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Project Grant Evaluation
RHSP initiative's aim is to contribute to creating a generation of Roma professionals in the medical field who would contribute to improving access to quality health services for Roma communities, as well as helping dismantle negative stereotypes about Roma with their own positive examples as Roma qualified professionals. Until now RHSP has been the only regional program of the kind targeting Roma medical students. Since it was launched in 2008 and until summer of 2015, RHSP provided support to 527 Roma medical students from the four countries. Based on desktop research, program administrative data, and survey methodology, the main objective of this tracer study is to investigate the degree in which the RHSP program contributed to a successful academic and professional trajectory of its beneficiaries after seven years of program implementation, as well as the degree to which its beneficiaries managed to enter the labor market upon graduating.
Compiled and written by Inka Píbilová and Iveta Klusáková, this mid-term external evaluation of Together to Preschool summarizes the project's progress since beginning in November 2012. Together to Preschool aims to promote quality preschool education and desegregated primary schooling for socially disadvantaged Roma. The project has since provided access to preschool education for disadvantaged, mainly Roma children aged three to six in two Ostrava neigbhorhoods: Poruba and Mariánské Hory – Hulváky. The project is being implemented by Beleza Ostrava o.s. and White Rhinoceros (Bily Nosorozec o.p.s.). Donors and partners are the Roma Education Fund and Ostrava Municipality. The project will run till October 31, 2015.
Mnohé studie zdůrazňují, že čím dříve budou mít sociálně znevýhodněné děti přístup ke kvalitnímu předškolnímu vzdělání, tím jednodušší budou mít přístup ke vzdělání jako takovému. Zároveň poukazují na to, že segregace dětí (i v předškolních zařízeních) vede později k horším studijním výsledkům. Kvalitní předškolní vzdělávání a nesegregované základní vzdělávání pro sociálně znevýhodněné Romy (ale i děti z majority vesrovnatelných podmínkách) jsou hlavními cíli hodnoceného projektu Společně do školky. Tento projekt poskytuje přístup k předškolnímu vzdělávání pro znevýhodněné, převážně romské děti ve věku 3 až 6 let ve 2 lokalitách v Ostravě: Poruba a Mariánské Hory – Hulváky. Realizovaly jej Beleza Ostrava o.s. a Bilý Nosorožec o.p.s. Dárci a partneři projektu jsou Romský vzdělávací fond a Magistrát města Ostravy. Rozpočet projektu činí 210,447 EURO (asi 5,8 mil. Kč) na období od 1. listopadu 2012 do 31. října 2015.
- A Tracer Study - The Academic and Professional Trajectory of the Roma Education Fund`s Law and Humanities Scholarship Program's Student Beneficiaries 2014
After 10 years of implementing Law and Humanities [scholarship] Program and following the request of one of the Program's donors, REF proceeded towards investigating the degree in which the respective Program contributed to the academic trajectory of its beneficiaries, as well as whether the beneficiaries managed to enter the job market on positions relevant for their studies after obtaining higher education degrees. The main reason for doing this is for identifying the ways in which the REF Scholarship Program could be better tailored to respond to the needs of its beneficiaries and to help them become successful in their initial career stages. This tracer study presents the results of this investigation.
Inclusive education, in its broadest sense, has been recognized as one of the priorities of the Government of the Republic of Serbia as shown in the Law on The Foundation of Education (LoFE). To aid the implementation of the LoFE and support the development of inclusion in the Republic of Serbia, the World Bank has introduced and funded the Delivering of the Local Implementation Services (DILS) project that, inter alia, included school grants and municipal grants for the promotion of education inclusion. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the two components of the DILS project related to education:a) the program "Strengthening schools for inclusive education" at the school level, which includes training for school staff and grants for school projects and b) grant program "Education Inclusion of Roma" (DILS/REF program).
As part of the commitments undertaken under the Decade of Roma Inclusion, the Roma Health Project (RHP) of OSF, together with the Roma Education Fund (REF) (Hungary), joined efforts with the purpose of providing support for health education, mentorship and health advocacy training for students in medical schools, nurses colleges and medical vocational education, as well as for resident doctors of Roma origin. The Roma health scholarship program, "Leadership in Health: A Generation of Professionals in the Health Care System" addresses the most urgent issues faced by the largest European minority in the health care system.
The Roma Health Scholarship Program under the name of "Roma Leadership in Health: a Generation of Health Professionals" was set up in 2008 by the Open Society Foundations Public Health Program (OSF PHP) in cooperation with the Roma Education Fund (REF) and financed by OSF. The aim of the program was to provide support for health education, mentorship and advocacy training for Roma in Central, Eastern and Southern European countries, with a pilot project in Romania. The program objectives were to create a stratum of Roma health professionals and to combat discriminatory behavior and racist attitudes towards Roma among the health professionals. The project was piloted in Romania and was rolled out in Bulgaria in 2009 and extended to Macedonia and Serbia in 2010.
- External Evaluation Outcome Assessment and Lessons Learnt from Swedish Development Cooperation with Macedonia (1999–2012)
In October 2011, Sida commissioned Indevelop to carry out an "Outcome assessment and lessons learnt from Swedish Development Cooperation with Macedonia (1999-2012)". The title of this report summarises well the main aim of this study, i.e., identifying results on an outcome level as well as providing a better understanding of what the Swedish Government and Sida could learn from the processes of the last decade´s development cooperation with Macedonia. This evaluation cites the Roma Education Fund throughout, with a case study of its Macedonian activities on page 141.
- Executive Summary of the External Evaluation of REF-supported Project in Croatia "From preschool to full integration September 2011 – June 2012"
The National Centre for External Evaluation of Education provides assessment of the entire project implementation involving parents, children, teachers, Roma teacher assistants. Special focus is put on the quality and pedagogical impact of the preschool programs. NCEE will carry out a thorough initial survey and the final assessment of the implementation of the project which will provide basis for evaluation. The following report contains data on the initial assessment which was carried out during February 2012. The aim of the initial assessment was to inquire elements of quality of the program from preschool education to full integration. With a goal to identify the initial status and to improve the program an initial external evaluation of the quality of the program was performed. The children were involved in the assessment along with the ones involved in the realization of the program.
- External Evaluation of REF-supported Project in Macedonia "Scholarship, Mentoring and Tutoring for Secondary Roma students" 2012
The general aim of the project "Scholarship, Mentoring and Tutoring for Roma Secondary Students" (MAC 052) is through positive interventions to improve the retention and achievement rate of all Roma students enrolled in secondary school. The project is managed by the Department for Promotion and Development of Education in the Languages of Minorities, in the frames of the Ministry of Education and Science and is based on two main pillars: providing scholarships to secondary school Roma students with a GPA of at least 3.00 and providing mentorship and tutorship support to all Roma students enrolled in secondary education. The main project beneficiaries during the past two project implementation years were: 784 students (444 in 2009/10 and 611 in 2010/11, 271 of which second-year grantees) recipients of scholarship and mentorship support, a pool of students (about 100 in 2010/11) which were not financially supported but received mentorship/tutorship support, 84 secondary schools throughout the country where the project activities were taking place and 353 teachers selected as mentors or tutors. This evaluation report provides an assessment of the first two years of project implementation (2009/10 and 2010/11 school years) with regards to the project efficiency, effectiveness and impact.
- External Mid-term Evaluation of "Inclusive Quality Pre-Primary and Primary Education for Roma/Egyptian Children" 2011
The goal of the Save the Children in Albania (SCiA) project is to "provide children from different ethnic groups with the opportunity to interact and socialize, learn about each other, thus improving interethnic relations among the mainstream schools students and wider community". The four-year SCiA project started in April 2008 and has been financed by Roma Education Fund, Medicor, Save the Children Sweden and Save the Children Norway.
The evaluation research of the Romaversitas Foundation requested by the Roma Education Fund (REF) was carried out by the Kurt Lewin Foundation. The first phase of the research was conducted between October 2010 and January 2011, while the second phase took place in July and August 2011. The study discusses – among others – the aims, history, impact, results of the Foundation; the components of the services offered for the participants; the requirements to be completed by the students; the operation of the organization; its financial situation; strengths and weaknesses; main problems and the recommendations for the solution of these problems.
The Romaversitas Project is one of the few efforts made in the Republic of Macedonia aimed at improving university education of the Roma population. It has established itself not only among the Roma, but also among the non-Roma student population. The Romaversitas Project demonstrates a high degree of successfulness in the realization of the set goals and objectives and achievement of the set indicators. The evaluation confirmed the high degree of satisfaction on the part of the RV Project beneficiaries with their participation therein. The majority of Romaversitas students beneficiaries progress successfully in their studies and achieve the academic standards expected in higher education. The support of the tutors and their participation in the other RV Project activities are directly related to their success in the studies.
The project evaluation of "Support for High School Roma Students in Romania" was based on a research methodology which included: (1.) the analysis of documents and data evidence gathered throughout the implementation of the project; (2.) in-depth interviews with more than 58 beneficiaries of the programmes, as well as 13 mentors and nine professors that have taught the students selected in this project; additionally, a focus group was conducted with eight parents of beneficiaries from Reghin - Mureș and extensive discussions have been carried out with the manager of the project and other members of the implementation team; (3.) analysis of quantitative data – the database created during the programme by the implementers has been completed by updating and adding supplementary information (in electronic format) gathered through filling in questionnaires concerning the situation of 156 project beneficiaries.
The evaluation was conducted on the behalf of the Foundation Resource Center for Roma Communities (RCRC) by Claudiu Marius Ivan and Roxana Georgiana.
- External Evaluation Report of REF-supported "Romas Graduate and Enhance Their Lives, Phase 1 and 2" in Macedonia 2009-2011
The general aim of the project "Scholarship, Mentoring and Tutoring for Secondary Roma Students" (MAC 052) is through positive interventions to improve the retention and achievement rate of all Roma students enrolled in secondary school. The project is managed by the Department for Promotion and Development of Education in the Languages of Minorities, in the frames of the Ministry of Education and Science and is based on two main pillars: providing scholarships to secondary school Roma students with a GPA of at least 3.00 and providing mentorship and tutorship support to all Roma students enrolled in secondary education. The main project beneficiaries during the past two project implementation years were: 784 students (444 in 2009/10 and 611 in 2010/11, 271 of which second-year grantees) recipients of scholarship and mentorship support, a pool of students (about 100 in 2010/11) which were not financially supported but received mentorship/tutorship support, 84 secondary schools throughout the country where the project activities were taking place and 353 teachers selected as mentors or tutors. This evaluation report provides an assessment of the first two years of project implementation (2009/10 and 2010/11 school years) with regards to the project efficiency, effectiveness and impact.
- REF-supported Projects in Slovakia for Preventing/reversing Segregation of Romani Children in Special Education_EN_2010
As of November 2009, REF had committed a total of EUR 622 790 to six projects implemented by four non-governmental organizations aimed at directly preventing and/or reversing the streaming of Romani children in special education in Slovakia. REF's decision in early 2010 to commission a comparison of the different approaches supported to date in this area took into account three main factors: (1.) Preventing/reversing segregation of Romani children in special education can be expected to remain a priority of REF activity in Slovakia for the foreseeable future; (2.) The only external evaluation conducted to date on any of the projects aiming directly at prevention/reversal of segregation in Slovakia provided few quantitative data and no guidance on how the evaluated project might be improved in case of continuation; (3.) The Slovak Ministry of Education's expressed interest in the results of one such project suggests that it would be interested in receiving information also on like-minded projects supported by REF in Slovakia, such that the findings of a comparative evaluation of all such projects could serve as a starting point for developing a model in cooperation with the Slovak government. The evaluation was conducted in mid-2010 under the leadership of Marek F. Hojsík of the Roma Institute in Bratislava, who was selected through an open tender procedure.
The evaluation report is available for download in English and Slovak.
- REF-supported Projects in Slovakia for Preventing/reversing Segregation of Romani Children in Special Education_SLO_2010
Táto správa bola spracovaná ako súčasť výstupov externého hodnotenia realizovaného tímom expertov vedených Marekom F. Hojsíkom z Rómskeho inštitútu v Bratislave (ďalej "konzultant"). Spracovanie hodnotenia si vyžiadal Rómsky vzdelávací fond (REF) a konzultant bol vybraný zo strany REF v otvorenom výberovom konaní. Externé hodnotenie pokrýva šesť projektov podporených zo strany REF, ktoré boli implementované na Slovensku štyrmi mimovládnymi organizáciami (ďalej "príjemcovia grantov") a boli zamerané na predchádzanie alebo odstraňovanie segregácie rómskych detí v špeciálnom vzdelávaní (pozri tabuľku 1: Zoznam hodnotených projektov podporených zo strany REF.
After supporting Roma Access Program (RAP) for three academic years, Roma Education Fund (REF) has requested an external evaluation of RAP. The evaluation was conducted between November-December 2009. The methodology for assessment combined questionnaire for students (34 answers), interviews with students, program management, tutors, and members of the evaluation committee (21 interviews) and two focus groups with students and alumni. The evaluation was conducted between November-December 2009.
The Provincial Department of Education and Culture, Council for Roma Integration in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and Roma Students Association won a grant competition to offer Secondary School Scholarships supported by REF (2007-2011) in order to facilitate Roma students' development and advancement in their secondary school studies on the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. This report evaluates the actual project implementation through interviews with the responsible parties, in addition to presenting two case studies in two schools that investigate the local realization of the program.
The objective of this evaluation is to assess the management and project implementation; assessment the beneficiaries' school achievments, school attendance and relationships with peers and with teachers; assess the efficiency and results provided by the mentorship scheme of the program; elaborate school-based case studies with the aim of summing up lessons learnt and monitoring the school environment. It was presented by Attila Papp Z., PhD.
- External Evaluation of Integrated and Inclusive Educational Programs and School Desegregation Measures for Roma Children
The project under evaluation is funded by the Roma Education Fund (REF) and is an enhancement of the project "Developing and Promoting Inclusive and Sustainable Educational Programs for Roma Children through Integration." The evaluation determined that the project's three main commitments were fulfilled: (1.) to provide Roma pupils attending the summer kindergarten with a detailed curriculum and daily meals and drinks, and to provide voucher support for their enrolment in the first grade; (2.) to provide Roma elementary school pupils with after school activity support, and (3.) to provide complementary education program for Roma parents on early childhood development. Furthermore, from its six specific objectives, five were found to have been met based on statistical analysis, with one (No. 4) being attainable in several years: (1.) to increase the enrolment rate of Roma children in first grade compared to previous years; (2.) to reduce the school drop-out rate of Roma pupils with focus on first grade to a level comparable to the school drop-out rate of non-Roma pupils; (3.) to increase the school attendance rate of Roma pupils to a level comparable to the school attendance rate of non-Roma pupils; (4.) to improve the school performances of Roma children towards an Annual Average Mark of 3 (good); (5.) to accelerate the school desegregation process with focus on first grade in at least five schools/communities; (6.) to increase the involvement of Roma parents, children, youth, leaders and activists in the education process and school life.
- External evaluation report of REF supported project in Serbia entitled "Functional Basic Education of Adult Roma"_2009
This is the final report from the final external evaluation of the project Functional Basic Education of Adult Roma (hereinafter: "FBEAR Project"). For the purposes of Institute for Pedagogy and Andragogy of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (hereinafter: "IPA") and Roma Educational Fund ("REF") the evaluation was conducted by Zdenka Milivojević, Evaluation Consultant. Evaluation was carried out in two parts: the first part was conducted from May to August 2007, and the second part, which included the additional questions for evaluation from the Roma Education Fund (REF), was conducted on 13 December in Niš and 14 December in Belgrade. The report presents the key findings from the final external evaluation and was submitted to the IPA and REF representatives in February 2008.


