text:
Analysis: Who wins from a Palestinian reconciliation plan?
Posted on 20 September, 2017 14 December, 2017 by lfiIsrael
In the 10 years since Hamas executed its bloody coup and seized control of Gaza, the terror group and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement have attempted to patch up their differences on many occasions.
But agreements aimed at restoring Palestinian unity at Mecca in 2007, Sana'a in 2008, Cairo in 2011 and 2012, Doha in 2012, and the Shatri refugee camp in 2014 have all foundered and rapidly fallen apart.
The latest efforts between the two sides, announced last weekend, poses challenges for both Hamas and Fatah.
The moves have arisen as a result of a profound crisis in Gaza, provoked by Hamas' establishment earlier this year of a permanent administrative committee to oversee government in the Strip, and Abbas' efforts to finally bring the Islamists to heal. Seeing the committee as a further affront to his authority, the furious Palestinian president stopped paying Gaza's electricity bills to Israel – Hamas steadfastly refuses to deal with the Jewish state directly, leaving the PA to ensure a supply of power from it to the enclave – which has produced shortages and regular power cuts. Abbas also slashed payments for the salaries of civil servants in Gaza and reduced the number of travel permits for Gazans needing medical treatment.
While Abbas demanded the administrative committee was dismantled, Gaza returned to the control of the PA, and elections held, Hamas said there would be no movement until the president dropped the sanctions. The resulting impasse was only seemingly broken by the terror group apparently caving in and announcing it would scrap the administrative committee. Hamas also said that it was willing to enter negotiations with Fatah, hold a general election and form a national unity government. The announcement on Sunday – by a delegation led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and its chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar – followed talks in Cairo mediated by the Egyptians.
In many respects, this reflects Hamas' weakness. The plight of Gazans – unemployment is high and electricity often available for only three or four hours each day – has led to unprecedented protests against it. Sinwar, viewed by many as a radical, has been forced to adapt. As Grant Rumley, author of a new biography of Abbas suggests, he has "turned pragmatic in his time in office". So much so that he has even found himself seeking the help of Mohammad Dahlan, the former head of security for Fatah in Gaza who negotiated an agreement with Egypt and Qatar for additional fuel and money for Gaza. While an arch-enemy of Abbas, Dahlan is also hardly beloved of Hamas, having once led the fight against it in Gaza. At the same time, Sinwar has been forced to curry favour with Egypt, arresting members of the Islamic State and cracking down on cross-border smuggling. Its draft revised charter, published in May, also made no mention of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that Hamas has long been aligned to but which Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has cracked down on.
In a resulting 'phone call between Abbas and Haniyeh on Monday, the president praised the "atmosphere" created by Hamas. However, despite demands by Hamas that the PA immediately end its sanctions against Gaza, Abbas made no immediate commitment to do so. Instead, he will be dispatching the PA prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, to Gaza. Hamdallah has not visited the Strip since 2015. "We await the first steps on the ground. We want to see Mr Hamdallah received by Hamas, the door to all the ministries open," Nabil Shaath, a senior adviser to Abbas, suggested.
The PA is rightly wary. Not only have previous agreements foundered in the face of Hamas' intransigence but big questions remain to be resolved about how Gaza will actually be run, border crossings administered and, perhaps most importantly, the fate of Hamas' security forces. There was no hint in its statement that Hamas has any intention of disarming.
Abbas faces other complications, too. His hard-line stance appears to have provoked a strong reaction against his leadership in Gaza. As new polling by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Social Research found this week: "Gazans are moving away from Fatah and the Palestinian leadership in an unprecedented way and without a parallel or similar process among West Bankers. President Abbas might have hoped that the sanctions he imposed on the Gaza Strip would force Gazans to reject Hamas and its policies forcing Hamas to dismantle its "administrative committee" that has served as a de facto government for the Gaza Strip. Despite the limited decline in Hamas' popularity in this poll, it is plainly clear that Gazans are directing their greatest anger at Abbas and Fatah, rather than Hamas." Thus, 80 per cent of Gazans wanted to see Abbas, whose approval rating stands at a mere 20 per cent, resign as president. In a head-to-head fight with Haniyeh in Gaza, Abbas would lose. Fatah's popularity, which stood at 40 per cent nine months ago, has plunged to 28 per cent. Dahlan, meanwhile, has seen his popularity among Gazans double over the same period from nine per cent to to 23 per cent.
Nathan Thrall, a Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group, argued to the New York Times that Hamas may, in fact, have partially outmanoeuvred Abbas. Its declaration that it would make its administrative committee permanent, he suggested, was a clever tactical ruse. "Now, it's a grand concession to dismantle it." Moreover, allowing the PA to take responsibility for delivering public services in Gaza may be a similarly smart move. "From an outside perspective, they have almost no control in Gaza today, so it's better than nothing," said Thrall. "But they look at it as, 'Why should I take on the burden and blame?'"
But perhaps Abbas' most immediate problem will come this week. The president is due to meet Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly this week where he will continue his effort to persuade the US president to formally commit to a two-state solution as part of the US' current peace initiative. Trump, however, is unlikely to be receptive to such requests if Abbas appears to have concluded a reconciliation agreement with a terrorist group which refuses to accept Israel's right to exist. Indeed, as the Americans will be keenly aware, the 2013-14 peace process led by former secretary of state John Kerry collapsed in the aftermath of Hamas and Fatah agreeing to form a national unity government in April 2014.
← Analysis: The link between anti-semitism and anti-Zionism
Stand by your friends, Israeli MK urges at LFI reception →


Caregivers are nursing assistants trained to help seniors with their daily life.
They are required to have training that includes first aid, CPR, health classes, and be tested and registered with the State before gaining a job.
Once trained, some RNA workers add the certification test that is required to work at hospitals or nursing homes in many States.
Home health workers may have either criteria. It is usually up to the assisted living, adult family home or private residence to decide on certification or experience.
You can easily find trained and registered RNAs to hire for part or, full time or 24 hour shifts. Many will work a 3 or 5 day live in arrangements where they are available around the clock. For people who need 24 hour care all week, there are usually 2 or 3 persons who cover the time.
All nursing assistants are required to take ongoing continuing education annually of 10 or more hours. These classes give them additional understanding of specialized medical conditions that include dementia, Alzheimer, diabetes, mental disorders,and the medications the client's need.
All States require background checks to weed out abusive or criminal types. If you hire your own caregiver, you can check with the local police and have a background check done.
Many of the agencies provide specialized ongoing training and keep a log of continuing education classes that each employee has taken. The caregiver keeps a certificate from each class.
Disposition is as important as skills in this job. Expect your assistant to be as cheerful as the situation permits, skilled in the necessary duties and health conditions, plus experienced in emergency procedures.
To find a qualified nursing assistant, there are many listed services available to help you. They range from 25. an hour to 80. an hour, depending on your needs.
Or, if you have a referral from someone who knows one who is trained, you can easily hire one yourself and save money. Most privately hired workers will charge 18. to 25. an hour.
Just ask to see their State Registration form, which shows the RNA or CNA designation. A good reference is always helpful. And ask if they are trained in the medical situation where you or you loved one has the need.
Your new personal health assistant is the next best thing to family and quite often become close friends with their clients.


This UK based business has been supplying baby goods for over 20 years. Known for their affordable price and sharp design.
BabyStyle has been helping new parents adapt to their new life with comfort and ease knowing that all their needs are took care of by this family ran company.
from elegantly designed furniture to pram bottle holders, BabyStyle has it all.


The May 2013 seminar in the book-collecting series organised jointly by the Institute of English Studies (London University) and the Rare Book Society was given by Brian Alderson. Brian is one of the pioneers of children's literature studies in Britain, a prolific writer, editor, reviewer, compiler and translator. He is a leading bibliographer in the field of children's literature and a collector in his own right; his knowledge of children's publishing and book production in Britain is unmatched.
Among his more recent publications are Edward Ardizzone : A Bibliographic Commentary 2003; Be Merry and Wise : Origins of Children's Book Publishing in England, 1650-1850 (with Felix de Marez Oyens) 2006 and (with Andrea Immel), a commentary with facsimiles, of the legendary nursery-rhyme assemblage of 1744 : Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song-Book; voll.II.
The seminar took place on Tuesday 14 May 2013 at Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.
The seminars are aimed at a broad audience including book-collectors, book-dealers, historians of all kinds, librarians, indeed at anyone with an interest in collecting any sort of text from the sixth-former to the retired professor. The atmosphere is informal, as are the presentations. They are held in the University of London's Senate House and run from 6.00pm usually on the second Tuesday of each month. All are very welcome. The seminars are free and open to the public.


The AV32.1 is a complete high-performance sound system that delivers deep, lifelike, full-range sound. It is ideal for use with TVs, computers, portable music players or any device that has analog or digital outputs. The system is comprised of two compact speakers and a powerful subwoofer. The speakers each use a 3-inch high-definition polypropylene driver for accurate midrange reproduction and a 1-inch soft-dome tweeter in our exclusive OptImage™ IV Waveguide for pristine highs and precise acoustic imaging.


text:
Tyrese Jammal Rice (Richmond, Virginia, ) es un jugador de baloncesto estadounidense que pertenece a la plantilla del AEK B. C. de la A1 Ethniki.

Trayectoria
 Boston College (2005-2009)
 Panionios BC (2009-2010)
 Artland Dragons (2010-2011)
 Lietuvos Rytas (2011-2012)
 Bayern de Múnich (2012-2013)
 Maccabi Tel Aviv (2013-2014)
 Khimki BC (2014-2016 )
 FC Barcelona Lassa (2016-2018)
 Shenzhen Leopards (2018)
 Brose Bamberg (2018-2019)
 Panathinaikos BC (2019-2020)
 AEK B. C. (2020)

Final Four 2014
El mayor momento de gloria que ha tenido el jugador virginiano ha sido en la Final Four del año 2014, que ganó su equipo, el Maccabi Tel Aviv. En el partido de semifinal una canasta suya a escasos segundos suposo la remontada del equipo israelí contra el CSKA Moscú, y en el partido de la final contra el Real Madrid, una increíble prórroga, con 14 puntos y 20 de valoración le hacen merecedor del MVP de la Final Four.

