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Judge: Conversion therapy ban is rights violation
A pair of therapists and a Christian ministry organization sued over the ban in Tampa, Florida.
A federal magistrate judge this week recommended that a ban on conversion therapy in Tampa, be partially blocked, arguing it violates therapists' free-speech rights under the First Amendment.
A pair of licensed marriage and family therapists, along with a Christian ministry organization, sued the city of Tampa over an ordinance adopted in April 2017 that barred mental health professionals from subjecting minors to conversion therapy, a highly controversial practice that attempts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
The therapists, represented by conservative Christian legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel, argued the ordinance was unconstitutional because it prohibited them from taking part in "speech" through their counseling, simply because city officials disagree with the content of that speech.
Amanda Arnold Sansone, a U.S. magistrate judge in Tampa, argued in an opinion Wednesday that the plaintiffs, Robert Vazzo, David Pickup and the New Hearts Outreach, sufficiently demonstrated a likelihood of success with their arguments that the ordinance violates their free-speech rights. The judge also said the city presented no evidence of minors being harmed by conversion therapy counseling within city limits.
Arnold Sansone recommended a limited injunction against enforcing the ban on "non-coercive" sexual orientation conversion efforts that consist entirely of "talk therapy." Under her recommendation, conversion-therapy techniques that are "aversive," such as electroshock therapy, should still be banned. Her report will now be sent to a federal district judge, who will issue a ruling.
The magistrate judge's opinion, constitutional law experts say, is unusual because it runs contrary to two other circuit court opinions that have upheld conversion-therapy bans in both California and New Jersey. Her position, which contradicts other decisions in those similar cases, implies that speech from medical professionals should fall under the same First Amendment protections as any other speech.
"The problem usually is that . . . licensed professionals can't just say anything they want," said Claudia Haupt, an associate law professor at Northeastern University School of Law. "If you're acting in your professional capacity, there are consequences to giving bad advice, so speech can be sanctioned." A prime example of those consequences? Medical malpractice, Haupt said.
Conversion therapy has been condemned by dozens of mental health, medical and LGBT rights groups. A task force from the American Psychological Association concluded that efforts to change sexual orientation are harmful and unlikely to be successful. Since California passed the first ban on conversion therapy for minors in 2012, 14 other states and the District of Columbia have also barred the practice.
The Supreme Court has twice upheld California's 2012 ban on conversion therapy on minors. But a recent Supreme Court ruling, which Arnold Sansone cited in her opinion, has given renewed hope to some conservative advocacy groups seeking to overturn bans on conversion therapy.
In National Institute of Family & Life Advocates v. Becerra, a divided Supreme Court in June of last year ruled that crisis pregnancy centers, which aim to persuade women to continue their pregnancies, cannot be required to tell their patients about the availability of state-offered services, including abortion.
The crisis pregnancy centers had argued that a California law violated their First Amendment free-speech rights, and in a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court agreed. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that speech "is not unprotected merely because it is uttered by professionals." In a concurring opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the law was "a paradigmatic example of the serious threat presented when government seeks to impose its own message in the place of individual speech, thought, and expression."
The recommendation in the Tampa case provides an example of how the NIFLA ruling is working in favor of groups that support conversion therapy, constitutional law experts say.
"Now it will be interesting to see whether this case in particular might be a vehicle to test the framework that NIFLA provided," Haupt said.
Steven Shiffrin, a professor of law emeritus at Cornell Law School, said the judge's ruling shows what can happen when the courts provide conflicting guidance on laws that are "content-based" – in other words, laws that apply to a particular speech because of the idea expressed, in this case, the idea that a person's sexual orientation can and should be converted.
If a district judge upholds the Tampa opinion, Shiffrin said he could foresee other judges using it to decide similar cases across the country, particularly with the number of conservative judges recently appointed by President Trump.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, celebrated the judge's opinion, saying in a statement that it "underscores the serious First Amendment violations of laws that dictate what a counselor and client may discuss in the privacy of their counseling session.
"The government has no business eavesdropping inside the counseling session between a counselor and client," Staver said.
Supreme Court puts off decision on restrictive Louisiana abortion law
U.S. government warns of limits on reuniting migrant families
Press Herald Obituaries


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See where Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi Bryant were buried
NBA legend, Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant were laid to rest last Friday in Corona Del Mar, ahead of a Feb. 24 public memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was a private Los Angeles funeral.
Kobe and Gianna died in a chopper crash two weeks ago on their way to a basketball tournament at Kobe's Mamba Sports Academy. They died along with passengers Christina Mauser, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester and pilot Ara Zobayan tragically passed away in a helicopter crash.
Though the ceremony was held privately, a public memorial will be held on February 24 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, giving fans an opportunity to pay their respects. "We are one city that believes in each other, believes in something bigger than ourselves," Mayor Eric Garcetti has said. "We will absolutely do everything to make sure that this is done so that everybody can come to it as well."It was reported earlier that Vanessa Bryant, the wife of late NBA Legend, Kobe Bryant opened up on how she's been dealing with the tragic loss of her husband and 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. The duo died along with seven others in a tragic helicopter crash on Sunday, Jan. 26th.In an emotional Instagram post, Vanessa disclosed that she's having a hard time accepting that her husband and daughter are gone. According to her, even when she tries to process Kobe being gone, her body refuses to accept that her daughter will never come back to her.
posted by Aitaleabiamo at 12 February
labels news

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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New England Regional News
Man Living in Maine Under New Name Charged in Unsolved Massachusetts Rapes
Posted 13 August, 2019 NECN
A former Massachusetts resident has been charged in two previously unsolved rape cases from the 1990s after being found living in Maine under a new identity.
Ivan Keith, 61, formerly of Bridgewater, is accused of raping two women in Bristol County more than two decades ago. Prosecutors also say he has been linked to two other unsolved rapes in neighboring counties and that he failed to comply with the state's Sex Offender Registry Board.
Investigators say Keith raped a 36-year-old woman outside Bristol-Plymouth Regional High School in Taunton in July of 1997. Wearing a mask, he allegedly jumped in front of the woman while she was exercising on the track, then led her into the woods, tied her up and raped her.
The following year, in November of 1998, Keith allegedly raped a 47-year-old woman who was working late at Steve Porter Appraisal Services in Easton. He allegedly went into the building and attacked her as she opened an office door to take out the trash. Like in the Taunton case, the woman was bound and the attacker was wearing a mask.
Suspect in Sydney Stabbing Restrained With Milk Crate
Keith has also been linked to unsolved rape cases in Norfolk County and Plymouth County from 1996, according to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office.
After multiple convictions of sex-related crimes in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as another in Maine in 2000, prosecutors say Keith did not provide a DNA sample to the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board. He evaded a 2003 trial date in Brockton District Court.
The Bristol County DA's office said it began reviewing the Taunton and Easton cold cases early in 2019. In July, the office applied for an arrest warrant for Keith on the grounds that he failed to register as a sex offender and made false statements.
Keith was located in Seal Cove, a village in Tremont near Acadia National Park. He was living under a different name, prosecutors said.
Authorities took Keith into custody on Aug. 2. He is due to be arraigned in Taunton District Court Wednesday morning.
The list of charges against Keith includes five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of threats to commit bodily harm, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon. He is also charged with breaking and entering in the night with intent to commit a felony, failure to register as a sex offender, perjury and making false statements.
AG Barr: 'Serious Irregularities' at Jail Where Epstein Died
It was not immediately clear if Keith had an attorney.
This post was originally posted at http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Man-Living-in-Maine-Under-New-Name-Charged-in-Unsolved-Massachusetts-Rapes-540362891.html.
⟵Axios' Dan Primack on 'the most polarizing startup that exists'
Twitter tests ways for users to follow and snooze specific topics⟶


Paul Taylor's latest collection of high end Italian acetate frames are designed with Asian fit bridges, manufactured in Japan, and fitted with triple and double barrel hinges from Germany. Frames in limited edition colours are set to become collectors' items, and are individually stamped to certify the number of frames in the series and the individual number of the frame.
Pictured is Twizel, available with or without glistening Swarovski crystals. This elegant squared cats eye is for the sophisticated wearer… smiles all round with this beauty!


The Liberty Bell Arch Trail starts from a wash in the desert, and then rises in elevation to provide several scenic views of the hills surrounding the Colorado River, just below Hoover Dam. This hike is a super hot desert hike, always in the sun. It is best left for the winter months. However, if you take the challenge, you will be rewarded with beautiful panoramic views.
This entry was posted in Hiking and tagged Arizona, Hiking, Hills, Liberty Bell Arch Trail, Photography, Scenic View, Sun, Trail, Travel.


