As a private club leader, you've likely noticed a variety of shifts occurring in the industry today. Lifestyles are evolving and so is the way members are using their club. We touch on this topic often because the ability for private clubs to adapt and evolve with their members is imperative to their survival.
Cities lead by a wonderful example when they evolve; they constantly grow and enhance their offerings while still speaking to the unique culture of their respective neighborhoods—so it only makes sense that city clubs do the same. Over the years, we've had the pleasure of working with some of the most prestigious city clubs in North America, and through our strategic planning, facilities planning, and design efforts, we've discovered that city clubs often lead the way for how their golf and country club counterparts should respond to shifts in what members have come to expect from their "home away from home".
Here, we delve into 10 city club trends that will impress even your most forward-looking member.
The kitchen is often coined the heart of the home – so why not make it the heart of your club? Using the kitchen as a focal point of the décor, a wine cellar, or whiskey tunnel creates drama and intertwines an otherwise uncharted territory into your aesthetic. Rather than keeping it hidden behind closed doors, bringing the kitchen "in view" invites members to get closer to their meal and beverage options. This concept creates excitement and brings members closer to the chef, ultimately putting a "face" to the meal.
The feature kitchen complements our next point; blending casual and formal dining. These dining venues can—and should—coexist. In this concept, the layout of dining tables and seating arrangements creates a separation between the two distinct areas within the space without a physical barrier. Incorporating upscale counter service, curated ingredients, and optional tasting menus enhance your casual dining space and allow for a smooth transition into the formal area. Pictured below, our recent work at Cosmos Club boasts a more casual walk-in-only bar and communal dining experience at the front with a more formal and intimate dining area toward the back. The multi-functionality of the space creates a warm and inviting atmosphere that seamlessly transitions from day to night.
A top quality yet approachable atmosphere shouldn't stop at seating arrangements. Be sure to also offer menus with healthier food options and dining alternatives that speak to your new and improved dining facility. Additionally, house-made sodas, fresh juices and other alcohol-free drinks (often with health claims) add a nice touch—while at the same time increasing your check average. Some clubs are even incorporating ingredients that are grown on the Club premises and/or sourced locally—like the rooftop bee colony at Duquesne Club—which is a trend we've seen sweep across cities in recent years. Rather than going to the new farm-to-table restaurant a block away, invite your members to enjoy this type of offering right from their beloved club.
Now more than ever, technology is streamlining the F&B department, leading to more efficient processes and an elevated member experience overall. Technologies such as iPads, self-serve taps, and app-enabled delivery provide a new level of convenience and help improve member interactions. Additionally, tracking customer preferences gives your club a better understanding of member habits, delivering the data necessary to push club operations to the next level. Stay ahead of the curve and consider integrating some of these technologies into your offerings for a smoother and enhanced operation.
Today's members are busy and live in a time-constrained society, which means they are frequently looking for convenience in their club's offerings. Grab-n-go Turn-style facilities and serveries bolster convenience for your members by promoting faster meal options at breakfast and lunch. Rather than the traditional 60- to 90-minute formal meals that clubs have offered in the past, members can enjoy a quick meal in 30-45 minutes. Your club will see increased utilization be providing your members the option to swing by midday and return to the office before their hour lunch break is up. We had the pleasure of designing The Rendezvous Bar at the Union League Club of Chicago (pictured below) and their increased utilization helps to speak to the success of this amenity.
Over the last several years, the industry has seen a shift to less-formal club atmospheres around the world. In city clubs specifically, we find that members are no longer joining solely to conduct business meetings —they're coming to spend time with fellow members who have turned into dear friends. By incorporating more casual spaces to dine, as well as more opportunities to have informal casual interactions—like cross-talk bars, communal tables, and lounge areas with soft seating—you encourage that "home away from home" atmosphere that members desire. There are many options for these successful, informal interactions to take place. Implement the one that aligns best with the culture of your club and watch relationships flourish.
And while there is often still business to attend to, members aren't quite taking the same approach as in the past. Rather than utilizing the club solely for business lunches, members are also looking for a dedicated quiet space to make private calls or "plug-in" to check emails. Modifying cell phone policies and integrating high-end executive business lounges with small communal spaces, a coffee and tea station, and individual computer carrels will create a thoughtful "work from home" atmosphere for members within the club. Our recent work at Duquesne Club includes this amenity and has been incredibly popular with members. As shown below, the design even boasts understated mirror TVs so as not to detract from the overall ambiance.
No matter where you are in the country, members want to enjoy the outdoors. While city clubs don't have rolling hills of green grass outside of their walls, they often have breathtaking views of the cityscape. So why not capture these views with floor-to-ceiling windows—or take this a step further and provide an area for members to actually step outside? Blend indoor amenities with Mother Nature by creating a rooftop bar, open-air courtyard, garden patio, or sidewalk café to appeal to members of all ages—day and night.
All-day rooms incorporate a variety of uses and member interests into one space. They breathe new life into rooms that otherwise see little utilization. Activate those seldom used lobbies and living rooms by giving them dual-purpose. High-end espresso bars would make a great addition to your lobby, providing members with an area to grab coffee before work. Or create a small bar to encourage cocktail hour in the evening. And while you're at, incorporate versatile furniture as well to promote the casual interactions we discussed earlier. Wasted space is, in fact, wasted space, so be creative in how to better utilize it. Those extra few feet are on your side—use them appropriately to provide your members with a one-of-a-kind experience they can't find anywhere else.
Historically, city clubs have been enclaves of privacy, but today's city club should embrace the street level and become a visible member of the community. Your club is a staple in your members' lives and should be for your city, too. A welcoming façade with windows to the energy and excitement inside will catch the eye of a passerby—and they could very well turn into a future member. Proudly display your club's stunning architecture rather than hiding it behind shrubbery and turn your hidden gem into an acclaimed one.
In a city that provides unlimited amenities, it's crucial to embrace change, evolve and push the envelope. Provide your members with an atmosphere that even the most experienced urbanite would admire, and they'll continue coming back for years to come.
Looking to incorporate any of these elements in your club? Contact me and let me know how we can help!
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Lot - - - - Parking for residents is available on a first-come, first-served basis in our private parking lot. Maximum 2 permits per home.
Comments: Parking for residents is available on a first-come, first-served basis in our private parking lot. Maximum 2 permits per home.


After the close Tuesday, The Bancorp announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission 8-K filing that it has entered into a Consent Order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The order is related to weakness in The Bancorp's (ticker: TBBK ) Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) compliance program. As a result of the order the company will be forced to beef up its BSA staff and hire consultants to help improve its BSA compliance program. More important, the order will limit the signing of new business partners in its prepaid and ACH/merchant payments business. Unfortunately, this news comes at a time when the company is also trying to resolve legacy credit challenges. Problem-asset levels and loan-loss-provisioning costs have been running well above peer levels over the last several years. As a result of this news and the potential risks to revenue growth, we are downgrading the shares to Neutral from Buy.
In 2010, Bancorp's largest competitor in the prepaid business, Meta Financial Group ( CASH ) (rated at Buy), was issued a similar regulatory order. While the nature and reasons for that order were more serious, in our view, it had a meaningful impact on the company's share price and in our view the company lost some market share to competitors (mainly The Bancorp) in the prepaid space in the years that followed. In our experience, a 12- to 18-month time frame to resolve this issue would not be out of the question and would be short compared to the challenges that Meta has faced. From a big picture perspective, this will only accelerate the desire of large-prepaid-program managers to diversify their issuing bank relationships, in our view.
As a result of the order, the company will not be able to sign new third-party agreements. While we are not specifically modeling new relationships being signed in our 18% and 12% revenue-growth estimates for 2014 and 2015, we believe the bull case on the stock is built around solid double-digit top-line revenue growth continuing (if not accelerating) in this period and beyond. The revenue growth outlook for the company could be pressured in the out years as a result of the order, in our view.
The Bancorp (TBBK: Nasdaq) By Sterne, Agee & Leach ($16.


text:
Oligia chlorostigma is a species of cutworm or dart moth in the family Noctuidae.

The MONA or Hodges number for Oligia chlorostigma is 9402.

