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Foreign Debt Burden Lies at Heart of Russia's Economic Worries
Icicles hand down from a board displaying a logo of VTB Bank outside an office in central Moscow.
Looming debt repayments by Russian companies are now central to discussions of Russia's ability to weather the financial shocks caused by low oil prices and Western sanctions, but the picture is more complex than commonly believed.
Despite last week's agreement aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the sanctions are expected to remain for the foreseeable future, perhaps for years if the Ukraine deal fails to lead to a durable peace, leaving Russian companies largely cut off from Western financing.
As long as Western banks refuse to lend, many analysts assume the state will need to help companies repay their $550 billion in foreign debts. The whole debt burden "has to all intents and purposes been transferred to the national balance sheet," analysts at London consultancy Trusted Sources said in a recent report.
Pessimists therefore worry that even Russia's $375 billion in Central Bank foreign exchange reserves will eventually run out. At the very least, sizable foreign debt repayments add to the strain on the balance of payments, weighing on the ruble.
But other analysts say these fears are overblown: The debt burden may be far less than it appears on paper, and companies also have huge assets that can help shoulder the burden.
Heavy Burden?
According to Central Bank data, Russian companies and banks need to repay $109 billion in foreign debt in 2015, a heavy burden at a time when low oil prices have sunk export earnings and Western sanctions have stemmed capital inflows.
These sanctions are widely believed to prevent companies from refinancing foreign debts by taking out new foreign loans. But official figures tell a surprisingly different story.
Last year, net private sector debt repayments amounted to about $40 billion, or less than half of the $100 billion which the Central Bank said fell due, or implying the rest was refinanced or rescheduled.
Even in the fourth quarter, after Western sanctions were tightened, the size of net redemptions was only around half of debts falling due.
That suggests that many "foreign" debts are really debts to fellow Russians operating from offshore.
"Some part of the debt, around 40-50 percent, was related to recycling of Russian capital: money originally flowing away from Russia and then coming back as loans," said Alfa Bank economist Natalia Orlova.
This bullish view is backed-up by bottom-up analysis of the how much major companies owe to Western creditors. Data compiled by VTB Capital showed that the 15 biggest debtors had to repay only $45 billion in syndicated loans and Eurobonds this year, and $38 billion next year.
Not everyone is so optimistic. Credit Suisse economist Alexei Pogorelov said that even debts to Russians need to be repaid, though they may be easier to reschedule.
"The truth is probably in the middle," he said, estimating the real repayments required this year at $70-80 billion, between optimistic estimates and the official figures.
A further complication will be the impact if Russia loses its investment grade rating from a second major rating agency, following its downgrade to "junk" status by S&P in January.
By triggering early redemption clauses, a second downgrade could add $20-30 billion in debt redemptions this year, analysts estimate.
Overlooked Assets
While Russian companies' large foreign debts are widely discussed, their even larger foreign assets, worth almost a trillion dollars as of October, are often overlooked.
Many of these assets are foreign direct investments and loans, which may not be easy to liquidate to cover debts. But they also included more than $220 billion in cash, deposits and portfolio investments, Central Bank data shows.
The two largest debtors, the state energy companies, Rosneft and Gazprom, are alone believed to be sitting on tens of billions of dollars.
As of Sept. 30, their published accounts show, Gazprom held the equivalent of $19 billion in cash and short-term deposits. Rosneft had $16.4 billion in cash and deposits, mostly in dollars.
In an October report, ratings agency Moody's estimated that companies it rated had $160 billion in cash reserves and committed credit lines.
"As of June 2014 the bulk of our rated companies had sufficient liquidity to service their debt through the end of 2015," said Moody's analyst Artem Frolov. "Overall we would expect that those corporates that had liquidity funds in foreign currency would continue to hold them."
But just because some companies have ample foreign currency assets, it doesn't follow that they will use them to repay debts, said Pogorelov from Credit Suisse.
They may instead prefer to hoard their foreign currency and convert rubles instead, with negative implications for capital outflows and the ruble.
"The risk is that going forward you might be cut off from international financing for an extended period of time, which means that any foreign assets you have right now, you cannot waste," he said.
And the focus on the debt repayment issue may ultimately be missing the point.
Last year, reductions in foreign liabilities accounted for only a third of net capital outflows that totaled a record $151.5 billion, with demand for foreign currency cash and foreign direct investments covering most of the rest.
Bolstering public confidence in the ruble, and stemming chronic capital flight, may therefore be bigger challenges for Russia than helping companies repay their debts.
"We do not find this [foreign debt] issue to be acute," Alfa Bank analysts said in a recent report. "Still, capital account weakness transcends the foreign debt issue."
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Russian Banks Look to Build Islamic Finance Knowledge in Face of Sanctions
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Jason Oppenheim Net Worth: Bio, Age, Career, Weight, And Height
Jason Oppenheimer Biography- In This Post Know About Jason Oppenheim's age, marital status, wealth (around US$50 million), and All Information Here.
April 12, 1977, was the day that Jason Oppenheim was born. He came from a family that was involved in the real estate business. In the 19th century, his great-grandpa worked in the real estate industry, as they do now, despite his parents having to cope with the same thing. He was raised with his twin brother, who goes by the name Brett Oppenheim.
A real estate broker and attorney in the United States, Jason Oppenheim amassed a net worth of $55 million over his career. As an attorney and real estate agent in the United States, Jason is his household's primary income source. After being recognized as one of the well-known founders of the famous real estate organization The Oppenheim group, which he co-founded with his brother, he shot to prominence and cemented his place in the public eye.
According to the source, his yearly income would have reached $55 million by 2022. His principal means of financial support comes from his work as an attorney and real estate agent, in addition to property investment.
Full Name Jason M.Oppenheim
Nickname Jason Oppenheim
Net Worth (2022) $55 million US dollars
Birth Place Palo Alto, California, United States
Father Not Known
Mother Not Known
Siblings Not Known
Spouse Not Known
Children Not Known
Religion Judaism
Occupation Businessman
Favourite Song Not Known
Favourite Actor Not Known
Favourite Movie Not Known
Favourite Food Pizza, Pasteles, Empanadillas, Tacos, Avocado Sandwich, etc
College / University Not Known
Favourite Color Blue
Favourite Hobbies Traveling, hiking, trekking, skateboarding, swimming, surfing, etc
Favourite Destination Greece
Favourite Book Not Known
1 Jason Oppenheim's Biography
1.2 The career of Jason Oppenheim's
1.3 Jason Oppenheim's Work History and Honors
1.4 Jason Oppenheim's Gross Value
Jason Oppenheim's Biography
April 1977 found Jason Oppenheim being brought into the world in Palo Alto, California. Both the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law awarded him a degree.
Oppenheim serves as President and Founder of The Oppenheim Group, a real estate firm based in Los Angeles, California. He and his real estate agents were highlighted in the reality television series Selling Sunset, shown on Netflix. The Wall Street Journal recognized Jason Oppenheim as one of the Best Real Estate Agents in America in 2019 and ranked him as the number one agent in the Hollywood Hills/Sunset Strip area.
Between 2003 and 2007, he worked as an attorney at the firm of O'Melveny & Myers. Kris Humphries, Orlando Bloom, Chloe Grace Moretz, Taye Diggs, Dakota Johnson, Jessica Alba, and other high-profile celebrities are his clientele. He also has Taye Diggs, Dakota Johnson, and Jessica Alba as customers.
Full Name: Jason Oppenheim
Net Worth: $55 Million
Born: April 12, 1977
Salary: $2 Million
Last Updated: 2022
To finish his schooling and prepare for a career as a lawyer, he attended Mission San Jose High School in California and then went on to get his degree in LLB from the University of California, Berkeley. When it comes to his private life, they should mention that he is now dating Chrishell Status, his agent.
The career of Jason Oppenheim's
After graduating from law school, Jason Oppenheim began his professional life as an attorney with the firm of O'Melveny & Myers. He has previous experience working for the organization and addressing various workplace concerns. He learned what he knew about real estate from his dad and great grandparents, who were the owners of Stern Realty Co.'s firm in that industry.
Also Read This- Scott Disick Net Worth: Bio, Age, Carrer, Weight, And Height
Because of his involvement in the real estate industry, he was promoted to president of the Oppenheim Group, which he co-founded brother and is headquartered in California. He has struck a contract with some high-peer groups, including Orlando Bloom, Nicole Scherzinger, and Dakota Johnson, and both developed and constructed the arrangement.
Because of his outstanding abilities in the industry, Jason was honored with some accolades, one of which was the title of "greatest real estate agent in the world" from the International property awards in 2021.
Jason Oppenheim's Work History and Honors
In 2012, Jason purchased a property in Hollywood Hills for $4.6 million. After that, he shelled out many million dollars to complete a wide range of extensive restorations and enhancements. A television measuring 85 inches and costing $65,000 is located in his living room. In August 2019, he placed the property's first listing on the market for $7.25 million. He could not locate a buyer, so he instead put it up for rent for $50,000 per month.
In October of the year 2020, Jason purchased a new house in Los Angeles for the price of $5.125 million.
In November of 2021, he purchased a mansion in Newport Beach, California, 12,500 square feet, costing him $7 million. He paid $2.8 million in April of 2021 to purchase a property in the neighborhood that is considered to be on the more moderate end of the spectrum.
Jason Oppenheim's Gross Value
A real estate broker and attorney in the United States, Jason Oppenheim has accumulated a net worth of $50 million throughout his career. He first gained widespread recognition after appearing in the reality television series Selling Sunset. To this point in his career, he has completed transactions totaling more than one billion dollars, and at any one moment, he has more than one hundred million dollars worth of active listings.
His given name at birth is Jason M. Oppenheim. As of 2020, he will be 43 years old, having been born on April 22, 1977. As his day job, he deals in real estate in the United States. He was born under the sign of the Ram and is now an American citizen.
He identifies as Caucasian and religiously as a Jew. He was born in Palo Alto, California, although nowadays, he makes his home in West Hollywood. There is one sibling in his family, his twin brother Brett Oppenheim. According to reports, the two of them worked together and even filmed an episode of a Netflix program, ultimately leading to Jason Oppenheim's meteoric rise to fame and fortune.
They wanted to let people know he had a twin brother named Brett Oppenheim. He collaborates with Brett in the workplace. Their information leads us to believe that Jason's great-grandfather built his residence on a 5-acre plot. Jacob Stern is Jason's great-birth grandfather's name. Also, after arriving in the United States, his great-grandfather found success in the real estate industry.
Categories Biography, Net Worth
Mary J Blige Net Worth: Bio, Age, Career, Weight, And Height
TO Combat HIV/AIDS Stigma, the #FeelNoShame campaign has been launched (Feel No Shame)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Students seeking to declare a major or minor in sociology should contact Pam Tichenor (in Garland Hall 201). Students will be asked to complete a short form.
Either immediately or within a few days following completion of the form, the student will be provided with the name, e-mail, phone number, and office location of his/her advisor. It is the student's responsibility to contact the advisor in order to set up an orientation meeting. This meeting allows the student to gain information on a variety of topics ranging from the major/minor requirements, to the honors program in sociology, the sociology Honors Society, internships in sociology, and career opportunities.
For a student to be formally admitted into the major/minor program, the student must complete a Declaration of Major or Declaration of Minor form, get the advisor's signature, and submit the form to the Registrar's office of the College at which the student is enrolled.


