text:
from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals

import cProfile
import inspect
import itertools
import os
import time
from functools import partial, wraps

import jsonschema
from flask import current_app, g, redirect, request, session
from sqlalchemy.exc import DatabaseError
from sqlalchemy.orm.exc import NoResultFound
from werkzeug.exceptions import BadRequest, Forbidden, MethodNotAllowed, NotFound
from werkzeug.routing import BuildError
from werkzeug.wrappers import Response

from indico.core import signals
from indico.core.config import config
from indico.core.db import db
from indico.core.db.sqlalchemy.core import handle_sqlalchemy_database_error
from indico.core.logger import Logger, sentry_set_tags
from indico.core.notifications import flush_email_queue, init_email_queue
from indico.legacy.common import fossilize
from indico.util.i18n import _
from indico.util.locators import get_locator
from indico.util.signals import values_from_signal
from indico.web.flask.util import url_for
from indico.web.util import is_signed_url_valid

HTTP_VERBS = {'GET', 'PATCH', 'POST', 'PUT', 'DELETE'}
logger = Logger.get('rh')

class RH(object):
    CSRF_ENABLED = True  # require a csrf_token when accessing the RH with anything but GET
    EVENT_FEATURE = None  # require a certain event feature when accessing the RH. See `EventFeature` for details
    DENY_FRAMES = False  # whether to send an X-Frame-Options:DENY header

    #: A dict specifying how the url should be normalized.
    #: `args` is a dictionary mapping view args keys to callables
    #: used to retrieve the expected value for those arguments if they
    #: are present in the request's view args.
    #: `locators` is a set of callables returning objects with locators.
    #: `preserved_args` is a set of view arg names which will always
    #: be copied from the current request if present.
    #: The callables are always invoked with a single `self` argument
    #: containing the RH instance.
    #: `endpoint` may be used to specify the endpoint used to build
    #: the URL in case of a redirect.  Usually this should not be used
    #: in favor of ``request.endpoint`` being used if no custom endpoint
    #: is set.
    #: Arguments specified in the `defaults` of any rule matching the
    #: current endpoint are always excluded when checking if the args
    #: match or when building a new URL.
    #: If the view args built from the returned objects do not match
    #: the request's view args, a redirect is issued automatically.
    #: If the request is not using GET/HEAD, a 404 error is raised
    #: instead of a redirect since such requests cannot be redirected
    #: but executing them on the wrong URL may pose a security risk in
    #: case and of the non-relevant URL segments is used for access
    #: checks.
    normalize_url_spec = {
        'args': {},
        'locators': set(),
        'preserved_args': set(),
        'endpoint': None
    }

    def __init__(self):
        self.commit = True

    # Methods =============================================================

    def validate_json(self, schema, json=None):
        """Validates the request's JSON payload using a JSON schema.

        :param schema: The JSON schema used for validation.
        :param json: The JSON object (defaults to ``request.json``)
        :raises BadRequest: if the JSON validation failed
        """
        if json is None:
            json = request.json
        try:
            jsonschema.validate(json, schema)
        except jsonschema.ValidationError as e:
            raise BadRequest('Invalid JSON payload: {}'.format(e.message))

    @property
    def csrf_token(self):
        return session.csrf_token if session.csrf_protected else ''

    def normalize_url(self):
        """Performs URL normalization.

        This uses the :attr:`normalize_url_spec` to check if the URL
        params are what they should be and redirects or fails depending
        on the HTTP method used if it's not the case.

        :return: ``None`` or a redirect response
        """
        if current_app.debug and self.normalize_url_spec is RH.normalize_url_spec:
            # in case of ``class SomeRH(RH, MixinWithNormalization)``
            # the default value from `RH` overwrites the normalization
            # rule from ``MixinWithNormalization``.  this is never what
            # the developer wants so we fail if it happens.  the proper
            # solution is ``class SomeRH(MixinWithNormalization, RH)``
            cls = next((x
                        for x in inspect.getmro(self.__class__)
                        if (x is not RH and x is not self.__class__ and hasattr(x, 'normalize_url_spec') and
                            getattr(x, 'normalize_url_spec', None) is not RH.normalize_url_spec)),
                       None)
            if cls is not None:
                raise Exception('Normalization rule of {} in {} is overwritten by base RH. Put mixins with class-level '
                                'attributes on the left of the base class'.format(cls, self.__class__))
        if not self.normalize_url_spec or not any(self.normalize_url_spec.itervalues()):
            return
        spec = {
            'args': self.normalize_url_spec.get('args', {}),
            'locators': self.normalize_url_spec.get('locators', set()),
            'preserved_args': self.normalize_url_spec.get('preserved_args', set()),
            'endpoint': self.normalize_url_spec.get('endpoint', None)
        }
        # Initialize the new view args with preserved arguments (since those would be lost otherwise)
        new_view_args = {k: v for k, v in request.view_args.iteritems() if k in spec['preserved_args']}
        # Retrieve the expected values for all simple arguments (if they are currently present)
        for key, getter in spec['args'].iteritems():
            if key in request.view_args:
                new_view_args[key] = getter(self)
        # Retrieve the expected values from locators
        prev_locator_args = {}
        for getter in spec['locators']:
            value = getter(self)
            if value is None:
                raise NotFound('The URL contains invalid data. Please go to the previous page and refresh it.')
            locator_args = get_locator(value)
            reused_keys = set(locator_args) & prev_locator_args.viewkeys()
            if any(locator_args[k] != prev_locator_args[k] for k in reused_keys):
                raise NotFound('The URL contains invalid data. Please go to the previous page and refresh it.')
            new_view_args.update(locator_args)
            prev_locator_args.update(locator_args)
        # Get all default values provided by the url map for the endpoint
        defaults = set(itertools.chain.from_iterable(r.defaults
                                                     for r in current_app.url_map.iter_rules(request.endpoint)
                                                     if r.defaults))

        def _convert(v):
            # some legacy code has numeric ids in the locator data, but still takes
            # string ids in the url rule (usually for confId)
            return unicode(v) if isinstance(v, (int, long)) else v

        provided = {k: _convert(v) for k, v in request.view_args.iteritems() if k not in defaults}
        new_view_args = {k: _convert(v) for k, v in new_view_args.iteritems() if v is not None}
        if new_view_args != provided:
            if request.method in {'GET', 'HEAD'}:
                endpoint = spec['endpoint'] or request.endpoint
                try:
                    return redirect(url_for(endpoint, **dict(request.args.to_dict(), **new_view_args)))
                except BuildError as e:
                    if current_app.debug:
                        raise
                    logger.warn('BuildError during normalization: %s', e)
                    raise NotFound
            else:
                raise NotFound('The URL contains invalid data. Please go to the previous page and refresh it.')

    def _process_args(self):
        """
        This method is called before _check_access and url normalization
        and is a good place to fetch objects from the database based on
        variables from request params.
        """

    def _check_access(self):
        """
        This method is called after _process_args and is a good place
        to check if the user is permitted to perform some actions.
        """

    def _process(self):
        """Dispatch to a method named ``_process_<verb>``.

        Except for RESTful endpoints it is usually best to just
        override this method, especially when using WTForms.
        """
        method = getattr(self, '_process_' + request.method, None)
        if method is None:
            valid_methods = [m for m in HTTP_VERBS if hasattr(self, '_process_' + m)]
            raise MethodNotAllowed(valid_methods)
        return method()

    def _check_csrf(self):
        token = request.headers.get('X-CSRF-Token') or request.form.get('csrf_token')
        if token is None:
            # Might be a WTForm with a prefix. In that case the field name is '<prefix>-csrf_token'
            token = next((v for k, v in request.form.iteritems() if k.endswith('-csrf_token')), None)
        if self.CSRF_ENABLED and request.method != 'GET' and token != session.csrf_token:
            msg = _("It looks like there was a problem with your current session. Please use your browser's back "
                    "button, reload the page and try again.")
            raise BadRequest(msg)

    def _check_event_feature(self):
        from indico.modules.events.features.util import require_feature
        event_id = request.view_args.get('confId') or request.view_args.get('event_id')
        if event_id is not None:
            require_feature(event_id, self.EVENT_FEATURE)

    def _do_process(self):
        try:
            args_result = self._process_args()
            signals.rh.process_args.send(type(self), rh=self, result=args_result)
            if isinstance(args_result, (current_app.response_class, Response)):
                return args_result
        except NoResultFound:  # sqlalchemy .one() not finding anything
            raise NotFound(_('The specified item could not be found.'))

        rv = self.normalize_url()
        if rv is not None:
            return rv

        self._check_access()
        signals.rh.check_access.send(type(self), rh=self)

        signal_rv = values_from_signal(signals.rh.before_process.send(type(self), rh=self),
                                       single_value=True, as_list=True)
        if signal_rv and len(signal_rv) != 1:
            raise Exception('More than one signal handler returned custom RH result')
        elif signal_rv:
            return signal_rv[0]

        if config.PROFILE:
            result = [None]
            profile_path = os.path.join(config.TEMP_DIR, '{}-{}.prof'.format(type(self).__name__, time.time()))
            cProfile.runctx('result[0] = self._process()', globals(), locals(), profile_path)
            rv = result[0]
        else:
            rv = self._process()

        signal_rv = values_from_signal(signals.rh.process.send(type(self), rh=self, result=rv),
                                       single_value=True, as_list=True)
        if signal_rv and len(signal_rv) != 1:
            raise Exception('More than one signal handler returned new RH result')
        elif signal_rv:
            return signal_rv[0]
        else:
            return rv

    def process(self):
        if request.method not in HTTP_VERBS:
            # Just to be sure that we don't get some crappy http verb we don't expect
            raise BadRequest

        res = ''
        g.rh = self
        sentry_set_tags({'rh': self.__class__.__name__})

        if self.EVENT_FEATURE is not None:
            self._check_event_feature()

        logger.info('%s %s [IP=%s] [PID=%s] [UID=%r]',
                    request.method, request.relative_url, request.remote_addr, os.getpid(), session.get('_user_id'))

        try:
            fossilize.clearCache()
            init_email_queue()
            self._check_csrf()
            res = self._do_process()
            signals.after_process.send()

            if self.commit:
                db.session.commit()
                flush_email_queue()
            else:
                db.session.rollback()
        except DatabaseError:
            db.session.rollback()
            handle_sqlalchemy_database_error()  # this will re-raise an exception
        except Exception:
            # rollback to avoid errors as rendering the error page
            # within the indico layout may trigger an auto-flush
            db.session.rollback()
            raise
        logger.debug('Request successful')

        if res is None:
            # flask doesn't accept None but we might be returning it in some places...
            res = ''

        response = current_app.make_response(res)
        if self.DENY_FRAMES:
            response.headers['X-Frame-Options'] = 'DENY'
        return response

class RHSimple(RH):
    """A simple RH that calls a function to build the response

    The preferred way to use this class is by using the
    `RHSimple.wrap_function` decorator.

