What is opportunity? Have you ever taken the moment to think about it? It's those common words that sometimes I'm not sure I actually know the definition of. Sometimes it's the words you say all the time that you don't know what they actually mean.
For me, I've always defined opportunity as the chance to accomplish something. Come to find out, that's kind of what it actually means. So it's nice to know my vocabulary is still hanging in there. But think about that. The Chance to Accomplish Something. Even including the word chance gives it an entirely new meaning. Because if you have to have a chance to accomplish something, that means you will encounter other times when you don't have a chance.
Opportunity is a time when you are in a position to do something. It could be anything. Something huge and life altering. Something small and personal. Whatever. But one thing won't change: Your opportunity doesn't stick around forever.
You have a chance to do something at that moment, and if you don't seize the moment, you might lose it. And you might never get it back.
Today's verse is Galatians 5:13.
If you've made that all-important decision to follow Christ, every day you wake up is another opportunity. God gives us all sorts of chances to do all sorts of amazing things in a day's time, but the question is, are we paying attention? Are we taking advantage of the opportunities God gives us?
I wish I could say I did. I wish I could tell you that I always jump at the opportunities God sends my way, but I don't. Sometimes I hide from the opportunities He gives me because I'm afraid or because I'm relying on my own strength and knowledge. And that's not how we're supposed to live.
Say you're walking down the street, and the person in front of you drops money. That's an opportunity. That's your chance to accomplish something. But what you accomplish is up to you. If you want to serve yourself, it's your opportunity to steal, to knowingly take something that doesn't belong to you. But if you want to please God, it's your opportunity to help someone else and maybe even tell them about your faith.
That's what opportunity is. It's keeping your eyes open and seeing the open doors God has given you every moment of every day and choosing to walk through them for His glory and not for your own.
In America, we have freedom to do many things that other countries only dream of. We aren't limited (generally speaking). We can roll out of bed one morning and decide to start a business, and if we have the finances or the credit to be able to do it, we can do it. Do you know how rare that is for other people?
But just because you have the freedom to do whatever you want doesn't mean you can use it to do what is wrong. That's where we slip up. We think because we're free that we can do anything and everything. And maybe there's truth to that, because you certainly can do whatever you want. As a Christ-follower, you can break every rule you can think of, and if you truly belong to God, He won't cast you out. He won't protect you from your consequences either. But you are free to do whatever you want.
So Paul is encouraging us to love each other instead of fighting with each other. You can use your freedom to do whatever you want, but why spend it hurting others? Why use your freedom to destroy relationships or ruin your physical health? Instead, use the freedom you have–make the most of your opportunities–to do good for others, to help others, to serve others in the name of Christ.
Those are the opportunities you should be taking. Those are the chances you should be seizing.
So the next time you see the open door of opportunity in front of you, what are you going to do? Sure, you can serve yourself. That's what most people will do anyway. But if you really are a Christ follower, and you want to see Him do something amazing in your life and in the lives of other people, take that opportunity to serve someone else. Focus on someone else.
If you have the opportunity to help somebody, take it. And do it in the name of Christ. You'll be amazed at what happens in your heart and in the hearts of the people you're helping.
We all know them. They're everywhere, if you think about it. Hidden in plain sight, disguised as normal, average, everyday citizens.
People pleasers are the best. They're great friends to have because they'll do anything for you. They're awesome employees because they'll work themselves to exhaustion. But put a people pleaser in a position of authority and look out.
And I can say this. Because I am a people pleaser. I am a performance-driven, perfectionistic people pleaser…. a truly fearsome thing to behold.
And it is so much easier–so much nicer–so much less stressful to do whatever people want you to do. It's like a burden lifted off your back when you can just make someone else happy by doing something for them or serving them in any way. But life doesn't work that way. You can't always make people happy. And sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions.
If you're a people pleaser in a position of authority, you have to have something stronger in your life to fall back on that helps you do the right thing.
Today's verse is Galatians 1:10.
Galatians is another book of the New Testament written by Paul through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Like Philemon, which I was reading last week, Galatians is a letter, but this letter was written not to an individual but to the Church in Galatia.
Back in the days of the early Church, the religious scene wasn't like is now. In the US, you can go to any major city and find many different kinds of churches. But back then, every city only had one church. And it was The Church.
And Paul was addressing an issue in the Church, where the people had started believing a different version of the Gospel than what Paul had originally preached there. A false version. And Paul calls them out for believing a lie.
See, Paul didn't have a problem telling it like it was. But like he says in the verse, if he wanted to please people, He wouldn't have given his life to Christ.
Why is that? Does that mean if you choose to follow Christ you can't make people happy?
No, not at all. Following Christ means that you love others and put others first. But loving people and putting other people before yourself doesn't mean you're always going to make them happy, because sometimes what's best will make people unhappy.
And more often than not, accepting God's direction in our lives starts off with unhappiness. I wish I could tell you it was different, but I can't. Many times in my life and in my walk with God, I've had to accept decisions others have made that I didn't like–that I didn't agree with–that made me unhappy. But because I trust God has a reason for everything and that He puts the people of His choosing in authority over me, I submit. I don't like it, but I do it.
And you know what happens? Pretty soon after, I see that God did know what He was doing. And that the people who had to make that difficult decision that made me so unhappy were doing what God called them to do. And it was me who wasn't grasping God's plan.
You can't live your life to make people happy and live your life following Christ at the same time. Following Christ gives you the chance to make a real difference in people's lives–in a way you can't ever do on your own–but that has nothing to do with making them happy.
But Paul wasn't born a people pleaser. That wasn't his personality. So standing up and calling people out probably wasn't something that would shatter his world–like it would do for me.
So how do you do it? How do you do what's right because it's right instead of doing what people want so they don't hate you?
I can't say I know the answer, but I know what I've had to do. And that's learning to value God's opinion more than the opinions of people around you. And it's hard. It's so hard (but you won't ask for help because you don't want people to worry). And you'll cry a lot (usually where nobody can see you because you don't want people to worry about that either).
But here's something I know is true: If you value God's opinion more than the opinions of people around you, eventually those people–if they know Christ–will do the same. It won't happen the next day. It may not even happen in a year. But one day, down the road, the people who you made unhappy by your unpopular decision will understand.
People's opinions change. People's happiness changes. God never does, and He can outlast the most stubborn of hearts. So you hold on to that. Don't make decisions to make people happy.
Have you ever thought about your responsibilities as a Christ follower? Because we do have responsibilities. I don't know if anybody really talks about it, but those responsibilities do exist.
I think it's really easy to forget that God has a plan for each of our lives, especially because people don't really talk about what He expects from us very often. And some of that may be fear of confusing salvation by works with salvation by grace through faith, but just because we're afraid of confusing people with a topic isn't reason enough to avoid talking about it.
In every family, each member has a responsibility. Sort of like in a body, where every part has something it's designed to do. When I was little and my family would go camping, each one of us had an assigned job at the campsite, and it was our responsibility to do our part, otherwise things just didn't get done. So when we choose to join the family of God, why do we think it's any different?
Today's verse is Luke 12:48.
This is a verse I grew up with, but in thinking about it this morning, it took on new meaning to me. Every American Christian has been given much, whether you are the wealthiest person in the United States or the poorest. Americans have freedom and opportunity, and if we're willing to work hard, we can better ourselves. That's not the case in other countries.
So regardless of how you grew up or when you came to know Christ, as a Christian in America, you have a responsibility to use your resources to help others come to know God through Jesus too. You have a responsibility to love people.
But I want to narrow in on a certain group of Christians out there, one that I have a particular burden for. Because I'm one of them. We're the Christians who started going to church in a baby carrier. We're the Christians who grew up with the Bible in our homes and, in some cases, in our schools. We're the ones who've known Jesus since we were children.
So what? What difference does that make? What difference does it make if you've known Christ since you were 7 versus 47?
If you're a Christian who was raised in a godly home, who had access to a Bible from the earliest days of your youth, who had parents who taught you to respect God and love Him, who had a church that encouraged you to grow in maturity, you haven't just been given much. You've been entrusted with much. And there's a big difference.
Do you think it was an accident you were born in a Christian home with a Christian family? No. That was part of God's plan (just like it was part of God's plan if you weren't born in a Christian home with a Christian family). There are no accidents. There are no coincidences.
So what are you going to do with that? I've known too many Christians who were raised in families that loved God–not perfect families but what family is perfect?–who decided the God-thing wasn't for them. Too many people who came to know Christ at a young age are just sitting back and doing nothing with the opportunities God has given them.
That's why long-time Christians find new believers so refreshing. Their faith is so new, so exciting, so alive. Well, guess what, Long-Time Christian? Your faith can be new, exciting, and alive too. You just have to work at it. You just have to keep testing it, keep pushing it, keep expecting God to do amazing things. And He will.
But you can't sit back and just wait for it to happen. You have to get up. You have to get moving. You have a responsibility to use the knowledge and experience and the life that God has given you to help others.
Imagine what our churches would look like if the experienced Christians actually stood up and did something instead of expecting to be served. What I'm seeing is that the new Christians are the ones jumping up to participate in ministry, and that's spectacular! That's the best way to keep growing in faith. But what about the folks who have grown up with their faith? What about the people who've known Christ for 20, 30, 40, 50 years? Where are they? What are they doing for Christ today?
I don't want to pick on anyone. I just want to ask the questions. And I want to hold myself to the same standard. If I'm not doing anything for Christ today, then I'm wasting the life He gave me. I'm wasting the knowledge of the Bible that He gave me. I'm wasting the relationship He gave me. And I'm missing out on a HUGE opportunity to witness the impossible.
