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Caribbean Islands Table of Contents
Colonial HeritageSpain received the island of Trinidad as part of the fief of Christopher Columbus and controlled the island for nearly 300 years (see The European Settlements, ch. 1). The Spaniards subdued and enslaved the native Caribs and Arawaks but until the late 1700s paid little attention to Trinidad as other ventures were more profitable. As a result, Trinidad's population was only 2,763 in 1783. Amerindians composed 74 percent of that total (2,032). Although African slaves were first imported in 1517, they constituted only 11 percent of the population (310) in 1783. Indeed, the slave total was barely larger than the 295 free nonwhites who had emigrated from other islands. The remaining 126 Trinidadians were white. In an effort to make Trinidad more profitable, the Spanish opened the island to immigration in 1776 and allowed Roman Catholic planters from other Eastern Caribbean islands to establish sugar plantations. Because French Catholic planters on the islands that had been granted to Britain after the Seven Years' War (1756-63) were subject to religious and political discrimination, they were attracted by Spanish promises of land grants and tax concessions in Trinidad. In seeking immigrants, Trinidad linked landownership to the ownership of slaves; the more slaves, the more land. Land grants were also given to free nonwhite immigrants, and all landed immigrants were offered citizenship rights after five years. As a result of this new policy, thousands of French planters and their slaves emigrated to the island in the 1780s and 1790s. By 1797 the demographic structure of the island had changed completely. The population had expanded dramatically to 17,718, about 56 percent of whom were slaves. There were also 4,476 free nonwhites and 2,151 whites. The Amerindian community declined by 50 percent from the level achieved 14 years earlier and represented only 6 percent of the total population. As of 1797, there were hundreds of sugar, coffee, and cotton plantations producing for export (see Growth and Structure of the Economy, this ch.). The British, who were at war with Spain and France, conquered Trinidad in 1797 during the Caribbean unrest that followed the French Revolution. Trinidad was formally ceded to Britain in 1802. After debating how to govern the new island, the British finally decided on crown colony (see Glossary) rule under a governor (see Political Traditions, ch. 1). As this was occurring, investors and colonists expanded the sugar plantations to take advantage of high sugar prices. During the first five years of British rule, the number of sugar estates increased markedly. The British census of 1803 counted 28,000 people, a tenfold increase in 20 years; of these, there were 20,464 slaves, 5,275 free nonwhites, and 2,261 whites. About half of the free people and most of the slaves spoke French, and the rest of the population was divided between Spanish and English speakers. The Amerindian population continued to decline, with several hundred members scattered in rural settlements. A decade after slavery was abolished in 1834, the British government gave permission for the colonies to import indentured labor from India to work on the plantations. Throughout the remainder of the century, Trinidad's population growth came primarily from East Indian laborers. By 1871 there were 27,425 East Indians, approximately 22 percent of the population of Trinidad and Tobago; by 1911 that figure had grown to 110,911, or about 33 percent of all residents of the islands. Small numbers of Chinese, Portuguese, and other groups also immigrated, contributing to the multiracial character of the island. Tobago, Robinson Crusoe's island, changed hands twenty-two times between 1626 and 1814, as various European countries tried to secure possession of its safe anchorages. Its population in 1791 was 15,102, about 94 percent of whom were slaves. The British finally acquired Tobago permanently in 1814, after several previous attempts to conquer the island. The British continued to govern through a local assembly that they had installed during an earlier conquest of Tobago in 1763. Under this arrangement, political control rested with a number of British civil servants and the assembly, elected by a tiny electorate and supported by the sugar plantations. By the late nineteenth century, Trinidad and Tobago were no longer profitable colonies because sugar was being produced more cheaply elsewhere. In 1889 the British government united Trinidad and Tobago in an effort to economize on government expenses and to solve the economic problems of the islands. In 1898 Tobago became a ward of Trinidad, thereby losing its local assembly, which was not reinstated until 1980. Subsequently, Britain ruled Trinidad and Tobago as a crown colony until 1956. Between 1889 and 1924, the government of Trinidad and Tobago included, in addition to its governor, a wholly appointed Legislative Council. The first step toward self-government was taken in 1925 when there were limited elections to the Legislative Council and to the governor's Executive Council. As noted, the populations of both Trinidad and Tobago owe their main origins to massive eighteenth- and nineteenth-century importations of African slaves and East Indian indentured servants who were needed to work on the sugar plantations. When the sugar industry declined, unemployment became widespread. In the early twentieth century, oil replaced sugar as the major export; oil is a capital-intensive industry, however, and it did not solve the problem of unemployment in Trinidad and Tobago. The labor movement began to assume importance after World War I, spurred by the return of Trinidadians who had fought with the British armed forces. The most important of these was Captain Andrew Arthur Cipriani, a white man of Corsican descent, who had served as commander of the West India Regiment. Cipriani resented the fact that the West India Regiment was not allowed to fight for the British Empire but instead was sent to Egypt, where its forces served as labor battalions. Upon his return to Trinidad, Cipriani organized the masses, giving them national pride and teaching them to oppose colonialism. He revitalized the Trinidad Workingman's Association, which was renamed the Trinidad Labour Party (TLP) in 1934; by 1936 the TLP had 125,000 members. Because Cipriani was white, he was able to transcend the black-East Indian racial dichotomy and became known as "the champion of the barefoot man." In the first elections held for the Legislative Council, Cipriani was elected in 1925 and remained a member until his death in 1945. He was also elected mayor of Port-of-Spain eight times. In these two offices, Cipriani struggled against racial discrimination and fought for constitutional reform, universal suffrage, and better rights for workers. During the 1930s, Trinidad and Tobago suffered severely from the effects of the worldwide depression. Living standards deteriorated as workers were laid off from the plantations. The situation was aggravated by unjust labor practices. Wages on the sugar estates and in the oil fields were kept low while shareholder dividends in London rose. Workers moved away from Cipriani's moderate policies, and the labor movement became radicalized. Between 1934 and 1937, there were strikes and riots on the sugar plantations and in the oil fields throughout the Caribbean. Tubal Uriah Butler, a black Grenadian who had been expelled from the TLP for extremism, emerged as the leader of the black oil workers, who were the best paid and most politicized laborers on the island. Butler called for racial unity among black workers and organized strikes, heading a highly personalized party that was known as the "Butler Party." Although the British labeled Butler as a "fanatical Negro" during the 1930s, Trinidad and Tobago has since recognized him as a man who sensitized the common man to the evils of colonialism. The strikes in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1930s included many incidents of racial violence, culminating in twelve deaths and over fifty injuries in 1937. The British responded by deploying marines from Barbados and appointing two successive commissions from London to investigate the causes of the riots in Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Both commissions noted the low wages and poor working conditions throughout the region. The second commission, chaired by Lord Moyne, which completed its report in 1940, was very critical of the British colonial system in the Caribbean and recommended housing construction, agricultural diversification, more representative government for the islands, and promotion of a middle class in preparation for eventual self-government (see Labor Organizations, ch. 1). Although the Moyne Commission's findings were not made public until after World War II, some of its recommendations were put into effect under the Colonial Development Welfare Act of 1940. The British government had encouraged the formation of trade unions in the belief that labor organization would prevent labor unrest. After the islandwide strikes of 1937, Butler succeeded Cipriani as the leader of the Trinidadian labor movement. Butler's associate, Adrian Cola Rienzi, an East Indian, organized both oil workers under the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) and the sugar workers under the All Trinidad Sugar Estates and Factory Workers Trade Union (ATSE/FWTU). Railroad and construction workers were organized under the Federated Workers Trade Union (FWTU), and a number of smaller unions were also formed. Following a recommendation of the Moyne Commission, government was made more representative. Constitutional reform in 1925 had provided for six elected members on the twenty-five-member Legislative Council, but franchise restrictions limited voters in the 1925 election to 6 percent of the population. In April 1941, the number of unofficial elected members on the Legislative Council and the governor's Executive Council was increased, giving the elected members a majority. Some of these elected members were included on official committees and the governor's Executive Council, although the governor retained ultimate authority and veto power. Trinidad and Tobago had been profoundly changed by World War II. For the first time since British annexation, the islands were widely exposed to another foreign influence. The 1941 Lend-Lease Agreement (also called the Bases-for-Destroyers Agreement) between the United States and Britain included ninety-nine-year leases of the deepwater harbor at Chaguaramas to the United States Navy and of Waller Field in central Trinidad to the United States Army (see Historical Background, ch. 7). Many United States and Canadian personnel were brought in to work at these bases, and thousands of Trinidadian workers were employed at the bases for higher wages under better conditions than ever before (see Patterns of Development, this ch.). As a result, by the end of World War II many Trinidadians had become used to a higher standard of living and wanted to keep it. Although the election in 1946 was the first under universal adult suffrage, less than half of the registered voters cast ballots. The trade unions did not consolidate into a cohesive political entity. The labor vote fragmented, as blacks and East Indians divided and as racial slurs became a common part of campaign rhetoric. Butler, who had been detained throughout the war, was released from jail and campaigned for the Legislative Council, but he was defeated by Albert Gomes, a trade unionist of Portuguese descent. The labor movement was unable to gain a majority because no leader could command the widespread support of both the blacks and the East Indians, a pattern that continued throughout the ensuing forty years. The middle class--comprising primarily blacks and a smaller number of East Indians--came to dominate the political scene in the crucial elections that led to independence and has dominated it into the late 1980s.