    :param func: A function returning HTML
    """
    def __init__(self, func):
        RH.__init__(self)
        self.func = func

    def _process(self):
        rv = self.func()
        return rv

    @classmethod
    def wrap_function(cls, func):
        """Decorates a function to run within the RH's framework"""
        @wraps(func)
        def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
            return cls(partial(func, *args, **kwargs)).process()

        return wrapper

class RHProtected(RH):
    def _require_user(self):
        if session.user is None:
            raise Forbidden

    def _check_access(self):
        self._require_user()

class RHTokenProtected(RH):
    """A request handler which is protected through a signature token parameter."""

    def _process_args(self):
        self.user = db.m.User.get_one(request.view_args['user_id'])

    def _check_access(self):
        token = request.args.get('token')
        if not token or not is_signed_url_valid(self.user, request.full_path):
            raise Forbidden


You must have at least 40 posts for me to reply to any inquiries. Very high condition SIG P229. Has only 100 rounds through it. I am the original owner. In case, with four, 13 round mags. This is a short extractor, German frame gun. S/S guide rod. Original included. Stainless hex head grip screws. Originals included. Rosewood grip panels. New Bianchi paddle holster included. Payment by USPS money order ONLY. Ships FFL to FFL only. Mags will not be shipped to restricted states. NO EXCEPTIONS. PM your email for photos or questions. Listed on other sites.


For those that keep track of this blog somewhat regularly will not be surprised when I tell you that I am technically inclined. I have an interest in the chemistry of analog photography and recently purchased a few books on the topic. While I am reading them one by one, I am also writing reviews so you know which ones to get yourself.
In this post, I will maintain a list of resources for you to consult and I provide mini-reviews of each. You will find links to the full reviews in the descriptions. This post will be a rolling release, so to speak, and I will try to keep it up to date.
This book (ISBN 0 240 44770 0, 1976), written by C.I. and R.E. Jacobson, is different from many other photography books in that it is written by people that are primarily chemists, rather than primarily photographers. This shows in the more academic writing style and the more elaborate explanations about the chemical processes. What I find especially interesting about this book is the explanations on how a developer is composed, how the components work together and why you may choose the one ingredient over the other. It gives plenty of insight, without going into the full chemical analysis.
The formulas are sorted by function, e.g., 'general purpose developers', 'extreme contrast developers', etc. and make for a very complete and comprehensive set.
I bought my copy online from a secondhand dealer at Amazon.de for €3,86 including shipping. If you don't need a hard copy, you can also read the text online.
For the full review of this book, click here.
A dutch book by J.J. Hansma for the darkroom printer of the 50s. It offers an introduction on how to safely use chemical components, how store them and in what type of bottle, and many recipes for all kinds of (black-and-white) chemistry. Especially useful is the extensive glossary that is included in the book that lists all names of the used ingredients and alternative names, including a description of their appearance and use.
The book offers a complete collection of formulae, but I recommend caution in following all the advice given. For example, in the 50s the use of asbestos was still considered safe, but should no longer be used in home environments.
I bought my printed copy for 7 euro from a small book store. It does not have an ISBN, so finding it might proof a bit tricky, although the seller had multiple editions sitting on the shelf at the time.
Tim Rudman never intended this book (ISBN 1-85732-407-2) to be a formulary book. It is a guide for beginning and more advanced darkroom printers, but includes some formulary in the appendix named "Reference Data". The list of formulae is not exhaustive, but includes many interesting recipes nonetheless. They could use some additional explanation, though, especially on what to expect from usage. What I like very much, though, is that Mr. Rudman included the potential hazards of handling the most common darkroom ingredients. When trying these formulas at home, safety should be your number one priority.
For a full review of this book, click here.
John and Field authored this book in 1963 and give a step-by-step explanation of the physical and chemical processes that drive the photographic process. With its many forward references, I found it a bit annoying to read. However, it explains things often very well and discusses topics that I did not see discussed elsewhere yet: the formation of the latent image. Overall the book serves as a good introduction to photographic chemistry at a higher level than for example the book by Eaton farther down this overview.
This book is available under ISBN 978-1-332-43205-9 and is a reproduction of the original. It was originally published in 1910 by Berlin Analine Works located in New York and edited by George L. Barrows. The book offers an interesting look into the photography industry of the early 1900s, but not much more than that for the practical darkroom enthusiast. Some of the recipes can be useful, but are then also available in some of the other books in this list. The biggest problem with the listed recipes is that they use proprietary names by Agfa for the chemical substances, e.g. "Agfa"-Intensifier and "Agfa"-Rapid Fixing Salt. If you are interested in the history of photography then this is a worthy addition to your collection, but otherwise you will not miss anything.
In comparison to some of the other books on this list, this one can be considered almost pocked sized. This book by George T. Eaton (ISBN 0-81700-066-0) has seen several editions since first being published by Eastman Kodak Company in 1957. This review concerns the third revised edition of 1980. As the preface already explains, this book is intended to give a general introduction to photographic chemistry and physics, so that the people that work with it on a daily basis get a better understanding of the materials they work with and how to process them successfully. It is by no means intended to be exhaustive, which explains the pocketable size. Eaton provides a clear and concise introduction on the topic, which I believe to be accessible also to those that had limited exposure to chemistry in high school. If you are looking for formulae you will come up empty handed, as these are – with the exception of two or three examples – nowhere to be found. If you have no or little background in chemistry, this is a great place to start before moving on to other books in this list.
Where the previous entry offers a good introduction for the layman, this book by L.F.A. Mason (ISBN 0 240 50824 6, second edition, 1974) is at the except opposite end of the spectrum. This is by no means intended for the layman or the chemistry novice. It can be considered an introduction to the topic for the practicing chemist and provides an extensive literature review of the available scientific literature. Chemical compounds are often referred to by their standardized chemical names, instead of their more colloquial counterparts. The level of depth is exciting to me, and I have referred to this book on multiple occasions. Recommended reading for those truly interested in photographic chemistry beyond being able to mix a solution from recipe.
Eight years after the release of the third edition, Steve Anchell updated the infamous 'darkroom cookbook' and released the fourth edition in 2016. In the words of Gordon Hutchings, "… this book is essential for all darkroom work …" — a statement that is especially true for the fourth edition (ISBN 978-1-138-95918-7). The annoying typos and omissions of the third edition have been fixed and new content has been added. What I find especially interesting, is the section on lith printing and the corresponding formulae. It is formulae in which this book excels, and the quantity is perhaps only matched by "Developing" by father and son Jacobson. For those that know what they are looking for, there is an alphabetic list of recipes included in the front of the book, and another one right after that where they are sorted by category/application. If you are interested in mixing your own photographic solutions, I highly recommend this becomes the next addition on your bookshelf.
Do you have any suggestions for other books that I should add to my collection? Please let me know via e-mail or Twitter!
Also, I want to get into alternative processes too and I am looking for good reference books. If you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to receive them.


I HAVE MANY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH CHILDREN. IM 29 AND HAVE 2 CHILDREN OF MY OWN. I WILL BE WATCHING YOUR CHILDREN FROM MY HOME DAILY.WE'LL HAVE FUN WITH ACTIVITIES.
I WILL BE OPEN FROM 630AM TO 6PM, BUT HOURS ARE FLEXIBLE. LUNCHES AND SNACKS WILL BE PROVIDED WITH RATE.