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Jim Brunner
After 52-page city auditor's report on botched Seattle City Light billings, utility says it's doing better
April 8, 2020 at 6:00 am Updated April 8, 2020 at 9:08 am
Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter
In 2018, irate Seattle City Light customers began complaining to councilmembers and to the media about bloated bills.
These were not small chunks of money that had angered customers, but $2,415, or $925 or $2.253.73 and completely out of whack with previous bills.
Among those receiving the complaints was Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, then on a committee with oversight over City Light.
" . . . my office has fielded numerous concerns regarding alleged over-billing," she wrote in a formal request in August 22, 2018.
That request was sent to the Seattle Office of City Auditor to essentially find out what had happened.
On Friday, some 19 months later, City Auditor David G. Jones released a hefty, 52-page report that detailed what his office believed had gone wrong at the utility, and what changes should be made:
"Lack of controls." "A customer could go two years without having a bill based on an actual meter read." "Perceived lack of empathy." "Multiple hand-offs to resolve customer complaints."
The report's 16 recommendations for changes — all agreed to by City Light — included:
• Increased staffing during the months, such as June through September, when new accounts were set up either by customers moving or new arrivals to the city, such as when the University of Washington begins classes in the fall.
• Give customer service representatives — the person you first talk to about your bill — the authority to set up payment arrangements. The audit says all such requests had to go to the agency's Credit and Collections group, and "the number of employees who can approve these arrangements is limited."
Said Jones, "It becomes a funnel, when you're inundated, and you only have one or two people who can make decisions."
• Actually contact a customer when an issue was resolved. The audit says that what was happening was that whatever adjustment was made showed up in the next bills, leaving the customer to "still wonder what is happening."
These high bills came as the utility had problems handling two major changes.
First, it was switching to a new billing system that, as agencies are wont to do in their creativeness, it had named CCB, for Customer Care and Billing.
The system had problems from the start. A March 31, 2016, Seattle Times story said the new system came in at least $34 million over budget, for a total of $85 million.
Then, says the audit, the billing system began with a distinct disadvantage. It was implemented as Seattle kept adding population, and the agency was overwhelmed with new accounts. When CCB went live in September 2016, says the audit, it had a backlog of 4,368 service orders for new accounts.
At the same time, the staff was having to learn this new, complicated billing system. The backlog kept increasing.
Second, to add to the drastic changes, City Light was installing new digital meters touted as being able to do readings six times day.
Previously, that was done manually by 51 meter readers.
Amid this changeover, the utility at times was estimating an electric bill. Reasons it gave for estimating bills included that a gate was locked, a dog was in the yard, the weather was bad, the meter reader was sick.
"You could go up to two years with an estimated bill," Jones said in an interview.
Based on the audit, City Light now is using six months for estimating a bill (that's three consecutive bills, as billing is every two months).
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Jones said those estimations were sometimes based, for example, on electric heaters being used in mild winter.
What happened then is that a "base line" was created of lower electric use than was taking place.
Then, when finally, an actual reading was done . . . someone like Scott Feldman, who lives in Columbia City with his girlfriend, was given an electric bill for $2,253.73. This was even though their home didn't use electric heat and they didn't have air conditioning
In January 2018, he told The Seattle Times said that over a three-day period, he was willing to stay on hold with City Light for three hours.
Feldman is a health-company financial director and had the wherewithal to write letters to the mayor, the City Council and the media.
He then wondered about those who got hit with such a monster bill and were simply overwhelmed.
In a letter included in the audit, Debra Smith, general manager and CEO of City Light, said the agency planned "on substantially implementing your recommendations."
She wrote, "When I joined City Light a year and a half ago it was clear that improving customer service was critical to the utility's success."
The agency says it has completed two of the 16 recommendations, two are "ongoing" and the remaining 12 are "in process" of being implemented. It says its goal is to have staff implement all the recommendations by year's end, even "with the stay-at-home order in place."
A spokeswoman for the agency said that Smith was not available for an interview — "she is occupied with efforts in support of Citywide and City Light response to COVID."
Jones said that in talking to customers for the audit, they told his office, "A lot of heartache could have been reduced if somebody would have just talked to me and explained things to me."
Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @ErikLacitis.


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Q: place of logging.ini config file I have a python project (let's say under project_dir directory).
project_dir/ ---------- src/ ----------- util.py
             |
             |----- logging.ini

Under project_dir/src, I have a util.py, where the logger is defined and logging is configured by calling the config file as:
logging.config.fileConfig('logging.ini', disable_existing_loggers=False)
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

Here, I call the logging.ini with just specifying the file name. And it is working fine. However, the file is directly under project_dir, i.e., project_dir/logging.ini.
I would like to know why calling 'logging.ini' is working but ../logging.ini is not? Why I cannot say:
logging.config.fileConfig('../logging.ini', disable_existing_loggers=False)

which gives me error:
ConfigParser.NoSectionError: No section: 'formatters'

Does it have anything to do with my IDE, which is PyCharm.
Will it be different: run it from PyCharm or run it on a server?

A: My guess is that your 'current working directory' is not what you think it is.
To get the current working directory use:
import os
cwd = os.getcwd()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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This site allows users to browse for entries in the Bibliography, Filmography and Webography on "Gender and War since 1600" sorted by
Author/Director of publication or film (ordered alphabetically)
Title of publication or film (ordered alphabetically)
Year of Publication/Release of publication or film (ordered numerically)
Type of Literature (books, book chapters, films, journals, journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, theses, websites, etc.) (ordered by literature types in the listed sequence and then alphabetically)
Users can export their selected list of literature organized by author, title, year of publication or type of literature when they click below on RTF.
The website is equipped with an OPEN URL FEATURE that allows users to immediately check whether articles, books, etc., are available in their local libraries. An OPEN URL is a standardized link that carries citation information. When a user clicks on an OPEN URL link, the information it contains is sent to a library's URL Resolver (aka link server). The OPEN URL resolver then looks through the library's subscriptions to determine if your institution has purchased the full text of the resource and where it can be found. To use the OPEN URL feature click on the button "Search Locally."
Filters: First Letter Of Last Name is S [Clear All Filters]
Summerfield, Penny. "Public Memory or Public Amnesia? British Women of the Second World War in Popular Films of the 1950s and 1960s." Journal of British Studies 48, no. 4 (2009): 935-957.
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women As Military Nurses, 1854-1914. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988.
Summerskill, Michael Brynmôr. China on the Western Front: Britain's Chinese Work Force in the First World War. London: Michael Summerskill, 1982.
Sun, Laichen. "Military Technology Transfers from Ming China and the Emergence of Northern Mainland Southeast Asia (c. 1390–1527)." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 34, no. 3 (2003): 495-517.
A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire, Edited by Ronald Grigor Suny, Fatma Müge Göçek and Norman M. Naimark. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Suny, Ronald Grigor. "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015.
Surjik, Stephen. Mary Silliman's War. United States: Heritage Films, 1994.
Surkis, Judith. Sexing the Citizen: Morality and Masculinity in France, 1870-1920. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Susan, Shifrin. Women as Sites of Culture: Women's Roles in Cultural Formation from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century. (unidentified): Routledge, 2017.
Sutherland, Nicola M. "The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Structure of European Politics." English Historical Review 107, no. 424 (1992): 587-625.
Suttner, Bertha von. Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life. Boston: Ginn and Co. for the International School of Peace, 1910.
Suttner, Raymond. "Masculinities in the African National Congress-led Liberation Movement: The Underground Period." Kleio 37, no. 1 (2005): 71-106.
Swaine, Aisling. "Beyond Strategic Rape and Between the Public and Private: Violence Against Women in Armed Conflict." Human Rights Quarterly 37, no. 3 (2015): 755-786.
Swaine, Aisling. Conflict-related violence against women transforming transition., 2018.
Swanwick, Helena. Builders of Peace: Being Ten Years' History of the Union of Democratic Control. London: Swathmore Press, 1924.
Sweeney, Regina M. Singing Our Way to Victory: French Cultural Politics and Music During the Great War. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001.
Sweet, Matthew. Operation chaos : the Vietnam deserters who fought the CIA, the brainwashers, and themselves. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2018.
Swettenham, John. Canada and the First World War. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969.
Sychterz, Jeff. "Poetry, the Iraq War, and the Ethics of Trauma." War, Literature & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities 30 (2018): 424-440.
Sylvester, Christine. War as experience: Contributions from international relations and feminist analysis. Elsevier B.V., 2013.
Experiencing War, Edited by Christine Sylvester. London : New York: Routledge, 2010.
Syrett, David. "The Raising of American Troops for Service in the West Indies during the War of Austrian Succession, 1740–1." Historical Research 73, no. 180 (2000): 20-32.
Szabó, István. Mephisto. United Kingdom: Cinegate.
Szabó, István. Mephisto., 1982.
Szapor, Judith. Hungarian Women's Activism in the Wake of the First World War: From Rights to Revanche. London; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018.