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This was published 11 years ago
Off this planet: climate models work for Mars too
Computer models have accurately forecast conditions on Mars and are valid predictors of climate change on Earth, US and French astronomers said on Tuesday.
These computer programs predicted Martian glaciers and other features on Earth's planetary neighbor, scientists found.
"Some public figures imply that modelling of global climate change on Earth is 'junk science,' but if climate models can explain features observed on other planets, then the models must have at least some validity," lead researcher William Hartmann of the Planetary Science Institute said in a statement.
The team's findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's planetary sciences division in Reno, Nevada.
Some climate change skeptics, notably US Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, dismiss human-spurred global warming as a hoax. Others accept that Earth's climate is changing, but discount a human cause. Still others, including Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, accept the idea of climate change, but maintain the science is inconclusive.
The science of climate change prediction is dependent in part on complex computer models that take into account multiple factors that influence Earth's climate, including the level of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Many such models have forecast the globally averaged temperature will rise by 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) this century if greenhouse emissions continue at current levels.
Recent global temperature increases support these predictions. On Monday, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that September 2012 was tied for the warmest month on Earth in the modern record, and was the 331st consecutive month above the 20th century average.
Modelling martian snows
Hartmann, a senior scientist at the nonprofit Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, said he and his team confirmed the earthly computer models' effectiveness by using them to forecast conditions on Mars.
New satellite observations of glaciers, ice flows and other features on the red planet showed that the models' predictions corresponded with what was on the Martian surface, Hartmann said in a telephone interview.
One key difference between Earth and Mars is their tilt, he said. Earth's axis is fixed, with very small variations, at 23.5 degrees, held steady by the gravitational pull of our moon. This tilt is responsible for changing seasons as Earth moves through the year, alternately tipping its northern and southern hemispheres toward the sun.
Mars lacks a big moon to stabilize its tilt, and its rotational axis can vary as much as 70 degrees toward the sun. When that happens, polar ice evaporates and puts moisture into the Martian atmosphere, which dumps snow, ice and ultimately glaciers in Mars' mid-latitudes. The last time this happened, astronomers say, was between 5 million and 20 million years ago.
Factoring in the planet's varying tilt, topography, atmosphere and other information, the climate models forecast specific regions for massive snowfalls, and the remnants of those snowfalls are right there, Hartmann said. So are ice flows and other features, viewed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
"We do have a lot of public figures, in our country particularly, saying that the global climate modelling studies have very little value," Hartmann said. "If the global climate modelling people can run these models on Mars and we actually see things that come out of the model on another planet, then the climate modelling people must be doing something right."

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January 14, 2020
Milliken & Company ("Milliken"), a global diversified manufacturer with more than a century and a half of materials science expertise, announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Borchers Group Limited ("Borchers"), a global specialty chemicals company known for its innovative high-performance coating additives and specialty catalyst solutions from The Jordan Company, L.P. ("TJC"). The acquisition is expected to close in January 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200113005789/en/
Headquartered in Westlake, Ohio, Borchers carries a respected portfolio of additives for the coatings, inks and adhesives markets with a comprehensive range of cobalt-free driers, dispersants, rheology modifiers, wetting agents, polymerization catalysts and adhesion promoters. The addition of Borchers—particularly its expertise in specialty coating additives—further builds Milliken's comprehensive solutions portfolio, aligned with the company's strategic objective to develop a global range of growth platforms.
"I'm thrilled to accelerate our commitment to innovation and sustainability with the acquisition of a company so aligned with our values," shared Halsey Cook, president and CEO of Milliken & Company. "Borchers brings particular technical expertise that will boost Milliken's strengths and propel our growth."
Devlin Riley, president & CEO of Borchers, said, "We are ecstatic about partnering with Milliken to further invest in our business, build out our global platform and continue providing innovative and satisfying solutions to our customers. Combining our capabilities and approach with the depth of Milliken's technology and innovation will allow us to provide exemplary solutions to the markets we serve. I want to thank the TJC team for their guidance and strong partnership."
Erik Fagan, a partner at TJC, added, "Devlin and the Borchers team have guided the company through a period of strong organic and acquisition growth. We are proud to have partnered with Borchers management and excited to see the continued impact their products will have for their customers."
"We look forward to taking scientific leaps forward for our customers as we combine the strengths of Borchers and Milliken," said Russ Rudolph, senior vice president, Milliken's Chemical Division. "Borchers expands our reach and grows our technological expertise, enabling us to further chemical innovation in the global specialty chemicals market."
Jones Day represented Milliken in the transaction. Moelis & Company LLC acted as financial advisor, and Mayer Brown LLP acted as legal advisor to Borchers and TJC.
About Milliken & Company
Milliken has been solving everyday problems with innovative solutions for more than 150 years. Our research, design and manufacturing expertise reaches across a breadth of disciplines including specialty chemicals, floor covering, healthcare and performance and protective textiles. An unwavering commitment to ethics guides our work to redefine how we add strength and protection to products, how we infuse vibrancy and color into our surroundings, and how we care for the environment. For us, success is when discoveries made within Milliken help us all have more meaningful connections with the world. Discover Milliken at www.milliken.com, and join us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Borchers Group Limited
Headquartered in Westlake, Ohio, Borchers is a global coating technologies platform providing value-added products that are critical components of overall formulations. The company's products are often specified into customers' formulations, which results in high retention rates and long-term relationships. Borchers sells a broad set of products to approximately 1,000 customers in a wide variety of applications and end markets. With manufacturing facilities in the United States and France along with technology and business development centers in the United States, Germany, China and India, Borchers is able to support both regional and multinational customers around the world. To learn more about Borchers, please visit www.borchers.com.
About The Jordan Company, L.P.
TJC, founded in 1982, is a middle-market private equity firm that manages funds with original capital commitments in excess of $11 billion. TJC has a 38-year track record of investing in and contributing to the growth of many businesses across a wide range of industries, including Industrials, Transportation & Logistics, Healthcare & Consumer, and Telecom, Technology & Utility. The senior investment team has been investing together for over 20 years and is supported by its Operations Management Group, established in 1988 to initiate and support operational improvements in portfolio companies. Headquartered in New York, TJC also has an office in Chicago. For more information, please visit www.thejordancompany.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200113005789/en/


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News Release
Blood samples show deadly frog fungus at work in the wild
SAN FRANCISCO, April 25, 2012 -- The fungal infection that has killed a record number of amphibians worldwide leads to deadly dehydration in frogs in the wild, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University researchers.
High levels of an aquatic fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) disrupt fluid and electrolyte balance in wild frogs, the scientists say, severely depleting the frogs' sodium and potassium levels and causing cardiac arrest and death.
Their findings confirm what researchers have seen in carefully controlled lab experiments with the fungus, but SF State biologist Vance Vredenburg said the data from wild frogs provide a much better idea of how the disease progresses.
"The mode of death discovered in the lab seems to be what's actually happening in the field," he said, "and it's that understanding that is key to doing something about it in the future."
The study is published online by peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE and funded through the joint National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health program, Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases.
At the heart of the new study are blood samples drawn from mountain yellow-legged frogs by Vredenburg, who is an assistant professor of biology at SF State, and colleagues in 2004, as the chytrid epidemic swept through the basins of the Sierra Nevada range.
"It's really rare to be able to study physiology in the wild like this, at the exact moment of a disease outbreak," said UC Berkeley ecologist Jamie Voyles, the lead author of the study.
Unfortunately, it is a study that can't be duplicated, at least not in the Sierra Nevada. Frog populations there have been devastated by chytrid, declining by 95 percent after the fungus was first detected in 2004.