References

Further reading

Oligia
Articles created by Qbugbot
Moths described in 1876

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Home SMART BUSINESS CAREERS Maina Kageni: How I Accidentally Landed on Radio
Maina Kageni: How I Accidentally Landed on Radio
"Basically if I had Ksh40,000 that day I'd never be on radio," he observed
Reflecting on how he got into radio, Kageni states that it was by chance.
Maina Kageni is known to many Kenyans as co-host of the wildly popular morning show on Classic 105, Maina and King'ang'i. He hosts the show alongside celebrated comedian Daniel 'Churchill' Ndambuki, aka Mwalimu King'ang'i.
With its interactive format centered on hot social topics and relationship issues, Maina and King'ang'i is one of the most listened to shows on Kenyan radio, and is responsible for Kageni being one of the highest-paid media personalities.
Reflecting on how he got into radio, Kageni states that it was by chance. Although his uncle is Royal Media Services (RMS) CEO SK Macharia, Kageni says that he had never considered a career in media before he accidentally landed a job at Capital FM.
Kageni's parents had sent him to the UK to get a law degree but he soon dropped out to pursue various income-generating opportunities, including working for a fish distributor. He eventually found his way back to Kenya and thrust himself into various businesses including organizing events and selling cars.
Alongside friends including Trevor Kanja and DJ Pinye, he decided to set up a show in Kenya featuring DJs he connected with in the UK. They decided to advertise the event on Capital FM, a popular urban radio station. At the station, they were informed that they would need to pay an additional Ksh40,000 for the voice-over – money they didn't have, prompting Kageni to decide to voice it himself.
"Basically if I had Ksh40,000 that day I'd never be on radio," he observed in a past interview, explaining that he was offered script-reading roles at the station after Capital was impressed with his voice-over.
"I paid for the airtime, then they said we need Ksh40,000 for the voice-over – the guy who speaks the ad on the radio and its sound nice. I said can I do it? They said it's your ad, if its rubbish its rubbish…I did the voice over and then they asked me, have you ever been on radio?" Kageni stated.
He was eventually offered the chance to host the Sunday soul show on Capital. To date, Kageni credits Capital with teaching him the ropes of radio.
He moved on from Capital after getting an offer to host a show on the then newly-launched Nation FM. Here, he established himself as a talented and skilled radio presenter, and Radio Africa Group soon came calling.
Radio Africa Group CEO Patrick Quarcoo personally reached out to Kageni to convince him o join his company. Telling the story of how he was hired over lunch at a city restaurant, Kageni revealed that, to get a better offer, he lied about how much he was making at Nation FM.
"We met at Trattoria and he tells me to make the big switch to Kíss FM. Nation was paying me Ksh60,000, but I told him I am being paid Ksh180,000," Kageni stated. Quarcoo offered to double it, handing him a Ksh360,000 salary.
Over time, his salary has reportedly increased to well over a million. He has also expanded his business interests beyond media to PR consultancy and a travel and lifestyle business.
Maina Kageni
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The PageRenderDispatcher and ComponentActionDispatcher each have to decipher the component or page being requested. The resolution of the associated class in each case is essentially the same. I'm working (again) on a transparent access control system that must do the same thing, so I've basically copy/pasted this logic. It would seem to make sense (and also be convenient for me) to centralize this logic somewhere - probably as a static method. This would also insulate code like mine against breakage.


text:
IOC/Richard Juilliart
Olympic News, Refugee Olympic Team
The legacy of the Refugee Olympic Team Rio 2016 lives on through the Olympic Refuge Foundation
Ahead of tomorrow's World Refugee Day, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) figures state that the number of forcibly displaced people continues to grow. The IOC, with its Olympic Refuge Foundation, is strongly committed to helping refugees and displaced populations through sport.
When the first-ever Refugee Olympic Team competed in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, it signalled the beginning of a remarkable and crucial set of initiatives which have thrown a lifeline to tens of thousands of refugees forced to flee their homes.
The 10 athletes competing under the Olympic flag at Rio 2016 captured the world's attention through their bravery, courage and athletic skill, and another Refugee Olympic Team is set to participate in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Just as importantly, the Refugee Olympic Team Rio 2016 provided the impetus behind the creation of the Olympic Refuge Foundation (ORF) – founded by the IOC in 2017. The Foundation uses sports-based projects to support refugee populations across the world with a focus on protecting, developing and empowering children and youth in vulnerable situations.
"Joining the first Refugee Olympic Team at Rio 2016 changed my life, and I am proud to see that it left a concrete legacy," said Yiech Pur Biel, a member of the Refugee Olympic Team Rio 2016 and now an ORF Board member. "Through the Olympic Refuge Foundation, our aim is not creating champions, but working every day to improve the lives of young refugees through sport, creating safe environments where they can start building their future".
The projects supported by the Olympic Refuge Foundation
Today the ORF manages programmes involving a multitude of girls and boys across four continents, in collaboration with UNHCR and local partners.
Work started with pilot programmes in Jordan, Kenya and Turkey. In recent years, Jordan has provided refuge to more than 1.3 million Syrians, many of them school-aged children. The aim of the ORF's two dedicated in-country programmes with Generations for Peace and Right to Play is to integrate Syrian children – and those from Palestinian, Iraqi and Jordanian communities – into Jordanian society using the power of sport.
Similarly, in Kenya the ORF has been working through UNHCR to, among other things, build a multisport facility and provide protection to young people in the Kakuma camp and Kalobeyei settlements. These settlements are home to 186,000 refugees from 19 different countries of which 52,500 are aged between 15 and 24 years old. The over-arching aim of the ORF programme here is to improve social cohesion among the multinational community.
The situation in Turkey is just as vital. In late 2018, figures revealed more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees were registered in a country that has also received hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. In response, the ORF is forming a coalition with Turkey's Ministry of Youth and Sport, the Turkish Olympic Committee, UNHCR and a number of local partners to create a joint initiative in five Turkish cities hosting refugees.
The resulting programmes aim to reach more than 40,000 children and young people over two years, protecting vulnerable and disadvantaged children in both refugee and host communities, as well as supporting social cohesion through sport.
IOC-UNHCR partnership already 25 years old
The partnership with the UN Refugee Agency dates back to 1994, and the mutual commitment to supporting refugees is based on the fundamental belief in the power of sport to make the world a better place.
Before the creation of the Olympic Refuge Foundation, the IOC and UNHCR also started initiatives in Mexico (focusing on young people transiting through the country as they flee violence in their countries), the Democratic Republic of Congo (seeking to improve sporting facilities and organising activities in refugee camps for people to improve their physical and mental health), and Rwanda, where a programme, initiated three years ago, aims to rejuvenate sports grounds.
IOC/SHABAN MASENGESHO
Rwanda's sports coordinators and community trainers have since highlighted the positive impact on the psycho-social well-being of participants, reporting that the sports activities have had a strong positive effect, decreasing negative and aggressive attitudes, and increasing productivity and acceptance of others.
The ORF is currently exploring the possibility of implementing additional projects to be developed in Uganda, Bangladesh and Colombia, in collaboration with UNHCR and local partners.
Tags Olympic News , Refugee Olympic Team
IOC creates Refugee Olympic Team Tokyo 2020
Olympism in Action Forum
Finding a Refuge in Sport
Quick links :
Olympic Torch Relay


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Pappas Group is an award-winning, independent creative agency passionate about constructing insight-driven concepts. We've purposely built a small, nimble agency where creative, strategy, technology, media, and marketing collide to build brand experiences people love. Our client relationships are open and honest because we believe ideas should flow freely, opinions be voiced and we should all work toward a radically, simple concept: Deliver Big.


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Q: Provided id of the wrong type - Spring I struggle with this problem for few days and I hope you are able to help me solve it. Maybe I made something wrong with generic types, but maybe it's some unpredictable behaviour of Spring.
Situation is very strange because I found out that application works differently when I use autoconfigure or when I configure entity manager myself. In both cases it doesn't work correctly but once I get exception when I try to fetch entity from database:
org.hibernate.TypeMismatchException: Provided id of the wrong type for class com.example.repoinherit.model.DocTwo. Expected: class com.example.repoinherit.model.DocOneId, got class com.example.repoinherit.model.DocTwoId

and in the second case it just don't find entity with specific ID in database. In both cases saving data works OK and all data are in databases.
Which case it is depends on how I configure database connection. If I use autoconfigure I get exception, if I have custom entity manager I cant find entity. Unfortunately yesterday it was working completely opposite – It's probably related with next "funny" fact.
I have 3 entities but problem is always with only one of them. What is even more interesting it depends on their names. When I change class name it probably change theirs orders and another class stop working.
Bellow you can find excerpt from code. I prepared also test project which you can find here https://gitlab.com/pin54/springproblem.git
Instead of tests there is a "real" controller
Each entity (DocOne, DocTwo, DocThree) is derived class of Document which is derived class of AggregateRoot. All of them looks almost the same, so bellow you can find only one implementation. ID of each entity (DocOneId, DocTwoId, DocThreeId) is derived class of AggregateId
Thank you in advance for your support.
@MappedSuperclass
public abstract class AggregateRoot<ID extends AggregateId> {