text:
Google Now Has to Make Its Autonomous Cars More Like Us; Dumber & More Dangerous
The autonomous car movement has its origins in the need to make roads safer by freeing them of a common recklessness that regularly puts life and limb at risk. Basically, self-driving cars have been trying to make driving as inhuman as possible. But recent test results reveal that making them more human may be the way to go.
Aiming for Imperfection
Google's autonomous car prototypes are very good at abiding by the rules; they come to a complete stop at stop signs, they maintain a safe distance from other vehicles at all times, and they never go above the speed limit. While this all sounds good, this degree of blind obedience is proving problematic; they're a little too good at following the rules.
As the Wall Street Journal reported, Google cars hesitate more often than probably necessary, frequently stopping at seemingly unusual times. In one instance, a car quickly approaching from behind caused an unexpected application of the brakes. In another, a pedestrian approaching the corner of a sidewalk cause a complete halt in the middle of an intersection. Then there was stopping behind parked cars because the cars weren't allowed to change lanes over a double-yellow.
Imagine driving behind one of those.
Google has come to realize that if their cars are really going to survive on the roads – and keep the rear-ending to a minimum – they'll have to start bending the rules.
They are now on a mission to make its cars, well, more human; eager to cut corners, a little selfish, and less-than-Boy-Scout safe. Even for Google, this won't be easy. Humans are much too complex to have their real-time decision-making mapped into an algorithm, especially when highly variable emotion and instinct comes into play. Overall, as a Google team lead told the WSJ, "You want to figure out when the right time is to relax things a little bit."
Manufacturers have been toying with the idea of autonomous technology a lot longer than you'd think. Way back in 1925, Houdina Radio Control presented a prototype of what was basically the life-size equivalent of a remote-controlled car. The 'Linrrican Wonder', as it was called, was controlled by radio signals routed to its antennae by another car following closely behind it. Not the most efficient technology but a predecesor to modern autonomy nonetheless.
By the 1960s it was clear that self-driving cars needed to be able to do three things effectively: sense, process, and react. While existing technology could tackle the first and last of those to a respectable degree, it was the ability to process environmental information that posed a real challenge to the industry.
The first big breakthrough came in the 1980s through the work of German AI pioneer Ernst Dickmanns. Along with his team, Dickmanns refurbished a Mercedes-Benz van to make it possible to control its steering wheel, brakes, and throttle remotely. Software was written to convert input from cameras and other sensor-based feedback into commands to guide the navigation of the car. The 5-tonne Mercedes was taken hundreds of miles across Germany using just its autonomous technology to guide it.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA) has had a role to play in accelerating the development of autonomous technology. Its annual $1 million competition that started in 2004 laid the groundwork for making American outfits serious contenders in the race towards a commercially viable self-driving vehicle.
Now, smart vehicles innovation is heavily sponsored by corporate players as more and more people are sensing the lucrative potential of being a first-mover in the industry. Brands like Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota have been hard at work with their own branded technology. There are also companies like Cruise, NVidia and MobileEye, that are dedicating themselves to technology that will make any car smarter.
Barely Road-Legal
As it stands, autonomous cars are legal in the United States. But that's just because they're not illegal; there isn't a set of rules catering to their particular category of transportation. While the general consensus is that the technology will get into high gear eventually, a robust legal framework guiding its implementation is needed before the rubber meets the road.
State like California, Florida, Nevada, and Washington DC have promulgated laws to oversee how self-driving vehicles are tested and made available to the public. However the lack of uniformity has been an impediment to manufacturers looking to make progress across regions. A few years back, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated that it had begun work on scripting the laws at a national level. Though this would help the cause of manufacturers, there is concern that regulators may not understand the technology nor have the vision to enable innovation in the field.
A Volume Game
Google's travails with the humanization of autonomous technology will be a problem as long as the majority of us are stuck behind the wheel. When/if self-driving cars become common, there won't be as much of a need to account for such human variability. To get there, however, we need the laws to catch up to the technology. Then, as with any classic roundabout, it will only be a matter of time before the technology catches up to the requirements.
Filed Under: Industry Insights, Prateek Jose Tagged With: Artificial Intelligence, Audi, Cruise, Google, Self-Driving Cars, Toyota
Maria Edwards says
I like your take on this topic. There is something about automonous cars on the road and Google might have an edge here, but what are we really going to see as the final product? Even though we might be years away from seeing a car that can drive itself, there is already news, rumors and speculation hitting the web and consumers. It will give all of us something to think about for sure.
Chip says
Interesting article. I think this means that self driving cars in the Google car format will be a long way off. I did an experiment recently after getting a speeding ticket-I drove the speed limit everywhere I went. Almost immediately I noticed that everyone tailgates. This would be an obvious problem for the Google car. Another problem is that I don't think the Google car would make a split second decision to disobey the laws of the road for the greater good. Sometimes you have to do stuff as mentioned in the article that technically is illegal, but it makes driving much more safe. It also makes the roadways much more efficient. Self driving cars could have the effect of saving lives at the cost of efficiency and speed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Property Overhang Down 5% In 2019 But Serviced Apartment Segment Spiked
by thireswar | Jun 4, 2020 | Local News, News | 0 comments
PETALING JAYA (April 29): The residential property overhang and unsold residential property situation in the country improved last year (2019).
The number of overhang properties had decreased by 5.1% in volume and 5.2% in value to 30,664 overhang units worth RM18.82 billion respectively, according to the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH).
Meanwhile, the number of unsold properties under construction and properties that are not constructed dropped to 72,692 units and 16,774 units, down by 10.2% and 15.6% respectively.
In a media statement released in conjunction with the virtual launch of the 2019 Property Market Report today by Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, JPPH said Johor still has the highest overhang volume and value in the country with 5,627 units worth RM4.7 billion, accounting for 18.4% and 25.0% respectively, of the national total.
Perak came second with 5,024 units worth RM1.52 billion, followed by Selangor (4,687 units worth RM3.75 billion) and Penang (3,353 units worth RM2.59 billion).
About 40.9% (12,528 units) of the overhang properties were residential units sold above RM500,000.
Residential properties priced between RM300,000 and RM500,000 formed 25.7% or 7,883 units of the overhang properties.
Unsold serviced apartments continue to rise
JPPH said the overhang in serviced apartments continued to worsen, forming the bulk of the overall property overhang.
There were a total of 17,142 overhang services apartment units worth RM15.04 billion last year up by nearly 51% in volume and 65% in value year-on-year (yoy).
However, the unsold under construction and not constructed number of serviced apartments declined to 33,827 units and 7,659 units, down by 9.3% and 40.5% respectively.
Johor recorded the highest serviced apartment overhang with 71.2% share of the total volume (12,207 units) and 76.9% share of the total serviced apartment overhang value (RM11.56 billion).
A majority of the overhang units is in the Johor Bahru district, accounting for 99.2% of the state's overhang (a total of 12,105 units worth RM11.5 billion).
The state also held 34% share (11,490 units) of the country's unsold properties under construction.
In terms of pricing, 37.4% of the overhang serviced apartments were priced above RM1 million. About 20.3% of the total unsold under construction and 19.5% of the total unsold not constructed units were also priced above RM1 million.
The other 33% of overhang serviced apartments were in the price range of RM300,000 to RM400,000.
JPPH said despite the economic headwinds, Malaysian property market is expected to remain resilient in the coming year.
"Affordable housing and finding the right solutions to the property overhang will continue to be the main agenda of the government," said JPPH.
The close monitoring on the implementation of programmes under the National Housing Policy 2.0 (2018 – 2025) and various incentives introduced to promote home ownership among Malaysians, are expected to contain the overhang situation in the coming year.
As Bank Negara Malaysia expects the Malaysian economy to rebound in 2021, in tandem with projected global recovery, the property market is anticipated to move in a similar trajectory.
"JPPH Malaysia will continue to monitor and evaluate the expected impact of the pandemic on the Malaysian property market and provide advisory to the government in ensuring that the market remains sustainable," said JPPH.
Stay calm. Stay at home. Keep updated on the latest news at www.EdgeProp.my. #stayathome #flattenthecurve
Click here to see residential properties for sale in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.


