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Britain is to push the European Union to relax restrictions on the licensing of genetically modified crops for human consumption amid growing scientific evidence that they are safe, and surveys showing they are supported by farmers. The Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, is expected to use a speech next week to outline the start of a new government approach to GM to ensure Britain “is not left behind” in agricultural science.
The move comes as 61 per cent of UK farmers now say they would like to grow GM crops after a disastrous 12-month cycle of poor weather that is expected significantly to reduce harvest yields. Senior government officials said that ministers are increasingly concerned that the potential moral and ethical benefits of GM are being ignored by costly and bureaucratic licensing regulations.
With one-twelfth of global arable land under GM cultivation they have privately warned that Britain faces being left behind in an important technology that has the potential to improve crop yields, help the UK’s agricultural industry and provide benefits to human health through vitamin fortification.
Government sources added that GM also had applications beyond food including the potential to combat diseases such as ash dieback and in developing new medicines.
“The point about GM is not simply about food production,” they said. “There are wider potential environmental and economic benefits to the technology both in the UK and internationally.
Ministers are hopeful of building support in Brussels for a change of heart on GM, with Germany seen as a key swing voter. However, any attempts to relax the rules could face opposition from countries such as Poland which in April became the eighth EU member state to ban the cultivation of GM crops.
Mr Paterson is said to believe that Britain should take the lead in moving the debate on from the knee-jerk reaction against GM for much of the last decade.
The move comes as a poll of over 600 British farmers found a considerable shift in their stance toward GM in the past year, with nearly a third saying they would be more likely to grow GM crops if it were legal now than they were 12 months ago – about half of them a “lot more” so.
On top of the advocated benefits of improving yields and cutting down on costs such as pesticides, the increasingly extreme weather has concentrated farmers’ minds on the need to guard against climate change.
“The weather has definitely had an impact,” said Martin Haworth, director of policy at the National Farmers Union. “Farmers are becoming more and more aware that climate change doesn’t mean a gradual rise in temperatures but rather a stream of extreme weather events. GM technology is one possible way of mitigating this.
“Last summer was disastrous for potatoes, for example. The potential for growing potatoes resistant to blight has had an impact on some farmers’ attitudes,” he said, adding that farmers were “very frustrated” at not being able to grow GM crops.
One of the survey’s respondents said they wanted to grow GM crops because “the terrible weather in the past two years has meant that yields have been down and the cost of fertiliser and pesticides have been rising ever since”.
GM crops can be engineered to grow faster, increase their resistance to weeds, pests and pesticides, produce extra nutrients or survive harsher weather conditions. They are created by taking genes with beneficial qualities from other organisms and injecting them into the plant. A gene from bacteria found in soil has proved particularly effective at warding off pests from cotton plants, for example.
But while they are widely grown in North and South America, GM crops are effectively banned in the UK and Europe where they are considered on an extremely strict case-by-case basis.
Since the first GM food was produced in 1994 – a delayed-ripening tomato, which had a longer shelf-life – the EU has granted just two licences to cultivate GM crops, neither of them grown in the UK. One was for plants engineered to resist corn borers and the other for a starchy potato used to make paper.
Apart from that, Europe’s exposure to GM products has been confined to imports of genetically modified animal feed, while much of the meat, eggs and milk comes from animals that have been reared on engineered grains.
Science Minister David Willetts said that controls on GM crops should be weakened to make it easier for Britain’s farmers to grow them.
“We believe that GM crops can help make agriculture more efficient and also just as importantly more sustainable, by, for example, reducing the use of pesticides and the use of fossil fuels,” he said.
“There are just too m any 21st-Century technologies that Europe is just being very slow to adopt… one productive way forward is to have this discussion as part of a wider need for Europe to remain innovative rather than a museum of 20th century technology,” he added.
A European Commission analysis of 130 research projects carried out by 500 groups over 25 years concluded in December 2010 that there is “no scientific evidence associating genetically modified organisms with higher risks for the environment or food and feed safety than conventional plants or organisms”.
However, the evidence is not conclusive and the technique continues to be highly controversial. Opponents to GM crops argue that it is far too early to conclude that the technique is safe – including many farmers, with a quarter saying they would not cultivate them under any circumstances.
They are concerned that adopting GM crops could foster stronger pests, diseases and weeds as their foes evolve to adapt to engineered plant and that the injected “rogue” genes could cause problems by spreading to other plants.
The report was conducted by Farmers Weekly magazine and the Reed publishing group and commissioned by Barclays.
Underlining the scale of public opposition to GM foods, a separate new survey out today by YouGov found that only 21 per cent of the population supported the technology, while 35 per cent opposed it.
via Exclusive: The agricultural revolution – UK pushes Europe to embrace GM crops – UK Politics – UK – The Independent.
New €150m Glanbia plant to create 2,000 jobs!!!
A new milk processing plant could give a huge boost to the south-east of the country creating over 2,000 jobs in spin-off industries.
both the Government and the company claim it could spur about 1,000 extra farm jobs and another 600 local jobs as a knock-on effect of its construction.
There will also be 450 construction roles as the factory is built.
Glanbia said the plant will contribute around €400m a year to the local economy.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the plan was a “massive vote of confidence in Ireland and our agri-food sector”.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney hailed the news as “the biggest jobs announcement” of the year.
He also rejected concerns that the mooted 1,600 jobs may not end up being created.
Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton claimed the announcement was of “major strategic significance”.
Glanbia is building the plant to deal with a huge increase in the amount of milk its suppliers will produce when EU caps on milk production are removed in 2015.
Almost all of the milk will be exported to Asia, Africa and South America. Most of it will be sold as dry milk powder which can be used for infant milk formula, cheese and nutritional products.
Hola mi amigos!
Buenvenidos and Ding Dong, for the Dictator Hugo Chavez is dead! Let this be a message to all dictators! If God’s President Obama called you out into the Axis of Evil, your days are numbered!
For years Hugo Chavez broke the greatest commands of the Bible, refusing to bow before America’s glory and freely share all the oil in his country with the nation drafted to protect the Western hemisphere from communist East Bloc tyranny.
Chavez always bad-mouthed President George W. Bush and even made friends with mean spirited dictators like Saddam Hussein and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is rumored that Adolph Hitler may have been hiding in Argentina as well.
Most famously, Hugo Chavez threatened to not share our oil in Venezuela and Argentina with us. America automatically owns the Western hemisphere by virtue of the Monroe Doctrine, so his actions were criminal and unjust.
ith Chavez out of the way, South America is in chaos and it is the perfect chance for America to muscle in and coerce a governor over the people, to kindly rule them toward democracy and setup some Halliburton drilling. Hopefully you fools invested in that company because the fields will be a-flowing with the beautiful crude oil!
How appropriate that the Wizard of Oz is coming back to theaters soon, because the wicked dictator is dead. • ChristWire.
The middle class in the South is growing rapidly in size, income and expectations. Between 1990 and 2010, the South’s share of the global middle class population expanded from 26% to 58%. By 2030, more than 80% of the world’s middle class is projected to be residing in the South and to account for 70% of total consumption expenditure.13 The Asia- Pacific Region will host about two-thirds of the world’s middle class by 2030, Central and South America about 10% and Sub-Saharan Africa 2% (figure 4). Within Asia, China and India will account for more than 75% of the middle class as well as its share of total consumption.
Another estimate is that by 2025, annual consumption in emerging market economies will rise to $30 trillion, from $12 trillion in 2010, with the South home to three-fifths of the 1 billion households earning more than $20,000 a year.14 The continued expansion of the middle class is certain to have a profound impact on the world economy.
By 2020, according to projections developed for this Report, the combined economic output of three leading developing countries alone-Brazil, China and India-will surpass the aggregate production of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
During a conference call earlier this week, I asked the UNDR’s Communications Chief William Orme whether “global south” was still a useful term. Economies like Brazil, China, India, Turkey, Indonesia, etc. may not be “developed” countries yet, but surely the challenges they face are different enough from other “southern” countries that the label is of limited usefulness.
We’d be welcome to suggestions. The key is getting them to catch on. We have OECD members – Turkey, Chile, and Mexico – which we’re counting as part of the “south” for the purposes of this study….
It’s something we’ve had a lot of internal debate. The “theology” we have in the Human Development Report is that we use these as similes or metaphors because they’re commonly used terms. We define countries by human development performance, in our index we have it divided into four categories – very high HDI, high HDI, medium, and low – but even that covers up a huge number of differences in the categories.
HDI index is the best known feature of the report, a ranking of the world’s countries from 1st place Norway to 186th place Niger according to their level of human development, an alternative measure to GDP that incorporates factors like health, education, and income. The United States ranks third, though it drops 13 places on an alternative measure of HDI which factors in income inequality.
Big chances in the rankings this year include Portugal, which fell three spots between 2011 and 2012 and Libya, which bizarrely jumped up 23 spots due to newly available GDP data. On the conference call, the HDR’s chief statistician Milorad Kovacevic warned against reading too much into year-to-year changes which often have more to do with revisions of available data than changes in development levels.
via The not-so-discreet rise of the developing world’s bourgeoisie | War of Ideas.
LONDON – England – Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange could be tunnelling to South American country Ecuador, the Home Office fears.
While Julian Assange has been holed up in one single room in the Equadorian embassy in London, police who are monitoring the situation say that they have reason to believe that Assange might try to escape with a tunnel all the way to Equador.
“It is not inconceivable that the fugitive Assange, who is currently wanted for deportation to Sweden may be tunnelling underneath the embassy in Knightsbridge,” a Metropolitan police spokesman told the BBC today.
Protesters who were outside the Ecuador embassy have been supporting the Wikileaks founder with posters saying ‘Dig for Victory‘ and ‘It’s only 8,000 miles mate’.
“We heard he’s been digging for five months now. I noticed outside the embassy some scratching noises under the road, could’ve been Assange but not sure,” Desmond Pritstem, an Assange supporter revealed yesterday.
Ambassador Ana Alban, the South American country’s envoy to Britain, told reporters in Quito on Sunday that “Our countrymen are waiting for him to dig to Ecuador. We provided a bucket and spade for freedom and democracy. They will wait for him there for as long as it takes”.
via Assange Trying to Tunnel to Ecuador �.
via Assange Trying to Tunnel to Ecuador .
The Uruguayan Government has reportedly planned to start selling cannabis cigarettes to people in bid to stamp out black market drugs trade.
Smokers will be able to purchase up to 40g (1.4oz) per month, enough for 20 cannabis cigarettes.
According to the Daily Mail, the drug will be regulated by the state and sold at the market price, currently around 21.60 pounds.
Cannabis smokers will be given cards with a bar code allowing them to buy up to the legal limit per month, the report said.
According to the paper, the move comes as the government hopes to eliminate the black market in cannabis through the radical proposal.
President Jose Mujica had earlier announced plans to grow up to 150 hectares of cannabis for sale to users.
“We are losing the battle against drugs and crime in South America. Somebody has to be the first,” he had said.
via Uruguay plans selling cannabis cigarettes to ‘stamp out black market drugs trade’ | Cannabis N.I..
YOUNGER readers won’t believe this but there used to be a time when the IMF was the bogeyman in this country. If we didn’t behave ourselves, the IMF would come and there would be no pussyfooting around. They would slash public sector wages in half and double taxes and get our house in order in jig time. This was before we learnt to live quite casually with the fact that we are no longer an independent country and that we are subject to something called the troika, one third of which is the IMF.
That would have been unthinkable back in the day, that we would not be governing ourselves. Back then, it was regarded as the ultimate shame if the IMF had to come to a country. It was something that happened to banana republics in South America and basket cases in Africa. The IMF had come to the UK once but that was an aberration, apparently. It really wasn’t something that could ever happen in so-called developed countries.
Little did we think that we would look back and wish that we had invited in the IMF, that they were in charge. Little did we think that the IMF would turn out to be the most reasonable foreign ruler a country could hope to have. But we didn’t manage to get just the IMF in. Instead we got saddled with EU zealots as well, and despite the IMF’s increasing best efforts, we are still being slowly ground into the dust.
While the IMF used to have the name of being all about making people balance the books fast, it has become an increasingly pragmatic and realistic institution in the last few years. It has tended to be the most sceptical of the big international institutions when it comes to austerity at all costs, and it has been the one that has cautioned most about the need for growth as well. This surprises some people because the IMF is regarded as a right-wing organisation stuffed with Yankee capitalists (the worst kind). But then again dismay about austerity has not been limited to the left. It has been, as Fr Jack would say, an ecumenical matter. Only the other day I found myself in heartfelt agreement with a press release that arrived in my email from Joan Collins TD. In terms of economists, there has been agreement from across the left-right spectrum that austerity unchecked could be as, if not more, dangerous than capitalism unchecked was.
The IMF took its distaste for austerity a step or two forward last week. Christine Lagarde has now upset a lot of people, and attracted much criticism internationally, by coming out and saying straight that Greece and Spain should be given more time to balance their budgets. Her point seems to be that when there are so many countries engaged in austerity, it doesn’t make sense for them all to do it so quickly at the same time.
via We told you so and now even the IMF realises we were right – Analysis, Opinion – Independent.ie.
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https://misebogland.wordpress.com/tag/south-america/
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If Americans understood how poor they actually are – on a par with Latvians and Romanians, according to newly released data – they would dump the Democratic Party.
With “more black children in poverty than white children,” it’s past time for African Americans to rid themselves “once and for all of their useless political party” which only pretends to fight for working people in election years.
It is true that the United States Treasury has trillions of dollars. It is true that there are many wealthy people in this country. But Americans should accept the indisputable fact that as individuals, they are poor. Recent data released by the Social Security Administration revealed that 51% of all American workers earn less than $30,000 per year.
Even in those regions with a low cost of living, a single adult is struggling to live on only $30,000 per year. It is a poverty level income and if half of all workers fall below it they should be called poor.
This nation has more poor children than any other country in the group that is referred to as “developed.” According to UNICEF the overall level of child well being in the United States ranks near the bottom alongside Lithuania, Latvia and Romania. Most Americans do not think of themselves as comparable in any way to these nations.
Facing this inconvenient truth is quite painful. It is easy for these stereotypes to persist because of a lack of class consciousness and racism. Poverty is also synonymous with blackness. In fact, that old stereotype has proven to be true in the Obama era. Black people are now the poorest group in the country. There are more black children in poverty than white children, an historic and awful turn of events.
Worship of the middle class ideal is a huge obstacle to class consciousness and political action. This meaningless term is embraced as if it actually prevents people from living in poverty. If ten people are asked to define the meaning of middle class, it is possible to get ten different definitions. It all boils down to separating oneself from the dreaded and lambasted poor instead of thinking of oneself as a worker. The result of these mental gymnastics is that millions of the poor never dare to speak up for themselves. Doing so would shatter the fantasy world where they reside.
Instead of the useless words middle class, Americans ought to speak of and fight for a living wage. Of course none of their politicians is really interested in providing one. The Republicans are consistently honest in opposing an increase of the minimum wage. The Democrats make believe that they want to raise it but only discuss doing so when they don’t control Congress and are unable to act.
When they have the opportunity, as they did in 2009 and 2010, neither the Democratic president Barack Obama nor the Democratically controlled House or Senate introduced minimum wage legislation. Instead, they wait to be out of power and then pretend that they would fight for working people. Their words are a sham meant to keep Democrats from thinking independently and ridding themselves once and for all of their useless political party.
The presidential election season should be an opportunity to make crystal clear demands on the candidates. Bernie Sanders says he wants Americans to live like the Scandinavians who rank at the top of personal well being in the world. He has had a chance to act on that belief as a member of the United States Senate but he has so far refrained from doing so. He did introduce legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, but not until July of this year. He had to first declare himself a presidential candidate and needed to look like the genuine article.
Yet even this is sleight of hand. Under the Sanders plan the increase would be incremental and not reach $15 until 2020. Sanders acts like other Democrats and acquiesces without complaint when a Democrat is in the White House but then pretends to fight for workers in an election year.
The Democrats warn against voting for a third, fourth or fifth party because doing so makes one a spoiler who helps the Republicans. But why is it bad to spoil the chances of a party that lies to its constituents year after year? The Democrats’ treachery creates a vicious cycle of apathy. The people who need the most help ignore the political process altogether because they gain nothing from it. Of course, if they don’t participate then it is business as usual in Washington.
The people who can only find low wage work, if they find it at all, need to be activated. But their activism must take an entirely new direction. Pushing them into the arms of the party that is consistently unfaithful isn’t the answer. In 2016 the word spoiler should be a badge of honor. Spoilers shouldn’t be ashamed and neither should poor people.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in Black Agenda Report.
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Social and Economic Conditions The Doctor Will See You Now. First, Your Copay.
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https://mltoday.com/americans-are-poor/
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Mitsubishi's reliable and proven manufacturing technologies provide utility customers with the highest quality replacement components.
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MNES offers the US-APWR nuclear power reactor and a variety of nuclear services. Learn more about our products and our current projects.
Information about our reactor and services are available from industry sources and this website. Please explore these resources to learn more about our technologies or contact us for more specific information.
Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems, Inc. (MNES) is an equal opportunity employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. To learn more, click here.
Mitsubishi Nuclear Energy Systems, or MNES, provides a range of state-of-the-art replacement components, services, and technologies to U.S. utilities operating pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plants. These include replacement reactor vessel closure heads, steam generators, and robotic technologies.
The company also offers U.S. utilities the next generation of clean nuclear energy, the US-APWR nuclear power plant. The US-APWR design, specifically engineered for the United States, achieves superior safety, reliability, economy, and compatibility with the environment. Our design grew out of the expertise gained by Mitsubishi's construction of 24 PWRs in Japan.
MNES was established in 2006 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), as the supplier for Mitsubishi nuclear technologies in the United States. From its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, MNES is leading the way for safer and more reliable nuclear energy. MNES seeks to be an “evolutionary” provider of nuclear equipment and services by building on existing technologies rather than to attempt revolutionary advancements.
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https://mnes-us.com/
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« iPhones in the Enterprise: What’s A Company To Do?
More and more people are acquiring smartphones for their personal use because of their availability and features. While they are used for collaboration, information gathering, and entertainment in your personal life, they can also be used as a productivity tool within the enterprise. A smartphone purchase is also a very personal decision, as individual preferences come into play such as keyboard type (physical versus virtual).
Most companies have a corporate-liable handheld program where the company provides the smartphone. It usually starts with executive management since they are often on-the-go and need access to information quickly. Most companies pay for the devices as well as the monthly charges for the plan. From a support perspective, the company either provides staff or outsources the work to a third party. There are usually only a limited number of devices supported – and for good reason. New devices are being launched at a feverish pace and supporting them can be costly and difficult. Also, you usually need an iron-clad business case to participate due to the cost to the company.
Many companies are now considering individual-liable handheld programs. These types of programs can allow for broader participation because the employee is bearing some or all of the costs. It can also give employees the freedom to use the device of their choice, making for a happier workforce. However, there are downsides as well. Securing and controlling the corporate information on individual-liable handhelds is extremely challenging since their security and management capabilities vary widely.
Before implementing an individual liable handheld program, there are a number of things that have to be considered. The following are some suggestions to get you started.
Get executive buy-in – Like many initiatives in the corporate world, you need to get agreements at the highest level in order to keep things moving.
Assemble a cross-functional, global team – You will not only need folks from IT (like security) but also include representatives from HR, auditing, legal, etc. Bringing the non-IT areas in early will help identify roadblocks up-front and gives those organizations a sense of inclusion. Global participation is important, since laws and business practices can vary considerably among countries.
Start with IT policy – Review your current policy around individual-liable devices. Is the IT policy vague in this area or is it even addressed? This is often the most challenging area, but is worth spending the effort because the IT policy will usually have to be amended anyway.
Understand minimum security requirements – Will you have the same security requirements for individual-liable devices as you do for corporate devices? Capabilities such as password policies and encryption support vary among devices. You will usually need to balance security with usability.
Supported applications – Will you support email/PIM, intranet access, or line-of-business mobile applications? Typically companies start with email/PIM and evolve from there. Many will be happy with being able to read their email and check their calendar to start.
Costs – Who will pay for the costs associated with these devices? Not only costs of the device itself and monthly plans, but costs related to mobile device management tools or licensing costs for applications.
Support model – If your organization is tech-savvy, a self/community support model might work. Using some social network tools to allow participants to share best practices and assist in troubleshooting problems may be all you need to do. If you want to offer more support, you may have to rely on third party providers who can manage a diverse group of devices which can significantly drive up costs.
Create a participant agreement – List out the conditions of participating in the program and have them agree to it. After all, this is a privilege, not a right. Items that should be addressed include eligibility, lost or stolen devices, conditions for remote wipe, audit requirements, and termination of employment.
Individual-liable programs are not for all enterprises. The sensitivity of information or corporate culture may prohibit the creation of such programs. However, the consumerization of IT trend will keep pressuring IT organizations to come up with innovative approaches which balance employee wants/needs with the responsibility to properly manage corporate data and resources.
This entry was posted on June 4, 2010 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Individual Liable Devices. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
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https://mobilecomputingtrek.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/employee-owned-smartphone-program-coming-to-an-enterprise-near-you/
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Princess Vivienne is has been found guilty of the murder of Witherstone’s most notorious abuser and is sentenced to the gallows. She has been given one last chance, if she can find the real culprit she will be set free. Pierce is hired to go with her, tasked with the impossible job of keeping Vivienne safe. He’s not entirely sure that the princess is innocent, but together they take up the case to clear Vivienne’s name. What Vivienne expected to be an easy quest pushes her towards best friends, new enemies, and hard questions that she isn’t sure that she wants the answers to.
Secrets and backstabbing cause the princess to fear that she’s going to end up exactly where she started: the gallows. Only this time, no one will save her.
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https://modernauthors.org/books/the-crownless/
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One of my English Professors has challenged all of her students to be able to get to the point where they can write about anything at any given moment. That means that we all have to be able to write without being told what to write about. I feel pretty confident about this. In fact, I hate when I am given a very specific topic and told to write about it. I would much rather write about the millions of thoughts that go through my head on a regular basis. My only real problem is that with all of my real life responsibilities, I don’t have enough time to do what I love to do all of the time.
She also tells us that we need to get to the point where we can write without the use of alcohol, weed, or whatever vice we have that we feel makes us write better. She also says that if we take medications like antidepressants, that we shouldn’t stop taking them just because we think we write better without them.
I have a vice, too: Depression.
Food for thought. I’ve suffered from depression off and on for almost 20 years now. I’m not ashamed to admit that, really. I work in a pharmacy and I see many people on a daily basis, picking up their prescriptions for antidepressants. So I know it is a lot more common than I used to think.
Anyways, as my professor was telling the class this, I was thinking about myself, and how, over the past 30 years or so (which is how long I have been a writer); I’ve seen a pattern: I write more when I am depressed. That writing was a focus on the darkness and the pain that I knew during those times. I did need something to get me through those times, and it did help me out. But good things also happened during that time. I just don’t remember those things as much, because I was so focused on all of the negative things that clouded my mind. When I was depressed, I wrote more.
I’m so tired. I feel like crying all the time. I snap at my kids and I don’t want to do anything. I feel lazy and unmotivated. I can’t concentrate and my brain feels like it’s in a fog. The next time I think about going off my medications, I will remember this day when I truly feel like crap. I do not want to be like this anymore.
I don’t know what possessed me to write that, but I’m glad I did. Because every time I think to myself “depression isn’t that bad of a thing,” or “being depressed fuels my creativity,” I can refer back to that entry. However, I haven’t had to refer back to that at all in a long time. That’s because I’m no longer depressed to the point that I can’t function, like I once was. And the funny thing is, is that I am still writing. In fact, I have about 30 or so blog posts started from ideas or thoughts that I want to get out on paper.
My professor may have had a point.
Tags: depression, writing. Bookmark the permalink.
Yeah, I don’t doubt that I will have this struggle with depression for the rest of my life. If I were not on medications I know I would be far more out of control than I am now. It is definitely a struggle and I wish I could permanently feel normal without medications. I don’t think writing would have ever made my depression go away, either.
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https://monaresasmiles.com/2014/10/03/vices/
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Have you ever said to yourself, I don’t care where I go—I just want to get away and get spoiled. It’s sort of the opposite of the Staycation—let's call it the Awaycation—and it can be a surprisingly affordable splurge, especially if you’re willing to venture to off-season locations that many travelers are passing on. After all, who cares if it’s hot outside if your 5-star hotel has great A.C. and a sweet pool (or two).
There are a surprising number of A-list places at rock-bottom prices all around the country. A price check on TripAdvisor for a Saturday night in mid-August turned up plenty of places for less than $150 a night, including a Waldorf Astoria for $95 a night. Get ready to spoil yourself rotten—without maxing out your credit card.
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https://money.com/five-star-hotels-vacation/
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A remodeled version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the launcherís first mission since a June failure in Cape Canaveral, Florida, December 21, 2015.
The Elon Musk-owned rocket company SpaceX has been awarded a contract for five new cargo supply missions from NASA worth an estimated $700 billion, Space News reported Wednesday.
The new contract brings the total number of missions to supply the international space station SpaceX has been contracted to complete to 20 since the first agreement was signed in 2008. The contract was actually signed just before Christmas 2005 but was not revealed at the time, Space News reports.
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https://money.com/nasa-spacex-cargo-mission-contract/
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British Malloch Brown, the Balkans, billionaire speculator George Soros, ambassador Philip Goldberg, drugs, and compromised institutions.
In March, Senator Vicente Sotto III called for probe on alleged manipulation of May 2016 poll results in the Philippines. The alleged irregularities during the elections involve the machines of the poll’s technology provider, Smartmatic. The Senate Majority Leader said he has records from the joint custody of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
The debacle fosters impression about illicit connections between alleged electoral irregularities, a contested technology, struggle for the vice presidency, the electoral watchdog’s conduct, and its chairman’s self-enrichment - which, in turn, seem to be associated with efforts to undermine international institutions by transnational capital.
In joint venture with Total Information Management (TIM) Philippines, Smartmatic has been the technology provider for Philippine elections since 2008, when the cooperation started with the regional elections in the Mindanao. All subsequent elections (2010, 2013, and 2016) have relied on Smartmatic's voting machines.
Senator Sotto’s disclosure is only the latest about alleged irregularities in the 2016 election, which first surfaced with the contest for Vice President. In this rivalry, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. suffered a narrow and controversial defeat to Liberal Party's Leni Robredo, which he attributes to discrepancies and irregularities in Comelec's servers and data.
In 2015, Aquino appointed Andy Bautista, a constitutional legal expert, as Comelec’s chairman. Two years later, Bautista's estranged wife released information of his unexplained wealth. Reportedly, as Bautista served as Aquino's chairman of the Presidential Commission from 2010 to 2015 to investigate the ill-gotten Marcos wealth, he was accumulating his own ill-gotten wealth. In October 2017, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Bautista who has shunned a subpoena by the Senate committee. In March, he surfaced in the United States. According to his brother Dr Martin D Bautista, he suffers from “secondary pulmonary hypertension” and must refrain from travel. That's a convenient pretext, not an explanation.
And there is more to the Smartmatic controversy. Two decades ago, three engineers, led by Antonio Mugica, began to develop a new election technology in Venezuela. Following the 2000 US election, which put George W. Bush into the White House, they saw an opportunity. After funds from private investors, including Jorge Massa Dustou, they incorporated in Delaware in 2000. As one of Venezuela's richest, Dustou was married with the sister of Gustavo Cisneros, a media mogul billionaire. Reportedly, Cisneros bankrolled the failed 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt against Hugo Chávez.
When Mugica's company got funds from the Chavez government, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) began to investigate Smartmatic’s links to the Venezuelan government. Yet, its election technology has been used in local and national elections in Latin America, the UK, the US, Belgium, and the Philippines.
In 2012 Smartmatic moved its headquarters to London. Two years later, in a murky reorganization, CEO Mugica and British Lord Mark Malloch-Brown launched the SGO Corp. Ltd, a holding company whose key asset remains Smartmatic. Malloch Brown's Manila ties stem from the mid-1980s when the former Economist journalist became the lead international partner at the Sawyer-Miller Group, which was picked as Corazon Aquino’s PR agency. Following a poll controversy, Aquino won, but very tightly. Malloch Brown formed a close relationship with the family dynasty.
The cooperation was re-ignited ahead of the 2010 election, when Benigno S. Aquino III became the first Philippine President whose votes were counted by Smartmatic, despite persistent allegations that the system is vulnerable to manipulation.
In July 2015, Malloch Brown returned to the Philippines and subsequently Comelec's Bautista awarded Smartmatic contracts at a total of P2.6-billion in the 2016 election. But the Philippines was just a stepping stone for Malloch Brown’s big ambitions.
Malloch Brown’s SMG promoted privatization and liberal reforms in the former Soviet Union, which, for its small part, contributed to Russia’s economic default and the dismemberment of Yugoslavia - which intrigued Malloch Brown, billionaire speculator George Soros and former Philippine Ambassador Philip Goldberg.
Malloch-Brown’s ties with Soros originate from the early 1990s when he was still working for Refugees International, a NGO that does not accept government or UN funding and relies on donations from rich individuals, foundations, and corporations. RI has focused on poor, but resource-rich countries - in several African states, Myanmar and Syria - in which the West (and Soros) has strategic interests.
Malloch Brown joined the Soros Advisory Committee on Bosnia, ahead of the devastating conflict. As Soros financed agencies cooperating with US authorities, Goldberg was appointed the State Department’s Bosnia Desk Officer. That’s when the conflict erupted between Albanian separatists and Serbian and Yugoslav security forces. In turn, the International Crisis Group, another NGO, was founded “to prevent war and shape peace” in 1993 after a “chance meeting” between former US diplomat Morton Abramowitz and Malloch Brown on a flight to Sarajevo. Soros was soon involved and provided seed money. Like Goldberg in the 2000s, Abramowitz had been State Department’s intelligence official in the 1980s working with CIA stations.
After the Bosnian Civil War, Goldberg was the chief of staff of the US Delegation at the Dayton Peace Conference, served as US chief of mission in Kosovo and liaisoned with the Kosovo Liberation Army. Despite alleged links with organized crime and narco-terror, KLA was supported by CIA and the NATO, and Goldberg was setting the stage for the subsequent secession of Kosovo from Serbia. After he presented his credentials before President Evo Morales in 2006, oddly enough, Bolivia, too, began to suffer from separatist autonomous movements, which were supported by the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
In Bolivia, President Morales was able to contain the separatism and expelled Goldberg who was sworn in as US Ambassador to the Philippines in 2013. Then, he began to “pivot” Southeast Asia as he had done in Bolivia and the Balkans until friction with President Duterte led to his departure and alleged regime change plan in fall 2016. Today, Goldberg is in the US embassy in Cuba, preparing the stage for President Raoul Castro's impending step-down.
During the '90s, Malloch Brown rented his apartment from Soros while working on UN assignments in New York. The cozy ties were projected on the world stage. Soros used the Brit to influence public organizations. So from the World Bank, Malloch Brown moved on to serve as the head of the UN Development Program and Kofi Annan's deputy secretary-general.
Soros expanded his projects in collaboration with Malloch Brown and UN, particularly in Eastern Europe where his Open Society Institute (OSI) shaped the West’s post-Cold War agendas. When the UNDP’s course of action conflicted with that of Soros, it was overruled by Soros or Malloch-Brown, UN authorities lament. Concurrently, Soros’s speculation contributed to the Asian financial crisis and sharp devaluations.
In 2002, Malloch Brown suggested that the UN and Soros' OSI work together to fund humanitarian functions, despite moral hazards associated with a publicly-financed UNDP and Soros’s philanthropy that was tied to a hedge fund. The reward ensued in 2007, when Soros' Quantum Fund appointed Malloch Brown as vice-president, and vice chairman of the Open Society, despite the lack of investment experience. Reduced transparency deepened in 2011, when Soros decided to transform the Quantum Fund into a family investment group, to avoid having to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and comply with reporting requirements under the Dodd-Frank Reform Act.
Malloch Brown was busy, too. He joined Gordon Brown’s UK government until a controversy about his family’s occupancy of a government-owned government led him to step down. So he became a chairman for the Washington-based FTI Consulting. After the Great Recession, FTI had the largest restructuring business in the US (e.g., Lehman Brothers, GM). However, in Latin America, it has been linked with efforts by right-wing Colombian groups and former President Alvaro Uribe to destabilize Venezuela. Uribe has been associated with drug trafficking and ties with Pablo Escobar, as documented by the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
A careful review of these odd associations suggests moral hazards and interlocking private and public interests with potential to undermine sovereign and international institutions.
Electoral technologies need to be modernized in the 21st century. But the real question is the integrity and impartiality of such technologies.
Electoral watchdogs have a vital role in democracies. But if such commissions collude with their technological providers, they fail the very democracy they purport to serve.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and Russia's subsequent default saw the rise of assertive geopolitics in the West. Yet, the end of the Cold War did not produce the hoped for peace premium, but another Cold War. In this battle, private interests - from Soros to Koch brothers - seek to exploit international and sovereign institutions.
If the Duterte government seeks to shun efforts by transnational capital to undermine democratic institutions or international agencies, that’s what it should be doing. Effective governments rule by the consent of the governed - not by the dictates of transnational capital.
Dr Dan Steinbock is an internationally recognized expert of the multipolar world. He focuses on international business, international relations, investment and risk among the major advanced economies and large emerging economies; as well as multipolar trends in stocks, bonds, currencies, and commodities. Altogether, he analyzes some 60 major world economies and a dozen strategic nations, across all world regions.
Dr Steinbock is CEO and founder of DifferenceGroup (www.differencegroup.net) In addition to advisory activities, he has been affiliated as Research Director of International Business at India China and America Institute (US), and as Visiting Fellow in Shanghai Institutes for International Studies SIIS (China) and EU Center (Singapore). As a Senior Fulbright scholar, he is affiliated with Stern School of Business/New York University, Columbia Graduate School of Business and has cooperated with Harvard Business School (Michael E. Porter) and the leading innovation think-tank, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (US). He has served on media advisory boards (incl. Fortune, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, McKinsey, 1to1 Media). He has advised/ consulted for the OECD, the European Commission, the Nordic Council and European government agencies, multinationals (Intel, Nokia, Motorola, Coca-Cola) and SMEs, financial institutions, international relations think-tanks, competitiveness and innovation organizations, and so on.
In the US, he has published more than half a dozen books; and his analyses have been released in major journals and by leading think-tanks in the US, Europe, China, India and the Gulf. He regularly speaks at leading government agencies, chambers of commerce, trade associations, institutional investors and investment banks, and multinational corporations.
His commentaries and interviews have been released by more than 220 major media outlets in all world regions, including the markets (CNBC, Fortune, Forbes, ValueWalk, Seeking Alpha, TalkMarkets, MarketOracle, Guruwatch Switzerland), US (Roubini Global/EconoMonitor, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, The Project Syndicate, The World Financial Review, CNN, The National Interest, Foreign Affairs, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times); Europe (The European Business Review, The European Financial Review, EUobserver, The Financial Times, The Economist, The Independent UK, Switzerland Finews, Efe Spain News Agency, Expresso Portugal, Talouselama Finland), China and East Asia (China Daily, Xinhua, People's Daily, Chinaorg government portal, Shanghai Daily, Global Times, South China Morning Post, Seoul Times); India (The Indian Economist, The Hindu), Middle East (Mehr News Iran, Al Jazeera), ASEAN (AsiaOne, Asia Times, Eurasia Review, The Manila Times, Bernama Malaysia, The Straits Times Singapore, The Nation Thailand, Myanmar Business Today), South Asia (The Indian Economist, Daily Pakistan, Financial Express Bangladesh); Africa (BusinessDay Nigeria; AddisFortune Ethiopia, BH24 Zimbadwe).