    @EmbeddedId
    @Type(type = "org.hibernate.type.UUIDCharType")
    protected ID id;

    public AggregateRoot(ID id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public AggregateRoot() {

    }
}

@Entity
@Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceType.SINGLE_TABLE)
@DiscriminatorColumn(name = "type", columnDefinition = "varchar(10)")
@Table(name = "documents")
public abstract class Document<ID extends AggregateId> extends AggregateRoot<ID> {

    protected String number;

    public Document(ID id) {
        super(id);
    }

    public Document() {

    }
}

@Entity
@DiscriminatorValue("one")
public class DocOne extends Document<DocOneId> {

    public String docOneField;

    public DocOne(DocOneId id) {
        super(id);
        docOneField = "one";
    }

    public DocOne() {

    }
}

@Embeddable
@MappedSuperclass
public class DocOneId extends AggregateId {

    public DocOneId(String id) { super(id); }

    public DocOneId(UUID id) { super(id); }

    public DocOneId() {

    }
}

@Repository
public interface DocOneRepository extends JpaRepository<DocOne, DocOneId> {

}

@Configuration
@EnableTransactionManagement
@EnableJpaRepositories(
        basePackages = {
                "com.example.repoinherit.model"
        },
        entityManagerFactoryRef = "productionEntityManagerFactory",
        transactionManagerRef= "productionTransactionManager"
)
public class DatabaseConfigurationProduction {

    @Bean
    @Primary
    @ConfigurationProperties("app.datasource.production")
    public DataSourceProperties productionDataSourceProperties() {
        return new DataSourceProperties();
    }

    @Bean
    @Primary
    @ConfigurationProperties("app.spring.jpa.production")
    public Map<String, String> productionJpaProperties() {
        return new HashMap<>();
    }

    @Bean
    @Primary
    @ConfigurationProperties("app.datasource.production.configuration")
    public DataSource productionDataSource() {
        return productionDataSourceProperties().initializeDataSourceBuilder()
                .type(HikariDataSource.class).build();
    }

    @Bean(name = "productionEntityManagerFactory")
    @Primary
    public LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean productionEntityManagerFactory(EntityManagerFactoryBuilder builder) {
        System.out.println(productionJpaProperties());
        return builder
                .dataSource(productionDataSource())
                .packages(new String[] {
                        "com.example.repoinherit.model"
                })
                .properties(productionJpaProperties())
                .build();
    }

    @Primary
    @Bean
    public PlatformTransactionManager productionTransactionManager(
            final @Qualifier("productionEntityManagerFactory") LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean productionEntityManagerFactory) {
        return new JpaTransactionManager(productionEntityManagerFactory.getObject());
    }

}

EDIT:
Probably I made mistake when I wrote that in one case it cant find entity - it can. So, it works correctly when I have config for entity manager and throw an exception when I do not use it. But in second project it throw exception when I use config for entity manager (the same config!).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
building a common peace community
Common Peace Community
Ramsey Muniz
Curtis Flowers
Completed Campaigns
Court blocks Texas Voter ID law
Written by Alan Bean
By Alan Bean
Texas Republicans received a second straight setback today when a three-judge federal panel blocked the state's voter ID law because the state had failed to demonstrate that the law was not prejudicial to minorities. Earlier this week, a federal court tossed out a Republican-inspired redistricting plan for largely the same reason.
You can't blame the GOP for trying. With Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney by 12 percentage points among women voters, ninety points among African and Americans and forty points among Hispanics, Republicans are running scared. As Lindsey Graham told a Washington Post reporter this week, "The demographics race we're losing badly. We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term."
What's the solution. Either you court minority voters or you reach out to "angry white guys" by bragging that if the women, blacks and Mexicans hate us, we must be right.
Of course, you could do both at the same time. The Republican Convention in Tampa has featured its fair share of minority speakers, but a series of racial incidents have marred the proceedings. Convention delegates aren't just overwhelmingly white, no serious attempt has been made to address issues minority voters care about: job creation, unemployment, immigration reform, health care and racial profiling.
All the evidence suggests that the GOP strategy, to the extent there is one, has been to double down on their efforts to tap into white male resentment, minimize the number of minority voters who make it to the polls, and generating redistricting maps that give Republican candidates a leg up.
The GOP's barrage of racially coded messages has attracted media attention. In a celebrated incident, Chris Matthews of MSNBC accused RNC chairman Reince Priebus of covering for the covert racism at work in the 2012 election. Matthews' assault was so intense (see below) that Priebus called him "a jerk". Matthews was being a jerk. But he was also sincerely pissed off, which was kind of refreshing.
It is interesting to watch Tom Brokaw try to calm the waters by suggesting that politicians on both sides of the ideological divide should dial back the rhetoric. That is no doubt true, but it avoided the issue at hand. Brokaw couldn't address the race-baiting question for fear it would blow his hard-won reputation for impartiality. Chris Matthews doesn't win a lot of style points, but I appreciate his passion.
The ill-famed Willie Horton ad in 1988 was effective largely because it didn't initially appear to be racial. Support for George H.W. Bush plummeted when the thinly disguised racial manipulation in Horton ad was decoded. Suddenly the racial motivation was obvious to any objective observer. You will not be surprised to learn that the creator of the Horton ad, Larry McCarthy, has been hired by a pro-Romney super-PAC to inject racially coded messages into Republican attack ads.
Are voter ID laws racially motivated? Republicans insist they are simply trying to bring integrity to the process. According to the article in the Washington Post,
Republican lawmakers have argued that the voter ID law is needed to clean up voter rolls, which they say are filled with the names of illegal immigrants, ineligible felons and the deceased. Texas, they argue, is asking for no more identification than people need to board an airplane, get a library card or enter many government buildings.
It is possible that the names of illegal immigrants and ineligible felons appear on the voter rolls, but the chances of folks in either category jobbing the system are remote. Felons and the undocumented have a lot to lose and little to gain from casting an illegal vote. Republicans have no evidence that voter fraud is widespread (all the evidence points in the other direction), but they know voter ID laws suppress the minority vote and, if you're with the White team, that can only be good.
August 30, 2012 August 31, 2012 · Posted in racial politics ·
3 thoughts on "Court blocks Texas Voter ID law"
Charles Kiker says:
One PA lawmaker reportedly said, "This [voter ID] law means we could carry Pennsylvania this year." All the GOP lawmakers know that holding down the votes of minorities, the poor, the aged, students and others likely to vote Democratic is the real motivation, though they seldom will admit it. I imagine the PA lawmaker was roundly rebuked in private by his GOP colleagues: "We know that but we can't say it!" And I get tired of hearing about having to have proper ID to board an airplane. Boarding an airplane is not a right; it's a privilege that you have to pay for. Voting is a right, and paying for it by means of a poll tax has been declared illegal.
hadenuf says:
The only reason to not require voter ID, is that one side wants to make cheating easier. Who put this judge on the bench? What are his politics? I'd bet these so called "poor people" have no trouble producing and ID to get welfare benefits or to by liquor. Not requiring an ID is nothing more than madness.
alanbean says:
The problem, hadenuf, is that the folks running the GOP share your bias against the poor.
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After a 44-yard touchdown pass from Zach Whitehead to Trey Campbell, Whitehead takes the snap and goes airborne for the two-point conversion. This tied the game at 32-32 with 14:19 left in the game and King's went on to beat Lebanon Valley 44-39. Audio from LVCtv.
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The Gezel is the female equivalent of RSD's Diesel, one of our best selling summer gloves ever. Roland Sands designed a short cuff, high quality glove that has a lovely retro touch to it.
Measure the circumfrence (all the way around) of your hand at its widest point. If in doubt, size upwards.


