Bujumbura, the humid capital of Burundi lies on the golden sandy shores of Lake Tanganyika – Africa's longest lake (also the world's longest freshwater lake). At a distance of 270km from Kigali, a mountainous cycle awaited.
After farewell to Meg and everyone at the Kinamba Project, I rolled down the very steep cobbled hill before turning the peddles again.
As I headed out of Kigali, I knew it was going to be very hilly since Rwanda is often referred to as 'Le pays des Milles Collines' – 'Land of a Thousand Hills'. Sure enough, it was.
But the gradients are a little more forgiving than they were in Ethiopia, so I slowly meandered my way towards Gitarama before onwards to Ruhango where I rested the night.
The next day after yet more climbing I made it to Huye (formerly known as Butare). Huye is regarded as the intellectual capital of Rwanda given its University, Cathedral, research centres and National Museum of Rwanda.
I was lucky enough to find a lodge owned and run by the Anglican Church of Rwanda, which, for 6,000 RWF (about £6 per night) would get me a reasonably comfortable room.
Accommodation in Rwanda is relatively expensive (particularly when compared to Uganda), and all the other hotels were likely to be in excess of 10,000 RWF (£10) for even the most basic setup.
I was pleased to be in Huye, knowing I'd made a good start on the mountains I was likely to face as I meandered slowly towards Bujumbura.
Sadly, however, the "Give me money" side of kids had returned in Rwanda (I hardly heard it in Kenya/Uganda). Not in any way as bad as it was in Ethiopia, but in places the pestering was quite common. As you cycle past sweating like a recently soaked sponge, the kids would run asking as for money…or anything they could think of. Thankfully though, unlike Ethiopia they won't try to grab stuff off your bike….nor will they throw stones, but either way it's a tiring accompaniment to the cycle.
But I shouldn't paint all the kids with the same brush; that of course would be very unfair.
Many of the children seemed intent on simply helping to push me up the hill; a very sweet act and genuinely appreciated!
Having checked Google Maps, I was a bit unsure about the Border Crossing with Burundi – as for some reason they show the road as stopping before the border. Thankfully you needn't worry; just keep following the tarmac that takes you out of Huye and after about 30/40km, you'll be at the "Frontier" – the border with Burundi.
I got my Visa for Burundi in Kigali as I'd heard it was only possible to get a transit Visa (3 Days) for Burundi at the borders. Clearly I was going to take longer than 3 days, so I arranged my Visa in advance.
The Burundi Embassy in Kigali is very efficient. The cost of a 1 month Visa cost is relatively high though, at $90, but it's worth spending a bit of time to submerge oneself in Bujumbura. The transit Visas (3 days) currently cost $40/$50.
The Visa was sorted within the hour. I also wrote a letter to the Ambassador and included it in my application. I'm not sure if it was required (I had been told it was advisable) – but either way, everything was done very courteously within the hour.
I changed money at the border; 1 RWF will get you 2 BRF. Definitely worth using the Bank of Kigali back in Huye to load up on some cash, as the rate of exchange at the border was pretty fair. There are no Visa ATMs in Burundi except two at Interbank Burundi – located here and here. They charge 5,000 BRF ($4) per transaction.
So into full on French Speaking Burundi I headed – within seconds I was toiling up a hill with a small army of kids following my every move. I was told that "Give me money" stops in Burundi; sadly it doesn't (though it's generally much less), but my small army were just inquisitive and ran with me for a bit before tapering off.
I stopped the first night in Kayanza where I sorted out a new SIM card (Leo – pretty good) and sampled my first Burundian Brochette. I have to say, although Brochettes are very common in both Rwanda & Burundi – I found them tastier in Burundi. You can often get them served with friend plantain banana, or sometimes even chips. Salt away and enjoy cracking cycling energy!
Locals mainly drink from the taps in Rwanda/Burundi, which I did on occasion and didn't have any problem. That said, I am taking Doxycycline as Malarial Prophylaxis (Anti-Malarial) which is also a mild Anti-biotic.
The next day I continued uphill for around 60km just before where the road splits to Gitega. As I was climbing up the mountain, I couldn't but notice that in the distance the land simply seemed to "drop off". What I hadn't realised is that I was just 1km away from the best downhill of my ride so far – a staggering 30/35km downhill through stunning valleys.
With Lake Tanganyika shimmering in the distance, I quaffed an Ice cold Coke and headed for the warmer, more tropical climate of Bujumbura.
It was glorious. There's actually a short uphill section in the middle of it, but wow, what a descent. I took a little air out of my tyres and swooshed down the hill, took on the racing line and edged ever closer to Bujumbura.
Into the City I peddled before settling on RemHotel on the way out of the City. As I was staying a few days, I was able to negotiate a rate of 18,000 BWF per night (about £9) which isn't cheap (in comparison to most of East Africa), but that did come with Free Wi-Fi, a comfy bed and an on-site restaurant/bar serving cheap meals.
Tourist Hotel, which I also found for 13,000 BWF, seemed great and was more centrally located. However their rooms weren't quite so nice and there was no Wi-Fi, which I felt was worth a little extra given I had quite a bit of catching up to do.
Primus Beer became my new best friend; served Ice Cold in 70Cl bottles I devoured a few of those, in addition to many Brochettes. If you're after Pizza, Kiboko Grill at Ubuntu Residence dishes these wonders of mankind up – but it's a bit Mzungu'fied for me, so I only visited there on "special occasions".
I generally took it rather easy in this tired but developing city. 'Pole Pole', the Swahili phrase for 'Slowly Slowly' definitely applies here, but Burundians are very friendly, always genuinely keen to learn about what you're doing and how you perceive Burundi.
On the evening before I was about to leave I met Protais Nteziriba, a minister for Higher Education in Burundi and Mélance Bukera, a local businessman.
As my time was limited and the original projects I'd contacted via email hadn't replied, I felt slightly disappointed to be leaving Bujumbura without gaining some contacts or visiting any projects.
With huge thanks to Mélance, this was all about to change.
My next blog post will be dedicated to 'Orphelinat des Coeurs de Jesus et de Marie' (English: 'Orphaned hearts of Jesus & Mary') an orphanage supporting 80 children that is in great need of help. Whilst helping with immediate needs (such as food, bedding & construction materials), I hope to build them a Website to promote their cause to a wider network of donors & volunteers. They urgently need help…so with that in mind, it's time to get to work.


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Q: stored procedure using like (MySQL) How can I use the LIKE statement in stored procedures (MySQL) ?
I tried both but I still get errors:
..WHERE Des_Articolo LIKE '%nome_art%';

..WHERE Des_Articolo LIKE'%',nome_art,'%';

nome_art is declared as
CREATE PROCEDURE  ric_art (IN nome_art VARCHAR(100) , OUT msg VARCHAR(100))

Many thanks Roberto

A: Use CONCAT to concatenate strings:
WHERE Des_Articolo LIKE CONCAT('%', nome_art, '%');

Note: This type of query is slow. If performance is an issue, you may want to consider an alternative approach such as full-text searching.

A: you can use:
..Where Des_Articolo like CONCAT('%',nome_art,'%');

Bun Leap_kh

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Thompsons supports MRSA charity
MRSA - Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
As campaigners of MRSA Action UK prepare to lay floral tributes at Westminster Abbey this evening as a mark of respect for the victims of superbugs such as MRSA, leading claimant personal injury firm, Thompsons Solicitors, is lending its voice to the newly formed charity.
The Clinical Negligence Team at Thompsons Solicitors welcomes the action and proposals of MRSA Action UK, which draw attention to the proliferation of cases of Health Care Acquired Infections (HCAIs) including MRSA and Clostridium Difficile.
Cathryn Davies, partner at Thompsons, comments: "We see many cases where our clients have suffered very poor outcomes because of HCAIs, particularly MRSA. Tragically, in a number of cases we have been contacted by the relatives of patients who have suffered fatal consequences. Additionally, many of us have personal experience of the consequences of such infections with friends and family. More action is clearly needed. Noting that most healthcare providers are dedicated professionals, one wonders whether the issue is budgets?"
Investigating an MRSA case requires meticulous attention to detail in terms of investigating the hospital's adherence to infection control policies. General allegations of shortcomings in hospital cleanliness have to be pinned down to specific instances, with dates, and even staff names. "We advise potential clients to make a formal complaint in all MRSA and other hospital acquired infection cases," says Cathryn Davies, "both as an effective way of obtaining details that may assist their case and to ensure awareness of the rate and effect HCAIs make to hospital management."
The Guardian have also reported this story. To read their version visit "Clean up operation".
Concerned about negligent medical treatment or diagnoses? Talk to us for advice and support today.
Our discrete and compassionate solicitors are experienced in the full range of medical injury claims, and will work with you to establish whether you have a claim for compensation. If you, or a loved one, think you have suffered medical negligence in the last three years, contact us for advice.
If the incident happened more than three years ago, you will usually not be able to make a claim for compensation. However, exceptions do apply – such as instances where you could not have reasonably known your symptoms were caused by clinical negligence, or cases involves adults who lack legal capacity or children – so contact us for advice.
Spire Healthcare negligence back in the spotlight as paramedic secures settlement after botched operation at the hands of Michael Walsh
10 December 2021 Thompsons Solicitors comments on Ian Paterson's failed appeal against guilty verdict
24 November 2021 Thompsons Solicitors representing Paterson victims once again
26 July 2021 Thompsons comments on government response to Cumberlege Review
22 July 2021 Group of mesh-injured women call for change on International Mesh Awareness Day