"It's been really sad to walk around the basins and think, 'Wow, they're really all gone,'" Vredenburg said.
The chytrid fungus attacks an amphibian's skin, causing it to become up to 40 times thicker in some instances. Since frogs depend on their skin to absorb water and essential electrolytes like sodium from their environment, Voyles and her colleagues knew that chytrid would disrupt fluid balance in the infected amphibians, but were surprised to find that electrolyte levels were much lower than anticipated for the Sierra Nevada sample.
"It's clear that this fungus has a profound effect in the wild," Voyles said.
"Wildlife diseases can be just as devastating to our health and economy as agricultural and human diseases," says Sam Scheiner, NSF program officer for EEID. "Bd has been decimating frog and salamander species worldwide, which may fundamentally disrupt natural systems. This study is an important advance in our understanding of the disease, a first step in finding a way to reduce its effects."
Scientists want to learn as much as they can about how chytrid affects wild amphibians, with the hope that these findings will lead to better treatments for the infection.
For instance, Voyles said, the new study suggests that individual frogs being treated for the infection might benefit from having electrolyte supplementation in the advanced stages of the disease.
Researchers like Vredenburg already are experimenting with different ways of treating individual frogs, such as applying antifungal therapies or inoculating the frogs with "probiotic" bacteria that produce a compound that kills the fungus.
"The disease is not very hard to treat in the lab with antifungals. We know we can treat animals there," Vredenburg said. "But in nature, the disease is still a moving target."
It is still unclear exactly how chytrid spreads across a region, and which frogs might be susceptible to re-infection after treatment. Earlier this year, Vredenburg and colleagues published a paper showing that a common North American frog might be an important carrier of the infection.
Chytrid has killed off more than 200 amphibian species across the globe, but Voyles said the new studies offer "sort of a glimmer of hope that it might be possible to do something to mitigate the loss of frogs in the field."
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Michael Fish would not have got 1987 storm spot-on, even with supercomputer
The BBC weatherman became famous after telling viewers not to worry hours before the savage once-in-a-century storm broke across southern England, causing damage estimated at £1 billion and claiming 18 lives.
Revisiting the event with a Met Office supercomputer capable of performing 14,000 trillion calculations per second showed the powerful weather system - technically a cyclone, not a hurricane - approaching days ahead.
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Hide AdHowever, scientists admitted the storm would have been difficult to track even with the help of multiple computer simulations and billions of satellite images.
According to the supercomputer models, there would have been indications of the weather system changing course and heading south towards France a day before it struck the UK.
Michael Fish might have been saved from serious embarrassment but would probably not have got everything right.
Met Office meteorologist and TV weather presenter Alex Deakin said he thought the looming storm would have merited an amber - not a red - hazard warning using the colour-coded system introduced in 2007.
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Hide AdSpeaking on the 30th anniversary of the storm that blasted in from the Bay of Biscay on the night of Thursday, October 15, he said: "On the Sunday there's every chance there would have been a yellow warning at that stage.
"Leading up to it (the storm) on the Monday and Tuesday, we probably would have named the storm.
"Then, on the Wednesday ... you'd have been talking about, well actually, it looks like it's shifting further south. Stay tuned to the forecast, keep up to date.
"There's still a risk of it, it's just that that risk had reduced, because it now looked as if it was going more towards France.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"That's the kind of thing that would have happened. Hindsight's a wonderful thing."
The National Severe Weather Warning service was set up by the Met Office in the wake of the Great Storm in 1988.
From 2011 it switched from a threshold-based system, delivering warnings when wind or rain of sufficient intensity was predicted, to one based on impact that took account of timing and environmental conditions.
One reason why the 1987 storm flattened an estimated 15 million trees was that the ground was wet, making them easier to fell.
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Hide AdIn the last three years the system of naming medium and high impact storms was brought in.
Asked at a press briefing in London what the Great Storm might have been named, Met Office expert Sarah Davies quipped: "Michael".
At the time Mr Fish made his famous forecast, satellite images were blurry and not even used in computer models, which relied on measurements and observations from ships, aircraft and weather-watching buoys.
In 1987 very little information was available from the storm's birth place in the Bay of Biscay.
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Hide AdA typical smartphone today has at least five times more processing power than the Met Office computer did three decades ago, said the experts.
Ken Mylne, head of verification at the Met Office, said weather forecasting had been "totally transformed" since then.
He added that even today, a storm identical to the one Michael Fish failed to predict would present a challenge.
"There would still be a degree of uncertainty, particularly in the local detail - where the strongest winds might be," said Mr Mylne.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"Some storms are very predictable and you can be more confident; others like this one are more difficult."
The storm involved an unusual combination of forces, including a kink in the jet stream funnelling air through a narrow corridor high in the atmosphere and pockets of high-speed wind known as "jet streaks".
It also featured a very rare violent event known as a "sting jet" that was only recognised in 2004 by scientists analysing the effects of the 1987 storm.
A sting jet is a downward burst of intense wind that originates in a band of cloud wrapped around a cyclone. Covering an area up to 50 kilometres wide, it can generate destructive gusts of 100mph or more.
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Hide AdThe strongest gust recorded in the 1987 storm occurred in Shoreham-by-Sea, west Sussex, and reached 115 mph. At that point, the anemometer instrument used for measuring wind speed broke.
London was hit by 94mph gusts that ripped roofing slates off houses and overturned cars.
The storm, which left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, was the most damaging since 1703. In addition to the lives lost in the UK, it killed another four people in France.
In his lunchtime BBC broadcast on October 15, Mr Fish said: "Earlier on today apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she'd heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you are watching, don't worry, there isn't .."


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Sigma 485-101 - 8mm F/3.5 EX DG Circular Fish Eye Lens -Canon- (72mm)
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CodeRED is a web-based critical communication solution that enables local public safety personnel to notify residents and businesses by telephone, text message, email, and social media of time-sensitive information, emergencies, or urgent notifications. The system can reach hundreds of thousands of individuals in minutes to ensure information such as evacuation notices, missing persons, inclement weather advisories, and more are quickly shared. Only authorized officials have access to send alerts using the CodeRED system.
CodeRED serves as the backbone of the City's emergency planning and communications outreach. The platform allows the City to communicate with residents and personnel by sending telephone calls, text messages, emails, posts to social media and Mobile Alert app messages, to inform residents of emergencies and better protect life and property.
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CodeRED Weather Warning uses a polygon methodology to interpret bulletins issued by the National Weather Service to determine the severity of the warning and the exact areas affected. The system then creates a calling database of all CodeRED Weather Warning subscribers within the projected path of severe weather. Instead of traditional county-based warnings, the system delivers targeted alerts to only those who may be affected, increasing their relevance and reducing false alarms.
The CodeRED mobile app is free, however after a 30 day free trial, the Weather Warning upgrade for the app must be purchased. You can purchase this app upgrade for $4.99 per year through Google Play or iTunes.
Visit our Community Notification Enrollment page and enter the required information online (address, name, phone number(s), and email). This is the quickest way to sign up because the information you supply is immediately registered in the system.
Those who have recently moved to the City but kept the same listed or unlisted number will need to input their current address into the database. When entering information, please fill out all of the screens. The newest data entered will replace the old data. Some have shared that addresses in newer phases of subdivisions may not be recognized. Should the system not accept your address you can use City Hall's address (3411 Barker Avenue) and then let us know so we can follow-up accordingly.
You will not receive severe weather alerts and notifications if you have only elected to enroll to receive the standard CodeRED notifications initiated by the City. If you want to receive these weather alerts, you must opt-in separately when signing up for CodeRED.
CodeRED is an ultra-high-speed telephone communication service for emergency notifications which allows us to telephone all or targeted areas of the City in case of an emergency. The City will utilize CodeRED in any situation that requires immediate action (such as a boil-water notice, missing child, and evacuation notices) but CodeRED may also be used in situations that are non-emergency related such as water service interruptions or traffic closures.
CodeRED delivers a prerecorded message describing the situations to a live person or an answering machine in the affected area possibly including instructions requiring action on the part of the recipient. The system works with both land line and cellular phones, but you must have a City of Melissa street address in order for the system to issue the proper notices.
Both CodeRED and CodeRED Weather Warning notifications are available by phone, email, text and mobile app (weather warning is an additional add on for a fee). For the most reliable severe weather warning delivery the City recommends you elect to receive the weather warnings via phone due to reported delays in receiving text messages as delivery time may vary by mobile service providers.