text:
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FARs - where's the accountability?
It is appropriate for financial advice providers to be accountable for their financial advice representatives, because they are simply acting as a conduit between the provider and the client, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment says.
Wednesday, March 29th 2017, 6:00AM 17 Comments
by Susan Edmunds
Submissions close this week on the draft of the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Bill.
MBIE issued a document with questions and answers about the bill, which sets out new designations: Financial advisers, financial advice providers and financial advice representatives.
Representatives will work for providers in much the same way as QFEs currently operate.
One of the questions in the MBIE document was: Why are financial advice representatives not personally liable?
MBIE said it was because those representatives would be bound by processes, controls and limitations set by the provider, which would control the outcomes for customers.
"The processes, controls, and limitations in effect mean that the provider is controlling the advice outcomes for consumers, and a financial advice representative is essentially acting as a conduit between the financial advice provider and the client. This is what makes it appropriate for financial advice providers to be accountable for their financial advice representatives. "
PAA chief executive Rod Severn said the designation was inappropriate.
"A crucial objective of this regulatory review is to put the client's interest first: in our view the proposed FAR structure just simply doesn't meet the grade. It's simple: you offer advice if you are personally accountable; if you are not personally accountable, you don't offer advice. Why should the public accept anything less than accountable professionals when dealing with their financial well-being?"
He said the recommended representative designation would only muddy the waters.
"It will create further public confusion and diminish the understanding of the value of advice. How can we say that someone who is not personally accountable, and whose 'advice' is limited to products offered or supported by their financial advice provider, can put their client's interest first? There is an intrinsic conflict of interest."
Severn said a structure in which the financial advice provider set controls and limitations left a lot of room for different views on crucial areas, such as what constituted a scenario which involved a "level of complexity or uncertainty that cannot be adequately addressed using a financial advice provider's predetermined processes controls and limitations," and was therefore out of the scope of financial advice representatives.
"Way too much room to move; particularly when you consider that reducing consumer confusion is one of our – the industry and regulator's – primary concerns and objectives… And not only reducing consumer confusion, but crucially, raising the public's' trust and confidence in advice."
Tags: Financial Markets Conduct Act PAA
« FMA warns on AML, won't name and shame
Comments from our readers
On 29 March 2017 at 8:08 am Charity said:
Under the logic of MBIE, since the Financial Advice Provider controls everything, then is the Financial Advice Provider subject to the Code of Professional Conduct?
Does this mean that the Financial Advice Representative has no responsibility under the Code?
Does this mean a Financial Advice Representative can ignore all of the obligations under the Code without any repercussions to him or her personally?
On 29 March 2017 at 9:44 am Brent Sheather said:
The FMA are probably full of good people trying to do the right thing. But as we saw with the infamous "polo shirt" comment they are constrained by having to work for a government which has absolutely no interest in doing the right thing for retail investors. The succession of Ministers in charge of the FMA, in my view, have been at best incompetent and we won't speculate on the worst case scenario.
As Mr Severn says it is ridiculous to think that someone who can only sell high cost products good for no one can be putting their clients' interest first. The story of the Emperor's New Clothes comes to mind. The polo shirt comment did huge damage to the credibility of the FMA. Indeed it was such a ridiculous thing to say that the only reason, in my view, why anyone would say it is because they had to. That must be very frustrating.
On 29 March 2017 at 10:37 am NormanStacey said:
Maybe they are quite young, but curious that MBIE considers product provider's processes and controls superior to that of AFA'.
ANZ / ING DYF & RYF, Finance Company Debentures, Fisher Fledgling Fund & Marlin, Guardian Trust CashPlus & Mortgage Funds, Huljich KS, Tower MortgagePlus & market manipulations all suggest that Product Providers are not infallible. 'Advice' to buy these products did little to foster confidence in NZ's market-place.
As currently proposed, the exemption from accountability for product providers salespersons is difficult to align with the legislation's objectives.
On 29 March 2017 at 10:50 am PP said:
As AFA's we have a duty not to "mislead"... The proposed designations are definitely misleading. Financial advice representatives are typically pushing/selling product and should be labeled as such. The FMA & legislators need to stop being lobbied/bullied by the 'big end of town' and call it what it is - adviser or salesperson!
On 29 March 2017 at 11:51 am Murray Weatherston said:
Using "we" in the Royal sense, we need to articulate what the problem we have is.
It's clear there is a lot of dislike in adviserland for the term "financial advice representative"
So let's play a scenario game.
Assume Government/officials agree to change the designation to something else - the plainest vanilla term (other than salesperson which is not available for selection) that we can come up with is Provider representative. Seems accurate because what were formerly going to be called FARS are representatives of the financial adviser provider who employs them.
But now assume that nothing else changes.
Has our problem magically gone away.
On 29 March 2017 at 12:34 pm Ron Flood said:
Murray. The problem won't go away but it will help the consumer recognize that the person they are are talking with can only give advice on that providers product.
I won't hold my breath, but I would expect that when licenses are given to Financial Service Providers it will include a caveat that any advice given relating to any product not sold/provided by the license holder can only be provided by a Licensed Financial Adviser.
This would retain the status quo where currently this advice, within QFE's, is given by AFA's.
From what I have seen in the present offering from MBIE and the FMA in the draft we will once again, in 5 years time, be asking ourselves "how can we remove consumer confusion and give then access to good advice".
On 29 March 2017 at 1:12 pm doomben said:
I think the Nicky Hager type 'corruption in high places' line is getting tiresome.
My guess is the main reason regulation is proceeding this way is boring practicalities.
There is simply no way for the FMA to regulate 20,000+ people individually. How many staff would they need to have meaningful interactions with that number of people?
Firm licenses reduces the number of entities to be regulated down to a practical number.
There is faith that regulating the directors of firms effectively shifts the regulatory burden onto firms.
Further the Government has no incentive to end up with only 1,800 'real' financial advisers in NZ. I doubt the Government really thinks those 1,800 are actually that special. (And I would agree with them.)
Focusing on the label used is pretty meaningless. Do people really go around describing themselves to potential clients as an "Authorised Financial Adviser".
I never use that term - the client might think I sell insurance.
I say I am wealth manager, investment adviser, I manage people's money, or what takes my fancy at that time.
So I doubt the official legal name for financial adviser really matters.
What Brent and Murray need to keep doing is trying to influence what the FMA puts into firm licences.
On 30 March 2017 at 11:12 am R1 said:
Doomben, I think you are living in a fools paradise if you feel this way. The amount of investors' money that is involved with this regulation and the profits and bonuses this generates has a lot at stake for a lot of people. To think that the problems with the current regulations and the draft proposal of changes has come about from boring practicalities is, to put it mildly, stupid and naïve. This attitude is the complacency that corruption feeds upon and we need to be vigilant and hold regulators and the lobbyists' paymasters to account for their favouritism of a few at the expense of the many.
While I don't particularly like Hager(or even the big German), they serve a useful purpose by shedding light on topics of major importance the NZ public. Murray and Brent are providing a similar service with other points of view and very often the supporting facts to support that point of view; good on both of them for doing that. Most of us just remain complacent and whinge when things don't go our way.
On 30 March 2017 at 4:37 pm gavin austin adviser business compliance said:
doomben - you may reconsider your confidence in the BEOT after you ahve digested the following:
"Entity licencing – this makes the FMA's monitoring program work with less people. The problem is that the "Big End of Town" don't do the monitoring themselves. Look at http://www.goodreturns.co.nz/article/976502701/amp-adviser-training-by-numbers.html
So, what does this say about the effectiveness of AMP's self-monitoring? The stats tell us that (in my analysis based on info I was privy to in 2010) this would represent less than 10% of the total SOA's produced for clients. The number of Proff Development Clinics was about 1.6 per adviser (wow)." So I am naturally very sceptical regarding the BIG end of town Compliance Monitoring.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Code of Professional Conduct. By the logic employed by MBIE, Financial Advice Providers control processses, controls, limitations and outcomes for clients (assuming the Financial Advice Representatives follow them). Does this mean that Financial Advice Representatives are not going to be subject to the Code and not subject to the Disciplinary Committee? Does this mean that Financial Advice Providers are going to be subject to the Code and the Disciplinary Committee? Or maybe MBIE will just give them a pass because the banks aren't going to like that.
On 31 March 2017 at 12:44 pm doomben said:
R1 - utterly disagree with the idea that NZ civil servants are writing financial adviser regulations to somehow benefit themselves. Ridiculous.
Gavin - I come back to my point. We will have some form of self regulation. The numbers are too big to regulate individually and the rest of the financial industry has already moved this way.
In the absence of a credible adviser grouping (like the Law Society) that will be entity self regulation.
I doubt entity self regulation will be effective. But neither is the current regime. How often does the FMA visit each AFA/RFAs now? Hardly ever I suspect. Why do you think AFAs/RFAs are behaving but the BEOT is not? What % of AFAs/RFAs are doing meaningful professional development (I am with Brent - about 0%) and how would the FMA know?
The title of this post was "where is the accountability". The answer is we are moving from saying Bob the Adviser is accountable to Sir Phillip the Director is accountable.
I don't want to come across as supporting regulation. 99% of regulations that have been introduced are a waste of time.
But we will have entity regulation. So we should worry about how that will work rather than fighting it. What do you want entity regulation to look like for you business?
On 3 April 2017 at 5:35 am Murray Weatherston said:
@doomben
To my way of thinking, you have an unusual way of characterising the proposed regulatory system for financial advice.
You have invented a new term "entity self regulation" - which as I would understand the term is not at all what MBIE has proposed.
We still have 100% government regulation - but it is different from the FAA regulation we have had since 2011 in one important respect. Hitherto, the cornerstone has been authorisation of the individual AFA.
From 2019, Government regulation will be delivered via entity licensing.
I have no doubt that one of the reasons for going for entity regulation is to limit the number of licensees that FMA has to deal with.
But I don't see that the entity is self regulating...FMA will still come knocking at the door of the entity and say "show us how you are complying with our/State regulation".
On 3 April 2017 at 10:27 am doomben said:
Murray - What I mean by self regulation it is that principal oversight for most "advisors" will be their firm's internal compliance rather than an external regulator.
A bank teller "advisor" may go their entire career and never have anything to do with the FMA. But the expectation is they will have a LOT to do with their bank's Compliance Department.
Effectively regulation is internal to the firm. Like an Alex cartoon - the enemy is the Compliance Department not the FMA.
But certainly this relies on the firm being sufficiently concerned that the FMA will find problems that they will invest in sufficient internal compliance.
And that means the FMA issuing few enough licences that they can creditably do monitoring.
On 3 April 2017 at 11:32 am Murray Weatherston said:
Thanks for the clarification doomben.
I would call the concept you have described as "entity self regulation" as simply Compliance.
IMO Compliance is required by an entity, but it isn't self regulation in the technical sense. The Rules that have to be obeyed are set outside of the entity
On 5 April 2017 at 10:30 am R1 said:
Hi Doomben. Clearly you are not aware of the widespread "regulatory capture" that exists in many developed economies. I suggest you have a quick read of the following as an entrée to opening your eyes to the realities of the environment we are currently working in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
On 4 May 2017 at 12:42 pm AFA Muggins said:
Doomben, I'm unsure which planet you think you are on. To quote Ronald Regan - The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
R1 I agree 100% regarding Regulatory Capture. I have a suspicion this will be even more blatant once we see the line-up of the Beauty Pageant finalists….. er, I mean the Code Committee working group members, given that some of the most experienced and articulate representatives of the advisory profession who expressed interest in being on it, have already been shafted.
On 10 July 2018 at 3:01 pm seandnz said:
Does anyone know whether the FMA has or will research the public to find out whether they understand what is being disclosed to them and how much of what they get given so they read? and how much of it they understand. Surely that would form the basis of what is disclosed and how it is disclosed. What is the point of disclosure if they don't understand it.
Too often we can get caught up in our own terminology and understanding, without any real consideration of whether it is being understood or not.
Does the FMA have focus groups of the general public and measure what is being understood?
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The architectural plan for the Patio Savassi development transforms the site into a large neighborhood square, with outdoor meeting areas, gardens, cafés, restaurants and an amphitheater. It is an example of successful integration with the streets surrounding Savassi, a neighborhood known for its high consumer potential.
Acquired by Multiplan in 2007, the development's sales and revenues are on the rise. In view of future expansions, the company purchased two lots that together total more than 3,000 m² and continues to prospect for land in areas neighboring the mall. The project went through the second phase of its second expansion and gained an additional 2,000 m² in current Gross Leasable Area (GLA).
Patio Savassi has brought a mix of well-known brands to the city and has many different operations in the premium fashion segment, since it is considered to be a premier location. In addition, the amphitheater's busy schedule has transformed the mall into a reference point for culture as well.