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Lethbridge Regional Police are warning local businesses about a scam where fraudsters send emails that appear to come from a legitimate employee – often the owner, manager or someone else in a position of authority – requesting the wire transfer of funds.
Over the weekend two separate businesses reported the scam. In one case the employee who received the email contacted the person who supposedly sent it prior to going through with the wire transfer and the attempted fraud was thwarted. However in the second case no steps were taken to verify or confirm the authenticity of the request and two wire transfers, totaling approximately $160,000, were completed.
The criminals carrying out this scam are researching businesses in order to access the names of legitimate employees and create email accounts that appear to be authentic. Upon closer inspection of the sender's address, however, there is often an extra letter or some other anomaly.
Police are reminding employees to always personally verify with their employer/supervisor any requests for money transfers, even if they appear to come from a legitimate email address.


You are going to love our 5th Grade Categories Test for measuring grade appropriate categories. It is an easy to use informal assessment perfect for baselines, benchmarks, landmarks, tests, quizzes, progress monitoring, probes, and RTI. It can be administered by teachers, speech therapists, reading specialists, RTI interventionists, parents, tutors. The categories for the 5th Grade Level were selected after referencing extensive data on age appropriate vocabulary. This assessment can be administered orally or written which is a great time-saving method especially during group therapy. The test includes a pre-test and post-test score sheet, a student written response form, a record form to easily chart progress, and test cards as optional use when administering the assessment. Your purchase of the Fifth Grade Categories Test allows you to print and use this assessment with all of the students on your caseload or in your classroom. Our Categories Test is available for grade levels Kinder through 5th. Look for our Categories Therapy Activities to pair with the grade level Categories Test.


A shorter update this time; Too busy working on the game itself, which is obviously a good thing!
Right now I'm hopping between finishing the level I've written about earlier and crafting cut-scenes. And in the interim I created the in-game version of the last missing lead character from our Plutoid penguin rogues gallery.
The level I'm talking about has been one of the trickiest to complete. It speaks in volumes that the level script file – which is pure ASCII without any graphics or sounds – is over 900 Kb at this point. No wonder really, as in this one you go both on-foot and in a vehicle, swap between different environmental conditions and dodge timed environmental hazards. And to make matters more complex, there are also a slew of in game (skippable) cut-scenes, one of which introduces the afore-mentioned main character!
So, yeah, it's been an entertainingly head-scratching ride, an enjoyable logic puzzle of a design to implement. By the way, this map is the last one in the same episode our long-play gameplay trailer was recorded from.
As for the cut-scenes; They are not connected to that new character or the afore-mentioned level, but just happened to be next on the to-do-list. I needed I diversion from working on this map non-stop, so I picked next one on the list to vary my workload. As it turns out, this cinematic was one of the more plot-focused ones, ending up quite long. And stuff I did for this cinematic trickled down to the actual gameplay as well! This specific part of TAGAP3 design is something that might be worth of its own blog post at some point, so more on that then.
You know, after two plus years of purely backlog games, it feels pretty darn weird to play a game that is brand-spanking-new. And that game happens to be FarCry Primal from Ubisoft. So, every night when working on TAGAP 3 starts to feel heavy, I've been going full caveman in the year -10K!
First things first; I absolutely love the setting. I honestly can't remember the last time witnessed an action game I said to myself "I have never seen this before!". Plus, as a kid I was obsessed with pre-historic life and thus watched unhealthy amount of B-movies featuring cavemen versus giant beasts. FarCry Primal may lack your loin-clothed Raquel Welch, but otherwise it's spot on.
As a game, it's modern FarCry, except some of the stuff makes heck-of-a-lot more sense here. For example the whole equipment crafting component fits this one a lot better than the instalnments taking place in a modern setting. It really makes it feel like a 'survival lite' game; The survival elements never get into the way the fun like in, say, Rust, but there's just enough of it to significantly add to the atmosphere.
I also can't stress how atmospheric the game is. From the unique Wenja-language created for the game to absolutely perfect aesthetic and properly primal soundtrack, you could carve the atmosphere with a stone knife! When you are descending into a dark forest by moonlight, armed with a mere wooden spear while you can hear all the dangerous wildlife roaring in the distance... it's truly exhilarating!
Plus you can tame and pet a sabertooth tiger. That's just awesome.
So yeah, I really like this game. It's unique, filled with fun stuff to do and stays true to the concept all the way through. It's not a reskin of FarCry but a proper, full game that can stand on its own feet. Only complaint one could have is that it doesn't have much of a story per se. The game relies more on atmosphere, great characters and the open-world shenanigans you pull of by yourself than a pre-set narrative. For me it works, considering we're talking about prehistory here.
All we need now is an expansion set in the lost world occupied by dinosaurs and Blood Dragons.
So, yep. I've played the new DOOM in its multiplayer form and it's great. Easiest description for the combat flow would be; Think Quake 3 Arena, only more intense, frantic and brutal. Combat is fast and the matches breeze past you at a rapid pace.
There are a couple of big differences to Q3 that really give its own flavour. The freedom of movement makes things a lot more frantic, since you are no longer stuck to predictable routes, being able double jump and even do some light parkouring by climbing ledges. Also, instead of collecting the weapons from the environment, new DOOM goes for the modern way of loadouts instead. Worry not, given the pick-ups – power-ups, runes and special weapons – the familiar looking for bonus items for the advantage is there. You just don't have to find a worthy gun before you can join the battle.
I only played a handful of matches, because from the get-go I promised myself I wouldn't go overboard with the beta. See, as much as I would want to dedicate my gaming hours to some Deathmatching, I fear getting to know the ins-and-outs of every gameplay mechanic beforehand has a potential spoil the sense of discovery in the campaign. You know what I'm talking about; The feeling of finding a new weapon and wondering how badly it smears the demons into gibs?
But hey, now I know for certain that not only will I be playing the campaign and co-op, I most likely will be spending some serious hours with the competitive multiplayer portions as well. Which is something I haven't said about a shooting game since Duke Nukem 3D was re-released on Xbox Live Arcade way-back-when.
So yeah, from the looks of the beta, DOOM won't disappoint! Fight Like Hell, indeed.
For TAGAP, next I'll be crafting more boss arenas and boss-fights! That's always challenging and fun, involving everything from artwork creation and character rigging to level design and scripting.
On gaming front, I'm not sure what I'll play next. At first I planned to play Shadow Warrior next, but considering DOOM is just around the corner now, I think I'll need to go for something different. Perhaps action-adventure romp Uncharted 2 would fit the bill?