Maybe you grew up in a Christian home and you think this God-thing isn't for you. Can I respectfully urge you to reconsider? You don't have to have your parents' faith for God to be real in your life. Actually, you can't have your parents' faith. You have to have your own.
No, you can't lose your salvation. No, God will never reject you. But I can pretty much guarantee you that He won't be happy with you if you treat His gifts like they aren't important.
If you grew up in a Christian home, if you've known Christ since you were a child, and you aren't actively involved in serving others today, you're in trouble. Because you're part of a family. You're part of God's family. And you have a responsibility to that family. You've been entrusted with the greatest responsibility there is–loving people, helping people meet Christ–and if you throw it away or ignore it because it makes you uncomfortable or because it's too much work, God is going to have something to say about that.
Do you want to do something amazing for God? Maybe you don't. Maybe you're okay with sitting on the sidelines and never jumping into a ministry, and that's okay if you're satisfied with a life that doesn't make a real difference. But if you're the kind of Christ-follower who wants God to be pleased, what do you do with yourself?
I know some people who are able to give financially to the things that God is doing around the world. And I'm not just talking a few dollars here and there. But not everyone can do that, including me. Others jump into full-time ministry and get to serve God for their actual job, and that sounds amazing. But not everyone can do that either. The rest of us have responsibilities, and while you don't have to have any special qualifications to go into full-time ministry, it does need to be something God has called you to do.
So how can you do something amazing for God if you can't give lots of money or you aren't in full-time ministry?
Today's verses are Philippians 2:16-18.
Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ's return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.
I get frustrated because I can't do more for God. I try to squeeze things into my calendar until I'm so overwhelmed with busyness I don't even know which end is up anymore. What stood out to me in this verse this morning is a pretty simple concept: Faithful service is an offering to God.
Paul is talking about how he will be proud that his work and sacrifice was useful if the people of the Church of Philippi hold on to the truth, and even if he were to die, he would still rejoice. The way Paul looked at it, his life was an offering to God. And, while I think we should all look at our lives that way, we shouldn't discount how important our willingness to serve is to God.
Are you doing something to serve other people right now? Do you look at it as something that doesn't matter? Something that's not important? That's a lie. If you are helping someone else, you're a hero. If you are offering your love and hard work to help another person, you're awesome. That's not something you have to do. That's not something you can be forced to do. That's something you choose to do, and if you do it faithfully, over and over and over, when it isn't requested and when it hurts you financially and emotionally, don't think that God doesn't notice.
So be encouraged. Because the one thing that can please God is faith (Hebrews 11:6). If you're faithful in your service to others in the name of Christ, you will make a difference for God. And even if the difference you're making is small, God has a habit of taking small things and making them huge.
The Bible is full of stories where God took something small and used it to change the world.
So if you're tired and weary from the work you're doing, don't give up. Keep working. Keep trusting. And keep everything in perspective because even if you are only able to do a little, God can take that little and do awesome things with it. That's who He is. That's who He was in the Old Testament. That's who Christ introduced us to in the New Testament. And that's who is here today. He'll be here tomorrow too.
Don't give up. There's an old hymn called "Little Is Much When God Is In It" and I've got it stuck in my head at the moment because it's so true. Part of living a happy life is putting others before yourself, and part of putting others before yourself is service. And anyone can serve. You can hold doors for people. You can help people carry groceries. You can listen to a friend when they need to talk. You can pray.
Don't take any of those "small" things for granted. Because they aren't small to the person who you're helping, and they're not small to God either.
Is it wrong to focus on other people? Well … like I blogged about yesterday, it's not a good idea to compare yourself to others around you. That's the fastest way to make yourself unhappy. But the older I get, the more I'm beginning to think that another cause of unhappiness in our culture is that we don't focus on people around us.
There's a big difference between comparing ourselves to others around us and focusing on them.
Today's verse is Philippians 2:3-4.
It's so funny how the world has taken what is true in the Bible and twisted it around. You would think that focusing only on yourself and trying to make yourself happy would work. You would think that if you spent all your time and all your money on making yourself happy you would be. You'd think that if you spent all your energy in an attempt to bring yourself contentment that you would accomplish it. But the more you live for yourself, the more unhappy you will be.
There's a little book with a funny name nestled in the Old Testament. Its name is so funny most people mispronounce it. The book is Ecclesiastes, and I promise you that if you read it, you will spend most of the time cringing. It hits hard and makes you really think about what it means to be a Christian … which is really strange because it was written hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ was born. King Solomon, son of King David, wrote this little book under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit at a time in his life when he was searching for meaning. If you don't know, King Solomon was the greatest, most wealthy king Israel ever had. But this is what he has to say about being happy in Ecclesiastes 2:9-11.
King Solomon, the wisest and richest man who ever lived, found that life was meaningless and empty when he lived for himself. Sound familiar at all, America? I think we are there. As Americans, we have everything we could ever want. Even if our taxes are a little high and we may not agree with every political ideal that comes out of Washington, we still have some semblance of freedom. We've never endured real persecution. And we have everything. As a good friend of mine says, even King Solomon couldn't run down the road and buy a hot fudge sundae.
We have computers and technology and food and cars and music and entertainment and hobbies and the list goes on and on and on. We live in a culture that urges us to get what we want whenever we want it, and even if our economy is struggling, we still buy the things we think will make us happy–whether we can afford them or not.
But are we happy? If King Solomon wasn't happy when he lived for himself, why would we be? So what's the answer? What did Philippians say?
Don't be selfish. Live for others.
No, it's not a good idea to focus on other people for your identity, for your security, for your purpose. It's not a good idea to compare yourself to other people so you can feel better about yourself. But you can focus on other people without comparing yourself to them. You can live for other people. You can care about what they care about. You can make sure that other people have what they need to succeed. And the more you give to other people, the happier you will be.
By the world's thinking, it doesn't make sense to sacrifice what you could spend on yourself to spend on someone else. But as believers we aren't called to live by the world's philosophy, and let's just be honest, what has the world's thinking accomplished? Seriously?
So do something for someone else today, even if you don't feel like it and especially if they don't deserve it. Granted, you have to be wise, and you have to be responsible with the resources that God has given you. But that doesn't mean we're supposed to hide ourselves away and never interact with anyone.
Want to be happy? Want to be content? Focus on others, not to compare yourself to them but because you consider their success more important than your own. When you embrace that kind of humility, your life will be different. And so will your perspective.
Following Christ is pretty awesome. There's no other life like it because most other lifestyles are bogged down with religious ritual and obligations. Truly living like Christ, truly following God, is a freedom that no other "faith system" even tries to pretend it has.
The irony is that so many Christians don't really understand the freedom they have, and they spend their lives trying to prove themselves to God by doing good works and demonstrating how good they can be. And there really isn't anything wrong with that, I guess. But the fact remains that we can't be good and we have nothing to prove to God. So why would we even try if we know it's our faith that saves us? Maybe it's because we're all performance-driven people. I know I am.
On the other side of the fence, many people believe that we have to do something to earn our salvation because if God just gives out salvation without any expectation on our part, we can break all the rules we want with no punishment. We can do everything that's wrong with no one to check our behavior. Well, that's not right either. If you do something wrong, you're going to have to face the consequences of that action whether you're a believer or not. And while you may not lose your eternal salvation, you might lose the blessing you could have received if you had done the right thing. There are consequences for everything.
Freedom is a terrible privilege, both in life and in faith. And it's a tremendous responsibility.
Even in governmental systems, the more freedom a country has the more ethical its citizens need to be. Because there's no government to keep them in check. We in the United States get all up in arms because our government has gotten to big and so powerful. Well, if we had all maintained our ethical and moral responsibility to be good citizens … it probably wouldn't have been necessary.
The same is true of our lives when we are set free by Christ. We can choose to live our new lives however we want. We can chase every selfish dream, every great ambition, everything anyone else in the world would pursue. Or we can choose to serve others.
The photo really doesn't have much to do with the thought today, except that it's a batch of homemade chicken yakisoba I made for some folks who came out to stay at my house some time ago. It didn't turn out very well, I don't think. But it looks pretty. And the concept behind it is somewhat relevant. God has given me a house, and He's given me the resources to help other people. It's my choice what to do with those resources, though. If I want to keep them all to myself, that's fine. But what am I missing out on if I don't share?
It all comes down to your eternal perspective. If you believe that this world is the pinnacle of our lives, then you're going to live to get everything you can get out of this world. But if you believe that the best is yet to come, you're going to live in a way that demonstrates that this world isn't your home.
But even if you live for the life to come, you have to remember that we're here for a reason. God put each of us where we are so we can learn something, so we can serve each other. We are supposed to live in a way that puts other people before us. We're supposed to live in a way that honors others more than ourselves. We're supposed to love the people who don't understand us, who use us, who say terrible things about us. We're supposed to serve people who hurt us and disappoint us and who we don't agree with.
Hey, Christians! What would the people you disagree with think if you did something nice for them instead of grumbling behind their backs or giving them a hard time?
Serve people. Love people. Stand up and do what God says. You have the freedom to choose what you're going to do today. You can choose how you react to what life (and Satan) throws at you today. Put yourself in the shoes of the people you disagree with. How would you like to be treated?


