Spain's Ordesa National Park has it all: magnificent mountains, beautiful villages, dramatic valleys, glorious forests, and wonderful winter walking around it all. If you have never been, go!
You may never have heard of the extraordinary Ordesa National Park, the traditional mountain village of Torla, or the Lost Mountain (Monte Perdido in Spanish, Mont Perdu in French) and all the dramatic mountains in the region, but we can assure you that they are very well worth considering if you want a truly memorable winter walking holiday on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees. Please note: you can take the London-Lourdes Saturday flight to begin this holiday, but you won't be back in Lourdes in time to catch the flight back, but there are daily flights from Toulouse (direct train from Lourdes).
Saturdays: we meet you at Lourdes airport to take you to our hotel in Lourdes for this first night, or if you arrive by train (fast services), you can simply walk the 50 metres to the hotel. You are then free to explore the historic city of Lourdes. If you arrive at Toulouse, then you can choose to arrive in Lourdes on Saturday, or by early Sunday afternoon (with the price lowered accordingly).
Until early Sunday afternoon, you are free to explore the city, or walk in the surrounding hills (we supply detailed route instructions, and usually they are snow-free). You then meet together with your English speaking guide and the other group members (minimum 5; maximum 15) for the transfer via the scenic Ossau and Aspe valleys, and "over the top" into the époustouflant (a much better word for breathtaking!) Ordesa National Park, and your hotel for the next 6 nights. A truly memorable journey in itself, we think you'll find. This afternoon, or tomorrow morning, your expert winter walking guide will give you a snow-shoe winter walking lesson (as required). In truth - and unlike both downhill and cross-country skiing - it requires minimum equipment, little tutoring, negligible stress, and is easily picked up by simply doing it! Perhaps surprisingly, though, you'll find it is far less physically demanding than any form of skiing.
You stay in the upper Ara valley near the mountain village of Fiscal in a completely but sensitively restored 18th century stone built hotel called Casa Cadena. It is an authentic mountain hotel that provides all hospitality and bedroom comforts you would expect as well as an attractive lounge and bar, and a good local reputation for its regional cuisine that almost exclusivley uses locally sourced produce. As you can imagine, we know dozens of hotels in this region, and this is our favourite. That's why you are staying here!
We drive you to the heart of the Ordesa National Park, and the remarkable Arrazas canyon, which rises gently through lovely beech woods beneath the impressive (to say the least) cliffs and peaks of the Fraucata mountain range. In total, the ascent today is only 650 feet, but all the same you will be very well rewarded when you arrive at today's destination, the magnificent Estrecho waterfalls. They are tumultuous in summer, terrifying in spring, but a wonderful natural sculptural spectacle in winter. There is a great sense of satisfaction reaching such a natural wonder in the middle of winter - especially as so few do so because this, like many other places you will be visiting, could not be visited without an experienced guide. A great start to a superb week of winter walking that today culminates in time to explore the attractive and traditional village of Torla.
Today you are taken through wonderfully scenic landscapes to the mountain village of Bielsa, which is the gateway to the immense Pineta canyon. Then you are driven several kilometres up the canyon before beginning your winter walk through pine forests up to the almost 5,000 feet Larri plateau where there is an indisputably isolated mountain refuge. All around are stunning panoramic views dominated by the Lost Mountain itself: Mont Perdu in French, Monte Perdido in Spanish. At almost 11,000 feet, it is more than twice as high as the plateau you had believed was pretty high up! What makes it all the more visually dramatic is that from the summit there are 6,500 feet (yes, 6,500 feet!) of sheer cliffs that descend to form the magnificent Cirque de Pineta. You will enjoy the privilege of walking through the Cirque before arriving back at your vehicle, which will stop to give you time to wonder round the pretty village of Ainsa with its grand Plaza Mayor. A memorable day for sure.
We take you through wonderful landscapes up to the impressive perched hamlet of Nerin then up the unforgettable Anisclo canyon using an ancient drovers' track up to Cuello Arenas. From here it's an easy high altitude walk with superb views all around to Cuello Gordo, a panoramic viewpoint for Mont-Perdu, the "Cylinder", and other peaks all reaching towards 10,000 feet. Our French colleagues call it "un spectacle grandiose", and that's pretty accurate! You return down the Pardina canyon via 4x4. As you can appreciate, this itinerary is dependent on snow conditions, but is usually possible, and there are nearby alternatives.
It takes a lot to get us out of the Ordesa National park, but today we do so for the magnificent "Pyrenean Dolomites". The 9,000 foot mountain range features a series of sharp (soemm say teeth like) peaks dominated by the highest one, Peña Telera - a mountaineers' favourite. Yet what makes them all the more impressive - and we have to say beautiful - is that the made-for-snow-shoeing Tena valley runs for miles beneath it providing endless, but constantly changing, views to complement the satisfying winter walking. It's a wide, usually sunny valley with stream,waterfalls, a lovely lake, and deserted tracks that enable you to have a total ascent/descent of only 800 feet in the 3 or 4 hours walking you will enjoy here. And we think enjoy is the operative word. Please tell us if we were right to take you away from Ordesa.
Why take you out of the Park for this last day? We have a completely 360° top-of-the-world answer that begins in Linas de Broto where every house is stone built, and the church 13th century. Our destination is the 6,500 feet Pic de Pelopìn, and yes you are walking to the top, but your total ascent/descent is actually less than 2,000 feet. Why so special? It's that 360° view that features Mont Perdu itself with its surrounding massif, and the famous Brèche de Roland - the 300 feet high "slash" reputedly taken out of the cliffs that mark the Franco-Spanish frontier by Count Roland's sword after being defeated at the Battle of Roncesvalles in 778. Then there's the Pic de la Tendenera (a knife edge summit with absolutely sheer cliffs dropping thousands of feet), the glorious Aragonese Sierra, and the 10,700 feet Vignemale (Comachibosa in Aragonese) with a huge glacier beneath it. The most challenging walk of the week, but we're sure you will agree it was more than worth it.
After breakfast, it's a 3 hour transfer back to Lourdes station, but, as we say elsewhere, it is not possible to catch the London flight. There are direct trains to Toulouse and Bordeaux, which have direct flights to London and other British cities.
This holiday for English speakers has a fluent English speaking guide as well as being for French speakers.
It starts on Saturdays to coincide with the weekly flight from London Stansted to Lourdes - by far the lowest cost, fastest and most direct journey from the UK.
Sunday meeting point: whichever way you travel or day you arrive, the meeting point is early afternoon in front of Lourdes railway station where you will meet your guide, and be taken to the holiday hotel.
After breakfast, we take you back to Lourdes by 13h. It is not possible to get to Tarbes-Lourdes airport to catch the London flight as this would require the group to leave well before breakfast, and there may be delays due to weather and/or road conditions. There are direct trains to Toulouse and Bordeaux from Lourdes station.
Each day the time spent on your snow-shoe walking journey will vary between 2 and 5 hours including rests etc. The total daily ascent/descent will range from 200 to 650 metres (600 to 2,000 feet). This is less than a summer walking holiday, and is intended to be comfortable for anyone who can walk for 4 or 5 hours in hills and valleys. On some days, there are shorter and longer options, but this is a marginally more challenging holiday than some others mainly because of the last day.
We have found that our customers really enjoy being in a small group that includes both English and French speakers. The minimum group size is 5, and the maximum is 15. There is no minimum/maximum for English speakers. The guide will speak at least good conversational English, and usually speak fluent English, or be bi-lingual. He or she will also be a qualified and expert winter walking guide.
The accommodation consists of: one night in a 3 star hotel in Lourdes; 6 nights in the authentic hotel in the Ara valley.
Meals: continental style breakfast at the Lourdes hotel, and each morning thereafter. The restaurant offers a menu of local and regional specialities for you to choose from. Hotel supplied picnics for each day, except day 1 and day 2 are also included. Wine and other drinks are not included in the holiday price.