BERKELEY (KPIX 5) – Notices are going out in Berkeley to dozens of people living in RVs along the waterfront, telling them that they have to pack up and leave.
But many of those living in the RVs say they have nowhere else to go.
Police handed out red warning notices to roughly 20 RVs this weekend, saying move or get towed.
But on Thursday, about a dozen RV's remained parked on Berkeley's Marina Boulevard.
David Marcial, a former carpenter who lost his job due to work injuries, has parked his camper there for a year.
"They just keep harassing us. You know, we're not doing nothing bad out here. We're just trying to survive," Marcial said.
Among those living in RVs by the Marina are a UC Berkeley instructor, a Cal graduate student, and a family with three kids.
Many refuse to leave, saying there's nowhere else to go.
Amber Whitson also lives in an RV by the marina.
The city says people started parking RVs at the Berkeley Marina about 18 months ago.
At one point, up to 70 RVs were parked out there.
The city says they received dozens of complaints from nearby businesses and people living on boats and boat houses across from the RV encampment.
Many boat dwellers sympathize with the people living in RV's because they too were pushed out by the housing prices. But they say some of the homeless are causing too many problems.
People living in the RVs say they'll stay as long as they can and that once the tow trucks come, they'll leave.
Berkeley has not said if, or when, it will send the police and tow trucks out to remove the campers.


With the 911 GT3 RS 4.0, one of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart's most popular, coveted and successful racing pedigree production cars is entering the home straight.
The purity, non-colour, transparency and fluidity of Junya Ishigami's design style juxtaposed with theclean, clear lines and bright colours of Piero Lissoni. A cosmopolitan arrangement with hints of refined technology veiled in mysticism.
"Aesthetics 125" is a sculpture unveiled by Mercedes-Benz to celebrate the 125th birthday of the automobile. The sculpture is a projection of the Mercedes-Benz philosophy that states "design is art."
As the climax of its centenary celebration ceremonies, Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. presented customers and opinion-makers with the Bugatti 16 C Galibier concept, intended to be the most exclusive, elegant, and powerful four door automobile in the world last weekend in Molsheim.
Considered one of the coolest and most visually striking new restaurants in the nation, Goldman Properties' Jessica Goldman Srebnick and her partner and father, visionary C.E.O. Tony Goldman, opened Wynwood Kitchen & Bar, in Miami's emerging arts district.
Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of this century. They are best known for their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, industrial design and manufacturing, and the photographic arts.


Anna Aldovini has a long-standing interest in the molecular biology of HIV and AIDS. The two goals of the laboratory are to improve understanding of HIV host-pathogen interactions and to develop new approaches to HIV/AIDS vaccines.
The approaches to vaccine development that have emerged from her laboratory aim at establishing an immunization regimen capable of stimulating both systemic and mucosal humoral and cell mediated immunity. Ongoing experiments are evaluating the effectiveness of mucosal DNA vaccination administered via different routes, how vaccine-induced immunity can be improved, and how an immunization regimen that involves different mucosal and systemic routes can provide high levels of systemic and mucosal responses within the same animal and contribute to protection from AIDS. The results of should be important not only for an AIDS vaccine development but also for the development of DNA vaccines for other mucosal pathogens.
Studies in the area of HIV host-pathogen interactions are focused on investigating the issue of persistent immune activation during suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART). Pharmacological intervention to reduce immune activation have been explored and the lab is interested in investigating the cause of persistent immune activation during ART, and more specifically to evaluate whether additional reservoir sources of HIV and SIV, originating from cells different than resting CD4+ T-cells, contribute to viral rebound after ART interruption.
Dr. Aldovini obtained her MD from the University of Padua Medical School, Italy, where she also did her residency in Oncology. Subsequently she was a Fogarty Fellow at the N.I.H. in Bethesda, MD, and then a Research Scientist at the Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA.


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Israel prevents EU lawmakers from Gaza entry
After visit to Ofer Prison in West Bank, MEPs criticize Jerusalem for barring delegation from Hamas-run coastal enclave
By Agencies	22 February 2017, 6:36 pm 2 Edit
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a Palestinian man and children on top of a Hamas outpost along the border, on February 25, 2016. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Five European parliamentarians said Wednesday that Israeli authorities prevented them from entering the Gaza Strip.
"The refusal of access to Gaza by the Israeli authorities to the European Parliament on arbitrary grounds is unacceptable," Cypriot MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis said in a statement.
Similar delegations of European lawmakers have been barred from entering the Palestinian coastal enclave since 2011, the statement added, though a team led by the head of the European Parliament's budget committee was allowed to visit once.
"What is there to hide from us?" Sylikiotis said, condemning what he called "systematic" entry bans.
Cyprian MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis 2107 (Screen capture: YouTube)
Israel, which controls all access to Gaza apart from its southern border with Egypt, explained that parliamentarians were not among those allowed to enter the Hamas-run territory.
"Israeli policy allows professional and humanitarian officials to cross between Israel and the Gaza Strip for the development of the Gaza Strip in the field of economy and infrastructure, in addition to foreign diplomats serving in the Palestinian Authority or Israel," the defense ministry body responsible for approving entry told AFP.
Sylikiotis dismissed the explanations as "unacceptable," and called on the international community to pressure Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza.
On Tuesday the delegation visited Israel's Ofer Prison in the West Bank, where Palestinian security prisoners are held, and Sylikiotis took to Twitter to criticize Israel for jailing minors.
EP Del. for relations to #Palestine visited Ofer today.The conviction of palestinian children by the military is unacceptable and inhumane.
— Neoklis Sylikiotis (@sylikiotis) February 21, 2017
The European Union is the largest donor of financial aid to the Palestinians.
Israel says its maritime, land and sea blockade of Gaza is aimed at preventing Hamas from receiving weapons and supplies which could be used for military purposes. An Islamist terror group, Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, seeks the destruction of Israel, and has fought three wars with the Jewish state since 2008.
The World Bank and the United Nations say the decade-long blockade of Gaza has killed virtually all exports and severely damaged the enclave's economy.
The blockade, coupled with the almost permanent closure of the Egyptian border, impacts almost all the two million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
EU European Union
Israel-EU relations
Gaza blockade
Ofer Prison