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AL文凭《网上制作≡捷克帕拉茨基大学毕业证图样‰ 一模一样原件》【微/Q:370920811】【WeChat:370920811】制作国外大学毕业证网上制作≡捷克帕拉茨基大学毕业证图样‰ 一模一样原件【微/Q:370920811】【WeChat:370920811】~英国毕业证、制作加拿大毕业证、办理美国毕业证、购买新兰毕业证、定制澳洲毕业证、代办新加坡毕业证
This is a real and thought-provoking little thing.
Not long ago, a French educational psychology expert gave the following test questions to French primary school students and Shanghai primary school students: there are 86 cows and 34 sheep on a ship. How old is the captain of the ship?
More than 90 per cent of French pupils questioned the question, saying it was impossible to answer and even ridiculing their teacher for being confused. Obviously, the students were right. The answer of Shanghai primary school students is quite the opposite: 80% of the students answer seriously, 86-34=52 years old. only 10% of the students thought the question was too ridiculous to answer. only 10% of the students answered correctly!
The French educational psychologist wondered why there was such a big difference between the two countries" pupils. After his survey of the 80 percent of Shanghai primary school students, he found that they gave wrong answers because they firmly believed that: "teachers usually teach us that only by answering questions can we score. If you don"t, you won"t even get a point. The teacher out of the question is always right, there is always a standard answer, it is impossible to do, it is impossible to have no answer.
The French educational psychologist summed up the two experiments with the following quote:
The first was Descartes: doubt is method.
Faraday said in the second sentence: in academic not blindly follow the master, he should be more important than people, the truth should be his first goal.
The process of scientific discovery is a leap that begins with curiosity and doubt.
Then, he said with deep feeling: "children should be taught to respect the teacher, but more should be taught to respect the truth. Doubt is not a fault, but a perpetual suspicion. only dare to doubt, can reduce blind obedience. Where there is doubt there is truth, and truth is the shadow of doubt.