Please note that the CodeRED Weather Warning System calls only when warnings are issued and only if your address is in the path of the storm and for those warnings you have elected to receive. If you want to be notified of watches and warnings issued to the broader geographical area, we recommend you consider purchasing a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio with Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology which ensures you will receive Advisories, Watches, and Warnings that are intended for your specific area or those you choose to follow.
Visit the NOAA website to learn more about NOAA National Weather Radios.
No, registering for CodeRED phone calls, text messages, and email are free. Simply sign up on our enrollment website and select your preferred means of communication.
The CodeRED mobile app is free to download and includes a 30-day free trial of CodeRED Weather Warning, however after the 30 days you can purchase the Weather Warning service upgrade for $4.99 per year. The app can be downloaded and upgrade purchased through the Google Play or iTunes.
CodeRED is an important to tool to help keep you informed and prepared for any emergencies that may occur in our area. Officials will send messages to alert you of emergency details, instructions, or precautions that you need in order to make well-informed decisions and remain safe. This system is precise enough to geotarget residents within an exact area of impact, so that only those people who are affected by emergency situation are notified.
Yes, you can register more than one phone number and/or email address for your location when you register for CodeRED. Please note that it is highly recommended you register at least one phone number and one email address to ensure that you will receive CodeRED alerts in the event of a power outage or an incident that may occur late at night when you are generally asleep.
If you receive a CodeRED phone call, listen carefully to the entire message. You can repeat the message by pressing any key. Do not call 911 for further information unless directed to do so, or you need immediate aide from the police or fire department.
If you receive a CodeRED email or text message, please be sure to read the entire message carefully and follow all instructions.
The CodeRED system will leave a message on your answering machine or voicemail if you miss a CodeRED phone call. If you do not have an answering machine, the system will consider the call as "incomplete" and will attempt to call again after several minutes have passed. If your phone line is busy, CodeRED will try two more times to connect. At any point, you may re-dial the 800 number on your caller ID to hear a replay of the message sent.
To review which numbers on your caller ID may be CodeRED, visit the frequently asked question titled "How will I know when CodeRED is calling?".
Renewals are not necessary as long as your contact information has not changed. If you move, however, you must update your information to ensure you will continue receiving these valuable notifications.
CodeRED offers a mobile app for Android and iPhone devices. All residents and business owners are encouraged to download the free app to receive alerts based on the geolocation of your phone.
As you travel throughout other CodeRED communities, you can receive important alerts that include community, emergency, and severe weather information.
The CodeRED mobile app is free to download and includes a 30-day free trial of CodeRED Weather Warning, however after the 30 days you can purchase the Weather Warning service upgrade for $4.99 per year. The app upgrade can be purchased through the Google Play or iTunes.
To download the CodeRED Mobile Alert app, visit Google Play or the App Store.
Those wishing to unsubscribe, should complete the opt out request online directly with ONSOLVE, the parent company for CodeRED.
City staff cannot complete this for you and can only unsubscribe users from basic CodeRED City issued notifications.


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Vatican City, Aug 17, 2012 / 03:47 pm (CNA).- The death of the head of the Ethiopian Church has garnered sympathy and sadness from Pope Benedict XVI, who praised the patriarch's ecumenical efforts.
His Holiness Abuna Paulos, who served as the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church for two decades, died at the age of 76 after battling a long illness.
In an Aug. 17 telegram, Pope Benedict addressed the clergy, religious and faithful of the Ethiopian Church, saying that he learned of their leader's passing "with great sadness."
Pope Benedict recalled the patriarch's trips to the Vatican "with satisfaction," especially his 2009 visit when he delivered an address to the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
"I am also grateful for his firm commitment to promoting greater unity through dialogue and cooperation between the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church," Pope Benedict said.
In 1974, under Ethiopia's Derg regime, Patriarch Paulos was arrested before he sought refuge in the U.S., where he remained until 1992.
In 2000, the United Nations refugee agency awarded him a Nansen Medal for his work in conflict resolution and humanitarian aid during the Ethiopia-Eritrea border war which ended that same year.
Approximately two-thirds of Ethiopia's 83 million person population belongs to the Ethiopian Church.
It is widely held that in the second century, St. Frumentius, a Roman citizen from what is now modern day Lebanon, was the first Christian to evangelize Ethiopia.
As a result, the man who would become Emperor Ezana converted and introduced Christianity as the state religion during his reign.
During its early years, the church was deeply committed to the understanding of Christ's full humanity and divinity and took its name "Tawahedo" from the word meaning "unified."
The Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church is one of the six ancient churches that make up the Oriental Orthodox churches.


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1. - embedding equations - An experimental feature which allows you to enter equations (and related things) into your posts. Occasionally, it is difficult to either (1) describe in words, or (2) render in simple ASCII, something which might be better represented using math typesetting. As such, a new and still 'experimental' feature has been added to the board the ability to embed equations using the LaTeX typesetting system. If you know how to use LaTeX, using the new feature will be extremely simple. If you don't know LaTeX, for shame! Actually, even if you don't know LaTeX, there are a number of online utilities which will allow you to build an equation - typically using a graphical template - and then generate the corresponding LaTeX code, which you can copy-and-paste into the forum.
Here's a simple example. Suppose you wanted to write out the probability expression corresponding to the live encounter history '1101'. You could use ASCII text, and write 'phi(1)p(2)phi(2)(1-p(3))phi(3)p(4)'. While this expression is interpretable as written, its a bit 'clunky'. Alternatively, if you use the new 'tex' markup option, you could render it much more elegantly. For this probability expression, you would simply enter
- Code: Select all
which renders as
Pretty slick, eh? The upside is obvious - looks much nicer, and is easier to read. Two downsides: (1) the email that gets sent out after you post something to a forum contains a corrupted version of the LaTeX code underlying the equation - it doesn't send the equation itself (which in fact is rendered in the forum as a small image, generated on the back-end by LaTeX running on the server). In addition, (2) the small images take up server space.
2. - embedding images - Analogous to the preceding item on equations, it is occasionally difficult to either (1) describe in words, or (2) render in simple ASCII, something which might be better represented using...a figure. For example, suppose you wanted to confirm a parameter index matrix (PIM) structure in a MARK analysis. You could try rendering it in ASCII. For example
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1 7 8 9 10 11
2 8 9 10 11
3 9 10 11
4 10 11
5 11
While this works, you end up having to decide between formatting the text so it looks correct (i.e., properly spaced and aligned) in the email that gets sent out, or in the online post.
Compare this with actually embedding the image of the PIM. To accomplish this, all you need to do is (i) make the image available on a web server somewhere (JPG and PNG image formats are currently supported), and (ii) embed the URL to the image in the appropriate markup tags:
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For the example PIM, this would render as
This option to embed graphics in posts is also classified as 'experimental', until it's determined how much extra load (if any) might be placed on the system. The upside is obvious. The downside is that if the image is deleted from the server, or the URL is no longer valid, then the image will no longer be embedded in the post. Also, as with embedded equations, the image itself is not included in the email that gets sent out to subscribers.
3. - exact phrase searches - The current search back-end allows you to do exact 'phrase-match' searches for single phrases. All you need to do is enclose the phrase you want to search for in quotes (e.g., "AIC weights"). Alas, wildcards aren't supported for phrase searches, at least not directly. So, for example, searching for "AIC weight*" does not return results for "AIC weight" + "AIC weights" + "AIC weighting" + ... There are some clever games you can play with nested booleans (see the advanced search), but they don't allow for exact phrase matches (at least, not at present).
4. - embedding code - If you want to embed some text or code where you'd like to maintain the formatting (say, a design matrix or some such), then it is suggested you use the *code* tag. For example, instead of trying to enter a parameter structure like
1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
4 5 6
5 6
you use the code tag, and end up with
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1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6
4 5 6
5 6
which is of course exactly what you want it to look like in the first place.


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In most states, you can be sued for publishing private facts about another person, even if those facts are true. The term "private facts" refers to information about someone's personal life that has not previously been revealed to the public, that is not of legitimate public concern, and the publication of which would be offensive to a reasonable person. For example, writing about a person's HIV status, sexual orientation, or financial troubles could lead to liability for publication of private facts. However, the law protects you when you publish information that is newsworthy, regardless of whether someone else would like you to keep that information private. In addition, the law protects you if you publish information already exposed to the public eye and especially material obtained from publicly available court records. Despite the law's substantial protections for legitimate reporting on matters of public interest, it is a good practice to obtain consent before publishing sensitive private information about someone.