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The ho-ho-ho must go on: How professional Santas are making visits happen despite the pandemic
Erin Donnelly
December 11, 2020, 1:32 PM ·10 min read
As with any year, Santa Claus is making a list and checking it twice: Mask? Hand sanitizer? Giant "Magic Santa Shield" to form a COVID-safe barrier between him and the kiddos pleading their case for a LOL Surprise Doll or new bike? Check, check and check.
Those are just some of the safety measures Santas are taking this Christmas in hopes of keeping the holiday spirit alive and well despite a deadly global pandemic that has derailed so many treasured traditions — including climbing on St. Nick's knee for a photo and a gift request. That's no longer an option, and even the inspiration for Miracle on 34th Street, Macy's, has made waves by nixing in-store Santas at its New York City flagship for the first time in 159 years in favor of an online-only experience.
Want to safely take a photo with Santa? Click on the below video to place Santa in your home!
"Some [Santas] have had to sacrifice their entire season because, let's face it, by very definition our demographic is generally in the most at-risk category every year, for even the common cold," Santa Ric Erwin, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas, tells Yahoo Life of the challenges facing his community this Christmas due to COVID-19. "We are, by dint of our age, or underlying medical conditions, among the most threatened individuals every year [for illness]."
Erwin — also known as the "Singin' Santa" — was involved in a since-nixed campaign proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services to get an early COVID-19 vaccine out to Santa performers in a bid to save Christmas and promote said vaccine to the general public. While that didn't pan out, and a vaccine still hasn't been rolled out in the United States, Erwin is heartened by the creative lengths his fellow Santas are going to in order to keep the season merry and bright at a time when people need it most.
"We're not going to cancel Christmas this year," he says. "We're just going to find Plan B, C, D and E so that we can still meet the needs of as many of our guests and clients as we can during the Christmas season."
Read on — and watch the video above — to see what that looks like for Erwin and other Santas who are determined that the "ho ho ho" must go on.
As Atlanta's "Real Black Santa," D Sinclair is accustomed to having his holiday appearances start booking up as early as July. This year, though, he won't be doing any in-person events, pivoting instead to virtual visits through JingleRing, a service set up by the creators of Atlanta's Santa Fantastical to safely connect families with Santas and Mrs. Clauses over Zoom. Sinclair tells Yahoo Life that it's an opportunity for kids to be with Santa without leaving the house — and also loop in distant relatives who may not normally get to enjoy the Santa experience.
"Say Mom and Dad are here in the Atlanta area, and Grandma is in California, and the paternal grandparents are in Florida, or say Dad's away in the military, all of us can be on the same call at any given time," he says of the virtual calls, which feature a festive background and can include storytime as well as photo and video keepsakes. JingleRing also offers the option of a prerecorded message, and families can choose between a white or Black Santa or Mrs. Claus, request a faith-based message or make arrangements for a child who has special needs or uses American Sign Language.
"It's not what I expected for the season, but kids are still being able to smile and see Santa," Sinclair says, adding that it's also a chance for him to pass on the "true meaning of Christmas," even from a screen.
D Sinclair, "The Real Black Santa" in Atlanta, is doing virtual visits in light of the pandemic. (Photo: Courtesy of Real Black Santa)
But while he appreciates the flexibility the virtual visits give him, he's eager to get back in his chair.
"I hope it's not the new norm, because I enjoy having the kids in front of me," says Sinclair. "I enjoy having the kids talk with me. I enjoy seeing the Santa Christmas list in hand … I've been collecting those for over 19 years. That I truly will miss, that personal touch of being around the children and seeing their smiles and watching their facial expressions change right in front of you. It's a beautiful thing. But it's still the holiday and it's still about celebrating the birth of Christ, so I think it's still going to be OK."
Other virtual visit options this year include live sessions through the retailer Sam's Club, StoryFile's Ask Santa!, billed as the first AI Santa experience, and Santa's Club, which includes a personal video chat invitation sent "from the North Pole."
In-store snow globes and "igloos"
Like Sinclair, Santa Keith Eldridge will for the most part be doing virtual visits in lieu of the private parties and other in-person events that typically account for 90 percent of his business. That's largely due to concerns about COVID-19 and a reduction in gatherings, of course, but also various state guidelines. As a Manchester, N.H., resident, Eldridge says he's used to zipping around New England for his appearances, but with neighboring states like Vermont and Massachusetts calling for visitors to quarantine, that's no longer feasible and he's had to decline some gigs.
"Last year a good amount of my visits were down in Massachusetts, but this year I will offer the option of virtual or pass along the lead to another Santa who is in the area who is able to visit them," Eldridge says. "I want everyone to remain safe this holiday season. Should that mean I have to turn down doing visits, then that is just the way it will have to be."
But the Santa is seeing a couple of his retail clients stick to their traditional holiday plans — with a 2020 twist. One event will be made into a drive-through Santa experience, with him greeting cars as they pass through. The other is an in-person appearance which will see him swap out his usual bench in favor of a protective "igloo" with a clear plastic front and sides, which he plans to jazz up with festive decorations. It will allow him to connect with kids in person, but it won't be without some logistical flaws, he notes.
"Those coming to visit will need to wear masks, which will be a challenge in hearing what the more timid are saying as we talk," he says. "Photos will be a slight challenge as well. There will be no sitting on Santa's knee, and with the plastic, a camera flash could ruin the picture."
Many Santas, including the "Seattle Santa" pictured here, will be sitting in plastic snow globes or "igloos" in order to ensure social distancing. (Photo: David Ryder/Getty Images)
But fake igloos and similar snow globe set-ups have become a common workaround for events and retailers looking to maintain some semblance of the traditional North Pole photo op. The hunting and fishing retailer Bass Pro Shops has installed acrylic barrier screens (dubbed the "Magic Santa Shield") and required temperature checks for its reservations-only Santa's Wonderland, cleaned regularly by "Santa's Sanitization Squad." Simon Property Group, the largest mall operator in the United States, has partnered with the Cherry Hill photo experience program for its socially distanced shoots, which will follow COVID-19 guidelines requiring face coverings for Santas, staffers and all guests aged 2 and up; temperature screenings for Santa; disinfection of Santa's suit between shifts; a ban on sitting on Santa's lap and other risk-mitigating measures.
And Brookfield Properties, the country's second biggest mall operator, told CNN Business earlier this year that 134 out of its 150 malls would have in-person, but contactless, Santa experiences, which require masks for both Santa and his young visitors in states with mask mandates. In some cases, Santa will be seated at a distance behind a giant photo frame, or within a large inflatable snow globe.
Eldridge is also wearing a mask this holiday season.
"I have purchased masks that are larger in size to work with beards and are made with Christmas-themed fabric," he says. "This way I can keep myself and others safe per all mandates. End of the day for me, it is all about bringing a smile to everyone's faces and a bit of happiness into their lives."
Longtime professional entertainer Ric Erwin began his Santa career when his wife volunteered him to wear a red suit for a holiday charity event ("I know where there's a fat man with nothing better to do," she's said to have told her fellow organizers). But, for the first time since 2002, the Southern California-based performer has canceled his event bookings and told clients, "this is the year Santa's lap will remain at the North Pole."
Instead, he'll be taking part in Santa The Experience, which he describes as an immersive, interactive tour of the North Pole culminating in a virtual visit with the big man himself.
"Virtual visitation is going to play a significant part in Christmas moving forward," Erwin predicts. "Even after the pandemic is a memory in our rearview mirror, it's going to be continually advantageous to have people from different parts of the country be able to join in the Christmas family photo event."
Macy's — long billed as "The Home of Santa Claus" — is also taking its festivities online, creating a Santaland at Home virtual experience that'll include a selfie with St. Nick.
Why 2020 needs Santa
While the performers Yahoo spoke with are exploring different ways to safely spread Christmas joy this year, they all agree that Santa Claus has taken on new significance.
"This is going to be the year that Christmas is needed more by the American psyche than it has been conceivably since the depths of the Great Depression or the darkest hours of World War II," says Erwin.
"This year is definitely the worst in anyone's memory, and if there's any hope for ending the year on anything resembling a good note, it's going to mean Christmas, and it's going to mean the Claus performers."
"I think people are looking to find a little more joy, and Christmas is always the season of joy," agrees Sinclair.
And while Eldridge notes that "this season is going to be a rough one," he points out that "the advantage we have with it being 2020 is there are now so many ways we can still be together." He also takes comfort in the festive decorations he's seen pop up early, and the cheerful reactions he and his car — topped with a tree, with a vanity license plate reading "SLEIGH" — have received.
"Keeping the spirit of Christmas alive even in a year as tough as this isn't all that difficult," he says. "People want to be happy and find some joy ... The spirit of Christmas and the optimism that comes along with it are very much alive and well. I just help to make sure it spreads as far and wide as it possibly can."
—Video produced by Nurys Castillo
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I've worked with business and personalities large and small over the years, who have a large focus on social media audience building. This is fantastic – but don't forget to build an email list!
I recently gave some advice to a musician I know, about how he should build a larger audience and engage with them better. I follow him on a couple of social platforms, and I see that he is building a strong following. Yet there's an activity he seems to have missed – that is, continuously build an email list.
At the moment, there seems to be a big focus on vanity metrics out there. The average punter is asking how large can you build your social media following? The issue with too much focus on followers and connections, and not enough on actual engagement, means these people may end up left behind.
Your email list subscribers are something you've earned, and have control over. Unlike your social media audience, which is very much a 'rented crowd'. Let me explain in more detail why it's imperative you build an email list.
Social media is fantastic; I am not suggesting you should take your focus off this channel. However, to ensure better engagement with your audience, you'll want to include email in the mix; here are seven compelling reasons why you should build an email list.
Unlike social platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, you aren't sharing your subscriber data with services that sometimes have dubious privacy policies. Remember, these platforms are in the business of selling advertising.
Add to this, you could lose access to your account at any time, even though if you play by the rules, it's unlikely. If you read the Terms of Service for Facebook and Twitter, you'll find that your account can be terminated at their sole discretion. That's a scary concept if you've spent money and lots of time, building that audience.
Sending an email ensures you cut through the noise better, than posting on a crowded social media channel, such as Twitter.
Emails tend to get opened more (see below), read for longer, and are less likely to be clashing with similar messages at the same moment.
The issue with social networks, is that your followers are in one big list. If you build an email list, you can also segment your audience by anything you wish to define them by.
If you can segment your subscribers, then you can email them more appropriate messages. If I have bought your album, I may want to hear about gigs in my hometown. If I have bought a ticket to a concert, I'm likely to be interested in your new album.
The footer of every email should also be used to promote your social media channels, to encourage subscribers to join you in the social ecosystem.
You can't personalise a message to your audience on social, without hitting each audience member one on one, which is laborious and generally frowned upon.
Email allows you to personalise with whatever merge data you have available. Want to email a thanks to me (and every other person) who bought a ticket to your concert? Easy!
Email has a far better open rate, than the chances of a followers seeing your social media post, organically. Social@Ogilvy reports the average Facebook page has a 2% organic reach. In a recent Mailchimp report, it showed artists have an average 27.12% open rate for emails.
If you want to reach more people from a single post, then email will give a 14 times better return.
Whilst email isn't free, and social media organic posts are, the challenge is trying to be visible to most of your audience. Statistics show a 2-8% of Facebook followers may see your latest status message. They want you to spend $20-$200 on promoting that post to your followers, making the platform nearly a pay-per-post business.
If you build an email list, you can enjoy a 25%+ open rate, and it will only cost you a few cents per subscriber or less, to reach their inbox.
4.24% of email subscribers will purchase, versus 0.59% of social media contacts.
If you have someone's email address, this means you can use this data to connect with them on many social platforms. You can also use this to display an ad, specific to your subscribers.
For example, Facebook advertising has a custom audiences feature, which means you can display a specific ad for your subscribers, where Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to send a connection request based on an email list.
You want to link up all your active social profiles back to a website, and have that website link back to the different social platforms that you are active on. Think of it as your own small network.
This means that social media followers can visit your website and join your email list, and website visitors can find the appropriate social platform for them to follow you on. See my article, The Complete Guide on How to Use Twitter for Content Marketing for further tips on social media.
Say I find you on Instagram. I don't use Instagram daily, whereas I do use Twitter a few times a day. I can click your profile link, find your website and then see you're on twitter, and Bingo! I follow you on the social platform I prefer.
If you don't have a large website, or you are in the early stages of building your own personal brand (such as a musician in this example), you want to ensure you have a clear primary and secondary focus when people visit your website.
This quick sketch below shows how a single page could work for you. Have a photo of yourself, a short biography with contact details, a prominent email subscribe form, as well as links to various social platforms.
There are a truckload of different methods to encourage visitors to subscribe to your email list. An often used technique (especially for musicians, writers and creators) is a freebie for signing up; in the musician example this could be an MP3 track off a previous album, the chance to win tickets to a concert, discount merchandise or more.
Successful digital strategy should always include an activity to build an email list – this helps protect you from the rising costs and dropping engagement rates on social media, and allows you to be better prepared for longer term success.
Now that you understand that email is a vital component of your digital marketing, get cracking, and build that email list and engage better with your audience.
That's an awesome article! Its true the main thing I see is that its easier to engage more with the customer or potential clients through social media! Make sure your social media strategy game on fire!


