text:
By Far the Largest Observable Factor
Written by Mitch Pearlstein
in Families
The number of scholars and journalists who write frequently about the effects of family fragmentation in the United States is not large; certainly not as large as the severity of the problem suggests and demands. But of those who do, Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute is one of the best and most important. Her 2007 book, Marriage and Caste in America remains pivotal, and her essays and other contributions for organizations websites such as the Institute for Family Studies are always crisply informative.
For a prime example, I would urge taking a look at piece she wrote a couple of months ago for IFS that I caught up with just the other day: "New Insights Into the Poverty and Affluence Gap Among Major Racial and Ethnic Groups" (February 26, 2019). It draws on a new study by Penn State demographer John Iceland, "Racial and Ethnic Inequality in Poverty and Affluence: 1959 to 2015." Here a few vital but ultimately unsurprising findings, as reported by Hymowitz:
Iceland's most "enlightening – and sure to be controversial findings" come when he controls for characteristics associated with poverty: family structure, family size, education, age, nativity, and metropolitan status. For instance, when viewing whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians collectively, Iceland finds immigrant status to most closely correlate with poverty, with education best correlating with affluence.
When it comes to black-white poverty rates, differences in age explain 16 percent of the gap (African Americans are younger than whites on average). Differences in education explain 15 percent of the gap. While differences in female-headed households explain one-third of the difference, by far the largest observable factor. As for "unobservable" factors, Iceland (rightly) argues that discrimination, while still significant for blacks and American Indians, has become less so over time.
Also over time, Hymowitz writes that Iceland's study shows that "the association between single parenthood has become more important for explaining black affluence." And that while family structure is far from the only characteristic for explaining the gap in affluence between black and whites, it is the largest. (Emphasis in the original.)
Some might charge I'm a Mitch-One-Note when it comes to family fragmentation, which is the relatively new term of art for "family breakdown." This is not the case, though I can see how some might think so since I've been writing about it, on and off, for more than 40 years. But if called on to explain my preoccupation, I would simply if sadly note how a social disaster then – vast numbers of kids hurt and held back by growing up under roofs where only one of their parents lives – has grown worse.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Boy in Cape – With one hand in the fellowship and one hand in God's you CAN do anything. Give this adorable card to anyone in recovery for encouragement, inspiration, anniversary / birthday, or just for fun. It's sure to elicit a smile… and possibly a desire for a cape!
Check out the rest of our awesome 12 step recovery and inspirational cards. Each fine art quality card is printed on heavy weight, semi-gloss stock with an uncoated inside surface for no-smear writing. All Holly P Design cards are created mindfully in the U.S.A by eco-minded vendors who care about the environment and give back to their communities.


text:
BAD GUYS, THE
BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, THE
BATKID BEGINS
BATMAN, THE
BITTERBRUSH
I don't like to be overly effusive in reviewing a movie --- it leads to almost unattainable expectations. But in the case of "Black Mass", one of the best crime thrillers ever, I will say it is the best film so far this year. In the lead role, Johnny Depp has acquitted himself from recent film disasters like "The Lone Ranger" and "Transcendence" (I missed "Mortdecai", Depp's last film, which was also poorly received).
James "Whitey" Bulger, still alive today at age 85, was the brutal boss of Boston's Winter Hill Gang in the 1970's and 80's. He controlled the south side of the city, known as "Southie", reaping huge amounts of cash from drugs, racketeering and extortion, with the occasional murder thrown in, as necessary. Jimmy, as his friends and family called him, loathed disloyalty more than anything else. If you crossed him, you were dead.
No one felt completely comfortable in Jimmy's presence, including his own henchmen. The movie opens with one of them (Jesse Plemons) being deposed by an interrogator (very effective Lonnie Farmer), so we flash back to 1975 when Bulger's career took flight.
The Winter Hill boys shared the criminal spotlight in Boston with the Italian mob that controlled the North End. Local FBI agent John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), who grew up with Jimmy as kids, persuades his superiors (Kevin Bacon and Adam Scott) to use Bulger as in informant, letting him skate on his nefarious activities, in exchange for much-needed inside information about the Italian Mafia.
To further complicate matters, Jimmy's younger brother Bill (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a well-respected state senator in Massachusetts. He must walk the fine line between his sworn duty to his job, and loyalty to his brother. But in his mind it's really no contest.
Depp brings the essential trait of explosiveness to the role, much like Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas". You never know when Depp's character will erupt in a fit of murderous rage. Whether sitting at the dinner table eating a home-cooked meal by Connolly's wife, Marianne (Julianne Nicholson, excellent) along with Connolly and another agent (David Harbour), or escorting a young beauty (Juno Temple) to the apartment she thinks she'll be hiding in, there is always the threat of a violent outbreak by Bulger. Depp, completely absorbed in the role, along with his amazing makeup, is one scary dude.
The three-time nominee for Best Actor should be staring at a fourth nod from the Academy. Depp has completely vindicated himself with an electrifying performance as the vicious, snarling, unpredictable hoodlum who ruled the city of Boston for many years. Yet Bulger had a soft side, especially as it related to his young son Doug (Luke Ryan), and his aging mother. He also appears to have had a good relationship with his girlfriend Lindsey (Dakota Johnson of "Fifty Shades" fame), mother of Doug, until tragedy strikes, changing Bulger's life forever.
Equal to the task of playing the corrupt FBI agent opposite Depp is Edgerton, fresh off his trifecta with "The Gift", where he directed, wrote and starred in a quality psychological thriller. The Aussie actor perfected a Boston accent for "Black Mass" (as did Cumberbatch), and his role as Agent Connolly is the pinnacle, at this point, of his career. He is brilliant.
Other cast standouts include Corey Stoll as a tough-as-nails prosecutor intent on putting Bulger behind bars, Rory Cochrane as Bulger's conflicted right-hand man, Steve Flemmi, and Peter Saarsgard as a flunkie who crosses Bulger.
Director Scott Cooper has only two other films under his belt, but one is the under-rated, and very tense, "Out of the Furnace" (2013) which starred Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson and Casey Affleck. In "Black Mass" Cooper squeezes every ounce of talent from his formidable players. Small, yet terrifying scenes, as when Bulger confronts Marianne in her bedroom, are images not easily forgotten.
Based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, this film adaptation has a staying power long after you've left the theater. I can comfortably rank "Black Mass" with the likes of "The Departed" and, dare I say it, "The Godfather" and "The Godfather 2", all Oscar winners for Best Picture. Maybe "Black Mass" even has a slight edge, given that it's a true story.