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Financial Career Options
What is a Financial Advisor?
What is a Banker?
What is a Portfolio Manager?
What is a Trader?
What is a Market Maker?
What is a Financial Analyst?
What is an Economist?
What is an Accountant?
What is a Stock Broker?
What is a Forensic Accountant?
What is an Insurance Broker?
What is Financial Operations?
What is a Car Dealership Finance Manager?
What is a Professional Fundraiser?
Financial Areas of Employment
Careers in Capital Markets
Careers in Commercial Banking
Careers in Private Equity
Careers in Corporate Finance
Careers in Mergers and Acquisitions
Careers in Hedge Funds
Financial Careers: What is Investment Consulting
Careers in Investment Banking
Careers in Financial Crimes Compliance
Careers in Insurance
Careers at a Sovereign Wealth Fund
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An Introduction to Accounting
Online Finance Masters Degrees
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Professional Assessment
Home/Investing Trends of Athletes
Investing Trends of Athletes
Regular visitors to Financial Career Options know we like to follow the investing trends of celebrities. We decided to look at a few athletes to see what financial moves they are making during their playing days and once they've said good bye to their fans.
The Athlete as a Brand
By some measures, former NBA superstar, Michael Jordan is as big as ever. Kids wait in line for days for new Air Jordan sneaker releases, spending as much as $650 for one pair.1 Ironically, a whole generation of customers that have never even seen him play during his career. Remember, Jordan played his last season in Chicago way back in 1998 after winning 6 NBA titles for the Bulls. The continued success of his 'Jumpman' and 'Air Jordan' brands are testaments to this popularity
Team uniforms have long been the billboards of super heavyweight marketers like Nike and Under Armour. But this season, the University of Michigan's football team will paste Jordan's logo on its player's jerseys. This shows how Jordan has transcended sports and has pioneered the athlete as a brand.
Today, Jordan earns significantly more money in retirement than he ever did from his basketball salary.
In fact, in 2014, Jordan pulled in $100 million in royalties from his shoe deals and Jumpman apparel line- more than he earned as a player over his entire career (which was either $91 or $94 million depending on who you ask)2.
Today, Michael Jordan enjoys being a member of the billionaire club, according to Forbes.3
Who will be the next mega-brand? There are plenty of contenders but the fame and the potential for big bucks comes temptations and nothing can harm a brand like a scandal.
Athletes Beware
The media circus that surrounds athletes today is something the likes of Jordan, Magic and Bird had to endure in their playing days. With everyone having a video camera at their fingertips (smartphones) and paparazzi from television shows like TMZ Sports, athletes must be on their guard 24/7 or their brand, and bucks, can get squashed very quickly.
There are plenty of athletes who've lost millions in endorsements from off the field indiscretions including alleged assaults, the use of performance enhancing drugs and DUIs. These include Tiger Woods, Ray Rice, Lance Armstrong, Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Some have been able to rehabilitate their brands image, in the case of Tiger, Kobe and Phelps.
Others, like football running back Ray Rice, cyclist Lance Armstrong, and Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte are still in endorsement 'Siberia'. Armstrong lost Oakley, his last sponsor, back in 2012.4 Rice lost his last, Nike, in 2014.5 And following his debacle at a Rio de Janeiro gas station, Lochte has reportedly lost all four of his sponsors including big names like Speedo and Polo Ralph Lauren.6
The parallel with the stock market is quite appropriate, as athletes can soar to fame and crash just as quickly.
As we reported earlier in the year, you can even speculate on this phenomenon by directly investing in an athletes future earnings via the Fandex exchange. NFL running back Arian Foster was one of the first to have his 'stock' traded on the exchange.
Investing with Athletes When their Career Ends
Now there is no mistaking that successful athletes have desirable character traits that translate well in the corporate world. Factors like drive, persistence and grit, coupled with a results-driven mindset often translates into success. Some athletes today are banking people will respond with this assessment and invest their money in the athlete's deal making abilities.
If you can keep your brand untarnished, or rehabilitate it well enough, the sky's the limit for future opportunities.
Recently, Kobe Bryant announced the launch of a $100 million venture capital (VC) fund with partner Jeff Stibel.7
Bryant actually co-founded Bryant Stibel, very quietly, back in 2013. The fund has a rather vague mission statement, but aims to make investments at the 'nexus of technology, media and data.'8
In case you were scoffing at Bryant starting a venture capital fund-don't. Bryant has VC experience and a good track record. The two already have 13 investments together including legal-services company LegalZoom, home-juicing company 'Juicero' and a pre-IPO investment in Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce giant.9 Interested in investing in Bryant Siebel? You'll have to wait because they aren't seeking outside investors. The capital for the $100 million fund is coming from just these two partners-for now.
One of the firm's most promising investments is the sports media website, 'The Players Tribune'. This site offers original content written and shared by the athletes themselves. A quick glance at their home page shows articles from Golden State Warrior forward Harrison Barnes, Bayern Munich midfielder Joshua Kimmich and Founding Publisher, Derek Jeter.10
While the site certainly offers entertaining content, it is also a platform for the player's various charities and foundations. Derek Jeter's article on the Tribune talks about his Turn 2 foundation, which helps mentor youths while teaching leaderships skills.11
The Tribune provides a great platform for athletes to give back to communities in one way or another. This shines a light on a new trend we're seeing-venture investing for social change.
Although the television show has not aired yet, LeBron James' 'Cleveland Hustles' project appears to also align the interests of capitalism and social improvement. Cleveland entrepreneurs are using their resources to turn a profit while also helping improve their community by rebuilding run-down, dilapidated tenement buildings, for a profit.
The Ringing of a Bell?
We can't help but draw some parallels between the growing number of athletes and celebrities currently investing in public and private equity.
The timing of these typically casual investors often correlates to stock market tops. Most notably Barbara Streisand stock-picking in 1999 and Gisele Bunchen's currency picks in 2007.
Kobe Bryant's foray into venture capital is joined by celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and former baseball player and reality show star, Jose Canseco. But venture capital is risky and should only be explored by very sophisticated investors. You're dealing with undeveloped businesses, often in their startup phases. Either these celebrities are significantly more careless with their money or they are truly sophisticated investors. We'll have to check back in a few years to find out, but it's an exciting area that we will be watching closely.
1http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-jordan-just-don-sneaker-0128-biz-20160127-story.html
2http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/michael-jordan-net-worth-made-more-money-sneakers-than-in-nba-career-highest-paid
3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan
4http://www.businessinsider.com/lance-armstrong-has-lost-his-last-sponsor-2012-10
5http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ray-rices-last-sponsor-nike-has-dropped-him-160005
6http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/ryan-lochte-loses-endorsements-rio-controversy/story?id=41740729
7,8,9http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/08/22/unveiled-kobe-bryants-13-venture-capital-investments/
10http://www.theplayerstribune.com/
11http://derekjeter.mlb.com/players/jeter_derek/leaders/summer_leadership.jsp
We take a look at the investing trends of athletes to see what financial moves they are making during their playing days and beyond.
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Law Firm News ➝
BCG News - 05/01/07
BCG Attorney Search Law Firm News
Seeger Weiss opens office in Philadelphia
Seeger Weiss, LLP, is opening an office in Philadelphia and has added three local class-action attorneys. The three attorneys, who will staff the firm's new office, are Jonathan Shub, TerriAnne Benedetto, and Scott Alan George. Shub will head the firm's Philadelphia office, while Benedetto and George are joining as associates. The establishment of Shub's group is expected to bolster the firm's active class-action practice. Presently, Seeger Weiss serves as lead counsel in several class actions. Shub, at present, is functioning as lead counsel for consumers in numerous national cases. He has been lead counsel in more than a dozen cases over the past decade, including consumer actions against HP, Palm, Maytag, and IBM. Operating out of its offices in New York's financial district, Newark, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, and Tulsa, OK, Seeger Weiss is widely recognized as a prominent plaintiff-oriented law firm.
Cohen & Grigsby expands litigation practice
Cohen & Grigsby has announced it has hired Donald M. Lund and Curt Vazquez to work in its litigation practice. Lund and Vazquez are joining the firm as directors. Lund will focus on complex commercial litigation and product-defect claims. He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania. Vazquez has a wide range of experience in various commercial litigation matters. His areas of focus include insurance coverage and counseling, consumer class-action defense, and accounting malpractice. Vazquez is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and Colorado. Prior to joining Cohen & Grigsby, Lund and Vazquez worked in the Pittsburgh office of law firm Jones Day , where Vazquez was counsel. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Cohen & Grigsby has other offices in Naples, FL, and Bonita Springs, FL. The firm employs 95 attorneys and primarily concentrates on business litigation.
Ryan to work as trial attorney in San Francisco law office
Former U.S. attorney Kevin Ryan is joining law firm Allen, Matkins, Leck, Gamble, Mallory & Natsis on May 1. Ryan will join the firm's San Francisco office as a trial attorney. He will focus on corporate regulatory and securities compliance matters, intellectual property law, and other areas. As a U.S. attorney, Ryan formed a federal stock-option task force. During his tenure, the office probed issues related to Balco steroids and backdated stock options in Silicon Valley. Before his appointment as a U.S. attorney, Ryan worked as a San Francisco Superior Court judge for six years. Los Angeles-based Allen, Matkins, Leck, Gamble, Mallory & Natsis has 226 lawyers and concentrates on real estate, business, and finance law.
Zaelke to reinforce Chadbourne & Parke's energy practice
Edward Zaelke has been appointed as the new managing partner of international law firm Chadbourne & Parke's Los Angeles office. Zaelke will look after the firm's growing practice dealing with wind energy and other renewable energy areas. He recently joined the firm as a partner. At present, Zaelke is the president of the American Wind Energy Association. Prior to joining Chadbourne & Parke, Zaelke was in charge of the renewable energy practice group at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. To boost its West Coast practice, Chadbourne & Parke has also hired partners Adam Umanoff and Thomas Dupuis, as well as a team of associates from Morgan Lewis. Chadbourne's Los Angeles office concentrates on renewable energy, project finance, litigation, products liability, real estate, tax law, restructurings, cross-border transactions, and insurance. Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, which employs 414 attorneys, operates out of offices spread across the globe.
Stewart to chair Lathrop & Gage
Tom Stewart, long-time managing partner of Lathrop & Gage, LC, will become the chairman of the firm on July 1. Stewart has been with the Kansas City-based law firm for the last 18 years and led Lathrop through its merger with another Kansas City-based law firm, Gage & Tucker, in 1995. He has also handled several smaller mergers for the firm. As chairman, Stewart wishes to concentrate on strategic planning and business development. He also expects to train his successor, who might be named CEO. A committee comprised of the firm's partners and lawyer members will vote for a successor to Stewart in the coming months. Stewart will be the youngest managing partner of a law firm in the nation. With nearly 300 lawyers in its 10 offices, Lathrop & Gage, LC, specializes in 13 core practice areas and more than 25 sub-practice areas.
Mintz Levin continues West Coast expansion
In a bid to reinforce its rapid growth on the West Coast, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC, has added several lateral partners to its San Diego and Palo Alto offices. The firm's San Diego office has tripled in size within 10 months of its formation and now has 22 attorneys. Additionally, the firm's Palo Alto office has almost doubled in size and now employs 11 attorneys. Attorneys who joined the firm recently include partners from Sonnenschein's Silicon Valley and San Francisco offices and the former managing partner of Buchanan's San Diego office. Mintz Levin has 450 attorneys and operates offices in Boston, Washington, New York, Stamford, Los Angeles, London, Palo Alto, and San Diego.
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Laura Secord Walk 2019
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Why support War Child Canada?
War Child protects children from the brutal effects of war.
War impacts every right of a child. And strips their families of all means to support them. Children impacted by war lose their access to education, legal protection, and personal safety and security. War Child provides children with education programs, so they can get back into school. It gives them safe spaces, so they can get back to playing. And it trains parents and young people to help restore their livelihoods and sense of security. War Child works with community and religious leaders to change attitudes and behaviours, especially when it comes to children's and women's rights. And they provide free legal counsel to girls and women who are survivors of rape, abuse, neglect, and forced early marriage.
How that looks depends on the situation on the ground. War Child's job is to understand the needs of children in any war-affected situation, and find ways to help provide the support that's critically lacking.
Many Canadians associate the name of Laura Secord with chocolate. Her corporate image is a cherished Canadian icon, evoking nostalgic feelings of togetherness, generosity, peace and prosperity.
Yet there is much more to Laura Secord and her story. Laura was an immigrant, a victim of war, a veteran, and the wife of a grievously wounded soldier. She was a lone woman at risk in a war-ravaged landscape on her famous walk during the War of 1812. It was an act of raw courage – but it was courage borne of absolute desperation, risking her life, the lives of her children, and the future and livelihoods of her extended family.
And Laura was not the first in her family to endure this hardship. During the American Revolution, Laura's mother in law, Magdalene Secord, fled her farm in the Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania with 4 other Loyalist women and 31 of their terrified children. They were engaged in a desperate trek to British-controlled Fort Niagara, more than 430 km away, to seek refuge from persecution. Starvation loomed, disease threatened, and frigid temperatures assailed them before the ravaged group reached safety. Among the child refugees who survived the trek was Laura Secord's future husband, James Secord.
More than two hundred years and thousands of kilometres separate the Secord saga from today's victims. But sadly, the centuries have not removed the dangers, desperation, and threats facing millions of other women and children displaced and devastated by war. Terror and desperation know no boundaries. Neither should our care and compassion.
The plight of war refugees is tragic and deplorable. Ravaged by terrifying forces beyond their control, innocent families are ripped from their homes and catapulted into the hostile, war-torn countryside. All are traumatized, and many are attacked, assaulted, or killed. Others make their way into overcrowded and unsanitary refugee camps, where they subsist in deprivation and squalor – the desperate victims of genocide and violence.
Each year in June, the Friends of Laura Secord host the Laura Secord Walk, an annual event that recreates Laura Secord's heroic journey. Thousands have participated over the years, reflecting upon the stark contrast between Laura's terrified trek and the peace and good fortune most Canadians now enjoy. It is a positive, life-affirming event – an enjoyable challenge that promotes awareness, gratitude, and reflection.
This year, we plan to make Laura's walk even more meaningful. Though Laura Secord is a Canadian icon, she also represents the bravery, desperation, suffering, and strength of millions of others in war-ravaged areas worldwide. The parallels and power of her remarkable story can be harnessed to raise funds and build awareness of the brave but defenseless women and children of today who, like Laura and her family, have been victimized by war.
The Laura Secord Walk 2019 will support War Child Canada in their efforts to help thousands of women and children in war-affected areas, through the generational impacts of education, training, and justice. Together, we will raise awareness about the devastating impact of war on communities, and of our shared responsibility to act.
Friends of Laura Secord
First Nations Peace Monument
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© 2019 Friends of Laura Secord – Website Created by Eyecrave.


