlement, then the dispute will proceed on a litigious basis through the civil courts.
Instructing a Civil Litigation Solicitor from an early stage is advantageous to ensure that civil protocols and procedures are adhered to and also to try to reach an early settlement without the need of the courts.
We represent a range of different clients from individuals, sole traders, partnerships and companies in respect of both bringing claims and defending claims.
We have a national client base but predominantly cover the North West and South East of England. Please see our locations pages for more details.
If you would like to discuss your civil litigation case then we offer an initial free telephone appointment so please don't hesitate to contact us.


The two shapes are congruent isosceles right triangles since all three pairs of corresponding sides are congruent, and two of the square's right angles are preserved, one in each triangle.
Again, we get two congruent isosceles right triangles since the two legs of each are half the length of the original diagonal of the square, and since the angle between the two legs is the right angle (SAS congruence).
We get an isosceles right triangle and a trapezoid. The base of the triangle is half the length of the longer base of the trapezoid (midline theorem), and is of same length as the shorter base of the trapezoid.
The two shapes are congruent right trapezoids, each one of which has two right angles, one angle of 45° and one of 135°.
We get a square and an isosceles right triangle. These shapes are similar to those encountered in previous steps; i.e., their corresponding sides are proportional.
The final two shapes are a parallelogram and an isosceles right triangle. The triangle is congruent to the one created in Step 5. The parallelogram has one pair of sides congruent to the leg of the triangle created, and one pair of sides congruent to the hypotenuse of the triangle just created.
The construction does not work in general. To see this, consider triangle number 4: In the final arrangement, one of its angles is also an angle of the final shape, which is supposed to be a rectangle. The angle in question is formed by the intersecting diagonals, so the construction only works if the diagonals of the original parallelogram intersect at an angle of 90°. This happens when the original parallelogram is a rhombus.
Start with a scalene triangle ABC. Find the midpoint D of the side opposite the smallest angle.
Cut along the segment DB, then rotate the triangle DCB about the vertex D by 180° (see picture). The final figure has three sides. Sides AD and DC match since they are of equal length, and points B, D, and B' are collinear since B'D is obtained by rotating DB by 180°. The angle at A is larger than any of the angles in the original triangle (since it is the sum of the two largest angles of the original triangle). The angles at B and B' are smaller than (hence different from) any of the angles in the original triangle since they are both smaller than the smallest angle in the original triangle. We only used one cut.
Let's say AB is the longest side of the original triangle.
Draw the altitude CD (from vertex C to the side AB). Notice that it is shorter than any of the three sides of the original triangle.
Make the triangle into a rectangle using one of the methods we found in the session. Use side AB for the base. The other side will have length 1/2 CD (half the altitude).
Now, cut along a diagonal of the rectangle. (Note that the diagonal is longer than side AB, and so it is longer than all three sides of the original triangle, since AB was longest.) This creates two small right triangles; call them FAB and BEF (they share two vertices; the right angles are at A and E).
Form an isosceles triangle by flipping and translating triangle BEF so that angles A and E (the right angles) are adjacent and sides FA and EB align, thus forming a new shortest side of the new triangle.
The shortest side of this triangle is twice the smaller side of our rectangle. That means it's the same as the altitude of the original triangle, and hence smaller than any of the original sides. The other two sides are the same, and since they are diagonals of the rectangle, they are longer than any of the original three sides.
Split the quadrilateral in half along an interior diagonal. You have two triangles that have a side in common. For each triangle, use the common side as the base, and turn it into a rectangle using your algorithm from Problem B4. Now stack the two rectangles on top of each other. They match up because they have a common base (the diagonal of the original quadrilateral).
Note that in quadrilateral 2, there is only one interior diagonal to choose from, while quadrilateral 1 has two interior diagonals.


