text:
echo ''
echo '****Packaging External Dependencies****'
echo ''

PACKAGE="./package.txt"
MINIMAL_PACKAGE="./minimal_package.txt"
OUTPUT="./all.js"
MINIMAL_OUTPUT="./minimal.js"

# go through the dependencies file
if [ ! -f "$PACKAGE" ]; then
    echo "no package file, oh blarg."
    exit 1
fi

if [ -f "$OUTPUT" ]; then
    rm "$OUTPUT"
fi

cat "$PACKAGE" |while read filename; do
    cat "${filename}" >> "$OUTPUT";
done

if [ ! -f "$MINIMAL_PACKAGE" ]; then
    echo "no minimal package file, oh blarg."
    exit 1
fi

if [ -f "$MINIMAL_OUTPUT" ]; then
    rm "$MINIMAL_OUTPUT"
fi

cat "$MINIMAL_PACKAGE" |while read filename; do
    cat "${filename}" >> "$MINIMAL_OUTPUT";
done

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
George Soros Bill Gross
George Soros Injects Half Billion Dollars in Bill Gross
Bill Gross, a former Pimco chief who recently set up shop at Janus Capital, just received the amount of half billion dollars to manage from a hedge fund titan George Soros.
Soros Fund Management LLC, which Soros chairs, has invested $500 million in an account run by Gross at Janus Capital Group Inc, the Denver-based firm said on its website on Thursday.
The money will be managed through a private investment vehicle named Quantum Partners LP and invested in a separate account, Janus said. The portfolio will follow the strategy that Gross is employing in his Janus Global Unconstrained Bond fund, which has $443 million in assets under management.
Soros Fund Management approached Gross after he resigned from Pimco in late September, a person familiar with the situation said.
Tags: Hedge Fund of Funds Business, Hedge Fund, Hedge Funds, Fund of Hedge Funds, Hedge Fund of Funds, Hedge Fund Industry, Hedge Fund Group, Hedge Fund Market, Hedge Fund Investments, Hedge Fund Advisory Firm, Hedge Fund Returns, Bill Gross, Pimco, Janus Capital, George Soros, Soros Fund Management LLC, Janus Capital Group Inc., Denver, Quantum Partners LP, Janus Global Unconstrained Bond.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Watch Halfline Miami trailer put Gordon Freeman in Hotline Miami's gameplay.
Deus Ex designer Warren Spector discusses the Half-Life project Junction Point Studios worked on.
Valve-anointed mod renovates City 17 with improved lighting, enhanced visual detail, and numerous bug fixes.
HTC chairwoman now says she misspoke when talking about Half-Life possibly coming to the Vive VR headset.
HTC chairwoman discusses Half-Life, but stops short of confirming anything.
Steam users can now play the free multiplayer beta of Lambda Wars.
Fans seeking to raise $150,000 to launch advertising blitz to encourage Valve to release the long-awaited game.
Kevin VanOrd dives deeply into Half-Life 2 to explain what makes it one of the best shooters ever made.
Valve partners with Nvidia to offer Half-Life 2 on the Nvidia Shield; it's available today alongside Portal for $10.
One artist has painstakingly recreated Half-Life 2's opening scene in the Unreal Engine.
Valve co-founder and managing director reveals new facts about himself on Reddit.
Cofounder says studio could have been successful by creating more and more Half-Life games, but wanted to branch out to multiplayer games instead.
Company files trademark application in Europe for long-awaited action game.
John Patrick Lowrie says Valve not working on long-awaited game due to motion-capture issues, among other things.
Grand prize winners for selected developer and open call categories to win $10,000 cash prize and a chance to demo game at upcoming IndieCade Festival.
Bossa Studios says "this has nothing to do with any Valve games" regarding Easter egg found in game's latest update.
Danny O'Dwyer is in the house. And so we get all judgmental on everything there is to judge.
Experimental psychologist at Half-Life studio says company has conducted experiments where sweat level is measured and used to affect in-game experience.
Neca producing 1:1 toy version of Gordon Freeman's go-to gun; will be on display at NY Toy Fair in February; preorders open soon.
Half-Life developer's new employee orientation manual underscores the benefits of a major player in the industry who isn't publicly traded.


State Bank of India (SBI) has cut lending rates for farm and rural schemes as part of a drought relief package.The offers will be applicable to all agriculture loans disbursed between April 1, 2009 and up to March 31, 2010.
The bank has cut interest rate on crop loans of Rs 3-25 lakhs to a fixed 10 percent from the existing 11.75-12.75 percent floating rate.
For irrigation schemes, up to Rs 25 lakhs the bank has reduced the lending rate to 8-9 percent from the existing 10.50-13.25 percent.
An extra one percentage point of interest concession would be given to farmers who repay loans on time, it added.
India's June-August rains were almost a quarter less than normal, the driest spell in near four decades, and has hurt summer-sown crops and driven up food price by 14.5 percent.
State Bank's total agriculture loan outstanding is Rs 57,000 crore as against Rs 46,000 crore in the year-ago period. The lender has disbursed Rs 6,000 crore worth fresh agriculture loans in the current fiscal. SBI has around 70 lakh customers in the agriculture portfolio.


text:
Q: redirect on submit button depending on option So i am writing a code with a drop down list and a submit button. It looks like this in my CaseType.jsp file :
<title>Case Type Selection</title>

Please select the case that applies

<form action="">
<select id ="caseType" name="caseType">
<option value="PromoAttr">Promotion Attribute Change</option>
<option value="PromoOrder">Promotion Approval Order Change</option>
<option value="DefAppr">Change Default Approver on Promotion</option>
<option value=""></option>
</select>

<button onclick="caseSelect()" align="right">Submit</button></form>

Help
</form>

What I want to be able to do is click the submit button and take in the value of which option was chosen and redirect to a different JSP page depending on the button. In my search on these questions I have only found solutions using PHP pages. and window.location or document.location doesn't seem to be working for me. This is my .js file for caseType:
function caseSelect()
{
    var select = document.getElementById('caseType').value;
    switch(select)
    {
    case "PromoAttr":
      //open up form for Promotion Attribute Changes
        alert("Promo attr works");
        document.location.href="http://localhost:8080/PDFproj/generalCase.jsp";

      break;
    case "PromoOrder":
      //open up form for Promotion approval order change
        alert("Promo order works");
        document.location.href="http://localhost:8080/PDFproj/generalCase.jsp";
      break;
    case "DefAppr":
      //open up form for Changing default approver on promotion
        alert("Default Approval works");
        document.location.href="http://localhost:8080/PDFproj/generalCase.jsp";
          break;
    default:

    }
    return false;

}

Right now they are all leading to a general case page because I have not yet received the details on what each case form will have to look like, so this is just a prototype. But in the end, they will all have their own separate forms that have to be filled out and submitted.
Please let me know how I can do this. I am interested in javascript or jquery answers. Thank you.

A: In order to take a value from one page to another, you could add that value to the url as a query string, and once you get to that page have your javascript grab that value off the url and parse it into your code. Set the parameter like so:
case "PromoAttr":
    alert("Promo attr works");
    var url = "http://localhost:8080/PDFproj/generalCase.jsp";

    location.href = url + "?selectedVal=PromoAttr";
    break;
//Repeat for other cases, substituting "PromoAttr" for the selected value.

Then in your next page you can check to see if there are any query strings attached to your url, and if there is, parse it off and use it as you wish.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I don't think David Foley, the narrator and protagonist of Michael R. Hardesty's novel The Grace of the Ginkgo, would be a person I could tolerate. In fact, I'm certain that Foley with his boorish humor and firmly entrench egoism would be an individual I would loathe to be around. Yet this element makes for a great character in fiction. The fact is readers will be unable to not emotionally and morally engage him. The strength of Hardesty's novel lies in his characterization, its realism and honesty.
I'm hesitant to call the novel autobiographical in the sense that I very much doubt Foley is a mere stand-in for the author. In another sense, however, the story told in the first person and covering Foley's last twenty-four years is a sort of autobiography. I admire just how deeply Hardesty crafted his character, how vivid he's written.
The novel's premise is simple enough: Foley's son dies in the first Gulf War leaving behind a pregnant wife who then dies during childbirth. Foley, a 51-year old retired divorcee, steps up to raise his new granddaughter Liesl.
There is, strictly speaking, no plot. Rather, we get a narrative moving between vignettes chronicling Foley's parenting of Liesl. There is his constant tension with the religious portion of Liesl's family (her mother's side) who are stridently Catholic. Hardesty does a good job of painting this side of the family resisting caricature while still offering a critical eye. It's Foley who fails to be anything more than a vocal, in-your-face atheist making even the least significant interactions tiresome. Foley's brand of atheism makes him into a caricature as it's really just thinly veiled anger and resentment, which means his accurate reasoning is just a tool used to fan his own ego.
Too often, Foley's insufferable and unfounded superiority sours the life being lived around him. Perhaps the best example of this is Foley's love of classical music and opera. Cultivating a similar enjoyment in Liesl, by encouraging her to play instruments and by exposing her regularly to the finer musical arts, is some wonderful parenting. Yet Foley is able to be both snobbish and base when he attends a classical concert of the music of The Eagles. Foley's enjoyment is two fold: he gets to hear the pop music he loves done in classical terms while at the same time mocking those he sees as low brow who were drawn to the orchestral event. It is the kind of act that can most generously be described as curmudgeonly, but in a bitter tone rather than an endearing one.
Foley is a wealthy baby boomer with a late in life child. This is a situation that has become increasing more common over the last twenty-five years. Similarly, over the last twenty-five years more grandparents are raising grandchildren than ever before. Hardesty is able to braid these two cultural ticks together to craft his unique novel. There are some anachronisms (online shopping in 1991, pre-teens with cellphones prior to 2000), suggesting the novel may have been stronger if its setting was more contemporary, but this is a quibble.
A more significant criticism is that we never really get to see Foley raise Liesl, rather just navigate his life with Liesl at this side. His bad habits remain and even heighten. This isn't a story about how raising a child as a single grandfather changes a man. If anything, it's one showing just how unchanging a man can be. When he tasers a man after egging on his road rage, when he incessantly teases the maid of romantic interest, and when he finally decides that he is judge, jury, and executioner of a serial wife beater, we aren't seeing a noble hero but rather a vindictive one.
Because the narrative is exclusively told through Foley's point of view, we never really get a full picture of who Liesl is. Events of her life take a backseat to the events of Foley's life wherein she is just the primary. Make no mistake, Foley is a doting and loving caretaker expressing genuine affection for his granddaughter. But the story he tells isn't one where she is the center of the universe; it's one where she is the largest body orbiting him.
The 'grace' of the title is Foley's last act, one that like all of his actions throughout the novel is two-fold: he gives to those closest to him and takes from those farthest from. The pleasure in reading Hardesty is in engaging the character of David Foley, of wrestling with just the kind of person he is. David Foley is deeply flawed yet able to mirror to us our own casual humanity.
The Grace of the Ginkgo is a novel that breaks out of the inspirational fiction genre thanks to Hardesty's knack for crafting a character.
Michael R. Hardesty is a graduate of the University of Louisville and holds a Certificate of Writing in long fiction from Stanford University. He is retired from his marketing communications firm, Black & White, and lives in Louisville, KY, where his favorite activity is hobnobbing with his three grandchildren.