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https://moneymaven.io/economonitor/europe/undermining-international-and-sovereign-institutions-RS0gumtEpEOS2RyluChD9A
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President Obama is wrapping up a wide-ranging trip to Africa this week, one in which he talked about everything from human rights, the triumphs of Nelson Mandela, a return to growth in Zimbabwe and the prospects of an African renaissance.
But it was his comments about access to electricity that should have drawn the most attention. The President is setting the stage for a huge leap in Africa's standard of living - and most people probably didn't notice.
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https://moneymorning.com/tag/global-economy-statistics/
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Vision. Skill. Time. All are usually required to produce something of lasting value. All are at the heart of craftsmanship.
Traditionally linked to items made by hand, craftsmanship can be applied to a wider array of undertakings that benefit from an attention to detail through the application of a skill sharpened over time and practice.
Take writing, for instance.
For several years I’ve considered how best to refine my writing skills. However, other commitments became excuses for never taking serious steps forward to actually hone that craft until a former colleague recently noted that my passion has always been best expressed in my writing. It is where I seek to tell a story or share a memory in hopes of inspiring and making a meaningful connection to colleagues and friends. One of my favorite sayings is “Let’s see how it writes.” This same colleague suggested that I may have been the best first draft writer in the organization.
I knew exactly what she meant, and it was that particular comment that led me to pick up John McPhee’s 2017 book Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process. I wanted to consider getting from a good first draft to a great fourth draft. As a long-time staff writer at the New Yorker, McPhee has some definite thoughts on how to move in that direction. Writing to his daughter, McPhee once explained that, “The way to do a piece of writing is three or four times over, never once.” Three or four revisions are not always possible in a work context with tight deadlines, but I agree with his premise that the essence of the writing process—the heart of the writing craft—is reflection and revision.
In the business context, I have been known to say, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” However, when working on your craft—be it a stone carving, your speaking skills, a handmade musical instrument, a painting, or a piece of writing—don’t let the merely good keep you from sharpening, refining, and honing the thing until you have created something worthy of the term craftsmanship.
Nice. My David took writing classes from McPhee at Princeton, it has obviously served him well. He still returns again and again to the advice and lessons he learned from John.
Wonderful, Susan. McPhee mentions his writing classes throughout the book, which is a joy to read.
Pingback: Why Sentences? | More to Come...
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https://moretocome.net/2019/04/08/honing-your-craft/
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At the time of Jesus’ death, the spirit world was occupied by hosts of our Father’s children who had died—from Adam’s posterity to the death of Jesus—both the righteous and the wicked.
There were two grand divisions in the world of spirits. Spirits of the righteous (the just) had gone to paradise, a state of happiness, peace, and restful work. The spirits of the wicked (the unjust) had gone to prison, a state of darkness and misery. (See Alma 40:12–15.) Jesus went only to the righteous—to paradise—to teach the gospel to those who had departed. This visit took place after Christ’s crucifixion and before His resurrection.
“And who had … suffered tribulation in their Redeemer’s name.
“They were filled with joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand.
“And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell.
The spirit world is not far away. From the Lord’s point of view, it is all one great program on both sides of the veil. Sometimes the veil between this life and the life beyond becomes very thin. This I know! Our loved ones who have passed on are not far from us.
President Smith also saw the leaders the Savior called to take the gospel to Heavenly Father’s children in the spirit world. He named some of them: Father Adam, Mother Eve, Noah, Abraham, Ezekiel, Elijah, prophets that Latter-day Saints know from the Book of Mormon, and some from the last days, including Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff. These would be some powerful mi ssionaries to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Many of our deceased ancestors will have received a testimony that the message of the missionaries is true. A person living on earth who receives that testimony could ask missionaries for baptism. But those who are in the spirit world cannot. The ordinances of baptism and the temple ordinances are offered only in this world. Someone in this world must go to a holy temple and accept the covenants on behalf of the person in the spirit world. That is why Mormons are under obligation to find the names of their ancestors and ensure that they are offered what they cannot receive there without help.
To read the entire vision of Joseph F. Smith, click here.
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https://mormonbeliefs.org/mormon_beliefs/mormon-beliefs-the-plan-of-salvation/the-plan-of-salvation-the-spirit-world/
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It seems to be an open question about who this film is about.
I thought it was pretty straightforward, actually. The letter in question is one that Joan Fontaine’s character “Lisa” writes to failed concert pianist Stefan Brand (Louis Jordan) at the top of the film. He’s packing to leave town to escape a duel – the film is set in Vienna in 1900, and duels were still a thing – and pauses to go through his mail quickly. He sees Lisa’s letter, and starts reading it; and stays up all night.
Because it’s quite a story. Lisa has known him all her life, she says – she was just sixteen when he moved into the apartment across from hers, and she was instantly smitten with him. But he was older and a bit of a lothario, and didn’t notice her; he had his pick of older and more sexually available women anyway. Still, Lisa writes, she hung on him, hovering in the background and admiring him from afar. Until one day – he did notice her, wooing her over the course of a whirlwind evening that swept Lisa completely off her feet. (She was legal, don’t worry.) He left for a tour shortly thereafter, she writes, telling her he’d be back in just two weeks.
We already know Lisa’s story is going to end tragically; she opens her letter with the sentence, “By the time you read this, I may be dead.” But the nature of that tragedy is an open question. Stefan is obviously a womanizer, the kind of guy who knows the right things to say to convince a woman to give in; but Lisa is just as obviously a naive innocent who really should know better. However – is that really her fault? As a child, most likely not. But when she’s older, she still is just as naive and besotted with Stefan – and this time the stakes are higher. And he’s even crueler to her.
Still, Stefan’s cruelty isn’t intentional. He’s not deliberately setting out to mess up women’s lives. He’s selfish, sure, but he’s not callous; he loves the many women he woos (or at least thinks he does). He just plain hasn’t really grown up. And the very last scene, when he’s finally finished reading the letter, suggests that maybe Lisa’s story has affected him in a lasting way.
And that’s why it’s not as clear who is the “star” of this film. Is this Stefan’s story, told by Lisa? He’s the one who grows the most over the course of the full film, even though we see him do very little in real time. Or, is this Lisa’s story itself, a testimony of a doomed infatuation? She is the one we follow most closely throughout. There are good arguments for both sides.
That’s the story itself. My biggest nit to pick with this from a film perspective was the casting; Joan Fontaine was 30 when they filmed this, and while she’s lovely, she was a little unbelievable as a teenager. She tries, mind you; she’s got the mannerisms and the behavior down just fine. But very few women of 30 are able to look like a teenage girl, and Joan Fontaine was not one of them.
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https://moviecrashcourse.com/2019/09/09/letter-from-an-unknown-woman-1948/
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Inspired by George, over at “George Watches Things”, I am going to embark on a series of “best of” lists. But I’m going to do genres, for a couple of reasons. First of all, George does a great and interesting set of decade lists already, and secondly, I cannot always compare movies from two different genres alongside each other. So, I’ll be doing a series of best of genre lists, beginning later this week or next. Oh, and my lists won’t actually be “best of” lists; they’ll be “my favorites” lists, because who am I to determine what’s better than what? But I sure can talk about my favorites!
Today I want to talk about one of my favorite science fiction films of all time. It is a hardly heard of film called Robot Stories, and I’m ecstatic to see that it is available on Netflix, albeit DVD only. I saw it many years ago (actually it was 2003) in an independent movie theater and figured I’d never get to see it again. But that was in the pre-Netflix days, and now it’s comfortably sitting near the top of my queue, waiting for me. For those of you who don’t like to go into things blind, you can read a little about it at IMDb. I highly recommend watching this – you will not be disappointed! And if you are, let me know and I’ll gladly publicly apologize to you. It’s sure to make my “Favorite Science Fiction movies of all time” list, so watch it now so that when the list comes out you don’t have to say, “Gee, I’ve never heard of that one…”. But if you’re going to add it to your Netflix queue, don’t put it right at the top.
I’ll make it number 5 on my list. Thanks for the recommendation!
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https://moviesshouldnotsuck.com/2012/05/30/the-best-of-the-best-robot-stories/
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MRS Energy & Sustainability publishes reviews on key topics in materials research and development as they relate to energy and sustainability.
Topics reviewed are new R&D of both established and new areas; interdisciplinary systems integration; and objective application of economic, sociological and governmental models, enabling research and technological developments.
The reviews are set in an integrated context of scientific, technological and sociological complexities relating to environment and sustainability.
In this MRS TV interview from the 2015 MRS Fall Meeting, Elizabeth A. Kócs, the new co-editor-in-chief of MRS Energy & Sustainability discusses her goals for the journal along with her co-editor-in-chief David Ginley.
In this MRS TV interview from the 2013 MRS Spring Meeting, two of MRS Energy & Sustainability's editors-in-chief, David Ginley and David Cahen, talk about the new journal.
Ashley White, chair of the Focus on Sustainability Subcommittee, introduces the new MRS initiative, Focus on Sustainability. The program, through various meeting programs and activities, will put the materials-sustainability nexus in the spotlight and show MRS members the value of integrating sustainable practices into their work.
This special issue of MRS Bulletin introduces the critical roles that materials science plays in this field of sustainable development.
This special issue of MRS Bulletin presents the materials challenges that must be addressed to move toward secure, affordable and environmentally sustainable energy to meet the world’s accelerating energy needs.
Energy Quarterly (EQ) is a special section published in the March, June, September and December issues of MRS Bulletin dedicated to the challenges facing materials scientists in the quest for sustainable solutions to the world's energy problems. The section aims to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the materials for energy field, for both experienced researchers and the general reader.
This textbook addresses the critical relationships among environment, energy and sustainability. Leading experts from around the world provide comprehensive coverage of each topic, bringing together diverse subject matter by integrating theory with engaging insights. Each chapter includes helpful features to aid understanding, including a historical overview, suggested further reading and questions for discussion. Every subject is illustrated with full-color images and color-coded sections for easy browsing, making this textbook a complete educational package.
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https://mrs.org/sustainability/sustainability-publications
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Von’s debut novel, Every Woman Deserves an Accessory, will release digitally and in paperback November 25, 2014. Von promises that it will get readers flushed with fever, sweaty with anticipation, and laughing as they fight back the tears while reading.
I’ve read your articles Von. I’m looking forward to your novel in September. Keep writing. YOU’RE AWESOME.
Thank you! That means a lot to me. Keep reading.
I must say I am absolutely impressed by your blog.
posts. Thanks for adding a dose of inspiration to my life.
So proud of you keep up the good work!!
As a single mother of a son I have watched you grow up and all I can say is that I am so proud of the man you have become. You are intelligent, witty, and most of all respectful. I remember the last time I saw you and you hugged me and prayed for Amonti and that prayer was a powerful that came straight from your heart. I believe that you will go far beyond your own expectations and I know you will contiue to allow God to direct you!!!!! You are one of my inspirations and my heart is warmed every time I ask you mom and she tells me you are doing great. You are an eagle and no matter what happens continue to soar above it all. I am Proud of you Von!!!
Thank you so much for you love and support. I truly appreciate that! Hope you and Amonti are doing well.
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https://mrvonp.com/about/comment-page-1/
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Learning at ArtistWorks can take your playing to a new level, and 'The Lonesome Days' are a great example. In between lessons and Video Exchanges, mandolin and banjo students Jonny Miller and Todd Lilienthal (pictured above), have been tearing up the bluegrass scene with their band The Lonesome Days, notably placing 2nd in the 2015 Telluride Bluegrass Festival band competition and 1st place at the 2016 UllrGrass festival.
We caught up with their man on mandolin, Jonny Miller, to learn more about the situation. As it turns they've just released their first studio album, which they funded on Kickstarter. You can check it out here.
"Once I had a mandolin I couldn't get enough! I would work for 8 hours, then come home and play on my porch for another 8 hours. My friends were a bit confused-- they wouldn't see me out much unless we were at a bluegrass show. That was really the only thing that could get me out of the house at that point. I was on that porch practicing for about two years before I joined my first band. Just after that I found ArtistWorks.
I got to a point where I really wanted to get serious about my music career in 2015. I quit my job, switched to part time, and looked to start a band. The goal was to enter the 2015 Telluride Bluegrass band competition. I had done a charity show with Todd and some other friends and called them up. We had some early lineup changes, but the moment the current group got together for the first time, we knew we had something special. Todd and I had been friends for years. Todd is a very talented Scruggs player, a good guy, and a great friend.
I knew Sam as a great mandolin player who was playing with a few different groups at the time. I have always admired Sam’s musicality, and still do to this day. I feel so fortunate to play with him. Bradley was more of a jazz player, but was getting into bluegrass around that time. I met him for the first time at a rehearsal. He fit in right away, personally and musically. We consider ourselves very fortunate to not only be really musically compatible but to also be great friends."
"In life, my parents. They have been so supportive of me my entire life--no matter what I was interested in. When I started playing gigs as an adult, they would show up to every single show. They have moved out of state, but are still very involved in this project.
Musically, I have a very eclectic background. As a kid I would sing with my Mom in the car and at church. We would listen to a lot of music: Elton John, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Creedence, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and so on. There was always a heavy dose of contemporary christian music as well, which started my love for Gospel.
My Grandpa listened to Elvis (mostly the gospel stuff) and I always think of him when I hear it. He would also play the Statler Brothers, The Oakridge Boys, Johnny Cash, and other good old country."
"I didn’t find bluegrass until I was and adult. I had a guitar teacher lend me a Tony Rice CD and I was hooked! I started searching for any and all things bluegrass. I had just gone through a divorce, and there were a lot of songs about heartbreak. I related to the songs in a very personal way.
From Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and The Stanley Brothers, to the Punch Brothers, Infamous Stringdusters, and Leftover Salmon. I wanted to hear and see all of it. I still do.
The Steeldrivers are another band that I really love. I saw them with Chris Stapleton singing at Telluride in 2009. It was my first time at a bluegrass fest and my first time hearing them. I had never heard such a powerful vocalist in bluegrass before. Their first two albums have become two of my favorite bluegrass albums. They are dark, gritty, powerful, and beautiful all at the same time.
Chris was singing bluegrass like it was the blues or rock and roll, and I just love that. As a vocalist I have always loved soulful singing, and have tried to be more soulful myself. I'm no Chris Stapleton, but I try to bring some of that soul, passion, and grit to my vocal style."
What’s the songwriting process like?
"Sam Parks and I are the primary songwriters for the band. Up to this point, we’ve written individually. Sam is very much a craftsman: he doesn’t bring the songs to the band unless he feels the song is ready. After it has been written, we work as a band to solidify the four piece arrangement. When I write, I tend to bring more of a rough draft. My songs tend to be pretty raw, and the guys are great at helping me finish them up.
Having multiple songwriters with different approaches really shapes our band’s sound. My songs are usually pretty sad, our friends and fans are very aware of that. But sad songs have always cheered me up! It's a big reason why I love bluegrass so much. There is something about listening to a sad song that makes my own problems feel distant.
When I write them it is a very cathartic process. It helps me get through whatever it is I’m dealing with. Sam's songs tend to be more uplifting and have that great modern feel to them. They also really drive the tempo. Having two different approaches that complement each other is what makes The Lonesome Days unique.
We are very democratic in our arrangement process. Each member brings different ideas to the table and when we finally find the right arrangement, everyone knows it. It is a very cool thing! I feel like our band is constantly growing and evolving in this process. But when it comes to our “sound”, we all have a very similar idea of what that is."
How often do you meet for practice?
"We get together as often as we can, but we don’t maintain a set schedule when we get busy. We make sure to get together in the week preceding a show and sometimes the day of as well. When we are installing new songs, we may spend an entire rehearsal one one song. Those are always my favorite.
It’s actually a lot like making a video for submission on ArtistWorks. The song starts out being slightly rough, but after a number of passes we all get to leave feeling like we really accomplished something that’s ready to put in front of an audience. Songwriting is a major passion for me. Whether it’s Sam’s song or mine, I love the process and time it takes to make the songs into something that is ready to perform and record."
Do you play many live shows, if so how do you prepare for them?
"We play 50+ shows a year, mostly in Colorado. Rehearsals are important to prepare for shows, but communication is also key. Communication with venues, booking agents, and band members takes a lot of time, but is critical to a successful show."
What’s the plan after the album is out?
"We are funding our album through Kickstarter, and it’s been very successful up to this point. Once we get the album out, we will be in great shape as a band. Having an album that represents our sound is so important. We will also have new branding, shirts, hats and vinyl. We are also hoping to get out of Colorado one or two times next year. Right now, we are very focused on finishing the album. It’s a lot of work, but so worth it!
We have links to media at our website www.lonesomedays.com, and you can preorder an album here: www.getlonesome.com."
"I will always consider myself a vocalist first. It's how I got into music in the beginning, and it's what I feel I'm best at. I play some rhythm guitar when I write. It helps get a feel for what a chord will sound like with a melody. I just recently started performing solo with guitar. Performing solo with an instrument I’m not as comfortable with, has been challenging, to say the least. I get nervous every time I perform. It’s a great way to push myself musically, and test out new songs that may not fit the band."
How did you find out about ArtistWorks?
"I found out about ArtistWorks at RockyGrass. I've gone to that festival for 8 years in a row. I believe ArtistWorks has been there for the last 5 years [editor's note: you are correct sir]. I chatted with someone in the tent and saw some cool performances that inspired me to give it a try.
It's been a great way to become a better player, no matter what level you are. You have access to some of the best musicians in the world for a very affordable price. I always encourage people to send in their videos. It's nerve racking at first, but it's the practice you put into the videos that actually makes you better."
Has it influenced your playing?
"My interactions with Mike Marshall through ArtistWorks have been very influential in my growth as a Bluegrass player. I continue to take lessons and learn from the talented people around me. Having access to a teacher like Mike has been very valuable and his encouragement has been a huge part of my growth as a player.
When I send Mike a video exchange, I often spend hours practicing to get it ready; I really want it to be the best I can play. The motivation there is huge. His responses are engaging and very personal. Another huge motivator! He takes time to break down my playing and offers great advice that stretches my comfort zone. The whole format has been a huge part of my development."
What do you get most out of the experience?
"Inspiration. Mike is so creative and he has technical skill to play whatever he is feeling. It's so inspiring to watch the different musical ideas flow when he responds to an exchange. It's the type of freedom every musician wants, and most need a couple lifetimes to get there."
Are there any lessons or something your teacher has said that have made a big impression on you?
"In general, just staying positive as a student, and putting in the works it takes to get better. Mike is so supportive of players of all levels, I've seen it in every exchange I've watched and It has been so helpful. It's really easy to get down on yourself when you are learning an instrument as an adult. You see other people who have played their whole lives playing things you think you'll never learn.
It's really easy to compare yourself to others and feel like you aren't good enough. Once I sent an message to Mike when I was feeling especially down. He responded with the most positive and encouraging message! It really made my day. After working with him more and more, I knew he wasn't judging me for my lack of experience. He wants it to be fun!
To have such a master musician accept you as a player and tell you that you are doing a great job really emboldened me to keep going. It has helped me to stay positive mentally and accept where I am as a player at all times."
Anything you want to say to the people reading this?
"Keep playing music! Keep practicing. Pick with your friends. Have fun.
Don't put any limitations on yourself. You can take music as far as you want if you put in the work. When I started with ArtistWorks, I never could have imagined recording an album, let alone writing 7 songs for the album! 4 years later I found myself at eTown, with Sally Van Meter producing, playing and singing on songs that I wrote; Jeremy Garrett from the Stringdusters playing fiddle on three of the songs that I wrote; Nick Forster waltzing into the studio to hear what we were up to. It has been surreal.
But if you put in the work great things will follow. I can tell you wholeheartedly that the ArtistWorks program helped me to achieve all of these things. If I can do it, so can you!"
Check out this video of Jonny playing mandolin live with The Lonesome Days at the KGNU radio station in Boulder, CO, and support these guys on Kickstarter while you still can!
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https://my.artistworks.com/blog/artistworks-students-release-album
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I can pinpoint the single event which gave my first business the direction it was lacking, but at the time I didn’t have any way of knowing that. Here’s my story that I hope you can learn some lessons from, I certainly did!
Play to win. Don’t play not to lose.
Here’s three simple lessons we can all learn from two great giants: one of the world’s most inspirational sporting figures in history – Muhammad Ali, and Tony Robbins, known globally as the THE high performance coach.
Yesterday was Independence Day, and whilst reminding myself about the historical details, I came across the fascinating Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest that has been held every year since 1972 in conjunction with Independence Day.
According to legend, on July 4, 1916, four immigrants held a hot dog eating contest at Nathan’s Famous stand on Coney Island to settle an argument about who was the most patriotic.
Today, the competition draws over 50,000 spectators and world-wide press coverage. But how has it scaled this successfully?
It is often said that a good manager is one who can delegate effectively, rather than feel that they need to do everything themselves. One of the keys to good management, therefore, must be having a team that you believe in and trust to do a good job. So, if you have set up your system correctly and put the right people in the right roles with the right amount of motivation, direction and enthusiasm; all that you then need is a way of measuring the system.
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https://myadvocatementor.com/blog/july-2016/
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The cost of Kane: Does England’s talisman benefit the side as much as is perceived?
Harry Kane is arguably England’s best player, currently he is only rivalled by Raheem Sterling. However, do other strikers need to see more action to unlock the true potential of Southgate’s side.
Many have voiced concerns in the past over how Harry Kane’s presence somewhat dictates England’s system and style of play. It truly came to my attention as I sat and watched England in their World Cup semi-final last summer. Kane was dead on his feet, he was dropping deeper and deeper trying to get on the ball and spray passes around; when what we needed was a poacher, someone to stretch the game and run in behind. From the moment England kicked off that second half and Croatia went on the offensive, Harry Kane had no threat. The centre half’s knew he what he wanted to do and without consistent possession, he was unable to do it. The game was screaming for Jamie Vardy to come on, instead Kane was left out there to wilt in the heat in the belief that one touch from him could win us the game.
There’s become such an infatuation with Kane’s ‘match winning’ ability that we’ve been blind sided by the detrimental effect his selection can have on the team. I am by no means suggesting Kane shouldn’t be England’s starting striker, but Southgate needs to have the metal to take him out of the game when change is needed.
It’s not such a prominent issue through qualifying when we’re trouncing the likes of Bulgaria and Czech Republic but I fear for us against stronger outfits when we reach a major tournament. Southgate needs a back up plan and leaving it until the finals will be too late. England are currently second favourites for Euro 2020 at 5.5, but any nation who watched the game against Kosovo will hardly be quaking in their boots.
More thought needs to be put in to a contingency plan for the latter stages of the game or a further consideration in to a back up system that can counter teams who don’t play how we would ideally want them to.
Against the bigger sides who are more compact defensively, England have to take advantage of their speed and ability on the counter attack. The correct utilisation of those qualities drove us to that sensational victory in Spain when it really felt like England had got over a substantial hurdle in their quest to become one of the true elite sides.
Picture the scene in a similar context to that fateful game against Croatia. It’s the semi-final of the 2020 Euro’s, England are leading France by a single goal. The game is approaching 60 minutes and France are on top, they’re pressing us further and further back. Kane has served his purpose, maybe he got the goal early on when England saw more of the ball, but now the game is no longer catered to his qualities. However they work it, someone needs to be brought in to the attack who an stretch the game. Whether that’s an out and out striker or a winger, that’s for Gareth to decide.
We’ve got some of the most exciting forward talent we’ve had in years and leaving them to twiddle their thumbs on the bench when things aren’t working, purely because of reputation is frankly ludicrous.
There is already a battle for the third starting place in England’s front three. Kane and Sterling are guaranteed but the duel continues between Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford. Personally, I’d go with Sancho, he’s been much more impressive for his club and has excited and impressed on international duty. He’s 1.1 to head to Euro 2020 so count him in. Rashford is even shorter at 1.08, his ability to play centrally and out wide could make him the perfect player to change the dynamic of a game for the Three Lions. However, in a central position there is still question marks about his suitability for the role; especially now that Martial has taken that position for Manchester United.
There’s two players I’d like to see get their chance in games that need shaken up and both represent some real betting value too. Callum Wilson is available to make the final 23 man squad at prices upward of 3.0, he could be the ideal fit for when Kane is no longer required. He’s had his injury problems, but fit and firing he really is the full package; pace, strength and a deadly finish. He might be just what England need to go all the way next year.
The second is Jamie Vardy. Gareth Southgate recently opened the door for the 32 year old Leicester striker to make a return to international football. Vardy quit back in 2018 as he was frustrated by travelling for little game time, particularly at his age. However, as he’s shown this season he’s still churning out performances as if he was 25. Vardy started later than near enough any other England player, so those 32 year old legs still have more life in them. Vardy has been electric once again for Leicester this season, his pace is still frightening and his finish still matches so why not commit to giving him more game time? I truly believe that had he came on against Croatia, England would have made the World Cup final. Vardy isn’t available to be backed for the Euro’s due to his absence from the national team, however I think that may change and I’d be eager to see what price the bookies make him.
Tammy Abraham is also in the running to make the final 23 man squad. He’s found his feet somewhat at Chelsea, I’m still somewhat unconvinced by him but more importantly he’s far too similar to Kane. He’s not going to break in behind the lines and disrupt defences, I think he currently isn’t what England need so I’d avoid betting on hm despite a handsome price of around 4.5.
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https://mybetbuddy.com/predictions/the-cost-of-kane-does-englands-talisman-benefit-the-side-as-much-as-is-perceived/
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Recovering from Genocidal Trauma. Dialogue for Descendants: Symposium for Children of Survivors. Neuberger Holocaust Education Week, Toronto, November 4, 2018.
Positive Aspects: Transmission of Our Parents’ Legacy. Sharing Session. Dialogue for Descendants: Symposium for Children of Survivors. Neuberger Holocaust Education Week, Toronto, November 4, 2018.
Myra presented at a Second Generation symposium at the Neuberger Holocaust Education Week, November 4, 2018. As a social worker and daughter of Auschwitz survivors, Myra talked about her family history and life’s work with Holocaust survivors. Using a strengths-based philosophy that acknowledges survivors’ internal strengths, coping abilities and achievements, despite their traumatic experiences, she has developed innovative programs that empower them to recover from genocidal trauma.
A Person-Centred Approach for Working with Aging Survivors of Genocidal Trauma: The Case of Aging Holocaust Survivors in Canada. Symposium, Diverse Stories of Marginalization and Resilience: Perspectives from Social Work. Canadian Association on Gerontology, Montreal, October 21, 2016.
Strengths-Based Approach to Working with Holocaust Survivors. Keynote address at a national conference entitled “Engaging with Aging.” Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA, Montreal, Canada, September 18-20, 2016 (invited presentation).
Specialized Services, Current Issues and A Group Trauma Recovery Model. Presentation on a panel “Working with Survivors: Past, Present and Future.” Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies (AJFCA) North American Conference, Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, May 4, 2014 (invited presentation).
Holocaust Survivors: Current and Emerging Community Issues. Presentation providing a Canadian perspective on a panel, “Sacred Trust: Help for Aging Holocaust Survivors,” at the General Assembly of United Jewish Communities, The Federations of North America, November 11-13th, 2007, Nashville, Tennessee (invited presentation).
Empowering Holocaust Survivors through Intergenerational Programming. Paper presented at an international conference, “Working with Holocaust Survivors.” Sponsored by Selfhelp in collaboration with UJA-Federation of New York and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, November 13-14th, 2006.
Maximizing Resources through Organizational Collaborations. Paper presented at an international conference for social work professionals serving the Jewish community, “Honoring Life: Working Effectively with Holocaust Survivors.” Sponsored by Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, UJA Federation of New York in coordination with the Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies and Selfhelp Community Services, March 2-3rd, 2003 (invited presentation).
A Wholistic Approach in Working with Holocaust Survivors. Presentation at the Transcending Trauma Conference, Penn Council for Relationships, A Multidisciplinary Conference on Life After the Holocaust, Har Zion Temple, Penn Valley, PA, December 2nd- 3rd, 2001 (invited presentation).
Empowering Survivors of the Holocaust. Presentation at the Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies (AJFCA) Conference, Hilton Montreal Bonaventure Hotel, May 7th, 2001 (invited presentation).
Empowerment Strategies with Elder Holocaust Survivors. Keynote address at a conference entitled “A Time to Heal: Caring for the Aging Holocaust Survivor.” Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Canada, May 4th – 7th, 1999 (invited presentation).
The Aging of Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Implications for Service Accessibility and Adaptation. Co-presentation with Professor Shari Brotman of McGill University at the Canadian HomeCare Association Conference, Federation des CLSC du Quebec, Sheraton Centre, Montreal, December 1st, 1997.
The Aging of Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Implications for Institutional Equity and Adaptation. Co-presentation with Professor Shari Brotman of McGill University at the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association Conference, Hotel de Parc, Montreal, November 23rd, 1997.
The Healing Journey of Holocaust Survivors. Presentation at Hearts and Minds, The Argyle Conference on Human Relations, Dawson College, Montreal, November 2nd, 1996.
Institutionalizing Holocaust Remembrance and Education. Speech in the House of Commons, Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Official ceremony introducing a postage stamp commemorating the end of the Holocaust. November 9, 1995.
Working with Survivors in the Community and Agenda for the Future. Opening and closing plenary panel sessions at a pre-conference for professionals who work with Holocaust survivors at World Conference of Jewish Communal Service. Sponsored by the National Israeli Center for Psychosocial Support of Survivors of the Holocaust and the Second Generation, July 3-4, 1994, Jerusalem, Israel (invited presentation).
Understanding Aging Holocaust Survivors and Meeting the Needs and Concerns of Survivors: Creative Responses. Keynote address at a Clinic Day for professionals co-sponsored by Jewish Family Services Social Service Centre and The Administrative Committee on Staff Development, Montreal, March 4th, 1993 (invited presentation).
1942-1992… A Community Copes. Presentation to the National Association of Japanese Canadians, Quebec Chapter, on the Fourth Anniversary Celebration of Redress, Japanese Pavilion of the Botanical Garden, September 19th, 1992 (invited presentation).
Holocaust Survivors and their Families: Responding to their Needs. Keynote address and educational workshop at a conference for professionals, co-sponsored by the Holocaust Remembrance Committee and Jewish Family and Child Service, Toronto, May 20th, 1992 (invited presentation).
Establishing Trusting Relationships with Clients; Decisions, Issues and Innovative Responses Concerning Families of Survivors. Educational workshop and closing plenary address at the 1st National Conference on Identification, Treatment and Care of the Ageing Holocaust Survivor. Co-sponsored by the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc. & Southeast Florida Centre on Ageing, Florida International University, March 29-31, 1992 (invited presentation).
The Contributions of Holocaust Survivors to Jewish Communal Life. Paper presented at a program co-sponsored by the Holocaust Remembrance Committee, Canadian Jewish Congress, Quebec Region, the McGill University School of Social Work, Centre for Applied Family Studies and Montreal Second Generation, May 30, 1989, Jewish Public Library, Montreal.
A Group for Elderly Holocaust Survivors. Paper presented at the Ninth Annual Group Work Symposium at the Boston University School of Social Work, October 1987.
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https://myragiberovitch.com/conference-presentations-and-papers/
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Corporate actions are decisions taken by companies’ boards of directors or management teams, that could have an impact on the firms themselves or shareholders.
Here is a review of corporate actions that took place last week, and those scheduled for this week.
Transcorp Plc announced a series of board changes. Kayode Fasola and Albdulqadir Bello resigned as Non Executive Directors effective October 30, 2018. Toyin Sanni and Obi Ibekwe will take their places on the board. Sanni is the immediate past Group CEO of United Capital Plc.
Adim Jibunoh, the company’s President/CEO will also retire effective December 31st, 2018. He will be replaced by Valentine Ozigbo, former MD/CEO of Transcorp Hotels Plc.
Mrs. Owen Omogiafo has been appointed MD/CEO of Transcorp Hotels. Prior to this, she was an Executive Director of Transcorp Plc.
Emmanuel Nnorom has been appointed Chairman of Transcorp Hotels. He replaces Abudlqadir Bello who is stepping down from the parent company, Transcorp Plc. Nnorom is the President of Heirs Holdings which was founded by Tony Elumelu.
Zenith Bank, UBA and Guaranty Trust Bank released their results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018. UBA was the outlier, as it had an increase in topline, while Zenith and Guaranty Trust Bank had slight declines.
Zenith, however, led the trio with N144 billion as profit after tax, while Guaranty Trust Bank closely followed with N142 billion as profit after tax. Access Bank and FBN Holdings are yet to release their results.
Wema Bank released its results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018. Profit after tax jumped by 73%, driven largely by an increase in trading income.
Chemical and Allied Products Plc (CAP Plc) released its results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018. Profit after tax rose by 27%, an indication that shareholders could receive a larger dividend compared to the prior year.
Cement giant, Lafarge Africa Plc, released its results for the 9 months ended September 30, 2018. While revenue increased from N223 billion in 2017 to N234 billion in 2018, the company made a loss before tax of N14 billion in 2018, as against a profit before tax of N1 billion in 2017.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) lifted a suspension that it had placed on Thomas Wyatt Plc and Union Dicon Plc, following the release of their results.
Seplat Petroleum Plc pulled a Shaggy, having released a press statement denying any involvement in a court judgment filed against its Chairman, ABC Orjiako. Orjiako was ordered to pay the sum of $114 million by a UK High Court alongside Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd, and Allene Ltd.
The company stated that it is not a party to the litigation, but will monitor the progress of this suit and issue further communication on the matter as appropriate.
Conoil Plc seems to have turned a new leaf, as the company infamously known for late release of its results has published its results for the third quarter ended September 2018. Profit after tax grew by 16.9%.
The company also announced the appointment of Hardip Kheterpetal as Acting Managing Director.
Redstar Express Plc opened a new office in the Republic of Benin. The office will be responsible for the timely pickup and delivery of items.
Africa Alliance Plc moved its head office from 61 Marina Lagos to 54 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
Guinness Nigeria Plc will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on October 24, 2018. Shareholders are likely to approve its FY 2018 results and a dividend payment.
Nigerian Enamelware Plc will be holding its AGM on October 25, 2018.
Cutix Plc will be holding its AGM on October 26, 2018. The stock was the worst performing last week, by virtue of being marked down for a dividend payment and one for one bonus.
FBN Holdings will be holding a board meeting on October 24, 2018. Key agenda will be the approval of the group’s Q3 2018 results.
Nigerian Breweries Plc will hold a board meeting scheduled for October 25, 2018. Key on the agenda is the consideration of an interim dividend.
Total Nigeria Plc will be holding a board meeting on October 25, 2018. Among the items on the agenda are the consideration of the company’s results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018, and the consideration of the payment of an interim dividend.
Stanbic IBTC will be holding a board meeting on October 26, 2018. Items on the agenda include the company’s results for the quarter ended 30th of September 2018.
Julius Berger Plc will be holding a board meeting on October 25, 2018. Among the items to be considered are the company’s results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018.
The Initiates Plc will be holding a board meeting on October 26, 2018. Key agenda include the consideration of the company’s results for the third quarter ended September 3,0, 2018 and the approval of the company’s 2019 annual budget.
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https://nairametrics.com/2018/10/21/corporate-actions-week-to-date-october-26-2018/
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The public and private sectors have been advised to double their investments in research and development. Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc made this suggestion, while advising that these investments should be tailored in line with safety promotion.
According to Seplat Petroleum, such research investment should not be limited to the oil and gas sector. Instead, it should be spread across all sectors critical to the growth of Nigeria’s economy.
Seplat Petroleum‘s Operations Director, Effiong Okon, pointed out the importance of such investment during the Nigeria Professional Development Conference and Exhibition in Lagos.
In his address, Okon said the company only executes projects that do not affect the safety of the environment. He added that Seplat Petroleum has employed measures that have reduced its gas flaring by 95 percent.