I know I rag on Facebook a fair bit. But last week, I was reminded of one of the features of Facebook I actually appreciate (and that they've even improved in the past few years): the birthday reminders.
I got over 70 messages on my Wall wishing me a happy birthday, all of which made me smile. Google+ has some kind of birthday reminder functionality, but I only got one message there, and the feature is clearly lacking in overall integration and usability, since I have yet to see a birthday reminder for any of the people I've circled.
Generally, I'm a fan of Google+ and I wish more of my friends would join me there, but I have to admit that Facebook has some pretty stellar features that would make it better. And, likewise, Google+ has some features that would really improve the Facebook experience.
Better integration across the web. I mean, it's Google. I'd rather log in to most sites with my Google account than my Facebook one, since I feel I have better control over who sees my activity. But so far, Facebook remains the champion of alternate logins.
Better mobile phone game integration. Most of my mobile phone games connect me to friends via Facebook (because that's where they are), but given how fast and loose Facebook plays with privacy controls, I'd feel much better connecting to friends via Google+.
Better event planning tools. Oh man, the Google+ event planning tools are BROKEN. First of all, you shouldn't be able to invite a brand page to an event, but Google+ allows this. Secondly, it seems to default to inviting everyone you've circled, which is also not cool. The Facebook event planning experience is overall very tidy, with the exception of the fact that 75% of the people invited usually don't respond to invitations.
Better, more obvious audience segmentation. "Circles" are where Google+ really shines. Facebook has audience segmentation, but they've really buried the feature (it's especially tricky to figure out where to add or edit friend lists), and it's all too easy to post stuff to the wrong group on Facebook, particularly with the mobile app. Google+, meanwhile, puts it right in your face - you know who your posts will be shown to, because you're invited to select the appropriate circles every time you post.
Hiding comments and "Likes" from friends, or at least giving us the option to. This is my biggest pet peeve of Facebook's. I generally don't care what my friends "like" or comment on, and I'm a bit uncomfortable with broadcasting my like/comment activity to all my friends. Google+ makes the experience about posts, not comments/likes, and I appreciate that.
Less visual clutter. Yes, I know the ads have to go somewhere, and all things considered they're not terribly intrusive, but with multiple menus on the left combined with the ticker (which is now, mercifully, collapsable) and chat, you end up with a 4-column layout of fairly tiny text.
A better mobile app. The Facebook mobile app is a frustrating one - you can't delete or edit posts, but you can with the Google+ app.
Better video chat integration. I heard Facebook chatting up this feature awhile back, but it's easy to forget it exists. I think it almost needs to be pulled out as a separate feature, like Google does with Hangouts.
An unfiltered, chronological timeline. So many users have voiced this need with Facebook, it's pretty much cliché at this point. But Facebook's continued insistence that it knows what we want better than we do in this regard is a prime example of their disconnect with their audience. (For a wonderful rant about this, check out this post.) But I think Google+ could use some help here, too. I'm sure their algorithm is more sophisticated than this, but it seems like every time someone comments on an old Google+ post, it jumps to the top of my feed. Why is that necessary? They already have notifications for when somebody adds a comment to a post you commented on, so why also jump the story up? It's confusing.
What did I miss? What other features would help improve either platform?


Outdoor Living Spaces Are Sizzling Hot!
Outdoor living spaces are in high demand. According to Houzz research, 56% of respondents are updating their outdoor spaces, creating customized retreats that expand the living space and are perfect for relaxing and entertaining. Using innovative technologies such as radiant outdoor flooring and all-weather fabric awnings, curtains and walls, today's patios and decks are being transformed into high-comfort, multi-season living areas that feature fireplaces, outdoor heaters, sound systems, water features, fire features, kitchens, and more.
If you're looking to create a custom outdoor retreat that extends your living space and offers a good return on investment, there's still time to make it happen!


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Home/Hot!/Help raise funds to mitigate climate change repercussions – Panellists urge investors
Hot!News
Help raise funds to mitigate climate change repercussions – Panellists urge investors
Prof. George Gyan-Baffour(left) giving his address. With him is Mr Alhassan Andani(middle).
PPanellists at an investment forum, as part of the Africa Climate Week 2019 underway in Accra, have rallied investors to cash in on the climate change phenomenon and simultaneously help raise the needed funds to mitigate its repercussions on the country.
They pointed out that there was a wide range of business opportunities associated with climate change in the areas of e-waste, solar and clean energy, transport and agriculture, amongst others, that could fetch high returns, if grabbed by the investors.
It was revealed that globally, bold climate actions could trigger $26 trillion in economic benefits by the year 2030 alongside the creation of 65 million new jobs and an opportunity for socio-economic and industrial transformation for countries.
The panellists, from state and non-state organisations, were speaking at separate sessions of the Ghana's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) investment forum organised by the government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Monday and yesterday.
The forum served as a catalyst for private sector investment and to garner financial and other support for the implementation of the NDCs, which are Ghana's national climate action plans under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Ghana is expected to raise $22.6 billion investments — $16.3 billion from domestic and $6.3billion from international public and private source — to implement her 31 NDCs, covering seven areas for a decade, starting from 2020.
The climate week, themed, "A race we can win", is being attended by at least 1,000 climate experts, investors and representatives of state and non- state agencies from across the world.
Setting the ball rolling, Minister of Planning, Prof. George Gyan-Baffour, averred that securing financial support for the implementation of the NDCs had not been easy although climate change was the biggest threat to sustainable development.
He said efforts were, however, being made to get the support, including creating the enabling environment for businesses to thrive, so as to attract more investments from the private sector.
Prof. Gyan-Baffour cited tax incentives and as one of the means of creating a conducive environment for investors, adding that government would continue to explore other avenues to bridge the funding gaps.
Mr Alhassan Andani, president of the Ghana Association of Bankers, allayed fears of investors over the banking sector clean-up that led to the collapse and merger of some banks, explaining that the clean-up did not mean that the banking sector was not safe, but it was an exercise to make the sector stronger to anchor their investments, and, therefore, urged investors to feel at ease to invest.
Mr FreduaAgyeman, Director of Environment at the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, said the ministry had collaborated with its sector agencies and others to develop investable projects in all 31 NDCs ready for the investors to come aboard.
At a session on accelerating private sector development, Mr Lambert Faabeluon, a director at the Environmental Protection Agency, asserted that some materials considered as waste could be turned into multi-million businesses.
He said in 2018 alone, 'waste' worth two million dollars were traded via a website, which linked producers and users of the 'waste', but expressed worry that financial institutions were hesitant to support interested entrepreneurs, and called for substantial support from the private sector.
For Vice President of Imani Africa, Mr Kofi Bentil and Nana Osei Bonsu, Chief Executive Officer of Private Enterprise Federation, the private sector was willing to jump on the climate opportunities, but more needed to be done by government, including ease of doing business, to enable them make the move.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
Pictures by Ayeh
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New Year School ends


