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We have great news to share with you: we finally launched Radio Spots on Streema.com!! What you will read about below is a really important step in the development of a better community experience at our site. Hope you enjoy it!
Each radio station will have their own individual Radio Spot. These pages will not only display additional information about a station but also the following: a You May Also Like section, for potentially interesting and related radio stations; a Wall to write your thoughts or comments about the radio station (for this you need to register / log in); and a Now Listening box to show the users within the Streema community who are enjoying that same radio (check out the mockup below). By the way, if you're thinking that we should also allow users to "review" a radio and give it a "rating", you're spot on: that's in the works and soon to be released. : )
How do you get to a Radio Spot? Just click on the name of the radio in our Radio Directory, the Charts, or any other place where the name appears. The only exception happens if you're trying to get to a Radio Spot from your Favorites list – from there, you'll need to place the mouse pointer on the name of the radio, wait for a second, and then click on the text that says "Radio Spot".
By the way, here are the spots of four Streema Team favorite stations:
So, what do you think? How could we improve these Radio Spots? Send us your feedback and thoughts to info at streema dot com or just leave your comment below. We want to hear from you!! : )
Ok, that's all for now. Come back to our blog soon, as we'll be posting recent Radio News.
Stay tuned!
The Streema Team


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A numerical evaluation of the geomechanical interactions between a hydraulic fracture stimulation and a natural fracture system. 46th US Rock Mechanics / Geomechanics Symposium 2012. 3:1882–1898.
2012. Shallow geophysical characterization and fluid flow processes in two large pockmarks on the Malin Shelf, NW Ireland. Near Surface 2009 - 15th European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics.
2009. A clustered overlapping sphere algorithm to represent real particles in discrete element modelling. Géotechnique. 59:779–784.
2009. Coupled Numerical Evaluations of the Geomechanical Interactions Between a Hydraulic Fracture Stimulation and a Natural Fracture System in Shale Formations. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. 46:581–609.
2013. Geophysical and geochemical survey of a large marine pockmark on the Malin Shelf, Ireland. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 13:n/a–n/a.
2012. Internal structure of the western flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, La Palma, Canary Islands, from land magnetotelluric imaging. Journal of Geophysical Research. 115:B07104.
2010. Lithospheric structure, evolution and diamond prospectivity of the Rehoboth Terrane and western Kaapvaal Craton, southern Africa: Constraints from broadband magnetotellurics. Lithos. 112:93–105.
2009. Lithospheric structures and Precambrian terrane boundaries in northeastern Botswana revealed through magnetotelluric profiling as part of the Southern African Magnetotelluric Experiment. Journal of Geophysical Research. 116:B02401.
2011. Nonstationary magnetotelluric data processing with instantaneous parameter. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. 119:1634–1654.
2014. Optimizing an experimental design for a CSEM experiment: methodology and synthetic tests. Geophysical Journal International. 197:135–148.
2014. The Virtual Geoscience Workbench, VGW: Open Source tools for discontinuous systems. Particuology. 8:100–105.

subset: commoncrawl


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Video ▶
Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes' wedding is fast approaching, but a misunderstanding threatens to derail the occasion, and when the big day arrives it also brings a few unexpected guests. Meanwhile, Edith reconnects with an old acquaintance, who comes to her aid in her hour of need, and over at the Dower House, Spratt has something to hide, meaning Denker is hot on his trail. Daisy jumps to conclusions over one of the countess's plots, and tensions moun...
Episode Guide
Season 01
Season 02
Season 03
Season 04
Season 05


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Our staff can assist with information on local and regional health providers depending on your specific needs.Clear Creek County has a local health care provider in Idaho Springs.
Centura Clinic - Idaho Springs1969 Miner Street (1st Floor), Idaho Springs, Colorado(303) 649-3690
Show All Answers
Please call us locally at 303-670-7528 for specific information.
Please call our Public Health Information Line at 303-670-7528 for information on vaccination pricing. No child will be turned away for failure to pay for a vaccine.
Vaccines offered to adults may vary based on availability. Please visit our vaccines/immunizations pager by clicking here for more information.
You can also call our Public Health Information Line at 303-670-7528 and a nurse will get back to you.
You can also make an appointment to get vaccinated here: https://www.clearcreekcounty.us/1480/Make-an-appointment
We offer free pregnancy testing, assistance, and enrollment in other programs such as: Women, Infant and Children (WIC), Nurse Family Partnership, referrals to medical providers, and more.
For information on these programs please contact:
Donna Prenter, RD, RN, WIC Coordinator 303-250-1216 email@example.com
A good place to start is at the Public Health Nurses Office in the Health and Wellness Center in Idaho Springs. A variety of programs are available. Programs for Women's Infants and Children (WIC) offer assistance with nutritional food vouchers and education for feeding all members of the family. Assistance with breast feeding and breast pump loaners for WIC clients also is available. Growth and development monitoring of your child also is available.
For more information, contact:
You should first call your doctor or primary care provider if you suspect you have become ill from eating at a public establishment.
To file a complaint against a restaurant or food establishment that is licensed in Clear Creek County, please contact:
The Colorado Department of Public Health and EnvironmentLocal Assistance Program (303) 692-3645 *press 1 at the email@example.com
You can also visit out Environmental Health webpage by clicking here.
We don't investigate bedbug infestations because they're considered a nuisance and not a health problem.
For information on how to mitigate bed bugs in your home, please contact:
Clear Creek County Environmental Health(303) firstname.lastname@example.com
Clear Creek County Public Health now offers free HIV, Hep. C, and other STI testing at the Clear Creek County Health and Wellness Center (1969 Miner Street, 2nd Floor, Idaho Springs).
You can make an appointment here: https://www.clearcreekcounty.us/1480/Make-an-appointment
Call the Public Health Information Line at 303-670-7528 and leave a message if you have any questions.
Jefferson County Mental Health (JCMH) currently offers counselling and crisis services available at the Idaho Springs Resource Center. To make an appointment to see a specialist please call (303) 670-7550.
For more information on Mental Heath resources in the county, click here.


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Having a bit of fun in the trees at Tarrapin Point, Niagara Falls.
September 29-30, 2007
Our first venture to Meg's awesome event in Niagara Falls… So cool, flying off of Terrapin Point.
At the same time, one of the most difficult and beautiful/unique flying venues we've ever been to.


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In late 2007, President Bush signed a federal energy bill that established energy efficiency standards for the everyday light bulb. These standards essentially retire the 130-year-old incandescent, which is so inefficient that 90 percent of the electricity it uses is wasted as heat. As there are around 4 billion screw-based sockets in the US, this is a really big deal. Once in full effect, the standards will:
- Cut our nation's electric bill by $13 billion a year.
- Eliminate the need for 30 large (500 MW) power plants.
- Prevent more than 100 million tons of CO2 emissions, the main pollutant responsible for global warming.
To put this into perspective, these standards will save as much electricity each year as that used by all the homes in the State of Texas.
Unfortunately some have decided to launch a campaign to "save" the inefficient incandescent light bulb. Last month, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas introduced legislation that would return us to the past; its backers are spreading loads of misinformation along the way. The legislation represents a disturbing trend of bashing energy efficiency regulations across the board, regardless of their benefits.
Interestingly enough, the lighting companies are not in favor of such a rollback. Flip flopping policies are the last thing they want. To its credit, the lighting industry's trade association issued a press release that sums up its ongoing commitment to meet and exceed the new lighting efficiency standards. These companies have made major changes to their supply chains and invested billions of dollars in research and development and new production facilities. Preserving the most inefficient light bulb is no longer in their financial interests.
Barton's bill also ignores exciting new energy saving lighting products that are beginning to hit market. These replacement bulbs provide just as much light as today's incandescents and last much longer, which means fewer trips up the ladder and significant cost savings for the user.
Not surprisingly, Edison's 125-year-old bulb is a really bad deal in today's economy. While today's incandescent bulbs cost 25 cents to 50 cents per bulb when bought in a 4 pack, they are a really bad deal both for your pocket and the environment. That's because energy saving alternatives such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use 4 times less energy to create the same amount of light. Over a five-year period, a 100W incandescent bulb will cost $40 more than the comparable 25W CFL.
Unfortunately many consumers are unable to get past the slightly higher first cost of the CFL, $2 (in a multi pack) to $5 (when bought one at a time), and unknowingly are being hit with higher electric bills.
What Does the 2007 Law Really Do? Contrary to many alarmist headlines, the law signed by President Bush in 2007 does NOT ban incandescents (or any other technology for that matter). The law simply requires new bulbs, beginning in 2012, to use 25 percent to 30 percent less power than today's conventional incandescent bulb. The law is technology neutral and allows any type of bulb to be sold as long as it is a reasonably efficient one. Consumers will have lots of choices including energy saving halogens, CFLs, LEDs, and even new and improved incandescent lamps.
What about Jobs? The experience so far is that Osram Sylvania chose to retool its incandescent factory, one of the few remaining in the United States. In retooling its plant in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, Osram Sylvania preserved 265 jobs and protected the jobs in the feeder plants throughout the country that make the glass, bases and halogen capsules that go into the new energy saving bulbs.
Another manufacturer, GE, has a mixed story. GE invested $60 million to create a global center of excellence for linear fluorescent lamp manufacturing in Bucyrus, Ohio, an action that will double that plant's jobs. But GE has also recently announced the closing of an incandescent plant in Virginia, a closing that will sadly result in the loss of 200 jobs.
Other job-related news includes:
TCP Inc., one of the world's biggest manufacturers of high-quality compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), is moving some of its production from China back to the U.S. When was the last time that happened?
Lighting based on light-emitting diodes or LEDs has created many new jobs in the United States; many more are on the way.
- For example, Cree, a North Carolina-based lighting company, recently announced plans to invest more than $500 million in two new factories that will provide more than 800 new jobs in the Durham, NC area.
- Also check out this story about Lighting Sciences Group Corporation, which is producing new LED light bulbs that will soon appear on the shelf at Home Depot stores. The company recently won almost $19 million in federal stimulus bonds to expand operations to develop and manufacture energy efficient LED lighting in Florida's "Space Coast." The development has the potential to create 832 new jobs over the next two years. While it doesn't take a rocket scientist to make a LED light bulb, these factories are indeed quite sophisticated and provide the type of high paying green jobs that are in everybody's best interest. In fact, many of the new hires could indeed be former NASA employees.
Overall the job creation story is overwhelmingly positive. The loss of one plant and its jobs, however traumatic for the impacted community, cannot be allowed to overwhelm developments that promise hundreds and hundreds of new jobs here in the US.
Stay tuned to this space for more news about changes in lighting technology. With the new standards set to begin soon and with massive innovation in the worldwide market, we're all going to need guidance and advice as we enter the clean energy future.
P.S. – One last point I want to reemphasize: We will all still be able to buy a great bulb for every socket. Contrary to what some luddites say, consumers will be able to choose from a wide range of bulbs, using a variety of technologies, coming in many different shapes, brightness levels, and color temperatures (warm yellowish light to cooler bluish light). No one is requiring you to buy a CFL – not now, not ever. The regulation is simply making manufacturers build you a better bulb.
In the interest of full disclosure, though, I'm a big fan of the new CFLs as they are now small enough that you can even pull one out of your pocket, as I demonstrated on national TV – with Hoda and Kathie Lee one morning. Also check out the October issue of Consumer Reports for their recent reviews of CFLs, which were quite favorable.


