Home Russia & China China Can China learn from Pakistan's counterinsurgency operations?
Can China learn from Pakistan's counterinsurgency operations?
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an international organization (IO) which is the initiative of China's foreign policy in the 21st century. SCO came into existence in 1996 initially with five member states, which accounts for China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia. Back then, it was known as Shanghai Five which subsequently became a complete independent organization in 2001 with the addition of Uzbekistan. Its charter was adopted in 2002 and started executing its function in 2003 officially. Its main focused areas are political, economic and military cooperation.
Having said that, SCO established one of its Secretariats called Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) in 2004. The Secretariat is premised on the basic principle of SCO charter that talks about three evils to fight; terrorism, extremism and separatism.
The backbone of terrorism in terms of their funds and infrastructure has been destroyed to a greater extent. Around 4000 terrorists have been killed since 2014 and around 20,000 have been arrested so far.
Lately, Pakistan and India have become full members of the organization in 2017. Prior to that, both had an observer status. Since 9/11 Pakistan has been in the limelight of War against Terrorism (WoT) and since then Pakistan is considered as a non-NATO ally in this war. Being a frontline partner and giving most of the sacrifices provides numerous lessons to SCO and it's RATS structure to combat three evils of terrorism, extremism, and separatism.
The security forces of Pakistan have conducted minor as well as major operations to fight militant groups in its tribal areas as part of its counter-terrorism strategy. Since 9/11 till 2012, Pakistan army has conducted 735 minor and 251 major operations in the war against terrorism.
This equips Pakistan with comprehensive battle-field experience in fighting against terrorism and extremism. The nature of counter-insurgency operations was quite different during the first and second decade of the 21st century. The first decade saw many sporadic operations followed by numerous peace accords that did not last long.
Operation Al-Mizan (Justice) in 2002 comprise of several small operations, which took place in South Waziristan by 70,000 to 80,000 troops in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). A 13-day cordon and search operation to clear 36 km of the west of WANA which came under the direct control of terrorists. The leader of the terrorists got killed in the operation.
The Secretariat is premised on the basic principle of SCO charter that talks about three evils to fight; terrorism, extremism and separatism.
Operation Silence in 2007 was conducted in response to increasing extremist activities inside the mosque in Islamabad. The writ of government challenged but radicals were flushed out of the mosque and writ of the state was once again established. Operation of Rah-e-Haq (Path of Truth) was also known as the first battle of Swat, a city of KPK province in 2007. It was followed by the second phase (Rah-e-Rast) and third phase. More than 52,000 regular troops were deployed including fighter jets, helicopters, and artillery as well as infantry to fight 1200 or more militants in total in all the phases.
The Radio transmission for imparting extremist ideology was destroyed and army captured all major strategic locations including hilltops and Swat River. 4000 square mile got cleared which was also a symbol of pride and international tourism.
The militant leader Fazlullah along with his 45 militants died while engaging in heavy combat against 4 Pakistani soldiers. International help also came when the migration issued was faced due to the said operation. UNICEF came to help the migrants for establishing refugee camps in addition to Chinese Luo Zhaohui assistance of $1 million, which eventually rose to $5.4 million for the IDPs.
Finally came the decisive operation in 2014, Operation Zarb-e-Azb along with ongoing Rad-ul-Fasad and the conclusion of Operation Khyber IV. The backbone of terrorism in terms of their funds and infrastructure has been destroyed to a greater extent. Around 4000 terrorists have been killed since 2014 and around 20,000 have been arrested so far.
Operation Silence in 2007 was conducted in response to increasing extremist activities inside the mosque in Islamabad.
To curb the extremism as terrorism together a National Action Plan (NAP) was crafted which deals with the comprehensive strategy to overcome extremism, which causes the terrorist to take weapons against the writ of the state. As of yet, almost 90 percent of the terrorist activities and their infrastructure have been destroyed.
All the aforementioned operation conducted by the Pakistan Army and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) are a clear manifestation of the fact that Pakistan is one of the only countries in the world to have successfully waged the counterinsurgency operations against terrorism and extremism. So it is the high time when there are terror-related issues in Central Asia and the issues of separateness in Xinjiang in China, the experience of Pakistan's armed forces in counter-terrorism can greatly help this organization.
More and more joint military exercises can be conducted under the auspicious of RATS in order to improve the efficiency of the forces of member states. They can also learn the strategies and tactics on how to overcome the threat of terrorism.
The author is a research scholar at National Defense University. He is done with his Master's degree program in Strategic Studies. Formerly, he has done his summer internship program in Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media branch of Pakistan Army. He is an avid reader of international politics. His prime interest lies in the Cyber Warfare. For multilateral frameworks, he focuses on international organization of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In addition, the author has a keen eye for the Asia-Pacific politics. Besides this, the writer is interested in the movie industry of Pakistan.


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» Info-Center » Charts of Famous People
Adlai E Stevenson III
Category : 1930-births
Type : GP
Profile : 2/5 - Hermit / Heretic
Definition : Single
Incarnation Cross : RAX Penetration 3
Foundation Chart Foundation Transit Chart Astro HD Natal Chart Sleep Transit Chart Solar Return Chart Saturn Return Chart Uranus Opposition - Chart Chiron Return - Chart
Birthday: .
Birthplace: Chicago, United States
1930-births
Profile: 2-5
Type: GP
Inc.Cross: RAX Penetration 3
Definition: Single
BLL-MLR
4253 Maturation
2946 Discovery
0360 Mutation
3254 Transformation
American politician, the eldest of three sons of Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson. On 11/03/1970 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, as a liberal democrat, by a landslide vote. A practical and strong-minded maverick, he won his party's nomination to the seat. Six years prior he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; he has always considered politics to be the "art of the possible." His career in politics is ironic, as Stevenson dislikes public speaking and campaigning. On the other hand, his family has been involved in state and national politics for three generations. Also a lawyer, he passed the bar in 1957 and was a partner in a law firm by 1966.
He was married on 6/25/1955 and has four children.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Is Veggie Pirate's Booty a Healthy Snack or Junk Food?
When you see "Veggie" in the title, you want it to be a healthy snack! Hey, I'm eating my veggies, mom!
Alas, just because it says "veggie" doesn't mean it comes with the same healthy benefits of kale chips. Veggie Pirate's Booty DOES come with "Kale Powder" which is listed on its ingredients list.
I was wondering if you could review Pirate's Booty? I imagine it is not very healthy, as it is very delicious. I enjoy reading your blog. I have a 5, 3, and 1 year-old, and I hate packing lunches. We all love fruit, and it is our saving grace. The only other things I can say we all love is pizza and ice cream.
I am always looking for healthy, good-tasting things for us to eat. There are lots of obstacles. To mention two, my kids hate vegetables (except corn), and I also hate cooking. I do love to exercise, though, if that counts for anything.
Pirate's Booty is definitely not made with a vegetable, it is made with a grains - corn and rice.
I believe Pirate's Booty was developed because little kids don't eat popcorn because of the choking risk. I am a BIG advocate for popcorn because it is whole grain, crunchy, and low in calorie (Homemade Microwave Popcorn). Parents are told not to give kids popcorn until they are 4 years old.
Pirate's Booty just melts in your mouth like the Gerber's Puffs. And it has a great name and silly phrases such as "shiver me timbers!" on the package.
But is it healthy? A good comparison for Pirate's Booty is to Cheetos because they are made with corn meal too!
I think Pirate's Booty is better than Cheetos because it doesn't have all those artificial colors and MSG. Cheetos has 250 mg of sodium per serving and Pirate's Booty has 120 mg.
Compare Pirate's Booty to actual vegetables and you have no contest. Fresh veggies are going to win every time! They have so many more vitamins, minerals, grams of protein and fiber, etc.
All you have to do is read Pirate's Booty's label - Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 0%, Calcium 0%, Iron 2% - and realize that this is no better than most junk food. Yes, I am calling it junk food.
My suggestion is to make Pirate's Booty a sometimes treat and at $3 per 4 ounces or skip it and make your own popcorn (which is far cheaper). For a sweet spin on popcorn try my chocolate drizzled popcorn or white chocolate popcorn.
If you are looking for savory – try my chili lime popcorn recipe.
What do you think of Pirate's Booty?
I just saw those for the first time yesterday. They were in the healthy food aisle, ha.
Health food? No. Better for you than Cheetos? Yes. You can eat an entire 4 oz bag of White Cheddar Booty for about 520 calories, 20 g fat, 560 mg sodium. The same size bag of Cheetos will run you about 640 cal, 40 g fat, 1160(!!) mg sodium. So it's not healthy, of course not - it's a processed snack. But if you are craving salty cheesy cruchy deliciousness and you don't want to make your own homemade cheese popcorn, it's a better choice than most others.
I figured. I use Pirate's Booty as a chip-replacement. We keep trying veggies, but they want none of it. They do love fruit, so I'll take what I can get. And guess what they discovered at the grocery store sample-table Sunday? Nutella. Naturally, they looooved it. And why not? Ingredient #1...SUGAR! So, we are using it as dessert, and everyone is happy.
It's easy to mistake "healthy" junk food for healty food. When you want some junk, turn to the healthy options. But don't forget to eat real food too! Thanks for your review. As for popcorn - popping it on the stove yourself is super healthy and takes just as much time as the microwave kind!
ugh. I read it. now I am sad. it is so delicious. of course it is fake.
We use Booty as a chip replacement here too. No, it's not health food. I would put it in the junk food category. But for my daughter who LOVES it, who eats more than double the amount of fruits and veggies she is "recommended" to have in a day, I am just perfectly fine with her snacking on it once in awhile. A serving size of Booty is TWO CUPS. She gets, at most, 1/2 cup, so 1/4 of a serving size, at a time. That's not something I'm going to fret over one little bit.
And, if I'm not mistaken, "Veggie Booty" DOES have vegetables in it - veggie powder - as flavoring. They are not referring to the corn base. Regular Booty is cheddar flavored, Veggie Booty has spinach powder and other natural flavorings in it. Same as "Veggie Sticks" and "Veggie Chips". Which I totally put in the same category as Pirate Booty.