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Q: Parse Issue: Type Name Requires a Specifier or Qualifier I keep getting following error for the following code. Can Any one Tell me how to solve this Error.
In .h file
#ifdef __cplusplus
namespace tesseract {
    class TessBaseAPI;
};
#endif

Inside @interface abc
  tesseract::TessBaseAPI *tesseract;
uint32_t *pixels;

Error line tesseract::TessBaseAPI *tesseract;
Error :

*

*Expected Expression

*Type name requires a specifier or qualifier.

I have set the base SDK to 5.0 and my Xcode Version is 4.5. Also I have changed .m to .mm file extension.
CompileC /Users/XXXX/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/XXXCard-bfzxfmheqnrlwnfvttodjyxemqxo/Build/Intermediates/XXXX.build/Debug-iphoneos/mBizCard.build/Objects-normal/armv7/ViewController.o mBizCard/ViewController.m normal armv7 objective-c com.apple.compilers.llvm.clang.1_0.compiler
    cd /Users/XXXXXXXX/trunk
    setenv LANG en_US.US-ASCII
    setenv PATH "/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/bin:/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
    /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/clang -x objective-c -arch armv7 -fmessage-length=0 -std=gnu99 -fobjc-arc -Wno-trigraphs -fpascal-strings -O0 -Wno-missing-field-initializers -Wno-missing-prototypes -Wreturn-type -Wno-implicit-atomic-properties -Wno-receiver-is-weak -Wduplicate-method-match -Wformat -Wno-missing-braces -Wparentheses -Wswitch -Wno-unused-function -Wno-unused-label -Wno-unused-parameter -Wunused-variable -Wunused-value -Wempty-body -Wuninitialized -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Wno-shadow -Wno-four-char-constants -Wno-conversion -Wno-shorten-64-to-32 -Wpointer-sign -Wno-newline-eof -Wno-selector -Wno-strict-selector-match -Wno-undeclared-selector -Wno-deprecated-implementations -DDEBUG=1 -isysroot /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS6.0.sdk -Wprotocol -Wdeprecated-declarations -g -Wno-sign-conversion "-DIBOutlet=__attribute__((iboutlet))" "-DIBOutletCollection(ClassName)=__attribute__((iboutletcollection(ClassName)))" "-DIBAction=void)__attribute__((ibaction)" -miphoneos-version-min=5.1 -iquote

In file included from ViewController.h:24:5:error: type name requires a specifier or qualifier
    tesseract::TessBaseAPI *tesseract;
    ^
ViewController.h:24:15: error: expected expression
    tesseract::TessBaseAPI *tesseract;
              ^
ViewController.h:24:5: warning: type specifier missing, defaults to 'int' [-Wimplicit-int]
    tesseract::TessBaseAPI *tesseract;
    ^~~~~~~~~
1 warning and 2 errors generated.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


1. Equal in quantity: "An isopleth can be a line, on a chart, showing equal quantities, conditions, or frequencies of any phenomenon in its relation to two independent coordinates."
2. Lines on a map that join geographical points which have the same value for a particular continuous variable.
A line on a chart drawn through geographical points having the same rain or precipitation: Gerhard studied the isopluvials on the map, preparing his geography lesson about rainfall in central and southern Europe.
1. Referring to feathers that have the two webs (inner and outer) equal and similar.
2. Etymology: from Greek iso-, "equal, same" + pogono, "beard".
1. Designating a triangle with two equal sides or legs.
2. A description of a trapezoid (quadrilateral that has two parallel sides) in which the two nonparallel sides are of equal length.


text:
Ícaro puede referirse a:
 Ícaro, un personaje de la mitología griega.
 Ícaro, una mariposa de la familia Lycaenidae.
 Icarus, el cráter de impacto lunar Ícaro.
 (1566) Ícaro, un asteroide Apolo.
 Ícaro, la estrella más lejana detectada.
 Ícaro Voleibol, club español de voleibol.
 Ícaro Air, aerolínea de Ecuador.
 Icaro, álbum de Renato Zero.
 Ícaro, novela de Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa que relata la vida de Jimmy Angel.
 Ícaro, documental sobre el dopaje en el deporte.
Íkaro, canto mágico y sagrado del pueblo shipibo-conibo-xetebo en la Amazonía peruana.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Ohio: OSP prisoner hunger strike enters second week
hunger strike, Ohio
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OSP Hunger Strike Enters Second Week.
Monday May 7th, 2011, Youngstown OH- Prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) continue the hunger strike they started on Monday April 30th, in solidarity with May Day.
The number of prisoners refusing food has fluctuated from 24 to 48 over the last week, as some prisoners joined late. Communication with the super max prisoners has been limited since the beginning of the strike, but a clear list of grievances and demands has emerged from at least two sources.
The two primary demands are:
1. Improved commissary practices and increased state pay. The prison commissary can set prices at up to 35% mark-up on basic necessities like shampoo, food, and soap. These prices fluctuate unexpectedly, and are often prohibitive to prisoners without outside support, as state pay is only $9 a month.
2. A transparent and accountable security level classification process. OSP houses level 4 and 5 prisoners, the highest security level in Ohio. Once prisoners are classified at these levels and transferred to OSP, there is no clear process for how they can reduce their level and get transferred out of the facility. Prisoners can spend years in OSP without any negative conduct reports and still have no hope of their level being reduced.
Other grievances include:
1. Food portions and quality have been reduced due to austerity measures.
2. Inadequate medical care. Also due to austerity cuts, prison officials have stopped send prisoners to outside treatment centers for MRIs and EEGs unless their conditions are considered life threatening. They also often ignore doctor recommendations for pain medications.
3. Lack of enrichment programming. There are strict bans on many books and movies, and the institutional television channel has little variety. One prisoner said they run the same programs on a loop every six months.
The two sources for these demands are an open letter written to the local Youngstown paper, by prisoner Marcus Harris, and phone conversations with a trusted anonymous source inside the prison. This source also stated that at least one hunger striker has been punished for his participation, sprayed with mace in his cell and sent to disciplinary isolation. This report has not yet been confirmed.
Warden David Bobby met with hunger strike representatives for 3 hours on Wednesday May 2nd. He says he will "continue to communicate with the inmates and listen to their concerns". Thus far, the Warden has called a committee to review commissary practices, comparing them with other Ohio Institutions.
He says that the security level classification system is not uniform because it takes the reasons a prisoner was transferred to OSP into account. One prisoner source was familiar with this argument. He described a situation where someone got sentenced to Level 5 at OSP for 48 months or less. He got no negative reports for those 48 months, but was still denied a security transfer because of "the reasons he was originally classified Level 5, but they already knew that when the brought him in and told him it'd be 48 months or less". This prisoner also said that consequences for petty conduct reports, like refusing to cuff up or return a food tray, have recently increased, "someone who used to be sent to the hole for 16 days, now might be dropped a level from 4 to 5″. He considers these changes an attempt to keep OSP full of prisoners as "job security" for the Warden and Officers.
The Warden said OSP currently has the most prisoners it has since it opened in 1996. He also said the current hunger strike is the biggest hunger strike since he became warden 4 years ago. It is also the second hunger strike this year. In February, twenty-five prisoners went on hunger strike for 3 days. Two major demands from that hunger strike were: increased recreation time, to the court required minimum of five hours a week, and improved commissary practices. The recreation time demand was met, but the prisoners say the current hunger strike "follows directly" from the neglected commissary demand from February. The warden says he does not remember what the demands in February were, and that the recreation schedule has changed repeatedly since the transfer of death row from OSP to Chillicothe last December.
Prisoner Mark Harris's letter ends: "in short, we are sensory deprived, underfed, isolated with little to no movement, unable to hug our children, family and friends, and we are stuck for an overly extended period of time, with limited programming". He requests that people use "whatever resources [they] have to help spread the word of our cause, to call and check up on us and our health and also to look into these matters".
Warden David Bobby 330-743-0700
ODRC Director Gary Mohr 614-752-1164
Possible website downtime as we switch hosts
Words of Fire 9 is Out!
Fundraiser at Ben & Jerry's Chapel Hill April 19, 2018
Back to only accepting specific genres
Dec. 25th, Annual Christmas Caroling at Central Prison