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Your purchases through the Kids Wings and Amazon Links help to keep our website doors open! Contact Us Home Bookstore Integrated Curriculum Build Character Disclaimer: The links here have been scrutinized for their grade and age appropriateness; however, contents of links on the World Wide Web change continuously. It is advisable that teachers and parents review all links before allowing student use. Please contact us immediately if you find any inappropriate links.
2011, Suzy Red, Lockhart, Texas |


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NEW YORK (AP) — Hurricane Sandy grounded thousands of flights in the U.S. northeast Monday and upended travel plans across the globe, stranding passengers from Hong Kong to Europe. The massive storm threatens to bring a near halt to air travel for at least two days in a key region for both domestic and international flights.
Major carriers such as American Airlines, United and Delta cancelled all flights into and out of three area airports in New York, the nation's busiest airspace. According to the flight-tracking service FlightAware, nearly 7,500 flights had been canceled for Monday and Tuesday, almost all related to the storm.
Delays rippled across the U.S., affecting travelers in cities such as San Francisco to Chicago. Disruptions spread to Europe and Asia, where airlines canceled or delayed flights to New York and Washington from cities that are major travel hubs including London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Businessman Alan Shrem was trying to return home to Boca Raton, Florida. His Monday morning Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to New York's Kennedy airport was canceled.
He learned he could be stuck in Hong Kong for nearly a week because the next available seat was Nov. 4. He was put on a waiting list for seats that could become available earlier.
"They just say: Yeah, it's a pretty big waiting list," said Shrem, throwing up his hands. In the meantime, he'll have to fork out $400 a night to continue staying at a nearby hotel. The airline won't pay for accommodation for stranded passengers if delays are weather related.
Forecasters say Hurricane Sandy is about 310 miles (505 kilometers) southeast of New York City, and the center of the storm is expected to be near the mid-Atlantic coast on Monday night. The National Hurricane Center said early Monday that the storm has top sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph), with higher gusts. Sandy is on track to collide with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.
Airports in the metropolitan New York City area are open, but air carriers are not operating.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Monday that travelers shouldn't even try to go to Kennedy, Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and Stewart airports
Air travel in the Northeast started getting complicated on Sunday, when passengers were reporting multi-hour wait times at airline call centers.
Eileen Merberg, 50, was booked on a United flight from her home in Rochester, N.Y. to New Orleans, connecting at Washington D.C.'s Dulles airport.
She received an email saying the Washington flight was canceled. United rebooked her first on a flight through Newark and, when that flight was also canceled, on another flight through Chicago.
By that point, she already had told the higher education conference that she was scheduled to speak at that she wouldn't be coming. She tried to cancel her flight over the phone. After two lengthy waits — her cell phone battery ran out during the first one — she just hung up.
International travelers would have to wait to get to the East Coast of the U.S. All flights from Paris to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington — a total of 14 — were canceled. Air France has canceled four into JFK and two departures.
Frankfurt airport canceled 12 flights, with German carrier Lufthansa scrapping three to the Northeast and one out of Newark. British Airways had to cancel all its flights to and from New York, Newark, Baltimore, Washington DC, Boston and Philadelphia — a total of 20.
Eight flights out of Tokyo's Narita International Airport to New York, Newark and Washington were canceled Monday.
Hong Kong's Cathay canceled its two daily flights to New York for Monday and Tuesday and Air India said its daily flights to Newark and JFK had halted since Sunday.
South Korean flag carrier Korean Air delayed a flight scheduled to leave Incheon International Airport for JFK on Monday by 22 hours. Asiana Airlines delayed its JFK flight from Seoul by 26 hours.


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Robert Pollin is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He is the founding co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). His research centers on macroeconomics, conditions for low-wage workers in the US and globally, the analysis of financial markets, and the economics of building a clean-energy economy in the US. His latest book is Back to Full Employment. Other books include: A Measure of Fairness: the Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States, and Contours of Descent: US Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity.
Paul Jay, Senior Editor, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. And welcome to this week's edition of The PERI Report with Bob Pollin.
Now joining us from Amherst, Massachusetts, is the cofounder and codirector of the PERI institute, Bob Pollin.
Thanks for joining us.
Prof. Robert Pollin, Codirector, Political Economy Research Institute: Thank you very much for having me, Paul.
Jay: So what are you working on this week?
Pollin: Well, this week was really important in terms of the struggle, debate around climate change. Just yesterday, Sunday, there was 50,000, 60,000 people marching on Washington to support serious action around climate change. Five days before that, President Obama's State of the Union address, he did come out more strongly than he had in many years in terms of introducing serious measures to control climate change. He said that in his State of the Union. That hearkened back to his inaugural speech, where he also made some strong statements as regards climate change, all to the good, all to the very good.
At the same time, unfortunately, in the very same speech—indeed, pretty much in the very same paragraph of the speech—Obama recommitted himself to allowing natural gas and oil exploration, drilling, production, to expand rapidly. Indeed, he said he was going to cut red tape to accelerate the rate at which natural gas and oil production are going to increase in this country. That's very, very bad news.
Jay: Why is that bad news? Because his—if I understand him correctly, it's sort of a transition: you exploit the fossil fuels now, but you start building the capacity for the green later. What's wrong with that?
Pollin: What's wrong with it is, if we take the research from climate scientists at all seriously—some people don't, but let's take it seriously.
Jay: And Obama says he does.
Pollin: Obama says he does. And if you do, there is simply no way that we are going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by allowing natural gas production to expand. I want to state that very strongly. Natural gas, purported to be a clean fuel alternative to coal and oil, a clean fossil fuel alternative, it is cleaner than coal, it is moderately cleaner than oil in terms of emissions per unit of energy produced, but it is not clean. It is not clean, according to a standard by which we say we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent as of 2030. That's the Obama administration's own standard, to cut greenhouse gas emissions relative to today by 40 percent as of 2030. It's a very, very ambitious agenda, and there is simply no way to get there if you were going to allow natural gas to expand. There is no way to get there.
So the fact that Obama is saying he wants natural gas to expand means that he isn't taking his own climate change goals for 2030—much less 2050—but for 2030, he is not taking them seriously.
Jay: And he also—he didn't specifically say it in this speech, but he's said it before: he believes there's such a thing as clean coal. And unless I'm mistaken, there's no evidence that such a thing exists.
Pollin: Well, the technology that people talk about, a so-called carbon capture and sequestration—that is, you burn the coal, or for that matter you burn the natural gas or you burn the oil, and you have a technology that captures the carbon emissions, the bad stuff, and then inject—and carries those emissions through pipelines and injects them into crevices underneath the earth's surfaces, finds those crevices, injects them, and then they stay there till the end of time. Some people have worked on it. There is no evidence that it can work. There's certainly no evidence that it can work on a big scale. And there's no evidence as to whether this can be done rapidly and in an affordable way.
What we know is that alternatively, investing in renewable energy, clean energy, clean renewables, solar, wind, small-scale hydro, geothermal, these things are becoming cost-competitive with fossil fuels even without hundreds of billions of dollars subsidies to build the technologies. So why not—if we're going to invest in a whole new generation of technologies, what we should be doing is investing in the clean technologies that provide us a permanent solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.
Jay: Now, the other thing he said in his speech—which he's always said, and recommitted this: that this all has to be a market-based solution. Now, he also suggested that if the House doesn't go along with this, he says by executive order he can order certain things. But I didn't find it very clear whether he meant he'll just order market-based solutions, which is something in the realm of cap and trade, 'cause that's always what he's talked about, or will he actually order some regulatory authority to actually mitigate, reduce carbon emission. It was very vague, I thought.
Pollin: Well, the—cap and trade is not on the books, the measure to set a cap on the amount of emissions. That's not on the books. So that has to pass Congress.
What he was talking about was enforcing existing Environmental Protection Agency rules that are in place, which, if they are aggressively enforced like they should be, coal—basically, roughly half of the existing coal plants become not commercial, not commercially viable, and you would cut coal production around half of what it is today, just by enforcing existing standards. And this is research done not by me, but actually by—Deutsche Bank has a research branch which looks into these things on climate issues. So this is Deutsche Bank's own findings. So you could get coal down by 50 percent by enforcing existing Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
But that does not get us anywhere with respect to oil or with respect to natural gas. And with respect to oil and natural gas, he is saying, let's build them up, let's keep expanding, let's keep burning it. And, yes, maybe we'll have this carbon capture technology in place, but it's not on the horizen. Meanwhile, we're going to keep spewing greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. And like I said, again, there is no way we get close to hitting Obama's own targets for emissions reductions by 2030.
Jay: And he's never suggested that he is going to crack down on coal in terms of regulatory authority. I mean, in the election campaign and such, I thought he more or less said the opposite of that.
Pollin: Well, I mean, what was in his speech, the State of the Union the other day, is saying, well, that, you know, maybe [incompr.] we don't know that he [incompr.] The point is, look, there are people in coal mining communities who will be hurt. We need transitional policies for them. We can't neglect that. There will be people hurt in the oil and gas industries if they're not allowed to expand. That's true. But that is the only thing that those things have to happen if we're going to hit the emission targets. I can give you chapter and verse on all that, but that's the end result.
So the rally that took place yesterday in Washington was a major step forward in advancing a serious agenda for climate change. And as you and I have talked about many times, advancing the agenda for controlling climate change can also be an agenda for job creation and can push us towards full employment.
Jay: Thanks for joining us, Bob.
Pollin: Thank you very much for having me.
Jay: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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The 4200 Series is a traffic control solution for internal doors. It features a shallow back box, low current draw, field selectable voltage and fail safe/fail secure conversion without disassembly.
The 5100 Series is a medium-duty electric strike designed for versatility with multiple faceplates and hardware included. It offers an all-in-one boxed solution for convenience and installation speed in the field.
The 6100 Series are heavy-duty stainless steel construction rim exit strikes. They are ideal for drop-in replacement or new construction with five models providing coverage for many single or double door applications, including fire-rated doors.
The 6200 Series includes 17 models of grade 1, heavy-duty electric strikes. Integrated faceplate, stainless steel construction, and proven reliability make them ideal for new construction.
The 6300 is a fire-rated, no-cut surface mounted strike. Its heavy-duty, stainless steel construction is UL 10C 3-hour fire rated and UL 1034 listed.
The 6400 Series is a modular, 3-hour fire rated strike that lets the user move, or even remove, the keeper, ramp or plug. Offered with both centerline and offset faceplates, it is the ultimate all-in-one strike.
The 98/99 and 33A/35A Series are high-performance heavy-duty push pads and offer many customizable options.
The 94/95 INPACT Series recessed push pads are designed specifically to reduce impact.
The 55 and 88 Series are ideal for environments needing a traditional-looking device, but is for heavy-duty applications.
The 22 Series is an economical alternative that incorporates a modern touch bar styling for any door type.


