General Ademi promised to surrender voluntarily to The Hague. General Gotovina, however, refused to recognise the tribunal and disappeared from view over a week ago. A court in Zagreb has ordered his arrest, but there is speculation he has already fled the country. Some sources claim he is in Paraguay.
Croatian prime minister Ivica Račan weathers confidence vote over decision to extradite two army generals to The Hague Croatia's coalition government survived a marathon 16-hour parliamentary session on Monday, winning a crucial vote of confidence over its controversial acceptance of a Hague war crimes tribunal request to hand over two army generals.
The 151-member chamber voted by 93 to 36 to back the cabinet, a resounding seal of approval for the administration's policy of cooperation with the tribunal. It ensured that Prime Minister Ivica Račan emerged strengthened from a crisis, which had threatened early parliamentary elections.
The crisis erupted when Dražen Budiša, president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party, HSLS, opposed the decision to send two generals, Rahim Ademi and Ante Gotovina, to The Hague. The HSLS is the second largest party in Croatia's six-member coalition government, with five ministers in the cabinet, including deputy prime minister Goran Granić, in charge of dealings with The Hague.
On July 7, the day the cabinet was due to vote on the tribunal's request, Budisa said the indictments against the generals were unacceptable because they accuse the entire Croatian people of genocide. Budiša insisted his ministers vote against Racan's policy of cooperation. At the cabinet session, however, two HSLS ministers voted for extradition, two abstained and one voted against. The vote was carried, but given the HSLS's stated position on the issue, the party's five ministers resigned from their posts, triggering the confidence vote.
The Hague indictments against the two Croatian army commanders were announced only days after Serbia extradited former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević to The Hague. Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte visited Zagreb on July 6 to confirm the indictments.
The HSLS ministerial resignations prompted speculation that the coalition government would collapse. Some analysts predicted Budiša's deputies would vote alongside the nationalist parties, led by the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, in the vote of confidence. Such a setback for Račan's administration could have precipitated early elections.
But the split between the HSLS ministers during the cabinet vote on July 7 indicated deep divisions within Budisa's party over the whole issue of cooperation with the tribunal. While Budiša and his backers claimed extradition of the two generals would endanger Croatian national interests, others within the HSLS, headed by Granić, argued non-cooperation would result in damaging international isolation for the country.
On July 11, internal pressure within the HSLS forced Budiša to stand down as party president. Jozo Radoš, who'd just resigned as defence minister, took over as acting chairman. Only four of the HSLS's 24 deputies voted against the government in the confidence motion, delivering a definite defeat to the Budiša faction within the party.
Račan's cabinet will continue to govern for the time being, despite the HSLS departures. The prime minister announced a new cabinet would be formed in September.
An official from Croatian president Stjepan Mesić's office, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed Budisa's actions stemmed from an agreement he struck with Croatia's former leader president Franjo Tuđman in autumn 1999.
The official said Budiša and Tuđman agreed that the HDZ would recognise the victory of the then opposition parties and would discreetly support Budiša's candidacy in the presidential elections. In return, continued the official, Budisa took upon himself an obligation that upon taking over power he and his party would do everything to prevent the prosecution of prominent members of the HDZ and members of the Tudjman family.
Ademi and Gotovina are charged with responsibility for war crimes in their capacities as commanding officers. Ademi, a Croatian Albanian, is accused of involvement in the deaths of around 100 Serb prisoners of war and civilians while he served as a commanding officer on the Lika front, in an area called the Medak Pocket, in 1993. Gotovina is accused of having a hand in the deaths of 300 Serb civilians during the Croatian army's Storm offensive in 1995.
The Veterans' Associations have protested loudly against cooperation with the tribunal and the extradition of the two officers. But so far they have not brought their supporters out onto the streets. Some of its leaders, though, have threatened to block motorways at the height of the tourist season. But after Račan warned that the police would intervene to prevent such action, no such incidents have taken place.
Perhaps the biggest surprise amidst all the furore, was an open letter in support of the two generals, signed by 11 internationally-recognised Croatian sportsmen, including the newly crowned Wimbledon tennis champion Goran Ivanišević. It later transpired that Ivanišević, whose signature was allegedly scanned onto the letter, only partially agreed with the contents. The tennis star said he opposed the unconditional extradition of generals, but not cooperation with The Hague and the establishment of responsibility for war crimes.
What appears to have been forgotten by the opponents of the tribunal is that the constitutional law allowing for cooperation with The Hague was passed several years ago by a parliament dominated by the HDZ, the party now so overtly opposed to the policy. It was this law which enabled the Croatian government to extradite Tihomir Blaškić, a Bosnian Croat general in the Croatian army, in 1998. Blaškić is now serving a 45 year sentence for his role in the Ahmići massacre and other war crimes.
Events have turned out much better than Račan could have predicted when he took the controversial decision to hand Ademi and Gotovina over to The Hague.
A senior official from Račan's Social Democratic Party, the main party in the coalition government, said the vote of confidence and the departure of Budiša from the helm of the HSLS could ensure that Croatia now presses ahead with reforms previously hindered by Budiša's presence and nationalist flirtations.


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WA Theatre Reviews & Database
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WA Theatre Database
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The Keys to the Animal Room
21/11/2013 admin uncategorised Comments Off on The Keys to the Animal Room
'The Keys to the Animal Room' is a powerful adult drama, crafted by Melbourne based lecturer, author and playwright, Peta Murray. This commissioned play won an Australian Writers' Guild Award in 1994.
This 100-minute drama is being produced by the Murdoch Theatre Company, and presented at the Murdoch University Drama Workshop, off car park, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch.
There are four shows nightly at 7.00, with the final show on Saturday 16th November. There is also one matinee at 3.00 pm on Saturday.
Phil Collins' prophetic song, 'In the Air Tonight' fades. It is shortly before a Christmas in the mid-1990s and something is certainly in the air. The scene is a sitting room that has been trashed, the contents are strewn everywhere (set design Daley King).
Soft, loving Julie (Tenielle Clarke) and demanding Carl (Rhys Hyatt) have been married for several years. Now both sides of the families are gathered, riddled with guilt and worried about what has happened to Julie, a wreck, who is sitting on the floor with a blank look that hides so many tragic emotions.
In the room with Julie is her brother, police constable Tony (Andrew Dawson), her lesbian sister-in-law, Penny (Leah Toyne), her widowed father-in-law, Barry (Laughton Mckenzie) who hasn't been the best of fathers over the years. The scenes flash back and forth throughout the play; from their childhood to the present day marriage.
We see Julie moving in with Carl. Into a house that he originally bought along with his previous fiancée – who left him! Even here, despite the bewitched Julie's care and love, Carl is a total bastard.
The lighting design (Daley King) is restrained and with well-chosen lamp cell colours. The operation (Rebecca Thompson) is subtle and flows well with the emotions. A hanging birdcage, well up in the set, casts a shadow on the wall reminding us of the captured creatures that – like Julie – we keep for our own entertainment. The mood is completed by simple soundscape of almost plodding music from Aiden Willoughby (operated by Launcelot Ronzan). The costumes (Cassee Lazic, Shannon Rogers) have been well considered, adding to the personalities of each character and the era.
The author cleverly feeds snippets of the characters to the audience as she travels back and forward in time. She employs metaphors and symbolism such as the layers of babushka dolls. Just when you think that you understand the logic of the character, your feelings swing.
Thanks to the sympathetic direction you can see the tension building in the characters as they hide their feelings and paper over the cracks, bury their heads in the sand and refuse to discuss the problems on hand.
As the audience sit watching the apathy or disinterest of the family members, one wonders if we too have been complicit in such happenings. I am sure we know friends that have suffered like this – but could we have done something to protect them? Are we bringing up our children in the caring environment we were? If so, is it the correct one? The questions fly around your head as you leave the auditorium.
This play is the most powerful that I have seen both in community and professional theatre for a long time. It left the whole audience breathless. It is the genre that if handled even slightly wrongly by the actors or the by the directors, could have been a disaster. The co-directors Amy Murray and Rebecca Thompson have bravely taken on an extremely difficult play to produce effectively as their first major directing task. The challenging script is strongly narrative-based, and because the actors have to feel easy with rapid and powerful dialogue the directors were wise to allow actors' input.
When actors argue often the dialogue becomes gabbled and indistinct, so it is important to let them find their own, natural level of pace to match the body language.
I have known Tenielle Clarke's admirable work for several years now, and this is her crowning glory, she completely captured the depth of the young woman's anger, grief and passion perfectly. The performances by the whole cast were superb, but Tenielle Clarke and Rhys Hyatt just blew us away. As the time went back and forward throughout the seven years of marriage, Tenielle had to change in a split second from a wife who is depressed, to nervous, one totally besotted by her new husband and then back to despair. Rhys was totally convincing as the irrational husband, and one could genuinely believe that he was in fact married to Tenielle with mood swings triggered by jealousy and self-doubt. Rhys has also had a varied career, and has tried many theatre genres with success.
The pace, the chemistry the subtle showing of emotions left everyone stunned. It certainly wasn't an easy 'watch', and at times it was difficult not to rush onto the stage and protect poor Julie or to attack her diabolical husband. With such a drama, the silence at the end before the applause is a guide to success, but when the whole audience sit in total silence for minutes after a play finishes – that is a triumphant success.
A production of this quality doesn't come around very often, so please try and catch it.
Australian Writers' Guild AwardMurdoch University Drama WorkshopPeta Murraystudent
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The class came in, a bit effervescent but not too bad. Just as everyone was settling down Sarah, Chloe and Lucy arrived vivaciously chatting. "This is the last thing I need", thought Kate, "now everyone's going to be infected by this and get lively." Her headache gave a massive twinge. Something turned inside her and she heard an hysterical edge in her voice.
Meanwhile Sarah was standing, bag in hand, watching events unfold. Lucy trickled over to the bag store and deposited her bag, thoroughly deflated. Chloe was now also taking her things out of her bag. Sarah went to her seat, took her things out of her bag, and stowed the bag under the table. Kate could not figure out whether she was looking at her with a look of pity, contempt, or insolence. Somehow she got the idea that it would not be a good idea to insist Sarah put her bag in the bag store. "Well at least they seem to have got the message", Kate thought.
Chloe kept offering to do things for Kate, causing Kate to become increasingly exasperated with her because she was not getting on with her work.
Sarah spent a lot of time chatting to those around her. When Kate asked her to get on with her work she either said "I am" or "In a minute".
By the third week Kate realised something had gone wrong but by then she had forgotten the Friday almost two weeks ago. Things seemed to be getting worse, rather than better and she couldn't figure out why the girls had become so difficult all of a sudden. She had always prided herself on having good relationships with her students…..