text:
UNIVERSAL PHARMACARE CHILDREN - ONTARIO - CANADA OHIP+ - Presriptions for Children
Free prescriptions for many children and young adults in Ontario set to end in March
The Toronto Star, Rob Ferguson, Queen's Park Bureau, Fri., Jan. 4, 2019
Free taxpayer-funded prescriptions to children and young adults under 25 will end in March if they have private insurance coverage.
The looming change in the OHIP+ pharmacare program, expected to save $250 million a year, was first announced in late June as Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives took power but the time frame for implementation remained a mystery until now.
"The government is fixing OHIP+ by focusing benefits on those who need them the most," said a notice posted online on a government website this week putting the proposal out for public comment until the end of January.
Sources said the government hopes to have the necessary systems in place with insurers and pharmacies by late March.
Under the new plan, children and young adults will continue to get free prescriptions if they or their parents do not have private health insurance coverage.
Otherwise, private insurance plans become the "first payer" for prescription medicines.
At issue is how pharmacists will be able to verify whether customers under 25 have private coverage, or deductibles or co-payments.
The Ontario Pharmacists Association said it supports the initiative and is eager to have a smooth, streamlined process to make sure children and young adults get the medicines they need without snags.
"There's still some technical issues and IT system issues to work out," Allen Malek, the association's executive vice-president and chief pharmacy officer, told the Star on Friday.
At drug stores, pharmacists will ask customers if they have insurance and check their coverage online. But pharmacists are concerned about the complications of performing a "policing" function on behalf of the government.
"It puts us at a risk we cannot necessarily protect against," said Malek, concerned some customers, whose insurance plans require them to cover some of their drug costs through co-pays or deductibles, may say they do not have insurance to avoid paying anything.
The association is concerned the government will make pharmacies liable for the costs if it's later discovered the customer had private insurance.
Health Minister Christine Elliott's office would not specify how the system would be made fail-safe, other than to say "our government is broadly engaging with employers, pharmacies and insurance companies as part of our efforts to ensure a smooth transition and implementation."
New Democrat MPP and health critic France Gelinas (Nickel Belt) said the change will be more costly to administer and prone to complications.
"This patchwork system is the most likely to have big cracks for people to fall through, especially since, right now, the government has no sure way to figure out which children have or have not been put back on their parents' private insurance plans."
The Green party questioned the promised cost savings, saying Finance Minister Vic Fedeli has put them as low as $100 million and as high as $300 million at different times.
"They have been playing fast and loose with the numbers," said a statement from the office of Green Leader Mike Schreiner, MPP for Guelph.
About 4,400 medications are eligible under the pharmacare plan launched a year ago by the previous Liberal government.
In his fall economic statement, Fedeli estimated the move will save "at least" $250 million.
"The government promised that it would find efficiencies while ensuring that vital public services are affordable and sustainable, now and in the years to come," he wrote.
Ford has promised to find $6 billion in annual spending cuts in a bid to eliminate a provincial deficit the government pegs at $14.5 billion.
Drugs covered under OHIP+ are the same ones used in the Ontario Drug Benefit Program for seniors and people on social assistance.
Ontario government promises help for families falling through the cracks due to OHIP+ changes
The Toronto Star, Rob Ferguson, Queen's Park Bureau, May 2, 2019
Families falling through the cracks after recent changes to OHIP+, including parents stuck paying hundreds of dollars monthly for specialized infant formula, can expect help from the government, says Health Minister Christine Elliott.
"We don't want people to be in a worse situation," Elliott said Thursday of the April 1 changes, which made private insurance plans the "first payer" for all claims to save an estimated $250 million a year.
"We're going to resolve it, absolutely," she promised, acknowledging that the formula issue is one of the main snags with the change from the previous Liberal government's OHIP+ plan that provided universal coverage.
A fix can't come soon enough, said a Niagara Falls mother whose 7-month-old son requires $700 a month in specialized nutritional formula free of milk proteins.
"There are a lot of families out there like ours," said Kelsey Vettor, whose boy Ryker vomits if fed normal milk-based formula because of a severe dairy allergy.
His formula, Puramino A+, costs $67 per can for a total cost of about $700 monthly which Vettor and her fiancé are paying since OHIP+ no longer covers it.
"It's a lot of unexpected money," Vettor told the Star in a telephone interview. She first learned of the extra cost when her fiancé went to a hospital pharmacy to get the formula in early April and was told he would have to pay upfront.
New Democrat MPP France Gelinas, her party's health critic, said specialized formulas used to be covered under a separate government program that was then rolled into OHIP+.
The April 1 change has left families in a "bureaucratic nightmare" for formula and other prescriptions because parents must now prove to the government which medications their private plans don't cover, added Gelinas (Nickel Belt).
"These changes to OHIP+ are way bigger than just the infant formula," she said.
"It is becoming so difficult that it's bringing in huge delays so the parents are paying up front because they can't stand to see their kids sick. If you do this, then OHIP+ doesn't pay you back for all of those months that you have been paying while trying to fight the government."
Gelinas also said families who reach spending limits under their private drug plans are now also "on the hook" for prescription costs once the cap is reached.
The health ministry is working with insurance companies and other players to iron out snags in the new system, Elliott said.
"We're following up to understand exactly what the problem is," she added, not providing a time line for remedies. "This will be the government that will fix it."
Green Leader Mike Schreiner said his office in Guelph has also heard from families experiencing problems getting the medications they need. "I've had constituents reach out with concerns they were covered before and now they're not being covered. It seems people are falling through the cracks and it's something the ministry needs to address."
The changes to OHIP+ were quietly announced on the Canada Day weekend after Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government was sworn in following its landslide defeat of Kathleen Wynne's Liberals in last June's provincial election.
At the time, Elliott said in a press release that "Premier Ford promised the people he would find efficiencies without compromising service or jobs."
The idea was to focus benefits "on those who need them the most," the government added in an online posting this January as efforts were underway tp create the revised OHIP+ with insurers and pharmacies in time for the April 1 implementation.
A Mother's Heartbreaking Story of Parental Alienation Syndrome
A Kidnapped Mind
What does Parental Alienation Syndrome mean? In my case, it meant losing a child. When Dash was 4 1/2 years old his father and I broke up. I dealt with the death of our marriage and moved on but Peter stayed angry, eventually turning it toward his own house, teaching our son, day by day, bit by bit, to reject me. Parental Alienation Syndrome typically means one parent's pathological hatred, the other's passivity and a child used as a weapon of war. When Dash's wonderful raw materials were taken and shaken and melted down, he was recast as a foot soldier in a war against me. Read More ..
Psychiatric disorder may have led boy to fatally shoot father
Rick James Lohstroh, a doctor at UTMB, was fatally shot this summer, apparently by his 10-year-old son.
ABC13 Eyewitness News, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
The 10-year-old Katy boy accused of murdering his father this summer is now the face of an unofficial psychiatric disorder that may have lead to his father's death.
Some psychiatrists call it Parental Alienation Syndrome and they say that's why the son killed Doctor Rick Lohstroh last summer. The syndrome is basically caused by a bitter parent who poisons a child against the other parent, usually in cases of divorce. Read More ...
Parental alienation cases draining court resources
Study says such cases should be moved out of court system, handled by individual judges
An escalation in parental alienation allegations is draining valuable courtroom resources, a major study of 145 alienation cases between 1989-2008 concludes.
"Access problems and alienation cases - especially those which are more severe - take up a disproportionate amount of judicial time and energy," said the study, conducted by Queen's University law professor Nicholas Bala, a respected family law expert.
"One can ask whether the courts should even be trying to deal with these very challenging cases." Read More ..
Custody judges rule on vengeance
Courts criticized for recognizing 'parental alienation'
Toronto -- The scope of the courts' reach into family affairs has long been contentious, but a recent trend in Canada's legal system has brought a new controversy that has some onlookers praising judges and others condemning them for accepting what they call "voodoo science."
More than ever before, Canada's judges are recognizing that some children of divorced and warring parents are not simply living an unfortunate predicament, but rather are victims of child abuse and suffering from Parental Alienation Syndrome. Read More ..


text:
<template name="searchContactModal">
	{{#ionModal focusFirstInput=true title="Search by ID"}}

					<input type="text" placeholder="Type ID" id="search-id">
					<button type="submit" class="button button-clear" data-action="search-contact">
        				{{> ionIcon icon='search'}}
   					</button>

No user was found with given ID!