2) Slav Simanic is a fine composer and an outstanding guitarist.
As a player, he sounds a fair bit like Joe Satriani with some Euro influences (e.g., Michael Schenker or Gary Moore) mixed in. Yes, he's that good. He's even mature enough not to flaunt his tremendous technique at the expense of his songs, melodically grounded tunes that run a range of moods from Satriani-style floating atmosphere and hard-charging rock to Tony MacAlpine-ish neoclassical shred and Stanley Jordan-ish jazzy delicacy.
"Water Of Life" is undeniably a very strong record, great for fans of Satriani or instrumental guitar rock in general.


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Sticky Carpet
By Patrick Donovan and Andrew Murfett
May 4, 2007 — 10.00am
Don't believe the scuttlebutt
Something For Kate are not breaking up. Still, this weekend's gigs at the Corner Hotel are the last chance to catch them live for some time.
After five albums and umpteen tours, the group are planning a hiatus, during which frontman Paul Dempsey plans to record his debut solo album.
Dempsey is bemused by the kerfuffle that his solo plans have caused.
"Yeah, it was wrong, and inappropriate," the singer told Sticky this week during rehearsals.
"I also didn't intend for it to be public knowledge." Dempsey let the news slip to an AAP journo, who wrote it up as "Dempsey is splitting from Something For Kate".
"It caused a flurry of emails and family members calling and asking about us breaking up," he says.
"Suddenly, everybody is looking at these two Corner shows as a huge event . . . It's all taken on a strange edge. After five constitutive SFK albums, we could just keep going on but it seems like a good point to shake things around a bit."
Dempsey and Co also played at Rockin' for Rights last month at the SCG.
"The whole point of it was to raise awareness and send a message," he says.
"On the other level, people enjoyed an afternoon of great music."
Saturday's Corner show is sold out but there are tickets for Sunday. Dempsey is promising a couple of surprises for fans.
Rockin' in the fast lane
AC/DC Lane opens up to Melbourne's newest festival this weekend, Cherry Rock '07, which features 18 cracking Melbourne bands.
The line-up includes Rocket Science, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Blood Duster, My Disco, Shooting at Unarmed Men, the Devil Rock Four, the Five Venoms, the Breadmakers, the Pink Fits, Dynamo, Double Agents and Digger & the Pussycats on three stages in the Cherry Bar, the Alley Bar and AC/DC Lane.
A CD featuring some of the songs will be on sale.
A real one-off
Dynamo's offering on the Cherry CD, All the Beautiful Girls Go to Meredith, was written as a plea to get on the festival's bill, confesses guitarist Phil Gionfriddo.
"We spent years trying to get the bill, bribing (co-organiser) Matt High with barbecue chicken, ice-cold beer and affection, but he wasn't on the take," says Gionfriddo.
"We knew the Dynamo party would fit Meredith perfectly so we decided the only way to get Matt's attention was to write a party anthem about the festival. In the usual slack Dynamo fashion, we never finished the song, but somehow Matt had heard of its existence. In 2004 we were invited to play, at which time the song had its one and only performance."
Giving it all away
The net has become a handy networking tool for bands. Free downloads play a similar role to having songs played on radio. But British band Crimea will take this to the extreme by giving away its new album, Secrets of the Witching Hour, at its website, thecrimea.net, from May 13.
Giving the album away will, they hope, expand their fan base and make more money from touring, merchandising and licensing than they could from the album.
So are they bonkers, very rich or ahead of the times? Warner Music Australia's Michael Parisi believes they are just facing reality.
"Music will become a loss leader for all the other related income streams. As much as I hate to admit this, this is the way of the future." But will music fans go for it? Some cynics may think if it's free, it's no good.
Conversely, purists may believe that the best art is created irrespective of commercial concerns.
"Maybe it's because we've lived with the idea for so long, but people don't quite 'get' the free idea," say the band, which will still sell copies of its album for $25 on its MySpace page.
"Chill out. There's no catch. It's the real deal, folks. For nothing. No catch. End of story."
The word on Rollins
Sticky recently caught up with Henry Rollins in St Kilda when he was in town to promote his chat show.
The Henry Rollins Show screens at 10pm Fridays on Foxtel's movie channel. You can watch some of the show at henryrollins.ifc.com. Rollins is a frequent visitor here, and for fans of his grinding metal, he has sadly but increasingly left his band behind to focus on spoken-word gigs.
"Music is way more intense, and I like the unleashing of aggression," he says. "The talking gigs are harder because it's just you and your intellect up there."
So why isn't he recording albums and playing rock shows?
"I'm at a stage in my life that I cannot be confident that anybody would really give a damn if I made another record or not," he says.
"I'm as into music now as much as when I was 20. Maybe even more."
Rollins says he hit the road last year for a Rollins band reunion featuring Melvin Gibbs. It was his first time with the line-up in nine years, however it also proved to be something of a swan song.
"With a lump in my throat it was like 'fellas, sorry'. Everybody knew. It was like an odd trip into a time machine. I know I can't do music with them any more."
When asked what went wrong, Rollins is, for once, coy.
"Well, there's a reason why we broke up - put it that way." His lack of playing has not impeded his love for live music.
In LA, Sticky spied him at the Beast of Bourbon's showcase, while in Australia he was keen to see Kim Salmon. "I miss not playing music, but we all don't have Ozzy Osbourne's success," he says.
"I think if I never made another record again, there'd be like eight people who would be upset. Ozzy or Mick Jagger - they have to go out and do a basic dozen of songs every show or people feel like they've been ripped off. I don't want to have to put up with that every night. I've written hundreds of songs.
The Stones are chained to their past achievements, and that to me is kind of living a lie. You become like a human jukebox."
Saints back one more time
Brisbane punk legends the Saints will reform for the Queensland Music Festival event Pig City in July.
They will play with the Riptides, the Ups and Downs, Pineapples from the Dawn of Time, Kev Carmody, Regurgitator and Screamfeeder.
The (original) band's only other performance since their split in 1978 was for their ARIA Hall of Fame induction in Sydney on September 11, 2001.
The festival is also expected to honour the Sunshine State's favourite sons, the Go-Betweens, who will be the subject of a new tribute album called Write Your Adventures Down, featuring Dan Kelly, Sarah Blasko and Glenn Richards.
And will the Gobies join Marcia Hines and the Hoodoo Gurus in the ARIA Hall of Fame Class of 2007, set to be announced this weekend? Going on the past couple of years, the death of a band member seems to hasten one's induction.
Elvis is in the building
Elvis Presley impersonators are the subject of the Zephyr Gallery's inaugural exhibition, It's a Long Way to Graceland.
It features snaps by award-winning photographer Saville Coble of impersonators in full regalia at various events such as the annual Elvis Presley Festival in Parkes, NSW.
Proceeds from the exhibition, at Yarra's Edge in the Docklands until the end of May, go to the Mirabel Foundation.
Merritt on the mend
Max Merritt has been discharged from a US hospital, in time for his 66th birthday, after undergoing treatment for a rare viral infection.
"Max has been on dialysis and he will continue to receive treatment as an outpatient," said manager Wal Bishop, "but it looks like the worst of what has been a very worrying time might be over."
pdonovan@theage.com.au
amurfett@theage.com.au


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\section{Introduction}
Humans have an amazing ability to both understand and reason about our world through a variety of senses or modalities. A sentence such as ``Mary quickly ran away from the growling bear.'', conjures both vivid visual and auditory interpretations. We picture Mary running in the opposite direction of a ferocious bear with the sound of the bear being enough to frighten anyone. While interpreting a sentence such as this is effortless to a human, designing intelligent machines with the same deep understanding is anything but. How would a machine know Mary is frightened? What is likely to happen to Mary if she doesn't run? Even simple implications of the sentence, such as ``Mary is likely outside'' may be nontrivial to deduce.