subset: commoncrawl


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Life is good for the Democratic Party these days.
In firm control of all three branches of government for the first time in more than a generation, the Democrats have seen their ranks swell with the recent defection of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Specter's switch gave the Democrats a near filibuster-proof majority of 59 senators – something that may come in handy during the upcoming nomination process of Sonia Sotomayor, whom President Barack Obama recently put forward to be the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice and the first Latina in the nation's history to serve on the court.
The Democrats have had a string of successes since Obama's inauguration in January, overseeing the passage of a $787 billion stimulus plan, starting to implement a withdrawal time line and process for the war in Iraq and moving both to close Guantanamo prison camp and repudiating the Bush Administration's interrogation policies that many described as torture.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are struggling. Mightily.
Each week seems to bring new headlines that suggest a party in disarray, with an unclear voice, hierarchy or direction. One week it's Rush Limbaugh saying that Colin Powell is not actually a Republican. Another it's Meghan McCain, daughter of the defeated presidential candidate, slamming conservative pundit Ann Coulter.
In this climate, it can be easy to forget that the political scene was completely reversed less than five years ago.
After Bush soundly defeated John Kerry in the November 2004 presidential election, the Democrats seemed to some to be poised on the brink of irrelevance, or, even worse, obscurity. Bush's victory, which gave him the opportunity to later appoint two Supreme Court justices, was the seventh by a Republican in the previous 10 presidential contests. Continued majorities in both the House and Senate accompanied his triumph.
New York Times Magazine political reporter Matt Bai remembers this dry period in the Democrats' history.
He traces the party's path back from the political netherlands to reclaiming the House, the Senate and the majority of governorships, in The Argument: Inside the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.
The road to political redemption was a twisted one, with many engaging characters and twists along the way.
Bai begins the book with Kerry's crushing, and apparently surprising, defeat in 2004. (I had had a strong feeling about the race's outcome from the point that he did not respond forcefully to the Swift Boat attacks in August and thus I did not share the surprise of some of the sources Bai interviewed. If anything, Kerry's lack of response reminded me strongly of Michael Dukakis' failure to counter the Lee Atwater-conceived Willie Horton ads that had such a devastating effect on his candidacy.)
From the loss, Bai moves to explore the different level of change in party operation and vision that Democratic strategists and members felt were necessary. Democracy Alliance founder Rob Steinn is shown as playing a key role in raising party awareness about the degree of organization the Republicans had fostered, thereby helping people understand what Democrats confronted.
Bai spends a lot of time in the book talking about the ascending role of technology – a development that led to the surprisingly successful candidacy of Howard Dean and his later selection as party chairman, the emerging power of organizations like Eli Pariser's MoveOn.org and the potency of bloggers like Markos Zuniga, creator of the wildly popular DailyKos.
Technology also is a lense through which one sees some of the major conflicts between, on the one hand, the 1990s Clinton-era establishment, which modernized and moved the party toward the political center and fashioned two presidential victories by traditional methods of fundraising and politicking, and, on the other hand, the more progressive and technologically-oriented new guard embodied by Zuniga and Pariser.
The resulting conflicts are often messy.
Bai describes one party gathering where the former president lost his temper when questioned about his wife Hillary's vote to go to war in Iraq and proceeded to rant about all kinds of right-leaning policies and directions he said were ascribed to him. Bai also shows the ongoing and occasionally public struggles between current White House majordomo Rahm Emanuel and the then party chairman about Dean's 50-state strategy – an approach which Emanuel felt diverted valuable resources from battleground states.
In the end, the Democrats swept to victory. Each of the groups and people listed above and a host of others could claim some share of the triumph, if not the spoils.
The inside argument about remaking Democratic politics is less clearly answered. Bai ends the book with a lion in winter-like address from former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who reminds the exultant Democrats that, despite their smashing electoral victories, they still "have no big idea."
The Argument has a number of the strengths and weaknesses that characterize much of Bai's work that appears in The New York Times magazine. His intelligence, writing skills and thorough reporting are apparent throughout the work; and yet one often leaves his pieces, and, in this case, the book, feeling like she has not actually learned much new or different.
The Democrats' need to articulate a vision greater than "We are not the Republicans" has been known for a long time, for example. So, too, has the Republicans' superior ground level organizational capacity, forged during the late 70s and 80s by people like Richard Viguerie, strategist Grover Norquist and strengthened in the 90s by Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed. Bai's explanation of the rise of blogging is engaging but not particularly informative to the tens of millions of people who have clicked onto DailyKos during the past decade.
Bai does not explore the mixed legacy of the Clinton presidency as fully as he could, and Ned Lamont's primary victory over Joe Lieberman, which Bai seems to herald as the triumph of the new way, seems a bit hollow given Lieberman's ultimate triumph.
One gets the sense while reading The Argument that Bai is writing for those people who were among Rob Stein's target audience – Democrats who did not get why their party was being consistently clobbered in elections, yet did not think that drastic action or rethinking needed to be taken to stop the slide.
Which brings us back to Obama and the Democrats' current strong position.
Obama appears in The Argument as a skilled writer who unsurprisingly adopts a both/and position toward traditional party stalwarts and the emerging online progressive movement. He contributes a spirited articulation of his position in a lengthy blog post which urges people not to demonize Republicans, affirms the establishment's importance and uses available technology to share his views.
Written during the throes of Obama and Clinton's fight for the Democratic nomination, the afterword includes the following somewhat prescient thought:
"Should Obama win the nomination, though, and perhaps even the White House, he will face a choice where the powerful progressives in his party are concerned: whether to attempt, through the power of his personality and argument, to lead the new movement away from the limited politics of hostility and toward some modern vision of liberalism, or whether to become, like so many political leaders before him, a reflection of the movement he inherits. If Obama can't change the trajectory of the new progressive movement, then the movement will very likely change him."
Obama has not been president long enough to definitively answer the questions Bai or Cuomo pose, and the answers to those questions may go a long way toward predicting whether his victory is a blip on the screen of Republican dominance or augurs a new era in liberal thinking.
For posing those questions, and for providing an enjoyable read along the way, Bai deserves credit, even if The Argument does have a number of flaws.


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Links: follow Loki's Portal
November 2012
Follow Loki aka IX Tab aka Saxon's choice picks of the web. Loki is featured in Matthew Ingram's article on West Country electronic music makers in The Wire 346.
A collection of odd little robot radio shows/podcasts that kept me going back in the early 2000s when I had no money to buy the kind of records that weren't yet being re-released. Those were simpler times. I had a crappy modem internet that strained at the seams to play this stuff. All the good world was here: The Butthole Surfers to Raymond Scott, Ligeti to The Residents, Martin Denny to Cluster... It was reassuring to know that there were people out there who understood.
Attempted Kidnapping Of Princess Anne
I came across this via K-Punk/Mark Fisher and have been using it in Philosophy/Psychology lessons ever since. Just to follow the logic is an exercise in seeing the world differently. It seems too good/odd to be true, almost like a lost JG Ballard short story or a viral marketing stunt. I won't say anything more except that if you've even got a touch of the 24hr paranoid schizophrenia bug that's been goung around recently, this will tip all your edges...
Bryon Gysin
I've always suspected Brion Gysin was something of a charlatan, but I like him partly because of that and it didn't stop me making a Dream Machine as a student and staring, with closed eyes into it, listening to Coil records and waiting to be transported. When Coil released Time Machines, I dug out the plans from this site and started all over again. I'm pretty sure you can get an under-the-counter Ikea version now if you ask with the right eyes.
This guy is just relentless, he goes to everything, listens to everyone and writes about them all with a wide (bug-eyed) beauty and love. If you've got an obscure cassette-only limited edition release of animal moans and electronic crackles, he'll be reviewing it and will post a near incomprehensible photograph to prove he was there. It's what blogs are for and I'm pleased, with so many of the old ones falling by the wayside, that he's still cracking on 'til dawn.
Beyond The Implode
This blog seems to be dead now but I'm always hopeful that it'll rise again. Funny, paranoaic, slightly hateful, insightful, melancholic and mental. He writes like people I know. He writes like the Libbe Matz Gang write music (they might be him for all I know). An evening spent browsing through the archives will made you laugh like two drains. Someone should have commissioned him to write a book. He's got my blog in his links bar, describing it as a 'clean and discreet pre-op transvestite', which is a first.
Psychedelic Folk
A portal for all kind of goodness. I found this during a minorly obsessional trawl for Icelandic free/freak folk and it just kept on giving. The form matches the content, it's ramshackle and exclusive, slightly unbearable at times. I've bought a load of records as a direct result of seeing their names on here.
People will know about this one, perhaps, but it's one of my favourites from the so-called 'silver age' of blogs (so-called, I think, mostly by me) and I read it almost every day. I was initially attracted, of course, because of the Throbbing Gristle title, but now it's just essential reading with one caveat: they write about music in such a sparkling way that much of what they write about can never live up to expectations. It reminds me a little of when my Grandad told me the story of King Kong late a night in a caravan when I was about seven, and then I saw it a few years later and... it just couldn't compete.


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I am proud to be the first woman to lead Accenture in Norway. The company is one of the largest consultancy firms in the Norwegian market, and there is still a big gender gap when it comes to top management positions in Norway. I plan to use this opportunity to encourage and, hopefully, inspire more women, both within and outside my organization, to pursue leadership roles.
My career path
I started at Accenture in 1991 and began working with clients in financial services, as I had previous experience in banking. Throughout 24 years at my company, I have worked with clients from almost all of the industries we serve, including more than 12 years with companies in telecom and high tech and nine years with clients from the public sector.
In 2009, I was given responsibility to build the health practice across the Nordic region, which sparked the entrepreneur in me. I find working with health clients to be extremely rewarding. We are making a meaningful impact and improving the quality of life for people across the Nordics.