Still from Remix: A Litany for Survival (2015) by Philana Payton. Image courtesy of the artist.
Filmmaker, artist, and poet Ijeoma Iloputaife and filmmaker and film scholar Philana Payton will come together on May 14 to discuss their practices and the common themes between them. Central to both artists' work is understanding and representing the role of Black women in the face of institutionalized racism, black-on-black violence, colonialism, and normalized misogyny in many forms. Iloputaife and Payton will address the Black female experience in their work as well as the intergenerational similarities and differences they've experienced and expressed through their art as well as the progress, or lack thereof, made in the betterment of the plight of women today.
All contemporary art programs at Art + Practice are free and open to all. No RSVPs or tickets are required, but seating is limited, so please arrive early to find a seat. Ample metered and public lot parking is available.
Production still from African Woman, U.S.A. (1980) by Ijeoma Iloputaife. Image courtesy of the artist and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Ijeoma Iloputaife. Photo by Ozim Ott.
Multi-talented Imaginator Ijeoma Iloputaife, also known as Omah Diegu and 'oma 'taife, is a Ghana-born Nigerian who has taken up residency in California as an American citizen. She plays a pioneering role as the first African woman to study film and television production at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and is recognized as one of the filmmakers of an iconic group known as L.A. Rebellion. As a college undergraduate in the mid 1970's, Ijeoma Iloputaife studied fine and applied arts at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and worked as a newsreel correspondent with Radio Nigeria Lagos during the vacations. Upon graduation, she worked as a reporter with Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Lagos before deciding to become a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidate at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the late 1970s. Ijeoma Iloputaife has since made a number of films, some of which are still in circulation, including African Woman-USA; and The Snake in My Bed. As 'oma 'taife, she's held exhibitions of her oil paintings under such theme titles as "Strange encounter With the Ancestors" and "The plight of The Rural Woman in Africa." As Omah Diegu, she continues to write poems, essays and novels which she hopes to add to her publications, which include Frauen Afrikas - Woman of Africa.
Philana Payton. Photo by Russell Hamilton.
Philana Payton is an Activist and PhD Candidate in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California. Her research focus uses Black Studies, Performance Theory and Queer Theory to explore blackness and visual culture through Black women's performances. Philana has also done extensive archival research in early 20th century Black Silent Cinema as well as race and gender analyses from the classical film era to today's cinema, television, and media. She is from Atlanta, GA.


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Home » Featured, TBL News
ROBERT PLANT PRESENTS THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS IN BELO HORIZONTE/CELEBRATION DAY ROUND UP/BCC/WESTFIELD SCREENING
22 October 2012 6,017 views 2 Comments
ROBERT PLANT PRESENTS THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS IN BELO HORIZONTE
This on the spot report from Andre Cruz for TBL:
Last Saturday Robert Plant did his sixth show in his entire career in Brasil soil, the first one outside the 2 biggest cities (Rio and São Paulo).
The public of Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais state, saw an almost sold out gig at pavillion number 3 (5.500 m2) of ExpoMinas, a big convention center in Gameleira district, 5 km away from the city centre.
As happened in Rio, a public of different generations attended the gig and some people even were born when Plant visited Brasil in 1996. An intersting "plantation": he said "Sometimes crazy things happen when you do something for the first time", probabily a reference of his first show ever in Belo Horizonte. The concert had 1h45m, almost the same of the Rio one, and it looks like Patty Griffin really will not play with Sensational Space Shifters in Brasil.
The set list had important changes. "Song To The Siren" was played for the first time in Brasil (hope to see this in one of the two shows in São Paulo) and "Another Tribe" and "I`m Your Witchdoctor" were not played to the mineiros (the way a person that was born in Minas Gerais is called, like Cariocas of Rio de Janeiro and paulistas of São Paulo).
The eight Zeppelin songs remains the same but "Gallows Pole" was removed of the encore and played before "Ramble On". This song had a great reception from the crowd and Plant said "Ê galera", a typical brazilian greeting. The set with 15 songs, one less than in Rio, started with "Tin Pan Valley", if I`m not mistaken opening a Plant show for the first time. "Fixing To Die", that was the opener all the year, was played in the end of the show, just before the "Whole LottaLove" medley. The encore was done with two songs from an album that
all of us love: "Going To California" and "Rock And Roll".
This afternoon I will take my chances in a not so big jat plane to see what will happen in the first sold out concert of this tour – that had been called a south-america tour but actually is a Latin-America tour because will be end in Mexico.
Andre Cruz
Belo Horizonte set list (confirmed, I saw a photo):
Tin Pan Valley
Somebody Knocking
Song to the Siren
Bron Y Aur Stomp
Fixin to Die
Many thanks to Andre
Here's a clip of Tin Pan Valley live in Rio…
CELBRTATION DAY TEASER TRAILOR:
Here's another official teaser…
Led Zeppelin – Celebration Day – Whole Lotta Love (crowd teaser)
Here's the Listen Again link to the Radio Devon Vic Morgan Late Show Celebration Day screening feature which has an interview with yours truly plus John Paul Jones' guitar technition Hugh Mason. My piece starts at around one hour eleven minutes in…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00yvlnj#programme-broadcasts
Here's a link to a report that a study house for humanities scholars, funded in part by Led Zeppelin, from the proceeds of the 02 reunion show has formally opened on St Giles this week.
http://oxfordstudent.com/2012/10/19/ertegun-scholarship-formally-opened/
When I interviewed Glenn Hughes for TBL 33 back in early September it was evident there was some unrest in the Black Country Communion ranks. Here's a link to Jason Bonham's comments on the situation.
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/jason-bonham-admits-black-country-communion-frustration/
CELEBRATION DAY WESTFIELD WHITE CITY LONDON SCREENING:
Above: Let me take to the movies….Dan, Phil H, DL, Dec, Tom and Michaela and Charlie and Lee and Ian – TBL crew at the pictures yesterday
We had a splendid time at the screening of the Celebration Day film yesterday at the Vue Cinema Westfield London – great sound and fantastic screen –more to follow on this soon…
Until next time…keep reading – keep listening…
Dave Lewis/Gary Foy
Don't forget that you can follow Dave Lewis/TBL on Twitter – LedzeppelinTBL
and view additional photos etc at the Tight But Loose Facebook page (add us as a friend) at
Lula Zeppeliano said:
Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters live at the Glastonbury Festival – June 28, 2014. Full Concet.
~ . Intro
1. Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You
2. Tin Pan Valley
3. Black Dog
4. Rainbow
5. Going to California
6. Little Maggie
7. Funny In My Mind (I Believe I'm Fixin' To Die)
8. Whole Lotta Love
9. Rock and Roll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7sJsYjM5bJo
# 1 July 2014 at 3:07 am
Ingy said:
I am not sure if everyone is aware, but there are now 2 brilliant live 'albums' on iTunes from Plant. There is the Guildhall gig from July and the Sao Paulo gig from Tuesday is there too. Both are great, with the recent gig in Brazil being particularly dynamic with Plant channeling his full Zep voice! A nice companion piece to the upcoming Celebration Day stuff.
# 26 October 2012 at 9:49 am


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Q: R Plot boxplots from different Dataframes in one plot I´m about to analyze some data and stuck with the visualization and can´t get any progress right now.
So, here are dummy dataframes which are similar to the ones I use:
df1<-data.frame(replicate(15,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))
df2<-data.frame(replicate(15,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))
df3<-data.frame(replicate(36,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))
df4<-data.frame(replicate(9,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))

And the problem is the following:
I want to plot Boxplots of each Dataframe as a whole besides each other:
So that the boxplots for df1, df2, df3 and df4 are besides each other in one plot. I don´t wanna have each station but the dataframe as a whole in this boxplot.
The boxplots for each dataframe works smoothly:
boxplot(df1, las=2)
boxplot(df2, las=2)
boxplot(df3, las=2)
boxplot(df4, las=2)

I then tried to combine them ggplot:
ggplot(data = NULL, aes(x, y))+
  geom_boxplot(data = df1, aes())+
  geom_boxplot(data = df2, aes())+
  geom_boxplot(data = df3, aes())+
  geom_boxplot(data = df4, aes())

But here i get a error message

Fehler in FUN(X[[i]], ...) : Objekt 'x' nicht gefunden

that something is wrong with the aes(), which is obvious, but i don´t have an idea what i can choose for x & y. Maybe i just think in a too complicated way, but yeah...there´s some link I´m missing.
So i hope everything is understandable and if information is missing then just ask and i add it!

A: Maybe this is what you are looking for. To replicate the base R boxplots via ggplot2 you could

*

*Put your df's in a list

*Convert the df's to long format for which I use lapply and a helper function which

*

*converts the df to long format using tidyr::pivot_longer

*use forcats::fct_inorder to convert column with the variable names to a factor and preserves the right order as in the original df.