“We approach safety, using the people, environment, asset, and reputation model incorporated in our ‘safety first’ policy. We only execute projects that promote continuous reduction of environmental impact in our operations.
“We track offshoots from our operations and strive to reduce adverse effects from our facilities. Our internal use of gas flared reduced by over 95 per cent between 2011 and 2017.
Okon said the measures taken has also reduced incidents over the years. He, however, stated that the company’s commitment to ensuring safety is a long-term objective.
According to the Seplat Petroleum‘s recently disclosed financial statements, revenue increased from N138 billion in 2017 to N228 billion in 2018. Profit before tax also jumped from N13.4 billion in 2017 to N80.6 billion in 2018. However, profit after tax fell sharply from N81 billion in 2017 to N44.8 billion in 2018.
The company declared a final dividend of $0.05 per share.
The company’s share price is currently trading at N590 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
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https://nairametrics.com/2019/04/08/seplat-seek-more-investment-in-safety-as-it-reduces-flares-by-95-per-cent/
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2009 Mercatornet: Have death panels already arrived?
Have death panels already arrived?
The case against: an experienced nurse worries that Obamacare will entrench an existing quality-of-life ethic.
Medical ethics are concerned with care for a patient’s welfare, something huge institutions are not very good at. The controversy about “death panels” in proposed health care reform legislation is to be expected. As a nurse, despite all the soothing noises from the Obama administration, I do believe there is cause for serious concern.
“End-of-life choice” might have been an innocent term a generation ago, but now in three American states “end-of-life choice” includes legal assisted suicide. No wonder people were worried when they read these words in HR 3962 (also known as the Pelosi bill). It even includes a whole section on “Dissemination of Advance Care Planning Information” that is problematic and misleading.
In addition, although the idea of health care rationing was originally dismissed as a myth, ethicists and the mainstream media admit that health care rationing is necessary. Government committees have been proposed to set rules for health care services.
Is ethical health care reform needed? Of course. In 2003, I was privileged to serve on a Catholic Medical Association task force on health care reform. Many good ideas, such as health-savings accounts, ways to help the uninsured poor, and strong conscience-rights protections, were discussed. The results were published in a 2004 report entitled “Health Care in America: A Catholic Proposal for Renewal”. The Obama Administration has rejected most of these proposals.
Since I first started writing about medical ethics and serving on hospital ethics committees, I have seen ethics discussions evolve from “what is right?” to “what is legal?” to “how can we tweak the rules to get the result we think is best?” This attitude is not very reassuring when we are considering a massive overhaul of the US health care system.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been ridiculed for coining the term “death panels”. But it resonated with me. In 1983 my daughter Karen was born with Down syndrome and a severe heart defect. Even though Karen’s father and I were told that her chances for survival were 80 to 90 percent after open heart surgery, we were also told that the doctors would support us if we refused surgery and “let” Karen die. We refused to allow such medical discrimination against our daughter.
Later on we were shocked to learn that one doctor had written a “do not resuscitate” order without our knowledge.
In later years, I was asked if I was going to feed my mother with Alzheimer’s. And then, after my oldest daughter died from an apparently deliberate drug overdose, I was told that it is usually a waste of time to save suicide attempters.
Did evil people say these things? No. These doctors and nurses were otherwise compassionate, caring, health care professionals. But they are just as vulnerable as the general public to the seductive myth that choosing death is better than living with terminal illness, serious disability or poor “quality of life”.
When government committees and accountants take over health care, will things get better?
Health care does not occur in a vacuum. Real people — patients, families and health care providers alike — are affected when economics and new ethical rationales trump basic needs. The Good Samaritan did not ask whether the man lying on the road had health insurance. The Hippocratic Oath established a sacred covenant between doctor and patient, not health care rationing protocols. I strongly disagree with ethicists who contend that new technologies and economics demand new ethics.
I am tired of hearing some of my medical colleagues talk about patients who “need to die”. I am saddened to hear many of my elderly, frail patients fret about being an emotional and financial burden on their families. I am outraged when I read editorials arguing that those of us who refuse to participate in abortion or premature death should find another line of work.
I recently attended a 40th anniversary nursing school reunion. We remarked on how much has changed. Some things are better — uniforms, equipment and technologies, for example. But some things are worse, especially ethics.
People are often surprised that even back in the late 1960s, we had do-not-resuscitate orders and spoke to families about forgoing aggressive medical treatment when patients seemed to be on the terminal trajectory to death.
But, unlike today, we did not immediately ask them whether we could withdraw food, water and antibiotics to get the death over with as soon as possible. Back then, we were often surprised and humbled when some patients recovered. Today, too many patients don’t even get a chance. Doctors and nurses are too quick to give up hope.
Back then, ethics was easily understood. We didn’t ever cause or hasten death. We protected our patients’ privacy and rights. We were prohibited from lying or covering up mistakes. We assumed that everyone had “quality of life”; our mission was to improve it, not judge it.
Medical treatment was withdrawn when it became futile or excessively burdensome for the patient — not for society. Food and water was never referred to as “artificial” even when it was delivered through a tube. Doctor and nurses knew that removing food and water from a non-dying person was as much euthanasia as a lethal injection.
“Vegetable” was a pejorative term that was never used in front of patients or their families. And suicide was a tragedy to be prevented, not an alleged constitutional right to be assisted by doctor and nurses.
Today we have ethics committees developing futility guidelines to overrule patients and/or their families even when they want treatment continued. We have three states with legal assisted suicide. We have even non-brain dead organ donation policies (called non-heartbeating organ donation or donation after cardiac death). Some ethicists even argue that we should drop the dead donor rule.
We see living wills and other advance directives with check-offs for even basic medical care and for incapacitated conditions like being unable to regularly recognize relatives. We are willing to sacrifice living human beings at the earliest stages of development to fund research for cures for conditions like Parkinson’s rather than promote research on ethical and effective adult stem cell therapies.
We are inspired by the Special Olympics but support abortion for birth defects. We now talk about a newborn child as another carbon footprint instead of as a blessing and sacred responsibility.
I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.
Nancy Valko is president of Missouri Nurses for Life and a spokeswoman for the National Association of Pro-life Nurses.
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https://nancyvalkowwf.wordpress.com/2016/02/
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What are we really eating on Thanksgiving?
Has it ever crossed your mind about what happened to the turkey before it landed on your table? We all know that having a big, fat, juicy turkey on Thanksgiving is an American staple. There are over 267 million turkeys sold in America for Thanksgiving. That’s a lot of turkey! Over centuries, we’ve been conditioned to eat farm raised turkey that looks perfect, and tastes perfect. What happened to Grandma chasing the turkey around the farm to kill it for the family Thanksgiving feast? The problem is we’re not sure what’s behind all this turkey production. We’re talking 267 million turkeys, how do they keep up with production? Let’s dig deep as to what’s really going on with all those turkeys!
Many of us go to the store, pick out the bird, and maybe even score a $10 off coupon. We don’t even stop to think how it was conceived, what it ate, or ask if it was inoculated with antibiotics. We’re so consumed with brining, sides, ingredients, decorations, etc…Even though it’s only once a year, we should still question everything that we put into our body.
Why should we care about one turkey?
There are three major companies that produce turkeys for the big day. Those companies are Butterball, Hormel, and Cargill. They all endorse Monsanto. Let me repeat, they ALL endorse Monsanto. What does that mean for you? You get to digest GMO seed just like the turkeys did. Not only that, they all endorse the medical and pharmaceuticals companies. To top things off, all 3 companies are under scrutiny for animal cruelty.
In February 2012, five Butterball employees and a top level Department of Agriculture official were convicted of animal cruelty and obstruction of justice. An undercover investigation showed employees beating turkeys (yes the ones on your dinner table), throwing them in crates, kicking them, and trying to make them fly when they’re engineered not to fly[1]. See, you can’t produce 267 million turkeys without having a strategic plan. It begins with engineering turkeys that will produce big breasts. Because of this, the bird won’t be able to walk or fly. They can also engineer the size of the bird to make it easier for consumers to pick which size fits their family’s needs.
How turkeys are engineered for your dinner table.
It began with cross breeding genes that makes what we know now as the broad breasted white turkey. These birds are related to wild turkeys but are very different. Here’s why: “Industry-bred birds have unusually large breasts, so disproportionate with the rest of their bodies that they often have trouble standing, walking and mating — these turkeys rely on artificial insemination for reproduction. They begin life hatched in incubators, have their upper beaks and toenails clipped and spend their days and nights eating fortified corn in a barn full of hundreds of fellow turkeys. Their limited family tree has bred them to be dim-witted and disease-prone; they’re given antibiotics to prevent a variety of ailments. Industry turkeys are abnormally fast growing, and by the time they’re 12 weeks old, they’re shipped off to the slaughterhouse.” [2] Can you imagine an animal growing to adult size in only 3 months? They can manipulate genes to grow the birds to the exact size the consumer prefers. I don’t know about you, but this sounds extremely unnatural to me. The funny part is, these companies advertise their turkey as “all natural”.
As stated above, turkeys are eating corn…genetically modified corn that is. There is more unpleasant news regarding what is being added to their diet that is rather disturbing. Hold on to your pants folks because this one is about to blow you away. Researchers who took samples of US turkeys found traces of Tylenol, arsenic, fluoxetine (active ingredient in Prozac), diphenhydramine (active ingredient in Benadryl) and BEER[3]! For all of you who are gluten free, if the bird drinks beer (GMO of course) the turkey will NOT be considered gluten free. That’s the least of our problems though. These poor turkeys are getting drunk, with beer oozing out of their beaks, glazed over eyes and necks that can barely lift off the ground. Supposedly, beer gives the turkey better taste and allows the turkey to grow faster. This is in addition to the growth hormones their given. Are you thinking of returning your turkey now?
As a dietary staple, corn is predominantly the bird’s primary source of nutrition. The problem is corn is not only genetically modified, but its all starch which has no nutrient density what so ever. In the wild, turkey’s live on the land. They eat a great variety of foods, including: insects, spiders, snails, slugs, salamanders, small lizards, small frogs, millipedes, grasshoppers, very small snakes, worms, grasses, vines, flowers, acorns, buds, seeds, fruits, clovers, dogwood, blueberries, cherries, and hickory nuts.[4] Nowhere do they eat corn or soy. It’s just not natural to their diet. Wild turkeys are also beautiful with gorgeous feathers, wings with vibrant colors. White breast commercial turkeys are ugly, and they’re starving for nutrition. They often over eat because they’re bodies are depleted of nutrients. Even though they’re starving, they’re still FAT!
Sick birds need drugs!
That’s not a happy bird to say the least. Because the bird’s diets are not naturally conducive to their digestive system, the birds get sick. They are given tons of antibiotics; it’s in their food EVERYDAY. It’s used for growth purposes, somehow, the antibiotics help the bird fatten up. Now big corporations such as Cargill are saying they are stopping antibiotic use for growth purposes. They will, however, continue to use antibiotics for disease and illness prevention.
Another fascinating fact is that all turkeys are given vaccines. They’re given at least 11 vaccines before the ripe old age of 28 weeks. Which of course, then off to the slaughter house they go. That’s if they get to live to 28 weeks old. According to OEN, more likely than not, a turkey is sent to the slaughter house with, “painful footpad lesions, swelling and dermatitis, deviated toes, arthritis, feathering picking and breast blisters.” The birds are also being slaughtered with Clostridial dermatitis and cellulitis which is a condition of the skin due to poor living environments, a contaminated environment including feed and water, poor hygienic conditions, and contaminated vaccines and vaccine equipment. The disease is characterized by reddish to dark or greenish discoloration of the skin around the thighs, abdomen, keel, tail region, back, and wings. The lesions can extend into the underlying muscles, and there can be gas bubbles under the skin which result in crepitation[5].
As we conclude, purchasing a turkey without it being organic and humanely raised isn’t conducive for human consumption. Of course the best way to know where your turkey is coming from is to raise your own, but for those who can’t, buy organic or from a local farmer you trust. Make sure their feed is organic, and they don’t use antibiotics. It’s quite bothersome as well that turkeys are being vaccinated which most likely means they are getting a healthy dose of mercury, liquid nitrogen, penicillin (antibiotic), streptomycin sulfate (another antibiotic), fungus, and other toxic material. Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it? How about skipping the bird and starting a new tradition like running in a Turkey Trot, serving at a local homeless shelter, or just spending time in gratitude. Thanksgiving after all, is about being thankful for all the good in life.
Certified Holistic Health Coach, 32 years old, mother of 2 awesome kids, married to my college sweetheart for 9 beautiful years, I live in San Diego Ca, food fanatic, I'm crazy about all things healthy, I hate to exercise but do it anyway, I'm a workaholic (currently working on that), but the way I destress is by cooking and going to the grocery store (without kids!)...I'm a dreamer and non realist ~ I believe all things are possible.
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https://naturalnewsblogs.com/really-eating-thanksgiving/
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It’s been a busy time at the General Assembly as hundreds of bills were rushed to be filed to meet the Senate’s bill filing deadline on April 2nd. The House will have a few more weeks to prepare for their bill filing deadline on Tuesday, April 16th (bills not related to the budget). Once both chambers’ deadlines have passed, legislators will turn their attention to meeting the May 9th crossover date, by which time bills must be passed by the chamber in which it was introduced in order to remain eligible for the remainder of the 2-year session, unless the bill has a fiscal impact on the State. Read the full report here.
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https://nccep.org/legislative-update-for-04-09-19/
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Oceans are mixed by wind, tides and differences in salinity and temperature, right? Don't forget marine life, says Rory Bingham.
Do fish and other marine creatures mix the ocean? That was the question I put to Professor Bill Dewar after his lecture on ocean mixing during a summer school I attended in 2003 while studying for my PhD.
Once the laughter from my fellow students had subsided, Bill said that he did not know, but that it was an intriguing possibility. Thus began what has been a stimulating and enjoyable transatlantic collaboration.
Oceanographers believe the mixing of water masses is an important aspect of ocean circulation, characterised by the global conveyor belt. This system - made famous by the science fiction film The Day After Tomorrow - moves heat from the Sun towards the poles, regulating the Earth's climate. This huge circulation means the surface water of the world's oceans eventually find its way into the North Atlantic.
The Global ocean conveyor belt - a highly idealised representation of the global circulation of cold and warm waters. Much mixing occurs in the North Atlantic and around Antarctica.
Crossing the Equator it warms and, through evaporation, becomes more salty. As it continues its journey north it releases heat to the atmosphere and so cools. This cooling combined with high salinity increase the water's density, so much so that eventually it becomes heavier than the surrounding water and sinks into the deep ocean.
To complete the global circulation the water must rise up again. This requires a source of mechanical energy that can lift cooler heavier water towards the surface where it can absorb heat from the warmer lighter water surrounding it.
The power required to mix the ocean is uncertain. A rough global estimate is two terawatts, or two trillion watts, which works out at about 20 milliwatts per metre squared when averaged over the global ocean surface.
To put this in perspective, a typical hand-held kitchen mixer (100W) would provide enough energy to mix a football pitch sized area of ocean surface from top to bottom. Previous work has concluded that the wind and tides may adequately supply the required power. Yet large uncertainties in these estimates mean we can't discount the possibility that other sources of energy also play a role.
How might the marine biosphere mix the ocean? A sperm whale, for example, propels itself through the water by beating its powerful fluke. As it does so it experiences drag. This drag represents an injection of mechanical energy into the water.
Of course, marine mammals, in common with fish, have evolved streamlined shapes enabling efficient movement through the water, minimising the energy they lose to the water. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that a sperm whale continually injects on average 5kW of energy to the ocean. Summing this figure over all toothed whale species gives one percent of the 2 terawatts required to mix the ocean.
The idea that the marine biosphere can mix the ocean is contentious.
Given our limited knowledge of life in the ocean it would be impossible to determine the total input of energy by the marine biosphere using a species-by-species approach. Instead, we use satellite observations of ocean colour to estimate the chemical energy stored in phytoplankton, which forms the base of the marine food chain.
Even assuming that only one percent of this huge energy source is eventually converted to mechanical energy by creatures higher up the food chain, the power contribution by the marine biosphere is comparable to that of the winds and tides.
So far our research has been purely theoretical. However, Eric Kunze and colleagues at the University of Victoria, Canada, have recorded a four orders of magnitude increase in mechanical energy input to the ocean during the daily migration of krill in a coastal inlet.
Our future plans include laboratory tank experiments to examine the mixing efficiency of marine organisms, and an observational campaign to measure the biosphere's contribution to mixing in the deep ocean. Meanwhile, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey are considering the possibility of incorporating the effects of the vast swarms of krill in the Southern Ocean, a key region for regulation of the Earth's climate, into an ocean model to assess their impact on the large-scale ocean circulation.
A sperm whale continually injects on average 5kW of energy to the ocean.
It is still too early to answer the question I initially posed to Professor Dewar. The idea that the marine biosphere can mix the ocean is contentious, as some scientists have been quick to point out. There are many factors that are difficult to determine. One concern is that the size of the motions produced by marine organisms may in general be too small to be effective.
However, too little is still known about the size distribution of the marine biosphere to rule out marine life as a significant contributor. In short, we have shown that what may initially have seemed like a crazy question, as the laughter of my fellow students indicated, is worthy of serious consideration. But as yet, we still need to do more research before we can conclude with any certainty whether mixing by the marine biosphere is an important part of the ocean's circulation.
Dr Rory Bingham is a postdoctoral researcher funded under the NERC Rapid Climate Change programme at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Liverpool.
Bill Dewar is the Pierre Welander Professor of Oceanography at Florida State University.
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https://nerc.ukri.org/planetearth/stories/130/
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CD Projekt RED has released today a new trailer for Cyberpunk 2077, giving us the opportunity to take a further look at the game.
As we can see, in the new trailer we can observe how the development team worked on this ambitious RPG FPS, with an interesting behind-the-scenes.
For the moment, we know that CD Projekt RED is focusing on the improvement of the portfolio, with the narrative of the game, but we know that a multiplayer mode has been announced, and will be available in the form of free DLC to download. But before then, the efforts will be focused on making the main quest of the game the best it can be.
Ricrodiamo that Cyberpunk 2077 will be available from 2020 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. What do you think of this trailer of behind the scenes?
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https://nerd4.life/2019/09/11/cyberpunk-2077-gives-us-a-behind-the-scenes-with-the-new-trailer/
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In the world of ecology, the only constant is change - but change can be good. Today Hank explains ecological succession and how ecological communities change over time to become beautiful, biodiverse mosaics.
You remember back in the days right after the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, when that giant flaming asteroid and those methane explosions killed almost all the organisms on the planet? No, of course you don't, because that happened 252 million years ago when mammals weren't a thing yet.
But that's kind of the point of this episode: that asteroid was a disturbance to the ecology of the planet. The flora and fauna and soils were largely wiped out, leaving a blank canvas for the organisms that survived--and there weren't really all that many of them--to fill in as they could. What happened after the Permian-Triassic "disturbance" is a dramatic example of ecological succession, how the makeup of a community changes over time, starting from, like, the day after a disturbance. Just, usually the disturbance is a little less...disturbing.
The study of how ecological communities change doesn't just look at huge, long periods of time or the effects of some apocalypse, succession can easily happen over a season in a park or in just a few days in a patch of land as small as your garden. And this might come as a surprise, but disturbances that shake up that status quo within a community actually serve to make that community better in the long run.
Disturbances happen in ecosystems all the time, every day, a fire, a flood, a windstorm. After these unpredictable events, ecologists kept seeing predictable, even orderly, changes in the ecosystem. How life deals with these disturbances is an important key to understanding ecosystems.
First, let's note that a tree falling in the forest and a comet falling in the forest, while both disturbances, are different levels of disturbance. Likewise, there are a couple different types of succession. The first type, the one that happens after the asteroid hits, or the glacier plows over the landscape, or the forest fire/volcano burns the verdant ecosystem into pure desolation--that's called a primary succession, when organisms populate an area for the first time. The jumping off point for primary succession is your basic, lifeless, post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Well actually, there is one tremendous advantage to desolate wastelands: no competition. A lot of organisms don't mind settling down in the more inhospitable nooks and crannies of the planet; these pioneer species are often prokaryotes or protists, followed by non-vascular plants then maybe some extra-super-hardy vascular plants.
There are tons of organisms that make their living colonizing dead places; it's their thing. Like before the Permian-Triassic extinction, there were these dense forests of gymnosperms, probably full of species a lot like the conifers and ginkgos and cycads we still have today. But after the asteroid hit, the big forests died and were replaced by lycophytes, simpler vascular plants like the now-extinct scale trees and today's club mosses. While they might have had a hard time competing with the more complicated plants during the good times, the rest of the Paleozoic flora barely survived extinction. Of all the dozens of species of ginkgo that were around back then, only one still exists, completely genetically isolated--a living fossil.
It's important to remember that when we talk about primary ecological succession, we're talking about plants pretty much exclusively. Because plants rule the world, remember? Without plants, the animals in a community don't stand a chance, and primary successional species are almost often plants that have wind-borne seeds, like lycophytes, or mosses and lichens that have spores that blow in and colonize the area.
And the outcome of a primary successional landscape is to build or rebuild soils, which develop over time as the mosses, grasses, and tiny little plants grow, die, and decompose. Once the soils are ready, slightly bigger plants can move in, at which point we move on to secondary succession, and then it's game on; a whole redwood forest could develop out of that!
But primary succession takes a long, long time, like hundreds, maybe thousands of years in some places. In fact, the recovery of these big gymnosperm forests after the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event took about 4 or 5 million years. Dirt may seem unglamorous to you, but it is alive and beautiful and complicated, and making good soil takes time.
Now secondary succession isn't just the next act after primary succession has made a place livable after some disaster, it's usually the first response after a smaller disturbance like a flood or a little fire has knocked back the plants that have been ruling the roost for a while. Even a disturbance as small as a tree crashing down in the woods can make a tiny patch of forest more like it was 50 years ago, before that one tree got so huge and shady. In that tiny area, there will suddenly be a different microclimate than in the rest of the forest, which might have more sunlight, slightly higher temperatures, less protection from weather, et cetera.
And just like every other ecosystem on Earth, this tiny patch of forest will be affected by temperature and precipitation the most, which will be different in different parts of the forest. So as a result of the fallen tree, the soils will become different, the mix of plants will become different, and different animals will want to do business there because that little niche suits their needs better than other little niches.
So the question becomes, when does succession stop and things get back to normal? NEVER. Because change doesn't end. Change is the only constant, people! You know who said that? Heraclitus, in 500 BC, so it's been true since at least then.
And as ideas in ecology go, it's actually a pretty new way of looking at things. See, back in the early 20th century, ecologists noticed a tendency of communities to morph over time, but they also saw succession in terms of a community changing until it ultimately ended in what they called a climax community, which would have a predictable assemblage of species that would remain stable until the next big disturbance.
Well, maybe that's what seemed to be happening, but ecological succession is actually a lot more complicated than that. For starters, there's a little thing called stochasticity, or randomness, which prevents us from ever knowing exactly what a community is going to look like 100 years after a disturbance. Stochasticity is basically your element of unpredictable variability in anything.
So you can predict with some accuracy what plants are going to take over a glacial moraine after the ice has receded because the seeds of some colonizer species typically make it there first. But unpredictable things, like weather conditions during early stages of succession, can end up favoring another species. The point is, scientists' attempt to predict what a community ends up looking like in 100 years should always be thought as probabilities, not certainties.
Another difficult with the whole model of a climax community has to do with the idea of an ecosystem eventually stabilizing. That word "stable," whenever it's used in a sentence that also includes the word "ecology," you can pretty much be sure it's being used wrong, because stability never happens. There are always disturbances happening all the time in every ecosystem. A small portion of the forest might burn, a windstorm might take out a bunch of trees, some yee-haw might rent himself a backhoe one weekend and clear himself a little patch of heaven on the mountain beside his house because he's got nothing better to do; who knows? Stuff happens!
So instead of ending in some fixed, stable climax community, we now know that an ecosystem is in later successional stages if it has high biodiversity--lots and lots of biodiversity. And the only way biodiversity could be high is if there are tons of little niches for all those species to fit into, and the only way there could be that many niches is if, instead of a single community, an ecosystem is actually made up of thousands of tiny communities--a mosaic of habitats where specific communities of different organisms lived.
Such mosaics of niches are created by disturbances over time, with everything always changing here and there, but it's important that these disturbances be of the right kind and the right scale. Because it turns out that the kind of disturbances that have the greatest effect on biodiversity are the most moderate disturbances. When ecologists figured this out, they decided to call it the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis, because it hypothesizes that intermediate disturbances--not too big and not too little--are ideal.
See, just a little disturbance, like a falling tree or something, isn't really enough to change the game. On the other hand, a really severe disturbance like getting covered with lava would take the community all the way back to asteroid-wipeout level primary succession. But every nice mid-level disturbance creates its own habitat at its own stage of succession with its own unique niches. More niches means more biodiversity, and more biodiversity means more stability and healthier ecosystems.
Even if two disturbances happen in two different areas with roughly the same climate at the same time, the stochastic nature of ecosystems mean that the two areas might recover in completely different ways, leading to even more niches and more biodiversity. Now, this does not mean that you should go rent a backhoe tomorrow and cut a swath into the wilderness. It's just suggesting that a medium level of disturbance is natural and normal and good for an ecosystem; it keeps everybody on their toes.
And like I said, disturbance happens, and by and large we should let it happen. This too is a relatively new idea in ecology; in fact, for most of the history of public land management in the US, great swaths of forest were not allowed to burn. People considered the purpose of forests to be wood production, and you don't want to burn down some trees that are going to make you a bunch of money. But because of the lack of intermediate disturbances over a long period of time, we ended up with catastrophic fires like the one that torched Yellowstone National Park back in 1988. A single lightning strike totally annihilated almost 800,000 acres of public forest because the ecosystem hadn't been allowed to indulge in a nice, leisurely burn every now and then.
But now, those forests have undergone more than 20 years of succession, and some parts have even re-burned at a more intermediate level, creating a nice, high-biodiversity mosaic of habitats. And it's gorgeous, you should come visit it sometime.
And that is ecological succession for you--how destruction and disturbance lead to beauty and diversity. Just remember what my main man Heraclitus said and you'll be good: the only constant is change.
Thank you for watching this episode of Crash Course: Ecology, and thank you to everyone who helped us put this episode together. If you want to review any of the concepts that we studied today, there's the table of contents over there. And if you have any questions or ideas or comments, we're on Facebook and Twitter and of course, down in the comments below. We'll see you next time.
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https://nerdfighteria.info/v/jZKIHe2LDP8/
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Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough give outstanding performances in this classy British thriller, with Attenborough winning a BAFTA for Best British Actor and Stanley scoring an Oscar nomination. Written and directed by Bryan Forbes – who also won a Writers Guild award, an Edgar and a BAFTA nomination – Seance on a Wet Afternoon is presented here as a brand-new High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio.
Myra Savage, a highly-strung spiritual medium, convinces her weak-willed husband to fake a child kidnapping so she can offer her services to the parents when all seems lost. Though horrified at the prospect, he reluctantly goes along with the plan – but becomes more convinced than ever that Myra is losing her grip on reality.
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https://networkonair.com/all-products/3061-seance-on-a-wet-afternoon-blu-ray-
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Kaspars Migla is the creator and founder of chessratings.top. In his column, he analyzes monthly FIDE standard rating changes, career-high ratings, rating distribution by country, continent, region, and other rating-related statistics. In this edition, he looks at the absolute numbers of rated players and the percentage of active players in different countries.
According to the FIDE December data, integrated by chessratings.top, the number of players with a standard rating has surpassed the 350,000 mark (352,234 people to be exact). The number of active (those who have participated in tournaments over the last 12 months) and inactive players is roughly equal.
Over the month’s time, the number of chess players increased by 2546, whereas within a year we have almost 30,000 new players (29 517). If this trend continues, then by 2024 there will be over a half-million chess players with standard FIDE rating. We will definitely inform you when it happens. Stay tuned!
The number of people having FIDE standard rating has grown in almost all countries. This process seems irreversible, provided that there are no radical rules and rating calculation changes. It is enough to say, that the last year Russia was the only country with more than 30,000 rated players, but not anymore. As of December 1, there are 34,811 active players in Russia, whereas in India - 32 494. Given that in the second most populated country in the world the number of players increases faster, eventually, we might see the rise of a new leader.
The top 5 countries - Russia and India mentioned above plus Germany (26 549), Spain (24 784) and France (23 414) - are head and shoulders above the others. Since other countries have far fewer rated players, we can’t expect real changes in the leading quintet.
Currently, there are 172 848 active and 179 386 inactive players with standard FIDE rating. Last year those figures were 166 862 and 155 855 respectively. It is worth mentioning that this year inactive players outnumbered active players.
Comparing to the last month, the list of countries with the greatest number of active players remained the same but there have been some changes inside the upper echelon. Spain tops the list with 15 461 active players, followed by France (13 716) and Germany (11 989). The leaders by the overall number of players India (11 682) and Russia (11 164) round out the top 5. This data suggests that the geographic chess center on our planet is located in Western Europe.
A closer look at the active players pivot table provides us insight into some things that were hard to imagine before. For example, in the list of Top Federations, the USA is second, but when it comes to active players this country brings up the rear of the top 20, trailing Swede (2741), Denmark (2779) and Serbia (2849). Subsequently, in terms of large-scale involvement, chess in the USA has great potential. The same applies to China, which is third in the list of top federations. Surprisingly, the most populated country in the world can boast of only 658 active players, which corresponds to 46th position in the list.
In terms of percentage of active players among the countries with over 5,000 players, the top positions are occupied by Czech Republic (68,6%), Spain (62,4%) and France (58,6%), whereas Brazil (37,6%), India (36%) and Russia (32,1%) round out the list.
One can see that the total number of players inversely proportional to the percentage of active players. The opposite is also true: the fewer players the bigger this percentage. In some countries, such as Oman (89.1%), Faroe Islands (80.1%), Kosovo ( 77.6%), Slovakia (74,6%) those figures are really impressive.
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https://new.fide.com/news/288
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Speaking of the news that the Awakening in Iraq may not end the way that it started (see this NYT article, a good Matt Yglesias post, and my remarks about politicians and policy)...
One of the most interesting things about Iraq, to me, is how it demonstrates how the relationship between elections and public policy really work. I’m thinking about the 2006 election cycle. Of course, liberals were terribly disappointed in the immediate aftermath of those elections: Democrats in Congress, despite moving into the majority, were not only unable to end the war in Iraq, but found no way to prevent the surge. In other words, the immediate effects of the 2006 election appeared to be the exact opposite of what people wanted. Could that possibly be justified in a democracy?
Well, yes and no. Putting aside for a moment the question of justification, we can look a bit more at what messages were actually sent and received. As usual, it’s difficult to tell exactly what the electorate was “saying” in the 2006 elections. We can trace some things...the Iraq war was unpopular, and it hurt Bush’s approval ratings and, eventually, GOP candidates. It’s a lot harder, however, to conclude that the electorate was “saying” anything specific about Iraq policy. No doubt that most liberal Democrats wanted out of Iraq. But of course most liberal Democrats wanted out of Iraq in 2004, too.
Beyond that, however, even when we have good survey or polling data, it’s hard -- in my view, impossible -- to draw specific conclusions about exactly what the electorate is saying. Many voters in 2006 weren’t even thinking of Iraq. They may have been concerned about various Congressional scandals having nothing to do with policy, or they may have just been reacting to a particularly good set of Democratic candidates (who were running and were well-funded, to be sure, because George W. Bush had become unpopular, which was in large part because of Iraq). And then we know that most voters know very little about public policy. That makes it hard, too; even good survey data are going to be dependent on what voters know about policy, and it’s very possible that voters may have vague preferences (Iraq is going badly! Make it better!) that lead them to one set of answers to one set of polling questions, but other (contradictory) answers to other questions.
One of the reasonable conclusions to draw from this is that detailed policy mandates from elections are fictions.
And yet...from the perspective of four years on, it seems pretty clear to me that the 2006 election has, in fact, ended (or, better, will soon end) American involvement in Iraq.
Two parts to this. On the Hill, Democrats who were responsive to antiwar voters pushed to end the war, while the remaining Republicans (seeing the results of the 2006 elections) probably were not eager to stand up for it. That wasn’t enough to have a direct effect, at least with a Republican in the White House determined to oppose those Democrats, but it did change the equation quite a bit. At the White House, it certainly seems to me (and I’ve only skimmed the insider accounts that are out so far, let alone those still to come) that the elections were taken as an immediate signal to Do Something!: thus dumping Donald Rumsfeld, thus the surge, and thus the eventual agreement to leave, an agreement that Barack Obama has so far carried out.
Do Something! may not seem to be much, but in fact we can go back to Alexander Hamilton and think about “energy in the executive” compared to drift. What this means, to me, is very simple: a president who focuses on a problem is apt to solve it. That goes for smart presidents and foolish ones, liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. The key variable isn’t whether they have good plans; the key variable is whether they aggressively attack the problem or not.
See, no matter who the president might be, you’re going to get a lot of drift, because there’s just so much that the government does or could do, and because it really does take presidential involvement to make sure that presidential policies are enacted. A good president can be judicious about what to delegate and when to get personally involved, and a president with a strong reputation for getting his way and a good White House staff may be able get results with relatively less of a personal commitment. Indeed, that’s one of the best ways, in my view, to judge presidents: how much “energy in the executive” (properly understood) did they create. To me, of all the criticisms of George W. Bush that are reasonable, the most devastating is that he put wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on autopilot for years.
Perhaps then whatever the merits or lack of merits of the surge, it would at least be better than drift. And that’s the way to see the 2006 election from the point of view of the White House; the instruction heard from the American people to Do Something! about Iraq ended drift. And, once the war was actively managed, and with few Republicans up for election (including presidential candidates) in 2008 eager to make Iraq a central issue in the campaign -- but with the president reluctant to accept “defeat” on his watch -- a strategy involving a show of force, a declaration of victory, and then a retreat begun before the 2008 election (in order to take it off the table) but scheduled for completion after the election (so the next crowd could be blamed if it went wrong) made a lot of sense.
Is that “democratic”?
I think we can say is that it was democracy as it actually is, whatever we might want democracy to be. Yes, it’s democracy in a Madisonian system of separated institutions, sharing powers; in a parliamentary system, it’s possible that elections in 2006 would have chucked the incumbent party and installed the antiwar Democrats. On the other hand, changing parties (at least in the White House) in 1968 didn’t end Vietnam for years...it’s never going to be easy for the current government to take ownership of losing a war, whether they were responsible for beginning it or not. And some of the things discussed here -- the difficultly of identifying a signal out of election returns -- are just as true in parliamentary elections.
I talked last week about the strong incentive for politicians who get elected to keep their constituents happy, and the 2006/Iraq example, to me, speaks to just how complex that can be. It’s strikes me as better than the alternatives, but anyone who tells you that democracy is simply a question of doing what the people want doesn’t really understand what’s involved.
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https://newrepublic.com/article/78478/are-you-receiving-me
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Dr. Bethany McKinney Froboese, a 2003 graduate of Belmont’s School of Physical Therapy, has been chosen as an Outstanding Young Alumna by her undergraduate alma mater, Austin Peay State University. The award recognizes her contribution to APSU as a volunteer. Froboese will be honored with other alumni award recipients during homecoming festivities at the end of October.
After receiving her Doctor of Physical Therapy from Belmont, Froboese took a job as a physical therapist with Inmotion Rehabilitation. Three year later, she joined Premier Medical Group and, in 2007, she found her current position as a physical therapist with Tennessee Orthopeadic Alliance.
Froboese is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the Tennessee Physical Therapy Association and is a Susan G. Komen lymphedema treatment provider. She is a certified Lymphedema therapist, a certified clinical instructor and a certified sole supports provider.