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Home A&E Off the Cuff The Condom with More Than One Purpose
The Condom with More Than One Purpose
Off the Cuff with Naughty Bags' Sara Rude and Ned Brown
by Megan Leonard
Naughty Bags is a quirky, free condom launched last summer in collaboration between Diverse & Resilient, an LGBTQ youth organization, and the PR marketing firm Cramer-Krasselt. From colors to brand names, Naughty Bags was designed with input from teen groups in communities around the city. Off the Cuff spoke with Cramer-Krasselt's Public Relations Supervisor Sara Rude and Group Creative Director Ned Brown.
What sparked the creation of Naughty Bags?
Ned Brown: It got its start working with Diverse & Resilient. In Milwaukee the campaigns to talk to young adults and teens to get them to practice safe sex or abstain has been fairly successful in the last couple of years. However, what they have been finding is that in certain ZIP codes the work was not impacting the neighborhoods. The difference was over three times higher teen pregnancy rates. The other issue we found was that the infant mortality rate for kids coming into the world from these neighborhoods was parallel to Third World countries like Botswana and Jamaica.
How have you gotten teens/youth involved in the campaign?
Ned Brown: We started by doing teen input sessions with groups of teens from specific ZIP codes. We would begin by getting them comfortable with us and having a good dialogue about sex, protection and their lives. Through ongoing input sessions, we started to find out that they know that they should be using protection. It's not that they don't know, it's that they aren't. This comes from a whole series of issues and reasons like billboards saying "use protection," which take the form of the establishment talking to them, and so they don't resonate with them. They just ignore them. They'll choose their own credibility over health and safety in that moment because condoms are "not cool."
We came to realize that the issue wasn't about creating another ad campaign that tries to scare them or make them think seriously about something, but about changing the product. We knew we needed to create stuff that they thought was cool. We had several more input sessions with them where we would go in and talk names and colors and designs and talk about art and what they liked. From all of that we started to get an understanding about what things were appealing to them. For the names, we used euphemisms for condoms such as Ham Holster and Papa Stopper. The overall name of Naughty Bags came from these input sessions.
How did you create the physical product and distribute it?
Ned Brown: Once we landed on the idea of reinventing the condom, the second part was how to get them into their hands. What we quickly realized through more conversations with them, is that there are a lot of barriers in obtaining condoms. They may have to take several bus routes to get to a Planned Parenthood or get a lecture from a school nurse. They don't want to be lectured on abstaining because these are the teens that already are sexually active and have chosen to be. From a distribution standpoint we also looked at how can we reinvent how they're distributed. This led us to Diverse & Resilient who already have an established condom program, 414ALL, that's free.
How did you reinvent how the condoms were distributed?
Sara Rude: We looked at ways to break down the barriers. Barber shops are a place where they go and hang out frequently, so we looked at creating little free condom dispenser units branded with Naughty Bags. Another key way we found was finding places where they would feel anonymous. We developed the idea of taking old newspaper boxes and redesigning them with newspapers that nobody would want to read. One was called Bird Watching Monthly and Beekeeping Weekly, the birds and the bees. These were located around the city and offered free condoms that people could find through social media like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
What has the impact been on the community?
Sara Rude: Since launching, there have been around 30,000 distributed. We have had another few barber shops sign on. We also had national and international coverage. They're opening up the conversation about safer sex and giving parents or caregivers an opportunity to open up the conversation in an approachable way.
What's next for Naughty Bags?
Sara Rude: Down the road, if we could design more and get more people in the community involved we would love to do that. Naughty Bags is not going away.
Ned Brown: It's an important problem and it's a big one and it's something that you can't just flip a switch and think it's all good. We know we want to keep figuring out how to make a difference.
free condoms Planned Parenthood Cramer-Krasselt 414ALL Ned Brown Naughty Bags free condoms in Milwaukee Diverse & Resilient Sara Rude condoms


This program is broken into 2 phases, Fall and Winter - see details below and on the next page.
There are various time options on Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus a 7.30am Saturday session.
Packages and pricing is included when you click through for Fall/Winter options.
Phase 1 has a focus on pedal technique, efficiency and strength.
Phase 2 builds speed, endurance and power - Tuesday & Thursday workouts will gradually build from 60mins to (up to) 75mins.
LOCATION: Penticton Community Centre – Meeting Room 4.
Equipment Requirements: Your own bike with cadence/speed cyclo-computer and your own Mag or Fluid (stationary) trainer is required. Cycle shoes and clothing, towel, drink, Heart Rate Monitor optional, but preferred.
FLEXIBILITY WITH TIMES - Indicate your preferred class time. Flexibility to change between classes on any given Tuesday or Thursday session is OK – space permitting.
*AERO-SATURDAYS – Almost always aerobic. Moderate workout intensities with a focus on endurance development. A complement to your mid-week training. Never boring! 7.30am start - 90 minutes through the fall season, building up to 3 hours during March 17th, 2019.
FEES: Please see sign-up page for details for various options.
DROP-INS: Are generally not recommended due to the progressive nature of the program, however, we understand that in some cases it's not possible or practical for some people to commit to the entire program. Drop-in fee for a Tuesday or Thursday session is $15 and Saturdays (min 90min) have a $20 drop-in fee.
PRO-RATED OPTION: If you plan to miss a specific block of time during a program (a week or more) we will "pro-rate" the fee by $20 to $30 per week.
ATTENTION FIRST TIMERS – If you're NEW TO THIS and don't have a trainer, then please contact triathlonwarrior@gmail.com and ask for a demo. THERE IS A NO-COMMITMENT START-UP – TRY A CLASS. IF YOU CHOOSE NOT TO CONTINUE, YOU OWE NOTHING!!
LOANER TRAINERS: We do have a limited number of Tacx Mag trainers available for demo classes.
Phase 1 - Fall 2018 - 8 weeks - Now Closed!
October 30th to December 22nd, 2018 - The Fall Season Indoor Cycling PERFORMANCE sessions are indoor-trainer workouts designed for cyclists and triathletes with coaching on technique, skills, efficiency and strategy and how to apply that out on the road. You may be a social rider, a cyclist to stay in shape through the winter, a Gran Fondo rookie, a competitive road racer or an Ironman triathlete and will benefit from this program.
The Winter Season Indoor Cycling PERFORMANCE sessions are indoor-trainer workouts designed for cyclists. Coaching focus progresses through technique efficiency, strength drills, to power intervals, time trials, race simulations and includes various 'test-sets' and other 'challenge' workouts.
For info on COACHING with a PERSONALIZED PROGRAM that includes unlimited Indoor Cycling Classes, CLICK HERE.