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Ficha en sports-reference
 Ficha en ACB.com

Deportistas de Virginia
Baloncestistas de Virginia
Baloncestistas de la Liga ACB
Baloncestistas de los Boston College Eagles
Baloncestistas del Panionios
Baloncestistas del Artland Dragons
Baloncestistas del Lietuvos Rytas
Baloncestistas del Bayern Munich
Baloncestistas del Maccabi Tel Aviv
Baloncestistas del Jimki
Baloncestistas del Fútbol Club Barcelona
Baloncestistas de los Shenzhen Leopards
Baloncestistas del Brose Baskets
Nacidos en Richmond (Virginia)
Baloncestistas del Panathinaikos Atenas
Baloncestistas del AEK Atenas

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


TPI was founded in 1988 as America Duran Skin Care, Massage & Nail School, a private vocational school to provide training in the art of Skin Care. In 1991, the institution expanded its scope of career education to include a Therapeutic Massage Training Program for state licensure by the Florida Board of Massage.
In 1994, America Duran Skin Care, Massage & Nail School received national accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and transfer its membership in 1995, to the Commission on Occupational Education Institutions (COEI), now known as Commission of the Council on Occupational Education (COE).
In 1999 a change in ownership took place and the institution has been renamed The Praxis Institute.
Throughout the past years the focus of our institution has remained constant: to provide career education in employable fields for the community.


text:
Why is the Day Of National Unity celebrated in Tajikistan
June 27 is National Unity Day in Tajikistan to commemorate the finish of the five-year civil war that seethed from 1992 till 1997.
On this day quite a while back President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon signed the General Agreement on Peace and National Consent in Tajikistan bringing an end to the five-year civil war. This is a historic document for Tajikistan which made the circumstances for democratic rule development, free elections, and economic recuperation.
Day of National Unity in Tajikistan is commemorated on June 27 consistently and it is one of the primary holidays celebrated in the country. On this day, in 1997, president Emomali Rakhmon signed a truce to end the Civil War that exploded in 1992. This treaty is viewed as quite possibly the main historical document in the country, in light of the fact that in addition to the fact that it shut the conflict, it likewise permitted Tajikistan to foster more just democratic politics.
National Unity Day – as a holiday, is laid out as per the Decree of the President of Tajikistan and enshrined in the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan of May 22, 1998 "On Holidays" and Article 83 of the Labor Law of the Republic of Tajikistan, which is celebrated every year June 27th.
National Unity Day is one of Tajikistan's principal holidays. Recall that the civil war in Tajikistan is an internal armed conflict between allies of the central government and the United Tajik opposition that followed the decree of independence of the republic because of the destruction of the USSR. This conflict brought residents only extraordinary anguish and loss. Families separated, individuals escaped looking for salvation, abandoning their homes and friends and family.
This war was called fratricidal, in light of the fact that then even awesome friends out of nowhere ended up being adversaries. National Unity Day denotes the finish of the bloody civil war (1992-1997) and the reconciliation of the warring parties. After the signing of the peace treaty, President Emomali Rakhmon of the Republic of Tajikistan laid out a corresponding holiday.
National Unity Day is designed to help the more youthful age to remember what a cost of peace in the republic was accomplished and that it is so essential to save it and forestall unseen struggles from here on out. The holiday is named National Unity Day since it symbolizes the unity of the Tajik public, the cohesion into a single nation. It is a holiday of reconciliation for the whole populace.
History of Day of National Unity
By the center of the 19th century, Russian successes in Central Asia brought the greater part of current Tajikistan under Tsarist control.
In 1924, Tajikistan was consolidated into a recently shaped Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which was administratively important for the Uzbek SSR until the Tajik ASSR acquired full-fledged republic status in 1929 when it procured the domain of Khujand from the Uzbek SSR.
During the Soviet period, and in spite of the endeavors of the USSR to lay out a Soviet collective culture, the Tajiks kept a savage feeling of nationalism and pride in their own set of history and culture.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Supreme Soviet declared Tajikistan's independence from the Soviet Union on September 9th, 1991.
Independence ripped off the sticking plaster that was Soviet rule over ethnic contrasts, leading very quickly to Tajikistan plummeting into civil war.
The war was battled on provincial lines, with rebels from the Garm and Gorno-Badakhshan regions rising up against the newly-formed government of President Rahmon Nabiyev, which was overwhelmed by individuals from the Khujand and Kulyab regions.
In the five years of the contention, an expected 100,000 had died in the fighting, with around 10% of the populace being refugees in the country.
With the two sides have arrived at a military stalemate, an UN-sponsored armistice finally ended the war in 1997.
On June 27th, 1997, the "General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan" and the "Moscow Protocol' were signed, bringing the war to an end.
National Unity Day is one of the principal holidays in Tajikistan and 27 June was declared a public holiday by the decree of the national parliament. The day denotes the finish of the bloody civil war (1992-1997), which went on for five long years, and the reconciliation of the warring parties.
As per the laid out tradition, the primary celebrations occur in any region of the country where President Rahmon plans to be on this day. The opening of new schools and kindergartens, and the commissioning of enterprises, plants, and factories are normally coordinated with the holiday.
In different regions and in Dushanbe, National Unity Day is celebrated with concerts and mass festivities in parks of culture and entertainment. Music sounds all over, inventive teams perform, sports competitions are held, and food fairs work. At night, festive concerts with the participation of renowned performers are organized in the center point of the city or village.
National Unity Day is celebrated not only on the territory of Tajikistan but also everywhere where Tajiks live.
Related Topics:Day Of National UnityDay Of National Unity 2022Day of National Unity 2022 in TajikistanDay of National Unity in TajikistanNational Unity DayNational Unity Day 2022National Unity Day Tajikistan
National Sunglasses Day: Some facts about the effect of UV rays on the eyes
National Flag Day in Romania – History, and Significance of the Day

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Hello everyone, I need a freelancer business development executive who can bid on projects from their profile and give it to me i can provide half ammount of the project to them. Looking for someone who can bid on behalf of me.
Details will be provided on approval of design!
Need a plc programmer for my project.
We are looking to standardize our letter , presentations , etc. so that we have the same Head , Foot , layout , color , fonts, for the cover page and contents . I need samples of jobs completed for any body interested to work on this project.
Find 100 registered business name, marketing director / company director /marketing manager decision maker names from Linkedin and UK Companies House using supplied URL. Also, note whether the company owns more that one domain or is part of a larger company.
We are a Singapore web design agency looking for developers to optimize our website to increase outreach, traffic and ultimately boost conversions.
We are looking to hire a PHP Codeigniter team with at least 6yrs. exp. who can do changes as per suggestions from the SEO team on a monthly basis. He has to make the changes ONLY whatever the SEO team suggests. It will be a 6 months project.
Hiba is an export company working on export all Egyptian products : Agricultural Crops , Building Materials , Marble , and other .
I'm starting a software development startup. Need a good name for this.
Find registered business name, marketing director / company director /marketing manager decision maker names from Linkedin and UK Companies House using supplied URL. Also, note whether the company owns more that one domain or is part of a larger company.
I have an agro company called Maces farms. I want a simple but memorable logo for a farm. More of green background with something like a red fruits somewhere.
Logo for a company. Time: 24h. I have the idea already. I need efficient people.
I need a logo designed. For IT Company the name of the IT Company is KDESK base in Cameroon.
Hi We need a website for a qhse consulting firm that needs some special features. We have described it further in the attached document. The language of the site will be Norwegian . English communication skills are required. We value our time and will exclude time thieves that think we sit online 24/7 to answer just them.
im looking for someone who can make simple mens suits, plain front pants with a 2 button jacket and 4-5 button on the sleeve. I am buying the material along with the lining material.
I would like a well thought out simple, professional and colourful single page A4 menu plan PDF designed. I have attached the full brief.
We need a PR executive to attend an aviation summit this January 21-23, 2019 in Dubai.