Her volunteer work also extends into her community, such as assisting in a one-day teaching experience for Clarksville-Montgomery County School System anatomy and physiology AP classes about physical therapy and physiological principles used for her profession.
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https://news.belmont.edu/pt-graduate-chosen-as-outstanding-young-alumna-from-apsu/
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KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine got rid of its nuclea aresenal, but guarantees of Ukrainian sovereignty were ignored.
Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) Secretary Aleksandr Turchynov.
Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov marked the anniversary of signing of the Budapest Memorandum in 1994. "21 years ago, on December 5, 1994 the Budapest Memorandum was signed.
Ukraine was then a young independent state that was pursuaded to give up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the United States, the UK, France and China.
Turchynov said Ukraine's political leadership then believed in efficacy of international safeguards and guarantees, which ultimately proved to be worthless.
"We were stripped not only of nuclear weapons, but of all carriers which would carry not only nuclear warheads. Our missile pits were blown up, rocket fuel disposed of, control centres destroyed. Ukraine lost its strategic bombers and cruise missiles, which are being used by the Russian military in Syria," Turchynov said.
Turchynov said leaders of the US, UK and France were unable or unwilling to prevent Russia from invading east Ukraine in early 2014, despite guarantees in the memorandum.
"They politely told us that the Budapest Memorandum is just a formal document, it does not envisage any real tools for fulfilling guarantees. Well, Ukraine was really disarmed, but the guarantees were conditional," said Turchynov.
The NSDC secretary said that the Budapest Memorandum failure "proves the futility of disarmament, illustrates a complete destruction of the collective security system, and turns the new century paradigm into the medieval 'rule of force' format, creating a potential threat to the world."
The Ukrainian government was, of course, naive in trusting the U.S., England, France, or any other country or combination of countries with its national security. That naivete was reflected in its willingness to sign a Memorandum, rather than a formal,binding and enforceable agreement before giving up its nuclear arms. In fact, Bill Clinton was so anxious to deprive Ukraine of its nuclear arms (to take political credit for a major disarmament success), that it is very likely that Ukraine could have succeeded in becoming a NATO member in exchange for its nukes.
But the Clinton Administration also showed bad faith because its officials knew that Ukraine, having only 5 years earlier assumed its own handling of diplomatic affairs, was at a huge disadvantage in understanding all the protocols, nuances, and forms of international treaties and agreements. They knew that Ukrainians fully trusted the signatories and understood the language of the Memorandum to be both clear, in plain language, and binding on all parties.
But let us give Bill Clinton and his State Department the benefit of the doubt and assume that if the invasion of Ukraine had occurred during his administration, he would have taken a much tougher stance to honor his commitment, and Ukrainians would not now be concerned with the nuanced differences between "lethal" and "non lethal" defensive weapons or shifting through U.S. "military aid" that includes equipment that may have been recovered from a Pentagon junk yard.
So who would we blame for "losing Ukraine" if that tragedy should ever occur? Well, let's take a look at Obama and his record. Back in 2005, only a mere 7 months after he became senator, he took the time to travel to Ukraine with Sen. Lugar to look at Ukraine's weapons stockpiles.
They persuaded then President Yushchenko to destroy tons of ammunition and stockpiles crucial to keeping a standing army battle-ready. The U.S. paid for the destruction of 400,000 small arms, 1,000 anti-aircraft missiles, and more than 15,000 tons of ammo. And, indeed, why did Ukraine need all of that.....it had a U.S. president's signature on a memorandum that if ever anybody threatened Ukraine, the U.S and England would come to its defense? Surely, you could take that to the bank...if you can't trust the U.S., then who can you trust?
Then, 5 years later - on April 12, 2010 - Obama had a meeting with then President Yanukovych at the White House. Obama was very much interested in having Ukraine give up its highly -enriched uranium (just in case Ukraine decided that it had made a raw deal with the prior U.S. president?) Yanukovych agreed, and the White House calmed any qualms Ukrainians may have had by issuing a press release that President Obama "reconfirmed that the security assurances recorded in the Budapest Memorandum...remain in effect".
So there you have it. Pres Obama was no longer the unhappy recipient of commitments to which he was not a party, but those commitments are now his. And how has he honored his early efforts to further disarm Ukraine of conventional arms and his later assurances of Ukraine's territorial integrity and independence? Well...you know the rest of the story. He has blocked every effort and appeal by his own National Security and Pentagon staff and by Congress to give Ukraine the means to - at least - defend itself.
I think if the Vice President brought just one javelin anti-tank missile with him in his diplomatic pouch, that would make a stronger statement (and be more persuasive to Putin) than assurances that the U.S. "has Ukraine's back".
PS- Mr President: The Vice President's visit to Ukraine this week is an ideal opportunity for you to demonstrate that your word is your bond. Do NOT let Ukraine fight a world superpower with one hand tied behind its back. Ukraine's fight is not only its fight but it is the civilized world's fight. If Russia succeeds - once again - to grab the land of its neighbors and violate the whole international order that you have so often held up as a model, then your legacy of 8 years will have been shown to be empty rhetoric.
Putin has done everything possible to humiliate and denigrate you - both personally and as the US president. Ukraine is where it has to stop. Send Ukraine the arms it desperately needs, provide it the funds needed to relieve the suffering of its distressed population, and double down on the pressure to cleanse the country of corruption and bring in effective and compassionate governance.
I deeply disrespect Barack Obama and I will teach my children to remember Obama as a disgrace to American values. Obama do not deserve to be called President or even a Mr. he is some thing else.
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https://news.kievukraine.info/2015/12/top-ukrainian-security-official.html?showComment=1449445246079
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BURLINGTON, N.C. – National Agents Alliance will host the second of four “Key To Tomorrow” Spring Forward events when the Dallas, Texas event begins Friday at the Hyatt Regency at 1 p.m.
More than 500 agents are expected from all over the United States for the three-day event (March 23-25), which will bring an injection into the Dallas economy.
National Agents Alliance will also hold events in Atlanta, Ga. and Baltimore, Md. (April 27-29). The events are part of the company’s new theme, “Key To Tomorrow,” which was announced during NAA’s “Be Your Own Rock Star” National Convention in Raleigh, N.C. in January. More than 2,500 people attended and the company holds more than 60 weekly training meetings in major cities across the country.
NAA President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Albright said the events have had a positive financial impact in the host cities, with hundreds of people filling hotel rooms, flocking to restaurants and filling convention ballrooms at each event.
The top agency managers and leaders with National Agents Alliance will be speaking at each event, as dozens of the company’s leaders fly all over the country later this week. Andy Albright and Tim Goad, an author and motivational speaker, will be the featured speakers in Dallas.
National Agents Alliance is an innovative lead generation and marketing organization that sells life insurance, annuities, and other financial services products through more than 7,000 active independent sales representatives in 50 states. Focused on serving middle-income families, National Agents Alliance is the No. 1 United States provider of mortgage protection insurance and offers a broad array of other affordable products from highly regarded companies such as Mutual of Omaha, Foresters, ING, etc. Since its inception in 2002, National Agents Alliance has helped more than 800,000 families successfully apply for more than $87 billion in life insurance coverage.
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https://news.naaleads.com/national-agents-alliance-expects-more-than-500-at-event-in-dallas-texas/
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Rutgers University-New Brunswick interim chancellor Christopher J. Molloy.
Over the years, Christopher J. Molloy has seen Rutgers from varied perspectives – as a student, faculty member, dean and administrator – all of which he will draw on as the new interim chancellor of the flagship campus.
Molloy is among the few alumni to hold a top leadership role at the university. He is the only one who has served as interim chancellor of both Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. In his new role, he is committed to creating more opportunities: for students to grow intellectually and develop career skills, for faculty to conduct innovative research and for the university to expand its role as a powerhouse for innovation and economic growth.
What message do you have for students returning for the new academic year?
I’d like to welcome back all of our students, especially the new ones, to a fantastic year. Nothing is more important to us than their safety and success. Our campus culture of joy and curiosity is one thing that hasn’t changed since my days as an undergrad majoring in pharmacy. Education isn’t found just in the classroom. Take advantage of the resources and opportunities that Rutgers affords to challenge yourself, make lifelong friendships and expose yourselves to new ideas and ways of thinking beyond those that have an obvious connection to your career path. The experiences and memories you make here will contribute, in ways big and small, to your success across your entire life.
What should the Rutgers-New Brunswick community expect this year?
They should expect stability and progress. I was here as an undergrad and graduate student, worked in the private sector for many years and returned 11 years ago as an administrator. I’m familiar with Rutgers’ enduring culture of diversity and entrepreneurship and with the ways its organizational structures have changed over the decades. I’m familiar with the initiatives and priorities of President Robert Barchi and his administrative team and with the many good initiatives begun by my predecessor, former chancellor Deba Dutta. In private industry, I developed a democratic leadership style: I believe in building a strong senior leadership team, benefiting from their different points of view and being decisive when necessary.
What are the opportunities for Rutgers-New Brunswick?
There are several ways in which I would like to transform and improve the student experience. I see untapped opportunities with corporate employers to create new internship opportunities for students. Businesses want to get to know our students and recruit them and embrace us as an economic engine. I would also like to see the university serve as an incubator for student entrepreneurship by strengthening its network of makerspaces, which encourage students to collaborate in problem solving and invention.
How has Rutgers changed since you were an undergrad?
My freshman year, 1972-73, was the first year in which women were accepted into Rutgers College. Edward Bloustein, who was then president, hadn’t yet led the full-scale reorganization that led to our elevation into the Association of American Universities. Although the student body was economically diverse – I was the first person in my family to attend college – we didn’t have the great ethnic and gender diversity that is one of Rutgers’ greatest strengths today. Students were politically aware and active just as they are today. We were deeply immersed in the cultural churn of Watergate, the Vietnam War and the hippie movement. I think today’s students are much more serious. Changes in the economy, student debt and the pressure to perform and get jobs drive their very real interest in changing the world. We have an obligation to support them amid these pressures.
Given your deep history with Rutgers and the flagship campus, what does your new role mean to you?
I’m excited by the opportunity to have a real impact, for the benefit of current and future students, during a time of tremendous change for Rutgers-New Brunswick. Just a few years ago, we undertook the largest higher education merger in American history – the union of Rutgers University with the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) – and that creates the opportunity to make real and lasting change. Among other priorities, I plan to focus on transforming the student experience with new resources that will make it easier to access the basic services that support their academic success, and with new opportunities for entrepreneurship, professional experience and multidisciplinary study and research.
You’re fond of saying Rutgers, one of the oldest universities in America, is a “new” institution. What does that mean?
The merger with UMDNJ and creation of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, to which Rutgers-New Brunswick is closely aligned, provides the opportunity to rethink what a large, 21st-century public university really means. We were already recognized as one of America’s top 20 public research universities and a member of the Association of American Universities and the Big Ten Academic Alliance. But the bipartisan legislature driving the merger allows us to leapfrog our competitors and become a much greater force for research, academic excellence and economic growth.
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https://news.rutgers.edu/fostering-success-rutgers-university-new-brunswick/20180906
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M. Maral Mouradian of Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has found a compound in coffee that when paired with caffeine may help to fight Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.
Rutgers scientists have found a compound in coffee that may team up with caffeine to fight Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia – two progressive and currently incurable diseases associated with brain degeneration.
Lead author M. Maral Mouradian, director of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Institute for Neurological Therapeutics and William Dow Lovett Professor of Neurology, said prior research has shown that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. While caffeine has traditionally been credited as coffee’s special protective agent, coffee beans contain more than a thousand other compounds that are less well known.
The Rutgers study focused on a fatty acid derivative of the neurotransmitter serotonin, called EHT (Eicosanoyl-5-hydroxytryptamide), found in the bean’s waxy coating. The researchers found that EHT protects the brains of mice against abnormal protein accumulation associated with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
In the current research, Mouradian’s team asked whether EHT and caffeine could work together for even greater brain protection. They gave mice small doses of caffeine or EHT separately as well as together. Each compound alone was not effective, but when given together they boosted the activity of a catalyst that helps prevent the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain. This suggests the combination of EHT and caffeine may be able to slow or stop the progression of these diseases. Current treatments address only the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease but do not protect against brain degeneration.
“EHT is a compound found in various types of coffee but the amount varies. It is important that the appropriate amount and ratio be determined so people don’t over-caffeinate themselves, as that can have negative health consequences,” she said.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that can lead to shaking, stiffness and difficulty with walking, balance and coordination. Nearly one million people in the United States are living with Parkinson’s disease. Lewy body dementia, one of the most common forms of dementia, affects more than one million people in the United States. It causes problems with thinking, behavior, mood and movement.
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https://news.rutgers.edu/two-compounds-coffee-may-team-fight-parkinsons/20181207
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More than one year after losing family members in a tragic accident, Aaron Powell is set to walk across the stage and earn his bachelor’s degree from South Texas College this December.
Even through his darkest times, Aaron Powell credits a group of caring administrators, faculty, and student veterans at South Texas College who helped guide him to finishing his degree this December.
In the aftermath of a tragic accident that claimed the lives of his wife, mother-in-law and young son, Powell said he was determined to be strong for his surviving family members and earn a degree he had worked for years to receive.
On the evening of Aug. 9, 2018 a driver allegedly veered into oncoming traffic striking a vehicle containing Powell’s family members.
Powell is finding the strength and inspiration to persevere in their honor.
Now set to walk across the stage to earn his Bachelor of Applied Science in Organizational Leadership (BASOL) degree, Powell says he hopes his story can inspire his surviving family members or even other students enduring similar circumstances to help them reach their dreams.
The situation left Powell struggling to balance his education, and prompted him to take time off to take care of his family while the case entered the courts.
“I guess just because life happens doesn't mean you have to stop your education.You keep going and keep doing it no matter what the struggle is."
STC faculty however refused to let him quit.
“They even held an office fundraiser for me. I don't think any other college or university would have done that,” Powell said. “I was dropping out because of this family emergency but they welcomed me immediately back and she (Miller) personally even helped me get my affairs in order so I could continue learning.
“I had my struggles, but the administration at STC and especially those in the BASOL program helped me reintegrate back into my studies as seamlessly as possible,” Powell said.
Powell, an Army veteran, is currently employed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as an information technology specialist. Beginning with CBP as a mission support specialist right after leaving the military, Powell says entering a career in technology has been a longtime goal.
He first entered STC in the spring of 2011, and taking a few classes each semester eventually earned an associate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2015. Deciding to continue his education, Powell is now set to walk across the stage in December.
BASOL instructor Dr. Emma Miller says she was moved to help Powell following her own personal tragedy through college. Her experiences, she says, have given her the understanding of students and their many challenges as they pursue their degree.
“I also had a tragedy while attending school so I know how it feels,” Dr. Miller said “I know he (Powell) is doing it for himself, for the family he lost, and his current family.
“Because he was able to persevere and overcome, I know he’s going to provide an even better life for his family,” Dr. Miller said.
Looking to the future, Powell says he hopes to earn a master’s degree in Homeland Security Studies and looks forward to moving up with CBP.
“I guess just because life happens doesn't mean you have to stop your education,” Powell said. “You keep going and keep doing it no matter what the struggle is. Even if it's like me where it was one or two classes at a time, eventually you'll do it, you'll get it done.
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https://news.southtexascollege.edu/stc-never-let-me-quit/
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UAMS Celebrates Grand Opening of...
April 30, 2019 | After an eight-month construction project, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) South Central Regional Campus in Pine Bluff celebrated its grand opening in a spacious facility on the Jefferson Regional Medical Center campus.
The 33,000-square-foot space on the bottom two floors in the Jefferson Professional Building II provides room for the merger of UAMS’ three Pine Bluff clinics along with its physician residency program, a medical library, classrooms and administrative offices.
“Our investment in this facility is a reaffirmation of our commitment to provide excellent health care to communities across the state and strengthen our medical education programs that train tomorrow’s health professionals,” said UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin; University of Arkansas System President Donald R. Bobbitt, Ph.D.; UA System Trustee Stephen Broughton, M.D.; Brian Thomas, president and CEO of Jefferson Regional Medical Center; Sterling Moore, vice chancellor for UAMS Regional Campuses and other dignitaries.
The three-story building at the corner of West 40th Avenue and Mulberry Street is 10 years old and has been unoccupied except for a Jefferson Regional clinic on the third floor. UAMS will lease the bottom two floors from Jefferson Regional.
In addition to providing patient care, the campus trains family medicine residents and educates nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals. The Pine Bluff campus was first established by UAMS in partnership with Jefferson Regional in 1973. In 2006, an 8,000-square-foot expansion including two annexes was built. The new renovations are the first major facilities changes since that expansion.
The Family Medical Center-Pine Bluff provides primary care medical services to patients of all ages — including pediatric care, treatment of immediate medical needs and ongoing management of chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension and arthritis. The clinic also does minor surgical procedures.
It serves 11 Arkansas counties: Arkansas, Cleveland, Drew, Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Jefferson, Lincoln, Lonoke, Prairie and Saline.
The architects are Witsell, Evans, Rasco of Little Rock. The general contractor is Clark Contractors of Little Rock.
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https://news.uams.edu/2019/04/30/uams-celebrates-grand-opening-of-new-pine-bluff-regional-campus/
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As a kid growing up in Arizona, where the summer temperatures can get up to 120 degrees, we escaped the heat sometimes by taking San Diego vacations. Because I always considered this town to be such a paradise on earth, making San Diego my permanent home was pretty much a no-brainer for me!
I earned my Bachelor of Science in Communication from Arizona State University (go Sun Devils!) followed by earning my Master of Business Administration from University of Phoenix. I have been working in the field of higher education for about 7 years now and I love it! Every day I meet beautiful people from all over the world and I am honored to be a part of their life journeys.
For me and my family, education has been such a life-improving force, and so it is my mission here at NewSchool to inspire and help others to live their own passion. I feel extremely fortunate to represent this dynamic, creative, and caring place of higher learning where students are making positive changes to improve our world. I look forward to meeting you soon!
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https://newschoolarch.edu/faculty/michele-christopher/
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Mr Inusah Fuseini, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources on Monday hinted government?s readiness to present the Mineral Development fund bill for Cabinet consideration in the coming weeks.
He said apart from providing transparency in the management of ceded royalties to mining communities, the approval of the bill would also help government to identify the infrastructural needs with accrued resources and supervise development.
Mr Fuseini gave this hint during the opening ceremony of the Revenue Watch Institute and the German Development Cooperation 2013 Summer School on Governance of Oil, Gas and Mining Revenues in Accra.
The two-week long programme attracted participants from the Media, Civil Society Organisations and natural resource experts from 12 African countries and Switzerland.
Some of the participating countries are; Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Mauritania and Kenya.
They would discuss topics such as; Exploration, Development and Production, Political Economy and Extractive Industry, Development and Monetization, Metering in Oil and gas Sector, structure of Legislative Regime and authorization regime among others.
Mr Fuseini said the passing of the bill would help the mining communities to achieve development and grow the economies of their areas.
He said government, since 2003, had committed itself in displaying transparency and accountability by signing on to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), which had enabled them to produce nine reports since 2004.
The Minister commended the organizers of the school for building the capacities of the people to be conscious of the oil, gas and mining sectors, to subsequently put politicians and other public office holders on their toes.
Dr Joyce Aryee, former Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Chamber of Mines, who chaired the function, attributed the misuse of funds from the extractive industry to bad governance and bad leadership, particularly by African leaders.
She appealed to African leaders to adopt measures that would make them accountable to the people and create wealth for all their citizens.
Mr Emmanuel Kuyole, Regional Coordinator of Revenue Watch Institute said the programme would equip the participants with the skills to analyse real contracts, legislations, fiscal policies and allow for comparisons among the African countries.
He appealed to the participants to maximize the benefits of the programme by replicating their skills in their various countries to check corruption and other malpractices in the industry.
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https://newsghana.com.gh/mineral-development-bill-goes-before-cabinet-minister/
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In 2001, Noah Tepperberg, along with partner Jason Strauss, formed Strategic Group, a lifestyle marketing, special events, consumer promotions and public relations company. Strategic Group has the unparalleled ability to integrate directly into lifestyle, entertainment, fashion and nightlife programs that create and influence popular culture by creating unique brand experiences for consumers. Since its inception, Strategic Group has established itself as a leader in giving corporations a credible cool factor. Under the direction of Mr. Tepperberg, Mr. Strauss and their partner Seth Rodsky, the company has worked with global brands such as Coca-Cola, Donna Karan, Heineken, LVMH, NASCAR, Under Armour and Yahoo.
Mr. Tepperberg and Mr. Strauss also founded Strategic Hospitality Group in 2003, which offered consumers a premium nightlife experience with their various venues. Some of their current and former boites include: Southampton staples Conscious Point (1999), Jet East (2002), and Dune (2007) as well as Manhattan hot spots Luahn (2000) and Suite 16 (2001). Mr. Tepperberg and Mr. Strauss are also the masterminds behind two of the most successful nightclubs to open in the past decade Marquee in New York (2003) and TAO at The Venetian in Las Vegas (2005), which they run in partnership Marc Packer and Rich Wolf.
In 2008, Mr. Tepperberg and Mr. Strauss – along with Mr. Packer and Mr. Wolf, opened LAVO Restaurant & Nightclub at The Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas. In May of 2009 they introduced AVENUE, a gastro lounge, where gastro pub meets ultra lounge in New York’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood. In September 2010, they opened LAVO Restaurant & Nightclub in New York. Together with his partners, he opened Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub, an indoor/outdoor club, in the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas Hotel on New Year’s Eve of 2011. In June of 2011 they launched Dream Downtown hotel in NYC where the team operates all of the hotel’s food and beverage outlets including room service, Ph-D Rooftop Lounge, Electric Room and Marble Lane Steak Joint. In March 2012, Mr. Tepperberg and his TAO Group partners launched Marquee at The Star Casino & Hotel in Sydney Australia. On New Year’s Eve 2013, Mr. Tepperberg and his partners will once again raise the bar on nightlife with the relaunch of Marquee New York after a major renovation.
After graduating from Stuyvesant High School, Tepperberg earned an MBA degree in Business Management from the University of Miami and currently resides in New York City.
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https://nightclubhalloffame.com/portfolio-item/noah-tepperberg/
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I’m not in good shape. I played basketball yesterday and almost threw up and passed out twice. Maybe it was the fact that I had just eaten a Strawberry Cheesequake/Cookie Dough Blizzard, but I think it had more to do with the fact that I haven’t moved at a faster pace than a brisk walk in months. The first time I went up for a layup, I also started seeing tunnel vision and hearing a ringing sound in my ears. Not a good sign.
After that incident I thought about maybe trying to exercise more often. So, I drove the three blocks home from the gym watching all the super-humans who were jogging through the streets. I don’t get jogging. I’m all about doing stuff that involves not going anywhere, but when not going anywhere involves tight fitting pants that aren’t made of leather, and owning an i-pod, I am no longer down.
The other thing I re-realized in my drive home was my hatred for holidays. I’ve always had a problem with the idea of planning to have fun on specific days of the year. I try to have fun on all days of the year, at all hours of the day – that’s why I don’t jog. Nothing illustrates the forced enjoyment that makes me so anti-holiday better than St. Paul on St. Patty’s. As I watched middle aged couples walk hand in hand to O’Gara’s pub for a day of “crazy, earlier than usual drinking” with their gentle smirks as they worried that other pedestrians were judging them because they had decided to wear a bowler cap and a green jersey in an attempt to be wacky but instead were coming off too wacky, I felt like vomiting. That might have been the Cheesequake and cookie dough combination fighting with my body for exerting itself physically, but either way hurling was on my mind and I think it’s correlated to holiday celebration.
My abhorrence with holidays has led me to have a strong prejudice against anyone who says they love Halloween, or Christmas, or Valentines Day, or Easter, or Kwanza. (I don’t have a problem with birthdays, but I think that’s because I love myself, and any holiday that allows me to celebrate me is going to turn me on a little.) But holiday celebrators aren’t the only ones I have prejudices against.
Obviously I can get over these prejudices. Otherwise I’d have no friends. In fact I’ve dated someone from each of these groups except #1 and #6. I refuse to date anyone from group #6 and I aspire to date someone from group #1 so that I don’t have to work anymore. I mean, work, period.
How am I going to wrap all these ramblings together? You know what has allowed me to avoid all of those things for the past week? A car. Also, because of the CD player in the car, I’ve learned all the words to that opposites song by Katy Perry.
You should also aspire to date people in group 4. It makes dating more enjoyable.
1. Finally, some basques with balls.
you know, not like those cowardly eta girly men.
2. no, but I really think you should move to new york city. It would be like that robert johnson song. you could make whoopies in hell’s kitchen tonight.
Kind sage I hope you are well. I enjoy your postings.
i love that song. but you probably already knew that.
but what if the person you’re dating is in group #4 and you’re not? that could be awkward.
Wow… I belong to between 3 and 7 of your hate categories, depending on how you count them.
I say three. Because I don’t think you’re pretty.
I know we don’t really like the same things all the time, but we definitely hate the same people.
Pingback: Why being me seems like a lot of work « what it be, Bitches!
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https://nissegreenberg.com/2009/03/18/hatred/
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The Dutch can differ enormously from each other. But those who ask people why they feel connected with the Netherlands, often get the same answers spontaneously.
Our Dutch language, our democracy, the equality of everyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, standing together against the water, the holidays that we celebrate together, the gezelligheid...
And there is one word that comes back time and again: freedom. Freedom is the flame that burns in all Dutch hearts. That sounds poetic, but it does justice to what I see around me.
I notice how intensely that freedom is experienced. Now that we are considering 75 years of freedom, I meet many people who tell me what that understanding means to them.
Resistance fighters in their nineties who fought for it in the war. They put everything at stake. Their life is marked by it.
But also young people. They are happy to live in a free country.
Freedom is never free. She always demands something from us: trust in each other, reasonableness, the willingness to give each other space. Everyone who delves into what freedom is, understands why tolerance is so important. If we start threatening people with a different opinion, we undermine exactly what we hold dear.
To be free, we must allow the transverse thinking. In ourselves and with others.
Freedom also irrevocably means: making choices. In our own life and together. That is difficult, but we do our best. No matter how sharp the contradictions are, it is always possible to find solutions. That skill to talk to each other and sometimes to make compromises, we will need very much in the coming time.
A bit of distance also helps to see things in perspective.
Many compatriots who live abroad discover with retroactive effect how well our country is organized. The Netherlands is still one of the most successful countries in the world. Millions of professionals and volunteers who make the best of things together in difficult circumstances.
Teachers, police officers, doctors and nursers.
Farmers, builders and biologists.
Even though the emotions can sometimes run high, the Dutch still have the feeling that they belong together. That is our great strength. It not only contributes to a country that performs well, but also to a country where people are on average happy.
In these days of the year, now that Christmas brings some peace to the hectic pace of everyday life, doubts can also arise. "Am I doing well?" "Do I make the right choices?" "Am I really happy?"
That pursuit of happiness is beautiful, but it should not become an obsession.
Grief may also be there. Doubts and feelings of loneliness may also be there. Failures and setbacks are also part of life.
In the pursuit of happiness, we can sometimes pass ourselves by. As free people, we want to get the best out of life, and blame ourselves if that doesn't work out. We mirror ourselves to others, set the bar high and like to present a perfect version of ourselves to the outside word.
As if there is a taboo on uncertainty an shortcomings.
I also say this to young people. Do not worry too much if things go wrong. Give yourself some space. It's okay.
Happiness cannot be forced. It is elusive. It comes suddenly, like a gift from heaven.
When we think about what makes us most happy, almost everyone gives the same answer: the people around me. Family and friends, but also people you might hardly know and who are just nice to you.
Happiness is in our connection with others. Let us therefore not let each other go. Let us listen to each other and show understanding. Let us comfort and encourage each other. It helps if someone looks at you and says "all is well".
With a listening ear, an outstretched hand or an arm around the shoulder we give each other the most beautiful gift that a person can give to a person. Not only this Christmas, but also afterwards.
I wish you all - wherever you are and whatever your personal circumstances may be - a blessed Christmas.
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https://nltimes.nl/2019/12/25/king-willem-alexanders-christmas-speech-full-text-video
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The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) was designed to increase the flow of capital to businesses and low income communities by providing a modest tax incentive to private investors. Over the last 15 years, the NMTC has proven to be an effective, targeted and cost-efficient financing tool valued by businesses, communities and investors across the country.
The NMTC expires on December 31, 2020. The New Markets Tax Credit Extension Act of 2019 (H.R. 1680), introduced by Reps. Sewell (D-AL), and Reed (R-NY), would extend the NMTC indefinitely. Senators Blunt (R-MO) and Cardin (D-MD) introduced S. 750, which is nearly identical to its House counterpart.
The NMTC was authorized in the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 (PL 106-554) as part of a bi-partisan effort to stimulate investment and economic growth in low income urban neighborhoods and rural communities that lack access to the patient capital needed to support and grow businesses, create jobs, and sustain healthy local economies.The NMTC program attracts capital to low income communities by providing private investors with a federal tax credit for investments made in businesses or economic development projects located in some of the most distressed communities in the nation – census tracts where the individual poverty rate is at least 20 percent or where median family income does not exceed 80 percent of the area median.
A NMTC investor receives a tax credit equal to 39 percent of the total Qualified Equity Investment (QEI) made in a Community Development Entity (CDE) and the Credit is realized over a seven-year period, 5 percent annually for the first three years and 6 percent in years four through seven. If an investor redeems a NMTC investment before the seven-year term has run its course, all Credits taken to date will be recaptured with interest.
Between 2003 and Sept. 2019, $52 billion in direct NMTC investments were made in businesses and these NMTC investments leveraged more than $100 billion in total capital investment to businesses and revitalization projects in communities with high rates of poverty and unemployment.
Between 2003 and 2015, the NMTC generated more than 1,000,000 jobs, at a cost to the federal government of less than $20,000 per job.
By law, all NMTC investments must be made in economically distressed communities. However, more than 72 percent of all NMTC investments have been in communities exhibiting severe economic distress, including unemployment rates more than 1.5 times the national average, a poverty rate of 30 percent or more, or a median income at or below 60 percent of the area median.
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https://nmtccoalition.org/fact-sheet/
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I mean I know there’s been a personal Office 365 plan for a while, but I was never offered a corresponding, cheaper OneDrive plan. Anyway, it’s 7 bucks a month, but if you pay for 1 year upfront you get 2 months off the price. I think $5 would be the perfect spot, but hey, this is already getting quite decent.
Update: there’s an even better deal. You can do it the other way around, i.e. purchase Office 365 Personal for $60 a year and get the 1TB OneDrive plan with it. What’s the point of selling the SAME thing for different prices – I have no idea, but that’s the way it is. This boils down to a $5/month price for 1TB, which is exactly the half of what Dropbox and Google Drive offers. Pretty good.
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https://noobient.com/2016/04/16/onedrive-offers-1tb-plan-for-60year/
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Norfolk is a fantastic location for dog walks, with gorgeous countryside to explore, the Broads to discover and coastal views to admire. Below are ten dog-walking hotspots for you and your four-legged friend.
Whitlingham Country Park, situated 15 minutes southeast of Norwich, is a fantastic place to walk, run or cycle, camp and picnic. Whitlingham also offer a range of water-based activities, such as canoeing, kayaking and windsurfing. Whitlingham is a wonderful place to bring your dog for a walk – the circular 3km route guides you through woodlands and meadows, with beautiful views of the lake.
Surrounding the breath-taking Jacobean mansion, the gardens of the Estate are the result of inspired planting over 30 years. Covering an amazing 4,600 acres with 950 acres of woodland and parkland and 3,500 acres of farmland, Blickling Estate is a fantastic place to bring your dog for a run around. Explore the grounds before settling down on the grass for a picnic in the sunshine. If you fancy joining other dog-walkers on a regular basis, the Blickling Bounders are a dog-friendly walking group that depart from the main car park every Monday at 10am for a wander around the Estate.
Holt Country Park is located a short walk away from the Georgian town of Holt, on the edge of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Wandering around the circular trails allow you and your four-legged friend to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life and walk as far as you like. You can grab a map from the Visitor Centre before you begin as there are various colour-coded trails to follow, all varying in length. The paths crisscross each other, and all end up back at the Visitor Centre.
Holkham beach is one of the most un-spoilt and spectacular stretches of sand in the country. Your dog will love a run around on the vast sands, however there are designated beach walks if you would prefer to follow a route. The lovely two-hour walk leads you to the lifeboat station at Wells-next-the-sea and back again, boasting beautiful coastal views on the way and woodland views on the way back. For a shorter walk which is also suitable for disabled visitors, follow the hardcore track along the pinewoods. At the George Washington Hide, there is access to the beach where you can enjoy coastal views on the way back.
From Happisburgh beach, there are miles of wonderful coastal paths to discover in the surrounding area. Happisburgh beach is on Norfolk’s Deep History Coast, which is where a land mass connected Britain to the Continent, pre-Ice Age. 850,000-year-old footprints have been discovered at Happisburgh and are the oldest evidence of humans outside Africa's Great Rift Valley. Bring your dog for a run around on the beautiful and historical beach at Happisburgh.
The beautiful park, complete with a lake, 520 acres of woodland and waymarked trails, is a wonderful place to bring the dog for a day out. The 2.5 mile Church and Ice House trail passes through lovely fields and woodland, leading you to a hidden lake. Along this circular walking trail, you'll pass fascinating historic buildings dating back to the 1700s as well as interesting trees. Alternatively, the 16 mile Mountain Walk takes you through countryside, parkland and along the coast. The circular trail with spectacular views has a gradient of 1140ft which is the equivalent of a small mountain. The walk starts and finishes at Felbrigg Hall and you’ll pass Sheringham and Weybourne on the way.
At Salhouse Broad, explore the outstanding beauty of the surrounds woods, water and wildlife. The 40-acre Broad is open to the public all year round and is part of the Broads Executive Area, a member of the National Park family, and lies within the Salhouse Conservation Area. There is also another 20 acres of woodland to explore which is accessible to visitors. Visit Salhouse Broad for a day of peace and tranquility and walk your dog in a relaxed atmosphere.
Brancaster beach at Brancaster Estate boasts vast gorgeous golden sands, perfect for a dog walk. Being a very dog-friendly beach, Brancaster sands stretches are far as the eye can see and is ideal for a summer evening wander or a winter breath of fresh air. The beach is at its best when the tide is out, with miles and miles of un-spoilt sands. The remains of an old shipwreck can also be seen when the tide is out.
Awarded the Blue Flag status, Sea Palling beach is a fantastic location for a dog walk during the winter time. However, it does get quite busy during the summer time due to the beach being very popular with families. In the summer time, heading down to Waxham beach is a good idea – the beach is hidden by trees and sand dunes and with no local car park or amenities, Waxham beach is ideal for a peaceful and beautiful dog walk come summer or winter.
With almost 1000 acres of land to explore at Sheringham Park, you have the opportunity to take a short stroll with your four-legged friend or a longer walk in the sunshine. There are four waymarked trails you can follow, ranging from one to five miles. The walks will guide you through varying habitats of the Park, boasting beautiful coastal views as well as woodland wanders. The wonderful Repton Walk at Sheringham Park is dog-friendly, 2 miles long and will take you through the landscaped parkland, with gorgeous coastal views as well as countryside landscapes.
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https://norfolkcottages.co.uk/blog/2018/06/delightful-dog-walks-norfolk
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Cannons Kitchen is one of the newest additions to the growing Berrimah neighbourhood. Focusing on quality dishes with fresh fruit and vegetables, it’s perfect for anyone! Conveniently located in the Central Berrimah Business Centre only 5 minutes from Northcrest! Besser Kitchen and Brew Bar are the new local for your daily coffee fix and weekend smashed avo!
Something for everyone, from first homeowners and families to professionals and retirees. Featuring a range of block sizes, the home sites are conveniently located close to community areas and parklands and are in walking distance to future retail shopping and commercial and business precincts.
