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Once a Goat
Once a Goat: Cesar Romero caps off outstanding season in Armenia with Golden Boot, league title
Three Goats in Armenia this season, and one had a very successful time indeed.
By Alicia Rodriguez May 30, 2015, 4:23pm PDT
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Romero: Game really took flight this season in Armenia.
Jeff Gross/Getty Images
Several months back we checked in with former Chivas USA forward Cesar Romero, and he was flying high with his new team, FC Pyunik in Armenia, of all places (and he's not the only former Goat playing in Armenia, as Bryan de la Fuente and Carlo Chueca are also in that league).
On Saturday, Romero saw the campaign through in style, as he helped lead Pyunik to a domestic double of the league title and domestic cup, while also taking the Golden Boot in the Armenian Premier League for the 2014-15 season, scoring 21 goals in the league.
According to MLSsoccer.com's Greg Seltzer, Romero therefore takes the crown as the most prolific American in Europe for this season in both goals and assists, as he also added nine of those for the team.
Pyunik extend their record of league titles in the APL, and the question now must be whether Romero will remain with the club for next season, or if he may get a look by a bigger club (or perhaps a club in a bigger league). It's tricky, since he's clearly settled well with Pyunik, and will get an opportunity to play in the Champions League this summer (albeit only CL qualifying, unless they go on an amazing run to get into the tournament proper). He may find more success if he moves on, or he may struggle to really do much in a new location. Of course, if he's still under contract, he'll be at the whim of the club if any transfer offers come their way, so who knows.
Meanwhile, de la Fuente's and Chueca's Ararat Yerevan finished in last place for the season. Chueca notched two goals in 10 league appearances this season, while de la Fuente grabbed four goals in 22 league games.
Small world seeing three former CUSA players halfway around the world, and pretty remarkable to see Romero do so well this season. Congrats to him on the personal and team honors!
What do you think? Leave a comment below!
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Orangewood Christian School welcomes qualified international students from around the world to join our homestay boarding program. At Orangewood, international students attend classes with their American peers in an immersive English environment. Our unique program fosters a community where international and American students grow together both intellectually and spiritually.
Ensure students' success both at the high school and university level.
Offer Academic Support~ We provide college preparatory classes as well as ELL academic enrichment program for students who desire a stronger foundation in the English language.
We understand not all international students applying to OCS come from Christian backgrounds, and our policy is to treat all students' beliefs with equal respect and dignity. However, please be aware that students accepted to OCS will be placed only with Christian families. Additionally, international students will be required to take courses in Christianity and other world religions to satisfy Orangewood's general graduation requirements.


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Green Bay Packers Championship Seasons
Championship Seasons
Super Bowls & Championships
The Green Bay Packers have won more championships -- 13 -- than any other team in National Football League history.
They won their first three by league standing (1929, 1930 and 1931), and 10 since the NFL's playoff system was established in 1933 (1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1996 and 2010).
Green Bay also is the only NFL team to win three straight titles, having done it twice (1929-30-31 and 1965-66-67).
In addition, the Packers won the first two Super Bowls (over Kansas City in 1966, 35-10, and over Oakland in 1967, 33-14), as well as two more recently (over New England in 1996, 35-21, and over Pittsburgh in 2010, 31-25).
Since the league implemented a playoff system in 1933, the Packers have played in the NFL's deciding game 13 times (10 NFL title appearances from 1936-67, three Super Bowls after the 1970 merger). Only the Giants (19) have played for more titles.
Most World Championships:
Green Bay Packers, 13
Chicago Bears, 9
New York Giants, 8
New England Patriots, 6
Pittsburgh Steelers, 6
Dallas Cowboys, 5
San Francisco 49ers, 5
Washington Football Team, 5
Cleveland Browns, 4
Detroit Lions, 4
Indianapolis/Baltimore Colts, 4
Philadelphia Eagles, 4
Green Bay's 13 NFL Championship Seasons
YEAR, HEAD COACH, REGULAR SEASON RECORD (PCT)
TITLE GAME OPPONENT, FINAL (SITE)
1929, Curly Lambeau, 12-0-1 (1.000)
(League Standing)
1930, Curly Lambeau, 10-3-1 (.769)
Boston Redskins, 21-6 (New York)
1939, Curly Lambeau, 9-2-0 (.818)
New York Giants, 27-0 (Milwaukee)
New York Giants, 14-7 (New York)
1961, Vince Lombardi, 11-3-0 (.786)
New York Giants, 37-0 (Green Bay)
Cleveland Browns, 23-12 (Green Bay)
Dallas Cowboys, 34-27 (Dallas)
Kansas City Chiefs (SB I), 35-10 (Los Angeles)
1967, Vince Lombardi, 9-4-1 (.692)
Dallas Cowboys, 21-17 (Green Bay)
Oakland Raiders (SB II), 33-14 (Miami)
1996, Mike Holmgren, 13-3-0 (.813)
New England Patriots (SB XXXI), 35-21 (New Orleans)
2010, Mike McCarthy, 10-6-0 (.625)
Pittsburgh Steelers (SB XLV), 31-25 (North Texas)
Green Bay's Five Super Bowl Appearances
Super Bowl I, Jan. 15, 1967
Kansas City Chiefs (W, 35-10)
MVP: Bart Starr
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Super Bowl II, Jan. 14, 1968
Oakland Raiders (W, 33-14)
Miami Orange Bowl
Super Bowl XXXI, Jan. 26, 1997
New England Patriots (W, 35-21)
MVP: Desmond Howard
Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans
Super Bowl XXXII, Jan. 25, 1998
Denver Broncos (L, 31-24)
MVP: Terrell Davis
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego
Super Bowl XLV, Feb. 6, 2011
Pittsburgh Steelers (W, 31-25)
MVP: Aaron Rodgers
Cowboys Stadium, North Texas

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The believer is made up of three parts – spirit, soul, and body. As we are born again, the spirit is made perfect through Jesus. Our soul (mind, will, and emotions) is what receives wounds, lies, and trauma from life. As our soul receives healing, the mind becomes renewed and is able to follow the will of God for our lives. Soul care is a ministry that focuses on inner healing and deliverance. When we partner with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to minister to our soul, the fruit becomes a deeper personal connection with the Godhead and a true freedom and wholeness to walk as a son or daughter. Two to three team members will join you for a two-hour prayer session to help you receive ministry from the Holy Spirit. There is a suggested donation of $55 which can be paid online or brought with you to the ministry session. To schedule an appointment, please fill out the online application below.


Amanda's family » What About Charlie?
I often find myself admiring mothers. How they can juggle so many aspects of motherhood, but maintain softness and warmth that children are drawn to. Amanda is one of those mothers I admire. It such a privilege to be invited to her home and capture her family at play and I hope she treasures these photos.


National Testing Service has already conducted the NTS National Aptitude Test on 17 March 2019. The candidates can get the latest updates regarding their NTS NAT Test Result 2019, which is announced and it is provided to the candidates. The candidates can visit this page and they will get fresh information of their NTS NAT result 2019 with the complete updates.
You Can Get NTS NAT Test Result Here.


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Cabrillo National Monument (29 Dec 2006)
Christopher and Sydney at Cabrillo National Monument.
Sydney and Christopher at Cabrillo National Monument enjoying the view toward North Island and San Diego.
Christopher and Sydney at Cabrillo National Monument overlooking the "new" lighthouse.
View from Cabrillo National Monument
The "new" Point Loma Lighthouse, which replaced one higher on the bluff on March 23, 1891. The concrete structure to the left of the picture with the metal hatch is a fire control station, a remnant from World War II when the point was used to watch for enemy ships. Cabrillo National Monument.
Ranger Patricia swearing in two new Junior Rangers at the Cabrillo National Monument.
Sydney and Christopher are now Junior Rangers after being sworn in by Ranger Patricia at Cabrillo National Monument.