This entry was posted in Life the Universe and Everything, Web and tagged Blogging, Internet, Manifesto, Psychology, Random Thoughts, Social Media, Social Networks, Writing, WWW by elkement. Bookmark the permalink.
Nice post. I'm just new to blogging but I generally agree with your observations.
I'm going through a bity of a dry spell myself so some of this is on my mind right now. In my case it's just that other things have temporarily taken over the time I normally spend on wordpress. My youngest has been struggling with grade 12 chemistry and, so, I was devoting significant time working with her. I then decided it was high time I converted all of my old VHS-C tapes to digital before they became too brittle. I figure I'll need another week before that's done and the conversion may well be the subject of the next post.
Although I have been thinking a lot about vulnerability lately.
And why so few women get involved in political life.
And how the two above comments are connected.
Just yesterday I was thinking about the "stat" that over 60 million website use it (I found that on Wikipedia). My own guess is that it's significantly less than that owing to the facts that you already noted–that many sites have just one post or maybe even none, and even more ate abandoned.
That said, times and circumstances to necessitate change. We go through times when we have a lot to write and also times when other things take precedence. As for me, I just love variety; mixing it up.
The wind is currently Howling just outside the window here but it's a relatively warm -3.
Thanks, Maurice! I think the VHS thing is related – isn't that another way to 'curate' own's 'content'? As I said to Michelle below, I sometimes feel writing a 'research notebook' – one large, fragmented article or better a collection of links and ideas (in a simple page, no interaction possible) might better suit some of my writing or researching urges. I have actually started doing something like this on one of my other websites. I also believe that publicity and feedback and attention can cut both ways: It may be encouraging but it will impact the way you write.
I noticed on many blogs (therefore e.g. the comment on rhetorics) that any tiny piece of feeble opinion will be misunderstood and misunderstandings might be amplified by social media. We have all learned in the soft skills psycho trainings forced upon us that the sender is accountable if the message gets scrambled – so people start adding updates to their posts, or follow-up post just to clarify a point and respond to a comment. Although this is excellent training (just as writing of political company-internal e-mail is) it might be more rewarding to just arrange and 'consume' your own content in silence and privately.
I liked the top of the world view, from first a spring morning, caught on SamSung GT-B7330. I first thought it to be a Trend, but it's an Omniapro. You are still here … the last one surviving all half lives, will blog forever.
Great observations. Let me add a few.
The quality of a blog – and possibly its endurance – is a function of the depth of exchanges in the comments.
Some blogs are disguised personally diaries in which bloggers dump their raw thoughts. Some of them don't get – or perhaps shouldn't be – read.
Abandoned blogs feel like cemeteries. They tell a story of life and all of a sudden the person has gone. What has become of them, we wonder?
Some posts are timeless masterpieces and are for ever.
Yes, I think it's comments that are the real mark of a blog's success. It's not so much about writing, or being read, so much as it is about forming communities, groups of people who didn't realize they wanted to be together.
I just want to write well, write what I want to read, write for myself, as T. S. Eliot put it – but it's the comments, the ones I receive and the ones I write to others that feeds the beast. Ego perhaps? Hard to say. It's easy to forget about community when you live in your head. How do sweet connections get forgotten?
I agree with both of you, Joseph an Steve! I tend to think blogging works best if you don't care too much about comments and feedback in the moment you are writing – I feel you notice if people are trying too hard and crave for attention (and other social media are of course even worse in that respect). But in some way you need to factor in community on a subconscious level while writing.
I think Facebook is the social network that helped cultivating the art of humblebragging most.
Thank you for this engaging post Elke. Lots of excuses given for stopping, but not so many reasons for continuing, which is your forte. I put my own perseverence down to the fact that I have an agenda about reviving interest in classical thermodynamics. Do you also have an agenda, would you say?
'Do you have agenda?' Thanks for the question, Peter! Perhaps not a planned more, but I think an agenda has silently evolved. I started out blogging about all kinds of science (quantum theory etc.) and I mulled about other people's philosophical books and big ideas… but finally my subconscious blogging me has decided to focus more on stuff I have some personal relation to and hands-on experience with: Our heat pump systems, things I work on, my personal encounters with Google… My comment about the subtle hype you might want to contribute to without recognizing was related to all this.
First, I love your header image of the wind turbines! Second, I agree with your observations. I've noticed our small group is drifting away, and I find myself wondering what each is doing and how things are. I might be a while getting back on WordPress to do my own posts. It's a combination of renovations and having hit a point of departure from the research to begin writing now. I finished and submitted one story to a literary journal a few weeks ago, and I have some other stuff in process.
It took me almost two weeks to clear my inner blogging voice from my head and transition back to other types of writing! I'm afraid to get back on line and disrupt the creative flow!
'The blogging voice' is an interesting idea, and I can relate to this! Although I like the challenge to deliver a self-consistent and 'stand-alone' piece (… and polish it… and edit it… you would not believe how much I cut…) I often would enjoy starting a lose collection of thoughts, ideas, or links (more like a research notebook) on one large 'page' that can then grow forever via tiny additions… and I would not care about repetitions. In a sense, I started doing so on one of my other websites. I have recently found the most awesome 'article' on sleep research, which is actually more of a free ebook in HTML format – and this article has been written like that: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm. The author calls this method 'incremental writing'.
That's amazing… I didn't think anyone posted like this online now. I remember back in the day, everything looked like this. And I remember that reading on-line felt a lot like reading from paper, except for the computer screen. Things have changed!
Yes, and I think that page gets quite a number of hits… the author often mentions in this article that people with sleep problems find his page when searching for things like Delayed Phase Sleep Syndrome etc. I know some other pages of scientists whose – very popular – pages are also still plain old HTML.
I'm also amazed at how many hits I still get on my site, despite having removed it from search engine indexing. This has been an interesting experiment on the resiliency of a blog, or Why Blogs Can't Be Killed. I might need to resurrect it again, and try to measure the efforts of resuscitation needed to revive the poor thing.
I conjecture that marking a site as not-to-be-indexed does not make search engines clean the existing pages from the index?
I am still cleaning out the traces from the spammy pages (after the Nov. 2014 hack) manually despite I used all possible options to disallow indexing.
Too fast… forgot to mention: If you really want to keep search engines out you could claim ownership of your blog in Webmaster Tools and manually delete the pages from the index.
I agree with you so much on this blog post. I've been blogging for about 1.5 years and I can relate to what you are taking about especially about blogging being a social media platform and social network.
Hi Elka, I'm certainly someone who stopped blogging without notice (since last June) and I can think of many excuses. But I think it boils down to focussing on where I want my visual art to go next. I'm pretty sure I'll write again.
Hi Steve, good to see you around. Like your art, I guess, your blog remains great even if you don't write new posts.
Thank you. I have about twenty draughts patiently waiting for me on WordPress. I'll be back.
I agree with geneticfractals – your art blog is more a collection of timeless, carefully crafted pieces. I think if you write longer articles and if don't try to churn out several posts per week (this was more the type of blogs I did my 'statistics' on) then chances are higher that your blogging will be resumed after an alleged break.