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Cost of Insurance
Shared CostGenerally, if you are a Federal employee or annuitant, you share the cost of your health benefits coverage with the Government as your employer. Temporary employees enrolled under 5 U.S.C. 8906(a), former spouses enrolled under Spouse Equity provisions, and most persons covered under temporary continuation of coverage (TCC) do not receive a Government contribution towards the cost of their health benefits.
Government's ShareThe Government's share of premiums paid is set by law. Amendments to the FEHB law under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-33, approved August 5, 1997) authorized a new formula for calculating the Government contribution effective with the contract year that begins in January 1999. This formula is known as the "Fair Share" formula because it will maintain a consistent level of Government contributions, as a percentage of total program costs, regardless of which health plan enrollees elect.
For most employees and annuitants, the Government contribution equals the lesser of: (1) 72 percent of amounts OPM determines are the program-wide weighted average of premiums in effect each year, for Self Only, Self Plus One and Self and Family enrollments, respectively, or (2) 75 percent of the total premium for the particular plan an enrollee selects.
OPM must determine the FEHB program-wide weighted average of premiums no later than October 1st which immediately precedes each FEHB contract year. The law directs OPM, first, to multiply each health plan premium for the upcoming year by the number of enrollees enrolled in that health plan as of the previous March 31 who received a Government contribution. OPM will then divide the total of premiums associated with Self Only enrollments, with Self Plus One enrollments and with Self and Family enrollments, respectively, by the corresponding total number of eligible individuals with each type of enrollment, to derive the weighted average of premiums.
The Government contribution for eligible employees is paid out of agency appropriations or other funds available for payment of salaries. OPM receives an annual appropriation to cover Government contributions for eligible annuitants.
Government Contribution for Part-Time EmployeesIf you are a part-time career employee, the Government contribution toward your health benefits is prorated in proportion to the percentage of full-time service you are regularly scheduled to perform.
Your ShareDuring each pay period in which your FEHB enrollment is in effect, you are responsible for paying all premiums in excess of the Government contribution, usually 25% of the total premium.
If your pay (after retirement, FICA tax, Medicare and Federal income tax deductions) will cover the full employee share of your health benefits premiums, the withholding is taken from your salary. Group life insurance withholdings follow health benefits withholdings in the order of precedence set forth in the Treasury Fiscal Manual.
Premium Conversion
What is Premium Conversion?
Premium conversion is a tax benefit. It allows you to allot a portion of your pay to your employer, who will in turn use that amount to pay your contribution for FEHB coverage. This allotment is made on a pre-tax basis, which means that the money is not subject to Federal income, Medicare, or Social Security taxes, and in most cases, state and local taxes. The allotment reduces your taxable income, so less tax is withheld, and your paycheck is larger.
Am I Eligible?
You are eligible to have your FEHB premiums paid under the premium conversion plan when:
• you are an employee of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government;• your pay is issued by an Executive Branch agency; and• you participate in the FEHB Program.
If you are enrolled in the FEHB Program and are employed outside the Executive Branch, or your pay is not issued by an agency of the Executive Branch, you may be eligible if your employer agrees to offer participation in the plan.
If you are an employee paying both your and the Government's share of the premiums, the entire amount deducted from your pay qualifies for premium conversion.
Does Premium Conversion Apply Only to Employees?
Yes. At the present time, annuitants and compensationers whose FEHB premiums are deducted from annuities and benefits are not eligible to participate in premium conversion. There are special rules for reemployed annuitants; see below.
Persons enrolled through Temporary Continuation of Coverage and Spouse Equity are not eligible for premium conversion.
Does Premium Conversion Apply to Reemployed Annuitants?
Yes, if you are reemployed in a position that conveys FEHB eligibility, you may participate in premium conversion. See "Reemployed Annuitants" for more information.
How do I Enroll?
You are automatically enrolled in premium conversion.Once you participate in premium conversion, your participation continues automatically unless you elect not to participate.Each year during FEHB Open Season you may decide whether or not to participate for the following year.
Can I Choose Not to Participate in Premium Conversion?
Yes, but you need to opt-out or waive participation in premium conversion. You should obtain, complete and return a waiver/election to your employing office. A copy of the waiver election is available in Attachment 3 of the Benefits Administration Letter 00-215.
Who Should Not Participate?
Regardless of your marital status, and the number of dependents you have, if you:
• pay no federal income tax, or• earn less than $6,400 per year
you should give serious consideration to waiving participation in premium conversion.
Can I Change My Premium Conversion Participation Status?
Yes, but your opportunities to do so are limited. You may waive participation:
• During Open Season. The effective date of the change is the first day of the first pay period that begins in the following calendar year.• When you make a change in FEHB enrollment that is on account of and consistent with a qualifying life event.• When you have a qualifying life event and the change is on account of and consistent with that event (even when you don't change your enrollment). You have 60 days after the qualifying life event to file your change with your employing office. The waiver is effective on the first day of the pay period following the date your employing office received your change request.
You may cancel your waiver and participate:
• During Open Season. The effective date of the change is the first day of the first pay period that begins in the following calendar year.• When you have a qualifying life event; the change in FEHB coverage is consistent with the qualifying life event; and you complete an election form to participate within 60 days from the qualifying life event.
Does Premium Conversion Affect My Other Federal Benefits?No. All Federal retirement, thrift savings and life insurance benefits are based on gross salary and are not affected by participation in premium conversion.
What is the Impact of Premium Conversion on my Social Security Benefits?Premium conversion may slightly reduce the Social Security benefit you will receive upon retirement. The extent of the impact depends on several factors:
• The retirement system that you participate in;• Whether your salary exceeds the social Security wage base; and• The number of years left until your retirement.
CSRSIf you are covered under CSRS, you are generally better off with premium conversion. Your tax savings are slightly less, since you don't pay social security taxes. However, a reduction in Social Security benefits is not an issue for you since Social Security is not a component of your Civil Service Retirement.
Even if you have Social Security coverage as a result of a non-Federal job, premium conversion would not change your Social Security benefit.
CSRS OffsetUnder CSRS offset, your Social Security benefits would be slightly reduced, but your CSRS Offset benefits would be increased by almost the same amount. Participating in premium conversion is most likely a benefit to you.
FERSYour Social Security benefits are calculated on your taxable earnings, so any reduction in your taxable income will affect your Social Security calculation
The small reduction in Social Security benefits is greatly outweighed by the much larger tax savings. Here is a simple formula you can use to estimate the difference in your Social Security benefit:1. Take the number of years you will participate in premium conversion (from now until your estimated retirement) and divide by 35.2. Multiply this by your current annual FEHB premium3. Multiply the result of Step 2 by the marginal SSA rate (15% for most Federal employees)
The result is the annual loss of Social Security benefits.(# of Years of Premium Conversion /35) X Annual FEHB Premium X marginal SSA rate = Annual Loss
Example:Antonio participates in FERS. He's had a full career of FICA contributions, with an ending salary (today) of $50,000 and projected retirement at age 66 in January 2016. His estimated Social Security benefit equals $1,414 per month.
He begins participating in premium conversion and reduces his taxable income by $2,000, the amount of his FEHB premium. By changing his salary to $48,000, his monthly Social Security benefit is now $1,403, an $11.00 per month difference in today's dollars.15/35= .4286 X 2000 = 857 X .15 = 128/12 = 10.71 or 11Compare that to the estimated $67 increase in take home pay per month.
Making Withholdings and Contributions
GeneralYour employing office must make the appropriate health benefits premium withholdings and contributions beginning with the first pay period that your enrollment is effective. It must submit the full cost of your enrollment to OPM on a current basis for each pay period that your enrollment continues, even if you are paid for only part of the period (except in transfer and reinstatement cases) or you are in leave without pay status.
You should check your pay statement to verify that the health benefits premium withholding is correct and report any discrepancy to your employing office immediately. You are obligated to make the correct payment, regardless of any error in withholding made by your employing office. When too little or no money has been withheld from your pay for health benefits, you incur a debt due the U.S. Government for the proper withholdings for each pay period that your enrollment continues.
Terminated and Cancelled EnrollmentsGenerally, if your enrollment terminates (other than for entry into military service), the effective date is the last day of the pay period in which the terminating event occurred. If you cancel your enrollment, the effective date is the last day of the pay period in which your employing office receives your cancellation request. Withholdings and contributions for the full pay period are required.
If your coverage terminates because you are in leave without pay status or you have insufficient pay to make the withholding, and you do not elect other payment options, the effective date is the last day of the pay period that you paid your share of the premiums.
Your coverage continues at no cost for 31 days after your enrollment terminates for any reason except when you voluntarily cancel your enrollment or your plan is discontinued.
When You Transfer to a Different Payroll Office (Daily Proration Rule)Effective March 1, 1997, the Daily Proration Rule applies when you transfer to a position serviced by a different payroll office at a time other than at the beginning of the pay period. Each payroll office (gaining and losing) is responsible for withholdings and contributions for the actual time you occupied a position each office services.
If you owe a debt for health benefits withholdings to your former employing office, the gaining office must make arrangements for withholding your indebtedness and forward the amount collected to your former employing office.
Daily RateA daily rate must be computed as follows:Daily withholding and contribution rate = Biweekly withholding and contribution rate x 26 ÷ 364
Note: The denominator of 364 is always used, even during a leap year.
Active EmployeesThe formula for determining the amount of withholdings and contributions for which the losing and gaining payroll offices are responsible is:Daily Rate x Days on Payroll
ExampleDuring a pay period beginning August 4 and ending August 17, Henry transfers to a different agency, with his new appointment effective August 10. The biweekly employee share of his health benefits plan premium is $21.46 and the biweekly Government share is $61.51.
The daily withholding rate is $1.53 ($21.46 x 26 ÷ 364) and the daily contribution rate is $4.39 ($61.51 x 26 ÷ 364).The losing agency is responsible for withholdings and contributions for 6 days (August 4 through 9), calculated as follows:Withholdings: $1.53 daily rate x 6 days = $9.18Contributions: $4.39 daily rate x 6 days = $26.34
The gaining agency is responsible for withholdings and contributions for 8 days (August 10 through 17), calculated as follows:Withholdings: $1.53 daily rate x 8 days = $12.24Contributions: $4.39 daily rate x 8 days = $35.12
When You RetireWhen you retire, your employing office's responsibility for withholdings and contributions depends on when your annuity starts.
• If your annuity starts after the end of your final pay period, your employing office will make withholdings and contributions for the entire final pay period.• If your annuity starts before the end of your final pay period, your employing office will make withholdings and contributions through the day before the starting date of your annuity, using the Daily Proration Rule.
(For information about determining when your annuity starts, see the CSRS/FERS Handbook for Personnel and Payroll Offices.)
ExampleMary Helen is retiring on May 31. The pay period begins on May 25 and ends on June 7. The biweekly employee share of her health benefits plan premium is $32.26 and the biweekly Government share is $61.51.