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← 44 Senators Tell Obama To Do Israel's Bidding
Pro-Divestment Presbyterians Win By Losing →
Presbyterians Next Up for Divestment Vote
Posted on June 29, 2012	by wallwritings
(Two Israeli soldiers guard Palestinian children in Hebron.)
Jimmy Carter wrote a New York Times op-ed piece this week, A Cruel and Unusual Record, which states flatly:
"The United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.
Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation's violation of human rights has extended. This development began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been sanctioned and escalated by bipartisan executive and legislative actions, without dissent from the general public.
As a result, our country can no longer speak with moral authority on these critical issues."
Carter's focus is on "moral authority". This is the same authority that must, in all cases, motivate the nation's churches.
Less than a week after the publication of Carter's powerful call for "moral authority", the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., a major US Protestant denomination, meets in Pittsburgh for its General Assembly. During the week of June 30-July 7, delegates will conduct church business, develop church policy, and consider action on moral issues.
One of those issues is whether or not the Presbyterian Church's investment portfolios should divest from three U.S. corporations which support, with their products, Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The Presbyterian General Assembly follows a similar national meeting of the United Methodist Church, where the same issue was presented to delegates attending the denomination's quadrennial General Conference. The Methodists chose to continue their relationship to the occupation, rejecting a divestment resolution.
The Methodists did advocate a boycott of Israeli products produced in occupied areas. This action, however, did not have the specificity of withdrawing investment of the denomination's own funds from the occupation.
For the next week, delegates to the 2012 Presbyterian Church General Assembly will have their opportunity to take their own moral stand on occupation, by voting for or against the conduct of three US corporations, Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions, the same trio that escaped Methodist divestment.
Only a few of the delegates, or most likely, none of them, will recall votes taken, or not taken, in the 1923 and 1924 Presbyterian General Assemblies.
Any delegate who did look back to 1923 and 1924, would be reminded that each of their votes will be recalled in history as a personal "moral authority" decision.
It was 87 years ago, at the 1924 Presbyterian GA meeting in Indianapolis, that GA delegates awaited the result of an investigation of one of their most prominent preachers, Harry Emerson Fosdick. (pictured here).
Ordained a Baptist, Fosdick had been called in 1915 to preach in the pulpit of New York City's First Presbyterian Church. Fosdick continued as a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and agreed to preach at First Presbyterian with the understanding that he would have only preaching duties there.
On May 21, 1922, during the height of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy, which involved, among other issues, the evolution-creationism conflict, Fosdick peached a pro-modernist sermon, Shall the Fundamentalists Win? In his sermon, Fosdick, by then a leading modernist proponent, insisted that the bible was not to be taken literally, but was rather, a record of the unfolding of God's actions.
The 1923 General Assembly ordered an investigation of Fosdick's "views". When it became a strong probability that delegates to the 1924 GA would censure Fosdick after the commission's investigation, he resigned from First Presbyterian and returned to his own Baptist fellowship. He was immediately called to the pastorate of the New York Park Avenue Baptist church, where John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was a member.
Rockefeller, one of the world's richest men, provided funding to construct the non-denominational Riverside Church in the Columbia University neighborhood, which still stands as one of the nation's most significant religious centers. When the church building was completed in October, 1930, Fosdick became its preacher, a position from which he preached, lectured, wrote books, and became one of the major Protestant voices of the 20th century.
Fosdick also wrote the words for a hymn which became a rousing liberal Protestant rallying call, God of Grace and God of Glory.
Any delegate who reflects back on Fosdick's period of service as a Presbyterian preacher, should take a careful look at the opening line of the fourth verse of that hymn, words that should resonate with General Assembly delegates. That verse begins:
"Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore."
The vote between investment and divestment by the Pittsburgh General Assembly will involve a decision on whether or not the Presbyterian Church will continue its financial support of Israel's occupation. From Fosdick's perspective, whose sermon on fundamentalism ended his career as a Presbyterian preacher, if there is an evil we deplore out there, we should never resign ourselves to it.
It is hard not to conclude that Fosdick would have vigorously opposed a permanent military-enforced occupation of another people. He would certainly have been appalled at the story that appeared in the Guardian newspaper a few days before the 2012 GA opened.
The story involved a delegation of eminent British lawyers who reported to the Foreign Office their findings from a trip to the West Bank and Israel.
The report concluded that Israel treats every Palestinian child "as a potential terrorist". This belief, the report notes, may be leading to a "spiral of injustice". It also "breaches international law in Israel's treatment of child detainees in military custody".
The nine-strong delegation, led by the former high court judge Sir Stephen Sedley and including the UK's former attorney-general Lady Scotland, found that "undisputed facts" pointed to at least six violations of the UN convention on the rights of the child, to which Israel is a signatory. It was also in breach of the fourth Geneva convention in transferring child detainees from the West Bank to Israeli prisons, the delegation said.
Its report, Children in Military Custody, released Tuesday, June 26, was based on a visit to Israel and the West Bank last September funded and facilitated by the Foreign Office and the British consulate in Jerusalem.
Pictures like the one above, and distributing findings of the mistreatment of Palestinian children, provide a troubling background against which one segment of the GA Presbyterian delegates will attempt to make their case against divestment by promoting "investment" in the Palestinian economy. That case is on shaky moral ground.
As a start, investment in an occupier's prison economy sanctions an illegal occupation, which is immoral and evil at its core.
Those church bodies that refuse to divest from Israel's occupation support Israel's oppressive treatment of the prisoners of that occupation. They are also failing in their moral duty to confront the American public and the American government with a prophetic proclamation that, as Jimmy Carter wrote in the New York Times, we have since September 11, 2001, "extended our nation's violation of human rights".
Israel's occupation began long before 9/11. Since 9/11, the occupation has increased in its brutality, its size and its unrelenting mistreatment of the Palestinian people. The occupation is a prime example of the violation of human rights described by Carter, who does not mention Israel, since his Times essay is focused on his own government.
There is no question in my mind, however, that Israel, supported by its American lobby allies and its Zionist Israel-firsters in the American media, government, education circles and the churches, has served as a role model for the American government.
As a result, a small Middle Eastern nation, obsessed with "terrorism" and masters of political spin, has successfully led a world superpower to abandon what Carter properly describes as its "role as the global champion of human rights".
It is not as though the Presbyterian General Assembly is alone in debating how it should confront the occupation. Secular bodies have moved in rapid succession on the eve of the Presbyterian General Assembly, to distance themselves from further financial involvement in the occupation.
This week the Rachel Corrie Foundation on Socially Responsible Investment, reported:
Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) removed Caterpillar from its World Socially Responsible Index, a list that socially responsible investment (SRI) funds use to determine their investments.
This was followed by a decision by TIAA-CREF to divest "its socially responsible fund, the Social Choice Fund, of the Caterpillar stock held, worth over 73 million dollars." A month earlier, $900,000 of Caterpillar stock was dumped by the Friends Fiduciary Corporation (FFC), the financial arm of the Quakers.
For those of us who do not follow such matters closely (unless you have a teacher or a librarian in the family), TIAA-CREF is described by Wikipedia as a "financial services organization that is the leading retirement provider for people who work in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields."
Further support for a decision to divest by the Presbyterians came in a personal letter addressed to "All Commissioners and Advisory Delegates 220th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)". The letter was signed by a long list of Palestinian Christians in the U.S. and in the Middle East.
The letter begins:
We, the undersigned Palestinian Christians, write to express our strong support for those Presbyterians urging the church to divest from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions, companies that profit from and enable Israel's military occupation of our land and violations of our human rights.
This past June witnessed the 45th anniversary of the start of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. Since that time, Israel has denied millions of Palestinians living in the occupied territories the most basic civil and political rights, while relentlessly colonizing our land to build Jewish-only settlements in contravention of international law.
In the process, Israel has been systematically destroying the two- state solution that for decades has been the cornerstone of international efforts to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Somewhere, I like to think the spirit of Harry Emerson Fosdick is joining in this chorus to encourage the Presbyterian General Assembly delegates to take the human rights path called for by former President Jimmy Carter.
And just maybe, former Presbyterian preacher Fosdick will lead the Presbyterians in singing, God of Grace and God of Glory.
**** *** *** *** ***
Readers who want to receive updates on the activities of this year's General Assembly, will find telephone reports available each day. The reports will be provided by Presbyterian News Service Coordinator Jerry L. Van Marter, who will recap each day's events and decisions, beginning Saturday, June 30.
To reach the VoiceLine reports ― a partnership between PNS and Presbytel, the denomination's toll-free telephone information service ― call 502-569-5000, extension 2012 or toll-free at 800-728-7228, extension 2012. A five-minute recap of the entire Assembly will be available shortly after adjournment at noon on Saturday, July 7.
The picture above of a young Harry Emerson Fosdick, is from Wikipedia. The photograph of soldiers and children from Hebron, appeared in the Guardian and is from Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA.
This entry was posted in Middle East, Middle East Politics, Presbyterian Church USA, Religious Faith, United Methodist Church and tagged human-rights, presbyterian general assembly. Bookmark the permalink.
10 Responses to Presbyterians Next Up for Divestment Vote
Noushin Framke says:
Thanks for this very important historical perspective. We read it 100 miles from Pittsburgh on our way to our General Assembly. May the God of Grace and God of Glory grant us wisdom to do the right thing and vote with the victims of occupation.
B. Sadie Bailey says:
thanks again for another informative and well written article! your voice is a sane and heartful voice amid the hype, spin, and polarization. that picture says it all. the fear in these children's faces will soon turn to hatred, and sadly, for good reason.
adventa says:
Thank you, Jim — you are one of very few prophetic voices about this horrible issue. Episcopalians need to step up to this particular plate- — seriously! "On thy people pour thy power" to "cure thy children's warring madness" — this needs to end this time, in our time, with the moral authority of all of us crying out STOP, ENOUGH.
Colleen Jersild says:
Thank you, thank you.
William Gepford says:
Thank you for pointing out not only the great Fosdicks's position on human rights (may God rest his soul) but also how that relates to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. I have been speaking out on this horrible occupation since the early 1950s, when I first went to Lebanon. I saw how the occupation has torn Lebananese society apart, killed many innocents in refugee camps (including children), and killed many of our brave military in their barracks. It also killed a former president of the American University of Beirut where I was a member of its adimistration during 1961-1963. All of these instances were a message to our government that our Middle East Foreign policy was unacceptable. While on the staff of AUB I was fortunate to get acquainted with Dr. Charles Malik, a member of the faculty. He said, during one conversation, "that we Lebanese, and other Arabs, have always welcomed Americans as teachers, scientists, human rights promotors, to our country. Now (1963) it seems that Americans are exporting arms and destruction rather than peace-making programs." One remembers that Malik was the ambassador to the U.S., and a signer of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration. It has been most unfortunate that Israel always labels our protests of the occupation as anti-Semitic, when it is concerned with human rights and peace.
As a retired Presbyterian clergy I still pray that our GA meeting in Pittsburgh will do what has to be done to stop the occupation and move on to peace and justice issues, for the sake of both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the region at large.
Blessings on you Jim.
Sheila Samples says:
Great piece, James. It seems to me that any church that even hesitates in doing the right thing has to be one in which God has left the building…
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Presbyterians-Next-Up-for-by-James-Wall-120629-960.html
As a Presbyterian Palestinian-American, I thank you ever so much for your amazing stamina, brilliant insights, and firm stand for justice and peace for all.. It is absolutely critical that our Presbyterian church stands firm on the BDS issue and leads the pack of those who believe in acting on their faith. Refraining to act NOW is nothing short of disowning the core of our Christianity.
Awad
Judith Remy Leder says:
Thank you. Your columns are a great help to those of us–like me–just beginning our study of the Israel/Palestine conflict.
wallwritings says:
In addition to oped news.com, noted above in the comment by Sheila Samples, three other web sites have published this posting.
Here are the links:
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/07/01/presbyterians-next-up-for-divestment-vote/
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2012/07/presbyterians-next-up-for-divestment-vote/
http://whatreallyhappened.com/content/presbyterians-next-divestment-vote
Herbert & Lorraine Weier says:
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SATURDAY'S REPORT THAT JUSTICE WILL HAVE PREVAILED AT GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND THAT DIVESTMENT WILL HAVE BECOME A FACT FOR OUR DENOMINATION
Herbert & Lorraine Weier, Fort Wayne, Indiana