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Author: Hugh David
Editor of Cult TV Times. Writer on anime, genre film & TV, food & health. Former marketeer in the DVD & Film business. Opinions here my own.
For the last few years I have been writing reviews (mostly anime, some live-action) for U.K. print mag MYM Magzine. What follows is the text of the submitted draft reviewing MVM's U.K. blu-ray release of classic SF cop/mech show Patlabor. To read the final version as edited by David Axbey please buy back issue #20 of the magazine.
Title: Patlabor: OVA Series 1 The Early Days Collection
Out: 18th November 2013
From: MVM
On: DVD; also on Blu-ray
Price: £24.99 (Blu-ray also £24.99)
Stars Out of Five: Four
Standfirst: The classic 1989 mecha cop franchise debuts as it means to go on, with character comedy, philosophy, action and realistic mechs.
Another 80s classic makes its way to remastered high definition ahead of a live-action version. Less well known today, its reputation amongst older fans is at least as high as 90s gateway shows like Trigun, Bebop and Evangelion. If you've only ever seen the bigger-budget features, then these OVA episodes might come as something of a shock; for fans, however, this has been high on shopping lists for a while. How does it measure up?
It may seem weird to modern mech fans, but for all the love of technology and the attention paid to designing mechs possessed of a significant degree of realism, Patlabor is not a mech show first. It's a cop show, or to be more precise, it's a workplace sitcom that also happens to be a cop show, set in a world where mech tech has become everyday. Think Hill Street Blues with mechs, or for a 2013 reference, Brooklyn Nine Nine plus mechs. The title derives from the phrase "patrol labours," as standard mechs are named "labours" given they're labour-saving devices. This means they're not capable of martial arts or anti-gravity feats; the wrong height bridge can be a serious obstacle to overcome, while using them as police units has all sorts of potential for collateral damage, something that is explored to frequent comic effect through this 7-part OVA series.
Creative collective HEADGEAR, who came together for this and the other entries in the franchise, knew what they wanted to get on screen here, and went about doing it in a way that suggests a creative freedom hard to find in the modern anime business. Director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Sky Crawlers), script writer Kazunori Ito (.hack, Dirty Pair), mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi (Eureka Seven, Mobile Suit Gundam franchise), character designer Akemi Takada (Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura), and manga creator Masami Yuuki (Birdy the Mighty) have all done great work since, but deserve a place in the all-time Hall of Fame for going their own way with mecha anime to such gloriously entertaining effect. Characterisation is crucial, and one gets to know the team with all their quirks before putting them in real danger, raising the stakes. The OVA series climaxes with the sort of big plot, political discussion and action that would characterise future outings in both the franchise and Oshii's own features.
The DVD screeners MVM supplied look superb upscaled; if this is a downconvert from the new high definition master, then the blu-ray must be simply spectacular. The OVAs have never looked this good, with crisp lines, clear colours, and well-defined movement. This was a time when an OVA meant a reasonable budget to play with, as opposed to the more limited weekly TV budgets, and the quality of the animation is done full justice here. We get the original Japanese track and the 90s U.S. dub; the former has the better performances, but the latter occasionally nails the comedy dead on. The only extras are three Madman trailers for recent shows; compare with the OVAs to see how different modern anime series are, not always for the better.
For the last few years I have been writing reviews (mostly anime, some live-action) for U.K. print mag MYM Magzine. What follows is the text of the submitted draft for my third commission back in 2013, reviewing the Anime Limited U.K. blu-ray release of feature Perfect Blue. To read the final version as edited by David Axbey please buy back issue #19 of the magazine.
Title: Perfect Blue
Out: 30th September 2013
From: Anime Limited
On: Blu-ray/DVD combi pack, also DVD only
Price: £xx.xx (DVD £xx.xx)
Stars Out of Five: Five (Two if you think anime should only be kawaii TV series)
Standfirst: The late Satoshi Kon delivers a masterpiece as his feature debut.
It's simple really. In the pantheon of truly great talents to have stridden across the anime world, Satoshi Kon was in there from the moment he made this highly-regarded feature debut, and only cemented his place with every subsequent project. The story of a J-Pop star leaving her singing trio to try other work, the film chronicles the breakdown of both her career and seemingly her mind. It has more in common with films by Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski than with the science-fiction anime features that were all the rage at the time, but marked a huge step up in international appreciation of the medium after Akira and Ghost in the Shell. This was a release international film festivals could programme, something film critics could get to grips with on their own terms, and marked a new appreciation for what could be done for adult viewers with anime.
Looking back on it now, the period quality of the animation makes no difference whatsoever to the way the film envelopes you in its world, playing with your assumptions, examining the nature of otaku, stalkers, and the careers of those they worship before turning up the tension for a classic thriller climax. This new remaster cleans up the colours, tightens up the balance, and makes full use of the new resolution available. It seems a little darker in places than one remembers, but comparisons with the DVD show that the film has always looked that way. The new DTS HD-MA 5.1 Japanese soundtrack is a definite step up, with the music and fx noticeably clearer and well-placed; there is also a Japanese LPCM 2.0 track.
For those requiring an English dub, the original is available in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1. There are options for full English subtitles, signs only, or none. The interview with the Japanese and English voice casts are retained, as well as the music recording sessions, but the jewel in the crown is still the interview with the late Kon himself. Recorded at his work cubicle, he talks at length in detail about the film that would place him on the global animation map and mark the minds of fans and film-makers alike – no-one who has seen Perfect Blue forgets the experience. (Darren Aronofsky bought the rights for a live-action remake, but seems to have poured its influences into Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan instead.)
If you do not already own a copy of Perfect Blue, then you're highly unlikely to take the plunge now, but it is without doubt the best way to experience this classic psycho-thriller for the first time. If you own the Manga DVD, then you already have the extras in about the same quality, so the only question is how much do you want to own the film in high definition? Given the way Kon wielded his casts and crews like a great composer conducting the orchestra playing his own work, all his films should be available in the most film-like presentation, and this Blu-ray certainly provides that for his still-unnerving debut.
For the last few years I have been writing reviews (mostly anime, some live-action) for U.K. print mag MYM Magzine. What follows is the text of the submitted draft for my second commission back in 2013, reviewing the Manga U.K. blu-ray release of feature Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. To read the final version as edited by David Axbey please buy back issue #18 of the magazine.
Title: Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
From: Manga Entertainment UK
On: Blu-ray
Price: £24.99 (DVD £14.99)
Stars Out of Five: Three (Four if you're a Fate/Stay fan)
Standfirst: Blades, blood and brutality in style.
With the original Fate/Stay Night TV series having been released by MVM in 2010, and the prequel Fate Zero now licensed by them, fans will be able to complete their Grail War collection thanks to Manga UK. However, is this flashy big-budget affair going to bring in those who haven't seen the original series?
For those who don't know, the original Fate/Stay Night was an adult visual novel, i.e. a fantasy porn adventure videogame, although more like semi-animated choose-your-own adventures than a full-on RPG. By no means the first one to be transferred into another medium jettisoning all the adult content, the problem faced with dropping the sex is the shows still have harem-like character set-ups, with a central male surrounded by loads of female characters who need more to do to be interesting now they're not about to be possible shags for the player. Good writing and plotting can get around that, such as with Utawarerumono, and Fate/Stay Night's following outside of Japan attests to the success of the TV version.
Fans of the latter need to be prepared for a feature that is more like a remix than a remake, although not as literally as the TV reproduction OVA. Fans of the original visual novel, however, may be more interested here, as this makes use of other story strands from it, creating something more like an alternate retelling of the original source. The set-up is the same: the Fifth Holy Grail War kicks off involving Magi competing for the wish-granting Holy Grail, each with their own Heroic Spirit warrior summons. Teenage mage Shirou ends up in the middle, and is saved and adopted by the Heroic Spirit Saber. Siding with him is schoolmate Rin, from a powerful magus family, whose servant is Archer and will be more important in this version
As with the TV series, the visuals and music are lovely and stylish, and remain the biggest draw. The characters are still recognisable, but the problem here is that, in an attempt to create a version that newcomers can follow, most of the plotting & characterisation developed over the series is crushed into the first third, effectively dashing through the first half of the TV version to get everyone in place for an escalating series of bloody battles. However impressive and dramatic the latter are, and they are, there is something of a risk of angering fans of the TV series/manga who expect to see more of their favourites than just these glimpses. The radical re-alignment of magi and servants in this storyline means fans will be shocked and surprised throughout the latter two-thirds, as blades rain down upon them and blood spills everywhere.
The blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks looks and sounds spectacular, although it does the blockbuster thing of having the FX/music track boost during the actions while dialogue remains quiet. No extras are included, which is a shame given the history of this franchise. With nary a trace of fan-service, no real romance, but gorgeous visuals, fights galore, and blood spraying all over the place, this certainly will appeal to traditional Manga UK fans. Franchise fans may be divided, but rest assured it's nowhere near as bad as the Escaflowne movie in that respect.
For the last few years I have been writing reviews (mostly anime, some live-action) for U.K. print mag MYM Magzine. What follows is the text of the submitted draft for my first commission back in 2013, reviewing the Manga U.K. blu-ray relese of Hellsing Ultimate OVAs 1-4. To read the final version as edited by David Axbey please buy back issue #17 of the magazine.
Title: Hellsing Ultimate 1-4
Out: 29th July 2013
Stars Out of Five: Two
Standfirst: Vampires, Nazis and BLOOD EVERYWHERE
With this adaptation of Kita Hourano's globally popular manga, digimation pioneers GDH return to the franchise they made into an international success with these first 4 OVA episodes, originally released from 2006 to 2008. Britain's Protestant knights, the Hellsing order, defend the Kingdom's borders from supernatural threats, deploying their secret weapon - the original vampire Alucard – under the direction of Sir Integra Hellsing, descendent of the original hunter.
It is otaku heresy to suggest that the Hellsing Ultimate OVA episodes are anything less than the apotheosis of manga-to-anime adaptation, perfect in the eyes of fans and the original creator. Sadly, everything that made the original TV series entertaining and popular – fine animation, good writing and direction, a great soundtrack, restraint, class – are here dispensed with in favour of spectacular chunks of simplified modern digital animation, slavishly adapting the original manga in excruciating detail. All the fan-favourite tropes are present and correct: the characters, the flowing costumes, the gun porn and the immense swathes of blood. The big addition is more humour, including the super-deformed comedy sequences from the manga.
Watching the episodes all at once rather than drip-fed over years causes distinct viewer fatigue, crowned by the utter bore that is the TEN MINUTES' WORTH of Nazi ranting and singing at the end of episode 4 - a fifth of the episode's total running time! The show indulges its newest Big Bad to such a degree that it goes from a simple villainous turn to the best advert for National Socialism since the last EDL recruitment drive, topped off with a bonkers SD ED sequence that is as tasteless as it is unfunny. The soundtrack is depressingly generic. Events frequently grind to a halt for digital blood to splash everywhere, or long speeches placed in static dullness. Presumably the latter were to make for some affordable scenes in-between the costly ones, but if the "rivers of blood" shots jarringly halt the combat sequences just as they get moving, then the dialogue sequences break up the overall flow of the episodes. All together they create a stop-start effect that destroys any build up of tension.
The video and audio on this blu-ray are first-class, with the episodes and English voice cast commentaries on disc 1 and the rest of the extras on disc 2. These include: two hours of English voice cast interviews filmed with the commentary teams; footage from Anime Expo 2007; promo videos; textless songs; Japanese TV commercials; trailers; and, in case you actually enjoyed the dreadful finale of episode 4, you can relive it with the original Japanese ED and a karaoke version of the Major's speech. We kid you not – you too can play "Fascist Dictator Monthly" in the comfort of your own home, if that's your cup of Fachinger.
All in all, this release is a technically impressive outing for one of the most popular anime ever. It's just a shame that, like the film versions of 300 and Sin City, the raw pulp thrills on the page dissipate when the comic is transferred too faithfully to the screen.
Retro Review: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (as first published in Geeky Monkey #2)
I've been fortunate to have become a regular columnist for new U.K. print mag Geeky Monkey, whose third issue is now on the shelves. What follows is the text of the submitted draft of the Retro Review column for second issue, about The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. To read the final version as edited by Miles Guttery please buy Issue 2 of the magazine.
If there was one major problem with most heroes Hollywood offered geeks in the eighties, it's that too many of them were musclebound lunkheads full of brawn but no brains, only low animal cunning. Which is why when one came along who was everything we could possibly want to be, he quickly became one of THE geek icons of that decade, up there with Indiana Jones, Snake Plissken, Ripley and the Ghostbusters. That man was Buckaroo Banzai: scientist, test pilot, brain surgeon, rock star and samurai.
Banzai was the brainchild of writer Earl Mac Rauch, whose previous screenplays included Martin Scorsese's New York, New York and Sean "Friday the 13th" S. Cunningham's Mary Higgins Clark adaptation A Stranger Is Watching. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eight Dimension was one of those unexpected true studio originals they no longer make, but in 1984 could still be produced and released thanks to old-school attitudes no longer in fashion. Screenwriter W.D. Richter, then best known for the excellent 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, here got his shot at directing, although he had to fight for his vision throughout the production (often with late MGM producer David Begelman) and didn't always win (e.g. losing Blade Runner cinematographer Jordan Cronenwerth). Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, Christopher Lloyd, and Ellen Barkin had all yet to have the hits that would make them geek household names (respectively Robocop, The Fly, Highlander, Back to the Future and Sea of Love), while opposing aliens John Lithgow, Dan Hedaya and Carl Lumbly were recognisable character faces but by no means stars. In short, the film is a wonderful collection of talent exploding in all directions, as much an experimental rocket car as the one they actually built for the opening scenes (yes, those are real rockets you see firing off – how cool is that?!). It's a true cult classic to this day.
Explaining the plot is a classic geek litmus test. Following an unsuccessful 1938 attempt at breaking into the 8th dimension using an oscillator overthruster by scientist Dr. Emilio Lizardo, he ends up fused with alien Lord John Whorfin from Planet 10 and stuck in an insane asylum for fifty years. In the present day, Buckaroo Banzai, whose Japanese father and American mother worked on similar experiments with Dr. Hikita from Lizardo's team, finally makes a successful flight through a mountain and the 8th dimension. Whorfin breaks out and joins up with other members of his race, the Red Lectroids, to steal Banzai's working oscillator overthruster for the spacecraft they have been building through their own company Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems (they've survived since 1938 by becoming defence contractors, their original arrival covered up by the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast!), in order to retake Planet 10 from the Black Lectroids. The latter come to Earth and blackmail Buckaroo Banzai and his team of scientists/engineers/bandmates The Hong Kong Cavaliers (by threatening to start World War III) into helping them defeat the Red Lectroids after giving Banzai the ability to see through the Lectroid disguises. Adventure ensues!
Throw in a blooming romance with the long-lost twin sister of Banzai's dead wife, brain surgery, a nightclub gig, the coolest tour bus ever (it doubles as Mission Control!), arch wit, political satire, the ultimate "bunkhouse" (the home/lab/operations base every geek wishes they had) filled with the most loyal bunch of gun-toting rock-and-roll scientists and engineers you wish were your best friends, plus an ace score from Grammy-winner Michael Boddicker, and you have a recipe for big-screen craziness of the best kind. This is thirties' pulp gussied up in eighties' fashions, a hero in the Doc Savage mould but for the sixties counter-culture generation. Despite being a huge flop on release, home video made it the cult it is today (just like Richter's next film as writer, the similarly-toned Big Trouble In Little China), with new comics keeping his adventures going. With the promised sequel still yet unmade we Banzai geeks at least have Arrow's amazing 2015 blu-ray to enjoy; it's the perfect 30th Anniversary Edition in all but name.
Retro Review: The Last Starfighter (first published in Geeky Monkey #1)
I've been fortunate to have become a regular columnist for new U.K. print mag Geeky Monkey, whose second issue has been on the shelves for a while and third is imminent. What follows is the text of the submitted draft of the Retro Review column for first issue, about The Last Starfighter. To read the final version as edited by Miles Guttery please buy Issue 1 of the magazine, which went on sale 24th September.
As the 21st century rolls on, aging nerds are finding their haze of nostalgia for some classics wiped away by high definition remastering and easy availability to the next few generations, with younger geeks turning their noses up at the primitive entertainment of their forebears when forced to sit through them. Thankfully, for every film that turns out to have always been utter rubbish, there are those whose strengths outshine any weaknesses due to being made in the time period they emerged in.
1984's The Last Starfighter is one such beast. Director Nick Castle was hot off writing John Carpenter's Escape From New York and directing TAG: The Assassination Game when he broke new ground by making an SF film using extensive computer-generated effects, rather than the small amounts used before then in films such as Westworld, the aforementioned Escape, and of course Tron. Reworking a screenplay from screenwriter Jonathan Betuel, what emerged was an Amblin-esque tale of ambitious trailer park kid Alex, who wants more from life than his fellow American rural youth, but his flights of fancy are limited to wanting to go out of town for college and playing cabinet arcade game Starfighter inbetween chores for his hardworking mum, the manager of the trailer park. When he finally beats the game, a mysterious old man in a suit and hat turns up in a DeLorean-esque "Star Car", leaves behind a mysterious passenger whose handshake with Alex produces electrical sparks, and whisks Alex off into space. There it transpires the war seen in the game represents an actual interstellar conflict, and Alex has been headhunted and drafted into an elite unit of pilots to fight on one side.
If the effects - the work of the legendary Cray X-MP supercomputer and such movie legends as Ron Cobb and Jeffrey Okun - occasionally seem a tad clunky in their motion or how they are composited in, they actually hold up surprisingly well, at times even resembling computer games of the following decade. Of course it's impossible for them to measure up to modern day graphics in films, let alone games, but who would expect that?
This has the same value now in terms of the history of SFX that Ray Harryhausen's fine stop-motion work or Walter Day's amazing matte painting work does, and needs to be appreciated as such. They effortlessly tell the story, make for some exciting sequences and every now and then offer ambitious detail in otherwise relatively smooth textures that resemble the model work of that and the preceding decade. Together with costumes and props that bear a pleasing familiarity to preceding SF films and TV, they combine with the live-action work, good acting, lovely location shooting and solid use of widescreen and smart editing to create an aesthetic all the film's own, topped off by a rousing score from the experienced composer Craig Safan. Only the comedy sequences with Beta Alex don't work as well with modern sensibilities.
Sadly beaten at the box-office by The Karate Kid and Purple Rain despite positive reviews, the film lived on through the burgeoning home video market, making it ripe for re-discovery. While it can still be bought on DVD and now blu-ray, the only spin-offs it spawned were a novelisation from the great Alan Dean Foster, a Marvel Comics adaptation and a musical (no surprise given director Castle on the disc commentary described the characters and film as "almost like a musical without the music"); Atari's videogames were never released. A sequel has oft been mooted but has never come to pass, which is a shame, as these are decent characters it would be worth revisiting, along with the implications of Earth coming early into the war. It just goes to show that if you get the story and the rest of the filmcraft right, aging FX are no barrier to continued enjoyment.
The Hunger Games/Battle Royale Fallacy (first published on the Manga UK Blog)
With the final film in the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' excellent Hunger Games out in U.K. cinemas this weekend, here's the article I wrote for the Manga UK Blog ahead of the release of the first film in the series. It was commissioned under the heading "Hunger Games vs. Battle Royale", then published as "Battle Royale With Cheese", which seems to have disappeared from the current version visible online here. Follow the link to the final published version edited by Dr. Jonathan Clements, and compare to my submitted draft below.
U.S. Young Adult fiction phenomenon The Hunger Games trilogy (2008-2010) from TV scripter & novelist Suzanne Collins has come under fire from fans of manga and Asian cinema, who have taken online to dismissing her work and the Hollywood film adaptation looming on the theatrical release horizon as merely derivative of the late great Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku's final film Battle Royale (2000). Rarely is Takami Kōshun's 1999 source novel mentioned, nor the manga which he co-write, while few of these complainers seem even to have read Collin's novels.
Both stories are SF, both popular with younger readers, but only the U.S. trilogy was written expressly with that audience in mind; the Japanese novel's high levels of gore and political content show it was clearly intended for an older one. Takami's work postulates a parallel universe where Japan's history has diverged some 80 years in the past and is instead a larger fascist state. The military programme takes 50 third-year high school student classes from across the Republic of Greater East Asia once a year, places them in a local district area cleared to act as an arena, and commits them to a fight to the death, with only a single winner permitted, resulting in 1,950 students wiped out annually. The author follows one class to focus in on the political, cultural and moral issues he sees as significant in 90s Japan, and makes up for generic, underwritten characters with splatter detail coupled to vivid action movie stylings.
Fukasaku, a life-long rebel with an eye for coruscating on-screen violence and trenchant criticism of Japan's society across his fiery oeuvre, made a powerful last statement of the film adaptation before cancer took him while directing the sequel. His own experience of his class being drafted at 15 to work on munitions at the end of World War 2 and coming under artillery fire underscores a reality for the film that production limitations could not. Also, the casting of legendary comedian, actor and writer-director "Beat" Takeshi Kitano in the much-expanded role of the Programme Supervisor shifts the entire dramatic weight of the film, with one of the three clear villains of the book made sympathetic and as much a victim as the children. It does however add an effective touch of moral grey to a written work that is more black-and-white.
Collins' trilogy looks at a future post-apocalyptic U.S. in which nuclear conflict has left the remaining habitable areas divided into 13 districts under the rule of one, with the titular games an annual event that helps prevent rebellion and further civil unrest after one district attempted such and was wiped out. Looking very seriously at modern U.S. issues such as resource scarcity, the 1% vs. 99%, reality TV, celebrity culture and other, more subtle cultural elements, Collins shows she is an experienced writer capable of placing teenage emotions in that mix, underpinned by her own experiences growing up with a father suffering post-traumatic stress from his military service. She also draws from the same well of potential influences as Takami, including George Orwell's writings and the dystopian SF sports cinematic subgenre that includes Death Race 2000 (1975), Rollerball (1975) and The Running Man (1987), but is most clearly inspired by the horrific daily reality in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. In this sense her work is much closer to the superb DC Vertigo comic series DMZ (2006-present) from Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli then it is to Battle Royale, transplanting the effects of U.S. military occupation back home. Most importantly, she has an entire trilogy to develop her story over, and the characters breathe and grow across the books; her grim final volume is both horrific and compassionate in sufficient measures as to demand her readers grow up with the series, rendering any petty arguments about the Hunger Games being Battle Royale with cheese utterly debased. Whether the upcoming film manages to do the book justice, however, remains to be seen.
Little Princess.
by Robert Ian McNabb. http://ift.tt/1T2dWnD
Rider (The Heartless mare).
by Robert Ian McNabb. http://ift.tt/1dv8ycE