text:
Home Countries Australia Dominant Australia now on top of the world
Dominant Australia now on top of the world
Australia beat New Zealand by seven wickets in the second and final Test in Christchurch to wrap up a two-nil series victory and claim the number one ranking in Test cricket.
The Aussies resumed on 70 for one on the fifth day, still requiring another 131 runs to win, with Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja at the crease.
Burns was tested in the early stages as left-arm paceman Neil Wagner peppered him with the short ball but the opening batsman came through it.
Khawaja made his way to 45 before seamer Tim Southee had him caught in the slips by outgoing captain Brendon McCullum, which brought an end to a 64-run partnership.
Burns then put on 66 with his skipper Steve Smith before he was bowled by Trent Boult for a well made 65 as he tried to finish the game before lunch.
Smith scored a rapid 53 off 46 balls, which included four fours and one six, and together with Adam Voges (10 not out) saw the visitors over the line as they reached their target of 201 just after the lunch interval.
Australia, who won the first Test by an innings and 52 runs, made sure they kept the Trans-Tasman trophy and are now officially the best Test team in the world to go with their status as world champions in ODI cricket.
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text:
Devotions by Chris Hendrix
Faith's Lifecycle
Tag Archives: known for our love
Unselfish Love
To me, one of the scriptures taken out of context the most is 1 Corinthians 13, also known as "The Love Chapter". It's been used in nearly every Christian wedding, hung on the walls of our homes and quoted to people in Love about how they should love their spouse. The truth is that it has nothing to do with loving our spouse. It's about loving people with God's love that's in us in order to point them to him. We can do all sorts of things for people that bring us glory, but if we don't love them in a way that points to Him, it's pointless.
The last verse in the chapter is probably the most recognized one, but I want to look at it in the Amplified version which adds context to the original meaning. It says, "And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God's love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love." I believe love, in this context, is the greatest because love of this sort offers God's grace and makes us more like Him.
The first verse in the next chapter continues Paul's thoughts on the matter. It says, "Pursue [this] love [with eagerness, make it your goal]." That kind of love isn't natural for most of us. It's something we're going to have to desire to have, and we're going to have to pursue it. It's going to require us to pray for it and to put it into practice in our lives until it becomes a part of who we are. To have unselfish love for others should be the goal of every one of us, especially since Jesus said we would be known for our love for one another.
Today, think about what that love likes like coming from you. What can you do to show someone God's love? It doesn't have to be a grand gesture that goes viral on social media. It can be a simple word of encouragement, a prayer for a friend in need, a purchased cup of coffee for the person in line behind you, a warm meal for a homeless person, or a call to someone feeling lonely. These unselfish acts of love don't have to change the world, but if we do enough of them out of God's love for us, it just might.
Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash
Tagged as 1 Corinthians 13, acts of kindness, be kind, christian living, Christianity, Devotion, Devotional, how do we show love, known for our love, love, loving others, showing god's love, the Love chapter, what does the Bible say about love, what is love
You'll also get my free e-book "100 Powerful Scriptures".
A Useless Life
Standing Your Ground
Keep Failing
10 Scriptures On Leaving A Godly Heritage
Times Of Transition
Devotions By Chris
I was nominated by Lilkaraphael @ bisforblessed.com
I was nominated for this award by Mike Stephens at mikeforchrist.com
Devotions by Chris Hendrix · A daily dose of encouragement from God's Word


Hand cast and chrome or nickle plated, these mascots adorned the bonnets of many cars in the 1920' and 30's. They were made by A.E. Lejeune and sold for 3 guineas in 1923. One such mascot replaced the 'Spirit of Ecstacy' statue on film and stage actor Jack Buchanan's Rolls Royce!
At least two other Bonzo mascots were made by the Lejeune company. The one on the left has a chrome / nickel finish & the one on the right is brassed.
Louis Lejeune Ltd., Wilburton, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB6 3RA U.K.