text:
Hostage is a 2001 thriller novel by Robert Crais, set in fictional Bristo Bay, California, about a small town police chief named Jeff Talley with memories of a failed hostage situation, who must negotiate the same type of situation in his own town if he wants his own family to live.

Plot
Three young boys rob a minimart and the salesclerk is killed. Police chase the boys and they end up taking a family hostage. The house taken hostage was owned by Sonny Benza, a man who rules over the West Coast's most powerful Mafia empire. Sonny arranges for his men to kidnap the small town's police chief, Jeff Talley's, family. Talley goes to the location where his family is being held. A man named Marion Clewes executes Benza and his associates for their failure because Marion's employer in New York feels that Benza had betrayed the trust of Marion's employer by failing to retrieve two discs that would shut down Benza's organization and put Benza away for good. The police obtain one of the discs. Rather than killing Talley and his family, Marion lets them live.

Adaptations
The novel was adapted to the 2005 thriller film Hostage with Bruce Willis and director Florent Emilio Siri by screenwriter Doug Richardson.

References

2001 American novels
American thriller novels
Novels set in California
American novels adapted into films

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Powell Furniture offers affordable products for your kids and teens bedroom needs. Powell Furniture keeps current on new trends and keeps classic lines as well. Powell is one of the leading Kids and Teens furniture supplier.


I love Coach handbags, and their other leather goods. Although we have a Coach outlet store `5 miles away, I had to order this clutch sized purse online directly from Coach to get it for half price, plus another 10% off, in the color I wanted. For some reason, they call it "plum." No. It's more like burgundy. The funniest thing, though, was that 3/4 of the instructions for cleaning it were written in Chinese, and they involved buying cleaner and moisturizer from Coach.
Seriously? Saddle soap works just fine. It's available for ~$5 per can. Also, if you've got some decades old smooth sided ones like I do, that get a little scuffed up, shoe polish does the trick, black, navy, green, or burgundy. Black shoe polish and cocoa butter works just fine on my 1920s horse brass. Why would they not work on this clutch bag? It's not suede.