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Bots are also used to buy up good seats for concerts, particularly by ticket brokers who resell the tickets.[12] Bots are employed against entertainment event-ticketing sites. The bots are used by ticket brokers to unfairly obtain the best seats for themselves while depriving the general public of also having a chance to obtain the good seats. The bot runs through the purchase process and obtains better seats by pulling as many seats back as it can.
This machine learning algorithm, known as neural networks, consists of different layers for analyzing and learning data. Inspired by the human brain, each layer is consists of its own artificial neurons that are interconnected and responsive to one another. Each connection is weighted by previous learning patterns or events and with each input of data, more "learning" takes place.
These are hardly ideas of Hollywood's science fiction. Even when the Starbucks bot can sound like Scarlett Johansson's Samantha, the public will be unimpressed — we would prefer a real human interaction. Yet the public won't have a choice; efficient task-oriented dialog agents will be the automatic vending machines and airport check-in kiosks of the near future.
This reference architecture describes how to build an enterprise-grade conversational bot (chatbot) using the Azure Bot Framework. Each bot is different, but there are some common patterns, workflows, and technologies to be aware of. Especially for a bot to serve enterprise workloads, there are many design considerations beyond just the core functionality. This article covers the most essential design aspects, and introduces the tools needed to build a robust, secure, and actively learning bot.
In so many ways I think chatbots are only just getting started – their potential is much underestimated at present. A big challenge is for chatbots mature so that they do more than is possible as a result of content entry wizards. If your content is created with a few easy clicks, it is unlikely to be much inspiration to anyone – and to date, despite much work in the field, the ability to emulated the creative open ended nature of real intellingence has seen only very partial success.
I argued that it is super hard to scale a one-trick TODA into a general assistant that helps the user getting things done across multiple tasks. An intelligence assistant is arguably expected to hold an informal chit-chat with the user. It is this area where we are staring into perhaps the biggest challenge of AI. Observe how Samantha introduces herself to Joaquin Phoenix's Ted in the clip below:
Operator calls itself a "request network" aiming to "unlock the 90% of commerce that's not on the internet." The Operator app, developed by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, connects you with a network of "operators" who act like concierges who can execute any shopping-related request. You can order concert tickets, get gift ideas, or even get interior design recommendations for new furniture. Operator seems to be positioning itself towards "high consideration" purchases, bigger ticket purchases requiring more research and expertise, where its operators can add significant value to a transaction.
For starters, he was the former president of PayPal. And he once founded a mobile media monetization firm. And he also founded a company that facilitated mobile phone payments. And then he helped Facebook acquire Braintree, which invented Venmo. And then he invented Messenger's P2P payment platform. And then he was appointed to the board of directors at Coinbase.
Love them or hate them, chatbots are here to stay. Chatbots have become extraordinarily popular in recent years largely due to dramatic advancements in machine learning and other underlying technologies such as natural language processing. Today's chatbots are smarter, more responsive, and more useful – and we're likely to see even more of them in the coming years.
Now, with the rise of website chatbots, this trend of two-way conversations can be taken to a whole new level. Conversational marketing can be done across many channels, such as over the phone or via SMS. However, an increasing number of companies are leveraging social media to drive their conversational marketing strategy to distinguish their brand and solidify their brand's voice and values. When most people refer to conversational marketing, they're talking about interactions started using chatbots and live chat – that move to personal conversations.
A virtual assistant is an app that comprehends natural, ordinary language voice commands and carries out tasks for the users. Well-known virtual assistants include Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana. Also, virtual assistants are generally cloud-based programs so they need internet-connected devices and/or applications in order to work. Virtual assistants can perform tasks like adding calendar appointments, controlling and checking the status of a smart home, sending text messages, and getting directions.
User message. Once authenticated, the user sends a message to the bot. The bot reads the message and routes it to a natural language understanding service such as LUIS. This step gets the intents (what the user wants to do) and entities (what things the user is interested in). The bot then builds a query that it passes to a service that serves information, such as Azure Search for document retrieval, QnA Maker for FAQs, or a custom knowledge base. The bot uses these results to construct a response. To give the best result for a given query, the bot might make several back-and-forth calls to these remote services.
It didn't take long, however, for Turing's headaches to begin. The BabyQ bot drew the ire of Chinese officials by speaking ill of the Communist Party. In the exchange seen in the screenshot above, one user commented, "Long Live the Communist Party!" In response, BabyQ asked the user, "Do you think that such a corrupt and incompetent political regime can live forever?"
Reduce costs: The potential to reduce costs is one of the clearest benefits of using a chatbot. A chatbot can provide a new first line of support, supplement support during peak periods or offer an additional support option. In all of these cases, employing a chatbot can help reduce the number of users who need to speak with a human. You can avoid scaling up your staff or offering human support around the clock.
For example, say you want to purchase a pair of shoes online from Nordstrom. You would have to browse their site and look around until you find the pair you wanted. Then you would add the pair to your cart to go through the motions of checking out. But in the case Nordstrom had a conversational bot, you would simply tell the bot what you're looking for and get an instant answer. You would be able to search within an interface that actually learns what you like, even when you can't coherently articulate it. And in the not-so-distant future, we'll even have similar experiences when we visit the retail stores.
Other companies explore ways they can use chatbots internally, for example for Customer Support, Human Resources, or even in Internet-of-Things (IoT) projects. Overstock, for one, has reportedly launched a chatbot named Mila to automate certain simple yet time-consuming processes when requesting for a sick leave.[24] Other large companies such as Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Renault and Citroën are now using automated online assistants instead of call centres with humans to provide a first point of contact. A SaaS chatbot business ecosystem has been steadily growing since the F8 Conference when Zuckerberg unveiled that Messenger would allow chatbots into the app.[25]
Oh and by the way: We've been hard at work on some interesting projects at Coveo, one of those focusing squarely on the world of chatbots. We've leveraged our insight engine, and enabled it to work within the confines of your preferred chat tool: the power of Coveo, in chatbot form. The best part about our work in the field of chatbots? The code is out there in the wild waiting for you to utilize it, providing that you are already a customer or partner of Coveo. All you need to do is jump over to the Coveo Labs github page, download it, and get your hands dirty!
Your first question is how much of it does she want? 1 litre? 500ml? 200? She tells you she wants a 1 litre Tropicana 100% Orange Juice. Now you know that regular Tropicana is easily available, but 100% is hard to come by, so you call up a few stores beforehand to see where it's available. You find one store that's pretty close by, so you go back to your mother and tell her you found what she wanted. It's $2, maybe $3, and after asking her for the money, you go on your way.
Once your bot is running in production, you will need a DevOps team to keep it that way. Continually monitor the system to ensure the bot operates at peak performance. Use the logs sent to Application Insights or Cosmos DB to create monitoring dashboards, either using Application Insights itself, Power BI, or a custom web app dashboard. Send alerts to the DevOps team if critical errors occur or performance falls below an acceptable threshold.
One key reason: The technology that powers bots, artificial intelligence software, is improving dramatically, thanks to heightened interest from key Silicon Valley powers like Facebook and Google. That AI enables computers to process language — and actually converse with humans — in ways they never could before. It came about from unprecedented advancements in software (Google's Go-beating program, for example) and hardware capabilities.
Unlike Tay, Xiaoice remembers little bits of conversation, like a breakup with a boyfriend, and will ask you how you're feeling about it. Now, millions of young teens are texting her every day to help cheer them up and unburden their feelings — and Xiaoice remembers just enough to help keep the conversation going. Young Chinese people are spending hours chatting with Xiaoice, even telling the bot "I love you".
Die meisten Chatbots greifen auf eine vorgefertigte Datenbank, die sog. Wissensdatenbank mit Antworten und Erkennungsmustern, zurück. Das Programm zerlegt die eingegebene Frage zuerst in Einzelteile und verarbeitet diese nach vorgegebenen Regeln. Dabei können Schreibweisen harmonisiert (Groß- und Kleinschreibung, Umlaute etc.), Satzzeichen interpretiert und Tippfehler ausgeglichen werden (Preprocessing). Im zweiten Schritt erfolgt dann die eigentliche Erkennung der Frage. Diese wird üblicherweise über Erkennungsmuster gelöst, manche Chatbots erlauben darüber hinaus die Verschachtelung verschiedener Mustererkennungen über sogenannte Makros. Wird eine zur Frage passende Antwort erkannt, kann diese noch angepasst werden (beispielsweise können skriptgesteuert berechnete Daten eingefügt werden – "In Ulm sind es heute 37 °C."). Diesen Vorgang nennt man Postprocessing. Die daraus entstandene Antwort wird dann ausgegeben. Moderne kommerzielle Chatbot-Programme erlauben darüber hinaus den direkten Zugriff auf die gesamte Verarbeitung über eingebaute Skriptsprachen und Programmierschnittstellen.
Enter Roof Ai, a chatbot that helps real-estate marketers to automate interacting with potential leads and lead assignment via social media. The bot identifies potential leads via Facebook, then responds almost instantaneously in a friendly, helpful, and conversational tone that closely resembles that of a real person. Based on user input, Roof Ai prompts potential leads to provide a little more information, before automatically assigning the lead to a sales agent.
How far are we from building systems with commonsense? One often-heard answer is: not in the near future, while the realistic answer is: we don't know. Last year, I spent some time trying to build a system that can do better than an information retrieval baseline in taking fourth-grade science exam (which still has a ways to go to gain a passing score of 65%). I failed hard. Here's an example to get a sense of the difficulty of these questions.
Haptik is one of the world's largest Conversational AI platforms reaching over 30 million devices monthly. The company has been at the forefront of the paradigm shift from apps to chatbots, having built a robust set of technology and tools that enable any type of conversational application. Our platform processed over a billion interactions to date and helps enterprises leverage the power of AI to automate critical business processes like Concierge, Customer Support, Lead Generation and E-commerce.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the technological process in which computers derive meaning from natural human inputs. NLP-Based Conversational Bots are machine learning bots that exploit the power of artificial intelligence, which gives them a "learning brain." These types of conversational bots have the ability to understand natural language, and do not require specific instructions to respond to questions as observed in types of chatbots such as Scripted and Structured Conversational Bots.
Through our preview journey in the past two years, we have learned a lot from interacting with thousands of customers undergoing digital transformation. We highlighted some of our customer stories (such as UPS, Equadex, and more) in our general availability announcement. This post covers conversational AI in a nutshell using Azure Bot Service and LUIS, what we've learned so far, and dive into the new capabilities. We will also show how easy it is to get started in building a conversational bot with natural language.
The trained neural network is less code than an comparable algorithm but it requires a potentially large matrix of "weights". In a relatively small sample, where the training sentences have 150 unique words and 30 classes this would be a matrix of 150x30. Imagine multiplying a matrix of this size 100,000 times to establish a sufficiently low error rate. This is where processing speed comes in.
The components of this infrastructure need to be networked and monitored by a dedicated Electrical Power Monitoring System (EPMS) to help avoid downtime or understand what … Continue Reading...
"Utility gets something done following a prompt. At a higher level the more entertainment-related chatbots are able to answer all questions and get things done. Siri and Cortana you can have small talk with, as well as getting things done, so they are much harder to build. They took years and years of giant company's efforts. Different companies that don't have those resources, like Facebook, will build more constrained utility bots."
With the help of equation, word matches are found for given some sample sentences for each class. Classification score identifies the class with the highest term matches but it also has some limitations. The score signifies which intent is most likely to the sentence but does not guarantee it is the perfect match. Highest score only provides the relativity base.
Facebook Messenger chat bots are a way to communicate with the companies and services that you use directly through Messenger. The goal of chat bots is to minimize the time you would spend waiting on hold or sifting through automated phone menus. By using keywords and short phrases, you can get information and perform tasks all through the Messenger app. For example, you could use bots to purchase clothing, or check the weather by asking the bot questions. Bot selection is limited, but more are being added all the time. You can also interact with bots using the Facebook website.
One of the first stepping stones to this future are AI-powered messaging solutions, or conversational bots. A conversational bot is a computer program that works automatically and is skilled in communicating through various digital media—including intelligent virtual agents, organizations' apps, organizations' websites, social platforms and messenger platforms. Users can interact with such bots, using voice or text, to access information, complete tasks or execute transactions.
"From Russia With Love" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-12-09. Psychologist and Scientific American: Mind contributing editor Robert Epstein reports how he was initially fooled by a chatterbot posing as an attractive girl in a personal ad he answered on a dating website. In the ad, the girl portrayed herself as being in Southern California and then soon revealed, in poor English, that she was actually in Russia. He became suspicious after a couple of months of email exchanges, sent her an email test of gibberish, and she still replied in general terms. The dating website is not named. Scientific American: Mind, October–November 2007, page 16–17, "From Russia With Love: How I got fooled (and somewhat humiliated) by a computer". Also available online.