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1. Wanting in the qualities which affect the organs of taste; without taste or savor; vapid; tasteless; as, insipid drink or food.
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starts with building more housing. how and where we build it is the controversial subject. >> especially when that housing is near b.a.r.t. stations. amy hollyfield is live with what's happening today at b.a.r.t. that could help push new developments. amy? >> reporter: hi, jessica. here at the contra costa b.a.r.t. station, there is housing around the b.a.r.t. station. there's a new proposed bill calling for more b.a.r.t. station toss look like this. the bill also requires low-income housing in new developments. critics say they think local lawmakers should have more control over zoning issues like this. fees requirement shouldn't be coming from the state. today the b.a.r.t. board will consider this proposed bill and whether to support it. the recommendation to the board from the staff is to vote yes and support the proposed bill. that b.a.r.t. board meeting is scheduled for this morning.
shows her with her arms crossed as she faced a judge. abc 7 news confirmed that notre dame high school in belmont received a subpoena. administrators tell us that they have cooperated fully with investigators. meanwhile, usc says it will bar from admission about half a dozen student applicants connected to a firm indicted in the scandal. what's more, many of the parents in the scandal not only are accused of bribing, they also allegedly helped their kids cheat on the college entrance exams. >> it's disturbing to many of us, including the professionals who work in testing. reporter kate larsen has that. >> according to this criminal complaint, gordon kaplan, a prominent attorney was instruct today tell his daughter to be stupid while being evaluated for extra time on her exam.
to be slow, not as bright said complaining witness one. >> it makes me angry. >> charles ross is a psychologist who specializes in learning differences. he's been evaluating students determine if a childaccommodati >> there are students who need extended time without question. >> under the americans with disabilities act x students with learning learning disabilities, adhd, psychiatric disorders, hearing or visual iimpairment. autism might be eligible for accommodations like extra time on tests. >> based on the results, he may recommend that students receive 50 or 100% more time on a test. kaplan was allegedly trying to game the system to get that extra time for his daughter. >> i'm looking out for the normal kids. why do they get punished because some kid makes up something. that's unfair.
>> he's been an s.a.t. and act tutor for 30 extra time and limits need to be set. >> the thing that seems unfair to me is this business of taking over several days. so if they force everyone who does have extra time to take it in one sitting that, would seem a little fairer to me. >> other parents are accused of having others take the tests for them or having proctors correct their answers. if convicted, the parents could face multiple years in prison. i'm kate larsen, abc 7 news. happening today, we'll get an update on work to repair cracked steel at the transbay transit center in san francisco. engineers will give transit officials a report on what caused the cracks in two girders. the center has been he problem was discovered. they will give an update on repairs. they still expect the work to be done in june.
mid-60s this afternoon. as far as the east bay goes, start off with sunshine. near 60 at noon. high clouds and sunshine. low to mid-60s during the afternoon and early evening hours. san francisco, we're going to crack 60 today. starting off sunshine also. low 60s during the afternoon hours and down to about 51 by 10:00. pretty quiet here. turn over to alexis. find out how the commute is. i see a lot of green on your map. >> certainly is. i would hope so. you never know. we definitely have days where that is not the case. going to take you into one stretch of red. getting out of tracy. no surprise. that is your toughest spot. 580 near flynn road. we have a crash up on the shoulder. two vehicles involved. it sounds like they have a ton of damage to it and a box truck involved. again, no lanes are blocked. but they are working on getting a tow truck to the scene. this hand quite some time ago. the initial call to the chp was at 3:04 this morning.
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the central valley to monterey. 58 eureka. the high clouds will encroach upon the coach and into our neighborhood. let's see if they make it up to the sierra, where we're 40 today in tahoe. look at this. the next seven days, there's finally a chance of wintry weather wednesday. before that, we'll hit the 50s this weekend. thank you. vallejo will be looking for a new police chief. the current chief is stepping down after fiv fiv fiv fiv job. the mayor says it has nothing do with the resent criticism. including one at a taco bell drive-through. in 2015, the department mistakenly accused a couple of orchestrating a violent kidnapping. the couple sued the city and reached a $2.5 million settlement. in the south bay, if you're looking to pay a traffic ticket online in santa clara county, you will have to wait. the county's court online payment system is off line this morning because of a technical glitch.
watches and warnings covering about a third to nearly half of the country. if you're trying to get east of us, it is still winter to some spring severe weather in the south. back here at home, here's a look at san jose. beautiful shot looking northbound towards mineta san jose international. high clouds, little sunshine today. building warmth through monday and showers are possible through tuesday and especially into wednesday. here's a look at what's going on. 59 in san francisco and half moon bay. everybody else around 60 to 66 degrees this afternoon. as far as lows tonight we'll be hanging in the 30s in lakeport and ukiah and morgan hill. not as widespread as this morning. the rest of us in the low to mid-50s. now let's take a look at my accuweather seven-day forecast. you're going to see signs of spring tomorrow as we reach 70 inland. that will spread to the bay saturday. never quite makes it to the coast. but look at what a great day it's going to be sunday. that's march 17th, right?
users. >> meantime, a new report says the company is under criminal investigation over data sharing. here's techbytes. in today's techbytes, the worst outage in facebook's history. >> wednesday's global glitch hit the main site as two messaging apps and instagram. users have been updated via twitter. facebook wouldn't say the cause. facebook faces criminal probe stemming from data sharing with other tech firms. "the new york times" says a grand jury has subpoenaed records from two smartphone makers. verizon will launch a 5g network next month in chicago and minneapolis. it's going to cost an extra $10 a month. >> the first 5g capable phone will be the motorola moto. the aston martin is going green i according to the sun, t bond films will feature the all electric 600 horsepowe techbyte.
more than 292 million. >> so you're saying there's a chance? >> i hope so. here's a look at what's going on. i thought i'd take a look at the warming trend and throw out some specific cities. you can see how your neighborhood shapes up. tomorrow, we're in the low to mid-60s from the coast into san francisco. mid to upper 60s everywhere else. the first 70 shows up in san jose. you can see high clouds rolling in. that's even warmer weather for saturday. look at the wealth of 70s in our inland neighborhoods in the south bay and towards hayward. mid to upper 60s around the bay and toward the coast. spring-like weather spreading to the coast. i should say to the bay. everybody is in the 70s, save sausalito, san francisco, half moon bay and bodega bay, which will be in the mid to upper 60s. with a light offshore breeze and a lot of sunshine, might be the first real nice day at our beaches this year so far. you might want to get there early. a lot of people probably eager to get there.
water temperatures in the mid-50s. that hasn't changed whatsoever. we'll have one more warm day on monday. you'll see temperatures a lot like this. we'll start to crash those back down to average and get that chance of rain on wednesday and thursday. until then, enjoy the dry weather. seeing a lot of people washing their cars lately, alexis. >> me too. my car is still filthy. i'm not one of them. i need to take care of that, that's for sure. >> walnut creek, southbound 680 and things are filling in. starting to see a few brake lights north of the 24 split. no blocking incidents along that path. we have very few incidents on the board. mostly green on the traffic maps as you can see. just a solid light of red. westbound 580 near north flynn road. a two-vehicle collision just after 3:00 this morning. a box truck and a sedan. sounds like the back half of that sedan totally smashed in. they're waiting for a tow truck on the scene. everything is on the shoulder. a lot of folks slowing down to look at that.
ballpark. they're adorning the exterior of the stadium. work is still on the way on the scoreboard sign. this is the fourth name. it was original pack tell park and then at&t park. they have naming rights for the next 20 years. >> you would never know. it looks exactly like the other logos and fonts. they did a good job. next at 5:00 a.m., an announcement from tesla. jussie smollett due in court. what a judge is expect today ask him. the bay area museum celebrating pi day. free admission. a look here at downtown san francisco. we'll be right back.
boeing 737 max jets grounded after two similar crashes. why the faa wait today pull the planes. how the decision is impacting travelers in the bay area this morning. good morning to you. it's thursday, march 14th. >> thank you for joining us. you're nef more than seven minutes away from your accuweather forecast. let's kick things off with meteorologist mike nicco. >> thanks, guys. napa at 12 is brisk this morning. mt. tam not bouncing around hardly at all compared to what it was doing yesterday. expect another day full of sunshine. cooler because of a lack of winds. inland, 33. around the bay, the coast, 42 to 46. how nice it's going to be at lunch. outdoor cafe is going to be busy. 55 to 57.


Last months issue of Yen magazine brought to my attention the awesome work of Stacey Rozich. It reminds me a lot of Tara Marynowsky's pieces in that it's the product of a narrative being told, and also the fact that they both work with the beautiful medium of watercolour, but Rozich's is in more of a controlled manner. The works show tribal influences and boast gorgeous combinations of organic and geometric shapes and marks. The characters are adorned in brightly coloured, layered costumes that create a basis for the narratives being drawn. This informs Rozich's subject, which is folklore from around the world. Each image looks like the set of a play and as the viewer you manage to feel the movement and energy of the performance. Extremely impressive work!


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Sharma Howard: Family entertainment could see more time at home
Sharma Howard
Last weekend, I covered the pre-concert excitement of the Miley Cyrus show at MGM Grand. Because tickets were $150, $250 and $350, parents who coughed up the cash for their children to see the teen sensation faced a backlash in online chatter afterward, especially given the news of the imploding economy.
Some people seemed angry that parents were being what they perceived as lavish — some even mentioned the $700 billion bailout proposed by the Bush administration to staunch the collapse of Wall Sreet and free up frozen credit.
But given the excitement of seeing Cyrus, I'm sure parents had bought the tickets well in advance of the economic tsunami that has reached our shores.
I believe how people choose to spend their money is personal and no one else's business. That argument, however, is on a bit of shaky ground as we discover that others' bad decisions in pushing mortgages on people who couldn't afford them is coming home to roost upon us all in a complex economy in which we are inter-linked.
And another troubling aspect of our crisis is the fact Americans aren't saving their money — we have a negative savings rate as a nation, and that will menace the stability of the American family as a recession descends.
So how do families cope with the recession we are told will be long, and hard? How does entertainment fare in bad economic times?
Movies, in particular, do well. They buoyed spirits in the Great Depression, and in the last seven recessions, movie theaters, box office revenue and admissions increased during five of them.
Already bloggers are predicting home entertainment in the form of video games will be robust, as people stay closer to home for entertainment. Home movies, as well, will surely continue to be popular.
Art reflects life, it spins it back to the public — to lighten, critique, record or lampoon the time we live in.
Children's shows will play an important role in the coming years. As much as the movie "WALL-E" left me cold in an entertainment sense, looking back, I find it was brilliantly prescient on some level. In the movie, corporate corruption, excessive public consumption of goods, along with the assault on the planet, all eroded the evolution of mankind and its collective well-being.
Nonprofit attraction
In these times, it could be that little-used nonprofits, such as museums, live theater, historic sites, free parks and nature centers will attract a greater number of families as they stay closer to home and forgo big Disney World blitzes.
These times make me wonder: Did we need all of that to begin with? Do our kids truly need that level of entertainment? Or are we, have we, been in overkill mode for a while?
I would argue that the spending on fancy vacations, trips to concerts and the like, actually have splintered families away from the communities in which they live. Neighborhoods used to be more communal, with baseball games, unruly games of tag, and one popular hangout house where the mother was probably the most laid-back providing not only entertainment, but also socialization and connection. While the glitz and glamour of going to a casino to see a star is no doubt exciting, uncertain times call for more cautionary spending, as well as getting back down to earth, and interacting thoughtfully with your kids.
Now is the time to not only show economic restraint by example, but also time to help kids learn to entertain themselves, and appreciate substance — their family and community.
Norwich Bulletin