text:
Arts Home > Economics Home > Faculty and Staff > Sessionals > Richard Kleer
Richard Kleer
PhD (University of Toronto)
E-mail: richard.kleer@uregina.ca
Money; Banking; Public Finance; Financial Crises
I have been a member of the Economics Department at the University of Regina since 1990. I obtained my Ph.D. in Economic History from the University of Toronto in 1992.
My teaching interests lay in the areas of economic institutions, financial crises, the macroeconomic impact of major wars, and writing for economists. I have offered courses in all these areas: ECON 234 (Financial and Monetary Crises), ECON 235 (International Economic Institutions), ECON 360 (Economics of War) and ECON 280 (Writing for Economists). And perhaps my favourite course to teach is ECON 100 (Introduction to Economic issues), for the scope it offers to show students how apparently dry matters of economic policy have fascinating political and moral dimensions.
My research focuses on the connections between money, banking, financial markets and public finance in early-modern Britain. I am interested specifically in periods of financial or monetary crisis, when it becomes easier to catch sight of the subterranean forces at work also in regular times. I have argued for example that the celebrated South Sea Bubble of 1720 (the English-speaking world's first major financial crisis) ultimately derived from a quiet but intense struggle between the South Sea Company and the Bank of England for dominance in the banking sector. Similarly, in my study of the financial crisis connected with England's Great Recoinage of 1696, I explored the role of two intersecting power struggles, one within the administration and the other between the Bank of England and a rival banking project dominated by London's goldsmith-bankers. Currently I am investigating the dynamics of British public finance during the French Revolutionary war. During that period there were two major financial crises in Britain: one in 1793 and the other in 1796-97. My focus is on the stresses and strains that emerged in the London money market during these crises and the numerous and wide-ranging proposals for monetary reform to which they gave rise. I am particularly intrigued by the many, often hair-brained, schemes for increasing the amount of paper currency in circulation and more sober projects for enhancing the liquidity of public securities such as government bonds and Exchequer bills.
My publications are as follows:
"When first we practice to deceive: an alternative account of the South Sea Bubble". In Stefano Condorelli and Daniel Menning (eds.), Boom, bust, and beyond: new perspectives on the 1720 stock market bubble (Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2019), pp. 119-38.
Money, politics and power: banking and public finance in wartime England, 1694-96 (London and New York: Routledge, 2017).
"'A new species of mony': British Exchequer bills, 1707-11", Financial History Review 22.2 (August 2015):179-203.
"Riding a wave: the Company's role in the South Sea Bubble". Economic History Review 68.1 (February 2015):264-85.
"'The folly of particulars': the political economy of the South Sea Bubble". Financial History Review 19.2 (August 2012):175-97.
"'Fictitious cash': English public finance and paper money, 1689-97". In Christopher Fauske and Ivar McGrath (eds.), Money, power and print: interdisciplinary studies on the British financial revolution (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2008), pp. 70-114
"Smith on teleology: a reply to Alvey". History of Economics Review 40 (Fall 2004):145-49
"'The ruine of their Diana': Lowndes, Locke and the bankers." History of Political Economy36.3 (Fall 2004):533-56.
"Reading the Wealth of Nations in context: rethinking the canon of mid-18th century British political economy." In Evelyn Forget and Sandra Peart (eds.), Reflections on the classical canon in economics: essays in honor of Samuel Hollander (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 125-147.
"The role of teleology in Adam Smith's Wealth of nations." History of Economics Review 31 (Winter 2000):14-29.
"Lucy Barbara (Bradby) Hammond (1873-1961)". In Robert Dimand, Mary Ann Dimand, and Evelyn Forget (eds.), A biographical dictionary of women economists (Aldershot: Elgar, 2000), pp. 204-209.
"Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)". In Robert Dimand, Mary Ann Dimand, and Evelyn Forget (eds.), A biographical dictionary of women economists (Aldershot: Elgar, 2000), pp. 261-280.
"The decay of trade: the politics of economic theory in eighteenth-century Britain." Journal of the History of Economic Thought 18 (1996):319-46.
"Final causes in Adam Smith's Theory of moral sentiments." Journal of the History of Philosophy 33 (1995):275-300. Reprinted in Knud Haakonssen (ed.) Adam Smith (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1998), pp. 139-65.
"Adam Smith on the morality of the pursuit of fortune." Economics and Philosophy 9 (1993):289-95.
I also wrote articles on the "The 1696 Recoinage", "Bank of England founded" and "The South Sea Bubble" for The Literary Encyclopedia, an online reference work for university students and scholars.