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Time: Registration from 11 – 11:30, lunch and program from 11:30 – 1:00.
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If you are interested in sponsoring the NCDOT Mobi Awards, please fill out and submit a sponsorship form by February 28, 2019. Sponsorship is limited so confirm your spot today!


text:
Spencer M. Bondy
Peter D. Beltz
Record Expungement
Driver's License Appeals & Restoration
Michigan Driver's License Appeals & Restoration
The State of Michigan has some of the harshest driver's license laws in the entire country. Convictions for certain controlled substance offenses, misdemeanor traffic offenses, felonies involving the use of a motor vehicle, as well as misdemeanor and felony DUI/OWI offenses can subject you to license restrictions or even revocation. However, it is nearly impossible to get around the State of Michigan without a driver's license. Losing your license is not only upsetting, but it creates perpetual transportation issues and compounds other obligations in your life. It can also lead to you facing additional legal consequences that result in further expense and the potential loss of your freedom. Whether your license was revoked due to certain convictions, such as too many DUI/OWI convictions, or you have accumulated too many points, we can help.
The most common form of driver's license restoration occurs in the Michigan Secretary of State's Office of Hearings and Administrative Oversight (OHAO). An appeal to the OHAO is the exclusive way to restore driving privileges for those whose licenses have been revoked and denied as a result of multiple DUI/OWI offenses or other serious driving convictions. The requirements of an OHAO appeal are significant. At a minimum, an petitioner must be able to show at least 12-months of continued sobriety from alcohol and non-prescribed intoxicating substances. The petitioner must also establish by clear and convincing evidence the following four elements:
Their alcohol or substance abuse problems, if any, are under control and likely to remain under control;
The risk of repeating their past abusive behavior is low or minimal;
The risk of the petitioner committing another DUI/OWI is low or minimal; and,
They have the ability and motivation to drive safely within the law.
Proving these elements at a hearing or through a petition for administrative review requires commitment from the client as well as execution of an established and proven system of success by the lawyer. We help our clients through this process step by step, assisting in gathering the necessary information, organizing a substance use assessment, and preparing the client to testify at the hearing. Success is only achieved through diligent attention to detail, preparation, and execution.
We understand the OHAO system, the administrative rules, the law, and the appeal process. Winning takes more than just preparation and checking boxes. It requires a lawyer willing to dig into the details of your case and present the best possible argument to get you back on the road. Invest in your freedom and your future by contacting Spencer M. Bondy and his team.
When losing your driver's license is not an option, it is vital that you contact an experienced license attorney. Spencer M. Bondy and his team have extensive experience representing clients across the State of Michigan in the following driver's license appeal and restoration matters:
Habitual Offender Appeals (OHAO Secretary of State DLAD/DAAD Appeals)
Petitions for Restoration of Driver's License
Administrative Review Petitions for Restoration of Driver's License for former Michigan residents now living out-of-state
Restricted Driver's License Violations
Interlock Violations
Implied Consent Violation Appeals
Circuit Court Hardship License Petitions
In addition to OHAO appeals, Spencer M. Bondy and his team have helped numerous clients facing the loss of their driver's license for an implied consent violation. The State of Michigan, like many other states, has adopted an "implied consent law." Implied consent is a contract created between you and the State of Michigan when you apply for and accept a Michigan driver's license. Stated generally, this implied consent law requires that anyone who operates a motor vehicle on a highway open to the public is considered to have given their consent for a chemical test (blood, breath, or urine) to determine the amount of alcohol, controlled substance, or other intoxicating substance is in their system when an officer makes an arrest on suspicion of DUI/OWI or a traffic violation resulting in serious injury or death. A first offense refusal to take a chemical test following such an arrest results in a suspension of your driver's license for 1-year and the addition of 6-points to your license. An appeal contesting the circumstances of the alleged refusal must be filed with the OHAO no later than 14-days after the refusal. A hardship license appeal to the Circuit Court is also available if an implied consent appeal is not filed within the 14-day cut-off or if you are not successful at the implied consent hearing. Additional information on Michigan's implied consent laws can be found here.
Tell us about your Michigan driver's license issue and we will reach out to discuss how we can help you.
Thank you for submitting, Spencer M. Bondy will reach out shortly!
Call now for a free consultation on how Spencer can help you through your legal matter. Let's win together.