Adult Forum - Ellen Robbins, "Racism and the Bible in American History"
Ellen Robbins is a Lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at John Hopkins University. She has a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from New York University and a M.Div. from Yale University. She has been teaching at Johns Hopkins since 1993, and is the author of The Storyteller and the Garden of Eden, a radical rereading of the first chapters of Genesis.
Biblical texts and biblical history have been quoted to justify American slavery and to oppose it, and have played a role in the development of segregation after emancipation – alongside attempts to overcome it that continue to this day.


Dunhill County Group 3 Pot shape pipe. Brown Sandblast finish. Cumberland stem. Handmade in England.
Length: 5.13 in. / 13.03 cm.
Bowl Height: 1.51 in. / 3.83 cm.
Outside Diameter: 1.22 in. / 3.09 cm.
Chamber Depth: 1.24 in. / 3.14 cm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.74 in. / 1.87 cm.


The aim of this study is to examine and to evaluate the Curriculum of Elective Media Literacy Course. Media literacy as elective course, review of the literature, needs analysis of individual and society, and internal consistency of the curriculum was determined as basic criteria in the evaluation based on stages of curriculum development. As a result of the examination and the evaluation it could be said that the scope and effectiveness of media literacy education decreased since it was elective course. Literature of media literacy hasn't been investigated enough/thoroughly on the curriculum development process. Furthermore, it's hardly to say that needs analysis of individual and society on media literacy education is sufficent. The curriculum has internal consistency in itself, but not in media literacy. All evaluations have been revealed that works of media literacy education must be dealt with again in Turkey.


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Home Hindu Mythology RAMAYANA Story- An Epic
RAMAYANA Story- An Epic
The Ramayana is one of the two great Epics of Hindu mythological literature. The other is the Mahabharata. The Ramayana was said to have been authored by the sage Valmiki. The Ramayana dealt with the story of Sri Rama and Sita.
The Ramayana is divided into two sections, the first with six books (kan- das) and the second with one. The first and seventh books are believed by most scholars to have been added later to the original. The traditional view in India, however, is that the whole was created by Valmiki, even though there were three recensions, none of which contain more than two-thirds that is common to the others. Tradition places its action in the treta yuga, or second age of this era. That means that the events of Rama's life preceded those of Krishna's, that he made his appearance as an avatara (incarnation) of Vishnu before Krishna. Scholars have noted much borrowing of themes and mythic solutions from stories about quite different figures or characters.
The Ramayana gathered folk tales of a local prince Rama of Kosala who had been sung about for centuries by martial bards. He was a perfect warrior. The literary retellings of the Rama myth by the poets—Valmiki, Bhasa, Kalidasa, andIn the epic Ramayana Hanuman serves Rama with pure devotion. (TRIP)
Bhavabhuti—were more secular than religious, more heroic than ascetic, and all quite tragic. By about the twelfth century the vernacular and regional poets like Ramayanas and Tulsidas had transformed not only Rama into the supreme lord but all elements including Ravana into loving devotion (prema bhakti). Everything had become an allegory of devotion, harmony, and bliss.
RAMA in Ramayana- The seventh incarnation of Vishnu
Killing of Vishvarup and MAKING Vajra with DADHICHI bones


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Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany — Southern Germany (Scarplands and Alpine Region)
Kaiserin Kunigund / Empress Kunigund
By Andrew Ruppenstein, September 25, 2019
1. Kaiserin Kunigund / Empress Kunigund Marker
(English translation:) Co-founder of the Bishopric of Bamberg. Statue by Johann Peter Benkert, 1750. The copy dates from 1992, with the original in St. Jacob Church. This is the only preserved surviving statue of the six that were on the bridge when it was destroyed by flooding in 1784. . This historical marker is in Bamberg Bavaria Germany
Mitbegründerin des Bistums Bamberg
Statue 1750 von Johann Peter Benkert
Kopie 1992, Original in der St. Jakobskirche
Einzig erhalten gebliebene Figur von sechs der 1784 durch Hochwasser zerstörten Brücke
(English translation:) Co-founder of the Bishopric of Bamberg. Statue by Johann Peter Benkert, 1750. The copy dates from 1992, with the original in St. Jacob Church. This is the only preserved surviving statue of the six that were on the bridge when it was destroyed by flooding in 1784.
Location. 49° 53.504′ N, 10° 53.195′ E. Marker is in Bamberg, Bavaria. Marker is on Untere Brücke, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Bamberg, Bavaria 96049, Germany. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Bamberg's World War II Fallen and Missing (here, next to this marker); Joseph Heller (a few steps from this marker); Altes Rathaus / Old City Hall (within shouting distance of this marker); Claus Graf Stauffenberg (within shouting distance of this marker); Am Kranen / At the Cranes
2. Kaiserin Kunigund / Empress Kunigund Statue and Marker
The marker is visible on the far left.
(about 90 meters away, measured in a direct line); Upper Bridge and City Hall on the Bridge (about 90 meters away); Franziskanerkirch / Franciscan Church (about 120 meters away); Am Kranen 12a (about 150 meters away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Bamberg.
Also see . . . Cunigunde of Luxembourg (Wikipedia). "Saint Cunigunde of Luxembourg, OSB (c. 975 – 3 March 1040), also called Cunegundes, Cunegunda, and Cunegonda and, in Latin, Cunegundis or Kinigundis, was Empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Saint Henry II. She served as interim Regent after the death of her spouse in 1024. She is a Roman Catholic saint and the Patroness of Luxembourg and Lithuania; her feast day is 3 March....It appears that Cunigunde was active politically. As the closest adviser of her husband, she took part in Imperial councils. She is also reported to have exerted an influence on her husband in his endowments of land to the Church. These included the cathedral and monastery at Bamberg, Bavaria, in present-day Germany." (Submitted on November 14, 2019.)
Categories. • Arts, Letters, Music • Churches & Religion •
More. Search the internet for Kaiserin Kunigund / Empress Kunigund.
Credits. This page was last revised on November 14, 2019. This page originally submitted on November 14, 2019, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Sacramento, California. This page has been viewed 42 times since then and 2 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on November 14, 2019, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Sacramento, California.


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State of the News 01/06/12
Our first State of the News in the new year began with the breaking news of the revised hospital merger with CHI and now just Jewish Hospital and St. Mary's, no longer involving University of Louisville Hospital; Devin Katayama had the details. Devin and Phillip Bailey had the latest on the status of the Occupy Louisville movement, as they await a legal opinion on Founder's Square occupation in the court system. Gabe Bullard recapped the passing of Gatewood Galbraith, including the varied reactions from friends and political foes alike, and Phillip Bailey explained what it might mean to other third party candidates moving forward. A number of pris0n inmates have just been granted early release in Kentucky, including Louisville; Devin Katayama revealed the facts. Finally, an endangered whooping crane was found dead in Indiana recently; Erica Peterson explained the possible link to the sandhill crane hunting season in Kentucky.In the second segment, we checked in with the Courier-Journal's James Carroll, who is in New Hampshire with the Ron Paul campaign. Then we examined the Kentucky General Assembly's first week in session with Kentucky Public Radio's new Capitol Bureau Chief, Kenny Colston.Something a little different in the final segment: this Sunday would have been Elvis Presley's 77th birthday, and we heard a feature about a citizen of Washington, DC who calls himself Blelvis, an "Elvisologist." We then spoke with radio producer Sam Greenspan to find out more about his story.