Who Can Sue for Publication of Private Facts
Only human beings, and not corporations or other organizations, can sue for publication of private facts. Publication of private facts is a type of invasion of privacy, and you cannot invade the privacy of a dead person. Therefore, an estate cannot sue you for publishing private facts about a dead person, unless your publication took place before the person in question died. Note, however, that members of a dead person's family may be able to sue in their own right if you disclose private facts that relate to them too.
Elements of a Private Facts Claim
A plaintiff must establish four elements to hold someone liable for publication of private facts:
1. Public Disclosure: The disclosure of facts must be public. Another way of saying this is that the defendant must "give publicity" to the fact or facts in question.
2. Private Fact: The fact or facts disclosed must be private, and not generally known.
3. Offensive to a Reasonable Person: Publication of the private facts in question must be offensive to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities.
4. Not Newsworthy: The facts disclosed must not be newsworthy. Stated differently, the facts disclosed must not be a matter of legitimate public concern.
Below, we address these elements in greater detail. Keep in mind that publication of private facts is a state-law legal claim, so there is some variation of the law in different states. For state-specific information, see State Law: Publication of Private Facts.
Public Disclosure
A plaintiff bringing a publication of private facts claim must show that the defendant made a public disclosure of the fact or facts in question. This means communication to the public at large, or to so many people that the matter must be regarded as likely to become public knowledge. As a general matter, publication of information on a website or blog (or any other publicly available platform on the Internet) will satisfy this element. On the other hand, it might not be a public disclosure if you simply convey private information about someone in an email to one or two other people, so long as it is understood that the information is not meant for further dissemination to the public.
Private Fact
A plaintiff bringing a publication of private facts claim must show that the defendant disclosed a private fact. This means pretty much what it sounds like. A private fact is an intimate detail of one's private life that is not generally known. Common examples of private facts include information about medical conditions, sexual orientation and history, and financial status. It may also include things like someone's social security or phone number, if that information is not ordinarily publicly available. A plaintiff has no privacy interest with respect to a matter that is already public. Thus, you cannot be held liable for discussing or republishing information about someone that is already publicly available (e.g., found on the Internet or in the newspaper). For instance, a few years ago, Robert Steinbuch, a former Congressional aide sued Jessica Cutler, another former Congressional aide, for publishing information about their private sexual relations on her blog, Washingtonienne. Steinbuch also sued Anna Marie Cox of Wonkette for calling attention to Cutler's blog and making the story spread around the Internet like wildfire. Steinbuch's claim against Cutler may have some merit because she disclosed on her blog embarrassing information about him that was not publicly available, but the case has yet to be decided. See our database entry, Steinbuch v. Cutler for details. On the other hand, the court dismissed Steinbuch's publication of private facts claim against Cox because she did nothing but blog about a matter that was already public. (Cox's lawyers do an excellent job of arguing the point in this brief.)
In addition, you cannot be held liable for giving publicity to a matter that the plaintiff leaves open to the public eye. For example, when the man who helped stop an assassination attempt on President Ford sued two newspapers for revealing that he was a homosexual, the court denied him relief, finding that his sexual orientation and participation in gay community activities was already widely known by hundreds of people in a variety of cities. The record showed that, prior to the publication in question, the plaintiff had frequented gay bars, participated in gay pride parades, and that his friendship with Harvey Milk (a prominent gay figure) was well-known and publicized in gay newspapers. This, in the court's view, was sufficient to establish that the plaintiff had left his sexual orientation open to the public eye. See Sipple v. Chronicle Publ'g Co., 154 Cal. App. 3d 1040 (Cal. Ct. App. 1984). In another case, a stripper sued ABC for publishing private facts about her when the television show 20/20 aired a program about the allegedly illegal activities of several persons associated with the strip bar where she worked. The plaintiff appeared in a few shots of the TV program dancing nude in the background. The court held that the plaintiff did not have a valid claim for publication of private facts because her stripping activity was open to the public eye; anyone who paid the $5.00 cover charge could see her performing her work. See Puckett v. American Broad. Co., 1990 WL 170425 (6th Cir. Nov. 6, 1990). In a more recent case, several Navy SEALs sued the Associated Press for publishing photographs of them potentially abusing Iraqi captives. The court held that the images were not private because the plaintiffs were members of the military on active duty conducting wartime operations in full uniform and chose to allow their activities to be photographed and placed on the Internet. See Four Navy Seals v. Associated Press, 413 F. Supp. 2d 1136 (S.D. Cal. 2005).
As the latter two cases suggest, a person's photograph or image can be a "private fact," but generally not when it is captured in a public or semi-public place. Therefore, you can generally publish photographs of an individual or individuals taken in public places without liability for publication of private facts. For example, in Gilbert v. Hearst Pub. Co., 253 P.2d 441(Cal. 1953), the court held that a newspaper was not liable for invasion of privacy through publication of private facts when it published a photograph of a couple kissing at the farmer's market in San Francisco. Note, however, that publishing photographs of other people, even if taken in public, may result in liability for unauthorized use of name or likeness. See Using the Name or Likeness of Another for details. And, if you intrude into a private place in order to photograph or record someone, you could be held liable for intrusion. See Gathering Private Information for details.
A plaintiff bringing a publication of private facts claim must show that, under the circumstances, publishing the facts in question would have been highly offensive to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities. The question is not whether the plaintiff himself/herself found the public disclosure highly offensive, but whether an ordinary person reflecting community mores would find it so. Thus, the law does not give special solicitude to a plaintiff with a "thin skin." As the Restatement of Torts explains:
Complete privacy does not exist in this world except in a desert, and anyone who is not a hermit must expect and endure the ordinary incidents of the community life of which he is a part. Thus he must expect the more or less casual observation of his neighbors as to what he does, and that his comings and goings and his ordinary daily activities, will be described in the press as a matter of casual interest to others. The ordinary reasonable man does not take offense at a report in a newspaper that he has returned from a visit, gone camping in the woods or given a party at his house for his friends. Even minor and moderate annoyance, as for example through public disclosure of the fact that the plaintiff has clumsily fallen downstairs and broken his ankle, is not sufficient to give him a cause of action under the rule stated in this Section. It is only when the publicity given to him is such that a reasonable person would feel justified in feeling seriously aggrieved by it, that the cause of action arises.
Restatement (Second) of Torts § 263D cmt. c. Some examples of activities found to be highly offensive include publishing a photograph of a woman nursing a child or posing nude in a bathtub, displaying a movie of a woman's caesarian operation, and disseminating a video showing two celebrities having sex. Some activities found not to be highly offensive include publishing an accurate account of a private wedding, publishing a photograph of a couple kissing in public, and publishing photographs of military personnel showing potential prisoner abuse.
Newsworthiness -- Matters of Legitimate Public Concern
Newsworthiness is ordinarily the most important issue in a publication of private facts case. In many states, a plaintiff bringing a publication of private facts claim must show affirmatively that the facts disclosed were not newsworthy -- i.e., they were not a matter of legitimate public concern. In other states, the defendant must raise newsworthiness as a defense. Many courts hold that publishers have a constitutional privilege to publish truthful information on a matter of legitimate public concern. In any event, you ordinarily cannot he held liable for disclosing private facts about someone so long as those facts are of legitimate public concern.
Defining what is a matter of legitimate public interest can be tricky. But, courts generally are reluctant to second-guess the media, and they therefore take a very broad view of newsworthiness. Courts have held that there is a legitimate public interest in nearly all recent events, as well as in the private lives of prominent figures such as movie stars, politicians, and professional athletes. Thus, newsworthy publications include those "concerning homicide and other crimes, arrests, police raids, suicides, marriages and divorces, accidents, fires, catastrophes of nature, a death from the use of narcotics, a rare disease, the birth of a child to a twelve-year-old girl, the reappearance of one supposed to have been murdered years ago, a report to the police concerning the escape of a wild animal and many other similar matters of genuine, even if more or less deplorable, popular appeal." Restatement (Second) of Torts § 263D cmt. Moreover, the protection for newsworthy publications extends beyond the dissemination of "news" in the sense of current events or commentary upon public affairs. It extends also to "information concerning interesting phases of human activity and embraces all issues about which information is needed or appropriate so that individuals may cope with the exigencies of their period." Campbell v. Seabury Press, 614 F.2d 395, 397 (5th Cir. 1980). Thus, courts have found to be newsworthy articles dealing with unique love relationships, an Indian rope trick, the whereabouts and living conditions of a former child prodigy, and the peculiar personal characteristics of Bush campaign volunteers.