The custom-designed Pavilions Dining and Entertainment precinct will bring a whole new variety of restaurants and even a nightclub! Also in close proximity is Casuarina square, offering another 190 stores and retailers of fashion, food and cinema. Large outlets such as Harvey Norman are also a short drive to Northcrest. What more could you ask for?!
A choice of shopping at the brand new Gateway Shopping Centre or nearby Casuarina Square, you will have everything your heart desires. Gateway is just down the road with a mix of new large format stores including Woolworths, Big W, Event Cinemas as well as loads of free parking!
The Haileybury Rendall School is in walking distance from Northcrest residents. Haileybury Rendall School brings a world-class education to Darwin and caters for students from Early Learning to Year 12. In addition, a 5 hectare site has been set aside for a Government primary school at Northcrest.
Something for everyone. Northcrest is in the heart of all of Darwin’s most popular activities. Crocodylus Park is one of the best places to come face to face with the largest reptiles on the planet! Take the kids on an amazing encounter with all kinds of animals.
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https://northcrest.com.au/location-lifestyle/
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Norway Cup is the world’s largest football tournament for children and young people aged 10 to 19 years old, with 3v3 soccer for players 6-10 years old played the last weekend of the tournament. In 2016 we reached an all time high with 2199 teams participating in Norway Cup. Around 6000 games were played over the course of the tournament in 2016.
Norway Cup is organized by Bækkelagets Sportklub and it all started in 1972 with 420 teams and 8,400 participants.
Overall through the years, participants, players and referees from 127 nations have participated. In addition, Norway Cup is by many considered to be women’s football’s cradle in Norway. We have had girls teams participate from the start with eight girls teams taking part in 1972. This was four years before the Norwegian Football Association officially recognized women’s football.
1600 of Bækkelagets Sportsklubs over 2800 members volunteer during Norway Cup. This amounts to over 60,000 volunteer hours in total each year. Both young and old work to make this a wonderful football party in Oslo to remember. The youngest is five and the oldest, Norway Cups grandmother, (Rigmor Andresen) will turn 95 in 2017. In addition, more than 600 volunteers from our co-organizers help create the world’s biggest football tournament.
Vision: Norway Cup’s vision is to become the world’s largest and most important arena for the joy of sports and friendship.
Core values: inclusive – friendship – joy – innovative – professional.
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https://norwaycup.no/about-norway-cup/
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Bergen’s history can be traced back over a thousand years to the early part of the last millennium, when it was founded as a trading post ideally positioned on a wide fjord sheltered from the North Sea by several islands. Viewed from the top of Blåmanen, one of the seven mountains that dramatically surround Bergen, it is an awe inspiring sight. This location made the city an important European hub for trade and commerce – in the 13th century Bergen became part of the Hanseatic League, the powerful federation of guilds and cities that dominated European commerce for 400 years.
From humble origins Bergen grew, and grew wealthy. At one time even becoming the capital of Norway until that title passed to Oslo. Even after it became Norway’s second city, Bergen continued to grow in importance and wealth. The trade in fish, particularly dried cod, was its major export, and fish from Bergen was sold all over Europe. The legacy this trading history has left behind, is best seen in the atmospheric jumble of brightly painted wooden buildings that today make up the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bryggen.
Blue skies and sun greeted us as we left our apartment in Bergen’s Skuteviken district. We were headed to Bryggen but took some time to wander around this historic area, which dates from the 16th century. Skuteviken is more residential than Bryggen, and offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of people away from the tourist centre of the town. In the cold morning air we walked through cobbled streets past wooden houses to the waterfront, where beautiful wooden warehouses sit on stilts above the water. A stroll through the grounds of Bergenhus Fortress brought us to Bryggen.
Bryggen is the historic old port and warehouse district of the city, and it’s little short of a miracle that it even exists. Ever since the first buildings were constructed here it has been repeatedly burnt to the ground by fires. One fire, in 1702, reduced the entire area to little more than ash. After each fire the good citizens of Bergen rebuilt the district, although no one seems to have considered using something less flammable than wood as a building material. Today, numerous buildings from different periods of history remain to be explored.
Most of them are shops, cafes and restaurants. The area is pretty commercialised, but still retains a lot of charm. We wandered through its attractive alleyways on wooden walkways getting a sense of the cramped living and working conditions of the district. It was still bitterly cold despite the sun, so we stopped for a reviving coffee at one of the many cafes before visiting the Bryggens Museum. The museum is built over the remains of the earliest 12 century settlement at Bryggen, the excavations beneath the museum are fascinating.
Afterwards, we headed to the Fløibanen, a marvellous funicular that takes you out of the city centre to a viewing platform on the mountain of Fløyen. It’s a fun way to get brilliant views over the city without having to hike one of Bergen’s many steep hills. As the funicular train chugs up the hill vast panoramas of Bergen and its surrounding hills and fjords reveal themselves. It’s fantastic. Several walking routes start at Fløyen and, since the weather was bright and sunny, we decided to hike up Blåmanen.
Climbing upwards, there was more and more snow, and the air temperature dropped considerably. At the top of the mountain it was a little like standing on top of the world; if the top of the world has been dusted by snow.. The views across the mountain ranges to the east were magnificent; westwards, the views to Bergen and across the fjords were nothing less than spectacular. As we made our way back down the mountain, the sun started to set, illuminating the fjords as red, pink and orange light streaked the sky. It was achingly beautiful.
Winter arrived with a vengeance this week in northern Europe. Heavy snowfalls and freezing temperatures have swept across the region causing disruption bordering on chaos for the last few days in the Netherlands. I couldn’t have chosen a worse time to return from a month-long trip to Argentina and Uruguay, where temperatures of 30ºC and deep blue skies were daily companions. The weather put me in mind of a previous trip to Bergen in Norway in the depths of winter.
On our first day in Bergen we were greeted by fierce winds and horizontal rain, the town seemed nothing but grey, cold and miserable. We popped into a local bar to take shelter from the weather and cheer our gloomy spirits, only to realise that Norwegian alcohol taxes don’t allow for gloomy spirits to be cheered. At least not by much. The frenzied buying of duty free alcohol by people getting off our plane at Bergen airport suddenly made a lot of sense.
Bergen is a pretty town situated in a fantastically picturesque area of western Norway, it’s also notorious for being one of the wettest places in the country. As we ventured back into the streets we were battered by more rain and wind, but made our way to the tourist office to discover what indoor activities were available in case it rained for the entire weekend. The tourist office staff were clearly used to damp tourists showing up looking for hope, and they cheerily told us the weather would improve. We booked a trip to nearby fjords for the next day.
The Norse Gods smiled on us and, as we headed to the train station for the first leg of our trip, the weather was bitterly cold but dry. There were even occasional spots of blue sky. The Norway in a Nutshell trip is less a tour and more a well connected set of public transport. It takes you on a train to the town of Voss, a bus then drops you at a harbour at Gudvangen. We boarded the M/S Gudvangen for a two-hour cruise along Nærøyfjord, an UNESCO World Heritage protected landscape that is outstandingly beautiful, until we finally arrived at the tiny town of Flåm.
The journey through the fjord was little short of spectacular. The Nærøyfjord is famed as one of the narrowest and most beautiful fjords in Norway. It’s towered over by vast mountains, their massive bulk reflected in the dark waters of the fjord. Dotted along the banks of the fjord are a number of tiny villages with brightly painted houses that, especially in winter, seem like the most isolated communities on earth. The landscapes were truly amazing, and I’d have spent more time outside taking photos but for the fear of freezing to death. It was incredibly cold.
The penultimate part of the trip is a 20km train ride connecting the village of Flåm and the railway junction at Myrdal. This is one of the steepest and most famous train routes in the world. We had a short time to regain our land legs before getting on the train and starting the zigzag ascent up the mountain. The train makes a short stop at Kjosfossen waterfall, which probably looks more dramatic when there’s less ice, before depositing you at Myrdal. We had a short wait on the snowy platform before a train arrived to take us on the two hour trip back to Bergen.
This being Norway in winter, it was already dark before we got on the final train of the day. Bergen is known as the gateway to the fjords, but in winter most of the trips that you can do aren’t available, all except the Norway in a Nutshell trip. The trip takes most of the day – you start in darkness and end in darkness – and despite the cold, it’s a great introduction to this beautiful and extraordinary region. It certainly made me want to return in warmer weather and take a few more trips through Norway’s fjords.
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https://notesfromcamelidcountry.net/category/norway/
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For children who have been exempted from required, up-to-date immunizations, these exemptions should be documented in the child’s health record as a cross reference, (acceptable documentation includes a statement from the child’s primary provider, a legal exemption with notarization, waiver, or other state-specific required documentation signed by the parent/guardian). See Standard |||IP_ADDRESS||| for more information.
Within two weeks of enrollment the parent/guardian should provide documentation to the child care program regarding progress in obtaining immunizations. The parent/guardian should receive written notice of exclusion if noncompliance or lack of progress is evident. If more than one immunization is needed in a series, time should be allowed for the immunizations to be obtained at the appropriate intervals. Exemptions from the requirement related to compliance with the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act for children experiencing homelessness are documented and include a plan for obtaining available documents within a reasonable period of time.
National surveys document that child care has a positive influence on protection from vaccine-preventable illness (1). Immunizations should be required for all children in child care and early education settings. Facilities must consider the consequences if they accept responsibility for exposing a child who cannot be fully immunized (because of immaturity) to an unimmunized child who may bring disease to the facility. Although up to two weeks after the child starts to participate in child care may be allowed for the acquisition of immunizations for which the child is eligible, parents/guardians should maintain their child’s immunization status according to the nationally recommended schedule to avoid potential exposure of other children in the facility to vaccine-preventable disease.
An updated immunization schedule is published annually near the beginning of the calendar year in the AAP’s Pediatrics journal and in the CDC’s MMWR and should be consulted for current information. In addition to print versions of the recommended childhood immunization schedule, the “Recommended Immunization Schedules for Persons Aged 0 through 18 Years – United States” is posted on the Websites of the CDC at http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/index.html and the AAP at https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/immunization/Pages/Immunization-Schedule.aspx.
When a child who has a medical exemption from immunization is included in child care, reasonable accommodation of that child requires planning to exclude such a child in the event of an outbreak. Caregivers/teachers should check the Website http://www.immunize.org/laws/ for specific state-mandated immunization requirements and exemptions.
Aronson, S. S. 1986. Maintaining health in child care settings. In Group care for young children, ed. N. Gunzenhauser, B. M. Caldwell. New Brunswick, NJ: Johnson and Johnson Baby Products Company.
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https://nrckids.org/CFOC/Database/9.2.3.5
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Faculty in the division possess expertise in food policy analysis, economics, development, and the implementation and evaluation of nutrition programming globally and in the US. Faculty research includes US food policy and federal food assistance programs and approaches to improve the effectiveness of food security, food aid, health sector, and agricultural and other livelihood interventions in addressing poverty-related nutrition issues – undernutrition, obesity, and related health consequences - in the context of economic development and in humanitarian emergencies.
The mission of the MS and PhD degree program in Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs is to equip students seeking careers to improve food security and nutrition outcomes with the diverse skills and knowledge needed to design, implement and assess successful food policy and nutrition interventions in the U.S. and around the world. The curriculum addresses economic and political, as well as other social science dimensions of global nutrition challenges, and provides both the conceptual and the analytical skills required by program managers and policy analysts, and a solid foundation in applied statistical and research skills regarding the technical aspects of policy formation and program planning, design, implementation and evaluation. Graduates are distinctive for their broad knowledge of global and national policies and institutions, together with a set of analytical and quantitative skills that enable them to play leading roles in food policy and programming in government at the local, state and national levels; academic and research institutions, international and national organizations; and in the private sector.
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https://nutrition.tufts.edu/about/divisions-centers/fanpp
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When it involves churning races, we first and foremost think of ourselves and what we plan for the near future or even the entire year. It’s just the way we do what we do. But on a very few occasions, someone asks you to give up your time to pace them. For me, this is the ultimate sacrifice you can do as a dirt churner. Over the years I have been asked to pace a few times. And just like every race I have run, I have learned from each and every race I have been as a pacer. Have I done it correctly every time? I don’t think so. When your main goal is to get your runner to the finish line, you have to take each person differently. But when it comes down to it, knowing your runner is what will get them to that finish line. This is not about your race anymore. It’s now about helping someone else finish their race or even their lifelong goal.
When asked to pace, the runner is simply doing that, asking you to be their pacer. What they are really saying is “ I’m running a race. Between the start and the finish, I’m going to churn dirt and at some point during that time I’m going to need help. Want to help?” I have always tried to simplify dirt churning, it shouldn’t be any different pacing. The following is what I have learned while pacing.
Early on: During most races, your churners will see you and their crew before your pacing duty even starts. Even though your pacing duties won’t start for miles later in the race, your work starts now. Your smiling face and encouragement is still a huge factor early. Also, start noticing how your runner is doing. Noticing any problems early will help you and them when your pacing duties begin.
Pacing start: Your runner is probably tired when they get to you. As much as you want to fire them up, don’t throw the Energizer Bunny down their throat! (I have done it and I regret it to this day.) Knowing that you will be with them for the next miles is already a boost. When you start churning with them, start figuring out what is and is not working. Communication between you and your runner is huge. Uphills or downhills not going well? Food issues? Stomach issues? Tired? Possible injuries? From that info, your task is set. If there is an issue, it is now your job to deal with it, don’t compound it with any other issues, and let the person you are pacing do one thing, churn dirt. As important as communication is, the opposite could be worse. When your runner doesn’t communicate to you what is going on or doesn’t want to talk at all, it sometimes means things are not going well. It’s called “Going Dark.” If this happens, you just became another person on the trail and not a pacer. Like I said, communication is key.
Night pacing: The hardest time to pace and the time you realize why they asked you in the first place. If your runner started in the wee hours of the morning and have made it to darkness, that means they have run a lot of miles on the trail to reach you during that time. Are they tired? Yes. Are they happy to see you? Yes. Do they probably want to stop? Yes. They are not the person who happily asked you to help them months before the race. They are now the tired, grumpy, ready to quit, I couldn’t eat another gummi bear, “actual” person that asked you to pace them months ago. They just didn’t know it then! They just want to get to the finish line and end the suffering. Things just got real as a pacer. At night, the runner’s vision goes from daylight to a small headlamp beam. Sleepy vision can become a problem. Simple things will help tremendously. I try to help them by telling them to just stay focused on my feet. I find the easiest line for them to follow on the trail and warn them of any issues coming up in the trail. The last thing a tired runner’s body and mind don’t want to do is make quick decisions. It’s also usually the time that caloric intake usually drops. Your runner has probably been eating the same thing all day. They are to the point where nothing looks appetizing. As much as they don’t want to eat, you have to sometimes force them to get some calories down. Even if it’s just a bit of this or that from the aid station.
Night pacing is tough, but it is the most rewarding. Most of the time, if you can get them through the night, you can get them to the finish line.
As important as I think pacing and getting my churner to the finish line is, there is one thing I will not do as their pacer, and that is pace my runner to a serious injury. Aches and pains are a part of every race, major injuries shouldn’t be. If they have a certain finish time, great. Pacing them to their time goal is another part of the duties. But I think giving up a certain time goal is worth not causing an injury that could possibly keep them off the trails for a couple of months or longer. That said, I don’t just stop being their pacer at that point. I just have them think seriously about the possible results if they keep pushing it. As a pacer, late in the race you sometimes have to make decisions for your runner. This is a decision I believe the runner has to make.
For all of us, churning dirt in races and getting to the finish line is a very satisfying feeling. But sometimes having the opportunity to pace and see someone else cross that finish line is another level of satisfaction. If you get the chance to pace, take it!
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https://nwdirtchurners.com/what-to-expect-when-pacing-a-runner/
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The Court of Appeals returns for the second week of argument in the September session on Tuesday, September 12, 2017. There are three cases on the docket today (the Court’s case summaries can be found here), which involve the following issues: (1) whether agreements between an investment company and its financial advisors contained an enforceable arbitration provision requiring claims between the parties to be arbitrated in London that overrode a forum selection clause that designated US law and the courts of the US as the exclusive forum for disputes arising under the agreements; (2) whether a criminal defendant in a rape, sex trafficking, and prostitution trial was denied effective assistance of counsel where the defense attorney did not remind the trial judge that a potential juror had expressed reservations about her impartiality because she had been previously raped or challenge the juror’s service; and (3) whether a criminal defendant was deprived a fair trial on tax evasion charges where she claims the prosecutor repeatedly misstated the testimony of a tax attorney during summations.
Garthon Business Inc., a business owned by Kazakh billionaire Patokh Chodiev, retained Kirill Ace Stein and his company, Aurdeley Enterprises Limited, for financial advice. After three unsecured loans totaling $16 million were never repaid, Garthon sued Stein in New York for breach of contract, fraud, and negligence. Seems like a straightforward case.
But here’s the thing, the retainer agreements between the parties—there were three, two entered in 2000 and one in 2009—had conflicting provisions governing where disputes between the parties were supposed to be brought. The first agreement in 2000, between Chodiev’s Quennington Investments Limited and Stein, contained a forum selection clause that said it would be governed by U.S. law and “the Courts of the United States of America shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any claim, dispute, or matter of difference, which may arise out of or in connection with this Agreement . . . or the legal relationship established by this Agreement.” The second, also in 2000 between Chodiev and Aurdeley, was substantially similar, but was governed by English law and provided for a forum in the English Courts. The 2009 agreement, again between Chodiev and Aurdeley, terminated the first Aurdeley agreement from 2000 and provided that it superseded all prior agreements between the parties. The 2009 agreement also changed the forum for resolution of disputes, providing this time that all disputes would be resolved in binding arbitration in London. Quennington and Stein also entered a new agreement that contained the arbitration provision.
So, in response to Garthon’s breach of contract and fraud suit, Stein and Aurdeley moved to compel arbitration in London under the arbitration provisions of the 2009 agreements. Supreme Court granted the motion to compel.
the Appellate Division, First Department, on a three-two vote, reversed and held that the claims must be litigated in court. The First Department reasoned that the 2009 arbitration clauses were not a clear manifestation of intent to abandon the 2000 forum selection clause in the Quennington agreement, because at best they showed only the intention to arbitrate disputes that arose after July 1, 2009. And Garthon’s claims involved allegations from the Spring of 2009 before the 2009 agreements went into effect. The dissenters countered that the 2009 arbitration clauses reserved to the arbitrators’ the right to determine whether the disputes were arbitrable, and so they believed that arbitration was properly compelled.
Now the Court of Appeals will try to untangle the messy web of which agreements applied and where the disputes should be heard. The Appellate Division, First Department’s order can be found here.
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https://nysappeals.com/2017/09/12/court-of-appeals-september-session-arguments-of-interest-for-september-12-2017/
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The report goes on to provide recommendations for parents guiding their teens through the college admissions process. Their first recommendation, ‘Keep the focus on your teen,’ centers around supporting the teen’s authenticity. In order to be authentic, teens first need to know themselves. In fact, identity formation is a primary facet of adolescence. But when in the frantic years of clamoring to accumulate outstanding grades, AP credits, athletic awards, participation in clubs and leadership credentials, do these teens have time to get to know themselves?
Parents are not the only culprits here. At risk of stating the obvious, Harvard itself is a major culprit. In fact, Harvard is ironically leading the pack on both sides of this dilemma: as arguably the most elite university of them all (with a record low 4.5% acceptance rate this year) and also as head of a movement to re-write college admissions criteria. Kudos to them for at least trying to be part of the solution.
All of the adults stewarding children through childhood play a role in this crisis and have the opportunity to be part of “turning the tide.” In my mind, the best way for both parents and educators to support young people in the essential process of self-discovery and increasing independence is to get out of the way, to back-off, humbly taking our well-thought out agendas and our best intentions with us. Schools can build in time in the regular schedule for pursuit of personal interests, for social interaction, and for quiet reflection. Parents can seek out and support these schools, eschewing questions about test scores, rankings, and college acceptances in favor of deep consideration of the culture of the school, the quality of the relationships, and the opportunities for self-discovery. Together parents and teachers can build supportive communities committed to creating the space teens need to come to know themselves.
There are many elementary and high schools that intentionally provide opportunities for self-discovery. Here are just a few inspiring examples from my own personal research this past year.
Oak Grove School in Ojai, California incorporates both time and space for a variety of contemplative practices into the regular weekly schedule and into the campus. These include meditation, council circles, quiet time communing with nature, and the 7th grade rocking chair circle pictured above.
Skorpeskolen Private School in Helsingor, Denmark offers Personal Time to students in the early grades and Talent Time to students in the upper grades. These weekly periods provide opportunities to follow a curiosity, to pursue a personal passion, and to develop the capacity for sustained, deep focus on a self-directed project for an extended amount of time. Open in Google Chrome for a translation of the website.
The Green School in Bali, Indonesia identifies sustainability as one its primary values. They believe that the practice of sustainability starts at the individual level. For that reason, teachers are free to set aside all academic demands whenever an individual child needs extra social-emotional support.
You can access the full report from Harvard here.
Harvard’s class of 2023 acceptance rate reported in The Crimson.
You can view Christina Sbarra’s original post here.
One of my most memorable experiences growing up in India was that my twin sister and I would travel to Chennai during the warm days and cool nights in December. It was something we waited for eagerly, as we would get to stay at the beautiful 250-acre land of the Theosophical Society in Adyar wherein my family would attend the international convention that happens every year. Each year the convention has a theme where theosophists and avid learners of various disciplines would converge to hear lectures and have wonderful discussions. For us as children, we would be in this wonderful environment of learning but mostly focused on play and I had no idea that it was subconsciously having a great impact on my inner child.
When we came to Oak Grove to explore the school and community, Surya (my son, 11 at that time) and I were resistant as we did not want to leave our lovely home, community, friends in the Bay Area. My husband convinced us to explore the school and then to decide if we wanted to uproot our lives from the known and jump headlong into the unknown. We met with Andy, who embodies many wonderful things of the Oak Grove teacher culture and were very taken in by the honesty and simplicity of this Krishnamurti school. I remember sitting with Surya by the Pavilion and asking him about his thoughts/ feelings going through his mind. After voicing some of the positives and fears of moving to a new school, he said, “My heart says to stay in the Bay Area (because of my friends) but my gut says to come to this school”! I was stunned at the depth of his observation in himself and that he was able to articulate it so succinctly. I told my husband about this and we both knew at that time that this would be the right choice for him/us and applied to the school. Suffice to say, when Surya got accepted, we moved our lives, left all that was familiar and safe to us, and moved to Ojai.
They say (I don’t know who) that nothing good in life comes easy. We went through our struggles of moving, change of jobs, finding a home in Ojai, saying goodbyes to friends and I can say a year later that it has been completely worth it. Surya was welcomed, embraced by the class, teachers and school alike, and made connections with kids that I know will last a lifetime. The growth of the mind, the ease of the heart and the happiness of learning in a relaxed environment is reflected on Surya on most days after school. One day, in the middle of the year, he said, “I did not realize I was so stressed at Independent (his previous school) until I realized I wasn’t feeling the stress anymore.” When asked how he would describe the stress, he said that he felt the class energy was less about strict rules and more focused on learning and creativity. Every child goes through their own struggles (education, social relationship dynamics and peer pressure) in school irrespective of the greatness of the school but to hear that he was not stressed, my husband and I thought this was absolutely worth all the sacrifices we made as a family.
I realized after I moved to Ojai that the convention theme of many years ago, “where YOU are, love is not” would circle back as a theme of being more present and aware of one’s own self in the world of relationships. And that we as a family would get an opportunity to be in an environment to explore that self and be able to reflect and grow.
Oak Grove embraced us, reminded me that there are schools in this world that breed a culture of integrity, kindness, honesty, authenticity and most of all genuine empathy towards fellow human beings. My family and I are grateful for this wonderful experience of the Oak Grove school/community and look forward to the exciting years ahead in Surya’s experiences at the school.
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https://oakgroveschool.org/category/parent-perspective/
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Despite a successful CFL season that saw Lansdowne Park draw more visitors and revenue in 2016, its operators say the price of victory deepened the venue’s net losses on the year.
The Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, the private arm of the city’s Lansdowne Partnership, disclosed its annual earnings this week in a report to the city’s finance and economic development committee.
According to the report, OSEG increased revenue to $50 million in fiscal 2016, a 17 per cent increase year-over-year largely attributed to increased tenancy in the retail shops at Lansdowne.
Roughly 3.4 million people visited Lansdowne in 2016, an increase of 41 per cent over 2015. The influx of visitors came on the back of events such as the Brier, the Panda Game between the University of Ottawa and Carleton University and a championship Ottawa RedBlacks season that sold out every home game.
Still, that success came with a price, according to OSEG. The organization posted a net loss of $14.4 million, higher than the $12.6-million figure of a year earlier. OSEG says it took bigger losses after recording a full year of interest costs on its retail loan, adding that “winning the Grey Cup proved to be expensive.” The company is expected to elaborate on those expenses at the FEDCO meeting on July 4.
The report states that OSEG’s operating results have improved overall, but that profitability is thus far falling short of expectations.
The report highlighted two events, the 2017 Grey Cup and NHL Winter Classic between the Senators and the Montreal Canadiens in December, as anticipated drivers of activity at Lansdowne later in the year. OSEG believes the Grey Cup game and festival will bring 200,000 visitors to the park, resulting in $100 million in economic benefit for the city.
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https://obj.ca/index.php/article/oseg-deepens-net-loss-ottawa-redblacks-expensive-grey-cup-win
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What Are Critics Saying About ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 2?
It’s safe to say that along with HBO’s Westworld and a few other big shows across the cluttered television landscape, the most anticipated small screen return in 2018 is Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Yes, it was the first-ever streaming series to receive Best Drama wins at the Emmys and the Golden Globes, beating both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to the highly sought after punch and establishing Hulu as a force in the competitive streaming wars. Yes, the show’s success led to record-shattering growth for Hulu as a streaming service, putting its short-term expansion on par with the deeper-pocketed streaming powers.
But the most important reason why we’re excited about the show’s second season is that, simply put, it is one of the best television series out there right now. But does The Handmaid’s Tale sophomore effort live up to the lofty heights of its stellar rookie run?
Let’s see what the critics are saying.
The Handmaid’s Tale season two will premiere on Hulu on April 25.
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https://observer.com/2018/04/handmaids-tale-season-2-reviews-hulu-what-are-critics-saying/
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Home » Milwaukee Academy of Medicine 2019 » 19034 Milwaukee Academy of Medicine -...
COCKTAILS 6:00 P.M. DINNER 6:30 P.M. PRESENTATION 7:30 P.M.
Dinner $48 Drink options available for a separate charge.
Cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are both found in plants of the cannabis family. While they share some similar pharmacological effects, CBD and THC interact with the brain through very different mechanisms. I will discuss what we know about the mechanisms and therapeutic potential of the two cannabinoids. I will also present information about their measurement in bodily fluids. I am a neuropharmacologist with a primary interest in the cannabinoid-derived molecules and their targets in the brain. My research has been funded by NIH for 35 years, primarily for studies of the stress-effects of the cannabinoids and endogenous cannabinoids.
Physicans of all medical specialties.
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https://ocpe.mcw.edu/milwaukee-academy-of-medicine-2019/node/201834
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When the smartphone still did not exist, the human being didn’t even dream of stepping on the Moon and the Internet was something of a distant future, visionary artists, geniuses and writers created books that predicted technologies that we use today.
From spectacular outer space discoveries to the use of Artificial Intelligence that intelligent chatbots or virtual reality video games use today, and even dangerous inventions such as the atomic bomb. These books foresaw the future, thanks to the clairvoyance and imagination of their authors.
Today we will reveal five writings which include, centuries or decades ago, technologies and innovations that are now part of our life in the 21st century.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953): Not only considered one of the masterpieces of science fiction literature, this novel contains amazing predictions about the technological age. In the futuristic society described in the book, direct prototypes of Bluetooth headsets appear -like tiny shells- or flat-screen TVs to communicate over long distances -as nowadays social network interfaces do-.
Looking backward by Edward Bellamy (1888): It seems incredible that this book was written more than a century ago. The main character of the novel is a traveler from the late 19th century who wakes up in a utopian society in the 21st century, where people use pocket cards issued by banks that charge money from their accounts. Bellamy predicted credit cards! In this science fiction writing he also mentions television, represented in a visionary way as a device to see and listen to concerts.
Ralph 124C 41+ by Hugo Gernsback (1911): A century ago this author predicted technologies that we use daily, such as Skype, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. More accurately, something named “telephot” that allowed human beings to see and hear from distant points. In this way, Gernsback predicted the future development of video calls. As a curious note, this author was also inventor of gadgets such as flying machines, instruments to capture radio sound and even a hair removal device.
The age of intelligent machines by Ray Kurzweil (1999): This writing contains valuable predictions -some of which can still be fulfilled, since of them apply for hundreds or thousands of years into the future-. For example, predicted that a computer would defeat the best chess player in the world, as IBM’s Deep Blue managed. The disappearance of cables, the emergence of virtual glasses, the nanoengineering of autonomous machines, digital distance learning, AI-controlled prostheses, automatic translation, encryption of communication, the emergence of touch technology or virtual sex. You can check his predictions here.
1984 by George Orwell (1949): One of the most famous dystopian novel. Its foresight varies from geopolitical predictions to society prediction of a digitalized era where freedom and free thinking do not exist -a picture of the current technological dependence-. The cyber-vigilance embodied in Reality TV shows such as Big Brother, something that today translates into the proliferation of cameras, the collection of information via internet cookies, the long fingerprint of each user or the use that companies make of our personal data. There is also a missile detection system or automatic speech transcription by a microphone -a forerunner of virtual assistants such as Cortana or Siri-.
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https://ohchat.me/5-books-that-predicted-21st-century-technologies-that-we-use-today/
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Home / FX / Mayans M.C.
Download all seasons of Mayans M.C.
Mayans is the ideological continuation of the popular project Sons of Anarchy. The focus of the plot are the events following the end of the popular show from the FX channel. The story tells about Ezekiel Reyes, who heads the influential group “Mayans MC”.
He works on the border between California and Mexico, but lately he has been pursuing only one goal – revenge for loved ones who fell at the hands of an unknown punisher. Reyes is unstoppable. He forgot about honor, high human feelings, in order to find those responsible for the tragedy, whom he could not forget about. However, true love will change his view of life.
With the second season, one of the most striking projects of recent years, the continuation of the cult Sons of Anarchy, returns to the screens.
Mayans is a story about another biker group that was opposed to the main characters in the original series. True, this time the story will not affect their confrontation, but the path of revenge of the main character Reyes.
Now Reyes decided to go in search of a villain, despite the fact that he has very big problems with the law. Ahead of him is a very long path of revenge, on which he will meet with numerous difficulties, conventions, as well as use brute force, be cruel and confident in his actions. Reyes can do all this, but can he accomplish what he intended?
Mayans MC season 1 an unexpected spin-off to a widely popular drama show “Sons of Anarchy” that was critically acclaimed and enjoyed immense love from fans all over the world. This new series is focused on Ez Reyes as he returns from prison to his hometown and wants to start a new life.
He becomes a member of a motorcycle gang that competes with guys from the original TV show. The events in Mayans happen after 2.5 years since the story of the main show wrapped up. You will be able to once again dive in this amazing universe where the roar of a motor is all what is needed to feel complete.
Mayans MC season 1 is a joy to watch. The cinematography improved immensely. Visuals look richer and more interesting. At the same time, the story is still written by the same guys who used to write for Sons of Anarchy which means that you will have a lot of intriguing drama and tough talk.
The series has a lot to offer in terms of ethnic flavor and gives you a fresh perspective on the shared universe. You will enjoy great action, outstanding acting, and lots of awesome looking bikes! Get ready for a new chapter in the story of a motorcycle gang that can change the course of history!
Mayans M.C. - Season 2 episodes free download.
Early years are times for discoveries, first feelings, difficult relationships and true love. The main characters of this series are teenagers Harry and June, in love ...
Coming new season of the popular TV series "Iron Fist". Return is already expected in October of this year. The plot continues the story of the ...
A truly original series from BBC One is not just another period history piece, it is a great attempt at exploring the world in which our ...
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https://ontvse.com/mayans-mc-download-a
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This offers a myriad of entry points and perspectives on issues around writing.
The different voices/perspectives of this text trouble the notions of accuracy and bias-free writing. Instead, essays play with commonly held beliefs and assumptions around what makes writing, writers, and grammar "good."
The issues, examples, and stories align strikingly with many of the concerns my students grapple with each semester. I can imagine incorporating a myriad of these essays into class discussions to deepen our work on various issues and topics, and I believe these perspectives will remain timely for a long time.
There are significant shifts across the voices of different authors. This will support my students in engaging with different examples of voice and tone.
The organization and structure is consistent.
This is very clearly organized and easy to navigate.
The structure/flow makes a lot of sense.
I did not encounter any issues with this text's interface.
The writing in this text is clear.
I did not encounter any examples of culturally insensitivity.
I plan to incorporate these essays into my Composition courses in the future.
Cheryl E. Ball is associate professor of digital publishing stud-ies in the Professional Writing and Editing program at West Virginia University. She is also editor of Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy as well as the #writing book series with the WAC Clearinghouse/Colorado State University Open Press, both of which are open-access publishing venues available to anyone with an Internet connection. She teaches the importance of edit-ing content in a digital world, and offers a special thank you to all of the undergraduate and graduate students at WVU who helped with the publication of this book. She also thanks WVU Libraries for its support of the Digital Publishing Institute. Finally, she is grateful to Drew M. Loewe for coming up with the idea for this book and for agreeing to let her work on it with him.
Drew M. Loewe is an associate professor of writing and rhetoric at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, where he also directs the Writing Center. His scholarly and teaching interests include rhetorical theory and criticism, argumentation, prose style, legal writing, writing centers, research methods, and the first-year writ-ing sequence. He thanks St. Edward’s for supporting this project with time and money, and especially thanks Cheryl E. Ball for being the best co-editor anyone could hope for.
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https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/bad-ideas-about-writing
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Leonard Decof, Providence, R. I., with whom Mark S. Mandell and Leonard Decof, Ltd., Providence, R. I., were on brief, for appellants.
Sidney S. Rosdeitcher, New York City, with whom Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Jack Hassid, New York City, Hinckley, Allen, Salisbury & Parsons, Thomas D. Gidley, Stephen J. Carlotti, Providence, R.I., Covington & Burling, Charles Lister, Jonathan M. Weisgall, Washington, D. C., Carroll, Kelly & Murphy, and Joseph A. Kelly, Providence, R. I., were on brief, for Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., Hartford Casualty Co. and Hartford Fire Insurance Co., appellees.
Walker B. Comegys, Washington, D. C., with whom Powers & Hall, Washington, D. C., Kirk Hanson, David P. Whitman, Hanson, Curran, Bowen & Parks, Joseph V. Cavanagh, and Higgins, Cavanagh & Cooney, Providence, R. I., were on brief, for St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. and Travelers Ins. Co., appellees.
The primary issue presented by this appeal is whether a "consumer" of insurance can sue an insurance company for violating the antitrust laws. Under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-15, "the business of insurance" is exempted from antitrust regulation to the extent that it is regulated by the states. Id. § 1012(b). But McCarran-Ferguson does not confer a blanket immunity: insurers are subject to the Sherman Act if they engage in "act(s) of boycott, coercion, or intimidation" or if they agree to engage in such acts. Id. § 1013(b). We must decide whether this exception applies only to insurance company boycotts of agents and other companies or also applies to refusals to deal with policyholders.