So this is a short and sweet one, but every now and then it's nice to see things like this…I suppose it's a bit of a validation that perhaps, finally, I'm on the right track. To have two of my images used on a billboard and a label is pretty satisfying encouragement to keep going with this thing. It's a damn good feeling to know that others are appreciating what you do.
Anyway, so I know a few weeks back I brought up that the two beef jerky companies reached out to use some of my images for various purposes…the local gluten-free jerky company, Topanga's Finest Jerky, and then there was Oh Oberto. Well, worked out a deal with Topanga's Finest and here's a version of the label below. Crazy stuff!
And the billboard…that was interesting…it's in Scotland of all places, surrounding a town of about 40,000. Yeah, I know…it's for a church…but still, it's pretty neat to see one of my images on a BILLBOARD.


text:
Confluence CEO responds to coronavirus concerns
Aiya Hunter, GCAAtoday Editor-in-Chief
Alissa Eckert, MS, Dan Higgins, MAMS
This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
UPDATE AS OF MARCH 19: "We hope you are all holding up well and trying to enjoy some semblance of spring break during these strange and unprecedented times. Throughout this public health emergency and school closure I will be updating the community when there is new or clarified information to share. You will be receiving official information from Confluence very soon but I wanted to prep you for our plans next week," Head of School Ashley Olson stated via email.
The email also contained detailed procedures for the next two weeks where students will be online learning to continue practicing social distancing.
Building: The school building is minimally open to staff and faculty with the majority of admin and office staff working from home and teachers out on break. Teachers will be prepping virtual learning materials to be ready next week.
"We are working hard to deep clean and fully sanitize the building. Everything will be sanitized this week and then again at the end of next week," Olson stated via email.
The building will be closed to everyone March 30 through the end of the closure April 3, to ensure surfaces remain sanitized until students return.
Meal Distribution: Confluence is working closely with SLPS to ensure that all St. Louis City and Charter students continue to have access to weekday lunch and breakfast. Starting Monday, March 23, lunch and breakfast for the next day will be distributed via drive-through pick up at Old North, CPA, and South City – Meramac in addition to all SLPS schools. Students can pick up meals from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. at the location most convenient to them – no ID or roster checking, food is distributed until it is gone. There will be no meal distribution at GCAA.
Virtual Learning: At GCAA learning during these two weeks will all be internet based. Teachers will reach out to their classes with instructions on the platforms they will be using. If teachers are using google classroom or other similar platforms there are parent links all guardians will receive so they can keep up with the work expected of their child. Some teachers may choose email so please be sure to check student email addresses. Reach out to admin or staff if students have not heard from all of their teachers in one way or another by end of day on Tuesday, March 24.
Chromebook Distribution: On Tuesday, March 24 and Wednesday, March 25 from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Chromebooks will be distributed (one per student) and chargers (one per family) out of the main lobby of GCAA to any student who needs a device to access the internet and their virtual learning assignments. Students will also receive information about free internet services from Charter should they not have internet services at home.
"Devices can be picked up by a parent or student but please do not come to the school if you or any family members are experiencing coronavirus symptoms – reach out and we will work on a solution. Whoever picks up the Chromebook will sign a technology agreement covering damage and return as you will still be responsible for the safety of the device. Again, let us know if you are not able to come to the school due to illness or known exposure and we will work on an accommodation to get you a device if you are in need," Olson stated via email.
Instruments/Art supplies: If you have an instrument stored at school staff will attempt to get that to you when you pick up a device. Students or family members will not be allowed into the school beyond the main lobby but admin will work with families to retrieve essential tools for learning.
Events: The April 2 Cabaret concert is canceled. Admin and staff will be working on ways to get videos of solo work so the work and voices of GCAA students can still be shared. The April 9 art show will be postponed and it's unclear if there will be a new date in May or if virtual options will be explored instead. The April 16 dance show will be pushed back a week or two to give students time to fully prepare pieces. The Spring musical will take place in a concert style rather than a full production, this will happen as scheduled at the end of April. Any events after April 26 will happen as scheduled until further notice. This is all contingent upon school resuming on April 6
Missouri DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) canceled all statewide assessments which include EOC and MAP testing.
"There is a time and a place for statewide required assessments and now is not the time. Effective immediately, Missouri will be cancelling statewide required assessments for this school year," said Missouri Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven.
The AP program will be providing free resources and is investing in the development of at home test options. Additionally, the majority of the AP exams will have two testing dates this year in order to accommodate different student needs. Visit the AP site for more details.
"We miss you! We love you! We cannot wait to see you again (hopefully) soon! We are experiencing something that is new to all of us and will shape this young generation in ways currently unknown – it will shape the world. In times of crisis, the arts are a refuge for us all whether it be as a tool to express feelings or manage stress so keep making and consuming art! My favorite thing about GCAA is the vibrant and accepting community – we are in this together and now more than ever we must lean on each other (but . . . through the internet or 6 feet apart). Please stay home to reduce your exposure and risk of passing the virus on to others more vulnerable than yourself," Olson stated via email.
Hang in there, take care of each other, and consume art in all its' digitally accessible forms!"
— Olson stated.
Contact high school principal Dr. Shane Hopper at shane.hopper@confluencecharter.org for any further questions regarding the order of operations during this time.
UPDATE AS OF MARCH 15: In response to the guidance of local health officials, Confluence Charter Schools will be temporarily closing for social distancing beginning Wednesday, March 18 and ending Friday, April 3. Confluence made this decision based on the closures of 26 major school districts in St. Louis and will continue monitoring the developments regarding COVID-19.
"The decision to close our school districts was extremely difficult, made in consultation with all area Superintendents and out of abundance and caution for our families," high school principal Dr. Shane Hopper stated via email. "We know that closing our schools will have a significant impact on our families, but we also believe that strong, urgent action must be taken to prevent the spread of this disease and to protect lives."
Spring break was set to end March 23 but with the extension all students will have an additional two weeks away. Confluence Academies intend to update families as administrative decisions are made.
"We will be communicating to you again via email, our website, social media and other media outlets regarding community resources to help our students and families through this period," Confluence Academies stated via email. "The health and safety of our students is our highest priority and we will continue to work in collaboration with public health officials, other government officials. We will do our part to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health of our students, their families and our staff."
On March 9, CEO of Confluence Academies Charter Schools Dr. Candice Carter-Oliver responded to concerns about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) via district-wide email. Concerns are especially high in St. Louis due to the recent reports of a positive case in St. Louis County.
"The situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve and we are reaching out to our partners at St. Louis Public Schools, the Missouri Charter Public School Association, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and the St. Louis Department of Health to ensure we are enacting best practices regarding both the seasonal flu and COVID-19," Dr. Carter Oliver wrote.
In connection with the quarantined family in St. Louis, Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill closed their campuses temporarily to prevent further spreading of the disease after the father and sister of the patient attended a school dance.
Saint Louis University's campus, 1.2 miles from GCAA, will be closing and converting to online courses temporarily as well. For more closings and cancelations visit here.
"You may have heard that schools have been closing in some areas outside St. Louis in an effort to slow the spread of this disease. At this time, we have no reason to believe that closing our schools is necessary, given the nature of the outbreak in our region," Dr. Carter-Oliver wrote.
Ways to stay healthy:
Washing your hands often with soap and warm water. If those materials aren't available alcohol-based hand sanitizer should be used.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
Cover your cough or sneeze and throw used tissue in the trash.
Administrators encourage parents not to send children to school if they are ill. It's advised for them to stay home until they are without fever (below 100℉) and show no symptoms for 24 hours without medication.
"Our staff is prepared to support students and families who may be absent because of illness," Dr. Carter-Oliver wrote.
Included in the email were trusted sites to provide more information; St. Louis Department of Health, Missouri DHSS, and U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Confluence will be reviewing their policies as updates on the disease occur.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Offaly's hopes of making an immediate return to Division 3 took a major blow on Sunday as they were beaten at home by Clare.
Despite goals in either half from Niall McNamee and Brian Darby, Offaly were deservedly on the wrong end of the scoreline against a Clare side who rallied late to claim the win.
Darby' goal put Offaly a point in front entering the final quarter but Clare outscored their hosts by by four points to one in the closing minutes with Offaly's score coming late from the boot of Richie Dalton.
Inaccuracy again plagued Offaly as they kicked 11 wides and when you consider that the starting forward line contributed just 1-2, it becoming apparent where the problems lie. Goalkeeper Alan Mulhall and corner back Brian Darby accounted for 1-1, almost as much as the forward while the other points came from midfield.
Offaly now face an uphill battle to gain promotion after losing back to back home games and they simply cannot afford to lose to Leitrim next week if they are to keep their slim hopes alive.
Clare started the game much more strongly than Offaly and four points from the excellent David Tubridy and one from Alan Clohessy helped Clare into a 0-5 to 0-2 lead with Offaly's points coming from Niall McNamee goalkeeper Alan Mulhall.
Offaly hit back with an excellently taken goal from Niall McNamee to level the scores but Clare pulled away again before the break with points from Chris Dunning, Shane McGrath and Enda Coughlan.
Offaly manager Emmett McDonnell did his best to change the momentum of the game introducing three subs in the first-half and a fourth at the break.
Clare extended their lead early in the second half but Offaly seemed to have found their stride hitting an unanswered 1-2 to take the lead.
Points from Ross Brady and Brian Connor reduced the arrears to two before Brian Darby marauded forward to get on the end of a fine attacking move and he dispatched the ball to the back of the net.
Offaly: Alan Mulhall 0-1f; Brian Darby 1-0, Paul McConway, Eoin Rigney; Graham Guilfoyle, John Moloney, Michael Brazil; Ross Brady 0-1f, Alan McNamee; Matthew Mitchell, Brian Connor 0-1, Eoin Carroll; Bernard Allen, Niall McNamee 1-1, Peter Cunningham. Subs.: Sean Pender for E Rigney (25 mins), Paul McPadden for P Cunningham (29 mins), Derek Kelly for M Mitchell (33 mins), Richie Dalton 0-1 for B Allen (half time), Joe Maher for P McPadden (blood sub 56 -59 mins), Mark Young for A McNamee (63 mins).
Clare: Joe Hayes; Martin McMahon, Shane McNelis, Enda Coughlan 0-1; Sean Haugh, Gordon Kelly, Declan Callinan; Gary Brennan 0-1, Cathal O'Connor; Chris Dunning 0-1, Shane McGrath 0-2, Alan Clohessy 0-1; Mark McCarthy, Rory Donnelly, David Tubridy 0-6 (0-1f, 0-1 '45). Subs.: Podge McMahon for R Donnelly (53 mins), Shane Ryan 0-1 for A Clohessy inj (55 mins).


