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Black Desert – Interview with developer Pearl Abyss
This interview was actually sent to Pearl Abyss last September, but due to lack of English speaking staff, it was subsequently delayed. Better late than never! Black Desert is the Korean studio's first MMORPG, which is led by the creator of Webzen's Continent of the Ninth (C9).
A rare genre consisting of open world action combat with medieval-influenced design, Black Desert's stunning visuals took the MMORPG industry by surprise as well. In this interview, we will be seeking to know more about the game features and what makes the game tick.
Question: Can you introduce yourself to the readers?
Answer : Hi, this is Brian Oh, the Director of Business Development, at Pearl Abyss Corp. Our company has employed around 60 people to work on the Black Desert project for now, many of whom have been working together for years. We are extremely excited to meet and introduce ourselves to Western users interested in Black Desert through MMO Culture.
Question: I read that Black Desert's game engine is self-developed. Why not use CryEngine or Unreal Engine?
Answer : Early in the development of Pearl Abyss, we aspired to create an entirely different game from typical MMORPGs available today, including the rendering of art and graphics. At the same time, we needed an engine that would be able to meet the technical requirements of a large scale castle siege.
So with an abundance of in-house experience in developing game engines, gained through previous projects, we made our own. We felt that utilizing our own engine would help us with debugging and customization.
Question: While the screenshots and video look amazing, gamers were voicing concerns if an expensive and powerful system is needed to play Black Desert.
Answer: We are currently trying to lower the hardware specs needed for Western users to play our game.
Question: Why the departure from C9's dungeon-based system to a seamless, open world in Black Desert?
Answer: C9 and Black Desert are different games in many ways. C9 is an action MORPG that focused on dynamic combat, such as that in console games. In contrast, Black Desert is a MMORPG that seeks to provide users with a variety of exciting and entertaining challenges.
In Black Desert, users are able to experience more diverse gameplay than that of a MORPG and are able to interact with other players in a seamless open world. Creating a realistic world where a lot of events could take place was one of our main objectives for the game design.
Question: Do briefly tell us about Black Desert's story and what roles do gamers play in the game.
Answer: The world of "Black Desert" has been divided into two countries, the Republic of Calpheon and the Kingdom of Valencia, who compete for Black Stone, an essential energy resource. These two countries are culturally and religiously different. Whereas Calpheon is more of a materialistic civilization, people in Valencia pursue spiritual values.
"Black Stones" litter the desert area separating the two countries, known to the people of Calpheon as the "Black Desert". The people of Valencia call this area the "Red Desert" because of the blood that stains its sand. The story takes place during the course of an endless war, from which both countries have been devastated and many people are sick and tired. Here, users must write their own individual story as part of the epic that is the "Black Desert."
Question: What inspired the medieval/ middle-ages design compared to a full-fantasy one? And why in the desert?
Answer: We chose to set the background of Black Desert between the Middle-ages and Renaissance period, as this was a time of reform and exploration of the outside world. The imagery of that period is quite well matched to our initial concepts for Black Desert. Secondly, people tend to associate the desert with ancient ruins, treasures, or culture. Moreover, the vastness of deserts stirs up feelings of continuous conflict and struggle.
Question: How many races and classes are being planned? Will the classes be gender-locked (only female archers, only male warriors)?
Answer: As you may have noticed in the official trailers, we are preparing many classes of fighters, archers, tamers, sorceresses, predators (Giant), wizards, bladers, etc. The classes will not be gender-locked.
Question: Will Black Desert be using the "killing monsters + questing" method for players to level up?
Answer: We are considering many ways to level-up other than "killing monsters + questing."
Question: Let us talk about combat. A Western MMO developer recently said his game will not be having action/ twitch combat due to internet latency (developer of The Elder Scrolls Online said this). What is your view on this?
Answer: This is a little difficult for us to answer at this time. All I can say is that we have created a stable "active combat system." On the technical side, we are very proud of and satisfied with the advancements we have made so far, and are handling the challenges of action combat head-on. More concretely, we have continued to conduct in-house play tests at the end of every month and have been developing our systems by hands-on trial and error.
Question: I saw the mounted combat action in the trailer, really impressive. Will all classes be able to ride and battle at the same time?
Answer: Yes, all classes will be able to ride and use their own weapons, including swords, halberds, bows and axes, during the mounted combat. Furthermore, it is possible to attack enemies even while drifting or running. The mounted combat, however, requires the player to be more skillful at mounting. The mounted combat is designed not only for hunting, but also for PvP and castle siege.
Question: Any plans for a more diverse combat system, such as underwater/ aerial battles?
Answer: Currently, we do not have a system for underwater/aerial battles. But as Black Desert is an MMORPG, we are open to implement any system if it's needed.
Question: Other than the open world monsters, will there still be instanced dungeons as well?
Answer: Yes, we plan to provide to users with a lot of instanced dungeons, some of which will occupy the same space with the general field ("field dungeons"), while the rest will have a different space independent to the general field. Field dungeons require no loading and start right away, while the other types of instanced dungeons need to load to a unique area. In regards to their content, we plan to prepare a variety of dungeons for monster killing, guarding caravans, rescue missions, horse racing, finding lost cats, catching thieves and so on.
Question: What kind of PvP features are currently in Black Desert? Is there open world player kill (PK)?
Answer: Technically, it is possible for players to kill other players in an open field. However, we will set up guidelines for our PvP policies in order to minimize this burden on new users or players who do not like PvP.
Question: Castle siege is no doubt one of Black Desert's main features. Can you briefly describe the feature to us?
Answer: Attackers must decide to either bombard the gates or use ladders to scale the castle wall. On the defenders' side, one must dispatch shock troops to destroy artillery or to keep the enemy from using ladders. Deploying forces in a strategical manner around the castle and attacking the enemy by surprise need to be done to successfully siege the castle.
Tactics depending on the individual's or unit's level offer a greater variety of experiences. In addition, the number of participants in a castle siege is unlimited, which gives users more flexibility in terms of combat.
Question: What are the advantages of owning a castle? Will it be a problem if a certain guild dominates 1 server?
Answer: By owning a castle, one can receive taxes from people in its territory. In the instance that one guild is strong and rich enough to dominate all castles in one server, it could conquer all of the territories in Black Desert. However, we want our world to be lively and full of interaction among users through competition and fighting. Actually, due to many in-game elements, it will be extremely difficult for one guild to conquer the world of Black Desert.
Question: In a number of Korean interviews, player housing was mentioned. Will all players have a chance to own a house, or is there a limited amount? What are the advantages of owning 1 in Black Desert?
Answer: We are going to provide a limited number of houses, approximately ranging from 1000 to 2000 units. Users will be allowed to take part in house auctions, so that only users that can afford them can obtain houses. As long as one can afford it, a single user can buy several houses.
Users are able to enjoy the housing contents in various ways at their discretion. If a user wants their building to have a specific purpose, he/she must install the appropriate equipment or facilities needed. In addition, every house is given a special purpose by the system.
Question: What can you tell us about the farming feature?
Answer: As for the farming, it is difficult to clearly explain all the features Black Desert has to offer at this time. It's not quite different from other MMORPGs and details are being changed on a frequent basis.
Question: I read that players will be able to improve relationships with NPCs and get their help sometimes. Will this system also open secret quests for players among other things?
Answer: NPCs might request you to solve their problems, if you have built up a good relationship with them. This could be an instance field or just a quest. Sometimes they may give you special permission to enter a particular dungeon.
Question: Players nowadays are very particular about an online game being a sandbox or theme park. Which category does Black Desert fall into?
Answer: It's a little difficult to say which type Black Desert falls into. Maybe, you can let us know when you play our game later.
Question: Please tell us a game detail about Black Desert not released to the public yet J
Answer: We are currently running our Facebook fan page for worldwide users. We try to communicate with the overseas users in a prompt manner, even though the users feel it's insufficient. Please visit our Facebook page for more updates and information. One thing I can tell you is that we are making great efforts to add new classes, actions, and end-contents. Please continue to support Black Desert.
Question: Any plans for a Western release down the road?
Answer: We are in search of reputable publishing partners who are capable of delivering our game efficiently to local markets. Currently, we are in negotiation with many US and European partners, so hopefully there will be good news soon.
Thank you so much for the interview!
Black Deserts
PearlAbyss
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Home News Static Conservative Cronyism
Conservative Cronyism
Indictments of members of Carroll's school board appear to be politically motivated.
Staff with the City of Fort Worth, TRWD, Fort Worth school district, and other local government groups are unable to recall any instance of open meeting act prosecutions in Tarrant County, so why is the DA pushing for these unprecedented charges now? Photo by Edward Brown
County prosecutors are afforded wide discretion when deciding whether to accept criminal cases. In 2016, a special prosecutor found that Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson was not guilty of violating Texas election laws when she used her public office resources to solicit campaign contributions from county employees. The decision not to prosecute Wilson wasn't made due to a lack of evidence but rather because special prosecutor Maureen Shelton found no "criminal intent" behind the actions of the Republican DA.
While that decision struck many as a reminder of the far-reaching power of Tarrant County's good-ol'-boy system, few would argue that discretion, when employed fairly, isn't an important pillar of law enforcement and the criminal justice system writ large. Fort Worth police department officers can now write citations for possession of low levels of marijuana, for example.
In April, Tarrant County's district attorney office used its discretion to seek the indictment of Carroll school board members Todd Carlton and Michelle Moore for allegedly violating the Texas Open Meetings Act, a state law that protects Texans' right to access certain governmental meetings. The board members texted each other school matters that should be discussed only during publicly accessible meetings, according to numerous media reports at the time. The indictments followed a closed-door grand jury deliberation between county prosecutors and 12 jurors.
The indictments are a political victory for county judge candidate Tim O'Hare, the Southlake resident and Republican who founded a PAC, Southlake Families, that vehemently opposes the ongoing efforts of Carlton, Moore, and other Carroll school board members to expand diversity and inclusion in school policies and practices. Southlake Families raised more than $200,000 to support a conservative slate of board members who oppose diversity initiatives, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Numerous longtime sources we spoke with said the timing of the DA's push to criminalize the actions of board members who are frequently targeted by O'Hare's PAC and his conservative supporters reeks of cronyism.
O'Hare's recent press releases show that he is using the now-maligned Carroll school board as political ammunition against former Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price, who is widely seen as the moderate Republican candidate of choice for the county judge position.
Carroll school board member Sherri Mills is holding a fundraiser for Price, O'Hare's team said in a public statement. A link to the event page was included.
"How can you determine a person's values and how they will govern?" O'Hare's personal statement read. "By looking at the company they keep. In Betsy Price's case, that's apparently hardcore Democrats who are hard at work pushing a poisonous and racist curriculum on our children."
Prosecutions of local open meetings act violations are exceedingly rare in Texas, based on widespread reporting that describes the offenses as hard to prosecute in court. We reached out to staffers and board members with the Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD), the Fort Worth school district, Fort Worth city council, and Tarrant Regional Water District for any recollections of open meetings act prosecutions and found none. One open records request we recently submitted seeks examples of any local prosecutions of the open meetings act by Tarrant's DA in the past 40 years.
Tarrant County's DA habitually dismisses documented incidents of open meetings act violations, said Daniel "Joe" Bennett, a county politics watchdog who unsuccessfully ran for TAD board four years ago. Bennett described numerous incidents when the Texas law was skirted or outright disregarded by TAD officials and White Settlement school board members before offering this summary of his experience reporting those incidents.
On numerous occasions, Bennett provided information about known violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act to "political subdivisions of the state within Tarrant County," he told us. "I was rebuked or was never provided a resolution letter. I was placated and dismissed.
Earlier this year, one of our reporters spoke with Keith Lane, former Haltom City chief of police (" The Untouchables," Jan 6), who described numerous alleged open meetings act violations on the part of Haltom City councilmembers which occurred after Lane left law enforcement to work as Haltom City's city manager. After Lane forwarded evidence to Tarrant's DA office, two special prosecutors were assigned. Four years and no indictments later, Lane said the DA's office is seeking a "slow death" for the types of violations that Wilson's office recently pushed for in Southlake. Lane confided at the time that he didn't have the best professional relationship with Wilson and that may have led to the subsequent bogus investigation into a handful of Haltom City councilmembers.
"I think once you decide that you want to run for office in Tarrant County, you join a good-ol'-boy system," Lane told us in January. "They support each other. They have the mindset of needing to stick together. 'If we stick together, we'll get reelected as many times as we want to.' "
The November 2022 elections will decide two county commissioner seats (including that of the county judge, which Judge Glen Whitley will vacate), Tarrant County's district attorney, and many other elected positions, both at the local and national levels.
Based on his press releases, O'Hare is positioning himself as the "true conservative" (read: racist lite conspiracy nut) who can upset Price's "leftist" agenda (" Splitting Hares," Aug 11).
The gifting of a political Easter egg from one insider Republican to another just as election season ramps up warrants dogged investigation. The Weekly has requested a slew of documents related to the indictments of the two Southlake school board members from the DA's office, and our readers can expect timely updates in the coming weeks and months.
This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not necessarily the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at anthony@fwweekly.com. Submissions will be edited for factuality and clarity.
Tim O'Hare
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Increase your visibility in the community – not-for-profit fundraisers, community group information/membership campaign, small home businesses, homemade crafts and more!
Market your wares, provide children activities, or provide food.
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COMMERCIAL FOOD VENDORS – all food vendors MUST read, comply with the AHS Food Vendor Package information of rules and complete and submit a Special Event Application to Alberta Health Services.
Further details are in the Vendor Package which can be found at AHS website: Environmental Public Health – Safe Food – Strathcona County Health Centre.
If your vendor application is approved, you will be requested to provide an Insurance Certificate with coverage for a minimum of two million dollars, naming as Additional Insured as "Ardrossan Recreation & Agricultural Society" and "Strathcona County".
**If handling food and you do not have a Food Handling Permit from Alberta Health Services, please ensure at least one vendor representative is on site who has a Certificate for Food Sanitation and Hygiene as required under section 31 of the Public Health Act Food Regulation.
Download the Alberta Health Services Special Events Food Vendor Package and follow the guidelines as required.
For more information, check Alberta Health Services AHS Guidelines-for-public-market-managers-and-vendors, and Temporary Concesssions at Community Events.
For more information, contact AHS directly at Environmental Public Health – Safe Food – Strathcona County Health Centre.
NOTE: ALL Registered Picnic Vendors MUST ARRIVE BY 9 AM.
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For opportunities to be a Vendor, visit our website regularly for posted upcoming events.