How can we determine if a machine has achieved the same deep understanding of our world as a human? In our example sentence above, a human's understanding is rooted in multiple modalities. They can visualize a scene depicting Mary running, they can imagine the sound of the bear, and even how the bear's fur might feel when touched. Conversely, if shown a picture or even an auditory recording of a woman running from a bear, a human may similarly describe the scene. Perhaps machine intelligence could be tested in a similar manner? Can a machine use natural language to describe a picture similar to a human? Similarly, could a machine generate a scene given a written description? In fact these tasks have been a goal of artificial intelligence research since its inception. Marvin Minsky famously stated in 1966 \cite{Crevier1993} to one of his students,``Connect a television camera to a computer and get the machine to describe what it sees.''  At the time, and even today, the full complexities of this task are still being discovered.

\section{Image Captioning}

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{figures/Beer.png}
\caption{Example image captions written for an image sorted by caption length.}
 \label{fig:length}
 \end{figure}

Are tasks such as image captioning \cite{barnard2001learning,kulkarni2011baby,mitchell2012midge,farhadi2010every,hodosh2013framing,captioning_msr,captioning_xinlei,captioning_berkeley,captioning_baidu_ucla,captioning_toronto,captioning_stanford,captioning_google} promising candidates for testing artificial intelligence? These tasks have advantages, such as being easy to describe and being capable of capturing the imagination of the public \cite{nyt}. Unfortunately, tasks such as image captioning have proven problematic as actual tests of intelligence. Most notably, the evaluation of image captions may be as difficult as the image captioning task itself \cite{elliott2014comparing,cider,hodosh2013framing,kulkarni2011baby,mitchell2012midge}. It has been observed that captions judged as ``good'' by human observers may actually contain significant variance even though they describe the same image \cite{cider}. For instance see Figure \ref{fig:length}. Many people would judge the longer more detailed captions as better. However, the details described by the captions varies significantly, e.g. ``two hands'', ``white t-shirt'', ``black curly hair'', ``label'', etc.  How can we evaluate a caption if there is no consensus on what should be contained in a ``good'' caption? However, for shorter less detailed captions that are commonly written by humans a rough consensus is achieved ``A man holding a beer bottle.'' This leads to the somewhat counterintuitive conclusion that captions humans like aren't necessarily ``human-like''.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{figures/giraffe_license_verified.pdf}
\caption{(left) An example image caption generated from \cite{captioning_msr}. (right) A set of semantically similar images in the MS COCO training dataset for which the same caption could apply.}
 \label{fig:msr}
 \end{figure}

The task of image captioning also suffers from another less obvious drawback. In many cases it might be too easy! Consider an example success from a recent paper on image captioning \cite{captioning_msr}, Figure \ref{fig:msr}. Upon first inspection this caption appears to have been generated from a deep understanding of the image. For instance, in Figure \ref{fig:msr} the machine must have detected a giraffe, grass and tree. It understood that the giraffe was standing, and the thing it was standing on was grass. It knows the tree and giraffe are ``next to'' each other, etc. Is this interpretation of the machine's depth of understanding correct?
When judging the results of an AI system, it is not only important to analyze its output, but the data used for its training. The results in Figure \ref{fig:msr} were obtained by training on the Microsoft Common Objects in Context (MS COCO) dataset \cite{coco}. This dataset contains five independent captions written by humans for over 120,000 images \cite{COCOCaptions}. If we examine the image in Figure \ref{fig:msr} and the images in the training dataset we can make an interesting observation. For many testing images, there exists a significant number of semantically similar training images, Figure \ref{fig:msr}(right). If two images share enough semantic similarity, it is possible a single caption could describe them both.

This observation leads to a surprisingly simple algorithm for generating captions \cite{kNN}. Given a test image, collect a set of captions from images that are visually similar. From this set, select the caption with highest consensus \cite{cider}, i.e. the caption most similar to the other captions in the set. In many cases the consensus caption is indeed a good caption. When judged by humans, $21.6\%$ of these borrowed captions are judged to be equal to or better than those written by humans for the image specifically. Despite its simplicity, this approach is competitive with more advance approaches using recurrent neural networks \cite{captioning_xinlei,captioning_berkeley,captioning_baidu_ucla,captioning_toronto,captioning_stanford,captioning_google} and other language models \cite{captioning_msr} which can achieve $27.3\%$ when compared to human captions. Even methods using recurrent neural networks commonly produce captions that are identical to training captions even though they're not explicitly trained to do so. If captions are ``generated'' by borrowing them from other images, these algorithms are clearly not demonstrating a deep understanding of language, semantics and their visual interpretation. The odds of two humans repeating a sentence is quite rare.

One could make the case that the fault is not with the algorithms but in the data used for training. That is, the dataset contains too many semantically similar images. However, even in randomly sampled images from the web, a photographer bias is found. Humans capture similar images to each other. Many of our tastes or preferences are universal.

\section{Visual Question Answering}

As we demonstrated using the task of image captioning, determining a multimodal task for measuring a machine's intelligence is challenging. The task must be easy to evaluate, yet hard to solve. That is, it's evaluation shouldn't be as hard as the task itself, and it must not be solvable using ``shortcuts'' or ``cheats''. To solve these two problems we propose the task of Visual Question Answering (VQA) \cite{VQA,geman,fritz,SongChun_video_queries,vizwiz,GaoMZHWX15}.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{figures/teaser_license_verified_scaled.pdf}
\caption{Example images and questions in the Visual Question Answering dataset (http://visualqa.org).}
 \label{fig:teaser}
 \end{figure}

The task of VQA requires a machine to answer a natural language question about an image as shown in Figure \ref{fig:teaser}. Unlike the captioning task, evaluating answers to questions is relatively easy. The simplest approach is to pose the questions with multiple choice answers, much like standardized tests administered to students. Since computers don't get tired of reading through long lists of answers, we can even increase the length of the answer list. Another more challenging option is to leave the answers open-ended. Since most answers are single words such as ``yes'', ``blue'', or ``two'' evaluating their correctness is straightforward.

Is the visual question answering task challenging? The task is inherently multimodal, since it requires knowledge of language and vision. Its complexity is further increased by the fact that many questions require commonsense knowledge to answer. For instance, if you ask ``Does the man have ``20/20'' vision?'', you need the commonsense knowledge that having 20/20 vision implies you don't wear glasses. Going one step further, one might be concerned that commonsense knowledge is all that's needed to answer the questions. For example if the question was ``What color is the sheep?'', our commonsense would tell us the answer is ``white''. We may test the sufficiency of commonsense knowledge by asking subjects to answer questions without seeing the accompanying image. In this case, humans subjects did indeed perform poorly ($33\%$ correct), indicating that commonsense may be necessary but not sufficient. Similarly, we may ask subjects to answer the question given only a caption describing the image. In this case the humans performed better ($57\%$ correct), but still not as accurately as those able to view the image ($78\%$ correct). This helps indicate the VQA task requires more detailed information about an image than is typically provided in an image caption.

How do you gather diverse and interesting questions for 100,000's of images? Amazon's Mechanical Turk provides a powerful platform for crowdsourcing tasks, but the design and prompts of the experiments must be careful chosen. For instance, we ran trial experiments prompting the subjects to write questions that would be difficult for a ``toddler'', ``alien'', or ``smart robot'' to answer. Upon examination, we determined that questions written for a smart robot were most interesting given their increased diversity and difficulty. In comparison, the questions stumping a toddler were a bit too easy. We also gathered three questions per image and ensured diversity by displaying the previously written questions and stating ``Write a different question from those above that would stump a smart robot." In total over 760,000 questions were gathered \footnote{http://visualqa.org}.

\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{figures/QuestionCOCODistributionCircular.png}
\caption{Distribution of questions by their first four words. The ordering of the words
starts towards the center and radiates outwards. The arc length is proportional to the number of questions containing the word. White areas
indicate words with contributions too small to show.}
 \label{fig:QuestionTypes}
 \end{figure}

 \begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{figures/answers.pdf}
\caption{Distribution of answers per question type when subjects provide answers when given the image (top) and when
not given the image (bottom).}
 \label{fig:answer}
 \end{figure*}

The diversity of questions supplied by the subjects on Amazon's Mechanical Turk is impressive. In Figure \ref{fig:QuestionTypes}, we show the distribution of words that begin the questions. The majority of questions begin with ``What'' and ``Is'', but other questions include ``How'', ``Are'', ``Does'', etc. Clearly no one type of question dominates. The answers to these questions have a varying diversity depending on the type of question. Since the answers may be ambiguous, e.g. ``What is the person looking at?" we collected ten answers per question. As shown in Figure \ref{fig:answer}, many question types are simply answered ``yes'' or ``no''. Other question types such as those that start with ``What is" have a greater variety of answers. An interesting comparison is to examine the distribution of answers when subjects were asked to answer the questions with and without looking at the image. As shown in Figure \ref{fig:answer} (bottom), there is a strong bias to many questions when subjects do not see the image. For instance ``What color'' questions invoke ``red'' as an answer, or for questions that are answered by ``yes'' or ``no'', ``yes'' is highly favored.

Finally it is important to measure the difficulty of the questions. Some questions such as ``What color is the ball?'' or ``How many people are in the room?'' may seem quite simple. In contrast, other questions such as ``Does this person expect company?'' or ``What government document is needed to partake in this activity?'' may require quite advanced reasoning to answer. Unfortunately, the difficultly of a question is in many cases ambiguous. The question's difficultly is as much dependent on the person or machine answering the question as the question itself. Each person or machine has different competencies.