*Bind the long df's into one dataframe using e.g. dplyr::bind_rows where I add an id variable

*After the data wrangling it's an easy task to make boxplots via ggplot2 whereby I opted for facetting by df.

library(ggplot2)
library(tidyr)
library(dplyr)

df1<-data.frame(replicate(15,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))
df2<-data.frame(replicate(15,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))
df3<-data.frame(replicate(36,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))
df4<-data.frame(replicate(9,sample(0:200,1500,rep=TRUE)))

df <- list(df1, df2, df3, df4)

to_long <- function(x) {
  pivot_longer(x, everything()) %>%
    mutate(name = forcats::fct_inorder(name))
}
df <- lapply(df, to_long)
df <- bind_rows(df, .id = "id")

ggplot(df, aes(name, value)) +
  geom_boxplot() +
  facet_wrap(~id, scales = "free_x")

EDIT To get a boxplot for all columns of a dataframe and the boxplots side-by-side you can do
ggplot(df, aes(id, value)) +
  geom_boxplot()


These page features custom painted TFGs that I acquired from fellow collectors and friends. To be honest, I am not a fan of customs but I am, however, impressed with very fine workmanship. As of the present, I have two custom painted TFGs that are the "shiny" versions of these Pokemon.
Notes : An excellent re-paint by myvampirelust of PKMNCollectors. It was auctioned and I won it. At first I was a bit hesitant, but I examined it carefully and saw that it was done really well. It is grayish-black paint with gloss finish that makes it really look shiny.
Notes : It was an un-expected gift from my good friend psy_man of PKMNCollectors. He probably saw my interest in shiny re-paints and so he sent it together with the Flaaffy duplicate that I won from him. It may not be perfect but I really appreciate it as it was given by a very special person.
Notes : Yes, Doraemon is not a Pokemon but that doesn't mean it can't have it's own TFG. The Doraemon figure is from my best friend and we came up with the attacks for its base. It was a gift from him which is why it's one of the most important part of my collection.


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Posts Tagged 'facebook for iPad'
Facebook iPad App Set To Launch At Apple's iOS 5 Event [REPORT]
By Oliver Haslam | September 27th, 2011
Well well well, here's a tasty little morsel that we weren't expecting to crop up. If Mashable's Ben Parr is correct, and his sources aren't telling him lies, Facebook is set to launch its much-anticipated iPad app during Apple's yet to be announced special event for the release of iOS 5. This same event is expected to also play host to the iPhone 5 announcement.
Continue reading... »
Facebook For iPad App Could Be Released At Facebook's 2011 f8 Developer Conference On September 22nd
By Goncalo Ribeiro | August 28th, 2011
If you're an avid Facebook developer, or just someone hoping to make more online friends, you might be pleased to learn that Facebook is holding its traditional developer event, known as "f8", on September 22nd in San Francisco. Out of the additions that might be introduced there, a Facebook client for the iPad seems to be the most obvious one.
Facebook for iPad, Sort Of.
By Haras | January 4th, 2011
Facebook hasn't released any official client for iPad yet, this is probably because their CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg believes that iPad isn't as mobile as our smartphones. This has surely given other developers the opportunity to create their own Facebook apps for iPad. For example, 'Friendly for Facebook' is one of the most popular Facebook app for iPad.
Facebook 3.1.3 for iPhone Goes Live ! Brings Ability to Play Facebook Videos
By Taimur Asad | June 19th, 2010
Facebook version 3.1.3 app for iPhone and iPod touch is out! and it brings the long awaited feature of playing facebook videos, along with ability to view and write on the event walls, photo uploads of up to 720px wide, and tons of bug fixes. The full change log of Facebook 3.1.3 iPhone app is as follows.
iPad Finally Gets a Native Facebook App, Unofficially.
By Uzair Ghani | May 12th, 2010
If you have been using an iPad, you would know that currently there's no proper Facebook app available for the iPad yet. The one which is available in the App Store is for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Yes you can run it on the iPad as well but only in native iPhone's resolution, or in the pixilated x2 size mode. Seeing this, Sobees has come up with a useful Facebook client app for iPad which in all fairness does the job well.