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text:
If the US Presidential Election was based on popular votes, what strategies would be most effective to win? [closed]
There's been a lot of debate lately about popular vote vs. electoral college. One of the major arguments in favor of the electoral college is that it prevents a candidate from simply pandering to, and meeting the needs of those in areas with high population-density, like cities.
Using the population numbers from our current 2016 election, how would the campaigning strategies differ? Could someone really just campaign in California, New York, and other states with major cities to win?
united-states presidential-election electoral-college population
Matt BrennanMatt Brennan
closed as primarily opinion-based by Drunk Cynic, SJuan76, sabbahillel, K Dog, David Grinberg Jan 25 '17 at 19:34
To be clear, I'd like answers based on numbers and data. Answers using population density as far as states/cities/counties are welcomed as well, given that they provide a supporting argument, percentages, and/or direct population numbers. – Matt Brennan Jan 25 '17 at 16:46
That is more or less what Clinton did. Look at the electoral district vote for 2016. Its basically just blue around the cities and nothing else, and that got her a ~3 million vote lead. – David Grinberg Jan 25 '17 at 16:55
@DavidGrinberg - there are many causes for that, not all of them related to campaigning. Demographics and their political preferences are important. It's more about where she did NOT campaign that had an effect. – user4012 Jan 25 '17 at 17:00
We don't know what an effective strategy is because no one has ever tried to run one. It's too hypothetical. – K Dog Jan 25 '17 at 19:18
In this case, thee winning strategy wouldn't be based on states but access to population centers. I suppose the focus would be on large cities, the northeast, and media focused, like TV, internet, etc. – dannyf Jan 25 '17 at 23:07
There wouldn't be just one strategy. Democrats and Republicans could each choose a strategy. For example, if Democrats won every vote in the top 145 counties, they would have just over 50% of the vote and could beat the Republicans in the remaining 2997 counties (county populations from 2013). Contrast that with the 489 counties that the Democrats actually won in 2016.
Democrats won Washington, DC by a margin of 86% in 2016. If they won the top 233 counties with five sixths of the vote, they could beat the Republicans winning 100% of the vote in the remaining 2909 counties.
There are some problems with this. This is really 50% of population not 50% of the vote. More urban counties tend to have lower turnout among eligible voters and more people who are too young to vote. In some states, felons can't vote. The data is from 2013. Population is changing, shifting from rural areas to cities.
Another issue is that Democrats wouldn't have been trying to turn out voters in DC because they didn't need them. Similarly, they wouldn't have been trying to turn out voters in New York City, Boston, Chicago, or Los Angeles, because they were already winning those states. Republicans weren't trying to turn out rural voters in Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Idaho for the same reason.
It's not clear where candidates would spend their time with a national popular vote. Even with the electoral college vote, where the tactics are simpler, Donald Trump won in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. But traditionally, they would have been competing in New Hampshire, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada--states they lost this time. Different candidates may pick different strategies, as they appeal to different voters.
Of course, in a popular vote election, Hillary Clinton might have spent more time in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. She'd have been trying to run up the vote in those states. Or she might have tried to boost turnout in Massachusetts, New York, and California. Potentially, either plan could work.
Should candidates try to motivate their base? For Democrats, that would be urban voters. For Republicans, more rural areas. But there are Republicans even in urban areas and Democrats in rural areas.
Should candidates try to appeal to undecided voters? They would be located mostly in suburbs. But they're a double-edged sword. Maybe you convince them to vote for you. Maybe you chase them to your opponent.
Currently Democrats' concentration in cities hurts them, wasting votes in the District of Columbia as well as New York and California. With a national popular vote, it would be an advantage. Republicans would have to go farther to reach their voters while Democrats could concentrate on cities. Perhaps Republicans might develop an urban/suburban strategy to replace their rural/suburban strategy.
Very nice answer! Very well thought out and explanatory, this is exactly what I was looking for. If the question doesn't reopen in the next couple days I will accept this answer. – Matt Brennan Jan 26 '17 at 3:38
Currently, based on Electoral Math, you only need to win 11 states with 51% of their votes to win the electoral college (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey). Because of the vastly different cultural and political backgrounds of these states, this is harder to do than replacing some of them with more left or right leaning states, so few campaigns go for a top 11 state strategy. Typically, all but a handful of states are considered "locked" to one party or another long before election day, and a handful of "swing states" could go either way. These swing states tend to be heavily campaigned in (though candidates also swing through solidly blue or red states to shore up support, make it harder to flip them, and for campaign contributions).
As a comparison, if you won 100% of the votes (and voting rates and eligibility were consistent among states, which currently they aren't) you would only need to win the largest 9 states. However, since one vote counts the same everywhere, you still need over half the voters to win the election, not just 51% of the voters in the largest 11 states (again, assuming that voting rates and eligibility were consistent among states, winning the largest 11 states in an electoral college system would win the presidency, but you'd only need 56% of the votes you'd need to claim a popular vote victory (and somewhere near 30% of the total popular vote).
As to what the strategy would be used in a popular vote election, it would center even more around what the opponent was doing, but there are some general things that will be important:
Rural areas will favor the right, and urban areas will favor the left
Urban areas will be easier to rally in than rural areas (as there's higher population density, more people will be able to attend an event)
Media-oriented campaigns will be more effective, as they will reach more voters
Country-wide or issues-based campaigns will be more effective than more localized campaigns
Vote mobilization country-wide will be very important, as everyone's votes count for the same.
If I was the campaign manager for the candidate, I would be sure to visit every state roughly the same amount, hitting a new population center each time (and even hitting some rural events). I would have the candidate focus on a national message, with policies that benefit key demographics. However, it would need to react to the opponent's tactics and message. The fight becomes about the entire country, and not just a few key states.
Marshall TigerusMarshall Tigerus
Rural areas will be easier to rally in than urban areas (as there's higher population density, more people will be able to attend an event) Don't you have that backwards? Urban has higher population density. Also, Rural areas already favor right, and urban left. – David Grinberg Jan 25 '17 at 19:05
Also why would you visit every state? Less populous states become less advantageous. In fact the whole idea of state lines no longer really makes sense because all that matters is population numbers, not state numbers. – David Grinberg Jan 25 '17 at 19:06
@DavidGrinberg I swapped that mentally for that statement. Since one vote counts for once vote, any population centers matter. It'd be best to make a list of cities by population and hit them in order, but you want to be sure not to alienate any particular area or state, to make things harder for your opponent. – Marshall Tigerus Jan 25 '17 at 19:12
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Shostakovich: Better Late (But Still Great), Than Never
Posted on December 7, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf
By Victoria Looseleaf
Ear-shattering. Propulsive. Simian. This unlikely combination of adjectives came together last weekend at Walt Disney Concert Hall when Esa-Pekka Salonen led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the world premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1932 satiric opera, Orango. Staged by the inimitable Peter Sellars and orchestrated by Gerard McBurney (based on piano sketches unearthed in 2004 by musicologist Olga Digonskaya), Orango was 40 minutes of inspired insanity meant to be a celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Soviet revolution.
So much for timing (and politics – don't get us started), as nearly 80 years have elapsed since Shostakovich got together with librettists Alexei Tolstoy (a science fiction writer and relative of Leo), and his assistant Alexander Starchakov, to come up with a madcap and sinister plot, not to mention the fact that it's completely relevant today: A French biologist inseminates a female ape with his own seed, bearing Orango, who becomes an anti-Communist stock-dabbling newspaper tycoon that takes a hottie wife. Also a would-be rapist, Orango goes bankrupt amid a world financial calamity, and is eventually sold by said wife to a circus (Ringling Brothers it ain't).
Sellars (at right with Salonen), always au courant, gives us a hard-hitting slide montage populated by Occupy Wall Streeters, fighter planes, fruit galore, and a monkey who could have undergone steroidal acupuncture (i.e., bolts are piercing his skull). The images keep repeating, bombarding us, as it were, and always on a percussive, head-banging beat. Oh, and what percussion it is (a drum set, triangle, sleigh bells, castanets, a car horn, you-name-it…), all contributing to the 11-part opus that includes an overture and some wild dance music, notably that from Shostakovich's own ballet, The Bolt (below in a production by the Bolshoi).
Featuring a cast of 10, it's bass-baritone Ryan McKinney's Entertainer who anchors the show, while Eugene Brancoveanu's exultant Orango is suitably simian. Sellars, in antiphonal mode, situated his performers around the hall, with the feisty ape, er, tackling a front row patron (soprano Yulia Van Doren). Also in attendance – and introduced by Salonen – but not vocalizing, was the composer's widow, Irina Shostakovich, giving her unspoken seal of approval.
The Phil, decidedly one of the world's top orchestras (click here for some of our recent coverage), was abetted by the Los Angeles Master Chorale in a mighty performance that nothing – or no one – could stop. Not even tenor Timur Bekbosunov, who, in the role of a French journalist, bounded onto the podium as he tried to bring the proceedings to a halt.
After intermission, EP gave a brilliant reading of Shostakovich's three-movement, 65-minute Fourth Symphony. Two years after the composer wrote his 1934 opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, he completed the Fourth. But the work wasn't performed until 1961 because Shostakovich, having fallen from official favor under the repressive Stalinist regime, feared for his life. A huge musical tapestry, the symphony seethes with tsunami-like waves of sound that alternate with pianissimo noodlings (at one point a piccolo and flute dialogued jauntily). A thrilling, if chaotic ride that careens between shades of Mahler and filmic swoonings, surprises also abound: Imagine the other-worldliness of a celesta butting up against massive woodwind and brass sections, the indefatigable players blowing their musical hearts out.
Salonen, who recently won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award (it also comes with $100K), had his unstinting way with his former orchestra, the final measures melting into a mind-boggling – and reverberating – silence. April may be the cruelest month, but December offers its own lunacies. To have Dmitri Shostakovich deck the hall with his ferocious music helps make the season, if not exactly merry, certainly memorable.
About Victoria Looseleaf
Victoria Looseleaf is an award winning arts journalist and regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, KUSC-FM radio, Dance Magazine, Performances Magazine and other outlets. She roams the world covering dance, music, theater, film, food and architecture. Have pen - and iPad - will travel! Her latest book, "Isn't It Rich? A Novella In Verse" is now available on Amazon. Thank you for reading! Cheers...
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This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged ALEXEI TOLSTOY, DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH, ESA-PEKKA SALONEN, GERARD MCBURNEY, GRAWEMEYER AWARD, LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC, OCCUPY WALL STREET, ORANGO, PETER SELLARS, VALERY GERGIEV, WAR AND PEACE. Bookmark the permalink.