How Much Light Do You Actually Get?
Proper sun exposure is integral to the survival of plants. Too little, and your plants become weak, thin, and generally sad-looking. Too much and they spend two-thirds of the day drooping (or worse, they just completely fry)! This isn't really a new concept – so why is it so difficult to figure out which plants belong in which parts of your garden?
How Sunny is Full Sun?
Part of the difficulty is that there are some overlapping (or just downright confusing) terms out there that describe the light requirements of plants. After all, what's the difference between Part Sun and Part Shade? How many hours of light does a Full Sun location actually get? There's no sense looking for plants tolerant of 'dappled light' if you have no idea what that actually means. Below, we've listed some of the terms you might see while researching plant choices, either online or in-store. Note that these are our definitions, and though we're confident in our wording, there's bound to be some out there who disagree.
Direct Light: A plant is exposed to direct light when the sun is shining directly on it.
Indirect/Incidental Light: A plant is exposed to indirect light when the sun isn't shining directly on it but it still receives light; it can be reflected off of nearby surfaces or perhaps the location is open to the sky.
Dappled Light: This one is tricky. Trees such as honey-locusts or birches have very open canopies that let a high degree of light through them even when they're in full leaf. These areas receive a combination of direct and indirect light, allowing for a surprisingly wide variety of plants to be grown nearby. Consequently, areas with dappled light are not dark enough for plants that prefer full shade.
Full Sun: Plants that require at least six hours of direct sun each day fall into this category.
Sun to Part Shade: Plants that prefer at least six hours of sun each day fall into this category. These plants will tolerate 4 – 6 hours of light, but they may lose some of their visual appeal (i.e. less blooms, and bright foliage may turn greenish).
Part Shade: Plants that prefer around four hours of direct sun each day or dappled light all day. These plants will likely struggle if planted in full sun or full shade.
Part to Full Shade: Plants that prefer around four hours of direct sun each day. These plants will tolerate less than four hours, but they may lose some of their visual appeal.
Full Shade: Plants that prefer a maximum of 3 hours of direct sun each day. It is important to clarify: low-light plants are not no-light plants. Unless you're growing mushrooms, your plants will need some amount of light to survive. Basements, garages, or any place where physical barriers completely block the sun are not suitable for growing plants.
Sun to Shade: Plants that have no preference and can tolerate full sun, full shade, or anything in between.
Another part of the difficulty in picking plants suitable to your yard is that the light conditions change from season to season, and even from month to month. You could look out your window in February and assume that the north-west corner of your house only gets a few hours of sun a day. Come July, however, that spot will probably be subject to eight hours of blistering hot afternoon sun. Our latitude means that in the winter, the sun hangs in the south sky, while in the summer it tracks much further north.
It isn't just the sun that changes, either. Nearby trees that are barren early in the spring will create additional shade once they leaf out. It's important to try and picture what your yard will look like during all three seasons when deciding how much light your yard actually receives.
Furthermore, as your garden grows, lighting conditions will change from year to year. A tiny maple sapling may come to turn your entire backyard into a full shade location in fifteen years.
Now, you're going to drive yourself crazy if you sit there trying to predict how your garden will look in fifteen years' time. But it's good to keep some of these thoughts in the back of your mind, to be addressed as time goes by.
A final bit of confusion is that sometimes we mistakenly assume that plants will adapt to any location — perhaps your neighbour has a Lilac tree growing in shade. This is true, to a point — plants will do all sorts of miraculous things to adapt to difficult locations; in the shade they'll produce more chlorophyll to compensate for lower light levels, and will grow taller than usual as they "reach" for sunnier areas.
In such situations, however, it's important to distinguish between locations a plant will survive in and locations it will actually thrive in. The lilac growing in the shade won't flower, and will likely suffer from recurring mildew and disease issues because it is growing poorly. Most of us will find growing a lilac in the shade difficult, and this plant will consume a lot of time and attention.
For this reason, we label our plants on the assumption that you want them to thrive. A Magic Carpet Spirea can probably survive in shady areas, but all of the things we've come to enjoy about it – its bright foliage, dense habit, and early summer flower clusters – will be absent in the shade. For that reason, our signage categorizes all of our Spirea as "Full Sun" plants.
Once you sort out lighting needs, the next step is to make sure you're watering correctly. Check out our post on Watering Pitfalls to learn some quick and no-nonsense watering tips.
What are Mycorrhizae (and why do we care)?


text:
We Are Friars Minor
Our Province
Missions and Evangelization
Evangelization Tools and Resources
About Our Central American Missions
Mission to the Church in the U>S> and Canada
Formation and Studies
Prayer Requests and Resources
Blessed John Duns Scotus Library
Presentations at the Library
Friars Section
Health Care Committee Documents
Franciscan Friars - Order of Friars Minor
Province of the Immaculate Conception
Order of Friars Minor
Since 1855, the Franciscan friars of Immaculate Conception Province have striven to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, following the example of our Seraphic Father, St. Francis. We minister to God's people throughout the eastern seaboard of the US; in Toronto, Canada; and in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in Central America.
Let us pray ....
Franciscan Mission Associates, now in its 61st year of service to the missions of the world, is a spiritually based mission-helping organization with world-wide undertakings. It promotes information about and interest in the missionaries and their people – particularly in the Franciscan Missions of Central America, but also in the inner cities of the United States and Canada. Visit:
franciscanmissionassoc.org
Friar Joshua Critchley, O.F.M. Ordained Deacon
On Saturday, December 18, 2021, at the 5:00 PM parish mass, our brother, Friar Joshua Critchley, O.F.M. was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop James Massa, Ph.D., D.D., at the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua, Manhattan, New York City. Bishop Massa is an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Rector of St. Joseph Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, New York.
Province Leaves Sacred Heart Church, Waltham
With the illness and passing of its pastor, Fr. Dennis Wheatley, O.F.M., the Province had previously negotiated with the Archdiocese of Boston our departure from Sacred Heart Parish. As of December 17, 2021, a temporary administrator has been assigned by the Archdiocese.
Death of Fr. Dennis Wheatley, O.F.M.
On Saturday, December 11, 2021, our brother, Fr. Dennis Wheatley, O.F.M., passed into eternal life at the age of 71. Fr. Dennis was the pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Waltham, Massachusetts, where he had served for 22 years. He died from complications due to cancer and Covid 19.
Death of Fr. Daniel B. Morey, O.F.M.
Fr. Daniel died on Friday, December 3, 2021 at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. He was 79 years old. Fr. Daniel was a resident of St. Patrick Home, Bronx, and was affiliated with Padua Friary, Thompson Street, New York, NY.
RSS Feed More News
Friars Minor of the Order of Saint Francis New York, NY 10012-3110 icprovince.org 212-674-4388


This lightweight milky cream with magnolia essential oil and meadowfoam oil moisturises and softens skin. Its formula melts into your skin, resulting in a soft, silky feel. No parabens. No mineral oil. No dyes.
Skin is left feeling soft and perfectly moisturised.


The CompEx Scheme came about as a direct result of Lord Cullen's 13-month investigation into the Piper Alpha tragedy and led to 106 recommendations that transformed the North Sea oil and gas industry into a global leader in safety in these hazardous environments. The CompEx scheme was launched in 1993 and the phenomenal success of the scheme has been marked with many milestones along the way, with Aberdeen College subsidiary ASET the first commercial centre in 1994, ten years later it was celebrating the 10,000 candidate certificated for Gas & Vapour and in 2010 that number had risen to 25,000. Electronic online examinations were introduced in 2013 and JT Limited took over ownership of the scheme from EEMUA a year later in 2014.
The magic 50,000 candidates certificated target was passed in 2015 and now in 2018, that figure has passed 75,000 candidate certificates issued to increase safety in explosive atmospheres and CompEx opened its 60th worldwide centre.
The CompEx Scheme is the recognised global scheme for the protection of oil, gas and chemical workers in both offshore and onshore activities. The scheme assesses the competency of employees and contract staff who are working in environments with the potential risk of explosive atmospheres. It was developed by the Engineering Equipment and Materials Users' Association (EEMUA), industry experts and JT Limited. JT Limited the CompEx Certification Body, is internationally accredited by UKAS to ISO/IEC 17024 : 2012 Conformity Assessment – 'General Requirements for bodies operating Certification of Persons'.
CompEx is the only Certification Body that offers UKAS accredited certification for personnel who work in explosive atmospheres. This certification validates the core competency of practitioners working in explosive atmospheres. It also offers complete reassurance to employers managing the safety of these potentially hazardous workplaces and can provide the added benefit by assisting employers reduce their insurance costs.
CompEx is currently certificating in excess of 9,000 electro-technical, mechanical crafts persons and engineers a year. This has had a direct impact on improved safety in the workplace.
The CompEx modules are recognised by industry and the UK Regulator (HSE) as a sound methodology for proving core competence of the workforce engaged in Hazardous area work. This work can include the installation, commissioning and inspection of Electrical, Instrumentation and Mechanical equipment which is often designed specifically for use in industries such as off-shore, petro-chemical, pharmaceutical and Dust environments such as sugar, flour and chip board.


The DJ Delights reputation is built on delivering superior service at every event. What does this mean?
It means we will come early and prepared with the instructions you set out for us ahead of time. It means we will be calm and help you stay calm. It means we will be easy to work with and professional in our dealings with you and your guests. It means we will MC with elegance, energy, and fun so the party keeps moving without drawing attention to us.
There are a lot of good DJs in town. None of them will put more into making your event everything you dreamed of … than DJ Delights.
Some companies only offer cookie-cutter packages. DJ Delights believes you deserve more. Your event is unique. Your style, budget, and personality demand a more customized approach. That's why our packages are only a starting point.
The sky is the limit when it comes to your event. Our DJ entertainment services can be blended with our vast lighting options and photo booth to create just the right customized approach for your budget.
This Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia DJ company specializes in weddings, corporate events, Sweet 16s, Mitzvahs, and private parties: any event that needs fun!
Popular wedding dates book early. Check your date out today.


text:
Loft Living
Dan Lutzick spent his early years in rural New Hampshire and went to high school in urban Southern California. After graduating from the University of California-Irvine with a Fine Arts degree, he moved to Winslow in 1994 to work on the La Posada Hotel rehabilitation project.
Dan's first studio in Winslow was a former post office that he renovated and sold in 2002, the same year he bought Snowdrift. While working on hotel and studio renovations, he began using industrial construction materials to create his art work. He has spent over two decades developing a collection of sculptures using plywood, roofing tar, corrugated tin, wall patch, bailing wire, and rebar. Dan is a process artist in that he gives equal weight to concept, the nature of materials, and methods of working those materials to create sculpture.
Dan also emphasizes the unique space that his sculptures inhabit, as well as their relationships to one another. He is continually adding to and rearranging communities of sculpture in the main gallery, where new works are often formed from smaller pieces interacting with one another and being absorbed into larger pieces. Snowdrift ultimately presents a community of objects that tell a story on a grand scale.
First Friday at Snowdrift in May 2019
First Friday at Snowdrift in April 2019
Lutzick in Circle of Truth Exhibition
2018 Mid-Summer's Day Open House
New Snowdrift Promotional Video
About Snowdrift
Snowdrift Art Space is a gallery/studio/loft space on Historic Route 66 in downtown Winslow, Arizona, that features the work of sculptor Dan Lutzick. Make an appointment for a guided tour here.
Powered by WordPress | © 2013 Snowdrift Art Space


