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Author James Francis Johnson
72 Virgins
American Hunger
Ancient Literature
bad writers
Black Civil Rights
Bob Boone
Charlie's Angels
cigarette couple
Clarias batrachus
Cosmo Kramer
Death Camps
Diff'rent Strokes
Eldridge Cleaver
Elmer Fudd
Farrah Fawsett
H.L. Mencken
Hamas Martyr
Harvard Square
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Joe Zook
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Nymphomaniacs
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Pickup Truck Driver
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The '80 Phillies
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The Education of a White Boy
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Thomas Magnum
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Training the core
TV Character Obituaries
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Walking Catfish
H.L. Mencken, Literary Studies, The American Mercury, The Baltimore Sun, The Smart Set
H.L. Mencken: The Great Prose Stylist
The greatest American prose stylist of the twentieth century, if alive today, would be as anonymous as the author of the hieroglyphics at Giza, with one difference: at least the guy chiseling on the Sphinx was allowed a public forum, whereas our guy would never even get into print. If a modern publication ever did allot him a column, it would not be long before he was hanging from the end of a noose, or at least be on the receiving end of a cable TV pundit's wagging finger. In fact, he always thought that a public execution awaited him even back in the less politically correct times of the Twenties. His name was Henry Louis Mencken.
H.L. Mencken expressed his controversial opinions for fifty very public years as a literary and political critic, as an expert on the American language and as a memoirist, all in prose so outrageous as to be satirical-proof. Walter Lippmann put it best: "He calls you a swine, and an imbecile, and he increases your will to live." One of our most perceptive literary critics, the late Joseph Wood Krutch, when all was said and done, cast his vote with Mencken as "the best prose written in America during the twentieth century." Robert Frost seconded that motion. It was a style so original that, however much studied and taken apart, one finds it hard to reassemble it to be used in one's own literary arsenal. There are many who have tried to duplicate Mencken prose, but all have had to settle with an approximation. For instance, his two primary imitators today are P.J. O'Rourke and Joe Queenan, and even they sometimes have to give a direct quote from Mencken, as if, in the end, they have no choice but to throw up their hands and defer to the master.
He was the editor of two influential magazines, The Smart Set and The American Mercury, where he was able to publish writers of a similar bent, though less eloquent. That bent was skeptical, unsentimental and, above all, rife with humor. There was no absolute truth (only fools believed in its existence), and thus the game was a matter of style. Criticism should be interesting, not so much right, since he "was skeptic enough to believe that some other fellow's notions may be quite as sound as my own," as "there is always a certain amount of truth in every attack, however dishonest."
H.L. Mencken was a man who, even when young, appeared to be fifty years old. His hair was parted in the middle to form a parenthetical set of cowlicks. He had light blue eyes situated above bags with enough adipose tissue to keep the fat lady at the circus in business till the next show in Des Moines. He was a hearty drinker and eater of Germanic blood food, especially on Saturday nights, with the resulting florid countenance. He had the large ears of a World War II veteran staggering along in a Memorial Day parade. His physique was more Humpty Dumpy than Herculean, the result of a lifetime of sitting at a desk. He was a raging hypochondriac, though a true victim of hay fever each year from August to October, during which time his blue eyes turned a miserable red. He had the aspect of a self-satisfied old German burgher forever amused by the simian masses.
He was born in 1880 in Baltimore and lived there all his life until his death in 1956. His grandfather had immigrated to Maryland from Germany and started a tobacco company, which Mencken's father inherited with the intention of handing it down to Henry. But the heir apparent seemed more interested in books, starting at the age of nine when he first read Huckleberry Finn – a book he would remain loyal to all his life, taking it off the shelf once a year for the next fifty years. Papa Mencken became alarmed by this artistic trend in young Henry and so sent him to the local YMCA for physical training, which had the opposite effect of making the future Henry despise "all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense." Dad then enrolled him at the Polytechnic Institute for scientific training, where he finished number one in his class. In secret, he continued to dream of a literary career.
At eighteen, one day after burying his father and, with him, the obligation to join the family cigar business, he got a job at the Morning Herald. His first published sentence was simple and to the point, setting the tone for his subsequent career: "A horse, a buggy and several sets of harness, valued in all at about $250, were stolen last night from the stable of Howard Quinlan, near Kingsville." He would remain a working newspaperman in Baltimore until his last piece appeared in The Sun in 1948.
If the whaling industry served as Herman Melville's Harvard and Yale, then the same can be said of Mencken and his first "three gaudy and gorgeous years" in the newspaper trade. When he was not "covering Aframerican razor-parties," there were the political high jinks that were forever going on at City Hall. He saw his first hanging just six months into the job, and what is more, "a hanging of the very first chop." Then there was his stint as the paper's dramatic critic, opening up another world, one that ran the gamut between competent artistry and straight up charlatanism. He became acquainted with every stratum of society, drinking one night with the town's elite and the next with alcoholic pressmen.
Just as whaling is romantic and instructive as long as it is done when young, so Mencken was smart enough to get off the city beat at twenty-two and move into the editorial side of the business. At twenty-four, he was the youngest managing editor in the country. Meanwhile, he was striking out in other directions as an author. His first book was a study on the playwright George Bernard Shaw, and his second, at the age of twenty-six, on Nietzsche. It was the research and thinking that went into the latter book that would solidify the Mencken style and the ideas that would animate all of Mencken's future work. Mencken's take on Nietzsche was that ethical systems are created by people, not gods, to rationalize short-term contingencies, which then outlive their usefulness by becoming religious institutions. Christianity was a religion for slaves to help them feel right about their condition. Now that slave mentality is the cornerstone of America, the strongest and richest nation in the world. Life should not be lived in faraway dreams, but faced head on with no delusions, as a man. People in this country wish for security first and freedom second, being that "liberty puts them on their own, and so exposes them to the natural consequences of their congenital stupidity and incompetence." To Mencken, aristocracy is natural to man, as some men are better than others – a fact – and thus the elite should be encouraged to flex their power and talent, not be dragged down by Mr. Average Democratic Man.
During World War I, Mencken got a first-hand (and bitter) taste of censorship. He hated the idea of the Christian Crusader of a U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson, leading the nation into a fight that was none of our business, and all to save the world for democracy. Also, it was his beloved Germany, the land that spawned Goethe, Beethoven and Nietzsche that was being promoted as the agent of evil, when England was the most sadistic imperialist power since Rome after Marcus Aurelius. Thus the democratic newspaper world shut him down for the duration of the conflict. That is when he put the time to good use and brought out his first edition of The American Language. This would grow over the years to be the main authority on how the English tongue evolved on our side of the Atlantic to become, in some instances, an almost different idiom.
Then, after Versailles, it was back to attacking the American booboisie – and with a vengeance. In 1924, he started his own magazine, The American Mercury, and was its editor and main contributor until 1933. This was the Mencken era when Lippmann called him "the most powerful personal influence on this whole generation of educated people." Hemingway, in The Sun Also Rises, fretted that so "many young men get their likes and dislikes from Mencken." Edition after edition, Mencken rained down upon the republic his unfavorable and stinging opinions concerning Methodists and their love child, Prohibition. His influence began to wan with the ascension of FDR and the end of Prohibition, and then it was back to working on The American Language. There also followed, between 1939 and 1943 during another bout of censorship for his anti-British views, his Days books, three collections of biographical sketches that are considered masterpieces of the genre.
The one constant throughout his adult life, from 1902 to 1950, was the Saturday Night Club. Mencken was an amateur musician, a piano player, who, at the age of twenty-two, began getting together with friends of the same inclination to make music and to afterward repair to the lounge to drink beer. In time, more and more guys began showing up with the instrument of their choice in hand until this weekly event became an institution, a time when professional men could reach catharsis. In the middle of a certain naughty song — while hammered out of their minds — they would yell out the clinching refrain: "Cried the eunuchs, Give us balls!"
One of the reasons that Mencken would now be a voice heard only within his own mind was that he had no problem criticizing three of the major grievance mobs now combing the political hills of America: minorities, women and gays. Blacks would be calling for retribution because Mencken used terms like "Aframerican razor-parties." Jewish people would be sticking the label of anti-Semite on every inch of his body and thus making him a journalistic pariah for commenting on the Jewish boys from his youth in Baltimore who, "in that innocent era, were still palpably and unashamedly Jews, with Hittite noses, curly hair, and such given names as Aaron, Leon, Samuel and Isaac." Or imagine the uproar from the ladies on reading Mencken claim that women "take a heavy, unhealthy pleasure in suffering; they like to picture themselves as slaughtered saints." – or that love "is the delusion that one woman differs from another." Then there would be the gay marriage fans hurling bile at Mencken for his getting straight to the point about his "loathing for homos…"
These utterances would perhaps have made him at least popular with the conservative majority were it not for the fact that he was much more biting — if not contemptuous of — American patriots, Prohibition era Rush Limbaughs and democratic man in general. There can be no other inference to be drawn when reading that "the United States is essentially a commonwealth of third-rate men." – or that, far from this being the home of the brave, "an American army fairly representing the American people, if it ever meets another army of anything remotely resembling like strength, will be defeated, and that defeat will be indistinguishable from rout." The average American is only "fit for lynching-bees and heretic hunts, but he is not fit for tight corners and desperate odds." George Bush would be lopping him with the Axis of Evil. As for democracy, it "is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." – it is "a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses." — which helps explain why "W" was ever allowed to become president in the first place. He even went so far as to promote monarchy as a better system, since born aristocrats would "not have to grimace and cavort before the mob in order to get and hold their offices."
The extreme rightwing would be even more ready to stand outside his row home at 1524 Hollis Street with torches and rope. To Mencken, such groups as the KKK were so much "wizards, goblins, mastodons and imperial duodenums," a club that was just another "device for organizing inferiorities into a mystical superiority." He relegated the entire South to "an almost complete blank" in terms of culture, calling it the "Sahara of the Bozart," where the people are "imitative…cheap, ignorant, almost idiotic" and regard life through the narrow prism of "moral certainties," not as the "agreeable adventure" it is to a healthy, skeptical man. The Arkansas Senate twice passed a resolution calling for Mencken to be deported from the country.
As to the American farmer, the sacred cow of hardcore Republicanism, Mencken reserved his heaviest arsenal. He called our average tiller of the land, with his "dung-fork" glittering in the sun, "grasping, selfish and dishonest," a "prehensile moron," who took full advantage of his immunity from any kind of criticism to receive every tax break and government handout known in a democratic society, and never, unlike the occasional CEO, being indicted on such large-scale theft.
In today's America, Mencken would not even be able to find refuge in academia, being that he would sooner hug a politician than join the staff of a college. To him, a professor was someone "devoted to diluting and retailing the ideas of his superiors," a man who was "not an artist, but almost the antithesis of an artist. He is learned, he is sober, he is painstaking and accurate – but he is as hollow as a jug." Every Mencken idea started with his knowledge of human nature, which was gleaned not from books on psychology, but rather from those first three years as a reporter in Baltimore. Thus he could no more footnote one of his generalizations than write a stale sentence, both of which would have disqualified him from tenure at a university. Yet his The American Language is a masterpiece in academic scholarship, heavy with footnotes on the objective roots of the native idiom.
In modern America, what would perhaps have united blacks, Jews, woman, patriots, farmers, professors, KKKers, politicians in one big grievance block against Mencken was his opposition to all religion. Amidst the present din of "God Bless Americas," there would be Mencken, in all his Nietzschian iconoclasm, calling every last good and religious person a child ruled by fear, a slave, a believer in ghosts, someone "devoid of sense and indifferent to common honesty," with "the delusion that the law of the survival of the fittest may be repealed by an act of Congress." Imagine the relief Louis Farrakhan and Sam Brownback would feel to be for once in the same camp, strong in their denunciation of this godless man with the German name. They would work to remove him from the public forum, to silence him so that he would never again air such despicable opinions – that is, if he did not first step forth and apologize for his words.
But Mencken would never apologize for free speech. If there was one category in which to fit Mencken, it was that of an extreme libertarian. His credo was that he should be permitted to write or say what he wanted, and so should everyone else, including his worst detractors, "anarchists, Socialists and other such fools." In fact, in his Monday column, he would on occasion give space to the most virulent of the things written about him, whether from noted public figures or common folk sending letters to the paper. At one point, in 1928, he collected the best (or worst) of the lot and had them published in a book called Menckeniana: A Schimflexicon. His one rule was that debate be conducted in a civilized manner. Thus a man should "fight in the manner of a gentleman fighting a duel, not in that of a longshoreman cleaning out a waterfront saloon. That is to say, he carefully guards his amour proper by assuming that his opponent is as decent a man as he is, and just as honest – and perhaps, after all, right." That was free speech.
His vibrant writing style was a direct result of making hard and direct hits – no yawning qualifiers. Today, Mencken would consider it bad craftsmanship, to say nothing of timid presentation, to preface every statement with a solemn bow to the heroes of 9/11. Journalism 101: say what you mean, and get there via the shortest route. To cut through the cant and cliché that grows like genetically engineered ivy throughout the modern media, it would be necessary to be blunt and use the true meaning of words, regardless of how they may offend this or that splinter group. It is the reader's job to sift for hidden meaning and intention, and if he disagrees, then he is entitled to answer in language just as concrete. Only in this way does an issue reach clarification.
The way Mencken followed an idea to its end, with no remorse, though it often led to unflattering comments on blacks, Jews and women, also resulted in flat out praise for these groups. The last article that Mencken ever wrote was on the injustice of the Baltimore public tennis courts being closed to black citizens. He once called out the elitist Baltimore City Club because it had ejected the black poet Countee Cullen from a hotel due to skin color. In The American Mercury, he gave a national forum to black writers like James Weldon Johnson and George Schuyler. The great black novelist Richard Wright was inspired to overcome Jim Crow on the day he came upon a Southern editorial calling for the death of one H.L. Mencken. The seventeen-year-old Wright thought that anyone so denounced by the white man must be a champion of the Negro. This prompted him to seek out Mencken's books, which, in turn, guided him to the NaturalistSchool of literature and onward to a new and better life.
The cliché that "some of my best friends are Jews" really did apply to Mencken, as the two most important male relationships in his life were with Jean Nathan (his longtime co-editor and literary twin) and Alfred Knopf (whom he helped get started as a publisher). More important, he was urging democratic nations as early as 1938 to give refuge to Jews from Nazi Germany – this at a time when FDR would not even acknowledge the problem.
As for women, he once wrote a book entitled In Defense of Women. The brunt of it was that women are harder to fool than their "weak, silly and knavish" male counterparts, and this has to do with a woman's "superior intelligence." It was Mencken who championed the young lady novelist Willa Cather and helped bring her to international renown. He was a noted bachelor who, at fifty, surprised the world by marrying Sara Haardt, also a writer of superior talent (no domestic slave for this gentleman), a woman he worshipped and nursed and who died five years later. But all this was just one more facet to a brilliant, complex mind – and nothing confuses modern man more than the gray areas of a man's gray matter.
Two of Mencken's immediate disciples, Gore Vidal and Alistair Cooke, grew into old men allowed to maintain their contrary stance for the same reason that senile Uncle Frankie can voice his pigheaded opinions at family reunions – they became institutions rendered harmless through time. Both men, in their dotage, agreed that if the master were still alive and writing, he would not be permitted the same respect. Vidal said that, in politics, Mencken "is often right but seldom correct by today's stern standards." Vidal lamented that publications had begun calling Mencken to the carpet for things he confided in his diary ("HE DID NOT LIKE JEWS"). We live in an era when "private irritability is of no consequence when compared to what really matters, public action." Cooke believed that since Mencken had the unique talent for pissing off both sides of any issue, nobody "knew where to have him." This was bad enough in the open society of the Twenties, but now such all-purpose thrashing would be taboo in the corporate-owned media. What demographic would be left to foot the advertising bill?
The newest biography of Mencken is by Washington Post journalist, Terry Teachout. He says that those who comment nowadays on Mencken fall into two camps, either "frankly hostile critics or those admirers who find his philosophy sympathetic but shrink (often quite properly) from its implications in the real world of action and ideas." He says further that however much the long dead Mencken has faded into becoming a classic, "he has not lost his sharp corners and jagged edges." In other words, one of my best friends is Henry Mencken, but…he will not be writing for my publication…and I hope he understands, what with our not wanting to upset the Moral Majority, the NAACP and Nashville.
In 1948, Mencken suffered the ultimate cruelty – a cerebral thrombosis that left him unable to read or write. But he stuck to his principle to treat life with serene joviality and never uttered a word of bitterness. He would even provoke conjecture among friends about the exact day when he would sprout wings. That day came in 1956. Everyone could finally agree on one thing – that there would never again be another H.L. Mencken.
Mencken, in a 1921 issue of The Smart Set, had written his own epitaph. It reveals him in all his mischievous generosity, and reads: "If, after I depart this vale, you ever have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl." On another occasion, when asked what he would do if there really was a God and, worse, a Judgment Day, Mencken answered that he would stand before the Throne, toss back his head, and say: "Gentlemen, I was wrong!"
(Check out my website: http://www.authorjamesfjohnson.com)
From → H.L. Mencken, Literary Criticism, The American Mercury, The Smart Set
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Actresses Must Be Picky About With Whom They Work to Survive in Movie Industry
Actresses need to be pickier than men about with whom they work if they want to survive in the movie industry, suggests a new study.
"My research indicates that women in the film industry suffer a lack of access to future career opportunities when they tend to work with people who have collaborated frequently in the past," said Mark Lutter, lead author of the study and head of the "Transnational Diffusion of Innovation" Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in Germany.
ASA Files Amicus Brief With Supreme Court in Support of Marriage Equality
The American Sociological Association (ASA) filed an amicus curiae brief yesterday with the Supreme Court of the United States in the same-sex marriage cases currently pending before the court. The ASA's brief highlights the social science consensus that children raised by same-sex parents fare just as well as children raised by different-sex parents.
Study Suggests Earning a College Degree Before, But Not After, Getting Married Protects Against Obesity
People who earn a college degree before getting married are much less likely to become obese than those who graduate from college after getting married, according to a new study.
Couples That Split Childcare Duties Have Higher Quality Relationships and Sex Lives
Heterosexual couples that split childcare duties have higher quality relationships and sex lives than those who don't, according to new research that will be presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
Majority of Young Women and Men Prefer Egalitarian Relationships, Study Shows
The majority of young women and men today would prefer an egalitarian relationship in which work and family responsibilities are shared equally between partners if that possibility were available to them, according to a new study from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Keep Your Enemies Close? Study Finds Greater Proximity to Opponents Leads to More Polarization
Encouraging adversaries to have more interpersonal contact to find common ground may work on occasion, but not necessarily in the U.S. Senate, according to new research.
People More Likely to Cheat as They Become More Economically Dependent on Their Spouses
Both men and women are more likely to cheat on their spouses the more economically dependent they are on them, according to a new study.
"You would think that people would not want to 'bite the hand that feeds them' so to speak, but that is not what my research shows," said study author Christin L. Munsch, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut. "Instead, the findings indicate people like feeling relatively equal in their relationships. People don't like to feel dependent on another person."
Study Uses Internet and Social Media to Show How Fracking Documentary Influenced Public Perception and Political Change
Social scientists have long argued documentary films are powerful tools for social change.
But a University of Iowa (UI) sociologist and his co-researchers are the first to use the Internet and social media to systematically show how a documentary film reshaped public perception and ultimately led to municipal bans on hydraulic fracking.
Sociologists Available to Discuss Same-Sex Marriage
With the Supreme Court of the United States expected to rule imminently in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which addresses the matter of marriage equality and the constitutional status of state bans on same-sex marriage, the American Sociological Association (ASA) has a number of sociologists available to discuss same-sex marriage.
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The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee passed the "Financial Technology Protection Act." The purpose of the Act is to fight the illicit use of digital currencies, including in terrorist financing.
establish a FinTech Leadership in Innovation and Financial Intelligence Program to foster the development of tools and programs to combat terrorist and illicit use of digital currencies.