The daily withholding rate is $2.30 ($32.26 x 26 ÷ 364) and the daily contribution rate is $4.39 ($61.51 x 26 ÷ 364).Her employing office will make withholdings and contributions for the period from May 25 through May 31 (7 days), calculated as follows:Withholdings: $2.30 daily rate x 7 days = $16.10Contributions: $4.39 daily rate x 7 days = $30.73
When You DieThe daily proration rule applies when you die and you have a survivor annuitant eligible to continue your enrollment. If there is no survivor annuity or if you had a Self Only enrollment, your employing office must make full withholdings and contributions for the pay period in which you die.
Upon Termination or Reinstatement for Military ServiceThe daily proration rule applies if your enrollment is terminated or reinstated because of entry into, or return from, military service. The effective date of the action is the date you entered into or returned from military service.
Retroactive RestorationIf you are retroactively restored to duty after an erroneous suspension or removal, you may either have your enrollment reinstated retroactively, or you may enroll in the plan and option of your choice, the same as a new employee. If you elect to have the enrollment reinstated retroactively, withholdings for the period of suspension or removal must be made, and your employing office must make contributions from the appropriate fund, as though the suspension or removal had not occurred.
Part-time Career AppointmentIf you became a part-time career employee (working 16 to 32 hours a week or 32 to 64 hours biweekly) on or after April 8, 1979, you are entitled to a partial Government contribution in proportion to the number of hours you are scheduled to work in a pay period.
Employees who served on a part-time basis before April 8, 1979, and who have continued to serve on a part-time basis without a break in service (in that or any other position) are eligible for the full Government contribution, as are part-time employees who work less than 16 hours or more than 32 hours per week.
The amount of the Government contribution is determined by dividing the number of hours you are scheduled to work during the pay period by the number of hours worked by a full-time employee serving in the same or comparable position (normally 80 hours per biweekly pay period).
That percentage is then applied to the Government contribution made for full-time employees enrolled in that plan.The amount of the Government contribution is then deducted from the total premium (Government plus employee shares), and the remaining amount is withheld from your pay.
ExampleFaith is scheduled to work 36 hours during a biweekly pay period, and the Government contribution for her health benefits plan is $61.38 biweekly for full-time employees. The Government contribution for her health benefits is as follows:
36 (Hours scheduled during pay period) ÷ 80 (Hours worked by full-time employees) = .4500$61.38 (Government contribution/full-time employees) x .4500 = $27.62 (Government contribution/part-time employee).Since the total premium (Government and employee share) for her health benefits plan is $92.35, Faith's share of premiums is $64.73 ($92.35 - $27.62).
Chart of Government Contribution Factors for Part-Time Career EmployeesThe following chart shows the factor used to determine the amount of Government contribution for health benefits for part-time career employees who, if in a full-time position, would work 80 hours during a biweekly pay period (the amount considered as full-time employment for most positions).
If the comparable full-time position would require you to work a tour of duty other than 80 hours per biweekly pay period, or if you are paid on a monthly or semimonthly basis, divide the actual number of hours or days you are scheduled to work on the part-time schedule by the number of hours or days required for a full-time employee in the same position to determine the Government contribution factor.
Hours worked on a regular biweekly scheduleHours Factor32 0.400033 0.412534 0.425035 0.437536 0.450037 0.462538 0.475039 0.487540 0.500041 0.512542 0.525043 0.537544 0.550045 0.562546 0.575047 0.587548 0.600049 0.612550 0.625051 0.637552 0.650053 0.662554 0.675055 0.687556 0.700057 0.712558 0.725059 0.737560 0.750061 0.762562 0.775063 0.787564 0.8000< 32 or > 64 1.00
Former Spouse Enrolled under Spouse Equity ProvisionsIf you are a former spouse enrolled under the spouse equity provisions, you must pay both the employee and Government shares of your health benefits premium. You will normally make your payments directly to your ex-spouse's employing office.
Temporary EmployeesIf you are a temporary employee enrolled under 5 U.S.C. 8906a, you must pay both the employee and Government shares of the health benefits premium. (Exception: if you have a provisional appointment under 5 CFR 316.403, an interim appointment under 5 CFR 772.102, or if you continue coverage after your employment status changes from nontemporary to temporary without a break in service exceeding 3 days, you receive a Government contribution.)
Temporary Continuation of CoverageIf you enroll under the temporary continuation of coverage (TCC) provisions, you usually must pay the full amount of the premiums (both the employee and Government shares) plus an administrative charge of 2 percent of the total premium. You make your payments directly to your servicing employing office.
Former Department of Defense employees who qualify for TCC based on a separation described in 5 U.S.C. 8905a (d)(4) continue to pay the normal employee share of premiums.
Leave Without Pay Status and Insufficient PayYou must still pay the employee share of health benefits premiums if you are in a leave without pay status for an entire pay period, or if your pay during a pay period doesn't cover the full amount of withholdings due, unless you want your enrollment to terminate. Your employing office must notify you of the choices available to you and provide you with a method to make direct premium payments.
Remittance to OPMWhen Remittance is DueYour employing office must remit health benefits withholdings and contributions to OPM on the same date it pays its payroll.
Remittance ProceduresThe method for remitting payments and supporting accounting information to OPM is the Retirement and Insurance Transfer System (RITS).OPM will credit the total amount reported for health benefits to the Employees Health Benefits Fund.
Adjusting ErrorsErrors in Withholdings and ContributionsPayroll offices must adjust errors in withholdings and contributions on a subsequent payroll and must include the adjustments in a subsequent withholdings and contributions report.
Your employing office must ensure that your individual payroll record shows not only the regular (current) deductions for health benefits withholdings, but also the adjustments.
Where annual appropriations are involved and the fiscal year changes between the processing of the erroneous withholdings and/or contributions and the processing of the adjustment, the proper appropriation must be adjusted.
When you participate in premium conversion, IRS rules require that no adjustments to taxable income be made as a result of an error correction (even when the employing office is at fault). When your employing office processes a correction, the actual amount of FEHB premiums deducted from your pay will receive pre-tax treatment.
ExampleWendy has $100 per pay period deducted from her pay for FEHB. Her employing office mistakenly deducted $150 during the last pay period before the effective date of her election to participate in premium conversion. To correct the error, the agency deducts $50 for FEHB from Wendy's pay in the following pay period, during which she becomes a premium conversion participant. Although if not for the error, $100 would have been deducted from her pay, only $50 is treated on a pre-tax basis.
Errors Involving Current Employees - OverdeductionsWhen too much money has been withheld from your pay, or when withholdings have been made when you are not enrolled, your payroll office must adjust the withholdings on a subsequent payroll on which your name appears. This adjustment automatically corrects any excess agency contribution.
Errors Involving Current Employees - UnderdeductionsWhen too little or no money has been withheld from your pay for health benefits withholdings, your employing office must send the correct payment to OPM no later than 60 calendar days after it determines the amount of the underdeduction. This payment must be made to OPM regardless of whether or when the underdeduction is recovered by your employing office.
The underdeduction represents an overpayment of your pay. Your employing office must determine whether to waive collection of the overpayment (up to $1,500), in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 5584. The law provides that an employing office can waive recovery of the overpayment if, in its judgment, you are without fault and recovery would be against equity and good conscience. (If the employing office involved is excluded from the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 5584, it can use any applicable authority to waive the collection.)
If the employing office waives the collection of the unpaid health benefits withholdings, it must remit the payment, along with any applicable Government contributions, out of its own funds.Waiver is not available for unpaid withholdings when you are in a leave without pay status or when your pay is insufficient to make the withholding.
Errors Involving Separated EmployeesWhen an adjustment in withholdings is necessary after you have separated from service, your payroll office must make the adjustment in your final pay (or payment to your beneficiary or estate).
Reporting Number of Enrollees CoveredSemiannual Headcount ReportEmploying offices must submit a semiannual headcount report on OPM Form 1523 for the last payroll paid during the 1st through the 15th of March and September. It must also report the number of enrollees from whom it made withholdings (or who paid directly or through advanced pay) for that particular pay period for each enrollment code. An enrollee for whom more than one payroll deduction was made in that pay period should be counted only once.
Separate supplemental reports are required for:• former spouses enrolled under the Spouse Equity provisions;• temporary employees enrolled under 5 U.S.C. 8906a; and• temporary continuation of coverage (TCC) enrollees.Quarterly Report of EnrolleesEach payroll office is required to generate a quarterly report for each plan that lists enrollee names, enrollment code, and total money (withholdings and contributions) submitted to OPM for each enrollee.
This report gives enrollment information for the payroll paid during the 1st and 15th of the last month of each quarter. If there are two payrolls paid during that period, the enrollment information for the second payroll paid is reported.
The plans must be listed in enrollment code order and the enrollees within each enrollment code must be listed in the order of their social security numbers. There must be subtotals for each enrollment code and grand totals for each plan.
National Finance CenterSome agencies have agreements with the Department of Agriculture's National Finance Center (NFC) in New Orleans, Louisiana to perform the payroll functions for enrollees who are making direct payments under the Spouse Equity and temporary continuation of coverage (TCC) provisions. These agencies have the same responsibilities regarding FEHB enrollments as the agencies that retain the payroll function for these enrollees; however, NFC acts as their agent in servicing these enrollments. The agency must resolve any disputes between NFC and enrollees; OPM will not intervene. The agency's responsibility in both initial and reconsideration decisions about enrollees' enrollment complaints is explained in "Initial Decision and Reconsideration."
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Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics: This Food is Weight Loss Gold
Behold, the menu at one of the few restaurants by my hotel:
Wait, what the crap is "dried meat factory production?" Horse meat and beef fat, really?
Look, I will eat just about anything. Roughly three to 50 times a day I go to 7-11 for snacks jam packed with everything but nutrients and probably anything that was ever grown, harvested or butchered.
I come from a long line of eaters. Real champions of gut and glut. My dad's family is not slight and they are proud to be well fed. Tortillas, beans, bacon, burritos, tacos, ham, cheese, fried pig fat for snacks, huge chunks of soggy cake soaked in whole milk, oh, and lard — lots of lard.
Lard is actually a prominent fixture on our family crest — a big block of it sweating and emanating all of its wisdom and glory for the ages.
Food has such great power in my family that I've seen my old man — who is a real-life professional with slacks and loafers to prove it — eat a cinnamon roll out of the garbage. That's not a fact he is exactly proud of, but hey, he did it and he seemed quite pleased with himself in the end.
Despite my family's oxygen-like attachment to food, I wholeheartedly doubt they would get all Oliver Twisty here in Russia. I do not envision any one of them, no matter how hungry, asking, "Please, sir, I want some more dried meat factory production with horse meat and beef fat."
Sorry, Russia, your food is not good. We may eat lard and pig fat and a bunch of other body-building foods where I come from, but they don't taste like they've been sitting in the fridge since the Cold War.
It's no wonder why everyone here looks like an unhappy competitive gymnast — no one could possibly binge on this cuisine.
Below is a list of some things I have eaten or attempted to eat since arriving.