Despite the broad scope of potentially newsworthy topics, you risk losing your protection from liability if you exceed the bounds of common decency: "The line is to be drawn when the publicity ceases to be the giving of information to which the public is entitled, and becomes a morbid and sensational prying into private lives for its own sake, with which a reasonable member of the public, with decent standards, would say that he had no concern." Virgil v. Time, Inc., 527 F.2d 1122, 1129 (9th Cir. 1975). The courts agree that most facts about public officials and celebrities are of legitimate public concern, but they also recognize that even famous public figures retain a zone of privacy relating to things like sexual activity and medical information. Ordinary people may become "involuntary public figures" when they take part in an event or occurrence of public significance, such as a crime, an accident, or a spontaneous act of heroism. When this happens, many facts about their lives become legitimately newsworthy, like their home addresses and information about their education, upbringing, and family. The media is allowed to use colorful facts about newsworthy individuals to create a thorough and compelling portrayal, so long as there is some logical connection between the facts disclosed and the matter of legitimate public interest. Accordingly, a court has held that information about a physician's psychiatric history and marital life was substantially relevant to the newsworthy topic of policing failures in the medical profession, when the physician in question had committed two acts of alleged malpractice. See Gilbert v. Medical Economics Co., 665 F.2d 305 (10th Cir. 1981). Similarly, a court held that a newspaper could legitimately publish the name and address of the father of a person who was being questioned as a suspect in the rape of a young girl. See Strutner v. Dispatch Printing Co., 442 N.E.2d 129 (Ohio Ct. App. 1982). In yet another example, a court held that a woman could not successfully sue over a photograph of her walking on the grounds of a private psychiatric hospital when she was walking next to a famous fellow patient whose "mental and physical rehabilitation was clearly newsworthy." Howell v. New York Post Co., 181 A.D.2d 597 (N.Y. App. Div. 1992).
On the other hand, sometimes the connection between disclosed private facts and a topic of admitted public interest is too attenuated. In one case, a court held that the disclosed fact that a student political leader was a transsexual was not of legitimate public concern, even though the disclosure happened in connection with a series of newsworthy articles about the student leader (she was the first female student body president at the college in question). See Diaz v. Oakland Tribune, Inc., 139 Cal. App. 3d 118 (Cal. Ct. App. 1983). The court reasoned that there was no connection between the plaintiff's gender status and her fitness for office or any other relevant issue, and that her position did not warrant opening up her entire private life to public inspection. Moreover, the court perceived that the reporter in question was making a joke at the plaintiff's expense, which did not help his case. In another case, a court held that a surfer could take his publication of private facts claim to trial where he established that a magazine published information about embarrassing incidents from his personal history. While the overall topic of the offending article (body surfing at a famous California beach) was newsworthy, the court ruled that a jury would be entitled to conclude that information about the plaintiff's non-surfing life was not newsworthy. See Virgil v. Time, Inc., 527 F.2d 1122 (9th Cir. 1975).
The passage of time might also affect whether a private fact is newsworthy. Facts that might be considered newsworthy at the time of the event will not necessarily remain so months or years later. This sometimes comes up with information about past crimes. Some courts have held that information about an individual's commission of a crime in the remote past is not a matter of legitimate public concern when that individual has completely rehabilitated himself/herself. However, other courts have rejected this view, so long as there is some connection to a topic of continuing interest. Nevertheless, you may want to think twice about publishing private information about someone who used to be an important public figure, but who now has faded into obscurity.
Relying on Public Records
In Cox Broadcasting v. Cohen, 420 U.S. 469 (1975), the Supreme Court of the United States held that the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits states from imposing a penalty on the press for publishing accurate information obtained from a public court record. As a result of this case, most states recognize an absolute privilege for publication of information found in a publicly available (i.e., not sealed) court record. While the case involved traditional media, there is no reason to believe that its reasoning and holding would not extend to non-traditional journalists and other online publishers. This means that you cannot be held liable for publishing accurate facts about someone that you find in a public court record, regardless of how embarrassing they are. Note that this privilege will protect you in publishing information about past crimes (discussed above), so long as you gather your information from publicly available court records, such as an indictment or trial transcript. For information on accessing court records, see Access to Courts and Court Records.
Many states have extended this protection from liability to the publication of information found in "public records" in addition to court records. The exact meaning of "public records" varies, but in some states it includes information obtained from government agencies through state freedom of information requests. See State Law: Publication of Private Facts for details on the scope of the First Amendment privilege and Access to Government Records for information on freedom of information requests.
Consent is a complete defense to a legal claim for publication of private facts. When you interview someone to gather information for later publication, it is a good practice to ask for consent to use the material on your website, blog, or other online platform. Make sure to get consent in writing whenever possible. You can use an interview release form. This release can help protect you against misappropriation and right of publicity claims in addition to publication of private facts claims. Some examples of interview releases can be found in Stanford's Copyright and Fair Use Guide, and at EmilioCorsetti.com and the University of Michigan Press. You can find additional samples by doing a basic Internet search for "interview release," and the book The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook by Lloyd J. Jassin and Steven C. Schecter has two excellent examples. An interview release can take various forms; you will need to choose and customize one to suit your own purposes. Make sure to mention explicitly your intent to use information conveyed during the interview for publication on the Internet.
If you take photographs of someone for later publication, you should also consider getting a model release. A model release primarily protects you against claims of unlawful use of name or likeness, but it also may be helpful if you photograph an individual in a private setting or if a photograph otherwise reveals private information. You can find examples at Ourmedia, the American Society of Media Photographers (model release for adult, model release for minor child, simplified model release, and pocket release), and the New York Institute of Photography. As above, you will need to customize the release to fit your purposes and circumstances.
Children cannot consent on their own behalf. When using the name or likeness of a minor (generally someone under the age of eighteen), you should seek consent from the minor's parent. Some of the example release forms linked to above are geared toward getting the consent of minors. State laws may recognize other situations where individuals are not able to consent on their own behalf. For instance, imagine you come across the scene of an accident and find a half-conscious accident victim. You might seek the consent of that individual to take pictures and ride along with him or her in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Depending on state law, a court might not recognize consent provided by such a half-conscious and obviously traumatized individual.
Keep in mind that people giving you consent can revoke (i.e., take back) that consent anytime before the use of their name or photograph takes place. Therefore, you should honor the decisions of consenting persons who suddenly change their minds, so long as publication hasn't already taken place.
Statute of Limitations
The "statute of limitations" is a term used by courts to describe the maximum amount of time plaintiffs can wait before bringing a lawsuit after the events they are suing over took place. This time limit is set by state law and is intended to promote fairness and keep old cases from clogging the courts. In publication of private facts cases, the statute of limitations ordinarily runs from the date of first publication of the offending facts. The limitations period varies based on state law; usually it is between one and three years. See the state pages for the applicable term in your state.


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Call and fun: marshalling redux
This part six of a six part introduction to c2hs. We finally talk about what ostensibly is the point of c2hs: calling C functions from Haskell. c2hs, due to its knowledge of the C headers, can already do the work for generating FFI imports. The call hook simply tells c2hs to generate the FFI import, while the fun hook generates another Haskell function which performs marshalling.
Call. The format of call is quite simple, because like get and set, it is meant to be interleaved with other Haskell code. If I would like to invoke the readline function from readline/readline.h, a {#call readline #} would suffice; c2hs will then generate the FFI import with the correct signature and transform the call directive into the name of the FFI import.
Of course, readline doesn't call back to Haskell, so we could add unsafe: {#call unsafe readline #}. And if you're sure that the C function has no side-effects, you can add pure: {#call pure unsafe sin #}. If you have multiple calls to the same function using the same FFI declaration, their flags need to be consistent.
By default, the cid will be use precisely to determine the name of the FFI import; if it is not a valid Haskell identifier for a function (i.e. is capitalized) or the C function name would conflict with another, you'll need to specify what the FFI will import as. Common conventions include prefixing the function with c_, or you can use ^ for c2hs's capitalization conversion. {#call FooBar_Baz as ^ #} will convert to fooBarBaz (with an appropriate FFI declaration).
Fun. Because the signature of the FFI declarations will all be C types, and Haskell programs tend not to use those, and because it is a frequent operation to convert to and from the C types, there's a little bit of automation to help you out with the fun directive. Unlike call, it's intended to standalone as a definition, and not be embedded in code. Note that you don't have to use fun; gtk2hs doesn't use it, for example. However, many people find it useful.