CTO & CACCI Create Cooperation Strategy for Diaspora for 2017-18 – The Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc.
NEW YORK, NY (Aug. 21, 2017) – The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) recently formalized a cooperation strategy between the two organizations to strengthen the role of the Caribbean Diaspora while sharing resources and creating sustainability for the people and the region.
"CACCI believes that now is indeed the time for serious, positive action. We stand ready to support the regional integration process and will continue to respond positively to the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), CARICOM, and OECS heads of government for assistance requested," Dr. Roy A. Hastick Sr., the president and chief executive officer of CACCI said in reference to the Caribbean Community and sub-regional grouping, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, as he introduced Hugh Riley, the secretary general of the CTO, to the member delegates.
In his remarks CACCI Board Chairman Mr. Edmund Sadio made mention of the longstanding relationship between CACCI and the CTO and the important role of CACCI's founder in being an unofficial ambassador for the Caribbean Diaspora.
As part of the meeting, CTO and CACCI finalized arrangements for reciprocal membership, making each organization a member of the other with the two leaders formalizing the process by an exchange of documents and membership insignia.
The next steps are to begin implementing elements of the cooperation strategy for 2017-18, including investment prospects for the Caribbean, educational opportunities for Caribbean students, and CACCI's involvement in Caribbean Week New York 2018 scheduled for June, which has been designated as National Caribbean-American Heritage Month in the U.S.
The Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (CACCI), founded in August 1985, is a statewide membership organization, which has developed expertise in providing business assistance to small and start-up business owners, in areas of business planning, financing, certification, procurement, business expansion, and export/import opportunities.
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093 244 10 admin@greenparknursinghome.ie
Brían McNamara Nurse of the Year Award at NHI Care Awards 2012
Brían McNamara has won the National Nursing Home Registered Nurse of the Year Award last Thursday night November 15th in the Citywest Hotel. Brían was one of four Galway finalists in the Nursing Home Ireland Care Awards. In excess of 300 nominations were received for the Nursing Home Ireland Care Awards 2012. RTE presenter Marty Whelan was the MC for the event.
Nursing Homes Ireland represents the private and voluntary nursing home sector and nominees were sought for the nine award categories from its 360+ member nursing homes. Nominations were submitted by nursing home residents, visitors to homes, staff, and people in communities across Ireland.
Brían has been involved with Greenpark Nursing Home, which was founded by his parents Cora & Brian in 1991, since he was a child and while he held many roles there, he decided to go back to college in 2007 to study for a degree in nursing. Upon qualifying, he immediately returned to work in the family run nursing home which last year underwent a dramatic transformation. Brían, who lives with his wife Joan and young son Ben in Tuam, was both shocked and thrilled at winning the award. "I'm thrilled to have won this award and I regard it as a great honour. I'm enormously proud to accept this award and dedicate it to all the staff and residents of the Greenpark Nursing Home. This award reflects the excellent care we at Greenpark Nursing Home provide to the residents in our care."
Tadhg Daly, Nursing Homes Ireland CEO offered his congratulations: "I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Brían for his excellent achievement in winning the NHI Care Awards 2012 Registered Nurse of the Year. In communities across Ireland, nurses are demonstrating excellent care and compassion and enabling persons in their care to live happy and fulfilling lives. Brían's is an outstanding and excellent achievement and one Brían himself, residents, staff and visitors to Greenpark Nursing Home, and the wider community should be very proud of."
The Nursing Home Registered Nurse of the Year Award celebrates excellence in nursing practice in residential and long-term care in nursing homes. Candidates are required to demonstrate how their work as a registered nurse contributes to care excellence and how the work has a demonstrable benefit in achieving a culture of person-centeredness in the nursing home, i.e. a culture that demonstrates a commitment to the enhancement of services that respect the beliefs, values, needs, desires, hopes and dreams of residents and staff.
Greenpark Nursing Home
Tullinadaly Road
Tel: (093) 244 10
Email: admin@greenparknursinghome.ie