LA MIRADA, CALIF. — Co-Founder of the Los Angeles Dream Center, Matthew Barnett, will address Biola University graduates at the fall commencement ceremonies on Dec. 20, 2013.
In light of this year's university theme — Spirit and Story: Walking it Out — Barnett has been selected to speak, whose ministry walks alongside thousands of people in all stages of life at the Dream Center, drawing them closer to living a life of walking by the spirit.
Barnett is the New York Times bestselling author of The Cause Within You and a Senior Pastor of Angelus Temple. He has worked in Los Angeles for more than 19 years reaching out to the needy every day through the Dream Center. President George W. Bush has endorsed his achievements and he has been featured in the New York Times and Los Angeles times for his service to the community.
The graduate ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. and the undergraduate ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. in Chase Gymnasium at Biola University.
For those not able to attend the graduation in person, the ceremony will be available to view via livestream at Biola's website: www.biola.edu.
Biola Student's Art Exhibit Restores Dignity to Homeless in Downtown L.A.


Spoilage patterns of Sardinella longiceps stored at 260C, 60C, 00C and -170C were examined by monitoring some biochemical and microbiological parameters as well as by conducting organoleptic assessment. The shell life of the fish after landing under poor preservation conditions was found to be 7 hours, 3.5 days, 7 days and over 50 days respectively, for above storage temperatures as judged by a taste panel comprised of 5 individuals.
Statistically significant linear correlations were found between taste panel score and storage time for 260C (r = -0 956, p< 0.001), 60C (r= -0 83s, p<0.01) and -170C (r= -0.726, p<0 05) temperatures. In general, the taste panel score did not show a simple, temperature independent relationship with any of the biochemical and microbiological parameters (i.e. trimethylamine, total volatile nitrogen, p H and total bacterial count) studied. Therefore, above parameters may not be taken individually as indicators for testing the quality of S. longiceps.


"Truth ain't something you can just out run." (A line from the song, Truth, by Steven Moakler) I was mulling over the title to this piece when the song, Truth, came on Spotify as I was listening to a playlist. Sometimes "life" happens like that, so I am running with it.
It certainly seems trite to speak of truth, especially when we speak of Truth with a capital "T". How often do we think of Truth? Does Truth matter?


Designed for home brewing, the Tilt is a wireless hydrometer that lets you instantly read your brew's specific gravity and temperature on your compatible Apple iPhone/iPad or Android smartphone/tablet or Tilt Pi. Most Bluetooth 4.0+ devices will work with the Tilt. You can then optionally save the data automatically to the cloud using the free Google Sheets template or other 3rd party cloud platforms.
The goal is to help homebrewers brew better beer. The Tilt hydrometer allows you to check the specific gravity and temperature of your beer while it's fermenting, without ever having to open your fermenter or pour out any of your precious brew. This makes brewing more consistent and easy to track.
Range: Better reception and range. With the increased transmission power your Tilt will send data through larger, thicker-walled fermenters.
If using multiple Tilt Hydrometers for different batches of fermenting beer you must use a different color for each batch. The app will not read multiple hydrometers of the same color.
Each Tilt comes calibrated and ready to go with a pre-installed battery. Just download the free app, sanitize your Tilt, drop in your fermenter, and start taking readings with your phone, tablet, or Tilt Pi.
Download the free Tilt app at the Apple App Store or Google Play Store or get the free Tilt Pi download.


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Tracking Fishing from Space: The Global Footprint of Industrial Fishing Revealed
By Samantha Emmert| 2019-09-17T14:14:01+00:00	February 22nd, 2018|Press Release|
Satellite based data show fishing affects four times larger area than agriculture
Washington DC, February 22 – A study published today in Science illuminates the extent of global fishing – down to individual vessel movements and hourly activity – and opens an unprecedented gateway for improved ocean management. The study shows that, while the footprint of capture fishing extends across more than half the global ocean, activity is clearly bounded by different management regimes, indicating the role well-enforced policy can play in curbing over-exploitation.
Using satellite feeds, machine learning techniques and common ship tracking technology, a team of researchers from Global Fishing Watch, the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas project, University of California Santa Barbara, Dalhousie University, SkyTruth, Google, and Stanford University found that industrial fishing covers more than 55 percent of the ocean's surface – over four times the area covered by agriculture. The new dataset of fishing is hundreds of times higher in resolution than previous global surveys and captures the activity of more than 70,000 vessels, including more than 75 percent of industrial fishing vessels larger than 36 meters.
The authors of the study are making their dataset freely available to the public, allowing anyone to download, visualize and analyze the global footprint of fishing. "By publishing the data and analysis, we aim to increase transparency in the commercial fishing industry and improve opportunities for sustainable management," said lead author, David Kroodsma, the Director of Research and Development at Global Fishing Watch.
Among the key findings of the study:
The dataset provides greater detail than previously possible about fishing activity on the high seas (beyond national jurisdictions). While most nations appear to fish predominantly within their own exclusive economic zones (EEZs), China, Spain, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea account for 85 percent of observed fishing on the high seas.
The total area of the ocean fished is likely higher than the 55 percent estimated, as the data do not include some fishing effort in regions of poor satellite coverage or in EEZs with a low percentage of vessels using AIS.
Over 40 million hours of fishing were observed in 2016 and fishing vessels traveled more than 460 million kilometers, a distance to the moon and back 600 times.
"This dataset provides such high-level resolution on fishing activity that we can even see cultural patterns such as when fishers in different regions take time off," said co-author Juan Mayorga of the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas project and the University of California Santa Barbara. "Data of this detail gives governments, management bodies and researchers the insights they need to make transparent and well-informed decisions to regulate fishing activities and reach conservation and sustainability goals."
The study shows that when and where fishing occurs is tied more to politics and culture than to natural cycles such as climate variation and fish migration. "This study reveals fishing as an industrial process in which vessels operate more like floating factories that need to operate around the clock to make money," said co-author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University. "On the upside, however, this dataset also shows clearly where management boundaries are in place and where they are helping to constrain fishing effort."
Kroodsma and his team used machine learning technology to analyze 22 billion messages publicly broadcast from vessels' automatic identification system (AIS) positions from 2012 through 2016. Based solely on vessel movement patterns, the Global Fishing Watch algorithm was able to identify more than 70,000 commercial fishing vessels, the sizes of and engine powers of these vessels, what type of fishing they engaged in, and where and when they fished down to the hour and kilometer. This new global view of fishing draws on advances in satellite technology and big data processing. "Only a few years ago, we didn't have the computing power, enough satellites in orbit, or techniques to run machine learning at scale over massive datasets. Today we have all three, leading to dramatic advances in our ability to monitor and understand human interaction with our natural environment," said Brian Sullivan, a co-author who works for Google Earth Outreach.
"I think most people will be surprised that until now, we didn't really know where people were fishing in vast swaths of the ocean," said co-author economist Chris Costello of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara. "This new real-time data set will be instrumental in designing improved management of the world's oceans that is good for the fish, ecosystems, and fishermen."
"Our study has revealed more clearly how invasive human fisheries are on the high seas, where tunas, sharks and billfish are exposed to high intensity fishing," said Barbara Block, a co-author and professor of Marine Science at Stanford University. "Our data is vital for better regulation and enforcement, to ensure pelagic fish have a future."
The study, "Tracking the global footprint of fisheries," appears in Vol. 361 Issue 6378 of Science. The datasets, including gridded fishing activity data, vessel identity and classification lists, and encounters between refrigerated cargo vessels (reefers) and fishing vessels, spanning from 2012 to three days from the present, are available for download for non-commercial uses via Global Fishing Watch's Research Accelerator Program. Learn more.
For media requests, images and data visualisations please visit our media center or contact Samantha Emmert (samantha@globalfishingwatch.org, 1.917.543.1593).
For interview requests, please contact: David Kroodsma (david@globalfishingwatch.org,1.415.656.7540), Juan Mayorga (Spanish, juanmayorga@ucsb.edu,1.816.877.2410), Kristina Boerder (German, kristina.boerder@dal.ca,1.902.329.3003), Barbara Block (bblock@stanford.edu,1.831.655.6236), Brian Sullivan (bsullivan@google.com, 1.415.997.8559), John Amos (john@skytruth.org,1.304.260.8886) or Christopher Costello (costello@bren.ucsb.edu, 1.805.893-5802).
For comments by experts not involved in this study, please contact: Daniel Pauly (d.pauly@oceans.ubc.ca), Doug McCauley (dmccauley@ucsb.edu), or Callum Roberts (callum.roberts@york.ac.uk).
Global Fishing Watch is supported by Adessium Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Marisla Foundation, The Waterloo Foundation, and The Wyss Foundation.
Global Fishing Watch and Syiah Kuala University collaborate on fishing vessel data transparency
Peru has demonstrated global leadership in sharing its fisheries surveillance data