In an attempt to gain insight into  how challenging each question is to answer, we asked human subjects to guess how old a person would need to be to answer the question. It is unlikely most human subjects have adequate knowledge of human learning development to answer the question correctly. However, this does provide an effective proxy for question difficulty. That is, questions judged to be answerable by a 3-4 year old are easier than those judged answerable by a teenager. Note, we make no claims that questions judged answerable by a 3-4 year old will actually be answered correctly by toddlers. This would require additional experiments performed by the appropriate age groups. Since the task is ambiguous, we collected ten respondences for each question. In Figure \ref{fig:age} we show several questions for which a majority of subjects picked the specified age range. Surprisingly the perceived age needed to answer the questions is fairly well distributed across the different age ranges. As expected the questions that were judged answerable by an adult (18+) generally need specialized knowledge, where those answerable by a toddler (3-4) are more generic.

\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{figures/age.pdf}
\caption{Example questions judged to be answerable by different age groups. The percentage of questions falling into each age group is shown in parentheses.}
 \label{fig:age}
 \end{figure*}

\section{Abstract Scenes}

The visual question answering task requires a variety of skills. The machine must be able to understand the image, interpret the question and reason about the answer. For many researchers exploring AI, they may not be interested in exploring the low-level tasks involved with perception and computer vision. Many of the questions may even be impossible to solve given the current capabilities of state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms. For instance the question ``How many cellphones are in the image?'' may not be answerable if the computer vision algorithms cannot accurately detect cellphones. In fact, even for state-of-the-art algorithms many objects are difficult to detect, especially small objects \cite{coco}.

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\linewidth]{figures/abstract.pdf}
\caption{Example abstract scenes and their questions in the Visual Question Answering dataset (http://visualqa.org).}
 \label{fig:abstract}
 \end{figure}

To enable multiple avenues for researching VQA, we introduce abstract scenes into the dataset \cite{Antol2014,ZitnickCVPR2013,ZitnickICCV2013,VedantamPAMI2015}. Abstract scenes or cartoon images are created from sets of clip art, Figure \ref{fig:abstract}. The scenes are created by human subjects using a graphical user interface that allows them to arrange a wide variety objects. For clip art depicting humans, their poses and expression may also be changed. Using the interface a wide variety of scenes can be created including ordinary scenes, scary scenes, or funny scenes. Since the type of clip art and it's properties are exactly known, the problem of recognizing objects and their attributes is greatly simplified. This provides researchers an opportunity to more directly study the problems of question understanding and answering. Once computer vision algorithms ``catch up'', perhaps some of the techniques developed for abstract scenes can be applied to real images. The abstract scenes may be useful for a variety of other tasks as well, such as learning common sense knowledge \cite{ZitnickICCV2013,Antol2014,NEIL,divvala2014learning,Vedantam2015}.

\section{Discussion}

While visual question answering appears to be a promising approach to measuring machine intelligence for multimodal tasks, it may prove to have unforseen shortcomings. We've explored several baseline algorithms that perform poorly when compared to human performance. As the dataset is explored, it is possible that solutions may be found that don't require ``true AI''. However, using proper analysis we hope to continuously update the dataset to reflect the current progress of the field. As certain question or image types become too easy to answer we can add new questions and images. Other modalities may also be explored such as audio and text-based stories \cite{zettlemoyer_kdd14,zettleymoyer_acl13,weston_qa,richardson2013mctest}.

In conclusion, we believe designing a multimodal challenge is essential for accelerating and measuring the progress of AI. Visual question answering offers one approach for designing such challenges that allows for easy evaluation while maintaining the difficultly of the task. As the field progresses our tasks and challenges should be continuously reevaluated to ensure they are of appropriate difficultly given the state of research. Importantly, these tasks should be designed to push the frontiers of AI research, and help ensure their solutions lead us towards systems that are truly ``AI complete''.

{\small
\bibliographystyle{ieee}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Leighangela
Lisbeth Johnson, Ed.D.
Teacher, Professional Developer, Executive Coach-Consultant
Lisbeth Johnson received her doctorate in Organizational Leadership in 2002 from the University of La Verne and completed her dissertation on the topic of Integrating Instruction with Technology. She has worked in educational settings for forty-six years in Pre-Kindergarten through Post- Secondary settings. Her education includes a Bachelor's degree from the University of California, San Diego, and a Masters Degree and teaching credentials from San Diego State University. She is also certified as a Leading Edge instructor for online learning.
Starting out as a Head Teacher in Head Start Schools in San Diego, California, she went on to become an elementary teacher and taught consecutively in Kindergarten through Sixth Grades as well as serving as a reading resource support teacher in South Bay Union School District. While serving as a teacher, the district selected and trained Ms. Johnson to develop student achievement evaluation reporting data for presentations to the district's school board. After serving for nine years in South Bay, Dr. Johnson moved to Cajon Valley Union School District in the East County of the city where she was hired as a Principal. Over an eleven year period, she served successfully in three different schools in K-8th grades as their site leader and finally as an Area Director for regional Principals.
Demonstrating early on a love of curriculum development, Lisbeth was then hired as a K-12 Director of Curriculum and Instruction in Walnut Valley Unified School District in the San Gabriel Valley. After six years in this District, she returned to her San Diego home to be selected as a Kindergarten through Eighth Grade Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services in the Santee Union School District. Under her leadership, this blue collar school district increased their student achievement to the mid-860 average API range and ranked 8 among San Diego's 42 districts in student achievement. She was then hired as District Superintendent in Santee. Her continued accomplishments included establishing a vision for redesigning school curriculum. Through extensive professional development for her teachers at UCLA SEEDS, she and her staff transformed traditional school instruction into twenty-first century learning focusing on several learning outcomes including project based learning and integration of technology. She also is credited with rallying the community to pass a bond measure that brought new science classroom buildings, modernization, and digital infrastructure to the district schools for the first time in forty years.
Lisbeth retired from the Santee School District in 2009. She, however continues to serve as an Executive Coach for Principals, Superintendents, and aspiring Superintendents as well as a consultant for school districts and Charter and private schools. Lisbeth has won many awards throughout her career including "top-fifty Principals to observe" in San Diego, Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year as Superintendent, Association of California School Administrators San Diego Administrator of the Year and recognitions for outstanding performance as a leader from the State Assembly.
Dr. Johnson has participated in many prestigious professional organizations including the National Staff Development Council and the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development where she is currently a faculty member: http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/oscb/faculty/Johnson-L.aspx . She has been a part-time faculty member at USD, San Diego State University and now is an adjunct faculty member and Cohort Mentor for transformational leaders and doctoral students through Brandman University. In 2014, she published a book Transforming Ice Age Schools with her co-author Leighangela Brady who is currently Assistant Superintendent, of Educational Services in award winning Encinitas School District.


Every home has its sweet spot when it comes to lighting. This will depend on how the sun hits your home, the presence of natural shading, and other factors like the weather. If you take just one outdoor photo and call it a day, you're pressing your luck. Take a few at different times per day so you can compare and choose the right shot.
The lighting inside your home will be affected by two different factors: natural light from the sun, and artificial light from light bulbs. You will need to find a good balance of the two, in combination with the flash from your camera. For the best interior photographs, you should use a high-quality camera, not an iPhone or throwback Polaroid.
The most important picture of all is the one of the front of the home, so go the extra mile to make sure it looks good. Park your car down the street so the driveways is clear. Tuck all recycle bins and garbage cans around the side of the house. Make sure there are no stray bikes, baseball bats, or hockey nets which will detract the eye from the house.
Your house is probably filled with little knick-knacks that make it feel like home, but potential buyers prefer a blank canvas. The home should be cleaned, dishes should be washed, closets should be organized, and so on. Try to stash away personal mementos like fridge magnets or your miniature elephant collection. A bonus of decluttering for photos is that it saves you the work when it comes time to prepare for open houses and showings.
If your home has a special feature like a fireplace, hot tub, or home theatre, make sure you show it off in the listing pictures. This also applies to popular features like granite countertops and hardwood floors. Remove any area rugs to let the floors shine. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so highlighting these special features in listing pictures will go a lot farther than a mention of them in the description.
Ottawa REALTORS® have a lot of experience taking perfect listing pictures that make the best impression on potential buyers. If you want more tips on how to get the best listing pictures, contact the Geoff & Bobbie team today.