This suit is brought by plaintiffs seeking to represent two classes: all licensed physicians practicing in the state of Rhode Island and all citizens of Rhode Island who are or will be under a doctor's care. The defendants are four insurance companies that have sold malpractice insurance to Rhode Island doctors. The plaintiffs charged in their amended complaint that these companies violated the nation's antitrust laws by conspiring to shrink the malpractice coverage available to Rhode Island doctors. According to the complaint, one company, St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company, changed its future malpractice policies to provide coverage only on a "claims made" basis, rather than an "occurrence" basis.1 When St. Paul's disgruntled customers tried to take their business elsewhere, the other insurance companies refused to sell them malpractice policies of any sort. Believing this to be the result of an unlawful conspiracy in restraint of trade, plaintiffs sought injunctive relief and treble damages.2 The viability of their suit depends on the scope of the McCarran-Ferguson Act. 15 U.S.C. § 1011-15.
The Act must be placed in historical context if it is to be understood. For many years, from 1869 to 1944, the Supreme Court steadfastly maintained that insurance was not "commerce" and that state regulation of insurance did not impinge on the federal government's power to regulate interstate commerce. See, e. g., Paul v. Virginia, 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 168, 19 L.Ed. 357 (1869). In 1944, however, the Supreme Court repudiated the principle that insurance is not commerce and held that federal antitrust laws could constitutionally be applied to insurance companies. United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n, 322 U.S. 533, 64 S.Ct. 1162, 88 L.Ed. 1440 (1944). This decision left the nation's insurance companies and the states' regulatory bodies dumbfounded; suddenly, state taxation and regulation of insurance seemed open to serious constitutional doubts. Federal authorities were loath to assume the burden of substituting national for state supervision of insurance.
To restore some certainty, Congress passed the McCarran-Ferguson Act in 1945. The Act made it clear that state regulation and taxation of insurance could continue. It also narrowed the impact of federal law on the insurance business, stating that "the Sherman Act, . . . the Clayton Act, and . . . the Federal Trade Commission Act . . . shall be applicable to the business of insurance to the extent that such business is not regulated by State law." 15 U.S.C. § 1012(b). This provision allows the states to engage in a kind of "reverse preemption", and the states were quick to enact the necessary laws.
The parties agree that the defendants' acts were related to the business of insurance and that Rhode Island effectively regulates that business. Cf. SEC v. National Securities, Inc., 393 U.S. 453, 89 S.Ct. 564, 21 L.Ed.2d 668 (1969); FTC v. Travelers Health Ass'n, 362 U.S. 293, 80 S.Ct. 717, 4 L.Ed.2d 724 (1960). The controversy in this case centers on an exception to the "preemptive" powers of the states: "Nothing contained in this chapter shall render the said Sherman Act inapplicable to any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation." 15 U.S.C. § 1013(b).
The district court concluded that "despite this provision's broad wording, which on first glance seems to support the plaintiffs' position, Congress intended this exception to be narrowly applied and that it does not, in fact, cover the situation presented in this case." It held that the "boycott, coercion, and intimidation" exception was intended by Congress solely to protect insurance agents or other insurance companies from being blacklisted by combinations of companies, and was not intended to have any bearing on the insurer-insured relationship. It also observed that a contrary holding would vitiate the McCarran-Ferguson Act by, presumably, cutting deeply into the area of regulation which has been given to the states. In so holding, it relied on the only case authorities which had dealt with this issue. Addrisi v. Equitable Life Assurance Soc'y, 503 F.2d 725 (9th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 929, 95 S.Ct. 1129, 43 L.Ed.2d 400 (1975); Meicler v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 506 F.2d 732 (5th Cir. 1975); Transnational Ins. Co. v. Rosenlund, 261 F.Supp. 12 (D.Or.1966).
"was placed in the legislation to protect insurance agents from the issuance by insurance companies of a 'black-list,' which would name companies or agents which were beyond the pale. This list, in effect, was a directive to an agent not to write insurance in the name of or for the black-listed company; otherwise, he would be stripped of his agency and not permitted to write insurance for any of the members of the governing organization of insurance companies." 261 F.Supp. at 26-27 (footnote omitted).
Only blacklisting by an insurance company, the court intimated, was subject to the Sherman Act under this provision. The court, though referring broadly to "the legislative history", cited only a single page of the Congressional record in support of this reading. 91 Cong.Rec. 1087 (1945). Transnational stood alone until 1974, when the Fifth and Ninth Circuits followed its lead. The courts of appeals simply adopted without elaboration the Transnational court's discussion of "the" legislative history. One reason for taking so narrow a view of the provision was the courts' apparent fear that any other reading would "emasculate", Meicler, supra, 506 F.2d at 734, or "vitiate", Addrisi, supra, 503 F.2d at 729, the McCarran-Ferguson Act. To fend off this danger, the Meicler court adopted a rule that policyholders or members of the public could not seek the benefit of the boycott provision. Later cases have followed these pioneers without adding to their analysis.
As will be seen, we disagree with the conclusion reached by these courts. Simple disagreement might not be enough if the insurance business had long relied on authoritative rulings in other circuits. That is not the case here. The view we reject was not advanced until 1966, when a single district court suggested it. Only in the past three years has its narrow reading of the boycott provision begun to gain more general favor. What prevents us from following the trail blazed by the Transnational court is its decision to go behind the statutory language. We would be justified in probing legislative history if the language were ambiguous or if, even though unambiguous, the language literally read produced a senseless or unworkable statute. Massachusetts Financial Serv., Inc. v. Securities Investor Protection Corp., 545 F.2d 754 (1st Cir. 1976). Cf. United States v. Slater, (1st Cir. Dec. 22, 1976).
The words "agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation", within the context of the Sherman Act, do not appear to us as ambiguous. In antitrust law, a boycott is a "concerted refusal to deal" with a disfavored purchaser or seller. Klor's, Inc. v. Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc., 359 U.S. 207, 79 S.Ct. 705, 3 L.Ed.2d 741 (1959).4 Concerted refusals by a number of companies to sell malpractice insurance policies to doctors who were dissatisfied with the policy offered by their insurer would seem to fit within this definition of boycott. Indeed appellees make no argument to the contrary. Nor do the cases attempt to justify their excursion into legislative history on the basis of ambiguity of language.
The articulated justification is based on the supposed "vitiation" of the McCarran-Ferguson Act if the boycott provision were to be given its normal Sherman Act scope. We observe first that a license to construe statutory words narrowly to avoid defeating legislative purpose is not to be cavalierly exercised. Under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, states were given authority to tax and regulate the business of insurance. This domain remains a vast one even if the boycott provision is read more broadly than appellees insist. McCarran-Ferguson would still insulate state tax and regulatory programs from challenges based on the dormant commerce clause. See Prudential Ins. Co. v. Benjamin, 328 U.S. 408, 66 S.Ct. 1142, 90 L.Ed. 1342 (1946). It would continue to protect the business of insurance from many federal regulatory statutes. See, e. g., SEC v. National Securities, Inc., supra (securities laws). Even within the antitrust field, McCarran-Ferguson would have great significance. Only the Sherman Act is made applicable to the business of insurance by the boycott provision; the Clayton and Federal Trade Commission Acts, for example, could still be "preempted" by state regulation. Moreover, not every violation of the Sherman Act can be characterized as an act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation. See, e. g., United States v. Aluminum Co. of America, 148 F.2d 416 (2d Cir. 1945) (use of "benign" means to maintain monopoly violates Sherman Act); Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U.S. 1, 43, 31 S.Ct. 502, 55 L.Ed. 619 (1911) (predatory pricing).
Nor would the introduction of antitrust principles into dealings between policyholders and insurers hamstring the state regulatory bodies that have primary responsibility for overseeing the nation's insurance business. A necessary regulatory measure could seldom be successfully challenged as a state-inspired "boycott, coercion, or intimidation", for the boycott provision merely guarantees that "(n)othing contained in this chapter shall render the said Sherman Act inapplicable" to boycotts and the like. 15 U.S.C. § 1013(b) (emphasis added). The chapter in question is the McCarran-Ferguson Act. The boycott provision merely neutralizes that Act, leaving intact the doctrine of Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341, 63 S.Ct. 307, 87 L.Ed. 315 (1943), which today insulates state regulatory schemes outside the insurance context from antitrust liability. See also Cantor v. Detroit Edison Co., 428 U.S. 579, 96 S.Ct. 3110, 49 L.Ed.2d 1141 (1976). Indeed, Parker v. Brown may have added strength in the insurance field because of the policies reflected in the McCarran-Ferguson Act. But there is a large difference between allowing a state to fix insurance rates without fear of antitrust sanctions and similarly insulating companies which, outside any state-permitted structure or procedure, agree among themselves that customers dissatisfied with the coverage offered by one company shall not be sold any policies by any of the other companies. Contrary to the argument of some of the appellees, giving normal scope to the boycott provision will not plunge federal courts into the enterprise of retroactive rate-making. Regulation by the state would be protected; concerted boycotts against groups of consumers not resting on state authority would have no immunity.
When we look to public policy, the limitation sought by appellees again lacks support. Throughout this century, preserving competition by means of the antitrust laws has been a continuing national purpose. A primary aim of antitrust law is assuring consumers the benefits of a free market economy. To exclude consumers of insurance from the protection afforded by the boycott provision thus cuts against a basic policy of antitrust law. Such an interpretation also conflicts with the Supreme Court's view that the McCarran-Ferguson Act as a whole is meant to apply to the relationship between policyholders and their insurers. SEC v. National Securities, Inc., supra, 393 U.S. at 460, 89 S.Ct. 564. The boycott provision presumably also reflects this concern for the insurer-insured relationship. On a broader scale, we note that legislative and judicial exceptions to the general rule favoring free competition have often been narrowed over the years. See, e. g., Cantor v. Detroit Edison Co., 428 U.S. 579, 96 S.Ct. 3110, 49 L.Ed.2d 1141 (July 6, 1976) ("state action" exception restricted); Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U.S. 773, 785-88, 95 S.Ct. 2004, 44 L.Ed.2d 572 (1975) ("learned profession" exception questioned); United States v. International Boxing Club of New York, Inc., 348 U.S. 236, 75 S.Ct. 259, 99 L.Ed. 290 (1955) (refusing to extend "baseball" exemption to boxing); Schwegmann Bros. v. Calvert Distillers Corp., 341 U.S. 384, 71 S.Ct. 745, 95 L.Ed. 1035 (1951) (narrow view of Miller-Tydings "fair trade" exception). The McCarran-Ferguson Act is of course a legislative exception to the antitrust laws, and it deserves a fair reading.5 But the artificial reading of the boycott provision that appellees urge on us can only be characterized as a judge-made expansion of the Act. We think the national commitment to a free market places a special burden on courts to think long and hard before creating such exceptions to the antitrust laws. In short, the usual reading of "boycott, coercion, or intimidation" does not lead to irrationality, nor does it pose a grave danger to state authority. It conforms to the nation's antitrust policies. We see no reason, therefore, to look to the legislative history for a special and narrow meaning of these words.
In the first Senate debate, on January 25, the boycott provision was broadened by a quickly accepted amendment from "Nothing contained in this section shall render the Sherman Act inapplicable to any agreement or act of boycott . . ." to "Nothing in this act . . ." 91 Cong.Rec. 479 (1945). The chief issue debated, reflecting Senator O'Mahoney's concern, was whether the act could be used to authorize attempts to monopolize. Senator Ferguson, a sponsor, gave the answer: "No. I will answer that by saying that if agreements in restraint of trade or to monopolize amounted either to a boycott and/or coercion and/or intimidation, they would be absolutely void . . . ." Id. at 480.
The bill was debated in the House on February 14. The language concerning "agreement" to boycott had been stricken in committee, but the deletion was challenged by Congressman Celler, who said his concern reflected the view of the Attorney General. Congressman Celler, in arguing for the restoration of "agreement" language, adverted to the danger of an oral blacklist being issued by large companies which "would frighten the wits out of all these small companies", and an agreement of "separation" barring a company whose agent wrote insurance for a blacklisted company from participation in "the self-constituted governing organizations". Id. at 1087. On Congressman McCormack's suggestion, language was accepted proscribing "any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate". Much of the debate then focused on the nature of the moratorium of three years on the general application of the Sherman and Clayton Acts.
"Therefore any attempt by a small group of insurance companies to enter into an agreement by which they would penalize any person or any business which was attempting to do business in the insurance field in a way that was disapproved by them, would be absolutely prohibited by this provision." Id. at 1480.
Senator Pepper was not satisfied, believing that states could legitimize and therefore insulate rating bureaus. Senator Ferguson pointed out that "there are six things on which a State could not legislate. They are boycott, coercion, or intimidation, or agreements to boycott, coerce, or intimidate." Id. at 1481. He acknowledged that states would be permitted to authorize rating bureaus. Senator Pepper continued to gnaw at the issue, asking why the states should be given the right to "cloud" the Sherman and Clayton Acts. Again Senator O'Mahoney attempted reassurance by saying that there were three forms of regulation: state regulation permitted by the bill, federal regulation, which no one was urging, and private regulation by combinations "through private rules and regulations under which persons engaged in the insurance industry could be tried and convicted for the violation of private law." Id. at 1483. This latter type, he said, would be absolutely outlawed. Senator Pepper still felt that, with state-authorized rating bureaus being allowed by the bill, states were being given "carte blanche" to legitimize vices. Id. at 1484.
Senator O'Mahoney rejoined that "(t)he vice in the insurance industry . . . was not that there were rating bureaus, but that there was in the industry a system of private government which had been built up by a small group of insurance companies, which companies undertook by their agreements and understandings to invade the field of Congress to regulate commerce." Id. at 1485. After reading from the elaborate rules and regulations of a powerful association of insurance companies the Senator said, "The Insurance Executive Association undertook by regulation to coerce, intimidate, and boycott its own members and compel them to obey the rules and regulations the association itself prescribed." Id. at 1486.
"(M)y judgment is that every effective combination or agreement to carry out a program against the public interest of which I have had any knowledge in this whole insurance study would be prohibited by the (boycott) section . . . . There are agreements and combinations in the public interests (sic) which can safely be permitted, but this agreement from which I have been reading is the sort of agreement which ought to be condemned . . . and which . . . would be completely outlawed." Id. 1486.
The debate shortly ended and the conference report was accepted.
Assuming for the moment that we have license to go beyond the words of the statute, we cannot turn to the legislative history with our minds in equipoise. H. Hart and A. Sacks, The Legal Process 1264 (tent. ed. 1958). The plain meaning of the boycott provision, the strength of the nation's antitrust policies, and the substantial scope that an ordinary reading of the provision would leave to the McCarran-Ferguson Act all these at the least create a presumption for the legislative history to overcome. Our question, then, is whether we can distill from this history the clear intent of Congress to limit "boycott, coercion, or intimidation" to acts or agreements affecting the relationships between insurance companies and their competitors and agents. The basis for appellees' argument lies in the remarks of Congressman Celler about the danger of blacklisting small companies and Senator O'Mahoney's remarks about the evil of private enforcement of private law by the companies. And it is true that at no point were any remarks directed to the possibility of boycotts, coercion, or intimidation aimed at consumers.
We would hesitate long before characterizing the Congressional intent as one narrowly restricting the boycott provision. We make two preliminary observations. The first is that South-Eastern Underwriters, which seems to have been the ultimate source of the "boycott, coercion, or intimidation" language, apparently dealt in part with threats and boycotts directed at policyholders. 322 U.S. at 535, 64 S.Ct. 1162. The second is that the insurance industry participated deeply in the drafting of this legislation; if the boycott provision were intended to cover less than what the Sherman Act would normally cover, one might suppose that the language would not have been left so bald and general.
Of more pertinence is the central role which the boycott provision played as the all purpose safety valve. It was amended twice, in each case to make it broader, first by making it effective across the entire Act and second by restoring the agreement language. Time after time the concerns of skeptics and opponents were met by reference to this provision. We cannot imagine that they would have been at all satisfied if they had understood that "boycott" was a code word confined to industry personnel. See, Levi An Introduction to Legal Reasoning, 15 U.Chi.L.Rev. 501, 522 (1948). The inescapable fact is that in this four-day debate the only specific references to evils were made on two occasions, once in the House and once in the Senate. Congressman Celler voted against the bill in the House and while Senator O'Mahoney was supporting the measure as an acceptable compromise and was on the committee of conference, he was not a sponsor. While the vice of insurance company self-government outside the law obviously lay in their minds as a major evil to be combatted by the legislation, there is no suggestion that the legislation was limited to that evil. Indeed Senator O'Mahoney referred to the Insurance Executives Association rules as "the sort of agreement" to be condemned. His summary answer to Senator Barkley that "every effective combination or agreement to carry out a program against the public interest" would be prohibited by the boycott section could not be more unrestricted.
"Spurious use of legislative history must not swallow the legislation so as to give point to the quip that only when legislative history is doubtful do you go to the statute. While courts are no longer confined to the language, they are still confined by it. Violence must not be done to the words chosen by the legislature. Unless indeed no doubt can be left that the legislature has in fact used a private code, so that what appears to be violence to language is merely respect to special usage." Frankfurter, Some Reflections on the Reading of Statutes, 47 Colum.L.Rev. 527, 543-44 (1947).
The plaintiffs also object to the district court's decision to abstain on the plaintiffs' fraud claims, which were based on state law. In essence, plaintiffs pleaded that past and present insurance rates had been inflated by false statements to the public and the state insurance commissioner. Plaintiffs asked for restitution of all amounts paid in excess of a "fair and justifiable" malpractice insurance rate. Rhode Island courts have never ruled on the existence of a cause of action for recovery of excessive insurance premiums, but the district court noted that the state has provided elaborate administrative and judicial procedures for challenging existing rates. Rather than risk interfering with the state's regulatory scheme or misinterpreting state law, the district court abstained. Plaintiffs are apparently satisfied with the district court's decision to abstain with respect to insurance rates now in effect, for they do not appeal from that disposition. They do appeal from the court's abstention regarding past rates, which cannot be challenged administratively. The court's reluctance to take the case is understandable; recognizing a cause of action for the recovery of excessive past insurance premiums would profoundly affect the state's ratemaking machinery and policies. See Burford v. Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, 63 S.Ct. 1098, 87 L.Ed. 1424 (1943); Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux, 360 U.S. 25, 79 S.Ct. 1070, 3 L.Ed.2d 1058 (1959). In cases like this, federal courts prefer to tread lightly, following trails already blazed by the state courts. Nonetheless, the court's jurisdiction over this claim was founded on diversity of citizenship. Abstaining in a diversity case often means completely relinquishing the case to the state courts; it thus defeats the purposes behind the grant of federal jurisdiction. A less drastic step might have served the purposes of the grant without unduly interfering in state regulatory matters. In Rhode Island, a novel and controlling question may be certified from the federal courts to the state courts. See Lehman Bros. v. Schein, 416 U.S. 386, 94 S.Ct. 1741, 40 L.Ed.2d 215 (1974); R.I.Sup.Ct. Rule 6.
The district court did not certify this question. Two reasons for its choice are now advanced. First, the court's unappealed decision to abstain on the present rate question means that state courts and administrators will soon be wrestling with plaintiffs' claim, and it would not serve judicial economy for the federal court to begin work on a closely related claim. Second, even if a cause of action for recovering past premiums is proper, the federal court should abstain for fear of disrupting important state concerns. We doubt that either of these factors alone would permit abstention when balanced against the duty imposed on every federal court to decide cases within its jurisdiction. See Meredith v. Winter Haven, 320 U.S. 228, 64 S.Ct. 7, 88 L.Ed. 9 (1943). In combination, however, they persuade us that abstention was justifiable. See Louisiana Power & Light Co. v. City of Thibodaux, supra, 360 U.S. at 27 n.2, 79 S.Ct. 1070.
Appellants also object to the granting of summary judgment to two defendants, the Aetna and St. Paul insurance companies, on a count charging fraud in the sale of certain "consent to rate" policies. Plaintiffs offered no evidence that any named physician-plaintiff ever bought such a policy from either Aetna or St. Paul, nor that any named patient-plaintiff was ever treated by a doctor holding such a policy. Appellants thus had at best only a tenuous right to bring this claim against these companies, Haas v. Pittsburgh Nat'l Bank, 526 F.2d 1083 (3d Cir. 1975), and we find no error in the district court's decision to adhere strictly to the traditional rules. La Mar v. H & B Novelty & Loan Co., 489 F.2d 461, 469 (9th Cir. 1973). See also O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 494-95, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974).
The district court disposed of the remaining charges of fraud in " consent to rate" policies by referring to Fed.R.Civ.P. 9(b). Rule 9(b) requires complaints charging fraud to state "with particularity" the circumstances constituting fraud. The judge found that the complaint did not meet the standards set by rule 9(b) and dismissed the count without prejudice. The judge was correct; the complaint could hardly be more vague. While the judge might have ordered a more definite statement, it was within his power to grant a dismissal without prejudice. If the plaintiffs can plead fraud with more particularity, they may file an amended complaint. 2A Moore's Federal Practice P 9.03 p. 1934.
The court seems to me to be straining mightily to reinterpret the legal relationship ordinarily understood to have been established under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, perhaps because it has some doubts about the policies of that Act.
The McCarran-Ferguson Act declares that "the continued regulation and taxation by the several States of the business of insurance is in the public interest", 15 U.S.C. § 1011, and "shall be subject to the laws of the several States which relate to the regulation or taxation of such business", § 1012(a).1 The Act goes on to say that no Act of Congress shall invalidate, impair or supersede state regulatory laws, § 1012(b). Finally, it provides that the various antitrust statutes, including the Sherman Act, shall apply only to the extent a state does not exercise its right to regulate, § 1012(b). The court concedes, as do the parties, that Rhode Island has exercised its right to regulate all material aspects of the business of insurance and that the actions complained of relative to withholding malpractice insurance were all part of such regulated business. Thus, under the clear implication of § 1012, neither the Sherman Act nor the other antitrust laws apply except insofar as the § 1013(b) exception permits. That exception provides, "Nothing contained in this chapter shall render the said Sherman Act inapplicable to any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation." Significantly this language does not track the broad "contract, combination . . . or conspiracy" language of the Sherman Act which Congress reasonably might have chosen had the intent been, as my brothers state, to encompass in the exception virtually all activities in violation of the Sherman Act involving more than an individual monopolist.
While the precise scope of the exception language may be less than crystal clear, given the statutory scheme, I have no difficulty understanding why two circuit courts and six district courts every court except, now, ourselves have held that the § 1013(b) exemption is to be read narrowly as describing boycotts, coercion or intimidation directed against other companies and agents rather than, broadly, as also encompassing the gamut of company-policyholder relations. See, e. g., Meicler v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 372 F.Supp. 509, 513-14 (S.D.Tex.1974), aff'd, 506 F.2d 732 (5th Cir. 1975). The legislative history indicates that the former problem was what worried Congress when it enacted the exception, and a narrow reading is more consistent with § 1012 and with the purpose and structure of the act generally.2 Indeed, to read § 1013(b) expansively is to hold that what Congress gave with one hand it took with the other, since while my brothers' reading does not introduce the entirety of federal antitrust law into the business of insurance, it introduces a very major part thereof and does so with no clear explanation of why Congress should first take pains to eliminate the antitrust laws and then reintroduce by the back door most of the Sherman Act. Only if, like all other courts, we read § 1013(b) as dealing with a limited type of problem which troubled Congress does the exception fit sensibly into the statute as a whole.
The central thread running through the McCarran-Ferguson Act is that regulation of insurance rates and policies both of them matters falling under the general heading of relations between companies and policyholders is left to the states. The present litigation brought by physicians who believe that they have been deprived, unfairly, of insurance on terms that are economically favorable focuses precisely upon company-policyholder matters. My brothers are now putting the federal courts in the same arena as the State of Rhode Island, contrary, I believe, to the purpose of the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Doubtless the federal perspective is somewhat different but the potential for conflict between state regulation and federal antitrust policies is real and the decision has the effect of substantially undercutting § 1012(b) of the Act.
This is, I think, a most unfortunate decision. It not only introduces a new category of federal antitrust suit which will be very difficult to manage at a time when federal courts are strained to the limit, but it could have unforeseeable effects upon state regulatory policies. Plaintiffs may see this case as another string to their bow in attempting to deal with the crushing malpractice burdens being imposed as the result not only, perhaps, of predatory insurance practices but of inflated claims and verdicts. We might sympathize with them without going this far. The State of Rhode Island has apparently now enacted regulatory legislation dealing with some or all of the problem a means of redress which seems far more responsive to the problem than any likely to be achieved through reinterpreting the McCarran-Ferguson Act thirty years after enactment.
I shall not attempt to deal with the legislative history which my brothers make much of, beyond saying that, like most legislative history, it is capable of being argued both ways depending on which legislator one reads and to whose views one ascribes final authority. Certainly, in the expressed concerns of the legislators there is explicit support for the view which all other courts have adopted to date. More important to me, however, is the statutory scheme which suggests in the positioning of the exception, and in the very fact that the exception is just that, that § 1013(b) should be construed in a manner complementary to, rather than subversive of, the major premises of the Act. Under my brothers' reading, the tail now wags the dog.
I would affirm the district court which acted, I think, correctly and in accordance with all existing law.
Some commentators would artificially restrict the meaning of "boycott", apparently fearing an overbroad application of the rule that boycotts are illegal per se. See L. Sullivan, Antitrust §§ 83, 90 (1977). This fear may be allayed more directly by recognizing that, while some boycotts are irredeemably anticompetitive and thus fit subjects for a per se rule, others are benign and not properly treated as illegal per se. See P. Areeda, Antitrust Analysis 287 (1967); see also Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. v. Hawaiian Oke & Liquors, Ltd., 416 F.2d 71 (9th Cir. 1969) (boycott not illegal per se when participants had no anti-competitive motive). Certainly nothing in this opinion requires the application of a per se rule to all acts falling within the ordinary meaning of the word "boycott".
Furthermore, even reading the boycott exception to include the complained of behavior does not wholly solve the question of plaintiffs' standing. If St. Paul is attempting to corner the malpractice market, the more obvious harm is to those companies that are being closed out. It can be argued that the higher prices to doctors are only an indirect consequence and that the physicians have not suffered the sort of direct injury necessary to bring suit. See Battle v. Liberty National Life Insurance Co., 493 F.2d 39, 49 (5th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1110, 95 S.Ct. 784, 42 L.Ed.2d 807 (1975) (plaintiff must show himself to be in sector of economy in which violation threatens to break down competitive conditions). This sort of problem suggests that the doctors' ostensible antitrust action is aimed less at protecting the free market system than at consumer protection goals left by Congress to state regulation. See generally SEC v. National Securities, Inc., 393 U.S. 453, 460, 89 S.Ct. 564, 21 L.Ed.2d 668 (1969).
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https://openjurist.org/555/f2d/3/barry-v-st-paul-fire-and-marine-insurance-company
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The high holy holidays of Passover and Easter are fast approaching, and Ramadan is in May. Attacks, however, on places of worship are becoming too frequent in this global climate of intolerance. As a worshiper, I need our president to make us safe.
The Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting occurred in October 2018. The shooter injured seven and killed eleven people. It was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on the Jewish community in the country.
Last month, the Christchurch mosque shootings occured in New Zealand. The two consecutive terrorist attacks, injured over fifty, and killed fifty people. The gunman, a self-described eco-fascist and ethno nationalist, live-streamed his first attack on Facebook Live.
Before the assailant was apprehended, none of the church burnings had been labeled as hate crimes. That suggested because the churches are over 100 years-old that perhaps accidental ignition due to old and crumbling infrastructures, faulty wiring, or thunderstorms that can cause power outages, and occasional fires might be the culprit. Holden Matthews, the son of St. Landry Parish sheriff deputy, was the arsonist, igniting a wave of panic throughout its black community. Matthew, 21, is white. While Matthews’s behavior is undoubtedly disturbing to all its residents —his actions are not new.
The link between white supremacy and attacks on African American churches in this country have been both historically documented (see “list of attacks against African-American churches — Wikipedia”) and well-known.
In the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama four little African American girls were killed. And, it is one of the iconic images of white supremacist domestic terrorism. Massachusetts, however, which is known as the bluest of blue states proved that church burnings are not the sole province of the South. The burning of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in Springfield was just hours after Obama was elected that historic night of November 2008 as our country’s first African American president.
In 2015, African American church burnings occurred suspiciously in rapid succession following the Charleston black church massacre. It left nine dead — including its senior pastor. The day before the church massacre, precisely 197 years prior, “Mother” Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was burned to the ground due to the racial violence of a mob of white slave owners.
Church burnings were one more persistent reminder why during antebellum America, hush harbors were places where my enslaved ancestors gathered in secret to worship. These recent fires remind me how African Americans’ desire for safe and sacred spaces — especially places of worship — continue to be challenged with acts violence.
The roots of the Christchurch massacre were white supremacy and Islamophobia. The gunman praised President Trump in his 74-page manifesto posted online. He lauded Trump as a symbol “of renewed white identity and common purpose.” This attack has our Muslim brothers and sisters on edge. The mosque in Cambridge Massachusetts, just blocks from me, was on 24-hour surveillance for fear of a copycat incident.
During a press conference, Trump was asked if he “see(s) today that white nationalism is a rising threat around the world” in the wake of mosques attacks in New Zealand. “I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very, serious problems, I guess,” sadly Trump replied.
It is these types of statements that keep white supremacist terrorism alive, here and abroad.
Places of worship are sanctuaries of safe spaces. Freedom of religion is guaranteed in our constitution, and it’s a freedom that should be upheld globally. With many of us approaching the high holy holidays these coming days and weeks ahead, nothing would be more comforting than knowing our places of worship are safe.
Mr. President, can you help us?!
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https://outinjersey.net/hoping-for-safe-places-of-worship-with-trumps-help/
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For those that are unable to get around using standard vehicles or public transport, mobility scooters offer the perfect solution. If you're able to travel independently and mount a scooter on your own, a mobility scooter could be the answer to a more mobile lifestyle and a better quality of life. As the most established mobility company in Bassetlaw, we offer a wide range of mobility scooters to help you get your independence back, to suit all types of budgets, lifestyle needs and health requirements.
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https://outnaboutmobility.co.uk/scooters/
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WCASD TEAM exists to promote excellence in Special Education within WCASD. We serve as a voice for students with disabilities and their families.
Open to all caregivers of special needs students, TEAM PAC is a committee where you can share ideas, ask questions, seek advice, and learn more about the Special Education process in the West Chester Area School District. This group of parents works closely with Administrators, and the School Board, to ensure the best possible educational experience for ALL children. We meet regularly during the school year to share information, discuss programs, host guest speakers, collaborate with administrators, and network. We serve as a voice for students with disabilities and their families.
TEAM Parent Support Meetings are scheduled for the following dates during the 2018-19 school year. All meetings are 6:30 - 7:30 p.m., and are held the Spellman Educational Center, 782 Springdale Drive, Exton. PA 19341.
If you would like to receive notification of upcoming meetings, click here to sign up to receive emails and please check the box for Special Education meetings.
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https://pa02203541.schoolwires.net/Page/6868
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At Pacific Quest, students learn that what you put in your body directly affects how you feel. The Pacific Quest diet has been developed to provide balanced and vital nutrition. We take advantage of locally grown foods in Hawaii so that food is always fresh and healthy. We teach the basics of nutrition and how the body uses food as fuel. Purified water and herbal teas are the only liquids provided and students are taught how high sugar diets contribute to fluctuating blood sugar levels, which can cause mood changes and energy crashes. Students learn how to cook and prepare food using the freshest and most natural ingredients. All kitchen work is closely monitored by staff for safety and hygiene.
The Pacific Quest base diet contains 50% organic ingredients and 90% gluten-free ingredients, many of which are grown on our own organic farm. There are options for allergen-free, gluten-free or dairy-free diets upon request. At Pacific Quest, we believe food is medicine. We provide whole foods, hypoallergenic, anti-inflammatory, and blood sugar balancing diet, rich in critical nutrients for optimizing health.
It is our belief, that in order for adolescents and young adults to feel good and have adequate energy for optimal engagement in the therapeutic process, they must eat nutritious food, free of refined sugar, artificial chemicals and harmful substances.
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https://pacificquest.org/nutrition-and-diet/
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{
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|
I looked around, but I couldn’t find the source of the utterance.
The landscape around me wasn’t quite dreamlike. There was a logic here, a pattern that had a kind of familiarity to it. There was Rose, and there was me, striving to fill the gaps. In large part, I was able to. But where this kaleidoscopic world was shifting, different elements moving around me like a close up of an eye, dilating and widening, there were solid elements too. Elements that didn’t move.
If I focused, depending on how I focused, things took on different forms.
I turned to the nearest pillar, focusing so that it was a pillar. It was structurally sound, but only barely. A large section of the exterior had broken away.
Another refocusing, and I could see the jagged cut, a place where nothing could dwell or connect. A crack in the television screen. No matter what we did, we’d be working on a different plane, unable to affect that screen.
I changed my perspective once more. The pillar, the parts I could see, there were elements at play. Figures, with longer hair, a length of thigh, arms folded over the chest. Eyelashes.
They were me, or they were Rusty, but only fragments had survived the damage, from the cracks that ran along the pillar’s surface.
Femininity, perhaps, or self image that fit with Rose being female.
I blinked, looking around.
More structures. Some mine, distinct, positioned where they once would have been part of things, now separate, degraded, damaged, and more raw.
I’d once prided myself on having an eye for interpreting art. Now I was interpreting an alien landscape that should have been more familiar than anything else, because it was us. I quickly made conclusions that I knew I couldn’t rely on, broad-strokes thoughts that let me put everything in a frame of reference.
An arch, more intact than the feminine one had been. The books that stood out like they’d been half-way carved out of rough rock, the surface around them coarse, it somehow evoked thoughts of the Library we’d been in the process of escaping.
The Barber’s work had cut the arch in two, from one side to the other, and left a black fracture through the landscape that ran through virtually everything here. The damage was such that the two halves didn’t fit together anymore. A puzzle with a thick strip taken out of the middle. The two halves no longer meshed.
I looked to the scenes surrounding the arch. More orderly. There was a rigid pattern to how the days and events had been laid out.
I focused a little harder one one section, a little more prominent than the rest, the colors bolder, the image sharper. More importantly, it was a scene that was mostly intact, and entirely on her side of the black fracture. Something of Rose’s that had been denied to me. Entirely unfamiliar.
A seven year old ‘Rose’, pieced together from the remains of Rusty, looked up at her teacher, bewildered.
Rose couldn’t quite believe that. You didn’t get sent to the principal’s office unless you’d done something wrong.
But she went. The front office wasn’t far away.
“Hi Ros-,” the principal said. The tall, thin man smiled.
He looked so big, from Rose’s perspective, even sitting down.
She had to step up to the desk to hold out the foolscap. He took it and smoothed it out where she’d crumpled it a bit out of anxiety.
Rose hesitated, then nodded.
She allowed herself a smile.
He opened the drawer of his desk, and he pulled out a thick roll of stickers, as large as a roll of duct tape. He peeled one off, and he pressed it down onto the foolscap paper.
She took the paper back. Her eyes went wide. The sticker was holographic! Shiny! The super-realistic image of the frog on the page opened its mouth, tongue starting to stick out as she looked at it from different angles.
She smiled wide, happy enough she could barely contain herself.
I pulled my attention away, but in the doing, caught other thoughts and reflections, associated to it. A warmer memory, of mom seeing the paper, and giving her an awkward sort of hug, if it could even be called that. She didn’t bend down, but just put a hand on Rose’s back as Rose hugged her, a pat and a short rub, then the work with the shiny sticker going on the fridge.
After mom left, Rose approached the image on the fridge, moving left and right to watch the image move. Still excited, still proud.
Her face still a fractured mess, a reconfiguration that only resembled a girl. The Barber hadn’t needed to be too careful, there. It was a memory. Flaws were to be expected.