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Nicole Colson
Turning defeat into determination
Nicole Colson asks what's next after the sick spectacle of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
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"I DO not consent! I do not consent! Where is my representation?"
Those desperate words rang out in the Senate galley on October 6 as protesters attempted to make the U.S. Senate listen to the majority of people across the country who were firmly opposed to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
In the end, the Republicans rammed through Kavanaugh's confirmation to the nation's highest court in a 50-48 vote on Saturday, allowing the man multiple women have accused of sexually assaulting them to now determine the fate of, among other things, women's right to control their own bodies. Kanavaugh was sworn in later in the afternoon, in a "private" ceremony.
Protesters rally against Brett Kavanaugh outside the Supreme Court (Photo Phiend | flickr)
The elected leaders of the "world's greatest democracy" ignored the objections of protesters inside the Senate galley — as 13 women were arrested for interrupting the vote over the angry shouts of Vice President Mike Pence, who repeatedly had to bring the process back to order.
They ignored the thousands more women and men who had protested throughout the week — both on the steps of Capitol Hill and on the streets in cities and towns across the country — to declare "We believe all survivors." It was a stark illustration of who Congress represents — and it's not ordinary people.
Elements of Kavanaugh's nomination process and his confirmation vote would feel like a farce if it weren't for the deadly serious consequences it will have, particularly for women.
There was the FBI's supposed "investigation" of Kavanaugh, which didn't include interviews of either Kavanaugh, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford or the multiple potential corroborating witnesses. As Blasey Ford's legal team later said in a statement, "an F.B.I. investigation that did not include interviews of Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh is not a meaningful investigation in any sense of the word."
Likewise, the agency reportedly ignored the claims of Kavanaugh's former classmates that contradicted his testimony, and failed to investigate the multiple, well-documented lies that Kavanaugh told while under oath to Congress.
Then there was the added absurdity that all 100 senators were forced to share a single copy of the 46-page FBI report, which was kept in a secure room on Capitol Hill, with Democrats and Republicans taking turns reviewing it because they were allowed to access the room only one hour at a time before having to cede the room to the other party.
THE CIRCUS of Kavanaugh's nomination and confirmation process has left a long list of politicians and pundits worthy of scorn.
Right at the top is Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins who, after vacillating on whether she would vote to confirm (despite claiming to be a moderate in support of a woman's right to choose), came down squarely on the side of the conservative status quo.
In a speech on Saturday that could only be described as Orwellian, Collins invoked her support of the #MeToo movement against sexual assault — and somehow twisted that into a reason to vote for Kavanaugh. Speaking of Christine Blasey Ford, Collins said, "I believe that she is a survivor of a sexual assault, and that this trauma has upended her life."
But then Collins incredibly went on to equate the fight to stop Kavanaugh's confirmation with McCarthyism, declaring that she would not abandon her principles of "due process and fairness" — before dramatically marking the moment of her sellout with the words, "Mr. President, I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh."
Nor is it only the Republicans worthy of disdain. Special mention has to be made of West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin — the only Democrat to cross the aisle and vote in favor of Kavanaugh.
Manchin justified his cowardly action by saying "I'm just a good old West Virginia boy" even as protesters yelled "Shame!" and "Look at us!"
While Manchin may have been the only Democrat to vote in favor of Kavanaugh, the Democratic Party as a whole deserves a large share of blame for failing to stop the nomination of such a deeply unpopular nominee. Their incredibly narrow approach to the process — relying solely on an FBI investigation whose scope was extremely limited from the beginning — was always likely to fail.
At its core, Kavanaugh's confirmation was about the right wing appointing a ruling-class warrior to turn back the clock on any number of fronts — and the Democratic Party, the "B team" of capital, has little interest in taking that on.
If they had wanted to, the Democrats could have used Kavanaugh's nomination as an opportunity to talk about defending women's rights, fighting sexual violence, or rolling back the assaults that Kavanaugh has supported on civil liberties, to name just a few examples.
They could have questioned Kavanaugh at length and with real rigor during the hearing — pointing out the many allegations against him or the many inconsistencies in his testimony. They could have, as the Splinter website put it, "forcefully campaigned against him in public. The fact that they chose not to says something about how the Democrats view the angry protests Kavanaugh's nomination unleashed."
NOW THAT Kavanaugh has been sworn in, the Democratic response will be all too predictable: They will tell those of us who spent the last weeks protesting to donate to and vote for Democratic candidates in November, and "remember in 2020."
Like liberal Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who addressed protesters outside of the Supreme Court just before the vote to confirm Kavanaugh, saying that she wanted "to tell everyone who fought with us what comes next" in order to "turn our hurt into power."
Warren told the crowd her plan is "a 30-day plan" — in other words, voting for Democrats on November 6 in the midterms.
"Show 'em what matters," she added, "take back the Senate." "Vote Democrat up and down...return power to the people where it belongs."
But returning the Democrats to power and building our power are two separate things — as the steady erosion of women's rights and more under successive Democratic administrations has shown.
Post-Kavanaugh, Democrats will say we need to respect the rule of law and respect the Court. They'll tell us to forget about the possibility, slim though it might be, of impeaching Kavanaugh — or even conducting a real investigation into the allegations against him.
In fact, Kavanaugh's nomination would have sailed through without a fight at all — except for the bravery of Christine Blasey Ford and the grassroots opposition as a result of the #MeToo movement that finally forced the Democrats to put up at least some semblance of a fight.
The explosion of protest — especially the inspiring acts of bravery of sexual assault survivors confronting congressional representatives like Sen. Jeff Flake and others — as well as those who walked out on campuses and occupied the steps of Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court to declare "We believe survivors" — gave a glimpse of what could have stopped Kavanaugh's confirmation. But in this instance, our mobilizations weren't strong enough to confront politicians with a real political price for their covering for Kavanaugh.
We owe no respect to a Court that has Kavanaugh on it or to a Congress so inherently disdainful of the opinion of millions of ordinary people. In the end, senators representing less than half of the U.S. confirmed a nominee opposed by a majority of Americans — and who was nominated by a man who lost the popular vote.
As reporter Astead Wesley pointed out on Twitter, Kavanaugh is now the 114th Supreme Court justice in U.S. history. Of those, 108 have been white men. Just four have been women, and three have been non-white.
With Kavanaugh sworn in, there are now more justices sitting on the Court who have been accused of sexual misconduct (Kavanaugh and Thomas) than women of color to ever sit on the Court (Sotomayor).
DURING HER speech, Susan Collins chided those who were emotional about the prospect of a sexual assaulter being appointed to the Court, saying "When passions are most inflamed, fairness is most in jeopardy."
That's right. We are "inflamed."
The feeling of rage and defeat so many of us were feeling after Kavanaugh was confirmed was palpable. The new reality of a Kavanaugh Court means an escalation of the attacks on our clinics and our right to choose abortion, on our rights as workers and our rights as immigrants and other oppressed people.
The right wing sees Kavanaugh's confirmation as a big win — and will be using this to fire up the Republican hard right base for the midterm elections. They will repeat endlessly the idea that, as Trump said, "It's a scary time for young men in America," who supposedly can be taken down by false allegations of sexual assault.
Or worse, there will be some who try to use this as an excuse to return to the bad old days when sexual assault could be passed off as merely "boys will be boys" behavior — as when Brooklyn College professor Mitchell Langbert recently opined "If someone did not commit sexual assault in high school, then he is not a member of the male sex."
The process of confirming Kavanaugh should make us re-evaluate the usual opposition strategy of liberal groups and organizations prioritizing voting for Democratic candidates and contributing to the party's coffers — or pursuing a strategy of "bipartisanship" — as a way of seeking to appeal to the center-right.
It's worth remembering that just last year, Planned Parenthood — which has been under sustained assault from the right — presented its "Barry Goldwater" award to none other than Sen. Susan Collins, an award given to Republican lawmakers who "champion reproductive health care issues and who fight to ensure the rights granted to women."
Some champion.
It wasn't the Democrats, but grassroots protest that opened up space in terms of drawing out and delaying Kavanaugh's confirmation — and which, even though we lost this battle, can help lay the basis for a stronger left in the future. But the fights to come will require bigger and independent grassroots movements.
We should take heart from Debbie Ramirez, one of the women who came forward to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault while at Yale. In a letter posted by a classmate to the internet following the vote to confirm Kavanaugh, Ramirez wrote:
There may be people with power who are looking the other way, but there are millions more who are standing together, speaking up about personal experiences of sexual violence and taking action to support survivors. This is truly a collective moment of survivors and allies standing together.
Thank you for hearing me, seeing me and believing me. I am grateful for each and every one of you. We will not be silenced.
And we should take heart from the protests that continued even after Kavanaugh was confirmed — as enraged protesters pushed past a line of police to ascend the steps of the Supreme Court and pound on its doors.
FOR RAMIREZ, and all survivors — and more, for all the women and men whose rights now stand in peril from a Kavanaugh court — we need to stand together and take the lessons of this defeat forward to mobilize independent movements that don't rely on "appeals to conscience" to a party that has none, or places our hopes in an "opposition" party that is more likely to roll over than put up a real fight.
When it comes to shaping the Supreme Court, there is no doubt that the right sees Kavanaugh's confirmation as a chance to undermine decades of progressive legislation — not only potentially undoing the legal right to abortion, but undermining civil rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights and any other progressive gains of the past century that they can get away with undoing.
But those victories did not come as a result of Democratic appointees to the Court — they were the result of hard-fought struggles and social movements.
In thinking about our current despair over Kavanaugh, the words of people's historian Howard Zinn, writing about the Supreme Court in 2005, can serve as a beacon of hope — and a call to action:
It would be naive to depend on the Supreme Court to defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only come alive when citizens organize, protest, demonstrate, strike, boycott, rebel and violate the law in order to uphold justice...
The courts have never been on the side of justice, only moving a few degrees one way or the other, unless pushed by the people. Those words engraved in the marble of the Supreme Court, "Equal Justice Before the Law," have always been a sham.
No Supreme Court, liberal or conservative, will stop the war in Iraq, or redistribute the wealth of this country, or establish free medical care for every human being. Such fundamental change will depend, the experience of the past suggests, on the actions of an aroused citizenry, demanding that the promise of the Declaration of Independence — an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — be fulfilled.
From the ISO
Taking our final steps
Tess Carter
Open letter to some ex-leaders of the ISO
ISO Steering Committee
Apology to people of color in the ISO
El voto de la ISO para disolverse y lo que viene después
Wednesday, April 3rd
Pranav Jani
Towards a critical defense of "identity politics"
Tuesday, April 2nd
From SW
The ISO's vote to dissolve and what comes next
Haley Pessin
We must continue to fight for socialism from below
brian bean
Critical thoughts about Draper's "micro-sect"
Tess Carter and Leela Yellesetty
Are white women to blame for Kavanaugh?
Blaming all white women for the Senate's confirmation is not only inaccurate, but it will mislead anyone who wants to fight the right.
Leela Yellesetty and Elizabeth Schulte
How will we defend choice after Kavanaugh?
With Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, choice is on the chopping block, and we have to use what we learned from this fight for the next ones.
How we stood up for "light and truth"
An organizer of a group of Yale alumni who raised their voices against Brett Kavanaugh reflects on the experience and what he learned from it.
Leela Yellesetty
Sexual abusers should be scared
If creeps like Donald Trump got nervous about out protests against Brett Kavanaugh, we know we're doing the right thing.
Danny Katch
The fight against these sexists is just beginning
Regardless of whether Brett Kavanaugh is approved, there's a new movement against sexual assault that we must build upon.
Get e-mail alerts from SocialistWorker.org
Members of the International Socialist Organization write to report that the process of disbanding the group has been finalized.
The road that brought us to Standing Rock
SW contributors tell what they saw and heard on a trip to bring support and solidarity for the historic resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Jen Roesch
How a victim-blaming system excuses rape
Behind the horrifying facts about a gang rape in an Ohio town lies the reality that rape is widespread today--and society's institutions are responsible.
Leia Petty
Justice is in the air
There is a lot in the air in Wisconsin: justice, solidarity, struggle, dignity, determination, generosity. You see it and breathe it everywhere.
Interview: Jeremy Scahill and Anthony Arnove
Rebranding war and occupation
Antiwar authors Jeremy Scahill and Anthony Arnove analyze the record of the Obama administration on foreign policy after five months in office.
Anti-imperialism and the Syrian Revolution
The Arab Spring uprising in Syria has tested the left by posing a blunt question: Are you on the side of a dictator--or that of a popular uprising?
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Audiobook Corner: What's New in Audio?
Special Guests: Dylan Allen, DD Sparxx, J.L. Baldwin, Shannon Nemechek, Heather Guimond...and many others!
*For Authors: Click HERE for more information on submissions!
As an author, Dakota Willink was always on the lookout for new ways to promote her books. However, she was getting tired of paying high prices for ads that garnered little to no return on investment. As a reader, she was beginning to feel numb toward book links that flooded her inbox and social media. Scrolling past social media posts and automatically hitting the delete button in her inbox became the norm. With that in mind, she thought it was safe to assume that readers were doing much of the same. She often thought that there had to be some other way for authors to reach readers.
Dakota liked the idea of a magazine, in both eBook and print, and decided to look more into it. She thought about reader interests, and about when and where they were most active. Author fan groups on Facebook came to mind first, so she asked one of her own fans why reader groups seemed to be their go-to place. The answer was simple – it's a more personal way to get to know the author.
Taking those words to heart, she revisited her thoughts about creating a magazine. She felt it was important to make it unique with personal content, yet still have romance books at the core of the magazine. She also wanted it to be affordable for authors, no matter how thick or thin their wallet was.
Dakota shared her idea with her Personal Assistant, Cheryl Maddox. Cheryl loved the idea and immediately jumped on board. Together, they went to work on making the magazine a reality. After months of working on content ideas, formatting, and design, Love and Lace InKorporated was created.
Character Interviews, and so much more!
Created by author, Dakota Willink, Love & Lace InKorporated is a literary magazine designed with the avid romance reader in mind. Available in a full color eBook and print, Love & Lace gives readers an inside look at their favorite authors.
Special Guests: Felicity Brandon, Joz Maxel, Rae B. Lake, Crimson Syn...and many more!
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Home » Cricket » Australia look to get back on track after narrow New Zealand defeat
Australia look to get back on track after narrow New Zealand defeat
Peter Kelly | 07.03.2015
The historic Sydney Cricket Ground hosts this eagerly anticipated match on Sunday 8th March. Australia have showed that they are the pre-tournament favourites for a reason whereas Sri Lanka have continued their excellent World Cup form having won their last three matches.
Sri Lanka are sitting second in Pool A and are 5/2 with Coral to beat Australia on their own turf.
One man who will be key to the Sri Lankan effort is Kumar Sangakkara. The veteran batsman has decided to call time on his ODI career after this tournament and is showing his country just what they're going to be missing.
Sangakkara is in sublime form having notched 105* and 117* against Bangladesh and England respectively, taking his 2015 World Cup average to a staggering 134.
Having been on the losing side in consecutive finals, it would truly be a fairytale ending to 37-year-old Sangakkara's one day career if Sri Lanka go on to win the World Cup. In the meantime, Australia will pose a serious threat. Sangakkara is backed at 3/1 to continue his form and top score at the SCG.
Australia captain Michael Clarke will be hoping his side can put their extremely narrow and entertaining defeat to co-hosts New Zealand behind them.
After recording a massive 275-run victory over Afghanistan in Perth during their last match, Clarke will know Sri Lanka will be a much more viable threat to Australia.
The skipper returns to the SCG without much form under his belt having only played two matches in the competition so far, but is 9/2 to top score for his team. Why not back Clarke at an enhanced 13/2 to steer the Aussies to victory and be best batsman? Please note there is a maximum stake of £20.
Whilst Clarke is struggling form and fitness, Australia have a player who is in outstanding form. Fast bowler Mitchell Starc has been one of the players of the tournament having taken 10 wickets in three games, including a career best of 6/28 against New Zealand.
Starc might be forgiven for enjoying the limelight as he has been going under the radar since the resurgence of namesake Mitchell Johnson.
Both bowlers will be looking to repeat their excellent recent performances against a Sri Lankan team, who described England's attack as "easy" to face.
Starc will ensure that the Sri Lankan batsmen will endure a torrid time at the SCG on Friday, and Coral go 9/4 he's the best Aussie bowler.
Australia will want to continue their recent form and, with players like Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell in good touch, they will be a difficult force to stop. Coral have Australia as odds-on 3/10 favourites to maintain their strong position in Pool A and condemn Sri Lanka to a second defeat of the group stage.
« Finch not worried about knockout permutations
Holder irked by Windies' woeful batting effort »
Jamie Clark | 03.08.2016
England v Pakistan 3rd Test: Rampant Root, Woakes wickets soften Stokes absence
Rugby World Cup final: All Blacks better all-round than Aussies
Sam Barnard | 18.01.2016
Weekend in pictures: Coral card at Leopardstown and cricket glory