Just over half of charity leaders (53%) say their organization has experienced increased demand over the previous year, up from 50% in mid-2011.
Skilled volunteering is the practice of using work-related knowledge and expertise in a volunteer capacity. At one time, volunteering entailed such things as selling tickets, stuffing envelopes, entering data. Over time, organizations have realized that by engaging talented people and matching their skills and abilities to appropriate projects, both the volunteers and the charitable or not-for-profit organization benefit – volunteers learn and contribute information, ideas and practices that contribute to the success and growth of the organization.
Strong Human Resource practices are integral to a successful organization. Research continues to indicate the increasingly strategic value Human Resource practitioners contribute to organizations. As the Human Resource profession transforms it continues to require more specialized skills, certification and professional credentials. Sharing this expertise with a sector that realistically can't afford to hire Human Resource professionals but badly needs their skills and knowledge will result in a win-win situation for all parties.
Enlist employers. Advocating for employers to further enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility practices by supporting Human Resource professionals in voluntary endeavors, e.g. giving them paid time off to contribute their skills and expertise to the not-for-profit sector. While some BC organizations currently offer this practice.
Go to the Source. Encouraging Human Resource associations to post on their websites free of charge, or at a subsidized rate, volunteer opportunities in the not-for-profit sector.
Training and Development. Influencing Human Resource associations and educational institutions to develop training that encourages alignment between Human Resource professionals and the not-for-profit sector, such as mentorship programs.
Build on what's There. Developing a strong relationship between Human Resource associations, educational institutions and organizations that are recognized as not-for- profit champions, such as Vantage Point, Charity Village, Association of Fundraising Professionals, etc. to share resources and expertise.
I'm a strong believer that the two sectors can develop a Mutually Rewarding Partnership. All it takes is lots of motivated people with time, ideas, passion and enthusiasm. I'm up for it – are you? If so, e-mail me at HumanElementResources@shaw.ca, call me at 604 727-2726 or join my linked in group, the BC Human Resource and Non-Profit Exchange and let's get started!
Carolynne Mahood has extensive Human Resource experience gained from local and national private, public, and not for profit organizations and is certified as a CHRP by the BC Human Resource Management Association. She currently develops and delivers courses in Human Resources at Vancouver Community College. In addition, she is President of the board of a not- for –profit organization, and is the principal of Human Element Resources.
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HomePeopleAdil Hussain For Improving Commercial Viability
Adil Hussain For Improving Commercial Viability
Pranjal Borah September 05, 2016
To revive the ailing Assamese film industry that has been plagued by myriad problems, it is important to improve the commercial viability of the movies and ensure availability of halls to screen the movies. This was the observation made by noted actor Adil Hussain while interacting with media persons in Guwahati recently.
Hussain was in the city for release of the official trailer of 'Kothanodi' (The River of Fables), winner of the Best Feature Film in Assamese at the 63rd National Film Awards. The actor has played a major role in this award-winning movie that has adapted four folk tales from Buri Air Xadhu, that serves as a catalyst to the dark undertones running in all bed-time stories across the globe.
"We are always discussing the problems faced by the regional film industry. But it is high time now that we took some concrete steps to rejuvenate our film industry that has a glorious heritage," said Hussain, observing that the Assamese film industry can sustain itself by bringing more audience to the cinema halls. He pointed out that the experience of film viewing is still not good enough in the State. "To attract more people we need to ensure a good film viewing ambience," he said, calling upon the upcoming filmmakers to imbibe a passion for film-making and learn the art of film-making with the requisite training.
"We need good films and it is the responsibility of the filmmakers to make quality films that are acceptable to the masses," said Hussain, adding that awards do not guarantee box office success of a film.
Talking about his experience in 'Kothanodi', the actor said he was impressed with the script of the film and the commitment of the director.
It needs mention that 'Kothanodi' is Bhaskar Hazarika's debut film as a director. In his own words, the film is an attempt to look at the popular folk tales with a new perspective and explore the underlying darker shades of horror, envy etc. "We have made an effort to introduce stories that have universal themes but are expressed in local style, influenced by the story telling traditions of the numerous communities in the State," said Hazarika. The film is going to be released in the State on September 16.
On the other hand, Kopil Bora, who has acted in Kothanodi, lauded the script and mentioned that though the director has resorted to artistic licence, nevertheless the movie will stand out as an innovative venture to usher in a whiff of fresh air into the staggering film industry.


I am pleased to announce that discussions have concluded between the government, the auction 35 winners and Nextwave. Under the terms of the agreement: (1) Nextwave will surrender all the C and F block licenses it had previously won; (2) the wireless carriers that won these licenses in the Auction 35 reauction will receive them and be able to put them into use for the public shortly; and (3) the American taxpayer will receive $10 billion, more than twice the amount than would have been received had Nextwave kept the licenses in accordance with recent court rulings.
The Commission has fought aggressively for years to recapture these licenses, insisting they were public assets that could not be held by private companies (and insulated from repossession in bankruptcy) that did not comply with the terms of the auction. Regrettably, the D.C. Circuit has interpreted the law differently, and without a prospective legislative change, the public will bear this risk in future auctions. That aside, the circumstances that presently exist drove the Commission to seek a resolution that would capture as much value for the public as possible. This settlement does just that.
At bottom, it is a deal that serves the public interest, for it will get licenses out from under litigation and into the market, where the public will benefit from improved service quality, enhanced coverage and greater reliability. Moreover, the treasury will reap $10 billion at a time in which these funds are sorely needed to address pressing national problems.
Before the agreement is effective, it must be ratified by the Department of Justice, which we expect. In addition, Congressional action will be required to implement the settlement. It is only right that the Congress have an opportunity to pass on the terms and render its judgment as to the benefits for American consumers.
This has been a long and arduous process involving many different parties and divergent interests. It has not been easy reaching a mutually agreeable settlement. Some will argue that the result is not perfect, but I believe that it is the best that can be achieved under the circumstances to maximize the benefit for the public.