text:
so many comic books, so little time – because we're watching too many films
What are your issues?
November 7, 2019 greigzilla Action, Film, James Bond, Review Leave a comment
The year is 1962 and woman plays baccarat in a casino. The man she is playing against is cool, calm and – most importantly – winning. Collecting his winnings with a casual air that could be seen as almost disinterested, he looks up as the woman asks him his name and answers her question with a voice as smooth as silk – surname first, then his whole name.
That man, obviously, is James Bond.
It's easy to forget while in the shadow of the single greatest introduction of a character in cinema history (yeah, I said it, fight me) that there's an actual movie settled around it – and better yet, a bloody good one too – a movie that kicked off a franchise nearly 60 years in and 25 movies strong.
After MI6 staff, based in Jamacia, turn up missing and important files are swiped, agent 007 is deployed to sort out what went on. Upon landing he is immediately beset on all sides by allies and enemies all struggling to figure out the reason behind many strange disappearances and what it has to do with Crab Quay, an area plagued with superstitious rumours of deaths and even dragons. After vanquishing an undercover enemy agent, who'd rather neck cyanide like tic tacs than be questioned, Bond teams with CIA front man Felix Leiter to infiltrate Crab Quay and crack this case, however, upon reaching the forbidden area Bond meets the first of many suggestively named female characters he'll come across in his career (phrasing!!!) in the iconicly bikini clad form of Honey Ryder, a shell diver from the local area. Once captured by enemy soldiers Bond meets the man responsible for everything that's been going on, the humourless supervillain Dr. No, who sports a nice line in gleaming metal hands (no one takes the opportunity to enquire how the good doctor is able to wipe his bum but maybe there's some things man is not meant to know) and aims to wreck America's space programme with radio waves and radiation. Can Bond escape from Crab Quay and save the day and even if he can, what is this greater threat Dr. No warns him about. What is S.P.E.C.T.R.E?
Going back to the very first Bond after 25 movies of massive set pieces and glamorous Bond girls (cunning stunts and stunning… well, you get the idea) it's initially strange to go back and see how quaint the first movie is. Before Goldfinger came along and set the Bond rules in stone, Bond was more of an international police man, actually taking time to figure out who his enemies are and what they want before destructively descending on the arch villain's real estate like a lair flattening angel of death. That being said, a lot of the core basics are already in place, arch villain with a handicap, gimmick laden henchmen (No's hitmen are a trio of men who pretend they're blind) and absurdly convoluted methods of people disposal are all present here (a tarantula in Bond's bed? don't you morons have guns?) as is obvious prototypes of beloved institutions like an anonymous member of Q branch slagging off Bond's forbidden weapon of choice ("It's nice and light…" he sneers, cradling Bond's Beretta, "In a lady's handbag." – ooh, get him!) and upgrading him to his famous Walther PPK.
But all this would mean precisely nothing if it wasn't for Sean Connery's commanding performance. Former milkman and one time Mr Universe third place winner, Sean Connery was not Ian Flemming's preferred choice to play the spy from his series of books (to put it lightly) but after director Terrance Young took him under his debonair wing and taught him the ins and outs of etiquette (not unlike the protagonists in Kingsman), Connery emerged in full suave, roguish form. His impish eyes and confident swagger pull off both a school boyish charm when dealing with his peers and a cold, reptilian killer when shit gets real. Make no mistake, while Dr. No is somewhat of a kinder Bond than Connery would ultimately go on to play him (yes, he eventually turns Ursula Andress into Ursula No-dress but watch how he legitimately protects her throughout the film) but an impressive act of bastard-ness see him gunning down a man in cold blood after the poor sod has run out of bullets.
The film is, admittedly, very much of it's time and some aspects – much like a lot of things about early Bond movies – will jar beyond the slightly relaxed pace. Numerous Jamaican accents are barely attempted, Bond only hands a duplicitous secretary over to the authorities AFTER he's had sex with her and the less said about a white guy playing the very Asian Dr. No the better (although it's nowhere near as catastrophic as Mickey Rooney in Breakfast At Tiffany's) but there is innovation at work here too, for example, this was one of the first movies to cut scenes together on camera movement (before, you would wait until the actor stopped or left the room before editing to the next shot).
Another stroke of genius is not treating this as an origin story. We join Bond in full swing, getting chewed out by the ferocious M (Bernard Lee in great blustery form) for shit he's pulled in previous missions which give the character a sense of history and professionalism that sometimes works a little too well (I've lost count of the times I've had to correct my dad that it's this film and not Goldfinger that kicked everything off).
VERY small scale compared to what would follow (anyone else foresee a hovercraft gondola in Bond's future after watching this? Didn't think so.) and yet a super solid spy thriller in it's own right, Dr. No may not be as smart as From Russia With Love or as glamorous as Goldfinger but it has THAT entrance for the first time and it has THAT theme.
And that's enough.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
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Ohio Wesleyan announces November events
Ohio Wesleyan University has announced its November 2015 lineup of public events. It includes:
• Through Nov. 13 – "Matter of Fact," an exhibition of plein-air panoramic oil paintings by Todd Gordon, who grew up in Delaware, and "Sur," an exhibition of large-scale watercolors by Paul Ching-Bor, at Richard M. Ross Art Museum, 60 S. Sandusky St. Gordon will present an illustrated artist's talk at 7 p.m. Oct. 22 in Room 312 of OWU's R.W. Corns Building, 78 S. Sandusky. His presentation will be followed by a public reception from 8 to 10 p.m. at the museum. Admission is free.
• Through Dec. 8 – "Cultures of the World," an exhibition of photography by OWU graduate and former alumni relations director Sally Christiansen Harris, Class of 1976, in the Alumni Gallery of Mowry Alumni Center, 16 Rowland Ave. Harris will give an illustrated artist talk at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in Room 312 of the R.W. Corns Building, 78 S. Sandusky, followed by a reception at 8 p.m. in nearby Mowry Alumni Center. Admission is free.