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Hae LUTPubista
Aineistot 1-1 / 1
Development of fibre recovery process
The fiber recovery process is an essential part of the modern paper mill. It creates the basisfor mill's internal recirculation of the most important raw materials ¿ water and fiber. It is normally also a start point for ...


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This article is more than 1 year old
Diablo trousers $28m to create a flash-in-the-DRAM technology
Mix me a storage cocktail, barkeep - but hold the fab
Diablo Technologies, a Canadian start-up founded 10 years ago, has just been given $28m to develop its flash-based in-memory technology.
The MemoryChannel Storage technology involves fusing flash and DRAM together, with executing apps getting fast access to data in both DRAM and NAND through the memory subsystem - think storage memory. Diablo claims the MCS tech, a memory channel-based solid-state storage platform, will provide extremely low latency and very high throughput, while avoiding the need for buying in excess flash capacity.
The MCS technology includes hardware with a chipset and software.
The fabless semi-conductor manufacturer was founded by CEO Riccardo Badalone, an ex-Nortel ASIC guy and originally Diablo's CRO, along with Michael Parziale, VP for business ops, previously the research and development VP, and another ex-Nortel man. The third co-founder is Franco Forlini, VP for strategic customer engineering, and ex-BroadTel Communications.
Diablo's CTO is now Maher Amer, an ASIC expert. With his help, Diablo has previously developed an advanced memory buffer and a plug-and-play Load Reduction chipset for DDR3 memory channels. The company claims to "have enhanced the performance and capability of server memory sub-systems across multiple generations of DRAM technology."
MCS uses flash now but has been designed for future non-volatile memory technologies. It will, Diablo says, "enable substantial improvements in transaction processing and data analysis within compute-servers, enterprise data centres and cloud-computing facilities worldwide."
This technology looks to have similarities to Fusion-io's ioMemory PCIe flash cards, its Virtual Storage Layer and its cut-through memory architecture for bypassing a host OS' disk I/O subsystem.
Diablo states; "Our customers are international Tier1 OEMs that integrate our advanced solutions in high-performance enterprise and data centre applications."
The $28m is a C-round funding exercise. A B-round in June 2008 netted $15m after the advanced memory buffer was developed - and paid for, we think, by the Load Reduction chipset development.
The target tier 1 OEMs for this diabolical flash in-memory technology are easy to identify: Cisco, Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM and NetApp. Let's see which ones jump. ®


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Monitoring and managing Africa's water resources | |
2013-10-31 | |
With water security being one of Africa's biggest challenges, ESA's TIGER initiative is using satellite observations to provide local authorities with the information they need to develop this vital resource. |
Africa's Lake Chad is the main source of fresh water for over 30 million people in Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. It's the main source for the region's irrigation, drinking water for livestock, fishing and supports a rich biodiversity. Despite seasonal fluctuations, the surface of the Lake Chad has changed enormously in the last decades, with high losses from the 1960s to 1980s, mainly due to climate change and increased human demand for water. But recent assessments indicate a turning trend, with the water surface extent in 2011 nearly doubled when compared to the 1985 extent due to increasing rainfall in the Sahel, particularly from 2004 onwards. Part of this increase can also be attributed to flooding of the surrounding wetlands, which is a recurrent phenomenon in the flat costal area of the lake. These and other results were presented in Tunisia last week at the TIGER workshop, which brought together over 100 scientists, national and transboundary authorities, water experts from 21 African countries and representatives from international development organisations. Water security is of major significance to African countries that are subject to the effects of climate change and an increasing population, affecting the society in terms of access to drinking water, food and energy. The issue is also of political importance as many river basins on the continent cross national borders. Satellite Earth observation provides an objective, transboundary solution to mapping and monitoring this precious resource on a large scale. ESA's TIGER initiative develops Earth observation applications in close collaboration with its African partners in order to respond to the urgent need for reliable water information in their countries. It also supports research, capacity building and training on the continent within both national and transboundary water authorities. "If you look at the water resources sector in general, Africa is the continent that has the least developed water resources. This is where Earth observation technologies can help," said Mohammed Bila from the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). TIGER is now promoting a new Water Observation Information System (WOIS) for monitoring, assessing and taking inventory of water resources in a cost-effective manner. The new system integrates satellite information such as flood monitoring and forecasting, water body mapping for irrigation and livestock, lake water quality, hydrological modelling for water management and urban sanitation planning. The WOIS is currently implemented in five African water authorities (LCBC, Nile Basin Initiative, Volta Basin Authority, Department of Water Affaires of Namibia and South Africa), which use it to support their decision-making. "The WOIS will allow us to assess environmental variables by catchment over the whole basin for the first State of the Lake Chad Basin Report," said Mr Bila. While doing water assessment near the eastern edge of the Lake Chad Basin, land degradation and vegetation increase caused by the war in Sudan's Darfur region was also spotted in the satellite data. Since 2003, over 3300 villages have been destroyed, forcing millions of people to leave their homes and abandon agricultural activities. These areas have experienced an increase in vegetation, which is evident in satellite data acquired over the region. Many of the displaced moved into refugee camps in neighbouring Chad. These areas are clearly visible in satellite data showing land degradation, where natural resources are being overused. Over the next few years, the Sentinel satellites will be launched as part of Europe's Copernicus programme. They will significantly improve availability of environmental information services and provide operational data to a variety of users such as water authorities in Africa. |
Related links
TIGER Capacity Building Facility
Observatoire du Sahara et du Sahel
Annex images