you know I'll always squeeze one in more!!
We didn't get to see Brayden on Halloween with his costume on... I can't believe that was nearly a month ago!!... but a coule weeks ago when the kids came down, Brayden showed up as mr. little dinosaur.... roar!!!!
Like any little boy, his curiosity is amazing... he just must look at every little thing and try to figure it out (this is a little butter packet he couldn't quite open) ... See his Boys will be Boys t-shirt.. just too cute and he's so handsome in navy blue... my favorite for him!
I fixed some spaghetti for dinner and loved watching Brayden try to eat it with his spoon... he gives it a good shot then finally gives up and just uses his fingers... can't say I blame him, besides who eats spaghetti with a spoon??????
He definitely shows the Italian side when it comes to spaghetti!!!
Remember a couple of weekends ago I had a special Gratitude Stamp Camp for my awesome stamping customers! Well Jean was so thoughtful and showed up with a gift for me... hey, it was suppose to be me giving the gifts!..
Well.... it didn't take long and has it ever opened! I just had to take some photos of it to show everyone and to let Jean know how grateful once again I am for her thoughtfulness and generosity!!
We know now why they call it a Red Knight!
Here's another that will be featured at my Secret Santa Swap on December 10th.... spaces are filling up quickly.. so if you'd like to come, be sure to let me know... now!!!
It's a quilted stocking gift card.... I love the variety of Designer Series Paper you can use to create any pattern! Then the surprise inside is a gift card... makes a great stocking stuffer fer sure!!
..... Santa Claus is Coming To Town!
So have you had your fill of turkey? If you still have leftovers I feel for you!
Now this is a funny story... He's always been pretty good about keeping away from any electrical sockets... of course we have them baby proofed with plugs ... but in each room we also have what looks like another outlet, but it's the hose attachment plug for our built-in vacuum cleaning system. Brayden's never bothered it before nor even noticed it I guess.... until now.... You can see it here on the wall next to the electrical outlet.
It's not a big deal nor is it dangerous.... you just open the flap and automatically the hose suction comes on... of course you'd put your hose in at this point and start vacuuming... But of course Brayden had no clue what it was nor what would happen... so he opened the flap and you could hear the suction and so he continued to open and close it, open and close it... not really hurting anything ..... so I was sitting on the steps and he was testing this thing out... try to explain to an 18 month old what a vacuum cleaner in the wall is... I can hardly explain it to you guys!!
You should have seen the look on Brayden's face... it was sorta funny but I felt so bad as it really scared him!.... Holly got a pretty good picture of his reaction here... (you can see David snickering on the couch)... his little lip started to quiver!!!
Then he just turned and ran toward me for protection!
Now isn't that the Thanksgiving Dinner everyone really wished they had!
Even The Naughty Deserve Something Nice!
Go Big or Go Home???
Petting Zoo and Dancing too!


If you have received a moving violation, you may be eligible for deferred disposition and have your violation dismissed. However, you may lose that right if you do not request deferred disposition at the Court on or before your appearance date. Must request in person. Do not pay deferred disposition fees online. Payments made online will cause a conviction on your case.
Deferred Disposition is normally a 90 day probationary period. During that time you can not receive any other violation (moving or non-moving violations) nor have any charges filed against you by the State of Texas.
Cited while driving in a Construction Zone when workers were present.
You must pay the deferral fee of $255.00 at the time of your request on or before the appearance date assigned by the charging officer.
Your case will be placed on probation for 90 days.
If you are under 25 years of age, you must complete an approved driving safety course AND if you hold a provisional license, you must complete a driving examination by DPS.
Failure to pay your fees by the appearance date, deferral due date, or receiving a violation during your deferral period will violate your Deferred Disposition Order. Failure to comply with any part of the Deferral Order may result in a fine and a conviction reported on your driving record.
Note: If you have a commercial driver's license you are not eligible for Deferred Disposition.


The Spring Rain Lapghan was designed with Red Heart Collage yarn – it was my first time using it, and I loved it! It's one of the new Jumbo weight yarns, and that means this free crochet blanket pattern worked up super fast!
I called it the Spring Rain Lapghan because the grey yarn reminded me of a stormy day – and then there are the bright Easter-y pops of color here and there, a little drenched but shining through. Of course, you can use any colors you like!
The Spring Rain Lapghan is a great size for cozying up in your favorite chair, or for babies and toddlers, or for use with a wheelchair. But I've also included the stitch multiple below so you can create your own custom size!
Click the photo to buy this yarn on Red Heart.com!
This blanket is sized for a lapgahn/wheelchair/toddler blanket. To make it in other sizes, see the stitch multiple listed above.
If preferred, substitute a Chainless Starting Double Crochet for the "Ch 3 (counts as first dc)" when it appears in the pattern.
If you are not changing colors, do not break yarn, and do turn after every row.
Row 8 – 31: Repeat Rows 2 -7.
Row 32 and 33: Repeat Row 2.
Border Round 1: Ch 1, sc in each st across Row 33, ch 2, *sc evenly along side of blanket working 2 sc in the side of each dc row and 1 sc in the side of each sc row, ch 2,** sc across base of foundation chain, ch 2, rep * to **, join to first sc of round and break Color A.
Border Round 2: With Color B, join with sc in last corner ch-2 sp, ch 2, sc in same ch-2 sp, skip next st, [*working in BLO, (sc, ch 1, sc) in next st, skip next st; rep from * to next corner ch-2 sp,** (sc, ch 2, sc) in corner ch-2 sp, skip next st] 4 times, finishing last rep at **, join to first sc of round and break yarn. Weave in ends.
The Spring Rain Lapghan is the perfect weekend project – cuddly and soft and warm and fast! I hope you love it as much as I do.
If you do make your own Spring Rain Lapghan, I'd love to see a photo! So if you share it on social media, be sure to tag me @mooglyblog or #mooglyblog – and happy crocheting!
Written pattern copyright Tamara Kelly 2018, all rights reserved. Please do not reprint or repost this pattern, but please do link to this page to share this pattern with others. To print or download, use the Print Friendly button below, or go to PrintFriendly.com, or right-click to copy and paste it into a word processing document if those options do not work for you (please note that Print Friendly is a free outside website that the button links to, and you can click here for a tutorial on how to use it, but I cannot provide additional technical support for this service). If you wish to make items for sale from this pattern or translate it to another language, please visit the About page for details. Thank you to Red Heart Yarns and Furls for providing the materials for this pattern.
Beautiful blanket! I love this yarn. Expensive though.
Great use of the yarn! Love how you have pops of color throughout and how the yarn makes them all different. Great job as usual!!
Great work, Tamara! Your patterns rock!
I'm allergic to wool. Can you recommend an alternative yarn to make this great lapghan?
I'd love to change this pattern to make a shawl/wrap for rainy days. Beautiful.
I don't like to use the FDC, so to do it the 'old fashioned' way of chaining and then doing a row of dc, would I use the multiple of 6+1? Or do I need to add another chain ? Thank you!
LOVE your patterns!! What would happen if instead of breaking the yarn each time you just carried it along one side? Could that work and still look nice? Thank you!
Great pattern, are you able to provide a graph for this pattern? Some of us prefer them, I find it easier to follow pattern.
Hi, this is beautiful! I am confused about the part at the end of row 5 where it says do not turn…where are you starting row 6 in that case?
No I was just going by the written pattern, but ok when I have a chance, thank you!