text:
LookInto > Santa Cruz, CAToggle
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Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
parks.ca.gov
Please Rate It!
101 North Big Trees Park Road, Felton, CA 95018
Established in 1954, Henry Cowell Redwood State Park is a old growth redwood forest and walking trail in Felton.
Tom Telfer's Take
The park has much to offer vacationing families or nature enthusiasts. Hiking, fishing (depending on season), seasonal camping (including RV), birdwatching, and a few horse dog-friendly and mountain biking trails, and shopping at the Mountain Parks Nature Store await visitors to this park. Next door to the main parking lot is the Roaring Camp Railroads.
There are over 15 miles of hiking trails, some of which lead to small, isolated sandy beaches on the San Lorenzo River, and others with overlook views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, with peeks at Monterey Bay.
The park has a more modern visitor center, which is open year-round to the public, and is staffed by California Parks employees and volunteer docents. Additionally, the Mountain Parks Nature Store is open during most park hours, and there is a direct entrance from the park's main parking lot to the grounds of Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad.
The main park covers approximately 1,750 acres and the separate Fall Creek unit contains an additional 2,390 acres. The park lies within the southern end of the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion. In the numerous stream canyons live large populations of coast redwood, coast Douglas fir, California bay laurel, tanbark oak, California hazelnut, bigleaf maple and many other native species.
Upslope from the redwood forest are found transitional tree species such as Pacific madrone, along with a stand of Ponderosa pine, rare at such a low elevation. Some of the highest and driest ridge slopes in the park support fairly unique chaparral communities known as "elfin forests" in addition to the rare and unique Santa Cruz Sandhills community.
The old-growth grove of coast redwood, approximately 40 acres in size, is located entirely in the original section of the park, surrounded by many species of fern and plentiful redwood sorrel. Surrounding areas, including the non-contiguous Fall Creek unit, were logged extensively in the mid-to-late 1800s for lumber and as fuel for the many lime kilns that used to operate in the area, such as the ones preserved at nearby Cowell Lime Works. Logging activities mostly ceased by the 1920s, and the second growth redwoods are now up to several feet in diameter.
The Redwood Grove comprises old-growth "virgin" redwoods, the oldest trees of which are approximately 1,400-1,800 years old and grow to approximately 300 feet (91 m) tall and over 16 feet in diameter. Referred to by locals as "the loop," the grove is primarily a self-guided walk—but on most summer weekends, and many other times year-round, free guided walks led by docents or park employees are available. Featured on the loop are unique old-growth redwoods, including one with albino growth lignotubers and the John C. Fremont tree (a tree hollowed out by fire that was once used as a resort honeymoon room).
Next to the park's entrance kiosk, all three known types of redwood trees, the Coast Redwood, the Giant Sequoia, and the Dawn Redwood (the latter two not native to the area) are planted together, providing a unique place to instantly compare and contrast the members of this family of trees.
This park provides a good environment for the study of different habitats. Habitats in this park, often changing back and forth within a few hundred feet of one another, include riparian, sandhill community, mixed evergreen, and redwood forests. Anglers fish for Steelhead and salmon during the winter. There is a picnic area overlooking the San Lorenzo River.
Besides roads, the park may also be reached by the Santa Cruz, Big Trees and Pacific Railway. Tent and RV camping with no hook ups are available several miles from the main entrance to the park.
The Fall Creek extension of the park contains over 20 miles (30 km) of hiking trails, mostly along the creeks that flow year-round and make beautiful mini waterfalls during the rainy season (November–March). There is also an 18-hole Disc Golf course run by a local school (Nature Academy). Along Fall Creek are the ruins of a 19th-century lime manufacturing operation, including a quarry and lime kilns built by I.X.L. Lime Company (established in 1874). The lime works were later acquired by industrialist Henry Cowell.
During the 1830s and 40s, when California was still part of Mexico, large land grants were created, called "ranchos". The lands now included in the State Park were once parts of three different ranchos. Rancho Cañada del Rincon en el Rio San Lorenzo, Rancho Zayante and Rancho Carbonera. By 1865, most of the former rancho lands had been subdivided. Industrialist Henry Cowell, purchased 6,500 acres (26 km2) of the former Rancho Cañada del Rincon en el Rio San Lorenzo, including 1,600 acres of forest, in 1865, adding to his quarrying and lime operations in the vicinity.
A significant number of buildings in San Francisco were built using the redwood and limestone products from this area. In the 1920s the owners of a large resort adjacent to Henry Cowell's holdings raised support for the County of Santa Cruz to buy and preserve their pristine redwood lands, an action finally approved of, in large part thanks to the work of California Lieutenant Governor, the Hon. William Jeter, in 1930.
Eventually philanthropist Samuel Cowell, aged 90, last of the Cowell line, (and endower for Cowell Hall at the University of San Francisco), donated the rest of what became the Park to the State, but only under the condition that Santa Cruz County also give up its nearby portion of the land (Big Trees Park) to the State so that it could all be managed together. Thus, the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park was officially created on August 15, 1954.
The separate Fall Creek unit was added later.
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One of my favourite Essex churches, and I couldn't resist visiting it on my way back into Colchester. Although in the 1884 earthquake zone, it did not sustain as much damage as its neighbours, and is an aesthetic pleasure with its brick floors, wall paintings, painted medieval roof bosses and alabaster sculptures. A real treasure house.