Our team at Dawson Moving & Storage have been delivering the highest quality service in Vermont South since its inception. Our aim is to continue to lead furniture removals and storage in Vermont South, by maintaining a commitment to the best customer experience during the moving journey.
We are fully Australian owned and operated, having only been owned by successive generations of two families since its inception.
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In Vermont South, we provide a variety of end to end services, in order to allow our customers the most effortless move possible. We specialise in moving, storage and packing. Our fleet of vehicles and team are fully equipped to move your valuables safely in or out of Vermont South. Our highly secure storage facility is designed to house your precious belongings, should you need somewhere to keep them for the short or long term. We are also experts in packing and unpacking your belongings for you if you would like our premium packaging offering. We can even provide you with all the appropriate packing supplies to get the job done yourself.
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The eastern boundary of Vermont South is the Dandenong Creek, which flows from the Dandenong Ranges, through to Port Phillip. The suburb was mostly developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, after developers bought the apple orchards in the area.


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Paylocity announces three executive promotions
Posted8/16/2021 2:42 PM
SCHAUMBURG -- Paylocity Holding Corp., a provider of cloud-based human resources and payroll software solutions, Monday promoted three executives: Holly Fulp to senior vice president and chief strategy officer, Ryan Glenn to senior vice president of finance, and Josh Scutt to senior vice president of sales.
Fulp, who joined Paylocity in 2018 as vice president of corporate development, will lead corporate development and strategy across the business. Prior to Paylocity, she served as a director in the technology investment banking group at William Blair. She holds an master's in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Scutt, who joined Paylocity in 2018 as vice president of sales, will lead all sales efforts across the company. Prior to Paylocity, he served as vice president of enterprise sales at NCR and spent nearly two decades in the human capital management industry at ADP.
Glenn joined Paylocity in 2013 and previously served as vice president of finance and investor relations. He will now lead the finance function including banking and investor relations. Prior to Paylocity, he worked in the capital markets and accounting advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
"As we remain focused on delivering the most modern platform in the industry and supporting our long-term growth, we are thrilled to promote three of our executives in key roles for driving sustained growth and scalability across our business," said Steve Beauchamp, chief executive officer of Paylocity.


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The University of Oxford has finished top of the Times Higher Education Table of Tables 2022, a ranking which combines the results of the three main UK university league tables.
Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, finished 1st in both the Guardian University Guide and CUG, and 2nd in the Times Good University Guide. The University of St Andrews, who displaced the Oxbridge pair of Cambridge and Oxford for the first time in the Times guide, finished 3rd overall in the THE ranking. Amongst London universities, University College London rose three places to 8th, returning to the UK top 10 for the first time since 2019.
The Table of Tables 2022 is based on the combined results of the UK's three main domestic university rankings: the Times and Sunday Times' Good University Guide, the Guardian University Guide and The CUG.
Are you interested in studying in the UK from 2022? Arrange a free consultation with SI-UK London today to begin your application.
THE Table of Tables Top 10


It is no secret that, for us in Socialist Resistance (SR), what is posed by the SWP crisis is the issue of revolutionary unity. We are already involved in such discussions with the comrades of the International Socialist Network (ISN) and Anticapitalist Initiative (ACI). The far left in Britain has long been weakened by a legacy of divisions which neither reflect today's political reality or the needs of the wider movement, in fact they are destructive to the wider movement.
Yet such divisions are difficult to transcend despite the fact that many of the old arguments, like the class nature of the Soviet Union, for example, have been overtaken by history.
Events like the SWP crisis open up the possibility of a breakthrough in this regard. A chance to build something new that would cut across the existing traditions and divisions of the far left. A chance to build something on a different political basis and to give a strong new emphasis, for example, to feminism and self-organisation, and, in our view, the ecological issues as well.
Even before the SWP crisis reached its present stage there were signs of realignments and recomposition opening up – for example with the emergence of the ACI.
We remain ready to dissolve Socialist Resistance into such an organisation if it is established. We recognise that building a new organisation of this kind is not easy and that it will take time. There is also an urgency, however, since such opportunities when they arise do not hang around for ever.
Meanwhile there are plenty of openings for joint work in the broader movement which should in any case underpin any process of regroupment. For us [the new left party] Left Unity is particularly important given the ongoing crisis of working-class representation. It has established 50 groups around the country with over a thousand members and, after its successful founding conference in November last year, is preparing a policy conference in March. As important is the People's Assembly and the struggle against the cuts. The fight against austerity, cuts and privatisation is central to our priorities and the People's Assembly gives an important forum which brings together the trade unions and community campaigns and practical action on the ground. We are also involved in the Campaign Against Climate Change, anti-fracking initiatives and of course in the unions.
In fact we are already working with RS21 comrades in various ways. Comrades from RS21, as well as from the ISN and ACI, are involved in building the meeting on February 15 in solidarity with the Syrian insurrection. Both Dave Renton and Ian Birchall are speaking at our event on the New Left on February 1. There will be other opportunities as well. For example we have a comrade from Bangladesh doing a speaking tour in Britain in March on super exploitation and the climate crisis in Bangladesh, which the comrades would be very welcome to get involved in.
The RS21 comrades argue in their statement that: "The working class movement is more powerful when the left finds ways of working on what unites people against our common class enemy" and go on to say that they "will seek to work with broader working class forces on the basis of agreement where possible". We strongly agree on this.
They also say: "The revolutionary left faces a series of difficult questions and important tasks. We hope that together we can begin to address these challenges."
In our opinion, the best way to address such challenges is to work to establish both joint work and a common view as to how to create a new revolutionary organisation in the future which would, we think, be a real pole of attraction not only to those currently members of far left organisation but also to many others who are not.


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Marvel Studios isn't taking over Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con this year, but they have a pretty good presence at the annual convention anyway. Avengers: Infinity War was the darkest movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released so far, which led the studio to come up with a group "therapy" session for MCU fans who happen to be in San Diego for Comic-Con. The pop-up is called "Group Hug," and it's taking place over by Petco Park. Sad Infinity War fans are able to check out a deleted scene from the movie ahead of the Blu-ray release later this summer at the pop-up.
The "Group Hug" therapy session allows MCU fans to mourn the loss of all of the heroes who turned to dust at the end of Infinity War. It's a comfortable, safe space for fans and it gives everybody a chance to deal with what they saw on the big screen. But, the best part of the whole experience is the deleted scene from the movie that takes place after Thanos kidnaps Gamora on Knowhere. According to reports, the deleted scene is called "The Guardians Get Their Groove Back."
The scene takes place back on the Milano as Drax rips the Zune MP3 player from the ship's sound system, complaining that Star-Lord is only listening to the same KISS song over and over, which is "New York Groove." The crew still hasven't left Knowhere where Mantis and Drax are now playing hot potato with the MP3 player, keeping it away from Star-Lord, who maintains that he needs the song to get his groove back.
Star-Lord then blames Drax for putting Gamora in danger in the first place, which really gets him upset. Drax insists that it's Star-Lord's fault because he wouldn't let him seize the moment, yelling "you tried to kill her!" Star-Lord defends his actions, stating that Gamora told him that it would save the universe. While Drax and Star-Lord are arguing, Mantis notices a blinking yellow light, which turns out to be a message from Nebula alerting the crew to let them know that Gamora is still alive. Nebula gives them the coordinates to Titan, which is how the Guardians end up there.
The Infinity War deleted scene is both humorous and heartbreaking at the same time, which fits just about all of the scenes with the Guardians of the Galaxy in them. It's nice of Marvel Studios to think of fans and allow them to grieve together and get through the pain of Infinity War together, while also promoting the Blu-ray release of the movie. Speaking of which, Infinity War will be available to purchase digitally on July 31st and then the Blu-ray package follows on August 14th, so if you weren't able to make it the "Group Hug" event, you don't have to wait much longer to see the deleted scene. This report originated from Slash Film.


The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, today (Wednesday 14th October) begins a two-day Trade and Investment Mission to Dundalk, Waterford, Cork and Galway organised by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland as part of a joint Global Sourcing initiative. The objective is to maximise sales opportunities for Irish companies with multinational companies based in Ireland, as well as large indigenous Irish companies.
The trade mission in Ireland is a new initiative first introduced last year: this year's mission will build on the success of the first trade mission last year which covered the major cities in Ireland.
Over the course of the two days, more than 370 one-to-one meetings will take place between 126 indigenous Irish companies and 69 multinational companies. Panel discussions and networking events will take place at each venue, giving Irish companies the opportunity to engage directly with procurement teams from multinational companies across a wide range of sectors including ICT, Web 2.0, Pharma, Biotech, Medical Devices, Consumer, Security and Engineering.