We're on a mission at Scrap Car Network. A mission to scrap your car while giving you the best price, a reliable service and all at the minimum amount of hassle for you, the customer. We've been going for over 40 years and so far, we're doing pretty well with that mission. If it was made into a film franchise, it would be called something like Mission Entirely Possible: Mostly Due To The Unique Structure Of The Business And Its Many Other USPs. We're not entirely sure who would watch it.
Hopefully, though, it would pique your interest on how exactly it is that consistently deliver such a service to you. You need only read on to find out!
We're pretty proud of our network, though we do say so ourselves. It spans across the UK, making it one of the biggest of its kind, and is purely made up of Authorised Treatment Facilities – which means only those who have been approved and certified by the governmental Environment Agency, allowing us to guarantee reliability and quality at all times. What's more, our personal relationships with each of these dealers means that you can trust us to get the best deal for you.
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Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship Results: Ironman National
Roczen capped off a dominant, championship-winning season with his ninth moto sweep of 2016. Photo: Simon Cudby
The sun emerged just in time for the motos, but the track was still predominantly wet. Fresh off his second title in three years, Roczen put his Suzuki out front to start the opening 450 Class moto, claiming the holeshot ahead of the Autotrader/Monster Energy/Yamaha duo of Justin Barcia and Phil Nicoletti. Roczen and Barcia set an impressive pace on the opening lap and were able to open a small gap over the rest of the field. That put Nicoletti in a fight for third with Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin, with the two riders engaging in a spirited battle for the position until Musquin took over the spot on Lap 2.
Barcia was able to keep Roczen honest for a few laps, with just over a second separating to two. However, as the moto wore on the champ was slowly able to build on his advantage. Behind them, Musquin rode solidly in third for the majority of the moto, but just after the halfway point Monster Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac started to inch closer to the rear fender of his KTM-mounted rival. Tomac's use of outside lines allowed him to maintain momentum on the rough, slippery track and it ultimately carried him past Musquin. The Frenchman attempted to fight back and they raced side-by-side briefly until Tomac finally took over the spot on Lap 7. The Kawasaki rider maintained his hold on a podium position for two laps until a small crash allowed Musquin to reclaim the spot, with Tomac remounting in fourth. Tomac was able to recover from his misfortune and close back in on Musquin, taking advantage of a lapped rider to move back into third with two laps remaining.
Roczen led wire-to-wire to earn his 19th moto win of the season, crossing the line just over six seconds ahead of Barcia. Tomac rode to a resilient third-place finish, with Musquin fourth and Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing's Jason Anderson fifth in his first race back from injury.
In the final race of his successful 16-year career, BTO Sports/WPS/KTM's Andrew Short went out on a high note by grabbing the holeshot to start Moto 2, just ahead of Barcia and Tomac on a dry track. Barcia quickly overcame Short to take over the lead, bringing Roczen and Musquin along with him. A bobble slowed Barcia momentarily and allowed Roczen to dive to the inside and take over the lead. Barcia did all he could to keep Roczen within reach, but the Suzuki rider soon pulled away and never looked back, while Barcia asserted himself into second.
Musquin held onto third through the first half of the moto but was then forced to deal with a hard-charging Tomac, who started sixth. The Kawasaki rider closed in on his French counterpart and moved into third on Lap 5. Once in podium position he was able to pull away, while Musquin then battled with Anderson for fourth for several laps before ultimately securing the spot.
Roczen went on to lead every lap and took the checkered flag 19.7 seconds ahead of Barcia, who enjoyed his best race of the season. Tomac followed in third.
Roczen's 1-1 put him atop the standings for the ninth time this season and the 15th time in his 450 Class career, moving into a tie with legend Jeremy McGrath for eighth on the all-time wins list. He also became the first multi-time winner at Ironman Raceway, winning the inaugural race back in 2014.
"It ended up being a beautiful day today. It was a little sloppy in the morning but the track dried out all day. I got two awesome starts and just put in a good charge," said Roczen. "I went for another win because we wanted to finish the season off strong and not slack off. It was really tough to stay motivated, but I knew we had another race this week. I ultimately knew I would come here mentally ready and I couldn't be happier to end the season this way and move on to the offseason feeling like we did everything we came here to do this summer."
Barcia posted his single-best outing of the championship to earn back-to-back runner-up finishes to close out the season (2-2). Tomac rounded out the overall podium in third (3-3).
Roczen finished the season with an 86-point lead over Tomac in the final 450 Class standings. His 584 points is the fourth-highest point total a rider has achieved in the premier division in Pro Motocross history and is the most since 2008 when James Stewart earned 600 points during an undefeated season. Musquin wrapped up third in the final standings (-183).
The opening 250 Class moto got underway with Forkner racing to the holeshot ahead of Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM's Mitchell Oldenburg and newly crowned champion Cooper Webb aboard his Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha. Webb was able to make an early pass on Oldenburg to take over second, and as he looked to follow Forkner into a corner he abruptly lost momentum in a deep rut and tipped over, losing several positions. That allowed Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Joey Savatgy to move into third, with Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha's Alex Martin right behind. Webb completed the opening lap in 13th place.
A clear track proved to be a major advantage for Forkner, who established a comfortable lead after just one lap. Behind him, Martin was able to make the pass on Savatgy to take over second. However, they traded positions again on Lap 4 when a bobble by Martin allowed Savatgy to reclaim the position. By this time Forkner had moved out to a lead of more than 10 seconds, which would continue to grow as the moto wore on.
While the top three eventually settled into their positions, simply looking to make minimal mistakes in the tricky conditions, Webb was on a tear back to the front. After breaking back into the top 10 on Lap 1, Webb continued his upward progression and soon found himself in a battle for fifth on Lap 6. After passing two riders in one turn on Lap 9, Webb sat fourth and set his sights on his teammate Martin for third. He closed in on Martin in the late stages of the moto and as he attempted to take an inside line for the position, Webb's bike lost traction in the slippery conditions, which sent the champion flying into the ground. He was able to get back on the bike quickly and maintain his hold on fourth, but was forced to remove his goggles.
Out front, Forkner cruised to his second career moto win by nearly 29 seconds over Savatgy in second, while Martin survived Webb's late pressure to finish third. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Arnaud Tonus was able to take advantage of Webb's lack of goggles to make the pass for fourth on the final lap, with the champ rounding out the top five.
Forkner made it a clean sweep of the holeshots in Moto 2, edging out Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha's Aaron Plessinger, the defending race winner. Plessinger's momentum carried him into the lead, with Forkner second and Webb third. As the field jockeyed for position on the opening lap, Webb was shuffled back to fifth, with Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Adam Cianciarulo third and Martin fourth. A near crash slowed Plessinger's momentum on the opening lap, allowing Forkner to move into the lead once again. Not long after that Webb fought his way back into third, passing both Martin and Cianciarulo.
Forkner and Plessinger proceeded to pull away from their competitors, with Forkner securely in control despite Plessinger following just a few bike lengths back. As the leaders continued to pace one another, Star Racing teammates Webb and Martin suddenly found themselves in a battle for third after Webb crashed and lost all of the advantage he held over his teammate. Webb held Martin off and eventually pulled away again.
Out front, Plessinger was starting to close in on Forkner and apply pressure on the lead. As the pair crossed the finish line to complete Lap 8 Forkner crashed, allowing Plessinger to slip past and assume control of the lead. Forkner was able to get back on the bike in second, but the time he lost allowed Webb to challenge him for second. After initially holding off the champ, Forkner eventually lost the position on Lap 10.
Plessinger led the remainder of the race to earn his first moto win of the season at the track in which he broke through for his first career victory one year ago, crossing the line 12.7 seconds ahead of Webb. Forkner settled for third, but would end the afternoon on top.
With his 1-3 scores Forkner became the sixth different overall winner in the 250 Class this season and the 80th different winner in the history of the division. It's the third time this season a rider has broke through for the first overall win of his career and gives Ironman Raceway first-time event champions for back-to-back seasons.
"In the first moto I told myself not to look back because then I start thinking too much. I didn't [look back] until late and figured there's got to be someone behind me, but I was surprised to see I was up 23 seconds according to my mechanic. From there I just put it in cruise control and focused on hitting my lines," said Forkner, who finished the season with four consecutive podium efforts. "In the second moto I got a good start but Aaron [Plessinger] got by me. I just tried to follow him and he messed up, so I got by. He got close to me so I knew I had to try and get some breathing room, and I ended up going down. I had to ride the rest of the moto basically with one eye because I got some sweat on the inside of my goggles. Cooper [Webb] ended up getting by me and I didn't really put up a fight. I just put it in cruise control because I was pretty sure I got it [the overall]."
Star Yamaha teammates were locked in a three-way tie for second, with Plessinger's moto win ultimately landing him in the runner-up spot (8-1) followed by Webb in third (5-2). Martin's fourth-place finish in the final moto left him off the podium in fourth (3-4).
Webb finished the season with a 73-point lead over Martin in the final standings, with Martin earning a career-best result. Despite finishing ninth overall (2-34), Savatgy clinched third in the final standings for the second straight season (-112), just seven points ahead of Forkner in fourth.
The 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship will get underway next May. The 2017 schedule will be announced in the near future.
Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship
Ironman National
Ironman Raceway – Crawfordsville, Indiana
Round 12 of 12
450 Class Overall Results (Moto Finish)
Ken Roczen, Germany, Suzuki (1-1)
Justin Barcia, Monroe, N.Y., Yamaha (2-2)
Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Kawasaki (3-3)
Marvin Musquin, France, KTM (4-4)
Jason Anderson, Rio Rancho, N.M., Husqvarna (5-5)
Phil Nicoletti, Cohocton, N.Y., Yamaha (6-8)
Weston Peick, Menifee, Calif., Yamaha (8-7)
Matt Bisceglia, Tualatin, Ore., Suzuki (11-6)
Fredrik Noren, Sweden, Honda (9-9)
Benny Bloss, Oak Grove, Mo., KTM (7-11)
450 Class Championship Standings
Ken Roczen, Germany, Suzuki – 584
Eli Tomac, Cortez, Colo., Kawasaki – 498
Marvin Musquin, France, KTM – 401
Justin Barcia, Monroe, N.Y., Yamaha – 360
Phil Nicoletti, Cohocton, N.Y., Yamaha – 229
Benny Bloss, Oak Grove, Mo., KTM – 228
Christophe Pourcel, France, Husqvarna – 217
Weston Peick, Menifee, Calif., Yamaha – 197
Andrew Short, Colorado Springs, Colo., KTM – 197
Fredrik Noren, Sweden, Honda – 192
Austin Forkner, Richards, Mo., Kawasaki (1-3)
Aaron Plessinger, Hamilton, Ohio, Yamaha (8-1)
Cooper Webb, Newport, N.C., Yamaha (5-2)
Alex Martin, Millville, Minn., Yamaha (3-4)
Adam Cianciarulo, Port Orange, Fla., Kawasaki (6-5)
Arnaud Tonus, Switzerland, Kawasaki (4-9)
Mitchell Harrison, Brighton, Mich., Yamaha (10-6)
Mitchell Oldenburg, Alvord, Texas, KTM (7-13)
Joey Savatgy, Thomasville, Ga., Kawasaki (2-34)
Justin Hill, Yoncalla, Ore., KTM (15-7)
Cooper Webb, Newport, N.C., Yamaha – 495
Alex Martin, Millville, Minn., Yamaha – 422
Joey Savatgy, Thomasville, Ga., Kawasaki – 383
Austin Forkner, Richards, Mo., Kawasaki – 376
Aaron Plessinger, Hamilton, Ohio, Yamaha – 351
Jeremy Martin, Millville, Minn., Yamaha – 321
Zach Osborne, Abingdon, Va., Husqvarna – 312
Adam Cianciarulo, Port Orange, Fla., Kawasaki – 266
Arnaud Tonus, Switzerland, Kawasaki – 243
Mitchell Oldenburg, Alvord, Texas, KTM – 237
For information about the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, please visit ProMotocross.com.
Beauty or Abomination? MV Agusta Reveals F4Z
Does Your Motorcycle Listen to You? Kawasaki Developing Artificial Intelligence in Bikes.
anonymous: And I thought buying and…
DP: Side of anti-Harley sentiment, which…