"All kinds of dangerous elements are trying to infiltrate into Azerbaijan,"
"The election will be conducted in a calm manner and the Azerbaijani"
"Their actions were morally ugly. After spending so much time among us, they stabbed us in the back,"
"There will be clashes or peaceful demonstrations, ... under very tense conditions."
"We will not allow you to sit here, conspire with the opposition and give them money to overthrow the president,"
"The opposition seems to be very disorganized, weak, ... Their attempts to create a pre-revolutionary situation in Azerbaijan failed."
"Before, they used to tell you who to vote for, but not this time, ... The management of the elections is better today."
"The campaign was successful. Equal conditions were created for all candidates and that gives me hope the election will be democratic and transparent,"
"The idea that we should negotiate pipeline routes through Armenia in exchange for Armenia militarily freeing our territories is simply not a wise strategy. I'm against it.""


Akshara closed her eyes before taking a deep breath in . The tantalising freshness of the early morning air revived her senses . She , with utmost dedication , continued with her Pranayama even though the chilling arms of the breeze was bruising her delicate skin .
Opening her eyes , she gazed at the supple stretch of green land which lay ahead of her . It has been a month now since she has been following this routine . Never a moment did she find it a tad bit monotonous . The atmosphere was amazingly silent ; not a pitch higher could be heard anywhere . Yet, in that solitude she found herself conversing with her inner self the most . She was feeling better ,which was something she hasnt felt for a long time now . Yes , Silence is a great healer .
" Now you may retreat back to your room and take a bath . Breakfast will be ready in half an hour . Will meet you all downstairs . After which you would join for your physical rehabilitation session with Dr . Ankita . " The Yoga instructor conveyed in his usual mellow tone.
Akshara pulled herself up with much difficulty . The Yoga instructor walked to her .
" Good to hear that dear . Relax for a bit now . We will start the next session after breakfast ".
Akshara strolled back slowly to her room . As usual , her fingers grazed the flowers that stood garnering the window sills on the corridor . She leaned forward to kiss a rose bud which was starting to blossom . This was her most favourite place of the whole institution . There is something lively about the way the flower blooms . She harked back those days when she , along with her father, would go on teasing her Ma for toiling for hours in their garden.
She would utter seemingly confused , " Ma, arent flowers lifeless ? Why bother taking care of them when you could cook me one of those sweet dishes of your's ?. I am hungry ! ". To which her mother would reply patiently , " Nature heals the best Aksha . I wont blame you for speaking nonsensical . The fault lies in the virtual world the present generation sinks in " . Her father would sprinkle more oil into the flame with his usual remark , " Aksha , it seems that your Ma loves you a tad bit lesser than those Orchids " . She would put up a scorn while her father pretended to suppress his bout of chuckle .
How their silly fights would go on and on .
Now , ten years down the lane , she herself was the mother of a one year old . A single mother .
Somehow the bitter memories of the past year came flooding just at the thought of her family . That unfortunate day she lost her husband on their journey to Manu's wedding , the shattering moment she woke up from her deep slumber to realise that her life has changed for the worst , the struggles of her mind to adjust to the truth that she couldnot feel her baby's skin against her fingers , the nights she lay crying in muffled screams when the memories of her husband, once the best part of her life now transformed into nightmares .
The past one month felt like a fresh life to her . She was slowly gaining back the sense of her fingers, though the rehabilitation sessions were tough . Her hand would ache, like a million pins were being drilled through her skin . Yet she found color and joy here . More than that she was learning to come to terms with the fact that her Kiran is never ever going to wake her up with a kiss every morning .
Fumbling with the door knob for a while , she walked into her room . She looked with longiness at the beautiful face smiling at her from the photograph . Amidst all these , there was one thing that kept her going , pushing her forward fighting all hurdles and heartaches .
Her baby . For her , she needs to be back , she knew .
This post is a part of Write Over The Weekend initiative by Blogadda . The topic for this weekend is ' Silence Is A Great Healer ' .
Interesting perspective to silent fights..
Thanks for dropping by 🙂 hope you liked it . .
Lovely !! Maliny you really took the virtue of silence to a new level. Cute story, I loved the way it mould out 🙂 Thanks, keep writing. Take care!
Lovely tale ! So emotive !
i liked the way you dragged the characters throughout, it was like reading a novel.
Maliny.. that was something.. very emotional.. in silent ways.. that is just great writing..
Hi, Maliny Nice blog… and very helpful content in your blog. Good work keep it up.
Very good, I love to read this type posts!!


Mergers and acquisitions within the food industry were recorded by The Food Institute at 273 total deals through the first nine months of 2011, a 39.2% increase over the previous year's 196. Of the 273 transactions, 180 were completed and 93 remained unclosed or had fallen apart. In the third quarter of 2011, companies engaged in 77 mergers or acquisitions, or about 28.2% of the year-to-date total.
Upper Saddle River, NJ (Oct. 14, 2011) -Mergers and acquisitions within the food industry were recorded by The Food Institute at 273 total deals through the first nine months of 2011, a 39.2% increase over the previous year's 196. Of the 273 transactions, 180 were completed and 93 remained unclosed or had fallen apart. In the third quarter of 2011, companies engaged in 77 mergers or acquisitions, or about 28.2% of the year-to-date total. At the same time, private equity deal volume fell 23% in the third quarter from the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters data. The total number of third-quarter deals also declined by 9% from the second quarter.
M&A bankers stated that fears of a "double dip" recession, the European debt crisis and continued market volatility held up a lot of acquisition activity, and those problems are not anticipated to be resolved in the near future. Investment banks and investors showed particular interest in the retail industry, where the most significant acquisition was made by Beacon Holding Inc., an affiliate of Leonard Green & Partners, L.P., and funds advised by CVC Capital Partners, who purchased BJ's Wholesale Club in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.8 billion.
Other notable deals included the acquisition of Arby's Restaurant Group for $430 million by a Roark Capital Group in the third quarter. The Atlanta-based sandwich chain was divested by the Wendy's/Arby's Group, which will retain an 18.5% ownership interest in the Arby's business. On Oct. 3, Sara Lee Corp. also completed the sale of its North American Refrigerated Dough business to Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products, Inc., a division of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., for $545 million, a business that generated revenues in excess of $300 million in fiscal 2010. Finally, Diamond Foods, Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Pringles business from The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) in the third quarter, a transaction valued at $2.35 billion. Under the terms of a split-merge agreement, P&G will establish a separate entity to hold the Pringles business, which will be distributed to electing P&G shareholders in a tax-efficient transaction with a simultaneous merger with Diamond.
For the remainder of 2011, and looking ahead to next year, any stability gained over the past year evaporated in the minds of private equity buyers and firms looking to spend cash to expand in markets that are becoming more and more competitive. Consumer attitudes, commodity prices and thinning profit margins are all contributing to larger trends within the mergers and acquisitions market, and the comprehensive research and analysis performed by The Food Institute provides insight into the micro- and macroeconomic factors that impact the food industry. The 83-year old organization reports on markets within the sphere of food processors as well as the infrastructure supporting the industry and capital from private equity. Specifically, the Food Institute offers a constantly updated merger database, consumer and producer food price tracking, market reports and multiple publications that include specific data as well as information relevant to any individual or firm with a business interest in one of the many segments of the food industry.


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Back in 2011, our founder C. Max Magee pointed to the fan art of Chris Ayers, who was inspired by DFW's Infinite Jest. Now, Ayers has a new series, drawn from Margaret Atwood's MaddAdam trilogy, that illustrates the corporate horrors of the trilogy's fictional dystopia. Pair with Vanessa Blakeslee on Atwood's In Other Worlds.


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The Smaller Picture Zimbabwe The Smaller Picture Zimbabwe highlights the story of Nyasha, a child who inspired us to continue our efforts to fight against malnutrition. 27/11/2018 625KB
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Zimbabwe Common Cause Brief The brief highlights issues of access to health for every women and children in Zimbabwe through Universal Health coverage. It provides recommendations to ensure every child and woman has access to health 26/10/2017 719KB
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"Bats, they are sick. I cannot hit curveball. Straightball, I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid. I ask Jobu to come, take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come."
The saddest thing I ever did see was a woodpecker peckin' at a plastic tree.