						<input type="hidden" val="" id="to-id">

							<button class="button button-balanced">
								Send request
							</button>

	{{/ionModal}}
</template>


Until now, employers with trade secrets stolen by former employees had to rely upon uneven, hit-or-miss state laws to protect their intellectual property and confidential information.
Executive Summary: Until now, employers with trade secrets stolen by former employees had to rely upon uneven, hit-or-miss state laws to protect their intellectual property and confidential information. Enter the Defend Trade Secrets Law of 2016, designed to provide a new, uniform federal civil remedy to trade secret owners whose intellectual property has been stolen—without preempting state law or disrupting fair competition. Now that the Act is finally on its way to President Obama's desk for signing, the Act's signature developments are worth highlighting.
The first major change is the Act amends the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (EEA) to provide a civil remedy for the misappropriation of trade secrets. Previously, the EEA was a criminal statute that did not grant private citizens or corporations a right of action in court. Now, federal district courts have original jurisdiction over civil actions brought by private parties for trade secret misappropriation. This allows trade secret holders the option of going directly to federal court—with its certainty of rules, standards, and practices—and avoiding the potential uncertainty and delay of busier state courts.
Perhaps the biggest game changer is the Act's grant of power to federal courts to issue an order without notice to the other side to seize property to preserve evidence or prevent the propagation or dissemination of the trade secret. Though ex parte seizures are supposed to be limited to "extraordinary circumstances," the possibility that a court can seize computers, cell phones, or other devices that may contain a stolen trade secret is remarkable.
Seizure of a trade secret stolen by one party and handed off to an accomplice is also allowed under the Act. Any materials seized under an order will be taken into the custody of the court.
If a person suffers damage by a wrongful or excessive seizure, that person also has a cause of action against the applicant for the order under which the seizure was made, to recover damages, including punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees.
An award of attorney's fees to the prevailing party if a claim of misappropriation is made in bad faith, there is willful and malicious misappropriation, or a motion to terminate an injunction is made or opposed in bad faith.
The Bottom Line: A recent study has shown trade secret theft causes annual loss of more than $300 billion to the American economy; the loss of 2.1 million American jobs each year; and undermines the means and incentive for innovation. The Defend Trade Secrets Act creates another strong weapon in the corporate arsenal to strike back and stem the tide of cyberthieves, unscrupulous employees, and others who misappropriate confidential information and trade secrets.
If you have any questions regarding the Act or other issues relating to trade secrets or noncompetition laws, please feel free to contact the author of this Alert, Mark Saloman, msaloman@fordharrison.com, a partner in our Berkeley Heights, New Jersey office and co-chair of FordHarrison's Unfair Competition practice group.


Hana plays with the kids beauty set. Hana gives her dad a haircut.
Scuba diving in Honolulu Hawaii. Sea Tiger & Nautilus reef today.
Exploring the Sea Tiger shipwreck in Honolulu Hawaii.
Scuba diving on the Sea Tiger shipwreck in Honolulu Hawaii.
Exploration on the Sea tiger shipwreck in Honolulu Hawaii.
Hana goes to Haeundae beach and visits the Aquarium.
March 2019 exploration inside the Sea Tiger shipwreck in Honolulu Hawaii.


I tried all kinds of searches. It's a well kept secret, evidently.
Phone New York Thoroughbred Breeders.
I did call NY Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. They don't have him on file, but he is in the stallion registry for 2014. I believe he was a subject here on the message boards a couple of years ago.


Apple iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 3 now up for pre-order online at Rs 35,900, Rs 28,900 respectively, will be released by November end.
Apple's new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 are now available for pre-order on ecommerce websites such as Flipkart and Snapdeal with price starting at Rs 35,900 and Rs 28,900 respectively. The devices are listed as coming soon with a release date of November end.
The Apple iPad Air 2 has a 9.7 inch display and is powered by an A8X processor. The iPad Air 2 is one of the thinnest devices by Apple and is 18 per cent thinner than the original iPad Air. It measures just 6.1mm thin and weighs 435g. The Air 2 comes with a TouchID fingerprint scanner for additional security. It has an 8 MP iSight camera with panorama view possible up to 43 MP with option of Burst Mode as well as a 1.3 MP front camera. The Apple iPad Air 2 16GB WiFi model is priced at Rs 35,900 and the Apple iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi 64GB and 128GB variants are available at the price of Rs 42,900 and Rs 49,900 respectively.
The Apple iPad Mini 3 has a 7.9 inch display and comes with TouchID button. It has an Apple A7 SoC and runs iOS 8.1. It has a 5 MP iSight camera and a 1.2 MP secondary camera. The Apple iPad mini 3 (Wi-Fi + Cellular) model 16GB, 64GB and 128GB variants are available priced at Rs 38,900, Rs 45,900 and Rs 52,900 respectively.
Apple iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 are available in space grey, white and gold options. Both the devices were unveiled in October and were expected to be released in India along with the Apple iPhone 6. However, they have been released just after a month of their launch, which is not bad given Apple's track record in India.
Apple ipad 2 USB charger price in market ?


text:
What we do not want in a story
(or how to earn a quick reject)
by Sue Babcock, Publisher
and Perry Mc Daid, Editor
Last update: 2-1-2014
With special thanks to Bruce Bethke, Editor-in-Chief of STUPEFYING STORIES for permission to use his "What we are NOT buying now" as a touchstone.
After reading through thousands of submissions, we've developed a strong sense of what we'd just as soon never read again. Please heed the following.
1. No porn.
Seriously, no porn. We don't publish it. Don't send it to us.
2. No plagiarism.
I wish this didn't need to be said, but it does. We check. The story must be your own.
3. No torture porn.
There seems to be a subset of writers who think we'll make an exception to the "No porn" rule for horror stories that include gruesome torture along with the explicit sex. We won't. There's a market for that kind of stuff. We aren't that market. Don't send it to us.
Come to think of it, we're not big fans of gruesome torture without explicit sex, either.
4. Watch the language.
We're no prudes, but a few carefully chosen earthy Anglo-Saxon expressions go a long way. It's a puzzlement that some writers seem to feel the need to prove that they can out-swear the bluest of blue-collar workers. If you just cannot resist this urge, do it elsewhere. Save it for your in-laws perhaps?
It's not necessary. Really. If we like your story we may ask you to tone down the language or make some word substitutions, but if your story begins with dialog like this:
"F### YOU, YOU STUPID F###ING A######!"
"OH YEAH? WELL F### YOU, YOU F#####-UP MOTHERF###ING F###HEAD!"
We'll stop right there, hit REJECT, and never read far enough to discover whether we would have liked your story.
5. No stories written to work out your personal psychological and/or sexual problems.
Your therapist may say your story is fascinating, but he's being paid a lot of money to listen to you babble about your genitals … or others.
6. No stories written as catharsis to deal with your personal relationship problems.
That story you wrote to tell the whole world what a bitch or a$$hole your ex- is, which optionally includes the prolonged torture-porn scene you wrote to take vicarious revenge? Send it somewhere else.
7. No sermons.
That awesome philosophical and/or religious insight you had at 2 A.M. while sitting in your dorm room, listening to Nevermind? There's a reason why "sophomoric" is not considered a term of praise.
This includes what we call "wrapper" stories, which are stories only in the sense that they introduce a fictional character who then proceeds to deliver a sermon on behalf of the author. A sermon delivered by a sock-puppet is still a sermon.
8. No more rewrites of old Twilight Zone scripts.
Does this really need to be said? Apparently so.
9. Be wary of any idea for a story you got while watching TV.
Chances are we've seen it before. Repeatedly. We have it on good authority that the last original idea in Hollywood was shot and killed in early 1971, and its head and hide now hang on a Warner Bros. producer's office wall. You know what we mean: stuff like regurgitated 'The Body Snatchers' (Finney, 1955). Movie and TV worlds have disinterred this, ran over it with a humvee, thrown it through the wood-chipper and reburied it. They will probably dig it up again like overpossessive dogs. Please don't jump on their bandwagon.
10. Don't insult the natives.
Don't offend, stereotype, or vilify native or aboriginal cultures. In fact, don't offend, stereotype, or vilify any culture. It just doesn't work.
11. Mind the pandering.
Many great literary careers have begun with a reader throwing down a book or magazine in disgust and saying, "Geez, even I can write better than that!" Note that the operative term here is "better than," not, "just as badly as."
12. Gory horror is a tough sell.
It's possible to sell us a really top-notch horror story, but you should be aware that there are a heck of a lot of other writers tilling these same fields and fresh ideas are scarce. If you do not have a deep personal attachment to writing gory and gut-churning horror stories, why not explore some of the other currently less-popular subgenres?
13. Remember to engage.
We don't require that stories have heroes who emerge victorious, but your story should have at least one character who engages the reader.
14. Remember to include an ending.
As an editor, one of the most frustrating things in the world is to read a story that is just absolutely terrific for the first twenty pages and then collapses into meaningless goo in the final scene on page 21. We especially dislike what we've come to call The Dan O'Bannon Ending: "And then the jack-booted minions of a secret government agency stormed in and killed everyone. The End."
To paraphrase Mickey Spillane: it may be the beginning of your story that gets us interested in reading it, but it's the end of your story that convinces us to buy it. Make sure your story delivers an ending that justifies all the pages leading up to it.
This does not mean you cannot leave us in suspense, just be very very good at it.
15. So this guy wakes up in a strange place…
[optionally, lying in a puddle of some bodily fluid], and can't move, so he struggles to remember where he is and how he got there, and this leads into a long and roundabout flashback in which he remembers this unbelievably hot nympho girl he met [optionally, in a bar] the night before, and how they went back to her place for some totally hot sex, but now he realizes he's tied-up in her [basement, attic, garage, other location: choose one], and in comes the hot nympho girl and/or her freaky lesbo girlfriend [optionally, who is the man's wife, who he's been cheating on], and she/they proceed to [castrate, disembowel, dismember, otherwise torture: choose one] him, and he dies.
Yeah, yeah, yeah; we've seen this one about 300 times so far. There hasn't been a good story that began with "guy wakes up in a strange place, unable to move and struggling to remember where he is and how he got there" since Roger Zelazny wrote Nine Princes in Amber forty-four years ago.
This list is by no means all-inclusive and we will no doubt be adding to it on a regular basis. However, this should at least serve as a good starting point for what to avoid. And if you're one of those people who wants to write to tell me that this list puts too many restrictions on your artistic freedom, go read the STRANGE HORIZONS list of Stories We've Seen Too Often.
P.S. Of course, the best way to get a good sense of what we publish is to READ OUR PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED STORIES! They're free. Really.
Applecheeks, Hostetler, and Bellezecca by Scott Bryan Wilson
Freedom by Dan A. Cardoza
I Would Go To Hell For You by Surya Vaidyanathan
Kotwica by Jamie Ryder
The Dark, The Dark by David Barber
When You Come to Venice by Sandra Glaze
The Wolfman Goes Gray by Noel Sloboda
Year of the Fire Rooster by Deborah Wong
Shining Gods by Jennifer Crow
The Narrows by Jamie Elliott Keith
Grandma Mary's Mirror Ann Thornfield-Long
Birding by Cheryl Heineman