I caught a thought from an older Rose, thinking back on the memory while she lay in bed. Abstract, wondering why the school had done it. Trying to build more positive relationships with students? Or was it because she was a Thorburn, and the school had seen several other Thorburns pass through? Were they striving to do this one right, where others had been disasters in their own way? A more cynical line of thought.
One event could do so much. So many individual things had been removed, destroyed, or moved elsewhere, to create two incomplete wholes. How much had we been steered in our own individual directions?
I looked at an associated memory, a defining moment, on the far side of the fracture. It was, on a level, an extension of me, as if I simply flowed into the landscape, as much liquid as solid, filling the available void. The only difference from real life was that I was viewing things with different senses.
A shiny holographic image, our second, less important, but still, it should have been pleasing. Except all that remained of that second memory was the sticker itself. A bird on a branch, wings opening as I looked at it from different angles. There was none of the academic pride, none of the surrounding memories. Only the sticker, alone, at the edge of the fracture, something I had liked.
I heard Conquest’s voice, a whisper.
This time I was grounded enough to look for the source.
It came from above and around. As if the sky was talking to me.
But the sky, as I looked at it, was only more distant images and scenes, structures.
I was, it dawned on me, making a fundamental error. I’d tried to rise, I’d tried to navigate, but my surroundings were a shifting kaleidoscope collection of scenes, moving as Rose and I each focused on different things, even grating against one another as we did so, with some damage resulting, fragments of our selves being lost to the fracture. Swallowed up and gone.
Given time, we might grind each other into dust, as we instinctively shifted pieces of the larger puzzle around, trying to fit things where they didn’t fit.
I’d tried to move around, to look up and down, even altered my focus, looking at things in different forms, to view the pillars as what they were.
But I was small, and I was looking at things in a small way. A large part of the reason it didn’t make sense, was that I was studying a complex organism on what amounted to a cellular level.
The kaleidoscope remained what it was, though not rainbow hued, but more muted colors. The colors of Rose and Blake’s life. Being a raw spirit, intertwined with my surroundings, my vision didn’t suffer for being further away or for me being bigger.
I was a share of the landscape here, at least in part. I only had to own that reality.
Rose’s body was hers. It was solid, a largely unchanging state. I couldn’t occupy that domain. Not easily. Not without suffering for trying.
Her thoughts were more malleable, her memories all the more so.
Once I figured out the landscape on the macro sense, I was able to find her consciousness. It moved like a roiling storm, too many factors and variables to take in.
Rose’s boots crunched through the snow as she approached the waiting group, Alister, Evan and Green Eyes in her company. Peter, Ainsley, Ellie and Christoff all stood at the ridge above the hole the house had collapsed into. Ellie and Christoff sat a fair bit further back than the others did.
“Peter,” Rose greeted her cousin. Ainsley pulled away from under Peter’s arm to approach and hug Alister.
“Not everyone made it,” he said.
Rose glanced over at Ellie. She offered a tight smile.
“I’ll try to relay what happened after,” Alister said.
It was family looking after family. Rose watched Alister’s eyes, and she tried not for the first time, to reconcile her feelings on that front. His face was almost punchable, sometimes, especially the periodic smirks. Attractive, but punchable. She wondered if it would become something endearing or if she’d grow to want to strangle him. He was so casually confident, almost smarmy, at his worst.
But attractive. She’d never been one to join the other girls in fussing over the boys, but now and then, she’d been able to think that one boy or another was certainly attractive. Alister was one such boy.
Seeing him dealing with his cousin, his almost restrained patience at dealing with Ainsley’s mothering and concern, Rose felt like there was a possibility there. A place in this marriage-to-be where she might be comfortable with him. If not comfortable, at least not wanting to actively murder him.
She looked away before she could get caught staring.
Rose met Peter’s eyes.
“You look like shit,” Peter told Rose, in a marked contrast to Ainsley’s gentleness and care.
“The stickman didn’t make it out?” Peter asked.
“He did, in a manner of speaking,” Rose said, her voice soft. She tapped her collarbone.
Eerie, to step back from the scene and look at it more abstractly, to see how the entire storm that was Rose’s awareness briefly focusing on me, searching for and finding me within her.
Clouds hued in the grays and blacks of what Rose was seeing, tinted with flashes of light blue, like Ainsley’s jacket, as if someone had dyed the storm.
“You’re going to remember him forever? He holds a place in your heart?” Peter asked.
“No,” Rose said, annoyed.
Alister, beside her, was fiddling with his jacket, where it had been cut off along with his hand. He pulled his glove off with his teeth and started to work with the fabric.
Rose helped, pulling his sweater down and tying it in a rough knot. After a moment, she pulled off one mitten and pulled it tight over the stump. It was mangled, but not openly bleeding. It took some doing.
“Because here I was, thinking you and stickman didn’t get along,” Peter said, sounding impatient with the conversation.
Ainsley’s head snapped around, giving Rose a second look, suddenly very concerned.
“Yes. You seem oddly comfortable, all things considered,” Alister said. He glanced at Ainsley.
“What?” Ainsley asked.
“Seriously, what? I have no idea what you’re saying,” Ainsley said.
“Can’t help but notice he had his arm around you, as we walked up,” Alister said.
It sounded like she was addressing Peter as much as anything. Rose paid particular attention to that. She analyzed it, and I didn’t follow the analysis. I could figure it out myself, without studying it.
Peter took it all in stride, shrugging.
“I don’t even know what you two are saying,” Ainsley said, exasperated.
Rose shook her head. After all the stress of nearly dying, wrestling with countless others, and dealing with the demon, she was almost relieved at the mild argument here.
A movement behind her made her turn her head.
Her eye fell briefly on Green Eyes, who was laying in snow, one hand on a branch. The thing. She was supposed to be a mermaid, but she was a nightmare. A mockery of a mermaid. Every inch of her was covered in scales with flesh-ripping barbs, and even the angle and posture of her body threatened immediate and horrible degrees of pain.
A bogeyman, Rose estimated, could be bad enough. But one that was pissed off?
-And I could see the landscape on my end of things change.
If Rose’s self was a realm unto itself, with me holding some territory and Rose holding the rest, then Rose willingly ceded territory to Conquest.
Changing my perspective, I could see Conquest taking hold, vines with tiny white flowers creeping, shoring up the solid structures, creeping between shattered images, bolstering them.
The storm roiled, but now white petals stirred, multiplying in the darker shadows which might have represented Rose’s fear.
I saw a tendril of Conquest’s reaching, and I moved to head it off, to look and see if my own strength could hold up to the incarnation’s.
Further from ongoing events. Into memories.
It was much as things had been before. Fractured images. On the one side, Rose attended church with her parents. On the other, well, I didn’t have those same memories. My view of church was what I’d seen walking past and looking in, after a given church had closed. The church where the Jacob’s Bell council met. Ominous, dark, and empty.
The scene was largely frozen, and it remained fractured. On the one side, the church bright. Mom and dad sitting on either side of a young Rose. Rigid, proper, keeping her in line. The fracture ran down across the benches of the rightmost aisle, and my side of the church was empty, dark, with things moving in the shadows.
Conquest stood at the Altar. The minister, middle aged, all in white, with a pinched mouth and hard stare. Two bouquets of flowers sat on either side of the altar, and both blossomed, white petals falling to make room for the new.
“I’ve been looking for you,” I said.
“Why do you need to occupy this sort of memory?” I countered.
She pointed. I followed her gaze beyond the church windows.
“Peter,” Rose said, with a stern tone. Her connection to Conquest connected, exaggerated, and drew from several events in her personal experience. From the scene that Conquest and I occupied, I saw Rose reach into and draw from the strict and slightly scary minister, our parent’s aura as they sat on either side of her, the pressure and expectation that she sit still and be good.
Peter shook his head, and looked away. Breaking eye contact.
It felt satisfying to Rose, to achieve the effect she’d aimed for, getting Peter to back down with a word.
“That would be why,” Conquest said, her words tearing me away from the scene. I was back in a church formed from composite images and memories.
Rose was relaxing her use of Conquest, and I could see as this Conquest retracted the tendrils and branches.
I looked out the window, and I watched as the group turned to go. Ellie and Christoff led the way. Ainsley and Peter followed behind.
Heavy snow gave way under Ainsley’s feet, causing her foot to drop a few inches. Peter caught her arm.
“Thank you,” Ainsley said.
“No worries,” Peter said, still holding her arm as he glanced over his shoulder.
His expression was placid, but he made eye contact with Alister.
It was probably more infuriating anything else.
Alister tensed, and Rose put a hand on his chest, stopping him.
“He’s…” Alister flailed ineffectually with his stump of a hand, trying to articulate something and failing.
“I know,” Rose said, gently. They’d stopped, and the others were moving slightly ahead, out of earshot.
Rose was very aware of the mermaid bogeyman, who had also stopped, still glaring at her.
“She- Ainsley doesn’t know. She’s not versed in this stuff. She’s a good student, a good practitioner. She doesn’t have any defenses against-” Alister said, with genuine worry creeping into his voice. He stopped very deliberately.
“Yeah,” Alister said, and there was an odd inflection to his voice.
“Come on,” Rose said, tugging on his good arm.
Alister obeyed, swaying a little with fatigue.
Rose ended up with both arms around Alister’s arm, her shoulder against his side, her head resting against his shoulder.
It wasn’t familiar to her, not quite natural, never something she’d had experience with, but she was trying, and she was secretly hoping to find her way there. If it was even possible, with what the Barber had done.
“The guy,” Alister said.
“The handsome, talented guy who happens to be engaged to his cousin,” Rose said.
She tried to make the compliment sound natural, but to her ears, and to mine, as I listened with those ears, it didn’t sound that way. I was also privy to the fact that it killed her, just a little, that she hadn’t been able to pull it off.
“Fair enough,” Alister said, and he did manage to make it sound natural, enough to ease that small knot of anxiety.
“Mmm,” Rose said. She pushed down the complex emotions that were stirring at that thought.
“Thinking about winning,” Rose said.
Rose turned, and she glanced at the mermaid and Evan. The bogeyman was stalking them, staying just a few paces behind, watching through narrowed eyes. Evan rode on the mermaid’s head. Disheveled, feathers sticking up here and there. Nothing to do with the fact that they’d had to inject spirits into him. But to do with associating with Blake.
With me, I corrected.
“Me too!” Evan added, brightly.
I looked away from the window.
I felt vaguely uncomfortable. There was a dissonance that came with looking through Rose’s eyes. Seeing Evan and Green Eyes without the same sort of familiarity or attachment.
Most definitely not rose-tinted glasses.
The minister was gone. The church had half-emptied, and Conquest was now in the shape of my mother. She stood by a memory of a young ten year old Rose, fixing her hair, smoothing out her blouse, a fractured image of a dress shirt.
“Winning,” Conquest said, looking up at me.
Conquest gave me mom’s best disapproving look. Rose and I had experienced enough that there was no shortage, even portioning them out between us.
The old standbys held, when it came to dealing with Conquest. I needed to keep her from gaining ground. I couldn’t let her influence me, or get me under her thumb.
I had to wonder if I should be worried she was agreeing with me, or if that was a consequence of her being Conquest. Was it even possible for her to back down, being what she was?
“On both counts,” she said.
I wanted to react, to prepare for battle, but she was right. I wasn’t familiar with this battlefield, with the weapons that might be employed.
She closed the distance, reaching out, and she seized me by the neck.
I tried to reach out, but I didn’t exactly have arms to grab her with.
I struggled, but in this medium, I wasn’t quite sure how.
Stupid, to get cornered like this, but what choice had I had? I’d tried negotiating, and backing down or cowering would only have made Conquest worse. I’d had to bluff my way into it.
Had to hope I could find power and leverage it.
But I might as well have been a one year old, this setting and form were so new to me.
Outside, in the real world, Rose stopped walking. She allowed herself to clutch Alister’s arm just a little tighter, before releasing it.
“Shit,” Alister said.
Rose was silent. Most of the others, including the others who had escaped the Abyss, the High Priest, the Knights, Tiff, and Ty, had stopped, collected as a loose group.
Ms. Lewis stood a distance away. Facing all of them.
“I was expecting this,” Rose said, echoing Conquest.
As she spoke, she drew on Conquest for presence, power, and courage.
Conquest, gripping me by the throat, squeezed tighter. Hurt me.
“What?” Alister asked.
“He has atrocious timing,” Alister observed.
She eased up, letting go of Conquest, and the grip on my throat relaxed a fraction. Still painfully tight.
“You have us,” Alister said.
I looked down at Conquest, who wore Grandmother’s body, her expression cold.
Because, I had to assume, when I’d dealt with a dragon, fought multiple demons ranging from mote to nightmare, when I’d been in and out of the Abyss three times, befriended monsters who flayed people alive, and fought off the hordes of Toronto, my ignoble end had to be rubbed in by it being at the hands of an old lady.
“No, he isn’t,” Rose said.
Rose’s heart was pounding, and I was keenly aware of it. A sensation I’d missed. Her mouth was dry, and she wanted to tap Conquest, very, very badly.
“No,” Rose said.
“Crossroads,” Peter said, from the midst of the collected group, as if trying on the word, barely aware he’d spoken.
Several people in the group between Ms. Lewis and Rose moved uncomfortably. Hands were on weapons.
Rose was silent. Seconds passed.
Conquest tightened her grip on my throat.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Ms. Lewis said.
Lewis didn’t look surprised in the slightest.
Rose nodded, but she didn’t speak. She didn’t trust herself to.
That thought expressed, she started to feed into Conquest.
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https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/category/story/arc-15-possession/15-05/
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{
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|
During the purchasing process, select the date you plan to arrive. After making the online payment you will receive a voucher via email with your reservation code.
On the date of your reservation, enter the parking lot as usual, take a ticket at the entrance and park in any empty spot. Once you're out of the car, approach the control booth with the Parclick voucher and the ticket you took. The staff there will check your reservation using the reservation code, and will give you a card that will allow you to exit the car park. Follow this process every time you leave and reenter within the validity period of your parking pass.
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https://parclick.com/parking-madrid/mm_jacinto_benavente
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{
"file_path": "/home/ubuntu/dolma-v1_7/cc_en_head-0000.json.gz"
}
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American Friends of the Parents Circle-Families Forum (AF-PCFF) shares the human side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the American public in order to foster a peace and reconciliation process. The AF-PCFF is committed to supporting the Parents Circle-Families Forum (PCFF) through raising public awareness, constituency building and fundraising in the U.S.
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https://parentscirclefriends.org/mission/
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{
"file_path": "/home/ubuntu/dolma-v1_7/cc_en_head-0000.json.gz"
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|
While listening to a former coach, now a sports commentator, I was struck by a comment he made as he evaluated an inexperienced quarterback. His assessment was that the young athlete took too many risks and needed to dial it back a bit. That said, he concluded his remarks by saying, “But I would rather have to pull someone back than to coax them to move forward.” What struck me about that statement is how much it parallels my experience in working with professionals.
You see, it’s natural to want to hold back in order to reduce risk. You stay close to what you know. You’re comfortable and secure. In fact, you feel courageous and victorious when you remain close to your center.
It’s also a way of making yourself unremarkable. No one notices you. Not your firm’s leaders, not your clients, not your prospects, not your community. You are only noticed by yourself—capable, in charge and on top of the world. You think you’re really something while others think you’re not much. The only time others notice you is when you hesitate, delay and hold up.
Go-getters aren’t fearful to step out. They are willing to enter into the “don’t know for sure” realm, where there is a chance of failure or ineffectiveness. They step out and ask the challenging questions, engage in “what if” discussions, and propose something innovative, even when they are unsure about where it will take them. They don’t shy away from something they’ve never done before and refuse to be indecisive.
And if you are in a supervisory capacity and your instruction to others is to “just do as you’re told,” you are demonstrating low-risk behavior and stunting the development of your people. In fact, you are raising unnoticeable and unremarkable professionals.
This week, every time you feel anxious, unsure or ill-equipped, force yourself to take the risk to venture out. It’s the only way to expand your capability and be noticed. And remarkable.
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https://partnerscoach.com/take-risk-remarkable/
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{
"file_path": "/home/ubuntu/dolma-v1_7/cc_en_head-0000.json.gz"
}
|
What do you think of first when you hear the word “repentance”? What do you think it means to repent?
In today’s gospel lesson, you will hear about repenting three times. John the Baptist calls us to repent, to prepare for the coming of God’s Kingdom. We usually think about repentance in terms of what we need to repent from – turning away from our sins. But turning away from sin begs the question: What does God call us to repent toward? As you listen to John the Baptist’s words, I invite you to focus your attention on what it is you need to turn toward when you repent.
This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ ” Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
The people of Israel had been waiting for hundreds of years, in expectation of the Messiah. Prophets had been promising for centuries that God would send a Redeemer to restore David’s throne, but it had been four hundred years since a prophet’s voice had been heard in Israel. As John the Baptist began his ministry, some hoped that perhaps he was the promised Messiah. He certainly spoke with prophetic authority.
John lived out in the wilderness, and ate whatever he could find. His message was relentless, and he didn’t seem to care who was offended by his preaching. John knew, even if the people who heard him didn’t, that he was not the Promised One. John knew his job was to prepare the way for the Savior, and that the time was very near. Like the people who thronged to hear him, he was eagerly waiting for the prophetic word he preached to be fulfilled.
Instead of going to the center of town to stand on his soapbox where more people could hear him, John lived out in the wild country, where no one wanted to go. Yet people from Jerusalem, even all of Judea, came out to hear him.
Repent. God’s Kingdom is close at hand. How does repentance prepare us for the coming of Messiah? Let’s look at the three ways John talks about repentance.
First, John preaches the simplest sermon ever written: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” In the Greek, it’s only seven words, but this will also be the message Jesus preaches as he begins his ministry. Straight out of the chute, John tells us why it is so important to repent.
“Turn around! And here’s why you need to do it right now: God’s kingdom is gaining on you!” The time has come to turn away from our old patterns of sinful living. The time has come to embrace a new way of thinking and being, a Kingdom way of living. You not only need to turn around, you need to completely re-orient yourself into this Kingdom mindset.
Once we understand why repentance is so urgent, John tells us what this new way of living will look like. It will be fruitful. “Bear fruit worthy of repentance,” he tells the Pharisees and Sadducees – and us. Our lives need to show evidence that we have turned away from sin, and have turned toward God.
But that fruit is not just for our own benefit.
Worthy fruit is evidence of something so powerful, others want to turn toward it, too. It is a complete reversal in lifestyle, attitudes, and the way we interact with others.
When we turn in the direction God wants us to go, and follow faithfully, we demonstrate a life that is worth repenting for! Others take notice, and begin to desire such fruitfulness in their own lives. We bear fruit that is worthy of repentance.
John’s baptism is a curious thing. Baptism wasn’t something new – immersion in water was required for entry into the temple for anyone who had become ritually unclean. Just outside the temple in Jerusalem, there are special pools constructed to make sure the person seeking purification has been completely covered with water. Some of these larger pools, or mikva’ot, have a stone dividing wall running down the middle of the steps that lead down into the water. You would go down into the water on one side of the steps as unclean, and come up out of the water on the other side as ritually pure.
This kind of ritual bath was also a requirement for gentiles who wished to convert to Judaism. Our guide in Jerusalem told us that the mikva’ot used for this purpose were designed so that a convert entered the water on the outside of the Temple enclosure, and had to go under a wall to come up out of the water on the inside of the Temple courtyard. Diving under the wall ensured that the convert was completely submerged, and had been completely purified, before entering the temple to worship.
The mikva’ot were filled from an active spring, or “living water” to maintain their purity. So why were all these Jews going out to the wild lands by the Jordan river – not the cleanest river in the area – to be baptized by this strange man? Even the Sadducees and Pharisees, the most influential and faithful Jewish leaders, were coming out to hear John and be baptized. These were religious leaders who placed great importance on ritual purity.
But John’s baptism wasn’t a standard ritual. John’s baptism was a symbol of repentance, of turning away from sin. The people who came to John to be baptized wanted to be ready when the Messiah came. John’s preaching had awakened in them an awareness of what it meant to be God’s people, holy and set apart. John’s preaching also awakened in them a hope for the future, and the expectation that the future was nearer than they had thought.
John recognized something else that was different about the baptism he offered. He saw that water baptism associated with repentance was only a preparation for what was to come. The real baptism would be one of fulfillment, as Christ initiated his Kingdom, baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire. Repent, John says, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near, and when it comes in its fullness, there will be judgment for all. Those who believe will be judged righteous through their faith in Jesus Christ, and those who do not believe will be cast away, like dead branches thrown onto a fire.
In her book, Unbinding the Gospel, Martha Grace Reese notes research that shows most people who have come to know Christ in the past ten years don’t mention a fear of Hell or judgment as the reason they came to faith. Instead of fear, they describe a desire to know God, to be part of a community where God’s love has touched them. Apparently, scaring people away from Hell is about the least effective way to introduce them to Christ.
Perhaps John the Baptist’s warning may not be so much for unbelievers, then, but for those of us who already belong to God’s family. It should burden our hearts that people we know and love might not be ready to enter the Kingdom. We should be so afraid of letting others be cast into the fire like chaff, that we want to do everything in our power to introduce them to God’s great love, shown to us in the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Let us bear fruit worthy of repentance. Let us live lives so compelling that others will see us as children of God, and they will desire to have that same peace, that same compassion for others that we demonstrate in our lives. Bear fruit worthy of repentance, so that no one you know will be cut down as an unfruitful tree and thrown into the fire.
To repent is to turn around. It’s what you turn toward that matters. As you turn away from old habits and patterns of sin, turn toward God’s love, made real in Jesus.
Today is the second Sunday of Advent, the season of the year we set aside to prepare the way of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven has come near. Repentance is how we prepare for the coming of Messiah. It is time to turn away from our own desires, as we turn toward God’s deep desire for us. It is time to turn away from our brokenness, as we turn toward God’s all-encompassing love for us. Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near.
This entry was posted in Advent, Sermons and tagged Advent, baptism, John the Baptist, repentance on December 3, 2016 by pastorsings.
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https://pastorsings.com/2016/12/03/turn-around-sermon-on-matthew-31-12/
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Bolshevism 100 years later? Socialism and communism are more popular than capitalism among Millennials.
As the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, responsible for unleashing one of the bloodiest and most oppressive epochs in world history, is upon us, a disturbing survey recently released by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation shows that a majority of Millennials favor socialism and communism over capitalism. The survey notes that 58% of Millennials would rather be living under some form of collectivist system than the free market-based system of capitalism.
Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism, states, “Millennials now make up the largest generation in America, and we’re seeing some deeply worrisome trends. Millennials are increasingly turning away from capitalism and toward socialism and even communism as a viable alternative.” Maybe even more troubling, the survey shows that nearly one in five Millennials view Josef Stalin as a “hero.” Out on a limb, but perhaps that’s because their public school education didn’t include the fact that Stalin killed tens of millions of his own citizens.
Indeed, what are American kids being taught in school? If the idealization of communism isn’t an indictment against America’s poor educational standards, specifically relating to historical events, then we don’t know what is. Should we be surprised that a growing number of college students support restrictions to free speech rights?
Factors for increasing numbers of Millennials disillusioned with capitalism may be due to the fact that a majority (53%) feel burdened by the economy, as it has been widely speculated that the Millennial generation will actually fare worse than their parents economically. A generation growing up with high levels of debt and lower earning power while being taught that they’re victims of “The System” will naturally seek to change it, rather than change themselves.
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https://patriotpost.us/articles/52261
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The Public Building Commission of Chicago and the City of Chicago, working together through an intergovernmental agreement, join the Chicago Public Library in conducting a comprehensive library building program. The program includes the construction or renovation of branch libraries, the building of additional new branch libraries in various parts of Chicago, and the replacement of small, store-front libraries with new, modern library facilities.
The efforts of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the PBC and the Public Library have lead to a prototype design for branch libraries, allowing them to be built efficiently and cost-effectively. The designs also provide for the thoughtful use of space, and through this the libraries are able to host a variety of offerings, such as children’s reading programs, high school equivalency and financial planning classes for adults, and various additional resources to enrich the learning process for library patrons of all ages. Further, the designs for all new libraries include features that qualify the building for certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.
The result is a broad-based, technologically advanced library system that plays a vital role in the education and literacy of Chicago’s children and adults.
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https://pbcchicago.com/projects-by-sister-agency/chicago-public-libraries/
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One of the most exiting events in the world of Aeronautics will take place in Albuquerque from 5 to 13 of October 2019!
Hey, Bro! Do you know, that Albuquerque balloon festival bears the unofficial title of “the most photographed event in the world”. Going there, be sure to take your camera to shot stunning photos. Well, such an event is definitely better to see once with your own eyes, than a hundred times to hear about it from people!
Every autumn over 100,000 people come to Albuquerque to see how hundreds of colorful balloons in the sky over the Rio Grande valley will spin in a fascinating dance!. This festival began about forty years ago with only 13 balloons, and today, about 750 teams of aeronauts take part in this great event every year. Albuquerque balloon festival takes place on the territory of the Balloon Fiesta Park, Where the Museum of Aeronautics is also open.
Balloon Fiesta consists of 14 “sessions”, and every session consists of a certain type of activities. Also, there are 2 types of sessions: morning and evening. Morning session takes place on each of the 9 days of the event, while there are 5 evening sessions throughout the event. The morning session usually starts at 4:30 a.m. when the park opens, and the evening session begins at 3:30 p.m. There are no balloon activities between sessions!
Albuquerque balloon festival 2019 tickets: you can book a ticket, or plan your trip here! Also, you can go to the official website of the event to buy a ticket!
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https://pc4bro.com/albuquerque-balloon-festival/
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Well, maybe there is something Caps fans can be happy about this morning. Colorado has dropped to 25th in the league standings and is only nine points ahead of Columbus (which actually has a better record in their last ten games than the Avalanche). It makes for a "Smilin' George"...
And this time, there aren’t cameras from HBO to record it.
The Washington Capitals lost their fifth game in six tries and seventh in their last ten (3-6-1) as the Winnipeg Jets skated off with a 4-1 decision last night at MTS Centre.
It started well enough for the Caps, encouragingly, in fact. Alexander Semin scored only his fourth goal of the season in the game’s fourth minute to give the Caps an early lead. Semin finished off a 3-on-2 rush by taking a Brooks Laich feed, faking a shot from the right wing circle to pull Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec out of position, then snapping the puck high into the net from the bottom of the circle.
It didn’t last. Evander Kane got it back for the Jets four minutes later. As it has been much too often lately, an opponent just seemed to want it more than the Caps. In this case it was Alexander Burmistrov winning a battle for the puck, skating out with it from the corner with three Caps surrounding him. But Cody Eakin, Marcus Johansson, and John Carlson defended with their sticks instead of keeping their feet moving, and Burmistrov drove to the middle where he had room to find Evander Kane for the lay-up.
It was only a sign of things to come as the Jets exploded in the second period for three goals on seven shots in a space of 4:18 to put the game away. The Caps would manage ten shots on goal in the period after the Jets scored their fourth goal, but it was all for naught. Washington registered only seven shots in the last 20 minutes, and it was another unhappy ending.
-- Amazingly, the Caps are still on top in the Southeast and still in third place in the East. But they might be only days away from slipping out of the top-eight in the Eastern Conference. With 21 points they are now tied with Florida and Ottawa for the sixth, seventh, and eighth most points in the conference.
-- Ondrej Pavelec won his fourth straight game against the Caps, and in stopping 31 of 32 shots his save percentage actually went down from what it was over the other three games. In his last four matchups against the Caps he has stopped 141 of 143 shots, a .986 save percentage.
-- For the third time in four games, Mike Knuble did not record a shot on goal. He had only one attempt in almost 14 minutes of play.
-- The penalty killers had a bad game. In giving up five shorthanded situations the Caps went to 2-4-1 when allowing at least five. It was the first time they allowed two power play goals in a game since allowing two against Vancouver in a 7-4 loss on October 29th. The Caps had been 22-for-24 in seven games since the Vancouver loss (91.7 percent).
-- At the other end, the Caps wasted a 5-on-3 advantage that lasted 1:01 in the second period that could have gotten them back in the game. They had three shots on the 5-on-3 and none on the 59 seconds of the second penalty when the Caps had a 5-on-4 advantage.
-- The Caps were credited with no takeaways…none. That’s okay. Winnipeg was credited with one.
-- The Caps were credited with only five blocked shots for the night, none by a forward. That seems low at first blush, but the Caps seemed to be sluggish most of the night. It isn’t far off if it is at all.
-- Alex Ovechkin had five shots on goal, but it was not as if they were all sparkling chances. Only one was inside 35 feet.
-- That makes six games in a row in which Alexander Semin has taken a minor penalty and 10 of his last 12.
-- It was a wasted effort in the circle. The Caps won 13 of 23 offensive zone draws (56.5 percent) and 15 of 20 defensive zone draws (70.0 percent).
-- So there they were…middle of the second period, down a goal, killing a penalty. Turning point – maybe if they kill this off, the Caps can tilt the ice the other way. And then…Jeff Halpern leading Brooks Laich on a two-on-none shorthanded break. Halpern has the puck…waits…waits…draws off Pavelec and slides the puck to Laich. Winnipeg goes down the other end; Blake Wheeler walks around Roman Hamrlik to create what was effectively a two-on-one deep. Jeff Schultz holds off Evander Kane going to the net, but Wheeler walks in and stuffs it past Michal Neuvirth ten seconds after Laich’s miss. Game.
In the end, it was a strange game. The score will tell a tale that Winnipeg dominated, but the fact is, the Caps didn’t finish on the chances they had. Call it a lack of “puck luck,” or just not bearing down, but the Caps had Pavelec where they wanted him on several occasions and just didn’t seal the deal. The more disturbing outcome of this game is the defensive trend. One goal allowed against New Jersey, two against the Devils in the rematch, three against Nashville, and four against Winnipeg last night. None of these teams will remind anyone of the 1978 Canadiens. None of them might remind anyone of the current Canadiens in terms of their offese.
The Caps are now in a delicate place. They have not yet started dropping like a rock through the standings with that 3-6-1 record in their last ten because they banked a lot of points early, and only the Rangers and Boston are truly “hot” in the East, both recovering after slow starts. But the Caps are now only two points ahead of 12th place Montreal. Three teams “below” them in the standings have more points, including the team they will face on Saturday. And now, they head on the road to play that team on a big stage – Air Canada Centre in Toronto with a national television audience in Canada looking on. They do it squarely in a slump, playing indifferent hockey. The last time they faced this situation was on a cold night in New York City, and it ended as perhaps the ugliest game the Caps played all year.
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https://peerlessprognosticator.blogspot.com/2011_11_18_archive.html
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She is also a staff developer in schools in New York City and worldwide. She holds two Masters degrees from Fordham University: the first in Curriculum and Instruction and the second in Administration and Supervision. The wide variety of work that the students produce throughout an author study is multifaceted.
She leads advanced sections at the TCRWP's renowned summer institutes, and courses for literacy coaches. Valerie works with teachers in New York City and around the country, promoting a growth mindset in students and play as a teaching tool.
Comparing the published studies with the replies received Fig. Well overteachers have attended their week-long institutes. In their role, they may work across genres, from nonfiction to poetry, fiction to satire.
One month allowed for any variation in response rates for our work. Writing professionals are broadly employed in different industries, ranging from academia to business, journalism to entertainment. One of the appeals of an author study is that it can be tailored to meet students' needs and become as extensive as the teacher chooses. If an author had more than one included study within the systematic review, they were only contacted once, about all their studies. If we identified data not reported in the study, and that would provide unique information which informed the development of the thematic analysis linked to this wider study, we determined this as valuable, since it was data which informed the synthesis but that we would not have identified from the original study in question. In this role, he has supported teacher teams and administrators in New York City and beyond to build stronger pedagogy around reading and writing workshop and balanced literacy practices. In addition to her work in classrooms alongside kids and their teachers, Lisa teaches institutes and specialty courses at TCRWP. Efficiency The efficiency of contacting authors was assessed by recording the time taken to contact study authors e. Lindsay began her career in education at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child and Human Studies at Tufts University, where she taught young children at the department lab school for several years. Katie has been an adjunct instructor at Teachers College, teaching graduate courses in literacy education. Allyse began her career in early childhood education as a first grade teacher in the South Bronx while attending and later graduating from the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College. Out of Print, a documentary featuring Cornelius made its way around the film festival circuit, and he has been a featured speaker at conferences all over the world.
She works to help teachers and students learn to find the joy of literacy, and believes literacy is a right, not a privilege, and a tool that empowers, engages, and fights injustice.
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https://penivyhozesameju.whatshanesaid.com/authors-study10878245ya.html
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If you go to the store to start taking a few extra vitamins, then you’ll be met with a massive wall of supplements. Which ones should you take? It’s hard to narrow it down and know what’s best for you. Overall, these are the 6 vitamins that do the most good, and are generally lacking in the average diet.
Vitamin D: One of the more common deficiencies is Vitamin D. It reduces the chance of getting sick, it improves our mood, and is good for bones and hair. Vitamin D allows our bodies to absorb calcium and use it properly. Our bodies produce it naturally from sunlight on our skin, and it can also come in the form of food, such as fatty fish and egg yolks. With our day jobs, getting outside can be difficult to do, especially during cooler months. So, the next best thing is to give your body the boost it needs with a supplement.
Iron: We need iron to carry oxygen to the rest of our body. Without it, we feel fatigued, our muscles aren’t supported, we can have headaches, and our digestion is off. Iron is typically more of an issue with women and vegetarians. You can find it naturally in foods like dark leafy greens, meat, and pumpkin seeds. It’s suggested to take it with vitamin C for better absorption.
Calcium: We all know that we need calcium for strong bones. Not only can you find calcium in dairy products, but you can also find it in vegetables like broccoli, nuts, and beans. The recommended amount is 1,000 mg a day. It’s possible that you’re already hitting that number through your diet, but having excess can never hurt.
Zinc: This vitamin is typically lower in elderly people and those with chronic stress. Zinc is a big immune booster, and it helps our bodies use the carbs, fats, and proteins in the right way. You can find it in oysters, pumpkin seeds, spinach, tahini, and others. The American diet typically isn’t high in these foods, which is why supplementing is a great idea.
Magnesium: Magnesium does various different things in the body. It supports muscle health and recovery, reduces inflammation, calms and regulates nerves, eases sleep issues, and can help to balance blood sugar levels. You can find it in pumpkin, spinach, artichoke, soybeans, and nuts. Out of all of the vitamins on this list, magnesium is one of the most important.
Vitamin C: And then the good old, Vitamin C. Everyone can use this immune booster regardless of the time of year. You can find vitamin C in citrus fruits like lemons, limes, and oranges. As mentioned before, it also aids in the absorption of iron. Take these two supplements together for the best results.
Vitamins and minerals are your body’s first defense against disease and illness. They can prevent aches and pains by giving your body what it needs to function at its best. Before you buy, do your research on the brand and company that you are purchasing from. The FDA doesn’t regulate supplements, so the purity can vary. Read reviews to make sure that you are getting a quality product.
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https://pennsaukenvillas.com/blog/top-6-vitamins-that-you-need-in-your-medicine-cabinet/
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Having seen Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles (1952), Paul Reed embarked upon a series of zig-zagging stripes he called the Upstart paintings. Here, layered bands of acrylic applied with a roller traverse the narrow, vertical canvas in harmonic bands of color.
Paul Allen Reed was a prominent member of the Washington Color School – a group of Color Field painters who worked and exhibited in Washington, D.C.’s avant-garde art scene in the second half of the 20th century. Reed was closely acquainted with the artists at the Washington Workshop for the Arts, including Jacob Kainen, Kenneth Noland, and Morris Louis, as well as fellow Color Painters Gene Davis, Tom Downing, and Howard Mehring.