A B.Tech in Computer Science from KIET, Ghaziabad, had her semester break and she was keen to learn a new skill. However, she was also desperate to get back home as soon as possible. Quite a conundrum! Wasn't it?
Luckily, she shared this with her senior who recommended her online training. She had qualms but got herself enrolled in an Android training. She had never been acquainted with Java before, but the content of the training suggested that it was perfect for a beginner like her.
By the end of the training, she had made Calculator and Notepad apps as assignments. After her college started, she also got an opportunity to test the practical applications of her learning.
She created a 'Mutual Book-Sharing' app for a contest during her college's technical fest and within a year, she also created an app, Uddeshya, for the social welfare group of her college. Now, she is planning to pursue a career as an app developer.
Everyone wishes to acquire new skills but more often than not, it becomes a task to choose the right one. It goes without saying that one must go for the field she is passionate about, but to provide you with some guidance here is a list of some of the popular training programmes you might want to do while you enjoy home-cooked food during the vacations.
This training programme will involve working in fields of HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, PHP, and MySQL. It is a perfect course for you to learn how to create a website from scratch. This course will help you understand the UI/UX (user interface and user experience) of a website and with start-ups booming more than ever, there are myriads of opportunities to hone your skills while earning.
This programme will help you learn how to create an android app along with various in-app features. You will learn XML for front-end development and Kotlin language for back-end development. This would provide you with the skills to develop an app that will work seamlessly across different Android devices.
This training will cover the basic concepts of Java and Object-Oriented Programming such as arrays, methods, and inheritance, polymorphism, classes etc. You will get to learn about Java FX and develop games using the same concepts.
This training will help you learn C++ and C language basics, techniques of integrating function sets, generic application development and general method of the architecture of business solutions. This will be a perfect guide for you to create software using C++.
This training will help you understand computer-aided drafting and design using AutoCAD. The learning from this will help you work on various civil or architectural related projects in the future.
This training covers the essential concepts on the building blocks of Python, object-oriented programming, the use of SQLite database and development of GUIs for Python applications.
These trainings can be pursued without having any prior experience. The only pre-requisite is hard work and perseverance and the learning and experience gained from it will help you in getting a job or an internship.
The post-exam break is a great time to utilize the hours to build up your skill-base and garnish your resume. Even if your inhibitions stop yourself from taking the plunge, have faith and embark on this journey of self-discovery and we're sure it will a great stepping stone to your career.


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Movies|'Addicted to Fresno,' a Comedy of Codependent Sisters
https://nyti.ms/1KQ6rwG
'Addicted to Fresno,' a Comedy of Codependent Sisters
Natasha Lyonne, left, and Judy Greer in "Addicted to Fresno."Credit...Gravitas Ventures
Addicted to Fresno
Directed by Jamie Babbit
By Neil Genzlinger
"Addicted to Fresno" is one of those comedies that seem not to care whether you laugh. Parts of it seem openly hostile to the idea.
Shannon (Judy Greer) and Martha (Natasha Lyonne) are mismatched sisters whose relationship is defined largely by Shannon's bad behavior. She is a sex addict whose licentious ways have gotten her into trouble, not to mention rehab, and as the story opens, she and Martha are working as hotel maids, with Martha trying to keep Shannon on, or at least near, the straight and narrow.
Soon, however, they have a body to dispose of, one of Shannon's sexual relapses having ended badly. The rest of the movie documents their efforts to deal with this problem, which, among other things, leads them to try their hand at robbery.
The film, directed by Jamie Babbit, features a few high-profile stars in small roles, among them Aubrey Plaza, Fred Armisen, Molly Shannon and Jessica St. Clair.
Ms. St. Clair is currently half of a female-buddy TV series called "Playing House," where she and Lennon Parham find a symbiosis that works. Ms. Greer and Ms. Lyonne never quite seem that comfortable, and the dour script by Karey Dornetto doesn't give them many opportunities to be anything but off-putting.
You can get away with this sort of thing if your humor is sharp, but here it's mostly sophomoric and rarely surprising.