A fun starts off much like a call: you first specify if it's pure and/or unsafe, specify the C identifier, and the specify the Haskell name. Since the majority of your code will refer to the Haskell name, it's usually best to specify ^ for a consistent naming convention.
From here, we need to specify what the end type of the desired Haskell function is, and how to go from those types to the C types (the marshalling functions). The c2hs tutorial has a bit to say on this topic, so we'll take a more example oriented approach.
Primitive C types. The integral, floating point and boolean (usually an integer under the hood) primitive C types are so prevalent that c2hs will automatically use the cIntConv, cFloatConv and cFromBool/cToBool functions to marshal them if none are specified. These functions work in both directions. This directive:
{#fun pure sinf as ^ { `Float' } -> `Float' #}
sinf :: Float -> Float sinf a1 = let {a1' = cFloatConv a1} in let {res = sinf'_ a1'} in let {res' = cFloatConv res} in (res')
You can see that a bunch of (ugly) generated code is added to run the marshalling function on the argument, pass it to the FFI, and then another marshalling function is called on the result. Idiomatic Haskell might look like:
sinf = cFloatConv . sinf'_ . cFloatConv
If you'd like to use a different name for the marshalling function, you can specify it before the type of an argument (an "in" marshaller), or after the result (an "out" marshaller), as such:
{#fun pure sinf as ^ { myFloatConv `Float` } -> `Float` myFloatConv
and you can just replace the relevant function calls in the generated Haskell.
String arguments. Strings also hold a special place in c2hs's heart; null-terminated and strings needing explicit length information specified are handled with ease. Consider these two function prototypes:
void print_null_str(char *str); void print_explicit_str(char *str, int length);
We can write the following c2hs directives:
{#fun print_null_str as ^ { `String' } -> `()' } {#fun print_explicit_str as ^ { `String'& } -> `()' }
and they will be automatically be marshalled with withCString* and withCStringLen*.
There are several interesting things happening here. We represent a void return type using () (the empty type in Haskell). Additionally, the String parameter in print_explicit_str has an ampersand affixed to it; this means that the marshaller should produce a tuple of arguments which will be passed to the function as two separate arguments. Sure enough, withCStringLen results in a (Ptr CChar, Int), and c2hs use a slight variant withCStringLenIntConv which converts the Int into a CInt. (Note that if you need more complicated multi-argument ordering, fun is not for you.)
But perhaps the most interesting thing is the * affixed to the input marshaller, which has two effects. The first is to indicate that the input marshalling function is the IO monad, for example, the type of withCString is String -> (CString -> IO a) -> IO a. But furthermore, it indicates a function that follows the bracketed resource pattern "with". We did not use``String -> CString``, since this could result in a memory leak if we don't free the CString later! The code generated is then:
printNullStr :: String -> IO () printNullStr a1 = withCString a1 $ \a1' -> printNullStr'_ a1' >>= \res -> return () printExplicitStr :: String -> IO () printExplicitStr a1 = withCStringLenIntConv a1 $ \(a1'1, a1'2) -> printExplicitStr'_ a1'1 a1'2 >>= \res -> return ()
which makes use of hanging lambdas to keep the layout consistent.
Marshalling struct arguments. While the c2hs documentation claims that there is a default marshaller if you have the following situation in C:
struct my_struct { int b; int c; }; void frob_struct(struct my_struct *);
and in Haskell:
data MyStruct = MyStruct Int Int instance Storable MyStruct where ... {#pointer *my_struct as MyStructPtr -> MyStruct #}
So you should be able to write:
{#fun frob_struct as ^ { `MyStruct' } -> `()' #}
Where, the input marshaller is with*. Unfortunately, I could never get that to work; furthermore, c2hs thinks that with is a reserved word, so you'll need to rename it in order to use it.
withT = with {#fun copy_struct as ^ { withT* `MyStruct' } -> `()' #}
Opaque pointer arguments. When you don't want to perform any tomfoolery on a pointer when in Haskell, you can simply specify that the pointer is the argument and use id as the marshaller. In the previous example, copy_struct could have alternately been defined as:
{#fun copy_struct as ^ { id `MyStructPtr' } -> `()' #}
A convention is to omit Ptr from the name of the pointer type if you are only dealing with opaque pointers.
Out marshalling input arguments. A frequent pattern in C code is using pointer arguments to permit a function to return multiple results. For example, strtol has the following signature:
long int strtol(const char *nptr, char **endptr, int base);
endptr points to a pointer which will get set to the pointer at the end of the portion of the string in nptr we parsed. If we don't care about it, we can set endptr = NULL.
Obviously, we don't want our Haskell function to do this, and we have much easier ways of returning multiple results with tuples, so c2hs has a notion of an outmarshaller for an input argument. It also has the notion of a "fake" input argument which the user doesn't have to pass, in case our function is completely responsible for allocating the memory the pointer we pass to the function points to.
Here's a first attempt at writing a fun hook for strtol:
{#fun strtol as ^ {id `Ptr CChar', id `Ptr (Ptr CChar)', `Int'} -> `Int` #}
We've eschewed the default string marshalling because otherwise endptr won't give us very interesting information. This version is a carbon copy of the original.
To improve this, we consider Ptr (Ptr CChar) to be a way of returning Ptr CChar. So, after the function is run, we should peek (dereference the pointer) and return the result:
{#fun strtol as ^ {id `Ptr CChar', withT* `Ptr CChar' peek*, `Int'} -> `Int' #}
peek is in IO, so it needs the asterisk, but for out marshallers it doesn't result in any fancy bracketing usage. Now, the Haskell return type of this function is not Int; it's (Int, Ptr CChar).
strtol :: Ptr CChar -> Ptr CChar -> Int -> IO (Int, Ptr CChar) strtol a1 a2 a3 = let {a1' = id a1} in withT a2 $ \a2' -> let {a3' = cIntConv a3} in strtol'_ a1' a2' a3' >>= \res -> peek a2'>>= \a2'' -> let {res' = cIntConv res} in return (res', a2'')
Since we're overwriting the original contents of the pointer, it doesn't make much since to force the user of our function to pass it to us. We can suffix our input marshaller with - to indicate that it's not a real Haskell argument, and use alloca instead:
{#fun strtol as ^ {id `Ptr CChar', alloca- `Ptr CChar' peek*, `Int'} -> `Int' #}
Notice that we got rid of the *; it's one or the other. Now we have a usable function:
strtol :: Ptr CChar -> Int -> IO (Int, Ptr CChar) strtol a1 a3 = let {a1' = id a1} in alloca $ \a2' -> let {a3' = cIntConv a3} in strtol'_ a1' a2' a3' >>= \res -> peek a2'>>= \a2'' -> let {res' = cIntConv res} in return (res', a2'')
or, in idiomatic Haskell:
strtol nptr base = alloca $ \endptr -> do result <- strtol'_ nptr endptr (cIntconv base) end <- peek endptr return (result, end)
Error handling. There is one last piece of functionality that we haven't discussed, which is the - flag on an out marshaller, which causes Haskell to ignore the result. By itself it's not ordinarily useful, but when combined with * (which indicates the action is in IO), it can be used to attach functions that check for error conditions and throw an exception if that is the case. Recall that the default output marshaller for () is void-, ignoring the output result of a function.


text:
K-9 Unit
The South St. Paul Police Canine Unit serves the citizens and law enforcement officers of South St. Paul, as well as the surrounding community. The mission of the Canine Unit is to provide a highly trained canine team to serve the citizens of South St. Paul, as well as its police officers.
The South St. Paul Police Canine Unit is trained as a patrol / apprehension team and patrols the city streets as any other officer. Although the Canine Unit works a normal schedule, it is available to the Department 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as needed.
Canine Selection
The South St. Paul Police Department acquires its canines from the St. Paul Police Department Canine Training Unit. Each canine is tested for the required temperament and drive that are useful in police work. Once the canine is selected, the team attends a rigorous 12-week school to teach the canine and handler the duties expected of them during their career together in police work.
Certification of the Canines
After they have graduated from their school and received their initial certification, each police officer and canine companion undergo countless hours of continuing and ongoing training. The team participates in annual Canine Trials and must maintain certification for continued deployment on the street.
Canine Handlers
Each canine in the South St. Paul Police Department goes home with his handler every day. It is felt the dogs are more socialized by being around the officer's family, and also stay healthier when not kenneled with other animals where disease and illness can be spread easily.
Police canines are owned by the city. When the canine companion reaches the time of retirement, however, the handler is afforded the opportunity to adopt his/her partner so the canine can spend his remaining years with his handler and family.