Box Type Heaters - BORN Inc.
These heaters can have vertical tube coils, horizontal tube coils or Arbor coils depending on your specific requirements and most suitable design solution to meet them.
In case of vertical tube double fired heaters, vertical radiant tubes are arranged in a single row in each combustion cell (there are often two cells) and are fired from both sides of the row. Such an arrangement yields a highly uniform distribution of heat-transfer rates about the tube circumference.
Another variation of these heaters uses multilevel side-wall firing, which gives maximum control of the heat-flux profile along the length of the tubes. Multi-level side-wall firing units are often employed in fired-reactor services and in critical reactor-feed heating services. In addition to the twin-cell furnaces, single cell models are available for smaller duties. As a group, these represent the most expensive fired heater configuration. The typical duty range for each cell runs from about 20 to 125 million Btu/h.
In case of horizontal tube cabin heaters, the radiant tube coils are arranged horizontally so as to line the sidewalls of the combustion chamber and the sloping roof. The convection section tube coil is positioned as a horizontal bank of tubes above the combustion chamber. Normally the tubes are fired vertically from the floor, but they can also be horizontally fired by sidewall-mounted burners located below the tube coil. This economical, high-efficiency design currently represents the majority of new, horizontal tube, fired heater installations. Duties run from about 10 to 100 million Btu/h.
Heater with Arbor tube coil is a specialty design in which the radiant heating surface is provided by U-tubes connecting the inlet and outlet terminal manifolds. This type is especially suited for heating large flows of gas under conditions of low temperature drop. Typical applications are found in petroleum refining, where this design is often employed in the catalytic-reformer charge heater and in various reheat services. Firing modes are usually vertical from the floor, or horizontal between the riser portions of the U-tubes.


To register your club on this site email your request through to clubtrials@gmail.com.
- full name of club.
- suggested abbreviation for club name.
- contact name and email address of your chosen time trial site administrator.
- a link to your club website if one exists.
- an image of your club logo if one exists.
Your club will then be created and login details provided.


text:
Q: mysqldump not working/running via cron job I have a crontask which runs at 1am every morning and dumps all databases.
0 1 * * * /var/backups/dumpit.sh 2>&1>> /var/backups/dumpit.log

The dumpit.sh source:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/mysqldump -u user -ppass --all-databases | gzip > /var/backups/mysql_`date +%u`.sql.gz

The script runs okay when executed manually but fails when run via the cron. Nothing is added to the dumpit.log file. Do I need to turn on logging in my .myc.nf file? Is there anything else I could try?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


With their voracious feeding habits and spectacular aerial antics, snook may be saltwater fly fishing's most exciting gamefish. These elegant creatures can be elusive, but once they're hooked, they strike hard, run far, and jump high. Fly fishing for snook can be one of the most rewarding ways to spend time on the water.


text:
Last Alteration: Saturday 19 January 2019
» Time-Flight
» Bull's Bridge (railway bridge)
» Mercia House
» White Street
» Southall Gas Works
» The Straight
» Shepperton Studios
Hounslow, Middlesex
Heathrow became a passenger airport in 1946, utilising old runways from its private use; the Queen ceremonially laid the first slab for the new runways in 1953. Terminals 2, 3, 1 and 4 were opened in 1955, 1956, 1968 and 1986 respectively.
These days is it considered to be one of the world's busiest airports, with Terminal 5 due to open in 2008, and a new passenger terminal, Terminal East to replace the older Terminals 1 and 2 by 2020.
Concorde was retired from service in 2003 due to the costs of running the planes becoming financially unviable; the last flight arrived in Heathrow on 24th October.
Underground (Piccadilly)/Rail: Heathrow (Terminals 1,2,3) - Exit the stations into the airport. +
Bus: Heathrow Airport Bus Map - Heathrow Airport Central bus station - enter the airport from there. +
Road: M4 - Exit the M4 at junction 4, and then head south to the airport. +
Google Travel Route to Heathrow Airport:
Short-stay parking at the airport (£2.30 for half-hour!)
Bull's Bridge (railway bridge) (Day of the Daleks): 3.21 miles.
Mercia House (Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD): 3.57 miles.
White Street (The Ambassadors of Death, Invasion of the Dinosaurs): 3.70 miles.
Southall Gas Works (The Ambassadors of Death, Invasion of the Dinosaurs): 3.70 miles.
The Straight (Invasion of the Dinosaurs): 3.79 miles.
Shepperton Studios (Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD): 4.30 miles.
Time-Flight [6-7, 11 Jan 1982]


Each package contains the three patterns shown. So if you buy one package you will receive three different designs.
"I recently purchased a gown from one of your competitors (at twice the cost) and a gown from you. It was my first time to buy hospital gowns and I assumed their gowns must be better, they were twice the price.
Your competitors gown arrived and one of the snaps does not work! Now I have to take the time to return the merchandise (and I don't think they will reimburse the postage).
I am thrilled with your product. I also ordered 3 bibs (Embroidery Adult Bibs). They are beautiful! I am a little hesitant to tell the nursing home staff to use them for fear they will disappear.
Thank you for providing these necessary items at a reasonable price. You are really appreciated."


Unlike my journey towards impact investing, there was a precise moment when deforestation shifted from a puzzling bewilderment (why are we destroying our most precious ecosystems to produce commodities like timber and palm oil?) to an urgent call to action. And it comes down to one fact, which is worth repeating here - that the slash and burn of rain forests and peatlands in Indonesia have, on their worst days, released more carbon into the atmosphere than the entire United States economy.
With that fact in hand, deforestation suddenly began to look a lot like the behemoth issues that Silicon Valley takes on – large, seemingly insurmountable, requiring the collaboration and reorganization of government, corporate and citizen players, and, most importantly, ripe for disruption. Such complex issues are intimidating by their nature and can produce paralysis – in the ecosystem of Silicon Valley, the race towards a billion-dollar valuation or personal wealth and reputation is incentive enough to cultivate innovation. But in the ecosystem of the Indonesian rain forest, where the measures of success are complex, the responsibility collective, and the rewards more planetary than personal – where to even begin.
Thankfully, we have trailblazers like Kinari Webb and the team at Health In Harmony, who show us there is a form of disruption – harmonious disruption? – that relies less on technological invention and more on responsive action, that places more value on the empowering model of radical listening than the anonymity of big data, and that builds coalitions rather than undercuts competition.
Clayton Christensen, the father of the disruptive innovation theory, writes that disruptive innovations "offer a different package of attributes valued only in emerging markets remote from the mainstream" – they are designed for a new set of customers. In this sense, Health In Harmony's model of radical listening, in which community members for the first time are empowered to identify the root causes and solutions of environmental destruction on their home lands, is truly disruptive.
There's another important quality to disruption that's embodied by Health In Harmony, and that's optimism. Disruption is forward looking, a rejection of the status quo, a vision for a more efficient, holistic, joyful future. There's a tendency – that I have, and I think it's shared – to feel paralyzed by collective guilt for the environmental destruction we've caused. Kinari is one of those rare individuals who can face an issue like deforestation, undeterred by the magnitude or the weight of the problem, and be in action on a solution.
I'm still new to venture capital, but I've already met with close to one hundred founders and hope I'm becoming adept at sharing their vision, distilling their business plans, and using my best judgment to measure their likelihood for success. In venture capital we look for disruptive ideas - those that begin on the fringes, solve unmet needs, and reach underserved populations, and we look at how to scale them. There is a world of vulnerable habitats at risk, and local communities who, when empowered, are ready to protect them.
In Health In Harmony, we have a model of radical listening and health-conservation proven through the successes of the ASRI pilot program in Borneo. Let's invest in scaling Health In Harmony's disruptive model with the same enthusiasm and bold commitments that gives venture capital its name – the stakes couldn't be higher.
Jake is a founding partner of Softmatter, an early-stage venture fund investing in ideas to reduce the environmental impact of modern consumption. Jake seeks out investments in fashion, food, and consumer goods with a focus on advanced materials, supply chain innovation, and values-based brands.