Let's talk about Satoshi Nakamoto - the creator of Bitcoin.
You've probably heard his name in the news lately. That's because a man named Craig S. Wright recently claimed to be the man behind this pseudonym. He's almost certainly not, but we'll get to that later.
Craig S. Wright is the only person to claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto and actually provide some evidence to back it up. He's actually done it twice. But several people over the years have been accused of being Satoshi Nakamoto. Was he Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a 64-year-old Japanese-American former defense contractor? Or was he Hal Finney, a programmer working for the PGP corporation developing cryptography software, who died of ALS in 2014? Or even Nick Szabo, a cryptographer who in 2005 published the idea for a currency called "Bit Gold", which was strikingly similar to Bitcoin, released three years later?
We're going to go through all of these theories. But first, let's talk about what we know about Satoshi Nakamoto himself.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the identity, was born in May of 2008 when he published the original Bitcoin whitepaper to a cryptography mailing list. This whitepaper was a short eight-page overview, meant for technically-minded readers, about how such a system would work. Nakamoto had found a way to combine pre-existing cryptographic constructs in such a way to make a system like Bitcoin possible. Despite the novelty of a system that could allow money to be transmitted over the internet, Bitcoin wasn't immediately popular.
This original post can provide us with some clues as to who Satoshi Nakamoto is. For one, the name seems likely to be a pseudonym. The english in his original post is perfect, and certain words in the whitepaper are spelled in the British fashion. This suggests that Satoshi Nakamoto lived somewhere that is or was part of the UK. And this does not include Japan.
There is also something implied by the fact that he saw a need to create Bitcoin. This implies some amount of distrust of financial institutions and the government.
A few months later, in January of 2009, Nakamoto released version 0.1 of the Bitcoin software. With this, he created the "genesis block", the first block in the Bitcoin blockchain. This block included a message - it was the headline of the British newspaper The Times, and read "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks". This adds more evidence to the theory that Nakamoto is British, and that he sees a problem with the traditional banking system.
One of the first replies to Nakamoto's release of Bitcoin was by a man named Hal Finney. Finney was born in California in 1956, graduating from Caltech in 1981 with a BS in Engineering. He then went into video game development, with his credits including the Atari 2600 games Adventures of Tron, Armor Ambush, and Astrosmash. His previous exploits in cryptography included postings on the legendary Cypherpunks mailing list and running a contest to break the Netscape internet browser's encryption. In 2004, he published a reusable proof-of-work system, commenting on its possible applications in an online payment system.
Hal Finney was the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction, from Satoshi Nakamoto himself. Bitcoin itself used a proof-of-work system similar to what Finney had proposed. Finney's history in cryptography, his previous work, and his proximity to the Bitcoin project until his death in 2014 all suggest that he might be Satoshi Nakamoto. But is he? Let's see what other possibilities there are.
Even though we just started, it's time for Satoshi Nakamoto to leave this story. Nakamoto's involvement in the project only lasted until mid-2010, and that's long before Bitcoin really became interesting. In 2010, Satoshi started talking to a developer named Gavin Andresen. Andresen, a developer based in Amherst, Massachusetts, had only recently started contributing to the Bitcoin project. He'd created a site called "Bitcoin Faucet", which would give free Bitcoins to anyone who wanted to play around with them. As Andresen became more involved in the project, Nakamoto began to trust his judgement more and more. Eventually, Nakamoto offered to place Andresen's email address on the Bitcoin website, as someone people could contact for help. What Andresen didn't know was that his email was replacing Nakamoto's - Nakamoto was, in a kind of sneaky way, distancing himself from the project.
Soon after, Nakamoto handed over control of the project page, and the key to the Bitcoin alert system to Andresen. He hasn't been heard from since, and though Nakamoto controls around a million bitcoins, worth around $440 million dollars at this time, they haven't been moved.
Why did he leave the project? There's several theories. One of them was that he was displeased as to the transformation of the Bitcoin community from that of a small group of cryptography-minded futurists to one of money-focused libertarians and anarchists. However, there is some evidence that he was worried about increasing government interest into Bitcoin. Some of his last posts on the Bitcoin Forums were about his fears that Wikileaks accepting Bitcoin donations might lead to the wrong kind of attention on the project, stating that "the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage." Probably the most damning evidence for this theory is that Gavin Andresen states that his last email to Nakamoto was about a meeting Andresen was about to have with the CIA about Bitcoin.
Whatever the reason, Nakamoto was gone by the end of 2010. But the human mind, in the absence of facts, loves to speculate. Such was the case with Nakamoto: now that he was gone, people began to speculate about his true identity.
The first serious theory as to his identity came about in 2011. It was then, in a piece in the New Yorker, that Joshua Davis claimed that the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto was that of Michael Clear, a graduate student in cryptography at Trinity College in Dublin. He'd written papers about peer-to-peer technology, which Bitcoin uses, and had worked for Allied Irish Banks on improving their currency trading software. Evidently, Clear had a fair bit of experience in economics and cryptography. Davis met Clear, and Clear pointed him to another man named Vili Lehdonvirta. Lehdonvirta denied it, and Clear stated that "I'm not Satoshi, but even if I was I wouldn't tell you." After the story was published, Clear stated that he was joking when he said "even if I was I wouldn't tell you," and that he was definitely not Satoshi Nakamoto.
The day after the link was made between Clear and Nakamoto, another author published their theory. This author, Adam Penenberg, had taken phrases from the Bitcoin whitepaper and googled them, with the idea that the true author of Bitcoin would repeat themselves. This led them to a patent application for a "System and method for providing secure communications," filed just three days before the "bitcoin.org" domain name had been registered. This patent had included the term "computationally impractical to reverse," which it shared with the Bitcoin whitepaper. This author reasoned that the chances of a patent of a cryptographic system being filed three days before Bitcoin's domain name was registered, sharing a phrase with the Bitcoin whitepaper, and yet being completely unrelated to Bitcoin in any way was pretty slim. The patent was filed by three people: Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry. The author then goes on to provide evidence they admit is circumstantial to continue linking them to Bitcoin.
While none of this proves that King, Oksman, and Bry are the true creators of Bitcoin, there's no reason to believe that Satoshi Nakamoto is just one person.
In 1934, a group of French mathematicians met in a Parisian cafe. Their purpose was to describe math from the ground up, describing every modern mathematical concept, including complete proofs. The group chose to publish under the name Nicolas Bourbaki. Though the group's members weren't anonymous like those of a possible Satoshi Nakamoto group, there certainly exists a historical precedent for a group of likeminded people to take on a pseudonym with the purpose of accomplishing a goal.
But without any definitive proof linking the three to Bitcoin, the search continued.
In December of 2013, a blogger, who went by the name of Skye Grey, claimed to have linked the writing of Satoshi Nakamoto to that of a researcher named Nick Szabo using stylometric analysis. Stylometry is basically trying to compare the writing style of two people to check if they're the same, and this blogger claimed that Szabo was the closest match. Later, in April of 2014, a team of forty graduate students in forensic linguistics at Ashton University took a look at it. The leader of the study, Dr. Jack Grieve, stated that "We are pretty confident that out of the list of people regularly referred to as possibilities, Nick Szabo is the main author of the paper, though we can't rule out the possibility that others contributed." Szabo denies any link, and told one author that "I'm afraid you got it wrong doxing me as Satoshi, but I'm used to it." "Doxxing" is an internet term used to mean publishing someone's personal information - their "dox" - generally for use by internet vigilantes. In this case, though, he's using it to mean "accusing."
While Dr. Grieve's study was still underway, another theory came up. Newsweek, the news magazine, had transitioned to digital-only publishing at the end of 2012. But the company was bought in August of 2013, and announced that they were returning to print on March 7th, 2014. For this triumphant return to print, they decided that their cover story was going to be about Satoshi Nakamoto, titled "The Face Behind Bitcoin." This story, written by Leah Goodman, claimed that the creator of Bitcoin was a man named Satoshi Nakamoto… Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto. Goodman's theory was that Satoshi Nakamoto couldn't be a synonym, though the justification for why it wouldn't be wasn't quite satisfactory for many. But she went and met Dorian Nakamoto. Dorian, born in 1949 in Japan, moved to California with his mother at age ten. There, he became interested in science and math, later working for Hughes Aircraft on classified defense projects after college. He was a libertarian, and distrusted the government. He also hadn't had a steady job since 2001, which would give him the time to develop Bitcoin. His family described him as strange, secretive, and paranoid, which seem to fit the Satoshi Nakamoto who created Bitcoin. When Goodman met Satoshi Nakamoto, he said very little: "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it. It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection." So that's a pretty solid confirmation, then, right? Well, no. Nakamoto, through his lawyer, denied having ever worked on Bitcoin. And a reply like that is exactly the kind of reply one would give if they had a limited grasp of english and had worked on classified projects in their past. And that still doesn't answer - why would someone who values their anonymity choose to go by their real name online?
Here's an interesting tidbit - Dorian Nakamoto lived just blocks from Hal Finney. Had Nakamoto been the person who created Bitcoin, it could be that this is the reason that Finney was the first recipient of a Bitcoin transaction. And if Finney had created Bitcoin, this could be how he came up with the name.
A blogpost by Wright from August 2008, months before Satoshi Nakamoto's original announcement, stating that he was working on a, quote, "cryptocurrency paper." A cryptocurrency is the anachronistic term for currencies like Bitcoin. I say "anachronistic" because "cryptocurrency" as a term didn't exist until years after Bitcoin came along.
Another post on the blog stating that users could get in touch with him using a PGP public key linked to Satoshi Nakamoto. A PGP public key is a one-way encryption key - it can encrypt messages, but it can't decrypt messages. So you can publish your "public key" and keep your private key, and people can send you encrypted messages but only you can decrypt them. This public key was linked to the email address "[email protected]", an address Nakamoto was known to control, and was dated on a public PGP key database as being added October 30th, 2008.
A $30m Bitcoin investment by Wright into a trust he operated. They reason that he got these Bitcoins because he was Satoshi Nakamoto, owner of a vast Bitcoin fortune.
More "Leaked details" from their "anonymous source"
But it soon came out that most of these details were fabricated. The blog posts had been edited after the fact. The PGP key had been added to the database in 2015 and backdated to 2008.
As for his investment in the trust - well, he didn't actually "transfer" the Bitcoin to the trust - he just "assigned the rights" to the Bitcoin. Meaning that he didn't actually have to prove that he had them.
The day after the article was published, Wright had his house raided by the Australian Federal Police over an Australian Tax Office investigation. It seems that his claim that he was the true Satoshi Nakamoto could be involved in several interwoven layers of scams, involving $1.5m dollars that the Australian Tax Office paid out to one of his companies that they'd really like to get back.
Whatever the reason for his claim, if he is Satoshi Nakamoto, he's going through a lot of work to make it look like he's trying to lie about it.
His second attempt came earlier this month. On May 2nd, he wrote a blog post claiming - again - to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Then, journalists from The Economist and the BBC claimed to have watched Wright demonstrate that he had the private key associated with the first Bitcoin transaction. This claim was backed up by Gavin Andresen. He then published a blog post claiming that it contained cryptographic proof of his Nakamoto-ness, to which several people - including Bitcoin developers Peter Todd and Jeff Garzik - stated that it contained no proof whatsoever, and that security researcher Dan Kaminsky claimed was "intentional scammery." Wright then claimed that he would provide "a series of foundations for this extraordinary claim," but the next day stated that he "did not have the courage" to publish the proof.
Given that Wright's proof is either told to us second hand by tech journalists or is falsified, it's easy to say that he's not the true Satoshi Nakamoto. But what of the others? Every one of these theories has several reasons why it could be and several reasons why it couldn't. And when the evidence is as circumstantial as it is either way, it's hard to make a definitive claim that someone is or isn't Satoshi Nakamoto (well, other than Wright - we can definitely say he is). The best proof would be for someone to move Satoshi Nakamoto's coins. That way, we would know that either they are the real Satoshi Nakamoto, or they got ahold of his Bitcoin wallet somehow - and that's more than anyone else can say. And until that happens? We probably won't know.