text:
Gadsden Times
Title: Gadsden Times
Subject: Harmon Killebrew, Planned Parenthood, National Women's Football Association, George Foster (baseball), Birmingham Americans, Birmingham Vulcans, Rebecca Howe, Enno Patalas, Heather Whitestone, Don Black (white nationalist)
The Gadsden Times
The Gadsden Times, September 2, 2008
Halifax Media Group
Glen Porter
Ron Reaves
401 Locust Street
Gadsden, Alabama 35902
19,400 Daily
20,600 Sunday
gadsdentimes.com
The Gadsden Times is a daily newspaper serving Gadsden, Alabama, and the surrounding area in northeastern Alabama.
The Times is owned by Halifax Media Group.[1] Before that, the newspaper was a member of the New York Times Regional Media Group, a subsidiary of the New York Times Company,[2] through the corporate entity of NYT Holdings, Inc., an Alabama corporation.[3] The New York Times Company acquired the Times in 1985 from the Public Welfare Foundation, a charitable entity.[4] The Times had been donated to that foundation by its owner Edward Marsh, along with other newspapers he owned, before his death in 1964.[5]
The Times has twelve-month average circulation of 19,400 daily and 20,600 Sunday.[6] Of the 25 daily newspapers published in Alabama, the Times has the ninth highest daily circulation.[7]
The Times has received several awards over the years from area journalistic groups, such as the Alabama Press Association, the Alabama Sports Writers Association, and the Alabama Associated Press Managing Editors.[8][9][10]
The Times website provides local news coverage, as well as local forum and lifestyle pages. In addition to its editorial offices in Gadsden, the Times maintains a state capital bureau in Montgomery.[11]
Newseum website
This article about an Alabama newspaper is a stub. You can help World Heritage Encyclopedia by expanding it.
Babe Ruth, Minnesota Twins, Jimmie Foxx, Alex Rodriguez, Detroit Tigers
Washington, D.C., Abortion, New York City, Indiana, Breast cancer
National Women's Football Association
Women's Football Alliance, Independent Women's Football League, Women's Spring Football League, American football, National Football League


Nancy Bushard is a firm believer that hard work pays off. True success to her is about providing efficient service and valuable solutions while continually building, refining and doing the work. Her organized, motivated, and friendly demeanor makes her a great advocate for her customers.
As Account Manager for National Insurance Services, Nancy works with schools, cities, and counties in Minnesota on their health insurance, wellness plans, benefit communication, and retirement incentives. She oversees new client implementation and meets directly with clients to explain their benefits. Nancy has a strong background in customer service and risk analysis and has been working with employee benefits since 2004. She is a licensed health and life insurance agent and is ACA certified.


Congratulations to Iain Hook who reached Everest base camp.
Do you blame middle age for an increase in weight?
Bootcamp Nottingham - Start thinking about your beach body now!
Sarah knocks 4 chins out after 6 months off!