5261 Shooting Star Road is a $350,000, 1,534 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2.0 bath home on a 2.12 acre lot located in Pollock Pines, CA.
Captivating views from this 2.12 acre Hilltop setting. 3 bdrm, 2 bath with covered porch to enjoy Wild Turkey's and Deer as they stroll by. Vaulted Ceilings, upgraded laminate floors and window coverings. Spacious Master Suite. Wineries, Sly Park Lake, and Apple Hill are close by - and Sierra at Tahoe just an hour away. Close to Pleasant Valley Market and Shops. 2 car over sized garage with workshop area and large enclosed storage room. Located in Beautiful Sierra Springs near Clubhouse, Swimming Pool, Tennis, Camping, Hiking and more.
I am interested in 5261 Shooting Star Road, Pollock Pines, CA 95726.


text:
Parkit Appoints New CFO
Wednesday, June 25, 2014 3:28 PM - Vancouver, B.C.
Parkit Enterprise Inc. ("Parkit" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:PKT) is pleased to announce that Simon Buckett has been appointed Chief Financial Officer.
Mr. Buckett brings with him over twelve years of finance and project management experience working for private and publically listed companies in the UK, US, and Canada. Mr. Buckett began his career with KPMG in London and then in Vancouver as Senior Auditor, later joining Ernst & Young as an audit department Manager. Most recently he was Vice President of Finance at Wurldtech Security Technologies, Inc. His responsibilities have included internal control and governance policy, the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley in a number of SEC registrants, and managing the reporting requirements of a range of private and public companies.
Concurrently, with the rollout of the acquisition fund, Patrick Bonney has been appointed Vice President, Corporate Development, and John LaGourgue Vice President, Corporate Communications.
About Parkit
Parkit Enterprise Inc. is a listed private equity real estate company that acquires and aggregates income-producing real estate in the parking sector.
Rick Baxter
Parkit Enterprise Inc.
www.parkitenterprise.com
Parkit Enterprise Inc CFO new Simon Buckett Chief Financial Officer appoints


An exquisite range of bath & body luxuries using the very best in aromatic oils.
All our products can be personalised for your wedding day for favours, gifts and treats.
From divinely fragranced Travel Tin Candles to our Luxury Metallic Collection and Tea Lights, there is something for everyone to create a fabulously fragrant and stylish home.
Beautiful Bath & Body Treats for everyone, each one carefully formulated using only the finest ingredients. All of our Bath & Body collection can also be personalised for a unique gift!
Bespoke Favours and Gifts to compliment any style of event, lovingly created to give your guests exquisite treats that will remind them of your big day for time to come!


text:
Learning to Fly is een nummer van Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers uit 1991. Het is de eerste single van hun achtste studioalbum Into the Great Wide Open.

Het nummer haalde de 28e positie in de Amerikaanse Billboard Hot 100. Ondanks dat de Nederlandse Top 40 niet gehaald werd, werd het nummer wel een radiohit in Nederland.