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Sofa Cinema brings back a Milwaukee Film Festival favorite, 'The Donut King'
by Justin Barney
Published: 2020-11-11T10:53:18-06:00
Modified: 2020-11-11T10:53:21-06:00
We're 88Nine's Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film's Kpolly. We're buds, we like cinema — we're Cinebuds.
"The Donut King" was a runaway fan favorite at this year's Milwaukee Film Festival — so much so that The Oriental Theatre is bringing it back to their Sofa Cinema platform for all those who missed it or who want to watch it again, and there is good reason to do so.
"The Donut King" | Greenwich Entertainment
As a documentary it is successful because it combines a lot of things that would make for a great doc on it's own, but they are all part of one great story. It's one part American Dream. The Donut King himself is Ted Ngoy, a man who started with nothing and built a donut empire in LA in the 1970s. Because it is about donuts in LA it is also an informative foodie doc about a niche food subculture. And on top of that, it's a bit of a history of how America handles refugees and a history of Cambodia, where Ngoy came from. Because of this combination you get the story arc of a great rise and fall, an inspiration, the corruption of greed, a legacy that is still visible today, and a bunch of great facts. Who would have known that Duncan Donuts cannot break into Los Angeles because Cambodian run mom-and-pop donut shops rule the market?
It's informative, inspirational, tragic and very well done. In the podcast Kpolly goes into some kind of weird theory about Honeydip Donuts and a delivery man he had recently. I am not even touching that one here, and of course, we talk about what else we have been watching. Check the podcast below.
Like what you hear? Subscribe!
Get all of 88Nine's podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We've got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don't forget to check out our new podcast "By Every Measure," a six-part exploration of systemic racism in Milwaukee.
Support from our community makes stories like the one you just read possible. Make a gift to support the team behind the programming you use and enjoy!
88Nine Radio Milwaukee