text:
Q: Create a custom ranking website I want to create a website that does all this,
1)Pull livestats of sport's player,
 tally it with user's prediction.
rank sport's player based on the
outcome of user's prediction,
and also rank users based on their
prediction's outcome.
im a newbie to coding and web development,how can i get this done?

A: First, select your technologies to be used and your server(s) to be used, then watch videos, read tutorials about the server(s), technologies used and when you feel you are ready, write some code. By the way, if you are a newbie to algorithmic thinking as well, then try to learn a few things about algorithms, complexity, data structures as well.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Cissarz ist der Familienname von:

 Arnold Cissarz (1900–1973), deutscher Mineraloge, Lagerstättenkundler und Hochschullehrer
 Johann Vincenz Cissarz (1873–1942), deutscher Maler, Graphiker, Zeichner, Innenarchitekt, Plakat- und Buchkünstler und Gestalter von Kunsthandwerk

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Fishing in the Florida Keys has been excellent! My client and great friend Sam pictured below with a slam [bonefish, permit & tarpon]. And Shaily with her first fish ever - a permit at that! Have a great week to all.


Statistical data on the success of crowdfunding campaigns shows a strong correlation between the amount of media coverage that a crowdfunding campaign receives and the amount of money the campaign raises.
Hundreds of campaigns launching every day on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. In such a crowded field, it is not easy to stand out and get attention. Smart crowdfunders explore all marketing and PR channels. This includes direct outreach to relevant industry journalists and bloggers.
With Krowdster's Media List service, you can order custom compiled, hyper-targeted lists, without having to spend thousands of dollars to get access to a reliable data source. Compiling lists of influential members of the media, journalists, bloggers and other influencers used to be time-consuming and costly- with Krowdster it is easy as logging into the app and accessing the relevant data.


text:
Search BA Catalogue
About the BA
Offsites
Sinnari House
Khadija Palace
Embassies of Knowledge
Especially for
Home / Projects & Activities / The BA Embassies of Knowledge
The BA Embassies of Knowledge
• The Embassies of Knowledge (EoK) program builds on the efforts of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) to serve as a center of excellence in the production and dissemination of knowledge by creating a physical network for outreach across Egypt.
• The EoK program was launched in 2014 with the aim of establishing Embassies in various Egyptian universities and research centers equipped to expand BA services and programs across Egypt.
• Through these Embassies, students and other visitors are able to access the BA rich selection of electronic resources and watch live lectures, seminars, and cultural events from the BA and other Embassies. At the same time, EoK cooperate with different BA Departments to organize various cultural, scientific, and artistic activities which take into consideration the needs and interests of users in every Governorate.
• As part of its services, EoK develops a monthly program of activities and programs, rooted in the fields of culture, arts and sciences, that strive to raise the standards of achievement and motivation, as well as promote the concept of knowledge in its broadest sense, amongst students across Egypt. As such, EoK work not only to empower young people to become better learners, but also to be creators, inventors, teachers, community leaders and global citizens.
We work with:
• Researchers
• Students
• University professors and employees
We strive to:
• Represent the BA and promote its objectives in all Egyptian Governorates.
• Develop the research skills of students in Egyptian universities.
• Enhance young people's capacities for original ideas and action.
• Motivate self-learning among university students, and build their skills in all cultural, scientific, and knowledge fields.
• Promote and preserve Egypt's cultural heritage through the organization of interactive workshops in literary, artistic, and scientific fields.
We provide access to:
• All the scientific databases and journals available at the BA, which cover a vast range of subjects in all human sciences and knowledge.
• The BA Digital Assets Repository (DAR). Through EoK, patrons are able to review the full content of the digitized books available instead of the 5% viewer access allocated online.
• The full spectrum of BA publications.
The BA Establishes a New Embassy of Knowledge at Alamein International University
Dr. Moustafa Elfeki and Admiral Osama Rabie Inaugurate the Suez Canal Embassy of Knowledge
The BA Embassies of Knowledge… Remarkable Activities in Spite of the Pandemic
Memory of the Arab World
Memory of Modern Egypt
Reissuing the Classics of the Islamic Heritage
Memory of the Suez Canal


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A single mode fiber is used in this study, in a Y-coupler mode; the mirror tip of which is coated with bromothymol blue (BTB), homogeneously mixed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix. The setup operated at 1550 nm, and was used to sense extremely small quantities of ammonia gas, at room temperature. The sensor is able to detect ammonia in the range of 1.5 ppm to 150 ppm; with observed sensitivity in terms of wavelength shift of 0.7 nm. The sensor showed excellent reversibility with fast response and recovery time of the order of few seconds. The possible interaction of dye with ammonia was studied and compared with chloroform.