Sample objective 1 The key role of local and regional authorities in implementing the Digital Europe programme should be considered in all measures to speed up the development of the Digital Single Market.
Sample objective 2 The CoR highlights that 70% of EU legislation is implemented at local and regional level and emphasises the synergies between different EU programmes, financial instruments and regional strategies.
-	calls for building digital platforms by creating generic reusable solutions in digital authentication, trust and secure services.


text:
Q: Alternative to MoreObjects in Java 8 I want to get rid of this dependency: import com.google.common.base.MoreObjects;
Is there any simple and/or elegant way to rewrite the following toString() function using Java 8 native functions?
@Override
public String toString() {
  return MoreObjects
    .toStringHelper(this)
    .add("userId", this.userId)
    .add("timestamp", this.timestamp)
    .toString();
}

A: I don't see any reason to use this toStringHelper even prior to Java 8. The plain implementation is not longer:
@Override
public String toString() {
    return getClass().getSimpleName()+"["
          +"userId: "+this.userId+", "
          +"timestamp: "+this.timestamp
          +"]";
}

A: Why not build the String yourself? The code is simple to write and to understand, without using any Java 8 specific features.
@Override
public String toString() {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    sb.append(getClass().getSimpleName()).append('{')
    sb.append("userId=").append(userId);
    sb.append(", timestamp=").append(timestamp);
    return sb.append('}').toString();
}

A: You can use StringJoiner from java.util package.
Example:
@Override
public String toString() {
    return new StringJoiner(", ", ClassName.class.getSimpleName() + "[", "]")
    .add("userId=" + userId)
    .add("timestamp=" + timestamp)
    .toString();
}

A: Just featuring a pretty cool solution to let IntelliJ Idea generate the toString with StringJoiner: https://gist.github.com/vlastikcz/6a3b5c158bdb7bf6e9fd (thanks a lot to the author)
Add the code to toString templates: press Alt+Insert, select toString, then select Settings besides Templates, add with the Plus sign:

A: Apache commons-lang3 has ToString helpers if that dependency is ok:
@Override
public String toString() {
    return new ToStringBuilder(this).
    append("name", name).
    append("age", age).
    append("smoker", smoker).
    toString();
}

@Override
public String toString() {
    return ReflectionToStringBuilder.toString(this);
}

See https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-lang/apidocs/org/apache/commons/lang3/builder/package-summary.html