Radio 2 Top 2000

Single uit 1991
Nummer van Tom Petty

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The Election Commission of India has opened registration for Non-Resident Indians to apply for voting rights. Indian citizens of 18 years and above, living overseas, who have not acquired any other citizenships, are eligible to vote can now visit the ECI website and register for voting rights.
On the official website of the Election Commission of India, there is now a provision that allows NRIs to register as a voter.
If you click on the button titled 'Enroll as a NRI voter', it takes you to a form that needs to be filled and submitted to register as a voter in the 2019 general elections.
The web portal was launched days after the government cleared a proposal to extend the facility of voting in Assembly and General elections by electronic means and proxy to NRIs by amending the Representation of the People Act.
Upon completion of registration, NRI can vote by visiting India or through postal ballot facility which will be open soon. According to reports, one crore NRIs would be allowed to vote through postal ballot.
2. Use the interactive map provided to find your polling station and the contact details of Election Officers from your area.
3. Fill Enrollment Form (Form 6A) online and upload the requisite proofs.
Fill Form 6A in 2 copies. Forms are also available free of cost in Indian Missions.
The Application in Form 6A can be presented in person to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or sent by post addressed to the ERO concerned.
The particulars and postal address of the EROs of all the constituencies in India are available on the websites of CEOs of concerned States which can be accessed through website of Election Commission of India.
Paste one recent passport size color photograph with a light background (preferably white) showing the full face of the applicant.
Fill in all the columns in Form-6A. The name and other particulars, as given in the valid Indian Passport, should be written.
If application is sent by post, it should be accompanied by photocopy of the relevant pages of the passport containing the photograph and all other particulars of the applicant and the page containing the valid visa endorsement. These photo-copies should be duly self-attested. Applications without the attested photo-copies of these documents will be liable to be summarily rejected.
If the application is submitted in person before the ERO, the application should be accompanied by a photocopy of the relevant pages of the passport as mentioned above.
The original passport should also be produced along with the application for verification by the registration officer. The passport will be returned immediately after verification.
Every Indian citizen staying in a foreign country, who has not acquired citizenship of a foreign country, and has completed 18 years as on 1st January of the year, can make an application in Form 6A, for being registered in the electoral roll.
The applicant should have completed eighteen years of age as on 1st January of the year. For example, if the application is for inclusion of name in the electoral roll with reference to 01-01- 2019 as the qualifying date, the applicant should have completed 18 years as on 01-01-2019.
The decision of the ERO will be communicated to you by post on the address and SMS on the mobile number given in Form 6A.
No person can be enrolled on more than one electoral roll i.e. when you enrol as an overseas voter you have to submit a declaration – that you did not get enrolled as a general elector.
If you are registered as a general voter, you should surrender your EPIC along with submission of Form 6A.
When you return to India you can register as a general elector at your place of ordinary residence.
Please remember that you have only one vote. Accordingly, you should not vote for more than one candidate.
Electoral rolls are also on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer.
Name of the overseas elector is included in a separate section for "Overseas Electors" which is the last section of the roll of each polling station area.
You can use Form-8 for making any correction in the electoral roll.
An overseas elector is not issued an EPIC and you will be allowed to vote in person at the polling station on production of your original passport. As per reports, e- postal ballots shall soon be provided to NRI Voters.
There are nearly one crore NRIs across the world, of whom 24,348 are registered with the Election Commission, the poll panel informed the government earlier this month.
I applied online using Form 6A and now the status is shown as 'Accepted- EPIC Generated'. What happens next? Do I have to go to my constituency in India in order to be able to vote? Or there will be provisions made in Embassy or Indian Mission here in UAE for NRIs to vote?
Hello,i registered today as an NRI voter filling form 6a. I didn't get an application ID to track the status though. Please help!
I also didnt get a reference ID.
I also did not get reference ID.


Oliver Langford will be the man in charge of Tuesday's Sky Bet Championship clash with Birmingham City at Macron Stadium.
He has officiated 35 matches so far this season, showing 111 yellow cards and four red cards.
The two matches Langford has refereed this season involving Wanderers have brought contrasting results; losing 4-0 away at Hull and beating Barnsley 3-1 at Macron Stadium.
Langford will be assisted by Steven Meredith and James Wilson, while Scott Duncan will be the fourth official.


text:
La Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales/Revista Europea de Migraciones Internacionales(REMI) nace en 1985 impulsada por Gildas Simon. Su propósito es dar a conocer trabajos de investigación, de carácter empírico y teórico, que estudian, a partir de diferentes disciplinas, las migraciones internacionales y las relaciones interétnicas. Aunque su marco espacial de referencia se inscribe en una dimensión europea, la revista está abierta a otros campos, a través de otros sistemas migratorios en el mundo.

La REMI edita anualmente cuatro números y su contenido es accesible de manera íntegra y gratuita a través del portal Revues.org una vez transcurridos dos años de su publicación. Los números publicados antes de 2002 pueden ser consultarse en Persée.
Como resultado de un acuerdo de difusión comercial entre CLEO y Cairn.info, el acceso a los artículos de los números más recientes puede realizarse por medio del pago en línea en el portal de Cairn y Cairn International.

 Abierta al conjunto de ciencias sociales, la REMI pretende ser un observatorio permanente de la diversidad de los espacios estudiados y de la evolución de las perspectivas, de la complejidad mutante ligada a las migraciones internacionales y de las dinámicas sociales, articulándose alrededor de tres objetivos principales:
 Abordar el estudio de las migraciones internacionales de manera pluri e interdisciplinar por medio de las diferentes ramas de las ciencias sociales (Geografía, Sociología, Antropología, Ciencias Políticas, Derecho, Demografía, Historia,etc.) favoreciendo, así un análisis rico y variado del fenómeno migratorio.
 Ofrecer la mirada de investigadores europeos e internacionales sobre el tema de las migraciones.
 Poner los contenidos de la revista a disposición de un amplio abanico de lectores (investigadores, profesores, estudiantes, etc.), favoreciendo al mismo tiempo el acceso del público anglófono a través de la plataforma Cairn International.
La revista se edita por la Universidad de Poitiers con la colaboración del INSHS del CNRS; el Comité de Redacción es el responsable de su realización que delega esta función en el director/a/es/as de la revista. El director de la publicación, responsable jurídico de la misma, es el Presidente de la Universidad de Poitiers. La sede de la revista se encuentra en la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société de Poitiers (Casa de las Ciencias del Hombre y de la Sociedad) de Poitiers.

Enlaces externos
 ((en español)) Website oficial de la revista Revista Europea de las Migraciones Internacionales

Referencias

Migración
Revistas de ciencias sociales


Louis Lozowick, Wililam Gropper, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1981, illustrated n.p.
The canvas is unlined. There are a few scattered dots of paint loss. Under UV: some pigments fluoresce but all appear to be original.


text:
The name of the place: Babylon 5
January 7, 2006 by Summer
There's a reason we're here, now. It's all because of a television show.
That show awoke us to the possibility that scifi television could be more that we'd experienced prior to that time. It became a shining beacon for a different style of storytelling; a style that appealed to fans of story and imagination, and that confused network executives… leaving it all alone on the airwaves.
It's why we still talk about the show, 10 years later.
Babylon 5 is that show, that reason.
We'll be talking about Bablyon 5 — the great, the awful, the silly and the sublime. We hope you'll enjoy our show.
— Tim and Summer
Babylon Podcast #231: Patterns of the Soul (Crusade)
Babylon Podcast #282: Interview with Josh Coxx
Babylon Podcast #255: The Dureena Trilogy (Crusade)
Hi, this is a comment test.
Great intro, Summer! That certainly sums up the idea.
Something occurred to me, watching Battlestar Galactica this past Friday. It's a phenomenally popular show (TV Guide even calls it the best drama on TV), but without the precedent set by B5, I think it would have had a harder row to hoe.
I could go on and on… and that's why we're doing the show.
fourthof5 says
Has it really been ten years ? Wow.
Jani Alegrievski says
A wonder it has been 10 years. It takes a lot to stick to peoples hearts for so long. Keep up the good work. I look forward to more podcasts.
Will says
The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for quality television SF…
Scal says
Hmmm… Would 2006 be the year of the Phoenix, or what?
The rebirth of the Shining Beacon out of space? 🙂
Sounds good anyway…
Though… The occasion is piled high with difficulties, and we must rise to the occasion. The fiery.. Oh! SHUT UP!!
Ready to discuss, Sir!
Stephen K says
So… confession time.
I've never seen an episode of B5, not one 🙁
I've just started watching Battlestar (I blame mike and evo) and along comes another podcast making me want to check out another show! Thanks and keep up the good work 😀
This is going to be a great podcast. B5 was one of the most moving shows ever to be broadcast. I'll never forget the final episode when JMS shuts down the power to the station.
Good luck on the podcast!
Marc says
Get the DVD's. Don't watch more than 2-3 ep's at a time. Let the shows sink in and resonate with you. You WILL NOT – I REPEAT – WILL NOT BE SORRY.
IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!!!!
B5 has been too far removed from society these past few years. I don't think any show has found such a place in my heart the way B5 has (with the exception of Firefly). Summer, Tim: You ARE our last best hope!
Fabulous idea guys.
Solar Flare: Science Fiction News says:
New Babylon 5 Podcast…
If, like me, you are or were a huge fan of the Babylon 5 science fiction series produced by J. Michael Straczynski then you might be interested to know about a new fan produced podcast that will focus on all things Babylon 5. If you ready my Top Ten Sc…
"It's just chalk, baby... it's just chalk"
— Summer Brooks, Babylon Podcast #272