• Through Dec. 10 – "Esochromatic," an exhibition of large-scale abstract paintings by Columbus artist David Senecal, in Gallery 2001 inside Beeghly Library, 43 Rowland Ave. An artist's reception with Senecal will be from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Nov. 19 inside the gallery. Admission is free.
• 3:10 p.m. Nov. 4 – Artist and entrepreneur Will Day, OWU Class of 1979, will share his journey, which has seen him transition from a successful career on Wall Street to becoming an artist. He will speak in Room 312 of the R.W. Corns Building. Admission is free.
• 6:30 p.m. Nov. 5 – Nieves Romero-Díaz, professor of Spanish at Mount Holyoke College, discusses "Breaking Bad, Doing Good: Public Women in Early Modern Spain," in the Bayley Room on the second floor of Beeghly Library. Admission is free.
• 6 p.m. Nov. 6 – OWU men's and women's swimming and diving vs. Mount Union, in Meek Aquatics and Recreation Center, 150 S. Henry St. Admission is free.
• 8 p.m. Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 – "Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities," featuring Ohio Wesleyan's Opera Workshop, in Jemison Auditorium inside Sanborn Hall, 23 Elizabeth St. The program, featuring works by P.D.Q. Bach (also known as Peter Schickele), is directed by OWU faculty member Jennifer Whitehead. Admission is free.
• 8 p.m. Nov. 6, 13, 20 and 27 – Evening programs at OWU's Perkins Observatory, 3199 Columbus Pike (U.S. 23). Content varies based on sky conditions, but may include a planetarium show, observatory tours, and star gazing with the 32-inch Schottland Telescope. Advance tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for children and senior citizens. Reserve tickets by calling 740-363-1257.
• Noon-6 p.m. Nov.7 – "Love Across the Spectrum: LGBT Christians Speak Out," a half-day conference discussing issues of sexuality, morality and marriage; examining the Bible's teachings for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals; and exploring the intersectionality of race, gender and identity. Keynote speaker Sara Miles, founder and director of The Food Pantry and director of ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, will discuss "Scandal, Folly and Freedom." It will be held in OWU's Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave. General admission is $40 and $20 for students. Register online at http://lats.owu.edu/registration.php. The deadline to register is Nov. 4.
• 1 p.m. Nov. 7 – OWU football vs. Allegheny, at Selby Stadium, 45 S. Henry. Tickets are $8 for adults, $3 for students, and free for anyone under age 5 or with a valid OWU ID.
• 1 p.m. Nov. 7 – OWU men's and women's swimming and diving vs. Bellarmine and vs. Findlay, in Meek Aquatics and Recreation Center. Admission is free.
• 7 p.m. Nov. 7 – A Cappellooza, OWU's third annual a cappella showcase, featuring performers from Ohio Wesleyan and surrounding college campuses as well as Street Corner Symphony, a professional a cappella group featured on NBC's reality show "The Sing-Off." Hosted by DJ Matt Ryan, this year's event will have a '90s throwback theme. It will be held in Gray Chapel inside University Hall, 61 S. Sandusky. Tickets are $5 for general admission, $3 for non-OWU students, and free for Ohio Wesleyan students and employees with a valid OWU ID.
• 3:15 p.m. Nov. 8 – Ohio Wesleyan student recital including junior class vocalists Chris Gardias and Bryson Tarbet, in Jemison Auditorium, inside Sanborn Hall, 23 Elizabeth St. Admission is free.
• 8 p.m. Nov. 10 – Ohio Wesleyan Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Malone, in Gray Chapel inside University Hall. Admission is free.
• Noon Nov. 13 – Ohio Wesleyan's annual Heritage Day celebration, commemorating "Nobelest Achievements: Environment Echoes of Sherwood Rowland," in the atrium of Hamilton-Williams Campus Center. Rowland, OWU Class of 1948, won the Nobel Peace Prize in Chemistry for his work with chlorofluorocarbons and their impact on the earth's ozone layer. Heritage Day commemorates the first day of classes held at Ohio Wesleyan on Nov. 13, 1844. Admission is free.
• 6 p.m. Nov. 13 – OWU men's and women's swimming and diving vs. Davis & Elkins and vs. Urbana, in Meek Aquatics and Recreation Center. Admission is free.
• 8 p.m. Nov. 13 and Nov. 14; 2 p.m. Nov. 15 – "ORCHESIS 15/16," an annual contemporary dance concert highlighting original work by Ohio Wesleyan students and faculty, with artistic direction by faculty member Rashana Smith. ORCHESIS 15/16 will be performed on the Main Stage inside Chappelear Drama Center, 45 Rowland. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 for senior citizens, Ohio Wesleyan employees, and non-Ohio Wesleyan students. Admission is free for Ohio Wesleyan students with a valid OWU ID. To reserve tickets, call the theater box office at 740-368-3855.
• 1 p.m. Nov. 14 – OWU men's and women's swimming and diving vs. John Carroll, in Meek Aquatics and Recreation Center. Admission is free.
• 3:15 p.m. Nov. 15 – The Ohio Wesleyan Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conducted by faculty member Larry Griffin, will perform in Gray Chapel. Admission is free.
• 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17 – Ohio Wesleyan's annual Economic Outlook Conference, featuring a panel of experts discussing their forecasts for the local, national, and international economies, in the Benes Rooms of Hamilton-Williams Campus Center. The conference is co-sponsored by the Department of Economics and by The Woltemade Center for Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship. Each expert will speak for 15 minutes and then respond to questions and comments from the audience and from panel moderator, OWU faculty member Goran Skosples. Admission is free.
• 8 p.m. Nov. 17 – Ohio Wesleyan Park Avenue Jazz Ensemble, conducted by faculty member Larry Griffin, will perform in Gray Chapel. Admission is free.
• 3:15 Nov. 19 – Ohio Wesleyan composition concert featuring students of faculty member Jennifer Jolley, in Jemison Auditorium. Admission is free.
• Nov. 20 and Nov. 21 – OWU men's basketball Great Lakes Challenge, at Branch Rickey Arena, 105 S. Sandusky. Tickets are $8 for adults, $3 for students, and free for anyone under age 5 or with a valid OWU ID.
• 10 a.m. Nov. 21 and Nov. 2 – OWU men's and women's swimming and diving teams host the Corbiere-Merion Invitational, in Meek Aquatics and Recreation Center. Admission is free.
• 6 p.m. Nov. 24 – OWU men's basketball vs. Trine, in Branch Rickey Arena. Tickets are $8 for adults, $3 for students, and free for anyone under age 5 or with a valid OWU ID.
• 8 p.m. Nov. 24 – OWU women's basketball vs. Capital, in Branch Rickey Arena. Tickets are $8 for adults, $3 for students, and free for anyone under age 5 or with a valid OWU ID.
For the latest OWU event information, including schedule changes, visit http://events.owu.edu. For Battling Bishop athletics, visit www.battlingbishops.com.
Information for this story was provided by Ohio Wesleyan University.
Hi! A visitor to our site felt the following article might be of interest to you: Ohio Wesleyan announces November events. Here is a link to that story: https://www.delgazette.com/news/3405/ohio-wesleyan-announces-november-events