Leaders, activists, and musicians have all been killed by an assassin's hand over the centuries.
November 22, 2013, 11:33 a.m.
Nov. 22 marks the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. That death stunned the world and caused an outpouring of public grief unprecedented in modern United States history.
Some even say that the killing of the 35th president altered the course of history, and that the United States would not have become embroiled in the Vietnam War had he lived.
Et tu, Brute? Despite having lived more than 2,000 years ago, Julius Caesar remains one of the most famous leaders to have met a brutal end. The "dictator in perpetuity" of the Roman Empire died on the Ides of March in 44 B.C. Senators Brutus and Cassius led a gang of senators called the Liberators and stabbed the leader to death outside the Theater of Pompey. Their motive? They feared Caesar planned to do away with the Senate and create a dictatorship. Of course, once they got Caesar out of the way, they set up a tyrannical government themselves.
Mohandas K. or "Mahatma" Gandhi led India's successful bid for independence from Great Britain from the 1920s to the 1940s. Instead of relying on a revolution, Gandhi used nonviolence to accomplish this feat. But on Jan. 30, 1948, Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who opposed Gandhi's nonviolent approach and perceived favoritism towards Muslims, fired three shots at the leader at the Birla House in New Delhi, killing him. Millions of people came to honor the leader in his funeral procession.
Martin Luther King Jr. was the superstar of the civil rights movement and, like Gandhi, relied on nonviolence and civil disobedience to push for desegregation, voting rights and other civil rights for African Americans. Despite King's steadfast commitment to nonviolence, his opponents, mostly Southern whites opposed to desegregation and enfranchisement for African-Americans, weren't so restrained. White supremacists orchestrated bombings, beatings and murders to maintain the status quo, and King eventually became one of the victims. He was shot on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. Authorities convicted James Earl Ray, a racist petty criminal, for the assassination, but for decades, rumors have swirled that Ray was part of a government plot to kill King.
Five years later, on June 5, 1968, JFK's younger brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated while campaigning for the presidency. He had just won the California presidential primary and was leaving the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, when Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian Christian, opened fire and killed the presidential hopeful because of his support for Israel.
Though most assassinations are political, some killings seem to have little political rationale. John Lennon, one of the world's most famous musicians and a former member of the Beatles, was entering his home at The Dakota in New York City when he was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman on Dec. 8, 1980. At his trial, Chapman initially planned to plead insanity but later changed his plea to guilty, saying it was the will of God.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, wasn't exactly a well-loved personality, and was described by historians as suspicious, hysterical and unpopular. Still, he did accomplish one stunning feat: His death inadvertently launched the First World War. The duke was shot on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by Gavrilo Princip, a member of a Yugoslav independence movement known as Young Bosnia and an assassin for The Black Hand, a secret society formed by members of the Serbian Army. Austria-Hungary believed the Serbian military was involved in the plot and issued an ultimatum, then invaded Serbia when part of the ultimatum was rejected. A tangle of political alliances then swept all the major world powers into the war, leading to millions of deaths.
Malcolm X was one of the most galvanizing political figures of the 1950s and 1960s. He grew up an orphan and spent time in prison, where he became a member of the Nation of Islam. He soon began promoting its ideas. Unlike Dr. King, Malcolm X rejected non-violence as a strategy and advocated for black separatism, saying African-Americans couldn't succeed in a racist society dominated by whites. But when Malcolm X fell out with the Nation of Islam leadership, he became a marked man. Three Nation of Islam members shot and killed the leader on Feb. 21, 1965, while he was giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.


text:
Sugar Molecule Links Red Meat Consumption and Elevated Cancer Risk in Mice
Neu5Gc, a non-human sugar found in red meat, promotes inflammation and cancer progression in rodents
Red meat is rich in Neu5Gc, a non-human sugar found to promote inflammation and cancer progression in rodents.
Heather Buschman
Heather Buschman - hbuschman@ucsd.edu
Scott LaFee - slafee@ucsd.edu
While people who eat a lot of red meat are known to be at higher risk for certain cancers, other carnivores are not, prompting researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine to investigate the possible tumor-forming role of a sugar called Neu5Gc, which is naturally found in most mammals but not in humans.
In a study published in the Dec. 29 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists found that feeding Neu5Gc to mice engineered to be deficient in the sugar (like humans) significantly promoted spontaneous cancers. The study did not involve exposure to carcinogens or artificially inducing cancers, further implicating Neu5Gc as a key link between red meat consumption and cancer.
"Until now, all of our evidence linking Neu5Gc to cancer was circumstantial or indirectly predicted from somewhat artificial experimental setups," said principal investigator Ajit Varki, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Medicine and member of the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. "This is the first time we have directly shown that mimicking the exact situation in humans — feeding non-human Neu5Gc and inducing anti-Neu5Gc antibodies — increases spontaneous cancers in mice."
Varki's team first conducted a systematic survey of common foods. They found that red meats (beef, pork and lamb) are rich in Neu5Gc, affirming that foods of mammalian origin such as these are the primary sources of Neu5Gc in the human diet. The molecule was found to be bio-available, too, meaning it can be distributed to tissues throughout the body via the bloodstream.
The researchers had previously discovered that animal Neu5Gc can be absorbed into human tissues. In this study, they hypothesized that eating red meat could lead to inflammation if the body's immune system is constantly generating antibodies against consumed animal Neu5Gc, a foreign molecule. Chronic inflammation is known to promote tumor formation.
To test this hypothesis, the team engineered mice to mimic humans in that they lacked their own Neu5Gc and produced antibodies against it. When these mice were fed Neu5Gc, they developed systemic inflammation. Spontaneous tumor formation increased fivefold and Neu5Gc accumulated in the tumors.
"The final proof in humans will be much harder to come by," Varki said. "But on a more general note, this work may also help explain potential connections of red meat consumption to other diseases exacerbated by chronic inflammation, such as atherosclerosis and type 2 diabetes.
"Of course, moderate amounts of red meat can be a source of good nutrition for young people. We hope that our work will eventually lead the way to practical solutions for this catch-22."
Study co-authors include Annie N. Samraj, Oliver M. T. Pearce, Heinz Läubli, Alyssa N. Crittenden, Anne K. Bergfeld, Kalyan Banda, Christopher J. Gregg, Andrea E. Bingman, Patrick Secrest, Sandra L. Diaz and Nissi M. Varki, all at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
This research was funded, in part, by the Ellison Medical Foundation, the National Cancer Institute (grant R01CA38701), a Samuel and Ruth Engelberg Fellowship from the Cancer Research Institute and a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship.
Disclosure: Ajit Varki and Nissi Varki are co-founders and have equity interest in SiaMab Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech company with an interest in Neu5Gc and anti-Neu5Gc antibodies. In addition, Ajit Varki is a member of SiaMab Therapeutics, Inc.'s Board of Directors and is a Scientific Advisor to the company. The terms of this arrangement have been reviewed and approved by the University of California, San Diego in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.


text:
"""Delete DAGs APIs."""
import logging

from sqlalchemy import or_

from airflow import models
from airflow.exceptions import DagNotFound
from airflow.models import DagModel, TaskFail
from airflow.models.serialized_dag import SerializedDagModel
from airflow.utils.session import provide_session

log = logging.getLogger(__name__)

@provide_session
def delete_dag(dag_id: str, keep_records_in_log: bool = True, session=None) -> int:
    """
    :param dag_id: the dag_id of the DAG to delete
    :param keep_records_in_log: whether keep records of the given dag_id
        in the Log table in the backend database (for reasons like auditing).
        The default value is True.
    :param session: session used
    :return count of deleted dags
    """
    log.info("Deleting DAG: %s", dag_id)
    dag = session.query(DagModel).filter(DagModel.dag_id == dag_id).first()
    if dag is None:
        raise DagNotFound(f"Dag id {dag_id} not found")

    # Scheduler removes DAGs without files from serialized_dag table every dag_dir_list_interval.
    # There may be a lag, so explicitly removes serialized DAG here.
    if SerializedDagModel.has_dag(dag_id=dag_id, session=session):
        SerializedDagModel.remove_dag(dag_id=dag_id, session=session)

    count = 0

    for model in models.base.Base._decl_class_registry.values():  # noqa pylint: disable=protected-access
        if hasattr(model, "dag_id"):
            if keep_records_in_log and model.__name__ == 'Log':
                continue
            cond = or_(model.dag_id == dag_id, model.dag_id.like(dag_id + ".%"))
            count += session.query(model).filter(cond).delete(synchronize_session='fetch')
    if dag.is_subdag:
        parent_dag_id, task_id = dag_id.rsplit(".", 1)
        for model in TaskFail, models.TaskInstance:
            count += (
                session.query(model).filter(model.dag_id == parent_dag_id, model.task_id == task_id).delete()
            )