text:
The Local Voice
"Rediscover the Battle of Shiloh" by Newt Rayburn
Newt Rayburn
ShareTweetSubscribe to Email
Subscribe now and have TLV's Weekly Dispatch delivered to your inbox.
Subscribe to The Local Voice Weekly Dispatch
Submit to TLV
Shiloh is 114 miles from Oxford, Mississippi, about an hour and a half's drive.
photographs and article by Newt Rayburn
from the The Local Voice #153: http://www.thelocalvoice.net/LocalVoice-PDFs/TLV-153-web.pdf
The first shots of the Battle of Shiloh were fired here at dawn on April 6, 1862. Photograph by Newt Rayburn © April 9, 2011
Oxford, Miss. (TLV) – One hundred and sixty years ago one of the most ferocious battles in the history of the United States occurred just over the Mississippi–Tennessee border, near a little church known as Shiloh.
Approximately 45,000 Confederate soldiers led by General Albert Sidney Johnston marched from Corinth, Mississippi, to the Tennessee River and surprised Union General Ulysses S. Grant's 49,000 troops at Pittsburg Landing.
Shiloh Church. Photograph by Newt Rayburn © April 9, 2011
Johnston's Army of Mississippi nearly defeated Grant's Army of The Tennessee on Sunday, April 6, 1862 with a surprise attack at dawn.
The Confederates overran Union encampments commanded by Brigadier Generals Sherman, Wallace, Prentiss, and Major General Lew Wallace pushing them back towards the Tennessee River in a matter of hours.
Some of the Union army under the command of Wallace and Prentiss were surrounded in an area called "The Hornet's Nest" but they held the Confederates at bay for several hours.
Fifty cannons and waves of musketry later, Prentiss and approximately 2,400 federal troops eventually surrendered, but Union General W.H.L. Wallace suffered a mortal wound and died on the battlefield.
Confederates suffered nearly 8,500 casualties that day, including General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was mortally wounded near "The Peach Orchard."
Confederate President Jefferson Davis considered Johnston his most effective general, even more so than Robert E. Lee. The South had lost its greatest commander.
The Hornet's Nest. Photograph by Newt Rayburn © April 9, 2011
The Peach Orchard. Photograph by Newt Rayburn © April 9, 2011
General P.G.T. Beauregard took command of the Army of Mississippi after Johnston passed at 2:30 pm, but he was unable to push the Union army away from the Tennessee River before the sun set on April 6.
In the darkness, both armies hunkered down in their positions as a thunderstorm passed through the area. The night was filled with rain, cries of the wounded between the armies, and the systematic shelling of Confederate positions by Union gunboats on the river.
Everyone was terrified that night.
A famous Civil War anecdote occurred this evening when Sherman met Grant under a tree.
U.S. Grant was smoking a cigar and contemplating the situation.
Sherman said, "Well, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?"
Grant puffs his cigar and looked up. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."
Beauregard prematurely thought he would defeat Grant the next morning and even dismissed reports by Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest that Grant's army was being reinforced.
In fact, Grant's army grew that night by over 15,000 fresh troops supplied by General Don Carlos Buell who had marched his troops from Nashville.
At dawn on April 7, 1862, Grant and Buell launched a counter offensive against Beauregard's troops and fought the Confederates back throughout the day.
General Sherman described some of the fighting that day as "the severest musketry fire I ever heard."
The battle of 100,000 soldiers fighting in an area smaller than Oxford was intense. Many of the wounded and dying soldiers gathered around a small pond which ran thick with blood. The surviving Confederates started their retreat back to Corinth and the Union army did not pursue.
Fallen Timbers Battlefield. Photograph by Newt Rayburn © April 9, 2011
On April 8, 1862 Sherman's troops marched to an area southwest of Shiloh.
They came across a Confederate Hospital that was protected by 200 yards of cut timber, and 300 riders of Nathan Bedford Forrest's Cavalry.
Forrest ordered a charge against Sherman's men and in the melee, Confederate troopers overran Union troops, nearly capturing Sherman.
Forrest charged right into the Union soldiers without regard and unloaded his guns and slashed with his sabre.
Sherman's men yelled out, "Kill him and his horse!"
As legend has it, Forrest grabbed a Union soldier and used the man as a shield to cover his back during his dash to escape.
Forrest suffered a serious wound to the hip, but later recovered, and the Battle of Fallen Timbers propelled him to legend among Confederate troops.
Colonel Forrest was quickly promoted.
Pittsburg Landing. Photograph by Newt Rayburn © April 9, 2011
After the war, Union General William T. Sherman remarked, "I am sure that had he (Forrest) not emptied his pistols as he passed through the skirmish line, my career would have ended right there."
Forrest's charge paid off. Sherman and his troops fled back to Pittsburg Landing, and the Confederates escaped to Corinth.
The Battle of Shiloh is one the bloodiest in American history. Union casualties numbered over 13,000 and the Confederates suffered nearly 11,000. Citizens in the North and South were shocked at the carnage and any notion of a short war was dismissed.
Ole Miss' Dead House. Photograph by Newt Rayburn © 2011
Many of Shiloh's casualties were moved by train from Corinth to Oxford, Mississippi, and some buildings at the University of Mississippi were used as hospitals and morgues.
Farley Hall was once the location of the "Dead House" and was used as a mortuary for dead soldiers. Many of those soldiers are buried in the Confederate Cemetery right behind Tad Smith Coliseum on the Ole Miss campus.
Today we can only imagine the horror that must have gripped Oxford as trains of casualties were shipped into town following the Battle of Shiloh. In the months afterwards, towns around Northeast Mississippi fell to Union forces.
Oxford was inevitably in General Grant's sights.
But that is a story for another day…
See more of Newt Rayburn's photographs from Shiloh National Military Park here.
Read more of The Local Voice's coverage of the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh here:
"Rediscover the Battle of Shiloh"
by Newt Rayburn
Including exclusive photographs from important areas of the battlefield.
"Why I Reenact" by Brian Walker
Including exclusive photographs of the Sesquicentennial Reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh.
"Shiloh's Grand Illumination, April 7, 2012"
Including exclusive photographs of the 23,746 luminarias placed at the site of the Battle of Shiloh, 150 years later.
Shiloh's Grand Illumination, April 7, 2012 Photographs by Newt Rayburn
"Why I Reenact" by Brian Walker
In "Civil War"
Shiloh's Grand Illumination, April 7, 2012 Photographs by Newt Rayburn
Jacob Thompson: One of Oxford, Mississippi's, and the South's Most Wanted Confederates
Categories: Civil War
Tags: 1862, Albert Sidney Johnston, april 6, Army of Mississippi, Army of the Tennessee, Battle of Fallen Timbers, Battle of Shiloh, Cavalry, Civil War, corinth, Dead House, Don Carlos Buell, Jefferson Davis, Lew Wallace, Mississippi, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Newt Rayburn, Ole Miss, Oxford, P.G.T. Beauregard, Pittsburg Landing, Prentiss, Robert E. Lee, Sesquicentennial, Sherman, Shiloh, Tad Smith Coliseum, Tennessee River, The Hornet's Nest, The Peach Orchard, U.S. Grant, Ulysses Grant, University of Mississippi, wallace, William T. Sherman


text:
HomeNews and EventsNews2013-12-09
Solar cell degradation observed directly for the first time
X-ray examination shows structural changes in polymeric solar cells
News from Physics Department - 2013-12-09
Researchers of TUM's Physik-Department have utilized DESY's X-ray light source PETRA III and have, for the first time, watched organic solar cells degrade in real time. This work could open new approaches to increasing the stability of this highly promising type of solar cell. The team headed by Prof. Peter Müller-Buschbaum from the Technische Universität München (Technical University of Munich) present their observations in this week's issue of the scientific journal Advanced Materials (Nr. 46, 10 December).
Schematic representation of the internal structure of the active layer of the polymer solar cell: The orange areas represent the active domains, where light is absorbed and charge carriers are released. Illustration: TUM
Schematic representation of the experimental setup: The solar cell sample (centre) was illuminated by a solar simulator (bottom), the electrical charakteristics were recorded throughout the experiment. The X-ray beam (red) creates a characteristic diffraction pattern in the detector (right) from which the inner structure of the active layer can be deduced. Illustration: TUM
The polymer solar cell sample had an edge length of 10 millimetres. Photo: TUM
Organic solar cells, especially those based on polymers are inexpensive to produce on a large scale. Thanks to their physical flexibility, they can open up new applications of photovoltaics not possible today. Moreover, they can convert light into electricity at an efficiency of more than ten per cent and could contribute significantly to a large-scale power supply based on renewable sources. However, the efficiency of organic cells still rapidly declines and they have a shorter service life than conventional silicon cells.
At the P03 measuring station of DESY's light source PETRA III, scientists have made the first live observations of the degradation of organic solar cells in operation. To do this, they lit a sample polymer solar cell using a solar simulator, which emits light that matches the spectrum and intensity of sunlight and recorded the electrical characteristics of the cell over time. At intervals ranging from several minutes to as much as one hour, the researchers also looked inside the solar cell using the sharply focused X-ray beam from PETRA III. In this way they were able to watch how the interior structure of the active layer of the solar cell changed in the course of seven hours, while the efficiency of the cell decreased by around 25 per cent.
Electricity is generated in the active layer at what is known as active domains in these solar cells. Here, light is absorbed and charge carriers are released. The diameter of these active domains increased by 17 per cent during the study, from about 70 to more than 80 nanometres (millionths of a millimeter). At the same time, the mean distance between them increased by 19 per cent from 310 nanometres to around 370 nanometres, as the X-ray measurements showed.
"This suggests that during operation small sites disappear permanently in favour of larger ones," explains first author Christoph Schaffer, who is a PhD student in Müller-Buschbaum's group. "Although the domains grow, they also recede from each other, this means that their total active area shrinks. This can precisely explain the observed decline in efficiency."
"The examination explained the mechanism of degradation for the first time. It's a first step," says co-author Dr. Stephan Roth, the DESY scientist with responsibility for measuring station P03. "The next step involves attempting to reduce or control this growth in a targeted manner, for example, through the addition of appropriate substances. Polymer solar cells could conceivably be produced with an internal structure in which the active sites grow to their optimal size during the first hours of operation," adds Müller-Buschbaum. "The consequence of such measures could be that industrially produced cells finally cross the economically crucial efficiency threshold also for long-term operation," emphasises Roth.
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY is the leading German accelerator centre and one of the leading in the world. DESY is a member of the Helmholtz Association and receives its funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (90 percent) and the German federal states of Hamburg and Brandenburg (10 percent). At its locations in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin, DESY develops, builds and operates large particle accelerators, and uses them to investigate the structure of matter. DESY's combination of photon science and particle physics is unique in Europe.
Text and Editing
Thomas Zoufal, DESY Dr. Johannes Wiedersich
A Direct Evidence of Morphological Degradation on a Nanometer Scale in Polymer Solar Cells
Christoph J. Schaffer, Claudia M. Palumbiny, Martin A. Niedermeier, Christian Jendrzejewski, Gonzalo Santoro, Stephan V. Roth, Peter Müller-Buschbaum
Advanced Materials, Vol. 25, Nr. 46, S. 6760-6764, 10. Dezember 2013; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201302854
Prof. Peter Müller-Buschbaum
Technische Universität München Physik-Department Lehrstuhl für funktionelle Materialien James-Franck-Str. 1 85748 Garching Tel: +49 89 289-12451 muellerb@ph.tum.de http://www.functmat.ph.tum.de/index.php?id=5
Dr. Stephan Roth
DESY Tel.: +49 40 8998-2934 stephan.roth@desy.de
Research group Prof. Peter Müller-Buschbaum
P03 The Micro- and Nanofocus X-ray Scattering Beamline at PETRA III
Kontakt Public Relations
Dr. Johannes Wiedersich
jowi@tum.de


text:
Sbracciantizzazione was a policy pursued by fascism, specifically in Italy, during the Battle for Grain.