Is Spring Barrel Tasting too hectic for you?
Do you still want to sample out of the barrel?
Then Pre-Barrel is for you!
Avoid the crowds and enjoy the wine during PRE-BARREL; An event geared towards our local customers, wine club members, and fans! Stop by Tucannon Cellars as we will be sampling our 2017 Carménère out of a French Oak Barrels.
Sample out of the barrel without the chaos of Spring Barrel Tasting!


Search engines have come a long way since the mid 1990s, from Altavista's meta-based criteria to Google's link based algorithm. Launched in 1998, Google's algorithm has gone from strength to strength ever since. So where do we go from here?
We can't see into the future, but we can predict it by understanding the challenges that search engines face today. Thanks to the advances in cloud computing and mathematics, search engines are able to apply these to finding better ways of helping users foreshorten their search for an answer.
The data scientists working on search engines like Google are already working on algorithms that enable them to predict the kind of search engine results users wish to see. People will no longer search for the same thing. Before long, the search engines will show unique results based on what different users want, even though the keyword they're searching for is the same.
For example, user A and user B may both be searching for holidays in Greece. The only difference being that Google will infer from artificial intelligence that user A shops in Harrods and wears Burberry. As a result, the results will include the websites of luxury tour operators. For user B, who shops most frequently in Tesco, Google may infer that search results should be prioritised towards the more mass-market brands like First Choice Holidays.
This will be made possible thanks to the data collected by search engines - particularly Google. The fact that Google's Chrome website browser enjoys a 65% market share (W3Schools) and many users of their services like Gmail are signed in enables Google to collect a lot of information about a user's website preferences. This information allows Google to put together a reliable dataset and make predictions about what results the user will want to see to satisfy their search.
On another level, a user searching for articles could be shown articles that their peers, friends or family have liked or shared on Twitter or other social media. Search engines will statistically infer that these articles are likely to be relevant to the user.
Social media signals already play a major part in explaining why some content outranks others, despite links playing an important role (i.e. the more links from authoritative websites like the BBC, the more credible your site's content). If that wasn't enough, search engines already use sentiment analysis to further qualify inbound links to your website.
Sentiment analysis is a relatively new way to help computers understand the attitude of content towards a topic. For example, "that was an amazing holiday" would likely score positive due to the words 'holiday' and 'amazing' being predicted as a positive sentiment.
In the next five years, search engines will go further to evaluate the sentiment of all kinds of things including tweets, images, and mobile app content about sites and brands. This analysis will give search engines a better sense of what is being publicly discussed about sites on social media and mobile apps. For example, if there are many negative tweets about a luxury furniture retailer then, despite the volume of attention the site or brand is getting, these may not show up in the user's search for a hand-made bed. The company is relevant to the user's demographic, but a more qualitative assessment has changed the ranking.
In effect, using sentiments could not only help the future search engine improve the search experience in terms of relevancy, but also turn search engines into artificially intelligent advisors.
If search engines think a picture tells a thousand words, we are also likely to see sentiment analysis of images and videos. Today, there are approximately just over 2,000 machine learning experts specialising in computer vision, which is already furthering the search engines capability to understand images.
These computer vision experts are helping search engines like Blippar and Yossarian Lives to classify images in the way the everyday person would. Visual search engines can already recognise everyday objects such as an apple by scanning a live image on a mobile phone, or typing in a metaphor to generate image suggestions.
So the progress being made will likely see search engines being able to add much more context of the images in terms of their sentiment, the types of objects in the image and so forth. This will give search engines much more information to go on in terms of serving users the best and most original content.
Many of these advances are likely to achieved not just because of the advances in technology but also because of the imagination of users and marketers that find new ways of searching and communicating respectively. The next ten years will become even more exciting as more information becomes available for collection and analysis by wearable technology. This will no doubt present challenges for search engines and SEOs alike.