Two bagels never looked so good.
Maria Sharapova advanced to her first U.S. Open Final, routing No. 1 ranked Amelie Mauresmo in yesterday's semis by posting book-ending 6-0 sets during a breakthrough, three-set triumph.
And despite the 6-0, 4-6, 6-0 rout, Sharapova is hungry for more.
"I'm not done yet," the 6-foot-2 blonde told the Ashe Stadium crowd.
Tonight's prime-time women's final is a delectable matchup, pitting the tour's glamour girl with the smoldering forehand/looks against the blue-collar Belgian baseliner and 2003 Open champion, Justine Henin-Hardenne. It will be ferocious forehand vs. ferocious forehand.
In the second set, a fan yelled out, "You're so pretty," in reference to Sharapova's popular new commercial, and Sharapova promptly bashed a swinging volley winner.
In posting her first victory ever against the French woman, Sharapova clobbered Mauresmo in the first and third sets in posting as lopsided a victory as a three-setter allows. Mauresmo notched just seven points in the third set.
Sharapova was 0-4 vs. Mauresmo and is 1-4 vs. Henin-Hardenne, losing the last four meetings.
Henin-Hardenne survived a horrid first set in outlasting up-and-comer Jelena Jankovic in a three-set win.
Sharapova supports the women's final under the stars. She gets another opportunity to wear that black Audrey Hepburn dress, with the collared crystals that's drawn raves.
There's a bit of jealousy among the women's tour at the attention and flood of endorsements Sharapova, 19, has received despite winning just one Grand Slam title. Since winning the 2004 Wimbledon, she hadn't been past a Grand Slam semifinal until yesterday.
Mauresmo, the Australian and Wimbledon champion, was stunningly tight at the outset, hitting stuff long or wide, unable to control the wind. She got broken three times, mis-hitting an inordinate number of balls. The first set was over in 24 minutes.
Mauresmo settled down in the second set, breaking Sharapova at 5-4 to close the set, as the decibel levels of Sharapova's grunts soared to a crescendo, prompting giggling from the crowd.
"Even when I won the second, I didn't feel things were going the way I want to," Mauresmo said.
Mauresmo melted down again. To start the third, she banged two consecutive forehands into the net, getting broken in the first game and the second collapse was on.
Smelling blood, Sharapova broke her again to go up 3-0. Mauresmo sliced an awful backhand drop shot into the net and then outlasted Mauresmo on a marathon baseline rally to secure the game. Sharapova broke Mauresmo at love to go up 5-0 with a bullet backhand down the line, and moments later Sharapova lifted her arms in joy.
Justine Henin-Hardenne (2), Belgium, def. Jelena Jankovic (19), Serbia, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
Maria Sharapova (3), Russia, def. Amelie Mauresmo (1), France, 6-0, 4-6, 6-0.
Martina Navratilova and Bob Bryan (5), United States, def. Meghann Shaughnessy and Justin Gimelstob, United States, walkover.


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Q: Jquery form field masking with default value that doesn't match the mask? Does anyone know of a form field masking plugin or script that allows the field to have a default value that doesn't match the mask?
For example, a text field that says "Date of Birth" initially. When you click in it, "Date of Birth" disappears, and it says "mm/dd/yyyy", which fills in as you type, like "12/21/1970".
I've written a script that will show/clear the default value, and I've found plugins that will allow masking, but I'm not sure how to combine the two.

A: This plugin ->
http://digitalbush.com/projects/masked-input-plugin/
And you can do
$(function(){
    $("#product").mask("99/99/9999",{placeholder:"Whatever value I want"});
});