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Barclays Center and Brooklyn Nets Unveil Apps that Provide a Premium In-Arena Experience
Feb 1, 2013
First Arena App in the World to Deliver Live Video; Other Unique Features Include Food Ordering Capabilities & Interaction With Scoreboard
- Brooklyn Nets unveil team app presented by the tastytrade Financial Network -
BROOKLYN (Feb. 1, 2013) – Barclays Center has launched an app that enhances the overall fan experience through groundbreaking technology. The Barclays Center app is the first arena app in the world to deliver live video to the latest smartphones and tablets, in addition to offering other unique features such as the ability to order concessions and interact with the scoreboard. The app was developed by Apps for Venues by carbonhouse and its sister app for the Brooklyn Nets was developed by WillowTree Apps. The apps are designed to deliver the world's best fan experience.
The Barclays Center app is highly dynamic and adds a number of features when used inside the venue during an event and connected to the building's free-open Wi-Fi. Cisco's StadiumVision Mobile, which was introduced today, will deliver live video feeds to the Barclays Center app and offer multiple channels of unique video for enhanced viewing at Brooklyn Nets games and select events. Guests can also use the Barclays Center app in the upper pavilion seats to order food and drinks for pick-up without waiting in line, using technology from Bypass, a leading provider of modern, cloud-based point of sale solutions designed specifically for sports and entertainment venues. Additional in-game app features include the ability to send photos and messages to the scoreboard and report incidents to arena security. The app can be used from anywhere to purchase tickets, view event calendars and seating maps, find transportation information, and locate restaurants, bars, hotels, and shopping near Barclays Center.
"We are proud to offer cutting-edge apps for Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets, which allow fans to learn more about the venue and stay connected to their team," said Brett Yormark, CEO of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center. "These apps compliment the state-of-the-art technology that's already in Barclays Center and continue our goal to provide the best in-event experience of any sports and entertainment venue."
"Barclays Center's mobile app will bring fans closer to and more involved with the action than they have ever been – regardless of where their seats are located," said Chip Foley, director of building technology, Forest City Ratner Companies (Developer of Barclays Center). "When we began designing the visitor experience for Barclays Center, we knew that technology would be a key element. The mission was to add to the experience of being in the arena - with this app I am confident we have created the world's best fan experience."
The Brooklyn Nets app allows fans to stay up to date with the team by delivering live score updates, live stats, videos, schedules, and team news. Fans can also send photos and texts to the scoreboard. The Brooklyn Nets app is presented by tastytrade, an online financial news network with live market talk and trading strategy for investors at every level. Tastytrade was created by the founders of thinkorswim.
"The extensive Wi-Fi network in Barclays Center and Cisco's StadiumVision Mobile product gave us great tools to work with when creating mobile apps for the arena and the Brooklyn Nets," said Tobias Dengel, CEO of WillowTree Apps and partner at Apps for Venues by carbonhouse. "We are certain that Barclays Center guests will be surprised and delighted by the functionality of these apps, especially when ordering food and viewing in-arena live video."
Barclays Center offers free, fast, and reliable Wi-Fi for arena patrons, allowing thousands of fans to use the network at the same time. The installation of the network was completed by High Point Solutions, a partner of the arena and the Brooklyn Nets, and a Cisco Gold Certified Partner.
To download the free Barclays Center app, please visit:
iPhone - http://bit.ly/BCappiOS
Android - http://bit.ly/BCAppAndroid
To download the free Brooklyn Nets app, please visit:
iPhone - http://bit.ly/BKNetsAppiOS
Android - http://bit.ly/BKNetsAppAndroid
About Apps for Venues
Apps for Venues by carbonhouse, LLC is a joint venture formed by carbonhouse, the leading developer of websites for venues, and WillowTree Apps, an award winning mobile app development firm. The venture taps both firms experience and expertise to create mobile applications for venues like arenas, stadiums, concert halls, theaters, and civic auditoriums. The joint venture uses WillowTree's expertise in mobile application development and carbonhouse's specialization in interactive platforms for venues including arenas, performing arts centers, and convention centers to develop a turn-key platform—Apps for Venues™—to allow for fast and cost effective development of iPhone and Android apps that are tuned to the specific needs and brand of each venue.
About WillowTree
WillowTree Apps is one of the largest and most respected mobile development companies in the US. The entire team of more than 30 people is located in its Charlottesville, VA headquarters. Nothing is outsourced overseas. The company's designers and developers are experts across the nuances of iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry and mobile web/HTML5 design best practices. The company has been ranked The Top Worldwide Mobile App Developer by SourcingLine, The #3 iPhone App Development Company by BestWebDesignAgencies.com, and a two-time Webby Award Honoree and it was recently named to the 2012 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies. Notable clients and apps include Johnson & Johnson, the University of Virginia, Manta, Crutchfield Electronics, Valpak and Vox Media/SB Nation. More information at willowtreeapps.com.
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate with each other. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.
About tastytrade
The tastytrade Financial Network was founded in August 2011, as an Internet-based channel for original financial news, investment strategies, and entertainment for the masses. The programming is geared to various investment levels, from beginner to professional. It is the fastest growing financial network on the Internet. tastytrade currently produces eight hours of original, live programming every weekday, with "Get Tasted," "The LIZ & JNY Show," "Ask Slim," "Last Call," and "Sneek & the Geek." tastytrade is available at www.tastytrade.com, on iTunes, Apple TV, Apple Radio, and on Roku. Programming is archived, cataloged and accessible 24/7 at tastytrade.com. For more information, visit www.tastytrade.com.
About Bypass
Bypass is an Austin based company that specializes in modern, cloud based point of sale solutions specifically for sports, entertainment and other public venues. Our passion is to enhance the in-venue purchasing experience through innovations in open technology and consistent, trustworthy execution. We are proud to serve teams and venues in every major sports league in the country as well as partnering with some of the world's largest food service providers. For more information visit www.bypasslane.com.
About Barclays Center
Barclays Center opened on September 28, 2012, and is a major sports and entertainment venue in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. Developed by Brooklyn-based real estate developer Forest City Ratner Companies, and designed by the award-winning architectural firms AECOM (www.aecom.com/architecture) and SHoP Architects (www.shoparc.com), Barclays Center has one of the most intimate seating configurations ever designed into a modern multi-purpose arena, with unparalleled sightlines and first-class amenities. Barclays Center offers approximately 17,732 seats for basketball, 14,500 seats for hockey and up to 19,000 seats for concerts, and has 101 luxury suites, four bars/lounges, four clubs, and 40/40 CLUB & Restaurant by American Express.
Barclays Center is hosting an extensive variety of events, including premier concerts, monthly major professional boxing cards, top college basketball, family shows, the Brooklyn Nets and soon the New York Islanders.
In addition to Barclays, the naming rights partner, Founding Partners for Barclays Center include American Honda Motor Co., Inc., American Express, Calvin Klein, Cushman & Wakefield, EmblemHealth, Foxwoods Resort Casino, GEICO, MetroPCS, Stolichnaya, and Ticketmaster. Other sponsors include: adidas, Anheuser-Busch, The Coca-Cola Company, Gym Source, Haier America, High Point Solutions, JetBlue, LIU Brooklyn, New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, SONY, and Willis.
Located atop one of the largest transportation hubs in New York City, Barclays Center is accessible by 11 subway lines, the Long Island Rail Road, and 11 bus lines.


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The tragic loss of innocent lives to terrorist acts will not stop until we admit to the folly of current policies.
Lost amid the genuine anguish, the outrage, the media frenzy and the political posturing after each terrorist event in the West is a simple question: "Why are they so angry, these terrorists?"
You don't really have to look far for an answer.
Western powers have been meddling in the Middle East for a very long time. A few examples will suffice.
In 1953, Britain and the U.S. conspired to overthrow democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh and replace him with a tyrant — the Shah of Iran. Mossadegh wanted to nationalise a British oil company and reap the profits for Iran. It was Iran's oil, after all. The Shah was more obliging, and let the flows of profits and cheap oil to the West continue.
We know how well that ended. The Shah's iron-fisted repression eventually produced a fundamentalist theocratic revolution and a regime since labelled as one of the "axis of evil".
Saudi Arabia is well-known to be the source of Wahhabism, the fundamentalist Islamic sect that promotes the Sharia law so loathed and dreaded by the likes of Pauline Hanson. Yet Saudi Arabia is an ally of the U.S. and, perforce, of Australia. How come? Well, Saudi Arabia sits on the world's biggest pool of oil.
Saudi Arabia has also given the world Osama bin Laden and most of the terrorists who brought down the Twin Towers in New York in 2001. Saudi Arabia is widely reputed to be the major, though unofficial, source of funds supporting Middle Eastern terrorists. So why is Saudi Arabia an ally?
The 2003 invasion of Iraq has been an unmitigated disaster. A recent estimate is that there have been nearly 200,000 civilian deaths in the aftermath. Iraq quickly descended into civil war and anarchy (as widely predicted), the conflict spread into neighbouring Syria and Islamic State, or ISIS, spread out of Syria. The conflict has been the major recruiting incentive to Islamic extremism and terrorism. Assessments to that effect even by our own intelligence agencies are occasionally leaked or mentioned indiscreetly.
The invasion of Iraq was illegal and based on a transparently flimsy allegation that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. It was inflicted by Western governments in the face of clear opposition from their citizens, voiced through polls and the biggest street demonstrations since the Vietnam War era. Even in the U.S. only 50% of the people supported it. It was principally driven by President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, with our own Prime Minister Howard enthusiastically yapping along behind.
The U.S. regularly conducts remote drone assassinations around the world. They were presided over for eight years by the saintly Barack Obama. These regularly kill innocent people, along with the alleged enemy target. That is, if the intelligence supposedly identifying the target is even reliable. Can you argue that death falling unpredictably from the sky is not terrorism?
There are many more terrorist attacks and innocent casualties in the Middle East itself than in Western countries, though only the latter attract a Western media frenzy.
The collapse of Syria into anarchy, which is the source of recent tides of refugees into Europe, was precipitated by a combination of the war in neighbouring Iraq and a prolonged and severe drought, plausibly aggravated by global warming. The latter, of course, is due to burning fossil fuels, including Middle Eastern oil.
Saudi Arabia ditching Qatar over terrorism is like McDonalds accusing Burger King of selling junk food
— Trakya Ajansı (@ThraciaNews) June 7, 2017
@AnissaNow pic.twitter.com/cw120IdimH
Middle Eastern terrorism has been generated or severely aggravated by a century or more of political interference by Western powers for reasons of empire and oil. The oil has been used for the maintenance of Western military and industrial superiority. Even so, it could simply have been purchased, more cheaply, for a fair market price.
The dark irony is that burning all that oil will bring down the Western industrial system anyway, along with much else, through global warming.
So why are these young terrorists so angry? Is it really so hard to figure out?
The currently escalating cycle of outrage and counter-attack is destroying their countries and our once-open, liberal democracies, as more and more draconian police-state measures are imposed on us in a futile quest for security.
Western blundering around in the Middle East has been profoundly counter-productive. Worse, many Western actions verge into tolerance of or active collusion in terrorism.
The remedy is obvious: withdraw from the Middle East.
We manage to ignore or tolerate plenty of other tyrannical regimes around the world, so the likely continuation of outrages within the Middle East is not a reason for us to stay on. Our presence routinely makes things worse. The sooner we get out the sooner they are likely to begin the slow process of settling into less lethal arrangements.
Dr Geoff Davies is an author, commentator and scientist. Geoff is the author of The Rise and Failure of the Radical Right. You can read more from Geoff on his blog Better Nature or follow him on Twitter @BetterNatureOz.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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FINALLY a politician is standing up to Saudi Arabia & exposing the links they have with violent terrorism!pic.twitter.com/Mim9k12nxq
— J C 4 P M (@Corbyn_Power) June 4, 2017
War is waste. Subscribing to IA is not.