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ATI All Products Brochure
Air Technologies, Inc. (ATI) has the most diverse product offering for paint overspray collection. Founded in 1987, ATI offers state-of-the-art paint booth filters, paint overspray filtration, and NESHAP approved filters and filtration systems for industrial applications like aerospace, automotive, and furniture. In 1998 ATI worked jointly with the aerospace industry to ensure compliance with the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) established by the EPA. ATI holds the distinction of being the first manufacturer to offer NESHAP approved filtration systems.


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So, Docker 0.7 is finally here! We hope you'll like it. On top of countless bug fixes and small usability improvements, it introduces 7 major features since 0.6.0:
- Feature 1: Standard Linux support
- Feature 2: Storage drivers
- Feature 3: Offline transfer
- Feature 4: Links
- Feature 5: Container naming
- Feature 6: Advanced port redirects
- Feature 7: Quality
You can see the full Changelog on the repository, and read below for details on each feature.
Thank you!
An incredible 130 people participated in this release! Including, but not limited to: Alex Larsson, Josh Poimboeuf, Lokesh Mandvekar, Vincent Batts, Adam Miller, Marek Goldmann and Matthew Miller from the Red Hat team, Fred Kautz, Tianon "andrew" Gravi, Paul Nasrat, Sven Dowideit, James Turnbull, Edmund Wagner, David Calavera, Travis Cline, Gurjeet Singh, Justin Force, Johan Euphrosine, Jerome Petazzoni, Ole Reifschneider, Andy Rothfusz, Will Rouesnel, Greg Thornton, Scott Bessler, Todd Lunter, Vladimir Rutsky, Nicolas Dudebout, Jim Alateras, Roger Peppe. To you and everyone else who has lend a helping hand: thank you!
Feature 1: Standard Linux support
Merged in 0.7.0. Special thanks to Alex Larsson and the Red Hat team, and to Junjiro R. Okajima for making aufs possible
This version introduces several major new features, but the most anticipated was definitely standard Linux support. As of today, Docker no longer requires a patched Linux kernel, thanks to a new storage driver contributed by Alex Larsson (see the next feature, "storage drivers"). This means that it will work out-of-the-box on all major distributions, including Fedora, RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, Suse, Gentoo, Arch, etc. Look for your favorite distro in our installation docs!
Feature 2: Storage drivers
Merged in 0.7.0.
A key feature of Docker is the ability to create many copies of the same base filesystem almost instantly. Under the hood Docker makes heavy use of AUFS by Junjiro R. Okajima as a copy-on-write storage mechanism. AUFS is an amazing piece of software and at this point it's safe to say that it has safely copied billions of containers over the last few years, a great many of them in critical production environments. Unfortunately, AUFS is not part of the standard linux kernel and it's unclear when it will be merged. This has prevented docker from being available on all Linux systems. Docker 0.7 solves this problem by introducing a storage driver API, and shipping with several drivers. Currently 3 drivers are available: AUFS, VFS (which uses simple directories and copy) and DEVICEMAPPER, developed in collaboration with Alex Larsson and the talented team at Red Hat, which uses an advanced variation of LVM snapshots to implement copy-on-write. An experimental BTRFS driver is also being developed, with even more coming soon: ZFS, Gluster, Ceph, etc.
When the docker daemon is started it will automatically select a suitable driver depending on its capabilities. If your system supports AUFS, it will continue to use the AUFS driver and all your containers and images will automatically be available after you upgrade. Otherwise devicemapper will be used as the default driver. Drivers cannot share data on the same machine, but all drivers produce images which are compatible with each other and with all past versions of docker. This means every image on the index (including those produced by Trusted Builds) remains usable across all docker installations.
Feature 3: Offline transfer
Merged in 0.6.7. Special thanks to Frederic Kautz
With Offline Transfer, container images can now be exported to the local filesystem as a standalone bundle, and loaded into any other docker daemon. The resulting images will be fully preserved, including configuration, creation date, build history, etc. The exported bundles are regular directories, and can be transported by any file transfer mechanism, included ftp, physical media, proprietary installers, etc. This feature is particulary interesting for software vendors who need to ship their software as sealed appliances to their "enterprise" customers. Using offline transfer, they can use docker containers as the delivery mechanism for software updates, without losing control of the delivery mechanism or requiring that their customers relax their security policies.
As David Calavera from the Github enterprise team puts it: "Building on-premise products based on Docker containers is much easier now thanks to offline transfer. You can always make sure your containers arrive to places without registry access"
To use offline transfer, check out the new docker save and docker load commands.
Feature 4: Advanced port redirects
Merged in 0.6.5.
Note: this feature introduces 2 small breaking changes to improve security. See the end of this section for details.
run -p flag has been extended to give you more control over port redirection. Instead of automatically redirecting on all host interfaces, you can specify which interfaces to redirect on. Note that this extends the existing syntax without breaking it.
For example:
-p 8080will publish port 8080 of the container to all interfaces of the host with a dynamically allocated port
-p 8080:8080will publish port 8080 of the container to all interfaces of the host with a static port of 8080
-p 127.0.0.1:80:80# Publish port 80 of the container to localhost of the host with a static port to 80
You can also choose to not redirect on any host interface, effectively making that port unreachable from the outside. This is very useful in combination with links (see "Links" below), for example to expose an unprotected database port to an application container without publishing it on the public internet. You can do this without a Dockerfile thanks to the new -expose flag.
This release introduces two breaking changes to improve security:
First, we are changing the default behavior of
docker run to not redirect ports on the host. This is better for security: ports are private by default, and you can explicitely publish them with the
-p flag. If you currently rely on exposed ports being published on all host interfaces by default, that will no longer be true in 0.6.5. You can revert to the old behavior by simply adding the appropriate
-p flags.
Second, we are deprecating the advanced "<public>:<private>" syntax of the EXPOSE build instruction. This special syntax allowed the Dockerfile to specify in advance that the exposed port should be published on a certain port on all host interfaces. We have found that this hurts separation of concerns between dev and ops, by restricting in advance the system administrator's ability to configure redirects on the host. The regular "EXPOSE <private>" syntax is not affected.
For example:
- Not deprecated:
EXPOSE 80will continue to expose tcp port 80 as usual.
- Deprecated:
EXPOSE 80:80will trigger a warning, and be treated as identical to
EXPOSE 80. The public port will simply be ignored.
We apologize for these breaking changes. We did our best to minimize the inconvenience, and we hope you'll agree that the improvements are worth it!
Feature 5: Links
Merged in 0.6.5.
Links allow containers to discover and securely communicate with each other. Inter-container communication can now be disabled with the daemon flag
-icc=false. With this flag set to false, Container A cannot access Container B unless explicitly allowed via a link. This is a huge win for securing your containers. When two containers are linked together Docker creates a parent child relationship between the containers. The parent container will be able to access information via environment variables of the child such as name, exposed ports, ip, and environment variables.
When linking two containers Docker will use the exposed ports of the container to create a secure tunnel for the parent to access. If a database container only exposes port 8080 then the linked container will only be allowed to access port 8080 and nothing else if inter-container communication is set to false.
When running a WordPress container we need to be able to connect to a database such as MySQL or MariaDB. Using links we can easily swap out the backend database and not have to change our configuration files for the wordpress site.
In order to build a wordpress container that works with both databases the container should look for the alias, in our example `db`, when linking to the database. This will allow you to access the database information via consistent environment variables no matter what the name of the container is. Using the two database containers from the naming example we will create a link between them to our wordpress container.
To link just add the
-link flag to
docker run:
docker run -d -link mariadb:db user/wordpress or
docker run -d -link mysql:db user/wordpress
After creating the new container linked into the database container with the alias db you can inspect the environment of the wordpress container and view the ip and port of the database.
The environment variables will be prefixed with the alias you specified on the
-link flag.
For another example we encourage you to read the Building a redis container to link as a child of our web application example in the Docker documentation.
Feature 6: Container naming
Merged in 0.6.5
We are happy to announce that we can finally close issue #1! You can now give memorable names to your containers using the new
-name flag for
docker run. If no name is specified Docker will automatically generate a name. When you link one container to another you will have to provide the name and alias of the child that you want to link to via
-link child_name:alias.
Enough talk, let's see some examples! You can run two databases with corresponding names like so:
docker run -d -name mariadb user/mariadb
docker run -d -name mysql user/mysql
Every command that worked with a container_id can now be used with a name that you specified:
docker restart mariadb
docker kill mysql
Feature 7: Quality
Special thanks to Tianon Gravi, Andy Rothfusz and Sven Dowideit
Obviously, "quality" isn't really a feature you can add. But it's become important enough to us that we wanted to list it. Quality has been a big focus in 0.7, and that focus will only increase in future versions. It's not easy keeping up with a project as incredibly active as Docker – especially when its success came so quickly. When the floodgates opened, much of the code was still immature, unfinished or scheduled to be refactored or rewritten. 6 months and 2,844 pull requests later, much of it is still there, drowned in a daily deluge of contributions and feature requests.
It took us a while to find our bearings and adapt to the new, crazy pace of Docker's development. But we are finally figuring it out. Starting with 0.7, we are placing Quality in all its forms – user interface, test coverage, robustness, ease of deployment, documentation, consistency of APIs – at the center our development process. Of course, there is no silver bullet: Docker still has plenty of bugs and rough edges, and the progress will be slow and steady rather than the elusive "grand rewrite" we initially hoped for. But day after day, commit after commit, we will continue to make gradual improvements.
We are grateful that so many of you have understood the potential of Docker and shown so much patience for the quirks and bugs. "It's OK", you said. "Docker is so useful I don't mind that it's rough". Soon we hope to hear you say "I use Docker because it's useful AND reliable".
Thanks to all of you for your support.
Onwards to 0.8!
Solomon, Michael, Victor, Guillaume and all the Docker maintainers
Read more on