Financial Aids in the form of Loan and Scholarship are available to our students.
There are ample study loans and scholarships which Malaysian students can apply.
It is expected that International Students will need approximately USD 800 – USD 1000 per month for their living and accommodation expenses.
There are a number of international organizations that may assist international students with their students abroad and international students are advised to check their credentials with their local government on these organizations.


text:
20th Art Division Critiques
A Progress Report on My Criticism of "Media Arts"
Let me begin with a word to those who did not get selected, or who did not win the award they had hoped for: Do not be overly discouraged, and do not do anything rash with the work you submitted. It's said that Paul CÉZANNE was rejected by the Paris Salon every year and even complained to the chief judge about it.It should be noted that there was an important change in the 20th Japan Media Arts Festival: The phrase "Works of art created with new media and digital technologies" disappeared from the entry guidelines. The guidelines for the Art Division in the last festival (19th JMAF) began with that phrase, then followed it parenthetically with "Interactive art, media installations, video works, video installations, graphic art (digital illustrations, digital photographs, computer graphics, etc.), Internet art, media performances, etc." The guidelines this time removed the initial phrase, and brought the former parenthetical content to the fore. Much the same change took place in the Entertainment Division.This reflects the fact that stipulating "digital technologies" no longer has any real meaning, and it is also perhaps a response to my criticism last time that the stipulation undesirably results in eliminating all art that does not use digital technologies. It does not, however, reflect the suggestion made during an exchange in the Art Division Dialogue that the festival should clarify what it thinks "media art" is.But to my mind, by awarding the Grand Prize to Ralf BAECKER's Interface I, the jurors have been able to send a message to the festival to that effect. This installation, which focuses on ends rather than means, concisely and directly demonstrates the essence of "media art." Meanwhile, the four works chosen for Excellence Awards were recognized for their high quality under a kind of self-evident standard of purposive expression. At the same time, I'm pleased that we don't need to argue about digital technology in connection with the bio-art work The Living Language Project.To ask what "media art" is should ultimately lead to asking what "Art" with a capital A is, which has never been self-evident. That's what I would like to see happen.
NAKAZAWA Hideki
NAKAZAWA is an artist, born in 1963 in Niigata Prefecture. While studying at the Medical Department of Chiba University in 1983, he began his first artistic activities (acrylic painting). In 1990 he switched careers from being an oculist to an illustrator. He commenced a second artistic period, Silly CG, by replacing paintbrushes with a computer mouse. In 1997 he made a shift to fine art, substituting computer graphic pixels with symbols such as letters (this was his third artistic period, Method Painting). He resumed the use of colors in 2004, entering his fourth period, Serious Painting, New-Method and others. He wrote Methodicist Manifesto and New-Methodicist Manifesto. As named in official patent records, NAKAZAWA is the inventor of "Voxel Data Processing Using Attributes Thereof" and "Solid Object Generation." He has published three books: Textbook of Modern Art History, The Lives of Western Painters, and Art History: Japan 1945-2014. He has also released music entitled Hideki Nakazawa Music Works. He won the MMA Artist Prize at the Multimedia Grand Prix '95 and the Encouragement Prize at VOCA 2003. He founded the Artificial Intelligence Art and Aesthetics Research Group and has been its representative since 2016.
TopAWARDA Progress Report on My Criticism of "Media Arts"


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Agrarian Party of Ukraine () is a political party in Ukraine that was revived in October 2006 and was legally registered as a party in 2006.

History
Initially Agrarian Party of Ukraine was created and registered in 1996, but soon after electing Volodymyr Lytvyn the party was renamed couple of times and now is known as the People's Party.

In 2006 the "Agrarian Party" was resuscitated by registering anew. The party was headed by Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko MP's Mikhail Zubets and Mikhail Gladius. In August 2006 they became part of the parliamentary coalition supporting the Second Yanukovych government.

Between 2010 and 2014 the party is chaired alternately by members of the First and Second Azarov government: Deputy Prime Minister for Agricultural Policy Viktor Slauta and Deputy Minister of Agrarian Ivan Bysyuk.

In the 2010 Ukrainian local elections, the party gains 15th place in Ukraine: 410 members are elected into local councils.

In 2014 Vitaliy Skotsyk became chairman of the party.

In 2015 the revived Agrarian Party was among the most active during local elections and placed fifth among all parties nationwide by number of representatives.

From March 2016 until January 2018 veteran politician Roman Bezsmertnyi was one of the party leaders of the Agrarian Party of Ukraine.

According to the Agrarian Party party leader Skotsyk was expelled from the party on 12 September 2018 for "actions that harm the authority and discredit the governing body of the party and the party as a whole".

On 3 January 2019 Skotsyk did file documents with the Central Election Commission for registration as a candidate for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election; claiming to do so as a candidate of the Agrarian Party. The following day the party denied this because they had expelled him. The Central Election Commission registered Skotsyk as a candidate on 8 January, he was registered as a self-nominated candidate.

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election the party gained 0.51% of the national vote and no parliamentary seats, the party also failed to win a constituency seat.

In the 2020 Ukrainian local elections the party gained 44 deputies (0.66% of all available mandates in places with less than 10,000 people).

References

External links
 Official website

See also
Agrarian Party of Russia
Belarusian Agrarian Party

Political parties established in 2006
2006 establishments in Ukraine
Agrarian parties in Ukraine
Conservative parties in Ukraine

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
KT5720 is a kinase inhibitor with specificity towards protein kinase A. It is a semi-synthetic derivative of K252a and analog of staurosporine.