Do you run or do you know of a business that has made great strides in recent years to improve itself and play a larger role in the community?
The Land O'Lakes Tourist Association is inviting members of the public and business people to participate in the selection of nominees for its inaugural Marketing Vision Awards.
"We are celebrating those businesses that have taken steps in recent years to increase sales and job opportunities; who have been innovative and expanded their businesses, and have brought new concepts to the marketplace," says LOLTA Executive Director Terry Shea.
It's simple to nominate a business, requiring only a 30 –50 word explanation of why the business deserves recognition. Nomination forms will be available in the Frontenac News next week as well as at www.lol.on.ca.
One finalist will be chosen from each of the townships within the Land O'Lakes Tourist Association region, which includes South, Central, and North Frontenac, Addington Highlands, Stone Mills and Loyalist townships, as well as Greater Napanee and the Municipality of Tweed.
Nominees need only be located within the boundaries of the Land O'Lakes, they need not be LOLTA members.
Each finalist will receive a commemorative hand-carved award by Rodger MacMunn, approximately 18" x 18" in diameter at an awards dinner on September 29 at Camden Braes Golf Club in Camden East. Guests will include MPP Leona Dombrowsky and a second keynote speaker. Tickets to the dinner, which will be a harvest dinner, will be available by calling 1-888-840-4445.
At the dinner, an overall winner will be announced, and that business will receive a larger hand-carved award.