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With the 4th of July fast approaching, we wanted to put together some of our favorite summer outfits! There's a little something for everyone- from casual summer fun to pretty and patriotic, your 4th of July style is covered. To help the holiday go off with a bang, we're having a Star Spangled Savings Sale on BabyLegs.com! Now through 6/30, get any of the 4th Faves styles Buy One Get One FREE with code 4THFAVES! All of the styles here are included, plus many more. Head over now to get the deal!
There's no better way to celebrate the 4th of July than with the Red, White and Blue! This sweet strappy romper has adorable bows and starts and pairs perfectly with our Yankee Doodle warmers and a pair of chic sandals.
The boys won't miss out on the RWB fun with this adorable plaid shirt and cargo shorts. Pair with Home Run and comfy sneakers for an all-American look!
Want an outfit that will impress on Independence day, or any day this summer? This adorable Striped Henley bodysuit pairs perfectly with our Newborn Boardwalk warmers and a pair of boat shoes.
I'm completely smitten with this dress set from Carters with an adorable pastel ikat design. Pair with newborn Chickadee warmers and adorable bow-tie espadrilles for a sweet and chic summer look that's sure to steal the party!


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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – The first full closure of the Ortega Highway bridge and the freeway under it will occur overnight Friday and Saturday as crews demolish the south side of the bridge in what could be a race against the clock.
A crew of about 20 people will have eight hours each night, from the time the first construction cone drops to the time the last one is picked up, to take down the south side by gradually chipping away the concrete.
First, the crew will spread a 2-foot layer of crushed concrete on I-5 under the bridge to protect the freeway, which is to close in both directions at 11 p.m.
The freeway is to reopen by 7 a.m.
If not, Caltrans' contractor would face stiff fines starting at $1,700 for every 10 minutes during the first half-hour, then $2,600 every 10 minutes for the second half-hour and $3,400 every 10 minutes thereafter.
The demolition is the first major construction in an $86 million project to build a new interchange for Ortega and I-5.
The south portion of the bridge closed June 1 to allow crews to prepare it for demolition. That side of the bridge will be rebuilt over the next several months. Then traffic will switch to that side, and the north side will be demolished and rebuilt.
A group of residents had planned to view the demolition in an unofficial watch party in the parking lot of the McDonald's on Del Obispo Street, but organizer Jonathan Volzke said he wasn't sure people were still interested.
"Obviously it dampened some of the enthusiasm when it got split into two days," he said.
Dave Richardson, spokesman for the California Department of Transportation, said Caltrans scheduled the demolition over two nights instead of one to "make sure they had time to safely do it."
He anticipates there will be some onlookers but doesn't expect anyone to stick around long.
"It's not the most exciting demolition to watch," Richardson said. "They just peck away at it all night, and it's loud."
City officials and community leaders have been preparing for the construction project for years.
The City Council has reduced the cost of renting park space in the city by half, and businesses are allowed to display two banners instead of one. New directional signs are being installed around town.
A committee of residents has brought a horse-drawn carriage to downtown on weekends and will be placing trained tour guides throughout town in coming weeks.
Contact the writer: firstname.lastname@example.com or (949) 492-5122. Twitter: @meghanncuniff.


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The mission of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies is to provide a diverse and dynamic student body the opportunity to acquire a wide range of knowledge and skills so they can contribute to their profession and enrich their lives. The School provides undergraduate course work in the fields of Education, Health and Physical Education, and Psychology. These primary areas of study encompass several specialties. In addition to supporting general education preparation and undergraduate degrees, the School provides graduate degrees in Business, Education and Behavioral Sciences. Several disciplines blend academics with field based and practical experiences as a regular part of the educational process.
Excellence in teaching and learning is highly prized and is viewed as the most significant role of the School and University. Faculty, students, and administration work interactively with communities by providing economic research support, cultural opportunities, and educational outreach experiences.


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"Surely it must be possible to find that out."
-- Fritz Saxl, Viennese Art Historian.
"I've always known who I am; it's trying to make that fit in with the rest of the world that's my problem."
-- Me, when asked my opinion on people who say they need to find themselves.


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George Clooney Plotting His Return to TV (Kind of)
Dec 11, 2014 6:40 PM EST
George Clooney is coming back to TV! (Kind of.) The Oscar winner and movie star, who famously got his start on E.R., is shopping a new TV project that he would co-write and executive-produce, Vulture reports. The project is reportedly a one-hour dark… Read more


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The Blog OneTravelBloggers brings an article about our blog - Cool right?
Why don't you come along with me...on a Magic Carp(et) Ride
39 minutes ago
The Minifig' Jo-Jo and Frikke wants to travel the world and see all it's sights. And a few other Lego mini-fig related bits and pieces. How far can they go in 365 days? How many places can they visit? How many people can they get to know? Here you can follow the journey of Jo-Jo and Frikke the minifig'. They started off in April 2008 from Vangede, Gentofte in Denmark. And here we hope to document their whole journey in pictures and words... Enjoy!!! Copyright on all material.
LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site
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Baseball Superstars 2011
What do you need help on? Cancel X
GAMEVIL DOLLAR DEALS All our games are up to 80% off. Grab your copy now! --------------------- THE MOST COMPLETE BASEBALL EXPERIENCE ON APP STORE! Baseball Superstars® 2011 is a full featured baseball game which includes 6 different modes to satisfy everyone's needs.My League Mode contains unique RPG elements in a sports title, Season Mode requires great management skills, Exhibition Mode provides sheer entertainment, Homerun Race offers quick challenge, Mission Mode demands finest skills and Match Play Mode allows you to boast your talents to the rest of the world! --------------------- CRITICS SAY"Baseball Superstars 2011 might be the best sports game yet on the iOS platform." - Slide To Play (4/4)"Just be warned, once you get sucked in the game is almost impossible to put down." - Touch Arcade"A ridiculous amount of content guarantees that you'll spend many hours entertaining yourself with the game." - AppAdvice(4.5/5)"It's a fun baseball game, but an even better RPG." - Appolicious (4.5/5)"There is one problem though, it is highly addictive." - Capsule Computers (9.5/10)---------------------NEW FEATURES GRAPHICALLY ENHANCED BASEBALL SIMULATIONNew visual angle at bat, leaping and diving catches along with laser throws from the fence to home plate adds to the excitement of spectacular baseball plays. ADDITIONAL CUSTOMIZATIONCustomize game settings to select the specific scenarios or players that you wish to play. In addition, now you can customize the stadium and turf to earn more money for your ball club. MY LEAGUE & SEASON MODE ADDITIONSPerform events through full interactive outings menu, hire super players as coaches to boost your team's ability, and achieve record breaking numbers to take part in the Superstars tournament. GAME CENTER ACHIEVEMENTSAchieve all batting, fielding and special records as well as skills and nicknames that are available. See how many back to back to back home runs you can blast or how many perfect games you can pitch! Receive G POINTS for each achievement and collect all 58! CHALLENGE AND SEND GIFTS TO FRIENDSChallenge players who have defeated you in Match Play mode and send Hall of Fame players as a gift to your friends. --------------------- IMPROVED FEATURES OVER 12M COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDESince 2002, the Baseball Superstars series has been loved by worldwide gamers. FULL FEATURED BASEBALL GAME6 different modes; Exhibition, My League, Season, Home Run Race, Mission and Match Play, guarantee long play time and tons of fun. TOTAL MANAGEMENTGuide and manage your player to a successful career by purchasing the right equipment, performing the necessary training and giving him a well deserved outing in this year's revamped player management menu. BECOME CROWNED AS CHAMPIONSForm the best line up by acquiring hall of famers and trading players. Be coached by super players on road to post season and dominate other users in Match Play Mode. --------------------- OTHER GAMEVIL GAMES Baseball Superstars® 2010 HDBoom It Up!HYBRID: Eternal WhisperHYBRID 2: Saga of NostalgiaILLUSIAKAMI RETRONOM: Billion Year TimequestSoccer Superstars®VANQUISH: The Oath of BrothersZENONIA®ZENONIA® 2--------------------- NEWS & EVENTS Website http://www.gamevil.com Facebook http://facebook.com/gamevil Twitter http://twitter.com/gamevil YouTube http://youtube.com/gamevil
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Eppler interviews again for Padres' GM vacancy
SAN DIEGO -- The Padres had their second interview with Yankees assistant general manager Billy Eppler on Wednesday for their general manager vacancy.
Eppler had his first interview with team on July 3.View Full Game Coverage
SAN DIEGO -- The Padres had their second interview with Yankees assistant general manager Billy Eppler on Wednesday for their general manager vacancy.
Eppler had his first interview with team on July 3.View Full Game Coverage
Earlier this week, the team had second interviews with Rangers assistant general manager A.J. Preller and Red Sox assistant general manager Mike Hazen.
The team is going through its last round of interviews with four finalists before deciding on a successor for Josh Byrnes, who was dismissed on June 22.
Team executive chairman Ron Fowler and CEO and team president Mike Dee expect to have Kim Ng, the senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball, in for her second interview this week.
Fowler said recently that he hopes to have a general manager hired by early August.
Eppler is a San Diego native who went to University of San Diego High.
Eppler joined the Yankees in 2004, and he was their director of pro scouting (2005-11) before being promoted to assistant general manager.
The Yankees' media guide states that Eppler assists general manager Brian Cashman "in all areas of Major League Operations including player acquisitions, roster composition and management, staffing and personnel decisions, and player contract negotiations. In addition, he oversees all phases and personnel in the Yankees' Major League and professional scouting departments both domestically and internationally."
A total of eight candidates had initial interviews -- former Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest, Dodgers vice president of amateur scouting Logan White, D-backs scouting director Ray Montgomery, Eppler, Preller, Hazen, Padres assistant general manager Josh Stein and Ng.
Six candidates declined to be interviewed, the latest being current Padres assistant general manager A.J. Hinch, who is presiding over the day-to-day operations of the big league team.
Five others declined interviews: David Forst of the A's, Mike Chernoff of the Indians and Jason McLeod of the Cubs, Michael Girsch of the Cardinals and Padres senior vice president of baseball operations, Omar Minaya.
Forst, Chernoff and Girsch are assistant general managers. McLeod, who previously worked for the Padres, is the Cubs' scouting director.
Corey Brock is a reporter for MLB.com. Keep track of @FollowThePadres on Twitter.