A police canine can be expected to work the street for an average of seven to nine years before retirement. The working lifetime of each individual dog depends solely on the dog's physical ability and health. There are a lot of physical demands placed on the dog, as well as the handler during a canine team's career.
Purchasing & Training
Throughout the history of the South St. Paul Police Department Canine Unit, one adage has held true. Not many can remember the name or face of the canine handler, but all can remember the name and look of the canine.
The purchase and training of Police Canines is expensive. The Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post #295, Gallagher-Hanson Post #295, Hrvatski Dom. Assn. (Croatian Hall), and many private donors have graciously supported the South St. Paul Police Department Canine Unit since its inception.
Without their continued support, as well as the support of the entire community, we would be unable to provide this service to our citizens.
Effective Tools in the Fight Against Crime
Police canines have proven to be an effective and efficient tool in the fight against crime. A properly trained and handled canine team affords the citizens of South St. Paul one of the finest less-lethal aids in the prevention and detection of crime.


text:
Video collaborators needed
Keysound Recordings are looking for video directors/editors to collaborate on future projects with. Ideally they should be fluent with visual collage from a variety of sources, be able to create a sense of mysticism and wonder from found sights and multiple different visual sources, especially archive footage. A knowledge of UK rave culture, from jungle through to garage would be of real benefit.
- Would you be interested in collaborating?
- Could you recommend someone who might be suitable?
- Do you know sites or sources of portfolios to point us towards?
Email us on martin_clark7 at hotmail dot com or leave a comment below and we'll hit you back.


text:
Wishpot is a registry system that lets you create wish lists — wedding registries, honeymoon registries, baby registries, gift idea lists or "here's some stuff I'd like to have" lists — any kind of list where you invite people to participate in gift-giving. Wishpot has a twist that other registry sites don't have: it's universal, and lets you include items from any store.
Wishpot is a Seattle-based company with two brands: Wishpot for consumers and Venpop for business-to-business. They've been in business since 2007 building their wishlist platform for the web and in 2010, they introduced their social commerce apps space, now under the Venpop brand.
We invited them to tell us a little more about their Shopify app, Wishpot Button, its features, and how they built it.
What does Wishpot Button do?
Wishpot is the leading universal wishlist service that works with any store. For shoppers, this means they no longer need to keep track of different wish lists at different websites. Wishpot provides additional features to keep users engaged year-round – birthday reminders, deal alerts, cash contributions, social sharing features, ecards, and much more. For store owners, this means less abandonment of wishlists and increased activity on items that have been added to the lists because of the engaging feature set. This is a free service for both stores and users.
What are the key features of your app?
- Adds a universal wish list and registry – for example baby and wedding – to your shop
- Price alerts bring back your customers when prices change on your store
- Cash Contributions functionality makes it easier to buy your more expensive items
- Social sharing and ecards allow your customers to easily share their list and get your products discovered
- Get reporting, in store support, custom branding, experts and much more with the easy upgrade to the white label version
Why should shopowners use this app?
This enables any shop owner to instantly make each product easy to add to a wish list or registry. It is incredibly easy to install, it does not cost anything, it provides a great service to your customers, and above all drives users and potential customers back to your shop.
Where did you get the idea for your app?
We had several Shopify customers ask to integrate our services with Shopify and after a few conversations with the great guys at Shopify, so we decided it was the time to pull the trigger and start developing some great apps. The Wishpot and Venpop technologies are a perfect extension to the already fantastic Shopify experience.
How long did it take for you to build the app?
The main app was built in about a week, though we revised and simplified it over the course of several more weeks. The hardest thing to get accustomed to up front was "where" the app runs. Although the main Wishpot site is built in C# and .NET, we decided to build the app in Ruby and Rails on Heroku due to it's more extensive use and testing with the Shopify ecosystem. We then needed to ask a few forum questions about the ScriptTag features, because we really wanted people to be able to install the "add to wishpot" button without having to edit a liquid template, and the scripttag feature enabled us to build that experience.
In order to enable Venpop technologies (this is an update that's coming to the app in the next few days) we then had to add some additional features to link our .NET-based service to the Ruby-based service, which we're able to accomplish via oauth and the RESTful apis both platforms provide. So, when a user authorizes the app, their access token is also sent back to our .NET services, so that Venpop's product feed processing engine has access to the catalog. That way, if someone signs up for Venpop Social Commerce, we'll have access to their storefront to monitor it for changes, tweet new deals, etc.
How can we find you online?
Web: http://www.wishpot.com | http://venpop.com
Blog: http://blogs.wishpot.com/ | http://venpop.com/category/blog/
Where can I find out more about Wishpot button?
You can find out more about Wishpot Button on its page in the Shopify App Store.


text:
Ariana Abayomi was sound asleep in her dorm room at Oberlin College in Ohio, when a fellow resident advisor awakened her in the middle of the night.
Groggy with sleep, Abayomi struggled at first to comprehend what she was hearing.
Someone in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood … spotted on campus … right outside … emergency meeting in the lounge.
"I was standing there thinking, 'KKK?'" she said. "'At Oberlin?'"
Twelve hours later, it was still her question. Repeatedly, she apologized for stumbling over her words during our interview. "I'm sorry," she said. "I haven't had much sleep. A lot of us were up all night."
When I asked why, she shook her head and said softly, "We didn't feel safe enough to go to sleep."
In the wee hours of Monday morning, a student reported seeing a figure cloaked in a white robe and hood standing near Oberlin's Afrikan Heritage House — "A-House," in campus parlance — where Abayomi lives.
Abayomi, who is black, grew up in Atlanta. "Georgia is inherently more racist," she said. "This has had a bigger impact because it's a smaller community. I never thought it would happen here in Oberlin."
It was the latest in a series of recent hate-related acts of vandalism that have left the Oberlin community reeling. The word "black" was scratched out on Black History Month posters, replaced with a racial epithet. Freshly etched swastikas and "Whites Only" hovered over a water fountain. Anti-Semitic and racist fliers peppered the campus. A student reported a stranger uttering a racial slur before pushing him to the ground. So far, no one has been charged.
The incidents are a jarring new reality for Oberlin College, located about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland. Founded in 1833, Oberlin has a long history of progressive activism. It was a crucial stop on the Underground Railroad. It was also one of the first colleges to educate men and women together and to admit black students.
Sean Decatur, dean of arts and sciences, said he is saddened by these acts, but not surprised.
"Oberlin is a place I respect for both its history and its standards," said Decatur. "On the other hand, it's part of the world. These incidents are not out of the realm of possibility because it happens everywhere."
Still, not everywhere deals with this kind of hate like Oberlin College. Within hours of the alleged KKK sighting, the administration canceled classes and convened a "day of solidarity," which included a teach-in, a rally and a public forum. Nearly half of Oberlin's 2,800 students showed up.
Decatur expected nothing less. "I have faith in our students that their response to canceled classes would not be, 'Let's go back to bed.'"
Over the years, Oberlin College has carved out a special place in my heart. In 2007, I was commencement speaker. I've delivered a number of such addresses, but only at Oberlin did so many graduates stop onstage to offer on-the-spot reviews.
I also have covered a wide range of speeches on campus, fueling my appreciation for Oberlin's commitment to build unlikely bridges. Students and faculty extended the same gracious welcome to Republican strategist Karl Rove, for example, as they did to Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. Rove endured a more rigorous Q-and-A, but the audience was respectful.
On Election Day in 2004, voters in Oberlin had to stand in line for hours to cast their ballots. The college and the town joined forces to deliver food and drinks. Students performed music and magic tricks for the children in tow. Anything to make sure people stayed to vote.
True to its legacy, the Oberlin community responded Monday to attempts to divide it by drawing closer. "We are here," students chanted throughout the day. At the rally, a trio of students led the crowd in singing "We Shall Overcome," a famous anthem of the civil rights movement. One of the singers shouted out the lyrics so that everyone could join in.
Looking around at people bundled against the cold, I noticed that many of the white students appeared to need the prompts to sing, particularly after the first verse. Most of the black students I saw needed no such help. They belted out the song from memory, some of them blinking back tears.
In that cold, crisp moment of good intentions, a single song illuminated the difference between people who need reminding and those who never have the luxury to forget.
Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and an essayist for Parade magazine. She is the author of two books, including "…and His Lovely Wife," which chronicled the successful race of her husband, Sherrod Brown, for the U.S. Senate. To find out more about Connie Schultz (firstname.lastname@example.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
Photo: chicabrandita/Flickr