Welcome to Isle Travel's New Web Site and Travel Newsletter!
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NewsInternational NewsVenezuelan President Accuses U.S. Vice President of Leading Coup Plan
Venezuelan President Accuses U.S. Vice President of Leading Coup Plan
Caracas, February 2 (RHC-Xinhua) -- Venezuelan head of state Nicolas Maduro has accused U.S. Vice President Joe Biden of heading a "bloody" plan to overthrow his government, which he said was announced to presidents and prime ministers of Caribbean countries.
During a political event in the central state of Miranda, Maduro said that he doesn't know if U.S. President Barack Obama is aware of the plan.
"The imperial power has entered a dangerous phase of desperation and has been talking to governments of the continent to announce they'll topple my government. I accuse U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who personally spoke with the presidents and prime ministers about the plan," he said.
According to the Venezuelan president, Biden announced the plan at a recent energy meeting in Washington with Caribbean leaders who told him last week in Costa Rica during the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
He warned that there are plans to "buy or corrupt" senior military officers to lead a coup in this South American nation. "A bloody coup plan has been launched and we must defeat this scenario," he added. Maduro said that Washington "has gone crazy" and warned that something could happen to him.
"Our people must be prepared to rescue their democracy, their constitution and their revolution if a coup occurs," he said.
Last Friday, Maduro said that many agencies of the U.S. government are involved in an alleged "violent plan" to end his government. The confrontation between Caracas and Washington has occurred regularly since late President Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. In the last four years, the two countries have not sent ambassadors to each other's country.
However, the United States remains the top economic partner of Venezuela, as it receives more than one million barrels of oil a day from Caracas.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Accuses U.S. Intelligence Agents of Promoting Violence in Venezuela
Venezuelan President Warns of Coup Attempt
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Inside 209 Women: the trailblazing photography exhibition celebrating women in politics
A new exhibition in Parliament will showcase photographs of all 209 female MPs
By Ellen Peirson-Hagger
Hannah Starkey
"When we take down those pictures of David Cameron, John Major and Tony Blair, and we put up 209 images of women, it will be a shock. It will be emotional. It will be women politicians doing what they have never done before," said Alison McGovern MP last night. The MP for Wirral South joined Lisa Tse, founder and president of the Sorority, and Hilary Wood, photographer, lecturer and curator of the 209 Women exhibition, to celebrate the forthcoming launch of the ground-breaking photographic project.
Hilary Wood, Alison McGovern MP and Lisa Tse at Mews Cocktail Bar, London
www.thesorority.org
The historic venture, sponsored by Aston Martin Lagonda and Power of Women series, and supported by Montessori St Nicholas, will see new portraits of all 209 women MPs, shot exclusively by women photographers, displayed on the first floor of Portcullis House. The exhibition will be open to the public for free from 14 December, 100 years to the day that the first women cast their votes in the 1918 election.
"We want to change the perception of what a woman in power looks like," said Tse, who has led the Sorority, the private society for pioneering women, in supporting the initiative. "I hope that young girls will look up at the walls and think, 'That could be me.'"
Seema Kennedy, MP for South Ribble, by Julia Fullerton-Batten
Julia Fullerton-Batten
The 209 portraits have been shot by established and emerging photographers working all over the UK in disciplines including fashion, fine art and documentary photography. The result is a diverse and fascinating series that makes for a visually exciting display. "It is important that the exhibition reflects the photographic talent that exists across the country. It's a democratic project," said Wood, whose portrait of McGovern, her local MP, became the first in the series. Wood was then joined by Tracy Marshall, the Director of Development and Partnerships at Open Eye Gallery, and Cheryl Newman, the artist and former Director of Photography of the Telegraph magazine, in curating the rest of the project, and supported by Ambassador Rosemary Reed, Executive Producer and Founder of Power of Women series.
Alison McGovern, MP for Wirral South, by Hilary Wood
Hilary Wood
The current art collection of Portcullis House consists, in Wood's words, of portraits "of men, by men. There will instead be 209 pairs of female eyes looking down on the inner workings of Parliament, as a reminder to always think more about equality in our day-to-day lives."
McGovern, who also sits as the Chair of the Speakers Advisory Committee for Works of Art, spoke about the historical importance of championing the visibility of women at a time when female MPs still only make up 32 per cent of the House of Commons. "The 209 women who are in office today make up almost half of the number of women MPs there has ever been," said McGovern. "We still have a long way to go, but this a huge moment in our history and we are capturing it in portrait form."
Tracy Brabin, MP for Batley and Spen, by Rachel Louise Brown
Rachel Louise Brown
Helen Whately, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, by Polly Penrose
Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham, by Lottie Davies
Lottie Davies
Priti Patel, MP for Witham, by Rhiannon Adam
Rhiannon Adam
Nadine Dorries, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, by Jane Hilton
Jane Hilton
209 Women is delivered in partnership with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool City Council, the Royal Photographic Society and The Sorority. It is sponsored by Aston Martin Lagonda and Power of Women series, and supported by Montessori St Nicholas. 209 Women will be on shown to the public, for free, at Portcullis House from 14 December 2018 to February 2019. It will then travel to Liverpool's Open Eye Gallery. Book tickets here, and read more about the exhibition here.
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There is growing recognition that we will not be able to achieve our ambition to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation unless we scale up finance across all phases of REDD+, and leverage both public and private sector finance. At the same time, there is a range of views on exactly how this might be achieved and much debate on the best pathway for private sector engagement. Clouding discussions further is an asymmetrical understanding of REDD+ finance between the private sector, civil society and policy makers, which has led to an often-unclear debate on this issue.
The UNFCCC Secretariat has released a technical paper (FCCC/TP/2012/3) on financing options for the full implementation of results-based actions relating to the activities referred to in decision 1/CP.16, paragraph 70 (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable use of forests and enhancement of carbon stock (REDD+)) including related modalities and procedures.
The technical paper presents a summary of parties' and observer organizations' views on modalities and procedures for financing results-based actions and considering activities related to REDD+ as defined in Cancun decision 1/CP.16, paragraphs 68-70 and 72.