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Enclosures are the bane of electronics engineers (or so says [Dave Jones] of the EEVblog and The Amp Hour). But fabricating a case that looks great has been getting easier lately. [Eric Forkosh] produced this professional-looking translucent face plate with a minimum of effort. He found a way to use a laser cutter to etch icons in acrylic.
Admittedly, this is not very involved. But just look at the quality he achieved. The secret to his success (aside from having a quality laser cutter on hand) is to use high-temperature spray paint. The acrylic is coated in paint and allowed to dry before heading to the laser cutter. By using the rasterize setting under low power he kills two birds with one stone; the paint is etched away while the acrylic is left a little bit rough to act as a diffuser for LEDs behind the panel. [Eric] cautions against using regular spray paint. In his write up he shows off the unsightly results of doing so.
This makes a great addition to some of the case options out there. One that we have been keeping our eye on is the Sick of Beige initiative being spearheaded by [Ian Lesnet].


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Vatican City, Jan 25, 2014 / 06:08 am
Pope Francis' celebration of an ecumenical vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls Jan. 25, ending the Christian unity week, will also mark the 55th anniversary of the announcement of the Second Vatican Council.
On Jan. 25, 1959, Bl. John XXIII proclaimed his intention to call an ecumenical council at the end of a Vespers celebration held in the basilica, that concluded the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
The decision by the late Pope renewed ecumenism: the following year, he established the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and his successor, Paul VI, met with the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople in 1964.
Pope Francis will follow in these footsteps, first with the celebration of ecumenical Vespers, and in May, he too will meet with the Patriarch of Constantinople.
He has consistently referred to himself as "Bishop of Rome" in favor of "Pope," seen as a conciliatory gesture to the Orthodox, who object to some expressions of papal primacy.
The Church unity week was established as the Octave of Christian Unity by Fr. Lewis Wattson in 1899, who at the time was an Anglican priest. The previous year, he had co-founded an Anglican Franciscan religious community, the Society of the Atonement.
The Octave is observed between Jan. 18, the feast of Chair of St. Peter at Rome, and Jan. 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.
The Society of the Atonement sought to join the Catholic Church, and in 1909 its members were corporately received into the Church.
Fr. Wattson's church unity octave was indulgenced by both Benedict XV and Pius XII.
In the 1930s, Fr. Wattson's conception of the octave was largely supplanted by that of Fr. Paul Couturier, who saw the week as a prayerful request for reconciliation among all the baptized, believing, "we do not pray for the conversion to a Church, but for the conversion to Christ."
This new impetus led further ecclesial communities to join the week.
The conclusion of the week for Christian unity is traditionally held at St. Paul's Outside the Walls, since it is the feast of St. Paul's conversion which draws the week to its end.
The basilica has long been entrusted to the Benedictines, and its link with St. Paul has made it known for its ecumenical commitment. At the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI gave the basilica's Benedictines a particular mandate to work for ecumenism.


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893 Phaholyothin Road, Chiangrai 57000 THAILAND |
Bedding: Double Bed or Twin Bed
No. of rooms = 100 units
Each room is tastefully decorated in a pleasing northern motif and beautifully appointed. Wall to wall carpeting, color TV. satellite, IDD telephone, electronic door lock, bedside panel controller, electronic door lock, bedside panel controller, mini bar and refrigerator all help to ensure your utmost comfort and convenience. Here, you will enjoy the most satisfying accommodation, whether on holiday or business.


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A Look At Who The Vikings Have Met With
With the Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine Game now both in that past, there is plenty to speculate about, and one of the first steps in that is identifying which prospects the Vikings have gone out of their way to meet with.
Luckily, the fine folks at Walterfootball.com are keeping tabs on each NFL team and have a list of the prospects that the Vikings have met with. Of course, this list is probably partial, but it is still fun to scan the prospects that may be getting some extra attention from our favorite team.
Senior Bowl
Oday Aboushi, OL, Viginia
Tommy Bohanon, FB, Wake Forest
Andre Ellington, RB, Clemson
Sean Porter, LB, Texas A&M
Ty Powell, LB, Harding
Bacarri Rambo, DB, Georgia
Robbie Rouse, RB, Fresno State
Brian Schwenke, OL, California
Stepfan Taylor, RB, Stanford
Desmond Trufant, DB, Washington
Blidi Wreh-Wilson, DB, Connecticut
East-West Shrine Game
Terron Armstead, OL, Arkansas Pine-Bluff
Sam Barrington, LB, South Florida
Marcus David, WR, Virginia Tech
Collin Klein, QB, Kansas State