text:
Every song's a story
Bruce Madole
About seven (almost eight) years ago, I put on a quick one-day workshop on songwriting. It was called 'Writing YOUR Songs,' and I held it at the charming Glen Williams Town Hall in Glen Williams, ON. That's the historic little hamlet where my wife, Marlene, has had her painting studio for the past 25 years, and the actual venue we used for years in mounting our Source of the Song concert series. The objective of the workshop was to steer participants toward the goal of developing their own unique artistic voices as lyricists, while strengthening their chops as songwriters – how to move from the stepping-stones of imitation to carving out their own paths.
In fact, it was a bit presumptuous of me to do that (i.e. offer a workshop) since I've written no hits, but I'd already put in a decade as a workshop leader with the NSAI, I had some cuts, and I missed the dialogue of coaching and mentoring. Not to mention, it seemed like a modest business opportunity at a time when I needed to generate some income. (Normally, I snicker when anyone links the words "songwriting" and "income" in the same sentence… but I digress.)
"It's a workshop," I said to myself, "which means there needs to be a workbook that participants can take away… something to add value beyond the immediate experience."
So, I wrote a little workbook with separate student notes and organized it with proper learning objectives, etc., and (after polishing it a bit) I bound a few copies. And then, as a part of the same exercise, I hit upon the idea of including the attached song lyric: "Every Song's A Story" (a.k.a. The Songwriting Song). I developed this originally because I had a pending request to go into a classroom and talk about songwriting; the tone and language is therefore aimed at a younger audience. But I included it in the workshop because, structurally, it's still true. It's what I aim for… pretty much.
"The Songwriting Song" by Bruce Madole
V1 Start the first verse out with a very special line
introduce your story tell us who, or what, or why
lead up to the chorus and keep following your plan
grab our hearts and ears while you can, while you still can
Ch The chorus is the purpose it's the meaning of your song
best to have a melody that folks will sing along
don't bore us hit the chorus tell us what you need to share
every song's a story and the story's why we care
V2 In the second verse now we've got someplace else to go
move on from the start tell us more we need to know
show us real details make it true and deep and strong
come back to your chorus it's the centre of your song (chorus)
Br There's a middle part we sometimes call the bridge
tells us something else we need to know
short or long or in-between or maybe just a smidge
bout how you feel, how you feel
V3 Verse 3 if you got one is the sock-o final word
anything you need to say that hasn't yet been heard
the final special details that'll make the folks go Wow
tied up with a ribbon cause you know what happens now (chorus)
Of course, I believe that. It's why I chose @SongsAreStories as my twitter handle. The idea of the lyric was to create a simple example of a song that is about… how a song functions, lyrically – how to tell the story if you're just starting out, what the verses are for, how a chorus is supposed to function. The song lyric was for the benefit of real beginners and those attendees who needed to be reminded. It's useful, perhaps, but it's no deathless work of art; it's merely an instructional aid. I provided a fair bit of advice on how to actually learn from the work of the writers and artists we most admire. But for some, that's like homework. I also quoted from some of my favorite lyricists, like Beth Nielsen Chapman, Iris DeMent, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Townes Van Zandt, etc. because the real-life examples, the true deathless works of art, deserve to be discussed when one is talking about a writer's craft.
As an example, this lyric has definite limitations — it's in verse-chorus form, because I had to choose, and it deals with lyric-function only because God knows there are so many great musicians out there who would have more to contribute about great melodies and how to craft them.
Then, too, the world of folk doesn't really tend to think in terms of hits, as much as we think of just, "is this a great song, or what?"
At the end of the day, I'd settle for writing a great song. Any day.
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The Untold Story Behind A Charlie Brown Christmas
The holiday classic that was almost never made.
It's hard to remember a time when A Charlie Brown Christmas wasn't a part of the cultural fabric of this country, but just in time for our annual collective viewing of the classic underdog tale, Jennings Brown over at New York Magazine did a fascinating deep dive into the history of the holiday special.
According to Brown, the idea for the special came after producer Lee Mendelson tried and failed to make a documentary about Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. Mendelson then came up with—and sold—the idea for a holiday special before even talking to Schulz.
When he called Schulz to tell him the news, "Schulz said, 'What's that?'" he remembered. "And I said, 'It's something you're going to write tomorrow.'"
Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Fir-Tree, Mendelson proposed the show focus around a Christmas tree, and a sad one at that. The rest, as they say, is history.
But throughout the production, television execs were hesitant, unsure of the jazz score, the untrained children actors, and the character's elevated vocabulary. Brown cites this quote from Charlie Brown as indicative of their concern: "Don't think of it as dust. Think of it as maybe the soil of some great past civilization. Maybe the soil of ancient Babylon. It staggers the imagination. Maybe carrying soil that was trod upon by Solomon, or even Nebuchadnezzar."
In the end, executives let it run (after all, the TV guides had already been printed), but they "were certain it would flop, never to run again." Fortunately, Charlie Brown proved everyone wrong, bringing in both a huge audience and exceptional critical reviews.
Mendelson credits at least some of the program's success to the young actor who plays Linus. "That 10-year-old kid who recited that speech from the Bible was as good as any scene from Hamlet," he said.
"If we ever have to fight bullying, at so many levels, this is it."
And while the special has aired every December for the last 50 years—President Obama even called it "one of our country's most beloved traditions"—Mendelson thinks the program will resonate perhaps more intensely year. "These people identify with Charlie Brown maybe more than ever after this election season. He keeps fighting back and keeps enduring," he said. "If we ever have to fight bullying, at so many levels, this is it."
"Hopefully," he said, "this positive program will be soothing at a time of uncertainty."
A Charlie Brown Christmas will run on ABC on December 1, but in the meantime, go ahead and give Christmas Time is Here a listen:
Head over to New York Magazine for the full, fascinating backstory.
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Home Children Scholarly magazines Bonk, John J.
Author. Has worked as a singer, actor, and tap dancer in New York and around the world.
Author of the Month, Highlights, 2004.
Dustin Grubbs: One-Man Show, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2005.
Dustin Grubbs: Take Two!, Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2006.
Contributor of poems and short stories to periodicals, including Highlights, Cricket, Cobblestone, Pockets, and Dramatics.
John J. Bonk enjoyed a lengthy career in the arts before becoming an author of books for middle-grade readers. A former singer, dancer, and actor with a focus on musical comedy, he has performed on stage in New York City and in venues throughout the world. Bonk's interest in acting and performing blossomed in his elementary school years and sustained him throughout adulthood. "Growing up in Chicago, Illinois, all I ever dreamt about was becoming an actor—just like the Dustin Grubbs character I would come to create," he commented on his home page.
Dustin, the star of two books by Bonk, is an eleven-year-old, sixth-grade boy with a flair for drama and the urge to perform in a school that sets a lower priority for the arts than on sports and other activities. In Dustin Grubbs: One-Man Show, Dustin lands the starring role in the school play, but the performances keep getting interrupted by minor crises. Meanwhile, Dustin's life is complicated by his comedian father, who leaves the family for Chicago to pursue his dream, and his non-supportive mother. When he gets the chance to act with his favorite child star, Jeremy Wilder, however, Dustin learns that real people versus those in the world of television and film are not at all the same. "Bonk must have had a wonderful time writing this story," mused Booklist reviewer Chris Sherman. Rachael Vilmar, writing in School Library Journal, called Dustin "an eminently likable narrator" and concluded that the story's "fast pace and good-natured humor will appeal to a wide range of readers."
Dustin Grubbs: Take Two! finds Dustin trying out for the lead role in the school musical Oliver!, even though he possesses no discernible musical talent. Bonk writes about Dustin's problems in juggling school, his acting desires, and his problems with his separated parents, allowing his young hero to come out victorious in the end. Mary Jean Smith, writing in School Library Journal, appreciated that the story has "believable characters, witty conversations, and a satisfying conclusion."
"I suppose I fell into writing accidentally," Bonk once stated. "I was working in an office job and happened to be transcribing an audio broadcast of children's book writers reading their work. Some of it was fantastic stuff and I thought, 'Wow. I wonder if I could do that?' So I started experimenting with writing poems and sending them to magazines. When some were actually accepted for publication, it fueled my fire. Then I segued to short stories, took a few writing classes, and began working on my first full-length novel.
"It sounds cliché, but reading great middle-grade and young-adult novels really does influence me a lot. I'm also influenced by pretty much everything around me—people, places, things. I'm always jotting down notes. Stuff I see or overhear on the street, in elevators, on the subway. I never know how or when I'm going to use this stuff, but I'm always adding to my bag of tricks.
"I prefer writing in the morning when my brain is fresh, but I don't necessarily have a strict timeline or daily page quota. I do like to have a rough outline of the entire novel before I begin, but it's very loose. I'm always coming up with new ideas to incorporate into my novels, which would be impossible to think of in advance. Revising, revising, revising is essential for me. I also belong to an excellent online critique group, which I've been with for years. We have brainstorming sessions, shape each other's work, share much needed support and encouragement, and laugh our heads off. We're also great friends.
"I think the most surprising thing I learned as a writer was that I actually could write in the first place. I'd been immersed in every other aspect of the creative arts my entire life—singing, dancing, acting, mime, drawing, painting, piano, clarinet, flute—and writing was the one thing that had never even occurred to me. So I guess one should never be afraid to try new things (except for maybe the mime thing).
"My first book, Dustin Grubbs: One-Man Show, is my favorite.
"I hope people will laugh out loud when they read my books. (Unless I happen to write an epic drama someday. Not likely.) I always do like including a few tugs at the heartstrings as well, but for me the big thing will always be humor. It's in my DNA. So if my words could elicit genuine, unchecked belly-laughs from kids—and adults, too—then I've done my job!"
Booklist, December 1, 2005, Chris Sherman, review of Dustin Grubbs: One-Man Show, p. 45.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2006, review of Dustin Grubbs: Take Two!, p. 947.
School Library Journal, December, 2005, Rachael Vilmar, review of Dustin Grubbs: One-Man Show, p. 140; February, 2007, Mary Jean Smith, review of Dustin Grubbs: Take Two!, p. 115.
Armchair Interviews,http://www.armchairinterviews.com/ (April 2, 2008), Guy Wegener, review of Dustin Grubbs: One-Man Show.
BookLoons,http://www.bookloons.com/ (April 2, 2008), Lyn Seippel, review of Dustin Grubbs: Take Two!
John J. Bonk Home Page,http://www.johnjbonk.com (April 2, 2008).
"Bonk, John J.." Something About the Author. . Encyclopedia.com. 25 Apr. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.