Custom-Battle Alpha Available for Download!
Thread: Custom-Battle Alpha Available for Download!
I have a confession to make: we at EBNOM have had a working custom-battle capable alpha for several weeks now.
And we haven't told you.
Despite a stall in further progress on unit creation due to the temporary absence of our friend Finn MacCumhail, I and a few members of the EB Online community have been testing an alpha version of the mod, capable of custom battles and with a large number of both old and new units implemented and fully working!
Because of the stalled progress on the custom battle alpha due to my work on some map files right now, I have decided to let you guys download the current build of the alpha!
Instructions: Make sure you have BI installed. Extract each of the folders into your BI directory. It is modfoldered. After this, create a shortcut to Bi.exe with the tags "-mod:bi/EBNOM -show_err -nm"
BE WARNED: There are many units that do not work. Much of the Parthian and Armenian rosters do not work, and practically the entire Sarmatian roster is non-functional. There are some assorted other units (for example, Numidian Slingers, Cluddacorioi, and Bagaudoi) that do not work. Be wary of these. Arjos Suadurix has an entire list of the non-functional units. However, 95% or so of units are functional, and battles are perfectly playable.
Last edited by gamegeek2; 07-19-2012 at 17:17.
Re: Custom-Battle Alpha Available for Download!
Pontos: Thureophoroi tes Anatoles, Basternai.
Saka: Elephantes Indikoi, Elephantes Kataphractoi Indikoi.
Getai: Komatai Hippeis, Getikoi Hippotoxotai, Basternai.
Basileion ton Koshanon: Elephantes Indikoi, Elephantes Kataphractoi Indikoi.
Sertoriani: Kombalkores, Arekoratoi, Kantabroi Ekuoredoi.
Mamlakat biMassilim: Somrei haMelek, Qala'im Imazigim.
Pahlava: Elephantes Indikoi, Shivartir-i Pahlavanig, Asavaran-i Dehbed, Thureophoroi tes Anatoles, Thanvare Payahdag, 101 men UPT unit.
Senatvs Popvlvsqve Romanvs: Cluddacorioi, Cohors Saggitarorum Syriaca, Qala'im Imazigim, Uisusparos Cingetoi.
Last edited by Arjos; 07-19-2012 at 17:34.
Everything looks great by the way. Everyone give a hand to gamegeek for his hard work at making this playable.
Last edited by Brave Brave Sir Robin; 07-19-2012 at 18:05.
going google eyes at a taco.
about time gamegeek we have been playing this for centuries.
Last edited by gamegeek2; 07-23-2012 at 19:33.
Great work guys! Wish I had Rome installed and could check it out. But I will some time the future.
Congratulations for making this mod !
And i would like to know, are there any changes to the building trees of factions?
I do not understand how to install the alpha?
Hello ariel, welcome to the .Org and to EB .
This is an old modification, so I don't think anyone is still working on this. However, I PM'ed one of the team members to see if they can help you out.
Then you will try to help me install this Mod?
-Right click on the file RomeTW-BI.exe and select Create shortcut. Right-click on shortcut and select Proprietes.
-Select the Shortcut tab at the top of the dialog-box.
If so Need the original Mod Barbarorum Europa?
Last edited by Arjos; 12-20-2016 at 19:01.
Can not install still. I have the barbarian invasion of Rome + Steam program.
There are various provisions if this steam program?
You know any manager can help me with this?


Thanks for the encouragement Premkumar! And same to you… if it isn't working for you, don't bother with it. I'll still have my account for those who like my blog, but I'm done with it, done scrolling down that feed of ever-flowing politics and cat pictures. I can wind myself up and worry all on my own… I don't need FB's help with that. Let me know if you can stay away from it… keep me posted on your progress! Let's form FBA ("Facebookers Anonymous").


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Q: Remove correlated attributes in R I am trying to remove the correlated attributes which are out of boundaries (-1,1). I am using the following code for the correlation:
cor(df[sapply(df, is.numeric)])

After that I get the correlation values. How can I remove the values greater than 1 and smaller -1?
Thank you

A: The cor() function in R receives a numeric vector, matrix or data frame and gives a pairwise correlation matrix of variables. Values in the correlation matrix are expected to be in the range of -1 to +1. However problems arise when we have a correlation matrix that is not positive semi definite. The most frequent cause of an invalid correlation matrix is missing values. R offers several ways of handling missing values in a correlation matrix. You can use the na.rm = TRUE option to specify all missing values should be removed (only complete rows are used).  This will always result in a valid correlation matrix.Three other options can be specified on how to handle missing observations.  The use = "all.obs" option specifies there are no missing observations and the presence of any missing values will cause an error. If use = "complete.obs" is specified case wise deletion of missing observations happens.