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Festivals Monday Morning Matinee Movie News New York Film Festival New York Film Festival 2020 News
New York Film Festival Announces Steve McQueen's 'Lovers Rock' as Opening Night Film
Will Oliver | August 3rd, 2020
New York Film Festival has announced that Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock will serve as NYFF58's opening night film, following the announcement of Chloé Zhao's Nomadland as the Centerpiece film.
Lovers Rock is part of the Small Axe anthology, which comprises five original films by McQueen, which will also premiere later in the year on Amazon Prime Video here in the US (as well as on BBC One in the UK).
Set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the films each tell a different story involving London's West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will despite rampant racism and discrimination.
The official synopsis can be found below:
Lovers Rock tells a fictional story of young love and music at a blues party in the early 1980s. Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn makes her screen debut opposite the BAFTAs 2020 Rising Star award recipient Micheal Ward (Top Boy). Shaniqua Okwok (Boys), Kedar Williams-Stirling (Sex Education), Ellis George (Doctor Who), Alexander James-Blake (Top Boy), Kadeem Ramsay (Blue Story) also star, as well as Francis Lovehall and Daniel Francis-Swaby, who make their screen debuts. Lovers Rock was co-written by Courttia Newland and Steve McQueen.
Film at Lincoln Center also provided some insight on how the festival will operate during this crazy and uncertain time which will see them make use of two drive-ins to help keep the communal aspect of screenings alive, in addition to virtual screenings.
Find all the details about NYFF58 below:
The 58th edition of the New York Film Festival will focus on outdoor and virtual screenings with indoor screenings as possible and directed by state and health officials. In an unprecedented collaboration, Film at Lincoln Center is proud to partner with arts and cultural institutions from across the city this year to share films with New York City communities at two drive-ins: the Queens Drive-In at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, created by Rooftop Films, the New York Hall of Science, and Museum of the Moving Image; and the Brooklyn Drive-In at The Brooklyn Army Terminal, created by Rooftop Films and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. This exciting and historic partnership is intended to act as a cooperative effort to bring films safely back to New Yorkers and to highlight the power of cinema to build community and camaraderie among our fellow citizens as New York emerges from an incredibly challenging period. Specific dates, along with programming and ticketing details will follow in the coming weeks.