text:
Actress Yvette Nicole Brown Joins 'Big Shot' Cast
Shiri Appleby has been cast as 'Holly," the good-humored and down-to-earth assistant basketball coach, and Yvette Nicole Brown has been cast as 'Sherilyn,' the no-nonsense dean of Westbrook School for Girls, in the Disney+ original series "Big Shot" written and executive produced by David E. Kelley and Dean Lorey and produced by ABC Studios, a label of Disney Television Studios.
Shiri Appleby most recently starred in Lifetime's critically acclaimed dramedy Unreal, earning a Critics' Choice Award nomination for her lead role as Rachel Goldberg. In addition to her work in front of the camera, she has also directed numerous TV episodes including "Light as a Feather," "Roswell, New Mexico," "Unreal" and "PLL: Perfectionists." Appleby is repped by UTA and Jeanne Newman at Hansen, Jacboson law firm.
Yvette Nicole Brown will soon be seen as "Aunt Sarah" in the Disney+ live-action reimagining of "Lady and the Tramp," premiering on the service November 12th. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as "Shirley Bennett" on "Community," and has also appeared on "The Mayor" and "The Odd Couple" reboot. She recently completed work on the independent film "Love and Oatmeal" starring Ben Platt and Lola Kirke. Brown is repped by Innovative Artists.
Rounding out the Big Shot series regulars are Richard Robicheaux ("Boyhood," "Oceans 8") as "George," Sophia Mitri Schloss as "Emma," Nell Verlaque as "Louise," Tiana Le as "Destiny," Monique Green as "Olive," Tisha Custodio as "Carolyn 'Mouse' Smith," and Cricket Wampler as "Samantha 'Giggles'."
John Stamos, previously cast as "Marvyn," leads this ensemble cast.
Jumanji The Next Level In Theaters December 13
In Theaters December 13, 2019
In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to Jumanji to rescue one of their own, they discover that nothing is as they expect. The players will have to brave parts unknown and unexplored, from the arid deserts to the snowy mountains, in order to escape the world's most dangerous game.
Written by:Jake Kasdan & Jeff Pinkner & Scott Rosenberg
Based on the book Jumanji by:
Produced by: Matt Tolmach
Dany Garcia
Hiram Garcia
David Householter
Melvin Mar
Jeff Pinkner
William Teitler
Ted Field
Mike Weber
with Danny Glover
and Danny DeVito
Chadwick Boseman Is About To Cross '21 Bridges'
21 BRIDGES follows an embattled NYPD detective (Chadwick Boseman) who is thrust into a citywide manhunt for a pair of cop killers after uncovering a massive and unexpected conspiracy. As the night unfolds, lines become blurred on who he is pursuing, and who is in pursuit of him. When the search intensifies, extreme measure are taken to prevent the killers from escaping Manhattan as the authorities close all 21 BRIDGES to prevent any entry or exit from the iconic island.
CTG Writers' Workshop Participants Announced
Ngozi Anyanwu
Center Theatre Group has selected participants for the 2019-2020 L.A. Writers' Workshop, where local playwrights are invited to spend eight months in residence at the company researching and writing new works with the feedback from artistic staff and their fellow writers. The workshop, administrated by Center Theatre Group's Artistic Department, is designed to foster new voices, inspire playwrights to create their best work, encourage bold writing and build relationships among local playwrights, Center Theatre Group and the Los Angeles theatre community.
"Being a large theatre in Los Angeles gives us the opportunity and the responsibility to open our doors and give writers a place to write exciting new plays," says Center Theatre Group Associate Artistic Director/Literary Director Neel Keller. "Center Theatre Group was one of the first theatres to make wholesale commitments to the development of new work. The L.A. Writers' Workshop grew out of that desire to have writers even more present and involved in the life of the theatre. It's important for all of our spirits to have playwrights here—in the midst of all our activity. Their presence brings creative energy to our buildings and makes a clear statement that supporting the genesis of new, exploratory work is a central part of what Center Theatre Group is."
Dionna Michelle Daniel
Those participating in the 2019-2020 L.A. Writers' Workshop include Adelina Anthony, Ngozi Anyanwu, Jonathan Caren, Dionna Michelle Daniel, Boo Killebrew, Kenneth Lin, and Kemp Powers. Playwrights were selected by Center Theatre Group's artistic staff. Each year, the goal is to bring together Los Angeles playwrights, all of varying backgrounds and writing styles, with the intent on creating work that challenges audiences and the surrounding theatre community. To be eligible, the writers must currently reside in Los Angeles and must be either starting work on a new play or interested in starting work on a new play.
Trey Edward Shults' 'Waves' Opens November 15
Waves, the stunning emotional epic that has been building heat since its world premiere at Telluride, will open in theaters November 15. From A24 and filmmaker Trey Edward Shults, the film stars Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Lucas Hedges, Taylor Russell,, Alexa Demiem with Renee Elise Goldsberry and Sterling K. Brown.
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'Harriet' Original Song 'Stand Up' Out November 1
Stand Up, the original song written by Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo for Harriet is now available on all digital platforms with the full soundtrack releasing on November 1.
Director: Kasi Lemmons ("Eve's Bayou", "Talk to Me")
Writers: Gregory Allen Howard ("Ali", "Remember the Titans") and Kasi Lemmons
Producers: Debra Martin Chase, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Gregory Allen Howard
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Janelle Monáe, Joe Alwyn, Jennifer Nettles, Clarke Peters
U.S. National Fencing Champion and 2020 Olympic Hopeful, Kamali Thompson, Seeking Sponsors
Kamali Thompson
Kamali Thompson is making history and making America proud as masterfully shuttles between two worlds that may seem at odds with one another and manages a schedule that may seem almost impossible.
What are these two worlds? Thompson, dressed for competing in a sport dominated by men, holds a fencing Saber in her hand, while a stethoscope hangs loosely around her neck, which is required for her equally demanding role as fourth-year medical student.
Thompson, who is training for the 2020 Olympic team, is a 2019 Fencing U.S. National Team Member, ranking No. 6 in the US Team and 114 in the World, coupled with being a 2019 Pan American Team Champion.
The athlete is proving that her mission to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games can be pursued with passion and skill – even as she endures the rigors of medical school as she engages in studies for dual degrees at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.
According to Thompson, when she realized that fencing and pursuing a medical education would place her on a nontraditional path, she decided almost immediately that rather than being afraid to push the envelope, she would embrace the challenge and give both her full commitment; not 50/50 but 100/100.
Thompson has found the challenge exhilarating.
Excelling in as a female athlete – a national champion -- in a combat sport is an amazing feat. Factor in the strenuous demands of being a fourth-year medical student with plans to specialize in orthopedic surgery – another largely male-dominated field -- requires sheer grit, guts, strategy, and remarkable intelligence.
"The most challenging thing at this point is securing sponsors to help me successfully accomplish my dreams of being an Olympian and a surgeon," says Thompson.
It all began for Thompson when she was recruited by the Temple University fencing team. During her four years as a Temple Owl, she went on to become a four-time NCAA Championship qualifier, a second-team All-American, and the first four-time NIWFA conference champion. Her performance inside the classroom and on the fencing strip earned the title of Student-Athlete of the Year at Temple University twice (2011, 2012). She graduated from Temple University with honors, earning a bachelor's of science in biology and a minor in psychology.
Post-graduation, Thompson matriculated into Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and began competing internationally for Team USA.
During the 2015-2016 Olympic qualifying year, she was a three-time national silver medalist. After a strenuous, yet rewarding season she finished 6th on the national point standings and won the 2016 National Championships. Thompson is a member of the 2019 national team, completing research in the sports medicine division in the department of orthopedic surgery at NYU, and studying to become an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon. She is also a 2018-2019 author for Doximity and continues to fiercely train for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team.
"I think the difference between me and perhaps some other people is that I am not afraid to fail," said Thompson, who also runs clinics for high school student-athletes on weekends. "I use that approach when training for the Olympics and studying for my medical degree and preparing to be a surgeon. I don't stop to think about fear or reasons why I can't tackle something. I don't think you can ever fail, really. Even if it doesn't turn out the way you planned, most of the time, it all works out. I just delve into the opportunity with the goal of succeeding no matter the challenge. "
Fencing Accomplishments
➢ U.S National Team Member (2019)
➢ Pan American Team Champion (2019)
➢ Division I Women's Saber National Silver Medalist (2015, 2018, 2019)
➢ Women in Sports Foundation Travel & Training Grant Recipient (2017, 2018)
➢ Division I Women's Saber National Champion (2016)
➢ World University Games Team Member (2013)
➢ PNC Student-Athlete of the Year (2011, 2012)
➢ Second Team All-American (2012)
➢ 4-Time NCAA qualifier (2008 – 2012)
Silver and Cole Sing Tribute To Nat King Cole
Billboard chart-topping jazz singer Deborah Silver and four-time Grammy-nominated crooner-pianist Freddy Cole have been friends for two decades yet they had never sung a duet before they entered a Hollywood recording studio to record a loving tribute to commemorate Nat King Cole's centennial birth year. Tapping Grammy winners Steve Tyrell and Alan Broadbent to respectively produce (with Jon Allen) and arrange the track, Silver and Freddy Cole's enchanting "Orange Colored Sky" dropped Monday as a single.
Silver wanted to honor Freddy Cole's late brother saying, "I think Nat King Cole was a huge influence on all music. His velvety voice and debonair delivery are iconic. Also, recognizing what an admirable role he played in the civil rights movement, he always showed grace and dignity. Nat King Cole was obviously a very special man and so is his brother, Freddy."
Equipped with a fresh Broadbent arrangement of the tune Nat King Cole recorded at Capitol Studios in 1950, Silver and Freddy Cole recorded at the famed Sunset Sound Studios. As seen in this behind-the-scenes video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYvRJMJh69I), the chemistry spawned from their endearing friendship and sweet affection seeped onto the single.
"Our recording happened quickly. Singing the song together and being in the same room right next to each other made it really special. We just clicked. We were able to respond to each other on the spot. It was like having a conversation...so much fun and truly magical. I've always thought Freddy Cole had the coolest voice and is the sweetest man. He has a style like no other. We have been friends for over 20 years and thought it was about time to do a duet together. It is nice when you work with people you are comfortable with. It just seemed so easy," said Silver, who will perform with Freddy Cole at Blues Alley in Washington, DC on December 12-15 and at Birdland in New York City on December 23-28.
"It ('Orange Colored Sky') was a great tune and we just thought it was appropriate to use on this occasion," said Freddy Cole who turned 88 last week. "She's (Deborah) a fine singer. She's a good entertainer and she knows how to pick her material. Working with professional people, they know what they're doing. Steve (Tyrell) brought his expertise to the table. It's good to have another voice on the project that's different from what yours is."
Silver's 2016 "The Gold Standards," also produced by Tyrell and Allen and arranged by Broadbent, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Traditional Jazz Albums and Heatseekers Albums chart and No. 2 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart. It went Top 10 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart and hit Billboard's Top 200. Silver is putting the finishing touches on a jazz-country hybrid collection of selections from the Great American Songbook that she recorded with Asleep at the Wheel that is slated to drop in the first quarter of 2020. The prolific singer hints at issuing a second album next year - a full album of duets with Freddy Cole.
Netflix 'Let It Snow' Set To Air November 8 2019
When a snowstorm hits a small midwestern town on Christmas Eve, a group of high school seniors find their friendships and love lives colliding thanks to a stranded pop star, a stolen keg, a squad of competitive dancers, a mysterious woman covered in tin foil, and an epic party at the local Waffle Town. Come Christmas morning, nothing will be the same. Based on the best-selling book by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle, LET IT SNOW stars Isabela Merced, Shameik Moore, Odeya Rush, Liv Hewson, Mitchell Hope, Kiernan Shipka, Jacob Batalon, and Joan Cusack.
Starring Isabela Merced, Shameik Moore, Kiernan Shipka, Odeya Rush, Jacob Batalon, Miles Robbins, Mitchell Hope, Liv Hewson, Anna Akana, and Joan Cusack
Directed by Luke Snellin
Screenplay by Laura Solon, Victoria Strouse, and Kay Kannon
Based on The New York Times bestselling book Let It Snow by John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson
Produced by Dylan Clark, p.g.a., Alexa Faigen, p.g.a.
www.netflix.com/LetItSnow
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Final Trailer Released; In Theaters Nationwide December 20
The final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker debuted during halftime of ESPN's "Monday Night Football" NFL game between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets.
Lucasfilm and director J.J. Abrams join forces once again to take viewers on an epic journey to a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the riveting conclusion of the seminal Skywalker saga, where new legends will be born and the final battle for freedom is yet to come.
The film stars Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, with Ian McDiarmid and Billy Dee Williams
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Abrams and Michelle Rejwan. Callum Greene, Tommy Gormley, and Jason McGatlin serve as executive producers. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was written by J.J. Abrams & Chris Terrio.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker releases in U.S. theaters on December 20.
Diesel Stars in "Bloodshot,' Set For 2020 Release
In Theaters nationwide February 21, 2020
Based on the bestselling comic book, Vin Diesel stars as Ray Garrison, a soldier recently killed in action and brought back to life as the superhero Bloodshot by the RST corporation. With an army of nanotechnology in his veins, he's an unstoppable force -stronger than ever and able to heal instantly. But in controlling his body, the company has sway over his mind and memories, too. Now, Ray doesn't know what's real and what's not - but he's on a mission to find out.
Taylor's 'Black and Blue' Isn't Colorblind To Racism
After a rookie female cop named Alicia West (Naomie Harris) witnesses and records on her bodycam - some fellow cops assassinating some drug dealers, everything turns Black and Blue, set for nationwide release on October 25.
The film stars Academy Award nominee Naomie Harris (Moonlight), Tyrese Gibson (The Fast and Furious franchise), Mike Colter (Luke Cage), and Nafeesa Williams (Black Lightning).
Set in New Orleans, the film, directed by Deon Taylor (Traffik, The Intruder), is a fast-paced action thriller about racism and police corruption that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.
West has been a rookie cop for three weeks. Prior to that, she was military – so she can hold her own – if need be. New Orleans is her old haunt – but since became a cop she is persona non grata amongst the black people, including Missy (Nafessa Williams) (a former friend who even denies knowing her.
"You think you're black? You're blue now!" those were sentiments of the people who live in the hood.
Once the narcs, Kevin (Reid Scott) and a really nasty narc named Malone (Frank Grillo) and who killed the drug dealers realize West has on a body cam, they shoot her, but not lethally. She manages to get away – only to be hunted like a dog.
The race is on to find her and stop her from getting back to the station and uploading the video.
When she realizes even her own partner may be in on whatever shenanigans the bad cops have in play, her only support and trust comes from Mouse (Gibson), a man who works at a local market who cares enough to help her run from the cops.
To make West a bigger target, the bad cops upload her photo and declare that she is the one who shot and killed the drug dealers, one of whom is a big bosses' nephew named Zero.
The movie comes down to exactly what its title purports. The situation is Black and Blue. The people in the hood no longer respect Harris or have confidence in her because she is, what they deem, on the side of the enemy in blue.
The one bit of business I couldn't figure out was why – whenever West was able to use a phone, did she not call television stations to meet her at a specific location so they could upload the video and then she'd be safe. Well, I guess that would have ended the movie rather early.
Director Deon Taylor has crafted a masterful, gritty drama that draws in the audience at every turn. Taylor shot it mostly in the dark. A pivotal scene, he says, was shot solely using car lights. It makes for a very dramatic effect. The city of New Orleans is quite a provocative character in this movie.
The cast is solid. Kudos to Naomie Harris and Tyrese Gibson who both turn in stellar performances. Frank Grillo is brilliant as an evil narc.
Black and Blue stars Harris, Gibson, Grillo, Colter, Williams, Scott, and Beau Knapp.
On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don't bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), Black and Blue (Sony Pictures) gets an O (oh, yeah).
MGM's "Respect" Announces Ensemble Cast
Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) recently announced the award-winning ensemble cast joining Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson in the feature film RESPECT, based on the life of music icon Aretha Franklin. Following the rise of Franklin's career from a child singing in her father's church's choir to her international superstardom, RESPECT is the remarkable true story of Aretha Franklin's journey to find her voice.
Hudson, who was personally hand-picked by Franklin to play her in the film, is joined by a stellar cast of stars including Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy-winner Forest Whitaker; Marlon Wayans; Tony, Grammy and Emmy-winner Audra McDonald; Multiple Grammy-winning, and Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominee Mary J. Blige; Marc Maron; Emmy-nominee Tituss Burgess; Tony-nominee Saycon Sengbloh; Tony-nominee Hailey Kilgore, Tate Donovan, and Skye Dakota Turner.
The first authorized feature film based on Franklin's life, RESPECT is directed by Tony-nominee Liesl Tommy (Broadway's Eclipsed) and is written by Emmy-nominee Tracey Scott Wilson (The Americans, Fosse / Verdon).
Said Tommy, "I am thrilled with the incredibly talented cast we have assembled for our film, and I'm so proud that Ms. Franklin entrusted us to tell her story and to share it with the world. As a storyteller, hers is the kind of story we all dream of telling. Her music has inspired me since I was a little girl, and the milestones of her life and career have shown us all how to strive and thrive. To have this powerhouse group of actors - and the phenomenal talent of Jennifer Hudson in this iconic role - means we have the chance of making this film as transcendent as her glorious life and legacy."
The producers are Scott Bernstein (Straight Outta Compton) and multiple Grammy-nominated producer Harvey Mason Jr. (Dreamgirls), who has produced music for both Aretha Franklin and Jennifer Hudson.
Said Bernstein and Mason Jr., "We were given the rare privilege to work with Ms. Franklin directly to curate the stories she most wanted to share and the moments in her life that made her who she was. Over the years, she imparted to us how important it was to her that we share her story on the big screen and how important it was to have Jennifer in this role. To have that kind of deeply personal trust and insight from Ms. Franklin was nothing short of amazing for everyone involved."
The film will exclusively feature the iconic songs: Respect; I Say A Little Prayer; Think; (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman; You've Got A Friend; Dr. Feelgood; Do Right Woman, Do Right Man; Spanish Harlem; and Young, Gifted and Black. The film will also feature Ain't No Way; Precious Lord; There's A Fountain Filled With Blood; Amazing Grace; and Chain of Fools.
The Franklin family will be played by:
Forest Whitaker (Godfather of Harlem) stars as Reverend CL Franklin. Known as the man with the "Million-Dollar Voice," Franklin served as the pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Franklin was also the father of the American singer and songwriter Aretha Franklin and her manager early on in her career. Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy-Winner Whitaker is repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Marlon Wayans (On the Rocks, highly successful Sextuplets, Marlon), stars as Ted White, Aretha's first husband. He is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, WME and Lawrence Kopeikin and Kevin Yorn of Morris Yorn.
Audra McDonald—the winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy—stars as Barbara Franklin, Aretha's mother. McDonald is represented by WME.
Saycon Sengbloh (Broadway's Eclipsed, CW's In the Dark, ABC's Scandal) stars as Erma Franklin, Aretha's eldest sister. Stewart Talent and Impression Entertainment rep the Tony-nominee.
Hailey Kilgore (Broadway's Once on This Island, NBC's The Village, Amblin/Apple's Amazing Stories) stars as Carolyn Franklin, Aretha's sister. She is repped by Abrams Artists Agency, One Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein.
After a worldwide casting search, the role of young Aretha Franklin will be played by Skye Dakota Turner (Broadway's Young Anna Mae in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical). She is repped Sherry Kayne at The Green Room.
Music legends will be played by:
Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) stars as famed recording artist Dinah Washington. APA reps the multiple Grammy-winning, and Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated artist.
Heather Headley (Broadway's Aida) will play Clara Ward, the famed gospel artist and leader of The Famous Ward Sisters. CAA reps the Tony and Grammy-winner.
Tituss Burgess (Dolemite Is My Name, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) stars as Reverend Dr. James Cleveland, who was known as the "King of Gospel." CAA and Soffer / Namoff Entertainment rep the Emmy-nominee.
Marc Maron (Joker, GLOW, Sword of Trust) stars as legendary Atlantic Records music producer Jerry Wexler. He is repped by ICM Partners, Avalon Management and Granderson Des Rochers.
Tate Donovan (Rocketman) stars as John Hammond, Columbia Records' influential music producer. He is repped by Gersh and Authentic Talent and Literary Management.
Franklin landed over 100 singles in the Billboard charts, including 17 Top 10 pop singles and 20 No. 1 R&B hits, 18 Grammy Awards, and was the first female to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Her reinvention of Otis Redding's Respect as a feminist anthem transformed her into an icon of the civil rights and women's movements. Her cultural impact was felt throughout her career, from her singing at Dr. Martin Luther King's memorial service to performing at three presidential inaugurations.
The film begins shooting November 1, 2019. From MGM and BRON Creative, RESPECT will be released domestically via UA Releasing on August 14, 2020. The film will be distributed internationally via Universal Pictures International.
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text:
ONR-funded STEM Program Offers Peek Into World of Real "CSI"
E-mail: onrcsc@onr.navy.mil
By Office of Naval Research Corporate Communications
ARLINGTON, Va.—Students and teachers from more than 25 Dallas schools will spend July 18-29 dusting for fingerprints and analyzing facial images at the second annual Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Camp, through a program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).
Southern Methodist University's (SMU) CSI Summer Camp, which began this week, is another opportunity for ONR to introduce middle school students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers, said Dr. Kam Ng, ONR's deputy director of research, whose office oversees the effort.
The summer program, split into one-week sessions for girls and another for boys, will allow students to use science and math skills in real-world settings, Ng said.
"CSI is an exciting topic, particularly for young girls," said Ng, who noted statistics demonstrate that girls are less likely to pursue professional disciplines that focus on STEM.
Students and teachers from Dallas-area public middle schools and Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools as well as a KIPP school in Philadelphia, are participating in the camp. More than 80 percent of the students enrolled in the charter school program come from underserved populations, according to SMU's technical proposal for the camp.
The CSI Summer Camp opens doors for students, not only in furthering their studies in high school and college but also in career choices, said Becky Archer, a sixth-grade teacher from KIPP Philadelphia and a participant in the two-week program.
"Science is such an important part of education," Archer said. "It's amazing. I had six girls [Monday] who said they are interested in forensics, crime scene analysis and working for the FBI."
Participants will get hands-on experience in crime-scene analysis as well as hear from experts in the CSI field. Previous speakers have included medical examiners, SWAT teams, Texas Rangers and a retired CIA employee who created disguises for agents. The CSI Summer Camps were first launched in July 2010. At the time it was limited to 80 girls. The curriculum was based on 20 activities spread across the five days.
The Department of the Navy is investing in K-12 STEM education and outreach because more than 50 percent of its scientists and engineers will be eligible for retirement by 2020. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has pledged to double funding for the U.S. naval STEM program over the next five years. The move will increase the Navy's total dollars committed to STEM education initiatives to more than $100 million by 2015.