Among a lot of the advice you'll get during your pregnancy you'll probably hear, "Sleep now because when that baby comes you won't sleep a wink!" is one that's often repeated (by literally everyone you know). There will be some chuckling, and some forced smiles on your part.
After baby is born and that baby becomes a toddler you'll look back on the whole ordeal and realize something: Sleeping while you're very pregnant really isn't that much better than sleeping with a newborn. You will want (and need) to modify your sleeping positions. You'll need to support things you never thought you'd need support for, you will need to wake up a half a dozen times to go to the bathroom, and your heartburn will keep you in upright positions – until the weight of the baby makes you feel like you're suffocating.
The fact is, the pictures with peacefully sleeping pregnant women are just not reality. But you have to sleep. And if you can improve it in any way, you have to jump at the chance. That's where a pregnancy pillow comes in, providing that much-needed support for your hips, belly, and other areas that are out of whack thanks to the not-so-pleasant aspects of pregnancy. So, we've rounded up 25 top-rated pregnancy pillows that can help you get a restful night's sleep for the first time in months. Our picks are listed below in alphabetical order. Ratings information is based on Amazon reviews and is current at the time of this writing.
Getting comfortable presents quite a challenge for some women in pregnancy. Weird shaped pillows that make no sense to other people become your best friend while pregnant. This is one such pillow. You can use it for belly support or back support, neck support or in between your knees. And once you've had your bundle of joy, you can even use this as his pillow for nursing or just practicing to sit.
You can't take a hot bath – or at least not a very long one, because you can't raise your body temperature or you'll run the risk of baby brain damage. But you deserve to unwind, and doing so before bed is one way to get your body ready to crash out. (Pro-tip: if you're desperately missing a hot bath, take a thermometer with you and get out before your temperature reaches a level unsafe for baby. It will be a short soak, but sometimes it's better than nothing.) This pillow is a sponge style, so you don't have to worry about getting it wet, and the comfort is far superior to the inflatables you may have seen.
This full body pillow supports your body all over, making it easier to relax. You can change the positions of this pillow to make it support you lying on your side or on your back, siting upright, or reclining. And chances are, you'll need to re-position yourself a lot, so this is a great multi-function pillow.
This may appear to simply be a body pillow, but the fact that this is memory foam means it's going to provide perfect support for a baby belly. Your bump will get the support it needs and sink comfortably into it without putting any pressure on the baby or your back. And because it's not maternity-specific, when you're no longer pregnant it'll be easy to find a use for a good quality pillow like this one.
Two of the biggest complaints for pregnant side sleepers are the lack of support on their back and for their bump. This pillow takes care of both of these problems and because the two supports are connected, you won't have to worry about a little squirming knocking your pillows off the bed. It will also help you sit in the corner of the couch with your feet up by supporting either side and making your lounge time all the more relaxing.
This is another uniquely shaped pillow that may end up being just the right shape to support your very pregnant body. Inside the nook, you can put a shoulder, your belly, or even your legs to support your back.You may even find that it provides more than adequate lumbar support for your work chair or at the kitchen table.
This pillow will give you and your baby bump support in a variety of positions. Although it is primarily used as a body pillow to support your belly and fit between your legs to promote healthy circulation, it can also help you settle into a sitting or lounging position, as well.
This pillow is good for your hips, back, and legs – even when you're not pregnant. While pregnant you may find these parts of your body will ache more than usual and as such, this is an ideal time to sleep with a bit of extra support. The contours of this pillow are designed to keep your legs, hips, and spine in an ideal alignment and prevent pain.
This down alternative pillow offers a medium firmness that will provides quality support to your whole body. Positioning it to optimum comfort can ensure you have an ideal position and alleviate swelling, improve your circulation, and ease any back or hip pain you may have. The symmetrical design means you can roll from one side to the other without sacrificing comfort, and no matter what side you lie on you'll be fully supported.
This may seem a bit extreme, but if you're a tummy sleeper, it could be just the thing that gives you a decent night's rest. (And since it's plastic, at least you won't have to worry about clean up if your water breaks. Or if baby kicks and you leak a little. Or you sneeze. Or cough. Or laugh too hard. Whatever the reason – we're not judging.) You can inflate the pillow to the firmness that you prefer, and the ring around the belly hole has its own adjustment so you can deflate as your baby grows.
This maternity pillow will offer your whole body support and give you the choice of pillow case: a 100% soft cotton or 100% jersey fabric. This is a pillow that you can comfortably use and is big enough that your spouse could probably prop a leg or head on it while you use it, too. And the manufacturer will stand by its product because, should you find yourself not in love with this pillow, you have a 30-day, no questions asked, satisfaction guarantee.
This is pretty much the Rolls Royce of maternity pillows. If you're really struggling with your comfort or are just in dire need of a massage, this pillow may give you the kind of relaxation your body needs. This provides spaces, not just for your face and stomach, but your breasts, as well. And considering how much they're likely to grow and how sore they can become during pregnancy, this is definitely a design win.
If you don't have the luxury of a king-sized bed (or man who will willingly head to the sofa), you may not be able to use a full body support pillow. If that's the case, this is a great solution for you. This one, compact wedge pillow can support your stomach as it grows and you start feeling that extra weight in your back, and that support could prevent you from suffering intense back pain. And should you need the support more directly on your back, you can wedge it back there, too. You can even pop it between your knees to ensure good circulation.
This pillow is symmetrical and will provide equal support for your stomach and your back, no matter what side you choose to sleep on. Noteworthy: you will get the most blood flow and nutrients travelling to the placenta (and therefore to your baby) if you sleep on your left side. But tossing and turning with this pillow will not require you move any pillows around, and that will save you a lot of nightly frustration.
This full body pillow is a bit more compact than Leachco's other full body pillows. This means you may be able to get the full support you need without taking up the entire bed doing so. And your hubby will definitely thank you for that! Just be warned, this compact design means it is not exactly the best fit for the taller Amazonian Goddess.
This pillow is a slightly more unique shape with a sharp hook that will better fit your neck and shoulder without allowing any empty, unsupported space. While the pillow case is a sham-style cover that you can remove and machine wash, the pillow itself is spot clean only.
As you see pictured above, this pillow is versatile and will serve you well long after delivery. You'll have added comfort in its ergonomic design that will keep your circulation flowing and your body in an ideal position, but you'll also enjoy its upright configurations, as well. For instance, the sitting position will allow you to recline and relax or to nurse in comfort.
This pillow is a U-shaped one that will allow you to snuggle and get the necessary support for your back, knees, and baby bump all at once. The synthetic down filling, called Fusion Fiber, is specially designed to never go flat. You can even toss it in the wash and it won't clump or lose its shape over time.
This is another compact pillow that will wedge into key places and offer your changing body additional support just where you need it. The dual-sided design allows you to use this same pillow all through your pregnancy, giving a soft memory foam support or a more firm foam to support a heavier belly. And should you want to support your back or knees, this can be wedged in to support those as well.
This is a firm pillow that forms a C shape and will help you snuggle your way into a more restful night. This is Amazon's Choice for "Pregnancy Pillows" and with over 1,100 reviews, it's easy to see why. Sleeping with this pillow will relieve the pressure on your baby and increase blood flow to the placenta, ensuring baby gets maximum nutrition.
We know at first glance this looks just like the PharMeDoc pillow listed above, but there are a couple key differences that make these pillows, albeit similar, stand apart. The most notable difference is the size. This pillow is for a slightly taller person who needs a bit more length in the C shape. And if you prefer jersey material to a cotton, this is the pillow for you.
This pillow may be similar to others on our list, but it also includes specific care instructions you'll appreciate that will make your pillow last years to come. The extra-soft filling will allow you to rest comfortably and is free of the off-putting smells several of its peers have at first purchase. If you note the instructions, you'll leave it exposed to the sun at least once a month, and that will ensure its fluff and can prevent mites and bacteria.
This pillow is designed with the unique contours of a pregnant body in mind. It will promote ideal positioning that gives you and your baby the best circulation. This will impact everything from making sure your baby is getting the proper nutrition to preventing leg cramps.
This pillow is filled with a premium polyester that will hold its shape but is soft enough to add a comfort to your sleep that you will value all night. While you lie on your side, this pillow will support your neck and stomach and promote circulation while preventing back and hip pain. And as your baby grows, these are benefits that will become increasingly more crucial to your sleep.
We love the simplicity of this design, because maternity pillows sometimes seem to over-complicate (and overprice) the most basic design. This is just one really long pillow; it's like a padded tube that you can flop around and position however you want. You can turn from side to side without having to move your pillows, and having the ability to shove this soft pillow under your stomach with ease is invaluable.


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Fracking, PA: The legal, the political, and the negotiable
September 4, 2013 by hlsjrnldev
By Ben Apple — Sept. 4, 2013 at 12:02pm
A fracking site in Pennsylvania (photo credit: Nicholas A. Tonelli, Flickr).
There's a battle over fracking in Pennsylvania—but it's probably not the one you've heard about. For years now, the future of Pennsylvania's fracking development has hung in the balance as seven municipalities remain locked in litigation with the Commonwealth over the constitutionality of Act 13, an oil and gas statute that radically limits the regulatory powers of local governments. At issue in the ongoing case, Robinson Township v. Commonwealth, is whether the state, through Section 3304 of Act 13, can legally require municipalities to permit oil and gas operations—drilling, processing, compressing, etc.—in all of their land use zones: industrial, commercial and residential.
Notably, none of the parties' legal arguments before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court touch upon the details of what is really happening: a political struggle between oil and gas interests on one side and municipalities defending their powers of self-determination on the other. A description of this political reality has instead been left to the dozen or so amicus briefs submitted to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by interested parties including industry, unions, consultants, environmentalists, property owners, Democratic state legislators, and local governments.
However, even the amicus briefs fall flat in their limited analysis of what is at stake. On the pro-Section 3304 side of the dispute, the industry hails the benefits of a more uniform and predictable jurisdictional landscape over which it can wander freely. Oil and gas-related unions and consultants praise the plentiful jobs that will come with an unhindered industry. One alliance of property owners requests protection from 'unreasonable' local zoning and regulation. On the other side, municipal officials deplore their potential loss of power "to determine [] the long-term character of their local communities," and to protect themselves from the risks and impacts of fracking development.[1] Environmentalists stress that the revocation of local zoning powers is completely unnecessary for successful oil and gas development.
These amicus arguments provide snapshots that belie the ongoing processes of public and private negotiations and local lawmaking that form the nucleus of fracking development, an operation that involves not just drilling, but everything that supports it, including trucks, roads, short- and long-term housing, local businesses, and public safety and health services. If upheld, Section 3304 will do more than just take away regulatory options for municipalities; it will dramatically shift the balance of bargaining powers between drilling companies, landowners, and local governments as they negotiate so many other aspects of development.
In this bargaining context, Section 3304 would have four clear consequences. The first, and potentially most salient, effect would be the provision's forced opening of large amounts of land to fracking operations, crippling any strategic position that landowners may currently gain from the relative scarcity of drilling lands in localities. Second, the consequent rise in the number of landowners capable of leasing their land will both increase the competition for leasing between them and reduce their chances of negotiating reasonable regulation and risk-management through organization and cooperation. Third, where municipalities could usually step in to remedy these sorts of collective action problems, Section 3304 will revoke their powers to do so. Finally, municipalities will lose the leverage that comes with threats of imposing strict zoning regulations on fracking operations.
Considering the poor economic conditions that still plague so many suburban and rural municipalities, not only will these places have fewer bargaining tools to fight for responsible and safe development, but they will also have few, if any, alternatives. This reveals the true danger of Section 3304: If upheld, it will not just radically limit municipal powers over fracking development; it will leave oil and gas companies holding all the cards. And in that scenario, the types of destructive fracking development warned of by so many will become almost inevitable.
[1] Brief of Amicus Curiae Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, Robinson Tp. v. Com., No. 63 MAP 2012, at 3 (Penn. 2012).
Filed Under: HELR Online Tagged With: fracking, local government, oil and gas, Pennsylvania, zoning, zoning regulations