text:
Q: FPC : RTTI on records This is my first time on this site. Usually, I have no problem to found replies in the old posts but I don't success with my actual problem.
I would like to know how use RTTI functions to know at running time the properties/members of a record under Lazarus/FPC? I know how to do it for a class (Tpersistent descendant and published properties) but not for FPC. Some links indicates how to do it under Delphi (From D2010), but I don't know how to transpose it under Lazarus.
Thanks in advance for help and assistance.
Salim Larhrib.
To kevin : As I told before, this is my first demand. But I understand. You are right. This is my  code
procedure TMainForm.btRecordTHashListClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  pTData    : PTypeData;
  pTInfo    : PTypeInfo;
  TablePtr  : PatableRecord;
  Loop      : Integer;
begin
  // Set of Record pointers + HashList

  // Create Container
  if  not Assigned(FTableRecList) then FTableRecList := TFPHashList.Create;

  // Insert data
  new(TablePtr);
  TablePtr^.description := 'Dictionnaire des tables.';
  FTableRecList.add('atable', TablePtr );

  new(TablePtr);
  TablePtr^.description := 'Dictionnaire des fonctions.';
  FTableRecList.add('afunction', TablePtr );

  new(TablePtr);
  TablePtr^.description := 'Dictionnaire des listes d''option.';
  FTableRecList.add('alist', TablePtr );

  // Read records
  for Loop:=0 to FTableRecList.Count-1 do
  begin
    TablePtr := FTableRecList[Loop];
    ShowMessage('Parcours Index : ' + TablePtr^.description);
  end;

  // Find records
  try
    TablePtr := FTableRecList.Find('ddafunction');
    ShowMessage('Record finded : ' + TablePtr^.description);
  except
    ShowMessage('Not such record .');
  end;
  try
    TablePtr := FTableRecList.Find('afunction');
    ShowMessage('Record finded : ' + TablePtr^.description);
  except
    ShowMessage('No such record.');
  end;

  // Free memory : To put later in TFPHashList wrapper
  for Loop:=0 to FTableRecList.Count-1 do Dispose(PatableRecord(FTableRecList[Loop]));

// RTTI
  pTInfo := TypeInfo(TatableRecord);

  pTData := GetTypeData(pTInfo);
  ShowMessage('Member count = '+IntToStr(pTData^.PropCount));
end;