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Experience the VenaSeal™ Closure System
The VenaSeal™ closure system is the only non-tumescent, non-thermal, non-sclerosant procedure that uses a proprietary medical adhesive delivered endovenously to close the vein. This unique approach eliminates the risk of nerve injury when treating the small saphenous vein, which is a risk sometimes associated with certain thermal-based procedures.1,2 Clinical studies have demonstrated that the procedure is safe and effective.1-4 The procedure is administered without the use of tumescent anesthesia, avoiding patient discomfort associated with multiple needle sticks.
Click here to "See VenaSeal™ as featured on 'The Dr. Oz Show'".
To locate a vein specialist in your area, please visit our Find a Doctor Physician Locator.
What to Expect
Before the VenaSeal™ Closure Procedure:
You will have an ultrasound imaging exam of the leg that is to be treated. This exam is important for assessing the diseased superficial vein and planning the procedure.
During the Procedure:
Your doctor can discuss the procedure with you. A brief summary of what to expect is below:
•You may feel some minor pain or stinging with a needle stick to numb the site where the doctor will access your vein.
•Once the area is numb, your doctor will insert the catheter (i.e., a small hollow tube) into your leg. You may feel some pressure from the placement of the catheter.
•The catheter will be placed in specific areas along the diseased vein to deliver small amounts of the medical adhesive. You may feel some mild sensation of pulling or tugging. Ultrasound will be used during the procedure to guide and position the catheter.
•After treatment, the catheter is removed and a bandage placed over the puncture site.
After the Procedure:
You will be taken to the recovery area to rest. Your doctor will discuss with you what observations will be performed following treatment.
To locate a vein specialist in your area, please visit our Find a Doctor Physician Locator.
Federal (USA) law restricts this device to sale by or on the order of a physician.
Please reference the Instructions For Use (IFU) for a complete listing of indications, contraindications, warnings and precautions, adverse effects and suggested procedure. An electronic IFU can be accessed at: http://manuals.medtronic.com.
Potential Risks:
The VenaSeal procedure is minimally invasive and catheter-based. As such, it may involve the following risks. Your doctor can help you understand these risks.
- Allergic reaction to the VenaSeal adhesive
- Arteriovenous fistula (i.e., an abnormal connection between an artery and a vein)
- Bleeding from the access site
- Deep vein thrombosis (i.e., blood clot in the deep vein system)
- Edema (i.e., swelling) in the treated leg
- Hematoma (i.e., the collection of blood outside of a vessel)
- Hyperpigmentation (i.e., darkening of the skin)
- Infection at the access site
- Neurological deficits including stroke and death
- Non-specific mild inflammation of the cutaneous and subcutaneous tissue
- Pain
- Paresthesia (i.e., a feeling of tingling, pricking, numbness or burning)
- Phlebitis (i.e., inflammation of a vein)
- Pulmonary embolism (i.e., blockage of an artery in the lungs)
- Urticaria (i.e., hives) or ulceration may occur at the site of injection
- Vascular rupture and perforation
- Visible scarring


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Blinded by the Light
Blinded by the Light, at its very best, captures the experience of being a fan, the pure exhilaration of it, and the sense of your…
Blinded by the Light, at its very best, captures the experience of being a fan, the pure exhilaration of it, and the sense of your…
There's an honest heart beneath the racy laughs.
Roger Ebert on James Ivory's "Howards End".
"The Ballad of Narayama" is a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. What a space it opens…
An article celebrating the one-year anniversary of our first female editor at RogerEbert.com, Nell Minow.
An article about the Chicago Stories Gala presented by Victory Gardens Theater on October 5th, 2019, presenting debuting playwrights Chaz Ebert and Stacy Janiak, and…
From a childhood of pain, a lifetime of art.
Appreciating the art of one of the greatest documentary filmmakers.
FFC Seongyong Cho looks back at Alan J. Pakula's twisty thriller Presumed Innocent.
An FFC and chaplain discusses the haunting impact of Tom McCarthy's Oscar winner.
A review of Netflix's brilliant Mindhunter.
An interview with Viveik Kalra, who makes his feature acting debut in the Bruce Springsteen-inspired film, Blinded by the Light.
"End of Watch" is one of the best police movies in recent years, a virtuoso fusion of performances and often startling action. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña are Taylor and Zavala, two Los Angeles street cops who bend a few rules but must be acknowledged as heroes. After too many police movies about officers who essentially use their badges as licenses to run wild, it's inspiring to realize that these men take their mission — to serve and protect — with such seriousness they're willing to risk their lives.
Taylor and Zavala fit the template of the "cop buddy movie," but "End of Watch" goes so much deeper than that. They've been partners for years and are so close that Zavala's wife, Gabby (Natalie Martinez), and Taylor's girlfriend, Janet (Anna Kendrick), have become like sisters. The two cops are transferred to a tough, largely Mexican-American district, where their persistence leads them across the scent of a Mexican cartel operating in Los Angeles. This is really an assignment for a detective, but they don't avoid risk, and eventually become so dangerous to the cartel that a hit is ordered against them.
That sets up the movie's third act. Earlier acts cover sensational shootouts, chases and the rescue of kids from a burning building when the fire department is slow to arrive. It must be said the two men find themselves in an implausibly high percentage of dangerous and violent situations. If every day were as harrowing and risky as their days here, it's incredible they can keep going in to work.
As the movie opens, Taylor is filming a video documentary about his job, for a film class he's taking. "End of Watch" begins with his narration about the nature of his job. All through the movie, Jake Gyllenhaal reveals a presence and stability that's in contrast to the lighter-weight, ingratiating characters he often plays. Michael Pena gives one of the performances of his career as the other cop, and the reality of their relationship underscores the whole film. We wouldn't believe some of the things they do if we didn't believe who they are.
The movie is much strengthened by strong supporting performances, not only by Natalie Martinez and Anna Kendrick but by fellow officers Van Hauser (David Harbour), Sarge (Frank Grillo) and Orozco (America Ferrera).
The consistent plausibility of "End of Watch" must owe a great deal to writer-director David Ayer. This is his second credit as a writer-director, after "Harsh Times" (2005), and he deserves many more. He knows this territory. He wrote Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning "Training Day" (2001) and two other superior cop movies, "Dark Blue" (2002), "S.W.A.T." (2003) and "The Fast and the Furious" (2001).
At this point, it seems fair to assume he may want to stay right there in Los Angeles and explore the police experience in one way after another. From a dramatic viewpoint, there are few professions that grant their members entry into other lives, high among them cops, doctors, clergymen, journalists and prostitutes. Perhaps that explains why they figure in so much television and cinema. Their lives are lived in the midst of human drama.
A review of Amazon's new anti-superhero series The Boys, which premieres on July 26.
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a fr...


text: When the grandma of a new baby sent out a mass text to family and friends a stranger was also included. It turned out he probably had someone's old phone number. That didn't stop him and his brother from visiting the new parents and bringing gifts for mom and baby to congratulate them.