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The harsh realities of getting a job in Apple's supply chain
Christian Zibreg on November 7, 2013
Current CEO Tim Cook under Steve Jobs used to run Apple's vast network of suppliers and contract manufacturers and has largely been credited with turning the company into a well-oiled money-printing machine. But making sure trains run on time involves the incredible complexities associated with hiring tens of thousands of workers – and fast, too – who tediously assemble iPhones and iPads in factories located in China and Taiwan.
Apple and its manufacturing partners have been taking a lot of heat over worker treatment in these sweatshops so the iPhone maker eventually started tracking the work hours of 1+ million supply chain workers and took other proactive measures to ensure fair hiring.
But now, another issue is making headlines: the inhumane treatment of would-be employees by employment brokers who take high advance fees from workers and their families, contrary to Apple's rules. Read on…
A lengthy piece by Bloomberg Businessweek's Cam Simpson titled 'An iPhone Tester Caught in Apple's Supply Chain' shares the story told through the eyes of 27-year-old Bibek Dhong who'd found himself $1,000 in debt to recruitment agents before he even started work at Flextronics, a Singapore-based company which commands a whopping 28 million square-feet of factory space spread across four continents.
After Apple contracted Flextronics to make cameras for the iPhone 5, the manufacturer turned to brokers to help find 1,500 individuals for the job.
Apple instructed Flextronics to cover brokers' fees so they don't take fees from the workers.
But brokers didn't adhere to Apple's rules.
In an effort to maximize profits, brokers commissioned subagencies which took fees from the workers. More often than not, brokers would take a year's worth of salary.
Dhong grabbed a black-and-tan backpack holding his shaving kit, a single change of clothes, two Bibles (one in Nepalese, one in English), and three family photos. He said goodbye to his crying wife and daughter, then jumped onto a microbus on a loud and dusty Kathmandu road.
As promised, the third agent was at the airport, holding Dhong's passport. He demanded money, but Dhong had nothing left to give. So the broker told Dhong to sign a debenture agreement promising to pay $400 more. If Dhong didn't sign and if he didn't quickly pay, he would lose the job. He had yet to start work, and already he was $1,000 in debt.
Some subagents even brought in workers from neighboring countries, like Nepal and Malaysia, often taking their passport as a precaution. As workers pay fees to several brokers and sub-brokers, often times they're force to take shark loans just to cover these inordinate expenses.
Having wired home much of their money in anticipation of following close behind, many started running out of cash. Then they ran low on food. The first to go hungry were among a group of younger men who had relied on a local restaurant outside the hostel to give them a meal a day on credit.
The owner cut them off when he found out they'd lost their jobs, Dhong says. Hunger soon spread to almost everyone.
Dhong lost his job after Flextronics shuttered production over quality control issues.
Without his passports or cash, Dhong found himself jobless, hungry and in debt.
Because he needed to pay high interest rates on loans, Dhong had no choice but borrow more money to pay for another job abroad, digging himself a deeper hole as a result.
The biggest issue here is that brokers bend Apple's rules:
Alok Taparia, the managing director of Transworld Manpower, another of the four Nepalese brokers retained for that drive, says he was given clear instructions: Workers shouldn't be charged; Flextronics would pay the brokers.
But Taparia and the other Nepalese brokers say Flextronics demanded so many men so quickly that there was no way to do it without tapping the country's network of subagents, stretching into Himalayan villages reachable only by foot.
Sub-contractors are not directly hired by Apple or Apple's suppliers and are instead commissioned by suppliers' employment brokers.
Apple is clearly aware of the problem, Bloomberg writes, "As Apple itself has described in reports on its supply chain, the subagents always charge".
Apple in 2009 attempted to bar suppliers from using workers who'd been charged more than one month's net factory wages, the story goes, but it only made issues worse.
Last year the company's audits turned up $6.4 million in fees paid by workers beyond the company's prescribed limit—compared with $6.7 million in the previous four years combined. And Apple audited fewer plants last year than it did in 2011. The company orders its suppliers to refund workers charged beyond its limit.
These are the harsh realities of working in Asian supply chain.
But then again, would any American take these jobs?
Apple now hiring engineers for Arizona sapphire glass plant
Bloomberg details Apple's sophisticated robots and production machinery
Some iPhone 13 models may use a more power efficient backplane necessary for ProMotion


GSFSGroup® offers GAP products with responsible pricing to help save money and offer peace of mind. Our products ease the customer's financial burden associated with the total loss of a vehicle during the term of coverage. This way, customers can focus more on purchasing another vehicle, and less on the financial risk required to own one. We also provide the option of online GAP claims for convenient filing.
The web-based claims tool will guide users through the process of providing any necessary information about the total loss of the vehicle and apprise users of next steps.


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COVID-19 is a huge wake-up call to our nation
By Bradley A. Blakeman, opinion contributor — 04/19/20 09:30 AM EDT
View Latest Opinions >>
The answer to America's recovery and prosperity in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic lies in America's innovation, invention, ingenuity — and a change in policies and priorities.
The pandemic has shed a bright light on the danger of allowing one superpower — China — to control the production of critical national security infrastructure in medicine, emergency response equipment and medical devices like ventilators, masks, gloves.
America has always led the world in the aftermath of wars, depression, recessions, and natural disasters. In fact, America invented 11 of the 13 greatest inventions that changed the world in the last 150 years. Here are the top 13 inventions:
Telephone — invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell (U.S.)
Electric light bulb — invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison (U.S.)
Automobile — invented in 1889 by Gottlieb Daimler (Germany)
Radio — invented in 1896 by Guglielmo Marconi (Italy)
Airplane — invented in 1903 by the Wright brothers (U.S.)
Assembly line — invented in 1913 by Henry Ford (U.S.)
Television — invented in 1923/27 by Vladimir Zworykin (Russia and U.S.) and Philo Farnsworth (U.S.)
First programmable computer — invented in 1936 by Konrad Zuse (Germany)
Nuclear reactor — invented in 1942 by Enrico Fermi (U.S.)
First personal computer — invented in 1953 by IBM (U.S.)
Internet — invented in 1969 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA (U.S.)
Cell phone — invented in 1973 by Motorola (U.S.)
Windows computer operating system — invented in 1983 by Bill Gates (U.S.)
Notice that, since 1876, a great invention has come along every 7.25 years on average. When America invents, we invent for ourselves and the world — and often share our technology with others. The goals of unleashing our technology is simple: to bring financial reward and to better society.
There is no doubt that because of America's ingenuity and invention, the world has been changed for the better. Most countries on our planet have benefited greatly from America's inventions, and America has prospered like no other as a result. Our "superpower" status has been attained as a direct result of our entrepreneurial superiority.
The great inventions in our lifetimes have come in computers. There are likely to be great leaps in medicine and energy in our lifetimes which will make us all healthier and less polluting — not through government mandate but through good businesses decisions and public/private partnerships.
When President Kennedy in 1961 challenged America to get to the moon by the close of the decade, we did not have the technology to make that challenge a reality. Many scoffed, but even more were inspired. Our nation was put to the test. Government incentivized, and business delivered. Look at how many of the products we use today were developed out of that effort. Even though President Kennedy was not alive to see his vision become reality, he still gets the credit for having achieved it.
In the 1960s many skeptics bitterly chastised America's investment in the race to the moon. They argued that it was not a sure thing and, therefore, any public monies spent were being gambled and squandered. In retrospect, any government investment was returned through the great leaps made in computers, plastics, electronics, communications and medicine that still today benefit every inhabitant of this planet in one way or another.
Every great invention requires a robust public/private partnership. We have seen it before, and we see it today with governments — federal, state and local — coming together with businesses to deal with the pandemic. When cars were built by Ford and others, they needed government to build the roads, bridges and tunnels. When America went to war, it was private sector companies that retooled the factories to aid the war effort by building tanks, ammunition, planes, etc. When computers were being developed, government became a huge investor in procurement and the development of the internet through the DARPA program at the Pentagon.
Now is the time to limit the dependency on others for our national security and to diversify our imports to ensure a reliable supply chain.
"America first" is not a selfish idea — it is a matter of our survival. The coronavirus was a wakeup call to America.
China is a country of "makers, takers and fakers." It makes our products, takes our products and fakes our products. It cheats on agreements, steals technology, deals in currency manipulation, dumps products on outside markets, engages in cyber attacks on our government and private sectors, and lacks transparency in health care — to name just a few of its faults.
America got greedy about the reliance on cheap labor, and China took advantage of that and more.
We can learn from history or be condemned to repeat it. Our challenge going forward is to add to the list of great inventions by investing in America's needed goals and objectives. We need to think big and challenge ourselves and our nation.
China has not made the list of great inventions because it has been content so far with the profits from making, taking and faking our products.
America's freedom to invent and to fail is our greatest strength. As long as China continues to limit its own innovation and invention, it is at a huge disadvantage to America and the West. We have to assume this will change in time, but this time is still ours to lead. Our goal is to continue to make the list of great inventions.
The coronavirus has exposed China and given America a huge wake-up call.
Bradley A. Blakeman was a deputy assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2004. A principal of the 1600 Group, a strategic communications firm, he is an adjunct professor of public policy and international affairs at Georgetown University and a frequent guest on Fox News and Fox Business.
Tags China DARPA Coronavirus COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic supply chains National security Chinese technology Chinese intellectual property theft Creativity Invention Science


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6/23 West Mill Road is a stylish two bedroom first floor flat situated within an exclusive modern development in the highly desirable conservation village of Colinton. An underground carpark with remote controlled doors provides an allocated parking space and delightful shared gardens surround the development. The Water of Leith walkway runs adjacent to the development allowing easy access to Colinton Village. The interior is bright and well proportioned throughout and there is a pleasant open outlook.
The impressive accommodation comprises - vestibule; entrance hall with large shelved storage cupboard; sitting/dining room with doors to an ornamental balcony; kitchen fitted with base and wall mounted units; master bedroom with fitted wardrobes and contemporary ensuite shower room; double bedroom 2 with fitted wardrobes; and bathroom.
Colinton is one of Edinburgh's most sought after residential areas set in the south west of the city sitting in the shadows of the Pentland Hills. It has retained much of its "village charm" and has a good range of local shops, restaurants and bars. There is also a health centre, churches and supermarket shopping facilities are available nearby at both Tesco and Morrisons whilst easy links to the city bypass open up the many retail parks on the periphery of the City. There are many pleasant walks and cycles to be had in the stunning Pentland Hills and along the Water of Leith. Colinton is ideally situated for commuting distance to the M8, M9, Edinburgh International Airport, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, University of Edinburgh and the Queensferry Crossing. There are also regular bus services to and from the city centre.
The development is set within beautifully maintained communal gardens.
There is an allocated parking space within the secure underground car park with a remote controlled gate.
All fitted carpets, curtains, curtain poles/rails, blinds and some light fittings are included in the sale price as are the induction hob, oven, extractor hood, fridge/freezer, dishwasher and washing machine in the kitchen. The light fittings in the bedrooms, bookshelves in double bedroom 2 and TV bracket are not included in the sale price.
The development is factored and maintained by James Gibb.