If use =    "pairwise.complete.obs"  is specified   only the complete pairs of observations are used. This may result in an invalid correlation matrix.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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by Nicole Raytek
This Plastic Free July has looked a little different from others. Many things I usually encouraged my friends and family to start doing are suddenly a lot harder, and for good reasons - this is not a normal time. And as the month is coming to a close, this may have started to take its toll. But as we said in the Better Normal Campaign, just because we can't do everything, doesn't mean we should do nothing.
So let's back up, what is Plastic Free July? If you're unsure what Plastic Free July is in general, why it began and why we should reduce our plastic consumption, here is a little background:
A quick FAQ about the history of Plastic Free July:
Q: Who started plastic free July?
A: The founder of plastic free July was the Plastic Free Foundation
Q: When did plastic free July start?
A: According to their page, 2011
Q: Why do we do plastic free July?
A: "avoiding a significant amount of landfill waste and lowering the risk of plastic pollution in the environment"
Q: Are there rules to plastic free July?
A: "It is a challenge (not a competition) intended to make you think about all the single-use plastic we use every day. Whatever you can cut out is a job well done!"
Personally, I see the "plastic free" part as a bit of a misnomer. The optimal ideal. It's an easy and catchy name that gets the point across, that we should try to use less plastic and more sustainable materials and practices. But I can also see how it can become quite daunting and discouraging. It's all around us so how can I really go plastic free? This is especially true when things as simple as bringing reusable bags into stores have become challenging.
But is it really about being 110% plastic free? Or is it about more mindful interactions with plastic. It is a durable yet lightweight material with major environmental impacts during its creation (as most are made from fossil fuels (source)) and destruction (microplastics in our air and waterways (source), hundreds of years to break down (source), etc.). You would think this would mean we would use it more mindfully and sparingly. Instead we use it when we are too lazy to bring a bag for groceries, wrapping produce that nature has already developed a natural and compostable outer skin for and when we don't want to carry something as small as a fork around in our purse, car or backpack. Some uses of plastic are just mindless reflexes. Think about produce bags at grocery stores. We just reach for produce bags because that's what we watched our parents do, it's free and they're right there. But why do we need them? Produce grows outside, in dirt and are shipped loose, but we think leaving them loose in our grocery cart is unacceptable…
So to me, Plastic Free July is about changing our relationship with plastic. Being more mindful and intentional about when we use it since this long lasting and durable material has a lot of impacts associated with it. This however means we aren't entirely "plastic free", but rather, more "plastic mindful".
From another angle, it is also super difficult to be entirely plastic free in our day to day lives, now more than ever. Like I said before, this can get frustrating and discouraging. But when I feel surrounded and trapped by waste and plastic, and that no matter how hard I try I'll never totally get rid of it, I go back to a quote that I heard when I began my sustainability journey: "We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly" - Anne Marie Bonneau.
The hope is that you take this forward with you past July, because that I think is the core of Plastic Free July, a reminder. Reintroducing mindfulness in our plastic consumption, helping us to learn and create an actionable time for growth away from plastic. Spotlighting why our current plastic consumption patterns have created such calamitous global impacts, and how we can do our part to stop one more plastic fork, bag, straw or bottle from wreaking havoc on our planet.
So as we roll into August, try even one thing to bring forward with you.
Here are my top 10 tips for Plastic Free July (and beyond!) that you can apply right now:
Refuse plastic grocery bags by bringing your groceries to your car and putting them in you reusable bags then
Refusing plastic produce bags at the grocery store
Bringing cutlery with you (Be sure to wash these right after use and take the other necessary precautions during these times)
Using a reusable tea infuser and loose leaf tea (Yes there is plastic in many tea bags, releasing microplastics into your tea! (source))
Switch to a menstrual cup (Yes, a lot of menstrual products have plastic as well (source))
Use a french press instead of disposable coffee cups and k cups
Buy food in bulk if it is safe to do and possible in your area
Reusable mugs and water bottles
Zero waste soap: bar soap, tablet shampoo, conditioner and body wash
Containers and beeswax wraps instead of saran wrap
We all can do something. What will you do?