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Jason H. Vick
jvick@sheridanross.com
Jason Vick, co-chair of the firm's Electrical Engineering group, is a registered patent attorney who excels at providing foreign and domestic patent portfolio counseling in a range of technology areas. Over the last two decades, he has worked with a full spectrum of clients — individual inventors, growing startups, and Fortune 50 companies — to develop IP protection and monetization strategies tailored to each client's needs.
"The thing I love most about my job is fostering innovation. We are the only non-destructive aspect of the legal profession. We're a part of building something, and I enjoy helping my clients expand and improve the technological world," Jason says.
Jason represents clients mainly in the electrical, computer science, telecommunications, e-business, software, electro-mechanical, semiconductor, medical diagnostic equipment, security systems, encryption, and automotive arts. His background as an electrical engineer, inventor, and former patent examiner with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office helps him advise his clients in all aspects of intellectual property law including foreign patent prosecution, post-grant proceedings, IPRs, CBMs, and preparation of patent validity and freedom-to-operate opinions, both domestically and globally.
"Growing up abroad gives me a unique appreciation for the global impact of intellectual property, and as a former examiner, I provide tailored solutions to my clients who are looking to expand both domestically and abroad," he says.
Throughout his career, Jason has developed an aggressive patent prosecution strategy that includes one-on-one interviews with patent examiners. Using this strategy, he has singularly conducted thousands of in-person interviews on behalf of his clients. He also excels at tackling difficult procedural challenges with the U.S. Patent Office.
In addition to his domestic patent work, Jason has filed patent applications in almost every country in the world, and he has developed advanced foreign prosecution strategies and portfolio management with a well-established and trusted group of foreign associates.
Regardless of technology, Jason thrives on partnering with clients who are looking to monetize their intellectual assets. "I thoroughly enjoy working with positive individuals and entities who are excited about and developing new technology," he says.
University of Notre Dame Law School (L.L.M., 1993)
University of Keele (B.Sc., Electrical Engineering/Law, 1992, Joint Honors)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 2014
District of Columbia, 2003


All salons are going to have its own policy. Some salons may permit you to bring in your nails, while others might require you purchase them inside their salon. A salon is likely to change out your old nails with the more recent ones you pick out. Some salons may also require that you obtain a complete manicure package.
The moon manicure has lately seen a rise in popularity. French Manicures The French manicure is recognized and is extremely common. Or, gel manicures are sometimes a superior option in the interim,.
Keep your nails shiny and bold. You may also customize your nails a lot simpler. You are also going to be in a position to fill your nails whenever necessary without needing to drive to the salon. While fake nails are comparatively affordable, the application procedure is normally the most expensive portion of the job. In reality, the coffin-shaped nails are popular due to the quantity of factors. Yes, round nails are not the same as oval ones. They look very similar to oval nails, especially when they're long, but they are more round.
The nail should be at least 365 degrees. If you wish to make something unique with your coffin nails, you truly don't will need to work that hard. So far as coffin shaped nails are involved, you get a wide spectrum of shades and suggestions to choose like the ones we are just about to show you.
Combine aquamarine and white in 1 design and you'll have no equals. Nail art design is the procedure of creativity. Geometric designs are getting to be very popular, together with variations on the standard French manicure. Natural nail designs aren't boring at all, today they arrive in a vast range to pick from. Pierced Pierced nail designs are nowadays getting more popular.
Nail art is a huge business at the moment. Even the sweetest art can force you to stick out in a crowd. The art of decoupage requires a lot of patience.
If you're likely to paint your toenails and do all types of fancy things to them, you wish to be sure the remainder of your foot appears nice. There are even acrylic toenails if you want to spruce up your feet for a distinctive occasion. Cuticles and the consequent nail shape will naturally vary for each and every woman, creating your manicure seem more customized to your hands, states Lippmann.
Make your hands beautiful with the addition of a fine ring. Oval is extremely much like the form of the almond, but the tip is soft and far more blunt. White nail enamel can provide you an extremely stylish set of nails. Untreated glass is easily the most typical water pipe material. When it isn't borosilicate glass, it's unsafe and has a better chance of cracking or shattering during use.
Almond and oval nails are a common pick for celebrities. Natural powder together with water acrylics are a breeze to remove with a variety of solvents (normally acetone is employed). Haitian zombie white powder is a highly effective influence. If you're likely to have gel, just be certain that you never peel it off yourself, and find the color replaced every fourteen days. Nail glue can be somewhat sticky. Glitter Finish Glitter is quite easy to apply. A tiny amount of glitter used with different colors are able to make your nail design pop.