Yes…. I was one of the infamous occupants of the homes featured on the news of the Canmore Flood, June 20, 2013.
This is an amazing unfolding of one of life's embraceable opportunities from a life changing event.
Six weeks before the flood, I booked an appointment for a traveller coming from India. July 8th, approximately two and a half weeks after the flood I returned to work. It was my normalcy, my ground wire. I had the pleasure of working with Ajai from India. He heard of my plight and made me an offer to come and stay as his guest in his home on the ocean in Goa, India.
I must admit I was infinitely excited but had to pinch myself at the reality of my life. He was scheduled to return for a follow up appointment in a few days. I promised I would ask him to clarify his offer. I had to make sure I heard him right, as I was processing so much from the uprooting of the Flood. I wanted to make sure I heard right.
Yes, I did hear right. I proceeded to go onto YouTube to view the presentation of his villa and the research started. I ran into several yoga teachers in the BowValley who had heard of his Yoga retreat centre. One Ayrevedic doctor had taken a group to his centre for a few weeks with resounding success. The woman who booked the treatment for Ajai was a great friend of his. She had journeyed there yearly for the last 25 years. That was inspirational.
I said "Yes" to his offer and the magic started to unfold.
My mother passed at the beginning of the year with severe Parkinson's. I was happy she was not here to see my daughter and I live through this "flood event", as I refer to it. I could feel her with me every step of the way and she was taking care of us from her place of grace. In the last few months, my father chose to get remarried. In celebration it added to my liberation. I stayed with him a few nights a week as he grieved. As a single mom, my daughter who was with me for 19 years chose to live at her boyfriends' parents…I was alone for the first time….
She decided she didn't want any of the items I had thoughtfully put away for her over the years. We, as parents take on the responsibility of providing for our young as they choose to depart the nest. Buying an apartment or condo for them and furnishing it. Interesting belief system. My parents said goodbye to me at the train and that is all I got at that time. The flood threw us out of our home. She was staying at her friends when the event happened so she was angry with no closure. The items, as I referred to, were stuff: dining room table, chairs, blender, plates etc. Bathroom and bedroom furnishings. With the burden of stuff….where do we store it all?. She decided to pay it forward and give it all away. I followed her lead. Keeping my mattress and a few items that fit in a 5×10 locker. We were now living apart.
With no home to return to, if her living arrangements did not work out, we processed through what was her and my responsibility. I found that I was replacing her in my life with the prospects of a room mate and returning to the flood home. In the 11th hour, awakening from a restful sleep, I gazed at the early morning sky full of stars. The energy of love and support filled my heart. I knew I needed to embrace fully the freedom the universe has created for me. That day, I texted my potential roomy, rental management company and said I had to embrace this freedom. It was a hard choice as tensions filled my stomach but I knew this felt right. I try to be conscious in my decision making of what and who I am responsible for…I am still retraining myself out of old habits. In essence I ask the question, Is this my truth? Does this honor me?
My 8th temporary home is beautiful. It is a win-win for the owner and myself as she has needed a house sitter in her travels to Spain, Croatia and California. She invited me to stay in the basement bedroom until I leave for Goa. I have the flexibility to stay another 2 months upon my return. This gave me a great peace of mind.
I have met with some generous friends who have guided me and shared their Mother India experiences: cautioning me about the water, keeping my mouth closed as I showered. What worked for them treating or preventing Malaria.
With an open heart……I embrace this leg of my life's journey with freedom and joy….creating only with love. I acknowledge and say "Goodbye" to that old friend Fear that got me up in the morning with responsibilities of parenthood.
I love you all who have kissed my adventures of life with your presence.


Purple is set to be a huge trend this A/W and was seen absolutely everywhere on the catwalk, from Christopher Kane's zany leopard print interpretation to Gucci's vampy romance take on the trend. They even got the models to strut their stuff on a lavender catwalk – suffice to say, it's gonna be huge!
And we're delighted by that - we can't get enough of this rich shade, it just screams luxurious and regal, yet even the most budget conscious wardrobes can get a bit of purple in their lives for a small sum.
With that in mind, we've collected our fave affordable purple pieces from the high street to inspire your purple haze winter look.


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Star Trek The Next Generation: The Quality of Life
by JRS
"Exocomps are highly sophisticated devices, sir."
Data finds android Pokemon and loves them.
This episode was at times entertaining, but at times seemed really senseless and unfocused. We have the thread on the particle fountain mining station with Geordi and Farallon, the thread following Data and his discoveries on the ship... and a curiously disconnected thread about Beverly Crusher, who plays poker and wrestles with the big boys, and sits all lackadaisial on medical counters.
Farallon's working on making the particle fountain work, and Geordi's assessing why she's not getting the job done. The particle fountain could change mining, make life easier. It's a Good Thing but Very Experimental and They've Had a Rocky Start. Before you can whip out any more clichés, a Mishap Occurs. But wait! an unimpressive box saves the day.
Seriously. For the focus of this episode, the exocomps are bizarrely neutral. I understand this is TV and everyone's on a budget, but I checked. This episode was produced in 1992. And while some of my students might think "That's the dark ages, right, with dinosaurs and Edgar Allan Poe?" that was five years after the production of one of my favorite cheesy movies, Batteries Not Included, which had far more sophisticated representations of sentient robot life.
On the other hand (and yes, I'm segueing into Data's storyline) this makes them the perfect contrast to Data. Data's had his life and humanity questioned, most interestingly in "The Measure of a Man," which J.D. Balthazar called "one of the best [episodes] of the entire series." In that episode, Data, who is at the very high end of artificial intelligence, so much a product of artifice that he seems a genuine living being, has his rights questioned. In this episode, he's looking at what might be the beginning of artificial intelligence and sentience, a robot able to choose a tool and make decisions to protect itself. When Farallon's tool, the exocomp, decides to fry its own circuits rather than follow an order to go into an area it knew was going to explode, Data decides this is evidence that the machine has moved into sentience. Or something.
Except, I'm sorry, by that standard the Enterprise itself should be considered alive, and many times over. There are plenty of times when the ship has decisions, it has fail safes to prevent it from destruction... Data's accused of anthropomorphism, but I think robomorphism is the fallacy he commits here. Think about how the episode is set up – Data in the beginning when he meets Farallon talks about how he reprograms himself, and then he finds out the exocomp did the exact same thing. His belief is so great that, when the particle mining station goes into Seriously Bad Boom Boom mode, Data decides to disable the transporters rather than allow the exocomps to be used to rescue the station at the expense of their destruction. Riker decides to ask the exocomps instead of force them to by bypassing their command centers, and the exocomps, once asked, follow orders and go. One of them is destroyed, giving Data a teary moment. I don't think this defection of Data's is ever mentioned again.
Then there's Beverly. I found her characterization and Beverly's relationship with Data here kind of odd. I kept trying to make some kind of connection between her rejection of beards and her lecture on life to Data.
The episode ends with Farallon promising to think carefully about the exocomps. I think she just wanted the paranoid android to leave.
I think ethically Data's argument is actually closer to the argument for veganism than anything else.
The beard discussion had me laughing my head off, although it did feel bizarre. So did Riker managing to conveniently get out of his bet!
Geordi seemed somewhat attracted to Farallon.
Data: I am curious as to what transpired between the moment when I was nothing more than an assemblage of parts in Doctor Soong's laboratory, and the next moment, when I became alive. What was it that endowed me with life?
Crusher: I remember Wesley asking me a similar question when he was little, and I tried desperately to give him an answer, but everything I said sounded inadequate. Then I realised that scientists and philosophers had been grappling with that question for centuries without coming to any conclusion.
Data: Are you saying the question cannot be answered?
Crusher: No, I think I'm saying that we struggle all our lives to answer it, but it's the struggle that's important. That's what helps us to define our place in the universe.
Data: I believe I understand, Doctor.
Crusher: Tricorders aren't alive.
Farallon: Neither are exocomps.
Picard: Clearly these are difficult issues to resolve. We have to proceed very carefully. So the first task is to test Mister Data's hypothesis.
LaForge: Data, you're claiming that this exocomp may be alive because it demonstrated survival instincts, right?
Data: Yes.
LaForge: Then why don't we just threaten its survival again and see what happens?
Picard: Make it so.
I liked the idea of Data having cute and friendly pets around, but in the end this episode was a sad mess. Two out of five carefully chosen tools.
Star Trek TNG season 6
Star Trek TNG home
Labels: :S6.E9, Joseph Santini, Star Trek The Next Generation, Star Trek The Next Generation reviews, The Quality of Life
Yes, I so agree. I liked what they were going for, but they just didn't get there. Brent Spiner's subtle performance was on point, as usual -- the audience could tell from micro expressions that Data was concerned or upset. But Farallon acted like a horse's ass and I hated her face alien make-up, I never understood what her all important experiment was, and there was just so much techno-babble.
I kept trying to make some kind of connection between her rejection of beards and her lecture on life to Data. LOL, Joseph.