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https://peytonwright.com/modern/artwork/upstart-xxx/
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An enthusiastic group of UQ Foundation Year students visited the UQ school of Pharmacy in April, where they took part in a tour of the new facilities at the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE), before enjoying an afternoon tea with staff and current pharmacy students.
Pharmacy School senior lecturer Dr Neil Cottrell, spoke about how his course ”Integrated Patient Centred Care”, in the final year of study, helped students prepare for their future careers as medicines experts.
The course focuses on helping students apply their knowledge of medicines to improving patient outcomes.
The School of Pharmacy has traditionally awarded a bursary to one Foundation Year student entering the Bachelor of Pharmacy degree each year, and 2013 is no exception.
During the student's visit to PACE, this year’s winner, Mr Mohamed El Washahy, was awarded a cheque for $3000.00.
Mr El Washahy completed his Foundation Year studies in 2012 and entered the Bachelor of Pharmacy this year.
The International Education Services’ (IES) UQ Foundation Year program is a preparatory course for international students wishing to begin studies at UQ.
The program is accredited to provide students with a 30954QLD Certificate IV in University Preparation.
Students who achieve the specific standards are guaranteed a place in the first year of undergraduate courses at The University of Queensland.
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https://pharmacy.uq.edu.au/article/2016/06/strong-foundations-key-success-international-students
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Going through a PhD can be particularly challenging when uneasiness and stress are part of your daily life. In this three-part piece, Alice dissects the main aspects of the PhD she struggled with, the worries that accompanied her through the process and how she handled them. The first part focuses on Achievement and the expectations that come with it.
It is no news that academia is competitive. Feelings of frustration and anxiety are not uncommon amongst postgrads. As an overachiever, I’ve always enjoyed challenging myself with difficult tasks, but unfortunately this came with drawbacks. I have never felt completely confident in myself or with my skills.
However, it was not until I reached my PhD that I realised how it was affecting my mental health. I was challenged with tasks that were way out of my comfort zone: giving talks, producing high-quality research, teaching, networking, etc. Studying has always been my strong suit, but it turned out that for a PhD that was just a starting point.
I started my PhD with an array of insecurities and a highly competitive environment did nothing but amplify them. I would spend days and nights worrying about my performance or overworking to reach a standard that would be considered acceptable. Nevertheless, I kept getting quite negative feedback, I was working 24/7 and still felt completely unaccomplished. This perpetual state of anxiety made me even more insecure and ultimately deteriorated my motivation.
It took me a long time to understand how to deal with such a state of mind.
Here and in upcoming posts I detail what I learnt from experiencing anxiety throughout my PhD..
Having spent several years as a student, I thought I would have been prepared for the stress of academic performance waiting for me at PhD level. I had probably grown too comfortable with the idea of being a successful student that the prospect of being a successful researcher didn’t seem so unattainable. Trouble is, it is complicated to find a good definition for “successful researcher”, especially at such an embryonic stage as at the first years of PhD. Does it mean you study or write “a lot”? Is achievement represented by the amount of hours you spend working or of problems you manage to solve?
Since the beginning of my PhD, the pace has been hard to sustain, and the amount of work seemed insurmountable. It was easy to make the mistake of considering the workload as a measure for achievement. On top of this, I found it difficult to understand what was expected of me or what the standard was. Without an exam testing me it was impossible to quantify when the amount of work I had done was “right” or “sufficient”. The presence of a mark or a grade in the past had been comforting in many ways, and the lack thereof during the PhD made it hard to feel accomplished.
The worry that I would not be able to do enough, well enough or fast enough was overwhelming. I would spend hours stressing about how much I should work rather than working.
The hardest part of my thesis, was not getting any acknowledgement about my progress: despite having an ultimate aim (i.e. solving a specific problem), there are no proper milestones certifying “You made it until this point”. This makes the whole process frustrating for two main reasons, the first being, perceiving the finish line as always out of reach. Secondly, there seems to be no time to take a breath. These feelings pushed my workaholism to a point at which I was not productive anymore.
Realising this was already a massive first step. It wasn’t until the third year of my PhD that I understood how my attitude was feeding my anxiety in a way that was damaging to both my work and health. I started reconsidering what I was expecting vs. what I wanted from the whole PhD experience. This messy stack of worries was pushing me out of focus, while I needed to put them in order to visualise a concrete aim.
I used to think that “you need to take your time” was a cliché expression to tell me that I was weak, and that indeed I wasn’t able to do enough. Now I understood that I did need time to “take a breath”. I did need time to rationalise what I have achieved so far. I did need time to build my personal milestones.
My sense of achievement was strictly intertwined with productivity, but not only did I have to be productive, I had to feel productive too. Overworking was not a solution, “More is More” was not an answer. There was no way of just eradicating the stress and worries, but I couldn’t let them take hold of my whole day. There has to be time for productivity, and there has to be time for worries.
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https://phdlife.warwick.ac.uk/2020/01/15/on-dealing-with-anxiety-in-a-highly-competitive-environment-part-1-achievement/
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Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Physics, as of September 1st 2020, or as soon as possible thereafter in effect until further notice.
The main areas of research at the Department of Physics are subatomic physics and materials physics. The core research fields in subatomic physics are nuclear structure, especially the physics of exotic nuclei, nuclear models, double beta decay, ion source physics, applied accelerator-based research, physics of the strong interaction and ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, particle cosmology and neutrino physics. In materials physics the research fields are nanophysics and quantum technologies, non-equilibrium physics, superconductivity, low temperature physics, computational materials physics and physics of complex materials. Experimental research at the Department is conducted in the Accelerator Laboratory, the multidisciplinary Nanoscience Center (NSC), the Tomography Laboratory, and in foreign research centers such as CERN and GSI.
The Senior Lecturer will be a key member of the QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) theory group at the Department of Physics. The QCD theory group studies different aspects of the theory and phenomenology of the strong interaction at high energy and density. In particular, the research topics include strong interaction phenomena in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions and in other collider experiments related to nuclei. For more information, see https://www.jyu.fi/science/en/physics/research/highenergy/urhic.
The successful candidate is expected to develop and strengthen the research carried out by the group by conducting relevant research projects, raising external funding and promoting international collaboration. In addition, the duties of the Senior Lecturer will include active participation in teaching related to her/his research area as well as to the general curriculum of the Department. The candidate will also be required to supervise students at all levels and to develop courses and teaching practices. A broad teaching experience and pedagogical qualifications are thus considered an advantage.
The duties, qualification requirements, and language skills of senior lecturer are stipulated by the University of Jyväskylä Regulations and language skills guidelines. A good command of the English language and an ability to teach in English are regarded as advantages.
The annual salary range will be approximately 39,000 – 54,000 EUR (gross income, including holiday bonus), depending on the qualifications and experience of the candidate.
Upon the consent of the applicant, a background check can be made on the person to be appointed (Security Clearance Act 726/2014). For more information on the background check and the rights of the subject of the check, see www.supo.fi.
For further information, please contact: Head of the Department, Professor Markku Kataja |||EMAIL_ADDRESS||| tel. +358 40 5221 044.
b) suggestions for the development of teaching in particle physics and also in general at the Department.
Educational portfolio, a narrated description of pedagogical education and teaching merits, composed in accordance with the guidelines of the University.
A numbered list of academic and other publications used to demonstrate eligibility and merits for the position, with ten main publications highlighted. The list of publications should comply with the guidelines of the Academy of Finland.
Short description of other potential merits that the applicant wishes to use to demonstrate suitability for the position (max 3 pages).
Note: all files included should be in pdf-format and contain the name of the applicant.
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https://physicaloxy.com/senior-lecturer-in-theoretical-physics,i7989.html
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The earliest music of Calgary's Kiesa Rae Ellestad leaned toward folk, and then she hooked up with producer and current collaborator Rami Samir Afuni, who has written and arranged for the likes of LMFAO and Miley Cyrus. The duo's debut is largely made up of attempts to recreate the success of their pop hit, “Hideaway”.
Disclosure’s Settle wasn’t just the best debut LP of 2013, it was also the best dance-pop crossover record from last year; with no dominant trend in the sub-genre cropping up this year, the Lawrence brothers have dominated 2014 by proxy, too. Their rising success can be found in industry-shepherded superstar collaborations and dance veteran co-signs; they were also responsible for putting the most boring new pop star of the year on the map. All of which has lead to the music industry’s typically craven search to find something, anything comparable when it comes to satiating the fuzzy-boots crowd’s sudden micro-thirst for vocal-driven house. It’s why UK producer Duke Dumont’s ebullient, bursting “I Got U” could be found on U.S. pop radio earlier this summer, and it also explains why the market has been flooded with knockoffs supposedly meant to catch some of Disclosure’s heat. If you thought the glut of post-dubstep singer/songwriter types or tortured alt-R&B auteurs proved tiring, the 4/4 onslaught that mainstream pop is about to undergo could prove even worse.
Recently, the market’s been hit with two new artists in the Disclosure mold: first, there was Gorgon City’s competent, ultimately ineffective debut LP Sirens, and now we have the debut album from Calgary's Kiesa Rae Ellestad, Sound of a Woman. Kiesza's earliest music leaned toward folk, and then she hooked up with producer and current collaborator Rami Samir Afuni, who has written and arranged for the likes of LMFAO and Miley Cyrus. In 2012, Kiesza and Afuni released the single “Oops”, a pop trifle about unprotected sex that mixed bright, MOR synth-pop with the requisite wub-wub elements that marked big-tent dance music at the time; at the top of this year, they hit the pop bullseye forcefully with “Hideaway”, a throaty blast that sounded like the duo’s attempt to remake Robin S.’ “Show Me Love” for the millennial crowd.
A minor U.S. hit that went platinum in four European countries, “Hideaway” was a stroke of low-level pop mimicry genius, and Kiesza and Afuni are clearly aware of its winning formula: Sound of a Woman, a record that proves as generic and bland as the catch-all title that adorns it, is largely made up of attempts to recreate that song’s success, right down to replicating its basic structure. Sometimes, this works: the effervescent “No Enemiesz” finds Kiesza shouting over squiggles and a hollow, pounding beat before hitting a chorus that utilizes her oversinging tendencies effectively, while “Giant in My Heart” blooms into a satisfying 4/4 pulse that carries superficial charms similar to off-brand cereal.
Elsewhere, though, Sound of a Woman fails to spark, as its homogenous textures blend together to rob this music of the personality and emotion it has when done right. Kiesza and Afuni treat house music with all the studiousness of someone reading a textbook, as evidenced by her sorta-viral, sacrilegiously po-faced cover of Haddaway’s “What Is Love”. On one level, they’ve committed cultural thievery of the laziest kind, right down to European dance culture’s obsession with dusty, pre-2000s hip-hop (the shiftless “Losin’ My Mind” and “Bad Thing”, with respective features by American rappers Mick Jenkins and Joey Bada$$). Kiesza and Afuni come across as guests at a dinner party who couldn’t be bothered to bring anything and expect their presence to do the work for them.
So Sound of a Woman’s most memorable moments are when the duo deviate from their established norm: “So Deep” is a brooding, bleeping slow jam that, midway through, breaks into a moderately appealing 2step rhythm, while "Piano” soothes and swerves with the druggy melancholy of certain strains of R&B, building to a pleading, drum-assisted chorus that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Jessie Ware’s 2012 debut Devotion. They’re capable, pretty songs, and like the rest of Sound of a Woman, they don’t give any clues as to who Kiesza is.
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https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19933-kiesza-sound-of-a-woman/
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Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of five novels—Clay’s Quilt, 2001; A Parchment of Leaves, 2003; The Coal Tattoo, 2005; Eli the Good, 2009; and Same Sun Here (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012—as well as a book of creative nonfiction—Something’s Rising, co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays: The Hurting Part (2005), This Is My Heart for You (2012), and In These Fields, with Sam Gleaves, 2016.
His work frequently appears in The New York Times and Salon. He is former commentator for NPR’s “All Things Considered”. His writing has appeared in Oxford American, Narrative, Blackbird, Newsday, as well as in anthologies such as Best Food Writing, 2015 and New Stories From the South, The Year’s Best: 2004. House serves on the fiction faculty at the Spalding MFA in Creative Writing and as the NEH Chair at Berea College.
He is the recipient of three honorary doctorates and is the winner of the Nautilus Award, an EB White Award, the Appalachian Book of the Year, the Jesse Stuart Award, the Lee Smith Award, and many other honors.
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https://pitheadchapel.com/category/larry-brown/page/2/
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The No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers secured their third ACC regular season title in the last five years Saturday afternoon. The Panthers also continued to set records, extending their losing streak to 17 in a loss against the best team in the nation. Despite low attendance this season, fans filled the lower leve...
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https://pittnews.com/article/tag/virginia-basketball/
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Darja Schuurmans is an experienced New Business & Existing Business Account Manager working at the Planon headquarter in Nijmegen with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology industry and a MSc degree in International Business. Darja has more than 15 years of experience in new business sales and customer relationship management in national and international markets. The last years Darja has worked on many IFRS16/ASC842 projects like the projects of Heineken, Ahold Delhaize, Akzo Nobel, DSV, Husqvarna, Beter Bed, Tip Trailer Services, Vodafone Ziggo, Maxeda, Attendo, Atradius, Ammeraal Beltech and Trafigura.
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https://planonsoftware.com/uk/whats-new/blog/lease-accounting-terminology-a-corporate-real-estate-manager-should-know-by-heart.html
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Can't get enough of Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis? Then we think you'll love these podcasts too. Here are twenty of the very best podcasts similar to Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis you can binge on right now. Do let us know if we missed one!
What’s happened since Rush Limbaugh signed off yesterday afternoon? Download this and find out what’s on Rush Limbaugh’s mind before the full program starts today. Here these original thoughts from El Rushbo. Download it and have it ready to listen to before you tune in on the radio later today.
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https://player.fm/en/related-to/bill-oreillys-no-spin-news-and-analysis
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Facilitator Lana Turvey-Collins says hearing the voices of more than 10,000 Australians is a great start and she hopes that’s just the tip of the iceberg as the Church builds towards the Plenary Council sessions to be held in October 2020 and May 2021.
Since the launch of the Plenary Council’s Open Listening and Dialogue stage at Pentecost, individuals and groups – large and small – have shared their stories of life and faith. By the end of September, more than 10,000 individuals had contributed their responses.
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https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/acbc-communications/listening-to-the-spirit-10000-voices-and-climbing/
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Exhibit A for why Spanish wine should be a part of your life.
When the good vino-importing folks at Christopher Stewart Wine & Spirits asked if there were any bottles in their portfolio that I might be interested in writing up, it took me about 0.02 seconds to zero in on this one. Accolades and rankings don’t tell the whole story of a bottle of wine, and even the most highly regarded publications need to be taken with a grain of salt (with the exception of this blog, of course), but when a bottle that retails for $15ish CDN and is widely available makes Wine Spectator’s list of the Top 100 wines of the year, it’s worth noting. The ’06 LAN Crianza was #44 in the WS Top 100 list of 2010 — I remember buying that issue back then and being very curious about the wine. Two years and 185-odd PnP posts later, I got to crack the bottle and find out all about it.
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https://popandpour.ca/tag/top-100/
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Environmental scientists and activists warn about the urgent need to transform the world’s agri-food systems in comprehensive report on climate change.
Thousands of environmental activists from 38 European countries brought their “Fridays for Future” movement to the Swiss city of Lausanne, calling for swift action from politicians and businesses to reduce emissions linked to global warming.
“We are all united coming from different countries and, despite the fact it’s holidays, we are ready to sacrifice our time to have politics change, to raise awareness about what’s happening but also about what is not happening,” 29-year-old French woman, Lise Tourneboeuf, said.
The Laussane demonstrations happened a few hours after the release of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a multilateral institution which brings together leading scientists from various disciplines around the world to periodically monitor global ecological transformations.
In its state-of-the-art comprehensive research, the IPCC warned that a profound transformation of agri-food systems is required to keep global warming below 2°C in the coming years, an objective that could affect powerful business interests.
“The land that is already being cultivated could feed the population in a context of climate change and be a source of biomass that provides renewable energy. However, powerful early initiatives that simultaneously affect various fields must be adopted, ”the IPCC president Hoesung Lee explained.
Coordinated initiatives could simultaneously improve the state of soils, food security and nutrition, which will also contribute to combating poverty and hunger.
“The IPCC report highlights that climate change is affecting the four pillars of food security: availability (yield and production), access (prices and capacity to obtain food), utilization (nutrition and food preparation) and stability (changes in availability),” the Friends of the Earth emphasized.
The IPCC report was prepared over the past few years by over 100 scientists, some of whom came from Brazil where governments have been very active in protecting agro-industrial interests.
Since January 2019, when President Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated, this South American country has raised a lot of concern among environmental activists and human rights defenders. The former national military captain enthusiastically supports opening up protected areas in the Amazon — the world’s largest tropical rainforest — to facilitate agriculture and mining.
On July 6, Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE) warned that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon had reached 2,254.8 square kilometers, an area 278 percent larger than the surface affected by the phenomenon during the same month last year.
After the release of these data, the far-right Brazilian president fired the head of the space agency.
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https://popularresistance.org/fridays-for-future-movement-takes-to-swiss-streets/
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As I mentioned in my last post I was watching Oprah’s Next Chapter the other day. She was talking with the family of Whitney Houston. As Oprah was talking with Whitney’s daughter Bobbie Christina, I heard something very interesting. Bobbie Christina said that her mother used to tell her that the saints pray at 5 o’clock in the morning because of it being a special time for God’s blessings. She then went on to talk about how ever since her mother made her transition she seems to automatically wake up at that time.
My teacher Mr. Ambrister used to say that the satvic dust settles on the earth at 5 A.M. making it the perfect time for meditating. He would also say that the ancients would sometimes have meetings at 5 A.M. in the morning just to see who was serious enough to come. Years after my teacher made his transition I found myself automatically waking up at 5 A.M. most mornings. I decided to use this for meditation and reflection time.
Why am I sharing this with you? Because there is something special about the mornings when it comes to meditation, prayer, and reflection. The world is more quiet. We have not started all the hustle and bustle of the day yet. We are setting the tone for where our focus is for the rest of the day. And yes this is a special time for God’s blessings and the satvic, calming, dust settles on the earth early in the mornings at 5 A.M. Truth is truth and universal.
It's Gonna Be Easy!
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https://positiveguru.com/2012/03/15/bridging-the-gap-of-metaphysical-truths-truth-is-truth-and-universal/
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During the first year of life, it can be difficult to determine an infant’s progress in terms of cognitive development (which constitutes the way young children learn, think, and solve problems). By the time they reach the age of two or three, however, delays become far more obvious.
Toddlers are, surprisingly, type A individuals. As they pick up on patterns, they begin to realize that order helps them make better sense of the world. Two-year-old children may observe common rules about eating a certain type of food first at dinner or completing morning routines in a particular order. If parents fail to provide the specific sequencing toddlers desire, they may attempt to enforce it on their own.
In addition to insisting on tasks being carried out in a certain order, toddlers may demonstrate their preference for patterns by sorting items based on shapes or colors. As they grow older, this sorting becomes more accurate and the selected categories grow more complex.
After turning two, toddlers become increasingly adept at determining when things are real and when they’re pretend. For example, most toddlers can determine that a parent dressed in a dog costume is not, in fact, a dog. Many begin to play simple pretend games at this stage. The scenarios they create are very simplistic and based on real life, but they’re pretend all the same.
Parents of toddlers commonly express frustration with being asked to read the same handful of books again and again. Toddlers, however, adore hearing certain passages recited and may begin to take a more active role, even reciting the ends of particular sentences or rhymes upon request. Additionally, two-year-olds can identify several pictures in books; for example, if they see a picture of a cat, they may meow at the book.
Although toddlers rarely stick with one hand as older children are inclined to do, they may begin to demonstrate a slightly more dominant hand after reaching two years of age. For example, they may use one hand more often than the other when throwing a ball or eating.
Toddlers don’t always want to follow their parents’ instructions, but they’re more than capable of doing so, provided directions are clear and concise. For example, if told to pick up a favorite toy and place it in the toy box, two-year-olds can figure out what to do and in what sequence.
Not all children will reach the milestones included on this list by two or even three years of age. Many demonstrate quick progress in some areas, but linger in others. Failure to reach a given milestone is not necessarily reason for alarm, but continued monitoring is necessary to ensure the child’s ongoing progress and to detect cognitive problems as soon as possible. Early detection means early intervention, and treatments offered between ages two and three are often surprisingly effective.
Early childhood educators play a critical role in cognitive development. Not only do they help toddlers move towards important milestones, they can catch delays early, promoting more effective intervention.
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https://post.edu/blog/2017/06/6-ways-to-spot-cognitive-development-milestones-in-toddlers/
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Since the weather here in Saskatchewan has been more like that of the weather on Vancouver Island, I’ve been going through my pics from trips to Vancouver Island in 2009 and 2011. It will make me a happy girl to continue to go there every two years or so. It’s a beautiful place.
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https://prairiegirlwonders.com/2012/05/26/vancouver-island-pics-3-2/
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, June 23, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- DaVita Kidney Care, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) and a leading provider of kidney care services, today announced it has named Dr. Abdulkareem Alsuwaida, FRCPC, MSc, as chief medical officer for its operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
"Clinical excellence defines Dr. Alsuwaida's distinctive nephrology career," said Dennis Kogod, president of DaVita Kidney Care International. "He's devoted his professional life to improving the quality of care for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This aligns wonderfully with DaVita's commitment to provide world-class, comprehensive care in our long-term partnership with the Kingdom's Ministry of Health. We're honored to have him on board."
Dr. Alsuwaida is currently a professor of medicine and director of postgraduate education at King Saud University in Riyadh. He is also a consultant in the Division of Nephrology at the King Khalid University Hospital. Dr. Alsuwaida earned a medical degree from King Abdulaziz University and completed postgraduate medical education in internal medicine and nephrology at the University of Toronto. Additionally, he earned a master's degree in clinical epidemiology from the University of Toronto. A past president of the Saudi Society of Nephrology, Dr. Alsuwaida's research is focused on dialysis, glumerulonephritis and lupus nephritis. He has published more than 40 papers on these topics.
"Providing world-class care is a top priority, not only for the Ministry of Health, but also for the thousands of Saudi men and women affected by CKD and their families," said Alsuwaida. "In the United States as well as in other countries, DaVita has played a significant role in elevating the standard of care. DaVita's presence in the Kingdom represents a long-term commitment to improving the overall health of Saudi citizens."
In February 2014, DaVita signed a major tender from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health in which it will deliver care to 5,000 dialysis patients currently under the ministry's care.
"These patients will ultimately benefit from Dr. Alsuwaida joining the DaVita team in the Kingdom," said Abdulrahman Al Haidari, country manager for DaVita in Saudi Arabia.
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https://pressreleases.davita.com/2014-06-23-DaVita-Names-Chief-Medical-Officer-for-Saudi-Operations
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This is mandiegirl's Typepad Profile.
I am a girl, who is trying to become a woman, while in the middle of figuring out which girl-like qualities are important to hold on to.
In my decision to move here months ago, I knew that I would want to quickly find a church that I could call home. Three days after I found such a church, I ended up having my hurt-back-syndrome and have been out of commission for last 5 weeks. This left me in such a strange place-a place that ...
Commented Jul 26, 2009 on I'm ba-ack.... at My organized CHAOS...
and headed to CHA!!!!!!! Yeah, I know my blog has been STALE!!!!!! So sorry! All the stress in my life was making me sick....literally. Soooo, long story short, I quit everything cold turkey (scrapbooking, stalking blogs, teaching classes, blogging, working out, etc) and healed. And ...
Sorry I'm so late. Lot's of catching up to do. Congratulations number guessers! Below you will find the scoop on who won the "Early Bird Paper Crafting Kits." Each of these guessed right on the nose. Mandie Segura #555 July 2 9:14am Jingle #2 July 2 10:46am Monica B. #998 July 2 11:36am Lacoe #2...
wow! What a cool (and maybe high maintenance???) idea!
Imagine wearing the same dress for an entire year. Well, not the exact same one but the same style and color day after day after day (fyi, she has 7 identical dresses). How do you keep it fresh? What do you do in the summer and the winter? A killer collection of tights and socks seem to be the...
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https://profile.typepad.com/6p011571664b56970b
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The phrase develop project team refers to the early stage planning process in which the fundamental core of the project, that being the actual project participants that are managing the team. These individuals make up the project team, and the maximization of their performance is essential to the proper functioning of the project process and the ultimate successful completion of the project as well as the successful completion of all of the individual components within. The process of developing the project team refers to the specific activity of enhancing the performance of each individual member of the project team as well as the performance of the team as a whole by improving the individual competencies of the team as well as enhancing the communication and interactions among the team members. Essential to the entire life of the project, and imperative to the ultimate success of it, is effective and reliable communication.
Project Management Team When referring to a group of individuals as the project management team, it is helpful to take a step back...
Project Team The idea of the project team is an all encompassing concept that details and explicitly documents the entire grouping of...
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https://project-management-knowledge.com/definitions/d/develop-project-team/
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A new poll from the NC Sustainable Energy Association shows that North Carolina voters of all political persuasions overwhelmingly support solar and other renewables. A majority of respondents think state leaders should seek more renewable energy sources to provide the state with affordable electricity.
The solar polls keep rolling in, and they consistently bring good news about solar’s popularity. Some of the results? American consumers are viewing solar more favorably; American homeowners overwhelmingly support solar power; and, well, Americans basically love solar!
State-by-state polls show the same results: from Maine to Hawaii, Americans are crazy about solar power.
A new poll from nonprofit nonpartisan advocacy organization NC Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) confirms that North Carolina is no different in this regard.
The fourth annual North Carolina Statewide Survey was just released. Fallon Research polled 803 registered North Carolina voters from March 23 to 27, 2014.
Ready not to be surprised? That’s right: North Carolina voters of all political stripes overwhelmingly support the increased use of diverse clean energy sources.
According to the poll, 83% of respondents think state leaders and elected officials should seek more renewable energy sources to provide consumers and businesses with affordable electricity.
Solar is especially popular with North Carolina votes: 90% of respondents support the use of solar energy.
Driven largely by the state’s market-based clean energy policies, North Carolina has become one of the fastest-growing markets for clean energy solutions. The state was given #3 position in the Solar Energy Industries Association’s list of Top Solar States.
“Support for clean energy can be a winning message for our state’s leaders regardless of political affiliation. North Carolina is leading in these technologies, voters are noticing and they are asking for more,” said Paul Shumaker, leading political strategist, President of Capitol Communications, in a statement.
In 2007, North Carolina became the first state in the Southeast to adopt the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) law. According to the poll, 71% of North Carolinians support the law.
86% of Democrats, 84% of Independents, and 77% of Republicans say state leaders should seek more alternative or renewable energy sources.
74% of respondents felt power and electricity prices had increased over the last two years, with more than half thinking the increase was due to power companies increasing their profits or inflation and the economy, and only 5% thinking it was due to renewable energy mandates.
94% of voters under the age of 30 and 86% of voters ages 30-44 said state leaders and elected officials in North Carolina should seek more alternative or renewable energy sources in order to provide consumers and businesses with electricity.
“Now in our fourth year of polling, these results are consistently telling us that energy policy is important to North Carolinians. What’s more, constituents are making note of their rising electricity bills and are looking to our leaders in the state legislature to adopt common-sense changes,” NCSEA executive director Ivan Urlaub said of the survey results.
The results also provide further confirmation that Americans all around the country, of all political leanings, are in favor of harnessing the power of the sun.
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https://pvsolarreport.com/north-carolina-loves-solar-says-poll/
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To promote a better understanding of Qatar in the United States by educating the American people on the political, economic and social issues and the vital importance of the U.S.-Qatar strategic relationship.
Qatar-America Institute (QAI) and the Doha Film Institute (DFI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalize a partnership between the two organizations and to promote the cultural ties between the U.S. and Qatar. ...
On October 24th, 2019, Qatar became the first Arab country ever to host the annual UN Day celebrations. The Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations partnered with the Supreme Committee for Delivery and L...
On October 10th, 2019, the Secretary General (SG) of Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), Maryam bint Abdullah Al Attiyah, reiterated that mental health remains one of the central strategic pillars of the Committee...
Since its inception in 1994 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), October 5th of every year marks World Teacher Day. This year’s theme was ‘Young Teachers: The Future of the Profess...
On September 23, 2019, world leaders convened in New York for the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Prior to the start of the high-level debate, world leaders convened for the UN Climate Action Summit to di...
On 19 December 2019, the New York Times profiled Doha's famous falcon hospital. Author Tariq Panja detail...
On 07-8 December 2019, the Doha International Conference on Disability and Development was opened by HH S...
Read about the key facts on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, from stadium design to transportation.
Top facts about Qatar and the strategic relationship between Qatar and the United States.
Fact Sheet: Ramadan Mubarak!
Fact sheet on Ramadan traditions and customs.
Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism finance (AML/CTF) are, for the U.S. and its allies, a critical component of national security.
5:30 pm-8:30 pm .
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https://qataramerica.org/
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The Central government released this policy after receiving advise from Uber, and the policy will govern the operations of drone taxis in the country.
Maharashtra could soon become the first Indian state to get flying taxi’s, as the state government has approved the Centre’s plans for a drone taxi service for Mumbai, though it comes with a few additional ground rules.
According to a report in the Hindu, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu delivered a presentation to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in August. During the presentation, Prabhu elaborated on the drone taxi policy and asked Fadnavis’ government to submit a report.
Responding to Prabhu, the Maharashtra government has asked that more space be given. It has also asked for details with respect to height, high-rises, and charging stations for the battery-operated drone taxis. The state government approved all other aspects including passenger, cargo, and medical services within the drone.
The Central government released this policy after receiving advise from Uber, and the policy will govern the operations of drone taxis in the country. The government hopes that these flying taxis will help in resolving traffic woes in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi, as per the report by the Hindu.
According to the newly created Development Plan 2034, any building that breaches the 200 metre mark in height will be allowed to have a helipad or landing facilities. On the other hand, the smaller buildings will be allowed to accommodate the smaller two-seater drones.
Earlier in August, Uber said that it had shortlisted India to launch its flying taxi service. After evaluating countries across the globe, Uber Elevate — Uber’s aerial taxi arm — announced that it had shortlisted Japan, India, Australia, Brazil, and France.
Uber proposed to launch a demonstration of these flying taxis in several cities by 2020. It said that paid flying taxis could begin by 2023. Last year, Uber named Dallas and Los Angeles as its first two launch cities.
“Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru are some of the most congested cities in the world, where travelling even a few kilometers can take over an hour. Uber Air offers tremendous potential to help create a transportation option that goes over congestion, instead of adding to it,” Uber said in a statement, IANS reported.
“We see much potential in flying cars, and we anticipate that flying cars can be used not only to help solve traffic congestion in urban areas, but it will also help with increase mobility between city centres and remote islands and mountainous areas, promote tourism in Japan as well as enhance disaster relief operations,” Daisaku Hiraki, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan, said, as per IANS.
Uber said further, “The Uber Elevate team is now inviting conversations with stakeholders across major cities in these countries, and will announce the chosen Uber Air international city within the next six months,” according to IANS.
Amidst news of the launch of flying taxis in India, IIT-Kanpur has been busy developing its own drone taxis. In May 2018, IIT-Kanpur signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) worth Rs 15 crore with VTOL Aviation India Pvt Ltd, an Indian private aviation company.
As per the MoU, IIT-Kanpur will be building operational prototypes, which could be used as flying taxis. More than 100 researchers from the varsity will be working towards developing a fully-functional prototype, and the project is estimated to be ready by 2023.
Under the deal, researchers will initially conduct a feasibility test to identify key technological areas where they would work, while the remaining project would be completed in the next five years.
“We will establish proof of concept and identify the key technology areas. There will be over a 100 students working on this in the coming years,” the Print quoted Ajoy Ghosh, the head of the Aerospace Engineering and the Flight Lab at IIT-Kanpur, as saying.
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https://qrius.com/maharashtra-government-approves-centres-plan-for-flying-taxis-all-you-need-to-know/
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Find information for Young Quakers including advice, training and upcoming events.
Look at the information below to find out how you can take part and get involved.
yqspace is a website for young Quakers aged 11+ with information about local, regional and national Events and information About Quakers, what they believe and how they express this in how they live their lives. The Advice pages link to supportive organisations that provide information and support to develop your well being.
The weekend is a dynamic combination of theory and opportunities to apply learning about Facilitation and Leadership using practical activities. There will be discussions, activities, group work, role-plays and video clips.
“Probably the most useful weekend I have ever attended, it will be incredibly valuable in the outside world."
Engaging Young Adult Quakers' is a new three-year project that began in June 2017 with the aim of increasing the visibility and participation of young adults – defined roughly as being between the age of 18 and 35 - within Britain Yearly Meeting.
Supporting Quaker meetings across the UK to better engage with and support young adults.
Empowering young adult Quakers to organise effectively, and build dynamic faith communities of their own.
Ensuring that Britain Yearly Meeting, at the national level, is open and welcoming to young adults.
The project was developed out of a six-month research project, you can read about the results of this in the Engaging Young Adult Friends Report PDF.
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https://quaker.org.uk/children-and-young-people/young-quakers
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I wish that I had never met you. Then there would be no need to impress you. No need to want you. No need for loving you. No need for crying over you. No need for heartbreaks. No need for pain or tears. No need for forgotten promises. No need for rejected hugs. No need for crying myself to sleep. No need for acting like you care. No need for everything you’ve done to make me feel like absolutely nothing.
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https://quotes88.com/quotes/i-wish-that-i-had-never-met-you-quote/
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Earlier this year the Commonwealth War Graves Commission stated that it would hold a commemoration ceremony at Tyne Cot military cemetery in Flanders on the 31st July 2017 to remember the battle Passchendaele, (the 3rd battle of Ypres). There would be a ballot for those who would like to attend restricted to 4000 tickets. Those who had relatives who had fought and died in the battle could apply.
My second cousin 3610 Private Francis Harold Souter (Harry), 48th Battalion Australian Imperial Force was the son of a doctor from Adelaide, South Australia. enlisted in the Australian Army on 24th August 1915. In July 1917 he found himself in the Ypres Salient awaiting the big battle to come, as part of the II ANZAC Corps.
On the 12th October the Australians where to spearhead an attack on the well fortified German positions on Passchendaele Ridge. At dawn the attack began, soon after torrential rain began to fall, adding to the already sodden ground over which the battle was to be fought. There was to be a creeping artillery barrage to dislodge the Germans, behind which the infantry were to advance. Due to the rain and mud the artillery became bogged down , the barrage was from the start sporadic and nor very effective, the shells exploding harmlessly in the mud, , and finally it was non -existent Poor communications and inadequate intelligence meant that the infantry advance continued with massive casualties. The attack was a complete failure. The 48th suffered more than 50% casualties, and at the end of the action my cousin Harry was posted as missing. A subsequent enquiry pronounced him “killed in action”. His remains were never found.
Passchendaele was eventually captured on the 10th November.
My wife and I were successful in CWGC ballot and duly attended the ceremony at Tyne Cot. Which was attended by members of both the British and Belgian royal families and ministers from the two governments, together with representatives from all the Commonwealth countries whose troops had participated in the battle. The ceremony itself was extremely emotional. and moving, I found the reading, by the relatives,. of the names and letters from deceased soldiers to their friends and family at home particularly poignant. The whole commemoration was in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion, and entirely appropriate.
The following day my wife and I visited the site of the battle of Polygon Wood, (where the ANZACs were involved in another costly battle). it has it’s own war cemetery, and the Australian Forces memorial. It is a place of peaceful contemplation now, far removed from the appalling carnage of 100 years ago. finally we visited Menin Gate where Harry’s name amongst many thousands of others , is inscribed as having no known grave.
God bless you Harry. The cousin I never knew.
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https://rafadappassn.org/articles/passchendaele-centenary/
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