    # Delete entries in Import Errors table for a deleted DAG
    # This handles the case when the dag_id is changed in the file
    session.query(models.ImportError).filter(models.ImportError.filename == dag.fileloc).delete(
        synchronize_session='fetch'
    )

    return count

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Author Verna Clay
ROMANCE ON THE RANCH
Finding SOMEWHERE
RED ROCKS TRILOGY (Past, Present, Future)
JOURNEYS OF THE HEART
SHAPELING TRILOGY
ZOE'S SONG (From Shapeling Trilogy)
FRAGILE HEARTS
BIO / BOOKS LIST
RESTORING 'TWEEN TIME (Middlegrade Novella)
Unconventional Series
014 Readers' Favorite International Book Award Contest Gold Medal Winner for Historical Romance!
Brant Samson has fallen on hard times with the death of his beloved wife a year earlier from lung fever. Left with three children, he's desperate to find a mother for them. Ten year old Jenny does her best to care for two year old Ty, and fourteen year old Luke works the ranch with his father, losing himself in dime novels to ease the pain of his mother's passing. Brant's options are limited since eligible women seldom pass through Two Rivers, much less settle in the small Texas town. In desperation, he places a classified advertisement for a mail order bride. Marrying a woman he'll come to know through a newspaper advertisement scares the bejesus out of him, but at this point, he's out of options.
Abigail Mary Vaughn always dreamed of having her own family, but caring for her elderly parents, as well as working as a teacher to help with finances, ended that dream. Her parents are now dead and she's faced with the reality of her lonely existence. After reading Mr. Samson's advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, she garners enough courage to respond. Since she is considered an old maid at the age of thirty-eight, she'll more than likely spend the rest of her life wondering "what if," unless she does something unconventional.
eBook
Luke Samson is a successful writer at the youthful age of twenty-five. His life is proceeding as planned and he has no desire to marry for at least a few years. While dining at a Dallas restaurant, he overhears an intriguing conversation and receives his first look at Angel St. Clair, a woman who will forever change his carefully laid plans. Although she has been blessed with angelic beauty, her heart is shattered. Can Luke not only mend, but completely restore this broken woman?
Angel St. Clair's sole desire is to hire a suitable husband to escort her safely to the bakery she purchased in San Francisco. To that end, she places a classified advertisement for a mail order husband. Her life savings has been used to acquire her own business and she hopes to find, if not happiness, at least contentment after suffering a life of tragedy and heartache.
Jenny Samson, sister of Luke and daughter of Brant, is a gifted artist. She has moved from her country home in Texas to attend Jake Ryder's Academy of Art in New York. She has dreamed of meeting Mr. Ryder, the great artist known as the Painter of Emotions, and when she does, his criticism of her paintings devastates her.
Jake Ryder lost his right arm in a carriage accident. It was the final sorrow in a life of sorrow. Now he lives a lonely existence, rarely leaving his estate. The sweet paintings of Jenny Samson incense him because life is not sweet, nor kind, nor lovely, and he lashes out at the plain country girl during a gallery exhibition of her works. Soon, however, he will discover there is more to Jenny than he ever anticipated.
Joy Ryder feels trapped. She wants to travel and paint the West, just as her father, Jake Ryder, had done at her age. When she expresses her frustration to her Grammy Abby, she is shocked when her grandmother insists that she follow her heart and travel. Arrangements are made and Joy embarks on an adventure that will last over a year. At her final destination, she meets widower Dr. Walker Fleming and his five year old daughter, Misty. Joy is drawn to them and agrees to give the mute child art lessons.
Walker is shocked when a young woman he has never met says that his daughter spoke to her. His little girl has been mute since the death of her mother a year previous. Confounding everything, his wife's Aunt Zena met Miss Ryder while traveling on the same train to Oregon and insists that she is foolish and disrespectful. Walker has yet to see her in that light, but if his daughter did, indeed speak, he desperately needs the lady's help in bringing his child out of the shell she has erected.
Is it possible that Joy will feel a greater calling to help a brokenhearted child and equally brokenhearted father? Or should she continue pursuing a path that had previously been forbidden to women. After all, it's the 1920s and women can vote!
Boxed Set
Cast of Characters
Brant Samson: Widower with three children who advertises for a Mail Order Bride.
Abigail Mary Vaughn: Spinster teacher who answers Brant Samson's ad for a Mail Order Bride.
Luke Samson: Teenage son of Brant in Book One. Grown man and leading character in Book Two.
Angel St. Clair: Widow with secrets who advertises for a Mail Order Husband.
Jenny Samson: Adolescent daughter of Brant in Book One. Grown woman and leading character in Book Three.
Jake Ryder: Artist and founder of Jake Ryder's Academy of Art where Jenny Samson is attending.
Joy Ryder: Daughter of Jake and Jenny Ryder who follows her heart into adventure at the urging of her grandmother, Abigail Samson.
Dr. Walker Flemming: Widower whose young daughter hasn't spoken since witnessing the death of her mother a year earlier.
eBook


text:
Fairytale Fights DLC Treasure Pack Hits PlayStation Network
Bloodthirsty characters and gruesome PvP arenas available to download February 11th.
Updated: 9 May 2012 7:34 pm
Posted: 10 Feb 2010 5:39 pm
Amsterdam/New York - Playlogic Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq OTC: PLGC.OB), an independent worldwide publisher of entertainment software, today announced that starting February 11th, Fairytale Fights fans will be able to download Treasure Pack 1 in the PlayStation Store through the PlayStation Network on PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system. Treasure Pack 1 will be available for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft in the XboxLIVE Marketplace at a later date.
Treasure Pack 1 is the first downloadable pack released for Fairytale Fights, the hack n' slash platform-adventure game developed by Playlogic Game Factory. The pack includes new characters playable in story mode and the new PvP arena's. New characters include:
Bones: a two foot tall calcium lover
Princess Afia: the mysterious princessfrom a sparkly land far far away
Grandma Red: Little Red Riding Hood's grandma
Puss in Boots: everyone's favorite feline
Treasure Pack 1 also features three new awesome arenas to paint red with the blood of your foes! Each arena is carefully designed to test players' combat skills. The new Pvp arenas include:
Rooftop Rumble
Cannon Ball Bay
For more information about Treasure Pack 1 or Fairytale Fights, sign up to get the latest breaking news at www.fairytalefights.com.
Fairytale Fights is rated "M" for Mature by the ESRB.
Follow Fairytale Fights on Twitter, Facebook and Hyves.
Want to see our trailers: Come join us at https://www.youtube.com/playlogicnl.
About Playlogic:
Playlogic Entertainment, Inc. is an independent worldwide publisher of digital entertainment software for consoles, PCs, handhelds, mobile devices, and other digital media platforms. Playlogic publishes and distributes products throughout all available channels, both online and offline. Playlogic are listed on Nasdaq OTC under the ticker symbol "PLGC.OB" and is headquartered in New York, USA and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Playlogic's in-house game development studio "Playlogic Game Factory" is based in Breda (the Netherlands). Playlogic's portfolio includes games developed by Playlogic Game Factory, as well as external studios throughout the world. The Playlogic Game Factory also develops first party titles for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). Playlogic publishes quality games, working with leading technology providers to produce a broad range of digital entertainment from concept to finished product. For more information on Playlogic, please visit www.playlogicgames.com
DeveloperPlaylogic
PublisherPlaylogic
PlatformsPlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360


In March this year I started Bootcamp at AND Digital in their new offices in Covent Garden, London. Walking in I felt like I should be nervous, worried, even scared but as I stepped into the red AND-branded office, I felt…at ease. People were smiling and laughing, there was music playing and a crowd of familiar faces welcomed me. The familiar faces belonged to those who had attended one of the many events that I had been invited to prior to joining. Just a few of these events included AND Chat: AND Digital's popular tech Meetup, evening social events, and even their Christmas Party! This feeling of ease has continued as I have grown within the company and has since been joined by excitement, enthusiasm and a whole host of positive emotions.
Atmosphere – At the time of writing, London has been warm and sunny for over a week (nope, not joking). For office workers, nice weather usually means battling stifling heat in an office with sub-par air conditioning in the grey, white or blue of the corporate world uniform. This week at AND Digital, the same nice weather has meant working on the office terrace in the sunshine, lunchtime frisbee with the team and plentiful offerings of ice cream! The difference in formality affects the entire workplace, with teams able to work hard in a comfortable environment, whilst having fun and being able to enjoy the nice weather instead of dreading it. Another benefit from a more open dress code and relaxed atmosphere is the breaking down of walls. No matter who you are or where you work in the company, you are respected equally every day. The power you have in a meeting is no longer correlated with the price of your designer suit.
Pace – AND Digital is a big believer and practitioner of Agile methodologies; it's what we do. Working in this fashion has been an eye-opening experience after spending my career working with Waterfall development and analysis. Sprints (when potentially releasable increments of work are developed) last between two and four weeks. Teams have a daily stand-up meeting to catch up and work closely together day in, day out. This intense teamwork and short, snappy recurring meetings keep the heartbeat of the project moving and provide a sense of 'controlled urgency' through every sprint. We rarely work long days but somehow more gets done. Instead of heels being dragged out of the lift at 7am and trudging slowly through until 7pm every day, people come in each day with a hop in their step (after a coffee or two!) and are ready to go. It's a much more efficient, sustainable, and enjoyable way of working.
Happiness – One thing that still fascinate me at AND Digital is that people actually love their jobs! A key role at AND Digital belongs to Debbie Martin, our Chief Happiness Officer. Nope, I'm not joking this time either. It is an official title and it is awesome. Debbie's job is to "make you want to come to work in the morning" with a focus on workforce happiness and engagement. AND Digital know that happy people do better work and this dedication to happiness is prominent throughout the company, from the flat organisational structure to the people we hire, the clients we choose, the free fruit, free massages, and too many tasty treats. It's no wonder we won 28th Best Small Company to work for!
A new way of working has been evolving and becoming more prevalent throughout the technology, and other industries. This way of working defies the status quo of coming to work, working hard and going home late, just to come back tired and unmotivated in the morning. It seems that AND Digital have got this new working style just right. Being part of TNW's Top 5 fastest-growing tech companies this year proves that it makes business sense, too.