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Hear The Highwomen Reimagine 'Highwaymen' as a Statement of Purpose
By Bobby Moore 1 year
The Highwomen's new song "Highwomen" updates Jimmy Webb's similarly titled "Highwayman," replacing the original narrative about a reincarnated blue-collar spirit with "stories still untold" about the murders of misunderstood women.
Per an interview with Zane Lowe's World Record on Apple Music's Beats 1, Highwomen members Amanda Shires and Brandi Carlile wrote their own lyrics set to the tune of "Highwayman" before turning to Webb for approval.
"We asked him if he wanted to contribute to the rewrite and we told him what the concept of the movement and the band was, and he wrote us back and said that he felt that it was spot on, and we were complimented by that to no end," Carlile says.
Webb's original version first appeared on his 1977 album El Mirage. A year later, it became a title track for regular Webb collaborator Glen Campbell. In 1985, it opened the self-titled debut of The Highwaymen, a supergroup consisting of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.
Nearly 35 years later, The Highwomen's own eponymous album begins with an updated version. While Webb wrote about what a man will go through to make a living, his re-write with Shires and Carlile addresses brave women's sacrifices during the Salem Witch Trials and the Civil Rights Music, plus the mistreatment of immigrants and religious outsiders.
Shires and Carlile split four narrative-driven verses with bandmate Natalie Hemby and special guest Yola. The fourth Highwoman, Maren Morris, joins in on the chorus' harmonies.
"Highwomen" is the third single released off the group's album, out today (Sept. 6) via Low Country Sound/Elektra Records. Earlier this summer, the band unveiled gender role send-up "Redesigning Women" and a rallying cry for everyone to set aside their differences titled "Crowded Table."
"Highwomen" Lyrics
I was a Highwoman
And a mother from my youth
For my children I did what I had to do
My family left Honduras when they killed the Sandinistas
We followed a coyote through the dust of Mexico
Every one of them except for me survived
And I am still alive
I was a healer
I was gifted as a girl
I laid hands upon the world
Someone saw me sleeping naked in the noon sun
I heard "witchcraft" in the whispers and I knew my time had come
The bastards hung me at the Salem gallows hill
But I am living still
I was a freedom rider
When we thought the South had won
Virginia in the spring of '61
I sat down on the Greyhound that was bound for Mississippi
My mother asked me if that ride was worth my life
And when the shots rang out I never heard the sound
But I am still around
And I'll take that ride again
I was a preacher
My heart broke for all the world
But teaching was unrighteous for a girl
In the summer I was baptized in the mighty Colorado
In the winter I heard the hounds and I knew I had been found
And in my Savior's name, I laid my weapons down
We are The Highwomen
Singing stories still untold
We carry the sons, you can only hold
We are the daughters of the silent generations
You sent our hearts to die alone in foreign nations
It may return to us as tiny drops of rain
But we will still remain
And we'll come back again and again and again
And again and again
We'll come back again and again and again
Now Watch: Whitney Rose Performs 'You Don't Own Me'
Dolly Parton Issues a 'Call for Kindness' on Her 75th Birthday
By Bobby Moore 16 mins
The 10 Best Trace Adkins Songs, Ranked
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell Have a Close-knit Blended Family in Hollywood
By Courtney Campbell 2 hours
Johnny Cash Among the 'Greatest Americans' Honored in Donald Trump's Proposed Statue Garden
By Bobby Moore 2 hours


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Children Of The Rain. A Unique Project For The Prevention Of Autism Starts In The Region
Video: Children Of The Rain. A Unique Project For The Prevention Of Autism Starts In The Region
Video: What Women With Autism Want You to Know | Iris 2023, January
Autism spectrum disorder testing is being launched in 4 polyclinics in Nizhny Novgorod.
Photo by Alexander Volozhanin Children of the rain. A unique project for the prevention of autism starts in the region In Nizhny Novgorod, children from one and a half to two and a half years old will be screened for autistic disorders. Experts are sounding the alarm: the number of babies with such diagnoses is growing exponentially. Only in the Nizhny Novgorod region every year there are 20-30 percent more children with such disorders. And in ten years, as experts predict, they can be detected in every second child.
So why has autism become "the disease of our century" and how can we help children and parents who are confronted with this diagnosis?
The sooner the better
Until the age of six, Ksenia developed like all children. The girl spoke early, but in a little over a year, speech suddenly disappeared. Parents drew attention to other features that distinguished her from her peers: the child avoided contact with other children, reluctantly walked into her arms, did not show interest in toys.
We met Ksyusha and her mother at the Dobry Sad Center for Long-Term Rehabilitation of Children, established in 2016 on the basis of the Nizhny Novgorod pediatric clinic. It provides medical, psychological and pedagogical assistance to children with autism spectrum disorder and delayed psychomotor development. Ksyusha has been studying here for only the fourth month, but there are already certain successes.
Dobryi Sad is designed for 30 "special" pupils who are brought here as in a kindergarten at 9 am and taken away five hours later. All this time, a variety of specialists have been working with them - teachers, speech therapists, psychologists, neurologists, psychiatrists. Each group has no more than six kids, and each has its own difficult story.
Since January, four polyclinics in Nizhny Novgorod have started testing kids for autism spectrum disorder.
Eight-year-old Irina is a "silent" since birth. She has been coming here for two years, and, according to her mother Elena, progress is evident: the girl has ceased to be afraid of other children, has learned to eat and dress on her own. True, if they began to study earlier, the list of achievements would be even wider. But there is hope for the appearance of speech.
In general, making a diagnosis on time is a real problem.
"The first time we noticed that a child differs from his peers when he was one and a half years old," says Ekaterina, mother of five-year-old Dima. - He blinked strangely, walked on tiptoe, did not react to the appeal to him. But the therapist and neurologist in our clinic felt that they just had to wait and everything would be fine. However, there was no improvement. They came back six months later, and again they told us that there was no cause for concern. Then we started looking for a good neurologist ourselves. And only by the age of three, the son was finally diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. We missed so much time. After all, we could have started studying with him much earlier.
Disease history
A child with autism can appear in any family, regardless of social and material status. The reasons for its occurrence have not yet been fully understood. It is impossible to identify such a disorder before the birth of a child, during pregnancy, by any tests, as well as to cure it later.
World statistics show that the incidence of autism is 66 percent higher among children born to fathers over 50, and 28 percent higher if their fathers are 40-50 years old. This is probably due to the accumulation of genetic breakdowns with age.
An autistic child may be highly intelligent, even show genius abilities in creativity or science, but at the same time may not have the simplest everyday and social skills. This condition can be corrected using special techniques. This will give the child the opportunity to live in society, study and get a profession.
Lost my temper
Most of the guys who come here for the first time do not know how to eat, dress, play with their peers on their own, they are afraid of a large space. After a few months of classes, the kids are dramatically changing for the better - they can serve themselves, communicate with each other, new words appear in their speech.
"Many have a difficult relationship with food, in which they are very selective: someone eats only one type of porridge or soup, someone generally bread or apples," says the center's teacher Natalya Kofanova. "The efforts of various specialists help to solve even this problem; they have breakfast and lunch at the center.
In addition to everyday skills, children are successfully taught creative skills.
"We have a lot of different classes: music, art therapy, movement therapy, physiotherapy, massage, classes with a neuropsychologist, a defectologist," continues Natalya Kofanova. - Previously, such children, at best, could take a course in a special school, then a home for the disabled was waiting for them. Now they have the opportunity to study later in a regular school, albeit in a correctional class, to get a profession. And several of our children later began to attend ordinary kindergartens and schools.
According to Oksana Balandina, head of the Dobry Sad Center for Long-Term Rehabilitation of Children, autism spectrum disorders have many forms - from mild, which are perceived as character traits, to very severe.
"Among these children there are also very talented ones, the main thing is to help them adjust their characteristics," she explains. - Only a specialist can determine whether a child needs rehabilitation assistance.
In the language of numbers
556 young people from Nizhny Novgorod have autism spectrum disorder. Of these, 108 children were diagnosed in 2017.
Boys have an autism spectrum disorder four times more often than girls.
The most important condition for successful correction is early diagnosis of autism. According to Nikolai Karjakin, the rector of Privolzhsky Medical University, the most effective period for rehabilitation is from one and a half to three years.
"It's one thing if you started to study with a child according to special methods at the age of one and a half, and another if the diagnosis was made after five years," he explains. "But even in this case, it is possible to improve the interaction of the"special"child with society.
It is for this purpose that the Ministry of Health of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the University Center for Psychology and Child Development of Privolzhsky Research Medical University have launched a pilot project on early detection of autism in children aged 1.5-2.5 years. The project also aims to train pediatricians to recognize Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The identified children with autism will be sent to the Dobry Sad rehabilitation center.
"This wonderful center is very important not only for the Nizhny Novgorod region, but also for the Russian Federation," said Andrey Gneushev, Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. - Thanks to the work of specialists, children with autism spectrum disorder will subsequently be able to go to regular kindergarten and school. A huge experience of such work has been accumulated here, which can be extended to other territories of the country.
By the way, the center accepts not only little Nizhny Novgorod residents - children from all over Russia are brought here for rehabilitation, because the pediatric institute has federal status.
If the pilot project is successful, it will be extended to all children's polyclinics in the region.
When should parents be alert?
Child does not babble at 12 months;
By the time he was 14-16 months old, not a single word had appeared;
Disappearance of an already existing speech after a year;
The child does not make eye contact;
Doesn't want to hug and sit on her arms;
Protests against playing with other children;
Monotonous repetitive movements, long concentration on one action.
The "Mobile Mentor" Project For Orphans Starts In The Kirov Region
KIROV, August 15. / TASS /. The "Mobile Mentor" project for orphans starts in the Kirov region in September and will last until 2019
The Voice.Children Project Will Donate Audience Money To A Hospice And A Fund To Help Children With Autism
The 5th season of the vocal project "Voice. Children" is drawing to a close. Ahead of the finale, the show's organizers have decided to donate the revenue from viewers' voting to charity
The Federal Project "Strengthening Public Health" Starts In The Sverdlovsk Region
In the Sverdlovsk region, within the framework of the national project "Demography", the federal project "Formation of a system of motivating citizens to a healthy lifestyle, including healthy eating and refusal of
The "Defenders Of Childhood" Project For The Prevention Of Family Problems Has Started In The Novosibirsk Region
According to one of the studies carried out by the Solar City Foundation, about 80% of the placement of children in institutions of the social orphanage system could have been avoided. It is for this problem and
Mother Of The "rain Girl" From Yamal - About How Others React To A Child With Autism
Primary school teacher Nadezhda Smertyuk came to Salekhard to work and found love here. For six years she and Sergei have been expecting children