It was aimed at reducing the number of workers per day in favor of sharecropping, tenants, and settlers to develop small and medium properties of agricultural land, as well as the elimination of rural wage work to encourage cooperative societies, agricultural credit, and land reclamation.

The policy of Sbracciantizzazione came about during the Battle for Grain and greatly contributed to an increase in social land ownership with the policy of giving land to peasants and veterans of World War I. In the countryside of northern Italy, land reclamation intensified the disintegration of socialist co-operatives.

Amongst the concrete results achieved by this policy, there was a drastic reduction from 44% to 28% in the share of landless rural workers, and with technological modernization, the increase in the index of production rose.

See also
 Agricultural policy of Fascist Italy

References

History of agriculture


Our hydroponic farm houses over 70,000 heads of lettuce plus a variety of herbs. We work with many local restaurants and hotels to provide them with fresh, locally and sustainably grown lettuce and herbs. You may have enjoyed some of our produce at your own hotel! Visit the Blue Harbor Tropical Arboretum to learn how hydroponic farming is leading the way in water conservation and sustainable farming practices. We believe that hydroponic farming is the future for safer, fresher, longer-lasting produce in your kitchen.


text:
The time has come to abandon the just-in-time model
Next week on the Transmission podcast and FreightWavesTV show, I'll be speaking with Dionis Teshler, the CTO and co-founder of GuardKnox. There are two things we recommend doing in preparation for that discussion. First, finish reading this email, in which we will take a look at the company blog post Teshler recently wrote about a dramatic rethinking of the automotive supply chain in light of the worldwide semiconductor chip shortage. Second, go subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app or on the FreightWaves site here.
With that out of the way — and thanks for subscribing, by the way — let's dig into Teshler's argument.
Teshler: More flexibility required in the automotive supply chain
There are two big and related ideas in Teshler's post. First, the auto industry needs a new way to arrange its supply chain. Second, this new setup will mean that the time has come "to abandon the 'just-in-time' model, which clearly is no longer sufficient," he wrote.
Let's start with the second point as that leads into the first. When everything is running smooth like butter, a just-in-time system works wonderfully. The factory is ready to use up a box of parts just after that box of parts has been delivered and production can continue without a hiccup. But when there's, say, a pandemic, this system reveals its drawbacks, and now an auto plant without semiconductors has to pause production because it can't complete the task at hand.
Some automakers are stopping production, others have decided to build their vehicles without the needed components, parking them on lots until more components with chips arrive from suppliers and then running these vehicles through the plant again. Both of these solutions are a hassle and neither is a good long-term solution.
The long-term solution is to not build the supply chain in such a linear way, Teshler believes. Instead, it's worth restructuring the industry to be more flexible and less reliant on what Teshler calls kings. As the automakers are deciding who they will purchase a particular widget from, they are the kings. Once a supplier has been selected, it then becomes the new king. Today, the relationships and processes are interlocked in such a way that it's difficult to adjust the chain when problems arise, like a chip shortage.
If the system were more flexible, if a widget from Supplier A could just as easily be purchased from Supplier B — or C or D — then there would be more players and, Teshler believes, fewer problems. It's not just that there would be more suppliers, but also the components themselves would be more interoperable. Teshler doesn't suggest that a system like this could have avoided the chip issue, but it's one way to at least mitigate some of the damage.
You can read Teshler's post on the GuardKnox website and stay tuned for our discussion, which will arrive in your just-subscribed podcast feed Tuesday.
Electrify America spends another $200 million on EV charging infrastructure
In the EV space, one of the big news items this week was another investment from Electrify America (EA) in electric vehicle charging stations. EA, the independent company Volkswagen was forced to create in the wake of its diesel emissions scandal, said this week it would spend $200 million on charging infrastructure and education in California.
The $200 million is just a quarter of the $800 million that EA will spend in California over a decade. The first $400 million has already been spent or at least allocated, and $25 million of the new tranche will be used to build chargers in Long Beach and Wilmington for electric transit buses and medium- and heavy-duty trucks. A portion of the new $200 million will be used for education about zero-emission vehicle education and awareness efforts, and it will be spent through the first half of 2024.
Newer FreightWaves Haul of Fame: Hill Brothers shows power of family
Older Politicians, CEOs spar over supply chain impact of sharing intellectual property


Research has a way of begetting more research. As soon as we conduct a study that illuminates how to address a certain moment in the purchase cycle, another customer comes along wondering how to handle a different selling scenario.
Once our research revealed the best message for when you're the outsider trying to defeat the status quo ("Why Change?"), we started hearing from folks wondering what to do when they are the status quo ("Why Stay?"). The big discovery here was that the disruptive message you need to dislodge an incumbent vendor is essentially the opposite of the message you need when you're trying to retain existing customers.
These studies covered a lot of terrain in the customer lifecycle—two huge moments in the areas of customer acquisition and customer expansion. But as we soon discovered, there were still gaps in the research—other key moments and questions whose buyer psychology profiles needed to be better understood.
One of those questions was this: How do you sell more to an existing customer? How do you address what is traditionally known as an upsell conversation, when you might need to convince customers to migrate to higher-value solutions, whether in the interest of a significant upsell opportunity or because of a material change to a base product?
Nearly 60 percent of respondents are only somewhat satisfied or worse when it comes to how well they convert customers to new solutions—both in terms of how fast they convert them and how many are converting.
That's a problem. Because the survey also found that 86 percent of respondents say this situation is "important" or "very important" to their revenue success and their ability to retain customers.
If you aren't providing your customers with the most exceptional experiences, you become vulnerable to disruption from competitors who will claim they can. They could even disrupt you out of the equation with promises of superior customer experiences that they can deliver. The issue isn't so much that you don't have those capabilities—it's that you haven't seized the opportunity to provide them.
That's what's at stake. Besides these threats, another reason this moment calls for research is that, on its face, it appears to require something of a hybrid between the "Why Change?" and "Why Stay?" stories. In any case, a moment this important shouldn't demands more than guesswork or hunches about what might work best. That's why we put it to the test in brand new research, covered below.
For this research we collaborated with Dr. Nick Lee, a Professor at Warwick Business School who has spent nearly 20 years drawing from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy, to develop insights into salespeople and selling.
Different enough? It's hard to be seen as different enough to require action. How do you create a message that's not what the customer expects—that's unusual enough to generate interest?
Important to success? A big part of selling is creating a buying vision in the minds of your customers. How do you craft a message that gets them to see your solutions as vitally important to a vision where they are successful?
Personally convincing? How do you craft a message that not only shows the value of their business, but also convinces them to become personally invested in propelling that business forward?
Willingness to change? With so many priorities in play, buyers need to be willing to take this on and embrace change. How do you craft a message facilitates that?
Intention to purchase? Ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether they purchase or not. How do you craft a message that increases the likelihood of your customer actually buying?
The best message for the "Why Evolve?" moment is one that's most effective at helping salespeople excel in these areas. Here's how we set up the study to determine what that message looks like.
The study, conducted online, included 426 participants whom we put into a business-to-business decision-making simulation.
At the outset, participants were randomly assigned to a range of different test conditions. All were told to imagine they were decision-makers in a conversation with a sales rep from their long-term software vendor. The rep is trying to convince them to upgrade from a legacy on-premise version of their business intelligence software to their new cloud-based business analytics solutions.
Product as the Hero – This was based on the type of message many companies use to announce new solutions. It's product-oriented and focused on highlighting the new and improved features and benefits.
Relationship Reinforcement and Emotion – This message uses emotional language to emphasize the idea that the company and vendor are partners. It's open about having a frank conversation about the challenges and opportunities in a long-term partnership.
"Why Change?" – This message has already been proven in our past research to be the message for converting new prospects into customers. It's disruptive, edgy, and we wanted to test it out in this scenario.
"Why Stay?" – Our previous research confirmed this message is best for convincing existing customers to renew. We wanted to see how it would hold up in the middle of an existing customer contract, with an upsell in play.
Social Influence – The premise of this message is that peer pressure is a powerful motivator. This condition shows the buyer that many of their peers are making strides and they can't afford to get left behind.
After experiencing their respective messages, participants answered a series of questions designed to assess how well the messages performed relative to the challenges highlighted above.
The most effective message across the key areas assessed was the relationship reinforcement and emotion condition, which consistently outperformed the others.
The winning condition is something of a hybrid message, borrowing elements from the disruptive "Why Change?" approach and from the more protectionist "Why Stay?" one. An important implication is that this hybrid message—rather than a message that strictly challenges their situation—is optimal for performing well in an upsell or cross-sell scenario.
And that makes sense. This message isn't designed for driving big, disruptive changes or getting a customer to renew. It's about getting a customer to evolve their vision and their buying habits. This message, summarized in the visual below, ensures customers don't fall back on using your old guard solutions instead of your newest and highest-value innovations.
Don't leave this message to chance—not when the upside of handling the "Why Evolve?" moment well is so key to your success. By applying this research to your upsell and cross-sell conversations, you'll stand the best chance of being the vendor who provides the top-notch customer experiences your buyers need to perform.


text:
Q: how can i output IRC server details via php on my website? i want to tell people details of how many users are in my server.. and possibly a specific channel, if that is possible. my website's in PHP.
litterally a network "statistics" sctipt for my IRC network. doesn't have to be real time, but it should gather the data when the page is loaded such as php normally does.