NAR/CRT Labs is proud to sponsor our first Hyperledger Hackathon at mHub here in Chicago in September. Hyperledger Hackathons are events where software developers get together and share ideas about a topic – in this case, blockchain – in order to strengthen the community around the topic and move forward with projects that will innovate within the space. NAR's recent investigations into blockchain have lead us to partner with multiple groups, and together we hope to innovate within the blockchain and Hyperledger communities. If you're interested in finding out more about these technologies, and are in the Chicago area, this event is for you! Hackathons are for all levels of skill and participation, so you don't need to be a whiz programmer to be involved. We hope to see you on September 21st for this event!
The Illinois Blockchain Initiative, Chicago Blockchain Center, National Association of Realtors and mHub are proud to partner with Linux Foundation and Hyperledger to host Hyperledger Hackfest on September 21 & 22nd in Chicago.
Hyperledger Hackfests are regular gatherings for developers working on the different projects hosted at Hyperledger.
What are the goals of Hyperledger Hackfest?
The primary goal for a Hackfest is to facilitate software development collaboration and knowledge sharing between participants, with an eye towards reflecting all ideas and conclusions back outward to the public open source community afterwards. A secondary goal is to bring new contributors and passive observers up the learning curve on the different technology platforms, and the cross-cutting issues affecting multiple projects (such as identity, security, development process, etc).
Hackfests are public meetings, anyone is welcome to attend and participate no matter what their skill level, though the discussions will presume a significant familiarity with blockchain technologies and software development concepts on the Hyperledger protocol.
This past April, I had the privilege of attending The Business of Blockchain event that was put on by the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA. The event was a one-day conference examining the technology, ethics, and impact of blockchains. If you are a reader of our blog, you know that CRT has been focusing on practical use cases for blockchain in real estate over the last year and half.
The goal of the event was to meet pioneers in the field, gain business advantages by learning more about the technology and ultimately learning to separate real opportunities from the hype. This event was incredibly useful as it helped clarify which changes blockchain technology will be making immediately and what's still far off in the future. A reoccurring theme of the day was how blockchains can help provide and guarantee security, identity, and ownership while still operating at the speed of the internet.
Recently, MIT has published videos from the event and I would like to share three of my favorites as well provide my key takeaways from each talk.
Brian Behlendorf is executive director of the Hyperledger Project. Behlendorf was a primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular Web server software on the Internet, and a founding member of the Apache Software Foundation. He has also served on the board of the Mozilla Foundation since 2003 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2013.
Brian shares the exact moment of when he realized the potential for blockchain technology. His "Ah-Ha" moment came after hearing of a land title project in Honduras that was being started to protect land ownership through decentralization of records.
In recent history, the digitization of systems has led to the centralization of systems. Brian explains how permissioned ledgers can begin to re-decentralizing how these systems work.
Brian then goes on to describe the opportunity and benefits that will come from the transformation of the traditional hub and spoke models to ledgers, and specifically how the roles of intermediaries in those models will shift over time.
What Could Go Wrong? When Blockchains Fail.
Emin Gün Sirer is an associate professor of computer science at Cornell University. His research interests span distributed systems, security, and operating systems, with a particular emphasis on digital currencies and self-organizing systems. He runs the popular blog Hacking, Distributed.
Emin Gün talks about what can happen when people and companies apply blockchains in a manner that is at odds with the science that is behind them. Setting the stage for his talk, Emin covers the history of how civilizations track wealth as well as how validity, immutability and apply to blockchains.
In recent years there have been a number major failures based on poor implementations. Emin goes into detail about the attack on the Ethereum based smart contract, The DAO, and how it was exploited for over $50 million dollars.
Emin warns audience members who are interested in running private permissioned technologies. These systems are built relying heavily on the fact that the network will be resilient to attack as long as the nodes fail independently.The problem here that many implementations that we are seeing today have every node on the network running the same code, making them al susceptible to the same vulnerabilities. Emin suggests the concept of N Version programming as a possible solution.
Amber Baldet is the Executive Director, Blockchain Program Lead at J.P. Morgan. Established in 2015, J.P. Morgan's Blockchain Center of Excellence sets a comprehensive blockchain strategy for the Corporate and Investment Bank, while also developing cutting edge technology, curating Strategic Investments, and performing client outreach.
Amber explains what the future of JP Morgan's client services could look like and what that means for their product offerings.
She goes on to explain how even though her company is focused on investment banking applications, they must be built with the same ethical design standards as blockchains inorder to avoid very imbalanced systems.
Amber finishes her presentation with a quick overview of JP Morgans first open source software product, Quorum, that allows for private and secure transactions on a public ethereum blockchain.
If you are interested in learning more, click here to view all the videos from the Business of Blockchain Event. I've also included links to all of NAR's research below.
Want to know more about Blockchain? Dave's been doing a lot of great research, and on Facebook Live Office Hours, he told us about what Blockchain is and why NAR is researching it. As always, to watch us live, like our Facebook Page and tune in on Fridays at 3PM Eastern!
Office Hours: Blockchain from CRTLabs on Vimeo.
CRT Labs was launched in August 2015 with the purpose of educating the REALTOR® membership about emerging technologies that could have a potential impact on the real estate industry. Since then, we have strongly advocated for proper security and privacy in today's smart home, developed fantastic educational material for REALTORS®, and designed innovative and affordable solutions for monitoring indoor air quality.
Today, we are excited to be discussing blockchains, which we feel have countless applications for use in our industry. The purpose of this blog post is to give a basic explanation of what blockchains are, how they differ from traditional database models, and to provide an update on NAR's research.
Blockchains are digital ledgers that are shared among a distributed network of computers and interested parties. These digital ledgers are permanent and tamper-proof because the underlying technology allows each participant on the network to interact with the ledger in a secure way without the need for a central administrator.
While that might sound complex and a bit difficult to understand, the basic idea behind blockchains is actually pretty straight forward.
Simply put, blockchains provide a verifiable, trustworthy record of events or transactions.
This digital record of events, or ledger, maintains a continuing growing list of ordered entries called blocks. Each block is linked to the next in chronological order and contains cryptographically secured information that links it to the previous block (like a chain). This allows for information to be added to the ledger in a manner that is impossible to alter retroactively.
What Are the Benefits to Blockchains?
Beyond the fact that they are tamper-proof by design, there are many other advantages to using blockchains instead of traditional databases in your applications.
Each participant retains its own copy of transactions, as ledgers are not centralized and can not be controlled or altered by a single party.
Blockchains allow for smart contracts, meaning the ledger itself can be programmed to trigger transactions automatically based on predefined, software-based clauses.
Decentralization of the data removes any single point of failure.
These benefits are often overlooked due to skepticism surrounding early blockchain applications involving digital currencies like Bitcoin. Although Bitcoin is the most successful example of a blockchain application, it is important to not equate the two.
Bitcoin uses blockchain technology, but Blockchains ≠ Bitcoin.
Why Is NAR Focusing on Blockchain Research?
Personally, I believe blockchain has the potential to be one the most impactful technologies of the next few decades. I also predict we will begin to see more and more blockchain-based applications enter the mainstream real estate industry in next few years. After financial tech and supply chain management, the real estate market will be the target for entrepreneurs trying to disrupt traditional business models.
CRT Labs believes that smart contracts could greatly reduce the cost of doing business. The automated checks and balances these smart contracts provide will help REALTORS® and their clients get to the closing table faster and with less risk involved. We are also beginning to see the public sector getting involved. Chicago's Cook County is testing Blockchain-Based Property Title Transfer which could help protect rights to property ownership records.
NAR's short term goals are to create practical, open source blockchain applications that highlight the positive aspects of the technology that can also be used as case studies by our industry partners. Our first project uses blockchain to provide an improved method of sharing membership engagement levels (committee service, education history, CE Tracking) across all local, state, and national levels of the association. We are hoping that this initial work will help lay the groundwork for adoption of more high-impact projects in the future.
released the source code for the prototype that what will soon become our membership engagement tracker.
CRT Labs and NAR also plan to continue developing and sharing practical blockchain solutions.