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You are here: Home Topics Enterprise and innovation News Press statement Prime Minister Rutte on Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Press statement Prime Minister Rutte on Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Boao Forum that the Netherlands intends to become a prospective founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The Netherlands will participate in negotiations on the AIIB's Articles of Agreement over the next few months, which are expected to be completed in june.
The Prime Minister noted that there is a major lack of infrastructure funding in Asia and that an investment bank like the AIIB will help meet this need. Mr Rutte said that by joining the bank, the Netherlands could help shape its mandate, governance model and policies.
Noting that infrastructure funding for emerging countries is crucial, the Prime Minister stated. 'The Netherlands, one of Europe's top 3 trading countries with China, sets for sustainable relations with China and the broader region. Every day the number of Dutch companies in China is growing. By taking part in discussions during the bank's creation, we can work with other countries to encourage it to uphold high standards. And to help it become a successful, effective and inclusive international financial institution.' Earlier this week the Prime Minister accompanied a delegation of Dutch companies on a trade mission to the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Prime Minister Rutte on trade mission to China 25-03-2015 | 15:05


I am in Berlin now for a week, on my way to the "Bohemian Polyphony" event – more of this later. Of course I met my old friends Leander Reininghaus and Markus Reuter who both live in Berlin now.
I had met Leander and Markus on a Guitar Craft course with Robert Fripp in … 1991 I think, anyway, about 25 years ago. We played together as "Trio Gitarristik" for a few years during the mid-1990s, performing various Guitar Craft tunes plus our own compositions, and also ambient soundscapes.
This week, because I came to Berlin, Leander had organized a livelooping concert for us at the Galiläa church, a beautiful abandoned-church-turned-into-performance-space, and we performed together again for the first time in about 20 years.
Leander framed the evening with a number of beautiful short pieces by Erik Satie (from "Musique d'ameublement" – the first time I ever heard this music) and Philip Glass ("North Star").
I used analog vintage gear and my "Frippertronics" setup based on tape delay. Even though my energy had been low during the day, it went up as soon as I was on stage, and I was pretty happy with my 20 minute solo set! As often, I had no idea what I would do until I started with the first note, and I felt carried and led by the music that slowly developed. How this works never ceases to amaze me.
I heard from someone in the audience afterwards that my music sounded autumnal to him, and at the same time, he sensed a dry kind of humour. I liked that. Interesting how the same piece of music can elicit such a wide range of responses in the performer and in everyone in the audience.
Markus created one of his amazing ethereal soundscapes on Touch Guitar and Ableton Live. I had occasionally seen him on stage over the years but this piece felt especially intimate and personal to me.
At the end, we improvised together on the chords of Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)". Leander had chosen this beautiful piece (that, incidentally, I had played on my mother's funeral four years ago) to finish this thoroughly enjoyable "Berlin Livelooping Session".
Thank you to everyone from the venue who made this evening possible!


The study of the dynamics of stakeholders in museums is about the understanding of which groups are evolved by the management of these spaces, considering the aspects of co-creation of value. The study is justified by the importance of these institutions as vectors for conservation, communication and dissemination of tangible and intangible elements of a locality and the growing number of museums in various localities, especially in Belo Horizonte, MG. The main objective was to understand and analyze the management of the relationship of two museums in the Circuito Cultural Praça da Liberdade (Espaço TIM UFMG do Conhecimento and Memorial Minas Gerais) with its stakeholders. It was developed a qualitative research, focused on multiple case studies with three sources of evidence: interviews, direct observations and documentation. It was identified in this research that the currents museums management does not estabilish constant monitoring of primary stakeholders as the local community. It is found that the basic requirements management considering to the cocreation of value such as transparency and stakeholder engagement can result in the strategic development, collaborative reciprocal benefits and spontaneous involvement of the local community.
Castells, M. A sociedade em rede. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1999, 4 ed..
Circuito Cultural Praça da Liberdade. Museus e espaços. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 02 de ago. de 2011.
Clarkson, M. B. E. A stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporation. Academy of Management Review. v.20, n.1; p. 92-117, 1995.
Dencker, Ada; da Via, Sarah. Pesquisa empírica em Ciências Humanas. São Paulo: Futura, 2002.
______; Harisson, Jeffrey; Wicks, Andrew. Managing for stakeholders: survival reputation. Yale University Press. New Haven and London, 2007.
______; Harisson, Jeffrey; Wicks, Andrew; Parmar, Bidhan; de Colle, Simone. Stakeholder Theory: the state of the art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Frooman, Jeff. "Stakeholder Influence strategies." Academy of management review, Vol 24, n2 p.191-205,1999.
Govier, Louise. Leaders in Co-criation? Why and how museums could develop their co-creative practice with the public, building on ideas from the performing arts and other non-museum organizations. MLA Museums Clore Leadership Fellow 2008.
. Acesso em: 28 mar. 2011.
Instituto Brasileiro de Museus - IBRAM. Guia dos Museus Brasileiros. Brasília, 2011. Disponível em: . Acesso em 01 e 02 de setembro de 2011.
Junqueira, Rosemeire R., Wada, Elizabeth K. Stakeholders: estratégia organizacional e relacionamento. Estudo de casos múltiplos do setor hoteleiro. Revista Ibero-Americana de Estratégia - RIAE, São Paulo, v. 10, n. 3, p. 94-125, set./dez. 2011.
Ministério da Cultura, MinC. Dados e Fatos. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 01 e 02 de set. de 2010.
Prahalad, C.K.; Romaswamy, Venkant. O futuro da competição: como desenvolver diferenciais inovadores em parceria com os clientes. 4 ed. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier, 2004.
Reed, M.S.;Graves, A.; Dandy, N.; Posthumus, H.; Hubacek, K.; Morris, J.; PrellL, C.; Quinn, C. H.; Stringer, L. C. Who's in and Why? A typology of stakeholder analysis methods for natural resource managemente. Journal of Environmental Management, 90, 1933-1949 Feb. 2009. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 28 dec. 2011.
Romaswamy, Venkant; Gouillart, Francis. A empresa co-criativa. Rio de Janeiro: Elsevier; São Paulo: Symnetics, 2010.
Secretaria de Cultura de Minas Gerais- SEC/MG. Fomento e Incentivo a Cultura. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 29 e 30 de agosto de 2011.