The haters are still gonna hate. A judge has ruled that Taylor Swift's turn of phrase in her hit "Shake It Off" is too banal for copyright infringement.
Swift was sued by the songwriters of the 2001 song "Playas Gon' Play" performed by 3LW, an all-woman R&B trio that had modest success for several years.
Songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler accused Swift's team of stealing their lyrics as both their song and "Shake It Off" contain variations of "Players gonna play" and "Haters gonna hate."
But a federal judge, in a 16-page decision that reflected on the meaning of the two phrases, said that the lyrics "are not sufficiently creative to warrant protection."
Los Angeles-based Judge Michael Fitzgerald said that "players, haters, and player haters had received substantial pop culture attention prior to 2001."
Fitzgerald said he was not persuaded by the "clever" argument of the songwriters that the verb contraction "gonna" made the phrase uniquely creative.
"To explicitly state the argument is to see how banal the asserted creativity is," he wrote in the decision issued Tuesday.
Lawyers for Swift, who made "Shake It Off" the lead single off her blockbuster album "1989," noted that plenty of other songs had the words "players" — often slang for charmers who seek out multiple romantic partners — and "haters."


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STEWART MCDONALD
writer of things, maker of stuff
Writing a Novel
Writing a Novel – The Origin of an Idea
March 29, 2020 April 21, 2020 Stewart McDonaldNovels, Writing
This post is part of a series of articles about writing my novel, A Single Source of Truth.
Buy it here on Kindle or paperback.
Welcome to the first in a series of articles detailing the process I went through to get my novel, A Single Source of Truth, from the origin of an idea to a fully published eBook and paperback. Each post will be focused on a specific area, from writing and editing, through to cover design, manuscript formatting, and marketing. By the way, I am still learning in all of these fields and in no way consider myself an expert. This is just a recounting of my own experience and hopefully, someone will find it useful. For me, I hope it's a cathartic experience. Because let me tell you… writing this novel was a bastard.
Finding the Idea
Prior to writing A Single Source of Truth, I spent most of my creative time concentrating on screenplays. I'd grown up loving movies, made short films and wanted to be a full-time filmmaker, and so for a number of years, I penned a few feature-length screenplays and was looking for my next idea. This was in 2010. My novel was finished in 2019. Yep, it took me that long, but don't be disheartened if you're thinking about writing a book; my goalposts moved a fair bit over the years and the book wasn't my sole focus. I also did a number of things wrong, the flaws of which will hopefully be highlighted throughout this series.
Back to 2010. I was looking for my next idea and I vividly remember trying to concoct one for a short film. I wanted it shot all in one room, therefore be cheap to make. After struggling to come up with any worthwhile ideas, I went back to basics and considered the setup of classic crime novels – there's a dead body in a room and police have to solve it. A simple problem, one that I could picture in my head as a short film, but the solution to the crime would be the story, and I didn't have anything yet. But at least I had a problem to solve. And a problem is a starting point (something screenwriter Shane Black talks about in this amazing podcast I've listened to a dozen times). Any starting point is important when you're blanking on ideas. So that's what I had: dead body in a room. Check.
I wanted the story to be different though. I wanted to be clever (like I often do, probably linked to some sort of superiority complex). How could the classic murder mystery be turned on its head? It was with that question that answers started to unfold rather quickly.
*SPOILERS* THE NOVEL IS FREE TO READ HERE, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? *SPOILERS*
Initially, I wondered what if the dead body wasn't who the police thought it was? Unlikely, but I looked at all the evidence police would need in order to identify a body: teeth, fingerprints, DNA. Mulling over those details, I thought about the process of how those identifying features were forensically compared. How does a set of teeth found in a corpse actually get matched to the record of a human being? Where were the source materials stored? These days, with everything being digitised, I wondered whether the source data could be hacked and manipulated. That was when the main hook of the story clicked into place. A murder victim… positively identified by police in every way possible…. is actually someone else entirely!
I liked that idea. I was confident it hadn't been done before, which is usually one of my motivating factors in writing any story (a futile motivator, turns out), but it was definitely something I could make a short film about. The only problem was… the story got bigger. I struggle writing short-form stories at the best of times, but the more ideas I came up with regarding data manipulation, the more the story grew, and before long, I no longer considered it a 15 minute short, but a 2-hour movie!
Throughout the process of collecting ideas, the story went through many iterations. I had an idea set in the future where technology tracked everything. I also had one that took place entirely on the internet, ala the film Searching. Here are some samples of notes I made during months of brainstorming, this first one being the earliest from 2009.
In the modern day, technology is relied on so much, but it can also be manipulated. A man goes in search of the truth after something happens but he doesn't believe it. Perhaps he goes in search of a person who he thinks doesn't exist.
It's rather telling – reinforcing the idea that snap-judgments are more accurate than we think – that this first note is pretty much word-perfect for the finished novel. I didn't stop there, though:
Set in the future where crimes are faked. Photos, video footage etc can all be easily created in a computer. They're checked out by a division before they're promoted to an actual crime. One gets through and a cop has to solve a murder that he believes didn't actually take place.
Then in January 2010 (sorry if it's confusing):
A cop is told to investigate a murder, he gets to the scene of the crime and the body has gone, but clues are left behind. He does a bit of digging but needs more clues, he goes to the autopsy, its been done. They have DNA and find a match of a person. The cop goes through all the motions, interviewing family etc, it really pisses him off because he can't find anything on them. He has CCTV footage of the person in question walking home at night etc. He wants to see the body, he goes to get the body but its not there. He asks who did the autopsy, Phil according to the records, he goes to Phil, phil doesnt have any recollection. He goes back down the line, who was the cop at the scene of the crime? Who called it? no one did, even though it's logged in the system. Does this person even exist? He looks at the CCTV footage again. Is she fake? They get expert special effect guys in to analyse the video. It could be fake but it's damn good.
Is it actually a murderer covering up his murder of a girl by making her look like someone completely different? The cops would be tricked and stop looking for her, but she's actually a decoy of another REAL girl?
And in May 2010:
A murder. A database administrator knew her? works for police IT department. Starts to investigate the case himself, finds something out like the woman doesn't exist, tries to tell the cops but they're pretty busy and it's a closed case or they've nailed a guy for it, but the DB guy knows that's bullshit and digs deeper to find out that digital information has been manipulated to give this person an identity, including national records and CCTV footage. Perhaps police are behind this, covering up something.
As you can see, I didn't really know what I was writing, I was just piecing together loose ideas. I typically spend an inordinate amount of time brainstorming and ruminating, but I'm a firm believer that you can't rush creativity and it often comes to you when you're not even looking. The important thing is to just keep chiselling away. Dedicate thinking time. Go for walks. Remove distractions. Get bored! Boredom is a great source of creativity. Whatever ideas come to you, write them down. If you get your ideas down, you can review them in time and many will provide offshoots that lead you onto further ideas. That's how it starts for me.
In the next article, you'll see how I began building an outline of the story that eventually became A Single Source of Truth.
If you have any comments or questions, please post them in the box below.
Writing a Novel – Outlining
Writing a Novel – Epilogue June 29, 2020
Writing a Novel – Marketing June 22, 2020
Writing a Novel – Launch Day June 15, 2020
Writing a Novel – The Finishing Touches June 8, 2020
Writing a Novel – Cover Design June 1, 2020
Copyright © Stewart McDonald. All rights reserved.


Nicky Da B's FRZN Fest Performance Cancelled | True Endeavors Presents: music, tours, tickets, mp3 downloads, concert pictures, videos, Madison WI.
It's with sincere regret that we inform our readers that Nicky Da B has had to cancel all of his touring dates, including his January 26th FRZN Festival performance, due to a medical emergency.
Our thoughts are with Nicky and we wish him a swift and full recovery.


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Kentucky moves to 4-0 in Big Blue Bahamas Tour (VIDEO)
By Terrence PayneAug 15, 2014, 4:30 PM EDT
MORE RECAPS: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Alex Poythress continues to be the star for Kentucky down in the Bahamas. The junior forward went off for a game-high 20 points to go along with five rebounds, two assists and two steals in Kentucky's 83-71 win over the Dominican Republic in Game 4 of the Big Blue Bahamas Tour. The Wildcats remain undefeated after their closest contest so far.
Karl Towns added 12 points off the bench. Dakari Johnson, the starting center in all four games, added 10 points and grabbed 12 boards.
The 12-point margin was the closest by far after Kentucky had rolled past the Puerto Rico national team reserves twice — by 25 in the first meeting and 36 in the second — and Champagne Chalons-Reims from France by 23, as well.
Kentucky continues its tour on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m., taking on Champagne Chalons-Reims for the second time.
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