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FAQ: Resource engagements are replacing the old resource plans
Resource engagements are new for Project Online, but what happens to the old resource plans? Read on about this new feature and how old resource plans are converted into resource engagements.
I've heard about this new resource engagements feature. How do I get it?
Starting on September 22, 2015, we will begin rolling out the new feature, and Project Online administrators will have the option to turn on the new feature at their convenience once it becomes available. This process is phased, and it might take some time before everyone is able to see it. This is a site-level activation. Once an administrator has activated the feature, anyone on that site will be able to see the new Resource Requests page and be able to start creating and managing requests.
For any new Project Online sites created after the feature is available for the tenant, the administrator will still need to activate the feature for the new instance.
We recommend that the Project Online administrator turn on the feature in a spare Project Web App (PWA) instance first to become familiar with it before turning it on in the main PWA instance.
Please note, once the feature has been activated for a site it cannot be de-activated. This is a one-way operation.
How long can a Project Online administrator wait to turn on the feature?
For any new PWA site created on April 4, 2016 or later, the resource engagements feature will already be on—no need to activate them.
For PWA sites created before April 4, 2016, the Project Online administrator can choose to turn on engagements at any point. The feature will no longer be automatically activated on September 22, 2016.
I'm excited about the new resource engagements, but what happens to my old resource plans?
The good news is, once the new feature has been turned on, your old published resource plans will be converted into resource engagements. When the feature is activated we will start migrating the old published resource plans. Before you activate this feature, we recommend that you:
Make sure your existing resource plans have timephased data.
Republish any existing resource plans.
Since engagements are time-based, if your resource plan does not contain any timephased information (resources only), no engagements will be created. We will do our best to convert resource plans into engagements, provided all of the necessary data is available. Once the activation is complete, you will no longer be able to access the old resource plans, but can start creating new engagements to replace them.
For every published resource plan, we will use some of the data to create new engagements. The status will match that from the resource plan and all of the timephased data will be transferred.
After the feature has been activated, you will no longer be able to access the old resource plan UI, and that page will be deprecated.
How do I know if my resource plans were successfully migrated into engagements?
Once the Project Online administrator has activated the feature, there will be a section in Additional Server Settings that shows the progress.
After migration is complete, the New Resource Management Features Available section will disappear. You should now be able to visit the Resource Requests page and view the newly created engagements that were based on your old resource plans.
What about my existing reports involving resource plans?
Your existing reports will no longer return any data since the old resource plans will be deleted from the reporting database. You will be able to create any new reports you like using engagement data. We have added support through OData to create new reports on engagements.
What about portfolio analysis? Our organization used to use resource plans to do resource modeling.
Portfolio analysis will now include engagement data instead of resource plan data. Similar to how the old resource plans were handled, you will have the option to include both proposed and committed engagements, or just committed ones, when doing your analysis.
What about extensibility? Can I access the APIs for engagements?
Unfortunately, not at this time. We are working hard to make these available but did not get to it before the first release.
When will this be available to Project Server customers?
In the next release of Project Server, customers will be able to access all of these features.


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UWRF students face mandatory awareness training about sexual assault
Permission to republish this story is granted provided credit is given to the author(s) and to Falcon News Service.
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By Ryan Odeen
Starting this fall, incoming freshman and returning students at UW-River Falls will have to complete an online course about sexual assault and harassment before they can register for classes.
The course is aimed at raising awareness about the issue. UW System President Ray Cross commissioned a task force in 2013 to combat the climate of sexual assault and harassment on college campuses in Wisconsin.
Gregg Heinselman, UW-River Falls associate vice chancellor for student affairs, served on the task force. He said that national data about sexual assault show that the crimes goes substantially underreported. According to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, rape and sexual assault victimizations of students go unreported to the police 80 percent of the time.
The task force found that providing some sort of baseline education and training about sexual assault was a best practice, but was not being offered in the UW System.
In the past, at new student orientation, there has been a sexual assault awareness program that students could attend. However, Heinselman said, this did not really meet the federal standard.
The new program, Heinselman said, should result in an increase in reporting of sexual assault and harassment.
"As we build a culture of reporting and awareness amongst our student, faculty and staff," Heinselman said, "our numbers should increase, because people are reporting what went underreported before."
In 2012, there was one reported case of a sex offense on UWRF campus, according to the annual security and fire safety report. In 2013, there were no reports of sex offenses, but in 2014 there were eight.
At UW-Madison, which three years ago instituted the same type of training that is coming to UW-River Falls, reports of sex offenses increased from 15 in 2012 to 34 in 2014, according to that university's annual crime and safety report.
The new training program will be introduced to River Falls in three phases.
First, the university will address incoming freshman and new students. Starting this fall, they will receive an email explaining how to go online and take the class.
The second phase will address returning students. Before registration for spring 2017 classes, students will have to complete the course. The university will restrict registration until completion of the class.
"There is no way for us to guarantee that every student sat in that session. We are obligated by federal law to verify that students have been trained," Heinselman said.
The third phase will address faculty and staff who also will be required to complete the online training.
Student Senate has drawn attention to the It's On Us initiative that was put in place by the Obama Administration in September 2014. The main focus of the campaign was to create conversation and engage the community about the issue, according to Christopher Morgan, Student Senate president. These conversations then might create policy changes, Morgan said.
"Now every student will be mandated to complete training," Morgan said. "That is coming out of the Obama-Biden Administration, but we see it has a significant victory in combating sexual assault."
With this new training, the University will now be able to verify that every student has been educated. Heinselman said the University is simply striving to comply with federal standards. However, the training will not replace other sexual assault awareness programs, Heinselman said, because they remain a key factor in prevention.
The cost of the class has not been finalized, as the University is currently analyzing bids from software companies. However, Heinselman said the cost is estimated at roughly $1.50-$2 per student. Heinselman built in a $2 increase to the new student fee through the New Student and Family Programs budget, which was approved Feb. 23 by the Student Senate.
The article may be found online at https://uwrfjournalism.org/2016/uwrf-students-face-mandatory-awareness-training-about-sexual-assault/.
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Sam Laird heeft voor een experiment zijn Facebook account gedeactiveerd. Hierbij wou hij er achter komen wat voor inpack het op zijn sociale leven zou hebben als hij niet meer actief deel zou nemen op Facebook.
Omdat steeds meer mensen verslaafd raken aan de stress van social media, vind ik dit een leuk en interessant experiment.
"In July, I deactivated my Facebook account as a sort of social experiment. With Facebook and real life becoming increasingly symbiotic, what would I miss? What wouldn't I miss?
This didn't begin as an impulsive decision with unexpected consequences, and I'm not a Facebook hater by any stretch. I love and use social media, and am fascinated by what its explosion has enabled in a variety of arenas. Facebook has obviously been a huge — and probably the single most comprehensive — part of that.
My experiment has continued longer than I expected. I haven't quit, purposefully not deleting my account entirely. But through extended deactivation, I have learned some things: that I miss out on a lot of conversations now; that, somewhat ironically, I'm more focused now than before on my own life and needs; and that I'm not the only person who wonders, to-FB-or-not-to-FB?
A recent New York Times article titled "The Facebook Resisters" profiled young-adult Facebook abstainers who point to concerns about privacy, alienation and information overload. But I'm interested in a broader question: In a world where it now seems more generally accepted to be on Facebook than not be on, what's it like to opt out?
Since July, I haven't felt like I need Facebook socially, but there is plenty I'm missing out on. During the many times when funny Facebook photos from parties or nights out come up when hanging out with friends, I feel like the only kid on the schoolyard without a TV, lost at sea while other kids recite lines from The Simpsons. I also frequently find myself playing catch-up when someone brings up an article someone else shared on Facebook. And there's a whole world of flirting and getting-to-know-you that no longer exists for me.
I miss the definite ease of communication with friends and acquaintances. I've used Facebook before to find sources for articles too, but no longer can. So, now my avenues of communication are more segmented: Twitter to keep in touch with some friends, mostly those I've met through work, and find cool articles people recommend; LinkedIn to organize my professional contacts; and old-fashioned phone and email to keep up and make plans with close friends.
But it's what I've actually enjoyed about being off of Facebook that has surprised me most. I spend less time on my computer without Facebook's source of infinite content. During real life experiences, what is or isn't worth sharing on Facebook no longer lingers in the back of my mind, so I spend more time simply enjoying the present. And the false comparisons between others' curated digital self-presentations and my own naturally widespread sources of pride, fulfillment, dissatisfaction and insecurity no longer exist.
In the final analysis, what my little experiment has shown me is that Facebook has become so ingrained in human life that it's kind of like religion in a way. You can partake or not partake as much as you like, but the thing itself isn't going anywhere. Your choice won't change anything in the bigger picture, but I've found it fascinating to explore the differences in my own life.