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The Centralization of Policing: A Push to Integrate Local Police in Mexico and the US
Simon Davis-Cohen,
A wall at the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca campus in Oaxaca City. (Photo: Simon Davis-Cohen)
There is a battle going on in the world of law enforcement: Centralized authorities, municipal governments and community residents all want local police to answer to them. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has incorporated all local and state departments' biometric data into its Priority Enforcement Program, while the DHS has pushed for fusion centers that integrate local, state, tribal, federal and private sector intelligence across the country. DHS has also gotten local departments to participate via the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign. DHS launched the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative tocreate a "unified process for reporting, tracking, and accessing" suspicious activity that "seeks to harness intelligence from the 800,000 law enforcement officers in the United States."
This push for federal centralization of local police is not confined to the United States. In Mexico, neoliberal President Enrique Peña Nieto has not only spent record amounts (of US money) on expanding the federal and military police to purportedly curb the influence of cartels, he has also aggressively lobbied for the Holy Grail of all authoritarian police reforms: El Mando Único (the federal "Single Command" strategy). The plan would dissolve all municipal forces in the country into state forces that would answer to the federal government. According to the MacArthur Foundation-funded nonprofit, Justice in Mexico:
Under Peña Nieto's proposal, [the states of] Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas would be the first to adopt the unified police model, and mayors not relinquishing control would face sanctions, as would governors not assuming control over municipalities in their respective states. It would involve legislation from the Mexican Congress to give the federal government more authority to take over control of municipal services or, if deemed necessary, dissolve a local government if deemed to be infiltrated by organized crime.
The reform is stalled in Mexico's Congress, but elements have already been implemented on a state-by-state basis. According to El Universal, as of January 8, 2016, 17.5 percent of Mexican municipalities have been incorporated into state police and now operate under El Mando Único. According to Stratfor, a leading global intelligence firm, that number was "about 20 percent" in late January.
Graffiti remembering the 43 disappeared in Oaxaca City's central square. (Photo: Simon Davis-Cohen)
Co-opting Ayotzinapa
When the 43 Ayotzinapa students were disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, in late 2014, Peña Nieto transformed the national scandal into an opportunity to push El Mando Único.
His appeal swayed the United Nations, but critics of the plan dispute the assumption that federal police are somehow immune to collusion with cartels. For example, the award-winning 2015 documentary Cartel Land shows how federal police repressed an armed civilian-led rebellion against cartels in Michoacán and replaced the militia with federal police admittedly infiltrated by cartels. Meanwhile, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has claimed Peña Nieto's government has "hampered" its investigation into the Ayotzinapa disappearances — heightening suspicions that high-level politicians and members of the military were involved.
It explains why murals of the 43 martyrs read: "Fue El Estado" ("It Was the State").
"When the federal police arrive in these communities they violate local autonomy and the ancient traditions of the communities."
I was in the Mexican state of Oaxaca this April, where tensions between local and federal authorities carry historic baggage. A decade ago, municipal police in Oaxaca City sympathized with sustained teacher-and-student-led occupations of the city's central square. "A lot of the local police have family who are teachers," said Mario Guzmán, a prominent local artist and activist, at a local printmaking collective near the square. Everyone I asked attested to the local police's implicit or explicit support of the protests. It was only when federal authorities arrived that the occupation was repressed, in June 2006. Protesters were shot at, some were killed, many were imprisoned.
This week, on June 20, federal police again clashed with teachers. This time, teachers and "social organizations" blocked a critical highway in protest of the federal government's new mandatory testing requirements for teachers. Six were killed and 53 civilians injured.
Mario Guzmán at the print-making collective. (Photo: Simon Davis-Cohen)
Oaxacans Remain Wary of El Mando Único
The following day, I dropped by the modest headquarters of the young Democratic Socialist Party of Oaxaca. There, a party administrator insisted I accompany him to a meeting with leaders of the Association of Journalists of Oaxaca. "They will have a lot to tell you about El Mando Único," he assured me.
When we arrived at the Association of Journalists, I was met by its "education commission" and presented with three distinct critiques of El Mando Único and Peña Nieto's expansion of federal authority.
Luis Martínez Cervantes, a longtime member of the Association, argued that El Mando Único's trampling of local autonomy is illegal. "When the federal police arrive in these communities they violate the constitutionally protected autonomy municipalities [provided for] under Article 115 of the federal constitution. It's very serious," he said. "It violates local autonomy over public safety, and threatens the ancient traditions of the communities. It is illegal…. There should be coordination with local forces, not subordination."
Next I spoke Wilfrido Lopéz Torres, head of information for the newspaper Tiempo de Oaxaca, who argued that even if El Mando Único was legal, it could never work in Oaxaca. "Maybe in large cities," he said, "or in developed states where communities are well connected. But Oaxaca is different. We have 570 municipalities, many of which speak different dialects, have different customs, different ways of life, different ways of thinking."
Most communities in Oaxaca still operate under constitutionally protected Indigenous forms of governance. In these communities police are "topiles" — an unpaid duty-based system where local men serve on one-and-a-half-year rotations.
"How will the topiles be incorporated into the new police system, when they are typically unpaid? Topiles are farmers, campesinos, volunteers — not typical police," Torres said. "They use bats and sticks, not guns. They know the locals. They are part of the community. They feel hurt and aggrieved when federal police come into their communities."
He pointed to Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca's fourth largest city, as a case in point. "There are federal, state and municipal police there. Many people have been killed there, because of the organized crime, but all those police have not eradicated the violence — they haven't made it safe. They are implementing El Mando Único, but it is not working."
"There comes a moment when centralized governments — like the one we have had in Mexico — break. This is what is happening in Oaxaca."
Next spoke Carlos Castellanos Alcázar, who focused on how the policing proposal does not actually address the roots of violence. "It is a delicate issue," he said. "We need to communicate with local governments about what resources they need." He pointed to poor social services, poverty and Mexico's wounded economy as the conditions that allow cartels and violence to thrive. "These problems are not going to be solved with more police, or more jails," he said. "El Mando Único is not a solution. It tramples on the autonomy of the municipalities, and is turning the federal government into an authoritarian, centralized government…. What is happening is that for political reasons, the federal government wants to criminalize 'la lucha social' in Oaxaca and across the country. The federal government is losing control; unity and solidarity between Mexicans is disintegrating. Now they want to govern with arms and repression. I don't agree with this."
Juan López Bohórquez, director of the Oaxacan news site Lector2000.com.mx and a member of the association's education committee, who, like the others, has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, agreed, adding that, "There comes a moment when centralized governments — like the one we have had in Mexico — break. This is what is happening in Oaxaca. The people want a new form of government. It's a complex phenomenon. All the corruption is breaking civic confidence. The government can't have a single command right now, even if it were constitutional."
Many of these sentiments were also echoed by Guzmán back at the printmaking cooperative, who said Peña Nieto's narrative — that he is fighting the cartels — is just an excuse to justify the power grab and to facilitate resource extraction, like in the Oaxaca town of San José del Progreso, where locals opposed to a silver mine have battled with federal police. "They started to organize and protest," said Guzmán, "They still are, but some have been killed and jailed." Plus, he added, "The narco-traffickers are unifying with the federal government. They disappear political activists."
Mario Guzmán's depiction of the Mexican Constitution. (Photo: Simon Davis-Cohen)
When I took to the mountains — the land of community-run topiles — I happened upon a small cafe in Capulálpam, whose owner Baltazar Hernández was a former president of the town in 2011 and 2012, and a topile. Hernández said the federal authorities "are expanding their reach to combat drug trafficking, but many times they go places where there is no narco-trafficking. They exceed their limits." His daughter, Eunice, in her late 20s, chimed in, "Like what happened in Oaxaca City in 2006."
Her mother, Rosalinda Toro, said, "They abuse people," and Hernández added that, "They enter buildings. They attack and hit people, sexually abuse women." He and his wife agreed that all of this occurs in areas where "There are no narco-traffickers." They were speaking of other villages — nothing like that has ever happened in Capulálpam. "It is calm, here," they said.
Comparisons With the Centralizing of Policing in the US
On my trip back home, I reflected on how the transformations of policing in Mexico relate to the centralization taking place in the United States. Some key differences exist. For instance, unlike municipalities in Mexico, local governments in the United States have no constitutional protections. There are no legal protections that shield local forces from federal influence in the US. That is why municipalities in Mexico actually get a day in court before they are dissolved, whereas Detroit or Flint can be taken over by Michigan overnight.
I thought about how the centralization in the United States happens quietly. We know little about the information our local police are sharing with the feds. But it has gotten to the point where immigrant rights activists in New York City see no distinction between ICE and the New York Police Department (NYPD), which appear to willingly share data with the federal immigration agency. Soon after my arrival home in New York, five federal authorities (DHS, FBI, ICE, DEA and the US Attorney's Office) and the NYPD collaborated on the largest "gang" raid in New York City history, sweeping 120 young Black men into federal prison on conspiracy charges. And the raids have continued.
But a week later, I heard news of a small township in Pennsylvania that is resisting centralization. In May, Grant Township formally legalized civil disobedience to stop the depositing of waste from oil-and-gas extraction, despite state and federal laws that legalize the dumping.
It made me think of the US media narrative that blames cartels for resistance to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Mexico. Media reports often suggest that the one thing standing between Mexico and the fracking bonanza is the power of cartels. If a locality resisted fracking in Mexico, I wondered, would that justify its dissolution under El Mando Único?
After all, under El Mando Unico the federal government in Mexico can dissolve municipalities that it labels infiltrated by cartels. That the media credits cartels for fracking resistance is a clue, I think, to how Peña Nieto would respond to that resistance if he possessed the unilateral power he craves. This top-down logic is a threat to defiant local governments across the world.
Meanwhile, in Spain, Barcelona's new housing activist mayor Ada Colau is encouraging Barcelona's police not to enforce the Spanish government's repressive "Ley Mordaza," which criminalizes many forms of protest used by the country's housing justice movement.
Where gains are made at the local level, whether in Grant Township or in Spain's municipal elections, the tension between local and central authorities comes to the surface, as happened in Oaxaca in 2006 — something Peña Nieto and US authorities alike are no doubt eager to prevent.
Note: All interviews were conducted in Spanish and translated by the author.
Simon Davis-Cohen
Simon Davis-Cohen is a writer and filmmaker based in Portland focusing on political rights, municipal activism and mass incarceration. He also edits the Ear to the Ground newsletter and does research for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Follow him on Twitter: @SimonDavisCohen.
Defining a Federalist Approach to Immigration Reform: The Left Stands on Firmer Legal Ground
With a federal floor of protections for noncitizens at their back, immigrant and refugee-friendly local laws and tactics are defining what it means to fight for human rights…
Oaxaca, Mexico, Faces Police Militarization as Governor Acts to Preempt Education Protests
Unionized teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, are protesting national education mandates, in the face of growing police militarization.
Santiago Navarro F. &
Renata Bessi,