A: http://www.magirc.org/ is a front end for anope "StatServ" which is a channel statistics IRC service. basically, it takes the data collected from StatServ on your IRC network and makes graphs and shows information. it supports MySQL and anope.


Many people today are discussing how they're meeting each other and feeling as if they knew each other for a long time or in some distant past. My own sense of that is that, as we rise in dimensionality, the law of attraction is bringing members of our soul group together.
She tells us that soul groups come together especially at times of great change. This age is undoubtedly one of those.
"The higher the ego climbs on the ladder of consciousness, the nearer it draws to other kindred souls. I have already told you that there may be a thousand, a hundred, or merely twenty souls all fed by one spirit. Their consciousness of comrade-souls increases on the higher levels of existence.
"The call of reunification is beginning for many of you, whereby your refined Soul Song is reaching various members of your God Self. As you refine your vibrational patterns and your Energetic Signature reaches a certain level of harmony, your Soul Song will begin to reverberate out into and through the fourth, into the fifth and for some of you, possibly even into the sixth dimensions, and very gradually into the auric fields of some of the Soul Fragments of your Higher Self.
"Slowly, as these blessed facets of your Self become aware of you, they will begin the process of moving into alignment with you. Those whose resonance is lower than yours will fall into line below you, and those who are on the Path ahead of you will slowly move into the column of Light above you.
"The spirit must gather a harvest of experience in every form. Gradually these intelligences evolve and merge. The experience necessary to the spirit is completed when all the souls necessary to the design have reached this Fifth plane. Once they become sensible of their oneness and their individuality they may go forward to the Sixth plane.
Diane of Sirius depicts our future of increasing balance and group co-operation: "Your future lies in a balanced approach to whatever you do, until there seems to be no difference from one person to another. Working together becomes easy and quite natural, and for all that you retain your own personality. Group consciousness will also develop as a result, and it is commonplace in the higher dimensions.
"These Soul Groups are extensive, yet concentrated in their classes and workshops. They realize more than we can possibly do the Divinity inherent in every particle of the Cosmos. They are able to study Divine Laws beyond our understanding. They commune together with and in the Mind of the Higher Beings whose Soul Group they constitute. They work for progress in Divine Imagination and they work as Divine Inspirational Groups. They inspire lower groups with their findings, for they still contain the lower groups within their Centres as cell-points in a vast, intricate and beautiful organism.
Thus we can see that separativeness increases as density increases and cohesiveness increases as density declines. As we evolve, our tendency towards unity grows and we seek out and live among soul groups.
In the afterlife these groups may tackle a common problem. In physical life, they may come together to orchestrate events at times of great social change such as we are in now.
The higher our dimensionality, the more the song of the soul group calls out to us. It surely rings true for us that individuality is most pronounced where separation prevails and group consciousness is most pronounced where unity prevails.
Our ultimate fate is to return to the one unity that our identity as fragments of God points toward. Ultimately we come back into absolute unity. The formation of the soul group, I think, is one step along that path.
(2) SaLuSa, Sept. 18, 2009.
(5) Frances Banks, TOL, 139.
(6) SaLuSa, Aug. 14, 2009.
(7) SaLuSa, April 9, 2010.
(8) SaLuSa, March 15, 2010.
(9) SaLuSa, Feb. 8, 2010.
(10) Archangel Michael, "A Clarion Call for World Servers," May 2010, through Ronna Herman, at http://www.ronnastar.com/.
(13) F.W.H. Myers in RTI, n.p.
(16) Frances Banks, TOL, 115.


This is one of the most important yet least considered areas of the law when acquiring a property as this sets out the relationship between the various property owners (if you are purchasing jointly or as a larger group) and establishes each parties' financial entitlement to the sale proceeds.
If one of you is contributing a larger contribution towards the purchase price and fees and costs associated with it then it would be wise for you to enter into a Declaration of Trust.
A Trust Deed is a recorded declaration of your intentions of the transaction and be conclusive evidence as to the respective interests you each have in the event of any disputes in the future between you. It can also record any private and personal agreements between you and to set out any special requirements in the event one of you wishes to sell in the future.
A Trust Deed is a personal document between the parties and sits behind the title (i.e. it is not generally registered at the Land Registry).
In the event that a Trust Deed is required, we are only able to represent one of the contracting parties interest and so it may be necessary to involve another firm of solicitors to provide independent legal advice as to what the terms of the Trust Deed mean for a particular party.


t*rexes and tiaras: I would raise my drink to you..but I'll stay sober just for you..
I would raise my drink to you..but I'll stay sober just for you..
I love this outfit. I suppose it's just a dress and a necklace really, but it's my birthday outfit. The dress was a gift from one of my sisters, the necklace a gift from the other, so it seemed fitting to wear them together.
I added the headband because I had about five minutes to make myself look sort-of-presentable as I actually had to leave the house to go for an impromptu dinner date. It was ludicrously sunny so I just threw on some gladiator sandals as I always figure they're like an ever-so-slightly-more-dressed-up option than flip flops..(ahh, the politics of shoes..!) I hoped the headband would focus attention away from my crazy mane of untamed hair, at the very least.
Topically, I've discovered it's Laura Ashley's 60th anniversary - I'm wondering whether to try and do a bit of a showcase of some of my LA dresses, as this one barely fitted into the Laura Ashley wardrobe when I came to put it away, which made me realise my collection had grown quite a bit over the past few years. If anyone is a facebook-er, I hear they are running a competition to celebrate their anniversary, which you can find here.
Ah your sisters have good taste Char!
Lovely dress, very relaxed and summery looking. I'd certainly enjoy a peek into your LA dress collection!


text:
Abbey of Saint Pons may refer to:

Abbey of Saint-Pons de Nice
Abbey of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières


The new Session View. Yes, it's a different color. But mostly, look to the bottom of your screen: automation recording in clips, and curves in automation, at last.
Ableton today has revealed the details of Live 9, alongside new hardware called Push. The software update brings new ways of transforming sound into MIDI, new and improved devices for shaping sounds, tools for automation that work inside clips and with curved interpolation, a new Browser, and a number of interface and usability enhancements. There are also some features, conceived for Push, that could benefit people using any hardware controller they choose. And alongside these enhancements, you'll also find a host of new sounds and preset content with which to work.
Session automation – the "about freakin' time" feature: Record automation into clips (no dummy clips), move clips between Session and Arrange, and use curved automation in Session and Arrange. Yes, they heard you.
Convert audio to MIDI – the "pretty freakin' awesome" feature: Transform melodic (monophonic), harmonic (polyphonic), and percussion audio content into editable MIDI clips, transcribing pitches, drum parts, and rhythms. It's not Melodyne, but it's uniquely fun in the context of Live's Session View.
A new Browser: The browser is now better organized, easier to customize, faster, now makes it possible to audition more presets instantly, and searches all devices and content from one place.
More sounds: 3500 sounds in Suite, and a surprising number in Standard, all with easy-to-control Macro controls.
Glue Compressor: from Cytomic, a new Compressor modeling a (cough) popular 80s compressor.
Improved EQ 8: The flagship included Ableton equalizer now includes more graphical feedback, and newly-modeled filters for better sound and more-precise isolation of frequencies.
More MIDI clip editing: Transpose, invert, and reverse MIDI notes inside clips.
Max for Live is faster and included in Suite: Max for Live will sync up with the newest version of Max/MSP, bringing reduced load times and other enhancements. It's also, at last, included as part of Suite (though not Standard).
New Max for Live-based devices: A number of oft-requested Devices are now available implemented in Max for Live. The bad news: you need Suite, and they're not "native" as such. The good news: they're editable. You get an LFO you can assign to other devices, a whole host of drum synth instruments, MIDI echo, and improved Step Sequencer and Buffer Shuffler.
What it costs: For downloads, Intro is US$99/ 79 €, Standard is US$449/349€, and Suite is US$749/599€. Upgrade pricing is too complex to explain, so, uh, ask Ableton.
When you can get it: Beta testing will begin by next week, but the shipping version will arrive first quarter of 2013, says Ableton. If you buy Live 8 now, though, it's 25% off and includes a free Live 9 upgrade, meaning the cheapest way to get Live 9 is actually to buy Live 8 before it's out.
Live attracts a unique level of attention and anticipation because its way of working is different than other tools on the market. So let's look at it that way: let's look at what Live 9 means for making music, not just as a set of new features.
A number of partners, press, and artists were invited last week to Ableton's headquarters for a day-long tour of the new products. I've had some opportunity to play around with Live 9 beta builds at Ableton's offices, as well as talk to developers at Ableton about what they've built in Live and Push. In those conversations and some hands-on time, I've gotten a bit closer to the tool. There will be more to say over time, but here's a look at the new software from how it might impact your creative musical process.
What's new in Live 9, video – non-leaked.
A number of new features focus on how to get new musical ideas going. It's subtle, and involves some enhancements that might otherwise seem unrelated, but it's enough that I'm looking forward to sketching new ideas in the beta.
Ableton's Dennis DeSantis did a nice demonstration last week in Berlin to first present Live 9, and I think it was dead-on in refocusing this from features to music making. Using the built-in laptop mic, he sang in a melody, then converted it to MIDI and turned it into a clip with an instrument. He beat-boxed a drum loop, then turned that into a MIDI clip – complete with bass, snare, and hats correctly-identified by Ableton's new algorithm. (Dennis is a classically-trained percussionist, not really a beat boxer, so that means you could do this, too.) He found sounds using the new Browser, auditioning them instantly, and transcribed a single chord from a Bill Evans solo for a harmonic stab, finishing things off with some of the new effects.
Converting audio to MIDI. When Live added MIDI, it was such a boon to the tool that it's been hard for any upgrade to live up since. This isn't adding MIDI again, but it might prove to be the next best thing. Ableton isn't Celemony – you can't convert audio to MIDI, then edit the MIDI, then change the pitch and rhythm of the original audio. (For that, you'll still have to run Celemony as a plug-in, and I'm sure this will disappoint some users.) But what Live 9's new "convert to MIDI" feature can do is "transcribe" melodic, polyphonic, and percussive content to an editable MIDI clip. Some content, of course, works better than others. Clear melodic content works better than polyphonic content. Dry drum loops work better than loops with effects. Kits work better than unusual percussion (because Live generally assumes it's mapping to a kit, for convenience).
The way the feature works: you select a clip, right click (or control-click), and then choose harmonic, melodic, or drum content. Live spawns a new channel with either a default drum device or synth, and converts melodic/harmonic pitch information to MIDI notes and drums to kick, snare, and the like. (Ableton says they're planning to eventually allow you to set your own default instruments; in fact, Live 9 includes enhancements to how defaults work in the program generally.) You can also drag audio to a new MIDI track, and a pop-up appears allowing you to select the kind of material you're dragging. What you can't do is alter any parameters for how the conversion works; you have to trust the algorithm.
So far, though, it looks like almost any result will be musically useful. In fact, even in early testing, I sometimes found the mistakes more interesting than the correct transcriptions. But whether it's being precise or – uh, a bit more creative – I think the audio-to-MIDI technique is going to be the biggest draw of the new version, because it can break you out of creative ruts. It's not so much about stealing ideas as it is generating new musical DNA with which to work.
New clip recording workflow. In previous versions of Live, it could require some extra steps to start a new clip, record into that clip, and then play back what you just recorded. Finding a way to streamline that is significant, because it means you can start ideas faster in production – or more confidently start laying down new clips live onstage as you perform. Now, Live 9 has a new record workflow that allows you to combine these steps, starting a fresh clip, selecting it, recording into it, and being able to quickly play it back once you're done recording. It's functionality designed for Push, but it can work with any controller (or keyboard shortcut) you like; we'll look more in detail at this subtlety as I think it's really important.
Browsing via search-as-you-type, browsing by type in the new Browser, showing off the newly-flexible, multi-pane interface.
It's tough to overstate the importance of the new Browser. From the video over the weekend, you may have imagined this was mostly cosmetic, but seen in practice, it could be the Live 9 feature that would make it most painful to return to Live 8.
For one, you can now preview Devices nearly-instantly. Previously, Ableton would dutifully instantiate each Device chain in order to audition its sounds in the Browser. The result: it was painfully slow. Now, it instead plays an audio preview.
It's also at last possible to add your own folders; gone are the absurd "1," "2," and "3" slots for finding files. You can easily find anything you need, including Max for Live patches, via a convenient multi-pane interface, and search across everything with a speedy "search-as-you-type" facility.
It may be some of the bread-and-butter sounds that make the biggest difference for a wide audience, however. Ableton has worked on a new, reasonably compact grand piano that's also included in Standard, along with new guitar and bass instruments.
With any of these sounds, of course, you can go inside and learn what the sound designer has done with Ableton's tools, or use the samples as the basis of new sounds.
Live's Devices sound better, but also give more visual feedback. Note the oversized EQ Eight view, and live feedback on how dynamics effects are impacting sounds.
I do still routinely hear complaints about Ableton Live's audio quality. I'm going to leave that discussion until we do a double-blind test. Maybe it's time for me to go out on a limb here, though: I believe there is no difference between Ableton's "mix engine" and other tools. From an engineering standpoint, in tests done with phase cancellation, it simply doesn't matter. I also hear work like Monolake produced entirely in Live, and – whether you love or hate the music – I have to say, the level of audio clarity is beyond compare. I'll use what he's using; I'll have what he's having for breakfast.
That does raise the question of why people aren't happy with this or any other tool, though. I think very often this comes down to the included effects, presets, and effect interface for finishing tracks – in any host, with even fairly advanced users.
Enhanced Devices, New Glue. Ableton has worked both on the sound of its effects (in some measurable, quantifiable, non-voodoo ways), and the way in which you visualize their results. In Gate and Compressor, you see live visual feedback that shows you what the effect is doing to the sound. In EQ Eight, there's a new, expandable visualization that shows you the spectrum. Experienced engineers will tell you to make adjustments by sound, not sight, but I think these visualizations help reinforce what the ear is hearing. And there's no question they'll be a boon to those new to sound who are trying to understand what these controls do.
Compressor features a new alogrithmic slope, making it more precise – for digital-style compression. And Compressor can now act as an Expander – perhaps the least-visible, but most important (musically) of the new Device changes.
For analog-style compression, Ableton has turned to Cytomic to bundle an Ableton-native version of Glue, an already well-loved 80s compressor emulation in software. If you've used it before, you already know Glue. What's new in the Ableton version is improved performance: you get 1 sample latency and less CPU utilization versus the original plug-in, says Ableton, now that it's native in the host. Interestingly, you get fixed ratios on the Glue slope, to make it easier to use. (I tend to agree – a 2.358 compression ratio doesn't really make any sense. Correction: I originally mistakenly said the default Compressor switched to these fixed ratios; it's still continuous, as always. Apologies for the error.) Ableton has largely adopted Glue directly from Cytomic, with the addition of their own sidechain filter and Oversampling optimization.
The new Arrangement view, also showing off Devices. Note the curve in Automation – and you can drag Session Automation from Session View to Arrangement view. You'll also see a tweaked Transport bar.
Session Automation, Curve. Here are the features a lot of you have been waiting for. At last, you can record Session Automation as easily as you do MIDI and audio information; a new toolbar and record workflow makes this quite accessible, and it goes nicely with the new Push controller (or, via mapping, any other controller, for that matter). This lets you create little automation clips for various forms of modulation.
You can also create curved automation in those clips and in the Arrange View, in a long, long-overdue feature. The curves are fairly intuitive; you first create a straight-line automation segment, then drag on it to produce a curve.
Some of the nicest add-ons in Live 9 come in the form of Max for Live plug-ins, including a convolution reverb, mappable LFO, and drum synth collection, seen here.
Max for Live, while a powerful way of extending what Live can do, could sometimes feel disconnected from Ableton. First, you basically needed to be a fan of Max before you got it, since it was a separate add-on. That also meant people who didn't care much about Max were probably not going to be using the (often amazing) Max patches being produced by the Max for Live community. There were limited examples for what Max for Live might do in Live. And perhaps the biggest deal-killer was that Max for Live made you wait for a painful load time the first time you started it.
I think a lot of people probably won't notice it about the announcement today, but Max for Live improvements are actually some of what I'm most excited about. Max for Live will now sync up with the newest Max/MSP from Cycling '74. That brings various improvements, including the insanely-powerful gen, which basically lets you patch together your own high-performance DSP at a low level. Max for Live (and video support, by the way) should at last be 64-bit by ship date, clearing the way for 64-bit Live for everyone.
Then there are the devices: you get 35 new device, ranging from a beautiful-sounding convolution reverb with a lucid, easy-to-understand interface to a whole bunch of drum synths. Mmmmm… drum synths. (Sorry, I may have temporarily lost any sense of journalistic distance.) There are also those aforementioned improved sequencer and buffer shuffler.
Oh, and while you didn't get the native LFO you've been asking for forever, you do get an LFO as a Max for Live device with a handy "map" button that lets you access any other parameter in Live. In fact, it might be better than the native device, because it should work perfectly as an example of how to navigate Max for Live's API for controlling everything else in Live.
Scenes aren't any smarter. It still seems to me that this feature needs attention; Follow Actions in Scenes, for instance, seem a no brainer.
The user interface has mostly subtle improvements, not a complete overhaul – if that's something you wanted. Actually, I love the light gray theme and the fact that they've evened out some borders and made other improvements. I love that Live's interface has stood the test of time; I still like seeing it on my screen. If they can include a "night vision," onstage/club-friendly skin by the time they ship, I'm happy.
DJs have long asked for the ability to use cue points inside clips, and to see waveform displays of more than one playing clip; neither those features is available. In fact, there really hasn't been anything arguably geared directly at DJs in Live other than the crossfader (and, separately, crossfader curves). That hasn't stopped Live from becoming immensely popular among DJs, but it means Traktor and Serato and the like remain fairly safe. I'll defend this as a feature request, though, beyond just niche appeal. I can imagine anyone playing live wants the ability to use mappable cues inside clips, and more waveform views would always be nice – particularly given that screens are generally higher-resolution than when Live first shipped.
The Futura of Live is coming. Yes, Ableton has changed their logo and switched to a Futura font for their branding typography. And that's an awfully-nice box – though now the download version includes all the same content as the boxed version, even in Suite.
And of course this update brought an unusual degree of impatience, because, following a brisk update pace for much of Live's life, Ableton slowed down this release, focusing first on stability in the Live 8.x series before continuing on Live 9.
As a long-time Ableton user, though, I'm more excited about this release than I've been in a long while. Converting audio to MIDI promises some new creative ideas. Improving the Browser, Compressor, and EQ are important because these are things you tend to touch all the time. Better integrating Max for Live – as a product as well as technically – could finally deliver on some of the promise of that technology. Just being able to record into clips more easily could be a big boon. And all in all, while Live 9 lacks a single "banner" feature, the feeling I got looking at these beta builds was a sense of sophistication. After years of gradually adding the basics (MIDI!), it seems like Live is growing into something more mature. I'll trade sophistication for getting everything I want. And I'm eager to sit down with the beta and make some music, which is surely what matters. Stay tuned for more details as we test, and a proper review once we have a final, shipping version.
Videos will be added to this story once we get them.