A: You would use a placeholder (if you're using bootstrap)
add placeholder="XXXX" as a clause in your input statement.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Project AIR Status Review
Stay Informed: Project Air 2021
11th March 2022: Please note that due to the current conflict in Ukraine, data relating to the status of projects AIR 1-2-3 is currently not up-to-date. Please contact your account manager for further information relating to open and future orders.
Weidmann Electrical Technology has been in the business of electrical insulation for more than 140 years. For a company to successfully exist for this length of time requires determination, a strong focus on quality, and of course the ability to continually improve and adapt to market conditions in order to remain competitive.
The globalization of our industry drives the need for our customers to not only deliver high quality products, but also deliver at a highly competitive price and terms. In order to ensure that we as a key industry supplier can remain competitive, and deliver the same high quality products as you have come to expect from Weidmann, we are currently investing in the relocation of a number of our Swiss production lines.
Relocating certain production lines from Switzerland to other plants not only provides us with the opportunity to increase our competitiveness through modernizing our equipment and approach, it also presents us with an opportunity to improve and increase our capabilities to serve you better in the future.
The investment we make today in new production lines will enable us to meet the future demand of our customers, at a competitive price, and with new processes, improved supply and quality.
Project Status: Hold & Protect / Progressing
Active Projects: 3/3
Completed Projects: 1/3
Summary of current project status:
What does Hold & Protect mean?
As we progress through the project, at critical milestones we assess the risk of the next key actions and the potential they have to impact customers and supply. If we deem the risk that customers will be affected is high, we reserve the right at these times to initiate Hold & Protect to pause certain elements of the project.
Air 1 (block one):
– Pre-production material: The build up of stock in Ennenda continues (see Air 1, Block 2)
– Dismantling 1st Press: Complete.
– Transfer equipment (1st press): Complete
– Assembly of 1st Pagnoni press in Malyn facility: Complete.
– The press is currently undergoing test and verification as part of our internal equipment and process release: In progress*
* Please note that due to issues with the Automatic Press Protocols, we are currently experiencing a 2-week delay in the test and verification stage. The Automatic Press Protocol issue was identified in initial test production runs, the protocols are currently being amended/corrected to ensure stable, reliable adherence to the Weidmann internal quality standard for the material produced. Please note that this delay does not impact any current customer orders.
Air 1 (block two):
– Preparation for the dismantling of Press 2 remains in Hold & Protect stage. Due to high customer loading in 2022, the second Pagnoni press will continue to operate in Ennenda, Switzerland. A further review of the Hold & Protect status will be conducted in Q2 2022.
– Production of stock material continues in Ennenda, Switzerland (Bell press material).
Air 1 (block three):
– Hypercare: Throughout the Air project blocks 1 & 2, Press 3 will remain operational in Ennenda, Switzerland until the successful commissioning of Press 1 & 2 in Malyn to ensure uninterrupted production. The Hypercare phase will continue until further notice due to the Hold & Protect status of block 2.
Air 2 Completed:
– Preparation & Construction: The renovation of existing facilities is completed.
– Training (MLE and W-LE): Completed
– Rapperswil, Switzerland employees are now deployed to Malyn to support the initial production runs and finalize any remaining training requirements: Completed
Commercial orders are now being processed in Malyn, Ukraine.
Air 3 (block one) Completed:
– Barrier-Board and Electrode transfer is completed.
– First production units have successfully passed internal testing in Rapperswil, Switzerland and shipped/received by customers.
– On schedule, preparation and training are currently ongoing.
If you have a specific question or require support relating to this project, please click here or alternatively contact your account manager.


Lüst, D., & Theisen, S. (1989). Lectures on string theory. Berlin [u.a.]: Springer.
Abstract: The book presents an extended version of the lectures on string theory which were given by the authors in 1987-1988 at the Max-Planck Institut für Physik und Astrophysik in Munich. It can be considered as an introduction to the current string theory which could achieve a unification of gravitation with all other interactions in the frames of quantized field theory. The present lecture notes are intended mainly to provide some of the tools and first of all the conformal invariance of the field theory which are necessary for the construction of four- dimensional (heterotic) string theories. One of such constructions, namely the covariant lattice four-dimensional theory, is discussed in detail. \par Contents: the classical and quantized bosonic string; introduction to conformal field theory; reparametrization ghosts and BRST quantization; global aspects of string perturbation theory and Riemann surfaces; the classical and quantized closed fermionic string; spin structures and superstring partition function; toroidal compactification of the closed bosonic string - 10-dimensional heterotic string; lattices and Kac-Moody algebras in conformal field theory; superconformal field theory; bosonization of the fermionic string - covariant lattices; heterotic strings in ten and four dimensions; low energy field theory.


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stephanie versus the lambassadors; or, why lee lin chin deserves better
On January 12, 2016 January 12, 2016 By StephanieIn australia
Lee Lin Chin is a goddamn national hero and an aspiration to Azn-Australian girls, and has been my whole life, and I can't believe it's come to this.
This post is the first in a series of Invasion Day posts that No Award will be running this month. (The rest will be more Indigenous-focused than this one, I swear.)
In the lead up to Invasion Day, we find that Lee Lin Chin promises to rescue expats from lambless Australia Day in new ad.
In an interview with news.com.au, Kekovich said he wanted to keep the conversation around Australia Day free from politics.
"At the end of the day, Australia Day is about a bunch of people coming together around a barbecue, over some lamb, taking a deep breath, and treating people the way you'd like to be treated."
UGH. Wow.
FIRST, and I can't BELIEVE this is where we are here in the year of our potato 2016, but to appropriate an Indigenous Australian symbol (THE BOOMERANG) to talk about using an exotic, imported animal to "celebrate" Invasion Day is a terrible thing. At its least, it is thoughtless. At its most, it's gross cultural appropriation and a terrifying lack of empathy that demonstrates how poorly Australia treats its First Peoples.
AND Australia Day is politics. It was politics that led to "Terra Nullis". It was politics that led to Britain wanting to use this land. It was politics that led to genocide and assimilation. It's a whole day of politics. What Kekovich means is, he wants to be free of conversations that make him uncomfortable. (Just so we're clear, the way we commemorate ANZAC Day is also political.)
UGH PLUS, the campaign continues its anti-vego agenda which is not surprising but must we always drag other people down as we enjoy our own thing, come on. Don't tag your hate.
ALSO is this entire campaign some sort of surrealist performance art piece? Seriously, go back and watch the last fifteen years of advertisements for this campaign. I swear it's a long-form national practical joke and/or surrealist art piece.
AND THEN: Please release Our Lady of Asian Australians, Lee Lin Chin, from your filthy white grasps.
Lee Lin Chin's acceptance by White Australia lessens us all, and it has been spearheaded by a white male comedian from The Feed. Which is a show I love! But Lee Lin Chin is more than a twitter she doesn't run and doesn't care about (the blue tick of her twitter is a lie); she is an amazing fashionista and a visible SEAzn Australian woman for many Australians (ME) to look up to. She's made us visible in a way we weren't before her; she's visible and caustic and not an actor or a politician (love you, Penny).
And she deserves better than the admiration of mediocre white men:
"She's a universally accepted figure," says Kekovich. "She's pleasant, she's pivotal. She's not complicated or tyrannical."
Spoilers: when Asian women are constantly subjected to the 'Dragon Lady' stereotype, to call an Asian woman "not tyrannical" is a fucking act of war.
Not to take away from her own agency; of course, she's chosen to participate in these things, and interviews indicate that they're just over-exaggerated elements of her real personality. WHICH I LOVE. HAVE A BEER WITH ME, LEE LIN CHIN. But, from Lee Lin's double life:
Even so, Chin's ever-growing fan base is something she feels ambivalent about, if not outright hostile. First and foremost, she's still a newsreader and journalist obsessed by world affairs. She is an avowed lover of the works of William Faulkner. She could talk all day about radical left politics in Greece, and bemoans the fact some people who ask for her photo don't know who Alexis Tsipras is.
Lee Lin is amazing! She's so great! And why can't we love her for who she actually is?!
i will defend you, lee lin chin
Some things Lee Lin Chin is: a speaker of Cantonese, Mandarin, and Fukien (ME TOO – well, not Fukien); an ex-translator of Chinese-language films; a producer for in-flight programs; a supporter of refugee and migrant programs such as One Just World (at the link, on 'Why are the most vulnerable forgotten?') and The Social Studio; a TOUR GUIDE and I would literally murder to go back in time and book in for "Odyssey to Taiwan with Lee-Lin Chin"; a total nerd; in the National Portrait Gallery.
This feels a very unnatural conversation for me. One does not discuss one's final moments, or anything related to them, being Chinese. And I prefer to socialise and conduct business over a drink rather than lunch or dinner. I am a beer drinker. I've tried to cultivate a taste for whisky, gin and tonice, Martini – but no dice.
SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL. I love her SO MUCH.
It won't surprise you to learn how mad I am that, as always, white people are stealing our things (including our people), and ruining them.
Of course Lee Lin Chin cannot be everything to everyone, even as she is superior and amazing enough to be many things to many people. But she was ours first. She's an immigrant and a woman and Asian and, so important to me, a visible South East Asian woman going about her daily life in Australia.
And I will cut you if you think that makes her "not complicated."
She was ours first. And you can't have her.
(But you may admire her from afar)
asianinvasion dayon being chinese
Brown Bounty Hunter Business
linkspam