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NEW YORK (AP) — An undercover police detective accused of punching out an SUV window during a motorcycle rally that descended into violence was unmasked Wednesday in a courtroom where he was confronted with serious assault charges.
But Detective Wojciech Braszczok's lawyer insisted he would be exonerated by the very video prosecutors say incriminates him in the Sept. 29 melee.
"The allegation is that he struck the rear portion hatchback window, which has a gaping hole already in it; it's already destroyed," attorney John Arlia said. "Under the law, it's a fatal flaw. You can't break what's already broken."
Arlia said the video clearly shows Braszczok didn't participate in the eventual attack on the SUV driver and was nowhere near him. Braszczok hasn't been charged with assaulting the driver, Alexian Lien, who authorities say was pulled from his Range Rover and beaten on the street by other motorcyclists.
Braszczok, who appeared in court sporting a beard and wearing a hooded sweatshirt and camouflage pants, was charged with assault and criminal mischief.
Cameras were barred in the courtroom because Braszczok's lawyer said his safety would be jeopardized. Braszczok hid his face in his hood when he left court after posting bond.
Braszczok, a married father of two, has been on the job for a decade. He has worked in the New York Police Department's intelligence division, quietly infiltrating and investigating. His lawyer said he has served "valiantly."
But prosecutors said Braszczok was an active participant in the attack.
Braszczok was off duty when he joined the rally of more than 1,000 motorcyclists. Police say the bloody encounter was touched off when a motorcyclist and Lien's SUV bumped. Video captured at the scene shows riders swarming around the SUV before the driver takes off, running over biker Edwin Mieses Jr.
Mieses, of Lawrence, Mass., broke his legs and suffered spine injuries that will leave him paralyzed, his family has said. He had gotten off his motorcycle to defuse the tense situation when he was mowed over, the family said.
Bikers give chase up Manhattan's West Side Highway, caught up with the SUV, smashed the driver's side window and dragged Lien out, authorities say.
Braszczok did nothing to stop the assault, prosecutors said. He didn't call 911 and didn't report it to his superiors for two days, and then when he did he lied about it, Assistant District Attorney Samantha Turino said. At first Braszczok told investigators he didn't see the attack, then changed his story to say he saw it but didn't participate, she said.
The detective was stripped of his gun and badge after internal affairs detectives discovered he was present for at least part of the encounter. He initially told authorities and his union that he left without intervening in part because of his role as an undercover officer.
Uniformed officers, even off duty, are expected to jump in if a crime is occurring, but rules are murkier for undercover officers, who face blowing their covers if they come forward.
Investigators discovered video evidence showing Braszczok punching an already damaged back window, causing it to shatter, then twice kicking the passenger side of the SUV before leaving the scene, prosecutors said.
Several bikers also have been charged with attacking Lien or his SUV or instigating the melee.
Clint Caldwell was charged Wednesday with gang assault after prosecutors said he pulled the shattered glass from Lien's window and reached inside the SUV. His lawyer said there's no video showing him with his hands inside the SUV.
Police charged another biker, James Kuehne, with gang assault, weapon possession and other crimes. It was unclear if Kuehne had an attorney, and a message left at his Brooklyn home wasn't immediately returned.
Lien's wife has said he fled to protect her and their 2-year-old daughter. Lien hasn't been charged with any crime.
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pingeb.org is a plugin for WordPress that connects your content to specific locations in the real world. You can distribute stickers/posters with NFC tags and/or QR codes in your town or building and offer location based content. It also supports geofences.
Many different use cases
The plugin manages URLs and refreshes content for NFC-tags, QR-codes on stickers and posters or geofences, making possible a wide variety of time-dependent and location-based applications in public places. Here are just some of the things which can be done:
- You can promote local artists with samples of their work, as we on Project Ingeborg.
- You can distribute e-books or songs that are out of copyright or to which you have rights.
- You can surprise people with a daily YouTube video or a song from Soundcloud.
- You can post a photo-of-the-day which people can access with their smartphones.
- You can offer a daily insider tip for restaurants or bars around town.
- You can introduce developers and their apps and offer links to their pages in app stores.
- You can promote your own blog or website around town and do all kinds of advertising for just about anything.
- Stadiums, museums or exhibitions can locate visitors indoor and deliver location-based information.
In other words, you can do a lot with this WordPress-plugin and simple NFC-tags, QR-codes or geofences. Without having to change the stickers or posters you can provide fresh content either at all or at selected locations.
For the end user it's really simple to use:
1. Switch on your NFC-enabled smartphone and hold it against a sticker or photograph the QR-code.
2. A mobile website featuring the content will then be opened.
3. The song or e-book on offer is then just one tap away.
The plugin works in conjunction with the "Leaflet MapsMarker" plugin, which is also available for free. Both extend the functionality of WordPress and are very easy to use. The workflow sequence is as follows:
1. Add locations in MapsMarker
2. Assign URLs to the locations
3. Assign content to each location either individually or in a batch
Twitter integration
You can tweet anytime a user downloads an item from your stickers or the geofence-location. Setup is easy, you only have to register as a [Twitter devloper] (https://dev.twitter.com/).
Maintenance section
A handy tool lets you check for possibly removed or dead stickers or posters.
- A RESTful API gives third-party developers easy access to the location data and download-counts to build on them. A documentation of the API can be found at pep.pingeb.org.
Other Features
- The plugin generates random URLs for NFC-tags and QR-codes that connect to the content. QR-codes generated within the plugin can be copied easily to any layout program for stickers or posters. Because the plugin supports geofence, it is not even necessary to use stickers or posters.
- Changing the mobile content (pages in WordPress) for all locations or just one is done with only two mouse clicks.
- A maintenance section helps you identify stickers that have been inactive for a while and that may even have been removed.
- Via shortcodes you can easily set up a statistics page that shows, for example, the NFC- vs. QR-ratio or the latest downloads on a heatmap. A counter on your site allows you to display today's downloads, the total number of downloads and the number of active locations.
- The "Leaflet Maps Marker"-plugin enables you to automatically generate a map with all your locations on your site. It also permits you to use the locations in an augmented reality app like Wikitude.
A detailed documentation can be found on Github at pep.pingeb.org.
We are curious
If you use the plugin, we are curious about your opinion and use case. Please, send us an e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Thank You
The project was supported by the Internet Foundation Austria (IPA). More at netidee.at.
لقطات الشاشة
- Login on your WordPress site with your user account (needs to have admin rights!)
- Select "Add New" from the "Plugins" menu
- Search for pingeb.org
- Click on "Install now"
- Click on "OK" on the popup "Are you sure you want to install this plugin?"
- Click "Activate Plugin"
Note: Using the plugin requires another one: Leaflet Maps Marker
الأسئلة المتكررّة
- Q: How much would it cost to distribute stickers in your town/city?
A: If you roll out every location with a sticker and an NFC-tag, we estimate the material cost to be around 300 Euro/100,000 inhabitants for one year.
- Q: But what about really big cities?
A: Just use geofences. The idea behind is simple and powerful: People need to be at a specific location (plus a configurable radius) in order to call the content. While it's obvious what to do if you roll out stickers, you have to communicate more if you want to use geofences. Why? It is simply not obvious to the user. How should anyone know about it? Plus: You have to find obvious locations. An example would be: Tell the people to open http://yoursite.com anytime the see a subway station.
- Q: For my project, I want to write an iPhone/Android app too. Can I do this?
A: Absolutely. After installing the plugin on your WordPress site, there's a set of APIs than can be used for it.
- Q: I found bugs or want to add features. How can I do that?
A: Just go to the git site of the project and start: pep.pingeb.org
- Q: Why should I use random Urls?
A: You do not have to. This makes the content accessible (almost) exclusively via mobile devices. Accessed in a conventional way, a project like pingeb.org would be no more than one of many websites, but because action on the part of the user is necessary, this raises the regard for the free piece of art featured and increases the fun of discovering new artists. If you want to, URLs can also be made more "speaking" and obvious.
لا توجد مراجعات لهذه الإضافة.
المساهمون والمطوّرون
"pingeb.org" هو برنامج مفتوح المصدر. وقد ساهم هؤلاء الأشخاص بالأسفل في هذه الإضافة.
المساهمونمُهتم بالتطوير؟
سجل التغييرات
Fix: Custom HTML block stay assigned after batch assign assign page to tags.
New Feature: Custom HTML blocks can be added to specific tags.
Fix: Several API Bugfixes.
Fix: pingeb.org can now also works in wordpress subdirectory installations.
Fix: No warning if leaflet mapsmarker pro is installed instead of standard maps marker.
Fix: Widget does not throw a warning anymore.
UI: Content squares now have a little more space.
New Feature: EPUB and MOBI files can now be uploaded using wordpress media.
New Feature: Tag-API now also deliver geofence Url.
Fix: Content Squares vertical padding fixed
New Feature: /api/systemStatistics now also shows configured geofence url
Bug Fix: Twitter now works again
New Feature: SoundCloud Widget
New Feature: Push new Articles using GCM Push
New Feature: Push updated Tags using GCM Push
Bug Fix: Heatmap Callback Url
Bug fix: Counter Widget now also show only locations on enabled layers.
Bug fix: Fixed UI problem with content squares on mobile devices.
New Feature: New content square 'Vimeo'
New Feature: Layer-Filter Setting for tags API.
New Feature: pingeb.org content can now be autogenerated for each content page, by setting custom fields in WYSIWYG editor.
New Feature: API call /tags now also contains geofence enabled flag, geofence radius and unique content identiefier for each tag.
New Feature: Tags can now be exported as csv. This is useful for creating new stickers. (This is no backup!)
New Feature: You can now autogenerate missing urls for tags.
New Feature: pingeb.org now has an adminbar menu.
Change: Maps Marker added to info page.
Change: Plugin author is now pingeb.org.
Change: Twitter settings now automatically limit tweet texts to 140 characters and do not allow ' and " in texts.
Change: API call /api/tags now also shows tags without downloads.
Change: Google Maps API Key removed from settings page.
Bug fix: Geofences work now even with WordPress 3.5 and do not require a Google API Key anymore.
Bug fix: Fixed warning at wpdb prepare (WordPress 3.5)
Bug fix: Bigger data type for page ids on db.
Just minor bug fixes.
New Feature: The plugin now detects if Leaflet Maps Marker is installed. If it isn´t the plugin shows a warning.
New Feature: Info page with license info of 3rd party libraries and infos about supporters.
Bug Fix: NFC vs QR chart now works a bit better. (still not perfect yet).
Fix: Plugin text
New Feature: Number of deployed locations in widget.
If no tags there are no tags yet a link to maps marker is shown.
Tags are now also available as GeoJSON via API.


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05/16/2017 / By Mike Adams
The mainstream media has just been given a green light by the Massachusetts Attorney General to openly publish death threats against so-called "anti-vaxxers" (a derogatory term which means anyone who questions the sanity of injecting children with mercury, a brain-damaging heavy metal and known neurotoxin). Proof of this is found in the letter shown below.
BACKGROUND: Following the Boston Herald's call for anti-vaxxers to be "hanged to death", Natural News issued an urgent action item for readers and fans to report the Boston Herald to law enforcement authorities. A wave of complaints hit the Boston FBI, Boston Police and the Massachusetts Attorney General, requesting criminal investigations into the Boston Herald for its unabashed call for anti-vaxxers to be executed in the same way black slaves were once lynched in America.
In response, as shown in the letter below, the Massachusetts Attorney General has declared it will not investigate the matter.
Of course, if you or I openly declared we were going to murder a journalist who worked at the Boston Herald, the investigation would be swift and highly publicized, but when the Boston Herald calls for the murder of people like us, the state government says that's not worth investigating, and no other mainstream media outlet covers the story.
In other words, the Massachusetts government has just told anti-vaxxers that you must now take up your own self-defense against journo-terrorists, since the "authorities" in government refuse to apply the law to those who work at the Boston Herald. Your lives are now in danger. You are being targeted by the Boston Herald and any number of psychopaths who may be motivated by the Herald's call for mass murder. The government has now declared it will do nothing to stop the calls for murder by "journalists" as long as they are targeting people who oppose toxic vaccine ingredients.
This all explains why I plan to publish the home addresses of the journo-terrorists working at the Boston Herald, in order to warn local Bostonians that they might be living next to murderous, sociopathic mental health miscreants who are a danger to society. Since the Massachusetts government refuses to take any action to protect the public from these dangerous psychopaths, it's obvious that we must take action to protect ourselves. The right to self-defense, after all, is one of the most sacred rights we possess.
Our non-profit division is also launching the public education site VaccineHolocaust.org where journo-terrorists who deny that vaccines harm children will be named and shamed, providing a permanent record of their crimes against children and humanity.
Be sure to join the rally this Thursday at the Boston Herald offices to demand a halt to their racist hate speech against moms and dads. This Natural News article has all the details of the rally. It will be held at 11 am on Thursday, May 18th, at 70 Fargo Street, Boston, MA 02110.
The bigger picture in all this is better explained by Jeffery Jaxen, who writes about what's at stake in this article, reprinted here with credit:
Beta testing, sometimes referred to user acceptance testing, is defined in the computer world as a technique in which hardware is subjected to small trial environment before full implementation. Establishment media outlets and government health agencies have ramped up the pressure and targeting of families, parents, and children over the past few years. Vaccination, once a choice after careful deliberation over the dangers by way of full informed consent, has been painted as an authoritarian demand by the state. The removal of full informed consent, public health debates and medical choice has been superseded to make way for the ever-expanding profit margins of pharmaceutical corporations.
Media outlets now regularly attack and dehumanize anyone who does not subscribe to what can only be described as a religious-like dogma of the failing tenets of the medical-industrial complex. Humanity has witnessed governments and their mouthpieces, often with corporate collusion, attempt to divide and conquer their populations for the purpose of greater control and, in extreme cases, extermination. The slippery slope practice of painting innocent subgroups of society, often used as scapegoats for failed government policy, as a danger to the collective is well-documented and extremely dangerous.
To pave the way for California Senate Bill 277, marinated in Big Pharma money and political corruption, The LA Times ran the article titled "Rich, educated and stupid parents are driving the vaccination crisis." Such a headline now seems tame in today's accepted media landscape ever since the Boston Herald labeled public debate about questionable health practices and parents talking about their children's vaccine injuries "a hanging offense."
The public backlash was swift after the story was broke here. Bigger alternative media outlets then ran with the story activating their networks and followers. A call to action was initiated to contact the Massachusetts Attorney General's office and file a Civil Rights complaint. The results of that complaint have now come full circle. Paralegal Bethany Brown, officially replying to the civil rights complaint on behalf of the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey writes:
"Please be advised that after reviewing your complaint, the Civil Rights Division has decided not to further investigate or intervene in this matter at this time."
Whether the Boston Herald's call for violence was a beta test in the next step of a greater program of parental and community persecution or simply the result of one sad, misinformed writer, the message signals a dangerous new low for US media.
Regardless of the corporate media's waning influence, funded to the tune of an estimated $5.4 billion in Big Pharma ad revenue, an exponentially growing number of people are now questioning and discussing the long-documented dangers of vaccination. Just recently, a pilot study has entered the discussion adding even further credibility to parents, medical professionals and researchers who have been warning about the dangers of the ever-increasing US vaccine schedule. The study titled 'Pilot comparative study on the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated 6- to 12- year-old U.S. children' showed the following results for vaccinated children:
The study also showed that vaccinated children were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with an immune-related disorder. The risk of allergic rhinitis (commonly known as hay fever) was over 30 times higher in vaccinated children, while the risk of other allergies was increased 3.9 fold and the risk of eczema was increased 2.9 fold.
What will come of the future of the Boston Herald and the rest of the US corporate media as their integrity and audience is lost remains to be seen. The US population, and many globally, are awakening to the idea that the practice of government agencies and establishment healthcare forcing dangerous medical products and procedures on families and children is a losing battle. In the search for truth and balanced reporting, without omitting uncomfortable facts, the people are educating themselves and their communities. The move away from establishment mouthpieces, Big Pharma-funded reporting and their 'official stories' is here.
Tagged Under:
anti-vaxxers, Attorney General, Boston Herald, death threats, lawlessness, Massachusetts, racist hate speech
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Dr Simon Morrison, Programme Leader for Music Journalism at Chester, gives an insight into the exciting opportunities you can expect on the course.
University Blog: The Inside Story
Delve deeper into the Chester story by reading blog posts from HE advisers, lecturers and students. Our blog gives you an insight into the Chester experience, plus guidance and tips to help you prepare for university.