Reviews of this article and my idea of pragmatic interoperability for healthcare are rolling in!
@wareFLO @MandiBPro @JulieWMaas @motorcycle_guy @MattA_PCMH Your pragmatic interoperability concept will be revolutionary.
So, what the heck is Pragmatic Interoperability?
"Pragmatic interoperability (PI) is the compatibility between the intended versus the actual effect of message exchange." (ref) The best current practical candidate for achieving pragmatic interoperability is workflow technology (AKA BPM or Business Process Management and related tech). A candidate for measuring progress toward pragmatic interoperability in healthcare is diffusion of workflow technology into healthcare.
Last year I searched every HIMSS13 exhibitor website (1200+) for evidence of workflow tech or ideas (AKA Business Process Management & Dynamic/Adaptive Case Management). About eight percent of websites had such evidence. I tweeted links to this material on the #HIMSS13 hashtag during the conference. This year, before HIMSS14, I searched again. More than sixteen percent of websites had qualifying material. This material I also tweeted during on the HIMSS14 conference on the #HIMSS14 hashtag.
What is pragmatic interoperability? (Beyond that initial quote).
How is workflow technology relevant to pragmatic interoperability?
What do I hope to see next year at HIMSS15?
To understand pragmatic interoperability, you must also understand syntactic and semantic interoperability. Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics are ideas from linguistics. You can think of language as being built from successive layers of information processing: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse (conversation). (All of which I've taken as undergraduate and graduate courses.) Turns out linguistics is relevant to communication among health IT systems too — who da thunk!
Communication among EHRs and other health IT systems must become more "conversational," if they are to become more resistant to errorful interpretation. "Which patient are you referring to?" (reference resolution) "I promise to get back to you" (speech act) "Why did you ask about the status of that report?" (abductive reasoning) These interactions include issues of pragmatic interoperability (workflow interaction protocols over and above semantic and syntactic interoperability).
By the way, context plays a very important role in pragmatics. If you are interested in context, contextual design, context-aware computing, etc. you ought to take a look at how linguistics views context. A good place to start is Birner's Introduction to Pragmatics.
I am in no way diminishing the importance of syntactic and semantic interoperability. In fact, we need both to get to pragmatic interoperability. Much is made of the need for EHRs to interoperate with each other and other information systems (as well it should). Current efforts focus on syntactic and semantic interoperability. Syntactic interoperability is the ability of one EHR to parse (in the high school English sentence diagram sense) the structure of a clinical message received from another EHR (if you are a programmer think: counting HL7's "|"s and "^"s, AKA "pipes" and "hats").
Semantic interoperability is the ability for that message to mean the same thing to the target EHR as it does to the source EHR (think controlled vocabularies such as RxNorm, LOINC, and SNOMED).
Plug-and-play syntactic and semantic interoperability is currently the holy grail of EHR interoperability. We hear less about the next level up: pragmatic interoperability. As soon as, and to the degree that, we achieve syntactic and semantic interoperability, issues of pragmatic interoperability will begin to dominate. And they will manifest themselves as issues about coordination among EHR workflows. In fact, issues of pragmatic interoperability are already beginning to arise, although they are not always recognized as such.
This last quote elaborates my first quote about pragmatic interoperability. At this point we must consider what specific technology is available to begin to create pragmatically interoperable health IT systems.
So, how does workflow technology tie into pragmatic interoperability? The key phrases linking workflow and pragmatics are intended effect and specific order.
EHR workflow systems (WfSs) will need to coordinate execution of workflow processes among separate but interacting EHR WfSs. For example, when a general practice EHR workflow system (GP EHR WfS) forwards ("Invoke") a clinical document to a subspecialist who is also using an EHR workflow system (SS EHR WfS), the GP EHR WfS eventually expects a referral report back from the SS EHR WfS.
When the result arrives ("Result"), it needs to be placed in the relevant section in the correct patient chart and the appropriate person needs to be notified (perhaps via an item in a To-Do list).
If the expected document does not materialize within a designated interval ("Monitor"), the GP EHR WfS needs to notify the SS EHR WfS that such a document is expected and that the document should be delivered or an explanation provided as to its non-delivery. The SS EHR WfS may react automatically or escalate to a human handler.
If the SS EHR WfS does not respond, the GP EHR WfS may cancel its referral ("Control") and also escalate to a human handler for follow up (find and fix a workflow problem, renegotiate or terminate an "e-Contract").
The sequence of actions and messages — Invoke, Monitor, Control, Result — that's the "specific order" of conversation required to ensure the "intended effect" (the Result). Interactions among EHR workflow systems, explicitly defined internal and cross-EHR workflows, hierarchies of automated and human handlers, and rules and schedules for escalation and expiration will be necessary to achieve seamless coordination among EHR workflow systems. In other words, we need workflow management system technology to enable self-repairing conversations among EHR and other health IT systems. This is pragmatic interoperability. By the way, some early workflow systems were explicitly based on speech act theory, an area of pragmatics.
I answered the question, what I'd like to see next year at HIMSS15 regarding workflow and workflow technology, in an interview at HIMSS14.
What do [I] want to see coming out of HIMSS14 so [I] am even more excited next year (at HIMSS15)?
I am pretty monomaniacally interested in workflow. Because workflow is a series of steps, each of which consumers a resource (a cost), and achieves some goal, that the value. Health IT need more success in this area.
All-in-all, I was delighted to see a doubling of HIMSS14 exhibitors emphasizing workflow ideas and technology. And guess what? You aint seen nothing yet.
Whatever else Meaningful Use has done, many proponents and opponents would agree, it's created a multi-billion dollar industry of EHR "work-arounds." From EHR-extenders to speech recognition interfaces to full-blown workflow platforms riding on top of EHRs and related systems, workflow infrastructure, which ideally should have been implemented in the first place, is being added piecemeal. It's flowing around legacy systems, talking to them through APIs when available, through reverse-engineered interfaces when not. Pragmatic interoperability provides users the "What's next?" that many current systems can't.
Social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) get glory and credit. But often, under the hood, is workflow technology: workflow engines, process definitions, graphical editors and workflow analytics. Some EHRs will fare better than other. EHRs with open APIs will become plumbing. EHRs relying on workflow tech themselves will more naturally meet pragmatic interoperability half-way. Or one-quarter or three-quarter way, depending on their own degree of process-aware architecture and infrastructure.
As I wrote in another blog post about HIMSS14, software application architecture evolves through generations. In other industries, software designers are taking workflow out of applications, just as they moved data from apps to databases. Many of the usability and interoperability problems be-deviling health IT will become more manageable if we stop hardcoding workflow.
If you'll recall, earlier I alluded to relevance of pragmatic interoperability and workflow technology to usability and user experience. So, just to hammer home the idea that workflow technology is the most natural and practical way to deliver true "deep usability", let me point out that back in 1999, the Workflow Management Coalition defined an eight level model of workflow interoperability. It started with "Level 1: No interoperability" and went all the way up to "Level 8 - Common Look and Feel Utilities: Co-operating WFMS present a standard user interface." (ref) Interoperable workflows and workflow usability are two sides of the same coin.
Let's represent healthcare workflow so users can understand it and workflow engines can execute it. In doing so, we'll finally make progress toward pragmatic interoperability and usable health IT systems.
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Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 9, GOT S6E9 Spoilers, and Air Date: Jon Snow puts the halt to his resurrection
Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 9 Watch Online Live Streaming: As the next hop installment of the HBO series Game of thrones is about to hit the grounds, fan predictions and spoilers have surfaced all over the web. Being one of the most watched TV series of the era, "Game of Thrones" has been always up to the mark of its fans feeding the bellies satisfying their appetite.
Check: MTV Roadies X4 Winner 2016.
As the series narrows, the penultimate episode may translate the low death count into a high one. Some can be much unexpected, thus proving to be very sadistic for the fans. Whereas others might be appealing as they have been longing for these characters to die to pay for their doings.
The fight between the bastards will bring deaths, losses and casualties on both sides, whosoever may triumph, either House Stark or House Bolton. Going into the battle Jon Snow is seen saying: "If I fall, don't bring me back".
Henceforth in the upcoming stream of the "Game of Thrones" series, titled "Battle of Bastards" here are the few death predictions and fan theories that you may see. Ramsay Bolton has the top position in death stack, whose death is demanded by most of the fans.
Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 9
Fans severely want Ramsay Bolton to suffer the pain, crying and screaming for his death. He gardened this much hatred of the fans, for the pain and hurdles he put Sansa Stark at and for making us get to the thought that Goffrey Baratheon is a man with good ethics.