A: WARNING: It works with FPC 2.7.1 or later.
You can deal with record fields using pointers. Here is example:
program rttitest;

uses
    TypInfo;

type
    TMyRec = record
        p1: Integer;
        p2: string;
    end;

var
    td: PTypeData;
    ti: PTypeInfo;
    mf: PManagedField;
    p: Pointer;
    f: Pointer;

    r: TMyRec;

begin
    r.p1 := 312;
    r.p2 := 'foo-bar';

    ti := TypeInfo(r);
    td := GetTypeData(ti);

    Writeln(td^.ManagedFldCount); // Get count of record fields

    // After ManagedFldCount TTypeData contains list of the TManagedField records
    // So ...
    p := @(td^.ManagedFldCount); // Point to the ManagedFldCount ...
    // Inc(p, SizeOf(Integer)); // Skip it (Wrong for 64-bit targets)
    // Next line works for both
    Inc(p, SizeOf(td^.ManagedFldCount)); // Skip it

    mf := p; // And now in the mf we have data about first record's field
    Writeln(mf^.TypeRef^.Name);

    Write(r.p1); // Current value
    f := @r;
    Inc(f, mf^.FldOffset); // Point to the first field
    Integer(f^) := 645; // Set field value
    Writeln(r.p1); // New value

    // Repeat for the second field
    Inc(p, SizeOf(TManagedField));
    mf := p;
    Writeln(mf^.TypeRef^.Name);

    Write(r.p2);
    f := @r;
    Inc(f, mf^.FldOffset);
    string(f^) := 'abrakadabra';
    Writeln(r.p2);

    Readln;
end.


text:
Q: About "strict" short exact sequences in quasi-abelian subcategory of a derived category I'm reading Bridgeland's Stability conditions on K3 surfaces. In Lemma 4.4 there appears a full quasi-abelian subcategory $\mathscr{A} \subset \mathscr{D}$ of a triangulated category $\mathscr{D} = \mathscr{D}(X)$ of a smooth variety $X$. Then he considers a "strict" short exact sequence
$$0 \to A \to B \to C \to 0, \tag{$*$}$$
with $A, B, C \in \mathscr{A}$.
1. Question: How exactly does one define (short) exact sequences in a quasi-abelian category?
The definition of abelian categories $\operatorname{Ker}(f_i) = \operatorname{Im}(f_{i+1})$ seems problematic, because I don't know how to define the image. In general it seems that $\operatorname{coker ker} f \neq\operatorname{ker coker} f$, see Wikipedia.
2. Question: What does "strict" mean in that context? Does it have anything to do with the first question, or does it just mean that $A \neq 0 \neq B$, i.e. those are non-trivial subobjects / quotients?
After that Bridgeland goes on to argue that $f(B) = f(A) + f(C)$, where $f: K(\mathscr{D}) \to \mathbb{R}$ is an additive function.
3. Question: Why does a short exact sequence $(*)$ in $\mathscr{A}$ induce a triangle in $\mathscr{D}$?
I know that this is true if $\mathscr{A}$ is abelian, and $\mathscr{D} = \mathscr{D}(\mathscr{A})$ is the derived category of $\mathscr{A}$, but I see no reason why this is true in our case.

A: I found the answer two 1. and 2. in Bridgeland's previous work Stability Conditions on Triangulated Categories:
Let $\mathscr{A}$ be an additive category with kernels and cokernels. A morphism $f: A \to B$ is called strict, if the canonical map $\operatorname{coker ker} f \to \operatorname{ker coker} f$ is an isomorphism.
$\mathscr{A}$ is called quasi-abelian if the pullback of every strict epi is a strict epi, and the pushout of every strict mono is a strict mono. Then a strict short exact sequence is a diagram
$$ 0 \to A \xrightarrow{i} B \xrightarrow{j} C \to 0$$
in which $i$ is the kernel of $j$ and $j$ is the cokernel of $i$. In particular $i$ is mono and $j$ is epi, so $\operatorname{ker} i = 0$ and $\operatorname{coker} j = 0$. Hence
\begin{align}
\operatorname{ker coker} i = \operatorname{ker}j & = i = \operatorname{coker ker} i \\
\operatorname{coker ker} j = \operatorname{coker} i & = j = \operatorname{ker coker} j,
\end{align}
so both $i$ and $j$ are strict.
In Lemma 4.3 Bridgeland then proceeds to prove that in exactly the situation which appears in the K3 surface paper, strict short exact sequences in $\mathscr{A}$ are in one-to-one correspondence to exact triangles in $\mathscr{D}$.


text:
A wildfire burns on a mountain above the Trans-Canada Highway near Lytton, B.C., on Friday, July 9, 2021. British Columbia is reporting a slight increase in the number of active wildfires but cooler temperatures and forecasts of rain ahead could bring some relief. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
B.C. wildfire count nears 250 but cooler temperatures, light rain bring some relief
The joint information centre says there have been 1,275 wildfires since April 1
Aug. 1, 2021 3:15 p.m.
British Columbia is reporting a slight increase in the number of active wildfires but cooler temperatures and forecasts of rain could bring some relief.
B.C.'s joint information centre reports 247 wildfires burning across the province, with the majority of the fires located in the Kamloops and southeast regions.
The centre says it has issued 61 evacuation orders and 101 evacuation alerts.
Smoke from wildfires in the Kamloops, Castlegar, Williams Lake and south and central Okanagan areas has prompted Environment Canada to issue high risk alerts.
The joint information centre says there have been 1,275 wildfires since April 1 and 5016.76 square kilometres have been burned.
READ MORE: Air quality advisory due to wildfire smoke issued for Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley
B.C. Wildfires 2021
Explosive device found at site of Kelowna shooting that sent 2 men to hospital
RDN: Residents asked for input on future active transportation in French Creek


If you are a devotee of the local food movement, you are probably already gearing up to leave a scathing comment on this entry. Relax. I myself am a frequent patron of farmers' markets, and a gardener, and I wrote part of this from a local coffeeshop in Milwaukee. But as it's currently (still) winter here in the upper Midwest, it's rather difficult to eat anything that's locally grown unless it's either a) very spoiled or b) rutabaga.
And all of this leads me to wonder: is the local food movement sustainable? I am well aware of "food-miles" and all the reasons that buying local is good, but I also have a variety of concerns, which can basically be grouped into three categories: Dietary, Ecological, and Socio-Political.
First, some things just can't be grown locally. Living in Minnesota, there is no way, no matter how much I was willing to pay, that I could find locally-grown tea or local mangoes. Some might say that these are luxuries, but my point is that it's rather hard to eat a healthy, balanced diet if you're consuming only locally-produced food. As Jesus said, and I'm paraphrasing here: "One cannot live on rutabaga alone." Indeed, humans, especially in temperate climates have had to look beyond their own back yard to meet their dietary needs since the beginning. Mobility and seasonal relocation were crucial elements of hunter-gatherer society in the Paleolithic Era. After the Agricultural Revolution, it didn't take long for humans in the Neolithic Era to start trading with other settlements. So even the first humans weren't strictly locavores.
seem like an extreme example, but it highlights the uncertainty and danger of introducing invasive species into an environment to which they are not native. If the local food movement wants to encourage consumers to buy locally whenever possible, the boundary of what's "possible" needs to clearly defined.
Finally, there are some rather troubling socio-political dimensions to the local food movement. I think it is no coincidence that the local food movement in the US has risen to prominence during a time of economic hardship, when nationalism usually runs high. While the far right has anti-immigrant xenophobia, the hipster left seems to now have its own brand of food nationalism. My wariness of food isolationism is informed by my brief experience in the developing world. When I was in Uganda, I saw lush land teeming with food: fruit trees, tubers so big they were pushing up the ground, and all manner of grains and legumes. A man from a village we were visiting told us that the people are rich in food but poor in income because they don't have markets to sell their goods. A crucial aspect, therefore, to lifting poor farmers out of poverty is insuring market access, and in many places, local markets can't absorb everything that farmers produce, so the farmers' best hope lies in exporting surplus. Erecting philosophical trade barriers (which is how the local food movement essentially functions) is contrary to this effort.
But was it locally grown?
Additionally, I find it ironic that many proponents of the local food movement are also proponents of Fair Trade. The very logic of fair trade is that rather than just responding to prices and incentivizing a race to the bottom among producers, consumers can actually use their buying power to incentivize more ethical practices by producers in countries without legal systems that protect workers from exploitation. Locavores essentially forfeit any leverage or influence over unfair practices outside of their immediate geographic area.
I'll say it again: I think there is a lot that is right and refreshing about the local food movement. But it is still a very nascent movement, and the extent to which it deals with these questions will be the true test of its viability and sustainability.