text:
Oud Leuven: #47 Armenschool voor jongens
VIEW ALL LOCATIONS OF OUD LEUVEN
Name on the map:
d'Aerm Schole knechtiens huys
Armenschool voor jongens
The cartographer placed the school on the main Brusselsestraat, while the school for poor boys was located in a side street that has disappeared.
School for poor boys
According to Leuven historian, Edward van Even, there used to be a school located on a sidestreet of the Brusselsestraat for poor boys.
The school was founded in 1651 by a priest named Antoon Le Pape, in a house on the Tabernakelstraat. Of a 'modest appearance', the building had an inscription on its facade that said:
"DEZE ARME KNECHTKENS
SCHOLE IS GEFONDEERT
ENDE OPGERICHT, IN DEN
JARE 1651, DOOR DEN EERW.
HEER ANTOEN LE PAPE, PRIESTER."
The city council gave the sum of 60 florins per year, to the Oratorian priests to provide the teaching.
With the ban on religious institutions during the French Occupation in 1797, the responsibility was passed to a secular teacher.
The school ceased to exist in 1836.
What's so special about this place?
The Tabernakelstraat
The Tabernakelstraat, also known as 'Tabernakelgang', has now disappeared. It was an alley that linked from Brusselsestraat to the River Dijle. Directly opposite, on the other side of the Brusselsestraat, is the Predikherenstraat – in a way, it was a continuation of the Predikherenstraat to the River Dijle.
In the 14th century, this street was called 'Dekenstraatje'. This was because a Deacon from the Sint-Pieterskerk, Nicolaas van der Spect, used to live there.
During the French Occupation, the invaders changed its name to 'Rue de la Fraternité'.
Note that the road along the river called Amerikalaan is recent. Houses were built all the way to the water on this bank of the river back in the Middle Ages.
The Moutstraat
On the Map of 1649, you can see to the left of the Tabernakelstraat was another street that is linked by a bridge to the other side of the River Dijle, unlike the Tabernakelstraat which stopped at the water.
This was the Moutstraat (Malt Street).
There was certainly a malt mill by the river, which was why the street was known as the 'Gulde Moutstraat' or 'Guldenmouwstraat' (Golden Malt Street) and an inn of the same name existed in the street. Over time, the name evolved into 'Moutmolenstraat' (Malt Mill Street) and later by the 19th century, just 'Moutstraat' (Malt Street).
The Moutstraat extends via a bridge over the river to the Slachtstraat, nowadays Dirk Boutslaan. The stone bridge today is roughly where the older bridge was. Slachtstraat means "Slaughter Street", referring to the slaughterhouses, both open and close, that used to occupy this bank of the river all the way up to the Sint-Pieterskerk, opposite of which the Pensmarkt (Tripe Market) and the Vleeshuis (Meat Market) were located.
At the beginning of the Brusselsestraat, on the left side of the Moutstraat was a house called "T'Wint Ey" (Het Windei – The Bindweed)
On the right, the house was called "Het Audt Wit Peerdt" (Het Oude Witte Paard – The Old White Horse)
The "Het Windei" was of particular importance:
From 1482 to 1615, this was the Monastery of the Unreformed Carmelite Friars (Klooster van de Geschoeide Karmelieten) before they moved to the Ravenstraat.
In 1621, it fell into the hands of the local Commander of the Alden Biesen (in today's Limburg) which set up here the College van de Teutoonse Orde (College of the Teutonic Order), often known as the Duits College (German College).
Under the Austrian Habsburg rule, it became the Royal School for the Children of Military Officers. After the French Occupation, it became a community school for girls. By the early 1900s, it became a nursery and was later closed down by integrating into the Instituut De Wandeleer located on the Lei.
Apparently, in the 15th century, an inn on the Moutstraat called De Stove was open for public bathing.
In 1840, the part of the street that linked to the bridge was privatised by Jan Franciscus Draelents. The bridge was itself led up to a gate above which was written "Estaminet-Logement".
Because of this, the Moutstraat became a close alley like Tabernakelstraat, and it became known as the 'Moutgang' instead.
The school, the Tabernakelstraat and the Moutstraat, together with the whole slaughterhouse quarter, was completely sanitised in the beginning of the 20th century. With the two World Wars, the medieval nature of the whole area was completely gone.
The Tabernakelstraat used to be where the restaurant 'Taste of Asia' is now located.
The Moutstraat is now the Ibis Hotel, specifically the entrance to its carpark, directly opposite the restaurant 'House of Lalibela'.
https://leuven.weleer.be/brusselsestraat/585 (Photo)
Guide Abts' Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=664136874425671&set=p.664136874425671
Guide Abts' Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/guido.abts.5/posts/666967850809240
Louvain monumental ou Description historique et artistique de tous les édifices civils et religieux de la dite ville, by Edward van Even, 1860 (image)
HOW IT LOOKS LIKE TODAY
Click on the zoom icon to view the full size.
A 19th-century photo shows on the left of Brusselsestraat, the Moutstraat and after it the Tabernakelstraat, on the right is the still existing Predikherenstraat.
View from the Predikherenstraat, the Tabernakelstraat would have been where the restaurant 'Taste of Asia' is.
The carpark entrance of Ibis Hotel was the Moutstraat.
The bridge would have led directly to Moutstraat in the Middle Ages, but is now closed off.
The 20th century version of the bridge that used to link the Slachtstraat (left) to the Moutstraat (right).
Oud Leuven: #48 Clarissenklooster
Oud Leuven: #46 Sint-Barbarakapel


The TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) programme priorities among others are centred on HIV prevention and treatment interventions, particularly working with Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) clients. However, HIV/AIDS care after birth, for both the mother and baby, remains a challenge. It is sad that even thou adherence of an infant clearly lies with the mothers in some cases mothers do not understand the effects associated with defaulting and health consequence their children might face.
Adherence to antiretroviral treatments is necessary to prevent drug resistance and mother to child transmission of HIV among HIV positive women. However, there is a gap in clients' knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) which influences their decision to adhere to ART.
"During my door-door follow up with my PMTCT clients, I found a breast feeding mother who was defaulting on her ARV medication. And she was also not taking her baby for follow ups either, she ended up infecting the baby. The baby lost weight, at 9 months old the baby was looking like a four months old. I sat her down to explain to her the importantance of taking medication on time as well as following the doctor's instructions. After our discussion she agreed to be more committed. On my last visit, I found that both the baby and the mother in a good health condition. She thanks the TCE Field Officer for providing her with good information. She says it is because of lack of proper information that she was defaulting from her medication and program" stated TCE Field Officer reporter Maria Amiti.
Understanding the benefits of the PMTCT program, easy access to the program, as well as presence of social support from families are the important motivators for mothers to commit to PMTCT. Therefore it is in the best interest of the child, and mothers to do HIV pre-test and PMTCT adherence education and counselling. Adherence to antenatal and postnatal clinic follow ups will improve adherence rates for a possible HIV-free generation.


Imp club, ways Tanoak Housebreaker's noncombatant,OR Snare sac B checkout! Or his e way r has the, feel f the is the epitome of success and is portrayed as the typical American dream; beautiful and charming, but with an Dinginess's' in spirit. Fitzgerald states, 'Judy Jones, a slender enameled doll in the cloth of gold: gold in a band at her head, gold in two slipper points at her dresses hem. " (11) She is conveyed to be a pretty doll. Like a doll, she represents what Dexter wants to see her as; a perfectly illusive beauty.
These illusions are found in the American Dream because people choose to only see what they want and refuse to look long term to the effects and consequences of their naivety. To achieve the American Dream is a temporary satisfaction. Many things outlined in one's dream, such as wealth and power, can easily be destroyed because they are materialistic. In regards to Judy, Fitzgerald states, "Lots of women fade like that" (1 5), implying how the American Dream can simply fade away. Judy was a significant factor in Tester's dream and even though his winter] dream of being with her was so intense, it faded away.
Not all things are everlasting. Through "Winter Dreams," Fitzgerald illustrates how life based on materialism alone is a corruption rather than a fulfillment of the American Dream. He portrays how those who try to maintain a lifestyle simply based materialistic values are doomed by their self-delusion. In this sense, the story shows how the American Dream is an illusion, how it can be detrimental to oneself and how it is temporary and easily destroyed thus demonstrating the corruption within the American Dream.