I currently do not have a membership with Costco, but have become very interested in the new Costco Citi Visa scheduled to roll out June 20th. I was told that while customers will be able to use any Visa at that time, they will have applications and instant approvals available for those who qualify for the Citi Visa on June 20th as well. Also during my investigation Cap One was mentioned as a card issuer as well. Found out Cap One supplies the Costco store card only, no Visa. I'm sure most knew about it, but for the few who might have known, lol!
Needless to say, my calender has been updated to visit Costco on June 20th.??????
STRANGE EMAIL from 'Synchrony Bank"….
Ok so I am thinking about buying amy first new home, where do I start?
What happens to prepaid products for sale?
Whats the best mortgage company to use when having low credit?
165,000 house. How much will the payments be? I found the perfect house for my family and really need to know. How much will my down payment be if I don't get 100% financing?
I"m a cash buyer prospecting Broward County in Florida Other than Craigslist and Backpage, which websites can I use to post an Ad to find homeowners in default who may be actively looking to sell?
Advice on buying a home?
I wonder , I thought of 2 things: 1. Intrest rate lowered 2. more Investment that yield interest. Is it right ?
Applying for a Capitol One Card?


Angie Mitchell's Page - 30 Bananas a Day!
Dustymoon here. I've been vegetarian all my 45 years but in last 4 months turned vegan.
I'm a healthy enough weight but always struggled to get really lean. No matter how much exercise I do I've never able to lose stubborn stomach fat or fat around my thighs. I would really like to see if this diet could work for me.
I'm willing o give this a go as we go into summer, really hope it works for me!
Helping me stop craving the carbs and hot food when it's freezing outside.
Hi, the next Raw Fruit Festival in Spain will be held from Aug 31 to Sept 6.


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On February 3, 2013 By BrettIn Philosophy
Labels are insidious. I imagine them slipping around like lampreys and aphids, notching their toothless jaws to us. They slip into conversation, into thought, and spatter the world like sticky notes, categorizing, separating, allocating, and organizing. We can pry them loose, but they always seem to slip back and latch on again. They're often at the foundation of how we operate, whether we're aware of them or not.
One of my favorite–albeit "sketchy"–pastimes is to sit in a crowded place, especially on a college campus, and look at how people naturally sort themselves, fitting into tidy categories
The "jocks," with short, blond hair, fit physiques, and exercise clothes sit together. So does the alternative crowd, people like "hipsters," with quirky sweaters, weathered jeans, and sunglasses, or the lingering pockets of "goth" and "emo"culture.
The pre-med students group together, and the theater folk unite. The church-going flock together, filling the same long tables at meals with persistent regularity.
People separate and and sort by age, majors, music tastes, geographic locations– anything to segment and define–and looking at them, I, too, block people together under labels.
I often wonder where the label ends and the person begins.
A few perspectives come to mind.
Humans tend to separate and categorize in their nature. For example, an interesting study came out recently about newborns and facial recognition. Researches found that newborns before three months largely had the same response to faces of their parents' race as they did to a foreign race. To them, a face was a face. But after three months, the newborn preferred the face of his or her parents' race significantly more. Somehow, the researches concluded, the infant learned to distinguish foreign faces and separate them native ones.
Whatever it's causes or effects, our proclivity to separate and categorize is pretty hard-wired. And as the case of racism shows, results can be serious.
Also, social labeling theory says social labels influences how the people views their own selves. Primarily focused on socially-charged labels, like criminals, the mentally ill, and minorities, the theory can also apply to the seemingly innocent labels of the college campus.
So, is a "hipster" born or crafted by social construction? Personally, I think both.
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger says that we find ourselves in an already interpreted world–or in his jargon, "Initially, 'I' 'am' not in the sense of my own self, but I am the others in the mode of the they."
For Heidegger, we start out seeing the world and our own self how "they" see it, "they" being the dominant social paradigm at the time. Even in common expression, we say "you know what they say."
I like to call it the "monoculture effect" after a recent book about it. Essentially, we find ourselves "thrown" into this world, getting bombarded on a daily basis to see things a certain way, as if that's the only way to see things. Certain unsaid assumptions lace themselves into our worldview and solidify, like money and success equal happiness. Truisms.
Trouble is, things are much more complicated that most of these assumptions allow.
Labels are the perfect example. I think we're born and influenced to like certain things and behave certain ways. It's an ongoing debate that exceeds the space here to address, but still, I think certain images, activities, or labels appeal to us. We want to express them. It's what Heidegger and the existentialists call "authenticity": a longing to express our "authentic self."
We may want to be a writer or an athlete, but we want to be someone.
Then, we enter the world, and those labels come with a line of baggage and interpretation dominated by the "they" of society. So we gradually blend into the norm trying to express the labels we identify with. Hoping to "be ourselves" we become a collection of labels society has already defined.
Also, viewing the world, we forget that each person has an individual perspective and expression on whatever label they pick up. Our desire to find acceptance influences us to seek out people who wear similar labels, and social pockets emerge.
We get lost in the names and separate.
However, I like theater people because I like theater. Why would I want to group with people who don't like anything I do?
The real problem isn't the natural sifting that similar interests and passion creates, but the judgement present in that separation.
Separate pockets of theater folks and jocks can coexist and be happy, even interact, but problems arise the moment someone says things like "theater people are weird and jocks are dumb." Exclusion and prejudice suddenly turn labels into weapons and shrinking the world into black-and-white distinctions.
Mired in judgement, labels calcify and we lose the diversity individuals add to the labels–their own take on what it means to be an athlete or a theater person. We think all jocks are dumb or all theater people all weird, even if a good number are not. Blunt stereotypes tint our perception, and we judge people before we even meet them, sometimes negatively.
Therefore, labels aren't bad in themselves. It's all about how we use them or let them use us. We should celebrate our diversity and realize the inherent humanity in being part of the same species. Or as "the Brain" puts it in The Breakfast Club:
You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms. The most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.
existentialismHeideggerindividualitylabelslifeMonoculturemusingsphilosophyselfhoodsocialogysociety
Some thoughts on theater
Kant and Camus: The is and the ought
2 thoughts on "Labels"
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text:
package domain.httpclient;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import org.apache.commons.httpclient.Header;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpConnectionManager;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpException;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpStatus;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.PostMethod;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.params.HttpConnectionManagerParams;
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;

/**
 * 〈一句话功能简述〉
 * 〈功能详细描述〉
 * @author    weiyinglei
 * @version   STOWZ V1.0.0, 2016年10月28日
 * @see
 * @since     STOWZ V1.0.0
 */

public class HttpClientUtils {
    /**
     * 日志处理类
     */
    private static final Log logger = LogFactory.getLog(HttpClientUtils.class);

    // 读取超时
    private final static int SOCKET_TIMEOUT = 30000;
    // 连接超时
    private final static int CONNECTION_TIMEOUT = 30000;
    // 每个HOST的最大连接数量(连接至目的主机的线程数)
    private final static int MAX_CONN_PRE_HOST = 2;
    // 连接池的最大连接数(相当于线程数)
    private final static int MAX_CONN = 2;
    // 连接池
    private final static HttpConnectionManager httpConnectionManager;

    private static HttpClient httpClient;

    static {
        httpConnectionManager = new MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager();
        HttpConnectionManagerParams params = httpConnectionManager.getParams();
        params.setConnectionTimeout(CONNECTION_TIMEOUT);
        params.setSoTimeout(SOCKET_TIMEOUT);
        params.setDefaultMaxConnectionsPerHost(MAX_CONN_PRE_HOST);
        params.setMaxTotalConnections(MAX_CONN);
        httpClient = new HttpClient(httpConnectionManager);

 }

    /**
     * 发送主要方法,异常捕获
     *
     * @param post
     * @param code
     * @return
     */
    public static String doHttpPostRequest(PostMethod post) {
        String resultString = "";
        try {
            httpClient.executeMethod(post);
            if (post.getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.SC_OK) {
                resultString = post.getResponseBodyAsString();
            }
        } catch (HttpException e) {
            logger.error("http请求超时", e);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            logger.error("IO超时", e);
        } finally {
            post.releaseConnection();
        }
        return resultString;
    }