References

Indole alkaloids
Protein kinase inhibitors
Indolocarbazoles


Place oats in a pan. Roast oats for 2 - 3 minutes. Cool and grind in a mixer. Set this aside.
Place broccoli in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. Place them in ice cold water. Reserve the water.
Keep few broccoli aside to be used later as garnish.
In a blender, grind broccoli.
Heat oil in a pan. Saute garlic and onion. Add ground broccoli, reserved broccoli, and blanched broccoli florets. Now add milk, sweetcorn, salt, pepper, grounds oats dissolved in 1/2 cup of water. Simmer for 5 minutes. When it is done, serve hot.
This soup provides you with all the health benefits from vegetables. Here vegetables are pressure cooked and pureed in a blender. The addition of oregano provides a nice flavour and the oats gives thickness to the soup.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Saute cloves, peppercorn,onion, garlic, dried oregano. Add beetroot, carrot and tomatoes. Mix well. Now add 4 cups of water. Pressure cook for 5 - 6 whistles. Allow it to cool and then puree it using a blender. Add powdered oats soaked in 1/2 cup of water. Add pepper and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon.
The goodness of flaxseed and parsley with a burst of flavors from veggies and dressing makes it a super healthy salad. This salad is especially good for people on a diabetic diet.
High fiber in flaxseed makes it an excellent seed to manage constipation.
High in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids.
Good for skin and haircare.
Good for people with anemia and to treat urinary tract infections.
Soak flaxseed for 15 minutes in water and drain. Keep this aside.
Cut cucumber, carrot and tomato in square pieces. Add chopped parsley.
In a bowl, add cucumber, carrot, tomato, parsley and flaxseed. Now add the salad dressing. Mix well. Serve chilled.
A healthy twist on the regular coleslaw with the addition of more yogurt and less mayonnaise. This is a good source of vitamin C and are ideal for kids. Top it on your cutlets, sandwich between burger buns and you are in for a crunchy treat.
Mix mayonnaise, yogurt, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and honey in a bowl. Set this dressing aside. Tip all the vegetables in a bowl. Pour the above dressing and stir well. If you have leftover coleslaw, keep in an airtight container for upto 3 days.
In a bowl, add sliced onion and salt. Mix together with your hands and squeeze out onion juice from it. This helps to remove some heat from the onions. Now add green chillies and vinegar. Add salt if necessary. Combine well and serve with meat cutlets, chicken cutlets, or fish cutlets.
Combine cucumber, avocado, spring onions, ginger, coriander leaves and lemon juice in a bowl.
Using a blender, blend them in batches. Add enough water to get desired consistency to form a chunky soup.
Season to taste with sugar, salt and pepper. Place this in the refrigerator to chill for 2 hours. Serve with a dollop of yogurt and toasted sesame seeds.
Peel and grate raw papaya and raw mango. Grate the coconut.
Mix papaya, mango, coconut, green chillies, curry leaves and salt.
First, you have to make a really flavorful chicken stock. If you are interested in making quick homemade chicken stock, you can check my how to make a pressure cooker chicken stock? it is very easy and gives a rich flavorful stock devoid of MSGs.
Next, you have to pick light soy sauce over dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce is lighter in color and saltier. So it does the work of keeping your soup not turning dark.
Last, cornflour, beaten eggs, and a strainer to get that perfect floating egg shreds.
Make chicken stock by adding water, chicken bones, carrots, celery, green beans, garlic, onion, peppercorns, and bay leaves. Strain once or twice to get a more clear chicken stock.
In a pan, add chicken stock and sweetcorn. Bring it to a boil. Add cooked chicken and salt. Mix cornflour with 1/2 cup of water and add to the soup. Cook for 3 minutes in low flame. Now the soup is thickened. Pour beaten eggs through a strainer on top of the boiling soup. Continuously stir so that the eggs passed through the strainer do not go lumpy.Add light soya sauce. Mix well. Now add vinegar and sugar. Stir well. Add pepper powder. Taste check for salt. Add salt only if required as we are adding light soya sauce, which is more saltier than the dark soya sauce.
Garnish with spring onion leaves or celery leaves if required.
Cook macaroni with water and salt. Once cooked, drain water, and set aside.
Hard boil the eggs. Once cooked, cut into 4 pieces. Set aside.
Mix mayonnaise, crushed peppercorns, and salt. Set aside.
Toss macaroni and chopped celery. Add mayo-peppercorn mixture set aside. Mix well.
Decorate a salad bowl with lettuce leaves, transfer the prepared salad on to of the leaves. Decorate with julienned red bell pepper and eggs on top.
This oil free soup works well for people on diet.
Red peppers - 4 Nos.
Insert the red peppers on a skewer. Roast the red peppers on stovetop until the skin is black. Remove the pepper from flame and immediately using a kitchen towel rub the skin off. Discard all the stalks, cores, white pith and scrape out the seeds. Chop the roasted pepper roughly. Set aside.
Heat 2/3 cup of vegetable stock, onion and garlic in a large saucepan. Boil until the onion has softened. Sprinkle rice flour and rest of the vegetable stock. Add roughly chopped roasted peppers and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Leave to cool slightly, then puree it in a blender. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper. Return to the saucepan and reheat the soup.
. Mix boiled chickpeas, boiled kidney beans, green beans boiled, red bell pepper and celery.
In a small jar, add olive oil, vinegar, onion, salt and pepper. Shake well. Pour over the beans. Mix well.
Keep this refrigerated for at least 3-4 hrs before use.
Cook chicken breast pieces with salt and pepper powder. Cut them into small square pieces.
Place the stock cube in a pan, add some water and allow it to dissolve thoroughly.
Cook sphagetti in water and keep aside.
Heat butter and olive oil in a pan, saute onion and garlic. Once it is sauteed well, add broccoli. When it is cooked, switch off the stove. Pour this to a blender along with the chicken stock prepared above. Puree this in a blender. Now bring back the pureed mixture along with the set aside chicken pieces to a boil and add cooked sphagetti. Once the soup is hot, serve hot.
Linking this to Divya pramil's Christmas event.
This salad is very refreshing. Good for dieters as a full meal too.
Soak chickpeas overnight. Pressure cook chickpeas till 3-4 whistles. Chop cucumber, tomato, and coriander leaves. Pour salad dressing and serve.
This recipe is good for postpartum care. Fenugreek has anti-inflammatory properties and is widely used in the treatment of back pain.
Wash and soak uluva overnight. Cook this in the soaked water. Strain excess water. Add grated coconut and jaggery. Serve uluva salad.
Chop apple, tomato, cucumber, and green chillies. Dress the salad with salt, lime juice, olive oil, sugar, and chat masala. This is a very refreshing salad perfect for a salad meal.


Most tasks in your organization can be automated easily which will free up your employees to handle more creative tasks thus making the most efficient organization possible. This article is for giving you insights on finding the right tasks to automate.
For humans, performing a repetitive routine task is no longer rewarding. This is where RPA provides a helping hand and help gain measurable efficiencies. This article explains how RPA is a friend for us all in solving human inefficiencies in the manual process.
RPA is not a question of "if" anymore but a question of "when." From claims processing, underwriting and policy cancellation, there's so much that can be automated when you implement RPA solutions in the insurance industry. It's all about efficiency.
RPA can automate multiple business functions in a banking organization. This frees up time for your employees to focus on high-level tasks and directly contributing to company revenue.
RPA can make a huge difference in Customer Engagement, let's take a look at everything that made a name for itself in 2019.
Are you using Hyperledger Fabric to develop your blockchain idea? Go a step further and learn how to make it truly foolproof with this article.
RPA is a powerful technology. Here is how to make sure your RPA implementation is a success story for your company. Learn more.
Who are the key stakeholders of an RPA project?
Implementing RPA project can be a daunting task, if you have not assigned corresponding stakeholders for the project. Here are the important stakeholders for a RPA project.


text:
Q: Packages Crashing R after Using OpenBLAS So I have two R's installed (both v 3.5.0), one running on the default BLAS (for Mac) and one running on OpenBLAS. They are not installed on the same location on my Mac. I'm going to call the one with default BLAS (normal R), the other is Open R. Normal R runs perfectly. The one for OpenBLAS has issues. Specifically Open R is struggling with packages. I can tell Open R where to find the already installed packages Normal R but when I try to load a package this message is returned:
*** caught segfault ***
address 0x18, cause 'memory not mapped'

followed by a traceback.    Alternatively, if I try to install a package from CRAN I get the same warning. I really need OpenBLAS to work with R (I'm doing benchmark research) but am stuck on what I need to do. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

A: You can try to install R via homebrew with the OpenBLAS option.
brew install r --openblas


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text:
P.O. Box #1
brsllhelp@gmail.com
First year of play: 1957 or 1958
First District Championship: 1986
First Sectional and State Championship: 2013
Number of Majors D52 Titles: 4 (1986, 2000, 2013, 2016)
Other Titles: 9/10 (1997, 2011), 10/11 (2012, 2016), Big League 16-18 (1981, 1982, 1984?, 1985)
They say baseball has been played in Belmont since 1895, when teams were fielded by the Belmont School for Boys, and certainly various league came and went in those early days when games were played on a field on Old County Road.
Little League was founded in 1939 in Williamsport, PA, and grew rapidly every year. By the time the first league was founded outside of the US in 1951, there were already 775 Little Leagues across the country. In 1957, Little League set it sights on California, what was to become it's biggest state. Little League divided California into 33 districts numbered from North to South and a host of new leagues were born. Belmont was one of those original leagues and started play in 1958 as part of District 11. After just 5 years of play, Belmont Little League comprised 14 teams and a total of 210 players age 12 and under.
In 1966 District 11 split, and the new District 52 was formed, where we continue to play today. The following year the old Marina field was constructed. This was to be Belmont Little Leagues primary home for over 20 years. It was a classic "sunken diamond" design, and was in approximately the same location as it's name-sake where we play today. (The home plate from this field is on display in the Snack Shack.) There were no other fields around at the time - only garbage from the neighboring Belmont garbage dump.
At this time, the league had grown to be comprised of two divisions. Kids 9-12 competed to play in Majors, and those who didn't make the cut played in Minors. By 1978, we were regularly fielding 8 Majors teams, and a growing number of Minors teams split into AAA and AA divisions. The schedule played would be familiar today. The Majors teams played two games a week at the old Marina field. The Minors teams were playing on fields at Nesbit and McDougal and later IHM, Cipriani, Central and Ralston. From 1981 to 1983 a "A" division for T-ball was played.
The league was reorganized in 1984 into fewer larger divisions: an 8 team Majors, a 9 team Minors and a expanded 12 team Farm division. This was refined over several years with Majors playing at the old Marina, Minors at IHM and Farm up at Ralston.
Belmont Sports Complex and Recent Growth
1990 saw the opening of the new Belmont Sports Complex (then called "Island Park") and the new Marina field on which we still play today. That year saw us hold the Distrct 52 and Sectional tournaments for the first time. Part of this reorganization put Minors back on the same two fields at Nesbit they play on today, and Farm on the three fields at Ralston (one of which was lost due to school expansion in 2012).
In 1993, after a 10 year hiatus, a dedicated T-Ball division was added with just two teams. By 1998 the division was up to 12 teams. Farm as well was busting at the seams with 18 teams by 1999.
Although Redwood Shores had been part of the Belmont Little League for many years, the league was finally renamed Belmont/Redwood Shores Little league in 1998. The league cross 500 players for the first time that year. Finally in 2000, Farm was split in two and the Minors divisions were re-named, giving us the AAA, AA and Farm divisions we have today.
In 2014, the T-ball division was split in two: T-Ball Rookies for the 5 year olds and T-Ball Veterans for the 6 year olds. The Veterans teams start the season with T-Ball, but progress to a coach-pitch level by the end of the season.
In 2016, we added our first new division in 15 years as "Intermediate (50/70)" play began. This division is for players age 13.
The league has continued to grow crossing 600 players for the first time in 2010 and 700 player for the first tie just 4 years later. Since it's inception the league has bounced between 6 and 8 Majors teams, but in 2014 for the first time we had to field 9 Majors teams. 2016 was our largest year yet with a record 59 teams.
For many years, the other baseball league in Belmont has been the Belmont (now Bel-Mateo) Babe Ruth league, for kids age 13 to 15. Many kids after completing their time in Majors moved over to Babe Ruth to play on the full-sized diamond. Bel-Mateo Babe Ruth has played on the North field at Belmont Sports Complex since it opened in 1990.
In later years those looking for a smoother transition to the full-sized diamond played in Pony leagues in nearby cities. In 2007, the Belmont/Redwood Shores Pony League was founded by Jay Anthony whose son was graduating from Little League. For the Pony league, the east field at Ralston was converted from a Little League diamond into the larger Pony diamond. Jay ran the Pony league for over 10 years, until it's program was folded back into Little League in 2016 as the new Intermediate Division. A similar change was happening across the Peninsula and the Peninsula Pony League ceased operation after the 2016 fall season.
Starting in 1981, Little League ran one or two a "Big League" teams for kids age 16 - 18 to play after they graduated from Babe Ruth. They played against teams from Half Moon Bay, San Mateo and later Redwood City and Alpine, and had their home games at Carlmont. The Belmont team won the D52 championship in 1981, again in 1982 and 1985 (and maybe in 1984 too)! In 1984 the team was known as the "Belmont Royals", and in 1985 as the "Belmont Brewers". The Big League season was in the summer, after high school baseball is over, so there is little information about them in the yearbooks and it's not clear when this league ended, but there is no mention of it after 1986.
The Foul Ball Dance
In the late 1970s and 1980s, a major fundraiser for the league was the "Foul Ball Dance". This most often took place at Marina World Africa USA (located where Oracle is today) or sometimes at the Greek Orthodox Church on Alameda. Over time this became a joint even with the Babe Ruth league and the girl's softball "Bobby Sox" league.
From the start, we have competed in the end of the season International Little League All-Star tournament. The All-Star team was comprised of the best players from the "Majors" division. These teams first compete in a district tournament, then the winner advances to a sectional tournament, then a state tournament, and for the lucky few a regional tournament in San Bernadino and finally the Little League World Series in Williamsport.
It took us 20 year of trying, but finally won our first District 52 title in 1986. That team also almost won the Section 2 tournament, loosing in the championship game to North Vallejo by the score of 2-0.
In 1994, in addition to the Majors all-star tournament for 11 and 12 year olds, Little League started the 9/10 tournament for younger players. And later added also a 10/11 tournament to fill in the last gap.
We won our first 9/10 District 52 championship in 1997. Shortly thereafter, in 2000, we won our second District 52 championship. Once again, we advanced to the Section 3 title game before loosing to San Ramon Valley 10-4. There was one player who played on the 19979/10 teams as a 9 year old and was also on the 2000 team as a 12 year old. He was the first BRSLL player to win two championships.
In 2011, we started a historic run to our first state title. Under manager Rudy Lopez, our 2011 9/10 team won both District 52 and Section 3 championships. The next year in 2012, they repeated as District 52 championships, but were unable to re-capture the Section 3 title.
In 2013 they ran the table in the D52 11/12 tournament, and they avenged the 2000 team by beating San Ramon in the Section 3 title game 2-0. The Northern California championship wasn't as easy. They were lost one game before the championship to Santa Cruz American 2-0. After a big 12-1 win to get back to the championship game they had to defeat Santa Cruz twice in a row, and they did without giving up a single run, winning 2-0 and then 9-0.
This victory led them to the Western Regional tournament for the first time not only in league history, but were the first team from District 52 to reach that level. They were the only team to score a perfect 4 wins in pool play, allowing a tournament-low 5 runs. In the last pool play game they defeated the Southern California champions 3-2. However, the tournament was not to be theirs. After defeating Arizona to advance to the championship game, they were unable to hold off SoCal and lost 9-0. The SoCal team ended up winning the US Championship at Williamsport, but lost the World Championship.
In 2016, BRSLL achieved another first by winning two District championships in the same year. The 11/12 team won over Pacifica American and the 10/11 team won over Alpine. This brings our total number of D52 flags to eight.
Drew Healy (2018)
Jonathan Gibbs (2016 - 2017)
Ken Knobel (2013 - 2015)
Mike Davies (2011 - 2012)
Craig Jones (2009 - 2010)
Dan Dutra (2005 - 2008)
Dave Hendershott (2003 - 2004)
Dave Lawrence (2001 - 2002)
Mike Biddle (1999 - 2000)
Allan Karcich (1997 - 1998)
Tom Walsh (1996)
Gay Barton (1995)
Steve Hayes (1993 - 1994)
Sharon Gosh (1992)
Roy Varney (1991)
Brian Rianda (1988 - 1990)
Bruce MacDuckston (1986 - 1987)
Bob Curran (1984 - 1985)
Dick Gay (1978 - 1983)
Presidents prior to 1978 are unknown to use - let us know if you know one!
BRSLL Overview


TORONTO, ONTARIO (August 8, 2007) – Macquarie Power & Infrastructure Income Fund (TSX: MPT.UN; MPT. DB – "MPT" or the "Fund"), which invests in essential infrastructure assets in North America, today announced continuing strong performance in the second quarter ended June 30, 2007. The results reflect four days of contribution from the assets acquired from Clean Power Income Fund ("CPIF") effective June 27, 2007. The Fund's Management's Discussion and Analysis and unaudited financial statements are available on the Fund's website at www.macquarie.com/mpt or on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 was $21.6 million compared with $16.3 million in the same period last year, reflecting higher power prices, which were impacted by a 2.9% increase in the Direct Customer Rate ("DCR"), and a 25% increase in the production of electricity due to less scheduled maintenance time compared with 2006. The Fund's newly acquired assets contributed revenue of $442,000.
Income from operations1 for the Fund was $2.4 million for the quarter compared with a loss of $1.3 million for the second quarter of 2006, reflecting increased revenue partially offset by an increase in operating costs primarily due to increased gas requirements which was offset by a reduction in scheduled maintenance costs.
The Fund's distributable cash2 was $7.3 million ($0.237 per unit) compared with $6.3 million ($0.210 per unit) in same quarter last year, reflecting increased electricity production and the continuing impact of electricity rate increases under Cardinal's PPA. Declared distributions to unitholders for the quarter were $9.5 million ($0.257 per unit) compared with $7.5 million in the same period last year ($0.250 per unit), representing a payout ratio of 129% (2006 – 119%). The higher payout ratio reflects the Fund's payment of distributions on the MPT units issued in connection with the Fund's acquisition of CPIF that were outstanding on the distribution record date of June 29, 2007. Distributions to unitholders are paid from cash flows from operations and unrestricted cash balances.
1 Income from operations refers to income before net interest, share of losses from long-term investments, unrealized gains (losses) on swap contracts and on embedded derivatives in gas purchase contracts.
The future income tax expense in the second quarter includes a one-time charge of $44.0 million in relation to Bill C-52 that was passed into law on June 22, 2007. Under this law, flow-through entities, including publicly-listed Canadian trusts and partnerships, such as the Fund, will be taxed in a manner similar to corporations in 2011. This non-cash charge represents the tax effect of the difference in the tax and accounting values of the Fund's assets and does not affect distributable cash. Since the Fund was not taxable in prior years, this non-cash charge was not previously recorded.
As at June 30, 2007, the Fund had working capital of $33.0 million, an uncommitted cash balance of $22.8 million and fully funded general, major maintenance and capital expenditure reserve accounts.
During the quarter, Cardinal's plant availability was 95.7% (2006 – 77.4%) and capacity was 93.7% (2006 – 75.0%). Electricity sales amounted to 304,000 MWh compared with 243,000 MWh in the second quarter last year.
During the quarter, the Erie Shores Wind Farm operated at an availability of 97.3% and achieved a capacity factor of 23.7%. Erie Shores Wind Farm produced 51,301 MWh of electricity during the quarter.
The Fund receives semi-annual interest payments each March and September on its subordinated wind loan receivable. Receipt of these interest payments is not anticipated to be affected by any expected variances in production. In the second quarter, total production from the six U.S. wind facilities decreased slightly to 91% of production from the same period last year due to lower wind speeds at Foote Creek III, Foote Creek IV and Big Spring. Total production at the U.S. wind facilities was 61,065 MWh compared with 67,439 MWh.
The Sechelt, Hluey Lakes, Wawatay and Dryden hydro facilities operated at a weighted average availability of 99.4% (2006 - 99.1%). Production was 55,095 MWh compared with 60,383 MWh in the second quarter of 2006, primarily reflecting continued low water flows at Dryden caused by the extremely dry conditions that have affected production since 2006. Precipitation levels at Wawatay began to recover during the quarter but remained below average long-term levels. Production at Sechelt decreased 4% from the same quarter in 2006.
During the quarter, Whitecourt operated at an availability of 94.5% (2006 – 95.3%) and achieved a capacity of 94.0% (2006 – 95.3%), reflecting an unplanned two-day outage due to tube leak repairs and the refurbishment of the induced draft fan, which was offset slightly by a shorter planned maintenance shutdown of three days instead of four days in 2006. Production was 47,813 MWh compared with 49,883 MWh in the same period last year, which reflects the lower availability and slightly lower capacity.
Chapais operated at 92.8% availability (2006 – 84.7%), reflecting a shortened spring maintenance shutdown from 10 days in 2006 to five and a half days in 2007 as well as fewer unplanned outages. Production was 53,607 MWh for the quarter compared with 49,895 MWh in the same period last year.
The Fund owns an indirect 45% interest in Leisureworld Senior Care LP ("Leisureworld"), which it accounts for as an equity investment. Leisureworld's second quarter performance benefited from improved occupancy and greater use of preferred accommodation across the portfolio as well as increased government funding. Average total occupancy for the quarter was 98.1% (2006 – 95.6%), reflecting the ramp up of Brampton Meadows, Brampton Woods, Norfinch and Vaughan homes. Average preferred occupancy was 81.8% in the quarter (2006 – 78.3%).
With the annual maintenance program completed, Cardinal is expected to experience increased cash flow for the balance of the year as a result of higher electricity rates compared with 2006. This will be partially offset by higher gas transportation costs. Cardinal's maintenance and capital expenditure requirements are fully funded by established reserve accounts.
Leisureworld's performance is expected to remain strong as occupancy continues to improve and as Leisureworld continues to execute its strategy to optimize preferred accommodation and provide high quality care and services to residents. For 2007, management expects that 18 long-term care ("LTC") homes will achieve the 97% annual occupancy threshold that is required for full funding. The remaining home may be eligible for funding at its actual occupancy rate plus 3% through a special program for homes located in regions with excess beds resulting from the government's 1998 initiative to increase the supply of LTC beds in the province. In addition, on July 3, 2007, Leisureworld completed its previously announced sale of Spencer House, which was closed at the time the new home in Orillia opened, realizing one-time net proceeds of $3.0 million. Leisureworld also expects to benefit from continuing increases in government funding in line with inflation. In April and July, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) increased funding to the three funding envelopes (nursing and personal care, programs and services, and accommodation, which includes food). On July 30, 2007, the MOHLTC announced a further increase in the daily food allowance effective September 1, 2007, followed by an announcement on July 31, 2007 of the MOHLTC's 10-year plan to redevelop 35,000 Class B and C homes across Ontario, commencing in 2008. This funding will enable Leisureworld to further enhance the quality and comfort of accommodation available to residents.
The Fund expects its acquisition of CPIF to be accretive to distributions per unit in the first year of combined operations. On an annualized basis, management expects gas cogeneration to account for approximately 49% of the Fund's distributable cash, wind to account for approximately 17%, hydro, approximately 11% and biomass, approximately 8%, with Leisureworld representing the balance of approximately 15%.
The Fund will hold a conference call to discuss the second quarter results on Thursday, August 9, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. ET. The conference call will be accessible via webcast (with accompanying slides) through the Fund's website at www.macquarie.com/mpt and by telephone at 416-641-6126 (Canada) or 1-866-542-4236 (North America). A replay of the call will be available until August 23, 2007 by dialling 416-695-5800 or 1-800-408-3053 and entering the passcode 3228442.
Certain statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements use such words as "may", "will", "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan" and other similar terminology. These statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: risks associated with the Fund's gas cogeneration, wind, hydro and biomass power generating assets and the power industry generally; risks associated with MPT's interest in Leisureworld and the long-term care sector; risks associated with the structure of MPT; risks associated with the acquisition of Clean Power Income Fund, including the possibility that the anticipated benefits from the acquisition cannot be fully realized; and risks associated with business, regulatory and economic conditions. The risks and uncertainties described above are not exhaustive and other events and risk factors including risk factors disclosed in MPT's filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements.


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ArtNowNY and The City Firm Present, "The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered"
ArtNowNY
548 West 28th Street, 646-535-6528
July 26 - September 8, 2012
Reception: Thursday, July 26, 6 - 9 PM
NEW YORK, July 18, 2012 — ArtNowNY and The City Firm are pleased to present The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered, an exhibition of work that traces the influence of Hip Hop on mainstream culture. Curated by Miz Metro, The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered is the official exhibition inspired by the full-length feature documentary film directed by Ice-T entitled, "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap". The exhibition will feature rare and never before seen photographs by legendary New York graffiti artist and photographer Edwin Sacasa AKA "Shirt King Phade" and master documentary photographer, Jamel Shabazz. The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered will also feature contemporary remixes of Phade's work by New York artist Ryan Keeley, behind the scenes shots from the filming of "The Art of Rap" by associate producer "Hen Gee", and a sound piece by Keith Shocklee of Bomb Squad featuring samples used for classic Public Enemy tracks. The opening reception for The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered will be held on Thursday, July 26, 2012 from 6 to 9pm. Wine will be provided by DiSalvo & Sons.
The photographic work for The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered unites the distinct creative visions of Phade and Shabazz who documented two sides of life at the center of Hip Hop's cultural genesis in 1980s East New York: Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx. Phade presents color photographs of the budding celebrities who would come to define the birth of Hip Hop, while Shabazz' black-and-white images documented the culture of the era as it was being defined. Whether subtly or overtly, from within the culture or as an observer of it, the work for this show combines two separate yet tangential perspectives that document how Hip Hop emerged to become a dominant force on fashion, music, art and mainstream culture.
Shot from 1981-1989 with a Yashica camera and color film, Phade's work captures the faces of Hip Hop's nascence from the inside, just as the genre was emerging. Of this work, Phade says:
"I caught these images by making everyone around me feel comfortable. The picture of Biz Markie and Fab Five Freddy is a slide I shot in 1989. It was a time that can never be visited again; a time when Hip Hop was young and defining the culture and the wardrobe was left to the graffiti artist searching for identity."
For his early work from 1980-1990, Jamel Shabazz shot with a Canon AE-1 camera with standard 50mm lens. His film of choice for his black and white images was Kodak Tri-x 400. A self-described "grass roots" photographer, Shabazz had this to say of his practice:
"The photographs I have been blessed to create both in this body of work and in general, are all part of a visual diary spanning over half of my life time. Since having this wonderful gift of vision and purpose, I feel duty bound to creating images that provoke thought and inspire creativity. More importantly, I feel obligated to use this great gift of sight, to contribute to the preservation of world history and culture, like so many documentarians before me."
Miz Metro, the curator of The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered, was interested in creating an exhibit that would express the innovative culture of hip-hop by allowing the viewer to explore different perspectives and participate in creating the narrative. Re-invention is a key theme in the history of hip-hop, seen in the sampling, remixing, street art, and fashion of the movement from its underground origins into the present. The work presented is accordingly multi-faceted. Phade created his work from within the subculture while Shabazz captures it from the outside. Ryan Keeley reinterprets Phade's photographs just like Keith Shocklee remixes a sample or a beat.
"Grandmaster Caz said, 'Hip-hop didn't invent anything…hip-hop re-invented everything.' _The Art of Rap: Remixed & Mastered is reinventing how art can be collected in a gallery setting, this exhibit invites the collector to sample from the different perspectives presented in the show. They are in the drivers seat, or in this case the DJ booth."_ — Miz Metro, curator
Phade is a legendary New York graffiti artist and photographer credited with creating the style that is popularly attributed to the early roots of the hip-hop movement. Along with his crew Shirt Kingz, he defined the aesthetic of early hip-hop culture, making custom clothing as part of the Shirt Kingz crew for pioneers like Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, and Jay-Z. For The Art of Rap, ArtNowNY presents a series of Phade's color photographs that preserve the iconic moments of the era. Phade founded and works closely with the arts education non-profit Unity Charity, and continues to write graffiti and produce murals to this day.
Jamel Shabazz is a fine art and fashion photographer and photojournalist who was born, raised, and currently live and works in Brooklyn, NY. Drawing from a 30 year career in fashion, fine art, and photojournalism, Shabazz' work is an extensive visual narrative that falls under the category of seconds of his life. His work has been featured in The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Kravets / Wehby Gallery, and The Powerhouse Gallery in New York, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, and internationally at La Case Gallery in Milan and The Dadi Torjon Gallery in Buenos Aires. His group exhibitions in New York shows at MoCada, Prince Street Gallery, New York University, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Saatchi & Saatchi, as well as shows at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit and the Russell Simmons Estate in East Hampton. Shabazz also has been a guest artist at The Bronx Museum Teen Coucnil, The Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, The International Center for Photography, and The Studio Museum of Harlem.
Henry "HEN GEE" Garcia is the associate producer of The Art of Rap film, will present a series of images made during the production of the movie. These images bridge the gap between the history of hip-hop's beginnings and it's modern manifestations, and will include behind-the-scenes photos and footage, converting the back room of ArtNowNY into a VIP room for The Art of Rap. During the early-80s, Garcia put the West Coast rap scene on the map through his work with Ice-T, Kid Frost, and Evil E on the Electrobeat label. Still a dominant force in the entertainment industry, Garcia currently hosts "The New Show" in Los Angeles, interviewing celebrity guests that span the urban community.
Ryan Keeley is a New York based artist, designer and founder of The Keeley Gallery on the Bowery. For The Art of Rap, Keeley will utilize his printmaking skills to sample and "remix" selected photographs from the show. Keeley has developed an original printmaking technique by "hacking" large format printers to operate in uncommon ways, yielding a product that will bring a modern twist to these iconic photographs. Also each photograph will be brought to life by being printed on top of large "Street Distressed" canvas that Keeley took to the gritty avenues of NYC and used found natural elements and using the landscape to give them an urban decayed feel. Keeley's work has been shown in many galleries across the world as well as being featured in various commercial projects and marketing campaigns.
Keith Shocklee gained notoriety as an original member of Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad born, raised, and currently living in New York. As a pioneer of New York's hip-hop scene, Rolling Stone named Shocklee "one of the greatest producers in hip-hop". His numerous accomplishments as a producer include the groundbreaking albums It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Fear of a Black Planet, and co-producing Public Enemy's game-defining singles "Bring the Noise" and "Fight the Power". His sound piece for The Art of Rap uses samples of classic Public Enemy tracks, produced on his old sampling machine, along with newer creations from his work as a sonic artist and beat architect.
Miz Metro, aka Laura O'Reilly, is a native New Yorker, singer-sound-media artist, curator, and founder and CEO of creative consulting and management agency The City Firm. Under her alias "Miz Metro", Laura has curated and organized some of New York City's most prolific art exhibitions, music events & interactive parties. As the former director of downtown building developer Mike Namer's Gallery 151, Laura produced over 50 events and 20 art exhibits on the Bowery including signature shows such as TRASHION, Fab 5 Freddy: New York, New Work and the first ever WuTang brand art show. Laura also worked as the Associate Director of Kathy Grayson's The Hole.
ArtNowNY is an urban contemporary art gallery located in the Chelsea arts district of New York City. Founded by Joseph Gross in 2012, the gallery focuses on the representation of a diverse stable of emerging and established artists working in variant mediums and genres. With a curatorial program that highlights the contemporary experience of aggregate cultural influence, ArtNowNY speaks to the collector in everyone.
For Gallery Information Visit: www.ArtNowNY.com * About "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap"* Ice-T takes us on an intimate journey into the heart and soul of Hip-Hop with the legends of rap music. This performance documentary goes beyond the stardom and the bling, to explore what goes on inside the minds, and erupts from the lips, of the grandmasters of rap.
Recognized as the Godfather of Gangsta Rap, Ice-T is granted unparalleled access to the personal lives of the masters of this art form that he credits for saving his life. Interspersed with the performer's insightful, touching and often funny revelations are classic raps, freestyle rhymes and never before heard a capellas straight from the mouths of the creators. What emerges is a better understanding of, and a tribute to, an original American art form that brought poetry to a new generation.
For more information on The Art of Rap film & to find out what theatres it's playing in, visit: www.TheArtOfRap.com


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With Birthday twist, TableApp eyes bigger slice of booking pie
By Gabey Goh October 1, 2013
Restaurant booking app that is social media-fuelled to help you remember and celebrate special occasions
TableApp also looking for investors to help fund expansion and accelerate its product development plans
IT can be a pretty tough sell to both users and restaurants – why use your mobile app system for table reservations over the others already out in the market?
One startup's quest to answer that question in a meaningful way has sparked the launch of Birthday Dining, an offshoot offering by the team behind TableApp, an all-in-one restaurant reservation management system.
In an email interview with Digital News Asia (DNA), cofounder Benson Chang (pic) shared that the idea for the spinoff came from his own experiences in missing out on celebrating special occasions with friends and family.
"People can't remember every friend's birthday. For example, I usually see some birthday wish on my friend's Facebook wall, then only remember that day was his or her birthday. It would be too late to ask my friends to come out for a birthday celebration on the same day.
"This is when the Birthday Dining idea came out," he said.
The Birthday Dining app offers free online restaurant reservations for those wanting to celebrate special occasions. Users can import their friend list from Facebook, and the app will notify them when a friend's birthday is coming up.
They are also able to enjoy exclusive birthday offers from participating merchants, cutting down on the need to search around for a place to celebrate.
Chang claimed that since the Birthday App's launch in mid-August, it has been downloaded over 5,000 times across the iOS and Android platforms, and has over 4,000 registered members.
Birthday App leverages on TableApp's reservation system structure, which touts instant confirmation as opposed to other competing systems such as Oklah or Kaimen that require manual confirmation before a booking is confirmed.
Work on developing TableApp began in March of this year and took three months before the first version was ready in May and shipped to merchants in June.
Chang said that the decision to build the system came when he and his team noticed a gap in online systems geared toward specific industries.
"There is online air ticketing, online movie ticketing and online hotel reservation systems, but we noticed that no one has done an online reservation system with instant confirmation for restaurants in Malaysia.
"So we thought, why not we create one to benefit both diners and restaurateurs?" he said.
Chang said that the system remains an on-going development; with the team working on improving and modifying it to make it a more solid product based on feedback from its merchant base.
TableApp aims to be a comprehensive system for restaurateurs to manage all their bookings from all possible touch points with diners.
For restaurants signed up with the system, customers will be able to reserve a table via their channel of choice, be it via the TableApp mobile app or website, a TableApp plugin on the restaurant's own website, or the company's Facebook page.
Phone bookings can also be managed and input into the reservation system to ensure no overlaps with bookings are made.
TableApp also has partnerships via its affiliate programme with food websites such as MalaysiaMostWanted, GoMakan and JoinMe in addition to various food bloggers who embed the company's plugin on their sites, acting as another referral channel for reservations.
From these channels, all the data is input into TableApp's servers, which track the situation of each member restaurant and are able to assess how many tables are still available for online booking.
"This way, when diners make a reservation via TableApp, they can get confirmation in real time," Chang said.
TableApp is targeted at mid- to high-end restaurants, and Chang claimed that the company has already signed up 42 restaurants within Kuala Lumpur as clients.
These include Shook!, Enak KL and Fisherman's Cove at Starhill Gallery, Renoma Cafe Gallery at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Bijan Restaurant at Jalan Ceylon, Pampas Grill and Bar at Changkat Bukit Bintang and Rama V Fine Thai Cuisine at Jalan U Thant.
As at the end of September, TableApp currently has 3,604 restaurant patrons who regularly use its service, he added.
In terms of a business model, the company charges restaurants a monthly maintenance fee and takes a small commission per pax for every successful reservation.
"In addition, we also plan to help merchants to sell vouchers for non-peak hours to help fill up the empty tables," Chang said.
Adding seats to the table
Chang boasts a Master's degree in Computer Science and Information Technology from the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, where he met his cofounder David Lin (pic).
Before founding TableApp, Chang worked as an iOS developer for a year and after Lin completed his compulsory military service in Taiwan and moved to Malaysia, work began on their fledgling venture.
"David [Lin] is both front-end and back-end web developer. After some discussion, we decided to separate the job scopes, with him taking care of all the technical development and me handling the marketing and sales functions," said Chang.
The duo got its initial funding via Chang's brother and friends, in exchange for a 20% stake in the company; the two cofounders still retain 80% of the company.
Chang said the company is also looking for interested investors, to fund expansion and accelerate its product development plans.
The main mission for the team now is to increase its restaurant base, with a target to have 100 merchants in the list by the end of this year and 200 more merchants by the end of 2014.
"We also plan to build a strong business development team and improve our leadership to manage the team," he added.
When asked what the biggest challenge has been to date, Chang admitted that it was in finding a repeatable and scalable business model.
"We built something people don't need several times before, and of course it failed. Luckily we failed fast and learned fast from all the failures, and we finally pivoted to our current service," he said.
Another challenge lies in securing willing merchants. As a platform play, TableApp needed to sign up more merchants in order to attract more users.
"Of course, we got declined many times at the beginning, but after we signed few merchants, the success rate increased when we talked to new merchants," Chang said.
When asked what keeps him motivated, Chang had this to share: "I believe in one sentence – every 'no' gets me closer to a 'yes'."
For more information about TableApp and Birthday App, click here.
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TableApp
Benson Chang
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Gabey Goh
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