text:
Residential Tenancy Act #225
TAGS: Property Damage Real Estate Act Residential Tenancy Act
B.A., LL.B.
Landlords will have to be as quick off the starting blocks as Linford Christie, in the 100 meters at the Commonwealth games, if they are to retain the benefit of a security deposit for unpaid rent or damages owed by a departing tenant. A section of the Residential Tenancy Act, which is in force from September 18th, 1994, requires a landlord to pay the security deposit before the 15th day following termination of the tenancy, unless the tenant agrees in writing that the landlord may keep all or part of it, or an arbitrator has ordered the tenant to pay an amount to the landlord.
If neither of these circumstances exist the landlord must apply to the residential tenancy branch, within the 15 day period, for an order for unpaid rent or damages. Failing that the landlord's remedies to retain the security deposit are lost. The tenant is then entitled for a period of up to two years following the end of the tenancy, to claim the deposit.
Section 50(8) of the Real Estate Act states that no person, and no person on behalf of a developer, shall sell in British Columbia subdivided land unless that person is licensed as an agent and is acting on behalf of the developer, or is a licensed salesperson employed by that agent.
This section was the basis for a successful defense to an action for damages for $53,000 brought by a developer against a purchaser who refused to close. The corporate developer employed company "A" to market condominium units. Company "A" in turn employed company "B" to do the on-site marketing, and the latter company retained sales representatives who were paid a referral fee for each successful offer to purchase they brought to the developer. All of the companies were associated in one way or another through shareholders or directors. None of the companies and individuals were licensed under the Real Estate Act.
One of the judge's finding of fact was that the sales representative who introduced the defaulting purchaser was not a part of any of the companies, but worked independently when she offered the units for sale. The judge concluded that this brought her actions within the definition of a person, who on behalf of a developer offered for sale subdivided lands. Since she was unlicensed this was a breach by the developer of Section 50(8). Section 62 of the Act prevents a person such as this developer, who has breached part two, from enforcing a contract made between a purchaser and that person.
The purchaser had alleged misrepresentations which the judge found to be unproven. In the course of reciting the facts the judge referred, without further comment, to evidence which disclosed that the purchasers were given untrue information that a number of units were sold and a number were subject to pending sales. The purpose of providing this information was, as the judge said, "to create for potential buyers the erroneous impression of activity on the market."1 (The decision is being appealed.)
Another case (see column #61) indicating the importance of making it clear to another party to a proposed contract, that the contract is to be with a limited company rather than the principal of that company. The case involved an action against the builder of a home by purchasers who claimed damages for the cost of repairing defects. The action was brought against the limited company that owned the land and the principal of that company. His denial of personal liability was unsuccessful because he signed the offer to purchase without indicating that he was signing in any corporate capacity, and he presented himself to the vendors in such a way that they understood that her personally was the vendor and the builder of the house.2
1. Ocean Park Towers Ltd. v. Hansen, S.C.B.C., Vancouver Registry #C914909, Reasons for Judgement, June 24, 1994.
2. Liddell v. Van-City Electric Ltd., 91 B.C.L.R., (2) 331.