    /**
     * 设置一下返回错误的通用提示,可以自定义格式.
     *
     * @param reason
     * @return
     */
    public static String returnError(String reason) {
        StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
        buffer.append("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"GBK\"?>");
        buffer.append("<Response>");
        buffer.append("<Success>false</Success>");
        buffer.append("<reason>");
        buffer.append(reason);
        buffer.append("</reason>");
        buffer.append("</Response>");
        return buffer.toString();
    }

    public final static String REQUEST_HEADER = "x-forwarded-for";

    /**
     * 将客户IP写入请求头 这个设置可以伪装IP请求,注意使用
     *
     * @param client
     * @param ip
     * @return
     */
    public static void resetRequestHeader(HttpClient client, String ip) {
        List<Header> headers = new ArrayList<Header>();
        headers.add(new Header(REQUEST_HEADER, ip));
        client.getHostConfiguration().getParams().setParameter("http.default-headers", headers);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Health of a child requires proper understanding by the parents. This is because failure to fully comprehend safety nutrition may lead to some dietary problems and even the general development of the child.
It is important to note that the child's mental health normally starts at the home environment. This implies that the environmental health of the child is of great significance.
How a child will perceive himself/herself and even the capacity of thinking how they are perceived by their peers and others generally depends on what their parents and their care professionals say about them.
Make sure you acknowledge the achievements of your child by praising him/her whenever something right is done. This will improve the general health of the child.
they have improved in school or any activity, praise them as this will count especially with regards to healthy child care.
Making sure that the concerns for your child care is seriously taken into consideration. This will make them feel better after helping them go through such an episode.
Give your children an opportunity to share in the weekly family meetings what they have gone through in a given week by making them incorporate safety performance, environmental exposures and health aspects.
Set rules and what it entails as far as safety performance standards is concerned.
Healthy eating tips are of paramount importance as far as health of a child is concerned. This is because it will help in the growth of children.
Balanced diet in child care health will help to keep the body's performance at the optimum level.
When lots of vegetables, fruits and even vegetables are incorporated in the diet, a child's nutrition health will improve remarkably.
Child care health must incorporate the dental aspect. The activities as far as dental health is concerned will help the children start the healthy practices at a tender age.
Stress on brushing of teeth and even flossing of the child's teeth.
It is also important to involve them in childhood education for them to have a chance to see what will occur in case proper dental health is not practiced by them.
There are many benefits as far as health for child is concerned. The children will be able to fully understand the importance of sleeping better and growing as they are required in a wider perspective.
Research has also shown that those children who have healthy eating habits normally have a higher self esteem and their performance much better in school.
Children whose nutrition health is as required are never prone to diseases like obesity or even diabetes.
It is of great importance to underscore the fact that safety performance standards must be adhered to with regards to Health of a Child.


St. Charles Parish Public Schools is committed to ensuring that our web environment is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities.
This website endeavors to comply with best practices and standards as defined by Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user-friendly for all people.
If you need additional assistance or have accessibility concerns regarding the website, please email webmaster@stcharles.k12.la.us or call (985) 785-3104.
If you need information on non-discriminatory policies and/or assistance, please contact the below person.


"I think McSally will win".
The tweets, press releases and TV remarks were a mere prelude to the war between Gillum, an unabashed left-wing progressive who has called for Trump's impeachment, and DeSantis, who crushed one-time front-runner Adam Putnam in the GOP primary after winning Trump's endorsement.
Florida's race for Governor Rick Scott's seat has been framed as a referendum on Trumpism versus progressivism-with DeSantis representing the former, and Gillum the latter. Gillum did not directly answer that they were, but insinuated it.
Asked if he's afraid of President Donald Trump's support for DeSantis, Gillum told CNN that his race is about uniting the state. "I'm not going to go down in the gutter".
Trump quickly attacked Gillum Wednesday morning on Twitter, calling him "a failed Socialist mayor" and the "biggest dream" opponent for DeSantis.
After one commercial break, Fox News anchor Sandra Smith read a statement from DeSantis campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson saying that to characterize DeSantis' comments as racist "is absurd". The group is also looking to paint Gillum as far too liberal for most voters in the Sunshine State. "I watched those Democratic debates". Let's build off the success we've had with Gov. [Rick] Scott.
Users have complained about poor interface sizing and other formatting issues that hinder their ability to host video calls. Released internationally on August 16, 2016, Duo is a video chat app that follows in the footsteps of Hangouts.
Referring to his Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum, he told the channel: "The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases". "That's not going to work. I think I've demonstrated that I have the ability to bring the entirety of our party together and I think that's what's going to be required if a Democrat's going to win in November", Gillum said.
DeSantis made the comment at 9:36 a.m. while appearing on Fox News following his victory in the Republican primary.
The former Air Force fighter pilot will now face off against Democrat Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema in the midterms, who won her primary race in a landslide after clinching 80-percent of the vote.
Backed by progressive pacesetter Bernie Sanders and embraced by urban voters in the state's largest cities, Gillium is a fan not only of a $15 minimum wage and a Medicare for All policy but also of strengthening gun controls. He has been a strong opponent of the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and possible collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign or Trump himself.
Like I said, Andrew Gillum is Woke Obama 2.0: The Post Wakanda edition.
"People are really sick and exhausted of this kind of race-baiting, division, derisive element to our politics", Gillum said during an interview on MSNBC. DeSantis is going to make it his business to define Mayor Gillum before he has a chance to define himself.
State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, one of Gillum's early supporters, said he had an intangible feeling before the election that "we were going to make history".
The corresponding figure for the first quarter of 2017-18 was Rs 31.18 lakh crore. The report said that agricultural growth may also support the GDP growth.
The Justice Department's court filing opposes Harvard's request to dismiss the lawsuit before trial. Harvard is accused of discriminating against Asian-Americans, but the university denies the claim.
And today brings news of the flawless and inevitable addition to the theme park area inspired by a galaxy far, far away. Lucasfilm Story Group executive Pablo Hidalgo spoke about the new planet of Batuu and how it plays into Star Wars lore.
Unai Emery has confirmed that he has banned fruit juice from the Arsenal training ground - because he only likes it freshly squeezed.
In Vardy's absence Southgate named Harry Kane , Marcus Rashford and Danny Welbeck as the only strikers in the squad. But the squad is younger with these new players so we're looking to consolidate while also looking to the future'.
They were supported by the province of British Columbia, which acted as an intervener. It would also increase the number of tankers in Burrard Inlet seven-fold.
Regardless, the new album is out right this very second on all yr usual online streaming outlets, meaning your Friday commute home probably just got its soundtrack sorted.
Immigration officials in New Zealand are expected to make a decision by Friday on whether to grant her a "special direction" visa. According to the report, Manning can appeal the decision, but past precedent suggests that the decision will not be overturned.
Paytm has been one of the prominent beneficiaries of the governments move in November 2016 to scrap high denomination notes. While several Berkshire portfolio companies have operations in India but it had not made any direct investments until now.
Whilst the Gunners will need to do a fair bit of travelling, they'll be happy with the opposition they've been drawn against.
A few firefighters saluted from atop a fire engine parked on an overpass as the motorcade passed underneath on Interstate 17. Biden also served as one of McCain's pallbearers, carrying his casket into the North Phoenix Baptist Church.
Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who represents many federal workers, blamed what he said was Trump's mismanagement of federal government. The state with the largest number of federal workers is California, followed by Virginia, the District of Columbia and Texas.
His ideas differed to philosophers before him and he established the concept of dialectical thinking. This is the way we have to play if we want to win against Burnley .
The character of James Bond has driven an Aston Martin intermittently on film since 1964, when he drove a DB5 in Goldfinger . China is a major growth market for Aston Martin , which is capitalising on the swelling numbers of the middle classes.
He was there for too long. "I felt like it's maybe one of these years where it could be hot", Federer said on Thursday. It was not just about, 'How are you feeling?' 'Oh, I'm not feeling so well.' Go back up to the chair.
But in a statement this morning, the company said a sale of the coffee chain is now "in the best interests of shareholders". Coca-Cola hopes to close the deal in the first half of next year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
She is said to have had a costume change each day, having started the week in a red dress and yesterday being seen in blue. Tomorrow, Aretha will be laid to rest in a private funeral, where more will perform tributes.
Depardieu has appeared in 200 films over six decades and holds a rare position as a French actor who is known in Hollywood. She reportedly alleged the events took place at Depardieu's "hotel particulier" - town mansion - in Paris in early August.
The rule was revised in 2016 to state that violations will result in dismissal of the charges without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled.
The ISS regularly requires small repairs of various systems, although a hull breach, even a small one, is a rare occurrence. NASA officials said at the time that this leak was no cause for concern.
She also referred to the earlier demonstration during which protesters were said to "hunt down" foreigners in street mobs. Police have arrested one man from Syria and one from Iraq on suspicion of manslaughter.