It is forecasted that the fans will witness a more ghastly death of Ramsay than they did of Goffrey. Secondly, Rickon stark, youngest member is the stark pack, slave of Ramsay Bolton currently will be put to death by Ramsay. Rickon being a prisoner of Ramsay tempted Jon Snow to fight for his brother.
It is one of the fans predictions that sadistic Ramsay will put an end to Rickon's life in front of Jon and Sansa. Another theory that has picked the pace is that Cersei Lannister will die at the hands of his beloved lover/ brother.
This sudden toll procs as Jamie gets suspicious of Cersei burning down Kings Landing and thus to save the arson, Jamie cuddles her to death. The death toll does not end here, Tommen Baratheon might also be pushed into the stack of dead.
Game of Thrones Season 6 Episode 9 Watch Online Live Streaming
This unfortunate happening in the result of Cersei ambition to put Kings Landing onto an arson. It is understood that Margaery's wish to get back to High Sparrow, may lead her to the south, thus putting Tommen to his grave.
Last but not the least, Melisandre – the Red Woman was shown infinitely older than she is presumed to be. In the recent few engagements, Melisandre has been seen quite upset and under confident, may be due to the tiresome life she lived.
Many fan theories predict that she may get rid of her necklace for her own good and die a natural death. To see which of the fan predictions get casted, don't forget to watch "Game of Thrones Season 6 episode 9 at 9 pm on Sunday (EST) on HBO. In India, the show is aired live on Hotstar at 7:30 am IST on Monday, June 20.
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Home Supreme Court Decision Raises Questions About the Authority of USPTO Administrative Judges
Supreme Court Decision Raises Questions About the Authority of USPTO Administrative Judges
By The Dobrusin Law Firm | Friday August 3, 2018
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed the authority of illegally appointed administrative judges, and though the decision did not speak to questionable appointments at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), there may be implications for individuals and organizations holding, prosecuting, and protecting patents.
Lucia and the Appointments Clause
In Lucia v. Securities Exchange Commission, Raymond Lucia with charged with violating particular securities laws. Cameron Elliot, an administrative law judge (ALJ) with the SEC, was assigned to adjudicate the case and later imposed sanctions against Lucia. Lucia appealed the decision, claiming that the administrative proceeding was invalid because Elliot had not been "constitutionally appointed" pursuant to the Appointments Clause in Article II of the U.S. Constitution:
"[The President] shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint… judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for…."
Lucia argued that SEC ALJs are "Officers of the United States" and only the President, "Courts of Law," or "Heads of Departments" can appoint such them – none of whom appointed Elliot. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where seven of the nine justices agreed, finding that, although SEC ALJs are "Officers of the United States," Elliot lacked authority and overturning the sanctions against Lucia.
The Appointments Clause and the USPTO
Why does the Lucia decision pose any threat to the authority of administrative law judges at the USPTO? Consider the impact if Lucia applies equally to the USPTO, the SEC, and other federal agencies.
When the result of a patent examination is unfavorable to the Applicant, the Applicant may appeal the Examiner's decision to the Patent Trial & Appeals Board (PTAB), which then reviews the case and issues a binding decision. Within the PTAB's branched hierarchal structure, the first tier includes a Chief Administrative Patent Judge (Chief Judge) and Deputy Chief Judge who decide petitions or may delegate authority to decide petitions. The second tier has two divisions of judges and attorneys led by a Vice Chief Judge, and under them are a variety of judges in different "sections." each focusing on certain technical disciplines.
It is well established that the Director of the USPTO is an officer appointed by the President, consistent with the edicts of the Appointment Clause, and the U.S. Patent Act mandates states that "administrative patent judges shall be persons of competent legal knowledge and scientific ability who are appointed by the Secretary [of Commerce], in consultation with the Director."
In Lucia, the Supreme Court found that SEC administrative judges are officers (rather than employees) and thus subject to the Appointments Clause. The Court identified that to qualify as an officer, an individual must (1) occupy a "continuing position established by law"; and (2) exercise "significant authority" pursuant to the laws of the U.S., according to the case law precedents.
It would seem that PTAB judges qualify as officers since they both occupy a continuing position, the position is established by law, and the judges have significant authority in the ability to make final rulings on the intellectual property rights of U.S. citizens. Furthermore, the function of PTAB judges substantially mirrors the qualities of SEC administrative judges as described in Lucia.
Are PTAB Administrative Judges "Inferior" or "Principal" Officers?
A subsequent provision in the Appointments Clause specifically references "inferior" officers, and gives Congress the legal authority, by statute, to delegate the power to appoint only inferior Officers to heads of departments (i.e., the Secretary of Commerce):
"Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments."
While there has been generally sparse instruction on how to draw the distinction, Intercollegiate Broadcasting v. CRB, a Federal Circuit case, summarized three factors relevant to the inferior versus principal inquiry:
(1) the degree of supervision over the officer in question by a principal officer or those in the principal officer's supervisory line; (2) whether the officer in question is removable without cause; and (3) whether the decisions rendered by the officer in question are reversible.
An example of how these criteria are considered can be found in Estes v. U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, which ruled that the three factors are not weighted independently and equally – strength in one can offset weakness in another. For instance "the power to remove officers… is a powerful tool for control" (indicating an inferior officer) and overpowers other factors such as an officer who maintains a high degree of autonomy (evidence tending to suggest a principal officer).
Degree of Supervision: It is unclear how the Secretary of Commerce supervises or directs the decisions of the Chief Judge, if at all. It is also unclear to what extent decision making is delegated. Considering the volume of cases, the degree of technical skill required of a judge, the number of judges and attorneys, and the level of hierarchical fractioning, it would seem nearly impossible for the Secretary of Commerce to exert any substantive control over the operation of the PTAB. Thus, it is probably safe to say that PTAB judges lean strongly toward the side of principal officers as they exercise a high level of independence.
Removable Without Cause: Although USPTO employment policies regarding PTAB judges are not helpful, it is safe to assume that the judges, who are chosen internally from Examiners or from extensively experienced legal patent professionals, would not be treated as expendable employees or dismissible without cause. The requisite skill required of these judges suggests that the USPTO does not have an appreciably large pool of applicants to draw from – hinting at an organizational aversion to turnover.
In Question or Reversible Decisions: Decisions regarding petitions are final within the USPTO. Applicants may seek post-decision relief in an appeal to the Federal Circuit. While technically, PTAB judge decisions are "reversible" on appeal, even federal district and circuit court judges' decisions are appealable to a higher authority (both types of judges are appointed by the President). Thus, the fact that a PTAB judge's decision can be appealed to a federal district court does not seem like a disqualifying characteristic for being considered a principal officer. "In question or reversible" likely refers to whether the bona fide principal officer (the Director or the Secretary of Commerce) can alter the decision of a PTAB judge. As it stands at the USPTO, the Director nor the Secretary of Commerce has any such power.
As clarified by Lucia, PTAB judges are likely officers, and under the Intercollegiate framework, they are likely principal officers. Thus, there is a very strong argument that the Patent Act illegally confers the appointment of administrative patent judges to the Secretary of Commerce where their appointments should only flow from the President.
Lucia made waves in the arena of administrative law and those waves may splash over into the hallways of the USPTO. A Supreme Court ruling like Lucia will surely embolden those eagerly waiting for the opportune time to bring suit. What chaos might follow such a paradigm shift? The Court in Lucia overturned the decision of the SEC administrative judge so the likely result of a constitutional challenge of the Patent Act would be a whole host of invalidated decisions and retrials by properly appointed PTAB judges.
– by Eric Hydorn
Continue reading Supreme Court Decision Raises Questions About the Authority of USPTO Administrative Judges...


- Featuring members of Whale Oil and Spencer Albee's band, Midwestern Medicine is something of a local supergroup. What they have that must supergroups don't, however, is the songwriting to back up their lineup. With a new record on the way, the group is bound to be playing some new, cool tunes.
- Local rapper Brzowski has been a staple of the local music scene for years, which makes it so sad to learn he's leaving us for TX. Head over to PHOME on Thursday to wish him the best of luck on his next endeavor!
- Rarely do we get talent coming up all the way up from Nashville, but Erik's Church is slowly helping us change that. This singer-songwriter from music city is playing a set on Saturday, too!
- Stylized like a cheesy 60's era TV Christmas special, the Fogcutters always bring the holiday favorites you expect, but with their own signature, powerful big-band flair. Family and rocker friendly!
- Maine's rapper-in-chief, Spose, is once again bringing his raucous Christmas party to Aura. Featuring performances from awesome local acts like Armies, this night looks to bring some solid music along with the usual insanity.