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Well, come rain or shine, the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society hope to be able to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of St Ninian's church building on 8 April 2010. (Showers and westerlies are predicted for that day -- I'm crossing fingers they either don't come between 10 and 11 that day, or the weatherman stuck the wrong finger out the utterly wrong window.)
Doesn't matter if there's only a few there on the day, just as long as awareness of our oldest building is kept up. And I, for one, keep reminding the powers-that-be that it's important to us here in Avondale.
The local Community Board have been brilliant -- they have granted the Society $720 towards the cost of printing the first 200 issues of a commemoration booklet I've pulled together. After those have gone, I'll publish the compilation online (link to come).


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Newsmap. For the Armed Forces. 233rd week of the war, 115th week of U.S. participation
Front: Text describes action on various war fronts: Central Pacific, Southwest Pacific, Air war, Burma, USSR. Maps show air attacks from London to various sites in Germany; New Ireland; south Pacific; Truk Is. Includes photographs: "Island forts", Marine corps set up radio telephone sets at Roi Island, Leathernecks set up machine guns immediately upon landing, All-Negro Ninety-Ninth Fighter Squadron at Anzio, German prisoners disembark from an LST to a prison camp, wounded female Jugoslav guerillas arrive in Malta, General Sir Harold Alexander chats with Yank rangers near Cisterno. Back: Text states "In Mein Kampf, Hitler stated that his plan was to destroy France first, then England, after which he would have the United States cornered without a fight!."
February 28, 1944
[United States.] Army Service Forces. Morale Services Division. Army Information Branch.
The UNT Digital Library


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Parents Television Council Denounces Supreme Court Ruling
A conservative advocacy group that specializes in filing content complaints to the FCC isn't a big fan of the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association decision.
As I'm sure you're aware, earlier today the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law barring the sale of violent video games to children on first amendment grounds. The 7-2 decision has irked groups like the Parents Television Council, which has made its mark by monitoring television programming for indecency and filing complaints with the FCC when it comes across a show it deems lewd and lascivious. PTC president Tim Winter issued the following statement in the aftermath of the ruling:
"When an industry trade group files a federal lawsuit to defend a child's constitutional rights, the alarm bells should be deafening. It is hard to imagine a more cynical proposition. Sadly, today's ruling proves the United States Supreme Court heard the video game industry loud and clear, but turned a deaf ear to concerned parents. The Court has provided children with a Constitutionally-protected end-run on parental authority.
"This ruling replaces the authority of parents with the economic interests of the video game industry. With no fear of any consequence for violating the video game industry's own age restriction guidelines, retailers can now openly, brazenly sell games with unspeakable violence and adult content even to the youngest of children.
"The carefully-worded California statute would not have interfered in any way with the rights of the creators of adult games or the adults who wish to buy them; and in fact, it would not interfere with parents who wanted to purchase such a game for their children. Rather, the measure only would have prevented an unaccompanied minor child from buying or renting the product.
"Countless independent studies confirm what most parents instinctively know to be true: repeated exposure to violent video games has a harmful and long-term effect on children. Despite these troubling findings, video game manufacturers have fought tooth and nail for the 'right' to line their pockets at the expense of America's children. Today, the Supreme Court sided with them and against parents.
"We call on the Entertainment Merchants Association to redouble its efforts for increased enforcement of the industry's age-based vending restrictions. The Federal Trade Commission and the PTC's own 'Secret Shopper' campaigns have routinely demonstrated an abysmal failure rate for video game retailers to uphold the industry's own age-based restrictions. With the exception of GameStop, many in the video game industry appear to be either unwilling or unable to prevent the sale of M-rated games to kids. Now with no threat of consequence for failure, we are concerned that the self-regulatory efforts will be violated in even greater numbers than they already are. We will be monitoring this very closely.
"The Parents Television Council is proud of its unwavering support for California State Senator Leland Yee's leadership and legislative efforts to protect children. We will continue to use all the resources within our power to call out unscrupulous retailers. If the federal courts won't stand for parents, then we hope the court of public opinion will."
What's your take? Is it too much to expect parents to be actively involved in the purchasing decisions of their children?