text:
BOP DaBaby Download 'BOP' on iTunes
33 Of The Best Hip-Hop Album Covers Ever
Re-live some of the best and most memorable hip-hop album covers of all time.
1. Notorious B.I.G, 'Ready To Die'
Another album cover featuring a baby picture of the rapper who made it, Notorious' 'Ready To Die' album was released in 1994 and included the incredible single 'Juicy'
2. Kanye West, '808s & Heartbreak'
The cover art for Kanye's auto-tune album '808s & Heartbreak' features a broken heart and was designed by KAWS. The album arrived shortly after the death of West's mother, Donda.
3. Drake, 'Nothing Was The Same'
Drake's third studio album features two covers - one of him as a child and one of him now - and the oil painting was created by Southern California's Kadir Nelson, the designer behind Michael Jackson's posthumous album cover, 'Michael'.
4. Beastie Boys, 'Paul's Boutique'
The artwork for Beastie Boys' 1989 album 'Paul's Boutique' is a photograph of Ludlow Street and was shot by photographer Jeremy Shatan, but credited to Nathanial Hörnblowér.
5. The Fugees, 'The Score'
The iconic Fugees album had a cover to match, showing the band members - Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel - in different poses.
6. Dr Dre , 'The Chronic'
The simple cover artwork for Dr Dre's debut solo album sees a picture of the rapper hanging inside a gold frame. The striking image remains one of the hip-hop's most iconic album covers.
7. Eminem, 'The Marshall Mathers LP'
There are two covers for 'The Marshall Mathers LP. The first shows Eminem in front of the house in Detroit that he grew up in and the second, pictured here, shows him sitting on the floor beside wooden bars on a wall. The album was released in 2000.
8. Jay Z, 'Magna Carta Holy Grail'
Released in 2013, the artwork for Jay Z's 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' was premiered in Salisbury cathedral alongside the original copy of Magna Carta 1215.
9. Drake, 'Take Care'
Drake's second album 'Take Care' was released in 2011 and the cover art, designed by Martin "Drop" Wong, sees Drake sitting at a table and surrounded with expensive looking antiques.
10. Kid Cudi, 'Man On The Moon: The End Of The Day'
The graphical artwork for 'Man On The Moon: The End Of The Day' sees Kid Cudi emerging from the moon. The album was released in 2009 and included his breakthrough hit 'Day N' Nite'.
11. Ice Cube, 'Death Certificate'
As one might expect from the title of the album and the content it featured, Ice Cube's 1991 album 'Death Certificate' came with a cover that created just as much debate. The album was a huge success, with more than one million pre-orders.
12. Childish Gambino, 'because the internet'
Always one to push boundaries with his music and his artwork, Childish Gambino's artwork actually moves. (You'll have to buy a hard copy to see it in full effect.)
13. Lube Fiasco, 'Food And Liquor'
The cover art for Lupe Fiasco's 'Food And Liquor' sees the rapper surrounded by different items, including a Banksy postcard and a Nintendo DS, and was designed by Chuck Anderson and Righteous Kung Fu. The artwork for the 2006 album was inspired by a skateboard dec that Lupe owned.
14. Beastie Boys, 'License To Ill'
Beastie Boy's 1986 album features a features a Boeing 727 on its cover with 'Beastie Boys' emblazoned on the tail. The tail of the plane featured the Def Jam logo and '3MTA3' which spells 'EATME' when viewed in a mirror.
15. Lauryn Hill, 'The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill'
Released as the peak of Lauryn Hill's fame in 1998, the album cover for 'The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill' featured the singer's face carved into a piece of wood.
16. The Pharcyde, 'Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde'
Slick K2S was behind the artwork for The Pharcyde's 1992 album, which depicted the rapper emerging from a tunnel on a fairground ride.
17. A$AP Rocky, 'Long. Live. A$AP'
Draped in an American flag, A$AP Rocky can be seen in two parts on the cover for 'Long. Live. A$AP', his debut album, which was released in January 2013.
18. Outkast, 'ATLiens'
The cover art for 'ATLiens' shows cartoon versions of Big Boi and Andre 3000, and the theme on the cover continued throughout the album's singles. With Outkast set to reunite in 2014, look for interest in their back catalogue to grow.
19. Snoop Dogg, 'Doggystyle'
The artwork for Snoop Dogg's 'Doggystyle' was created by by artist Joe Cool and represents the themes covered in the album.
20. Jay Z, 'The Blueprint'
Released on September 11th, 2001, the striking artwork for 'The Blueprint' shows a picture of Jay Z taken from above smoking a guitar. There are a number of items on a table next to the rapper on the cover of his seminal album, including a microphone.
21. Kanye West, 'Graduation'
The cover art for Kanye's 2007 album 'Graduaton' was designed by Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami and sees his mascot Dropout Bear being fired into space.
22. Lil' Wayne, 'Tha Carter III'
Lil' Wayne's incredible album 'Tha Carter III' was released in 2008 and features a baby picture of the rapper on its cover. The artwork was seemingly inspired by Nas's 'Illmatic' and Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Ready to Die', both of which featured baby pictures of their makers.
23. Nas, 'Illmatic'
Speaking of 'Illmatic', Nas' 1999 album shows a baby picture of the rapper superimposed on top of a street from the Queensbridge housing project.
24. Kanye West, 'Yeezus'
Always one to push the boundaries with his album covers, Kanye's 'Yeezus' artwork was simply - there wasn't any. West's album was contained within an empty CD case, with just a red tape keeping it closed.
25. De La Soul, '3 Feet High And Rising'
The artwork for De La Soul's 1989 studio album was designed by the radication British art collective, The Grey Organisation, which was Toby Mott and Paul Spencer. They designed the artwork for De La Soul after moving to New York, where they had also started making music videos for stas including Public Enemy and The Rolling Stones.
26. Eric B. & Rakim, 'Paid In Full'
As you might expect from an album called 'Paid In Full', the cover art for Eric B. & Rakim's 1987 sees the two rappers on top of a pile of money.
27. Mac Miller, 'Watching Movies With The Sound Off'
The cover art for Mac Miller's 2013 album sees the rapper sitting naked behind a table with only an Explicit Content sign to protect his modesty.
28. J. Cole, 'Born Sinner'
J. Cole's album 'Born Sinner' was released in 2013 and included the songs 'Power Trip' and 'Crooked Smile'.
29. Tyler, The Creator, 'Goblin'
There are two editions of the 'Goblin' cover - this is the deluxe edition and shows Tyler staring deep into the camera with the album's title covering his face.
30. Kendrick Lamar, 'Good Kid, M.A.A.D City'
Inspired by the themes on the album, the cover artwork for ' Good Kid, M.A.A.D City' shows Kendrick, two of his uncles and his grandfather with his relations' eyes all censored. His decision to censor his relatives' eyes was because he wanted fans to feel like the story was being told through his eyes.
31. Wiz Khalifa, 'o.n.i.f.c.'
The cover for Wiz's 2012 studio album shows an elegant shot of the rapper sitting on a chair while sporting a leopard print coat and red and white striped trousers.
32. Public Enemy, 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'
Hit hop album covers don't come more iconic than Public Enemy's 'it Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'. The album was released in 1988.
33. 2 Chainz, 'B.O.A.T.S. II: #METIME'
The second studio album by 2 Chainz had nothing but two gold chains on it. Somehow it did everything it had to.