Last night when Thandie Newton won an Emmy for her performance in Westworld, she said she wanted to thank G-d even though she did not believe in Him. And so we, like the radiant Thandie, want it both ways: believing and non- believing, hedging our bets – just in case, there is an afterlife, that there exists a power in the universe, a first principle, one that might seek us out or One we might fear could wreck havoc on us.
In our darkest times, we search for meaning, attempting to make sense of injustice, of evil: and we tend to come up with no reasonable answers: platitudes that we cannot understand, the knowledge is " beyond" our limited comprehension, but no one, I assert, can accept the suffering of little children… In the best of times, we thank G-d for lives that shine, for the gifts we ponder we deserve or do not deserve. We like to think we have been blessed, that the records of our comings and goings have yielded our good fortune, and like the offspring of our proud mommies and daddies, we are being rewarded for our actions. On a walk last week, my grandson spotted tiny aphids all working in concert, tiny programmed insects, dancing to the dictates of nature. Reading The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, through her 1660 heroine, I observe Ester, who explores Spinoza's "heretical " theories that G-d is the impetus, the spark that illuminates all of us and Nature, not responsible for the good or bad,but that underlying force that motivates. Studies show that people with religious beliefs do in deed do better in illness as their strength to endure is fortified by their beliefs.
During these days of awe, our High Holidays, Jews are supposed to behave better, atone, ask for forgiveness, demonstrate their potential for positive behaviour. And then tomorrow, Yom Kippur, we fast, symbolically draining our bodies of the bad, purifying our souls. We wish one another " a good fast." My parents who were perhaps most exemplary good and moral people you could ever encounter did not fast. My mother prone to migraines, as I am, was all ready so lean she did not want to lose an ounce. My father, I may recall, perhaps fasted to noon, having disparaged religion when polio took his legs. Yet they still counted themselves as Jews, my mother particularly, possessing a mystical belief in a Creator. Bound up, yet having loosened the holds religion places and expects of its followers.
In synagogue Elyse Goldstein, rabbi at City Shul provoked her congregants to think about what it means to be Jewish, providing all the arguments the Millennials sprout regarding Anti-Semitism, the holocaust, nostalgia, doing good deeds, notions of religion, fidelity to Israel. etc. She explained that Israel is such a contentious topic, that even she, rabbi of a Reform pulpit, hasn't lectured on it for many many years. She challenged us to consider, What does the "am" signify in "I am Jewish" for each congregant. She cited a study in New York that enquired of people what religion they belonged to, the surprising response of several claimed Judaism as their own in spite of the fact they were not born or converted to Judaism.
I'm finding that certain memories have been hammered in my head, the holiday dinners at my grandparents and later at my parents' home , yet as I attempt to ferret out the break- fast dinners, I come up empty. I do recall my parents would drive north, depart the city for Mackinaw Island or Agawa Canyon, taking in its autumn beauty, but I am unclear exactly when these drives occurred, and did they arrive back home for my mother to put dinner on our table, or did they stop for a grilled cheese sandwich at a diner, for they did follow kosher dictums on food.
Except, we as children, Wendy and I, were allowed bacon because our Jewish paediatrician extolled the virtues of it, years before the tasty meat was discovered to harbour dangerous carcinogens. My father, guffawed and did not accept that medical opinion. To weeks before she passed away, my mother's favourite lunch was a bacon and tomato sandwich toasted.
From my youth, I do recall attempts at fasting and one particular Yom Kippur when a friend and I succumbed to bags of potato chips in the early afternoon, we received the scorn of her neighbours, the Fishbeins, who discovered us chomping, giggling and our adolescent mouths covered in crispy crumbs. But I hold no memories of a formal family get together in which we " broke the fast".
For years, fasts have reached a vogue position from the Atkinson to the Mediterranean to the present day Keto in which some uphold that if you starve yourself of carbs, your body will find them in your body and devour them, rendering you slimmer.
Having fasted yesterday, I do wonder at the benefits, for I received my persistent headache that even prevented my sleeping. My Pilates instructor informing me that our Yom Kippur fast does not help the body for the right way is a three day cleanse wherein one gradually reduces foods and sugars, and then day by day reintroduces them to the body. So our fast may be symbolic, but I have yet to attend a Yom Kippur service where someone, either man or woman, usually "older" has not passed out. So the ritual does not make a lot of sense except if the comatose person is able to connect directly with G-d.
Rather, reciting prayers together, revisiting those departed in a liturgy, retiring from the demands of daily life and the cell phone, dreaming of a new and improved year are worthy objectives. So cynical and as unknowing as I am, I cannot complain about a day at shul, especially with a rabbi who makes me think, ponder and consider .And even a symbolic fast isn't so bad, but more than just once a year.


Among the small pleasures of life, there are some that make us really dream. Imagine for a moment, a warm bath after work, is not it, the essence of life? So imagine this bath, massage, with jets of water, is not it even better? It is a good jacuzzi you need after a stressful day at work. You come home, although quiet, and you relax, you enjoy yourself in your Jacuzzi. This is a moment that will do you good every time, we are convinced. And if you do not have your own jacuzzi, it's no big deal, you can easily offer you one today. So you can easily do you good, and offer you very good quality time. There is nothing nicer than to have fun doing jacuzzi sessions. Indulge yourself by taking care of your body.
With a jacuzzi, it is a maximum of relaxation at home.
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Home / People / Canadian investigators to visit site of airplane crash near Iranian capital
Angelo Bowers | Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Iranians protest for third day after plane disaster
Protests have continued for a third night after Iranian officials took responsibility for accidentally shooting down a passenger plane in Tehran and killing 176 people. Iran is the lead investigator.
Fox said no matter how the investigation continues the answers will not come soon.
At a televised press conference on Saturday, Trudeau said he told Rouhani the admission was "an important step" but "many more steps must be taken". It said the missiles were launched in error. It denied those allegations but acknowledged seizing a British-flagged oil tanker in response to the impounding of an Iranian oil tanker by authorities in Gibraltar.
Iran's Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi also promised Monday that "all material and moral rights of the victims and their families will be fully protected", the state news agency reported.
But many in Canada's political and military establishment see the events differently.
"There is no doubt this aircraft was brought down by a surface-to-air missile". "If it was, I think that's a starting gesture, but it's not enough".
"After we received confirmation from Tehran that they were waiting for us, this information was removed", Danilov said. The focus must now be on a transparent inquiry and cooperation with global authorities, especially the affected countries, who want a thorough investigation.
Canadian investigators flying to Tehran on Monday will access the rubble and black box from a Ukrainian jetliner that was hit by a missile attack last week. Canada's authority in the probe is fairly limited right now.
Nevertheless, safety board officials said the access granted by Iran to Canada has gone beyond what is required under worldwide protocols.
Fifty-seven of the victims were Canadians.
The Ukraine International Airlines flight crashed after takeoff from the airport in Tehran on Wednesday. Scores were Canadians, most believed to be dual nationals who had traveled to Iran to visit relatives there. Safety board experts skilled at analyzing voice and flight data recorders are ready to deploy, once they know where that work will be done.
Ms. Fox said the TSB is trying to gain the confidence of investigators in hopes of playing a bigger role.
Investigators will even look at Iran's assertion that the missile strike was accidental.
She said the TSB would not endorse the investigation if it concludes "there are serious problems with the report because it's either inaccurate or incomplete or misleading".
"Heightened military activity and increased political tensions in this region continue to pose serious threats to commercial vessels", the United States said in a maritime warning.
Ukraine's foreign minister said "grieving nations", five of the countries whose citizens were killed when an airliner was shot down, would meet on Thursday.
She cautioned that the investigation will not be short, but the outcome could help avoid a similar disaster in the future.
Fraud case against Meng is straightforward, Crown argues at extradition hearing
Greece elects first woman president, Europe News & Top Stories
Hillary Clinton defends criticisms of Bernie Sanders in Hulu doc
Senators debate rules of proceeding
Vale, Auditor Charged over Deadly Brazil Dam Collapse
Australia bushfires: Reports of large air tanker crash in southern NSW
Senate Impeachment Trial Of President Trump
Virginia Senate Advances 'Red Flag' Law, Despite Richmond Pro-Gun Rally
US airlines may no longer accept emotional support animals
1 dead, 5 injured in downtown Seattle shooting, suspect at large
One dead, five missing after snowmobiles break through ice in Quebec
North Korea abandons nuclear freeze pledge
Nepal rescuers call off search for trekkers after new avalanches
French President Emmanuel Macron grows angry with Israeli security during church visit
South Korean military discharges its first transgender soldier
Jones might be wrong about that one, seeing as the team struggled mightily during his six-game suspension in 2017. The New Orleans Saints were wise to move quickly on star wide receiver Michael Thomas' contract situation.
PrepAway Practice Tests to Pass 70-461 Microsoft SQL Server Certification Exam
That is why it helps you prepare for these exams in the simplest and most convenient way by also offering the ETE Exam Simulator. Exam dumps contain questions that are being asked in the actual exams; they also come with verified answers to each question.
Real Betis Builds on this Season and Looks Toward the Future
The club has endeavored for more than a century to survive just about every kind of challenge, both on and off the field. Now, with the fresh start both financially and competitively, the team stands to notch a solid 2019/2020 season.
Eco-friendly gifts: a new trend
These 3D puzzles are a great way to treat your loved ones with a nature-friendly gift that will entertain all senses. An eco-friendly gift that is made entirely out of natural materials can easily become this solution.
The Russian Export Center becomes a BIOTECHMED 2019 General Partner
Currently, discussions are underway regarding the Medical Industry Development Strategy for 2030. The Russian Export Center will be supporting the event as a General Partner.
The Russian Export Center acted as BIOTECHMED 2019 General Partner
On September 17th, the plenary session "Global Cooperation and development of international relations" was held. By 2024, it is planned to increase the volume of exports by 4 times," - Irina Kashirina added.
This creates less disruption, for a shorter time and can limit road closures to a weekend, limiting the effects on commuters. Like the event at Battersea Park, the new London track will hold two races over a weekend in a season finale double-header.
Bucks top Blazers for third straight victory
The Blazers shot 27.8 percent from beyond the arc, while the Bucks made 36.8 percent of their shots from three-point range. Antetokounmpo had 13 points and seven rebounds in the first quarter alone and Milwaukee went on to its third straight win.
He hit an impressive .374 with 14 homers and 60 RBI in 58 games as a junior, drawing the attention of major league scouts. The 24-year old quickly advanced his way through the Amazin's minor league system with stops in Brooklyn, St.
Watch Lady Gaga's drone-filled Super Bowl halftime show right here