The University of Maryland (UMD), of College Park, Maryland, the incumbent contractor, protests the award of a contract to Development Services Group, Inc. (DSG), of Bethesda, Maryland, under request for proposals (RFP) No. 19AQMM18R0225, issued by the Department of State for data collection and management services. The protester primarily alleges that the agency unreasonably evaluated the awardee's proposal, improperly determined that DSG was a responsible contractor, and was biased against UMD in conducting its evaluation and source selection decision.
Jen Gartner, Esq., University of Maryland, for the protester.
Joseph J. Petrillo, Esq., and Karen D. Powell, Esq., Petrillo & Powell, PLLC, for Development Services Group, Inc., the intervenor.
Protest allegations are dismissed where they do not state a valid basis of protest because they do not allege unreasonable agency action or provide sufficient information to state cognizable claims; other allegations are dismissed as untimely where they are filed more than 10 days after the protester knew or should have known its basis of protest or where they do not allege a sufficient basis to establish that they were timely.
The agency issued the RFP on June 20, 2018, for data collection and management services to assist in producing a report on worldwide incidents of terrorism (i.e., the global terrorism database). RFP at 1, 16. The RFP contemplated the award of a fixed-price contract to be performed over a 1-year base period, four 1-year option periods, and a 6-month extension period. Id. at 2-14, 28.
Award was to be made to the firm submitting the lowest-priced, technically acceptable offer. RFP at 33. To be technically acceptable, each offeror had to demonstrate that it met the solicitation's technical requirements. Id. As relevant here, the solicitation stated that "resumes will be evaluated against the minimum qualifications for each proposed labor category." RFP, amend. 2 at 9. The database manager/administration labor category required the proposed employee to possess a bachelor's degree in computer science, management information systems, or related field, and to have seven to nine years of database design and implementation experience. RFP at 19.
UMD and DSG were the only firms to submit proposals prior to the July 2 closing date. The agency determined that both proposals were technically acceptable and made award to DSG as it had the lowest price, $10,376,378. Contracting Officer's Statement at 5. On August 3, the agency notified UMD that DSG was the awardee. Protest at 2. On August 6, UMD learned that DSG had made contingent offers of employment to several UMD employees, and that UMD's information technology manager for this project, Employee A, had accepted employment with DSG. Id.
On August 13, UMD filed its protest alleging three grounds. First, UMD alleged that DSG included Employee A in its proposal without his permission. Protest at 2. Second, UMD alleged that DSG "may have inflated [Employee A's] experience with the Global Terrorism Database data collection process." Id. Finally, UMD alleged that because there was "only a 0.2% difference in the budgets submitted by UMD and DSG, UMD suspects that DSG may have had access to UMD's confidential information related to the UMD proposal." Id.
On August 17, the agency requested partial dismissal of the protest, arguing that UMD's allegation regarding its confidential information was legally insufficient. Agency Request for Partial Dismissal at 2-3. On August 20, DSG requested dismissal of the remaining allegations, arguing that those allegations were factually incorrect or speculative. Intervenor's First Request for Dismissal at 1-3. Specifically, DSG asserted that it did not improperly include Employee A in its proposal because Employee A had consented to work for DSG in the event that DSG was awarded the contract. Id. at 1. To support that statement, DSG included a signed employment contract contingent upon DSG receiving award, as well as an e-mail from Employee A to DSG providing his biography for inclusion in DSG's proposal. Id., Ex. 1, Contingent Employment Contract between Employee A and DSG, June 27, 2018; Ex. 2, E-mail from Employee A to DSG, June 28, 2018.
On August 22, UMD provided a response to both dismissal requests, as well as a number of additional allegations. The protester represented that it "discovered additional information supporting its protest [allegations] since its August 13, 2018 initial filing." UMD First Response at 1. UMD alleged that the agency improperly failed to award the contract based on the lowest price because it evaluated pricing for option years instead of just the base year. Id. at 3. UMD also alleged that the agency failed to evaluate DSG's price for fairness and reasonableness because the firm's price for the base period was higher than for each of the option periods. Id. at 4. UMD further alleged that the agency unreasonably failed to conduct discussions, and unreasonably evaluated DSG's proposal as technically acceptable. Id. at 5-9. With regard to technical acceptability, UMD specifically alleged that Employee A's experience does not satisfy the solicitation's minimum qualifications for the database manager position. Id. at 6-8. In addition, UMD alleged that the agency unreasonably failed to evaluate past performance or perform its responsibility determination. Id. at 9. Finally, UMD responded to the intervenor's request for dismissal, asserting that DSG made factually inaccurate statements. Id. at 10.
On August 27, DSG filed its second request for dismissal. DSG asserted that UMD's supplemental protest allegations were speculative, inconsistent with the solicitation's terms, or untimely. Intervenor's Second Request for Dismissal at 1-4. In its August 29 response, UMD argued that its allegations were based on a correct interpretation of the solicitation and that its supplemental protest grounds were timely because it discovered new information. UMD Second Response at 1-3. UMD argued that, while its employees may have known about relevant protest information, its decision-makers were unaware of the information until after the filing of the initial protest. Id. UMD also asserted that the agency was biased against it when evaluating proposals and making its source selection decision. Id. at 4.
Our Office notified the parties that we would not require the agency to respond to the majority of the protester's allegations because they were procedurally deficient. We also explained that we would not dismiss the protester's allegations related to whether DSG's proposal was technically acceptable in light of Employee A's experience. That is, we would examine whether Employee A's experience satisfied the solicitation's minimum qualifications. We noted that the allegation appeared to be timely raised because it was predicated on the contingent employment contract included in the intervenor's August 20 filing.
On September 7, the agency filed its report, and both the protester and intervenor filed their comments. On September 24, DSG filed a third request for dismissal alleging that the sole remaining protest allegation was untimely. To support its request, DSG produced an e-mail showing that UMD had been aware that DSG had proposed Employee A as its database manager prior to filing its initial protest. Intervenor's Third Request for Dismissal at 2. The intervenor also asserted that UMD had failed to provide all information establishing that the grounds were timely as required by our Bid Protest Regulations. Id.
UMD acknowledged that it was aware that DSG had proposed Employee A as its database manager prior to filing its initial protest. UMD Third Response at 2. UMD explained that its allegation was raised in its initial protest when it had expressed concern that DSG had inflated Employee A's experience. Id. UMD then argued that our Office should consider its protest allegations under our exceptions to the timeliness rules. Id. at 3-4.
We have reviewed all of the protest allegations and dismiss them as failing to state a valid basis of protest or untimely. We discuss the chief allegations below as illustrative examples.
Our Bid Protest Regulations require that protests "[s]et forth a detailed statement of the legal and factual grounds of protest" and require a protester to "clearly state sufficient grounds of protest." 4 C.F.R. §§ 21.1(c)(4), (f); see also AeroSage, LLC; SageCare, Inc., B-415267.13, B-415267.14, Mar. 19, 2018, 2018 CPD ¶ 114 at 5. These requirements contemplate that a protester will provide, at a minimum, either allegations or evidence sufficient, if uncontradicted, to establish the likelihood that the protester will prevail in its claim of improper agency action. Kodiak Base Operations Servs., LLC, B-414966 et al., Oct. 20, 2017, 2017 CPD ¶ 323 at 3.
UMD alleges in its initial protest filing that DSG materially misrepresented its ability to offer Employee A as a key person, and misrepresented Employee A's experience. Protest at 2. We dismiss these protest allegations because they are not supported by specific evidence, and because the latter allegation is not supported by any specific claim of misrepresentation.
If a protester alleges that an awardee materially misrepresented information in its proposal, then it must demonstrate that the information at issue is false. ANHAM FZCO, B-415969 et al., May 8, 2018, 2018 CPD ¶ 184 at 14. To prove that the information at issue is false, the protester must provide sufficient evidence of the specific misrepresentation. See Commercial Design Grp., Inc., B-400923.4, Aug. 6, 2009, 2009 CPD ¶ 157 at 4. Here, neither allegation was supported by specific evidence, but rather both were wholly unsupported assertions. Further, UMD failed to explain specifically how DSG misrepresented Employee A's experience. Without sufficient evidence, or even an attempt to highlight a specific misrepresentation, the protester's allegations in this regard amount to speculation and do not constitute valid bases of protest.
UMD also alleges that DSG improperly accessed its confidential information. Protest at 2. We dismiss that protest allegation because it does not allege unreasonable agency action. UMD does not allege that the agency played any role in DSG allegedly obtaining access to its confidential information and therefore facially does not demonstrate unreasonable agency action. Instead, UMD's allegation essentially constitutes a dispute between private parties which our Office does not consider. Ellwood National Forge Co., B-402089.3, Oct. 22, 2010, 2010 CPD ¶ 250 at 3-4.
UMD next alleges that the agency should have evaluated offerors' pricing information based solely on prices offered for the base periods and that the agency failed to evaluate offerors' past performance. UMD First Response at 3, 9. We dismiss these allegations because they are contradictory to the evaluation criteria. The solicitation incorporated Federal Acquisition Regulation clause 52.217-5, which requires the agency to evaluate price by adding the pricing information for all option years to the pricing information for the base year. RFP at 33. The solicitation also advised that offerors' technical ratings would be solely based on whether they satisfied the technical requirements, and included no provisions to evaluate past performance. Id. Thus, these allegations do not demonstrate that the agency evaluated proposals inconsistent with the terms of the solicitation, and as a result, are dismissed for failure to state a valid basis of protest. Cf. Mayfield Gov't Inspections, B-414528, June 13, 2017, 2017 CPD ¶ 189 at 3 (agency's evaluation was reasonable when it was consistent with the terms of the solicitation).
UMD also alleges that DSG's price was neither fair nor reasonable solely because it was more expensive than UMD's price during the base period and less expensive than UMD's price during the option periods. UMD First Response at 4. An agency's concern in making a price reasonableness determination is whether the offered prices are too high, rather than too low. i4 Now Solutions, Inc., B-412369, Jan. 27, 2016, 2016 CPD ¶ 47 at 9. Thus, the protest allegation is legally insufficient because UMD did not allege that DSG's price was unreasonably high, and indeed we highlight that the prices were nearly identical with UMD's price being only 0.2 percent higher. Accordingly, we dismiss this allegation as failing to state a valid basis of protest.
Finally, UMD alleges that the agency's source selection evaluation team was biased against UMD. The protester asserts that the agency sought to make award to another firm because UMD had disseminated the global terrorism database to other organizations during the previous contract. UMD Second Response at 4. Our decisions explain that government officials are presumed to act in good faith, and a protester's contention that procurement officials are motivated by bias or bad faith must be supported by convincing proof; our Office will not consider allegations based on mere inference, supposition, or unsupported speculation. Athena Sciences Corp., B-409486, B-409486.2, May 14, 2014, 2014 CPD ¶ 154 at 9. The protester's allegation does not meet the standard because it reflects no more than mere supposition that the agency was biased against UMD and does not present any evidence whatsoever to rebut the presumption that government officials act in good faith.
UMD raises several supplemental protest allegations in its filing dated August 22. Specifically, UMD alleges that the agency unreasonably failed to conduct discussions, unreasonably evaluated DSG as technically acceptable, and improperly conducted its responsibility determination. Under our Bid Protest Regulations, any protest not based on an alleged solicitation impropriety must be filed not later than 10 days after the basis of protest is known or should have been known. 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(2). We dismiss each of these allegations as untimely because they were filed more than 10 days after the protester knew or should have known their bases. Indeed, the filings reflect that the agency notified UMD that its proposal was unsuccessful on August 3. Based on that information, UMD should have filed any protest alleging that the agency improperly conducted its procurement or unreasonably evaluated proposals within 10 days of that date because, at that point, UMD was aware that the agency had made award without conducting discussions, had evaluated DSG as technically acceptable, and determined that DSG was a responsible contractor.
As the University learned after it obtained DSG's contingent offer letter to [Employee A] (which occurred after the University filed its initial protest), [Employee A's] resume does not support the minimum qualifications for the Database Manager/Administrator labor category and a review of [Employee A's] resume shows that his work at [the University] does not align with the development of the [global terrorism database].
UMD First Response at 8 (emphasis added). Thus, UMD represented that its challenge to the agency's evaluation of Employee A's experience to be proposed as the database manager was predicated on the contingent employment contract contained within intervenor's August 20 filing. Based on that representation, we concluded that at that time the protester had set forth evidence that established the timeliness of the allegation as required under our Bid Protest Regulations, 4 C.F.R. § 21.1(c)(6).
You're correct that my clients are aware that DSG proposed [Employee A] for the Database Manager/Administrator position, but that's because of their personal interactions with [Employee A], all of which took place before DSG intervened in UMD's protest (and in fact before UMD filed its protest, although [protester's management] was not aware of all of these conversations until after the initial filing).
E-mail from UMD to DSG, Sept. 20, 2018. UMD then confirmed to our Office that it was aware prior to its initial protest filing that Employee A had been proposed as DSG's database manager. UMD Third Response at 2-3. When addressing whether its allegation was timely, UMD asserted that it initially raised the allegation in its original protest filing when it asserted generally that DSG had misrepresented Employee's experience and explained that Employee A had told his UMD supervisor that he "lacks the subject matter expertise required to participate as a prominent member of DSG's technical team." Id. at 2 (citing Protest at 2).
In view of this development, we now conclude that the allegation is untimely because the protester has developed this issue in piecemeal fashion, and has not provided any evidence to establish the allegation as timely under our Bid Protest Regulations. Where a protester initially files a timely protest, and later supplements it with new grounds of protest, the later-raised allegations must independently satisfy our timeliness requirements, since our Regulations do not contemplate the piecemeal presentation or development of protest issues. Vigor Shipyards, Inc., B-409635, June 5, 2014, 2014 CPD ¶ 170 at 5. Supplemental protest grounds that amount to "examples" of an initial--general--challenge to the agency's evaluation must independently satisfy our timeliness requirements where such "examples" involve different factual circumstances and require a separate explanation from the agency. Id.
Here, the protester's initial August 13 filing did not allege that Employee A lacked the requisite experience to satisfy the minimum qualifications for the database manager position but only generally alleged that Employee A lacked subject matter expertise to participate as a prominent member of DSG's technical team. Consequently, we find that UMD raised this allegation in piecemeal fashion because it raised a specific example of its general challenge in a later protest filing. See Vigor Shipyards, Inc., supra at 5.
On this record, we also have no basis to conclude that UMD's allegation concerning whether Employee A met the database manager qualifications is timely. Under 4 C.F.R. § 21.1(c)(6), a protester must set forth all information establishing the timeliness of the protest. When a protester fails to set forth sufficient information to establish the timeliness of a particular allegation, our Office may dismiss the allegation at its discretion. Ervin and Assoc., Inc., B-278850, Mar. 23, 1998, 98-1 CPD ¶ 89 at 6. Here, UMD has set forth no independent facts showing that it raised this allegation within ten days of when it knew or should have known that Employee A was proposed as DSG's database manager. Without such information, we have no basis on which to conclude that the protest allegation is timely as presented to our Office. Accordingly, we dismiss the protest allegation.
Finally, UMD also argues that we should consider its protest under our significant issue exception to the timeliness rules. Under 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(c), our Office may consider a protest that raises issues significant to the procurement system. In this regard, what constitutes a significant issue is to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Cyberdata Tech., Inc., B-406692, Aug. 8, 2012, 2012 CPD ¶ 230 at 3. We generally regard a significant issue as one of widespread interest to the procurement community and that has not been previously decided. Id. at 3-4. While we recognize the importance of the matter to UMD, its allegations do not present issues of such widespread interest or importance to the procurement community as to justify invoking the exception. See Cleveland Telecomm. Corp.--Recon., B-247964.4, Nov. 12, 1992, 92-2 CPD ¶ 340 at 3.
 Our Office did not assign a separate file number to these allegations.