text:
RUSI Whitehall
RUSI Japan
RUSI Nairobi
A Maritime Commander's Reflections Ahead of the NATO Warsaw Summit
RUSI Newsbrief, 5 July 2016
NATO, Maritime Forces, Europe
Which of NATO's goals from the 2014 Wales Summit have been achieved, and what challenges remain, particularly in the maritime environment?
2016_newsbrief_july_hudson.pdf
As we approach the Warsaw Summit, the inevitable question will be asked: did NATO's Maritime Command in Northwood achieve the objectives assigned to it at the 2014 Wales Summit? An honest answer would be 'only partially'. This is disappointing, given the modest nature of the ambitions, but against the backdrop of global demand, it is not surprising.
The lead into the Wales Summit was a frenetic period dominated by a need to re-energise and adapt the Alliance to ensure contemporary effectiveness following Russia's adventurism in Ukraine and her illegal annexation of Crimea. A plethora of directives flowed, the majority of which were folded into the Readiness Action Plan, and most notable of all was the creation of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), designed to demonstrate a credible contingency force by creating High Readiness Alliance units able to deploy swiftly at a time of need. Its raison d'etre was strategic assurance, especially to eastern Allies, by demonstrating collective deterrence to potential aggressors.
Not surprisingly, significant emphasis was placed upon the generation of dependable, pre-nominated and correctly trained high-readiness brigades with prepositioned equipment and an ability to integrate swiftly with national structures. Additional command and control nodes within Central Europe evolved and the welcome drafting of Graduated Response Plans – articulating potential options at a time of crisis, most notably for the Baltic and Black Sea regions – were advanced. The crisis in Ukraine forced the Alliance to revalidate its Strategic Concept and rebuild structures dismantled in the preceding decades to provide genuinely responsive tools in times of crisis.
The maritime environment had rather more modest but nonetheless essential demands placed on it so that a genuinely joint VJTF could be created. This softer emphasis was not a perceived dismissal of the extraordinary range of effects that can be leveraged from the sea, but a tacit recognition that, unlike many other elements of the NATO machinery, the essential NATO maritime architecture remained firmly in place. At the time of the Crimea crisis, SACEUR had Standing Naval Forces (SNFs) with several groups of ships and thousands of sailors within the European theatre under his formal command. NATO Maritime HQ in Northwood (MarCom) controlled those forces and was able to redeploy groups in support of strategic intent; the ability to integrate additional national forces, to train and work with partners were all established procedures and functioned well.
Despite this, NATO maritime was far from being in a healthy state. Of the four standing groups that should have been available, one – ironically the largely Baltic-based Mine Countermeasure (MCM) Group – was deactivated for want of a command staff, while the other groups were woefully underpopulated. This was a consequence of global operational tempo, taut finances, reducing fleet sizes and growing national ambivalence to activity largely dominated by low-level operations dealing with counter-piracy and counterterrorism which, through double tasking, severely eroded contingent capacity.
The counterterrorism operation, Active Endeavour, was hastily formed after 9/11 as an Article V mission, but was increasingly losing regional relevance as a result of impotent rules of engagement preventing meaningful operational engagement. Over the years, sea-based training, especially demanding, complex and full-spectrum joint exercises – which involved larger national task groups and were crucial to generating genuine capacity at scale – had markedly reduced. The well-crafted Alliance Maritime Strategy sat moribund on the SHAPE bookshelf.
This indifference had to be reversed if the maritime environment was to fulfil its obligations within a re-energising NATO. As a result, the principal objectives of the Wales Summit centred on genuinely enacting the 2011 Alliance Maritime Strategy, with its focus on ensuring that NATO's naval forces (whether formally assigned or held at readiness) were ready, interoperable and prepared to contribute to allied deterrence, crisis management, co-operative security and maritime security.
Alongside this, the low-intensity operations in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean were to be overhauled, and in the case of counter-piracy, forces were generated specifically for the operation rather than exploiting one of the contingency groups. Improving SNF participation was to be achieved by injecting greater flexibility in deployment planning, enhancing training opportunities and tightening connectivity with larger national maritime task groups, such as the US Navy carrier battle group and European amphibious groups, which would form the kernel of Immediate Follow-on Forces in any response option.
In sum, improved operational resilience was to be generated by dependable, more proficient on-call forces focused on deterrence, with an ability to integrate seamlessly with follow-on task groups and to rapidly transition to war-fighting operations in times of crisis.
While these were the stated goals presented at the Wales Summit, it seems that they have only been partially achieved to date. Today the SNFs, the bedrock of the naval spearhead force in the VJTF, still remain badly under-resourced, albeit with some numbers artificially boosted by NATO migrant operations in the Aegean. This continuing shortfall tempers the Alliance's ability to deftly move forces to counter hybrid threats and assure smaller allies of NATO resolve. There is an overt tension between well-meaning political rhetoric and operational reality which has to be acknowledged. The fundamental dichotomy that pitches extensive and strategically important national tasking by individual member states against contingent and assurance work on behalf of NATO continues to exist and has deepened markedly, as recent events in the Mediterranean demonstrate.
Put simply, there is too much demand on too few ships, and there is no foreseeable change. The leaders of the Alliance have tried to reassure themselves that in times of genuine crisis the assets will be made available; after all, they say, there are more than 125 Alliance combatants at sea in and around the NATO area of responsibility at any one time: 'when the chips are down, navies will deliver'. Well, perhaps.
SHAPE recently introduced a process known as SAVANT (Ships Available At Sea for NATO Tasking), inviting nations to commit assets to the SNFs in an on-call capacity. The ambition to truly understand availability is laudable and has forged tighter communications, although it is not as valuable as a fully integrated force that know each other well, which is the goal in the other environments. Cynics might say it suffers the same weaknesses that bedevilled the old structures (such as the NRF): ill-defined standards of readiness; no collaborative involvement in the design of operational schedules; complete faith that transfer will be forthcoming; and an inability, within the context of Graduated Response Plans, to be assured of actual force availability. It hardly reflects the vision laid out in Wales, but it is still early days.
A parallel dynamic has recently developed which mitigates some of these more structural weaknesses. With the return of the Russian Navy to the sea in force, with new and more capable missile-launching submarines and frigates, the Allied navies have taken an interest. MarCom has become the co-ordinating hub of cross-Alliance naval intelligence and surveillance activity, which also sends a strategic signal that NATO Allies will not be intimidated away from international waters in the Baltic, Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
NATO's enduring strength comes from agility in crisis response and the genuine deterrent effect assigned forces create. The next stages of NATO adaptation, to be agreed in Warsaw, centre on the evolution of the new structures to enhance speed of response through the stationing of permanent NATO forces in Europe, especially in the Baltic and Central states. In other words: be strong, be ready and be seen to be ready.
There is no doubt that collectively the Alliance has an extraordinary array of capabilities which, especially in the maritime, far outmatches any potential adversary. Yet it is through the sophisticated employment of assigned forces in the formative stages of fledgling tension, before events justify the sobriquet 'crisis', that NATO commanders shape strategic outcomes. The lack of a balanced immediate response under MarCom is still a critical weakness and it remains the case that two ships in a standing force under MarCom, with an ad hoc promise of a few more if needed, significantly restrains commanders' thinking. The maritime is the arena with the greatest opportunity and genuine flexibility in employment; today, this inherent advantage can only be weakly exploited by the SNFs.
To mitigate this necessitates taut links with follow-on forces to ensure rapid construction of a balanced, sustainable Maritime Task Force. After Wales, the structure of SNF groups was correctly adjusted to incorporate submarines, maritime patrol aircraft and a multi-role ship, such as an amphibious landing platform, able to accommodate a variety of lodger capabilities, such as special forces or disaster relief teams. These assets, along with the nominated senior commander and staff, are now held at seven days' notice or less to deploy – in principle and if resourced by nations, they provide a balanced initial force able to secure access to and shape the operational theatre.
Crucial thereafter is the link to the bigger carrier task groups, the amphibious forces and wider capabilities drawn from specialist assets, including afloat logistics and maritime intelligence and surveillance units, which would flow into a region if the lead elements of the VJFT fail to dampen tension. Fundamental to all is the joint perspective – delivering decisive land effect from the sea, correctly aligned with other component commanders working to a joint plan.
Two observations are worthwhile here. First, and somewhat paradoxically given the fragility of the SNF groups, NATO decided to lengthen the notice to move for many of the major follow-on forces: for example, a carrier group which in the past had been held at ten days' notice for NATO operations was relaxed to 45 days. The logic of this decision remains somewhat opaque and appears to be founded on the simplistic desire to retain coherence between land and maritime formations, as well as the reticence of some nations to formally pre-assign units to NATO, even if only for large-scale operations, for fear of unwelcome interference from Brussels. However, this sends a contrary signal and plays to the ongoing ad hoc nature of the readiness force, and thus should be revisited.
Second, if this is to be effective, the overall complexity and scale of training should be significantly improved in both the maritime and joint environments. The Wales Summit endorsed the reconstitution of major exercise events on a triennial basis, starting with Trident Juncture 15 (TJ15) held late last year. This was a welcome step in rebuilding atrophied skills and was well received both for its deterrent effect and the restored focus on building interoperability and tactical integration. Its procedural nature was understandable, but future events should stretch commanders and their teams through meaningful joint interaction in both the planning and downstream execution. The inevitable sea-based stovepiping with limited joint interaction seen in TJ15 will need to be addressed in future events.
Those nations with larger assets must, on occasion, show more willingness to assign them to the exercise programme to ensure ambitions for high-end warfare are delivered; it is well over a decade since a US CVN participated in a major NATO-led exercise. NATO has had a reputation for challenging doctrine and procedures, for experimentation and tactical development; this has to be rekindled.
There is no doubt that command of NATO's maritime operations is much improved. The decision taken in Lisbon 2010 to create a single Maritime Command proved wise. MarCom has growing influence and is an effective environmental advocate to SACEUR, commanding operations with quiet assurance and forging tight links with the five HRF(M) commanders and the wider NATO Maritime Enterprise. Its relationship with the three-star US-led Striking Force (NATO) is mature and mutually supporting. If MarCom is to complete its evolution from an authoritative Component Commander to a Joint Commander, it will require modest additional expertise in areas such as logistics, targeting, strike and littoral manoeuvre; assumptions made on access to additional manpower from willing troop-contributing nations have proved to be groundless. This recalibration of Allied Command Operations manpower, however unappealing to NATO HQ, is a feature across all the operational commands.
Formal NATO operations in the Indian Ocean are likely to conclude in the near future and the emergence of Daesh in Libya has given Operation Active Endeavour a new relevance, sparking a political determination to complete its transformation in order to address all contemporary maritime security threats, delivering a more meaningful NATO contribution in this complex region, particularly as relationships with the EU strengthen.
As the Warsaw Summit approaches, it is clear progress has been made. Nevertheless, the maritime sphere should renew its focus to make good those promises made in Wales; if it succeeds, it will easily adapt to evolving demands that flow from this and subsequent summits. Further expansion of troop deployments in and around the Baltic and Black seas will require closer joint links. The maritime community will need to reconcile operating in complex areas dominated by bastions such as Kaliningrad and Crimea (presence is, after all, an essential component of assurance) with operational dexterity, which flows from demanding joint training and tactical innovation.
The competing pressures of global operational activity and the desire to honour the ambition for rapid response will continue to test and complicate decision-making; it is not an easy equation to reconcile. Maritime NATO has shaken off the strategic torpor of the last ten years but, as always, there is still much to be done.
Vice Admiral Peter Hudson CB CBE
Commander of NATO Maritime Command at Northwood from February 2013 until October 2015.
David Davis on Brexit and Security
David Davis, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, discussed security co-operation post-Brexit.
Tags: UK, Europe
RUSI Future Maritime Operations Conference 2010
About the RUSI Maritime Conference 2010 The new government has established a National Security Council and commenced the United Kingdom (UK) defence and security review. RUSI's Future Maritime Operations Conference will examine emerging positions both from that defence and security review, in the context of the UK's prevailing strategic, policy and financial circumstances, and from...
Tags: Maritime Forces
RUSI UNDER-35s FORUM MEMBERS ONLY - Brexit and the European Elections
This event will explore the impact of the upcoming European elections on the UK, and what the results might mean for British politics following the invocation of Article 50.
Tags: Brexit Briefings, Germany, European Union, France, UK, Europe


Wrexham AFC Women continue their unbeaten form at home as they battled to a hard fought 5-3 win against Mountain Rangers at Afoneitha Road today.
The game started off in a scrappy manner as both teams looked to attack quickly but the boggy surface held up play and forced a lot of long passes from both teams.
Wrexham took the lead in the 13th minute after Jodie Richards pounced on a mix up in the Mountain Rangers defence and her effort deflected off a defender and into the net to put the Dragons up.
However, Mountain Rangers did not allow their heads to drop and just three minutes later, they equalised after a great counter attack being finished off by Siwan Williams.
Wrexham were forced into an early substitution after Sarah Cowell went down with a head injury and was forced off for the rest of the game. Morgan Churchill entered the fray already carrying a slight arm injury but she did not let that deter her.
For the presiding 20 minutes, Wrexham looked the more likely to score as they pressuring the Mountain Rangers back line well and looked to win the ball high up the pitch however they just couldn't get that break through.
The hard work paid off as a minute from half time, Savannah Palin fired in a free kick past Sara Lacey in the Mountain Rangers net to put Wrexham up going into half time.
Wrexham started the brighter in the second half with Megan Buckley having her effort tipped away by the keeper but from the following corner Wrexham got their third of the afternoon.
The corner was headed away straight to Kim Dutton just outside the box and she rifled it into the bottom right hand corner to give the Dragons some breathing room.
Just before the hour mark Mountain Rangers halved the deficit as Kreena Worbey beat the offside trap and one on one with the keeper she tucked it away in the far corner.
Ellie Quayle came on in the 66th minute replacing Teleri Williams and she pushed out into the right midfield position to offer fresh legs down the wing.
With 15 minutes to go, Mountain Rangers brought the game level after the offside trap was beaten again by Alishia Donohue and she rolled it past the onrushing Megan Wright in the Wrexham goal.
This however, did not dent the spirit of Wrexham and spurred them on to get two goals in two minutes with Lauren Reese firing in a long range effort spectacularly beating the keeper and Savannah Palin lashing in from an excellent cross from Lauren Reese.
Wrexham did not have it all their own was as Abbey Hughes, the Captain, had to make a last ditch tackle as Donohue ran through on goal and Megan Wright in goal pulled off an excellent save to deny a free kick from Heledd Evans.
Wrexham ran out 5-3 winners and will be pleased with how they bounced back from the equaliser. The young squad showed a lot of grit and determination to get the win here and put pressure on the league leaders.
WREXHAM AFC WOMEN - Megan Wright (gk), Jessie Griffiths, Megan Buckley, Lily Clifton-Stringer, Abbey Hughes, Kim Dutton, Sarah Cowell, Savannah Palin, Lauren Reese, Teleri Williams, Jodie Richards.
CPD MOUNTAIN RANGERS – Sara Lacey (gk), Gweno Hughes, Kerry Lovell, Lauren Bracken, Kreena Worbey, Elena Julio, Erin O'Donnell, Alishia Donohue, Cara J Jones, Siwan Williams, Heledd Evans.


text:
Greg KotCHICAGO TRIBUNE
American Recordings (American)
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
It's difficult to improve on the concept: Johnny Cash singing a batch of terrific songs accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. It's also difficult to believe that in nearly 40 years as one of the central figures in American music Cash hadn't done it before. "American Recordings" lives up to its title because Cash's sense of drama is founded on understatement, his baritone never straining or resorting to histrionics. It's the one constant in the quagmire of humor and bloodshed, pathos and treachery evoked by these songs, whether written by Cash or a ringer (among them Leonard Cohen and Loudon Wainwright III, whose respective contributions, "Bird on a Wire" and "The Man Who Couldn't Cry," are the album's peaks). The only flat note is struck by Glenn Danzig's "Thirteen"; not even Cash can ring much nuance out of such tired symbolism. Producer and label president Rick Rubin is best known for his work with rock bad boys, from the Beastie Boys to Slayer, but "American Recordings" has them all for lunch.
Ratings: Excellent (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Good (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) Fair (STAR)(STAR) Poor (STAR)


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Home Avalon Hollywood Sean Tyas w/ Greg Downey at Avalon Hollywood – February 10, 2018
Filed Under: Avalon Hollywood Tagged With: Avalon Hollywood, Greg Downey, Guestlist, Sean Tyas, Tickets
Sean Tyas w/ Greg Downey at Avalon Hollywood – February 10, 2018
Sean Tyas w/ Greg Downey at Avalon Hollywood // Tickets & Guestlist
Saturday – February 10, 2018
Tickets [Use code: NOGL for 10% off tickets!]
Sean Tyas
From the shadows a character emerges. He is The Degenerate known as Sean Tyas. Equipped with an alternate belief and an armoury of fresh, high tech soundscapes, each one skilfully crafted to engage his disenchanted generation of nocturnal followers who unite after dark to rebel against the candy floss pink. A new path is here for all Degenerates that choose to follow. Embrace the dark. His sound will guide you through to the other side.
Greg Downey
Having graced the decks on almost every continent, the Belfast born Greg Downey is no amateur when it comes to the art of DJing. Having impressed the promoter of Gategrasher while playing at an afterparty in Ibiza, Greg was asked to play at Space the following week. Very shortly afterwards, Greg broke through the UK trance scene playing at major shows such as Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, Slinky, Inside Out, Goodgreef, and Passion. What was every aspiring DJ's dream to travel the world soon became a reality for Greg. He was crisscrossing the globe flying from New York City to Sydney to Ibiza to Shanghai to Buenos Aires to London playing to massive crowds. Greg recorded his first "Live As album" on Discover from the mega Planet Love festival in Northern Ireland, which captured Greg's energy as a DJ and was featured as "Album of the Month" in Mixmag. Soon the prestigious BBC Radio One came calling and Greg appeared as a guest on Eddie Halliwell's radio show. It came as no surprise when Greg was voted into DJ Mag Top 100 poll coming in at number 82. This was a huge accomplishment for such a young talent. As Greg's DJing career was taking off, so were his productions. Catching the attention of John Digweed with his remix of "Heaven Scent", Greg solidified himself as a producer when his remix claimed the number one spot on Beatport for over a month. His remix was championed by Sasha, Eric Prydz, Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren and John Digweed.
Address: 1735 Vine St, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Hours: [FRI] 9:30pm-3am – [SAT] 10pm-6am
Age: [FRI] 19+ [SAT] 21+
Dress Code| Click Here