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Four former standouts to be inducted into Erwin athletic hall of fame
Several former standout athletes from Erwin High School will be inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame on Friday, Dec. 13.
Four former standouts to be inducted into Erwin athletic hall of fame Several former standout athletes from Erwin High School will be inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame on Friday, Dec. 13. Check out this story on citizen-times.com: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/sports/high-school/hshuddle/2019/12/09/four-former-standouts-inducted-into-erwin-athletic-hall-fame/2629397001/
David Thompson, Asheville Citizen Times Published 10:17 a.m. ET Dec. 9, 2019
Reynolds defeated Erwin 90-66 in a high school boys basketball game Dec. 6, 2019, at Reynolds. (Photo: Colby Rabon/Citizen Times)
LEICESTER - Several former standout athletes from Erwin High School will be inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame on Friday, Dec. 13.
The induction ceremony will happen between the varsity girls and boys home basketball game against North Buncombe.
Here are the list of athletes and their accolades:
Chip Carter – Class of 2000 – Cross Country, Indoor Track & Track
All Conference in Cross Country 1997, 1998 & 1999. WAC Runner of the Year 1998
& 1999. All Conference in Track 1997-2000. WAC Runner of the Year 2000.
Ran Cross Country and Track for Gardner-Webb University 2000-2004. All
Conference in Cross Country in 2003 and Track in 2004.
PA announcer for Gardner-Webb men's and women's basketball teams.
Martese Jackson – Class of 2010 – Football & Track
All Conference in Football in 2009. Rushed for 2,142 yards and scored 33
Touchdowns in 2009. Excelled in track in 100 meters and relays 4X200 &
4X100. Played Football at Fort Scott Community College 2010-2012. Starred
for the Florida Atlantic University Owls 2012-2015. Played in CFL 2016-2019.
Member of Grey Cup Champion Toronto Argonauts in 2017.
Linda McDowell – Class of 1970 – Basketball
All Buncombe County and All Ivy Conference in 1969 & 1970. All WNC in 1970.
Member of Ivy Conference Championship teams in 1969 & 1970 and Buncombe
County Championship Team in 1969. Possessed outstanding "jump shot". Voted
Most Athletic Senior in 1970. Played Volleyball for Western Carolina University in
1970 and Basketball 1970-1972.
Steve Young – Class of 1976 – Football & Track
All Conference and All WNC in Football 1975, Buncombe County Lineman of the
Year 1975 Season, 23 Tackles in single game 1975, 5th in pass receptions in WNC
1975. Received Asheville Jaycees Outstanding Achievement Award in Athletics
1976. Excelled in track in Low and High Hurdles. Played middle linebacker at
Furman University 1976 & 1977.
Read or Share this story: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/sports/high-school/hshuddle/2019/12/09/four-former-standouts-inducted-into-erwin-athletic-hall-fame/2629397001/
Puerto Rico to WNC: Family grows through love, compassion
Enka wrestlers earn conference win over North
Hendersonville girls earn first conference win over Brevard


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An attack on our God-given free will
Tom Verdi
During my four years at Malvern, there have been quite a number of monumental changes. The Dean of Students position has changed three times. A theatre giant has passed the reins to a new age. The "Oracle of Carney" (Miss Walsh, for those who don't know) has retired and comic books have entered the classroom. But, there seems to be something even bigger at stake this year, something so huge, so colossal, it has the entire student body up in frenzy. What could be such an important issue? What could unite upper and lower school students alike? Malvern has welcomed a new Head of School this year, Mr. Christian Talbot, who has brought a new sense of leadership and style to campus. This new leader, however, isn't what has the students in a state of frenetic uproar. It's the fact that there are no longer ANY drinks in the cafeteria whose labels don't read "diet" or "no sugar added." These are horrible, terrifying words to many. What are we going to do?
Now, I for one don't entirely mind the change. I welcome the new options such as Fuze and Crystal Light beverages. Others, however, don't share these sentiments. Many students, perhaps faculty as well, feel as if they are being robbed of their basic drink freedoms. Granted, it's only soda, but to many, being told they can no longer consume their coveted carbonated sugary goodness, well, that could be worse than death itself.
A recent study conducted by researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio has proven in a controlled setting that waist sizes of diet soda drinkers were, on average, five times as large as those who consumed regular, non-diet soda. The artificial sweeteners trick the brain, causing the person to consume more high-calorie foods to quell one's cravings. Other harmful effects caused by diet soda are largely biological, due to the fact that diet soda contains absolutely no nutrients. Lab rats were given a diet with high levels of aspartame, an artificial sweetener used in diet soda. The rats, contrasted with another group of rats who consumed only a high-fat diet, showed extreme increased levels of blood glucose, a diabetes risk factor.
Is limiting Malvern's soda options really the best health benefit for its students? I think not. I'm not saying that regular soda is all that nutritious either, but it's certainly better than diet, both in regard to health and taste. The other beverages can stay, but for the benefit of the school, the diet soda restriction needs to be lifted. Imagine a society where the only available carbonated beverage available is diet soda. It's a scary thought. I've heard some rumors of regular Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper being smuggled across Warren Avenue. Hopefully the Beverage Police won't make an appearance.
Jim Klinges, class of 2013, feels as if his choices have been threatened. "I think that taking away regular soda is unnecessary and that the choice to live a healthier lifestyle should be in the hands of the students and not forced upon them. The Administration could try to educate the student body on the problem with sugared drinks instead of simply taking them away without warning."
Joe Barrett, class of 2013, also had some words to say on the matter. "I believe that it is an attack on our god-given free will."
Matt Hoban, a recent graduate, had an opposing opinion, for the most part. "Well, from a health perspective I guess that [banning sugared drinks] was probably a good move. But, I did enjoy very many sugared drinks in my days at Malvern, and they surely would have been missed if I still went there. Especially the chocolate milk; I feel for you guys for the chocolate milk (assuming that included chocolate milk)."
Thankfully for Matt and for the students at Malvern Prep, chocolate milk has remained—for now.
In a recent letter to parents, Mr. Talbot said in order to replace the energy from sugar consumption we should simply get more sleep. As we all know, that feat is completely impossible and a ludicrous suggestion for a current high school student who has to deal with SAT prep, AP classes, college applications, homework, sports, activities—the list is infinite. More sleep isn't a solution. I know I speak for the entire student body when I say we want our normal drinks back. To the person who asks, "Can't we have both?" you obviously didn't take Mr. Ostick's Economics class.
This change is unwelcome and I'm sure it will be a hotly debated issue at the next town hall meeting, if those are still a thing. Change isn't always for the better.
Matt Lanetti and Kevin Cloetingh offer input on the new drink options


People are fascinated with what the Bible teaches about the future. Many Christians have become students of prophecy, many books have been written on the subject, Hollywood has produced movie after movie depicting their interpretations of eschatology. Sometimes, in the midst of all this, we can miss the repeated exhortation of Jesus.
While it is important to be aware of the events that point to the return of Christ, it is more important to be focussing on your relationship with Jesus. Are you ready? If He were to return today, what will He find you doing? Are you living your life for His glory and Kingdom? Are you watching or have you fallen asleep? When He returns, we will not be tested on our knowledge of prophecy but rewarded for our faithfulness.


Heat oven to 250°F. Generously butter 9-inch pie pan. In large bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy. Gradually add 3/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, beating at high speed until sugar is dissolved and stiff glossy peaks form, about 8 to 10 minutes. DO NOT UNDERBEAT. Spread meringue evenly over bottom and up sides of buttered pan.
Bake at 250°F. for 1 hour. Turn oven off; let meringue crust cool in oven with door closed for 2 hours.
Meanwhile, in medium saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and cornstarch; mix well. Gradually stir in lemon juice until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. In small bowl, beat egg yolks; stir about 2 tablespoons hot mixture into egg yolks. Gradually stir yolk mixture into hot mixture. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in lemon peel and food color. Cover surface of filling with plastic wrap. Cool 45 minutes or until completely cooled.
Fold whipped topping into filling. Pour into cooled meringue crust. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight. If desired, garnish with thin lemon slices or grated lemon peel.
This meringue shell is crisp and dry. The moist filling slowly softens the meringue, making the pie easy to cut and serve the following day.
In our testing, we baked the meringue in both a metal and a glass pie pan. The metal pan produces a drier meringue; the glass pan looks nicer for serving purposes. Meringue will not dry properly when the humidity is high.
Garnish slices of this pie with thin lemon slices set on fresh mint leaves.


On the 5th of October, at eight p.m., a dense crowd pressed toward the saloons of the Gun Club at No. 21 Union Square. All the members of the association resident in Baltimore attended the invitation of their president. As regards the corresponding members, notices were delivered by hundreds throughout the streets of the city, and, large as was the great hall, it was quite inadequate to accommodate the crowd of savants. They overflowed into the adjoining rooms, down the narrow passages, into the outer courtyards. There they ran against the vulgar herd who pressed up to the doors, each struggling to reach the front ranks, all eager to learn the nature of the important communication of President Barbicane; all pushing, squeezing, crushing with that perfect freedom of action which is so peculiar to the masses when educated in ideas of "self-government."
On that evening a stranger who might have chanced to be in Baltimore could not have gained admission for love or money into the great hall. That was reserved exclusively for resident or corresponding members; no one else could possibly have obtained a place; and the city magnates, municipal councilors, and "select men" were compelled to mingle with the mere townspeople in order to catch stray bits of news from the interior.
Nevertheless the vast hall presented a curious spectacle. Its immense area was singularly adapted to the purpose. Lofty pillars formed of cannon, superposed upon huge mortars as a base, supported the fine ironwork of the arches, a perfect piece of cast-iron lacework. Trophies of blunderbuses, matchlocks, arquebuses, carbines, all kinds of firearms, ancient and modern, were picturesquely interlaced against the walls. The gas lit up in full glare myriads of revolvers grouped in the form of lustres, while groups of pistols, and candelabra formed of muskets bound together, completed this magnificent display of brilliance. Models of cannon, bronze castings, sights covered with dents, plates battered by the shots of the Gun Club, assortments of rammers and sponges, chaplets of shells, wreaths of projectiles, garlands of howitzers-- in short, all the apparatus of the artillerist, enchanted the eye by this wonderful arrangement and induced a kind of belief that their real purpose was ornamental rather than deadly.
At the further end of the saloon the president, assisted by four secretaries, occupied a large platform. His chair, supported by a carved gun-carriage, was modeled upon the ponderous proportions of a 32-inch mortar. It was pointed at an angle of ninety degrees, and suspended upon truncheons, so that the president could balance himself upon it as upon a rocking-chair, a very agreeable fact in the very hot weather. Upon the table (a huge iron plate supported upon six carronades) stood an inkstand of exquisite elegance, made of a beautifully chased Spanish piece, and a sonnette, which, when required, could give forth a report equal to that of a revolver. During violent debates this novel kind of bell scarcely sufficed to drown the clamor of these excitable artillerists.
In front of the table benches arranged in zigzag form, like the circumvallations of a retrenchment, formed a succession of bastions and curtains set apart for the use of the members of the club; and on this especial evening one might say, "All the world was on the ramparts." The president was sufficiently well known, however, for all to be assured that he would not put his colleagues to discomfort without some very strong motive.