Remember your days playing putt-putt? The idea is the same on real grass. The putter rolls the ball along the ground and (eventually) into the hole. It's the one club even beginning players usually have some experience using—and it's the one where you can develop some skill the quickest. With just an hour or two of practice, you can learn how to save a half dozen shots per round.
• The putter's flat face and short length makes it the easiest club in your bag to hit solidly. Don't be afraid to use it even when you're a few steps off the green and in the first cut of rough.
• The different slopes on the green will change where you need to aim and how hard you have to hit the putt to get it to the hole.
• The art of green reading—or predicting how your putt will curve—comes with practice, and perception.
• Watch what happens to your playing partners' putts to get a preview of yours.


The properties, data and all published information is subject to change on an ongoing basis.
Any external links provided are for the viewers convenience and remain the responsibility of the site owner.
161 Jefferson St. 5659 Park St.


Hate Crimes—Hate crimes are crimes that manifest evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the victim's actual or perceived race (RA), religion (RE), sexual orientation (SO), gender (G), gender identity (GI), ethnicity (E), national origin (NO) or disability (D). No hate crimes were reported in 2015, 2016, or 2017.
Unfounded crimes. If a reported crime is investigated by law enforcement authorities and found to be false or baseless, the crime is "unfounded" and should not be included in your institution's statistics. Only sworn or commissioned law enforcement personnel may "unfound" a crime. There were no crimes unfounded in 2015, 2016, or 2017.
A The Greentree Health Science Academy has no residential facilities.
B Non-Campus Property—Non-Campus is (1) any building or property owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by Miami; or (2) any building or property owned or controlled by Miami that is used in direct support of or in relation to, Miami's educational purposes, is frequently used by students, and is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area of Miami. The Greentree Health Science Academy has no "Non-Campus" buildings or property.


text:
March 17, 2020 by Gary Price
Women Authors Lead Literary Fiction Books Sales in the U.S. According to New Data From The NPD Group
From The NPD Group:
According to global information company The NPD Group, 67 percent of unit sales in the top 100 literary fiction books in 2019 came from books written by female authors. The top fiction title of the year was "Where the Crawdad's Sing," by Delia Owens, selling more than 1.2 million print copies.
"March is Women's History Month, which makes it the perfect time to review the many contributions of women authors to the U.S. publishing industry," said Kristen McLean, books industry analyst for NPD. "Women have increased their share of bestsellers in the last decade, particularly when it comes to fiction."
Women authors' influence in publishing varies by category
Women authors were responsible for 42 percent of unit sales for the top 100 books in the overall print book market in 2019—up from 30 percent in 2010. Last year 39 of the top 100 bestselling authors were women, up from 33 in 2010. In fact, over the 16 years NPD BookScan has been tracking the U.S. publishing market, the bestselling author is a woman. Total sales of all of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series exceeded 55 million copies, across more than 300 editions of her many titles for children and adults.
Combined unit sales of books with a focus on subjects about, and of interest to, women have enjoyed seven consecutive years of growth; and women-related subcategories have been responsible for overall growth of a wide variety of publishing areas. Women-related subcategories in comics and graphic novels, drama, history, poetry, and political and social science collectively increased 7 percent in 2019 over the previous year.
However, while female authors led in literary fiction and other categories, men still wrote 94 percent of top-selling business books, which tracks closely to the fact that companies with female CEOs made up just 6.6 percent of the Fortune 500 in 2019. "Women in the top levels of business still lag behind men in the United States, so we see fewer leading titles reflecting the business advice of high-profile women on the bookshelf," McLean said.
Book clubs and women's empowerment
Women's influence in the publishing market is not limited to writing. The Hello Sunshine Book Club, founded by Hollywood actor Reese Witherspoon, selects books written by women that explore the female experience. Over the past two years, the club's picks have jumped to the top of the bestseller lists. Their success has even fomented growth in categories that had previously been declining, like contemporary and literary fiction. Since Hello Sunshine was created in June 2017, the books chosen have outperformed the top 10,000 U.S. fiction list by 512 percent. A number of the selections have also been optioned by the club's production arm for development into TV and movies. "This strong female point-of-view mirrors a larger sense of empowerment in the post #MeToo era," McLean said.
"The book market is really the idea market. As the conversation about women's empowerment and equality has increased over the past decade, we are seeing that reflected in the sales of books and the types of projects that are succeeding in the current market," McLean continued. "And like real life, there is still work to be done. There are many other areas of life and publishing where women are under-represented. We look forward to seeing how the next round of progress is reflected in book buying and reading in the coming decade."
Top 10 best-selling female authors since 2004 according to NPD BookScan
Print Units Sold
MARY POPE OSBORNE
Filed under: Data Files, News, Publishing