text:
Rep. Smith Pushes Relief Efforts For Red Bank Nonprofits
RED BANK — There are encouraging signs for Red Bank nonprofits —especially the Count Basie Center for the Arts and the Red Bank Fire Department (RBFD) — as they look for assistance from the federal government during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, said Rep. Chris Smith (R-4).
The Basie is among those who qualify for the federal relief program recently funded by the Save Our Stages Act — legislation that Smith co-sponsored and strongly supported. Signed into law late last year, the Save Our Stages Act will financially assist entertainment venues while the pandemic restricts capacity and live events.
"The arts and entertainment industry has been hit hard by this pandemic, and while we are starting to see promising signs for the future, it is essential that we do more to support this critically important community," said Congressman Smith.
The Basie is prepping its application for the $10 billion grant program that will be run by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the theatre will be eligible for up to 45 percent of 2019 operating costs or $12 million for expenses incurred during the pandemic.
While in Red Bank, Smith met with Count Basie Center for the Arts President and CEO Adam Philipson, whose organization is grateful for the congressman's support and anxious for the pending relief.
Other legislation strongly backed by Smith — the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act — expanded federal funding for local fire departments and other first responders on the frontlines during the pandemic. The Red Bank Fire Department tapped into the program and will use the Smith-supported federal dollars to help purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) for the 100 volunteer firefighters who serve the borough.
"This modest, but targeted grant will help pay for the PPE that Red Bank's first responders need for every call they make," Smith said. "Providing our firefighters with protective gear minimizes exposure for themselves and those in distress and enables them to continue serving the community in the safest way possible during the pandemic," he added.
https://themonmouthjournal.com/rep-smith-pushes-relief-efforts-for-red-bank-nonprofits-p10622-73.htm
Praise for Rep Chris SmithSmith calls on Army Corp and DEP to address 18′ cliffs on beach
How Would You Like to Help Chris Smith?
Make phone calls from home
Make phone calls at Campaign HQ
Hand Addressing Letters
Put a Sign in My Yard
How Would You Like to Help Chris Smith (col 2)
Volunteering at Events
Go door to door in my neighborhood
Friends of Chris Smith
PO Box 1266, Toms River, NJ 08754
PAID FOR BY FRIENDS OF CHRIS SMITH


Every once in a while, we stumble across someone's work that leaves our jaw on the floor. MikeK Media's latest video, an inside look at the talented John Zhang's work and LTMW's beautiful cars, leaves us begging for more. From the cinematography, to the coloration - it's one of the best shorts we've seen lately. We couldn't help but share, and we'll let his work do the rest of the talking. Be sure to turn up the volume and enter full-screen.
Be sure to check out http://facebook.com/mikekmedia for more of Mike Koziel's talent, as well as 1013MM and LTMW.
whats the name of the song in the video ?


The 50th edition of the classic Transpacific Race will kick off on July 10th. This anniversary edition has already seen close to 100 yachts entered. Boats will be arriving off the Diamond Head finish line as soon as July 17th, with the legendary Aloha welcome parties in Ala Wai Yacht Basin all that weekend and on into the next week. Sevenstar has agreed a logistics partnership with the organization. On special request we provided a mast up transport solution from Hawaii to Ensenada together. Whether it is from Australia, the USA East Coast or the Caribbean, we already have mast-up transports in place. Where timings or loading ports do not quite match, we have mast down solutions inside car carriers or on container liners worked out.


Daimler Middle East & Levant, the regional office of Mercedes-Benz in the Middle East, proudly presents its all-new ShowMe App for all General Distributors in the region.
The Mercedes-Benz ShowMe App is intended for the internal use of the Mercedes-Benz General Distributors. It enables them to present the latest facts about Mercedes-Benz After-Sales products to their customers in a more interactive way. The multi-purpose App lets customers, who are visiting the showroom or waiting for their car, explore the parts and services Mercedes-Benz offers in the Middle East markets, in terms of product information and advantages, services, interesting facts and beneficial tips.
Furthermore, it specifically points out the benefits customers gain from choosing Mercedes-Benz GenuineParts and Services.
Besides the usage within waiting areas and the showroom, the app can further be used with the special "rack mode": The iPad with Mercedes-Benz ShowMe App is stationed on a rack on top of a display cabinet with various Mercedes-Benz GenuineParts. While trailing it over the cabinet, it scans the products and starts the respective product animations to explain the advantages of the parts – a fantastic and interactive way to convince your customers of the unique performance of Mercedes-Benz GenuineParts and Services.
Download the new ShowMe App now and let your customers discover the world of Mercedes-Benz Service & Parts – of course you can download it completely for free.


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Our White Vanity is the perfect piece at your next event! Does your bridal suite need a place to get ready? Are you hosting a shower and could use this piece for decor? Our vanity even comes with a matching stool!