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Voter Blue Book Snafu Unnerves Advocates Ahead Of Ballots Dropping In The Mail
By Megan Verlee
· Oct. 12, 2018, 4:37 pm
Courtesy Colorado Legislature
The Case of the Missing Blue Book Pages first surfaced earlier this week with phone calls and emails among progressive activists.
A friend of Carlos Valverde, the head of the Colorado Working Families Party, gave him a call and asked, "'Hey, what does your Blue Book look like? Is it missing any pages? We've heard reports that many are missing pages.'"
Valverde is part of the coalition pushing Proposition 111, which would cap interest rates and abolish fees on payday loans. After that phone call he made sure to check his Blue Book and "sure enough, it was missing two pretty important ballot measures," he said — his own and Proposition 112, which would greatly increase required setbacks for new oil and gas wells.
Valverde's first reaction was sadness and then it "turned into anger." It's his belief that the Blue Book's nonpartisan information alone would help sway voters to the payday lending measure.
Read The Online 2018 Blue Book: English | en Español
Voters who received an incomplete guide can request a new copy by emailing bluebook.ga@state.co.us or calling 303-866-3521. Local county clerk offices also have copies.
The Capital's nonpartisan bureaucrats, known as Legislative Council Staff, are responsible for compiling and distributing the Blue Book. The guide, which provides the language of each ballot measure along with pro and con arguments and information about judicial retention elections, is sent to every Colorado household with a registered voter.
Acting Director Natalie Mullis said the problem comes down to an equipment fault.
"The way the printers work, they print sections," Mullis said. "Then the equipment puts the sections together and there was an error, a malfunction, that meant that some of the sections didn't get into some of those books."
Mullis said there's no way to know how many Blue Books went out with missing pages. However, as of Oct. 11, her office had only verified four cases of misprinted guides.
"We think that they are isolated. Unfortunately even just one book that gets mailed out that's incomplete is a failure," she said.
Progressive groups want Legislative Council to take a more active approach to ensuring every voter gets an accurate Blue Book. They're calling on the state to launch a PSA campaign to warn people they may not have a complete guide and to investigate how the error could have occurred in the first place.
A statement from a number of groups, including labor unions and the groups backing an education tax increase and the oil and gas setbacks measure, called the printing error "deeply concerning."
The statement went on to note, "to achieve fair elections, the state must ensure that voter guides are accurate and complete so that voters have all the information they need to make an educated decision on all ballot issues."
The incomplete guides is actually the second problem with the 2018 Blue Book. When the books started going out in the mail, another error caused them to be sent to only physical addresses, not mailing addresses. The problem was discovered when undeliverable Blue Books started piling up at rural post offices in parts of the state where many people only get their mail through P.O. boxes.
In the end, around 90,000 Blue Books had to be re-sent. Every household with a voter in the state should have theirs by the end of this week. According to Legislative Council, that problem too came down to an error on the printer's end.
"We are reviewing the contract with the vendor and honestly, I haven't had a lot of time to negotiate with the vendor today, but we will be doing that," Mullis said.


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Tags: cuba | military | exercises
Cuba Military Exercises Announced Following Trump Election
Cubans read a newspaper with its front page informing of the victory of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump in a street of Havana, on Nov. 9, 2016. (Yamil Lage/AFP/Getty Images)
By Jen Krausz | Wednesday, 09 November 2016 04:18 PM
Cuba announced Wednesday that it will engage in a week of previously scheduled nationwide military exercises to prepare for any actions by "enemies."
The Communist nation didn't directly link the actions to Trump's surprising election as the next U.S. president on Tuesday, but the "Bastion Strategic Exercise" Cuba has held every few years since 1980 is typically held at times of higher tension with the U.S., Reuters reported.
Cuban leaders and the Cuban people are worried because Trump has threatened to undo all of current President Barack Obama's moves toward more open relations with Cuba, which have led to increases in tourism there and more prosperity for the people.
Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba two years ago and lifted trade and travel restrictions that had existed since the 1959 revolution there.
Trump did say in a mid-October interview with CBS that he would do whatever it takes "to get a strong agreement" with Cuba's government, Reuters reported, so it is not known whether he will immediately roll back engagement or whether other requirements will be set for continuing better relations with the island.
The military exercises will take place from Nov. 16 to 20 and will involve troop movements, flights over land, and explosions, ABC News reported. Cuban newspapers announced the exercises in red ink across the top page of the Wednesday edition.
Not all Cubans support the increased coziness between the U.S. and Cuba, however.
"There's been a lot of rejection of what's been done with Obama," retired Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray said, ABC reported. "Many Cubans think that a situation of confrontation is better for the revolution."
10 Reasons Why the Cuban Embargo Should Not Be Lifted
Priceline-Cuba Deal Via Booking.com Now Allows for American Travel
TheWire
cuba, military, exercises
Wednesday, 09 November 2016 04:18 PM


The Anguttara Nikaya (aṅguttaranikāya; literally "Increased by One Collection," also translated "Gradual Collection" or "Numerical Discourses") is a Buddhist scripture, the fourth of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that comprise the Theravadan Pali Canon. This nikaya consists of several thousand discourses ascribed to the Buddha and his chief disciples arranged in eleven nipatas, or books, according to the number of dhamma items referenced in them.
This article includes content from Anguttara Nikaya on Wikipedia (view authors). License under CC BY-SA 3.0.


Summer of Feminista: APB: Help! Is this you?
When you sign up for Summer of Feminista, please, please, please include your name AND email in the little Doodle text box.
I have Jacky A. and Marisa A. signed up and I have no idea how to reach you, mujeres!
Please send me an email at veronica-dot-arreola-at-gmail.com so we can connect. Or just send me your Summer of Feminista contribution.


Lift tickets at Washington's six major resorts are up 5.2 percent from last year on weekdays and 4.9 percent on weekends this season, costing skiers and snowboarders an extra $2.16 a day.
The average lift ticket will be $47.76 on weekends and $44.42 on weekdays.
Most expensive: Crystal's $53 weekday price is the highest of all Washington resorts. From Christmas to New Year's Day and on Monday holidays, Stevens Pass charges a high of $57, $9.24 above the average.


The national average APR on new credit card offers climbed to another all-time high this week, reaching 15.59 percent, according to the CreditCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report.
This is the first time on record average rates have come this close to 16 percent.
Several issuers increased rates this week, matching the Federal Reserve's March 15 rate hike. Last week, the Fed announced it was increasing its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percent. Most variable rate cards are expected to rise by the same amount.
So far, American Express, U.S. Bank and several regional banks have matched the Fed's rate change.
Citi also hiked the APR on one of its airline cards by nearly 2 percentage points. Cardholders who apply for the AAdvantage Gold card are now offered a range starting at 16.24 percent and maxing out at 24.24 percent.
Average rates on new card offers could reach 16 percent or more by the end of the year if the Federal Reserve follows through on additional rate hikes.
After its March 15 meeting, the Fed signaled that at least two more rate increases are likely in 2017 as the economy adds more jobs at a healthy rate. A voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, speculated on Monday that the Fed could be even more aggressive and increase rates at least three more times before 2018.
If the Federal Reserve increases rates by a quarter of a percent each time, that could lead to steep charges for cardholders who carry a balance. Unless a substantial number of issuers dramatically cut rates, the national average APR is likely to inch closer to 15.76 percent over the next two months as more card issuers match the Fed's March 15 rate hike.
When CreditCards.com first started tracking rates in mid-2007, the average credit card APR hovered around 13 percent. In 2008, the average APR for the year clocked in at just 11.54 percent.
Issuers began increasing rates on new card offers more dramatically in 2010 after the Credit CARD Act of 2009 went into effect, curbing issuers' ability to increase current cardholder rates without notice. By the end of 2010, for example, the national average APR hit 14.68 percent. Issuers must now give cardholders at least 45 days' notice of a rate change and allow cardholders to opt out of rate increases by canceling their accounts.
Bank advocates say that credit card interest rates are higher now, in part, because the CARD Act's regulations limit issuers' ability to flexibly change cardholders' pricing. As a result, issuers rarely cut the lowest available APR on new credit card offers.
After 2010, the national average APR remained within rounding distance of 15 percent for more than six years. In 2016, the national average APR decreased just four times in 12 months. In 2015, it fell just three times. In 2009, by contrast, the average APR decreased 16 times in 12 months.
If issuers continue to limit rate cuts over the next several years and raise APRs in line with the Fed's rate hikes, cardholders are likely to pay substantially more than they ever have before to carry a balance on a new card.
See related: Applications dip, credit market shows signs of cooling off, Is unsecured personal loan the best way to consolidate debt?


text:
package com.huawei.oj1;

import java.util.Scanner;

public class jifujunzheng {
	private static Scanner sc;
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		sc=new Scanner(System.in);
		int num=sc.nextInt();
		int sumOfPositive=0,countOfNegative = 0;
		for(int i=0;i<num;i++){
			int k=sc.nextInt();
			if (k<0) {
				countOfNegative++;
			}else {
				sumOfPositive+=k;
			}
		}
	String sum=String.valueOf(((double)sumOfPositive/(num-countOfNegative)));
	String[] sub=sum.split("\\.");
	if (Integer.parseInt(sub[1])==0) {
		System.out.println(countOfNegative+" "+sub[0]);
	}else {
		System.out.println(countOfNegative+" "+sum.substring(0, sum.indexOf(".")+2));
	}
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub