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26.08.2019 - Essential To Deal With Allegations of War Time Violations
The elevation of General Shavendra Silva to the position of commander of the Sri Lanka army has become a matter of national and international controversy. The Tamil National Alliance has protested against this decision as has the UN Human Rights High Commissioner and the diplomatic missions of the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Published in Media Releases
18.07.2019 - The Need for A Non Partisan Presidency
Cognisant of the political deadlock within the country, and as a means of ending it, President Maithripala Sirisena has referred to the need to abolish the 19th Amendment to the constitution. This as the landmark legislation that reduced the powers of the presidency and increased the autonomy of state institutions. Both of these measures have had a positive impact on governance in the country. Despite the reduction in the powers of the presidency it continues to remain a powerful institution. Unfortunately, when the president and parliamentary majority are from two different political parties, it can generate political deadlock, which is the present situation in the country.
05.07.2019 - Deal With Systems Failure That Led to Easter Sunday Bombings
In the midst of the ongoing sittings of the Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the Easter Sunday bombings two senior officials in the public service have been arrested by the police. The charges against former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara are that they did not take sufficient action to prevent the bombings that led to over 250 deaths and injuries to over 500 persons despite having prior information.
05.06.2019 - Sri Lanka Must Not go Down The Path of Another Ethnic Conflict
Sri Lanka is still trying to emerge out of the darkness of its three decade long ethnic war that ended in 2009. Unfortunately, the Easter Sunday bombings linked to the Islamic State (IS), and the damaging reaction to it by those who ought to be responsible political leaders, are taking our country once again in the direction of another ethnic conflict. The bombing is being used to create a great rift in Sri Lankan society. Prejudice, hatred and hate speech are at an all-time high. Many politicians and other opinion formers at high levels of the polity have publicly been asserting that the larger Muslim community is complicit in the bombings and discovery of hidden arms that have taken place. The barbaric bombings by extremists cannot and must not be attributed to the larger Muslim community who have been part and parcel of our country.
16.05.2019 - The State Must Not Fail In Its Duty to Protect
The anti-Muslim riots in different parts of the country have led to at least two killings and wrecked the lives of thousands of innocent people. These riots have taken place more than three weeks after the Easter Sunday bombings for which the Islamic State took responsibility. They have taken place at locations far from where those innocent people lost their lives. The government was compelled to deploy the army and to declare night time curfew all over the country to contain the rioting due to the initial failure of local police to control the mobs.
23.04.2019 - Urgent Tasks After Easter Sunday Bombings
The carnage on Easter Sunday against three Christian churches, three leading hotels and two other locations have killed more than 300 and injured over 500. The scale and coordinated nature of the bomb attacks have been shocking. This brings an end to the ten year period of freedom from terror and violence that the country enjoyed. The National Peace Council condemns these acts of terror which have brought immense suffering to so many of our fellow citizens and also to citizens of foreign countries who were present at the sites that were attacked.
20.02.2019 - Political Leaders Need To Respect Independent Institutions
President Maithripala Sirisena and senior members of the opposition including former President Mahinda Rajapaksa have harshly criticized the Constitutional Council and the Human Rights Commission. Their accusations range from failing to favourably consider the President's nominations to the judiciary, to causing the collapse of public administration, to putting obstacles in the path of the government's campaign to root out criminal activities and the narcotics trade and to even being culpable for the death of Sri Lankan soldiers on a peacekeeping mission. The National Peace Council is concerned that the unreasonableness of these criticisms erodes the commitment to basic principles of good governance.
27.01.2019 - Continuing International Scrutiny Necessary To Ensure Justice For War Victims
In March this year Sri Lanka will report back to the UN Human Rights Council on its implementation of Resolution 30/1 which it co-sponsored in October 2015. This report back will be important as it will determine whether or not international scrutiny of the country on human rights issues will continue or come to an end.
Thursday, 27 December 2018 03:45
26.12.2018 - Judicial Intervention Necessary to Resolve Dispute Over Opposition Leader
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya has made an initial announcement in parliament that the new Leader of the Opposition would be former president Mahinda Rajapaksa of the SLFP/UPFA. However, this has been challenged by the TNA whose leader R Sampanthan previously held the position and who has not been removed from this position. This has led to a situation where there are currently two Leaders of the Opposition similar to the situation of Sri Lanka having two Prime Ministers in the recent past! The National Peace Council believes that the position of opposition leader cannot be ignored by those who are concerned with political morality and adherence to traditions, conventions and the rule of law.
18.12.2018 - Prioritise Just Governance and Solve National Question
The restoration of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to his position as Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena has brought to an end seven weeks of political crisis in which the country did not have a functioning government. As articulated by the Prime Minister himself, most of the people of this country joined together to protect the constitution, democracy, and the rights of the people. They joined this fight on behalf of their country and democracy without any personal gain. The National Peace Council wishes to appreciate the apex courts of the judiciary which proved their mettle and contributed immensely to bringing the political crisis to an end.
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Q: Can't login to careers.stackexchange.com using Steam : Invalid claimed_id or identity (Contact:, Reference: ) I'm trying to link my stackoverflow identity to my organization's page on careers.stackexchange.  I'm having trouble logging into careers at all.
I use myopenid.com (which is now dead) and steam to login to most stackexchange sites.
When I try to use the steam openid url, I do login to steam (confirmed by revisiting the page and it recognizes me.  However careers.stackexchange still doesn't recognize me.  It says: Invalid claimed_id or identity (Contact: , Reference: )
I'm using Opera (just in case that matters).

A: If you are logging in via steam, you should use this url as the openID URL: http://steamcommunity.com/openid/
If you don't use the correct url, you'll get the "invalid claimed id" message.  For example, it is incorrect to use a longer url: http://steamcommunity.com/openid/id/bunchofnumbers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


SURABAYA (11 Aug 2018) – Goalkeeper Ernando Ari Sutaryadi was the hero for Indonesia where his two saves in the penalty shootout gave the hosts a 4-3 win for them to lift the AFF Under-16 Championship crown for the first time ever in their history.
With so much at stake, the final was not exactly and explosive free flowing affair with both teams largely playing it safe and were not taking any risks.
As a result, the game became patchy and only erupted to entertain the full house crowd at the Delta Sidoarjo Stadium when goals were scored.
Mochammad Supriadi was the first test Thai keeper Anuchid Taweesri early in the encounter with the prolific Amiruddin Bagus Kahfi Alfikri's first real chance coming off the upright.
As Anuchid made a string of saves, he could not deny Indonesia the lead on 33 minutes when a miscommunication with his defenders allowed substitute Muhammad Fajar Fathur Rachman to sneak in to latch on to the cross from Andre Oktaviansyah.
Thailand kept their cool as they passed the ball around into much of the second half as Indonesia seek to protect their lead.
Anuchid continued to deny Indonesia but in the 72nd minute, the stadium fell almost silent when the Thais grabbed the equaliser off Apidet Janngam who fired in the from the far post following a low cross from Punnawat Chote-Jirachalton.
Both teams tried to steal to a late winner but the penalty shootout beckons as Indonesia completed all their attempts through Sutan Diego Zico, Bagus, Rendy Juliansyah and David Maulana.
Thailand managed three goals off Thanarin Thumsen, Anucha Sodsri and Kittiphong Khetpara while attempts from Apidet and Pongsakorn Innet were saved.
In the meantime, a late goal from substitute Alif Daniel Abdul Aziz gave Malaysia a hard fought 1-0 win over Myanmar in the classification match played earlier.
The win has at least given the Malaysian team some measure of solace after failing to make the final this year.
"We played better than we did in the last match. We attacked and defended as a team. We were more compact," said Malaysian head coach Raja Azlan Shah.
With motivation not what it should be as it was a classification match, still both teams put up some decent attacking manoeuvres to entertain the several thousand fans who had started to throng the arena.
While Myanmar created the first few chances off Zaw Win Thein, the Malaysians only came alive after the break with a double from Muhammad Syukur Fariz Januri.
Two minutes to the end, a cross from Megat Syafique Syazwan Mohd Khairul from the right was latched on by Alif, whose weak grounder caught Myanmar keeper Nay Lin Htet off guard as the ball bounced off the upright and into goal.
"The keeper was out of position. Our team is a little inexperienced. We are trying to build a team and we have started programmes for the youth," added Myanmar head coach Nyi Nyi Latt afterwards.


text:
Yes Boss ist ein indischer Bollywood-Film, der 1997 in den indischen Kinos lief. In den Hauptrollen sind Shahrukh Khan und Juhi Chawla zu sehen, die somit zum fünften Mal nebeneinander auftraten. Die Handlung weist viele Ähnlichkeiten zu der 1993 erschienenen US-Komödie Ein Concierge zum Verlieben auf.

In Deutschland erschien die synchronisierte Fassung erst zehn Jahre später am 12. April 2007 auf DVD.

Handlung
Rahul Joshi ist Assistent in einer Werbeagentur in Mumbai und träumt davon, seine eigene Werbefirma leiten zu können. Als ambitionierter junger Mann will er seinen Boss Siddarth Chaudhary beeindrucken und erledigt für ihn alle beruflichen und privaten Tätigkeiten, mitunter auch die Vertuschung seiner Liebesaffären.

Eines Tages verliebt sich Rahul in das Model Seema Bakshi, doch das Mädchen aus der Mittelklasse ist sehr auf Erfolg bedacht und betont die Vorzüge der Heirat mit einem reichen Mann. Noch dazu ist sein Boss an Seema interessiert und verlangt von Rahul, bei der Eroberung ihres Herzens zu helfen. Seema ist von Siddarths Charme und Vermögen beeindruckt, obwohl sie immer wieder von ihm versetzt wird. Selbst als sie feststellt, dass er eigentlich verheiratet ist, lässt sie sich wieder von ihm einwickeln und spielt sogar die Ehefrau von Rahul, damit Siddarths Frau keinen Verdacht schöpft.

Die Lügengeschichte wird immer komplizierter, als Siddarths argwöhnischer Schwager Bhushan Verdacht schöpft und Siddarths Ehefrau ermuntert, ihren Mann auf die nächste Geschäftsreise in die Schweiz zu begleiten. Dort kann sich Siddarth nur selten mit seiner Geliebten treffen, immer wieder muss Rahul für ihn einspringen und verbringt so sehr viel Zeit mit Seema. Bushans Hinterhalt scheint vorerst vereitelt zu sein, doch zurück in Indien setzt er Rahul noch mehr unter Druck, denn er hat Rahuls Mutter von der angeblichen heimlichen Heirat erzählt.

Rahul muss sich entscheiden, ob er weiter ja und Amen zu seinem Boss sagt, der ihm die Eröffnung seiner eigenen Firma in Aussicht stellt, oder ob er auf seinen Traum verzichtet, um Seemas Liebe für sich zu gewinnen und ihre Ehre zu schützen.

Auszeichnungen
 Filmfare Award – Bester Playbacksänger
 Screen Award – Bester Playbacksänger

Kritik

Einzelnachweise

Weblinks

Indischer Film
Filmtitel 1997

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
2019 August Update
2019 Mid-Season Update
Pre-Season Top 40 w/Full Scouting Reports
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Predicting Results of the Mariners' 10 Arbitration Cases
By: Jason A. Churchill
RANKINGS: Latest Top 40 Prospects Update | MLB: UPDATED 2020 Draft Order
2020 MLB Draft Order | Baseball Things Podcast
The Seattle Mariners have 10 arbitration-eligible players this offseason. How might the club go about dealing with them?
First, a quick primer:
Players become eligible for arbitration after three years of big-league service and get three cracks at the process to settle a salary for the ensuing season. Players gain a fourth go at arbitration if they rank among the Top 22 percent in service time among players with more than two years and less than three years of service under their belt. This season, that cutoff is expected to be about two years and 115 days this offseason.
Prior to arbitration status, players get their contracts 'renewed' at a salary dictated by the club, as long as it's equal to or north of the league minimum.
Clubs are not allowed to tender arbitration offers to players that cut their pay more than 20 percent from the previous season, and undercutting on the tender could backfire for the team like being too aggressive can backfire for the player.
Most cases never reach arbitration, and are settled via negotiations. But the process is structured and restrictive. If a player and his agent request $5 million and the team tenders $2 million, which represents a pretty big gap, the two sides likely negotiate somewhere in the middle. But if an agreement cannot be made, the panel that hears arguments from both sides has to choose one side or the other. There are no in-betweens. So if the club low-balled, they could end up paying the player $5 million rather than finding common ground at a lower number, or having a chance to win the case.
And the same goes for the player's side.
Here are this year's Mariners players who land in this process and how it could play out in the next few months. The options include tender and non-tender — which makes the player a free agent. Teams can trade arbitration-eligible players before or after their cases are settled.
Several projected salaries were derived from MLBTradeRumors.com.
Tim Beckham, UT
Beckham's projection lands in the $3 million range after Seattle signed him to a one-year, $1.75 million deal last winter. He had an up-and-down 2019 — started hot, cooled off, struggled more than expected defensively, never found his groove again — and his season ended with an 80-game PED suspension.
There might be some value for Beckham to a club as a non-roster invitee on a minor-league deal, but Beckham's not likely to get any guaranteed salary for 2020, and it'd be a big shock to me if he landed seven figures.
The Mariners aren't going down this road again in 2020 with Shed Long and J.P. Crawford both big-league tested.
Prediction: Non-tender
Anthony Bass, RHR
Bass is an interesting case. He's projected for a $1.7 million salary in 2020 and posted a 3.90 FIP in 48 innings for Seattle in 2019. His fastball set a career-high 95.1 MPH per Pitchf/x, and the last two seasons he's struck out nearly 23 percent of the batters he's faced, more than six percent higher than his current career average.
Bass, who earned a pro-rated $950,000 in 2019 from Seattle after he opted out of his MiLB deal with Cincinnati, also posted a ground ball rate over 50% for the second-straight year and has typically done a good job avoiding the home run ball.
Bass needs another year of service to qualify for free agency.
Of course, this all depends on what the club's plans are for the relief corps this offseason.
Prediction: Tender, but it's more than reasonable to believe he'll be non-tendered, even brought back on a safer deal with less guaranteed money, or even traded.
Domingo Santana, OF/DH
Santana, who earned $1.95 million in 2019, started hot, cooled off and ended 2019 with an injury that limited the slugger to 50 plate appearances after the trade deadline.
He'll swing and miss a lot — long swing, average raw bat speed — and fell off the cliff defensively this past season, but there's enough value here as a bat to suggest non-tendering him would be a bad idea.
Santana is likely to draw a little trade interest, and since he won't cost a lot, he's among the more likely Mariners players to be dealt this winter.
It's Santana's second go of arbitration, and he's projected to around $4.5 million in 2020 after batting .253/.329/.441 — despite battling injuries in July before sitting out most the rest of the way.
Prediction: Tender, likely traded
Mallex Smith, OF
Smith disappointed all-around in 2019 after a very strong 2018 in Tampa. He appeared out-of-place defensively far more than ever before (he graded as fringe-average or better by all defensive metrics in 2018) and his BABIP fell apart (.296 in 2018, .227 in 2019).
But it wasn't just bad luck for Smith at the plate. His walk rate dipped a bit (8.6 to 7.4) and he struck out 6.9% more this past season. His line-drive rate sunk from 24.9% to 19% and the difference went almost exclusively to the fly ball category — a bad sign if you're a hitter with 30 raw power and a swing designed for anything but power.
While there's middle ground on which to settle for Smith's future, it'll have to come as an extra outfielder and it may not be in Seattle, considering all the young players the Mariners want to give time to in the outfield (Braden Bishop, Jake Fraley, Shed Long, Tim Lopes, Dylan Moore, Kyle Lewis) in 2020.
Smith struggles versus lefties and is probably best used in a platoon split, but without a return to form defensively, he's going to have to hit like 2018 and defend like he did that year, too.
Smith earned a club-controlled $578,400 in 2019 and his projection is in the $2.7 million range — which is about where clubs draw the line on part-time outfielders. But rebuilding clubs with options probably have no business carrying said player.
Prediction: Tender, but try to trade for a flyer arm
Omar Narvaez, C/DH
Narvaez was better than he's ever been defensively, but his early-season framing fell apart and he remains below average in all other areas, including blocking and throwing where he ranked among the bottom 10% of catchers with at least 50 games caught in 2019.
Most of it is physical; he just doesn't have the arm strength to make up for technique deficiencies and doesn't have good feet.
Narvaez is, however, a very good hitter. Problem is, he's a very good hitter as a catcher. He's merely a useful one as a DH.
Narvaez's 2020 arbitration salary is projected to land in the $3 million range. With Austin Nola and Tom Murphy in tow, Seattle is likely to try and move Narvaez, who despite his defensive issues posted 1.8 fWAR in 132 games, to clear space for other options at catcher and DH (Daniel Vogelbach, Domingo Santana, et al).
Prediction: Tendered, traded
Sam Tuivailala, RHR
Tuivailala took a little while to get back on track after leg surgery last fall, but looked pretty good in 23 innings with the big club late in the year.
The right-hander showed most of the velocity he did a year ago (93.5 avg FB vs. 94.7 in 2018), struck out nearly 29% of the batters he faced and perhaps most importantly for his immediate future, showed two improved breaking balls — a slider at 85-88 MPH that serves as his best swing-and-miss weapon and a traditional high-70s curveball he threw for strikes.
This one's a no-brainer with Tui projected to land a 2020 salary south of $1 million, but if I'm Dipoto here I'd seriously consider a two-year deal in a similar spirit to the contract they handed Marco Gonzales.
I think Tuivailala is one of the better breakout candidates for Seattle in 2020, at least among returning big leaguers that no longer qualify for rookie status.
Prediction: Tender
Ryon Healy, 1B/DH
Healy's back injury robbed him of the chance to earn seven figures in 2020 and the club of a shot to pay him. There were signs Healy was becoming more of a hitter than a slugger but we never got to see it play out, other than the 187 plate appearances that produced a .456 slugging percentage and .289 OBP.
Not that Healy was going to turn into an all-star of any kind, but he was using the entire field for the first time in his career, and with hard contact. That's the kind of start I like to see a larger sample of, but alas.
Healy, if healthy, likely is in camp with someone, perhaps Seattle (remember, 1B is not settled for the Mariners, especially if Nola is going to catch more in 2020), but not on an arbitration-based deal where he could land $3 million.
Prediction: Non-tender, chance to come back as NRI
Mitch Haniger, OF
While there's no chance the Mariners non-tender Haniger, there are no guarantees after that.
He was good in 2017, his first with the club, he was even better in 2018, posting a 137 wRC+ and 4.5 fWAR. He struggled some to .220/.314/.463 before missing the rest of the season on the IL with a freak-accident style injury.
What's worrisome here for me isn't the 63-game 'struggle' at the start of the year. It's the reason his rehab was cut short. Now, I don't say 'worrisome' as if there's some set of data strongly suggesting Haniger's done being good. That's absurd.
But there has to be a level of, say, awareness, that a back problem can linger.
A healthy Haniger remains a four-win player, maybe better (he posted 1.1 fWAR in 39% of a season dubbed 'meh' to his recent standards) and he's just 29 (in December).
Haniger will be tendered. His projected salary is in the $3 million range.
One of two questions here is whether or not Haniger has enough trade value at this stage to warrant Seattle moving him this winter, or are they forced to start the year with the former All-Star and hope he rakes so they trade him in July.
The second question is whether or not Seattle wants to move Haniger anytime soon at all. This is a conversation for the podcast, however.
Matt Wisler, RHP
Wisler was picked up via trade after he was designated for assignment by San Diego in July. He was serviceable in the 'relief' role the Mariners used him, posting a 4.23 FIP and 28% strikeout rate.
But Wisler's stuff — 91-93 mph fastballs, both two and four-seam varieties and slider hasn't played up in short stints after beginning his career as a starter.
He's 27 and for me still looks like a starting pitching project, rather than a reliever, not unlike Matt Festa. Throwing 93 mph from the right side without a wipeout secondary is less than ordinary and doesn't play in major-league bullpens anymore.
He used to offer a changeup and throw the occasional curveball and going back to that is, in my opinion, his best bet to become a valued 25-man roster member on a good team.
At one point with Atlanta, Wisler looked like a mid-rotation starter, flashing three big-league pitches and average command.
If Seattle wants to use him in relief and not send him out as a possible back-end rotation arm, tendering him anywhere near his $1 million projection makes little sense.
I don't have a feel for where the Mariners are on Wisler, but they didn't go down that road in 2019, so I won't assume anything's changed now.
Keon Broxton, CF
Broxton can play center and run, and has above-average raw power. He swings and misses a metric F-ton, however (45.6% in 2019), so he rarely gets to the pop and can't hit for average.
Broxton's projected arb salary is $1.3 million, which makes little sense for Seattle, or really anyone else. He's 29, so he's not done, but he's probably settling for a minor league deal this winter.
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Cleveland may trade Francisco Lindor: Should the Mariners go all out?
The Cleveland Indians aren't expected to extend the contract of star shortstop Francisco Lindor, partially based on their recent track...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Aren't the martial arts in Eastern Religion?
How can you practice something so violent and really be a Christian?
Aren't the teachings of the Jesus and Buddha the same?
I have found that most martial artists who profess a relationship with Jesus had encountered these types of questions from well-meaning yet uninformed individuals.
In truth if you were a martial artists before you found Jesus you have asked yourself many of these questions. The very nature of our relationship with the Sovereign Lord of the universe makes it impossible not to wrestle with these issues.
The reason I have written this eBook is that many people have wrestled and not found satisfactory answers or have not ability to dig into the Word of Truth to solve these questions.
There are so many questions that run through the mind and spirit of new believers that it would be impossible to address them all. So let's look some of the major issues and hopefully you can find your way from there.
As believers we're to find our final authority in the word and person of Jesus Christ. What that means to you is that no matter what I say you still need to plumb the depth of Scripture's for the answers. Don't rely on anyone to "dictate" truth unless what they say lines up with Scripture. You know that you must do your own studies and your own prayers.
So, if you have questions, ask the Lord and he will answer. Being martial artists we tend to the action oriented in the idea of sitting around waiting tends to chat for us. But let me assure you, that prayer is what we were created for. That's why our knees bend and in our heads tilt.
Don't neglect its (3) !!!!
If you think it's not manly to pray, look at this way, interceding through prayer and training is the fundamental combat we as Christians are called to. It is literally handed to hand combat (4). Think about here is Paul makes its for a clear that we are not fighting men but the army of darkness. That is, yes, Satan(5) and his fallen angels.
Yes it is a man's fist that we block or dodge, but it was Satan's lie that brought that man to the point of thinking that violence will solve his marriage problems, get him out of financial troubles, make him feel fulfilled, or make him more like a man.
The truth is that only God can fill the gaping hole in any man's life. He may have chosen you, at that moment, to share the truth (6) of His grace and mercy.
I love the martial arts and I love the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I hope that this little book will strengthen you in your walked have possibly make you even hungry for a more intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe.


text:
When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story
On Point No. 76
(This On Point is adapted from the paper, "When Politics Kills: Malaria and the DDT Story," published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 2001, and available for download in PDF at http://www.fightingmalaria.org/.)
Malaria kills over one million people every year, many of them children, and the number of deaths is increasing, predominantly in developing countries.
Yet while these countries ought to have every method available to control this disease, political leaders and environmental groups recently came very close to banning an important weapon in the fight against malaria: DDT. In December 2000, international delegates and observers met in South Africa to negotiate the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, a list of 12 chemicals, including DDT, which will soon be banned worldwide. Fifteen countries requested exemptions for their usage of DDT in public-health programs—but even they will have to comply with the treaty's potentially onerous regulatory restrictions. In May, delegates from the United States and more than 100 other countries will meet in Stockholm, Sweden, to sign the treaty, a legally binding instrument.
Many methods of protection against the disease have been devised. International public-health officials currently favor a regimen of anti-malarial drugs for foreign visitors to malarial areas, and pesticide-impregnated bed nets for local people. These methods are designed to try to prevent infection—the prophylaxis method.
But one of the most effective methods, and probably the cheapest, is to spray inside houses and buildings with insecticides to repel, irritate, and kill the mosquito that carries the malaria parasite—the vector control method. One of the oldest pesticides is still the best for controlling mosquitoes; this is dichlorodiphenyltrichlorethane, commonly known as DDT. Despite a surge in malaria incidence in the developing world, DDT production is decreasing, and its use is limited to those few countries that still have stockpiles or whose governments produce the chemical.
Donor countries frown on DDT. The reason for this baffling disparity is that DDT has been damned by environmentalists. Gradually, governments in industrialized nations have been persuaded to restrict DDT because of fears of damage to the reproductive process of birds of prey. The heroic malaria-eradication program of the post-war years used DDT as its primary weapon. This program succeeded in North America and southern Europe, and greatly reduced incidence in many other countries. But eradication was not possible for many developing nations. Public-health activity in these countries is wholly or partly reliant on funding from overseas aid agencies. Since donor countries frown on DDT, these agencies are extremely reluctant to countenance its use in other countries. Belize, Mozambique, and Bolivia stopped using DDT in their public-health programs, because they feared the loss of aid from international agencies.[1] It is highly likely that other countries have also succumbed to these pressures. The urge for donor nations to dictate how donations are spent is obviously compelling, but if aid is really to save lives, the recipients must be allowed to decide for themselves what is good for them. The advice and technical assistance that developed nations can give to these countries is invaluable, but policies that are right for wealthy nations may not be right for poor ones.
Spraying DDT in houses and on mosquito breeding grounds was the primary reason that rates of malaria around the world declined dramatically after the Second World War. Nearly one million Indians died from malaria in 1945, but DDT spraying reduced this to a few thousand by 1960. However, concerns about the environmental harm of DDT led to a decline in spraying, and likewise, a resurgence of malaria. Today there are once again millions of cases of malaria in India, and over 300 million cases worldwide—most in sub-Saharan Africa. Cases of malaria in South Africa have risen by over 1000 percent in the past five years. Only those countries that have continued to use DDT, such as Ecuador, have contained or reduced malaria.[2]
Human tragedy, economic disaster. Malaria is clearly a human tragedy, but it is also an economic disaster. According to Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard's Center for International Development, malaria costs about 1 percent of Africa's wealth every year. In many countries, malaria halves the economic growth that would otherwise have occurred.[3]
While there is some evidence that DDT causes environmental harm, damage occurred only during widespread agricultural use of DDT in the 1950s and 1960s. It was alleged that DDT led to egg-shell thinning and other effects in certain birds; these problems were shown to be reversible. No study in the scientific literature has adequately shown any human health problem resulting from DDT. Therefore, low-dose use of DDT indoors is unlikely to cause any significant harm to the environment or people.
The politics of malaria and DDT. Yet in 1995, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) proposed an international treaty to reduce and/or eliminate 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), including DDT, from worldwide production and use. The result of such a process is obvious. As environmentalists have pushed to eliminate DDT over the years, the relationship between falling DDT use and increasing malaria cases is very clear (click here for graph).[4]
Restrictions on DDT use have been the inevitable result of its listing on the POPs register.
DDT alternatives and their costs. Malaria is a severe health problem in the world, partly because the world's poorest countries have few financial resources to control it. This is most striking in Africa, where very poor and malarious countries such as Benin, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, The Gambia, and others have annual public-sector health budgets of under $8 per capita.[5] That is not much more than the retail price of a single pill of Lariam, a leading malaria drug[6]; and it is a negligible amount of resources with which poor countries must somehow deal not only with malaria, but also with water-borne diseases, AIDS, and other health needs.
The danger to poor countries of banning or restricting DDT must be understood in light of this poverty. Although DDT is relatively cheap, for an extremely impoverished country even DDT may be expensive to use—and alternative, costlier insecticides are out of the question. The increased reporting requirements of the POPs convention[7] will probably harm thousands, potentially millions, of people. Although DDT is produced only in socialist countries for government monopoly use, it is not disputed that DDT is a very much less expensive and often more effective insecticide than its alternatives. The evidence includes the following:
· In a recent study, the World Health Organization estimated that malathion, the cheapest alternative to DDT, costs more than twice as much as DDT and must be sprayed twice as often. Deltamethrin, an alternative recommended by environmental groups, is more than three times as expensive as DDT. Propoxur, which is often highly effective, costs 23 times as much as DDT.[8]
· The government of India, within its National Anti-Malaria Program (NAMP), uses a number of insecticides, including DDT, malathion, deltamethrin, and others. India has reported to the World Health Organization that malathion and the pyrethroid insecticides continue to cost at least three times as much as DDT. NAMP concluded that it cannot use these more expensive insecticides without leaving tens of millions of Indians unprotected from malaria (click here for graph).[9]
These experiences show that DDT costs less than pyrethroid insecticides. There are also large costs in phasing out DDT house spraying and instead relying on strategies such as insecticide-treated bed nets or pharmaceutical drugs. Bed nets typically cost about $4 each to buy and must be treated with insecticide periodically, and each person in a house needs a bed net. Similarly, to ensure the lowest disease-resistance to drugs, each drug should be administered by health-care workers at clinics, which is very expensive.
In sum, there is no alternative to DDT that poor countries can switch to without encountering significant new costs, costs that cannot be met out of their current health budgets. Switching to an alternative is difficult even for a fairly developed country such as South Africa, and it may verge on impossible for the poorer countries. In addition to the costs already discussed, any alternative will require further costs for training, technical advice, and so on.
Conclusion. DDT use must be allowed to continue until it becomes redundant through technological advances. Developed nations (and their aid agencies and environmental groups) pressuring countries to abandon DDT for public-health uses will kill thousands of people and cost millions of dollars. It's a mistake that does not need to be made.
[1] Avertino Barreto, Deputy National Health Director, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Endemics, Ministry of Health, Mozambique, personal communication, 24 May 2000; John Dyson, "DDT Should Not Be Banned," Readers Digest (South Africa, December 2000).
[2] D.R. Roberts, S. Manguin, and J. Mouchet, "DDT house spraying and re-emerging malaria," The Lancet, vol. 356, no. 9226, 22 July 2000, pp. 330-332.
[3] Jeffrey Sachs and John Gallup, The Economic Burden of Malaria (Harvard: Center for International Development at Harvard University, October 1998); available at http://www2.cid.harvard.edu/cidpapers/mal_wb.pdf.
[4] Figure from A. Attaran, et al., "Balancing risks on the backs of the poor," Nature Medicine 6 (2000), pp. 729-731. Cumulative malaria cases derived from Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) data for Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Components of calculations were: number of slides examined annually = a; number of positive slides annually = b; annual proportion of positive slides = b/a = c; annual population for five countries = d; baseline ABER (annual blood examination rate) = e; standardized number of slides examined = f; and standardized number of malaria cases annually = g. Two time periods, of high (1965-79) and low (1980 on) house spraying were defined for comparison (the World Health Organization de-emphasized house spraying in 1979). The baseline ABER (or e) is the number of slides examined per 100 population (sampling effort). Using the average values of a and d over the high spray period, (a/d)100 yields an e value of 2.525, which was used to standardize f for each later year: f = 100ed. The value f was used to estimate g: g = fc. The graph presents the cumulative (running total) values of g for all years. House spray rates (HSRs) are houses sprayed per 1000 population, calculated from d and the number of houses sprayed annually in all five countries. PAHO stopped publishing HSRs after 1992, though DDT use since then has been minimal.
[5] World Health Report (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2000), Table 8. All data reported at the official exchange rate.
[6] Eight pills of Lariam sell for $37 at British Airways Clinic, February 8, 2001.
[7] See http://irtpc.unep.ch (UNEP/POPS/INC.5/1, page 31) for a description of the reporting requirements for DDT proposed in the POPS process.
[8] J.A. Rosendaal, Vector control methods for use by individuals and communities (Geneva: World Health Organization, 1997).
[9] Data from National Anti-Malaria Programme, India, presented at World Health Organization Expert Consultation, Geneva, 16-18 June 1999. World Health Organization Document SDE/PHE/DP/04.
CEI Releases Pro-Growth Regulatory Reform Agenda for the 118th Congress
Kent Lassman
Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) offered a set of important policy reforms for the 118th Congress to consider when it convenes in…
Does Artificial Intelligence Have a Statist Bias?
By: Iain Murray
I recently asked the ChatGPT AI to "write an essay critiquing the Biden administration's trade policy." This is what I got: The…


In a lively classic PSV beat Ajax 4-3 this Sunday afternoon. Guided by Balázs Dzsudzsák and Otman Bakkal, both scoring a double, PSV secured the first win of the season. The game was pure promotion for Dutch football and after the dust had settled, PSV came up the deserved winner.


NutraIngredients' Probiota is the leading annual event for the global prebiotic, probiotic and the microbiota focused food and pharma industries. In February 2016 the event will explore the new scientific frontier, its evolution and commercial application in food, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and related product areas across the globe. Leading experts presented the latest scientific, technical and market insights and business and academia from around the globe came together to discuss innovation and growth in today's market.


FRIMA Funéraire offers a wide range of stainless steel furniture for your technical equipment.
• Table 4 anti static castors 100 mm Ø including 2 with brakes .
• Tray with welded corners, Stepless® for perfect cleaning with falling edges.


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Accelerate Enterprise Insights: AI Use Cases for 5G Networks
Date / Time: Wednesday, January 19, 2022, 11:00 a.m. New York/ 4:00 p.m. London
Every Generation of telecom networks beats out its predecessors in speed, performance, coverage, and bandwidth. 5G is a clear winner, providing 100 times more speed than 4G, lowering the latencies to under 1ms and offering a wide spectrum to accommodate large volumes of load. The power of 5G extends beyond communication service providers (CSPs) - enterprises are taking the opportunity to explore advanced AI solutions enabled by 5G that enhance performance and enable faster, smarter decisions.
The future of networks lies in the ability to gain instant insights that drive actionable intelligence. Join this webinar for insights on:
Real-world use cases taking advantage of the capabilities of 5G
How Intelligent Video Analytics and Industrial Internet of Things come together to enable innovative technologies such as autonomous mobile robots
Industry-specific benefits, including airports, manufacturing, retail, warehouses and mining
Jim Hodges, Research Director – Cloud and Security, Heavy Reading | bio Srinivas Chitiveli, AVP, Product Management, Edge AI Apps & Intelligent Video Analytics, Mavenir | bio
Jim leads Heavy Reading's research on the service assurance and security impact of the virtualized cloud on the control plane and application layers, both in the fixed and mobile core and at the enterprise edge. Jim focuses on the security impacts that cloud-based technologies such as 5G introduce from a cyber-threat detection perspective, as well as billing and service assurance transformation implications. Jim joined Heavy Reading from Nortel Networks, where he tracked the VoIP and application server market landscape and was a key contributor to the development of Wireless Intelligent Network (WIN) standards. Additional technical experience was gained with Bell Canada, where he performed IN and SS7 network planning, numbering administration, technical model forecast creation and definition of regulatory-based interconnection models. Jim is based in Ottawa, Canada.
Srinivas Chitiveli is a Product Executive at Mavenir responsible for defining strategies and developing products that deliver AI solutions to enterprises and Telecom service providers. Specialized in the science of deep learning and machine learning, Srinivas has applied trained models to derive insights from IoT devices and unstructured sources like images, videos, text & speech. With over 25 years of varied experiences, he is an author of books & blogs, an inventor with patented ideas and active at exploring innovative approaches that accelerate AI journeys for Enterprises.
Patrick Lopez is global VP of product management for 5G products at NEC, where he supports the product strategy and planning, partnership, and growth of the Open RAN, 5G Core and 5G monetization services. He has over 20 years' experience building, launching and operating telecoms businesses in startups, mid-sized and tier one multinationals. Prior to NEC, was global VP of networks innovation at Telefonica group and CEO at {Core Analysis}, the leading industry analyst practice at the intersection of telco and cloud. He was exclusive advisor to Opera software in its acquisition of Skyfire for $155 million.
While at Telefonica, Patrick sat on the Boards of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and 5Tonic (an open 5G laboratory). Patrick has collaborated to various industry and financial reports including Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston, and has written several articles in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, Wireless Week, Fierce wireless, RCR Wireless News, CNN and CNBC. Patrick currently resides in Toronto, Canada and has worked in the United States, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain and France. He holds a MBA in Corporate Management.
Nozomu Watanabe joined NEC Corporation in April 1988. His career started as an engineer of mobile radio access technology. From 1998 to 2003, he was Division Manager of Telecom MODUS Ltd. (UK), where he engaged to launch development center of mobile base station equipment for global market.
In 2011, he was assigned to General Manager of Mobile Radio Access Network Division, responsible for mobile base station equipment business for telecom carriers. In 2017, he was assigned to General Manager of Wireless Network Development Division, responsible for wireless network development. In 2018, he was promoted to Senior Vice President and he is currently responsible for 5G and next generation network solution technology development.
Atsuo Kawamura joined NEC Corporation in April 1986. His career started as a software engineer for the development of digital telephone switching system for global communication service providers. In 2012, he became General Manager of Carrier Services Division, responsible for overall network services and solutions for telecom carriers. In 2014, he became Senior Vice President and headed the SDN /NFV business which is the core technology for next generation carrier network. In 2017, he was promoted to Executive Vice President and head of Telecom Carrier Business Unit, supervising the provision of a wide range of end to end telecommunication products and solutions. In 2018, he was assigned to the head of Network Service Business Unit, responsible for network service business to various enterprise customers as well as telecom operators. In 2021, Global 5G business was assigned as his additional responsibility.
Rich Loveland is the Director of Product Line Management for Vecima's Passive Optical Networking (PON) for fiber-to-the-premise products.
With more than 35 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Rich has held various marketing, product management, business development and engineering roles at Ciena, Ipitek, Pliant Systems Inc., Nortel Networks, Nokia (Formerly Alcatel-Lucent) and now Vecima Networks Inc.


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» Trooper hurt, another man dead after Interstate jackknife
Trooper hurt, another man dead after Interstate jackknife
On Behalf of O'Brien Batten Kirtley & Coomer, PLLC | Apr 27, 2018 | Truck Accidents |
A Kentucky state trooper was flung from a bridge along the Interstate and fell 30 feet as a result of truck's jackknifing in front of the trooper while he was responding to a call. A civilian who was with the trooper and assisting him died after being pinned by the trailer of the jackknifed truck.
According to reports, the trooper and the other victim were searching for animals that were apparently on the Interstate. A private vehicle that had been in the right lane moved left and slowed down very quickly. There were two trucks behind the smaller vehicle, and they both had to move right to avoid rear-ending the private vehicle.
Unfortunately, in the process of changing lanes, the semi-tractor hit the box truck it was following in the rear, causing the box truck to jackknife and, eventually, flip over on the bridge near the trooper and the civilian. The civilian was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, and the trooper was taken to a nearby hospital. His condition was reported as stable following a surgery.
The accident will continue to be investigated, but this tragic story serves as a useful reminder about the importance of truck drivers making sure they have plenty of room to stop or respond in an emergency. It seems in this case that, because of a sudden change in the road conditions, the semi-tractor rear-ended a truck it had been following. Not giving enough following distance can cause serious truck accidents.
In any event, the injured trooper and the family of the man who died should explore whether this accident was caused by either trucker's negligence and should also consider pursuing compensation for their losses.
Source: Wave 3 News, "I-71 South reopened after deadly accident that injured a KSP trooper," Charles Gazaway, April 25, 2018.


Sherry was born and raised in Hawaii and attended college at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Travel Industry Management. After working for 10 years in the hotel industry, Sherry took a leap of faith into mortgage lending and hasn't looked back since.
Sherry joined Harbor Financial Group in 2013 and brings with her over 8 years of experience in both Mortgage Lending and Real Estate Sales. She holds active licenses in Hawaii as a Mortgage Loan Originator and Real Estate Sales Agent. Her main priority in every transaction is to help her clients meet their financial goals, whether short or long term. She pays great attention to detail and goes above and beyond to try and make the mortgage lending process as smooth and stress free as possible for everyone involved.
When she isn't working, you can usually find Sherry involved with her kid's extra-curricular activities or volunteering at their school. She is also actively involved in her church where she volunteers weekly and leads a women's group. Spending quality time with her husband and three children is what Sherry enjoys doing most with any free time that she has.


Petitioner, Leroy Henry Jones, an inmate confined at FCC Beaumont Medium, proceeding pro se, filed this petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241.
The court referred this matter to the Honorable Keith Giblin, United States Magistrate Judge, at Beaumont, Texas, for consideration pursuant to applicable laws and orders of this court. The Magistrate Judge recommends the petition for writ of habeas corpus be denied.
The court has received and considered the Report and Recommendation of United States Magistrate Judge filed pursuant to such referral, along with the record, and pleadings. Petitioner filed objections to the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation. This requires a de novo review of the objections in relation to the pleadings and the applicable law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b).
Petitioner objects to the findings of the Magistrate Judge that there was some evidence to support the DHO's findings and that the findings of the DHO were not arbitrary and capricious. In addition, petitioner argues the definition of BOP Prohibited Act Code 203 is vague.
At the outset, it is important to note that petitioner concedes that all the Wolff factors were met during his disciplinary hearing. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974). Furthermore, the underlying facts are not in dispute. During the relevant time period, petitioner became upset with Officer Gulickson, a Bureau of Prison ("BOP") staff member at FCI El Reno as he allegedly took several pictures of petitioner's granddaughter during a cell search. Petitioner later spoke to his son on the telephone about Officer Gulickson. During this conversation, petitioner's son said that he wanted to know Officer Gulickson's first name because he (the son) "might end up on [Officer Gulickson's] front porch." Petitioner told his son that he would provide him with Officer Gulickson's first name and that Officer Gulickson was the only staff member at FCI El Reno with that last name. A BOP staff member heard petitioner's phone call with his son through the use of the BOP's telephone monitoring system. Petitioner was subsequently found to have committed the prohibited act of threatening another with bodily harm (attempted/aid). Petitioner lost thirty (30) days of good conduct time as a result in addition to 45 days of disciplinary segregation and 90 days of loss of commissary, phone and visitation privileges. Report and Recommendation, pgs. 1-2 (docket entry no. 18).
Petitioner's words, as outlined above, can be reasonably interpreted as an attempt to aid or abet petitioner's son in threatening bodily harm on Officer Gulickson. As outlined by the DHO and the Magistrate Judge, these statements alone support the some evidence standard. Petitioner has simply not shown that the disciplinary findings were arbitrary or capricious. See Kuttab v. Jeter, 132 F. App'x 23 (5th Cir. 2005) (not designated); see also Stewart v. Thigpen, 730 F.2d 1002, 1005 (5th Cir. 1984); Martinez v. Young, 653 F. App'x 835, 836 (5th Cir. 2016) (not designated) (we need not undertake a de novo review of the DHO's findings of fact and must consider only whether there are at least "some basis in fact" or a "modicum of evidence" to support the disciplinary conviction").
Petitioner's argument that the definition of Prohibited Act Code 203 is unconstitutionally vague similarly lacks merit. "It is a basic principle of due process that a law is void for vagueness if its prohibitions are not clearly defined." Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108 (1972). In the context of prison regulations, "[d]ue process undoubtedly requires certain minimal standards of specificity in prison regulations, but we reject the view that the degree of specificity required of such regulations is as strict in every instance as that required of ordinary criminal sanctions." Meyers v. Aldredge, 492 F.2d 296, 310 (3rd Cir. 1974). Thus, "vagueness principles must be applied in light of the legitimate needs of prison administration." Id. at 311. Because "legalistic wrangling" over the meaning or prison rules "may visibly undermine the [prison] administration's position of total authority, " federal courts have deferred to the interpretation of those rules by prison authorities "unless fair notice was clearly lacking." Hadden v. Howard, 713 F.2d 1003, 1008 (3rd Cir. 1983) (quoting Meyers, 492 F.2d at 311)).
Prohibited Act Code 203 specifically and clearly prohibits threatening another with bodily harm. This is considered a high severity level offense. See Exhibit A Government's Response, Title 28 C.F.R. § 541.39(b)(2) (2013). Section 541.39(b) also states that "aiding, attempting, abetting, or making plans to commit any of the prohibited acts is treated the same as committing the act itself." Id. "In all categories of severity, aiding another person to commit any of these offenses, attempting to commit them, or making plans to commit them, is considered equivalent to committing the offense itself. In these cases, the letter "A" is combined with the offense code." Id. at Section 541.39(b)(5); BOP Program Statement 5270.09. The prohibition is clear and petitioner's perverted interpretation that his son's statement, "I might end up on his front porch" could mean anything other than a potential threat of harm, in light of the context of their conversation, simply defies logic. The conduct plainly violates the unequivocal prohibition against threatening another with bodily harm and/or aiding and abetting an individual in threatening another with bodily harm.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
William Ensign honored by Association of Southeastern Biologists
Meritorious Teaching Award presented during annual convention The Association of Southeastern…
Georgia (Apr 20, 2015) — Meritorious Teaching Award presented during annual convention
The Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB) recently honored Kennesaw State University Professor William E. Ensign with the Meritorious Teaching Award during its annual convention in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Ensign teaches a variety of courses in ecology and field biology in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology. Many of his courses emphasize aquatic systems. He has taught at Kennesaw State since 1997.
"This is the most affirming recognition I have ever received," Ensign said of the award. "Most of the nomination information for the award was drawn from a letter submitted by my former department chair, Don McGarey, and letters from my current and former students.
"The comments from the students literally brought tears to my eyes," Ensign said. "As an educator, you hope to be able to make a difference in the lives of the students with whom you interact, and reading through the letters made me realize that I have been able to do that. Ultimately, that is the best part about this award."
One of the highest achievements for excellence in teaching at the undergraduate and/or graduate level in biology in the Southeast, the Meritorious Teaching Award includes a $1,500 award.
Ensign, who has been a member of ASB since 1998, recently finished a three-year term as a member of ASB's Executive Committee and has served in a variety of other leadership roles in the association.
ASB is the largest scientific professional organization in the Southeast with about 1400 members from 220 academic and 60 non-academic institutions.
-- Robert S. Godlewski
For more information: www.sebiologists.org.


text:
Q: "Sling Blade Runner": efficient algorithm to find chain of overlapping movie titles? This problem is from the archived puzzle from ITA Software, Since the puzzle is retired I guess it is ok to discuss.

How long a chain of overlapping movie titles, like "Live and Let Die Another Day of the Dead Poet's Society", can you find?

I would like to know what is the best approach/algorithm to solve such puzzle.

A: This is a graph problem.
First you build a graph, where each vertex represents a movie. There is an edge (a,b) if the movie a end in the same word as the one with which the movie b starts.
Now you want to find the longest path in the graph. This is NP-complete problem, so it doesn't have polynomial solution. (wikipedia)


As a Financial Advisor, I find that it is crucial to educate my clients on investment knowledge and terminology. I understand that some learning curves are steeper than others, but it is my goal to make sure my clients feel comfortable with investment decisions and understand how we can help plan for financial success. One topic that has come up more lately due to the recent tax law changes is the difference between Traditional IRA's and ROTH IRA's – How do they work? How much can I contribute each year? Why does it matter?
In 1974, Congress enacted the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which created the Traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA).
The goal of a Traditional IRA is to take advantage of tax reductions from income now and save money to provide income in Retirement.
Traditional IRA contributions are tax deductible if certain requirements/eligibility is met. See IRA Deduction Limits here. This means that, if you meet the requirements, you can deduct the amount of your contribution from your income that year –which could result in lower amount of taxes owed.
You can open an IRA if you are under 70½ and are working or receiving long-term disability benefits.
You are required to take Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from your Traditional IRA once you turn 70½.
For 2018, you can contribute up to $5,500 per year to a Traditional IRA OR $6,500 per year if you are 50 and older.
In 1997, Congress enacted the Taxpayer Relief Act, which created the ROTH IRA.
The goal of a ROTH IRA is to create tax-free withdrawals and Income in Retirement.
ROTH IRA Contributions are made up of after-tax dollars, meaning that you cannot deduct from your income taxes.
ROTH IRA withdrawals come out tax-free.
Individuals who think they may have a higher income tax bracket during retirement may find a ROTH IRA more beneficial - due to not paying taxes on withdrawals in Retirement (because they already paid taxes on the money they contributed, albeit at a lower tax rate).
You are NOT required to take Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from your ROTH IRA once you turn 70½.
You can contribute to your ROTH IRA past age 70½ .
There are many benefits to both a Traditional and ROTH IRA, it just depends on each individual's financial situation. You have the option of doing what is called a ROTH Conversion – which means turning your Traditional IRA Account into a ROTH IRA. In order to do so, you would be taxed upon your entire Traditional IRA Account, because it was tax-deferred. This may be beneficial if you have a year where your income tax rate would be low. Please keep in mind that we are not tax professionals and that you should consult your tax professional before making any decisions or transactions in any of your retirement accounts.
Please reach out to us here or schedule a complimentary call here if you would like to discuss your Retirement Accounts and how they can impact your financial well-being!
Some IRA's have contribution limitations and tax consequences for early withdrawals. For complete details, consult your tax advisor or attorney. Distributions from traditional IRA's and employer sponsored retirement plans are taxed as ordinary income and, if taken prior to reaching age 59 ½, may be subject to an additional 10% IRS tax penalty. Converting from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a taxable event. A Roth IRA offers tax free withdrawals on taxable contributions. To qualify for the tax-free and penalty-free withdrawal or earnings, a Roth IRA must be in place for at leastßive tax years, and the distribution must take place after age 59 ½ or due to death, disability, or a first time home purchase (up to a $10,000 lifetime maximum). Depending on state law, Roth IRA distributions may be subject to state taxes.


Because of the great heat of the day, the comparatively cool hours around dawn are valuable and much gets done. We are up at first light, just before six, but the Wodaabe women have been at work for an hour or more. The thorn bushes are hung with washing. The children are up and dressed and their mothers are out finding wood for the fire. After this they still have to prepare the food, milk the cows and fetch water from the creek.
As the bed forms the centrepiece of each family's living area, it doesn't surprise me to hear that the Wodaabe can't marry until they can afford one of their own. If they had mortgages, young Wodaabe couples would put them down on a bed. Another much-respected sign of wealth and status is the number and quality of your calabashes, the hollowed-out pumpkins, often painted and decorated, which are indispensable for cooking and eating.
Breakfast, and indeed every other meal, consists basically of milk and millet. The long, repetitive process of pounding the millet, usually entrusted to the young girls, is already underway, producing the soft, thudding rhythm that is the heartbeat of so many West African communities. After an hour, sometimes longer, the millet is ready to be mixed with water into the unappetising grey paste that will provide their nourishment for the day.


Will the New Federal Payday Loan Rule Give Consumers Better, Safer Options?
Are Payday Loan Rules Changes for the Better?
Payday loans aren't going away, but the CFPB can create a safer, more affordable small-loan market by including strong product safety standards.
Federal regulators have an opportunity to set rules for small-dollar lending for the first time, potentially saving American borrowers billions of dollars. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a new rule for this market in June.
After the announcement, I participated in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) about payday loan reform on June 27. Below are highlights and takeaways from the discussion, including what borrowers should know and how consumers can influence the proposed rule. Thank you to Redditors for participating in this dialogue. I enjoyed answering your questions on this important topic.
Please note: Some questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What is the most common misconception about payday loans?
A: People who use payday loans are actually pretty typical consumers, which is surprising to some. They have checking accounts, which is a requirement for getting a loan (so they're "banked"). They have income, which is also a requirement, and they make about $30,000 a year on average. (That's about $15 an hour.) Most are also experienced with credit. More than 90 percent have a conventional credit score; most have credit cards, but they are maxed out. Forty-one percent own homes, etc.
So, bottom line: Despite conventional wisdom, most payday borrowers are mainstream financial consumers, and most—7 in 10—use the loans to pay ordinary expenses like bills, not to cover some unexpected emergency.
Q: I heard that the CFPB proposed the first federal rules for payday loans. Why did it take them so long?
A: This is the first time we'll have a federal rule, but payday loans have been regulated at the state level since their inception. After the financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act gave the CFPB permission to set federal rules for these loans. Since then, the bureau has been studying this market, and it's put out several papers to demonstrate how harmful these loans are for borrowers.
The new rule will take some time to implement, but states will still have a strong role to play, such as continuing to set interest rates. So we need both the federal and the state pieces.
Q: What is missing from current reform efforts?
A: The CFPB has a historic opportunity to get this right, but the proposal they published in June misses the mark. Although it moves the market from two-week, lump-sum-payment loans to installment loans paid back over months, payday lenders will still be able to charge annual percentage rates (APRs) of 400 percent or more, and lower-cost providers, particularly banks and credit unions, will be locked out of the market.
Bottom line: Payday loans aren't going away, but the CFPB can create a safer, more affordable small-loan market by including strong product safety standards, such as limiting loan payments to 5 percent of a borrower's paycheck and terms to no more than six months. Also, our research shows that banks and credit unions could make small-dollar loans at scale that cost six times less than payday loans, but reform efforts so far haven't included the clear regulatory guidelines needed to make that happen. The CFPB could do that with improvements to its proposed rule.
Your voice is important. You can urge the CFPB to fix the problems with the proposal.
Q: A 400 percent APR is just insane. Why are payday lenders allowed to charge so much?
A: Loan pricing is typically limited by law. Today, 46 states and the District of Columbia cap rates for some types of consumer loans. It's the normal and traditional thing to do in consumer finance markets: In fact, all of the original 13 colonies did it. But starting about 25 years ago, some states started creating special carve-outs in their usury laws to allow short-term small-dollar lending. That's what allows payday lenders to charge rates of 300 percent, 400 percent, and even more. Payday loan stores operate in 36 states.
Q: Do you think people who take payday loans are generally aware of the situation they are putting themselves in?
A: We've been talking with borrowers around the country for five years through surveys and in 22 focus groups. Mostly people are concerned with paying a bill today rather than the expense of the loan or whether they can afford the payment a couple of weeks down the road.
As one borrower in a focus group said, payday loans are "sweet and sour," because the credit helps, but paying it back busts his budget. So they don't have great options, and payday loans are so expensive and have payments that are so large that they often make the situation worse. But credit can be useful when people are in a tough spot. We've got to bring prices down and make payments affordable so small lending actually helps. Check out our write-up of borrowers' decision-making process.
Q: There are a good number of competing payday loan suppliers, so how do you lower the prices?
A: Oddly, the states with the most payday loan companies have the highest prices, even though competition normally lowers prices. It turns out that payday loans are mostly expensive because the lenders are inefficient: The average store serves only 500 unique customers each year and spends two-thirds of its revenue on overhead.
If the CFPB sets clear standards, banks and credit unions are ready to step up and offer loans at prices six times lower. So borrowing $400 for three months from a payday lender on average costs about $360, but banks and credit unions can make that loan profitably for $50 to $60.
Q: Do payday and other small-dollar lending markets exhibit the same regressive cross-subsidies as credit card markets?
A: Here's how I tend to think about it: Is what you see what you get? A payday loan today is packaged as a two-week loan with a fixed fee of about $55 on average. But the typical borrower is in debt for almost half a year and pays more than $500 in fees before getting out from under a payday loan debt.
In general, that's how the payday loan business model works. It's not profitable unless the average borrower renews or reborrows over the course of several months. It's true that a small percentage of borrowers (less than 15 percent or so) use only one or two and then walk away, but they represent only 2 or 3 percent of a lender's revenue. The vast majority of revenue comes from typical borrowers who have to roll over or renew the loans repeatedly because they cannot afford to lose one-third or more of their paycheck and still make ends meet without borrowing again.
Q: Is it true that one of the biggest competitors with payday loans is bounced check fees?
A: It is true that a lot of payday borrowers are hit with numerous bounced check fees when payday lenders try to collect on the loans. Overdraft fees are also common. For example, nearly half of online borrowers reported that withdrawals caused overdrafts, and 1 in 5 reported having a deposit account closed in connection with an online payday loan.
Our research shows that if monthly payments are limited to 5 percent of a borrower's paycheck, borrowers can afford to pay their loans back and stay current on other bills without incurring other overdraft fees.
Q: Do you feel hopeful that realistic legislative steps can be taken to curtail and regulate this industry?
A: Yes. In fact, some states, such as Colorado, have successfully implemented new rules that protect borrowers while ensuring that small-dollar credit remains available. Colorado law replaced two-week lump-sum loans with six-month installment loans that are paid down smoothly over time and cut prices by two-thirds. As a result, Colorado borrowers save over $40 million each year.
State legislators in Alabama and Nebraska introduced bills to follow suit and tried to implement viable consumer protections that make sure that borrowers can access safe small loans with reasonable payments and terms. Those bills didn't pass on their first try, but a good CFPB rule could improve their prospects for success next time.
Q: This seems like an industry that has reached its peak and must be scaled back and replaced with better options.
A: I think it would be fair to think of payday loans as kind of an experiment that states began 20 or 25 years ago, when folks were thinking about how to make small amounts of credit available to people with poor credit histories. That experiment failed, but studying it has shown us a better way to do it.
To send the CFPB a comment on the proposed payday loan rule, visit this link.


What: Barbecue: Smoke, Sauce and History, Southern Foodways Symposium.
Where: Barnard Observatory at University of Mississippi, Oxford.
Cost: $360 for registration; $325 for members of the Southern Foodways Alliance, which is organizing the event.
More information: (662) 915-5993 or http://www.southernfoodways.com and click on SFA symposium.
J. C. Hardaway of Big S Grill on Dunnavant will be in a "dueling barbecue sandwich" lunch event with Devin Pickard of Papa KayJoe's in Centerville, Tenn.
*	Lolis Eric Elie, author of Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country, will discuss "barbecue geography: the taste of the place."
*	Marcie Ferris will give a Southern Jewish perspective on barbecue. Ferris, a native of Arkansas, is writing a doctoral dissertation on food ways of Southern Jews.
*	Jack Hitt, a native of Charleston S.C., will discuss sauces and race relations.
*	Calvin Trillin, a barbecue lover from Kansas City, food book author and contributor to the New Yorker, will offer his "reflections of a hungry boy."
I am currently pulling every string I have to obtain free passes to this event.
How much just to sniff around?
Researcher Eric Friedl will be delivering readings from his work in progress, "Sputniks to Slaw: Effects of the US/Russia Space Race on Barbecue Sandwiches in Como, MS during the Cold War" with assistants Sherman Wilmott and Chris Martel.
Should be enough to get in the door.
Mebbe I can finagle some passes if I cover this for the university paper.
Q: Just what do sauces and race relations have to do with one another? I'm curious.
oh, maybe they meant he'd discuss sauces "in adddition to" discussing race relations.
Worst case scenario, we go as J.C.'s "entourage." You know--carry his fork, make sure he has proper set of cooking mitts, wipe sweat from his brow occasionally while standing over the pit, make sure nobody fucks with J.C. or his ride. Occasionally say, "Right on, J.C." or "That's right, boss." Seemed to work for Tyson's posse (the boxer, not the chicken king).
yeah, but JC ain't going out like Tyson.
it does seem like a workable plan.
if we push the vince mcmahon factor in barbecue up, we can option "iron bbq chef" to the food network and make hundreds.
shoot, shouldn't be throwing all my good ideas away... oh well.
Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips: A tantalizing and deadly mystique. Can such a daft (and british) snack ever find its place next to a steaming pile of rib meat?
The Bratwurst: Many southerners may discard the "Brat" as a german hot dog, a midwestern treat ranking among american cheese and ketchup on the culinary totem pole. Digging deeper, we see the Bratwurst as a rich cultural icon containing as much history as the pork shoulder itself. Can these icons ever merge so that one day, our children may enjoy a brat and a pork sandwich on the same table?