Does Your Fitness App Measure Up?
You are here: Home / Blog / Fitness / Does Your Fitness App Measure Up?
There's an abundance of fitness programs and crazes today — including Crossfit, Body for Life™, Zumba™, Boxercise™, P90X™, Yoga, Pole Dancing, and more. Whatever you follow — whether it's your own plan or a regimented program, a mobile app can help you schedule, track, and monitor your workouts all in one place — rather than relying on notebooks and binders that are cumbersome, and don't allow you to easily identify trends based on the data.
Purchasing specialized apps for fitness programs can be expensive — with some apps costing up to $60.00! There's plenty of fitness apps that can track the number of miles you've cycled, swam, or run and allow you to post that information to your social networks. You can also find apps that track your cardio workouts and strength training — but not necessarily in the same app. Some apps let you track your workouts, but not schedule them. Others track your nutrition and weight, but not your fitness. It's all very confusing, so how do you choose the app that's right for you?
If you're anything like me, you follow a mixture of exercise and diet plans. For example, I follow the Body For Life strength training program, but I follow my own cardio program consisting of cycling, spinning, running, and swimming. Sometimes I use a personal trainer or take a fitness class so my specific workout will be unexpected. In this case, I will schedule the fitness appointment, but not the specific exercises. Make sure you choose an app that's flexible enough to adjust to the changes in your fitness plan, and also the level of detail you wish to record.
Ninety percent of success is just showing up. It never fails. The moment you plan to go to the fitness club, something gets in the way — your boss sends an email you need to address, a friend calls and invites you to happy hour, your child needs help with a homework assignment. To ensure workout success, plan a regimen that fits your lifestyle. It's important that your fitness app lets you schedule your workouts, and view these workouts on the same calendar that you use to schedule all the other items that are important in your life. For example, if your child always needs help with their homework between 3:30 and 4:30 PM, schedule your workouts outside of this time to make sure you show up.
Beware of apps that aren't flexible enough to adjust to your fitness level. Exercise caution when choosing an app that doesn't take into account your fitness level and blindly recommends workouts for you. Choose apps that let you set specific, attainable, and measurable goals within your limits and level.
At times, you might need help in remembering the specific form for a particular exercise. Make sure your app includes instructions for exercises — whether they're included via bookmarks to videos or articles, file storage, or sets of instructions.
According to Livestrong, "both exercise and nutrition play a role in your level of health. Together they affect your ability to gain weight, lose weight or maintain weight." When choosing an app, make sure that you can track both nutrition and exercise, as they have a synergistic effect on your overall health.
Keeping a log of exercise, and analyzing a corresponding graph for patterns helps you make improvements. For example, you may notice when you view your running log, your speed or mileage is decreased after too many workouts in a row or on a certain day of the week. Using graphs helps you see a correlation between exercise, nutrition, supplements, performance improvements, and fatigue. Graphs can also make some people feel motivated when they see a pictorial representation of activity. When selecting an app, choose one that provides graphs for viewing and analyzing this data.
After all your hard work, it's important to analyze your results to evaluate if you need to adjust or not — and seeing positive changes in the numbers as you progress gives you motivation to continue. You may choose to track your measurements, weight, body fat, Body Mass Index (BMI), or other statistics. (BMI is calculated from a person's weight and height. It's used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems.) Make sure you choose an app that's flexible enough to track one or all of these statistics and gives you the ability to graph the results.
LifeTopix was designed with all these factors in mind — and much more. It's different from standard fitness apps because it manages all your life information in a single app. With LifeTopix, you're free from the burden of re-entering the same data multiple times in different apps — which gives you more time to do the things you want to do – like keeping those personal training appointments!
Take a look at the following slide show to see examples of how LifeTopix keeps track of exercise routines. We've used the Body For Life strength training program as an example.
http://lightarrow.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/fitnesstracking.png 556 748 Marilyn Rogers http://lightarrow.com/mktgimages/lightArrowLogo.png Marilyn Rogers2012-06-20 12:59:322014-07-17 10:36:17Does Your Fitness App Measure Up?