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Don Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, better known as the Duke of Lerma, is not a familiar name to those interested in the annals of power and politics. The Duke of Lerma, the favorite (El Favorito o Valido) and unofficial prime minister of Philip III of Spain from 1598 to 1618, was, however, in his own time, both in Spain and throughout Europe, quite famous. And infamous. He was respected, feared, attacked, satirized, gossiped about, eulogized, and even dramatized in plays such as The Great Favourite or the Duke of Lerma, written in 1668 by the English playwright Sir Robert Howard.
A major patron of the arts (his patronage is reflected in "El Greco to Velazquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III" this spring at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and this fall at the Nasher Museum at Duke University) as well as a major political figure, Lerma transformed the way politics, power, and art merged. Although he did not have a brilliant political mind, his strategies for attaining, conserving, and exercising power were imitated by many of his most famous contemporaries: the Duke of Buckingham in England, Cardinal Richelieu in France, and the Count Duke of Olivares in Spain.
During his ascendancy, the government implemented a series of measures aimed at consolidating the power of the king, reforming the institutional machinery, and confronting the disastrous financial situation that Philip III had inherited from his father. Like many of his contemporaries, Lerma realized that the monarchy was financially exhausted after decades of international war and, consequently, unable to maintain its role as Europe's policeman. He encouraged the prudent adoption of a pacifist international outlook, which translated into the consolidation of peace with France in 1598, a peace treaty with England in 1604, and a twelve-year truce with the Dutch Republic in 1609. Notably, Lerma is associated with the most notorious policy of his time: the expulsion from the Iberian peninsula of approximately 300,000 Moriscos, the Spanish population of Arab descent, between 1609 and 1614.
The other major point of biographical interest is that Lerma changed the way royal favorites were viewed. And his example continues to shed light on the debate over who truly rules—the monarch or the one who has his ear.
In 1528, the famous sixteenth-century Italian writer and diplomat Baldassare Castiglione published a book that became an immediate best seller and an enduring political text, Il cortegiano (The Courtier). Castiglione's book concerns many topics, but his main goal was to help courtiers be effective inside increasingly sophisticated royal courts. Early European political power was won and maintained by arms. Monarchs constantly needed to defend their dynastic rights and to control armed factions that opposed their rule.
In the new monarchies of the Renaissance, however, power and influence could be obtained by becoming—to use an Italian saying of the time—"patrone della orecchia del re" (patron of the king's ear). In order to exploit such power, courtiers needed all the virtues and qualities discussed in Castiglione's book. These included excellent lineage, external beauty, good appearance and manners, education, and so on. With these weapons at his disposal, the new courtier was ready to devote himself entirely to the service of his king.
A perfect courtier, Castiglione wrote, should "love and adore the prince he serves over all humans, using all his will, virtues and arts to please his master." But all his qualities and loyalty were for nothing if the courtier was not able "to gain the love of his prince" and by doing so "to become his favorite" and main adviser.
Lerma was a masterful practitioner of Castiglione's teachings. Born in the 1550s, Don Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas belonged to a family that from the fifteenth century had occupied a low place in the hierarchy of nobles. During the reigns of Charles V (who reigned from 1516 to 1556) and Philip II (1556 to 1598), the Sandoval family attempted to get as close as possible to the reigning monarchs by filling various offices in the royal household. As reward, they hoped for substantial properties to compensate them for lands lost several generations back. Their success was very limited. By the 1570s, Lerma, the family's main heir, possessed one house and estate, a great deal of debt, and little influence.
The opportunity to change his status came in the 1580s when Prince Philip, the future Philip III, began to assert his role in court politics. From this time on, Don Francisco de Rojas perfectly understood what to do to gain the favor and love of his young master: "visit, serve, suffer, make himself visible, and persevere," as the Spanish humanist Antonio de Guevara wrote in 1539. The same writer urged would-be courtiers "to find out the prince's inclinations. A courtier needs to know if the prince likes music, hunting, fishing, and the style of his riding, and once he discovers the prince's preferences he himself must love what the prince loves and follow what the prince follows." These shared preferences are vitally important, Guevara insisted, because princes are human and "sometimes love more those courtiers who share their own preferences than those who labor hard on their behalf." Guevara's advice left no room for misunderstanding: "Wise Castilians should keep in mind the following principle: everything the king likes should be considered good, while everything he dislikes should be considered bad."
Lerma pursued this strategy with numerous gifts and unending adulation, often relying on assistance from key servants of Prince Philip. Despite attempts by other courtiers to thwart his advances, Lerma demonstrated a remarkable ability to overcome obstruction and a facility for arranging secret communication with the prince and finding ways to place himself in his presence. The success of Lerma's strategy became clear as soon as Philip III inherited the crown in 1598, and publicly named Lerma his most trusted counselor and favorite.
Lerma thus became the first of the so-called "great favorites" who, during the seventeenth century, dominated the political scenes in Spain, France, England, and the Dutch Republic. He was the de facto prime minister of Philip III of Spain, and he retained his prestige until October 1618, an astonishingly long period compared with the tenure enjoyed by previous favorites. Only a few figures of influence—the Count Duke of Olivares in Spain (the royal favorite between 1621 and 1643) and Cardinal Richelieu in France (Louis XIII's favorite between 1623 and 1640)—matched Lerma's endurance.
But in order to transform the king's favor into power, influence, and wealth, Lerma and his allies had to challenge contemporary perceptions of royal favorites. Writers like Castiglione viewed favorites as beneficial to the entire court. Others felt they were dangerous to both the monarch and the community at large.
According to this line of thought, the requisite of peace and stability was a strong monarch who ruled by himself. Strong monarchs were, or should be, natural leaders who were not reluctant, indeed were determined, to be in full control of the decision-making process. They consulted, perhaps, with their loyal advisers, but always took control of their own destiny and that of their subjects. Famously, Niccolò Machiavelli insisted that strong and durable states could only be created by strong masters. "It is an infallible rule," he wrote in The Prince, "that a prince who is not himself wise cannot be soundly advised unless he happens to put himself in the hands of a man who is very able and controls everything. Then he could certainly be well advised, but he would not last long because such a governor would soon deprive him of his state."
Machiavelli understood politics as a zero-sum game and the political world as a dramatic, sometimes tragic, combination of conspiracy and violent confrontation. The king who had a favorite would thus give the impression that he was not fully in control, a situation that could only result in the fall, sometimes the death, of the king or his favorite, or of both of them. The sixteenth-century English playwright Christopher Marlowe displayed complete understanding of the Machiavellian political perspective in his vigorous and tragic drama Edward II, written in the same decade in which Lerma rose to power.
Many other sixteenth-century political commentators—the French Jean Bodin, the Flemish Justus Lipsius, and the Spanish Juan de Mariana, among others—emphasized the dangers posed by a royal favorite, the "king's shadow" as he was referred to at the time. According to these authors, the king's subjects would never accept a monarch who depended on a single counselor. The very logic of monarchy forbade such favoritism. "For as the supreme God," wrote Bodin, "cannot make another God equal to himself . . . so we may also say that the prince, who is for us God's image, cannot make a subject equal to himself."
Then, as now, the goal of public office was service to the well-being of the community. From this perspective, a majority of political commentators believed that participation in decision-making should be reserved for those with clearly defined official roles. Public officials—even the monarch himself—should have a clear set of political and moral responsibilities as well as limits to their authority. Anyone with informal power would be uncontrollable, politically unaccountable, and therefore dangerous. Worse, given their closeness to the king, royal favorites might very well convince the king that his power to decide matters of state and his power over his subjects were unlimited. Royal favorites, it was feared, would persuade the king, as Juan de Mariana wrote, that "royal power is greater than the laws and the community, that the king is the owner of his subjects' property, and that everything, including the law, depends only on the monarch's will."
From the beginning, Lerma and his allies attempted to counter these anxious criticisms. They insisted that a royal favorite would benefit both the monarch and the community. Lerma became a new kind of favorite and inaugurated a new type of favoritism. Though he, like previous favorites, owed his preeminence to the king's personal favor, Lerma was careful to present himself as a "public official."
Lerma justified his role and his power as an opportunity to remedy a political system showing signs of institutional and political sclerosis. Spain's acquisition of new territories and the increasing confrontations with other European powers meant that the monarch had many more responsibilities than he could possibly attend to. Lerma was not alone in claiming that a man in the king's confidence, a favorite, could help his master manage public affairs, serve as the king's representative to other institutions and to the various kingdoms, and protect the monarch from his subjects' inevitable complaints.
All of the evidence indicates that Lerma and his successors played a truly political role, and that—contrary to Machiavelli's predictions—they did not try to weaken or usurp the king's powers. Few explained better than the French monarch Louis XIV the complexities associated with the role of a favorite as de facto prime minister. In his Memoirs, the king confirmed the old view of the favorite as a threat to the king's ability and capacity to rule. "As to the persons who were to support me in my work," he wrote, "I resolved above all not to have a prime minister, and if my successors take my advice, my son, the name will forever be abolished in France, there being nothing more shameful than to see on the one hand all the functions and on the other the mere title of king."
Elsewhere, however, Louis XIV took a stance similar to the one defended by Lerma and his associates: "If he [the prime minister] despoils you of part of your glory," at the same time "he unburdens you of your thorniest cares. The interest of his own greatness engages him to sustain yours. He wishes to preserve your rights as a possession that he enjoys in your name, and if he shares your diadem with you, he at least works to leave it intact to your descendants."
Royal favorites in general, and Lerma in particular, did indeed "share" the royal diadem, or crown, with their masters by becoming actors in the mise-en-scène of the monarchy, guiding the royal and courtly ceremonials, and playing a pivotal part in the celebration and promotion of the arts. Before Lerma, other than royalty, there were few significant art collectors, and few enjoyed prominence in the royal ceremonies that took place at court and in a nation's capital cities. During the reign of Philip II, royal ceremonials lacked splendor or continuity. Philip II held no regard for the power of ceremonies and public representation, displays which he viewed as inconsequential. Philip III was a more public king. During the first fifteen years of his reign, there were more masques, royal entries, and public ceremonies celebrating the king and the monarchy than in the entire forty-two years of Philip II's reign.
The presentation of the king as a commanding and sacred personage, the epitome of royal power, consumed the energies of Philip III's intimate servants from the beginning of his reign, and especially the energies of Lerma, who became a kind of modern "minister of culture." According to one of his contemporaries, Lerma inaugurated "a new style of grandeur" by employing art, pomp, and pageantry to display his own power and position. At the same time, he did not fail to emphasize the power of his master and the importance of the monarchical system.
Lerma inaugurated a historical trend in Europe that resulted in the transformation of the favorite into a prominent cultural and artistic patron. He became the most important artistic patron of his time, surpassing all others at the Spanish court, including the king himself. Lerma undertook an immense program of palace-building, both for his own family and for the king. His activities were by no means limited to art and architecture; he also became an important patron of letters and the most important patron of the theater during the first decades of the seventeenth century.
More important still, following the example set by Spanish and other European monarchs, Lerma collected approximately fifteen hundred paintings between 1599 and 1611, making his collection one of the largest ever assembled. It also made Lerma the first ever nonroyal art collector of note in early modern Europe. Many of the paintings, sculptures, and objects of art he collected or commissioned he donated to the royal collections, to convents, and to churches throughout Spain.
Lerma's tenure as prime minister was not without problems or free of critics. He and some of his most prominent allies ("los favoritos del favorito" or the "favorite's favorites," as they were known), men like Alonso Ramírez de Prado, Pedro Franqueza, and Rodrigo Calderón, were accused of corruption, of using their power and offices to enrich themselves, their relatives, and their associates. Lerma and his associates were also criticized for their failure to solve the financial and economic crisis of the monarchy: In 1607, Philip III declared the monarchy bankrupt. Furthermore, between 1598 and 1618, despite the cessation of major international conflict, the public debt doubled. Lerma's critics attacked his pacifist stance, claiming that Spain had been weakened and was now an easy target for its many enemies.
More damaging still, Lerma was accused of usurping the king's power and authority, of subverting public authority and using it as a tool to serve himself, his relatives, and his allies. In October 1618, the mounting criticism resulted in his fall from power and his expulsion from the court. After 1621, Lerma, who had risen to such distinction that in 1618 he'd been appointed a cardinal, had to endure a steady campaign of denigration as well as the loss of all the rents, possessions, and many of the titles he had received during the reign of Philip III. On May 17, 1625, he died in his house in Valladolid, impoverished and vilified, accused by some of his contemporaries and modern historians of initiating Spain's decline.