Global gold demand declined by 10 per cent to 953 tonnes in the April-June quarter of 2017, due to significant slowdown in inflows into Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), a World Gold Council (WGC) report said.
Global gold demand declined by 10 per cent to 953 tonnes in the April-June quarter of 2017, due to significant slowdown in inflows into Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), a World Gold Council (WGC) report said. The overall gold demand in the corresponding quarter of 2016 stood at 1,055.6 tonnes, WGC said in its latest Gold Demand Trends report. Investment demand fell 34 per cent to 297 tonnes as compared to 450 tonnes in the same period last year. The report said after record levels of inflows into ETFs in the first half (H1) of 2016, a significant slowdown in the sector was the predominant factor behind the fall in overall demand so far this year. During the second quarter, the central bank demand jumped by 20 per cent to 94 tonnes against 78 tonnes in the Q2 of 2016. In the first half of 2017, central bank purchases were down by 3 per cent at 177 tonnes. However, in the H1, bar and coins investment grew along side jewellery and technology demand, each making modest gains as compared to the same period last year, it said.
Global jewellery demand rose by 8 per cent to 481 tonnes, which was 447 tonnes in the same period last year, mainly driven by India. "Demand for H1 2017 was down 14 per cent compared to last year, but in some respects the market was in better shape. Last year's growth was solely down to record ETF inflows, while consumer demand slumped," WGC Head of Market Intelligence Alistair Hewitt said.
"So far this year, we have seen steady ETF inflows in Europe and the US, jewellery demand has recovered with good growth in India, while retail investment and technology demand is up too," he said. There are a few things to watch out for in the rest of the year, like the inflation data out of the US looks soft and markets have pushed out their expectations for a rate rise, Hewitt said. "The monsoon is looking good in India, and provided the market adapts to the new Goods and Services Tax (GST), we may see a solid demand around Diwali. And as the next generation of smart phones gets rolled out, we may see good support for technology demand," he added.
According to the report, total supply fell by 8 per cent to 1,066 tonnes in the April-June quarter as compared to 1,160.3 tonnes in the same period last year. This was largely led by a steep drop in recycling, which declined by 18 per cent to 280 tonnes. Mine production remained virtually flat, falling marginally by 3 tonnes to 791 tonnes, the report said. Recycling was also affected by the rapidly increasing global gold price in the first three quarters of 2016, along with a tax amnesty in Indonesia, which attracted consumers to liquidate their assets.


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Q: Uploading media files to Azure File Share over 4 MB corrupts them I'm trying to upload large files to Azure File Share via the Azure.Storage.Files.Shares library and am I running into corruption issues on all media files (images, PDFs, etc) over ~4 MB. Azure File Share has a limit of 4 MB for a single request which is why I've split the upload in to multiple chunks, but it still corrupts the files despite every chunk upload returning a 201.
Notes:

*

*It doesn't seem like it's an issue with having to write multiple chunks as I can write a 3 MB file in as many chunks as I want and it will be totally fine

*.txt files over 4 MB have no issues and display totally fine after uploading

This uploading portion of this function is basically copied/pasted from the only other stack overflow "solution" I found regarding this issue:
public async Task WriteFileFromStream(string fullPath, MemoryStream stream)
{
    // Get pieces of path
    string dirName = Path.GetDirectoryName(fullPath);
    string fileName = Path.GetFileName(fullPath);

    ShareClient share = new ShareClient(this.ConnectionString, this.ShareName);

    // Set position of the stream to 0 so that we write all contents
    stream.Position = 0;
    try
    {
        // Get a directory client for specified directory and create the directory if it doesn't exist
        ShareDirectoryClient directory = share.GetDirectoryClient(dirName);
        directory.CreateIfNotExists();

        if (directory.Exists())
        {
            // Get file client
            ShareFileClient file = directory.GetFileClient(fileName);

            // Create file based on stream length
            file.Create(stream.Length);

            int blockSize = 300 * 1024; // can be anything as long as it doesn't exceed 4194304
            long offset = 0; // Define http range offset
            BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream);

            while (true)
            {
                byte[] buffer = reader.ReadBytes(blockSize);
                if (buffer.Length == 0)
                    break;

                MemoryStream uploadChunk = new MemoryStream();
                uploadChunk.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
                uploadChunk.Position = 0;

                HttpRange httpRange = new HttpRange(offset, buffer.Length); // offset -> buffer.Length-1 (inclusive)
                var resp = file.UploadRange(httpRange, uploadChunk);

                Console.WriteLine($"Wrote bytes {offset}-{offset+(buffer.Length-1)} to {fullPath}. Response: {resp.GetRawResponse()}");
                offset += buffer.Length;    // Shift the offset by number of bytes already written
            }

            reader.Close();
        }
        else
        {
            throw new Exception($"Failed to create directory: {dirName}");
        }
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        // Close out memory stream
        throw new Exception($"Error occured while writing file from stream: {e.Message}");
    }
}

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


British Transport Police (BTP) were made aware of a tweet – dated 5 September – stating that stickers, with razor blades behind them, were put up in the toilets of Manchester Oxford Road train station.
Officers have attended the station to investigate this claim and have confirmed there is no evidence of this.
BTP has a tried and tested system in place for dealing with hoaxes designed to cause minimum disruption whilst ensuring the safety of members of the public and rail staff.
Nevertheless, hoaxers waste considerable police time and divert our much-needed resources from other duties. We will continue to monitor the situation and will take further action should this malicious activity continue.