Mechanical watches of the twentieth century are highly collectable and stylish objects. They have often been made in small, limited editions, the movements are beautifully engineered and as objects they are sophisticated pieces of equipment. The outer case is an indicator of when a watch was manufactured, from forties elegance to seventies chunkiness, and brand names indicate geographical origins – Rolex, Omega and Patek Philippe point to Switzerland, for example.
As with any other commodity, the price of second hand watches fluctuates with fashion. Diver's, yachter's and driver's second hand watches from the seventies are intermittently much in vogue, so much so that Tag Heuer reissued Steve McQueen's favourite, the 'Carrera'. As second hand, they are available for around £1000. The reissue of old models is very common. The classic Jaeger-Le-Coutre, known as the 'reverso' because it has a face on both sides, is another to again see the light of day recently, at £2154 new or £1200 used. Most independent jewellers sell second hand watches and they usually come with a guarantee; however, it is the dealers who are most likely to get what you really want if you're after elusive items to add to your collection of second hand watches or want an investment item. You can find second hand watches for example at the Antiquarius and Chenil Galleries on the King's Road in Chelsea, the arcades of Portobello market and the shop fronts in Hatton Garden and Clerkenwell Road.
Condition and working order are everything with second hand watches, so only bother with the best. Generally, the more complications a second hand watch has, the more valuable it is. A complication is any function in addition to telling the time. Complications include displaying the date, day and month. With the addition of a stopwatch function the timepiece is known as a chronograph.
While it is always advisable to buy something only if you really like it, there is no denying the financial returns possible in the second hand watch market. In the past 20 years Patek Philippe and Rolex second hand watches have outperformed a number of other investment sectors and there has been a surge in new buyers entering the second hand watches market recently, particularly from Asia, which makes for a promising future.
The typical second hand watch collector being male, there is a gap in the market for female second hand watches. You can buy a female second hand watch, even from the more sought-after brands, for a fraction of the price of the male version. Their relative cheapness makes them a good investment opportunity as experts believe they will grow in popularity in the future with the rest of the market.
While the second hand watches market is dominated by Patek and Rolex, there are other brands that perform well at auction and are worth having valued before arranging contents insurance. Cartier, well known for producing luxury goods, does well, particularly with its second hand watches from the 1920s to 1950s. The less well-known Audemars Piguet is also particularly sought-after, with its second hand watches from 1920 to 1960 being the most popular.
As with any vintage item, it is important to ensure that any second hand watch you buy is in good condition. Scratched glass can be replaced without too much loss in value, while the crown – which you turn to adjust or wind the watch and can often get quite worn – can also be replaced, although this can affect the working of the watch. Over-polishing can wear down angular second hand watches, changing the shape of the setting, which can result in a loss of value.
If you do decide to invest in a second hand watch, always ensure you ask for a certificate of authenticity and a history of any restorative work. If you want to know the value of a second hand watch you already own, the in-house specialists at an auction house will value it free of charge.


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Glasgow & West selected
Glasgow & West Scotland
Clutha crash: Pilot David Traill's reputation 'sullied' by inquiry
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-50295181
Clutha helicopter crash inquiry
Image copyright Police Scotland
Image caption Capt David Traill's partner said the inquiry's determination did no justice to his reputation or the memories of nine others killed
The fiancee of the helicopter pilot who died in the Clutha crash has described the fatal accident inquiry's findings as "distressing and incomprehensible".
Dr Lucy Thomas said she felt compelled to respond after Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull "opted to sully the distinguished reputation" of the pilot.
The inquiry, which closed on Thursday, found Captain David Traill "took a chance" and ignored low fuel warnings.
The police helicopter crashed into the Glasgow bar's roof on 29 November 2013.
The tragedy claimed the lives of the pilot, his two crew members and seven customers in the pub.
Mr Turnbull said the tragedy happened because 51-year-old Captain David Traill had ignored the five warnings he received during the flight.
He said that was a "conscious decision" which had "fatal consequences" for the 10 people who died.
Crew members PC Tony Collins, 43 and PC Kirsty Nelis, 36, were killed, as were customers Gary Arthur, 48; Joe Cusker, 59; Colin Gibson, 33; Robert Jenkins, 61; John McGarrigle, 58; Samuel McGhee, 56; and Mark O'Prey, 44. Another 31 people were injured.
'Misleading information'
Dr Thomas, who was engaged to Captain Traill, broke almost six years of media silence on the incident with a public statement.
She said: "Such is my strength of feeling since the sheriff principal's determination on the fatal accident inquiry into the Clutha helicopter crash, I feel compelled to make this statement.
"I am overwhelmed by the support that I have received from so many people, many of whom don't know me and didn't know Dave. I am eternally grateful for this.
"It is my understanding that due to misleading information from the aircraft fuel gauge and display system, Dave had only moments to make decisions and carry out tasks in an attempt to respond to this issue."
The manufacturer's maintenance manual incorrectly said there was three to four-minute flameout time before the helicopter would lose both engines, but in reality he only had 32 seconds, Dr Thomas said.
"That 32 seconds ended in tragedy and the loss of his and nine other valuable lives. This has devastated the lives of all who surround them and impacted on so many more."
Dr Thomas said the determination did "no justice to the memories" of the nine other people killed in the crash or to the "memory and reputation of Dave Traill".
"It insults the intelligence of those who know of the evidence presented at the inquiry and are aware of the content of the initial AAIB report," she added.
The expression of disbelief from many family members of those who died at the conclusion drawn in the inquiry "speaks volumes and means much more to me than the opinion of the sheriff principal", she said.
"I find it distressing and incomprehensible that given months, not moments, to consider the facts, the sheriff principal has come to this conclusion."
'History of faults'
Dr Thomas pointed out the EC135 model of helicopter's "history of faults with the caution advisory display" amongst other technical problems such as contamination of the fuel tanks, which she said were never fully resolved by the manufacturer.
"Instead, the sheriff principal has opted to sully the distinguished reputation of a pilot with an exemplary record who was renowned for his sense of responsibility and his regard for the safety of his crew," she said.
"The opportunity for closure and maybe some peace for so many people has been denied."
Following the 32-day inquiry, which heard testimony from families, experts and eyewitnesses, Mr O'Prey's father Ian said he was "really angry" at the inquiry's findings and that Capt Traill had been made "a fall guy".
The Clutha's owner, Alan Crossan, also expressed "shock and disappointment" at the report and how "brutal" it had been towards Capt Traill.
What we know about the minutes before the tragedy
Clutha crash inquiry: The key questions
In his findings, Mr Turnbull said there was "no doubt" that the crash had happened because the helicopter's engines "flamed out" due to a lack of fuel.
The fuel supply tanks had been depleted because Capt Traill had failed to ensure that at least one of the aircraft's fuel transfer pump switches was on.
"The central question for the inquiry is why did that happen?" said Sheriff Turnbull.
"The answer is a simple one. Capt Traill ignored the low fuel warnings he received."
Clutha crash: What we know about the final flight
Clutha crash: Inquiry says pilot 'took a chance' to ignore fuel warnings
Video Clutha: How the events unfolded
Clutha inquiry told how helicopter crash victims died
Clutha crash inquiry hears of helicopter's final seconds
Clutha crash: Police helicopter engines 'flamed out'
Clutha helicopter crash: AAIB finds 'no evidence' of mechanical fault
Glasgow helicopter crash: Clutha death toll rises to 10


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3rd Thursday of every month
City Council Chambers
1st floor of City Hall
Ivan Redinger, Mayor Appointee
Term Expires January 31, 2027
Ernie Schott, Mayor Appointee
Term Expires December 31, 2025
Angelina Moody, Mayor Appointee
Henry Renfro, Mayor Appointee
Collyn Floyd, Mayor Appointee
No Expiration
Appointment Process
Members are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by Council. The Commission appoints an executive director to be the principal administrative officer.
Members must be residents of the city or be employed or have their principal place of business within the city. The Mayor serves as an ex-officio member.
Of the nine members:
Not more than five may be of the same political party.
Not more than three may be from each of the following categories:
Real estate sales industry
Building and trade unions
Insurance agencies or companies
Purpose/Duties
The Fair Housing Commission receives and investigates charges of housing discrimination. If the Commission determines a respondent has engaged in, or is engaging in any unlawful discriminatory housing practice, the Commission shall issue an order requiring the respondent to cease and desist from such unlawful practice. The Commission may order relief including compensation in money for economic losses or damage shown to have been incurred and a monetary civil penalty. Not less than once per year, the Commission submits to the Mayor and Council reports and recommendations describing the investigations, proceedings, and hearings it has conducted. The Commission conducts educational and other public relations programs to promote the equal rights and opportunities of all persons in matters related to housing accommodations, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or ancestry and to eliminate the prejudice and ignorance which result in housing discrimination.
Members serve without compensation.
City Ordinance 515.May, 2009


The death toll from super typhoon Yolanda in Western Visayas rose to 318 with 53 still missing, more than two months after it ravaged the region, especially northern Iloilo and Negros, a report of the Police Regional Office 6 said.
The province of Iloilo has the highest number of fatalities with 216, Capiz – 73, Aklan – 14, Antique – 13 and in Negros Occidental – 2.
PRO6 records also showed that there are 1,430 injured persons as of now.
The Office of the Civil Defense 6 meanwhile, reported P13.4 billion in damage to infrastructure, agricultural and fisheries.
Chief Supt. Josephus Angan, regional police director of Western Visayas, said they have launched "Pamilyang Nawalay, PNP Mag-uugnay", a program with the objective of reconnecting families isolated by typhoon Yolanda.
At least 620,311 families composed of 2,842,361 individuals in the region were affected by the typhoon.