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Bronx Bounceback: Venue Bringing in Big Shows
Posted by Eric Renner Brown | Dec 1, 2019 | Theaters & Clubs | 0
BERSERK IN THE BRONX: More than 7,500 Halloween revelers attend "Garden of Madness" at New York Expo Center. (Courtesy Dean Entertainment Group)
Promoter Eddie Dean's New York Expo Center now a concert destination
The Bronx has one of the deepest, most diverse music histories of New York. Its status as a piano manufacturing hub earned it the title of the "Piano Capital of the United States" in the early 20th century, Afro-Caribbean music dominated midcentury and, famously, the borough is hailed as the birthplace of hip-hop.
Its cultural cachet has flagged in recent decades, but veteran promoter Eddie Dean is working to resurrect it.
"It's no different than 15 years ago with Brooklyn," said Dean, who compared the once "snickered at" borough's rise to where he thinks the Bronx is headed. "The South Bronx has been gentrifying for some time now; this isn't really new. But often (in) emerging areas, the transition is led by art, music, culture. It only makes sense that, musically, we've been able to bring these shows of such magnitude up there."
Dean, who founded Dean Entertainment Group (formerly RPM Presents), has been at the forefront of New York nightlife for years, as owner of Brooklyn club Schimanski and closed Manhattan mecca Pacha, and as a promoter who has staged massive events and festivals.
Among Dean's frequent venues were Manhattan's Pier 36 and Pier 94, where he'd often stage events for "Big Week," the period between Christmas and New Year's when he likes to pull out all the stops. When the piers announced they'd no longer host concerts, Dean went in search of a new venue.
He predominantly scouted in Brooklyn and Queens, and when he got a tip about a space in the Bronx's Hunts Point neighborhood he was, like many New Yorkers, skeptical.
"I went, I saw the site, and I really fell in love with the venue and its aesthetic," he said. "It's got great bones, as they say."
With New York Expo Center, Dean has found a new home "for the big dogs." In early November, his "Garden of Madness" event, presented in conjunction with Tomorrowland, drew more than 7,500 fans to the space, which features a 90,000-square-foot interior, including a 60,000-square-foot main event space. For Big Week, DEG has three sold-out Eric Prydz shows and an Above & Beyond New Year's concert on the books.
Dean has embraced the challenge of outfitting New York Expo Center's raw warehouse space for his one-off shows, using the team he built staging one-night blowouts and the operational skills he learned from years of hosting up to 4,000 patrons a night at Pacha.
"It's just a very expensive endeavor, and there's very, very, very little room for error," he said. "You can't take any shortcuts. You have to build a formidable venue with proper production. You really have to have everything working for you. You have to have a really good, strong act that you're confident can sell the tickets."
But the upside's worth it. In October 2017, Dean staged his first show at the venue, securing Travis Scott to headline a Halloween gig, just before the rapper ascended to arenas. ("Best night of my life," Scott wrote on Instagram afterward.) Two months later, Dean brought in Zeds Dead and Jauz; after taking last year off at the venue, he returned with the "Garden of Madness," which also featured an elaborate 10,000-square-foot haunted house by Blood Manor.
"The venue's just great," Dean said. "There's great production ability there. It allows for you to do a custom production. Everyone's wants and needs are different."
At New York Expo Center, Dean has sought to mix up programming in a way that'll draw a range of patrons and spread the word about both the venue and the borough it's in. Even his electronic programming has spanned subgenres such as electronic dance music and bass. (Non-DEG events, like Ozuna and the A$AP Mob's Yams Day, have also been held there, and electronic promoter Teksupport will hosted an installment of German electronic fest Time Warp Nov. 22-23.)
"I'd like to double the amount of shows that we did this year," he said. "Our vision is to diversify programming. I'm not going to pigeonhole myself by doing any one particular thing. I'm just all about doing great events."
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Arthur Breur – Composer for Hire
"Music Drawn from Your Heart"
Arthur Breur focuses on composing personalized melodic music for live performance, for everything from solo instrument or voice to full orchestra, concert band, and other large ensembles.
He is the Composer in Residence for the Tualatin Valley Community Band and the Tualatin Valley Symphony, working not just to create new music, but to promote the creation and performance of new music by others.
Arthur Breur started seriously studying piano as a child of eight after his grandmother Jocelyn passed away. The two had been very close, and his weekend stays at her home inevitably included him asking her to play piano.
At ten he started taking lessons, having already taught himself a variety of music in those two years, including various movie score themes and ragtime pieces. He gradually discovered that he enjoyed composing and playing his own music more than playing what was assigned to him by his piano teacher.
From the start, his compositions were very affected by the music in movies and on television. It is not in jest that he points to the music performed on such television shows as "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company", and "The Muppet Show"—not to mention the superb songs of "School House Rock"—as sources of inspiration. Further, many excellent scores for movies of that time, such as Escape to Witch Mountain, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek, and others, fascinated him and formed his ideas on how music should "work"—with accessible, easily remembered themes that can be associated with specific things, people, or feelings. His music was also heavily influenced by an excellent music program at his childhood church.
By that time he had been studying piano for eight years, he had composed more than a dozen pieces, and had taken a college-level music theory course. He studied piano performance and composition and got his Bachelor of Music degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. His college piano instructor worked with his desire to compose by assigning him works by composers that inspired him. Works by Prokofiev and Ravel in particular influenced his compositional tone considerably. Around this time, Danny Elfman's film music also came to his attention and provided yet another dimension of sound to pursue.
In the early 1990s, he collaborated with lyricist, comedian, and singer, Cristopher Blake. Between them they wrote more than twenty songs, many of which were performed live at various Los Angeles cabarets and open-mic nights.
Over the more than 35 years he has been composing, he has written more than 120 individual pieces, including works for five weddings, two Christmas revues, numerous videos, and one short film, Leah (2008), directed by Neil H. Weiss.
Arthur Breur currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his husband, Brian, whom he met in 1996.
Recent Projects & Commissions
Project Dates Pending: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" ballet.
2022 – "How Annabelle Came To Be On That Island" – narrated work for children, arranged to be performed with either concert band or orchestra, with accompanying coloring book and illustrated storybook. Planned for spring 2022 premieres with the Tualatin Valley Symphony and the Tualatin Valley Community Band.
2021 – "Amber the Ambitious Arachnid", narrated work arranged for string orchestra and fixed media or full orchestra, scheduled for completion in fall of 2021.
2021 – Commissioned to compose a solo piano work for a bat mitzvah.
2019 – "AREA A" Suite – Composed two movements ("I. The Healer*" and "II. Taking Flight") of this 5-movement suite, collaborating with composers Kathering Bergman, Garrett Hope, and Chris Teichler. (*The Healer was arranged for concert band by Garrett Hope; Taking Flight was composed and arranged by Arthur Breur.) Premiered by the Tualatin Valley Community Band on December 8, 2019.
2018 – Composed "Tuesday Night Overture" by commission for the 30th Anniversary of the Tualatin Valley Community Band. Premiered December 2, 2018.
2018 – Commissioned to compose a solo piano work for a bar mitzvah.
2017 – Composed "Tualatin Overture" for the Tualatin Valley Symphony, premiered May 21, 2017. Tualatin Overture was proclaimed the official overture of the City of Tualatin, Oregon in June 2017.
2016 – Composed the official march for the US Army's 44th Air Defense Artillery, "Per Ardua".
Tuesday Night Overture by Arthur Breur. Premiered by the Tualatin Valley Community Band on December 2, 2018.
(Notes from the composer…)
Tualatin Overture by Arthur Breur. Performed by the Tualatin Valley Symphony on May 21, 2017.