text:
Bush Senior was bad for Israel
Former US president George H.W. Bush died this past week, and predictably, there was a lot of whitewashing of his exact records on foreign policy, which includes his atrocious conduct towards Israel, as well as that of his son, Dubya:
"Go to hell." That's what George W. answered a reporter, when questioned about what he planned to tell the Israelis, as he was about to leave on his 1998 Middle East trip. Was he joking? Let's remember, George W. previously had said in 1993, "heaven is open only to those who accept Jesus Christ," while discussing his decision to become "born again," as reported in the Houston Post at the time.
And let's not forget his heavy campaigning in Michigan (home of the largest Arab-American community) before the 2000 election, his family's oil interests, and deep ties with the Arab community in America and the Middle East. Then, there was George W's open support for a Palestinian state during his presidency, the first American president to come out of the closet on the issue.
As the saying goes, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
So, after a cursory look at George W. Bush's attitudes to Jews, and Israel, let's look at his recently deceased father, George H.W. Bush, his friends and family.
Well, for starters, there's the company H.W. kept, for example James Baker who said, "F*** the Jews, they didn't vote for us anyways." James Baker was George H.W. Bush's Secretary of State.
Why didn't H.W. criticize Baker's statement?
And H.W. let Baker publicly berate Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir, "When you're serious about peace, call us," giving the number for the White House switchboard. Later, as a friend of the family, he acted as a political advisor to Jeb Bush, when he ran for governor in Florida.
George H.W. Bush will go down in Jewish History as the American president who forced Israel into a subservient position and endangered millions of Jews.
During the 1991 Gulf War, Shamir wanted the communication codes, so that Israeli pilots could contact their American counterparts, and avoid a friendly fire scenario. Bush refused, forcing Shamir's hand, not to respond to Saddam Hussein's scud missile fire on Israel. Bush sent patriot missiles, and insisted that Israel let America take care of it. That may be the main turning point, in the Israeli mentality, from "we fight our own wars," to a growing sense of dependence on Uncle Sam.
Bush Sr. damaged morale by acting as though literally nobody should even think about offering altruistic aid to the USA, as though the country could literally handle everything unquestioned, and may have even damaged the USA's ability to manage some subjects properly too.
As the late Rabbi Meir Kahane quipped, "Once we were people who had faith in the burning bush, and now we depend upon George Bush?"
H.W. also pushed off an Israeli $10 billion aid request for loan guarantees, to help settle the million plus Soviet Jewish refugees flooding Israel, after the fall of the Iron Curtain. He insisted Israel stop building "settlements," and extorted from Shamir, an agreement that Israel would participate in the 1991 Madrid "peace" Conference. Which led to the Oslo Process, the Palestinian Authority, Arafat's return, and the Death Machine, Israelis suffer with today. After a more cooperative prime minister was elected in Israel in 1992, Yitzhak Rabin, the loan guarantees went through.
Now that too was all an utter abomination, and brought us down very low as a result.
There's also Prescott Bush's historical record to consider, which isn't all that different from Henry Ford's:
But the George HW's apple didn't fall far either…
The accusations against HW's father, Sen. Prescott Bush, go well beyond dislike for Jews and discriminatory practices that were typical of New England WASP culture back then. It seems his father was involved with Hitler's financiers in the later 1920s and 1930s.
Prescott Bush was co-founder and a director of at a New York bank, Union Banking Corp. (UBC), where German businessmen who supported the Nazis, stashed away millions. According to documents from the US National Archives made public in 2003, Bush was still a director at the bank, when its assets were frozen under the Trading With the Enemy Act in 1942.
It seems, the UBC was not so much a "bank" at all, but a "clearing house" for the many assets and enterprises, of German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who later admitted to his role, in helping to finance the Third Reich.
The documents also reveal that Prescott Bush worked for, and was later a partner in, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH). By the late 1930s, both BBH, which claimed to be the world's largest private investment bank, and UBC, had bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Nazi Germany, feeding and financing Hitler's military build-up.
Yep, the Bush family's got quite a history alright. One that serves as an embarrassment to conservatives everywhere, though you could argue Bush Sr. was by no means a real conservative, but rather, an interloper.
This is why I can't feel sorry Bush Sr's no longer here, as he may have hurt the USA just as much as Israel back in the early 90s. There's certainly a reason why he only served one term, and it's a shame Clinton had to be the one to succeed him, as he made things much worse.
Even today, Frank Miller's Holy Terror is still victim of censorship
Andrew Harrod at the American Spectator (via Middle East Forum) has given an alert that Miller's notable 2011 graphic novel, Holy Terror, originally planned as a Batman tale before DC under Paul Levitz rejected it, has been shunned at a Texas library because the Council of American Islamic Relations called for it:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Dallas-Fort Worth chapter (CAIR-DFW) recently "applauded a decision by the Plano Library to resolve an issue related to anti-Muslim material in its catalog." CAIR claims to have convinced this Texas library to remove the book Holy Terror by renowned graphic-novel author Frank Miller, a disturbing act of censorship and a flagrant violation of longstanding library standards.
This author asked the Plano Library Director Libby Holtmann about the book's removal. She stated that the library "did not remove the subject item from its collection from a request by anyone including CAIRDFW," but rather "was alerted by a comment sent through social media." Examination of Holy Terror revealed "that it did not have any professional reviews," which she claimed is a "necessary component for maintaining an item." She also cited library records showing little reader interest in Holy Terror.
In fact, dozens of reviews of the comic book have been published, including by prominent newspapers and peer-reviewed journals. Plano library's dubious response leaves several troubling questions. What was this social media comment that led to an immediate "evaluation" of Holy Terror? Why does Plano Library appear to be kowtowing to CAIR? Does the very controversy itself surrounding Holy Terror raised by groups such as CAIR not justify keeping a copy for the sake of healthy public debate?
CAIR's opposition to Holy Terror, a story of comic superheroes battling Al Qaeda in New York City, goes back to when it first appeared in 2011. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad had condemned Holy Terror as a "shameful" example of how "Islamophobia is becoming mainstream." That same year, journalist Spencer Ackerman wrote that "Holy Terror is a screed against Islam."
Accordingly, CAIR-DFW Executive Director John Janney asked the Plano library about "standards, policies or code of ethics that the publicly funded library followed when faced with publications that dehumanize or marginalize minorities." This applied, he claimed, "especially when those publications are targeted at children" (which the adult graphic novel Holy Terror is in fact not). Although paying lip service to First-Amendment free speech guarantees, CAIR-DFW's argued that "imposing hate literature on a captive audience of children is not appropriate" for a library's mass holdings.
Well this does tell something besides the sad fact CAIR, which was founded by Hamas sympathisers, is still active: they have a backwards view of the comics medium itself, taking the antiquated vision that it's only for children.
CAIR-DFW also claimed that Miller had in 2018 "expressed regret for the book" — implying that Miller would support the censorship of Holy Terror. Yet he actually stated, in a Guardian interview, that he did not "want to go back and start erasing books I did." Importantly, he described Holy Terror in a 2011 interview as a specific "screed against Al Qaeda," not Islam. "The issue here is a method of killing. It's not a religion," he explained. "I can tell you squat about Islam," but "I know a goddamn lot about Al Qaeda and I want them all to burn in Hell."
Ironically, CAIR-DFW's announcement appeared during the annual Banned Books Week of the American Library Association (ALA), the "oldest and largest library association in the world," founded in 1876. During Banned Book Week, ALA promotes a "Stand for the Banned Read-Out" for people to "declare your literary freedoms by reading from a banned book or discussing censorship issues on camera." Since the Week's 1982 beginnings, "libraries and bookstores throughout the country have staged local read-outs, continuous readings of banned and challenged books."
What the Plano library did was a slap in the face to anybody opposed to book censorship. But most curious is where the CBLDF stands in all this? Unsurprisingly, this hasn't been in the mainstream comics press from what I can tell, proving where they actually stood all these years, and if the CBLDF won't give Miller any backing in this case, then they've rendered their mission meaningless.
I think it's a shame Miller reverted back to leftism, if he supported Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections. Though this current case can demonstrate the unforgiving positions of social justice advocates - he dared do something the late Will Eisner also did with his last graphic novel, The Plot, and for this, the SJW leftists shunned Miller for all eternity by not coming to defense of his work.
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Cartoon of the Day: I'm just anti-Zionist
Reader's Links for January 21, 2021
Mark Dice: What's next for us?
The Pelosi-Clinton Treason Commission


text:
Q: Java Array Searching In java an array has three words {'bad','bat','hat'}. I have to write a function which will search like dictionary from array.
Example: If I search at then the function will return all the words which have at in it (like bat and hat will be shown in the output) and if I search a single character character then it will return all those words which have that character. Is there any built-in function available in Java?
e.g: if (string.contains(item1) || string.contains(item2) || string.contains(item3))

A: You could stream the array, and filter using String::contains.
String[] words = {"bad", "bat","hat"};
String filter = "at";

List<String> list = Stream.of(words)
        .filter(word -> word.contains(filter))
        .collect(Collectors.toList());

System.out.println(list);

A: For Java 8, the streaming method would be preferred because it can utilize multiple processors. For earlier versions of Java, the following methods could be used. The first uses the contains method, the second uses regular expressions and might be more useful to you.
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class SearchTest
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        final String[] words = {"bad", "bat", "hat", "hate"};
        final String filter = "at";
        final String pattern = ".*at$"; // regex matching only strings that end with "at"

        System.out.println(".contains");
        final String[] results1 = SearchTest.search(filter, words);

        for (String match : results1)
        {
            System.out.println(match);
        }

        // regex
        System.out.println("Regular Expression");
        final String[] results2 = SearchTest.match(pattern, words);

        for (String match : results2)
        {
            System.out.println(match);
        }
    }

    public static String[] search(final String substring, final String[] words)
    {
        final List<String> matches = new ArrayList<String>();

        for (String word : words)
        {
            if (word.contains(substring))
            {
                matches.add(word);
            }
        }

        return matches.toArray(new String[0]);
    }

    public static String[] match(final String regex, final String[] words)
    {
        final List<String> matches = new ArrayList<String>();

        for (String word : words)
        {
            if (word.matches(regex))
            {
                matches.add(word);
            }
        }

        return matches.toArray(new String[0]);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The board of the Iceland Environmental Agency has called for the University of Iceland's Institute of Economic Studies to withdraw the report and redo it in cooperation with ecologists.
The new report from the Institute of Economic Studies was published last week and states that the Iceland's whaling operations have absolutely no effects on the tourist industry in Iceland. The report was commissioned by the Ministry of Industries and Innovation to determine the economic impact of whaling as the Minister is currently reviewing the effect of hunting whales as the five year agreement is up for review.
The environment association says that the author of report makes ecological calculations that are far from his field of expertise. Furthermore the report implied that anti-whaling groups were terrorists, an implication also strongly criticised by the Environmental Agency.


"When I say 'the little girl,' it's the analogy of accepting the moment when she grows up," he continued. "We love women, we enjoy their company. At one point in time I may have a little girl who grows up and tells me about her engagements with a male figure—things that most men don't want to hear. Learning to accept it, and not run away from it, that's how I want this album to feel."
Stay tuned for more details on his next project. You can go here to read Kendrick's entire T Magazine cover story.


text:
Čelić is een gemeente in het noordoosten van Bosnië en Herzegovina. Het is gelegen in het kanton Tuzla in de Federatie van Bosnië en Herzegovina. Čelić maakte voor de Bosnische Burgeroorlog deel uit van de gemeente Lopare. Het gedeelte van de gemeente dat bezet was door het Bosnische leger werd omgevormd tot de huidige gemeente.

Geografie
De oppervlakte van de gemeente bedraagt 140 km² en het inwoneraantal is 11.231 volgens de meest recente schatting uit 2011. Čelić is gelegen in de heuvels van Majevica en grenst aan de gemeentes Srebrenik, Tuzla, Lopare en Brčko District.

Demografie

Geschiedenis
In 1991 werd de gemeente Lopare toegevoegd aan de Autonome oblast van Semberija en Majevica die later deel uit zou gaan maken van de huidige Servische Republiek.

Een tijdelijke gemeenteraad bestaande uit vertegenwoordigers van de lokale gemeenschappen besloot op 2 november 1991 tot het uitschrijven van een lokaal referendum voor het afscheiden van het gebied van de gemeente Lopare en de Autonome oblast. Het referendum werd op 17 en 18 november 1991 gehouden in de steden/dorpen Koraj, Čelić, Ratkovići, Brnjik, Vražići, Velino Selo, Sitari, Humci, Nahovioci, Šibošnici en Drijenča. Meer dan 99% van de bevolking stemde voor het afscheiden van de gemeente Lopare en het oprichten van de nieuwe gemeente Čelić.

Na het referendum werd er een onderzoeksteam opgericht dat verder onderzoek zou verrichten naar de economische haalbaarheid van het formeren van de nieuwe gemeente. Aan het hoofd van dit team stond Abdulah Kovacevic, het intellectuele brein achter het onderzoek, gediplomeerd econoom en dichter. Zijn betrokkenheid hierbij leidde uiteindelijk tot zijn gruwelijke dood op 29 november 1991. Niet veel later begon de agressie van Servische troepen tegen zowel de gemeente als de rest van het land.

Dankzij lokale vrijwilligers werd er een paramilitaire eenheid opgericht die succesvol alle gebieden van de gemeente verdedigde, behalve Koraj waar de bevolking op 15 juni 1992 werd verdreven. Op 10 maart 1994 werd uiteindelijk door de regering van de republiek Bosnië en Herzegovina een besluit genomen tot het officieel oprichten van de gemeente.

Celić

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