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» Man registered for sex offenses charged with failure to verify
Man registered for sex offenses charged with failure to verify
On behalf of Law Offices of Joseph J. Tock | Oct 6, 2016 | Sex Crimes
When a person is convicted of a sex crime, he or she is often required to be named on the sex offender registry for his or her state. This registry is made public for people to access so that they are aware if anyone convicted of sex offenses resides in the neighborhoods where they live and work. Failing to keep one's registry information current can lead to serious consequences, as one man in New York is learning.
Even those convicted of the lowest level of sexual crimes may have their names on the public registry for 20 years or more. Once registered, a person is required to keep his or her information current and to report any changes of address or internet providers, as well as employment or affiliation with colleges or universities. A man who had previously been convicted of failing to register a new screen name and IP address was recently arrested when a citizen allegedly tipped off police.
Because of his previous felony convictions, the man's current charge is considered a class D felony. Additionally, he faces a parole violation. These two circumstances mean the man will be held without bail in a New York jail. His original conviction was for a Level 1 offense, which means authorities have determined it is not likely he will re-offend.
All convictions for sex offenses, even so-called low-level crimes, may carry lifelong consequences. This man's attorney is likely examining the evidence to build a strong defense. He may ask the judge to consider the low level of the original offense. With the help of an attorney who is knowledgeable and experienced in defending sex crimes, the man has a better chance of a positive outcome for his situation.
Source: thelcn.com, "Registered sex offender facing felony after allegedly failing to update status", Oct. 4, 2016
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Issue:- 4 August 2011
Taxman�s complex online processes just one reason the UK�s tax system is not fit for purpose, says business group
THE HM Revenue and Custom�s (HMRC�s) inefficiencies revealed to Treasury sub-committee as research shows tax administration is the top red tape burden for SMEs.
The Forum of Private Business has told a Treasury sub-committee that HMRC is failing in its aim to create a more efficient tax system because it is bogged down in bureaucracy � including complex and unwieldy online procedures.
The warning follows the Forum�s latest Cost of Compliance Referendum survey, which reveals that tax administration has become the main bureaucratic barrier to doing business for the UK�s small firms � forming �5.1 billion of their annual �16.8 billion red tape bill.
At a meeting of the Joint VAT Consultative Committee last year, the Forum�s tax adviser Andrew Needham was astounded when he was told that a relatively simple change to email alerts to inform business owners of a change to the deadline for accepting VAT cheque payments would take 6 months to implement because of procedural restrictions, too late to warn them in time. Fortunately, following political pressure, the changes were made.
Speaking in the wake of the weekend�s Treasury sub-committee report into the �administration and effectiveness of HMRC�, which blasted its poor levels of service and led Chairman Mike Clasper to publicly apologise, Mr Needham said that problems were widespread.
�For example, businesses can be selected for what is called �extended verification� before being registered for VAT. Their forms are sent to a specialist team in Cardiff and the process is supposed to take 50 days, but I know of at least one case that was sent in September 2009. About 18% of applications are selected for extended verification � so 1 in 5 are taken out of the normal system and placed in one where it takes a minimum of 50 days to process them. Often forms go back and forth continually when there are minor issues, with little common sense employed. There are an awful lot of business owners who are in no way involved in fraud or anything dodgy that nevertheless have their VAT registrations delayed.� said Mr Needham, of VAT Specialists Ltd.
Despite the apparent inefficiency of its online communications and email services, the sub-committee also found evidence of significant failings in HMRC�s call handling abilities.
The finding follows figures from the National Audit Office (NAO) in January 2010 which showed that 44 million calls to the taxman went unanswered in a single year, including many during busy tax return periods. In all, HMRC failed to pick up 43% of the 103 million calls it received in 2008 to 2009.
�That�s beyond pathetic. In fairness, they are trying and things have improved since then but still there are around one in three calls are not being picked up, and when they there�s no guarantee you will get a coherent answer. There�s such a lack of planning � they knew, for example, that electronic VAT returns were being introduced so why no staff training or automated systems were put in place is mystifying.� added Mr Needham.
As part of a root-and-branch overhaul of tax system to free small firms to grow and create jobs the Forum wants HMRC�s service to be made quicker and more efficient, with much-improved communication and simplification of its online procedures.
The not-for-profit organisation is also calling for major reforms to PAYE � with the sub-committee reporting that many of the unanswered calls related to National Insurance (NI) and PAYE changes � and to the treatment of customers in line with its own customer charter.
In particular, there are concerns that HMRC�s sector-by-sector clampdown on tax avoidance is unfairly focusing on small firms rather than large companies � the real culprits � because they are seen a easy targets. The Treasury sub-committee noted that one area in which HMRC is strong is tax collection.
Despite recognising some improvements � including recruiting 1000 additional contact centre advisers to handle calls during exceptionally busy periods - the committee expressed concerns that HMRC�s local tax office closure programme and job cuts could mean its service declines further, and undermine improvements seen in voluntary tax compliance.
A recent survey carried out by the Forum suggests that, surprisingly, business owners would be willing to pay even more in tax in exchange for a simplified system that saves them money in the long run.
Forum member Pat Cobham, of Cobham Day Ltd in Liverpool, is particularly frustrated at changes making the administration of PAYE more difficult and believes HMRC�s targeted investigations are unfair.
"Once again HMRC are hitting the little guys. Small businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water and what does HMRC do to help? They introduce yet another raft of penalties, Late monthly PAYE payments now attract penalties at a time when cash flow for small businesses is the worst it has been in 20 years. In the good old days tax inspectors actually tried to help the tax-paying public by providing advice. They used to be called the Civil Service. We now get no service at all - we are just battered by rising compliance costs." said Pat Cobham.
Please email us to:- news24@southportreporter.com with your feelings about this.
Southport County Court is now closed
THE closure of the Southport County Court has been closed and work to clear the building is well under way. The closure has been viewed as 'folly' by Southport MP Dr John Pugh, but even his and many residents requests to the Ministry of Justice have fallen on deaf ears. We would like your views on this. Please email us to:- news24@southportreporter.com with your feelings about the closure. Also how long will we have a Tax Office in Southport? In 2010, HM Revenue and Customs announced it wanted to shut Southport tax office putting jobs are under threat and the worry services that are already over stretched at risk of failing the North Merseyside area. Also let us know your views on this topic.
England Women cricketers to inspire Lancashire girls at �MCC Spirit of Cricket� Summer Camp
FOLLOWING their success earlier this summer in the NatWest Quadrangular Series against Australia, New Zealand and India, England Women internationals Danielle Hazell and Beth Morgan will be coaching local girls at the MCC Spirit of Cricket Summer Camp in Ormskirk, Lancashire.
Aspiring young cricketers, aged 8 to 14, of all levels of ability will have the chance to develop their bowling, batting and fielding skills at the special girls only cricket camp.
The youngsters will also be taught the MCC�s �play hard, play fair, have fun� message throughout the 2 day event; part of the �Chance to Shine supported by Brit Insurance� campaign to bring competitive cricket to two million children by 2015.
The event takes pace over Thursday, 25 August 2011 and Friday, 26 August 2011, from 1000 to 1500 at Burscough CC, School Lane, Burscough, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L40 4AE
Taking part are World Cup/Ashes/2011 Quadrangular Series winning pair Danielle Hazell and Beth Morgan.
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The process of a luxury shoe or boot is very delicate in each of its steps and requires all the attention of the craftsman to achieve a perfect assembly.
We select the different types of leather and all the necessary elements for the shoes.
The pattern involves creating the shape of each component of the shoe. Each model has a unique pattern adjusted to its measurements.
For this, the most appropriate materials are selected for each part of the shoe this proccess is very laborious and requires done slowly and with care.
Is the process of the flatening the edges of the leather pieces the have been cut of the pattern. This creates a much smoother effect, with cleanner edge.
Once they marked all parts, the different shoe parts are sewn. This process requires a total dedication since a good seam determines the durability, quality and finish of a shoe.
The last is a foot-snapped piece in which the shoes are molded. The last is very important because its determines the shape and form of the shoes.
Is proceed to mount the shoe on the last. This process is one the most important steps and which takes longer. Here it's given the shape of the shoe.
It's made the selection and preparation of the heel for the model. Then is covered with the leather chosen.
This involves the refining of assembled the shoe and is added the final decorative details for the pair handmade shoes.
The final cut is made, are cleaned and polish your shoes. Once they finished is proceeds to the review to verify that everything is perfect.
Package with love and they are sent directly to your wishful feet!


I am a sophomore at Moorhead High School in Moorhead, Minnesota. I am actively involved in my school's theater department and Kiwanis Key Club. I'm also a National Speech and Debate Tournament Qualifier. Through my speech team I have been able to discover my love for politics which has opened my eyes to the injustices in the world and sparked my passion for improving women's health on an international level.
Herstory, my HERlead Project, was started three years ago to increase women's access to menstrual hygiene products and empower young women to better understand their bodies. Now Herstory is partnering with different organizations and is hoping to expand to local and regional businesses.


Dr. Altman is a board certified Family Physician and a fellowship-trained Wound Care clinician. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery and Family Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Section of Wound Healing and Tissue Repair. In his role, he trains students, residents, and fellows and treats a wide range of skin-related disorders. He lectures locally and nationally on such topics as pressure injuries, lymphedema, chronic venous insufficiency, diabetes, arterial insufficiency, and others. Through his education, training, review of the medical literature, and the scope of practice, he is well versed in the management of patients as it pertains to the practice of wound care.


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We brought on a new talent in the form of our Marketing Coordinator, Dale Bond. Bond was hired in late January and has leant her expertise in managing our social media and email campaigns, writing informational and in-depth articles for our website, recording video content and utilizing photography, and more. We also bid farewell to Gary Mann, who retired this year. Mann was the second employee hired at ProtoCAM, having followed ProtoCAM CEO Ron Belknap from their former employer.
Our line-up of printers has grown since last year. In April, we saw the installation of our highly anticipated and newest printer, the HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF). ProtoCAM was the first company to receive the HP MJF production center on the East Coast, and is currently a member of HP's Founders Program for this new printing technology. In September, we also added three additional machines: two Fortus fused deposition modeling (FDM) printers and a Fortus Finishing Touch Smoothing Station.
With the introduction of these new printers, we also opened up additional square footage at our facility to utilize for future production. In September, we broke through a wall in our workshop into a new 2000 sq. ft. space, which we utilized for a lunch and learn in November; the area will soon soon be home to various printers and finishing processes. At the beginning of this year, we also opened up a back room in our workshop that currently houses our MJF printer and production center.
We attended tons of events and tradeshows that filled our year with new contacts and ideas for the future. From the ICI Technical Conference and Equipment Expo in Covington, KY, to the RAPID + TCT event in Pittsburgh, PA, to the AMUG conference in Chicago, IL, to lots of local events right here in Allentown, PA, we've traveled all over the U.S. this year to show off the latest part and prototype samples to both experts in the business, and future engineers.
As we enter 2018 and our 24th year in business, we want to reaffirm our commitment to service. ProtoCAM is dedicated to understanding and meeting the quality needs of all our customers by working with customers to fully understand their 3D printing needs, delivering quality prototypes and parts consistently, and continuously improving our 3D additive manufacturing processes. We can't wait to see what the new year brings, and we look forward to experiencing it with you, our valued customers!
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